Tag Archives: productivity

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

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!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 3rd January 2010

Happy New Year!

I hope you have all had a great Christmas holiday. Tomorrow is the start of a new working year as we are all back to work after the holidays.

The dawn of a New Year is a great time to take stock and get organized. So there is no better time to subscribe to this blog and start down the road to productivity!

I thought I would dedicate this week to a series of links regarding the New Year and all that it brings from a productivity viewpoint.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a post that I wrote over two years ago called What’s Wrong With New Years Resolutions. Although I of course agree and advocate setting goals, I always find that New Years Resolutions fail. This is because you should not wait to create a goal. I will write an update post about this in the coming week.
  • My second link is a link to a post from Elle Magazine titled 7 Ways to Find Happiness in 2010. This is quite a long article focused on New Years Resolutions and it also features David Allen, the founder of the Getting Things Done Methodology.
  • My third link is to a frank but true post from Rock Your Day titled What No One Will Tell You About The New Year. Now this is a post that I agree with. The New Year is not a new start, it is a new day. However, there is no better time to start planning for the future so if you need a new year boost, go for it!
  • My fourth link is a link to a great post from Leo at ZenHabits titled
    The Definitive Guide to Sticking to Your New Year’s Resolutions. Awesome post from Leo and the 6 changes method sounds a great way to implement and achieve your resolutions.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to the updated 2010 GTD Calendar from Stephen Smiths Productivity blog. I featured this calendar a while back and though I would mention it again as he has updated it for 2010.

I hope you all have a great week and enjoy getting your ship in shape for 2010!

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 27th December 2009

Well, I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

I had a great time with my family. Great to see all my kids open their presents and spent a great few days together as a family.

Christmas is a great time to reflect and get ready for the New Year and all that brings.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a post titled 100 All-Time Best Ways to Hack Your Workday. This is a great collection of little time saving and productivity hacks that I am sure we can all learn from. I love these simple and straight to the point posts.
  • My second link is a link to a post that provides Some Help for Your GTD 50,000 Foot Reviews. This is a great time of year to perform a 50,000 foot review and this post provides some tips and guidance in how to get through this review.
  • My third link is to a blog post titled How To Get a Bob The Builder “Yes We Can!” Attitude. Great post about adopting a we can do it attitude to everything you do. How the world would be a better place if we all would promote and adopt this type of attitude.
  • My fourth link is a link to a post showing you how to Get Things Done with WordPress. WordPress probably wouldn’t be your first choice for choosing a GTD app but this post covers a GTD specific theme for WordPress that turns WordPress into an online collaboration tool that can help you Get Things Done as part of a team working on projects. Definitely an interesting choice as an alternative to online tools such as Basecamp.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to the 2009 GTD Christmas Quiz from OrganizeIT.co.uk. Great idea to have a bit of festive GTD fun so give the quiz ago to see how many of these you get correct.

I hope you enjoy these links and I will be back in 2010 with some more posts so I hope you all enjoy the New Years celebrations.

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.

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

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

Just returned from a great weekend in London with my family and some close friends.

My cold is still hanging around, giving me sinus pain and one of those coughs that you just cannot shake!

I spent four days out of the office last week and drove over 600 miles in two days. Then I finished the week off with a great but hectic weekend in London so I am looking forward to a bit of a rest now!

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a great post from Brent Ozar titled How I Use GTD 50,000 Foot Goals. Brent is a Microsoft SQL Server developer and in this post he provides some great information on how he used GTD for those bold and hairy goals!
  • My second link is a link to a nice little post from the Wall Street Journal about How to be More Productive. We can always be more productive but is getting up at 0400 the best way to do it?
  • My third link is to the first post I have linked to or read about Getting Ready For 2010 – Preparation. In under a month it will be 2010 and many people use the start of a new year for a fresh approach to many aspects of their life.
  • My fourth link is a link to a rather interesting post about Hedonist GTD. A slight angle change from the usual but worth the read.
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a review of Omnifocus from the SmokingApps blog titled OmniFocus: An Innovative Approach To Keeping Track Of Your Thoughts. I still use OmniFocus daily and I still love it.

Hope you all have a great week. I hope your Christmas planning is well underway by now..

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 16th August 2009

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.

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!

