2×4: One series that examines two topics, creativity and productivity, by asking those who make things on the web the same four questions on both subjects.

Right after submitting his answers, former 2×4 participant, CJ Chilvers joked that he wished he had gone the Steve Jobs route and given one word answers. Ironically, this was followed by my receiving exactly that (well at least for the first question) from today’s participant, Ev Bogue. Answers to subsequent questions were also nearly as short, sweet and to the point.

I won’t lie to you…for an instant there, I was surprised. But then I realized that the exact nature of the answers is exactly why I asked Ev to participate.

Ev is direct, clear and to the point. You can see that in his regularly email newsletter, you can see that in his posts on Google+. He’s also not a fan of the superfluous. He sheds the unnecessary even when it comes to things like a thriving blog and an active Tweet stream. Ev clearly puts as much, if not more time into choosing what he does as he does actually doing them. His words, as you will see below, are also as carefully chosen as his actions.

I could go on, but I doubt that would be in the spirit of today’s guest, so without further ado, here’s an inside look at Ev Bogue.

Creativity

Have you always considered yourself a creative person?

Yes.

What mediums and inspirations do you gravitate toward to realize your creative goals?

Right now I’ve been experimenting with writing for inboxes, and publishing to Google+.

If you had to point to one thing, what specific posts or creations are you most proud of and why?

I’m the most proud of working towards telling from experience this year. As a writer, this has strengthened how my work lands with my readers.

Any suggestions for those who feel they may not be creative enough to unlock their inner artist?

Show up every day. Be honest. Ask permission to contact people who are interested in your work.

Productivity

Can you describe your current personal and professional responsibilities?

I write every single day to a group of readers who are interested in what I write.

How do you go about balancing the personal, professional and digital?

I don’t balance anything. I’m 100% invested in my work as a writer online. I’ve tried to take time off, but I don’t know what to do with myself.

What tools and techniques do you find yourself counting on to get through your workload?

I write with an 11” Macbook Air. I write in Scrivener. I deliver my work via Mailchimp. I connect with my readers through Gmail and using Google+.

What is the best starting point for the unproductive amongst us, who are looking to get more organized?

Hit publish on the work you’re compelled to do every single day.

Michael Schechter is a Mac geek who rambles about how technology impacts our productivity, our creativity and our lives. You can connect with him over on his blog Schechter or as @MSchechter on Twitter.

If you visit Lifehack regularly then I’m sure you’ve noticed the Getting Things Done series that’s been featured here lately. In recent weeks I’ve been discussing the methodology itself, and how to use it in your everyday efforts (both work and personal projects).

What I didn’t do, however, is point you towards specific tools you can use to make your GTD life easier. Well, that is exactly what I’m going to do today.

Let me just remind you that there are 7 main elements of GTD: Projects List, Next Tasks List, Future/Maybe List, Calendar, “Waiting for” List, Resource Files, and the intangible element – trust.

Each of these can be handled using the simplest tools possible – pen and paper. But since we live in the 21st century, then it’s probably not the most effective way around for some people.

What follows is a list of great tools that are either GTD-friendly right from the get-go, or can be easily adjusted to fit the GTD way of working.

Your Inbox

As I said in one of the posts in the GTD series (Your Daily Graph of Activity), most people usually start their work in their inboxes.

These inboxes don’t have to be actual inboxes (email or traditional mailboxes). As defined in GTD an inbox is “simply the place where all the incoming things land”. This gives us many possibilities regarding the actual tools or software we want to use for our inboxes.

Some tools and software that tend to work best are:

1. Every email software

This is obvious, but the simplest solutions are often the best. Your email software (no matter what you use) is set up perfectly well to be used as an inbox for some incoming things because…well, it simply has an inbox in it — and every email you get is waiting there for you to read it.

One important thing to remember, however, is that when dealing with new emails is you should take action on them immediately.

But what to do when you encounter a new request that hasn’t been sent via email? This is where other tools come into play.

2. Remember The Milk

Remember The Milk (or RTM) is a great tool and it has a lot more GTD applications than just acting like an inbox.

First of all, RTM is essentially a to-do list application. It’s available online (for all operating systems), and also it has a lot of versions for other platforms (iPhone, iPad, Android).

However, to actually call it simply a “to-do list application” is quite an understatement. It can be used for any kind of activity where lists of things come handy.

For example, since there’s an iPhone version, you can use it as a grocery list when you’re shopping or as a simple notepad you can use on the go so no brilliant ideas escape your mind. Or you can use it as an additional inbox. Whenever you stumble upon a new request that hasn’t been sent via email you can put it into a separate list inside RTM (preferably one named “inbox”).

Going back to RTM itself. The tool is very easy to use. It supports multiple lists, four levels of priorities, tags, many keyboard shortcuts (they make working with RTM lightning-quick once you get a hang of them), RSS feeds, iCal feeds, reminders, and more.

Projects List

Often the Project List is quite an extensive piece of GTD real estate…so to speak. It needs to be perfectly organized so every project is easy to grasp and easy to work with.

For me, there’s only one way of doing this properly – using mind maps.

Just to remind you (courtesy of Wikipedia), a mind map is ”a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea”. Or in plain English – it’s the best way of giving your thoughts a physical form (in this case, creating a digital representation of your thoughts).

Most projects are only semi-organized around many different thoughts that do make sense all together, but are hard to put into a traditional list or text document. Mind maps, however, can handle such a situation exceptionally well. This is why mind maps are perfect to handle your Projects List.

3. FreeMind

When it comes to mind mapping digitally (on a computer), there are many tools that can make it possible. Nevertheless, there’s one really worth checking out. It’s called FreeMind.

The name gives quite a good hint that the tool is free — and that’s a good thing. But there’s more good news — there are versions available for most popular platforms and operating systems. Not only that, but you can also download “binaries” (FreeMind is a true open source project).

But the best news of all is this: FreeMind is the easiest to use, quickest, and smallest (in terms of memory and disk space used) tool available. In essence, this is the best tool for mind mapping available.

(If you prefer online tools to dealing with local files on your computer you can check out MindMeister. It looks quite impressive too. It provides all the important functionality for mind mapping, and has a lot of additional stuff, like the ability to include attachments, images, PDFs and other files. But it’s not free. The less expensive plan available is $4.99 per month.)

Next Tasks List, Future/Maybe List, “Waiting for” List

Your lists, with the Next Tasks List leading the way, are where you spend most of your time when working with GTD. Therefore, they need to be easily accessible and easy to work with. Being able to access them online from every computer and operating system is a nice thing as well.

This is where Remember The Milk comes into play yet again. I’ve described RTM in detail earlier in this post, so I’m sure you see its value when it comes to working with all kinds of lists.

An additional benefit of using just one tool for all your lists is that you don’t have to play around with myriads of different login names and local files. The most effective way around is to always focus on a minimum number of tools and fit them into your work habits.

Calendar

This is simple, and I’m sure you can see it coming…

4. Google Calendar

I don’t think I have to convince you why Google Calendar is great. I’m sure you’ve already signed up for it (or for a similar tool/solution).

The most important characteristics of a GTD-calendar tool are:

• Available from any computer (with Internet access)
• Supports reminders
• Supports multiple calendars for a single user
• Supports sharing events with other users
• Supports ongoing events

And Google Calendar has them all covered. Also, there are a lot of apps available for every mobile platform.

Resource/Reference Files

The only difficulty with resource files is that they must be pretty well organized, accessible, and preferably available from any computer with Internet access.

This can be done by implementing two things.

1. First, create a directory/folder somewhere on your computer’s hard drive. This directory will contain all your resources – things that might come handy as a reference when working on your projects. It’s your job to organize this directory nicely, and make it as easy to grasp as possible.
2. Next, connect it to Dropbox.

5. Dropbox

Dropbox is a tool that lets you synchronize your data between multiple devices you use, but it’s also great for accessing your content online directly through Dropbox’s website.

All this makes it perfect for acting like a GTD Reference Files base. Not only can you synchronize your files on every machine you use, but you also get an online backup so you can stop worrying about your stuff disappearing overnight after a hard drive malfunction.

If you’re just using Dropbox to store the most essential data you can go with their free plan (up to 2GB of disk space available, although you can get mire space by inviting others to the service). Later you can easily upgrade your account to “Pro 50”, where you get 50GB for a modest payment of $9.99 per month.

Conclusion

As you can see, you only need 5 tools to fully implement GTD into your life. (By the way, “every email software” counts as one.) And this is good because the less tools you use, the easier it is to keep your game together and make them work for you. If you start using too many tools they become a burden instead of an effectiveness and productivity booster.

What tools do you use as part of your GTD approach? Please share them in the comments below.

(Photo credit: Dirty Set of Hand Tools via Shutterstock)

StackSocial has been offering some pretty amazing deals, and their latest is no exception: The StackSocial Mac Superbundle. The amount of apps that they’re serving up that will aid you in getting work done faster and better is pretty astounding — there’s 10 amazing Mac apps worth $471 that they are offering for just $49. And while not all of them may seemingly fit into your work arsenal at first glance, you might find by diving in a little deeper that every app offered here certainly can improve your productivity in some form or another.

