Organize IT

Batching your work is one of the most common productivity tips out there. However, I’ve always had a little problem with it. Batching turns small, individual tasks into big, time consuming projects. Whenever I do any work I look to break it down so that I can do one individual element at a time, which makes it both comparatively easy and quick to do. Batching achieves the opposite.

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.

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.

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.

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 now view it online. 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.