Posts Tagged ‘task’

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»

Finding Purpose

At the beginning of the semester, I asked my students a simple question. See, I teach an unusual class, a core requirement that fulfills not just a social science or humanity requirement but also fulfills my university’s diversity requirement. In practical terms, that means that students working on satisfying their general education requirement can take just my class instead of having to take two classes to satisfy the same requirement. So… Continue reading

March 17 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: activity, life, meaning, purpose, task, work | 16 comments»

GTD Refresh: Contexts and Calendar

In my first post in this series , I discussed the steps I had begun to take in putting my GTD system back in order. I started by outlining my life at the moment (especially my Areas of Focus") and sketching out a vision of myself in 3-5 years. The next step in my return to an orthodox GTD system is to reset… Continue reading

February 26 2009 | By Dustin | Tagged: calendar, context, gtd, list, schedule, task, time-management | 10 comments»

3 Secrets to Moving Personal Task Management to the Business Level

You've got managing your tasks down to a science. Your dry cleaning is always picked up on time, your 'honey-do' list at home has nothing left on it, and you've even gotten through all the assignments your supervisor has handed off to you. You are a to-do list rock star. But then something changes: maybe you've started your own business. Perhaps you've been bumped up into management. Suddenly you have to… Continue reading

February 17 2009 | By Thursday | Tagged: Management, task, todo-list | 9 comments»

8 Ways to Translate Tasks

Emails. Memos. Project descriptions. It's not uncommon to have a stack of communications each day that we have to translate into tasks that we can actually make a little progress on. It's a skill that is becoming more and more important if you want to actually maintain a reasonable level of productivity. Even if you plan to say 'no' to any of the requests coming your way, you still have… Continue reading

February 13 2009 | By Thursday | Tagged: first step, information processing, task | 9 comments»

Back to Basics: Procrastination - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Procrastination is very literally the opposite of productivity. To produce something is to pull it forward, while to procrastinate is to push it forward -- to tomorrow, to next week, or ultimately to never. Procrastination fills us with shame -- we curse ourselves for our laziness, our inability to focus on the task at hand, our tendency to be easily led into easier and more immediate gratifications. And with good reason… Continue reading

September 19 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: back-to-basics, concepting, idea, planning, procrastination, task | 24 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»

Back to Basics: Waiting For Someday/Maybe

I mentioned before that I don’t use contexts as recommended by David Allen. However, there are two kinds of lists he recommends that I do use, and get a ton of use from. These are the “Someday/Maybe” list and the “Waiting For” list. Did you ever think that someday…? The Someday/Maybe list is a catch-all for all your crazy ideas and whacked-out plans that you just don’t have time to pursue… Continue reading

August 8 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: context, goal, gtd, list, someday-maybe, task, waiting-for | 22 comments»

Back to Basics: Your Task List

Everyone makes a task list (or “todo list”) at least now and again. Usually, we wait until we’re overwhelmed with stuff to do, and then we’ll sit down and list everything we need to get done in the next day or two. Then, one by one, we go through the items on our list, do them, and cross them off. We do this because it feels better when we do. One… Continue reading

July 18 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: back-to-basics, gtd, list, task, todo | 45 comments»

7 Reasons to Borrow Grandma’s Egg Timer

If you’ve been looking for the edge in getting your task list done, you should consider investing in a timer. Picking up a timer stands out as the one thing I’ve done that significantly increased my productivity. What’s so great about a piece of plastic with a couple of wires on the inside? After all, something that you can pick up at the dollar store can’t be a huge influence on… Continue reading

April 29 2008 | By Thursday | Tagged: Productivity, scheduling, task, timer | 13 comments»

How to Use a Todo List to Make 2008 Your Best Year Ever

Ah, the humble todo list. With all the high-tech, whiz-bang productivity applications, mobile gadgets, office tools, and genuine Corinthian leather dayplanners out there to spend our money and attention on, in the end the single most productive tool we can use boils down to a list of crap we need to do. Look under the hood of any GTD app or productivity system, and the engine that drives them… Continue reading

January 4 2008 | By Dustin | Tagged: moleskine, organization, Productivity, task, todo_list | 38 comments»

Eccentric Tips for Becoming Productive

From the way it's talked about on sites like this, you'd think productivity was a long-lost secret of the ages. Really, though, there's quite literally nothing to productivity: for the most part, it's just a matter of staying on task and working hard. The problems tend to arise more when self-motivation is required: when there are no deadlines, working consistently isn't easy. This guide won't make you productive: only you… Continue reading

September 21 2007 | By Rory | Tagged: effort, Productivity, task, tips | 13 comments»

How To Stay Motivated

It is hardly a secret that the key to successfully accomplishing one goal after another is staying motivated. There are, of course, tasks which you may not like at all, yet you find motivation to complete even them because you recognize how each particular task serves a greater goal. How exactly do some of us manage to stay motivated most of the time? Here are just a few ideas you… Continue reading

May 30 2007 | By Gleb | Tagged: howto, motivation, Productivity, task | 23 comments»

Achieve Flow by Hacking Your Tasks

You know what it feels like to be completely engaged in a task. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi coined the term flow to describe this state. Flow is crucial to performing any intellectual task. But how do you achieve it? Hack Your Tasks You won’t get flow with the carrot or the stick. External pressures are unlikely to really engage you with your task. If you want to get… Continue reading

May 3 2007 | By Guest | Tagged: flow, hack, task, time | 4 comments»

Focus on less to do more

So there you are with your Today list, your to-do list, your project lists, your house list, your calls list and even your list of lists. You know each and ever one of the 49 things you want to accomplish today. There's only one small problem: come the end of the day you've accomplished zip. What went wrong? Your focus. Now you may think you know what the word focus means… Continue reading

March 9 2007 | By Bob | Tagged: accomplishment, focus, Productivity, task | 7 comments»

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