I’ve resisted the idea that tasks should be added to your calendar. Something of a purist in me rejects the idea, but it may be that I’m coming around. Shane Parrish makes the case for the practice. He starts with bravado: > SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DON’T MAKE TO-DO LISTS. His solution: > The real value in life comes from saying no. To help you say no you need some friction. The solution to the to-do list problem is actually pretty simple. You have to make one change: schedule it. Anything you want…
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Cal Newport suggests we get rid of email, but is this medium truly the problem? This knowledge worker prefers asynchronous options over the popular alternatives like Slack.
2Do was not a tool I was looking for, but suits my needs better than OmniFocus has the past several years.
It's easy to build habits, but never review them. I try to do just that from time to time, especially when it comes to how I handle my responsibilities.
My good friend and all around smart chap, Shawn Blanc, has been working on a new product titled The Focus Course. One could assume that due to my relationship with Shawn, I'd be promoting his newest offering regardless of what's involved. And you'd probably be right. But there are two caveats to that thought. One: Shawn is an excellent writer, a thoughtful thinker, and puts his everything into all his projects. So it's easy to promote his launches even when lacking familiarity. I would feel no…
Seth Clifford shares an interesting approach to managing tasks with OmniFocus. Rather than the traditional contexts such as "phone", "Mac", "iPad", or "Errands", he uses time. > First, I created three new contexts: “9am-5pm”, “5pm-9am”, and “Weekend”. Not a bad idea. As one who uses only 3 main contexts (Errands, Home, and Mac), I concur with Seth's opinion here: > Location is a modifier on time. It's the time of the day that dictates what I will be working on, not my location. This is part of…
Shawn Blanc shares how he mixes pen & paper with his digital task management system. OmniFocus is where everything goes, but it's the paper where the most important things go, both as a reminder and as a focus. > There is something concrete to the act of using a pen to write down my most important tasks onto a piece of paper. And there’s something ever-so-slightly less distracting about coming downstairs and having a notebook open and waiting, listing out in my own handwriting what it is I need…
Remove friction for doing work and increase friction for activities that we can do in place of work.