Organize IT

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.

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.

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?

Last week was Blog Action Day 2008, with the topic being poverty. Just like last year I want to take this opportunity to recap some great posts from other productivity bloggers out there. After all, if productivity is about getting stuff done where better to look for actionable tips and advice on combating poverty? If you know of any other links let me know and I will add them to the list.

In the next few weeks I will do a post covering my three favorite productivity books, why I am like them and what sort of information they can offer you. However in the meantime I would be really interested in knowing what books my readers enjoy. Getting Things Done, The Four Hour Work Week and even The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People are probably the most obvious ones (and one of them will certainly be in my list) but it would be great to read recommendations for any other, less obvious classics. So, please leave a comment listing your three favorite productivity books and, if you have time, why not explain why you like them? I look forward to all your suggestions. Who knows, if the response is good I might be able to compile a league table of the most popular productivity books out there.