Category Archives: GTD and Productivity Links

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 25th January 2009

This weekend my @Home context has been getting a battering. I have knocked quite a few items off this list which included changing taps and replacing the floor in my en suite bathroom. Hopefully going to settle down for a nice move with my wife tonight and some well earned rest!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a comic representation of Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix. I like this post, great visual representation that helps you get the time managament matrix with a smile.
My second link is a link to Motivating your Volunteers, a post from Rebecca Leaman on the Wild Apricot Blog. This is aimed at motivating volunteers in non-profit organizations but the concepts of Maslow can be used in many circumstances. I had a great Risk Management teacher when I was younger who was a real advocate of Maslow and reading this post stirred great memories for me.
My third link is a link to a a great thread on Lifehacker about analogue (low tech) capture devices. The good content is in the comments showing you what people use as their low tech capture device. As expected, the Moleskine is mentioned quite a bit.
My fourth link is a link to a good post from a GTD advocate about how they implement GTD. Nice post from somebody who started with Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero process and then moved to GTD.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a review of PlutoPro. This is a Mac only GTD App that lives in your Menu Bar on your Mac. Looks quite a nifty lightweight app that has been added to my review list for another day.

I have a got a few GTD Application Reviews lined up for this week as well as some ideas for some more posts about my GTD thoughts. I have been listening to David Allen in my car over the past week whilst travelling and it has really sparked some great post ideas.

Hope you all have a great week.

Andrew..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 18th January 2009

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Another very productive week for me. I have been working on a very long customer report all week and also my latest eBook writing project for Cisco Press.

Deadlines really help you to focus and I am happy to say that I hit another one. Good planning and time allocation are key to working on a writing project with a deadline. I avoid procrastination and start early. There is nothing worse than leaving everything to the last minute, by which time you put yourself under undue pressure!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a Flash video from David Allen about Mind Mapping. This is a video created in conjunction with MindJet. The audio quality is not fantastic but it is a good video that shows how you can use Mind Mapping to help with GTD.
My second link is a link to 10 Time Saving Tips to make you more Productive from the Honolulu Advertiser. Nice little list with ten simple tips to make you more productive.
My third link is a link to a Computerworld article titled Three Free Tools to power the Ultimate GTD System. The three free tools are reQall, Re:Snooze, and Evernote.
My fourth link is a link to 5 Links about Making it All Work, the latest book from David Allen. These links are from the Smart productivity Blog.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to the start of a Book review for Making it All Work from fellow GTD Blogger Kris over at Fresh Focus.

I am just getting ready to set off to Havant near Portsmouth for three nights. This time my hotel advertises Free WiFi Internet so let’s see how good the connection is.

Hope you all have a great week.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 11th January 2009

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I have been away from home for most of this week in Basingstoke but I am glad to be back and back to a good Internet connection. I have a deadline for the 15th this week for my next Cisco Press eBook so the next few days will be busy but I am ahead of schedule so will be more than fine for time.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great review of the new David Allen Book, Making it All Work from the Simple Dollar. I am reading this book at the minute. I must admit I am not as far in as I would have liked but I have a writing deadline for the 15th Jan so that has been taking a lot of my time. This is a great review of the whole book, the best review I have seen yet.
My second link is a link to the 15-Minute Solution for Getting Organized. This is a new blog that I have discovered and this is a great post on how to use 15 minutes to get organized. It is amazing what you can do with 5, never mind 15 minutes!
My third link is a link to the 25-50-25 rule to Getting Things Done. This is from the Abundance Blog and it correlates the 25-50-25 rule to the GTD methodology. Well worth the time investment.
My fourth link is a link a video interview with Leo Babuta from Zen Habits. I will probably post these videos as a separate post to my blog.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to an article titled You Can Do Anything but Not Everything from the Indian Dinosaur blog. This is a great, and lengthy post about a persons view on productivity and GTD at general. Great read.

Going to hit the gym now and then settle down. Hopefully get some more Making it All Work read as my reading has suffered over the past few weeks due to my eBook deadline.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 4th January 2009

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Christmas is all over with, the decorations came down today and here we are at the first weekly post of the New Year. I hope you all had a great time and I hope you are all ready for the year ahead.

