This is one of my favorite new products. Finally, someone got cord organization right. You don’t need anything complex. You just need something…like this.

It’s compact, just sits on your desk or table, and uses rubber grip things. And, it’s not ugly, which is what I like most about it.

Wait, there’s actually one thing I like even more about it: it was designed with a crowd-sourced approach. That’s the model utilized by quirky, where anybody can submit new product ideas. The top concepts are chosen (voted on by real people) and then refined by the community.

I love the creativity of this approach, and submit that that process is one of the reasons this product is so awesome.

There are two ways to do it.

First, you can go around in one shot and re-set every clock that you have. Second, you can re-set each clock as you come across it, turning the time back immediately when you encounter it.

The one way not to set your clocks back is to do nothing when you come across one of your clocks that is still set to the old time, figuring you’ll do it in a little bit. That creates drag, because you’ll have to think about that clock several times before you actually do something.

OK, so almost everybody probably has their clocks changed already. So what’s the point? The point is that there is a lesson here in how to handle everything. There are some exceptions for sure, but in general, if you don’t put things off that you can easily do right away, you make your life a lot simpler.

Julian Treasure has an excellent 5-minute TED talk on “4 Ways Sounds Affect Us.” Here’s one shocking fact that he gives: open plan offices decrease productivity by 66%. (He does give a simple solution to this, however.)

(HT: Jeff Paterson)

We’ve been dealing with hanging art at our house because of having just moved.

This is a corollary of productivity because it pertains to designing your wider environment effectively. You want your computer working effectively for you, your workspace working effectively, and then moving out from that, it makes sense to continue applying good principles to the rest of your work area and home.

Here are some helpful tips that came my way from art.com:

1. Map your art first
2. Hang art at eye level
3. Group art to create unity
4. Keep art in harmony with furniture
5. Formal or casual?

You can read more details in the full article.