I'm enjoying the updates to Launchbar and a new timer for practicing the Pomodoro technique.
All posts in productivity
Despite my heavy use of a digital task management tool, and switching from one application to another, pen and paper have been the consistent tool through it all.
A discussion of several task management tools and why software often doesn't quite fit our needs.
There has been a gap in how I manage my work for a long time. It's a little thing and is no bother most of the time. But when things get crazy, or if I'm not careful, some important task falls through the cracks of my system. I'm referring to the follow up email. This is a straight forward concept. I have a task or project that is my responsibility, but depends on others to do some work. I email them, asking for information or for work to be done. Down the road, I…
It would seem that life consistently affords one opportunities to look back at the path you've walked. I do my best to embrace these opportunities, but I've often found my self slightly discouraged in the past when doing so. I would tend to review the goals I had at a period in time, then measure the progress or lack thereof and feel as if I did not make the most of the time I had. And yet in the big picture, things have gone very well. My family has had its needs met, I've…
Here January is half over and I have not written once about the excitement and promise that a new year holds. This is unusual for me because of my fondness for the period between Christmas and New Year's Day. I look forward to that one week every year, a time to reflect and to plan. The week flew by particularly fast in 2012. There was flu in our house of six, Christmas Day, a litter of eleven pups … the quiet moments were few in number and short in duration. Still, when I did have time to simp…
As I've matured, I've learned a lot about myself, especially in the area of leadership. As I became more self-aware, I realized that in circumstances where I was unsure of the next step, I would ignore the situation. If I wasn't sure what to do, of the next action, I would subconsciously not give the area of need any attention. Not a helpful approach! What I've learned to do is just get started. Do something, anything. It doesn't matter if it was a plumbing issue I'd never handled…
Adam King recently wrote a great post on his paper based “stay-on-top” set up, titled The Daily Rind [http://b.aking.ca/post/5787137408/the-daily-rind]. It's the kind of post I've always enjoyed ever since this topic started to replace actual real work. I say that with tongue in cheek, and I'm laughing at myself, not Adam. I always enjoy getting a look at how the people I admire process things and complete their work. The difference for me now is that I quickly recognize the pull to adapt my ow…