Organize IT

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Last week I was asked on Twitter what my favorite GTD tools were for getting organized. Did I prefer the hifi or lofi approach? What was my favorite app? My answer was unequivocally that I prefered good ol’ pen and paper. I’ve always prefered the low tech approach and have never really experimented with apps. But it got me thinking, why do I prefer paper? Well, below are my six main reasons…

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Last week I published a guest post by John Anyasor on how to take revenge on your email inbox. He made a good point about sharing your email address. It’s very easy to just put your address out there, use it to register on a bunch of sites without a second thought, mention it in conversation on forums, etc. However, this all leads to your inbox filling up with junk that you have no interest in (I’m not just talking about spam here either) and is just one example of bad email habits.

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This guest post was written by John Anyasor of HiLife2B.

Email has been the culprit of countless wasted hours for as along as the internet has been in existence. Spam, promotions, emails from family members and coworkers, newsletters… it’s all too much. And this doesn’t even include the colossal number of replies that you have to send in response. I can’t take it anymore. Who owns my life? Me or my inbox? The answer to that is obvious of course, but achieving it is easier said than done, right? How are we going to curtail the use of our email if it just keeps coming into our inbox? Well, it is actually easier than you think. It’s all a matter of knowing how to control your emails and better manage your inbox.

A couple of years ago there was a little story doing the rounds about a bit of productivity advice from none other than Seinfeld.  He said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day, even when you didn’t feel like it. To help achieve this he had a big calendar on his wall and for each day that he did some writing he put a big red cross over that day. After a few days a chain would be created. As the chain gets bigger you’ll not want to break it, so you’ll do what it takes to keep it going.

Some time ago I created a weekly planner. I tried existing designs from the likes of DIY Planner and David Seah and I had experimented with all the different refills for my Filofax, but none of them were tailored to my individual needs. So I designed my own. The second version of it that I published last year was very popular, and even got mentioned by Lifehacker. However, move forward several months and I was increasingly feeling that the planner needed a refresh to suit my current needs. And so the time has arrived to introduce version three of my weekly planner….