Tag: Time management

10 Reasons to Start Today

ລາວ: ການຈັດການຕ້ອງເຮັດໃຫ້ດີ

Craig Harper writes:

1. You’ll never have more time than you do right now.

2. Most people procrastinate because of fear, not logic or reason.

3. Unused potential is wasted potential.

4. Planning, thinking and rationalising, is not doing. Life is not a theory.

5. If you start today, a week from now you’ll be in the middle of a change process rather than talking about one.

6. Taking action builds your emotional and psychological muscles.

7. Transformation lives in the application of the information; not the knowing.

8. It won’t be magically easier a week or month from now.

9. The ‘Opportunity Fairy’ isn’t coming any time soon, so you may need to create one of your own (an opportunity, not a fairy).

10. You’ve put it off for long enough.

11. (bonus tip, no extra charge) I can’t be sure but I think people are on to your excuse-making bullshit.

via 10 Reasons to Start Today.

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The Time of Your Life: More Time for What Really Matters to You

Tony Robbins writes:

When it comes to managing time, most people focus on one question: What do I need to do? Focusing only on what it is you need to do, however, does not guarantee that you are making any real progress. To-do lists can keep you busy, and checking off a series of tasks can provide the illusion of progress. But have you ever crossed off everything on your to-do list and still felt like you had not really accomplished anything? There is a big difference between movement and achievement.

Activity without purpose is the drain to a life of fulfillment.

Those who succeed in life, and more importantly, achieve fulfillment—whether they are consciously aware of it or not—have three things they consistently focus on to produce results in their lives:

  • They know what they want: The target or the result they are after.
  • They know why they want it: The compelling purpose that gives them the drive to follow through.
  • They know how to make it happen: They have a flexible MAP (Massive Action Plan) to get them there.

Start with the end in mind. By focusing on the result you desire and the specific reasons that drive you, you’ll come up with a more effective action plan to get there. There are so many things competing for and demanding your attention in life, if you don’t make a conscious effort to decide in advance which things you’re going to focus on, you’ll live in reaction to demands of the moment.

Focus is the ultimate power that can change the way we think, the way we feel and what we do in any moment. When we change our focus, we change our life.

For a free download of the first session of Tony’s Time of Your Life 10-Day Audio Coaching System, go to www.tonyrobbins.com/time.

via The Time of Your Life: More Time for What Really Matters to You.

How to Create, Keep, and Grow More Time

“Time, why do you punish me? Like a wave crashing into the shore, you wash away my dreams.” Hootie and the Blowfish

I remember listening to this song for the first time, circa 1995, and thinking to myself, “What garbage.”  Wasted time, at least for me as an undergrad, didn’t really mean that much at the time.  I don’t really know the exact moment that time became precious, but it seemed to happen overnight.  In one instant, that which was plenty all of a sudden became scarce.  Work, family, friends, and that little selfish individual inside were all conveniently requesting a share.  In a second, I was left with just an empty pie tray and no pie. Hootie’s words came ringing in my ear, “An hour only lasts for one second, one second”…damn them!!!  I decided that I will respect time and make it a friend.  After much thought and meditation, I began exploring all things productivity. Continue reading “How to Create, Keep, and Grow More Time” →

I’m always trying to explain things in a way that is as simple as possible but no simpler, so I thought of another way to take a pass at David Allen’s Getting Things Done [GTD] principles as applied to the curation process. Here is the workflow map:

Here is how I apply it to the curation process:


Now, let me talk you through it:

Here are the two posts I mentioned in the screencast:

Good stuff, David. I’m doing a series on Getting Things Done [GTD] on the internet. Coincidentally, I wrote about Email last week here: http://e1evation.com/2012/10/05/getting-things-done-gtd-in-email/

Live & Learn

PrintI’m productive. Efficient. I’ve been told by many – obsessively productive and efficient.  I chew up tasks and spit them out.  Yet, one can always be more productive, right?  I’ve been in a life long search for the Holy Grail of a Zero Email Box solution at the end of each day.  A search for the best To-Do program.  A hunt for a better way to manage projects. A race to squeeze more into each day.  I believe being more productive is possible. Within reach.  Just within the ends of my fingertips.

So, when I came across Robin Sharma’s post titled “Become The Most Productive Person You Know”, I was like Zeke on his bone – on it.   When Sharma opened his post by stating: “I want to help you create explosive productivity so you get big things done (and make your life matter)…”, I was giddy. …

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Your Body: One Year From Today

One of my favorite quotes in working with clients is “A year from now you’ll wish you started today”. Along those lines, Craig Harper writes:

If you’re serious about changing your body, and more importantly, keeping it that way, below you’ll find some relevant, valuable and potentially-transformational questions. They are the type of questions that I ask anyone who comes to me for coaching in this area. Keep in mind that transformation lives in the doing, not just the knowing, so if you’re in need of a physical overhaul, or maybe just a few minor modifications, take some time to answer the following thoughtfully and courageously.

