Organize IT

8 Simple Ways To Get On Track And Keep Your Focus

James — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:03:18 +0000

For all the tips and advice on being productive that are out there, it’s all useless if you cant focus on what you’re doing. To be productive is to do your work as efficiently and in as stress-free a way as possible but you can’t do any of that if your mind keeps flicking to other things every five minutes. Having had my own struggles with focus recently (more on that later in the article) I thought I’d share my own tips on how I got back on track.

Take a break
Occasionally all you need to do to regain focus is just take a break for a few minutes. Other times you might need to take a long holiday to feel the benefits but the point is, ever so often you need to get away from your work, clear your mind of it and just think about something else instead.
Get some sleep
This is related to the above point but is worth mentioning separately because it has other benefits. Getting plenty of sleep allows your body and mind to recharge. If you’ve ever tried to focus on your work when you are tired or lacking in energy you will know what I mean.
Plan, plan, plan
Your to-do list is full, your calendar is packed and you have colleagues knocking on your day demanding your attention. With all of that banging around your head it’s no wonder focus is hard to find. So, come up with a plan. Cut through all the chaos and figure out what you really want to do, how you’re going to do it and when you want to do it. Get it all out of your head and into a trusted system.
Complete your work
A surefire way to lose focus is to have too many things going on. I’m currently doing some decorating around the home and kept starting new tasks without finishing old ones. Big mistake! With my attention spread all over the place I found it hard to focus. Keep the amount of incomplete tasks you have on the go to a minimum.
Cut out the crap
It’s not just the incompletes you need to get off your radar. Whether it be the dozens of minor tasks clogging up your to-do list or projects that you really couldn’t care less about, get them done and resolved or cut them out of your workflow completely. Remember the two minute rule and put it to use. It’s easier to focus on just a handful of key, important tasks.
Just do something
Focus doesn’t always come straightaway, especially if you have a big, complicated project. Don’t wait around till that focus comes. In these sorts of situations you just have to get active and start doing something. Once you have some momentum behind you focus will often follow.
Figure out the next actionable step
Speaking of momentum, you can fly through your work if you know what the next actionable step is. Rather than taking on some broad work that covers all sorts of areas, pick out the one task that will move things forward. If you are struggling to empty your inbox it’s because you’re focusing on working your way through the entire contents and not just about getting that first email out of the way.
Remove distractions
It’s impossible to get into that special place where you’re totally focused on what you’re doing when you have your mobile phone ringing every five minutes. Whether it be your phone, noisy colleagues or a messy desk, deal with them before you sit down to work.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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A Year Ago On Organize IT: Trim Your To-Do List, Key Rules For Organizing Systems And Should You Simplify Your Life?

James — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:46:14 +0000

A year ago on Organize IT you were reading:

The Three Key Rules For Any Organizing System
“Every system or tool you have setup to organize your life, whether it be the filing cabinet at work, the drawer in the kitchen or your home cleaning schedule, will ultimately flourish or fall apart depending on how easily it functions in three key areas.”

Simplifying Our Lives: Is It A Lost Cause?
“One thing that has always niggled away at the back of my mind when focusing on a simplified life is that all the practices seem to run contrary to the way society is evolving. If you think we have demands on our time or are overwhelmed with information and choice now, it will only get worse in the future. Rather than trying to fight (an arguably losing war) with this inevitability by simplifying everything, should we not be learning to deal with?”

10 Ways To A Slim And Trim To-Do List
“Your to-do list is not the place for putting general reminders, even if you do phrase it into the form of a next action. For instance, don’t put down ‘go to dentists at 9AM’ or ‘buy milk from the supermarket.’ That’s what calendars and shoppings lists are for.”

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GTD Dictionary: Someday/Maybe

James — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:09:20 +0000

Someday/maybe:

At an indefinite time in the future.
A possibility or uncertainty.

Someday/maybe covers a list of tasks that you intend to reassess in the future, but have no immediate intentions to act on them because they are currently outside the scope of your day-to-day life. They include interests like learning a new language, buying a particular book, building a new extension on your home or even taking a hiking trip across Europe… basically all those ideas and plans that you don’t have the time, information, inclination or capability to pursue today. For instance, the hiking trip would first rely on you building up some savings. You can’t fly over to Europe immediately but someday, maybe you’ll be able to do it.

