It’s with all this in mind that I’ve decided to take a break. I like writing and blogging is a great way to, well, write regularly. Unfortunately with Organize IT, over the last year or so I’ve got lost in the nuances of promotion, of maintenance and of simply trying to have a well-functioning website. That and I’ve pretty much written everything I can about productivity, organization and the finer details of time management at this moment in time. When you’re rehashing the same old stuff, it’s time to step back for a while.

This is not a goodbye by any means. Organize IT won’t be going anywhere because plenty of people are still visiting and getting value out of the site, and I definitely plan to return occasionally and do the odd update now and then. In the meantime, thankyou all for your support!

• GTD doesn’t work for creative people
  This was the most controversial point and I’ve looked around trying to find where this belief has come from about GTD (any ideas?). Paul Gardner wrote eight reasons why it is a good system for creative people so I won’t repeat his great points here. In my view, it’s generally regarded that creativity needs limits and boundaries and the whole idea of expanding your mind isn’t really a legit one, so surely GTD, with its focused framework, allows your creative input to be channeled appropriately?
• Create a to-stop list
  In theory this is a great idea. Likewise, I once came up with a done list, that covered all the things you’ve achieved over the years, which could be used as a motivational boost. But if you’re wanting to make things simple why create yet another list? Sure, it’s useful to identify areas that are holding you back, but then you need to do something about it, so why not just keep those actions on your to-do list?
• Focus on short bursts
  While it’s so true that dreams can die from lack of focused attention, I don’t feel increasing your resistance as though your focus is a mental muscle that will get stronger is the answer. To me, focus is like a rubber band. As soon as we start trying to focus on something that’s time consuming or trying to do several things at once (multi-task), that band gets stretched out, often to breaking point. This is why I love next actions. Breaking the work down like this allows me to wrap that band of focus tight round what I’m doing.
• Allow yourself to suck
  This one I like. It surprises me somewhat that David Allen openly admits that we will fall off the wagon on a regular basis. This is a flaw in his system and rather than discussing ways to limit it, he openly embraces it. It’s almost like saying you should drive a car flat out till the fuel runs out in the middle of nowhere, rather than taking it steady, having regular fuel stops, and making sure you get to where you need to be. I will be writing more on this on Thursday.
• Make it stupidly simple
  How complicated is GTD really? I use next actions as an example again. A complicated project like buying a new home becomes much more simple when you focus on arranging a meeting with the bank, for instance. I think too many people get hung up on how to implement it (hence the huge number of productivity apps out there), but as one commentator said, if you geek out on your system, that’s not the fault of GTD. David Allen has said numerous times that just a pen and paper will do.

Several people noted that the seven points made were just GTD features described in an alternative way (that seemed to appeal more to creative people). That certainly seems true, but it raises a point about the way David Allen describes his work. He’s perhaps not helped himself by aiming at a corporate audience (though his bank manager would probably disagree). What are your thoughts on this subject and the points made?

What marks this book out is the overall tone of it. If you’re a fan of Leo’s blog, it reads very much like an expanded and polished version of one of his posts. Where David Allen spent three chapters extolling the virtues of his supposed world-changing system, Leo offers a collection of commonsense suggestions for streamlining your life that he genuinely hopes you will find useful… without any of the over-sell. And what’s better is that, for once, this is a personal-growth book that feels like it’s aimed at the average Joe who wants an easier life, not some corporate entity looking for ways to get that next promotion (despite what the subtitle of the book suggests).

Considering the book encourages you to simplify and streamline your life, it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s a simple read. This is a mixed blessing. The average self-help book takes a basic concept and tries to bloat it up for several hundred pages, but at least you get something to really think about. The discussion of the six principles takes up less than a third of the book. The rest covers how to apply them to such things as time management, your workspace, your daily routine, etc. This marks it out from the rest because not enough authors provide clear, practical examples of their philosophies in action. However, how you streamline your emails pretty much follows the same approach as how you’d streamline your filing or your commitments, so you’ll probably get the whole idea of the book early on.

If you’re a regular reader of Zen Habits, there is nothing particularly fresh here and how much you enjoy this book may depend largely on how much you enjoy that blog (considering how popular it is, that’s probably not an issue). Perhaps much of the advice is kind of obvious – if you’re a regular reader of Organize IT or similar blogs you’ve probably touched on it before – but you’d be surprised at how many people are blind to it. The Power Of Less is an easy-going introduction to streamlining your life, and you will certainly struggle to find such advice presented as concisely and simply as in this book.

When I first tried to do a mind sweep I struggled. What could I write down? I quickly jotted down the obvious stuff, most of which was already on my radar, but then I got stuck. The brain often needs some sort of clue – verbal, visual, etc. – before it will unlock its doors. For example, it will only remind you to buy batteries when it sees the dead ones in the remote control.

This is where the trigger list comes in. Just glancing at one or two words will typically remind you of something you like to do, something you’ve forgotten about or something that needs dealing with. The first time you do a mind sweep you may be surprised by the amount of stuff that comes up. Don’t be put off by this. It’s better out than in, as it were, and just because you’re jotted something down doesn’t mean you are now committed to doing it. Your brain will feel the relief of not having so much to remember and you’ll now be able to judiciously plan and consider what you’ve actually got going on in your life.