I’ve not had the chance to use every single one of these apps, but have put a few through the paces over my time as a Mac user. Here are some of the apps that I’ve used and how they’ve managed to level up my productivity on my Mac.

Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac

There have been times that I’ve needed to have a PC at my disposal when working at past employers, such as my stint using box office software for my city’s film festival. Our office was a Mac office, with only 2 Windows-based machines that were available to use for ticket selling. Luckily, I had Parallels Desktop for Mac installed on my MacBook Pro, and it proved to be a huge timesaver. I was able to run reports, check out statistics and ticket availability and get my work done without having to move to another machine or totally disrupt my workflow.

The best part about using this app was that I could flip back and forth between the work I had to do on the OS X side and the work I had to do that required Windows. The time saved on that alone paid for the software.

If you have to use a Windows machine for certain parts of your work — or perhaps even use a Windows environment for gaming so that you can take a break every once in a while, you can’t go wrong with Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac. This app normally sells for $80 on its own — so you’re already way ahead of the game by picking it up as part of the Mac Superbundle by StackSocial.

LittleSnapper

Realmac Software makes some really beautiful, essential and easy-to-use apps, and LittleSnapper is no exception. i’ve had to grab plenty of screenshots during my time as an online writer and editor, and LittleSnapper handles this job with effectiveness and ease.

And i’ve barely scratched the surface with this app over the years. Using it mainly for high-quality “screengrabs”, I’ve yet to take advantage of the other tools baked right into LittleSnapper, such as callouts and highlights. I’ve blurred out personal info for app reviews when testing apps, I’ve cropped screens to fit as imagery for various websites and I’ve kept them all organized into collections.

Well…that’s not entirely true. LittleSnapper automatically organized them all for me. That’s a tremendous timesaver unto itself — because there’s nothing quite like having something like that being automated for you.

LittleSnapper usually retails for $40, which is only $9 less than the entire StackSocial Mac Superbundle.

Chronicle 4

I’ve tried my share of money management apps, and only in the past few years has the Mac come into its own as a platform where you can really have some useful software to do so. Of all of the native apps I’ve tried, Chronicle isn’t only the easiest to use — I actually enjoy managing my money with it.

With iCal integration built right in, Chronicle does everything it can to keep you on top of your finances. The app offers debt reduction tracking, bill viewing and will allow many to make online payments right from within the app. And because I enjoy using Chronicle so much more than any of the past native Mac finance apps, I’m really keeping on top things when it comes to my money — often without even thinking about it.

Chronicle is $15 — a great price point for an app that is supposed to help you keep a handle on your finances — and it rounds out what is a very robust bundle offering by StackSocial.

What’s in the StackSocial Mac Superbundle

There’s a lot more to the StackSocial Mac Superbundle than the three apps I just mentioned. Here are all of the apps in the bundle, along with what you’d pay for them separately:

• Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac – $80
• LittleSnapper – $40
• iStat Menus 3 – $16
• Flux 3 – $120
• iStopmotion Home 2 – $50
• Fantashow – $50
• Video Converter 2 – $46
• SyncMate Expert 3 – $40
• CuteClips 3 – $15
• Chronicle 4 – $15

Check out the video below to get an overview of all 10 apps offered in the latest StackSocial bundle that will supercharge your Mac — and your productivity.

StackSocial Mac Superbundle – [StackSocial]

(Photo credit: Power Button from a Mac via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

At the end of the first week of every month, we’re going present the best of what Lifehack had to offer in the previous month. We know our readers are busy — not just with other aspects of their lives, but also reading articles elsewhere — so if you’ve missed out on some of what we brought to you last month, now’s your chance to catch up.

So, without further adieu, here is The Best of Lifehack from January 2012.

Searching for the Perfect Productivity Tool

One of the newest contributors to Lifehack, Jan Makulec, discusses why it’s not necessarily wrong (or right) to have found your perfect productivity tool…and searching for it isn’t necessarily the time suck that many say that it can be.

How I Use GoodReader

GoodReader is an incredibly versatile app, and Lifehack editor Chris Smith dives right in and suggests how you can get the most out of what for most is a very under-used app on their iPad or iPhone.

How to Become Clutter-Free for Greater Happiness and Productivity

Ciara Conlon is timely with this post on how to get rid of clutter so that you can improve your productivity and be happier as a result. January isn’t just a month for resolutions; it’s a month of “clearing the decks” too.

5 Management Practices That Kill Employee Productivity

Yet another new addition to the Lifehack contributor ranks, Marissa Brassfield writes about a few management practices that will do more harm than good to your team’s productivity.

How to Develop Mental Toughness

Mike Martel serves up a great piece that has a greater impact on your productivity (and confidence) than we’d all like to admit: mental toughness. He explains how mental toughness can be developed — and why it’s important to do so.

Productivity Made Simple: The Series

Karol Krol puts together a stellar series — especially appropriate for the beginning of the year — on how you can get into the GTD system with a simpler approach. The series is broken down into several parts:

1. Productivity Made Simple: Where to Start with GTD
2. Productivity Made Simple: Selecting What to Do Next with GTD
3. Productivity Made Simple: The 7 Main Elements of GTD
4. Productivity Made Simple: The Key to GTD – Your Daily Graph of Activity
5. Productivity Made Simple: How to Keep Your Projects from Killing You

If you’re still looking to become more productive this year, you can’t go wrong with this series — or with any of the articles in The Best of Lifehack: January 2012 edition.

(Photo credit: Golden leader of business team via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

As someone who tries to get the most out of their day but also likes to take some time and relax with a video or two every once in a while, I’ve been out of luck for a while. There’s a lot of noise out there on social networks, especially since I follow a lot of people on them. If I want to be able to keep up with the latest and greatest of what my friends are sharing, I’ll likely have a lot of digging to do. Because of that amount of digging I’ll have to do, it’s more likely that I don’t do any digging at all.

But this week that changed for me because Showyou 3.0 was launched.

Showyou is the first social video app for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch – and now it’s available for those who have the Kindle Fire. I’ve had a chance to play with the iPad version, and I’m very impressed with the time I spent in Showyou and the time I saved using Showyou.



Showyou allows me to seamlessly wade through the videos shared by firends on a variety of social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Vimeo, YouTube, etc.) and keeps me out of those services when I want to watch online videos altogether. I just connect those accounts to Showyou and I am able to search through each and every video shared by those I’m following – and I can also add fellow Showyou users to the mix.

The app has a great sense of responsiveness to it, flowing from panel to panel within the “grid” you’ve composed of the various connections you’ve made. I can add videos to those I enjoy by tapping on the “heart” button, can add a comment by pressing the “speech bubble” button, and share videos to social networks, via email or add them to my “Watch Later” list by pressing the “share” button. To watch videos in full screen view, on the iPad you can spread your fingers out over the video and it makes htat happen. Go back to the default view by pinching the video while in full screen. The user interface is simple to use and the app is gorgeous.

If you also want to be able to watch Showyou videos on a much larger screen than your iPad (like, on your TV, for example), Apple’s Airplay lets you play most of the videos you see – if you have Apple TV 2.0.

You can also drill down further into Showyou in a variety of ways. You can watch shared videos by genre, like Film, Comedy, Music and more. You can follow others by pressing their avatars either while viewing a video in default mode or by looking at someone’s profile and seeing those users on their followers’ list. You can also follow “channels” on Showyou, which opens up your social video experience even further. As you can see, there is plenty of socialization that goes on with Showyou, and plenty of it that can go on outside of it as well. You don’t feel disconnected from anyone you’re following while following them on Showyou – in fact, you’re more likely to catch some of the videos by using this app rather than searching through your very noisy social spaces. Plus, you can share videos as much as you want within Showyou, which allows you to keep your Facebook and Twitter streams a little less noisy for others.

That said, one of the things I’ve been unable to figure out is how to add an image to my profile, which may be because I’m using an original iPad (sans camera) and you need to have an on-board camera to do so. It’d be great if I could simply add a photo of myself from my library, but there doesn’t appear to be a way to do this. I’ve seen plenty of Showyou users with a profile photo, so I know it can be done. I’m just one user that can’t.

I’m a big fan of apps that do “one thing well” and don’t try to do more than that, just focussing on making that ine thing better. Showyou has done – and is doing – just that. Showyou launched in April 2011, and keeps getting better and better, optimizing the user experience in both quality and quantity – a rare combination. In fact, Showyou is the only app of its kind to be picked by Apple as one of the best of the year (Best Social Networking App for the iPad, along with Skype & Facebook); to be featured in the Wired app guide; and to make it onto a variety of “Top 10 apps for the iPad” lists.

