Tag Archives: omnifocus

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 26th July 2009

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 – 12th July 2009

Another week over, and another great week I have had.

Caught up with all my emails and sorted some projects. I always love the feeling of getting back to work after a break and being in control rather than out of control as so many are.

Hopefully this is the last week without my home office as I expect some movement on this next week. I will write an update post about this in the net couple of days.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a great little blog post about trusting your GTD system. YOu really do have to trust your GTD system as much as you trust your spouse 🙂 Good thought provoking read!
  • My second link is a link to a 25 Free Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity. There are some great apps on here thay you will have heard of and hopefully some that you will not have heard of. One of the gems for me was NameChanger, used it quite a lot already!
  • My third link is a link to a blog post titled GTD: identifying your contexts from fellow GTD Blogger, Dragos Roua. Great post for people who are new to GTD or those already practicing GTD. I must admit that after reading this post I removed a couple of contexts of my own that were dormant. Great post!
  • My fourth link is a link to a quite an old post about Creating a Paperless Office from Productivity501. This is somethign I am going through right now and I can not wait to get my new office sorted so I can move from the kitchen table back into my office!
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a part 2 of some great OmniFocus tips for Advanced Users. This tip is about how to integrate email into OmniFocus. I have learned a lot from these posts and they are great reading for all OmniFocus users!

As always, wishing you all a very productive week ahead.

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 – 5th July 2009

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!

iPhone 3.0 Update Improves GTD Productivity Applications

The much publicized Apple iPhone 3.0 update was released around 1000 PDT yesterday.

I started my update as soon as I could and installed the latest version of the iPhone OS eagerly waiting to test out some of the new features. All very well and good.

Today, my two killer iPhone Apps, OmniFocus and Evernote both got upgraded to take advantage of the iPhone 3.0 features.

OmniFocus

OmniFocus version 1.5 for the iPhone has been released.

The main feature in this upgrade include integration of cut, copy, and paste features as well as utilizing the integrated maps.

OmniFocus iPhone

The full blog post for this latest version can be found at the OmniGroup Blog. The OmniFocus for iPhone product page is also worth checking out.

Evernote

Evernote version 3.0 for the iPhone brings some great new features all that are outlined at this Evernote Blog Post.

These improvements include better synchronization, no “Pending” Tab, Instant Groups, Advanced Searching, Way Better Audio, Landscape View and many bug fixes.

The great guys over at Evernote have made a nice little video of the latest features of 3.0.

This is a great time to own an iPhone if you are into productivity!

Thoughts, as usual are welcomed..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 14th June 2009

I am writing this post on Saturday as I am taking my wife away tomorrow for our wedding anniversary which is on Monday the 15th of June. We are staying in a nice hotel and spa to celebrate our 13 years of marriage!

I started to clear out my office and I am dedicating more time to it next week. I want to get it decorated in the next week so that I can start to plan the layout and get the new office furniture ordered. I am really looking forward to improving my home office.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a link to a post about How to implement GTD (Getting Things Done) on the Road. I am frequently on the road living out of a suitcase so this post provided some good ideas.
  • My second link is a link to a little post and video about how to Get More Organized with Evernote. I love Evernote and I am looking forward to getting my new scanner and going totally paperless using Evernote!
  • My third link is a link to a great post titled Three Quick Tips for Getting Ahead in Life. All three tips are simple but very thought provoking and I am sure that you, as I can take something from these three tips.
  • My fourth link is a link to a post about Making OmniFocus look good with themes. I have mentioned before that I love the functionality of OmniFocus but the visual appeal of Things and The Hit List do draw me to their apps. This post shows you how you can make OmniFocus look much better by applying themes.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a post about GTD.NET, which is a Microsoft .NET GTD Application for Windows desktop clients as well as Windows Mobile Devices. Not one for me but looks great for Windows users. I will download it to one of my Windows VMs to check it out.

Wishing you all a great week!

Things Apple Mac GTD App Review

I have eventually got around to taking a better look at the Mac GTD app, Things, and adding to a review that I did a while ago.

I currently use OmniFocus but Things and The Hit List are grabbing my attention. Anyway, here is my review and thoughts about Things.

Things GTD

Things is a blandly named but ultimately excellent organizational application designed for use through a variety of mediums.

The visual approach taken by Things is simple enough to keep everything easily accessible while still maintaining an impressive level of flare. Designers have given the software a certain level of sheen although the layout will look immediately familiar to users who are accustomed to the aesthetic of Mac-developed programs.

The most useful features are well-labeled and located in a well-organized and convenient manner. Icons are all colorful and easy to locate as well and this is something which helps in navigating them against the otherwise grey and white interface.

The program provides users with a solid level of productivity access through a great list of truly useful features. Among the laundry list of options are GTD staple categories such as Today, Next, Someday and Postpone sorting categories with appropriate sub-lists available within each parent grouping.

Things GTD App

Perhaps most useful is an included HUD option, something which is a truly fantastic feature and allows for quick, no-nonsense inputting of any upcoming task on the user’s mind.

Things also does a great job of keeping the main window clutter-free by way of a feature which removes columns and instead opts to display only relevant information for upcoming tasks.

