Getting Things Done GTD with Personal Development and Motivation for Success

I have owned the Google Story book for over a year now. Recently, I picked it up and started to read it and could not put it down.

Everybody knows Google. I have used Google as my search engine of choice since around 2000 and I had an idea of their history, but not in great detail. The book is not an offical Google endorsed book, but a book written with the help and permission of the Google management team and it is aimed to bring the story of how Google has grown from a University idea into one of the leading companies in the world.

The book is approx 300 pages. With most of it being of interest. Some of it I must admit that I scanned through as it covered aspects not of great interest to me. What I did really like where the first few chapters about how Google started. Google was founded by two friends, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both Ph.D. students at Stanford university. They had an idea to improve the way that search was done on the Internet. They found it strange that it was hard to find official company websites by typing in the name of that company. It appeared that the existing search offerings from companies such as Dogpile and AltaVista returned sites that were related to the official companies.

What I really liked about this book was the attitude of Sergey and Larry in their quest for success. They had such a strong belief in what they were doing and they were committed to the decision that they had made. At the time of Google’s inception, Yahoo were a massive player in the search marketplace. Doors were closed in Brin and Page’s face because the assumed difficulty in taking on such a giant as Yahoo, at their own game. Never once did Sergey or Larry falter. They kept their belief in what they were doing and did not listen to the negative people around them. If they would have done, we probably would not have had the Google that we have today.

It makes me wonder how many other companies with great ideas have been stifled at the growth stage because of lack of funding due to the investors not truly understanding the opportunity. Larry and Sergey raised $25 million without even a solid plan as to how they were going to monetize the search traffic. Maybe the days are gone when you can raise that sort of cash against an idea, and I don’t think those days ever came in the UK where getting money to fund an idea is becoming harder than ever, with investors reticent to offer seed investment to grow these fantastic ideas.

So, good book, motivating, and well done to Sergey and Larry because they deserve the success that they have achieved. It shows that if you have a good ethos and culture, good product, and happy staff, then the profits will eventually come. Well, in the case of Google they certainly did!

As many of you will know, I have been following and also been a part of the beta testing for OmniFocus. Well, I am glad to announce, if you do not already know that OmniFocus is now at version 1.0, released and available to purchase from The OmniFocus Store.

Here is a snippet about OmniFocus..

Task management shouldn’t be your full time job. We’ve built OmniFocus to take a load off your mind by managing your tasks the way that you want, freeing you to focus your attention on the things that matter to you most. Finish that novel. Spend more time with your friends and family. Grow your business. Let us worry about keeping your goals and tasks, both personal and professional, in one ordered, easy to access system that you can depend on.

When time permits, I will be reviewing OmniFocus here on this Blog, but until then, try it out and Download the Demo, if of course, you use a Mac!

Hot on the tail of the New Year, and all those New Years Resolutions, it is nice to see Boots (the leading pharmacy store group in the UK) making an effort in trying to help people with the most common goals.

They have released a promotion called Change One Thing. This is aimed at the four most common New Years Resolutions, Losing Weight, Stopping Smoking, Having a Healthier Lifestyle and having Healthier Looking Skin.

If you’ve had trouble sticking to your resolutions in the past, you’re not alone. Half of us give up after just one week, usually because we’ve been unrealistic when setting our goals, try to do too much and don’t get the right support. Now in its third year, Boots Change One Thing is proof that concentrating on one thing works – we’ve helped thousands of people like you stick to their resolution. This year we’re here to help you lose weight, stop smoking, get healthier-looking skin or a healthier lifestyle. What are you waiting for? Just click on the one thing you want to change…

Now, obviously there is product placement with these four programs but I signed up just to see what it was like and must admit that what they are doing is good. They have access to questions and answers from experts, online action plans to help you, access to a community with other people sharing the same goal, as well as the ability to find an online buddy to help you achieve your goal.

All in all, seems to be a good system and a great idea.

Whilst catching up with other blog posts, just noticed a great collection of the top 100 GTD Links from BootStrapper. This is a collection of 100 links regarding Getting Things Done, and is separated into categories.

In order to implement the GTD system in your life, we’re helping you out by listing over 100 links to articles, guides, information about special events and other resources related to “Getting Things Done.” Read below to find out more.

I am happy to see that my blog comes in at number 69 on the list.

Check it out..

Well,

Short of paying $1400 for a fantastic Unique Theme from Unique Blog Designs, as done by ShoeMoney, John Chow, and Kieron, I have changed my theme to the Illacrimo Theme from Design Disease.

I spent some time looking around the web for Themes for this blog and was quite surprised how many exist, and also how many of these are quite bad. A lot of the themes require quite a bit of work to get them looking something like.

When the finances permit, I will go for a more unique theme and brand for this site. One alternative I have found to Unique Blog Designs is a service from the UK called PSD2HTML. These guys take a PSD design file and create standards compliant CSS and HTML code. One option they offer is to create a WordPress theme based upon your design. So, you can get a PSD design done the way you like it, and then these guys create you a WordPress template for around $300. Sounds cool and I would love to hear from anybody who has used these.