Showyou won’t only enhance – and curate – your online video experience, but it won’t break your bank. That’s because Showyou is a free app. You can get it now in The App Store, and if you want to keep up with your consumption of online video, get the best of what those you trust are sharing and not lose time in the process, Showyou will show you a really, really good time.

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

We are approaching the time of year when many people have already blown their New Year resolutions. For example, according to the fitness industry, a ton of gym memberships are sold from December to February but attendance significantly drops from March and on when people who were hoping to get fit as a New Year resolution will give up.

This happens year after year for not only health-related resolutions but for pretty well all types including saving money and quitting smoking. If this has already happened to you or if you are on the verge of giving up some of your New Year resolutions, here are some steps you can take to hopefully salvage them.

Reconsider the Reasons for Each Resolution

First, reconsider the reasons behind each of your resolutions just to better understand why you came up with them in the first place. Are they still valid or important?

Sometimes a New Year resolution might be just a sudden urge that is not really all that important to your life after some time passes. If this is the case, drop the resolution altogether. If the reasons are still solid, then keep the resolutions for the next step.

Turn Each Resolution into a Defined Goal

Now for the resolutions that are still important to you, turn them into defined goals. Losing weight or getting in shape is far too general. Instead, set such a resolution as a realistic goal you can measure. For example, lose ten pounds during each remaining month in 2012 is something you can measure. Make sure that your defined goals are realistic by seeing what other people have done who have been successful with similar goals.

Plan What You Have to Do Each Week

Now that you have the end results in mind, plan out what you actually have to do each week in order to achieve those goals you set. This can be setting definite time periods during the week to work out at the gym as well as getting the training from qualified trainers if you need it.

Physically enter the things you must do each week into your calendar or appointment book just like any other important appointments that you may have each week. This must be on something that you will be referring to each day whether it is a physical calendar or electronic one.

Monitor Your Progress Over Time

Most goals that were previously New Year resolutions take time and effort to achieve.  They cannot be done overnight. But accepting the fact that many of your goals will take continued work over the entire year doing a step at a time, you will then be able to monitor your progress over time.

If you stray a bit, take immediate action to make up for lost opportunities to work on your goals. Track your progress and adjust the targets as required if they were not originally set very realistically. Don’t forget that for many goals, active participation with other like-minded people rather than attempting everything on your own will help you stay on track.

(Photo credit: Lifebuoy white against the blue sky and bright sun via Shutterstock)

By turning your New Year resolutions into longer term, measurable goals over the entire course of the year with actual steps and time allocated for them, you will be able to salvage abandoned resolutions.

If you feel brave and honest enough to reveal any already blown resolutions, feel free to share them below and what you might do to salvage them.

Good luck!

Clint Cora is a motivational speaker, author & Karate World Champion based near Toronto, Canada. Get his FREE 3-part Personal Development Video Series on how to expand your comfort zone and finally conquer even your most daunting goals in life.

“If you’re proactive, you don’t have to wait for circumstances or other people to create perspective expanding experiences. You can consciously create your own.

- Stephen Covey

Proactivity is, according to Stephen Covey, one of the most important characteristics of successful and personally effective people. In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey sees proactivity as the foundation of all the other 6 Habits, and therefore has proactivity as Habit #1.

Covey regards proactivity as the act of taking charge of your life, being responsible for it, and taking action to master your life. Covey focuses on choice as a principle that underlies proactivity, as we ultimately have the choice on how we respond to what happens to us in our lives and it is our reactions that determine how things affect us. People who lack the proactivity habit tend to be more reactive, seeing themselves as victims of circumstance, unable to change their reactions, thus feeling much less empowered.

People who play the game of “tit for tat” in an argument are being reactive.  They are reacting to what the other person is saying rather than being grounded and more rational where they take responsibility for their emotional triggers.  The mentality that “he makes me so mad” or “she made me feel bad about myself” are examples of the victim language

Underlying the Habit of Proactivity according to Covey are:      

• The ability to set goals and work towards achieving them.
• Creating opportunities, not waiting for them to come your way
• Taking conscious control of your life
• Understanding the choice you have in engineering your life
•  Applying your own personal principles and core values in making decision
•  Having imagination and creativity to explore possible alternatives
• Realizing you have independent will to choose your own unique response.

Covey differentiates between the “have’s” and the “be’s.” The latter focuses on your character and how you can take charge of your life. Instead of focusing on the thought “If I had a better job,” a proactive person would focus on thoughts like “I can be more resourceful to find another job or make the best of this one.”

Proactive Takeaways

1.  Remember the importance of being proactive and not reactive!
2.  If you feel like a rudderless boat which is in chaotic motion without you taking charge at the helm, remind yourself that you can take the helm and can be the captain of your ship.
3.  Write a specific action plan, whether it be a checklist, schedule, or chart in which you reward yourself for sticking to your goals.
4.  Replace Covey’s “Have” thoughts with “Be” thoughts – For example: The thought “If I had a better boss” can be changed to “I can “be” a more effective employee.
5.  Enlist support. Do not hesitate to seek support from others in sticking to your plans. Just because you are the captain of your life does not mean that you need to go it alone. It’s always nice to have crew!
6.  Plan ways to manage your time and do not spread yourself too thin! Do not let your time divide you – you can divide your time.

So, if you find yourself having a hard time taking your power back from others, how about spending some quiet time and writing down at least three “have” phrases and transform them into “be” phrases?  As you become stronger about your own sense of empowerment, you will find yourself growing by leaps and bounds.

(Photo credit: Crossing out reactive and writing proactive via Shutterstock)

Let’s face it: You can’t overhaul your personal efficiency overnight.

You can, however, boost work productivity over time by adopting one or more of these weekly 10-minute practices. If you’re feeling especially ambitious, try at least one each day.

1. Declutter your inbox

Dedicate 10 minutes each week to unsubscribing from useless or unwanted emails. They come in all forms: newsletters you never read, redundant notifications from social media sites (do you really need to know if someone new is following you?), daily-deal emails and marketing emails from online stores you’ve patronized in the past.

Eventually, you’ll have pared your inbox down to a more manageable size, giving you more time to attend to relevant emails.

2. Meditate

One of the best ways to boost your productivity at work is by recharging through meditation. While meditation is best when you have ample time to relax, you can still reap its benefits by sneaking away for 10 minutes during your workday. Find a quiet spot where you can close your eyes, breathe deeply and clear your head: a quiet stairwell, an empty conference room or even a nearby park will do just fine.

3. Weekly wrap-up

End your workweek with a quick self-audit. Set yourself up for success on Monday by jotting down a list of projects and to-dos to tackle when you head back into the office. Take a moment to also note some of the successes and shortcomings you encountered, and learn from them week over week. What worked? What didn’t work? To amp this up further, end each workday with this practice.

4. Take a walk

Once a week, take 10 minutes out of your lunch break and use it to exercise. Walk around the block, or take the stairs to your office instead of the elevator. If you opt for take-out, select a spot that’s 5 minutes farther away, or take the long way to your usual restaurant. Like meditation, exercise resets your brain for creativity, ultimately boosting your work productivity.

5. Race the clock

Set a timer for 10 minutes and do as much work as you can on a big, imposing project you’ve been putting off. Alternatively, knock out several smaller tasks. Force yourself to avoid distractions during this 10-minute burst to really pump up the intensity. These short yet intense work periods can help you build the momentum you need to take control of your to-do list.

6. Do nothing

Follow up an intense 50-minute work period with 10 minutes of unrestricted time. Take a walk around the office, catch up on your favorite blogs, play on Twitter or just do some quick stretches at your desk.

7. Clean your workspace

A clean, organized and clutter-free work area minimizes distractions that can hamper productivity. Take a few minutes at the end of each week to eliminate the unnecessary and give yourself a clean slate on Monday.

8. Plan a project

Before you begin a new project, spend 10 minutes creating a mind map or outline to focus your efforts. This process will let your unconscious mind marinate on your next steps and keep you on task while you’re working on said project.

9. Compile boilerplate text

We all work with content that can be made into boilerplate text, whether it’s HTML code, canned email responses, blog post templates or custom signatures. Use a tool like TextExpander or Texter to create shortcuts for these blocks of text. Bonus: TextExpander also automatically corrects common typos as you write.

10. Reward positive behavior

Top up your emotional tank by recognizing and rewarding the good things you do at work. Perhaps you helped a coworker diagnose and solve a problem, or a blog post you wrote got more comments than usual. Don’t rely on your boss noticing this and complimenting you; instead, remember each “win” as self-motivation for later.

Put together, all of these practices will drastically improve your productivity if you dedicate a few minutes out of your day or week to follow them.

(Photo credit: Ticking Clock via Morguefile)

Most of us associate travel and time with what we’re going to do one we get to our destination. Planning and mapping out what to do once you arrive can certainly make for a more pleasurable vacation, but there are things you can do while you are on your way that can make it even better.

