Organize IT

Blimay! It’s nearly the end of the year again. At the end of December I’ll be doing my regular end of year recap. Be sure to check out my summary of 2007 if you haven’t already. Remember, this site has over two years of content and over 400 posts so hopefully there is something for everybody. The big problem with blogs is that old content gets pushed aside by newer content even when it’s all still relevant, which is why I have several regular posts highlighting these old items. Have a quick browse through, maybe you’ll find something interesting!

If repetitive day-to-day tasks are even remotely complicated or time consuming you’ll end up not doing them. Whether it’s updating your to-do list, emptying your inbox, trying to get the lid of your expensive pen or just generally trying to be productive, you will find yourself at some point falling off the wagon. Imagine that an old fashioned manager wants to start using some calendar program on the shiny new laptop his daughter got him. Unfortunately the closest he ever got to technology was when he found a lost mobile phone and thought it was a calculator. It takes him five minutes to input his meeting with that boring bloke from finances. It would have taken him five seconds in a paper calendar. I don’t think I need to spell out where I’m going with this.

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Learning to be productive nowadays with our hectic lifestyles and demanding jobs is a tough prospect, made all the more difficult by the fact there is no one correct way of doing it. You have to learn as you go and falling off the wagon is a common problem. However, from reading about and listening to other people’s experiences, there are several common reasons why they fall down. In this post I want to address them and hopefully it will give any budding productivity fans a few different anges to focus on. As a bonus why not share your own experiences. What has caused your productivity to fall apart in the past? How did you resolve it?

I’m deviating from my usual posting schedule this week to mention the first release of the Productive Magazine. Not only is it free to download, I’m also in it! My post on how to deal with having one of those days has been included, as well as 16 other posts from top productivity bloggers. When I was originally asked to submit something I wasn’t sure what the end result would be but having seen the finished product I’m very pleased and proud to have been a part of it. The magazine has been done to a very high, professional standard (as you can probably see from the front cover) and even includes an exclusive interview with David Allen. Could we be seeing it on newstands in the near future? One can hope!

My GTD Dictionary series is one of the most popular on the site and over the last few weeks I’ve been expanding it. My intention has always been to cover as many productivity related words so that anybody who was confused about particular terms could quickly look them up, rather than having to browse around aimlessly for the information. Below is a summary of what I’ve covered so far.