Category Archives: Cool Software

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

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 18th April 2010

Well, I am glad that I didn’t take a trip to Europe this Easter as the flight situation is chaos with a lot of people including my sister and a few friends all stuck in various locations unable to fly back to the UK.

Amazing now to see the airlines trying to apply pressure to lift the ban. Always good to focus on earnings rather than safety!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to some valuable advice from Brad Lomenick titled Write it Down, always. I could not agree more with this. If I could provide one piece of productivity advice, this is it!
My second link is a link to an intriguing iPhone Application that I am just downloading called Egretlist. Egretlist is an Apple iPhone ToDo list application that uses your Evernote notebooks as your data store. This looks awesome and something I would love to see in the Evernote iPhone application.
My third link is to a post about Getting Things Done on the Apple iPad from GTDTimes.com. I really do think the iPad will mature into an amazingly utilized piece of hardware that could remove the need for some users to have a Laptop. Cannot wait to get my hands on one!
My fourth link is a link to a great titled blog post, Arbitrary Taxonomies and The Illusion of Precision. This is listed as Part 1 and is based on the view of a reader who has just finished the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. Some good points in this post and I am sure the other parts of this will be equally interesting.
My fifth and last link is a link to a link to the Evernote Blog and the latest features within the Premium account. Evernote have provided some more great functionality to Premium accounts that make it even more compelling to upgrade from a Free to Premium account. I have been premium for months and would not be without it!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 11th April 2010

Evernote on the Apple iPad

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

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Happy Easter to all my readers!

I guess the news of the day is the fact that the Apple iPad was released yesterday.

I am very excited about the productivity aspects of the iPad and will be writing a few iPad Productivity posts this week. Being based in the UK I do not have my hands on an iPad yet and I am still awaiting the UK release date.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great post titled 13 small things to simplify your workday from ZenHabits. ZenHabits do a great job at producing excellent blog posts and this one is no exception.
My second link is a link to a post titled Procrastination: Feeling overwhelmed, helpless and ready to run away. Procrastination is something that affects us all and this post makes good reading for all.
My third link is to the a post from thecynh.com titled 17 Ways for Lone Entrepreneurs to Stay Motivated. This is a very interesting post about a real problem that a lot of self made entrepreneurs suffer from at some time in the lives. More and more people are setting up on their own but they lack the interaction of being in a busy environment and this can bring with it issues relating to motivation. This post tries to look at some ways to avoid this issue.
My fourth link is a link to the news that Evernote for the iPad has arrived!. I love and use Evernote daily and this just looks like an awesome app on the iPad. Boy I cannot wait to see this one!
My fifth and last link is a link to Things, the GTD Application, for the Apple iPad. I have covered and reviewed Things on this blog in depth and this is the first GTD app to market for the new iPad. Looking forward to seeing how it performs.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 28th March 2010

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I have had a very difficult week having to sit a major examination on Thursday and Friday of this week. It was four exams spread over two days and was one of the hardest things I have undertaken in my professional career.

I am happy to say that I passed so now I am a TigerScheme Senior Tester! Well done me!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great post titled You Can Fight It All You Want To, But Simply Write it Down!. I could not agree more with this post. If I had only one thing to tell people to improve their productivity it would be to write things down. This made the biggest change to my own personal productivity and this post is a great one to read.
My second link is a link to an overview of Nirvana, a pretty new Getting Things Done app. This looks an awesome Web 2.0 Web App for Getting Things Done. I have not yet checked it out but will do.
My third link is to the a great little video tip on how to use Evernote as a search engine from Google Chrome. With this you can search through your Evernote notebooks straight from your Web Browser.
My fourth link is a link to a simple video from Erica Douglass showing you how she simply gets things done with a Notebook. Simple and classic.
My fifth and last link is a link to a blog post titled Why I love Evernote and Am Now Paperless. The title of this post pretty much explains all.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 21st February 2010

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I had another great week.

I spent the start of the week away with my family in the Yorkshire Dales and the back end of the week working from home on some cool projects.

It has been a productive, yet very busy week and I am looking forward to the day when my workload will not be as much so I can focus on some of my every growing list of someday/maybe actions!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great post from Prof Hacker on Using Remember the Milk for Task Management. I used to use Remember The Milk when I first got into GTD but this was long before the iPhone app came out and I favored OmniFocus as I could have both a desktop and iPhone version.
My second link is a link to the GTD Times Blog Post outlining the GTD Best Practices podcasts. The post links to the first four podcasts from DavidCo covering the best practices for Collect, Processing, Organizing and Reviewing. David Allen is on these podcasts and they provide excellent information for anybody involved in Getting Things Done.
My third link is to the a post titled Getting Things Done: The Millionaire Nurse Way! Definitely a catchy tag line and worth a read to see what the author is providing.
My fourth link is a link to the Mac’s In Life blog and an article about using the Circus Ponies Notebook and Quicksilver to build a GTD System. I had not see the Circus Ponies Notebook before this and I am downloading it right now to take a better look as it looks quite interesting.
My fifth and last link is a link to the Fast Company Top 10 list of Most Innovative Companies. The list is sorted by sector and it is great to see one of my favorite apps, Evernote, make it on the Mobile list..

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 14th February 2010

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I spent last week in Washington DC at a security conference called Shmoocon.

