Category Archives: GTD and Productivity Links

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 16th August 2009

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Well, I am now home after an amazing holiday in Italy.

We stayed for two weeks at Union Lido in Cavallino, around 10 miles east of Venice in Northern Italy.

I have only been back a couple of hours So I will be brief as food calls and so does a nice bed!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a blog post titled GTD: Its more about ‘habit’ than the latest application. This is so true. You can get bewildered by all the shiny new applications and accessories for the act of getting things done when you can pretty much cover the basics of a system with just a paper and pencil.
My second link is a link to a post about How to turn GMail into your Ultimate GTD Inbox. This is a great post from LifeHacker.com that is well worth a read if GMail is your mail client of choice.
My third link is a link to a post from the Achieve Anything blog titled How to Manage Your Mind and Figure Out What Drives You. Great little tips from yet another great Twitter find.
My fourth link is a link from the Collegiate Times about Getting Things Done through Organization to Succeed. This is a post from a regular columnist after reading the Getting Things Done book by David Allen for the first time. Wouldn’t it be great to teach this skill to all college students?
My fifth and last link is a link to the first of an interesting set of posts regarding Biphasic sleep and productivity. This interests me as this is something I have considered..

Loads of thoughts collected whilst away so I will be back soon!

Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I post great Productivity and Motivational links on a daily basis!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 9th August 2009

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 2nd August 2009

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By now I will be in Italy drinking a cold Peroni watching an amazing sunset with my family on a well deserved holiday!

I had another busy week leading up to this break and I have managed to write these posts before I went away and they will be scheduled as usual on Sunday’s so as to not break my current 100% record of weekly productivity links.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great post from the Download squad about choosing a GTD workflow and sticking with it. Some great simple steps here from an author who I believe really does get the GTD principle. It doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you do it, and stick with it!
My second link is a link to a post about preventing procrastination. The post it titled 10 Ways To Give Yourself A Procrastination Inoculation and is a guest post from Karen Leland.
My third link is a link to a post from the Technoblabble blog titled Choosing the best GTD To Do List Software for PC, Windows Mobile and iPhone. Nice post for Windows users with some great software recommendations for Windows, online, and iPhone usage,
My fourth link is a link to link to a post from CrankingWidgets about using 37Signals BackPack to Get Things Done. The author has switched back from Remember The Milk to BackPack and outlines the reasons for doing so in this great post from a great blog.
My fifth and last link is a link to a a blog post from the OmniGroup titled OmniFocus for iPhone: The Coolest Feature You’re Probably Not Using. I love OmniFocus for the iPhone so be sure to check this out if you also use or are thinking of using OmniFocus on your iPhone.

I hope you all have a great week, I know I will!

Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I post great Productivity and Motivational links on a daily basis!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 26th July 2009

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My office is really coming on now!

I will get another post done this week about my initial set up. My holiday next Sunday will sort of cut short my time in the new office, but for good reason so I will write more about how my new office is shaping up on my return.

I am loving the ScanSnap and must tell you all about it in a blog post!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a simple GTD and Evernote workflow blog post from Darren Crawford. Darren has set up Evernote as his GTD system. I would love to be able to integrate OmniFocus and Evernote more and this is something I am trying to do with AppleScript.
My second link is a link to a post about how one blog author uses the new Microsoft Outlook 2010 for his Getting Things Done system. I used to use Microsoft Outlook before I switched to the Mac and at the time I use PlanPlus from Franklin Covey. This is a good read for those of you using Microsoft Outlook.
My third link is a link to a post about Getting Things Done with the Google Tasks Feature from the Tech Tips for Catholics blog. This is an interesting read from a blog with some good resources. I found this via Twitter and a random search on the GTD hashtag!
My fourth link is a link to link to a good post that i was reading recently titled 4 Steps for Organizational Agility. This is from the Merchant Stand blog. Akthough not directly related to GTD it does focus on the need to be agile from an organizational perspective. How strange it is to see productive workers working in an organization that does not share the same ethos!
My fifth and last link is a link to a part 4 of some great OmniFocus tips for Advanced Users. This tip is about how to use OmniFocus to unlock future projects. I have learned a lot from these posts and they are great reading for all OmniFocus users!

I go away on my main summer holiday next Sunday for two weeks in Italy so this is the last post I will be writing live. I will get some scheduled for when I am away and put my trust in the WordPress scheduling system.

Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I post great Productivity and Motivational links on a daily basis!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 19th July 2009

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I am eventually back into my home office and I aim to make it as productive as can be!

It has been around three weeks in the making and I am very happy with it. I just have to sort out the cabling so it is all hidden and I will also get a blog post written about my findings.

I am starting to play with my ScanSnap and Evernote and must admit that I am very happy with the results so far!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link from the CNN Money website titled Getting Things Done guru goes digital. Quite an interesting post about the GTD and the new digital help we are getting to implement it.
My second link is a link to a GTD and Covey Implementation via “Things” [Mac, iPhone]. This is a nice review of a GTD/Covey implementation using pretty much the same hardware as I do, a Mac and an iPhone. I used to be an advocate of the Fraklin Covey system before I discovered GTD!
My third link is a link to a blog post titled 7 Ways Less Can Mean More. Interesting post from the Mildly Creative blog that shows you when doing less of one thing gives you more benefit in creativity and productivity!
My fourth link is a link to link to Getting Things Gnome! . This is a cool new app for the Linux GUI, Gnome that you must check out if you are a Linux user!
My fifth and last link is a link to a part 3 of some great OmniFocus tips for Advanced Users. This tip is about how to use OmniFocus. I have learned a lot from these posts and they are great reading for all OmniFocus users!

