There are a lot of great productivity tips and advice out there. Whether you want to do a weekly review, manage your time better, figure out your life’s purpose or get a grip of your to-do list, it’s all there in books and blogs, at seminars and on CD. It will improve your life in little ways. But I’ve found that there is one big piece of advice that overrides it all, advice that requires a little bit of common-sense to apply it  but is truly life changing. That advice is to find the balance in everything you do.

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Welcome to the third of my ongoing series of posts looking at habits you can implement that will bring about definitive improvements in your life. For the third habit I will look at the next action. It is one of the simplest but most effective pieces of advice that came out of Getting Things Done. It’s such a simple but useful concept in fact, that it transcends the narrow office based productivity framework of David Allen’s system and is an invaluable mindset in day-to-day life.

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Ever met somebody who always had questions and continually looked to tweak and improve? These people aren’t negative and critical of everything, they are simply curious and inquisitive. Looking at why things are the way they are and how they can be improved is one of the strongest mindsets you can ever develop. Look at highly successful people and it’s a guarantee they will have thought about everything this way. In this second entry of my Organize IT Habits series, I will take a look at this mindset, encourage you to embrace your curiosity and to always ask why and how.

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A couple of months back I finally bought 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People. It’s been very interesting and useful, almost as much so as GTD, and was a big inspiration behind my current system (if you’ve ever read it you may recognize some of the similarities to the chart displayed in the book). Only problem for me was that it tended to be a bit long-winded and somewhat lacking in practical advice, so I thought I would start my own series, discussing habits that I think are important to personal growth and being productive.

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