Anyone who’s kept up with me over the last few years realizes I love 37 signal’s products. I’ve used them all, but always wondered why they didn’t integrate. Instead of getting stuck on that concept, I’ve embraced their exclusion and containment. I’m glad I did. It seems complicated on the surface but deep down it’s simple. You can take a look at major CRM’s and see examples of integration. You’ll see a loaded down, bogged down productivity system. People in my experience will spend all their time learning and working the system instead of getting results.

So here’s how I see the transition between 37 signals products.

Backpack for me was the end all be all. I used it for everything.- sharing pages with customers, keeping lists and running projects. Lately, I’m back to using it as I believe it was intended. A place to organize your organization. I keep reference lists (not task lists), share reference pages with customers and compile data for events, trips or major ideas. I also use the calendar to organize one step actions that happen on a particular date. I keep budget (bill payment) info on the calendar as well. Of course I ical this into Google Calendar so I can access it on my iphone wherever I go. Plus I share Google Calendar with several others. I have started to use the Backpack journal feature at night to record the days happenings.

Basecamp for me is all about projects. If you use the GTD terminology a project would be anything you can’t do it 2 minutes or less or that doesn’t have one defined next action to complete it. This is still a tough balancing act. I have most mid to large projects set up independently in Basecamp. Basecamp is also where I manage my business, my wife’s business and collaborate with key people who contract with us. We manage monthly deliverables for retainer customers along with new customer projects in Basecamp.  I love Basecamp because of writeboards and milestones but template to do’s are the powerful stuff.

Ta-da lists are a new edition to the arsenal for me. I love them. Instead of keeping simple next actions (not associated with projects) in Backpack or Basecmap, Ta-da lists allows me to quickly put them into list format. That’s not the key though. Any program can do that. A text file can do that. The real power is the iphone ready site which parallels the web version. Check off something from your list on your iphone it mirrors up on my Macbook in the cloud. What do I keep here?

• Shopping lists
• Errands
• Weekly Review lists
• Daily Review lists
• Today’s tasks
• Daily supplements (you name it)

Highrise is my weakest area. That may be the case for many people. It’s a powerful platform but I think I stumble here because of the lack of sync tools in the cloud (which still boggles my mind). I do keep my contacts here and the new ability to add social media contact info has been a big addition. So much communication takes place in mobile environments or in email threads, that getting it into Highrise can be difficult. I would suggest you at least organize your contacts in Highrise and record key conversations or meeting notes. You need those kind of records and that kind of data stored somewhere. Once someone becomes a customer they usually migrate to Basecamp in my experience.

*I’m an affiliate by the way. The banners are on the home page. No big deal just telling you.

Like anyone who gets busy; I thought I could drop the systems, work even harder and still manage to be productive. Wrong!

The last few months has given me another stern lesson in productivity. I’ve called this post back to the heart of GTD. I’ve been using David Allen’s GTD system for the last few weeks again and it feels so good to be productive again.

It feels great to be moving toward those 30,000 foot goals. It feels great to check off those next actions lists. It feels great to make project lists and to add things to my someday/maybe lists. It feels great to only consider doing tasks that can be done from certain places, certain situations or with the proper tools. It feels great to think what is the next action or is this actionable. Why do we quit doing the things that work?

So back to quick daily reviews, more thorough weekly reviews and the principles of GTD. Backpack is still my tool of choice along with the amazing free apps from Google.

I’d like to brainstorm and work with the new tasks feature in Gmail to see how that can change the GTD game. Any thoughts?

Too many times in the past I’ve let my environment spiral out of control.

Too many times in the past I’ve failed to create and guard a good environment once it’s established.

I noticed these concepts this week after making a few quick adjustments to our home. We made the home office more of an office and the upstairs extra bedroom a full fledged study.

The office has every thing one needs to conduct business. I can keep records, concentrate on work, print, file and do everything else I need to do in running a business. However, it didn’t help me rise early and devote a few hours to working on me each morning. I like to get up and do a little writing, studying, motivational reading, bible study and prayer each morning.  The home office is in the basement with dim lighting and no natural light since there is only one small window. It works great if I’m making a call, working on a customer’s project, doing my accounting or preparing a proposal.