Sure, you can plan for the things you’re going to do on your vacation while you are travelling en route – but what about making use of that time for other things that you don’t usually do when you’re at home? You don’t need to have your gadgets with you to do it, and you can really connect with yourself if you take the time to manage your life while heading towards your vacation destination.

Here are some great tips to help you with your time management while you travel, some of which are more conventional than others. Nonetheless, you can find out what works best for you and apply them accordingly depending on when and how you are travelling.

1. Take Your Time Getting There

As I write this, I’m on a flight to San Francisco. Flying is the fastest way to get from place to place, and for many people it’s really the only way to travel.

But I’ve often taken the train or ferry on trips so that I have extra time without distraction to get more done. I’m not worrying about navigation or lack of space to do what I want to do. Instead I’m able to focus on getting stuff done during the time I’ve got without feeling rushed. For example, when I took the train from Vancouver to Portland, it was an eight hour trip and I managed to get a ton of writing done and closed a lot of open loops. It also was less expensive than flying, which was a bonus.

Sometimes taking the long way to get somewhere on vacation can be the best thing for you to get somewhere with your life.

2. Go Gadget-Free

This is going to be a tough one for a lot of you. But why do you need to bring your gadgets with you when you go on vacation? It isn’t be a bad idea to leave all but one of them behind, and only pull out that one when you absolutely need to do so. In some countries, you’d be wise to be discreet with them anyway since flaunting them in front of those that are less fortunate than you isn’t a good practice. While it may not seem like flaunting to you, in different cultures it can definitely come across that way.

If you can’t go gadget-free, then at least go Internet-free. If you use a task management app that requires syncing across your multiple devices to be effective, remember that if you only have the one device with you then it can be the “master device” for the time being and will store your data locally anyway. Just sync up when you get home.

3. Reflect and Prepare

Finally, going on any sort of excursion gives you the perfect opportunity to reflect on where you’ve been. The fact you have removed yourself from where you usually are can give you a perspective that you simply can’t get when you’re at home. You may want to journal your thoughts during this time – and by taking more time to get to your destination you’ll have more time to dig deeper into it.

After a period of reflection – however long that happens to be – you can then begin to not only prepare for the rest of your travels, you can prepare for the rest of what happens afterward. The reflection period is important, though. You need to really know where you’ve been in order to properly look at where you want to be. Time away from things gives you that chance.

Conclusion

Traveling isn’t always about where you’re going and how quickly you can get there. In fact, it’s rarely about that at all.

More often it’s where you’re at in your head that will dictate how much you benefit from traveling. So don’t just go somewhere fast. Instead, take your time on the way there and take the time to connect with not only where you are but who are while you’re there.

If you do that, you’ll have a better chance to be who you want to be when you leave.

(Photo credit: Traffic or a Construction Site Sign via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

The first time for everything is always the most exciting one. Whether it is your first day in a new job or going on a first date, you will always remember those “first” times.

Not only is there a lot of excitement loaded in those events, but there is also a fear of some sort included. You may be thinking about whether or not you are able to perform well enough, or what the other person (or persons) think of you if you fail.

Instead of having thoughts like that, what if you turned the first time into a very positive and exciting event?

Here are some steps to make you feel better when entering new situations that you feel anxious about, allowing you to prepare better.

1. Ditch the perfection

On very rare occasions can you manage to do something perfectly the first time you do it, so when you do something for the first time, it is time to ditch the notion of perfection.

I remember the first time I drove a car in traffic after getting my driver’s license. I was very nervous and I was overwhelmed by the traffic — my driving style showed that I wasn’t a very confident driver. Now I’m much more experienced as a driver. Although I still don’t consider myself a perfect one, I’m much more confident behind the wheel than what I was when I started.

In general, it is useless to strive for perfection when you do something for the first time. You are setting the bar too high and you just feel bad when you are not able to meet the level you have set.

Also, perfection is just another way to procrastinate, so trying to be perfect is just a waste of time. You want to pursue excellence instead.

2. Forget what others think

In order to decrease the stress you feel about your first time, just forget what others are thinking of you.

First, many people don’t really care that much if you happen to fail at something. If you are open about your inexperience, they are most likely to forgive your inability to perform well.

Second, remember that others have also started from “zero” as well (driving a car, giving a public speech, going out for a date, etc.).

Third, focus on your own performance — not on others. For instance, if you’re going to be running in your first marathon ever your goal is just to pass the finish line, not to run a new world record.

3. The time you spend doesn’t matter

One common characteristic of doing something for the first time is that it is most likely to be more time-consuming than subsequent times. If you are inexperienced, the first few times you are just going to be learning anyway — and hopefully getting better in the process.

Just take your time and try to learn as much as possible as you go. You will realize that the second time is much easier, since you already have some experience in your pocket.

4. Plan and prepare

If possible, try to plan and prepare as much as possible before doing something new. This way you will gain more self-confidence, and by planning and preparing you actually may have a bit more control of things.

But you don’t always have that sense of control. For instance, if you are going out on a first date, you cannot plan every possible topic to talk about in advance — nor is it reasonable to do that.

On the other hand, if you are going to take a certification test related to your profession, you can study and prepare so that you can reach a whole different level when you take the exam.

5. Prepare for the second time

Once you have gone through your “first time experience”, you’ll have broken the biggest barrier of all. The excitement and fear is most likely gone and the next time won’t be that scary anymore.

To make the next time even a smoother experience, do these two things during your first time:

•  Take notes. It never hurts to write things down as you go. These notes can help you to feel more confident and you can go them through when preparing for the second time
•  Run through a checklist. Create a checklist, so that you can prepare even better for the next time. For example, to prepare yourself to give a presentation, write down a checklist to go through before the actual event. This way you can make sure that all the necessary requirements are met before the presentation begins.

Conclusion

You’ll never be fully prepared for the first time at everything, but if you use the tips above the next time you face something new you’ll have a much better chance to enjoy the experience. And then you’ll want to do it again.

Photo credit: Young Man Holding a Clock via Shutterstock)

Timo Kiander is an online business productivity and time management enthusiast who blogs at http://www.timokiander.com. Visit his blog and grab the free e-book: “101 Tips For Becoming a Productivity Superstar”

How many productivity systems, methodologies, strategies or tools have you tried so far? Do you already use something that fits your needs perfectly, or are you just doing OK, still have a feeling that something could be better?

Many people want to find the perfect productivity system or tool. Having such goal, they consider the “searching phase” as something bad. They think about it as time they have to waste for experimenting.

If you still haven’t found your Holy Grail of Productivity – don’t worry. No one said you have to. Maybe there’s even no such thing in your case. That’s perfectly fine and doesn’t mean you cannot be more productive than others.

Searching is not a waste of time

Searching for the perfect solution may be frustrating (that’s completely normal), yet it doesn’t have to be. Even changing your attitude may work – turning “wasting my time” into “getting experience” can do wonders. Think that all this trying, searching and experimenting is in fact learning about yourself, your habits, what solutions fit you, and which methods are good.

Of course this is a perfect example of truism. People know these things, but unfortunately they make use of such hints rarely. I always remind others (and want to be reminded as well!) to think in a way that will make them search for opportunities and “lessons learned” instead of wining that something didn’t turn out as expected.

So how exactly is searching for a productivity system good for you? The keyword here is “routine,” but routine cannot occur when you’re constantly changing something, right?

Here is how I see it: when you find a way to be productive, like GTD for example, you stick to the system’s or tool’s rules. Even if you are just using a tool, like a calendar or a web app that helps you organize your to-do lists. After we use a tool or process for some time we tend to not have to think about it as much. We eventually become productivity machines and do things automatically.

This may not sound very tempting when we put it that way, yet it’s what most of us would like to achieve; to become productivity ninjas. But when we fail over and over, trying out new patterns, tools, and strategies, we get frustrated or filled with other negative emotions. And that’s where I ask, “why?”

We’re all children – new things mean fun

When I was in school and had to do projects or homework I usually visualized myself sitting at my desk, getting bored and feeling like I’m wasting my youth. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re a kid. But I found a way to cheat; I simply bought something new that I thought would help me.

In such situations I went to a shop and got myself a new pen, pencil, notebook (not a laptop — we wrote directly on paper then), an eraser, a ruler and a compass (if it was math) or whatever I needed or wanted. All that stuff was cheap, but it was new and selected by me, hence I liked it. And I simply wanted to start using it; I just needed a reason.

This is the same thing that happens when a child gets a new toy and wants to play with it immediately. Who would waste time to say “thank you” to auntie who bought it? Let’s play NOW!

How’s this relevant? When you find a new tool or system, you’re excited and you want to use it. After all, you thought it over a few times and even if you’re not sure whether it’s perfect, you’re at least eager to find out. You’re full of optimism and happiness and you have fun organizing your work. Even if the tool isn’t perfect, there’s a good chance that you’re more productive than not using the tool or methodology at all.

Done is better than perfect

Of course you’d like the perfect methodology – we all would. But you won’t find it without trying. So, keep at it.

