A lot gets said about how important planning out your work is. Yes, it’s critical to have a clear picture of what you need to do, and have the appropriate preparatory work in place. However, an element of the project cycle that doesn’t getting nearly as much attention, and which is just as important, is being clear on what you need to do to declare a project as complete, done, finished.

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Getting stuff completed often takes hard work and effort at the best of times, and it can be harder still when you aren’t motivated, or don’t even want to work on it in the first place. Even the simple two minute task can become akin to a chore if you don’t like what it is you have to do. Often just completing it is can be be a relief. But why stop there? Really reward yourself for getting stuff done.

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When people write about productivity they very often give off the impression that it involves being active and getting stuff done all of the time. Productivity in its traditional sense is essentially about doing more with less. Getting more projects completed in less time. Problem with that is there is no scope for downtime. In fact downtime is taboo in traditional work environments. It’s all about making sure the machinery fails less and needs fewer repairs.

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The highlight of the past month has been Organize IT getting accepted to the 9rules network (and not the UK weather which continues to be typically eccentric). In June I hope to make a couple of big announcements so keep an eye out for that!

• Why Are You Simplifying GTD? Simplify How You Use It!
• 7 Reasons To Ditch Your PDA And Switch To Pen And Paper
• 3 Big Reasons Companies Don’t Deserve Your Loyalty
• Introducing A New Way Of Prioritizing
• Why Writing Regularly Can Help You Grow
• Waiting And Queuing Need Not Be A Waste Of Time Anymore
• Having One Of Those Days? Here’s How To Deal With It

Organize IT recap for 30th May 2008.

• Since I moved to the new domain last year I’ve been doing the same old posting routine and I now fancy a change. It’s been a while since I last updated my productivity tips series so next week I will be dedicating all my posts to it. Hope you like it. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve my posting schedule in the long term then do get in touch.
• A few months ago I wrote nine reasons why I thought GTD sucks. However if that wasn’t enough, I recently came across another guide that covers an whole twenty six reasons to avoid using the system! Worth checking out if you want an alternative critique.
• It’s becoming more common for people to work from home. However, one thing that stood out for me when I did it was how isolating it can be. The amount of time I spent sat on a computer at home was a problem. However, as Web Worker Daily discusses, co-working is a new trend that will hopefully help people to get some social activity in their work lives.
• Productive Flourishing makes a very good point about to-do lists. No matter how much we get done we always focus more on the stuff we don’t do. The post is a great guide on how to trim your to-do lists to the bare essentials. I’ve written ten tasks you can remove from your own to-do list if you need extra inspiration.