I am a self-employed writer who publishes a new book every 9 months and primarily works from home. For my first several books I struggled with time management and found I was constantly playing catch-up for the two months before my books were due. Then my engineer husband introduced me to the application he uses at work to organize his projects: Gantto.

For my last book I used Gantto to plan out my book publishing process, goals, and the milestones I needed to hit. Early schedule items consisted of writing so many words a week (with milestone markers for finishing a quarter of the book, half, etc.), middle items included submitting drafts and doing revisions, and latter marks included publishing house schedules and promotional items -- all ultimately leading to the release date of the book.  The great thing about Gantto is that I can visually see how all of those little steps lead to the final goal on one page, and if life events (illness, family trouble, etc.) crop up during the project, the whole timeline shifts to where end-goal estimation becomes far more accurate. Vacations can be added at any time for scheduling purposes.

For me, seeing the gantt chart really helped put my daily work in perspective, and I found I was much less likely to procrastinate.

There was still a bit of a crunch getting my last book out the door (unfortunately, the tool couldn't write the book for me), but my process was tighter and the last week was far less painful than submissions for previous books. I am definitely using Gantto for my next book.

The real time collaboration aspect is likely not as key for the self-employed business owner as it would be for a larger team/business, but I actually found it a fantastic feature. If you are collaborating between two writers or a writer and an assistant, both of you can go into the schedule (simultaneously) and make changes.

As someone who has used spreadsheets in the past to track projects, the ability to shift an entire schedule of events with one click is mind-blowingly great. Add that to the price (free for one month, with subscriptions starting at $5 a month) and I am delighted with this tool.

Herein are pragmatic tactics for radicals and wannabe radicals of all stripes. Originally written for hippie revolutionaries in the 1970s, today both Tea Party and Occupy folks are quoting and studying it. The "rules" really work, but they are pretty ruthless. Think of this advice as anti-state Machiavelli.

Having just finished a year of math and science heavy coursework, I am confident in stating that the Cambrdige Quad Wirebound Notebook is one of the best tools I've used all year. Notebooks may seem like a silly thing to get worked up about, but having used this day-in and day-out for a year, I can attest that it makes a difference.

When I first started looking for a notebook I was astonished by how much variety existed (especially in the world of graph paper), and consequently how much vitriol is generated by crappy notebooks. Everything from paper thickness to perforation was a potential sore spot. After field testing several varieties it was immediately clear that the Cambridge Quad was the winner.

Why this particular notebook? It has the perfect weight paper that doesn't bleed when using a variety of pens (I'm partial to the previously reviewed Lamy Safari with Noodler's Bulletproof Black Ink, and the Pentel Sharp Kerry mechanical pencil). It's perforations make for clean tearing, but are strong enough that they never unwittingly lose sheets. At 70-sheets per notebook, it's not too big, and the spiral binding holds up throughout its life (which hasn't been the case for other notebooks I've tried). Finally, the the paper in the Cambridge notebook has a warmer tone which provides for a nice contrast while also making it simple to distinguish any of my assignments in a pile.

At the end of the day these notebooks are nice enough that I've stocked up on them in case they decide to stop production.

There are sound effects libraries that cost more than a small car, and they're probably worth it to certain kinds of users — like movie studios or audio production houses — but not to me. In search of interesting, appropriately licensed sounds for personal amusement, some google searching led me to Freesound.org, which has many thousands of freely usable, user-contributed sound recordings, all Creative Commons licensed. Some of them are tiny snippets, the audio equivalent of the icons on a computer screen, and some are lengthy field recordings. (Many of the sounds here are purely synthetic, too, or remixes that the CC licensing facilitates.) Last Halloween, I set up a playlist for my family's "haunted condo," consisting of screams, clanks, and creepy laughter (but also repurposed sounds like foghorns and musical instruments I thought sounded ominious), with sounds drawn entirely from this site.

It's also a good place to find ring-tone and computer alert sources, if you're just looking for audio clip art, or (with headphones, especially) fascinating "you are there" audio experiences; being transported to an audio landscape inhabited by gentle waves, ships' horns, and thunderstorms is a legal way to escape ordinary consciousness.

Freesound really is free, too, though donations are accepted; it started as a project of the Music Technology Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. One (very small) catch: you can listen all you want just by visiting the site; downloading the files requires free registration.

Some weekend sports outings - climbing, skiing, camping, shooting, etc. often require many, many trips back and forth to the car to load and unload all of the things necessary for the weekend. I counted once and found that I made 8 round trips to the car for all of my backcountry ski gear to bring it back into the house at the end of a weekend.

The Big Foot Bag allows me to move everything in one single herculean trip. The "big" in "Big Foot Bag" is not an understatement. I have the *smallest* bag made by this company at 114L and 1.5m long. The *largest* bag they make is 1050L and 3 meters long.  (It should probably come with a trailer hitch and wheels.)The innovative part of the design is that it lays out completely flat when unzipped, allowing you to pile everything in the center, fold it over like a taco, sit on it, and zip it up quickly. The 600 denier Cordura is coated on the inside and there is a storm flap, allowing it to function as a water resistant rooftop carrier if desired.

Yes, it's only got a 6 month warranty, but I think this is more reflective of how hard people use them (the website illustrates them carrying mulch, firewood, and rocks) rather than their construction quality. We've had ours for four years and it still looks like new. Sure, there are big cargo bags of more durable construction out there (YKK zippers and 1000D Cordura would be improvements), but none of them approach the sheer size and ease of use of the Bigfoot.

This book is an essential guide to how field geology should be practiced. It is simple, clear, and written in a style which is accessible to students and amateurs. Jargon is limited to the irreducible and there is no effort to obfuscate. I have been using this all my professional life of more than 30+ years.

Using this manual and a fairly rudimentary set of basic geologic skills, outcrop and contact geologic maps can be produced, complete with cross-sections. There is no better resource for those interested in learning more about field geology.

I immediately thought of Low-Tech Magazine when I saw the previously reviewed Millers Falls Boring Machine. The web based magazine publishes a lushly illustrated and researched article every few months highlighting a technology from the past that is no longer used, but could still be very useful. The articles, in describing the history of tools, is a valuable tool in itself.

Some recent examples include Gas Bag Vehicles, Human Powered Cranes, and Hoffman Kilns.

I carefully laid plastic on my bedroom carpet before painting my closet. But somehow my painting tool began to fall, and as I grabbed for it I dumped the latex paint on the carpet beyond the plastic-protected area. I used wet rags to soak up what I could, but this left a 12" sticky latex stain on the rug plus numerous spatters. I put an old wet towel on it overnight. The next day I used successive applications of Gloves Off Stain and Paint Remover following each with a rag. By repeated applications, I was able to remove all visible paint.

Gloves Off is a newish brand of stain remover that uses plant-based ethoxylated alcohol as a surfactant to loosen stains and make them easier to clean. It's marketed as being a greener alternative to bleach and ammonia based cleaning agents.

Today, I spied a dried exterior latex stain on metal so I sprayed it with Gloves Off, and in a minute, literally peeled off the paint. So far I've been delighted with this product!