And in the meantime, just think this: you’re not wasting time if you’re already productive; it’s just that you haven’t found the perfect tool yet. You’re still on the journey to get to it.

Jan Makulec works as a copywriter in the online payments industry. He also does some guest posting and runs a few blogs himself, including Across the Board - his company blog, where he writes on various topics. Feel free to contact him on Google+ or any other way - you'll find all the contact info here: Jan Makulec.

The last few months, I’ve been wondering about something. I am self-employed. I work in an office by myself. No one watches me or looks over my shoulder. I work flexible hours.  Do those hours really add up to 40 or more a week?

My Productivity Experiment

I did an experiment in which I calculated all of the hours I was actually working (i.e. writing, attending phone meetings, pursuing leads, responding to business-related e-mails) versus doing personal tasks or surfing the Internet.

It turns out that I do indeed work 40 or more hours a week, but those hours aren’t organized in 5, 8-hour chunks like the hours of traditional employees. Rather, I am able to complete several administrative and business development tasks for my business in the morning and do heavy lifting writing in the late afternoon, when my energy level is highest.

Especially if I’m sitting at my computer the whole time, I definitely lose steam between 11AM and 3PM, and again between 6PM and 9PM. But it’s not uncommon for me to continue working with all cylinders firing after my children are in bed.

9 to 5 as inefficient?

Even though I’m pretty efficient overall, my rate of efficiency during the “traditional” 9 to 5 work day is not that great. And yet I suspect I’m not alone. I don’t think most employers would be thrilled that people are tooling around on social media for hours every work day, but this is common and part of being human.

Human beings only have the ability to focus intensely for a few hours at a time, at which point our energy slackens and we switch to an activity that requires less brain power. In the days when most of us worked in the fields or in factories, it didn’t matter if we were able to concentrate because so much of the work was rote. But a great deal of today’s work relies on creativity, analytical ability, and strategic thinking, and for that, we need to be sharp.

Long Breaks for the Self-Employed

Everyone’s productivity cycle is different, and as a result of my research, I’m learning how to manage mine. After working for a few hours in the morning, I go to the gym, run errands, grab lunch outside, or take a nap during my low energy time in the early afternoon. I write like a fiend in the late afternoon and continue through the early evening, and then, after a two hour break engaging with my kids and having dinner with my husband, I’ll sit down at the computer and finish a project or catch up on e-mails.

Unfortunately, if you’re employed in a traditional business environment, you can’t have a schedule like a self-employed person. You are expected to work productively for 8 hours straight, and at some point during this long stretch, you are likely kidding yourself.  Coffee can only do so much. The typical office culture does not allow you to recoup your energy in an effective way, so you sit at your desk clicking mindlessly or staring into space. This isn’t good for anyone.

The Solution for the Average Employee

Given that productivity cycles vary by individual, knowledge workers are most effective if they set their own hours and leave the workspace to do something else when their energy depletes. Thanks to technology, being tied into the business from home 24/7 is now feasible.

However, I’m a realist, and I don’t think the majority of workplaces are ready to employ telecommuting on a grand scale (although I can see this happening in the next 10 years).  What employers can do is encourage flex-time. Let your people come and go as they please provided the work is getting done with great results.

Get them up and away from their desks by setting up fitness and recreation programs onsite or nearby, and create a culture where eating meals is a social and/or networking activity instead of yet another thing to be done in front of the computer. When people are permitted to work when they feel their best, productivity will improve across the board.

(Photo credit: Image of business documents on workplace via Shutterstock)

Alexandra Levit is a career and workplace expert at the Intuit Quickbase Blog , a daily source for advice on how to be exceptional at your job. You can follow her on Twitter at @alevit.

Some projects can be a real pain in the you know what. Not all of them, of course. But there are some that just keep us awake at night. There can be many reasons of such a situation. Sometimes the tasks that need to be done are simply difficult to perform. Other times it’s the amount of time required that frightens us.

But sometimes the most frightening thing of them all is that we don’t know what’s going on in a project, and can’t seem to find a way to plan everything out and get a clear picture of what needs to be done.

In the previous parts of the series we were discussing what to do once everything is perfectly laid out. Once we’re clear about the exact tasks that need to be done, and once we even know when we want to take care of them. But there’s one part missing, and that’s of course the part of planning your projects and selecting your priorities.

Most projects we decide to execute should be defined and planned according to five main steps. These are:

1. Setting goals and rules.
2. Defining your vision for the end result.
3. Brainstorming.
4. Organizing.
5. Selecting next tasks.

Of course, not every project requires such an elaborate sequence of steps. Some projects are really simple, and defining things like goals or visions would be a complete overkill.

If you just want to get your car fixed then you don’t need any smart rules to be able to get it done … you probably know what needs to be done without any additional help.

However, GTD was designed to be able to handle any kind of project, no matter how big or small.

The steps mentioned above are doing just that. They can be applied to anything. And after you go through all of them you can be sure that your project will be clear and understandable. This, in the end, will improve your chance of executing the project successfully.

To explain this whole thing we’ll have to leave our simple examples and take on something a bit more complicated… So imagine that you’re buying a new apartment for you and your family.

1. Setting goals and rules.

This is the part where you answer the questions of why and what for.

For our example the question is: Why do you want a new apartment?

Some possible answers: you want to live closer to your workplace, you want your kids to live closer to school, you want to have more space for yourself and your family, you want to live in the city center because all the interesting things are happening there, you want a more modern environment, and so on.

The reasons behind every project are of course different. Furthermore, personal projects are entirely different in nature from business-centered projects. But they still have a lot in common. If, for example, instead of buying a new apartment you’re starting a business then the question remains – why do you want to start a business?

So no matter what you’re thinking of doing you always need to start with your goals and rules. Goals we have covered (it’s the why). Rules are even easier to grasp.

Going back to our example; some rules: what is your budget? where do you want to live (what neighborhood)? do you want to get one room for everybody? do you need a garage? and so on.

Once you have all these things lined up you can go to the next step.

2. Defining your vision for the end result.

This is where you’re answering the question of what.

Create a complete vision of what you want to get as the end result of the project. The more details the better.

Your vision reflects the goals and rules you’ve set in the previous step. The goals are the main guidelines on what should and shouldn’t be done inside a given project. So now, you’re using these goals to come up with your vision for the final result of the project.

A possible vision for our project:

I want a 4 bedroom apartment in the city center. At least X square meters of space. Large kitchen. It must have a garage. The price should be less than X. Modern furniture.

This sounds like a good vision. Of course there’s a lot more things we could include here, but for now it’ll do.

The next step is to take this vision and do some brainstorming around it.

3. Brainstorming.

Brainstorming is probably the most creative activity for any project. You’ve been doing it many times, I’m sure. However, brainstorming has very little point when done prior to executing the two previous steps.

A brainstorming session always has to be created around a strongly defined main idea, so we have some guidance and know where we’re going with it. And this is exactly what defining goals and vision gives us.

The brainstorming session itself is a very simple thing to do. Essentially, it’s the answer to the question of how.

Some people like to set some restrictions, for example, time constraints. This is good if we’re working on a given project at work, and more than one person is doing the brainstorming. But if it’s just you then you can spend as much time as you want. Of course, within reason.

Start by taking your goals and visions and placing them in a visible place. Then simply let your creative mind loose and write down every idea that comes to mind about the things you might do in the project. And I mean EVERY.

This is not the time to assess the ideas and erase the bad ones. Not now. This is the time to write everything down, no matter how stupid it sounds at first.

Our example: call the real estate agency, go to IKEA, hire a contractor, ask around and find out if it’s a good neighborhood or not, choose paint colors, get a full-size Elvis sculpture, get an internet connection, get a bank loan, hire a van, check all the installations (electricity, etc.), and so on. The list for such an example can go on and on, so we’ll just stop here.

Once you reach a point when you can’t think of anything else it’s probably a good moment to stop brainstorming and go to the next step.

4. Organizing.

Yes, this is where you get to select the good ideas and remove the bad ones. Brainstorming should give you a lot of both.

Why brainstorming and organizing at the same time is not the best choice? Because these activities are opposing to one another. On one hand you have to be creative and invent stuff, but on the other you have to get back to the ground and be reasonable while assessing it. Doing this at the same time simply doesn’t work. That’s why organizing is a separate step.

The process is simple. Just look at your brainstorming list and remove everything that doesn’t have much to do with your goals and visions, or is simply stupid (like the Elvis sculpture … or is it?).

Once you spend some time on looking through all those things your brain will automatically start to arrange things according to their priorities and what needs to be done first. You should use this state of mind and quickly shift to the final step.

5. Selecting next tasks.

This is where our old friend – the Next Tasks List – comes back into play.

At this point selecting the next task for your project should be easy. After the phase of organizing all ideas you should have a nice set of actionable things that are in tune with your goals and visions. Things that are absolutely crucial for implementing the project. Now, simply select your next task for the project.

