Category Archives: GTD and Productivity Links

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 29th March 2009

I am sat writing this on the train from Leeds to London. Free Wifi on the train is powering my Internet so no need for the 3G card.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to an interview with David Allen from the Washington Post. The interview is about how to Get Things Done and Organize Your Life.
My second link is a link to the Shoeboxed Blog that announces integration with Evernote. Shoeboxed is a service that allows you to mail in your receipts as and when you need to and now with the Evernote integration they will scan them into your Evernote account. If only they had this in the UK I would be a customer for sure!
My third link is a link to a review of Making it All Work, the latest book from GTD creator David Allen. I am quite shocked to admit that I have not yet read this book, but it is the next on my reading list after I have finished with Twyla Tharp and the Creative Habit.
My fourth link is a link to a great article comparing Getting Things Done and Autofocus. Both are great productivity methodologies and it is good to see the writers viewpoint of the differences between these two systems.
My fifth and last link is a link to some information about the latest version of reQall. reQall is an iPhone application that I reviewed back in November 2008 when it first came to my attention. One of the main new features of reQall is the ability to do location based reminders. All in all reQall should be looked at if you have an iPhone and want to improve your productivity.

Well, the WiFi is still holding up so I will publish this whilst I still can. I am down in London for a couple of days on a training course, should be fun.

Wishing you all a great week!

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

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Well, another week is over.

I am really busy at the minute and having to focus a lot on my daily work in order to get it all done. We are getting a lot of orders which is always good and we probably should employ staff more but the current economic climate is really preventing me from taking on additional headcount in case the work slows down.

I guess it is a nice problem to have but my productivity and organizational skills are being tested right to the limit at the moment as I juggle quite a few different roles.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a topical (as it is Mothers Days here in the UK) titled Time Saving Tips for Mothers. Just a collection of a few little tips that my wife pretty much already does in order to be more organized when it comes to children.
My second link is a link to a post about Getting Things Done with Gmail Tasks. I do not use Gmail myself apart from the odd time when I need web access to my mail (as I use Google Apps to host all my email) although I know a lot of people swear by Gmail. Just some handy hints on how to make Gmail work for you in a GTD style.
My third link is a link to Getting Things Done with Projects 2.0. This is a fresh look at Project Management and how Project Management 2.0 can help change the views of the people involved for the better.
My fourth link is a link to a nice little post about the Trick to Evernote. I love Evernote and I use it more and more every day. I love finding new ways out to use the app.
My fifth and last link is a link to the cool Cult of Done Manifesto. Read it and I would love to start a comment discussion with your thoughts!

Well, that is it for this week. going to have a well earned rest now and hopefully I will get some more time this week to do some more posts.

Thanks and wishing you all a great week!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 15th March 2009

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I have just returned from a great four day break in the English Lake District with my wife. We were lucky to get babysitter for our children and we escaped for three great nights in the Lakes.

On Friday we did an 8 mile walk of Loughrigg Fell. Taking in Loughrigg Tarn, Grasmere, and Rydal Water. On Saturday we walked three of the Langdale Pikes, Pavey Ark, Harrison Stickle and Pike Of Stickle.

Had a great relaxing weekend away from the usual stresses and strains. I manged to eventually start reading “The Creative Habit” by Twyla Tharp. I bought this book around Christmas and I am enjoying reading it. Full review to follow.

Quite a big GTD week this week with the GTD Summit taking place in San Francisco. No doubt there will be loads of news to follow.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a post about Email Zero! – We have all heard of Inbox Zero, well how about Email Zero!. This is a post that outlines what an MIT Professor has done to only read his email once every three months.
My second link is a link to a 7 Step Program of Stress Management. We all have stress and we all handle it in different ways. I do not tend to show stress but that can be the worse way to handle it as it is there building up inside of you. This is a neat little post with 7 steps on how to handle your stress.
My third link is a link originally from Twitter about the way one user uses OmniFocus. I love OmniFocus and I love reading about how other people use it in their lives.
My fourth link is a link to a new GTD application called Getting Things Gnome. Getting Things Gnome, or GTG is the first true GTD application for the Linux GUI, Gnome. This is a great step forward for any Linux GTD’ers and I will be trying this app out in the coming weeks on one of my Linux laptops.
My fifth and last link is another application. This is Pocket Informant, and the fact that it is coming soon to the Apple iPhone. I used to use Pocket Informant way before GTD when I had my old Windows Mobile iPaq. Great little app and I will love to see how it shapes up on the iPhone.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 8th March 2009

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Had a great day yesterday at ThinkVisibility which was a one day social media, SEO, and blogging conference that was held in my home town of Leeds. Great speakers and I left the day feeling inspired!

