lifehack.org: Being productive isn’t about which apps, tools, and frames of mind you use to get things done. Enhancing your productivity is about using a set of tools and processes that can make up a full blown productivity system, becoming comfortable with and relying on those tools, and then using them to get important things done in your life and work. Instead of recommending the best app or scanner or type of paper, it’s better to give you the top 11 tools that anyone who wants to stay productive can use.
4 comments:
I've gone through a lot of apps to help with organization which have all been useful in some way or another, but they all end up at some point or another neglected for a period of time to the point whe there no longer useful. It's not just an app change, it's a lifestyle and mentality change. The tip I found the most useful is setting boundaries; keeping in mind what's important to you and getting it done as opposed to doing things for others that may slow down your productivity.
I'm growing tired of these articles, not just the ones linked to on the PTM blog, but the ones that I stumble across (or StumbleUpon) in my daily casual internet browsing.
You know what makes you productive? Getting organized and forcing yourself to work. You can write this list a million times a million different ways but it really just comes down to that. You need to get organized. If that means downloading a lot of apps to keep track of your life, buying a Moleskin planner to write everything in manually, or any combination thereof, then that's just what you gotta do. Get sleep. Keep a calendar. Keep your desk clean. Done.
How do you force yourself to work? Man, I don't know. What worked for me is I went to Carnegie Mellon School of Drama for a year and gave myself a productivity complex, but I don't think that route is for everyone. (Plus it's quite expensive.)
I think that this article is really useful. People are always saying that they need to get more organized and productive in order to get their work done, but they consistently find themselves falling short of this goal. Oftentimes it is an article like this that can help communicate tools that may help people with getting more organized when they couldn't figure out how to do it themselves. Many people who are organized can still find use from this article to help them feel a little less overwhelmed about all the work they need to get done.
I think this article does a good job highlighting the areas that everyone needs, but I agree with Pia in that it does not really offer anything new. There are few specifics offered about how to incorporate any of these points into your life, only that you should.
I do take issue with one line in this article: the idea that you should plan for double the time you think it will take you to complete a task. Though it might be true in some cases, I think this is a rather unproductive use of your time. There's a lot of other things you could plan instead of planning some amount of time, then ending up with free time. I think doubling the time estimates for something you are not familiar with is appropriate, but doing so for something you've done over and over again is ridiculous.
Note: I love the mention of a GTD Wallet
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