Of course some of these are all things I can do from a coffee shop with wireless. The basement home office didn’t work so well as a study. I never wanted to walk two flights of stairs in the morning. I wake like a bear who’s been in hibernation. I would find myself going to a different room daily or sleeping later than I wished. The problem? I had not created a good environment so I could trick myself into going there long enough to form a habit.

Since we had an extra room (however you could do this in separate corners of a one room-which is what I’d rather have anyway) we turned it into a study. It’s quite simple. There is a desk with nothing in it or on it except a lamp. There are two book shelves. The first holds books that I’ve read or use for reference. The second shelf holds books I’m reading or studying currently. There is good lighting and some natural light from the vaulted window. There are some inspirational pictures and awards on the wall and a simple little white board to record my thoughts early in the morning or late at night. That’s when I have some of the best ideas. Oh yeah and there’s a comfortable office chair.

Now I’m motivated to rise early again. I can walk right down the hall with no distractions. I can kick off the day the way I like.

• Is everything in your environment serving it’s purpose?
• Is everything in your home or office being utilized efficiently?
• If not then get rid of it or put it into practical use.
• Create a good environment- I think it’s easier and more effective than making yourself do something you’re not inclined to do.
  

Recently, I was presented with the opportunity to conduct a workshop on organization (one of my passions obviously) at Lowe Chiropractic and Wellness. I had a few weeks to prepare for the topic “Organizing for Less Stress”. The topic made me rethink why I promote organization and productivity.

Why get organized? I came up with 4 big reasons.

1. Free Your Mind for Creativity
2. Free Your Calendar for Opportunities
3. Free Your Life for the Important
4. Free Your Home for the Essential

Second Question- How to get organized?

I broke it down into 3 areas which you can start working on today.

This is a simplistic cliff notes version, but it may be just enough to get you to act and not enough to overwhelm you into inaction.

Your Physical Space

Physical clutter leads to Mental clutter so use the Sort, Purge, Assign, Containerize, Assess system to rid your home, office, business and life of clutter.

Once you have removed the debris and cloudiness from your life, put things back in their home when you’re finished using them. If you fail here, you’ll be back at the previous step far too often. These two steps will renew your focus like you would not believe.

The label maker is your friend. Don’t rely on your memory. Label things to make them easier to locate.

When creating habits centered around your new found organization, do not lie to yourself and break commitments with yourself continually. When you break your word to yourself you’re putting yet another obstacle between you and a changed habit.

Getting Things Done

Learn how to master ubiquitous capture made famous by David Allen’s GTD book and training. Instead of letting thoughts, ideas, tasks, notes and projects fester in your mind, or even worse losing some of them; capture these thoughts in a system- preferably the GTD system. Get those open loops out of your head. They are holding you in bondage anyway.

Implement the someday/maybe tickler system. For example:

• Someday/Maybe books to read
• Someday/Maybe trips to take
• Someday/Maybe advertising options
• Someday/Maybe events to attend

Don’t let these someday/maybes hog the space that belongs to your next most important actions or your key project lists and plans. Keep them in their own little system and review then as part of your weekly review.Use physical file folder, use Backpack or use a simple text file; the tool doesn’t matter as much as the system itself.

Use the inbox zero philospophy taught here.

Do the aforementioned weekly review. Take 2-4 hours each week and scan every placeholder or collection bucket in your system. Follow David Allen’s flowchart in his book. You’ll have to buy it or visit his website to see if it’s referenced there.

Productivity Techniques

Pareto Principle- apply the 80/20 rule liberally to your life, home and business. It’s a great liberator.

Batching-let those routine tasks with high startup times accumulate and do them at a set time.

Parkinson’s Law-a task or project will contract or expand based on the amount of time you allow for it. Put this to work for you by planning time and projects tightly.

Elimination- say no and get rid of more stuff.

Outsourcing- find ways to delegate some of what you do to others for less per hour. Virtual assistants and outsourcing services come to mind.

Routine-makes somethings part of a daily, weekly or monthly routine. Similar to batching yet different. The credits here go to the 4 hour workweek.