Everything you have at this point goes into your Projects List. And the next possible task goes to your Next Tasks List. From that point on you can go back to your usual work (GTD style). This is where everything ties together.

What’s next?

Basically, that’s it. All you have to do now is use the system to help you get more organized and execute your projects more effectively. Both in personal life and in business.

Just to recap, and point you towards the specific parts in this series.

• Start with the brain dump exercise.
• Create your first Next Tasks List, and remember about the rules of choosing which tasks to handle at any point in time.
• Plan your projects according to the strategy in this post.
• Put all seven main elements of productivity in place.
• Remember to work according to your daily graph of activity.

I admit, there’s a lot to do if you want to have GTD fully implemented in your daily life. But would you rather be running around like a chicken with its head cut off because you don’t have a clue what to do next? Probably not.

One final encouragement for you: if you think you don’t have time for playing around with such methodologies then suspend your disbelief for a moment and have a little trust because after you implement GTD you will find time for everything.

Feel free to share how GTD is working for you. I’m curious to know. I, for example, have been using it since 2009 and it truly works like a charm.

(Photo credit: Productivity or Motivation via Shutterstock)

Planning to plan your future is a waste of time. Has talking about planning ever been useful? Has it moved your life forward?

I think we can agree that’s a big “no”.

For me, I’ve found I’m happiest when I’m doing something…accomplishing something. By “something”, I mean anything that I feel is bettering my life in some way –- furthering a hobby, honing a job skill, learning a bit of knowledge, making travel plans, etc. The problem is that I’ve found it difficult to stop talking about what I’m hoping to accomplish and to actually make strides towards something actually happening.

The excuses:

“I don’t have time.”

“My job keeps me too busy.”

“Hey look, that generic show about that thing is on.”

But like I said, planning to plan doesn’t work. What I’ve found does for me is Forward15.

What is Forward15?

Well, Forward15 is when you take fifteen minutes out of the day, every day, to do something that makes you feel like you did “something”.

Who should do it

That would be you.

It’s not like you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment if you outsource planning your future. Feel free to bring in that special someone in your life (they also don’t have to be that special). Doing Forward15 as a couple gives you someone to bounce ideas off of and to “tag team” your efforts.

What you should do

Whether it’s making a decision, submitting a payment, reserving an appointment, or researching an option, you have to have made progress that you can build on for your next Forward15. If it helps, focus on a theme per session. Travel Forward15, Education Forward15, Fitness Forward15, etc. It’ll help the time fly by and really make you feel like you didn’t waste it.

Forward15 examples:

• Sign up for that course you’ve been meaning to take.
• Research the Mexican resorts you are trying to choose between.
• Come up with a schedule for the next month of fitness classes you’re going to attend.

When you should do Forward15

What works best for you? Right after work, first thing in the morning, right before bed? Whether it’s scheduled or just a matter of finding 15 minutes in a day, it’s really up to you. The only thing you can’t say is you don’t have time for it. It’s only 15 minutes!

I don’t care if you’re the CEO of a company or the mother of a 2 year old, you can find 15 minutes. If you don’t feel you can’t, here’s how you can do just that.

Where you should do it

Where do you feel you can focus for 15 minutes? Do it there.

You’re not limited by location. If your focus that day needs Google and there’s no wifi to be found, pick a different focus.

Why you should try Forward15

Really the most important question to answer when doing anything is: Why?

In 15 minutes you can make decisions that will affect your life and make you feel better doing it. Just the act of taking action in your life can help make you happier about your future and where it’s going — because it’s going somewhere.

Think about it: a quarter of an hour, 15 minutes, 900 seconds can make you feel better about the next year, 365 days, 21,900 seconds. If it helps, picture some late-night infomercial host saying, “for just 15 minutes a day…”

After all, isn’t it time for some forward thinking?

Russel is an engager - online and off. He is a communications professional with a social soul, sharing his knowledge and insight on how people and businesses engage on The Upsell, a blog on customer service, and Getting Engaged, videocast on engagement. Follow him on Twitter - he's @russLoL.

We’re well into the new year, and chances are you’ve made resolutions. They’re the same ones as last year: lose weight, stop smoking, drink less, exercise more…

After all, the new year is a great opportunity to have a fresh start. You can evaluate what you’ve accomplished during the last year, and clarify what you want for the year ahead of you. So you make resolutions, hoping that you’ll stick to them this time. Being greatly motivated by your goals, you get started. For the first few days, everything goes well – you’re on your way to achieving what you want!

Then reality hits you.

It is not as easy as you thought. You get caught up by the day-to-day operations and routine. You try to keep up your new habits and focus. But two weeks in, you quit. You stop going to the gym, or you start smoking again.

What happened? And how can avoid this from occurring — again?

The following infographic answers these questions. Simply click on the image below to view the full-size PDF. The blue underlined words are hyperlinks. Click on them to get more information about that particular topic.

Keep this infographic handy whenever you feel yourself slipping — and you’ll have a much better chance of keeping those resolutions this year.

(Photo credit: Three Elements of True Motivation via Shutterstock)

Matt is Fluent Brain's CEO and Chief Visual Facilitator. Visual Facilitation supercharges your thinking, brainstorming, and problem-solving, bringing clarity and order to your thought processes. You can follow him on his blog (and via RSS), Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

I bet you’ve heard this quote before:

“The early bird gets the worm…” – William Camden

Perhaps you’ve heard it in reference to your own sleeping habits. There are numerous articles on the web where writers tell you that one of the best ways to become more productive is to get up early. By doing so, you get a jumpstart on the rest of the world and reap the benefits of a quiet work environment — among other things.

Yet for the amount of articles that all about getting up early, there are many people who struggle to do just that. I’m one of them. I’ve tried time and time again to get up early, to “reset my internal clock” to make that happen…and I can’t seem to make it stick. While failure isn’t the worst thing in the world when it comes to this (and other efforts, for that matter), after trying to become an early riser more times than I can remember, this quote came to mind:

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” – Albert Einstein

Now I wasn’t doing the exact same thing each time I made an effort to change my sleeping and waking habits, but I realized that the act of trying to change my habits was the problem. That’s where the insanity was coming into play. I was frustrated that I simply couldn’t do what I thought I should be able to do — and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working.

And then it came to me: I’m not meant to be an early riser. I am a night owl and I needed to embrace that rather than fight it.

Further to that, I examined how somebody who’s a night owl could essentially “hack their day” in the same way as an early riser does. Perhaps not surprisingly, the same benefits that apply to early risers can belong to night owls too.

Quiet Time

If you’re up past the bedtimes of those in your home, then you’re going to get the same sense of quiet that the early riser gets. Plus, if you woke up later in the morning, you won’t be as tired when you get down to whatever you plan to do with that quiet time because you’ve been awake for far longer than the early bird will be. As someone who does a lot of writing, I have found that I’m at my best in a creative sense later in the day, once all of my essential actions and errands have been taken care of. I call it my “Finally Time” — I finally have the clarity of thought, quiet I need and time I want to get my great work done.

Getting Ahead

While many are up at the crack of dawn and getting an early start to their day, I’m sleeping. And I’m no further behind because of it.

You see, I’ve already done the things that I needed to get a jump on the previous night. I’m no less productive than the early riser because I did what they do in the morning hours during the late hours the day beforehand; I am being proactive in my own way.

The notion that early risers are more productive than night owls is a myth. They just do “more productive” differently. How they allocate their time is the key.

Stop Struggling and Love the Late Hours

I started off by offering a very famous quote…but there’s more to it than what I initially delivered. My favourite addition to that quote is:

“The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.” – Jeremy Paxman

To some that may mean that you should proceed with caution rather than be first into the fray, but I tend to look at it differently.

There is no advantage to being an early riser over being a night owl when it comes to increasing your productivity. It’s all in how you handle what comes at you – day and night – and making sure that you handle in it in a way that suits you and your lifestyle. If you find that you like getting up early, go for it. If you don’t, then don’t change that. Instead, put your efforts into making sure that your are being productive rather than when you are being more productive.

Listen to your mind and body and drive yourself to do more when it works for you. Don’t drive yourself insane trying to do anything that doesn’t.

(Photo credit: Time to Wake Up via Shutterstock)

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and "productivityist". Read more of his writing and learn more about him at MikeVardy.com, and you can also follow him on Twitter.

If an alien nation were to look down on Earth at this moment in time they really would think us a dumb race. They might say something like:

“They buy things they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like.”

But even if it’s not about impressing others, most of us have too much stuff and we know that the accumulation of goods won’t make us happier — yet we continue to consume. The aliens would also notice how busy the inhabitants of this planet are and how they work incessantly a lot of the time doing work that doesn’t need to be done. And if they asked us we would acknowledge that we work too much, knowing that it can lead to a high percentage of us feeling stress or anxiety (1.5 million people in the U.S. alone having heart attacks each year). But we continue to work longer hours. We would also tell them that we know simplicity can lead to greater happiness and wellness, yet we are prone to staring blindly at facts and doing nothing about them.

