There has been plenty of discussion about Inbox Zero since Merlin Mann first presented the concept and yet it’s still relatively unknown as to what it actually is and how to achieve it. Merlin has blogged that Inbox Zero is not about emptying your inbox. That it is not about waiting for email to arrive so that you can do something about. He writes that it is a state of mind. A sense of freedom. That you are not your inbox.
Most sources agree that keeping a journal is great way to express yourself. It gives you the freedom to express yourself in any way that you like, in any way that resonates with you. A journal is a very personal object. While some people may choose to keep a journal for posterity, others will take their writing to the grave with them. So why then would I even consider writing about things that you should avoid when keeping your journal? Let me explain…
Sanebox has published an amazing list of 100 tips, tricks and hacks to help you get back in control of your email inbox and even get to inbox zero.
We’re all short on time and always looking for that next hack to make our tasks that much faster to process and complete. If you use Evernote then you’re already on your way to improving your productivity, but you still wanting more, aren’t you?
Last week on Facebook I announced a new direction for Cloud Productivity. Well, not so much a new direction, there will still be plenty if great content on productivity and the like, but with a more holistic focus on these things as they apply to you, your money, managing your life, and actually living it.
There are so many great sites around that already offer amazing insights into the “how” of productivity. What I plan to focus on this year is the “why” and the impact of applying these rules on your money, life and living, as well as “how” to make these changes happen.
My eyesight must be failing. I find myself looking at two screens and yet everything I’m trying to read on it is so tiny. A lot of web sites have such small text that I’m resorting to zooming in to make it more comfortable to read. (To zoom in on any website using Google Chrome on Mac, just use CMD+). The same can be said for Word documents. Size 11 font looks fine on a printed page, but when opened on Microsoft Word, it’s close to impossible to read. This is because the page zoom level seems to always default to 120%. From what I’ve read this is supposed to figure out what the page would be sized at in real life based on your screen size etc so that if you hold up a piece of paper the size of the document on the screen should be the same size. For me, it’s not so I was constantly using the page zoom option to zoom in to about 150%. But surely there was an easier way?
This is a guest post by productivity guru and good friend, Daniel Gold.
Achieving a “mind like water” and “balance” as time management guru, David Allen suggests in his book, “Getting Things Done”, is sometimes a whole lot easier said than done. To truly achieve productivity bliss, it requires something much more than “the right app” – it requires dedication and unbridled tenacity to achieve your goals.
Trello came to my attention about six weeks ago and, being a technology and productivity nerd, I quickly created an account and was eager to check it out. It’s always interesting to see how different companies approach task management and collaboration – whether it’s an obvious interpretation of David Allen Co’s Getting Things Done (GTD), or whether it’s a completely new way of looking at to-do’s. In any case, only those companies that strive to be unique end up making a mark for themselves and help the productivity of many people.
When I logged in to Trello for the first time I was a little confused. Each new account is given a “Welcome Board” to help guide you through how to best use the application. I was so used to basic lists that when these “boards” and “cards” appeared I didn’t know what to do. Where was the tick-box that would let me mark something as complete? How do I make something a priority? And what are all these columns anyway?
If you’re using any kind of task management tool you have probably noticed a section for overdue tasks – tasks that you had set a date to complete, but for whatever reason you weren’t able to get to them. Without conscious action these overdue tasks will continue to multiply, like a virus, and the more they do, they more they distract your mind from what you should be doing as you begin to stress about them more and more. If you’re using the age-old pen and paper task list method then the overdue tasks are either whatever is left over each day and/or those tasks that you find yourself writing at the top of the list on each new day.
There are ways to handle overdue tasks and to keep their virus at bay, but first it’s good to understand how you work and how your tasks go from “upcoming” to “today” to “oh my god, now it’s overdue”.
Since I started blogging on productivity and technology and all that fun stuff I’ve been reading other blogs more and more. I’ve tried a couple of different tools to help me stay on top of the articles that I want to read, and at the moment I am very happy using Readability.
Readability is a bit like Pocket or Instapaper. You find an article you want to save for later and click the “Readability” button in the toolbar of the web browser. This captures the article and copies it to the Readability service so you can read it later from the Readability site, or from your mobile device.
There are three main ways I add articles Readability.