Hope you have all had a great weekend and heres wishing you all the best for the coming week!

Also, be sure to follow me on Twitter as I post great Productivity and Motivational links on a daily basis!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 12th July 2009

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 5th July 2009

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I am now back from what has been a totally fantastic holiday with my family in Northumberland.

I was virtually disconnected for the whole week with only 2G on my iPhone and an unusable 20Kbps through my 3G modem on my MacBook Air. It was actually quite refreshing, especially for somebody like me is spends most of their time awake online in some form or another.

I will stop my thoughts here about my holiday as I really want to try to get these down in a blog post tomorrow if time permits.

I am writing this on my kitchen table as I still have to get my new home office sorted. I aim to get to Ikea at the start of this week to get my desk and chair sorted then I am hunting for a good filing cabinet.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great blog post about GTD Hacks from Annie Anderson. In this post Annie presents a few hacks that she implements as part of her own system for getting things done. Great reading and I am happy these hacks are working for Annie and making her more productive.
My second link is a link to a post about coping with information overload from Mark Wilson. This is an adapted list from the 2005 issue of Management Today that Mark found after returning from a family holiday. A nice little list of pointers for getting through a work overload.
My third link is a link to a blog post titled Rely on Your Inner Strength from Raymond Blanc. This is more of a psychology link than a motivational link but it is a post that I enjoyed so I thought I would share it.
My fourth link is a link to a part one of a great series of tips about the Mac GTD Application, OmniFocus. These tips are aimed at the advanced user of OmniFocus and I have liked reading all of these as I would not class myself as a novice user. I will present links to the other parts in this series in future weeks or you can just work them out from the initial post.
My fifth and last link is a link to a blog authors top ten iPhone apps. I have not done one of these for a while and with the launch of the iPhone 3G S I thought I would as most of these apps are productivity related. I had never seen SugarSync and I am just checking that out now.

Wishing you all a very productive week ahead. I am looking forward to getting my head stuck back into work as I am working on some rather cool projects right now!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 28th June 2009

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I am writing this post on Friday evening as I will be on holiday in Northumberland when you read this post having a well deserved break with my family. Northumberland is a great place in the UK that we visit every year. Great beaches and great castles, my children love it!

This week I totally cleared my home office out and had it decorated. The new carpet was fitted today so now I am through to the exciting part, which is buying all the new furniture for my office.

I already have my eye on a nice chair and desk from Ikea and I cannot wait to get back into my office.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great post from the Geek Girls Guide titled Hacking Mail and iCal for GTD. I came across this blog via Twitter when I started to look at some other people who post with the #GTD hashtag. Twitter is an awesome resource for finding information relevant to your interests. Great post if you use a Mac and Mail.app and iCal as I do!
My second link is a link to an audio interview with Kelly Forrester and David Allen talking about the benefits of Twitter. Generally a positive review from David Allen about Twitter and interesting to hear David’s view on Twitter. You can follow David Allen on Twitter @gtdguy and also be sure to follow me @masontech.
My third link is a link to a good post from the PC Authority website with a long title,
Is email wasting your day? The two-minute rule for Outlook, and other tips to feel like you’ve achieved something each day. Good article that is based on the GTD principle of the 2 minute rule. Worth reading.
My fourth link is a link to a post from the Simplicity is Bliss blog titled The Digital Tickler File Problem. Now, I have never implemented a Tickler File due to the fact that my workflow does not involve a great deal of paperwork or date sensitive work so I have had no need for one. However, this looks at the ways you can implement a Digitial Tickler System and the author even makes some application recommendations to help you achieve this. It is Apple Mac based so apologies to my Windows readers!
My fifth and last link is a link to another Mac tip so I apologize for the heavy Mac influence in my links this week. The link is to a great tip about Making the most of Mac Command-Tab. I mainly use Expose to switch between open Apps but reading this I may try to start using Command-Tab to keep my hands on the keyboard. One of the reasons I get on with the Mac so much is the never ending supply of shortcuts that can just make you work smarter!.

Well, I am going to finish packing for my trip and I hope you have all had a great weekend and I will be back next week!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 21st June 2009

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Today has been Fathers Day here in the UK and I have had a great day with my family. I awoke to my favorite breakfast, Smoked Haddock and Poached Eggs and the day has been great ever since.

I have had another busy week that I cannot believe is over already. This week I visited Wokingham in the UK to perform an onsite test for a client. This is the last test I have for a good few weeks as I have a lot of work to do in the office now to catch up.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great blog post from the Happy Topics Blog about How to Learn a Little Every Day. I know that I always try to learn something new every day and the amount of information at our fingertips makes this more realistic than ever!
My second link is a link to a post titled The Art of Single tasking. This post looks at the common usage of multi tasking and how single tasking is a better process for productivity.
My third link is a link to a great post titled 10 Steps for Turning Gmail into a Productivity Center. I have posted quite a few links for GMail productivity and although I do not use it myself I know these are always well received.
My fourth link is a link to a post about How much does GTD cost?. Cost is always an issue and maybe more in today’s economic climate. This post looks at the cost of implementing GTD on a budget. For me this posts misses one key point and that is the money you save from being more productive. That should be more than even the most elaborate GTD implementation!
My fifth and last link is a link to Stripped GTD: 3 Habits That Make You More Productive. This posts provides a quick no-nonsense overview of three quick tips for improving your productivity.

Wishing you all a great and productive week!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 14th June 2009