Productivity guru Merlin Mann has an insightful rant titled It’s Just A Cup, where he explains what he terms the fractal productivity spiral:
“People complain that they find themselves spending huge amounts of time just dicking around: making labels for folders, putting things in files, buying pens, writing things on dry erase boards. All the sort of things that are indicative of a fractal productivity spiral — this is the point at which you stop paying attention to any of the actual work you have to do and you spend all your time trying to refine your perfect system.”
The tools you use to keep track of your work, he goes on to elaborate, ought to be like a coffee cup — you depend on it every day, but don’t have to think about it in great detail when using it.
This sort of discussion about processes and productivity has become prevalent online due to no small contribution of Merlin Mann himself. As such, there has been a plethora of productivity programs produced in recent years.
I’d tried many of these apps, but there were so many times when I found myself writing things on scrap paper (or my hands) instead of using the fancy shiny Mac app I’d bought and configured for every conceivable thing I’d want to store.
I wrote ShoveBox to avoid the fractal productivity spiral. I wanted it to be only slightly more complex than the old Scrapbook desk accessory and I didn’t want to even think about starting it up each time I needed it.
As I finished up development, I worried about people thinking of ShoveBox as a crummy clone of existing apps, but to my surprise, not many people have. In fact, quite a few users have told me how refreshing and unique they find its approach to be.
Mac360 totally gets it. From their recent review:
“As of 2007 the Mac has about twenty eleven personal information managers. Some have every bell and whistle and require hours to learn and cost more than a few bucks. Others, like ShoveBox, take a different approach which borders on elegant.”
Instead of conforming to a set of rules to organize what you want to keep track of, ShoveBox lets you do it with a simple set of folders, labels, and flags. Instead of learning about a complex system, you actually get one that’s ready to use from the first click.
They also ponder the eternal question:
“Do bald women use Macs? And why do they paint their heads?”
I ask myself this every day.
MacApper heaps on some more love in another recent review:
“As a blogger and podcaster, I need to record information as it happens, and ShoveBox has saved more time and information than it would take to find that important file in my big junk folder”
There you have it. There are plenty of productivity apps with item-tagging, message-flagging, file-dragging, auto-nagging, and grocery-bagging. But every day, more Mac users are finding that the best kind of tool, like a coffee cup, is the kind you don’t have to think about using.
