The perfect bed for Getting Things Done

Itching to join the cult of productivity but can’t find the space for filing cabinets in your tiny apartment? You might want to check out the apartment Tobias Wong lived in from 1998 to 2003. Being an ever clever designer and artist, Tobias combined the spacial constraints of New York living and a desire for organization to create a bed out of a simple piece of plywood and five steel filing cabinets. Now, there’s no reason to avoid filing!

What’s more interesting is Tobias using his apartment in his portfolio. I love this, because it shows how design is more than just about making pretty things, but about applying what we know well to realms that we might not know very well. Examples:

1. Tobias Wong applied his design training to improve his everyday apartment life while creating a provocative art and design piece.

2. Merlin Mann used his collective experience as a web developer, project manager, telemarketer, and rocker to design an icon system for Moleskine notebooks.

3. David Allen, a former magician, waiter, karate teacher, used his body of knowledge to create Getting Things Done, a productivity system that’s become like crack-rock among IT workers in Silicon Valley.

Have more examples? Don’t hesitate to post them in the comments!