So just in case some alien race is watching, don’t you think we should simplify our lives? Maybe we could also benefit from the other advantages. By making a commitment now to reduce, eliminate, and set yourself free this year, you will feel the liberation and the lightness as you rid your life of the physical and mental baggage that has being weighing you down. Clutter is stagnant energy and by removing it from your life you will free up time and space for the more important things in life.

How to Get Started

Step by step and room by room, you can start to eliminate the unnecessary in your life. The books you have read but hold onto, the clothes that are too small but sit in your cupboard. The stuff that that lies on your kitchen table or clutters up your living room. Wouldn’t it be nice to be rid of it?

Organizational expert Barbara Hemphill calls clutter “postponed decisions”. So start making some decisions. Get bags or boxes — one for recycling, one for the charity shop, one for the trash and one for the yet to be decided.

Start with one area of your house or office, choose a drawer, a counter space or shelf. Don’t try to do it altogether or you may get discouraged and leave your house looking worse than before. If you have a lot to do, try setting yourself a time deadline rather than a space deadline. if you can commit to de-cluttering for an hour or two, you will be satisfied with what you have achieved if you stuck with it for that time period.

For each object you pick up ask yourself the following questions:

• “Do I need this?”
• “Have I used in in the past 6 months?” (12 months for seasonal clothes or sporting equipment)
• “Would it help someone else more than me?”
• “Can I easily get it again if I dispose of it?”

These questions should help you make a decision. If you end up with a box of things that you can’t decide what to do with or you are not ready to dispose of, keep them in this box in storage. After six months, go back to the box — and if you haven’t used anything from the box in that time you can pass them on to someone who may be able to use them.

Once you have eliminated all that is unnecessary, the next step is to make sure all that is left is organized and accessible when you need to get at it.

Organizing the Rest

The correct storage is important for your home or office; you need to decide where everything should go and whether it is necessary to get more storage solutions to accommodate your possessions. If possible, try to use existing solutions, as I find the more storage I have the more I will fill.

Regardless of how few papers you need to keep, you will need a filing system. I don’t have enough papers at home to merit a filing cabinet, so I use a filing box. It holds about 40 hanging folders, enough to keep all my home paperwork — items such as birth certificates, contracts and certificates are all filed away neatly. Inside each hanging folder I have a manila folder which has been labelled clearly with a labeller. This means that when I go to look for a folder I can clearly see it and don’t waste any time searching.

Once you have a place for everything and everything in its place, the way to keep it organized is to commit to cleaning as you go…and try to get everyone who lives in your house on board.

“If everyone swept in front of their own door, the world would be a much cleaner place” - Mother Theresa

De-cluttering the Mind

To de-clutter the mind is to empty it of all the unnecessary thoughts that prevent you from living a happy, calm and stress-free life. The mind can be a busy place as it stores our commitments, responsibilities, hopes, dreams and plans along with the constant input that comes its way as we pass through our day.

A mind should not be a place of clutter, but a place of calm and peace. Below are a number of ways that can help you to clear your mind and free it from the constant noise and clutter that resides there.

1. Write it all down
Get out a piece of paper and write down everything you need to do, from organizing a children’s party to starting a new project at work. Write down your chores, your duties and your responsibilities. Write down your plans for articles, books and businesses. This act will help to clear the mind and keep you from using it as a reminder system.

2. Get Organized
Just like clearing the physical clutter is not enough to complete the task, clearing the mind also needs an organisation phase to help completely free your mind from the responsibility of remembering. Once you have it all written down, you must plan and schedule all that needs to be done. Having a system to organize your tasks and projects can help to eliminate stress and induce a sense of peace and calm

3. Focus on the essential
If you identify the most important things in your life, such as your main goals and intentions, it will make it easier for you to identify the things that are not important — the things that clog your mind and clutter your space. Once you have identified and start to focus on the essential, the rest will fade into insignificance.

4. Reduce information consumption
Where possible, reduce the amount of time you spend watching television, listening to radio and reading newspapers. Too much negative news can have a negative effect on your mind. Television is not as relaxing as people think; your mind is very active while doing it and it will remain active for a long time after watching. In particular, watching television reduces the quality of your sleep if you watch it before bedtime.

5. Journal
Journaling can help to quieten the mind. By writing down all your thoughts, worries, and dreams you take some of the pressure away from the mind. A lot of people journal before sleeping as this can free up their minds from these worries and stresses, allowing for a more peaceful sleep.

4. Spend time in nature
Nature can be a great detox for both body and mind. A fresh breath can clear out stagnant or negative energy held in the body, and walking in nature has grounding and purifying effects. Activity outdoors can also be a great way to be mindful shifting your thoughts from your worries to the present moment.

5. Meditate
Meditation, just like mindfulness, can help to relax the constant chatter of the mind. Stress and worry are caused by focusing too much attention on future negative outcomes. The more we can focus our mind on the present moment the happier and more peaceful we will become.

If you follow these steps to de-clutter your physical and mental space, you will find greater peace and happiness. What you will also achieve is the ability to focus more intently on the essential and become more efficient and productive with both your time and space.

Oh, and you’ll likely impress the aliens a bit too.

(Photo credit: Bad Day at Work via Shutterstock)

Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “With Productivity and Positivity there is little you can’t achieve” Find out more about Ciara and sign up for her tips, articles and links at Productivity & Positivity

Sounds serious, doesn’t it? Thankfully, the whole idea turns out to be quite easy to grasp.

But first…

At this point you already know what the main elements of productivity are and where to start with GTD. This is all great, but we’re still lacking one important piece of information…

What the hell to do with all this stuff?!

And today, we’re going to cover exactly that.

Understanding the Diagram of Action

When working with GTD you’re basically doing one of three things at all times:

• Take care of defined tasks.
• Take care of undefined tasks.
• Plan (define) your tasks.

These things fall into a loop, and repeat themselves throughout the day, week, month, and so on.

Planning your tasks will be the topic of the next post in this series, so let’s leave it for now and focus on the first two things.

• Defined tasks/activities are everything that’s in your Projects List, Next Tasks List, Future/maybe List, and Calendar. You know, all the stuff you’ve planned to do eventually.
• Undefined tasks/activities are everything that comes at you by surprise, forcing you to take some kind of action. Like when your spouse calls you and yells that your house is on fire. (That’s an extreme example, but I’m only trying to get my point across.)

Defined and undefined are the only possible types of tasks you might stumble upon on your way through life. Everything is either familiar to you (things you’ve planned for), or new and unexpected (things you didn’t predict would happen).

So defined tasks we’ve got covered. Whenever you’re in the mood for work you just pick one from your Next Tasks List and execute it. But what to do when undefined tasks happen? Do we simply do them, or what?

This is where the Daily Graph of Activity comes into play.

Getting to Know Your Daily Graph of Activity

First, the graph itself. Don’t get discouraged right from the start because the thing is actually quite easy to grasp — as I’m explaining below.

There’s a thing called things on top of the graph. Things are everything that crosses your path during the day – everything your life hits you with (the undefined tasks). Getting an email is a thing. Coming up with a new idea for something is a thing. Receiving a phone call is a thing. Getting a direct order from your boss is also a thing. In a sentence – everything that requires any kind of reaction on your part is a thing.

So the things go into your inbox. The inbox doesn’t have to be an actual inbox, like an email inbox or a traditional mailbox in your front yard. This is simply a place where all the incoming things land.

You can create a folder on your computer’s desktop, for example. Or write everything down on sticky notes and stick them to your computer’s screen. Or have a special container next to your desk. The choice is truly up to you. Whatever makes the most sense to you can be used as an inbox.

So everything lands there and waits until some further action on your part. What you do is pick something up from the inbox and answer the first question: What is it? Do I have to (or want to) do anything about it?

If the answer is no then you have four main options you can do next.

• Trashing the thing. Pretty self-explanatory.
• Putting it in your Future/Maybe List. If you think you might want to work with this thing in the future.
• Scheduling it in your Calendar. If you need to take action on it on an exact date and time (remember, your Calendar is sacred).
• Putting it in your Reference Files. If it’s just some piece of information you want to keep, but it’s not actionable in any way.

If the answer is yes then a second question arises: Is it the next possible action?

The undefined things you’re hit with during the day can be constructed very differently. They can be simple one-action activities (like an email saying, “Take out the trash”, or they might as well start massive projects (like, “Start the marketing campaign for Coca-Cola”). So the question above is where you decide if it’s the former or the latter.

If it indeed is something that sounds like a new project then you need to put it in your Projects List, and then do some planning around it to come up with a list of possible tasks for it (I’ll cover this more in the next post in the series).

However, if it is just a simple one-action activity/task then you should consider taking care of it immediately. Hence the third question on the graph: Can I do it in less than 2 minutes?