I would love to hear any comments you have about my new theme and if it works OK with your browsers. I have tested it in most and apart from a problem with the WordPress MORE tag, all seems fine.

I mentioned Things, the new Mac GTD application in a previous post.

I have just read a pretty good review of the Alpha release of Things over at LifeHacker.com

I have briefly toyed with Things, but I am spending a lot of my GTD research time right now still with OmniFocus, which I must admit I am loving and the daily updates are bringing new features to the party all the time.

It is a fantastic time to be a Mac owner, and into Getting Things Done. I cannot wait to fully review all these new GTD applications.

Here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year.

Let’s try to make 2008 a more productive year than 2007.

For myself 2007 was a very challenging year for me. I left a company which I had founded, and worked on for five years. It was a big decision but the best I had ever made. Sometimes in life you get stuck in a rut, and you need a jolt to get you out of the rut. I had the good salary, pretty good work, close to home, but I was not happy. Things were not being run the way I liked and direction was not heading in the way it should. So, it took a pretty big decision, but totally the right one to jump ship and run with an idea that I had for a new company.

The new company, RandomStorm set sail in May of 2007 and has been going great. It is always slow introducing a new company into established markets but we have managed to obtain a foothold and the future for the company is looking really bright. I have a house, wife, four children and a dog to look after so that always motivates me to succeed. My destiny is my own once again, just the way I like it!

So, I wish you every success in 2008 and hope you keep reading my blog of tips and tricks that I use to manage my extremely busy life!

All the Best

Andrew Mason.

Just watched this video on YouTube for Nozbe on the iPhone, iNozbe.

Now, I haven't yet played with Nozbe, as I tend to be a bit of an offline app love for GTD and don't really know how the online version would be for myself.

The app seems pretty cool on the iPhone. The fact you have to log in etc.. and the general slow time to get things entered would see me grabbing for my Moleskine anyday!

Anyway, check out the video, and I promise one day to fully review Nozbe. 

It has come to that time of the year again!

I heard it on the radio on the way home from work today about how many people set, and break their New Year’s Resolutions.

The timeless classics for the New Years resolution is to lose weight or improve your appearance.

This is normally an automatic next action after a festive season of over indulgence! 8 lbs is the average weight gain in the UK over the festive period, and I can talk first hand of people who love nothing more than to drink and be merry over Christmas and the New Year.

Most of these people will have at some time set a New Year’s resolution. I know that for years I did. Most of the time, the resolutions were pretty much the same every year, and it seemed like the correct thing to do, to let people know that you were going to make an effort in the New Year.

I live and breathe goals, next actions, and projects, yet I have not set a New Years resolution for years! Keep reading to find out why..

I kind of disagree with the idea behind New Years resolutions, and would like to share my thoughts into why I think they are flawed, and how they can be improved.

January the 1st occurs once each year, and this is normally brought with a swollen head from too much alcohol and the first line from Rabbie Burns’ Auld Lang Syne. How many of us have made New Years Resolutions?

Let’s take a snippet from Wikipedia to see what a New Years Resolution is defined as..

A New Year’s Resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. The name comes from the fact that these commitments normally go into effect on New Year’s Day and remain until the set goal has been achieved, although many resolutions go unachieved and are often broken fairly shortly after they are set.

Hmm, even the Wikipedia entry points out that “many resolutions go unachieved and are often broken fairly shortly after they are set“.

So, what is the problem with New Year resolutions?

Well, I am a goal setter and avid fan of the Getting Things Done methodology from David Allen. As well as this, I subscribe to the good stuff from motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins.

I strongly believe in the power of decisions.

When I make a decision, I follow this up by action! Too many of us do not understand the importance of making a decision. A New Years resolution is a perfect example of procrastination, that disease that we all suffer from time to time, and some, a lot more than others.

What we are saying with a New Year resolution is that you want to do something, but you will postpone it a few weeks until New Years day. For example, if your resolution was the timeless classic “I want to lose weight”, you would gorge yourself over the festive period, happy in the knowledge that it is OK as you are going to lose weight in the New Year. If you want to lose weight, make a decision, take action, and lose the weight. Don’t put it off for a few weeks due to some time constraints. Setting out on any major goal planning such as this is destined to fail, and probably why so many do.

I firmly believe in what I call All Year Resolutions, also known as goals.

It is very true that you cannot hit a target that you do not have. However, action must be taken in order to realize your goals. Losing weight is a mammoth task, usually involving a major change in the way your life is run. I still love the losing weigh quote from Billy Connolly, which is to Eat less and move more!

Any major goal in your life is going to need the support of your family and friends. Personally, I think that most people are ridiculed with their New Year resolutions, because virtually nobody keeps them. When you set and break these resolutions, people lose faith in what you are saying and do not offer you the support you need. I can not think of a worse time of the year to announce to the world that you will shed 5 stone, or run a half marathon. Expect to get a tongue in cheek reaction from the people you tell.

In summary, if you want to change your life, don’t wait. Make a decision, and act now. After all, there is no time like the present!