I have been working long and hard this week. Keeping my head down and spinning the projects.
However, I am happy to say that the week was very productive and all my tasks got completed on time.
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is to a great post from the Linux Magazine titled Make Firefox a Productivity Powerhouse. I use Firefox as my browser so found this a great article with some great tips and links contained within.
My second link is a link to blog post about How to Hire And Work With a Virtual Assistant. I tried to work with a Virtual Assistant last year with not much luck so I am reading this article and pondering whether to take Jeff’s advice and give it another shot.
My fourth link is a link to a a list of GTD and Productivity people on Twitter. This list is brought to you from Listorious and contains pretty much all the main players in our industry. Noce to see my name on the list. Be sure to check it out and get following people!
My fifth and last link is a link to the the Evernote Workflow from Hicks Design in the UK. It is no secret that I love Evernote and I love seeing how other people use it.
Hope you all have a great week ahead. Mine is looking very busy yet again!
Just stumbled across this video on YouTube.com so I thought I would share it.
The video is David Allen talking about the new GTD Workflow map.
I recently purchased the new GTD Workflow posters but must admit that it is still in the tube it arrived in as it arrived just before Christmas and I have not had the chance to get a frame for it yet.
As always, I am very interested in hearing your thought on this GTD Workflow map.
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!
I thought I would dedicate this week to a series of links regarding the New Year and all that it brings from a productivity viewpoint.
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a post that I wrote over two years ago called What’s Wrong With New Years Resolutions. Although I of course agree and advocate setting goals, I always find that New Years Resolutions fail. This is because you should not wait to create a goal. I will write an update post about this in the coming week.
My second link is a link to a post from Elle Magazine titled 7 Ways to Find Happiness in 2010. This is quite a long article focused on New Years Resolutions and it also features David Allen, the founder of the Getting Things Done Methodology.
My third link is to a frank but true post from Rock Your Day titled What No One Will Tell You About The New Year. Now this is a post that I agree with. The New Year is not a new start, it is a new day. However, there is no better time to start planning for the future so if you need a new year boost, go for it!
My fifth and last link is a link to the updated 2010 GTD Calendar from Stephen Smiths Productivity blog. I featured this calendar a while back and though I would mention it again as he has updated it for 2010.
I hope you all have a great week and enjoy getting your ship in shape for 2010!
I had a great time with my family. Great to see all my kids open their presents and spent a great few days together as a family.
Christmas is a great time to reflect and get ready for the New Year and all that brings.
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a post titled 100 All-Time Best Ways to Hack Your Workday. This is a great collection of little time saving and productivity hacks that I am sure we can all learn from. I love these simple and straight to the point posts.
My second link is a link to a post that provides Some Help for Your GTD 50,000 Foot Reviews. This is a great time of year to perform a 50,000 foot review and this post provides some tips and guidance in how to get through this review.
My third link is to a blog post titled How To Get a Bob The Builder “Yes We Can!” Attitude. Great post about adopting a we can do it attitude to everything you do. How the world would be a better place if we all would promote and adopt this type of attitude.
My fourth link is a link to a post showing you how to Get Things Done with WordPress. WordPress probably wouldn’t be your first choice for choosing a GTD app but this post covers a GTD specific theme for WordPress that turns WordPress into an online collaboration tool that can help you Get Things Done as part of a team working on projects. Definitely an interesting choice as an alternative to online tools such as Basecamp.
My fifth and last link is a link to the 2009 GTD Christmas Quiz from OrganizeIT.co.uk. Great idea to have a bit of festive GTD fun so give the quiz ago to see how many of these you get correct.
I hope you enjoy these links and I will be back in 2010 with some more posts so I hope you all enjoy the New Years celebrations.
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.
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.
If you are involved in social media then no doubt you will have heard of the book Crush It!, by Gary Vaynerchuck.
Gary Vaynerchuck is the guy behind WineLibrary.tv, the excellent video blog that has taken the Wine world by Storm.
Gary has a unique and passionate approach to his work and this is very clear from the reviews he offers via his site. He has built WineLibrary.tv to what it is today mainly by leveraging social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
This book is very up to date and covers cashing in on your passion by utilizing social media web services such as Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter.
Just looking at the back page of the book shows comments from people such as Tony Robbins, Kevin Rose and Tim Ferris. Hey, if these guys are reading this then shouldn’t you?
Take a quick look at the video below to get a taste of what Gary is about.
It is quite fitting that I first heard about this book via Twitter. Somebody who I follow had sent out a tweet regarding the fact that he had just ordered this book, and this was around 6 months before the launch date.
The book is about social media marketing and it has been excellently marketing via social media.
I used Twitter search to research the book further, having never heard of Gary or WineLibrary.tv and then proceeded straight over to Amazon and placed a pre-order for the book. This was some six months before the estimate release date for the book.
I got my book as soon as it was released and luckily, the coincided with a trip to the Lake District so I could make time to read it and see if the book lived up with the hype.
It is always hard to read a book that has had so much hype as you expect so much from it. Some of the best books I have ever read have been unknown books with catchy or absurd titles that have somehow called to me to read them.