Morning

• Wake up at 5 AM- I formed this habit by focusing on it for 30 days in January. Ask me how!

• Usually I post to Twitter- just a trigger for my early wake up ( I try not to check email, but it’s tough).

• 5:15 AM- I break open God’s word- usually I focus on reading assignments from my discipleship class.

• 5:45 AM- I read another book (currently I’m finishing Tony Dungy’s 1st book and a church history book).

• 6:00 AM- I take a shower and get dressed (two days a week I shave my big bald head).

• 6:30 AM- I have a quick meeting with a man about a mule and have my calls held. I also stretch for 20 min.

• I usually turn off the radio and enjoy some quiet prayer time and listening time on the way to Java Brewing Co.

• 7:15 AM- I have old fashioned oatmeal with raisins, water, vibe-and I start into the dark roast no/c-no/s.

• I typically read another quick devotional or pamphlet or a snip of the paper while I eat.

• 7:30 AM- I start through my daily GTD review session. This is a scaled down version of the weekly review.

• 8:30 AM- People start rolling into the coffee shop and I usually begin to write or do marketing for an hour.

• 9:30 AM- I pack it up and head home or to clients or to another favorite cafe. Tasks vary widely at this point.

Afternoon

• I eat a light lunch- either left overs from our dinner the night before, hummus and pita bread or soup/salad.

• Sometimes after lunch my wife and I debrief about the kids, scheduling, company tasks or her resale business.

Evening

• 6:00 PM- Dinner with the family nearly every night- it’s rare that I miss this.

• 6:30 PM- The whole family hangs out and then cleans up after dinner. Daddy is the pickup organizing guy.

• 7:30 PM- Bath time for kiddos and then story, family prayer time and bedtime at 8:15 PM.

• 8:15 – 11:00 PM- Ashley and I spend time together, or we work. Usually I write, develop word press sites, manage online marketing efforts for customers or do creative projects like videos. On the weekends we watch movies, play games or do hobbies.  I only plan on doing this nightly work routine until I don’t have to any longer.

I would love to know what works for you. If you would like, you can fill out this Google form. If your daily routine is interesting or amazingly productive or unique; I’ll publish it. Of course I reserve the right not to. I would love to see what other people do for a daily routine. You never know how a little tip or idea here or there can benefit someone else.

• What is the point of organization?
• Who cares if my stuff is neat and my stars are aligned?
• What does it matter if I use a system to accomplish my work?
• Who cares?

It is no secret that I have a passion for organization, but lately I’ve become aware of my true passion for creativity and productivity. I battle an obsessive compulsive spirit and have a tendency to get distracted easily and lose focus. I’ve never been diagnosed with anything and don’t plan on walking around with a meaningless label or excuse. Instead, I work my butt off trying to control my environment, my habits and my focus.

So that still brings us back to why- doesn’t it? Everyone likes to talk about productivity and organization, but many fail to say why. Just do it won’t convince people. Just do it won’t encourage people. Just do it won’t empower people. I want to explain in this post why I’m passionate about productivity and organization.

What’s keeping you from writing a book, painting a picture, taking amazing photos, learning a foreign language, playing a musical instrument, becoming a better golfer, studying history, volunteering at a local nursing home, being a grassroots political activist, taking a mission trip, starting a blog, producing a podcast, writing a screenplay, making someone laugh, organizing a fundraiser, having a family over for dinner, hosting a community group, being there for the kids games, being there for your spouse in a time of need, taking your spouse on a date, teaching and investing in your children, visiting shut ins, taking care of widows and orphans, reading a novel and solving big problems.

Time and your lack of efficient/effective productivity would be the answer. You see nothing on the list above has to do with money. A homeless man could do most of the things above without much if any money.

• How about another question?

What’s keeping you from supporting a ministry, missionary or non profit, from taking a nice family vacation, from cutting checks to those in need during tough times, from taking time away from work to minister to those in need, to invest in your family’s future, for Christians- to fund the gospel, to capitalize great new business ideas, to invest in your continued education, to travel and enjoy the world, to travel and do mission work, to have more children or adopt children without a home?

