Disclaimer: This is Chris Brogan’s viewpoint, not founder and site owner Leon Ho. I’ll let Leon have his own swing at this. Target Market In my own case, I got involved with attempts to hack my life when I realized that I had too many things to do, and not enough hours to do them. (I believe that’s the target audience for life hacks, by the way: folks who have too much to do, and need ways to organize). There are two ways to approach that problem: find shortcuts for things that take too much time or effort, or find ways to reclaim time from activities that waste it. Lifehacks.org attempts to cover both angles, as well as some peripheral things. Simply, I’m my own target market. The Meat When I settle in to write a Life Hack post, I aim for things that help me use time better, improve my life, navigate tricky situations, or remind me to appreciate life. I have three methods for writing posts: one is to surf news feeds and other sites, which is how I find out about software that might prove helpful. The second is to receive tips from people (and you guys are great at sharing by sending mail to tips at lifehack.org). Finally, I write about things that either bit my ass, bug me so bad that I have to write about them, or that I’ve experienced and think you might find helpful for your own life. Those third ones, where it comes from my gut, are the ones I love the most, because I can at least claim that I’ve had positive results from that. The meat of life hacking, to me, is any tip or thought that I take away from this site and find ways to apply to my life repeatably. A La Carte (or as the French say, “Just take something and move on!”) If someone is actively using all the advice on this site, I feel for you. You are either the most advanced life form in the world, or you’ve got plenty of extra cycles in your head to determine how this stuff should all fit together. I imagine folks are more like me: you get the RSS feed, stream along, find something that whets your mental whistle, and you try it out. You read it, think about it, write about it, and then decide if you can really make it fit into your day. Maybe we’re hitting 1 for 7 with you. Maybe better or worse, depending on your needs. Who Reads Lifehack.org? From trackbacks, I’m always surprised who references stuff from Lifehack.org. You probably can guess that geeks and techies like us. Well, sure! Project managers and productivity experts read our stuff. But we’re also getting plenty of trackback love from religious groups (of lots of variety), from parents spilling over from the Parent Hacks crowd (podcast tonight or tomorrow features Asha Dornfest, founder of Parent Hacks, by the way). Who are you? Why do you read it? Value Chain Disaggregation Thomas Friedman talks about “value chain disaggregation” in THE WORLD IS FLAT. (I’ve written about it based on his book, too.) The premise is that one must distill the core essence of the value he or she brings to a situation (or role, or product, or family) and then find ways to “farm out” the parts that aren’t the most important. In a way, it’s like Covey’s “What Matters Most” philosophy. Habit 2. To me, life hacking is a lot about finding ways to get the bull—- out of my life so I have more time to enjoy the best parts. If I’m fierce with my time management, it means I’ll have more time to enjoy other aspects of my life. Time not wasted means I can then have more time to spend with my kids, my wife, or my personal projects (most of which eat lots of time to stay upright). So, on one side being picky and anal means having more time to do what matters most to me. Make sense? Make it Easy Finally, I prefer “easy” to difficult. I like WriteBoard over MS Word. I like Macs over Windows. Why? Because I just like things to work and then I want to do my own thing over them. I just read a hack at Lifehacker for adding tennis balls to sharp corners in one’s house when one has toddlers around. That’s so easy and yet, it would save me the issues my son will soon be facing. See? Easy. Another easy thing I somehow never learned: on Windows, on a 3-button mouse, clicking the scroll wheel (which makes web browsing so easy, by the way), I can open links in new tabs under Firefox. Click the tab with the same wheel? I can close the tab. Easy. But I never knew until I read it as part of a post on a life hacking site. Saving the planet? Hardly. But it sure makes surfing nicer. Lots of what we cover here at Lifehack.org hopefully makes it easier to live your life in one way or another. It might just be a software application we think will get your stuff in order. It might be a post about giving presentations, or how to negotiate a raise, or how to better pack the car for a vacation. Whatever the case, we’re trying to make it easier to live your life. Your Platform I participated in July4US yesterday. It was a celebration of the new media versus older mainstream media. Blogs, podcasts, videocasts, that kind of thing. Lifehack.org qualifies. What I found through my experience in the event was this: what I love most about participating in the new media is that it’s a conversation instead of a bullhorn. The audience is every bit as welcome to participate as the publishers. It’s the kind of thing where people can contribute and FEEL their contributions come back to them, closing the loop. Leon has a wiki. He has comments turned on. He has a message board. You couldn’t be in much more contact than that. He’s built Lifehack.org with the audience (that’s YOU) to be first and foremost in everything he does. Believe me. When I approached him with wanting to do a podcast, the first thing he asked about (and the only thing he ever questions) is how the audience will participate, how it will blend with the reader experience, etc. Sure, I’m flag waiving here. But I think this is every bit as much my life hack philosophy, because I use YOUR tips and ideas in my day as well. Most of you who comment have found out (sometimes to your surprise) that if you leave a valid email address in your comment, I’ll usually reply with a personal note. I’m not doing this to drum up business. I’m doing this often to thank people for their participation in Lifehack.org. Without you, there is no reason to do this. I think I’ll hop off the soapbox now, and give you a chance to weigh in. Talk, if you would in the comments section, about YOUR experience and your philosophy. I’d like to listen. –Chris Brogan pontificates equally often at [chrisbrogan.com]. His July4US project is at Grasshopper Factory.
