Interesting ideas and tips from the productosphere

Plan your work and work your plan

Organising my home tasks with a week planner | blog to discovery:

"There are 14 boxes each representing a different area of my life e.g. website, writing, health, friends. On Sundays I go through my home task list and add two tasks to each section on the form. This provides a spread of tasks to ensure I am progressing each area of my life, but is also a manageable number to complete in a week (although I haven’t actually completed all of them yet). There is also an area to mark any deadlines and to highlight any tasks that I am resisting."

Maybe that's why I'm always reorganizing

Simply GTD with Kelly: Shifting your position:

"Did you ever move your bedroom around as a kid? Even a simple thing like moving your bed from one wall to another? Remember going to bed that night? It felt new and exciting. Same furniture, new perspective. If that worked for you as a kid, it can work for you as an adult."

I read this paper. It's really good!

[Productivity Workflows] - Blog Archive - Getting Things Done: The Science Behing Stress-Free Productivity:

"A post on the David Allen Company Forum draws attention to an intriguing academic paper, available for download as a preprint, which seems worth a read. It is: Francis Heylighen and Clement Vidal (2007) Getting Things Done: The Science behind Stress-Free Productivity."

Who could resist a good Conan quote?

The Task Tarot at LifeClever ;-) Tips for Design and Life:

"Personally, there are days I’d rather be elbow-deep in cow guts than take another scan through my to-do list. At least a good hieromancer would give you a clear answer, from 'the crops will be good this year' to 'you will crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women!'"

Work is a necessary evil

The always-perceptive Ryan Norbauer says:

"I invite you then, patient reader, on a desultory First Night journey with me as I take our mutual favorite hobby—the idle navel-gazing contemplation of productivity—to its most absurd yet logical conclusion: to ask whether eradicating the need for achievement itself might not be the key to happiness in work."

He asks us to consider "the pleasures and benefits of mediocrity." Dude, I'm with you there. GTD and my navel-gazing contemplation of productivity is something I do for fun, not because I care about climbing the corporate ladder and buying myself a Beemer.

I just want to make a living in a way that is pleasurable and productive, and make the most of my free time. David Allen, at least, never argues that the point of GTD is to help you work harder. Instead, he wants to help us spend our time advancing our values and goals. If your goal is to "Pour yourself a glass of port, cuddle up in front of the fire with a book that you’ll probably never finish, and chill," GTD can help by getting you to the couch faster.