The trick then is to do a mind sweep regularly so stuff doesn’t seep back into your brain. However this is much easier to do if you regularly jot down any thoughts, to-do’s and ideas as they occur to you on a notepad or PDA. Get into the habit of carrying a pen and paper around with you!

• View trigger list
• Check out my other tools

I’ve never personally found the trigger list David Allen provides to be as in-depth as it could be, so a few months ago I greatly expanded on it. However, as is the nature of these things, I kept thinking up further keywords to add. So today I’m releasing a vastly updated version, incorporating these extra words plus a few more from Making It All Work. I’ve also compressed it down onto one page so it can easily be pinned to a board or stuck on the wall (let me know if you don’t like it this way). Hope you find it useful, and if you have any further suggestions on how to expand and improve it, please let me know!

There is a small charge for this book (£1.99 or approximately $2.77 in the US at the time of writing this) which I hope you will find fair and reasonable. If you want a preview or need some persuasion you can check out a sample page. Of course, if you don’t want to pay you can still read the original blog posts and my first ebook, Clutter 101, is still available for free.

Update: The book is now available.

The book is being released for the first three days to RSS subscribers, just go to the link at the bottom of this post in your feed reader. If you haven’t subscribed already you can do so at any time, check out the subscriptions box at the right side of the blog (I’ve also done a short guide if you need help). If you don’t want to subscribe just bookmark this page and check it again on Wednesday, when I will update it with a link to where you can get the book. Hope you enjoy it!

But the hard work must not stop here comrades! Constructive feedback is always invaluable so I’d be keen to know your thoughts, whether you’re a regular commentator or somebody who merely reads the occasional post. All those lurkers at the back, come forward and comment please! What do you like and dislike (be gentle) about Organize IT? Are the topics I write about interesting and varied? Is the standard of writing good or does it send you to sleep? I’m also curious about the the new site design I put up back in September. I never really got much feedback (probably because I only asked one person) but now is my chance to rectify that. Do you like the new layout? I feel it’s my best one to date, but do you find it easy to read, comment and explore? Look forward to your comments!

• View example planner
• Download blank planner

Note that in the top section, you only put day and/or time related stuff here (the hard landscape). For instance, I need to go to the conference on Thursday, that isn’t something I can change, and I need to type up a report on Tuesday as Sarah is expecting it. In the next actions section I put any tasks that don’t (yet) need to be done on a particular date (though this doesn’t mean they are any less important). For example, I want to search for a birthday present for someone but the birthday isn’t for several weeks so I can just fit it around other stuff I’m doing. Finally, the third box is simply if I have lots of related tasks and I want to group them together (under home-owner in this example), instead of having them cluttering up the next actions box. By grouping them together I can easily see how much housework I have to do.

• Write about what interests you
  It’s the simplest rule. If there isn’t the enthusiasm there, you simply won’t have the motivation to keep doing it. Last year I tried running two other blogs without much success because ultimately I just couldn’t be bothered writing for them. A good place to start is by doing a blog about one of your favorite hobbies or even your niche at work. One of the best things about regularly blogging is that you will learn new ideas and develop your own thoughts. Perhaps, businesses should encourage their staff to blog about their work and help improve their knowledge?
• Have a schedule that suits you
  For a newbie blogger it’s quite easy to fall into the trap of thinking that more posts automatically equals more visitors and then force themselves into inconvenient, difficult posting schedules. As I discovered for myself, it’s not the quantity but the quality. I used to stretch myself, my writing and my ideas over five posts a week. Now I only do three but it gives me the time to really expand and develop posts. The result hasn’t been a drop in visitors; quite the opposite.
• Network, network, network
  You can’t blog effectively in a bubble. Get in touch with other bloggers in your niche, leave comments, share links, use social network sites. If nobody is reading what you write, what’s the point? When somebody leaves a comment saying how they enjoyed reading your blog, or somebody submits your post to Digg and it sends thousands of visitors your way, that’s a great boost.

The best posts
I’ve shied away from doing too many links back to old posts because I already do a recap at the end of each month. However I think it’s appropriate with the second birthday to do something. To make it a little different I’m going to list my own, favorite top five posts from the last year (not an easy task). Do you agree with my choice? Why not leave your own choices in the comments!

• Habit Building: Laying The Foundations
• 9 Reasons Why Getting Things Done Sucks!
• Having One Of Those Days? Here’s How To Deal With It
• 4 Life Lessons From Gregory House M.D.
• 7 Reasons To Ditch Your PDA And Switch To Pen And Paper

The future?
My first ebook, Clutter 101, has gone down really well and I have a couple of ideas for my next ebook. I am also going to update my collection of templates as they have been neglected recently. Every so often I like to collect thoughts from all you readers so that I know I’m going in the right direction with Organize IT. Do you like the new design? Are you enjoying the quality of the writing? What would you like to see more or less of? Any other suggestions? Leave a comment below!

However, don’t think I will be leaving all of you faithful readers without fresh content! I hope to line up a few guest posts from my favorite bloggers and commentors which should keep you going and I will have some pre-prepared posts of my own too. You can already get a taste of what to expect with Wednesday’s post by Shanel Yang covering whether you are simplicity-inclined or productivity-inclined. It’s also worth mentioning that I will be publishing my new ebook before the end of the month and seeing as August will mark the second year of Organize IT expect a couple of announcements regarding that, too.

To conclude, thankyou to everyone who reads this blog and leaves comments, and for giving me loads of encouragement over the last year. See you soon!