Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 25th April 2010

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Have to make this a quick one today as I am busy packing for a trade show that I am attending next week with RandomStorm in London.

Should be fun, but hard work as usual.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great post that was published today from the Sunday Times titled Have we forgotten how to concentrate?. This post asks some very serious and very true questions of the modern working practices we all participate in. A real good read.
My second link is a link to an article titled Simple Productivity Task of The Day: Remove One Thing From Your Desk. Nice little post with a very simple one step productivity tip to help you improve your day.
My third link is to a post from Dan Gold titled Getting Back on Task. This awesome post covers some of the online tools and methodologies that you can use to get back on task and get productive.
My fourth link is a link to a post that talks about being in the Zone in order to Get Things Done. This is a good post that talks about some good concepts in order to Get Things Done.
My fifth and last link is a link to an old but awesome post from Merlin Mann on 43Folders.com about Writing Tasks. This is a classic read and I should start covering some of these classic posts in this list so here is my first classic link.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 18th April 2010

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Well, I am glad that I didn’t take a trip to Europe this Easter as the flight situation is chaos with a lot of people including my sister and a few friends all stuck in various locations unable to fly back to the UK.

Amazing now to see the airlines trying to apply pressure to lift the ban. Always good to focus on earnings rather than safety!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to some valuable advice from Brad Lomenick titled Write it Down, always. I could not agree more with this. If I could provide one piece of productivity advice, this is it!
My second link is a link to an intriguing iPhone Application that I am just downloading called Egretlist. Egretlist is an Apple iPhone ToDo list application that uses your Evernote notebooks as your data store. This looks awesome and something I would love to see in the Evernote iPhone application.
My third link is to a post about Getting Things Done on the Apple iPad from GTDTimes.com. I really do think the iPad will mature into an amazingly utilized piece of hardware that could remove the need for some users to have a Laptop. Cannot wait to get my hands on one!
My fourth link is a link to a great titled blog post, Arbitrary Taxonomies and The Illusion of Precision. This is listed as Part 1 and is based on the view of a reader who has just finished the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. Some good points in this post and I am sure the other parts of this will be equally interesting.
My fifth and last link is a link to a link to the Evernote Blog and the latest features within the Premium account. Evernote have provided some more great functionality to Premium accounts that make it even more compelling to upgrade from a Free to Premium account. I have been premium for months and would not be without it!

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 11th April 2010

Evernote on the Apple iPad

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 4th April 2010

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Happy Easter to all my readers!

I guess the news of the day is the fact that the Apple iPad was released yesterday.

I am very excited about the productivity aspects of the iPad and will be writing a few iPad Productivity posts this week. Being based in the UK I do not have my hands on an iPad yet and I am still awaiting the UK release date.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great post titled 13 small things to simplify your workday from ZenHabits. ZenHabits do a great job at producing excellent blog posts and this one is no exception.
My second link is a link to a post titled Procrastination: Feeling overwhelmed, helpless and ready to run away. Procrastination is something that affects us all and this post makes good reading for all.
My third link is to the a post from thecynh.com titled 17 Ways for Lone Entrepreneurs to Stay Motivated. This is a very interesting post about a real problem that a lot of self made entrepreneurs suffer from at some time in the lives. More and more people are setting up on their own but they lack the interaction of being in a busy environment and this can bring with it issues relating to motivation. This post tries to look at some ways to avoid this issue.
My fourth link is a link to the news that Evernote for the iPad has arrived!. I love and use Evernote daily and this just looks like an awesome app on the iPad. Boy I cannot wait to see this one!
My fifth and last link is a link to Things, the GTD Application, for the Apple iPad. I have covered and reviewed Things on this blog in depth and this is the first GTD app to market for the new iPad. Looking forward to seeing how it performs.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 28th March 2010

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I have had a very difficult week having to sit a major examination on Thursday and Friday of this week. It was four exams spread over two days and was one of the hardest things I have undertaken in my professional career.

I am happy to say that I passed so now I am a TigerScheme Senior Tester! Well done me!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to a great post titled You Can Fight It All You Want To, But Simply Write it Down!. I could not agree more with this post. If I had only one thing to tell people to improve their productivity it would be to write things down. This made the biggest change to my own personal productivity and this post is a great one to read.
My second link is a link to an overview of Nirvana, a pretty new Getting Things Done app. This looks an awesome Web 2.0 Web App for Getting Things Done. I have not yet checked it out but will do.
My third link is to the a great little video tip on how to use Evernote as a search engine from Google Chrome. With this you can search through your Evernote notebooks straight from your Web Browser.
My fourth link is a link to a simple video from Erica Douglass showing you how she simply gets things done with a Notebook. Simple and classic.
My fifth and last link is a link to a blog post titled Why I love Evernote and Am Now Paperless. The title of this post pretty much explains all.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 21st March 2010

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Had an amazing time last week in the Lakes.

