Category Archives: General Items

Just a category to put things which are not specific to a topic.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 13th June 2010

This is another post on autopilot as I have taken my wife away to the Lake District to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Staying in a great little hotel and booked into some awesome restaurants so I am sure I am enjoying myself.

I am also away with my Apple iPad for the first time although the location where I am staying is very remote and I do not hold much hope for any 3G access. Still it will be nice to see how I cope without my MacBook Air, which I sold last week!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great post titled 6 Tips for When You’re Not in the Mood to Work. I am sure we all feel like this from time to time when the procrastination monster moves in and this post has some ideas on what to do when you do feel like doing nothing.
My second link is a link to an excellent OmniFocus Cheat Sheet. OmniFocus is an excellent application and one that has a control of in-depth control. This cheat sheet shows you some of the keyboard shortcuts that can be used to make navigating the application a lot easier. Essential reading if you use OmniFocus.
My third link is to a post titled The End-All Guide to Getting Out From Under Your Office Crap. This is a great de-clutter post from Lifehacker that covers the importance of a clutter free working environment.
My fourth link is a link to a nice post called Ways To Get More Done from Investors.com. This is nice little post that covers some productivity basics.
My fifth and last link is to part 3 of a 14 part series from the Christian Science Monitor where they are discussing the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. This third instalment is titled Getting Things Done 101: The five phases of project planning. This is an excellent series and well worth the time investment.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Evernote Worldwide Meetups

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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

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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 – 23rd May 2010

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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

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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.

My first link for this week is to an article from Brent Ozar titled How I Use GTD 50,000 Foot Goals. This is a great read that explains how the author uses those 50,000 foot goals to help him achieve the big picture in what he wants out of life.
My second link is a link to a great visual post titled Top 10 Motivation Boosters and Procrastination Killers. Some great inspiration and a ton of links in this post that will keep you going for a good while.
My third link is to a post from Brian Wilson’s blog where he asks the question Are You Unconsciously Wasting Hours Of Your Life?. Great time management post that is worth reading and digesting.
My fourth link is a link to a great review of the Nirvana GTD Application. This is a very detailed review of the app with a ton of screenshots and really does an excellent job at reviewing the application.
My fifth and last link is a link to an old but awesome post from Merlin Mann on 43Folders.com about Getting Started with Getting Things Done. 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 – 25th April 2010

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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!

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

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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

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The Masters in on in the other room in all it’s HD glory so I will make this short 🙂

Hopefully it will be a great night for the UK and Lee Westwood or Poulter can win the US Masters..

A very Evernote and iPad rich collection of links this week.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to Issue 4 of the Productive Magazine. This is a MUST read for anybody interested in productivity and it is delivered as a free PDF that can be downloaded from this link. This will be great to read on your iPad, and I would if I had one!
My second link is a link to a great review of the iPad version of Evernote. Some of the apps already out for the iPad make it look like a killer tool for productivity and this review of Evernote shows some of the sweetness of this app on the iPad platform.
My third link is to the a post titled Getting Things Done With Things. This is a compilation of 6 excellent screencasts that show you how to use the excellent Apple Mac GTD Application, Things, to Get Things Done. Well worth a watch.
My fourth link is a link to news about the online GTD Application, Nozbe, including Evernote integration into its online app. This is cool functionality that really does warrant a separate post and I will try to do one in the coming weeks.
My fifth and last link is a link to a link about an Evernote event that is taking place on Friday April 15 from 1800 in New York City. This looks like a great event and one I would be going to if I was not the other side of the Atlantic Ocean!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Evernote on the Apple iPad

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Evernote for the iPad

Congratulations to Evernote for getting their iPad client ready without actually touching an iPad!

They used the iPad simulator that is built into XCode in order to built and test the Apple iPad client of their excellent software.

Be sure to read the full blog post covering the Evernote iPad Client and also check out the video below.

I do not have an iPad as I live in the UK but you can be sure I will have one on the UK Launch Day and this will be once of the first iPad applications that I review!

Be sure to check out all the other posts I have written on Evernote.

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!