Someday/maybe lists differ to other similar types of lists in that it is regularly reviewed and thought about (perhaps in a weekly review) much like any other element in a GTD system. This means you can potentially make these little seeds of an idea or intention blossom into full blown, actionable projects (or delete any that you no longer have an interest in). However, it’s worth noting that the someday/maybe list isn’t for fantasies. Many guys I know would love to be Premiership footballers but realism and practicality has to taken presidence.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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5 Ways To Make Christmas Shopping Easy This Year

James — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 17:15:25 +0000

Christmas will soon be upon us again and even though it’s early November my wife and I are already looking at shopping for presents. Every year it ends up being the same process; we get too many gifts, spend too much money and general get overwhelmed by the whole process… trying to buy presents for dozens of people can do that to you. But not this year! I’ve got a plan and in this post I’ll detail my stress-free suggestions on buying presents.

Who are you buying for?
Work out exactly who you are going to be buying presents for, who is going to get a card and who will simply be ignored. On Christmas eve, you don’t want to suddenly remember somebody who needs a present.
Set a budget
When you are buying presents over a period of time then it is very easy to lose track of how much you’ve spent. Have a clear idea of how much money you want to put in. In fact you can go so far as to set mini-budgets for each person you will be buying presents for (£20 for a friend, £40 for family members, and so on). This will stop you getting carried away or worrying about spending more money on one person than another.
What presents are you getting?
Though it can be difficult to have a clear plan of what you getting people until you see an item in the shop, it’s incredibly helpful if you do a little research beforehand. This will stop any idle browsing and give you a little focus so you’re not struggling along with other frantic Christmas shoppers.
Keep track of what you’ve bought
I know people who buy potential gifts on a whim, thinking they will make good presents for somebody. After all, it is hard trying to find a gift that is appropriate, so it makes sense to buy something when you come across it… even if it is only July. However, most of the time these gifts get lost or forgotten about. Remember, you’ve got to find storage for them all, so keep track of what you’ve bought and who is getting it.
Avoid buying lots of little presents
Try not to spend a person’s present budget on lots of little gifts. It makes it harder to keep track of what you’ve got, you will have to spend more time shopping around and you will have more to wrap. One big present is likely to be more practical and useful to someone than loads of gimmicky items.
Start your shopping early
Finally, the golden rule. Don’t whatever you do leave you shopping to the last minute. A packed out high street is not fun. If you can, get it off the internet (some sites will even wrap the gift for you). Get your present shopping out of the way early so you can really enjoy Christmas!

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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Organize IT Recap: Barack Obama, Productivity Myths That Hold You Back And A Comparison Of The Productivity Gurus

James — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:47:57 +0000

Organize IT recap for 07th November 2008.

Lifehack.org has a great look at productivity myths that hold you back. This is well worth a read because, as with most things in life, those little myths are often what holds you back. For instance, one such myth is that you need inspiration to work. This is the sort of logic that causes people to never move forward with anything in their lives. Inspiration and creativity always comes as long as you just start working.
Unsurprisingly, everybody seems to be talking about Barack Obama at the moment. I guess being president elect will have that effect on you. GTD In Academia picked up on a very interesting New York Times piece covering an overheard conversation between Obama and the Tory leader David Cameron during a trip to the UK. It’s very intriguing because of the rare insight into how politicians work and stay productive.
The September Issue of Fortune Magazine reviewed three productivity gurus, Stephen Covey, David Allen and James Loehr. Thanks to Rob Thompson, you can view it online (GTD Times have also discussed it). The article provides a nice summary of each system and further emphasizes the point that no one system will fit your life entirely.
What is the best time management advice ever? Is it to keep track of the work you’re doing? Or does it involve cutting out those bad, time wasting habits? If you think it’s the latter, then according to the Big Fat Guru you may be on the right track. In fact, he claims the best time management advice ever is to… watch less TV. When you consider that the average person in the UK watches 28 hours of TV a week, it’s hard not to agree.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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GTD Dictionary: Effectiveness

James — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:09:51 +0000

Effective:

Producing or capable of producing an intended result.
Doing something adequately to accomplish a purpose.