Money and your lack of it. Trust me this is a big struggle for the Raley Family just like it might be for your family. Most of my business life has been spent looking for and developing a muse for making money efficiently. After all what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul. I don’t want to do it while sacrificing family either.

So you ask why get organized? I want more time to spend on the first list above.

So you ask why get more productive? I want to be the steward of more money and resources for the second list above. Thus I focus on organization for time and productivity for money. There you have it.

The road to wealth lies in augmenting our means or diminishing our wants, either will do but the quickest is to do both- Ben Franklin

• You shoes- do you really need 10 or 20 or 80 pair of shoes
• Your books – see my previous blog post
• Your DVD’s or CD’s (guilty here) major sign of procrastination
• Your stamp collection unless you’re Hercule Poirot
• Anything that doesn’t lead to an increase in productivity or a simplification of life

In all seriousness it’s OK to organize some of these things but you must stop and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this really procrastination?
2. How will this lead to me saving time or adding measurable productivity to my life or work.
3. Even if this needs to be organized is it a priority to do it right now?

If you’re stuck, then sometimes action of any kind will help you get moving and achieve little successes. In that case pull out the books and clean out the pantry. Take the dog for a walk or mow the grass. Lift some boxes and sweat a little, then quickly get back to the things that matter today.

I am terrible at this and that’s exactly why I’m writing it.

This is something a little different. It’s basically me talking (and rocking unfortunately) while I discuss four ways I simplify my life. The surprise ending has one thing I don’t do which simplifies my life. For those who read this blog but don’t know me, this will give you a little glimpse on the goofy side of me. You can also learn more here.

The question is why simplify life? For me it means more time to focus on the meaningful things. It means more time to pursue creativity and passions. For me it means more time with family, more volunteering and more time with my Lord, Jesus Christ. It means more time to change the world of politics, or health or business. It means more time to build the BOC and KOG. It doesn’t mean more time to sit around and focus on me or to watch TV or to play video games. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that”-hat tip Seinfeld.

Simplify Your Life from Bryce Raley on Vimeo.

Some people have wondered and a few have asked how I send out a weekly email with the following categories of content each week without spending a decade doing it.

Each week I include in Simplified Solutions, LLC Weekly Email Newsletter these topics:

• Event of the Week- this is often a holiday or something like National Writers Week or Get Organized Month.
• Inspirational Movie of the Week- I’ve picked my favorite motivational movies and selected appropriate times for each movie- .i.e. It’s a Wonderful Life in December and Rudy at the start of Football season.
• Fun for the Week- these are often bowling, have a picnic in the park or visit a museum kind of activities.
• Quote of the Week- the quotes are many of my favorites and are hopefully timely- Martin Luther King, Jr was who I quoted this week.
• Book of the Week- this was a list of my favorite books I had already read or reviewed.
• Humor for the Week- often a quote from Pat Williams or Will Rogers- maybe Yogi Berra or Mark Twain.
• Bible Verse of the Week- again this list had many of my favorites.

The neat thing about all the above information is that it took about two days back in January of 2008 to compile this list in a spreadsheet. Across the top the columns were labeled with the weeks 1 through 52. In the rows from top to bottom were the categories above. In the spreadsheet cells was the content. Pretty straightforward. I did my research to match quotes, movies, events and humor with the time of the year.

At this point I thought all was done. I created a template in my express email (I’m considering jumping to Constant Contact as we speak). I would now simply log in each week edit the template and click send. This would have worked but it was a bit too boring to keep me excited about sending the ezine each week. Yes it might engage readers (we have about 40% readership weekly) but would it engage me to consistently send it each week (I only send one per week, no questions asked). Knowing myself and my struggle with focus, I left the door open for creativity each week to go along with the prepackaged content.

I decided that I would include a link and description of a very cool website I had stumbled across that would add value to my readers. Many are small business owners or non profits. Second, I would include a link to a cool product. At first I always tried to share products via my affiliate links but that quickly became old and not much fun. It was probably a little too selfish as well. Third, I featured a small business or non profit each week. I used businesses I knew, customers of mine and I took some submissions. I also included my recent blog posts which turned out to be my most popular links each week.

