Posts Tagged ‘project’

Fear of Flying: Facing the Fear of Success

Believe it or not, one of the most paralyzing fears is the fear of success. That's right, the fear of achieving one's goals. It seems insane, because of course, we want to reach our goals, right? I mean, don't we? The short answer is that yes, we do want to accomplish our goals, but that it's complicated. There are several factors that complicate our relationship with achievement. For example, we may… Continue reading

October 2 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: achievement, failure, fear, goal, project, success | 9 comments»

GTD Refresh, Part 4: Getting Sorted

Last week, I talked about finally getting my projects in order. Of course, that’s not a one-time thing, but I’m not quite ready to talk about the process of bringing new projects into my lists just yet, whether “on-the-fly” or as part of my weekly review.

But getting a grip on my projects, both big (there’s a book proposal I want to write) and small… Continue reading

June 5 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: file, gtd, gtd-refresh, paper, project | 8 comments»

GTD Refresh, Part 3: Projects

Months ago now, I announced I was going to “reboot” my GTD setup, returning as close to an “orthodox”, by-the-book GTD setup as I could manage. Out the gate, I started “off”, working not from tasks up but from the middle, David Allen’s 30,000 and 40,000-foot levels, by drawing up a mindmap of my areas of focus and my vision for myself in a few years time.… Continue reading

May 29 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: gtd, gtd-refresh, next-action, nozbe, project, task | 6 comments»

The Fast Track Past A Failed Project: 5 Steps

I've been working on a pretty big project — a book — for going on eight months. This week, I got word that the project had been scrapped, at least as far as the publisher was concerned. It was a pretty big let down for me: we were only about two months away from the end of the project. Since I've gotten word, I've been working through everything from shock… Continue reading

May 21 2009 | By Thursday | Tagged: disappointment, failure, project | 8 comments»

Getting Lifehack Done: Global Collaboration

Somewhere around 3 dozen people, scattered across the globe from Hong Kong across the US to the UK, Europe, and beyond work together to bring you the collection of useful tips, thought pieces, and inspiration known as Lifehack. I thought it might be interesting to our readers to learn a little bit about what goes on “behind the scenes” at a big site like this – the… Continue reading

August 29 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: collaboration, Lifehack, project, team, website, work | 5 comments»

Back to Basics: Projects

One of the things that is so hard to grasp about “next actions” or “tasks” is that they are single actions – buy something, call someone, go somewhere, look something up. In and of themselves, they have no end goal other than their own immediate completion. People don’t think like that way, for the most part, and it is the challenge of productivity experts like David Allen or Stephen Covey… Continue reading

August 15 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: back-to-basics, goal, gtd, motivation, organization, project, task | 16 comments»

Time Striping: A Different Approach to Time Management

As a university instructor, I often have weeks-long stretches of unscheduled time in between sessions, which I need to use to catch up on all the projects I've let slide during the hectic second half of the semester. As a freelance writer, I always have a stack of little projects as well as ongoing commitments (like my thrice-weekly posts here at Lifehack) that need to get done.

The Trouble… Continue reading

May 21 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: project, scheduling, time-blocking, time-management | 19 comments»

Stay on Track with a Treadmill Journal

Nobody knows more tricks and hacks to keep themselves working towards their goals than writers! From getting fired up to start to knowing when to quit -- and all the struggles to keep on going in between -- writers need every dollop of motivational help they can scrape up. One trick that some writers use is a "treadmill journal". Unlike a typical journal, a treadmill journal is a single-purpose journal… Continue reading

February 29 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: journal, motivation, project, sticking_point, tasks, time_management, writing | 17 comments»

What’s YOUR Sticking Point?

I've written recently about starting and finishing the big projects in your life, which leaves the big, wide middle -- the day-to-day slog of working steadily to get to done.

When we start something new, we often have a huge burst of enthusiasm and energy that carries us through the early stages. But eventually the newness wears off, and the project settles down into a… Continue reading

February 1 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: finishing, frustration, obstacle, project, sticking_point | 12 comments»

Getting Past Done: What to Do After You’ve Finished a Big Project

There's no feeling in the world quite like the mixture of triumph and sadness that comes after finishing a project you've been working on for months or even years. On one hand, you're done and can finally release your finished product, whatever it is, into the world. On the other hand, though, completing a big goal leaves a little emptiness in your life, like sending your kids off… Continue reading

January 25 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: completion, goal, mission, project, self_development, vision | 14 comments»

What’s Stopping You from Getting Started (and What to Do About It)

If you're like most people, you have a lot of projects on your back burner that you hope to get to someday but aren't quite ready for. Writers call this a "one-day novel" -- as in "one day I'm going to write that novel." Of course, that one magical day never comes.

Perhaps too there are a few things on your list that have been sitting there… Continue reading

January 18 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: confidence, focus, project, starting, time | 22 comments»

Introducing Our New Podcast: Lifehack Live

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Because the end of the year isn't busy enough, this week lifehack.org is launching a new podcast series, Lifehack Live. Every week, we'll be discussing personal development, productivity, organization, and creativity with our guests -- and with you! Lifehack Live is recorded using the BlogTalkRadio system, which allows us to broadcast a live stream during the show, and take callers while we're recording.

It's going to take… Continue reading

December 24 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: interview, Podcast, procrastination, Productivity, project, writing | 2 comments»

Effective is Not the Same as Efficient

Are you efficient, effective, or efficiently effective? As you are focused on getting things done efficiently you may be making very quick decisions. You rapidly move through tasks and check things off your To-Do list one, two, three. You look productive because there is activity, your list is full of check marks or strikeouts showing completion, and your calendar shows meetings. That To-Do list isn’t too long and overwhelming… Continue reading

November 1 2007 | By Susan | Tagged: deadline, effectiveness, efficiency, project, work | 20 comments»

Advice for students: Staple!

There are many ways for students to annoy their professors: "Did I miss anything important?" (No, nothing like that happens in our class.) "Will this test affect my grade?" (No, not at all.) "What are your office hours?" (They're the first thing on the syllabus.) Most professors understand that such questions are harmless; few, if any, would give the responses I've imagined here. An annoyance that's less understandable is the… Continue reading

November 1 2007 | By Michael | Tagged: project, studying | 24 comments»

7 Steps To Finally Complete That Project

Those elusive projects that always stay undone could benefit from a red, hot go, as Leo Babauta suggests, instead of slowly chipping away at it. However, you need a plan. These steps cover everything from setting your time up to resolving the project at the end. Won't you feel awesome once you get this one done? 4. Make a project modular. Similarly, sometimes there’s a project where it would be impossible… Continue reading

October 29 2007 | By Craig | Tagged: Productivity, project | 4 comments»

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