Category Archives: Cool Software

Software that will help you do what you do, better.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 23rd January 2011

Another week is over and the start of another week is soon to begin. Last week was a busy week for me and I got through it all unscathed.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 16th January 2011

I have just returned from a great weekend in the Lakes with my wife. A great way to recharge the batteries after a hectic Christmas and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 12th December 2010

I said I would continue with these posts and I am back. I managed to break the bad habit of not posting these regular links.

I have been collecting some great links this week from my usual sources.

For those of you not doing, be sure to Follow me on Twitter and add me as a friend on Facebook. You can also follow my Wife on Twitter and be her Facebook friend too to keep up with my blog and also my Wife’s blog about parenting and lifestyle.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to a great post titled Positive Procrastination: Getting Stuff Done, Intuitively from the Owning Pink blog. This is a great post that is very well written and provides some great ideas.
  • My second link is to a nice little post titled Celebrate the little successes. This post looks at setting ourselves smaller goals and celebrating these in order to put yourself into the achieving mindset for the larger goals.
  • My third link is to a post from Mashable about How Evernote Turned Note Taking Into a $10 Million Business. This has been a very well read and re-tweeted article this week that coincided with Evernote CEO, Phil Libin doing a presentation at LeWeb in Paris.
  • My fourth link is a link to a great AppleScript that enables you to Create OmniFocus tasks in Entourage. I personally prefer Mail.app but I know a lot of people use Microsoft Entourage so this is worth checking out.
  • My fifth and last link is to a nice little post from GTD Times titled Getting Things Done in the Shower. Neat little idea to use a Scuba diving waterproof slate in the shower to capture your thoughts if you are the type of person who thinks their best thoughts whilst showering.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 4th July 2010

Let me start by wishing all my US readers a Happy Independence Day! I know the majority of my readers come from the US so I hope you are all enjoying the festivities and fireworks!

I missed last week as I was away with my son on a survival weekend and I was not home until late and totally whacked!

I now am also the proud owner of an Apple iPhone 4. Loads to come on this and how I use the iPhone and iPad to Get Things Done..

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to a great no-nonsense post from Ivan Walsh titled How To Make Friday Your Busiest Day And Get The Rewards. Friday is my busiest and most important day of the week so I share a lot in common with this post.
  • My second link is a link to a post from Business Builder Marketing titled The Mechanics of Getting Things Done. This post provides a great overview of the Getting Things Done methodology.
  • My third link is to a screencast based review of Evernote for the Blackberry mobile device. Always cool to see a screencast based review over the traditional written review as you can see what the author is talking about.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post from Scot Newbury titled GTD is about method not tools. Scot hits the nail on the head with the statements in this post. I always tell people that productivity systems are personal and it is different for every person. Too many people spend time working on the tools rather than actually getting things done!
  • My fifth and last link is to part 5 of a 14 part series from the Simple Dollar where they are discussing the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. This fourth installment is titled Getting things done 101: Corraling Your Stuff. This is an excellent series and well worth the time investment.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Evernote Worldwide Meetups

Evernote Meetups

Evernote have organized a series of worldwide Meetups for all Evernote Users to meet and share the ways in which they use Evernote.

These Meetups are organised for June the 23rd and are currently available in 258 worldwide locations.

Attendance at these meetups is free and it would be great to get together will fellow lovers of Evernote and spread the word. The meetups are organized and scheduled through the excellent app at meetups.com.

I am currently down for the meetup in York, UK, but at this point I am the only attendee so please join me if you are in the North of England for the York Evernote Meetup.

So, be sure to get the 23rd of June in your diary and check out your local Evernote Meetup.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 6th June 2010

I have now had my Apple iPad for just over a week and I have had the chance to put it through its paces. It is safe to say that I am not disappointed with the whole iPad experience.

