Tag Archives: gtd

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 20th December 2009 – The Evernote Edition

As always, Christmas has crept up and now we are only 5 days away from Christmas day. Luckily, I started my Christmas shopping quite early so I am pretty much sorted out for the presents for my wife and four children.

I hope your preparations are going as smooth as mine and I am looking forward to a few days of rest!

Wishing you and yours all the best for Christmas.

This week I am providing five links for Evernote.

If you do not know what Evernote is, be sure to check out my Evernote Review.

I have posted quite a few links and blog posts regarding Evernote so be also sure to check out my Evernote Tag to see all of these related posts.

I am not an affiliate of Evernote and in no way associated with them. This is an application that I use and I am passionate about.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

My first link for this week is a post titled Organize Your Digital Life 10 – Capture everything else in one place. This post covers a lot of what Evernote can do and is used for. Check it out and watch the collection of videos.
My second link is a link to a post titled Seven Ways I Use Evernote to Improve My Finances from thesimpledollar.com. This post shows how one happy Evernote user manages to save money by using Evernote. Some great little tips that are handy at this most expensive time of year.
My third link is to the Evernote Blog post announcing Evernote for the Google Android Phone. Evernote has been supported on most platforms for quite a while and the launch of the Android client will empower a lot more users to benefit from Evernote.
My fourth link is a link to a post showing you how to Archive Your Twitter Tweets Into Your Evernote Account With @myEN. This is a cool feature that you may think of a use for. I have used it in the past for retweeting nuggets from Twitter straight into Evernote. Personally, I prefer to capture straight to Evernote as I feel this adds an extra step.
My fifth and last link is a link to Evernote. Couldn’t compile this list without a link to the official site where you can download and try Evernote for free.

Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the Christmas holidays.

Crush It! – Review of Gary Vaynerchuck’s Social Media Book

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If you are involved in social media then no doubt you will have heard of the book Crush It!, by Gary Vaynerchuck.

Gary Vaynerchuck is the guy behind WineLibrary.tv, the excellent video blog that has taken the Wine world by Storm.

Gary has a unique and passionate approach to his work and this is very clear from the reviews he offers via his site. He has built WineLibrary.tv to what it is today mainly by leveraging social media such as Facebook and Twitter.

This book is very up to date and covers cashing in on your passion by utilizing social media web services such as Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitter.

Just looking at the back page of the book shows comments from people such as Tony Robbins, Kevin Rose and Tim Ferris. Hey, if these guys are reading this then shouldn’t you?

Take a quick look at the video below to get a taste of what Gary is about.

It is quite fitting that I first heard about this book via Twitter. Somebody who I follow had sent out a tweet regarding the fact that he had just ordered this book, and this was around 6 months before the launch date.

The book is about social media marketing and it has been excellently marketing via social media.

I used Twitter search to research the book further, having never heard of Gary or WineLibrary.tv and then proceeded straight over to Amazon and placed a pre-order for the book. This was some six months before the estimate release date for the book.

I got my book as soon as it was released and luckily, the coincided with a trip to the Lake District so I could make time to read it and see if the book lived up with the hype.

It is always hard to read a book that has had so much hype as you expect so much from it. Some of the best books I have ever read have been unknown books with catchy or absurd titles that have somehow called to me to read them.

The book consists of 142 pages in 13 chapters. It starts with a great opening chapter that covers who Gary is and where he started. The first chapter is titled “Passion is Everything” and it is easy to feel the passion that Gary has from simply reading this opening chapter.

The book then goes into explaining the model that Gary used in order to launch and make WineLibrary.tv into the successful site that it is today. His passion combined with an excellent work ethic and determination has shaped Gary’s future. He learned to leverage the tools at his disposal such as video blogging and Twitter to reach out to a very wide audience.

Gary reports some paltry results from traditional advertising such as billboards and then some amazing results from simply tweeting about discount codes and offers via Twitter. Traditional advertising is costly and hard to measure the return on investment where social media is generally free and the results are electronic so can be tracked with a good analytics program and a nugget of knowledge.

In summary, this is a very up to date book that provides motivation and instruction on how to utilize social media as a marketing tool to launch an online business. It is quite a short book at 142 pages and one that I managed to finish in just two sessions. It did spark a few thinking points for myself, which is my usual marking scheme when reviewing a book although I would have like to have seen more detail and some areas and also more case studies referenced but I guess Gary is building this from his own experience.

This is a good book and bang up to date covering aspects of Facebook and Twitter that are hot topics right now. It is great to see how you can leverage these social media technologies for the benefit of your business and Gary is a prime example of this success.

Good luck with buying the Jets!

You can follow Gary here on twitter.

If you are involved in online marketing or interested in social media then this is a must read so go ahead and check it out.

Below is the parody music video Gary did for Crush It. Another great use of social media to promote his book.

Have you read this book and do you have any comments? If so, I would love to hear them.

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

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

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.

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 – 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.

My first link for this week is a cool new podcast from David Allen, the creator of the GTD System titled Getting Started with GTD. Some great tips from the man himself about how to get your GTD System off the ground!
My second link is a link to a post from Hawk WIngs that shows you how to Script to archive emails into Evernote. This is only for Mail.app as your email client so sorry if you are a Windows or Linux user. Cool little tip but unsure how it would work for the masses of email I get!
My third link is to a user who is fed up with OmniFocus and goes into detail why. Personally, I still love and use OmniFocus every day both on my Mac’s and also my iPhone. I would be lost without it!
My fourth link is a link to a short comparison of Evernote and Shovebox. Happy to say that Evernote comes out well on top! Shovebox was in a recent MacHeist so many people will own a copy as part fo the deal.
My fifth and last link is a link to part six of a GTD Series from The Productive Organizer. The sixth post in this series looks at project reviews through the use of Mind Mapping software. 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 – 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

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!