Here are a collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a great post on GTDTimes from David Pierce explaining why the Web Works for GTD. David is a reader of this blog and regular commenter and it is great to see him turn his hand to writing, well done and great post!
My second link is a link to a post that reviews Things for the iPhone. I briefly tried Things but I am still firmly routed to my GTD App of choice, OmniFocus.
My third link is a link to a Helpful Guide on how to Reduce Stress. Nice little post where the author identifies Procrastination as the largest issue. Worth a read or listen as they have the facility to play the blog post via a podcast.
My fourth link is a nice list of Top iPhone Apps from the Molanphy Blog. I am posting this link as I read the short review of Ambience and then went ahead and bought it.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a competition on the Nozbe Blog to win a free pass to the GTD Summit in San Francisco. This is a free gift with a $2295 value and if you are around the bay area a great prize to win! You have to comment on the post at the Nozbe blog in order to stand a chance of winning.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 1st March 2009

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The main event of this week was the arrival of my new shiny 17″ MacBook Pro.

To mark this event I thought I would take a break from the usual and provide five great links that help you when you come to upgrade your Mac and o not want to use the migration assistant.

Apologies in advance to Windows and Linux users as this is obviously a Mac specific post.

Even if you are not buying a new Mac, the bloated way Apple handles media may mean that you have to move your iTunes or iPhoto library to an external disk so these links contain gems of information.

Here are a collection of five links that I have found useful this week when migrating from my old MacBook Pro to my new MacBook Pro.

My first link for this week is the Apple Page covering the Migration Assistant. This is an amazing tool that I have used before that allows you to copy all of your settings from your Old Mac to your New Mac over a Firewire cable. Makes upgrading a dream if you are happy with the build of your old machine.
My second link is a link to a post from eHow about how to Migrate your Mac Email. The post shows you how to move your email as well as preserve your settings such as Smart Mailboxes and Mailbox Rules.
My third link is a link to an olf post from Merlin Mann that covers Some Handy Mail.app Smart Mailboxes. I used this post to recreate these mailboxes that fit in with Merlin’s Inbox Zero methodology.
My fourth link is a thread on the Apple Forums about how to move your iPhoto library. I copied the whole of my library to my new MacBook Pro and everything was preserved, just how it should be.
My fifth and last link for this week is a post from the iLounge about how to move your ITunes library. My iTunes library is 40GB and I have it on my new MacBook Pro but I am thinking of moving it to an external storage device so I can share it through the house and also conserve space on my MacBook HDD.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..

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

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Hope you all have had a great week. I passed my exam last Monday that I had been studying hard for over the past few weeks. I made some great Mind Maps that sure did help with the retention of information.

I must write more about my experiences with Mind Mapping as they help me with so many aspects of my life.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a another great post from the MindJet Blog about Getting Projects Done. This post looks at using Mind Manager 8, Google Docs, and Basecamp to streamline your project process. These great posts keep on coming out of Michael Deutch, well done!
My second link is a link to a post outlining 69 Great OS X Time Savers. Being a Mac User and somebody who loves saving time I found this a great little list. I do most of the items on the list but I did pick up a few new tips.
My third link is a link to a nice little post about Ubiquitous Capture with regards to GTD. I have written a few posts myself on Ubiquitous Capture as they in my opinion, are a key to success with GTD
My fourth link is a link to a nice little post about Mind Mapping and GTD. This is from a blogger who luckily attended a Making it All Work seminar in Amsterdam.
My fifth and last link for this week is an Introduction to GTD for Fashion People from the Ann Ching Wang blog. Nice read from somebody with a different perspective.

I attended another Northern UK Bloggers meetup on Friday. Another great meeting and great to share ideas and thoughts with fellow bloggers.

Wishing you all a productive week, as always!

Andrew..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 15th February 2009

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 8th February 2009

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I have had a really big report to finish this week for a client, probably the largest I have ever done so my head has been busy and I have not had much time for blogging.

I am happy to say that I finished the report but I do not like having a piece of work that totally consumes your time. I feel trapped with this type of work and try my best to avoid it at all costs.

