procrastination

iProcrastinate is a free, dark-themed productivity app that appears to be targeted at, but not necessarily limited to, students. Despite a couple of flaws, the application does quite a nice job, helped by its intuitive controls and simple interface.

The interface consists of three columns. On the left is Groups, where tasks are ordered according due date and priority level, with a Subject field where you can enter custom names and colors. Tasks are in the central column, and the steps the user specified while describing the task are listed in the third, right-side column.

We found it took only … Read more

Freedom is a free, ironically named application that's designed to increase productivity by temporarily disabling networking on your computer so you won't be able to visit Web sites, send or receive e-mail, or get distracted by anything else over the Internet.

In Freedom's simple, spare interface, you set the number of minutes that you want your computer to be offline (totaling anywhere between 5 minutes and 8 hours), and you decide whether you want to allow access to your local network (for tasks like printing and file sharing) or completely disable all networking. In recent updates, Freedom … Read more

It's that time of year again, when you trawl the Web for unflattering mugshots of your boss to embed on the bodies of dancing elves with the "Elf Yourself" holiday card promotion, going live for the fourth consecutive year on Tuesday. They're the brainchild of OfficeMax, which teams up annually with online animation shop JibJab to bring forth what might be the most successful social-media marketing campaign that the Web has yet seen.

Last year, a total of 35 million "Elf Yourself" cards were sent, and OfficeMax says that since it launched in 2006, … Read more

How to Overcome Procrastination is not a piece of software. Rather, it's a 61-page PDF containing 101 tips for overcoming procrastination. Although some of the tips are helpful, overall, we were not impressed.

The e-book is broken down into several chapters, including sections on procrastination at home, at school, at work, and in human relationships. Here and there we found helpful advice, but for the most part the tips seemed to consist of "This type of behavior is procrastination! Don't do it!" Rather than actually giving readers tools for beating procrastination, the book is filled examples … Read more

Trying to get work done is tough if you have an Internet connection. The constant urge to take a peek at a video on YouTube or check your personal e-mail is a siren song that for many simply cannot be ignored. Luckily, there are several sites and browser add-ons that can help keep us in line, be it with basic productivity or making sure we do not stumble in moments of weakness.

Gmail "e-mail goggles" and "take a break" labs add-ons

Want to send that e-mail at 4 a.m.? Unless you're up early, and … Read more

These days, everyone can use a few good laughs. Guess that means Comedy Central's latest launch is well-timed.

The Viacom-owned cable network took Jokes.com, a property it acquired in 2002, and relaunched it Wednesday as a hub for its stand-up comedy archives. Sort of like a Hulu for stand-up comedy, it's debuting with over 5,000 video clips (embeddable and shareable, naturally) and 12,000 text-based jokes that are searchable by topic ("George W. Bush" or "holidays") and by comedian. A "Comedians A-Z" database provides information on different stand-up comics and … Read more

Mother's Day is Sunday, people. And while my own dear Mother should be receiving something in the mail tomorrow, I'm not always this on top of things. So, with sympathy for those of you who are still looking for something a little gadget-y to give your mum this holiday, here's a shortlist of suggestions.

iPod Shuffle: This one's a no-brainer: it's inexpensive, and it comes in a lot of fun colors. It's flash-based and workout-friendly. Most importantly, it's widely available at retail stores. For bonus points, preload it with a playlist that you … Read more

I got a little bit obsessed with JibJab.com's "Starring You!" video creator when it allowed me to create videos of my co-workers dancing the Charleston in drag while horrifically bored on a slow news day. (Josh Lowensohn looks awesome in flapper garb.)

Now, as I've just learned, the site has created a politics-meets-Halloween gimmick so that you can edit a likeness of yourself into mini-movies called "Night of the Living Democrats" or "Night of the Living Republicans" and battle zombified versions of politicians from the political party you abhor the most. … Read more

Trust me--I know procrastination. But this one really takes the cake.

JibJab, as you probably know already, made a name for itself by creating corny (yet socially relevant) musical skits that superimposed the heads of politicians and celebrities onto cartoon bodies. Now that user-generated content is nothing new, it almost seems overdue that JibJab would introduce a "make your own" feature. But now, at long last, here it is: "JibJab Starring You!"

The concept, at least according to the creators, is to JibJab yourself by uploading a photo, easily crop it with the Flash-based tools … Read more