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Procrastination Hack: Instant Boss

Face it, many of us are overloaded. We've got a million things to do, and no time to do them. How do you chip away at that ridiculous to-do list, without getting side-tracked and losing your momentum? 43folders says the answer just might lie in tiny slices of time.

Taking an hour and shattering it into 5 periods of 10 minutes, with 2 minute breaks between, hence "(10+2)*5" (yes, we're math geeks too and we know the "*" is redundant.. but it looks pretty). The idea is to work in small sprints, giving 100% + for short bursts of time and then taking a micro-break. The rigid definition is supposed to whip even the most diligent of procrastinators right into submission. My limited trial of the technique was inconclusive, but its worked wonders for some.

Instant Boss aims to be the clockwatcher for all us procrastinating brainy-types. A simple hack designed around the original 43folders concept counts the work sprints and breaks for you, with a programmable number of repetitions. The timer features a large display, and keeps track of the total number of minutes worked over all your sprints.

[Thanks Mouser!]

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Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

CiviballsI have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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