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Archives for Productivity
Book review: The Power of Less
Leo Babauta, who writes the inspiring blog ZenHabits.net, has taken his productivity and efficiency advice to the printed page in his new book The Power of Less. Published by Hyperion, it is a 170-page guide to shedding the non-essential elements from your life and work so that you can do and achieve more.
His advice is based on six principles, two of which are initially discussed on pages 5 and 6 of his book:
Principle 1: By setting limitations, we must choose the essential. So in everything you do, learn to set limitations.
Principle 2: By choosing the essential, we create great impact with minimal resources. Always choose the essential to maximize your time and energy.
He uses the analogy of the haiku to illustrate these principles:
The haiku, as you may know, is usually a nature-related poem of just seventeen syllables, written in three lines (five syllables, then seven, then five). A poet writing a haiku must work with those limitations, must express an entire idea or image in only that number of syllables … He can quickly whip out seventeen syllables and have a completed haiku in a short amount of time; or he can carefully choose only the essential words and images needed to convey his idea. And this second choice is what creates some of the most powerful poetry in such a limited form — choosing only the essential.
He has four other principles, but these first two are really the heart of his system. In my opinion, he accurately explains that if you are going to be productive and efficient in all that you do, you have to make choices. You cannot do everything that comes your way, and you have to make difficult decisions about what filters into your life and what doesn’t.
On page 23 he aptly summarizes why you would want to adopt his system:
Simplifying isn’t meant to leave your life empty — it’s meant to leave space in your life for what you really want to do.
I completely agree with his message, and I think it will resonate well with most Unclutterer readers. If you are looking for sound advice on how to improve your productivity, The Power of Less will help you to be more efficient in all your dealings.
You can also check out Leo’s free eBook Thriving on Less: Simplifying in a tough economy, his audio tips for focusing on one task at a time, and participate in his New Year’s Challenge forum. Finally, if you missed it, check out Leo’s guest post on Unclutterer “Creating a minimalist workspace.”
Popularity: 1% [?]
My 2009 New Year’s Resolution: E-mail
I fall into the camp of people who set one resolution a year. My idea is that if I only have one resolution it is a lot more likely to be achieved. I have other goals and projects in my life, a continuous stream of things to do, but really only one major change I want to make about myself.
When selecting a resolution, I start by identifying the things in my life that cause me the greatest amount of stress. Work is always on my stress list, but I enjoy (in a loose sense) the stress my work creates. I love my job — running Unclutterer.com is very rewarding — so the stress associated with it isn’t something I want to change. A few items also creep onto my stress list that I can’t control, which means I can’t make resolutions about them. These uncontrollable stresses include things like my 99-year-old grandmother’s ailing health.
At the top of my list of stressors that I can change is e-mail. No matter which system I implement to handle e-mail, it fails within two months of use. I’ve tried every system you’ve ever heard of to manage e-mail, and it doesn’t work for me over the long term. I’ll go on vacation or have to be away from my computer for a conference and that is always the point where the system starts to lose its edge. From that disturbance, the whole method breaks down and collapses.
This year, I resolve to get e-mail under control.
Now that I’ve decided on the resolution, I’ll review the post Making your resolutions a reality. These tips helped me achieve my 2008 Resolution: Laundry, and I know they’ll get me on track with e-mail this year.
What area of your life is the most cluttered or in need of organizing? Have you made a resolution to get it under control in 2009? Let us know about your plans in the comments section.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Uncluttering your schedule to keep clear of unnecessary stress
Being human can be difficult some days. I most often notice the difficulties when I’m stressed, full of anxiety, things are chaotic, and/or under pressure. Little problems that are usually dealt with easily turn into big issues because my abilities to see the whole picture or keep my cool are gone.
Last week, I completely unhinged in front of one of my colleagues. I was quietly working at my desk one minute, and the next minute I threw a tantrum because a project we were working on took a turn I didn’t expect. Instead of reacting like a normal person, I chose the path of awful person. I used my “outside voice” for at least a full minute before I realized I was being a complete idiot. Thankfully, my colleague burst into laughter (instead of yelling back or quitting) and asked if my outburst helped me feel better.