This whole process takes me 30-45 minutes or an hour max if I’m not feeling very inspired. The information in the spreadsheet is easy. I type it, read it, edit it, done. The last few entries require a few clicks, a couple control c’s, hyperlinks, target blank- open in new window, a couple control v’s and a perusing of my latest delicious bookmarks.

I hope you found this helpful. If you want to register for my weekly email click here. I hate spam so I’ve chosen the slow method of growing my list. Speaking could help when I get the time. The readership of 40% is good (so I’ve been told) and sometimes I think it may be better. Many times (just this morning actually), I bump into someone whose address never shows an open, but who says I love getting and reading your emails. Go figure. Needless to say the newsletter is not idea virus worthy yet, given that people are not sharing it and it’s not spreading the way I would like. I guess I’ll take all the positive feedback and the loyal readers and be content with that for now.

This is a two part answer and the answer is never the same for two totally different people. I spent many years thinking of perfect solutions, when there are no perfect solutions. Even though I believe in principles which can work for everyone, the means or method may not. Want to watch a cool video that explains this in unique way.

I used to be a big time list maker, note taker, write on a calendar and planner kind of guy. About a year ago, I completely went digital with all my lists and to do’s and everything else. Before that I read David Allen’s GTD book, and I decided to try it with paper and folders. The system worked, but so many of my projects didn’t work that way. I was using Basecamp to work on my biggest current project, and I had found Backpack to be so useful in managing just about everything else. Well I love 37 signals aforementioned products and use them more than any other applications except Google. I don’t plan on stopping my use of them, but actually probably increasing it. What I did realize a few months back was notebooks and small pocket notepads are still the best way for me to capture a quick list, idea or thought. It is still the best way for me to draw out a mindmap or brainstorm a project to determine next actions. I was inspired yet again by a very digital guy, who still says the pen and pad trump typing in a web based application. If it takes me 5 minutes to locate my laptop, open it, wait a second to refresh my wireless connection, open up backpack, find the appropriate page and then type out my thought, it will always lose to grabbing my moleskin notepad out of my back pocket or my notebook and getting the thought out of my head. Earl Nightingale was famous for saying that ideas are like wet slippery fish. I have found that to be true. The only substitute for the Moleskin back pocket notepad for me, has been using the digital recorder on my cell phone. The only problem I encountered was that when I did a weekly review, which was about as often as I would check my little digital notes to self, I would have to replay the message and type it out into backpack. I didn’t like the extra step. It wasn’t my typing skills either. I type over 45 WPM, which isn’t ground breaking but it’s not slow either.

I have decided to use Backpack more for reference, personal projects, sharing pages with customers (works great to develop a word press site- although I’m experimenting with Basecamp for that right now) and someday maybe categories. I use my large moleskin notebook to record video ideas, blog architecture, mindmaps of my marketing plan and many other things. I use my small notepad to list my next actions for the day and to make quick notes throughout the day. I take both of these and review them as collection buckets during my weekly review session (for GTD’ers). I am trying to use Tim Ferris note taking system linked above, but I haven’t mastered the techniques or organization just yet. I use a new page for each day in my small notebook.

GTD suggests that you limit your amount of collection buckets. This is hard to do in a digital world but right now I’m trying to work within these parameters.

• Gmail-  Incoming messages, outgoing messages, waiting for, read/reviews, and next actions
• Google Reader- I read my feeds with this tool and use share and star as my filtering mechanism
• Delicious- it helps to have some broad tags like toreview, toread, toblog more on this in a future post
• Backpack- helps me stay on top of personal projects, customer projects and someday maybes
• Physical inbox- I still get mail, papers, business cards and other non-digital items that must be reviewed
• Large Moleskin- project notes, ideas, creative development, mind maps
• Small Moleskin- daily notes, reference, passwords to be indexed, phone numbers to be indexed
• Whiteboard- I have one behind my desk to record ideas when I’m working at my computer

A case could be made for Stumble Upon, if you really want the community to work as it should. I’m not there yet.

Also I like to review my reference folders using a File Map. If any name on the list prompts me with an open loop, I’ll take it through the GTD process.

Hope this helps. Maybe it’s not for you, but maybe it is for you.