Wednesday, September 14, 2011
A cool new (free!) productivity tool
Daniel Pink: Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer have shown that making progress on meaningful work is the single most motivating aspect of any job. But . . . many people don’t know what kind of progress they’re making – because their main source of workplace feedback comes only once a year in that hideously awkward and bizarrely formulaic ritual known as the annual review.
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6 comments:
I'm a big fan of productivity tools and I am always on the lookout for something new. Most products are just a new type of to do list or a reinvention of something that already exists. This is more or less completely new to the productivity world or at least in terms of products that I have looked at. I love the idea of it and the elegance it has and I think I will give it a try for a week or so and see how it works.
This seems like a very interesting approach. Instead of having a to-do list that you need to remember to check every so often this will serve as an active reminder of the tasks. Even if they're not reminders before the task is due it's at least something that shows up in front of you and needs interaction instead of just being something to glance at and delete like many of the top few task lists that other to-do list systems will generate. I think I'll also give this one a try, now to see if it's something that sticks around.
This, aside from being a new productivity tool, seems to be somewhat of a self-conducted social experiment. What do you decide is worthy of mentioning in your e-mails?
In fact I'm not sure this would help me complete tasks as easily as a list does (and applications that are essentially lists). It might help me be more productive over a long period of time, but only if I was very dedicated to it.
This is the right-brainer's to-do list - in order to complete a task, you have to actively process what you did that day and, like Pia suggested, decide what's important enough to note in your email. Getting pinged with an email every day is also a great idea, since sometimes you just forget to check the to-do list. On a traditional to-do list, it's also rare that you include milestones and subtasks, which could be tracked really nicely and easily on iDoneThis. Like any other productivity tool, though, this is one that will require a lot of active engagement and commitment to proceed with the program. Missing a day could likely throw you off entirely, and since the answers are free-form, you can't track subtasks as easily as you could by just putting those necessary subtasks on a to-do list.
This is a very neat program for people in jobs that you don't get a good sense of accomplishment when you do your work. I like that it is a free program and that it is online and that you can be anywhere, not just on one piece of technology. I have a system that I like a lot, it is using iCal in a way that it was not designed to. I put in all of the work that I have to do a semester and put them on different calendars depending on the class that they are in. Then I have calendars that are different levels of being done and once they get to that point they go to that calendar and then they change color and that gives me a visual representation of what is going on that day and needs to be taken care of. I would be willing to try this in the future especially since it is free.
I myself am never enthralled with finding new computer software and programs to keep me organized- probably because I am by no means tech savvy. Even though, with that being said, I'm finding more and more reason to investigate in products like this, not necessarily for now, but definitely for in the future when it is imperative to record exactly what you have completed, for the sake of your own clarity, the knowledge of others around you, and for the effort of any project/ work goal as a whole. I agree with Pia on the fact that I might not make so much use out of it now, but will definitely keep in mind the idea of researching about such a product for the future.
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