Effectiveness is all about doing the right things. While what projects and tasks one can class as appropriate to do will vary between situations and individuals, the general rule of thumb is to determine how much value the task will provide to you (or the company) by doing it. If attending a conference full of open minded people will lead to lots of new clients, that is an high value task making good use of your time and energy. However, if you were to start randomly ringing people up from your phonebook in the hopes of raising business that would be a poor choice of task, likely to result in minimal rewards for the amount of time it sucks up.

A lot of productivity is about how efficiently you do something, with what you’re actually working on a seperate issue entirely. However, this often leads to doing work for the sake of it or just generally falling into a state of busyness. Just because work is done well, does not make it worth doing, however. Effectiveness is significant because without a careful consideration of what tasks you should be doing, you will inevitably end up wasting time and energy on unnecessary work. A common tool for determining what work is most worth doing is the 80/20 rule, which basically states that 20% of inputs result in 80% of your outputs. Applied to effectiveness this means that by carefully shifting more of your time and energy onto those 20% of tasks you will see a significant increase in results.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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Fed Up? Bored? Frustrated? How To Make Time Fly By

James — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:53:51 +0000

A few weeks ago I took a look at time management strategies. However, human nature being what it is, one minute you wish you had more time to get stuff done, and then you wish time would speed up so you can get out of a boring meeting or not have to wait around so long at the airport. Delays and queues are rife in our lives nowadays. However, you don’t have to be a victim to such frustrating circumstances. Below I’ve detailed some of the strategies I use to make a boring trip or a tedious wait in the till queue go that little bit quicker.

Hide the clock
Clock watching is a surefire way to make time drag and drag… so don’t do it! Hide the clock if you need to (don’t forget to put it back when you finish work or your boss may send security after you). You can also take your watch off and stick it in a drawer or pocket if it’s too much of a temptation. If your place of work is anything like mine, every phone has a digital clock display on it. It’s not really practical to unhook your phone every day (unless your intention is to lose customers) so what I personally do is stick some tape over the display. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re not constantly face-to-face with a clock.
Avoid tedious work
Time always seems to go slower when you are constantly aware of it. If you’re doing irritating, tedious and just generally naff work then all you are going to be thinking about is how long you have left until you can go home. However, if you are too occupied, engaged or just generally too busy to worry about how many minutes have passed you’re on the right track.
Get active
If you are stuck at the station waiting for a train, don’t sit there on the platform twiddling your thumbs. Get up, move around. Buy a book, listen to some music, admire the architecture if that’s your thing. The same goes for any other scenario. If you are sat at your desk waiting for the last hour to pass by before you can go home, don’t just stare at the monitor. Have a conversation with a colleague, tidy your desk, make a paper plane.
Accept your fate
What I have personally found is that, ironically, a short four hour shift seems to drag on a lot more compared to a full day at work (eight hours for instance). The reason seems to be that with the long shifts I accept my fate. I’m here for the long haul so I might as well just get on with it. So, whether it be an all-day meeting, a big traffic jam or a twelve hour flight, accept you’re going to be there for a long time rather than wondering how much longer you have left. It’s much better to be relaxed about the situation that constantly frustrated.
Use it to your advantage
While I admit it’s not really practical to start organizing your to-do list when you are waiting in line at the supermarket (ever get someone peeking over your shoulder?), if you would otherwise be stuck doing nothing, it can be a great opportunity to instead do something constructive. Whenever I have a long drive ahead of me I take a notepad so I can scribble down any notes or even plan out a blog post (and yes, this is when I’m the passenger not the driver).

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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Best Of Organize IT: October 2008

James — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:08:30 +0000

This past month I got a mention on Lifehacker about my weekly planner and received lots of new readers out of it (a big welcome to you all). As ever, if you have missed any of my posts from the last several weeks, I’ve done a handy recap below. If you have an opinion on any of them please leave a comment sharing your thoughts, I always try to reply to as many as possible.

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GTD Dictionary: Efficiency

James — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 19:56:16 +0000

Efficiency:

Producing effectively with a minimum of waste, expense, or effort.
Ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time.