Creating a Productive Home Office – Update 1

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!

Creating a Productive Home Office

Messy Home OfficeI am happy to say that I am eventually upgrading my home office and this is something I am really looking forward to.

My current office layout is now nearly 8 years old and a lot has changed since then. Time for a change and time for me to start with a blank canvas and plan an ideal and productive home office.

My home office 9 foot x 7 foot, so a pretty good size for just me and all the techie gadgets I can fit into it!

I am trying to get quite a minimal layout within my office whilst building a great working environment. My current office is rather cluttered and does become a dumping ground for a lot of things.

So, the essentials I need as far as I can see are a chair, desk, filing cabinet, inbox trays, and some cabinet to hold my printer.

I am totally clearing my office and buying everything new. I am going to take down my wall units and get the office painted and new carpet.

I currently have a desk with two drawers down each side. One is a drawer and filing cabinet and the other is three drawers. The filing cabinet is bad as it is hard to get my files in and out due to the layout of the drawer and the fact that it does not fully open. I currently have quite a cheap fake leather chair. My printer is on the top of a nice Ikea wooden cupboard.

For my new office I want a big, curved desk to hold my MacBook Pro and 30″ Monitor. I have seen one in Ikea from the Galant range. I want to do away with pedestal drawers as I just seem to fill these with junk, as most drawers are in most offices.

I am looking for a nice premium but trendy chair. Not really started looking but one in Costco does take my eye although it is quite expensive at £250.

I currently do not have a great filing capability and I must have a good filing cabinet in my new office. I want at least two drawers with the ability to utilize my manila folders and A to Z system.

I do not implement the Tickler File so no need for the 43 folders!

I have a laser printer that I do use quite a lot when I need to print anything out. It is only a small footprint but I still need some cabinet to keep it in, ideally out of view.

I am also really fancying a scanner to go totally paperless. I currently have a HP OfficeJet All In One but this has a large footprint and takes an absolute age to scan from.

I therefore will purchase a Fujitsu ScanSnap. The models I am looking at are the S300M or the S510M. These are not cheap scanners but the ability to duplex scan as well as use the ability to load the document tray with up to 20 sheets makes these a very attractive proposition.

I love Evernote and the ability to scan from the ScanSnap scanners straight to Evernote looks amazing, and one of my main drivers for trying a totally paperless office.

If I implement a paperless office I am going to need a good shredder. I currently have a bin shredder but it is quite lightweight so I may look at the cost of updating to something more heavy duty as I plan to shred everything I can.

I will take photos and keep you all updated of my new workspace.

Also, the photo at the top of this post is NOT my current home office 🙂

I would love to hear any recommendations anybody has about building the ideal home office or the choice of equipment to place in the office to make it as productive as possible.

Productivity, Motivation, and Personal Development Links – 10th May 2009

Apologies for not much activity from me last week. I had to teach at college two nights instead of the usual one as well as the prep work I needed to do for a college assignment I delivered on Thursday. Combine this with a hectic work week and an office move on Friday and you can kind of see the week I have had 🙂

Luckily, all my tasks got done, just did not have a great deal of time to write the blog.

Here are my collection of links for this week.

  • My first link for this week is a great GTD Primer from Black Belt Productivity. I found this via Twitter and it is great for anybody new getting into GTD and productivity.
  • My second link is a post from Mr Self Development about the Science of Getting Things Done. Nice simple information that is worth a read.
  • My third link is a link to a post titled When GTD Goes Too Far: How To Avoid Productivity Paranoia from the Bizzy Women blog. I posted this via Twitter and had a ton of ReTweets as it was a post with a great title that drew attention from the productivity crowd. I do agree with some of the points here. Sometimes we can get too focused on the methodology and we all need to relax a little.
  • My fourth link is a link from John Morris about the Weekly Review. David Allen himself states that the Weekly Review is the normal part of the GTD Methodology where advocates fail. I know from my own experience that I can suffer from an inability to perform my review. I missed Fridays last week!
  • My fifth and last link is a link to a little post about Ubiquitous Capture. I have blogged about this before

Well, going to spend some family time now as I am traveling again this week. This time I am on the South Coast of England, so hopefully the weather will be good. I am staying in a hotel with a superb seafood restaurant so I hope the lobster is good!

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.