What do you want your body to look, feel and function like one year from today (be specific)?

What do you need to do practically, to make your goal a reality?

What happens once your motivation subsides (it will)?

What happened last time you tried to change your body?

Why and how will it be different this time (if nothing changes, nothing changes)?

What’s your optimal exercise strategy (based on your genetics, age, goals, fitness, injuries, etc.)?

What’s one simple thing (that will make a difference) that you can change today?

What happened over the last 365 days (with your body)? Why?

Are you genuinely prepared to do the work (and to keep doing it), or do you just like ‘the idea’ of a different body?

Do you need to change your relationship with food? If so, how?

Do you have an accountability system? If so, what is it?

When it comes to the practical change-your-body variables (food, lifestyle, exercise, time management), what are your ‘non-negotiables’?

As I’ve said many times before on this site, when we ask better questions and we’re genuinely committed to change, we make better decisions, do better things, produce better results and our reality shifts.

Statistically, we know that, despite their conversations, declarations and intentions, most people won’t improve their health or fitness over the next year. Some will, most won’t. Of course, they can change and they want to change, but sadly, they won’t. Like the majority of our ever-expanding population, some will continue to get on and off the weight-loss merry-go-round, all the while complaining about their genetics, the weather, their sore ankle, their limited time and their exhausting schedule.

And then they’ll wake up and it will be July 2013.

Today, I challenge you to be in the minority.” via Your Body: One Year From Today.

When I read things like this I used to feel guilty — now I’m happy I’m on the right path! I started power walking in March and now walk, run and bike ride; thanks to Endomondo, I know I’ve put in over 500 miles in all three since I started…

I’ve lost over 100 pounds with Atkins in the past 10 years but gained 75 of it back because I don’t believe that Atkins is sustainable or healthy based on my experience. I’m sorry to tell you there is no substitute for eating better and exercising more…

How to do an Ultimate GTD Weekly Review

Cover of "Getting Things Done: The Art of...

Lifehacker is offering courses online; today they tackle the Getting Things Done weekly review:

You are only as good as your GTD system.

In the Getting Things Done system, without a solid weekly review, your productivity will not be at an optimum level. The weekly review is one of the most overlooked aspect of GTD, mostly because it seems to take too much time or may seem “overboard”. The fact is the GTD weekly review is essential to get more done with relaxed control.

In this Lifehack Lesson you will learn how to do one of the most thorough weekly reviews that will boost your productivity and get you one step closer to having a “mind like water”. Get the course here: How to do an Ultimate GTD Weekly Review.

If you’re not familiar with David Allen’s classic work on ‘Getting Things Done’ I strongly encourage you to look into his system!

Stop Reading This (and Start Doing More)

Sorry, but sometimes when I start curating an article, I just can help but grab the whole thing! Justin Miller writes:

Nike’s slogan, Just Do It, goes far beyond the athletic field. It really can serve as a mantra for a successful life.

But in order to turn “Just do it” into a mission statement for living wisely, it’s important to get off the couch, take a hard look at your life and fix what’s broken – without beating yourself up about what might have been.

So wrap up your reading, grab a piece of paper to take down some notes and get ready to make some changes. It’s time for your new life, and that time starts NOW.

Forget regrets

Don’t let past mistakes rob you of your future. It’s easy to look back and see how our mistakes have creates bumps in our road of life, but that doesn’t mean they have to become a compete roadblock that robs us of our future. Regret provides an opportunity for growth. Stop shoulding all over your self. I should have done this. I should have done that. There’s plenty more to get done. Get started today!

Take a cue from their actions, and forget the regret, opening the doors to a different, brighter future.

Assess your needs

Take time to think hard about what  it really is you want to accomplish in your life, and look at what you’re doing that will make that possible. Also think about the things you may be doing right now that are holding you back.

Erase the things that prevent your dreams from seeing fruition, like the after-work drink that turns into ten and prevents you from being on top of your game the next day, and focus on what works.

Ask yourself this question every day. What is one thing I can do right now that will guarantee I have a great day? What is one thing I can stop doing right now that almost certainly guarantees a bad one.