It took me two hours to calm down and figure out what had happened. Many elements in my life were to blame:
Stress + Anxiety + Disappointment + Poor Planning = Awful Erin.
As full disclosure, one of these elements was completely out of my hands. I had no way to control the event that happened that triggered my disappointment. No matter what the day or how prepared I possibly could have been, I still would have been disappointed.
The other elements were all my fault, however. My poor planning resulted in stresses and anxieties that were wholly unnecessary, and which made me blow the incident with my co-worker completely out of proportion. If I had planned appropriately, I would have been able to move with the ebbs and flows of the day and not let the stress and anxiety overwhelm me. More precisely, I wouldn’t have been experiencing stress and anxiety — at least not at the level I was.
Later in the afternoon, I made a heartfelt apology to my colleague, we had a good laugh, and then I headed home to re-evaluate my schedule. This time, I needed to be realistic about my abilities.
I revisited my initial estimations and doubled them. What I thought would take one hour, I doubled to two. What I thought would take a day, I scheduled to two days. I made phone calls and adjusted others’ expectations of my timeline accordingly.
With all things in life, the more stress and anxiety you feel, the less able you are to think and respond to the best of your abilities. Proper planning — being honest with yourself about how long it will take to complete action items, setting a schedule, and having the diligence to keep to that schedule — will keep you from feeling overwhelmed and in control of the things you can control.
Since my tantrum last week and retooling of my schedule, I have noticed a significant decrease in my stress and anxiety levels. I am not super human, and my new schedule is realistic and maintainable. Unfortunately, it took making a fool out of myself to realize I needed a change. How do you organize your time to keep stress and anxiety at bay, and how do you avoid potential stress meltdowns?
Popularity: 4% [?]
Deadline: The bare bones online calendar application
I stumbled upon the calendar application Deadline the other day and thought I would pass it along to you. After using it for a few days and exploring its features, it seems to be a stable system that is good for folks who aren’t interested in a cumbersome program.
Unlike other calendar systems, you just type the event into the program the way that you would say it. If you want to meet up with your buddy for drinks after work, you would type, “Drinks with Buddy after work.” That’s it. You can add a date and specific time if you want, or keep it vague:
The application also works with instant messenger programs (just make your Deadline account one of your friends and it will IM you reminders), e-mail, and RSS feeds. There is a mobile phone app and the API is available if you want to build your own apps onto the system.
It’s super simple, and perfect for the person who doesn’t want many bells and whistles.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Uncluttered search results with Google SearchWiki
In November, Google introduced its SearchWiki to public use. Now, you can customize your search results by “re-ranking, deleting, adding, and commenting” items in your returned list.
Here’s how it works:
The application makes repeated searches more efficient and gives you the power to clear the cluttered, unwanted results from your searches.
(via Steve Rubel)
Popularity: 5% [?]
Easily limit e-mail access while on vacation
I love Lifehacker because 1.) Gina, Adam, Jason, Kevin, and newbie Jackson are rock stars, and 2.) I constantly find ways to improve my life from reading the site. Recently, Gina wrote about AwayFind, and this post has revolutionized how I approach e-mail.
Here’s how AwayFind works: When you set up your auto response message in your e-mail client, you write a few words about how you aren’t really checking e-mail. Then, you stick in a final sentence that explains if there is an emergency that you can be contacted via AwayFind. You put a link to your AwayFind page in the text of your away message, and then people receiving the e-mail have a way of getting emergency messages to you without you having to publicize your cell phone number.
If someone believes that they can’t wait until you return from your vacation to get into touch with you, they click the link and are taken to an online form where they can customize their emergency message to you.
I like the program because you don’t actually have to go on vacation to use it. If you need to do some heavily focused work for a few days, set up an away message and only receive emergency messages. Once your schedule returns to normal, you can weed through all the non-emergency messages that came in for you. You stay focused, but not out-of-contact when you’re truly needed. You remain in control of your e-mail with AwayFind.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Increase productivity by learning a lesson the first time
One of my major productivity challenges is that I have a difficult time learning lessons from my mistakes the first time they happen. I’ll get an idea in my mind for how something should work, and then when it doesn’t go as planned, I take little or no notice that my procedure was flawed.
