Some people just can’t whistle (like yours truly) but thanks to this little guide you can finally hold your own. And annoy people
Getting up early is generally regarded as an important aspect of being truly productive. I’ve tried it and am still reserving judgement but if you need any help becoming an early riser check out this 15 point guide.
Recently I have been doing a few posts directed at you, the readers (I know you are out there, the stats do not lie!). It would be great to hear from you all, so please check them out and share your thoughts.
Over at the ever great Zen Habits, Leo has done a highly detailed Getting Things Done FAQ. If you have any questions about GTD, I suggest you check that post out.
I read an interesting point in a book called Dejunk Your Life by Helen Foster which makes an interesting point about how working full time can be expensive. In theory doing more hours means more money. However, working all these hours means you have to give more consideration to such things as travel, food and especially childcare. Helen Foster claims the average worker spends around £3000 a year on actively going to work and that can seriously make a dent in all that money you would otherwise make from long hours/overtime.
Foster also includes such examples as retail therapy and holidays to de-stress and unwind as well as after-work drinks and meals. This is an interesting point, what do you all think? Is there an optimal number of hours per week a person should do to balance financial benefits and personal wellbeing?
Over at Productivity501 I was invited to participate in a group email interview. This was a great privilage to be included as there were a lot of other big productivity blogs included in it. The various responses to the questions are very interesting and I highly suggest you check them out. In this post I thought I would go over my answers and share my thinking behind them.
One of the reasons we get bogged down with a project is because we don’t have our next actions worked out properly. In GTD a next action is literally the next step you need to take to move a project forward. But when problems arise it it can be a straight forward matter of not having the right next actions worked out, to a major issue of how you have them defined in your mind and on your system. Below are 4 rules for writing down air tight next actions.
This always happens to me. Those magazines show up everywhere. On my table, in my filing cabinet, under my bed… it’s like they have a life of their own!