Surround yourself with greatness

Make sure that the people you are hanging out with are people you admire, people who are living a life that you want for yourself. The close proximity to success is a great way to make it part of your own world. They say you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

The time is now

There’s never the perfect time for taking action. If you wait around for perfect conditions – when I lose weight I’ll do it, when the economy looks better I’ll try to branch out – that day will likely never come.

Try to look at today’s conditions as right, no matter what they are, and work with what you’ve been given. You always have the greatest resource available to you. That resource being choice. You choose to take action or not.

Break it down

If a task seems completely unmanageable, break it down into smaller parts.

If you want to write a book, but the idea of it is so overwhelming you can’t seem to get started, it pays to start small. Write a page a day, and within a year, you will have written 365 pages, bringing you that much closer to your goal.

No place for procrastination

Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today. Taking charge now will not only leave tomorrow free for tackling some other project, but will also erase the guilt you feel when you do procrastinate.

Just take a deep breath, grab the paperwork, and do it. Write the first page, sign up for the gym membership or send out a resume to the firm where you’ve always wanted to work. You can’t get the job if they don’t know who you are.

Focus on the essentials, and let the other things wait

Sure, you’d like to volunteer, plant a garden, get a degree, and take a vacation.  Eventually, you will do all those things. But in the hectic, stress-filled now, choose the most important and most pressing of your goals, and weed out those things that can wait.

Don’t be afraid to say no to the one-acre garden plot and plant a container garden or a few pots of herbs instead. Take a single class as you aim for a degree and plan a weekend away to Vegas with your partner or some friends, making it a temporary stand-in for that backpacking trip across Europe.” via Stop Reading This (and Start Doing More).

Google Tasks

Chrome Web Store – Google Tasks (by Google)

Easily add and manage your tasks from Chrome in one of three ways:

  • Simply type “t Your new task” into the Chrome Omnibar to easily add a task from whatever web page you’re on.
  • Click the Tasks icon to add a task, see your tasks and task lists and mark a task as completed
  • Highlight text on any web page, right click and add that text to a new task.

Tasks are visible everywhere that you can see your Google Tasks – in Gmail, Calendar, iGoogle, Mobile and via the Google Tasks API.

This extension has been released as an example of the Google Tasks API, and can be viewed and contributed to at https://code.google.com/p/google-tasks-chrome-extension

Please note that if you sign into multiple Google accounts you should ensure that the first account you sign into is the account you wish to use when managing Tasks via this extension.

Get some!!!

Google Tasks

I normally post my tech tips over at my business blog but this one will help with your personal productivity if you’re a Gmail — and you should be — user…Chrome Web Store – Google Tasks (by Google)

Easily add and manage your tasks from Chrome in one of three ways:

* Simply type “t Your new task” into the Chrome Omnibar to easily add a task from whatever web page you’re on.

* Click the Tasks icon to add a task, see your tasks and task lists and mark a task as completed

* Highlight text on any web page, right click and add that text to a new task.

Tasks are visible everywhere that you can see your Google Tasks – in Gmail, Calendar, iGoogle, Mobile and via the Google Tasks API.

This extension has been released as an example of the Google Tasks API, and can be viewed and contributed to at https://code.google.com/p/google-tasks-chrome-extension

Please note that if you sign into multiple Google accounts you should ensure that the first account you sign into is the account you wish to use when managing Tasks via this extension.

Fifty ways to boost your productivity

Category:Educational research

Nicholas Bate shares his 50 ways to boost productivity…

  1. Don’t hold stuff in your head.
  2. Keep your head clear and use your head for thinking: decisive, critical, imaginative.
  3. Use paper/screen for ‘holding’ your list of what needs attention.
  4. Our greatest asset is where we place our attention.  Bear in mind we live in an exciting world where our attention is constantly ‘pulled’ to another place.
  5. To be productive is to maintain attention on what is important in the face of continuous distraction.
  6. And what needs attention is not just urgent, but what is important and thus often apparently not urgent e.g. health.
  7. Thus: ask what is important?
  8. Firstly by referencing the compass points of your life….
  9. Thus: your business/career
  10. Thus: your health
  11. Thus: your relationships
  12. Thus: your finances
  13. Capture these on you attention list.
  14. Secondly by stretching your planning horizon…
  15. Every day, ask what’s important tomorrow?
  16. Every week, ask what’s important next week?
  17. Every month, ask what’s important next month?
  18. Every quarter, ask what’s important next quarter?
  19. Every year, ask what’s important next year?
  20. Capture these to on your attention list.
  21. And finally anything which is burning and urgent; add these to your list.
  22. But the more you do 8 and 14 above…
  23. The fewer will be generated by  21.
  24. Every end-of-the-working-day review your list and decide what does need attention: create your daily list.
  25. Don’t try and do everything…

via Fifty Ways To Boost Your Productivity – Nicholas Bate.