We arrived just before one of the worst snowstorms that DC had ever seen. All made for a rather fun weekend and made the journey back home to the UK challenging.

Happy Valentines day to all. I am spending the next few days with my family in the Yorkshire Dales.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great post from the Aiming Low blog that covers Procrastination. We all procrastinate for one reason or another and I do feel that procrastination is the biggest hinder to productivity and success. This is a good and direct article that looks at Procrastination as the goal, and helps you to do the opposite.
My second link is a link to How to Reclaim the Morning from Web Worker Daily. This is a thought provoking article about getting your mornings in shape in order to be more productive. I am a morning person and mornings are my best part of the day.
My third link is to the a post about Processing Information from the Entrepreneurial Advocate. The post mentions GTD and also AwayFind as two ways of helping small businesses process information.
My fourth link is a link to a quick little Evernote tip on how to save How To’s in Evernote. I have just started to use Evernote to plan some study that I am doing for an upcoming exam and I found this post useful.
My fifth and last link is a link to a 5 little tips to Get Things Done in 55 Seconds from the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur. Nice little post with some good little tips.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 10th January 2010

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I have had yet another crazy week at work. There is a lot coming in that I have to deal with but luckily I am managing it all, just would be nice to get some planning time rather than constant fire fighting.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to information about OmniFocus 1.6 for the iPhone that has just been released today. There are a lot of bug fixes and some major updated in version 1.6 so be sure to check out this post and then be sure to update the application to enjoy all this great app has to offer.
My second link is a link to a review and explanation of TimeGT. TimeGT is a pretty new Life and Task manager that is worth a look. I do not think it will replace OmniFocus for me but one big advantage is that this is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux so looks a great Windows GTD app.
My third link is to a nice post from Omar Eduardo titled Most important steps to Getting Things Done. This post gives some nice little tips from the author who has just recently read the GTD book from David Allen.
My fourth link is a link to a a list of Online Productivity Tools for the Small Business from OpenForum.com. I always like these posts to see what apps other people have integrated into their productivity solutions for small businesses.
My fifth and last link is a link to the the Friday post from the Nozbe founder, Michael Sliwinski called New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 . This post links to 3 other blogs about New Years Resolutions. At least one of these is fantastic, and if you check it out you will see why!

Hope you all have a great week ahead. Mine is looking very busy yet again!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 20th December 2009 – The Evernote Edition

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As always, Christmas has crept up and now we are only 5 days away from Christmas day. Luckily, I started my Christmas shopping quite early so I am pretty much sorted out for the presents for my wife and four children.

I hope your preparations are going as smooth as mine and I am looking forward to a few days of rest!

Wishing you and yours all the best for Christmas.

This week I am providing five links for Evernote.

If you do not know what Evernote is, be sure to check out my Evernote Review.

I have posted quite a few links and blog posts regarding Evernote so be also sure to check out my Evernote Tag to see all of these related posts.

I am not an affiliate of Evernote and in no way associated with them. This is an application that I use and I am passionate about.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a post titled Organize Your Digital Life 10 – Capture everything else in one place. This post covers a lot of what Evernote can do and is used for. Check it out and watch the collection of videos.
My second link is a link to a post titled Seven Ways I Use Evernote to Improve My Finances from thesimpledollar.com. This post shows how one happy Evernote user manages to save money by using Evernote. Some great little tips that are handy at this most expensive time of year.
My third link is to the Evernote Blog post announcing Evernote for the Google Android Phone. Evernote has been supported on most platforms for quite a while and the launch of the Android client will empower a lot more users to benefit from Evernote.
My fourth link is a link to a post showing you how to Archive Your Twitter Tweets Into Your Evernote Account With @myEN. This is a cool feature that you may think of a use for. I have used it in the past for retweeting nuggets from Twitter straight into Evernote. Personally, I prefer to capture straight to Evernote as I feel this adds an extra step.
My fifth and last link is a link to Evernote. Couldn’t compile this list without a link to the official site where you can download and try Evernote for free.

Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the Christmas holidays.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 22nd November 2009

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Well, quite a bad week for me in that I was ill most of the week with a seasonal flu like bug and my productivity was rock bottom.

It is amazing how an illness knocks you for six and comes from left field to totally disrupt your plans. Mind you, after an illness I feel really energized and eager to get back to it all!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great slide based presentation titled Getting Things Done with Social Media. This provides a GTD approach on how people can bolster their online presence.
My second link is a link to a Omnifocus GTD power tip – reviewing Stalled projects quickly. This is a handy little tip from the StayConnected blog on how to utilize the stalled filter within OmniFocus to your advantage.
My third link is to a nice little post with some Getting Things Done with Google Tips. Most of my Google tips focus on Gmail but this little post also looks at the other apps from Google such as Google Reader and Google Calendar. Worth a read.
My fourth link is a link to four tools that help Fabian Pattberg’s Sustainable Days more Productive. Great to see that Evernote, one of my favorite applications is on this list.
My fifth and last link is a link to a blog post I picked up from Twitter titled How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide. This is a great post that shows off some of the features of Evernote and its ability to help with cool tasks such as recording facts from a conference. Good post.

Hope you all have a great week. Hopefully I will be back to my normal self pretty quick.