As I mentioned on Monday, I’m currently reading a book called Do Good Lives Have To Cost The Earth? which discusses what living well actually means (basically, not the consumerist pursuit of material things that we’re used to) and how we do not have to damage the planet in order to achieve it. It’s well worth a read, but it brings up the question of what a good life really is. All the contributing authors in the book have their own take, what’s yours?

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The whole idea of work/life balance has been a big issue for quite a few years now. As we become more embroiled in work and businesses demand more and more from us, it increasingly encroaches on our personal time. It’s no wonder the popularity of personal productivity and time management has soared. But how do you actually create this work/life balance?

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Focus right now is a big issue for me. Mind like water? Yeah, whatever. The golden oldie – getting in the zone – is still where it’s at. There is nothing quite like being so focused on what you’re doing that tasks just fly off your to-do list. There is a lot written about getting focused (check out my own tips), but I’ve found the most effective strategy involves cutting out distractions. While typing up this post for instance, it took me twice as long to do because I let the following three distractions break my focus:

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Whatever methodology you are a fan of – whether it be Getting Things Done, Do It Tomorrow, The Four Hour Work Week or even The Power Of Less – the one bit of advice that always gets repeated by bloggers and productivity fans alike is to tailor these systems to suit your needs. Perhaps, one of the big reasons GTD is so popular and has so much written about it is because you can tweak and modify it so much.

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I’m very much a pen and paper type of person. I much prefer being able to scribble a bunch of ideas down, then having to fiddle about with a laptop or PDA. That being said, there are a great many people out there who prefer the high-tech approach. This is very apparent by the number of productivity apps out there. They all claim to do many different things, some better than others, but there is yet to be any one productivity software to rule them all! Ahem…

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