Here, let me give you an example: I’m currently working on an article for a magazine. According to my calendar, I should have been working on this article every morning this week from 8:00 until 10:00. So far this week, I have yet to work on the article between 8:00 and 10:00. This is the busiest time of my day. I have been interrupted with important endeavors every time I’ve tried to work on the article. But, did I adjust my schedule to work on the article at a different, less chaotic time? Nope. Not a bit. For FOUR DAYS this block of time hasn’t worked for me and this article, but I haven’t done a single thing about it. Instead, I’ve stayed at work an extra two hours every evening to get the work finished.
This is what I should have done: On Monday evening, before I left work, I should have rearranged my schedule for the next day so that I could try working on the article from 2:00 to 4:00 in the afternoon. If things went well, then I should have rearranged my schedule for the remainder of the week. If they didn’t go well, then I should have tried a different time slot for the next day.
To help overcome my inability to learn lessons the first time, I have devised a new strategy for the end of my work day. I’m going to keep up with my practice of preparing my desk and materials for tomorrow’s work day, but I’m going to add a routine before this process.
I’m going to take five minutes to ask myself questions and evaluate my work that occurred during that day:
- What processes went well today?
- Why did those processes succeed?
- What processes didn’t go well today?
- Why did those processes not succeed?
- What changes can I make in the future to turn these non-successful processes into successful processes?
How do you analyze your work to keep from making the same mistakes repeatedly?
Popularity: 6% [?]
More project management application reviews
I’m always on the lookout for project management tools that are simple to use and worth their price. I’ve written about a few of my favorites that can be found online, and personally continue to use Basecamp for work projects and LifeTick for non-work goals.
Last Thursday, SmashingMagazine.com completed an in-depth review of 15 project management applications — many of which I didn’t know existed before I read the article. The applications are excellent for people working in technical and creative jobs, and can certainly help you to increase your productivity and organization at work.
The article explores basic project management, wiki-based project management, bug and ticket tracking, collaboration and conferencing, invoicing, and time management applications.
If you’re in the market for a new project management system, I recommend reading the SmashingMagazine review.
Do you have a favorite project management application not mentioned in this set of reviews or in our previous article? If so, please let us know about them in the comments. I’m interested in learning about the tools that help you to be an more organized worker.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Remember the Milk: Now with iPhone and Gmail integration
Of all of the software-based GTD “solutions” I’ve managed to get my hands on, there’s a fairly common theme among all of those that didn’t really cut the mustard: they simply tried too hard to build something that encompassed each of the main tenets of GTD, but have very little flexibility. In other words, these apps shoehorn you into the “canonical” GTD configuration without giving you room to customize the system to best suit your needs. Thankfully, Remember the Milk has managed to not only hang in there (for 3 years now), but pull ahead of the pack through integration with other products and services. And, as of this past month, these services now include Gmail and the iPhone.
RTM’s new native iPhone application (which requires a Pro account at RTM, which will set you back a scant $25 per year) is what got me to switch from my previous solution (OmniFocus on OSX + iPhone). The app is an excellent first release, much moreso than most of the other 1.0s that appear in the store. Launching and synching are both blazingly fast, unlike most local-storage-heavy iPhone apps. It also supports landscape mode for just about every view, which is a killer feature for me. It lets you fully manage the service, all from the comfort of, well, wherever you are with your iPhone.
The other new feature that really cinched it for me is the availability of an in-Gmail gadget where you can add/edit/complete todo list items without leaving Gmail (where many of my tasks and projects originate, which I’m sure is true for many of you). This is exactly the type of integration that really puts RTM a cut above the rest of the list management applications I’ve used. Couple this with the excellent Twitter integration, and RTM is never more than a few clicks/taps away, no matter where I am or what I’m doing.
One great OmniFocus feature that I’d truly love to see in RTM is the ability to incubate tasks or projects until a given date/time. For example, if I know I need to send a birthday card to my Mom in 3 weeks, OmniFocus would let me set a start date for the project, so that it (as well as any associated tasks) wouldn’t show up in my lists until that date. A consistent weekly review would make sure this type of thing doesn’t sit fallow in your task list for weeks before it is actionable, but I’m a lazy programmer who likes to let computers do the thinking that I don’t really feel I have to do.
