Archive for Productivity
Organization is futile without developing the proper habits
Posted by: | CommentsOrganization is futile without developing the proper habits and mindset. Call it a new philosophy about stuff, or a call it whatever you like. The fact remains- if you organize your home, your email, your systems, your finances, your garage, your files, your office, your iphone, your computer, your calendar or your life; they will probably become disorganized very quickly if you don’t work hard to develop new habits and a new mindset.
Here are the most important tips I can summarize to get you moving with small daily improvements in your organization quotient.
- Eliminate- the more you eliminate off your calendar, next actions list, projects list- the more you eliminate from your office, home, finances, and life in general the simpler you will make it to keep organized.
- Seek simplicity- if there is a complicated way to o something and a simple way, choose the simple way. Go for the big picture. Sometimes simple may cost a little more on the surface but after you look at the hidden costs ( opportunity cost, cost of time, cost of gas, cost of diffusion, cost of distraction) you’ll come out ahead by choosing a simpler more focused option.
- Organize your stuff. After step 1 and 2 you shouldn’t have that much stuff left to organize. The proper process to organize just about anything (hat tip to all professional organizers like myself, NAPO and where I first learned this system- Julie Morgenstern) is as follows. Sort by putting like items together by association, then Purge by tossing, selling, giving away or recycling, then Assign the remaining items a home, then Containerize the items in their home, then continually Assess your system.
- Put your stuff back in it’s home right now. Form the habit of picking up your stuff and putting it back after you use it. We teach our kids this right? Put you toys up before we go to bed. Put your books in your locker before you leave school. Put the dishes in the sink. Put those toys up before you get more out. So, my theory is that if we teach it to our kids you better do it yourself or you’re a hypocrite and kids are the best hypocrite detectors. Not to mention the fact that your life will be less stressful when you know where things are.
- Implement David Allen’s GTD system to handle the rest of your productivity concerns. This system will help you organize your thoughts and close the open loops in your mind. It will teach you to collect your information with various tools, to process this information and then how to act on it. You’ll create next actions lists, tickler file systems, project plans and lots of other helpful systems for increased personal productivity.
A Few Tools That Could Revolutionize Digital Coaching
Posted by: | CommentsTo start with:
37 Signals products- Highrise-Basecamp-Backpack- Now we can share pages and update them with task lists, notes, pictures and files. We can organize the info and act on it seamlessly.
Copilot- now I can sit at my computer and fix yours by actually taking over your mouse and looking at your screen. This happens with a simple link I send you and takes 30 seconds to download.
Apeer- Now we could share and edit documents, videos and photos in a live environment. This is not sharing- it’s better.
Gotomeeting- we can conduct live webinars or meetings from the comfort of our own offices. I can train you or your staff to work better, and use their stuff better.
These are just a few. Their are so many new ones each day I have trouble keeping up. Somebody has to sift the tools and show you how they make your business work better.
Is the end of syncing coming?
Posted by: | CommentsIt seems like syncing devices (except for Ipods) will soon be replaced by feeds and ical type applications. I know that I get ical type feeds in Google calendar and backpack and they can be sent directly to my phone via text or to GMail and Google Reader accounts. Since many smart phones/PDA’s and certainly the Iphone, all have nice web browsing and web functionality these days; why would we continue to need to physically sync a device to our desktop or laptop. I’m sure it won’t fade away that fast, but it might go away a little quicker that the VCR.
I recommend Seth Godin’s blog for a little bit of everything
Posted by: | CommentsI highly recommend Seth Godin’s blog.
I don’t agree with him on every issue, but he has some serious knowledge of trends in marketing and productivity- among other things. I bet we’re as different as night and day, but we have this in common- he knows marketing and I want to learn it much better.
He is very consistent in his blogging and it is usually encouraging to me. I read the Dip a while back and just recently finished Meatball Sundae and Tribes. I’m going to trim down the number of blogs I follow and this won’t be one of them.
Put the blinders on and focus for 6 months.
Posted by: | CommentsAfter reading almost all of Zen Habits popular blog posts this weekend, I have reaffirmed a decision I had been leaning toward. My family and I are going to put the blinders on and see how much focus we can exhibit in the next 6 months. This was inspired by lots of thought and prayer and a little nudge from Seth Godin’s blog last week. Here are the bullet points:
- We are continuing our process of simplifying life by selling our larger home and moving into a smaller one with about half the payment.
- We are purging even more of our furniture, kids toys, clothes and other “stuff”- my favorite term for everything I don’t really need that takes up space in my home and my mind. I’m all for stockpiling some things which I’ll talk more about in future posts.
- We are cutting expenses and increasing our means per Ben Franklin’s famous quote.
The road to wealth lies in augmenting our means or diminishing our wants, either will do, but the quickest way to wealth is to do both at the same time- Ben Franklin
- We are going to lose the excess weight we’ve gained while having three children the last 3 years.
- We are going to stop doing things that we don’t value or that don’t serve others. No will be a frequent answer.
- We are going to wake up early and go to bed early.
- We are going to focus on growing our primary income through our services to local small business owners.
- We are going to create multiple residual income streams through Eniva and their wonderful health product Vibe and through some other means I won’t mention here.
- We are going to start investing our US dollars in gold- actual gold coins minted in Australia. One is shaky and decreasing the other has stood the test of time.
- We are going to start investing money with Euro Pac capital and Peter Schiff’s team.
- We are going to continue giving money to the ministries, missionaries, our church and local charities/nonprofits. We’ll make every effort to increase our support.
- We are going to pay off our business debt and avoid it like the plague for the rest of our lives.
- We are going to start enjoying life like the famous story of the Mexican Fisherman. I’ve never read this blog but they were the first result in Google so they get the link. I first read this story in Dan Miller’s book.
We may fall directly on our face and miss the mark, but I have a sneaky feeling our situation will look a lot better if we put forth this effort. The blinders are going on. We’ve planned a few rewards along the way for hitting certain benchmarks and we’ve committed to keeping our plans simple. Small daily improvements are the focus. Massive action through a series of small steps with one foot in front of the other. I’ve always had a problem with focus, so I’ll let you know how the battle is going. It will be a battle, but the stakes are too high today to sit on the sidelines. If you’re up for it, let’s draw a line in the sand today and hold one another accountable.
Make everything as simple as possible but not simpler- Einstein
Simplify, Simplify- Thoreau
To close, a large men’s bible study I attended this weekend had a guest pastor who taught us about simplicity. He said following Christ is not always easy, but it’s never complicated. He quoted Micah 6:8 which says “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” No matter what your faith background is, these principles are timeless. Justice- Mercy- Humility.