The book consists of 142 pages in 13 chapters. It starts with a great opening chapter that covers who Gary is and where he started. The first chapter is titled “Passion is Everything” and it is easy to feel the passion that Gary has from simply reading this opening chapter.
The book then goes into explaining the model that Gary used in order to launch and make WineLibrary.tv into the successful site that it is today. His passion combined with an excellent work ethic and determination has shaped Gary’s future. He learned to leverage the tools at his disposal such as video blogging and Twitter to reach out to a very wide audience.
Gary reports some paltry results from traditional advertising such as billboards and then some amazing results from simply tweeting about discount codes and offers via Twitter. Traditional advertising is costly and hard to measure the return on investment where social media is generally free and the results are electronic so can be tracked with a good analytics program and a nugget of knowledge.
In summary, this is a very up to date book that provides motivation and instruction on how to utilize social media as a marketing tool to launch an online business. It is quite a short book at 142 pages and one that I managed to finish in just two sessions. It did spark a few thinking points for myself, which is my usual marking scheme when reviewing a book although I would have like to have seen more detail and some areas and also more case studies referenced but I guess Gary is building this from his own experience.
This is a good book and bang up to date covering aspects of Facebook and Twitter that are hot topics right now. It is great to see how you can leverage these social media technologies for the benefit of your business and Gary is a prime example of this success.
Another week is over and more lessons are learned about life and business. I love it when I have productive weeks as I just have where I can learn about the business I am in.
Trying to get some more time for blogging but my business and personal lives are just crammed so full at the minute that I am finding myself exhausted on an evening.
I have got out of the exercise habit so I need to jot myself to get back started again at the gym! That will give me energy even if I cannot muster up the energy to go 🙂
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a great post titled How to Become a High-Tech Minimalist. Some great tips and tricks in here for achieving a minimalistic environment with technology. I really do think that a de-cluttered environment is a productive one and I try to be as minimalist as possible in everything I do.
My second link is a link to a list of free and great iPhone Apps from Gizmodo. Some great apps are listed on here and some I did not know about until reading this post. Of course, one of my personal favourites, Evernote has made the list and if you have not already tried Evernote, what are you waiting for?
My third link is to a post titled How To Train Yourself To Be In The Mood You Want. Attitude and your mood are a very important factor in life and the great thing is that you are the person who can change it. You will always do things better when you are in a great and positive mood.
My fourth link is a link to a write up about Google’s decision to drop development on Google Notebook and the alternatives you can use. Evernote is mentioned as an alternative and to be honest, I always preferred Evernote over Google Notebook in the first place!
My fifth and last link is a link to a post about Using Getting Things Done at Home. This contains some ideas on how the GTD Methodology can help in the home as well as at work.
Just returned from a great weekend in London with my family and some close friends.
My cold is still hanging around, giving me sinus pain and one of those coughs that you just cannot shake!
I spent four days out of the office last week and drove over 600 miles in two days. Then I finished the week off with a great but hectic weekend in London so I am looking forward to a bit of a rest now!
Here are my collection of links for this week.
My first link for this week is a great post from Brent Ozar titled How I Use GTD 50,000 Foot Goals. Brent is a Microsoft SQL Server developer and in this post he provides some great information on how he used GTD for those bold and hairy goals!
My second link is a link to a nice little post from the Wall Street Journal about How to be More Productive. We can always be more productive but is getting up at 0400 the best way to do it?
My third link is to the first post I have linked to or read about Getting Ready For 2010 – Preparation. In under a month it will be 2010 and many people use the start of a new year for a fresh approach to many aspects of their life.
My fourth link is a link to a rather interesting post about Hedonist GTD. A slight angle change from the usual but worth the read.
I was watching the X Factor a couple of weeks ago when Shakira, the Latin American singer was on. For those of you from the US, the X Factor is the UK show that spawned the American Idol shows in the US. Another one of Simon Cowell’s shows.
Now, after her performance, Shakira Shakira was asked by the host, Dermot, what tips she had for the contestants. Her answer was one that caught my ear.
Shakira replied by stating that the contestants had to apply Intelligent Effort.
This got me thinking….
So many people place such an emphasis on statements like Practice Makes Perfect. Well does it?
What about if you are practicing the wrong things? Or at the wrong intensity?
I am sure that your golf is not going to improve much unless your basics are correct and you are following the guidance of tried and trusted instruction. You will progress to a level and then plateau.
To improve in anything, as Shakira has rightly spotted, you have to practice the right things. You have to be intelligent with your effort so that you are working on tasks and projects that are related to your goals.
So maybe instead of the term Practice Makes Perfect, we can think rather of Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.
However, you cannot hit a target you do not have and I can feel that some goals related posts are long overdue….
Just thought I would share this little nugget with you all and I would love to hear any comments you may have.
If you are involved in social media then no doubt you will have heard of the book Crush It!, by Gary Vaynerchuck.
I was watching the X Factor a couple of weeks ago when Shakira, the Latin American singer was on. For those of you from the US, the X Factor is the UK show that spawned the American Idol shows in the US. Another one of Simon Cowell’s shows.