I am sat in a hotel in Basingstoke, UK with only a 2G connection as the hotel has no WiFi. One day all hotels in the UK will have WiFi as standard without charging us £15 for a days usage and ripping us off. Anyway, rant over.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to 7 Reasons Why I Love OmniFocus, a great post from GearFire.net, a new blog for me. I am still loving OmniFocus but I must admit that I am tempted to try out Things this week when it is launched fully if not just to reaffirm why I love OmniFocus.
My second link is a link to a Things, the main rival of OmniFocus and the polished Apple Mac GTD App which finally goes live at MacWorld on the 6th Jan. I am going to install this and give it a real run for its money and follow it up with a subjective review. I cannot see my swapping from OmniFocus but who knows..
My third link is a link to GTD-IQ. This is something that is mentioned in the first chapter of the new David Allen book, Making it All Work. GTD-IQ is a a website with a set of simple questions to test your GTD-IQ. Worth a look at to see where you are with your GTD-IQ
My fourth link is a link an article outlining the 11 qualities of a successful manager. This is a blog post from Ajay Matharu. I am sometimes appalled by the management skills found in some large organizations. If you are a manager, see how many of these qualities you think you portray in your style of management.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a GTD Summary from the 20something finance blog. Again, another good read and great to see people getting real benefit out of Getting Things Done. I like how the author has broken the book down into simple sections. I have always been meaning to do something similar and this has sparked an idea so watch this space.

Ordering a sandwich and then calling it a night. You would not believe how slow my Internet connection is, hoping it is better tomorrow. Let’s hope I have enough juice to publish this post…

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 28th December 2008

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 21st December 2008

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It is the final countdown to Christmas now, 4 days till the 25th and I am sure that everybody reading this blog will be totally organized and prepared for the festive season 🙂

I have just this minute received an email from Amazon stating that the David Allen Book, Making it all Work, has been delayed by the publishers and not due into the UK until the 15th of January 2009. Looks like my Christmas Reading is limited to the Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp as that has just shipped and will be with me before Christmas.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great post from A Wandering Mind that is about Picking a Tool for GTD. Josh from A Wandering Mind is a guy with an interest in Information Security, just like me!
My second link is a link to Spootnik.net. Spootnik is a web based system for synchronizing your OmniFocus tasks with Basecamp from 37Signals. I use both OmniFocus and Basecamp so I am going to try this. Although the system does look like you have to sync all tasks and it does not appear to give you the option of choosing which tasks to sync. I will provide more details
My third link is a link to a post about the OmniFocus Start date From MacSparky. This is anew blog I have just started reading via another blog and the content is very relevant to me.
My fourth link is a link to the Mind Depositor Index Card Templates – Nice little index cards ready for GTD for you to print. I know these have done the rounds on various blogs already but they are pretty neat if you use a paper based GTD system so check them out.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to an article from the Times Online titled, Tough Times need a Cool Head and Clear Planning. It is a nice little article about surviving in these tough times and how productivity can help.

My next weekly links will be on the 28th of December when all the Christmas celebrations will be over and we will all be focusing on the New Year.

As it is the New Year, I will do a special New Year links section with all links focusing on planning for the New Year.

Hope you all have a very Merry, and of course productive Christmas!

Andrew..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 14th December 2008

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Hope you have all had a great week.

I have just been to my childrens Christmas nativity and right after this I am heading to my fathers Christmas party at the Hilton in Leeds for yet more festive fun.

Productivity is more important than ever right now as we just have more things to do, and there is a prominent deadline that we have to meet. More about that, as I feel a post coming on later in the week about festive productivity.

Continue reading →

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 7th December 2008

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 30th November 2008

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 23rd November 2008

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This week I am linking to five blogs that I have never linked to before. Some of these are established and some are total newbies to Productivity Blogging. Great to see new blogs appearing all the time.

If you have a new blog and have some great posts, be sure to let me know and I will gladly link to your great content in my weekly link roundup.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a UK based site dedicated to managing your time. This is a great little site with some great resources. Pretty basic information and the site is Adsense heavy but sill a nice little site. It does appear to be a “Made for Adsense” type of site at first glance but the content does check out to be unique.
My second link is a link to the GTD tag from the Blue Knight Blog. The main reason for the inclusion of this blog is the information to be found on Pocket Informant. I used to use Pocket Informant on my Windows PDA and loved it. Nice to see it is still going and people are using it in their GTD and Productivity methodologies.
My third link is a link to a Scotch Box Hipster PDA (hPDA). A bit of fun and some good information from this new GTD Blogger.
My fourth link is a link to the first Google Android GTD Application Review from the Getting Things Done Blogspot Blog. Now, I have never seen an Android phone but looking at the user interface, I do not think the iPhone has much to worry about!
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a neat little post about taking notes and using MarkUp. Another new blogger that I have never linked to and a blog which does seem to have good resoruces on it.

I am going away tomorrow for a midweek break to Centerparcs in Nottingham. Looking forward to a nice break with the family before the chaos of Christmas sets in.

May not be many posts this week, 3G coverage dependent.