Efficiency and productivity (in its traditional sense) have a key similarity. They both involve doing work in the most economical way possible and as a result there are numerous tips, practices and suggestions you can follow to achieve that. Efficiency can be measured in any number of ways, from how well you use your time to how little energy and stress you exert in doing your work. Nobody wants their work to become a chore but by being efficient this can be minimized.

Consider for instance, working on a project when you are procrastinating. That’s not an efficient use of your time because what might take an hour to achieve, for instance, gets dragged out to an entire afternoon as you idly browse websites and play with your phone. Getting stressed out because you can’t find your notes is also inefficient as it trying to focus on your tasks when you are too tired. Ironically, it is often better to put off your work until you are in the right frame of mind. Trying to fight through it will invariably lead to burnout. The amount of time wasted when doing a project inefficiently usually ends up being more than if you were to simply put it off for a few hours/days so you can recharge.

It’s worth noting that being efficient and doing things quickly is not the same thing. By rushing what you do you will make mistakes, which in turn will actually slow you down. With efficiency the quality of the work you are doing is still important.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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9 Reasons Why Getting Things Done Rules!

James — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:14:35 +0000

Several months ago I wrote nine reasons why GTD sucks. Yes, nine whole reasons! However, as I stated at the time, it wasn’t representative of my true feelings, it was more an opportunity to provide an alternative perspective to counter the GTD cultism. I’m no hater (I’m no fanboy either for that matter) so today I want to go full circle and look at why GTD is so popular to provide a nice, balanced perspective. Last time I got some excellent comments and I got some great discussion out of it. Hopefully with this GTD lovefest of a post it will provoke a similar reaction. Do you agree/disagree with my points?

It’s well supported
Whether it be David Allen’s seminars, the numerous audio sets, the official GTD forums or even the hundreds of blogs that have sprung up (including an official one), it’s hard not to find support and advice for whatever productivity ailment you are suffering from.
The weekly review
The weekly review is really just taking the time to stop and think… such a simple concept yet one that is rarely followed. When applied to GTD it becomes a key component, encouraging you to really evaluate your progress and analyze what you’re doing.
It provides a solid foundation for productivity
Maybe it’s because GTD is so simple or perhaps it’s just packaged up in such an effective way, but even a basic setup will provide a solid foundation for learning the habits of productivity. Many people (myself included) have now taken that foundation and evolved their own ideas and implementations. The pupils are becoming the new masters!
It makes you more organized
Is organization a byproduct of productivity or the other way around? Ah, who cares. If it wasn’t for GTD and it’s filing systems, reference tools and buckets for capturing incoming stuff I’d probably not be the de-cluttering master I am today (wink, wink).
Next actions
From the dawn of time breaking your work down has been the single productivity tip everyone could pick up, but thanks to GTD, this idea has been taken to the next level of usability. Next actions are deceptively simple, yet one of the best concepts I have ever picked up from the book. If I’m not moving forward with a project, it’s almost always because I haven’t defined next actions properly.
It’s commonsense
The depth and size of the book might make GTD seem more complicated than it actually is but, as David Allen admits himself, it’s really just all commonsense. Whether it’s writing stuff down instead of storing it in your head or using a calendar as it’s meant to be used (the hard landscape), it makes me think why I never thought of these concepts before.
It makes you more productive
Well, obviously!
It encourages you to get stuff out your head
There are numerous benefits to this. It gives you more focus, stops you getting so stressed and makes you more relaxed. Your brain isn’t good at remembering stuff yet why do you always rely on it? With commitments in a trusted system there is no chance of you forgetting any dates or meetings again. With projects on a relevant list there is no opportunity for you to miss out any key details.
The two minute rule
Another simple concept with massive benefits. Think about how many tasks you can get off your radar by applying it. Got a quick email to type or phonecall to make? Do it now! Most people aren’t so direct with these sorts of tasks but they are the ones that usually end up overwhelming you and bogging down your to-do list. Thankfully, with GTD there is an effective way of dealing with them.

Check out my free new ebook, Clutter 101: The Definitive Guide To De-cluttering Your Life

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