Organize IT recap for 18th January 2008

• For some reason the number of comments over the last month has dwindled dramatically. I always enjoy the exchange of thoughts/ideas and while I don’t want this to come across as a plea for everyone to start commenting again, I’m curious to know why people have shied away recently. Let me know what I’m doing wrong and hopefully I can take measures to get you all commentating again!
• I’ve always preferred paper based solutions for organizing my life. I don’t like to spend more time on my computer than necessary. How To Be An Original has done a brilliant analysis of different paper based solutions, including Filofax and the ever popular Moleskine. Very interesting read if you are into those sorts of tools.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger with self improvement advice? Considering he won numerous bodybuilding awards, was one of the highest paid actors in his prime and is now the governor of California, maybe he can teach us a few things. The Positivity Blog details his top five tips.

Organize IT recap for 11th January 2008

• Just a quick message about advertising on the site. I am offering discounted prices for anybody who takes out an advert during January. I offer deals covering one, two or three month periods and prices have 25% off until the end of the month. Check out the advertising page for details!
• I received an email recently about a new email reminding service called 3MindMe. If you are a regular reader, you will probably know that I tend to shy away from hi-fi solutions for organizing myself. However, one thing people can rarely get away from is email so why not incorporate your system into it? If anyone has tried 3MindMe share your thouughts in the comments; the author, David Barrett, is looking for feedback.
• Here are some funny little pictures for all you GTD fans I came across recently. Firstly we have Getting Things Done for the Nintendo DS. Next we have the follow up to the cult book, covering the art of productivity free stress. I’ve already made my order for both.
• Interestingly, despite being written for CEO’s, few of them actually read books like Getting Things Done. In fact, according to research a lot of them instead read fiction, poetry and biographies. You can read more at the Frugal Law Student.

Organize IT recap for 04th January 2008

• A few weeks ago I talked about how to maintain high energy levels. One of the key elements of achieving this consistently is to get good sleep and lots of it because after all, feeling tired is a surefire way for your mood and productivity to plummet. Dumb Little Man has ten foolproof tips for better sleep. Check out my sleeping guide from 2006(!) for extra points too.
• I’ve always got a book or two handy to read whenever I have a bit of spare time. However, if you are an heavy duty book reader you probably find you end up with a large backlog of unread books. Try out these five sneaky methods to squeeze out extra time in your day for reading.
• Productivity Goal has a look at whether background music can increase your productivity. I don’t think I have a preference about what is playing in the background, however I do prefer having something on, whether it be music, podcasts or even the TV. Whether that improves my productivity or not is unclear. Do you have particular choices of music for when working?
• I just want to thank everybody who made a donation to show their support for this blog over the last year (you can check out the information for donating here). Rest assured that I will continue to write regular content and I’m also going to put a lot of focus into expanding my productivity templates range so keep an eye out for that!

Organize IT recap for 28th December 2007.

• Hope everybody had a good Christmas! Now we only have the excesses of new year celebrations to get through then we can all get back down to serious work (or not…). Unlike Christmas, deciding what to do for the new year has always been a tricky issue for me as it usually ends up being a big letdown. What do you guys do to bring in the new year?
• As it was just before Christmas, my invite to view my new profile at LinkedIn probably passed a few of you by so I will just repeat it again. If any readers are signed up to LinkedIn be sure to add me to your network!
• Lifehack.org has done its year in review. While it doesn’t provide any practical advice per se, I thought it was worth mentioning for explaining the background of lifehacking and why it is such a big deal right now.
• John Place has a great article up about self acceptance. In a previous post I dismissed the concept of being yourself, which caused some debate. However the self acceptance idea pretty much sums up the alternative mindset you should adopt.

Organize IT recap for 21st December 2007.

• After asking for reader opinions on social networking sites I coincidently got an invite to join LinkedIn. I’m not sure yet what advantages or benefits it will bring to me or the blog, but it does look potentially more suitable for my needs than Facebook. You can view my profile here, be sure to add me to your network if you have an account!
• With the new year getting ever closer, it’s only natural that I will take a look over the past twelve months on Organize IT. I’m not quite sure what format that will take yet, but I would really like it if you all left a quick comment sharing what you considered to be the best and most useful posts. It might give me a good idea of what direction to go in in 2008.
• I’m not really a fan of software and web apps for organizing my life. I don’t like to rely too much on a computer and an internet connection, and I figure I spend enough time on my PC anyway. Do any of you guys feel the same way or it that not a problem for you? If you are into we apps though, Lifehack.org has a good look at eleven of the best releases from 2007.
• What is a priority? What is not a priority? How do you even work it out? Rolf of Evomend, a regular here at Organize IT, has written an extensive guide to priorities covering a number of way to assess importance.