Honestly, there isn’t much I’d change about RTM’s current set of features, other than perhaps some SMS integration, but that problem is solved easily enough with the Twitter integration. Otherwise, I find it to be quite useful - not to mention a total bargain, and well worth some investigation if you’re a productivity-minded technophile like myself.
Brett Kelly is a sometimes-independent writer, software developer and productivity nerd from California. You can read more about his unending adventures online at brettkelly.org, or you can just follow him on Twitter.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Being an uncluttered and responsible adult
When I was first out of college, I eschewed the dentist for a hefty five years. I loathed going to the dentist. My irresponsible philosophy was “No problems, no need to go!”
Oh, how I regret that philosophy now.
The first time I went to the dentist after the five-year break was a complete disaster. I had three cavities, my wisdom teeth had come in and ruined my perfect smile, and all of it could have been avoided if I would have just made regular appointments during that time.
Since learning this painful and expensive lesson, I have forced myself to be a responsible adult and do all of the yucky things I don’t want to do but should. Prevention is much less expensive than emergency treatment, and much less traumatic.
To stay on track, I make appointments for my next visit before I leave any doctor’s office. My annual physicals are scheduled a year in advance, my dentist appointments six months early, and even my haircuts are planned seven weeks ahead of schedule. I type them into Google calendar and forget about them. I can reschedule if I need to, but rescheduling seems to be psychologically less work than remembering to call and make an appointment.
I also make appointments for our heating and cooling system’s annual maintenance for the following year before the technician leaves the house. Same goes for gutter cleanings and our pets’ vet appointments. The service providers appreciate knowing that they will have a repeat customer and a guaranteed appointment in 12 months, and I get the benefit of not having to remember to make the appointments.
If you aren’t already making regular appointments when it is the most convenient, let me recommend that you step up to the plate and get started. I agree that being a responsible adult isn’t always fun, but it will save you money and pain in the future.
What other appointments do you schedule way in advance? I would love to learn about it in the comments!
Popularity: 9% [?]
Being an organized worker is essential in today’s market
As I’m writing this, I’m waiting for a video conference call to start. It was scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m., but it’s 10:30 a.m. and the call hasn’t happened.
I have received four e-mail messages, however, saying that the people on the call are running late and they expect the call to begin in 10 minutes. I’ve been given no further explanation, and no efforts have been made to reschedule the call.
This is a play-by-play of the thoughts going through my mind:
- Since I’m receiving e-mails, there must not be an emergency. Everyone is probably safe and okay.
- I bet the other people on the call believe that their time is more important than my time.
- It could also mean that the people on the call are completely disorganized and could really use my help, so I should be more compassionate.
- Wow, it’s now 10:45 and I’m still waiting. This call is an hour and a half late. I find this to be incredibly rude.
- If I don’t leave my office in the next two minutes I’m going to be late for my 11:00 appointment.
- I’m leaving.
***
It’s now 1:15, I’ve gone to my appointment, returned to my desk, and the call still hasn’t happened. There is, however, an e-mail in my inbox asking if the call can be rescheduled for 5:00 p.m. Anyone want to take bets on what time tonight the call begins? (Added later: It started at 5:18 p.m.)
***
Situations like this are unfortunately common practice in the business world. Disorganization flourishes in many corporate cultures. One person misses a deadline and that missed deadline is like a stone thrown into a pond where the ripples eventually reach everyone and everything in the water.
If you look back over my thoughts from when I was waiting, you’ll see that my frustration clearly builds. I went from worrying about the people’s safety to finding the delay to be extremely rude. The people involved obviously aren’t rude, they just have poor time management skills, but their lack of time management skills speaks to their work. At the very least, it says, “Be on guard when working with this company!”
In today’s economy, employees can’t afford to be disorganized. It’s no longer a matter of personality, it’s a matter of keeping one’s job and retaining or obtaining clients. If an employer is trying to decide whom to layoff and whom to keep, the most organized, profitable, and productive workers usually get to keep their jobs. Workers who consistently miss deadlines, run projects over budget, and upset clients and vendors with their inconsiderate behavior are the people who are let go. Additionally, current and potential clients won’t do business with your company if they don’t receive the product they expect on time and on budget.