Follow the ‘via’ link above if you’d like the remaining 25 ways. Before you go, however, I’d like to call your attention to a post and a couple of screencasts I’ve done on a tool called Evernote that I use in conjunction with a ‘philosophy’ called Getting Things Done [GTD] to help implement Nicholas’ first 6 ways…

Want to experience peace of mind? Blogger David Kanigan and I both advocate learning Getting Things Done [GTD] principles and tools to help accomplish that objective. Follow the ‘reblogged’ link to read his post…

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Live & Learn

From David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, Productive Living, March 2012:

“If you want to have the feeling of freedom regularly, you’ve got to get used to it. Literally.

What’s the greatest obstacle to living in the relaxed state of mind that is possible with the methods I coach? People simply aren’t used to it. Anything your nervous system experiences as unique or unusual will likely be “rejected” unconsciously in short order, because it is not in the comfort zone.

People are more comfortable being uncomfortable than being comfortable, if they have been uncomfortable for an extended period of time. It’s simply an ingrained pattern, and familiarity is more comfortable than novelty. Most people have for so long experienced the gnawing sense of anxiety about all the un-captured and un-clarified “work” of their life, that’s what they’re used to. Then, no matter how clean and in control they…

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The Most Powerful Time Management Tool You Will Ever Need!

I always get excited when I see that Kute Blackson has posted again. Today is no exception…

The most powerful time management tool you will ever need:

Life is short.

Each moment is precious.

When it’s gone its gone.

You can make your money back, You can buy material possessions.

But not  your time.

How do you want to live each moment?

This really hit me many years ago as I sat in the back of an Indian taxi speeding down a country road in the Andhra Pradesh wilderness, at close to 115 mph. As I dozed off waiting to arrive at my destination, I looked up only to see a huge truck the size of a whale heading straight into our taxi.

This was not good.

In a matter of seconds everything turned slow motion, and I had one of those moments you hear so much about. My entire life flashed in front of me, including the images of those I loved,  and the regrets I had sat in my heart like a heavy weight.

I was sure I was going to die.  My destiny seemed certain.

I had often wondered how I would face death when that moment actually came. My moment had come. I closed my eyes, and strangely felt a deep calmness realizing there was nothing more I could do in that moment. I had lived a good life.

I prepared myself to meet my maker.

Then all of a sudden I felt the car spin around full circle and come to a screeching halt. Boom. I opened my eyes, and in a dazed state I was quite surprised to still be alive.

My life was never the same after that. It was like going through a death and the surrender that comes with it, only to find myself still alive.

We are all going to die.  You, me, Gandhi, Sai Baba, Mother Teresa, Hitler, Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, your loved ones. All of us.

This is the bottom line. No one makes it out of this life alive.

The real question becomes “How are you going to live each moment of your life so that when that moment comes you will be ready with no regrets?”

Yet we often waste time on things that aren’t that important.

When you embrace death you embrace life. You embrace each moment as a precious opportunity to live fully and share your gifts with the world.

When you realize and fully accept that you will die. Then you no longer waste time on trivial matters. For each second wasted is a piece of life that if forever gone. Each second becomes more precious that gold. It frees you up to get on with living your life in a way that you have no regrets.

When that moment comes in your life, much of what you stressed about, worried about, fretted about, screamed about, argued about, gossiped about, cried about, fought about, controlled about won’t really matter.

When that moment comes what will matter will be “Did you love those in your life as fully as possible? Did you give your gifts as deeply as possible? Did you become the most authentic expression of who you were meant to be in this life?”

If you find yourself wasting time, being unproductive, or unsure how to allocate your time, ask your self. “Is this how I would like to die?”

And if not, then rearrange your time, your activities, your relationships, your state of mind and emotions in such a way that you can say “Yes” no matter when that moment arrives.

The time is truly now.

