Category Archives: GTD General

General posts about the Getting Things Done methodology.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 13th December 2009

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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.

Hope you all have a great week.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 6th December 2009

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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.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a review of Omnifocus from the SmokingApps blog titled OmniFocus: An Innovative Approach To Keeping Track Of Your Thoughts. I still use OmniFocus daily and I still love it.

Hope you all have a great week. I hope your Christmas planning is well underway by now..

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

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Started to feel a lot better towards the end of last week so I am back in action.

This is a scheduled post as I will be on my way home from a weekend away on a survival training course. Sleeping wild for a couple of nights in the North of England. Sounded fun when I booked it, the amount of rain we are having and the cold weather may change my mind!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week. Let’s hope I pick somethings of benefit from my survival training course!

Success Tip from Shakira

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Shakira at GTDI 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.

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

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Well, quite a bad week for me in that I was ill most of the week with a seasonal flu like bug and my productivity was rock bottom.

It is amazing how an illness knocks you for six and comes from left field to totally disrupt your plans. Mind you, after an illness I feel really energized and eager to get back to it all!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week. Hopefully I will be back to my normal self pretty quick.

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

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I had a fantastic week last week in the English Lake District. We stayed in an idyllic cottage nested at the foot of the Langdale Pikes. Good clean air and fun with loads of mother nature to keep the kids entertained!

I managed to read a few good books whilst I was away that I will review at least one of this week.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week, I am sure I will!

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

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It is Friday for me and this post is scheduled as I am rushing to finish off a work project and then I am leaving for a week in the English Lake district after a manic week at work.

I am loaded up with some good books so hopefully will get them reviewed whilst I am away.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a link to the latest MacHeist bundle. $154 of free Mac Software including the writing productivity tool, WriteRoom for free, or a small donation.
  • My second link is a link to a great post titled 100 Uses of Evernote. Love Evernote and there are some wild and wacky suggestions on how to use it in this post.
  • My third link is a cool app called Curio. I saw this originally due to the Evernote integration. I am going to start using this myself and a full review will be coming pretty soon.
  • My fourth link is a link to a user review of RescueTIme. I mentioned RescueTIme last week and I have signed up and the data is being collected. I have not had a minute to look at it though but I will in the coming weeks. This is quite an interesting post of the technology in action.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to part five of a GTD Series from The Productive Organizer. The fifth post in this series looks at Contexts, Tags and Executing Tasks.. Great series of posts that I recommend you to check out.

Hope you all have a great week, I am sure I will!

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

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My week was as busy, but well planned as I predicted and it was only the calm before the storm as I have to do a considerable amount of high pressure work this week in only four days.

I am away from Friday on holiday in the English Lake District with my family, my second home.

I imagine I will be working some late nights so I am leaving you here to make a start already!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a post from thr Willpower blog that looks at the Mac Writing Application that I use, Scrivener and how tool such as these make wok into play. This is an interesting post that looks at the ability to improve your mental state by setting things up in an inviting manner. The tool they look at and review pretty positively is Scrivener, a tool that I use almost daily.
  • My second link is a link to a great post titled And The Winner is… OmniFocus. This is a post from the RightFootForward blog where the blog author is choosing a GTD app to use. Read the post as it is quite interesting.
  • My third link is a blog post called Extreme GTD Makeover from the Good Will Blogging blog. This is a good in-depth post about one users system for Getting Things Done.
  • My fourth link is a link to another GTD related post titled Hacking GTD Equipment where the author looks at the different choices you have for implementing GTD. You can implement GTD with a pen and paper although a lot of people prefer an electronic implementation.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to part four of a GTD Series from The Productive Organizer. The fourth post in this series looks at how to plan for large projects and smaller sub-projects. Great series of posts that I recommend you to check out.

Hope you all have a great week!

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

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This coming week brings with it some work challenges that will result in long hours and a requirement to focus more than usual. We have the same challenge every October so I know how to get through it.

Hopefully my home office will be completed this week, framing my last picture and then it is time for a writing update.

Had a list of five household items to do today, and glad to say that I did them all so I am just about to sit down with a noce Pinot Grigio and enjoy some R&R time!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an intriguing application called RescueTIme. The intro on the website claims that RescueTime recovers on average 3 hours and 54 minutes of productive time for an average user. I will leave this here as I am going to play with this and write a full review.
  • My second link is a link to a post about Applying the Pomodoro Technique in Writing. I linked to the Pomodoro technique last week and this post looks at how you can apply this technique to writing.
  • My third link is a review of Evernote from MacWorld. Evernote is one of my favorite applications so be sure to check out this review.
  • My fourth link is a link to a great list of free GTD Resources from GTD Times. I have not featured GTD Times for a while but this is a good resource for people into productivity and the Getting Things Done methodology.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to part three of a GTD Series from The Productive Organizer. The third post in the series provides information on why the author chose to use the ToDo application by Appigo as their GTD application of choice. Great series of posts that I recommend you to check out.

Hope you all have a great week!

OmniFocus, GTD, and You – Free Whitepaper

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This white paper has been out a few days and I was meaning to blog about it sooner but only just got the chance due to my every increasing workload.

So, here is the news regarding OmniFocus and GTD.

OmniGroup, the team behind the Mac and iPhone Getting Things Done app, OmniFocus have released an awesome and free white paper titled OmniFocus, GTD, and You.

This is a 20 page white paper that looks at GTD and the way that you can implement it in a software application such as OmniFocus. Obviously this is very biased towards OmniFocus but the white paper is also of use and contains great information for those of you who do not use OmniFocus.

The white paper starts with a statement from David Allen, the creator of the Getting Things Done Methodology.

“OmniFocus is a stellar tool for keeping track of outcomes and actions in the Mac environment. It supports simple but important practices for keeping your head clear, staying focused, and managing your commitments.”, David Allen.

Great for OmniFocus to get this endorsement from David Allen, and an endorsement that is well deserved. DavidCo, the company of David Allen are now promoting OmniFocus as their Mac GTD app of choice in their online store.

I am not affiliated with OmniGroup or OmniFocus in any way so I have nothing to gain. I have used OmniFocus since the first beta versions and I have recommended it to many people.

Be sure to check out this white paper and if you do use a Mac, give OmniFocus a try!