I have a lot going on and when I have to focus on a sole project like this for a whole week it does upset my rhythm. Surely something I need to look at and blog about!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a post from fellow productivity blogger Dragos over at eDragonU about using Travel as a Personal Development Tool. I love to travel and I have been fortunate enough to travel to travel to many countries and I agree that if used right, travel can really help with personal development.
My second link is a link to a four part series (and growing) on Evernote and GTD. I love Evernote and use it in my GTD setup along with OmniFocus. I picked up some good little tips from these posts so check them out.
My third link is a link to a post from TXFX about why Things is not a GTD App. I found this through a link to my blog in the post and the post certainly makes interesting reading.
My fourth link is a link to a post from the Daily Herald titled Its High Time To Get Organized. Being a GTD Advocate and Productivity Blogger I couldn’t agree more so what are you waiting for!
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a nice little review of Tracks, the Ruby on Rails GTD App. I have done a review of Tracks which I aim to get posted this week.

Don’t forget that if you have a great post that you would like me to link to, the best way is to link to me in your post as I pick up all trackbacks and usually respond in kind.

Alternatively, leave me a comment on one of these posts or contact me via the contact form.

Hope you all have a very productive week ahead. I know I will!

Andrew..

OmniFocus iPhone App Updates to 1.2

1 Reply

The OmniGroup have today released version 1.2 for their iPhone OmniFocus application.

I have been using OmniFocus both on my Mac and iPhone since beta versions of both products.

I have had my gripes with OmniFocus on the iPhone, mainly due to the speed and I am glad to say that v1.2 definitely feels snappier, but still there is still some room for improvement before that annoying lag is removed from the application startup.

Here are a list of new features in v1.2 of OmniFocus for the iPhone.

The Nearby view now displays each context as soon as its distance is determined, rather than waiting to figure out the distance to each context before showing any results. It also scrolls much faster.

Checkboxes are much easier to touch.

When creating a new action, the keyboard appears immediately rather than sliding in after the screen.

On the home screen, Settings have moved to the Info button in the bottom right corner.

The Reset Database button in Settings will now reset the saved sync password in addition to the database, and will then take you back to the original welcome screen.

Syncing automatically compacts the database on a regular basis, but when syncing is not enabled there’s now a Compact Database button in Settings. (There’s also some text there indicating how many tasks are stored in how many zip files, so you can tell whether your database could benefit from compacting.)

Added underlying support for the new autocomplete settings for projects and groups which are coming in OmniFocus v1.6 for Mac.

Actions without contexts are no longer considered unavailable

Version 1.6 of the desktop app has just gone to Sneaky Peak so that will hopefully be due out soon, bringing with it improvements.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 1st February 2009

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Well, one month down in 2009 already. Hope your year is working out well.

I have been bashing the @Home context again this weekend removing the tiles from our bathroom in preparation for a tiler to arrive next week. Need a well earned break in front of my computer tonight to catch up on what I have missed this weekend.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a post by Michael Deutch from the MindJet Blog titled Making it all Work with MindManager Michael is a regular reader and commenter on this blog and it is great to see such a great GTD post on the MindJet blog.
My second link is a link to the Zen Habits post on How to Get Things Done with Twitter. I have been using Twitter for quite a while now and must admit that sometimes it can be counter productive and quite a distraction. This post shows you how to use Twitter productively and in my opinion it is a must read for all users of Twitter.
My third link is a link to a different take on GMail GTD from Neil Dixon. First time I have linked to this blog and it is a good read. Neil provides some good information if Gmail is the mail system that you use.
My fourth link is a link to 10 Productivity Tips for Road Warriors courtesy of Ian’s Messy Desk. I can spend quite a few days away from the office on road trips so I can see the benefit of the information presented in this post. Carrying a portable document wallet system is a great one for me. All the business receipts go into their correct folders as well as my portable inbox, for any notes or anything else that needs collecting for later processing.
My fifth and last link for this week is a link to a 100 GTD Resources from Mashable. This is the most recent up to date list of GTD resources and applications. There were some new ones on here that I had not heard of. I found out about this through Twitter.

Well, I have got a bit of research and other web work to do before I can call it a day. I am currently listening to a great R&B Spotify Playlist courtesy of Kieron Donoghue. If you have not done already, you must check out Spotify!

Hope you all have a great week.

Andrew..