I have not been away during the past week and in a real situation where I need the iPad. It has just sat at the side of my laptop.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an excellent post titled Getting things done 101: five stages of mastering work flow. This is a great post that covers the basics of how to master workflow.
  • My second link is a link to an excellent Review of OmniFocus from GeekCaster.com. OmniFocus is the app I use to organize my life. I use it on my MacBook Pro and my iPhone and cannot wait for the eagerly awaited iPad version!
  • My third link is to a list of the Ten Must Have Android Applications. I am an iPhone user myself but it is good to see such a great list of apps that includes Evernote as a must have for the Android mobile platform.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post called What is Getting Things Done?. This post does a good job at introducing the reader to what Getting Things Done is.
  • My fifth and last link is slightly different this week in that it is a link to one of my older GTD blog posts. This post covers Open Loops and is one of the most popular posts on my whole blog. If you have not already read this blog post then it is well worth the time investment and I would love to get any feedback on the post.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 30th May 2010

Just returned from a great family holiday in Northumberland. Stayed in Beadnell for the fifth year and as usual, had a great time.

Well, I eventually got my iPad. I got a 64GB 3G and so far I am loving it. Really looking forward to getting a lot of productivity apps on it.

I can see some great things coming from my iPad!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an article titled 3 Brain Hacks to Easily Memorize New Info and Save Time While Studying. I love these little memory joggers and use quite a few of these myself. Good read.
  • My second link is a link to an article showing you how to use toodledo for GTD and Inbox Zero. Great read for a nice simple application that can be used to Get Things Done.
  • My third link is to a post about how to password protect Evernote. I must admit that security has been one concern of mine with relaying so heavily on cloud based services such as Evernote. This post helps to show you how you can password protect Evernote.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post that provides 10 Tips for Reducing Junk Email. Junk email gives us all a problem and if you can reduce the number you get, you can reduce the time spent clearing out junk and increase your time to spend on productive work.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to the new GTD Implementation guide from David Allen. This does cost $20 and I have not yet bought it myself but if it is from David Allen I am sure it will be worth it and I am hearing good buzz around Twitter about this implementation guide.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 23rd May 2010

Apologies that I missed again last week but I was ill and felt that rotten that I was not able to muster the energy to write a post. One of the not so great things of having four kids is the amount of bugs that you can pick up as they are like bug sponges!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an article by Malcolm Gladwell that was published in the New Yorker titled How David Beats Goliath. This post looks at how underdogs can break the traditional rules of engagement n order to win when on paper they should always lose. Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors and this is a great read.
  • My second link is a link to probably the most comprehensive review of Evernote I have ever seen titled Take a Minute to Collect Your Thoughts With Evernote. If you are new to Evernote or a seasoned user like myself it is always great to read these reviews to see what other people are using this great piece of software for.
  • My third link is to a post from FastCompany.com titled How to Motivate People: Skip the Bonus and Give Them a Real Project. This is an interesting post and 10 minute video discussing how the best way to motivate people is not with money, but by letting them work on projects close to their hearts. Interesting and relevant for me!
  • My fourth link is a link to a post from Sid Savara regarding Procrastination Thumbscrews. The post aims to find your Procrastinating and Time Wasting Weaknesses and deal with them!
  • My fifth and last link is a link to an old but awesome post from Merlin Mann on 43Folders.com about Building a Smarter To-Do List. This is a classic read and I have started to cover some of these classic posts in this list.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 9th May 2010

I missed my post last week as I had been away all week at InfoSec and they we went away for the bank holiday weekend to the Yorkshire Dales.

We stayed in a great cottage which unfortunately had no Internet or mobile phone coverage so I could not get any type of a connection to release my usual Sunday post.

I have had another busy week this week and next week seems just as bad!

Good news is that I can officially order my UK iPad tomorrow, at last!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 25th April 2010

Have to make this a quick one today as I am busy packing for a trade show that I am attending next week with RandomStorm in London.

Should be fun, but hard work as usual.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to a great post that was published today from the Sunday Times titled Have we forgotten how to concentrate?. This post asks some very serious and very true questions of the modern working practices we all participate in. A real good read.
  • My second link is a link to an article titled Simple Productivity Task of The Day: Remove One Thing From Your Desk. Nice little post with a very simple one step productivity tip to help you improve your day.
  • My third link is to a post from Dan Gold titled Getting Back on Task. This awesome post covers some of the online tools and methodologies that you can use to get back on task and get productive.
  • My fourth link is a link to a post that talks about being in the Zone in order to Get Things Done. This is a good post that talks about some good concepts in order to Get Things Done.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to an old but awesome post from Merlin Mann on 43Folders.com about Writing Tasks. This is a classic read and I should start covering some of these classic posts in this list so here is my first classic link.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!