The Economist about "life hacking" (tricks or hacks to get things done, as described by Danny O'Brien and Merlin Mann). I already mentioned that here, here are the tricks The Economist mentions:

• Slow down your e-mail: Set your e-mail program to fetch new messages every 15 minutes or every hour, rather than every minute, so you are interrupted less often. • Create form responses: Any time you find yourself typing substantially similar e-mails, create a form version and save it for future use. • Go full-screen: Switch your computer to full-screen mode, filling the whole screen with your current application, minimising the visual distraction of other programs. • Park on a downhill slope: When wrapping up work on a task, make a note of what needs to be done next. This makes it easier to get started when you resume work on the task. • Use a “dash” to beat procrastination: Putting something off? Devote five minutes, measured with a kitchen timer, to working on it. It will make the task seem more approachable. • Declare a “vertical day”: Switch off e-mail, mobile phones, everything, and devote yourself to a single, important project for an entire day.