Source: The Most Powerful Time Management Tool You Will Ever Need! | The Official Blog of Kute Blackson

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7 Goals You Should Accomplish in 10 Years

The puck dents the top of the net for a goal a...
Image via Wikipedia

Life and everything in it revolves around balanced equations. The numbers are critical. Just the slightest imbalance and big issues arise. Keeping this in mind when setting personal goals, we should first take stock of where we already are. Perhaps you have done quite well financially, but your personal relationships are severely lacking. Maybe your marriage is secure and amicable, but in the area of romance the fire has long dimmed. We need to take an honest assessment of where we have succeeded and where we have failed. Then we can determine how to proceed forward. With this in mind, here are 7 areas of life to focus on for the next 10 years of your life plan.

via markmerrill.com

Follow the ‘via’ link if you’d like to know the 7 Goals…

Icon from Nuvola icon theme for KDE 3.x.
Image via Wikipedia

Psychologists tell us that it takes 21 days to forge a new habit — yet most new year’s resolutions are broken in first week. Why? Lack of persistance. This simple little tool may just be the answer for you…

“Whether you’re staring down the end of the year and want to get a head start on your New Year’s Resolutions, or you just want to make a positive change in your life, like getting out for a walk periodically or remembering to get a little exercise when you wake up, Habitforge can help. Habits are generally activities that you repeat without really thinking about having to do them, and it takes repetition to turn an activity from something occasional to a real habit that is part of your daily routine.

Simply tell Habitforge what it is you want to do and how frequently you want to do it, and the service will help you make your vague goal into something you actually do with some regularity. The goal is that eventually, Habitforge will be able to step aside, and you won’t even think about it—you’ll just do it.

Habitforge reminds me of Disciplanner, another tool that’s designed to help you take vague goals, like exercising every day and packing your own lunch, and turning them into things that you actually do. Accounts at Habitforge are free, and getting your reminders set up is incredibly simple: Unlike with Disciplanner, Habitforge has no graphing or analysis tools available to make sure you did what you set out to do, just a reminder and some light tracking of your progress. Source: Habitforge Helps You Build Healthy Habits – AppScout target=”_blank”

You can set up a free habitforge account here…

Email Overload: Download a Free Copy of David Allen’s Email Rules

Getting Things Done
Image via Wikipedia

Having problems managing email?

David Allen, author of Getting Things Done and inspiration for a lot of posts ’round these parts, gives away a free four-page PDF at his website that covers his basic principals for keeping email organized. Getting specific without going too in-depth, he explains the ‘two minute rule,’ why action-able emails should be kept separate from others, and why creating your own system—such as Gina’s [Trapani’s] modified ‘Trusted Trio‘. Great reading for GTD neophytes, and a good brush-up for the rest of us.”

Click here to get your copy! If you’re a Gmail user [and I hope you are] there’s more information here on how to use Gina’s system with Gmail or Google Apps mail.

Me personally? I use Gmail and Google Apps mail in conjunction with Remember The Milk [RTM]– the powerful task manager with the equally funny name. RTM gives me special tools to use within Gmail that allows me to convert an email to a task. In all fairness, Google now includes this feature in their task management system, however, it was not available when I built my approach to task management…

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Separate your email from your to-do’s

“Your boss needs the updated PowerPoint presentation file by Tuesday. Your spouse wants to know how many vacation days you’ve got left this year. Your co-worker needs your office pool picks. Everyone gets task requests via email all day long, and it’s so easy to let these messages slip through the cracks. Whether your inbox is stuffed with two-year-old fwd’d kitten photos from Aunt Edna, or if you empty it every day and diligently file away actionable email to a ‘TO-DO’ folder – it’s still not easy to track the messages you’ve actually got to DO something about using email.” Click here to read more…

Update: I use ‘Remember the Milk [RTM]’ — the powerful todo manager with the goofy name — to manage my todos and one of the reasons why is that my todo list has an email address and if a task comes to me in email, I can forward it to that special address and the email will be added to my todos as a task and the body of the email will be converted to a note so I know what the task is about. RTM also has a great web interface, BlackBerry and iPhone apps, and interfaces with Jott! All huge reasons why YOU should use this external todo manager as well!

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I love ‘Remember the Milk’!

Image representing Remember The Milk as depict...
Image via CrunchBase

The hosted task management system with the funny name is one of my favorite tools. Just this morning as I was hacking through my todo list, I tweeted that I was reminded what a great tool it is. Then, as fate would have it, I saw this post commemorating their 4th bday…

“Four years ago yesterday, we breathed a sigh of relief: after more than a year of development, our super-secret project was finally ready to launch! Little did we know that the adventure of Remember The Milk was only just beginning…

Five days after our launch, there was already a crazy 50,000 tasks being managed with RTM. Perhaps that should’ve given us some indication of what we were in for, but it wasn’t until 2007 that we figured out that, well, we might need a little help. (It turns out that two people and a stuffed monkey working full-time on a free app with some serious hosting bills does not a sustainable service make.)” Source: Remember The Milk – Blog

Remember the Milk, or RTM, is everything a task management system should be and it synchronizes with my BlackBerry and iPhone and integrates seamlessly with my Gmail account through their Firefox plugin. Of course I’m a pro subscriber! Question is, why aren’t you?

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