Back to work and back to my studies so fingers crossed as I have a real busy week ahead!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a link to the Mac Power Users blog and podcast. I cannot believe that I have only just found this, thanks Twitter! The link points to an awesome interview with Merlin Mann that you have to listen to. Looks like I will be busy listening to most of the old episodes.
My second link is a link to a post outlining a cool looking Macro to enable Outlook to work better as a GTD Tool. Being a Mac user I cannot test this Macro out but I have had a good look through and it looks like it is worthwhile if you are implementing your GTD System using Windows and Outlook.
My third link is to the a post titled Organizing the Work from Home Lifestyle. Working from home is great and gives you more time when avoiding the rush. However, to make it productive you have to follow clear rules which this post does a great job at outlining.
My fourth link is a link to an interesting post titled Getting Things Done While Depressed. Depression is something I am happy to say I have never suffered from but I can see how the depressed person would find it very hard to get anything done and I can also see the positive momentum that can be gained for a depressed person if they achieve small steps in getting things done. Interesting post.
My fifth and last link is a link to Part 3 of a Series of Getting Things Done with a Mac. This third part covers the use of the standard Apple OS X Applications to work as your partner for the Getting Things Done (GTD) Methodology.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 14th March 2010

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I am actually writing this on Friday the 12th of March, my birthday and I am 37 today, or in Hex 0x25 which sounds much better!

I am currently away enjoying myself at the Samling in the Lake District with my wife so this post is on autopilot!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great post titled Productivity and Procrastination from the Quandry Factory blog. This detailed post looks at procrastination and provides some fresh ideas on how to blast through procrastination in order to achieve a higher level of productivity.
My second link is a link to another great post from ZenHabits titled The Lost Practice of Resting One Day Each Week. Great post that is so true! I know I have lost this ability.
My third link is to the a post covering how to set priorities. This post also includes a video explaining how the author sets priorities. Full of good pointers on how to ascertain what is important and what isn’t.
My fourth link is a link to a GTD for Academics from the GTDTimes blog. This in depth article looks at how the GTD Methodology can be used by academics to get things done!
My fifth and last link is a link to Part 2 of a Series of Getting Things Done with a Mac. This second part covers the use of the Things GTD Application to work as your partner for the Getting Things Done (GTD) Methodology.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Gary Vaynerchuck on Net at Night

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I did a review of Gary Vaynerchuck’s Crush It book a few months ago after I had read it.

Although quite short, I really did like the book and found it very refreshing.

Net at Night is a weekly Podcast that I always listen to that features Leo Laporte and Amber MacArthur.

It is a social media podcast and one that I find easy listening and great for keeping up with everything that is happening in the social media space.

I was listening to episode 128, which is quite old now and it featured an interview with Gary Vaynerchuck from WineLibrary.tv.

The episode is a great way to catch the passion that Gary puts in to everything that he does.

So, if you have not done already, Check out my review of the Crush It! book and also be sure to listen to Episode 128 of the Net at Night Podcast.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 7th March 2010

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I cannot believe we are into March already!

I have a very important exam at the end of March so I am taking most of March to study for this exam so that I hopefully pass the exam. It is a 2 day lab based exam and not easy so wish me luck!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is to a great email productivity tool called AwayFind. I have been using AwayFind for a good few months and it really is my email savior. I have just been sent an invite to the Private Beta of version 2.0 so I thought I would add it to my links as I will be no doubt covering all the new features in a new blog post.
My second link is a link to a great detailed post showing you how to save Safari Browsing Sessions to Evernote. This post shows you how with the help of a little AppleScript you can get all your active Safari tabs saved into Evernote. Great helpful post.
My third link is to the a post titled How to get stuff done fast! – accelerated productivity using GTD. Another great blog post that covers blitzing your productivity with the awesome GTD Methodology!
My fourth link is a link to a nice post titled Time Management Techniques for Ambitious Entrepreneurs and Aspiring Millionaires. The title is pretty self explanatory and this is a nice post to read that covers some aspects of time management for the entrepreneur.
My fifth and last link is a link to Part 1 of a Series of Getting Things Done with a Mac. This first part covers workflow and also introduces the basic concepts of the Getting Things Done (GTD) Methodology.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!