If you’re worried about the level of disorganization in your work, here are a few items that may help you:
- Clear the paper clutter from your office
- Start using project management and goal systems to help organize your work load
- Invest in a watch with a timer on it to keep you on schedule
- Learn how to run efficient meetings
- Work on managing expectations for deadlines and deliverables through ongoing communication with the client and/or your manager
What additional suggestions would you add to this list? What are your favorite ways to stay organized at work?
Popularity: 14% [?]
Overwhelmed by online social networks?
Recently, Erin was interviewed by the Washington Business Journal for the article “Social Organizer,” which hit newsstands Friday, Oct. 3. The article addresses how an employee can get the benefits from these social networks without seeing a drop in their productivity and work product.
With so many new distractions, new discipline is required. To help, there are now Web sites designed to do all the login and password remembering and organizing for you. There are also some easy tricks to harness the online social flood.
Pick just one
“I think that the same principles that you address in any project, definitely apply to your online relationships,” says Erin Doland, editor-in-chief of Unclutterer.com, a Reston-based Web site that focuses on home and office organization. “You have to start by picking and choosing. You have to make choices about what you do.”
Take Twitter, for example. The social networking site, which enables users to send short messages about their activities, has competitors that you can use, such as Pounce.com and Plurk.com. But do you really need them all?
“For most people, you can’t have three blenders,” Doland says. “At some point, you have to decide which blender you’re going to buy.”
The article has numerous tips and tricks to help you keep your social networking behavior under control. What additional advice would you give?
Popularity: 12% [?]
A vote in favor of two monitors
As a college freshman, in the fall of 1992, I had to beg and plead with the dean of the College of Library and Information Sciences to get a university e-mail address and storage space on the network. Unless a student was enrolled in information science classes, you didn’t get any form of network access. I even remember the dean asking me, “How do you know about e-mail?”
It wasn’t until my junior year that the tides changed and any student could get an e-mail account and storage space on the network by signing up for it in the computer lab. By that time, I had long ago befriended the computer lab assistants and had a tricked-out student account that violated most of the new student-use policies. One of the nice parts of my account was that I had created a virtual desktop system in Mosaic. It wasn’t difficult to do, but it was definitely against the rules. When I started using it, I noticed significant improvement in my productivity and I paid off the lab guys with cookies to let me keep it.
After graduation, I went to work for an organization that refused to use a network and passed floppy discs around to share files. No e-mail. The whole building accessed the Internet by dial-up. I quickly forgot about virtual desktops and was simply glad to have a printer attached to my PC.
A couple weeks ago, I was watching my husband work at his desk with two monitors and all of the memories about my time in the college computer lab came rushing back to me. He was using his two monitors the same way I had used my virtual desktops. I was surprised that in more than 10 years I hadn’t once considered doing something similar.
I jumped on the Dell website and ordered a refurbished UltraSharp 2408WFP 24-inch widescreen flat-panel monitor. It is almost twice the size of my 13-inch MacBook monitor, and has turned out to be a productive and uncluttered addition to my workspace.
For starters, numerous reports abound that having more than one monitor increases productivity. The way it helps me is that I can keep open my calendar and other goal-oriented programs throughout the whole of my workday, and these programs don’t get lost behind my working documents. I also am far-sighted, so having the larger screen is great for when I’m working on images in Photoshop. There are additional productivity improvements, but I think they’re well covered in the article I previously mentioned.
The other benefit to having a second monitor is that it clears up cable clutter on my desk. The monitor has five USB ports, xD/SD/MS/MMC and CF drives built into it, and only one cable connecting to my laptop. Before the second monitor, I had a slew of cables coming out of my computer. I was constantly playing an unplug/replug game throughout the day as I needed to use different devices, and it was difficult to make my laptop portable. Now, I have a power cord, a monitor cable, and a USB cable hooked to my machine and that’s all. Not having to shuffle cables about also means that I can use cable ties on the cords that are permanently plugged into the monitor and get rid of the mess of cables that was on my desk.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Reap the benefits of your hard work
Last Wednesday, I was in a foul mood. If you knew me in the world beyond your computer screen, you would know that I am normally an upbeat person. I usually have a smile on my face or am lost in thought, but it’s rare for me to be snippy with people and angry. But on Wednesday, I was fuming most of the day and wanted to crush things like Hal did in season four, episode four of Malcolm in the Middle.
