Tag Archives: Getting Things Done

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

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.

My first link for this week is a great slide based presentation titled Getting Things Done with Social Media. This provides a GTD approach on how people can bolster their online presence.
My second link is a link to a Omnifocus GTD power tip – reviewing Stalled projects quickly. This is a handy little tip from the StayConnected blog on how to utilize the stalled filter within OmniFocus to your advantage.
My third link is to a nice little post with some Getting Things Done with Google Tips. Most of my Google tips focus on Gmail but this little post also looks at the other apps from Google such as Google Reader and Google Calendar. Worth a read.
My fourth link is a link to four tools that help Fabian Pattberg’s Sustainable Days more Productive. Great to see that Evernote, one of my favorite applications is on this list.
My fifth and last link is a link to a blog post I picked up from Twitter titled How to Use Evernote to Create the Ultimate Post Conference Reference Guide. This is a great post that shows off some of the features of Evernote and its ability to help with cool tasks such as recording facts from a conference. Good post.

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

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 20th September 2009

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

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 30th August 2009

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This is another post brought to you thanks to the schedule facility in WordPress as I am currently in Swaledale, Yorkshire Dales and I imagine I have no Internet access whatsoever due to the remote location I am staying in.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week asks the question Can Humans Cope with Information Overload? This is an interesting post that poses a question based on a review of the Create your own Economy book by Tyler Cowen.
My second link is a link to 8 Great Ways to Motivate Yourself When You Just Don’t Feel Like It. We all need motivation from time to time and some of these tips hit the procrastination nail directly on the head!
My third link is a link to a post about how to Make an effective to-do list. These type of lists are very important to any productivity practitioner. It is more the act of recording that is important in my own opinion. Get those Open Loops closed!
My fourth link is the author of Phoat.com’s take on Getting Things Done. It is always interesting to read other peoples take on the GTD system. One of the things I like about GTD is how people integrate it into their lives in slightly different ways, and they all work!
My fifth and last link is a link to an interesting post titled What is Your Brain Doing While You Are Sleeping? There are some interesting topics in this post that make you think!

Wishing you all a very productive week ahead!

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 – 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!

Creating a Productive Home Office – Update 1

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I wrote a few weeks ago about my aim to totally revamp my home office and make it a truly productive home office. Well, I just thought I would provide an update as to where I am with this.

After deciding to proceed, I removed everything out of my home office and I was amazed with how much clutter I had accumulated over the years. There was no way that I was going to move all of this back into my new office. I removed my wall units and filled the walls to make it a clear canvas!

I then had the walls painted and bought a new carpet. I decided on quite a calming creamy brown color that looked both stylish and modern.

So, after all this I was left with a nice empty room, and a lot of clutter in my garage!

I was originally planning on new office furniture from IKEA but I was very disappointed with the selection. It all looked a bit too cheap and nasty. The build quality of the cabinets was shocking. I then looked at Staples and although the quality was better there was limited selection in the showroom and I would have had to order from a catalogue and I really believe seeing and touching furniture is important.

I eventually made a trip to a company local to me that I had used before called JP Office Furniture and I am glad that I did! They took the measurements of my office and made me a great 3D model. They then worked out which products would fit exactly. They provided me with 12 wood samples to take home and I eventually opted for the Walnut.

I ordered a great desk, double draw filing cabinet and great curvy cabinet. I will have an acre of desk space and this is one thing that was a requirement for my new office. I also opted for a matching double bookcase wall unit.

This was not a cheap option but I think it will be reflected in the quality. The price also includes delivery and installation so I can leave my screwdriver in my toolbox!

Below is a graphic of the 3D representation that JP did for me.

Productive Office

The good news is that this is now built and ready for me and getting installed in my house tomorrow!

I have also ordered and taken delviery of a Drobo, filled with 4TB and a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500M. There sure will be some posts coming about both of these new toys and my strive for a paperless office!

I cannot wait to get off my kitchen table and office floor and back to working on a desk..

Update 2 to come soon, as soon as I get back in my office!

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!