Why the 2 minute restriction? Because if you were to take care of every one-action task someone sends you right at the spot you wouldn’t be able to do anything else in a day. GTD simply protects you against a situation when incoming tasks are sabotaging your way of working.

So, if you can indeed do it in less than 2 minutes then simply do it. An example of such a task is one I gave you a couple of paragraphs above – someone telling you to take out the trash.

Unfortunately, most undefined tasks cannot be done in less than 2 minutes. That’s just life.

There are two choices for you in such a case. You can either delegate them, or defer them.

• Delegating something means to simply send it to someone else. Your assistant, your contractor, or whoever else you have to spare or find the thing to be a suitable task for. Once you send the task to them, simply put it in your “Waiting for” List so you don’t forget to get back to that person and ask about their progress.
• Deferring something means placing it in one of two possible places: either your Calendar or your Next Tasks List.

Put it in your Calendar if it absolutely needs to be done on a specific date, otherwise put it in your Next Tasks List so you can get back to it when you decide to work on your defined tasks.

That’s all there is to the graph. Following it honestly lets you handle every undefined task very effectively.

Undefined tasks are the ones that can completely ruin your perfectly planned out day; GTD can help you to prevent such a situation.

Now what?

We know what to do with our defined tasks (simply do them when you have some time) and we also know what to do with our undefined tasks (define them as explained above). But there’s one more quick thing I want to share with you today. And that is how to review your work each day/week, and actually be aware of what’s going on.

Here’s what I personally do.

1. Each day I start with my Calendar. Because I know that the most important tasks for a given day are right there. Tasks that can’t be overlooked. I advise you to do the same and start your day by checking out your Calendar as well.
2. When I’m done with the Calendar I take my Next Tasks List, pick one task and start executing it. Then I pick another task, then another and so on.
3. Additionally, once a week I do a bigger review and have a look at all my lists: Projects List, Future/Maybe List, Waiting for List, and I make sure that my priorities are still the same and that I still want to execute all those things that are there. I also plan my next week and update everything so it’s perfectly in tune with my current goals and matters. This is also the time for creating new projects and deleting old ones — you know, cleaning stuff up.

And that’s it. This whole methodology comes down to these simple activities:

1. Take care of your Calendar.
2. Take care of your Next Tasks List.
3. Review everything.
4. Repeat.

And that is why GTD is so effective in a real-life environment.

(Photo credit: Decision Making Phrase via Shutterstock)

Almost anywhere you go nowadays you will see someone’s head buried in their phone checking email, texting someone, playing a quick game, looking something up, or just simply wasting time. You may even be the type that as soon as you hear a ‘ding’ or vibration from your phone you instantly check what is grasping for your attention, whether it’s important or not.

The fact is that most notifications don’t deserve your attention immediately. These notifications that are pulling for you attention are pulling that attention away from more important things that you have to get done.

Find what is important

Some notifications are much more important that others. This usually has to do with the medium and format that is used for the incoming messages.

Most knowledge-worker-types follow some sort of news feed (whether it’s RSS or just a simple site like Google news), have a calendar, email, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, use SMS and their phones. That’s a lot of incoming material that needs to be prioritized a bit to make for a more laid back notification style.

In my experience SMS, phone calls, Twitter direct messages, and calendar appointments tend to be the most important things to me, but it really depends on the nature of your job and life. Some people’s job is to respond to emails almost immediately (glad I don’t have that job) so email may be an important type of notification that they need.

Make a list of all of the notifications that you are subscribed to and are turned on in your life. Then mark the ones that you feel are the most important and need to know immediately. This is the start to managing them.

Turn almost everything off

At first when doing an inventory of all your notifications you may want to just turn everything off and then slowly add the important ones back in. Try to turn off automated emails and reminders from other systems, popup windows telling you that there is new email waiting for you, and badges and notifications on your phone.

I remember setting up calendar reminders once thinking that I needed a message a couple of days before something would happen as well as a popup notification on my phone and desktop. If I can’t check my calendar once or twice a day to see what I have coming up in my life, no notification will save me. In fact, I tend to become numb to the notifications because I get so many of them.

So, try to turn off as many notifications and then slowly add back in the ones that are the most important to you and that you can’t live without.

Re-train yourself

We have become trained to respond to our phones and email at a moment’s notice. The ‘dinging’ or ‘donging’ goes off, our eyes glaze over, and like trained circus animals we check whatever the hell we think that we must be notified of.

It’s time to retrain yourself and make new habits of not being ruled by your notifications.

Try ignoring notifications for as long as you can, especially if you are in the middle of working on something that is important to you. Try to make set times where you check your email, your news feeds, Facebook, etc. rather than you being ruled by them.

It can be very hard at first and may even feel like you are weaning yourself off of something that you are addicted to (because you may just be addicted to the satisfaction of checking and receiving something). Take it slow and you will be able to ignore notifications more easily as time moves on.

Setup new systems

Now that you know what is important and can live outside of checking your notifications every 5 minutes, a good idea is to setup some sort of new system or process for efficient notification handling.

There are some rules that you can put into place like blocking time for certain things like checking your news feeds and email twice a day, looking at your calendar and task lists first thing and only setting up daily reminders for yourself, or even turning off all notifications for a set period of time to concentrate on more important work.

Personally, I have found that the best way to manage notifications in the long run is to turn most of them off and then setup time to go through the app or service to see what you must be notified of. This is probably the only way you can keep your life from being controlled by the notifications around you.

Conclusion

There is a lot of information out there that is battling for your eyeballs and time. But, you don’t have to be controlled by it. You can handle and manage notifications successfully and efficiently if you find the ones that are important and re-configure the way that you interact with them.

Don’t be a trained animal, answering your phone and email ‘dings’ at every beck and call. Manage your notifications as a way to save time and to get more important things done.

(Photo credit: A businessman with icons floating around his head from Shutterstock)

You have goals and since you are reading Lifehack you may probably have a lot of them you want to accomplish. Goals lead to projects and projects lead to a sea of tasks. The problem with this is that those sea of tasks may never dry up and you could find yourself drowning in them.

Here is how you can get your head above a backlog of work.

Create Your Focus

The worst part about taking on work is that you say ‘yes’ to a lot more than you are actually capable of doing.

The best way to get out of a backlog of work is to not do the work. I’m not trying to be cynical (yes I am), but if you have committed to doing something that you shouldn’t have committed to, today is the day to stop doing it and find your focus. Don’t wait and think that having a million “look into” type of projects is okay.

Find the things that don’t fit and cut them.

Turn off life as much as possible

After you have found some focus it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of identifying and starting to process the piles of work in front of you. When you do this, it’s much better to unplug from everything that you can to keep your attention.

Turn the cell phone off, silence notifications, and try to find a few hours of time that you can devote to merely identifying what you need to do. Most people don’t realize it, but sometimes the only reason they are bogged down by work is because they don’t know what the work is that they have to do. This is the time to recognize it.

Stick to the two minute rule

While you are going through your email and other piled up, potential work, if you see something that you think will only take two minutes to do then do it immediately. This is probably one of my favorite GTD rules to forget, but it definitely works.

It’s sometimes hard to know how long something will take, so use a digital timer or stopwatch to time yourself. You can blow through a lot of work in these short little two minute bursts plus you will be moving projects along that you thought were dead in the water.

Know when to say no

As you are identifying your work make sure that you are still focusing on what you ought to be doing. If an email crosses your inbox that is some potential, crazy, new project, make sure that you have the time and bandwidth to accept it. If not, say no for the time being and possibly throw it on a someday/maybe list Better yet, get rid of it completely if it doesn’t match your focus.

It’s not a good idea to create more work for yourself when you are trying to get out of a backlog.

Do

The next part is just doing your work. Once you have identified what needs done and what doesn’t need done, it’s time to find the right time and context to get those things done. This may take much longer than the whole identifying process above, but at least you have a workable set of tasks that can slowly and surely get you out of your backlog.

Some people like making time blocks to get things done while other prefer a more relaxed approach. If you have a serious amount of work to get through, you may want to consider doing the former and scheduling yourself some time blocks to get through the work, if only it is until you are caught up.

Re-Focus

As you get closer and closer to the end of your work backlog and you start to see the light of day again, make sure that you stop for a moment and refocus. The only way that you got yourself in a backlog in the first place was that you were unfocused when accepting unwanted or unneeded work or that you were ignoring things altogether. Make sure that you are mindful of the work that you have accomplished and the work that you want to move towards next.

This will help to keep yourself away from backlogs in the first place.

Conclusion

Having a backlog of work doesn’t mean you are unproductive, necessarily. What it means is that you lack a sense of focus and possibly haven’t take the time to identify what you need to do to get things back on track.

Taking the time to identify your work and then making a conscious effort to move forward with what you should be focused on is the best way to make it out of the dreaded work backlog. And hey, since you are going into Saturday (at least here in the States), now is as good time as ever to out of your rut.

(Photo credit: Yellow coffee mug atop pile via Shutterstock)