Nothing in particular set off my frustration, it was just a bad day. We all have them, and last Wednesday was my turn. When I woke up on Thursday morning, I was back to normal and the foul mood was behind me.
Right after breakfast on Thursday, I checked my RSS feed reader and pulled up the following from Atlanta-based professional organizer Monica Ricci:
What’s so great about being focused and productive? When you work hard at being focused and productive, then it’s easier to feel okay about having FUN! So I got to thinking about what fun stuff I like to do in the evenings. What are your guilty pleasures?
Reading these words hit me like a brick. I have been working very long hours recently, been extremely productive, and I have done nothing that could be considered FUN. Was my awful mood on Wednesday a result of not taking any time to experience the benefits of my hard work? I think it was.
I immediately looked at my Upcoming Events folder and found three things I’ve been wanting to do. I made the necessary calls for these events, and now I have scheduled fun on my calendar. At Unclutterer we talk about keeping clutter out of our lives and having an organized home and office for the purpose of freeing time and energy for a remarkable life. I lost sight of the life part, and that is a bad idea.
How about you? Are you reaping the rewards of your productivity and hard work? Or are you just putting in effort and reaping none of the benefits?
Popularity: 14% [?]
Are the paths to your goals paved or cluttered?
For the past nine months I’ve been conducting a one-question Internet survey about what blocks people’s goal success. The question I have asked people is: What is the single, biggest obstacle to achieving your goals? The responses have been intriguing.
“Lack of Organization/Too Much Clutter” made it to the Top 5 on the list and it continues to rank as the #5 obstacle to goal success.
Speaking of goals, the National Association of Professional Organizers reports that getting organized also made it to one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions this year. In early 2008, the President of the organization, Standolyn Robertson, said: “Getting organized is one of the top 5 New Year’s resolutions.”
If getting organized makes it to your list of resolutions in 2009, it could lead to a positive ripple effect. Because, when people clear out clutter, it paves the way for other goals too.
Why does clutter get in the way of goals?
When there’s clutter on our desks and we have to step over the jackets, the laptop case and shoes strewn about the hallway, it’s harder to think and we forget things.
How can you remember a priority project when it’s buried beneath a paper pile as high as your office chair?
For me, an organized workspace (and house for that matter) sharpens how I think and gives me a motivational lift. It’s about progress, not perfection, by the way.
For example, when the surfaces of my workspace are clutter free–yet I still have the tools at hand that I need–I power through things faster, have increased focus, and I feel better at the end of the day. That’s because productivity equals satisfaction. I like to work hard on my priorities.
When things are in the way–mentally or physically–we get slowed down, distracted and derailed. It’s no fun at year’s end to open a mysterious word document that reminds you that you were going to drop 10 pounds and you haven’t made it to the gym all year.
Here are four tips to clear out clutter so that you can remove at least one obstacle to goal success.
Step Back
Assess the space you want to organize, whether it’s your cubicle, garage or kitchen. Take five minutes to picture what you’d like the space to look like. Do you envision a transformation or just a few tweaks?
Create a Big Goal
The big goal represents your organizing ideal. For the garage, maybe that means hiring a custom closet company to build storage shelving and hooks to hang tools. Consider the benefits: peace of mind and clarity.
Do the Tough Thing First
Spot the thing that you dread most. When you look at the file cabinet in the garage bursting with 15 years of taxes, tackle it. Doing the hardest thing first will build momentum and inspire you to move on to more uncluttering.
Set a Small Goal, Too
You’ve made progress by facing the tough thing first. Do another small goal immediately. For instance, sort through two boxes or put all gardening equipment in one area.
Team up with one or more person to help make the process fun. With focus and dedication, all 4 steps are do-able.
Taking a moment to step back will give you a snapshot of what you want before you start. From there, you’ll have the ingredients for your first big goal. Doing the tough thing first allows you to get going fast and sets the stage for overcoming resistance of the things you don’t want to do. Keep going with a series of small goals. As you make progress, you’ll be more organized, and you’ll have more clarity and confidence to maintain your organized life.
What strategies have you used to set and achieve your uncluttering goals?
Popularity: 13% [?]
