Tag Archives: Productivity Links

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 13th June 2010

This is another post on autopilot as I have taken my wife away to the Lake District to celebrate our wedding anniversary. Staying in a great little hotel and booked into some awesome restaurants so I am sure I am enjoying myself.

I am also away with my Apple iPad for the first time although the location where I am staying is very remote and I do not hold much hope for any 3G access. Still it will be nice to see how I cope without my MacBook Air, which I sold last week!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to a great post titled 6 Tips for When You’re Not in the Mood to Work. I am sure we all feel like this from time to time when the procrastination monster moves in and this post has some ideas on what to do when you do feel like doing nothing.
  • My second link is a link to an excellent OmniFocus Cheat Sheet. OmniFocus is an excellent application and one that has a control of in-depth control. This cheat sheet shows you some of the keyboard shortcuts that can be used to make navigating the application a lot easier. Essential reading if you use OmniFocus.
  • My third link is to a post titled The End-All Guide to Getting Out From Under Your Office Crap. This is a great de-clutter post from Lifehacker that covers the importance of a clutter free working environment.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post called Ways To Get More Done from Investors.com. This is nice little post that covers some productivity basics.
  • My fifth and last link is to part 3 of a 14 part series from the Christian Science Monitor where they are discussing the Getting Things Done book by David Allen. This third instalment is titled Getting Things Done 101: The five phases of project planning. This is an excellent series and well worth the time investment.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 6th June 2010

I have now had my Apple iPad for just over a week and I have had the chance to put it through its paces. It is safe to say that I am not disappointed with the whole iPad experience.

I have not been away during the past week and in a real situation where I need the iPad. It has just sat at the side of my laptop.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an excellent post titled Getting things done 101: five stages of mastering work flow. This is a great post that covers the basics of how to master workflow.
  • My second link is a link to an excellent Review of OmniFocus from GeekCaster.com. OmniFocus is the app I use to organize my life. I use it on my MacBook Pro and my iPhone and cannot wait for the eagerly awaited iPad version!
  • My third link is to a list of the Ten Must Have Android Applications. I am an iPhone user myself but it is good to see such a great list of apps that includes Evernote as a must have for the Android mobile platform.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post called What is Getting Things Done?. This post does a good job at introducing the reader to what Getting Things Done is.
  • My fifth and last link is slightly different this week in that it is a link to one of my older GTD blog posts. This post covers Open Loops and is one of the most popular posts on my whole blog. If you have not already read this blog post then it is well worth the time investment and I would love to get any feedback on the post.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 30th May 2010

Just returned from a great family holiday in Northumberland. Stayed in Beadnell for the fifth year and as usual, had a great time.

Well, I eventually got my iPad. I got a 64GB 3G and so far I am loving it. Really looking forward to getting a lot of productivity apps on it.

I can see some great things coming from my iPad!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an article titled 3 Brain Hacks to Easily Memorize New Info and Save Time While Studying. I love these little memory joggers and use quite a few of these myself. Good read.
  • My second link is a link to an article showing you how to use toodledo for GTD and Inbox Zero. Great read for a nice simple application that can be used to Get Things Done.
  • My third link is to a post about how to password protect Evernote. I must admit that security has been one concern of mine with relaying so heavily on cloud based services such as Evernote. This post helps to show you how you can password protect Evernote.
  • My fourth link is a link to a nice post that provides 10 Tips for Reducing Junk Email. Junk email gives us all a problem and if you can reduce the number you get, you can reduce the time spent clearing out junk and increase your time to spend on productive work.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to the new GTD Implementation guide from David Allen. This does cost $20 and I have not yet bought it myself but if it is from David Allen I am sure it will be worth it and I am hearing good buzz around Twitter about this implementation guide.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 23rd May 2010

Apologies that I missed again last week but I was ill and felt that rotten that I was not able to muster the energy to write a post. One of the not so great things of having four kids is the amount of bugs that you can pick up as they are like bug sponges!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is to an article by Malcolm Gladwell that was published in the New Yorker titled How David Beats Goliath. This post looks at how underdogs can break the traditional rules of engagement n order to win when on paper they should always lose. Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors and this is a great read.
  • My second link is a link to probably the most comprehensive review of Evernote I have ever seen titled Take a Minute to Collect Your Thoughts With Evernote. If you are new to Evernote or a seasoned user like myself it is always great to read these reviews to see what other people are using this great piece of software for.
  • My third link is to a post from FastCompany.com titled How to Motivate People: Skip the Bonus and Give Them a Real Project. This is an interesting post and 10 minute video discussing how the best way to motivate people is not with money, but by letting them work on projects close to their hearts. Interesting and relevant for me!
  • My fourth link is a link to a post from Sid Savara regarding Procrastination Thumbscrews. The post aims to find your Procrastinating and Time Wasting Weaknesses and deal with them!
  • My fifth and last link is a link to an old but awesome post from Merlin Mann on 43Folders.com about Building a Smarter To-Do List. This is a classic read and I have started to cover some of these classic posts in this list.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 9th May 2010

I missed my post last week as I had been away all week at InfoSec and they we went away for the bank holiday weekend to the Yorkshire Dales.

We stayed in a great cottage which unfortunately had no Internet or mobile phone coverage so I could not get any type of a connection to release my usual Sunday post.

I have had another busy week this week and next week seems just as bad!

Good news is that I can officially order my UK iPad tomorrow, at last!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

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

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 – 11th April 2010

The Masters in on in the other room in all it’s HD glory so I will make this short 🙂

Hopefully it will be a great night for the UK and Lee Westwood or Poulter can win the US Masters..

A very Evernote and iPad rich collection of links this week.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

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

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

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.

Hope you all have a great week ahead!

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

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!