Category Archive: Productivity
Easy GTD with Outlook and the Palm Treo
Posted Friday January 25, 2008
Almost no matter what you want to do with it, it’s tough to bend Outlook to your whims. This goes double if you follow the precepts of Getting Things Done. There’s the high-powered but somewhat obtuse GTD Outlook Add-in of course, but that loses a lot of fidelity once you go to the ubiquitous smartphone. Because I can’t be separated from my Treo, I set up my system to be low-fi, while still providing a reliable inbox and review set-up.
Productivity in a Moment
Posted Wednesday August 8, 2007
I always fall down on my planned approaches to productivity when, at that moment, it’s not productive to be productive. I’m sure you know those times — I should do something, it’s actually kind of important, but it’s either inconvenient or impossible and so I don’t do it right then. And then the moment passes and the thought is lost or the task becomes even harder to do. For a while, recording my mileage, keeping up on my credit card purchases, and even capturing ideas on-the-go were all in this category. But, lately, I’ve been doing a lot better — because I made the effort to set myself up to be productive in a moment, any moment.
Back in the Saddle
Posted Wednesday August 1, 2007
I’m a big fan of Getting Things Done; but I haven’t been very GTD-y lately. With too much on my plate, I fell off the wagon. But the point of GTD is to make it easier to handle the volume of work coming in, right? So why did a more busy, more overwhelming time get me away from GTD?
The answer isn’t in the failure of the GTD approach — it’s in the failure of my implementation. And this answer pointed me to the value of maintaining a strong personal commitment to the work you do — and continually questioning that commitment when you don’t get that work done.
Fast GTD-Style Windows and Palm Notes with Launchy, AutoHotKey, and Bonsai
Posted Tuesday April 10, 2007
How many times have you been working away and suddenly thought “Gah! I have to buy French Vanilla-flavored non-dairy creamer on the way home!” or taken time off from actual productivity because you were suddenly seized with the determination to know who sang “One Night In Bangkok”?1 Random thoughts such as this fill my day. I’ve found that one of the keys to my productivity is to get them out of my head as quickly as possible — that means a fast way to take notes without actually taking my head out of the work I’m supposed to be doing.
Boost Your Windows Productivity with Launchy and AutoHotKey
Posted Monday April 2, 2007
A few weeks ago, John Gruber and Tantek Celik wrote about ease-of-use in software programs and how the mental activity required to carry out a task on a computer is some multiple of the number of steps involved in that task. Tasks with more steps are more difficult, they assert, and more disruptive. I’m inclined to agree, which is why I use two Windows programs, Launchy and AutoHotKey to make some of my everyday activities take fewer steps and take me away from my work less.
Lazy Productivity: Don't Get Ahead of Schedule
Posted Monday January 29, 2007
A friend cancelled our plans to grab a drink the other day. “I have too much to do,” she explained. “Behind on all your projects, huh?” I asked her, and that’s when I got a productivity-related shock: “I’m not behind, but I’m not ahead either, and I need to be ahead.” Yes, we’re all tightly-scheduled. No, being ahead in all your projects is not the answer. In fact, the first step to becoming more productive is to stop trying to get ahead of schedule.
Lazy Productivity: Never Give 100%
Posted Monday January 8, 2007
The New Year always brings new resolutions, and, armed with these resolutions, my friends — and probably yours — are working hard, getting projects done. Of course, having a project means one thing, as sure as death and taxes: being behind schedule. And a bunch of my friends are already behind schedule and stressed out about their new resolutions. That’s what happens when people plan their projects as if a person can give 100% at all times.
Lazy Productivity: On The Virtues of Doing a Half-Assed Job
Posted Friday December 22, 2006
It’s the holidays, and nobody wants to be at their desk doing work. We all have visions of sugarplums, or holiday shopping, or eggnog by the fireplace in our heads; sitting in one’s cube is hardly compatible with these daydreams. Since we all want to slack off, now is a great time to reflect on the virtues of doing a half-assed job. There’s really no better gift to oneself, one’s employees, and one’s productivity, than finally accepting the half-assed job.
The Perfectionist Confession
Posted Monday October 9, 2006
I am a perfectionist. When starting any project, I imagine the ideal outcome and strive for that. Of course, because I am a perfectionist I am also a procrastinator; it is impossible for anyone to achieve a truly ideal outcome, so tasks seem impossibly large and doomed to failure, and thus are avoided. The struggle for a perfectionist is to overcome that tendency to procrastination; I do so by ruthlessly using the next action concept of David Allen’s Getting Things Done productivity system.