Mobile access is set up and ready to go through a few different platforms including the ever popular support for both the iPhone and iPod Touch Apps. While it seems that smartphone access may initially be limited to the two aforementioned devices Things does do a little bit to extend remote usage by programming a built-in collaboration feature which promises to link any user’s work with any desired colleague.

As of now an exhaustive wiki accompanies a regular blog and burgeoning forum to provide quite a bit of promise for those users who hope to find other Things devotees to discuss the program with. If this element of the project is kept up with then it would seem that peer support and company interaction won’t be an issue upon release.

Things is impressive with a clean interface, excellent user support and great list of features could make Things one of the few productivity programs worthy of plunking down any real money for. It’s definitely worth the time necessary to check out to decide for yourself.

I am sticking with OmniFocus for now. But Things has officially got my attention!

Well, over to you, my readers. How many of you use Things and how many use OmniFocus or another app to get things done?

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 3rd May 2009

Had a great week at InfoSec in London with RandomStorm.

I left early Monday and arrived home Friday. Luckily I have had the time to relax and progress my tasks and projects.

Tomorrow is a Public Holiday in the UK and I am looking forward to a day at home clearing a lot of tasks from my @Home context.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a link to a post titled How I Get Organized by Stephanie Booth on her blog. This is a nice post that covers the methodologies and tools that author uses to get things done and organize her daily tasks. Good read!
  • My second link is a post from the OmniGroup blog titled Staying Active with OmniFocus. I am an OmniFocus user and I also frequently read the OmniGroup corporate blog hoping to find little gems like this post. Another great read, especially if like me you use OmniFocus.
  • My third link is a link to a a response from James of the Organize IT blog that was written in response to the Productivity Tips For People That Hate GTD post from Zen Habits. This was a post from Zen Habits that got advocates of GTD thinking and the points James puts across in his response are shared by many.
  • My fourth link is a link from Lifehacker about the Tracks GTD Application. I have covered the Tracks Application quite a few times on this blog and it is certainly worth a look if you are looking for a web based GTD app that you can configure yourself.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a review of the GTD web based application, GTDAgenda. I reviewed GTDAgenda a while back and although it is not the prettiest web based application it certainly gave you the functionality you require to Get Things Done. This is another persons viewpoint of the app and worth reading if you are in the market for a no frills GTD app.

Yet another busy week for me even though this is only a four day working week. I have to post about a cool little Mind Map that I have been pulling together.

Have a great week!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 26th April 2009

I have had a week of report writing yet again. One thing for sure is that my report writing is really improving as is my ability to focus and deliver the report in the given timescales.

I am spending the best part of next week down at Earls Court in London for the InfoSec show with my company RandomStorm. We have a booth so if you are at InfoSec or Internet World be sure to pop by and say hi!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a link to a Lifehacker Post on how Steve Wozniak Gets Things Done. Steve Wozniak, or Woz is the original co-founder of Apple along with Steve Jobs and a much loved character. Interesting read to see how the great Woz Gets Things Done.
  • My second link is a great post about Getting Things Done with OmniFocus for the Advanced User. Great to see a post for the more adept user rather than the usual focus on the beginner who is either new to the tool or new to the Getting Things Done Methodology.
  • My third link is a link to a great little collection of Moleskine Hacks from James Mallinson at organizeit. I love my collection of Moleskine’s and I equally love these posts where others that share my passion release cool little hacks around these awesome black notebooks!
  • My fourth link is a link from Jesse Ruderman on how he uses GTD. Jesse is pretty new to GTD and started out after using Things on his Mac to Get Things Done. This is a nice little review of how one user implements the Getting Things Done Methodology.
  • My fifth and last link is a great post that I have featured before but some more sites have been added to it so I will run with it again. it is the 100 GTD Resource Post from Mashable.com. This is a great collection of GTD resources that you can get for free from the Internet.

Right, off to start packing for the week ahead at InfoSec and also I have to sort out some tech issues with a VMWare image, wish me luck!

Have a great week!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 19th April 2009

Had a great weekend mainly due to the great weather in the UK and I have spent most of it outside. Lit my new Weber BBQ a few times and cooked some great food!

This week has seen me away for a few days without Internet access. It is actually quite nice not having connectivity as it really enabled you to focus on the task at hand.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a link to some rather funny productivity humor from Matthew Cornell. We all have to laugh at ourselves sometimes and I must admit that I can become obsessive towards productivity some times 🙂
  • My second link is a great post from the Climb to the Stars blog about how the blogger gets organized. MindMaps, Evernote, GTD, all sounds very familiar to me. I like it..
  • My third link is a link for TimeBoxed, a neat little Mac OS X app that acts as a timer. I have never really been into timing myself but I have started using this app and it is quite enlightening to see where your time goes. This app is very simple and easy to use and integrates with Growl.
  • My fourth link is a link to a great blog I found about via Twitter called Productivity Hacks. The content is very relevant to this blog and the blogger is obviously another Productivity Geek who gets things done on a Mac.
  • My fifth and last link is another comparison between Things and The Hit List as GTD Apps. The latest MacHeist bundle really has done wonders for The Hit List.

Just going to the gym now to hopefully kick start my summer workout plan and lose some of the excess winter fat!

Hope you all have a great week.

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

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..