The way I like to work
Well for the curious, here’s a screenshot of the way I like to work. There was a time, not so long ago when I opened up a wordprocessor and hacked away at it without ever thinking about the fact that it was spread across the whole screen. Then I read Tony Buzan’s excellent speed reading book, and that got me reading at about 1700 words per minute which is a fair clip faster than the average (250wpm) and almost three times higher than the maximum attainable (600wpm without the technique). So my preference for reading anything is now thin columns, so that I can take as much as possible with as few eye movements as possible. That lead naturally to develop a preference for word processor sized longways up and down, so that each line is about the same width as a normal page (an average of 11 words per line). It also leaves room so that I can see some of my pretty background wallpaper - thanks to Linux I can have as many desktops and wallpapers as I like - one for each project! I found a note application called Tomboy extremely helpful as well. I also often have WordWeb to hand so that I can look up words. Firefox is also open on desktop 1. Desktop 2 is always dedicated to a writing project. Desktop 3 I leave for communications such as aMSN messenger. Desktops 4, 5 & 6 bottom row are there for email, writing, and as a spare respectively. I don’t have much room on my physical desk, so you see I made sure I have plenty of virtual room to compensate, hehe.
If you’re curious, the story visible in the screenshot is called “The last of the blue in the moon” and should be finished within the next few days.
