What's your productivity system/philosophy?
December 19, 2012 at 5:14 pm
(This post was last modified: December 19, 2012 at 5:16 pm by Tea Earl Grey Hot.)
With the new year coming up, perhaps some of you would like to share what you do to be productive?
I'm currently rereading David Allen's famous GTD book and trying to apply using what it suggests to the tools I have. I like most of what I'm reading from it but am a little apprehensive about some of it.
I use OmniFocus and iCal. I don't have a selected notes taking application yet. I might just use Notes.app that comes with my Mac but Evernote might be better.
When I'm not on vacation, I use an app called "Self Control" on my Mac to block myself from wasting too much time on addictive websites like Facebook, or this place. If you turn the app off, or even delete it, the websites are still blocked. I'm not sure how it does that.
I also go into the terminal and and type "sudo nano /etc/hosts" where I have a list of websites that I have blocked 24/7.
I set my router to block the internet to my iPod during certain hours of the day so I won't be tempted to distract myself from work.
I've tried Things, The Hit List, Midnight Inbox, Apple's Reminders, Wunderlist, 2Do, and a bunch of others. Some of them I liked but overall. I liked how Things had a special "Areas of Responsibility" organization feature. The Hit List has a built in timer and a special focus mode. Midnight Inbox is very nice since it has the GTD workflow built in. Overall, The Hit List and OmniFocus I liked best since they let you create sub tasks but I chose OmniFocus because The Hit List doesn't have an equivalent to a "Next Actions" list and it doesn't make a distinction between a project and a generic list. Things does have a "Next Actions" list but it doesn't support subtasks which makes complex projects hard to follow. Midnight Inbox is actually better than OmniFocus feature wise but the interface is so messy and it hasn't been updated in so long so it's gotten buggy as the OS has changed.
I grew up using a paper Franklin Planner. Although using it now would be too impractical for me I do miss how it integrated a calendar, task manager, and a journal together. Nothing I've found today for your computer does that so you end up having to use 3 or 4 applications at once. I also liked the inspiring quotes it had everyday but I can just replace that with a desktop widget. Some of the Franklin philosophy I liked and I might try to find a method of combining it with the GTD philosophy.
What do you use if anything to be productive? What tips or suggestions might you have? (I put this into Off Topic rather than technology because the discussion isn't only about productivity software).
I'm currently rereading David Allen's famous GTD book and trying to apply using what it suggests to the tools I have. I like most of what I'm reading from it but am a little apprehensive about some of it.
I use OmniFocus and iCal. I don't have a selected notes taking application yet. I might just use Notes.app that comes with my Mac but Evernote might be better.
When I'm not on vacation, I use an app called "Self Control" on my Mac to block myself from wasting too much time on addictive websites like Facebook, or this place. If you turn the app off, or even delete it, the websites are still blocked. I'm not sure how it does that.
I also go into the terminal and and type "sudo nano /etc/hosts" where I have a list of websites that I have blocked 24/7.
I set my router to block the internet to my iPod during certain hours of the day so I won't be tempted to distract myself from work.
I've tried Things, The Hit List, Midnight Inbox, Apple's Reminders, Wunderlist, 2Do, and a bunch of others. Some of them I liked but overall. I liked how Things had a special "Areas of Responsibility" organization feature. The Hit List has a built in timer and a special focus mode. Midnight Inbox is very nice since it has the GTD workflow built in. Overall, The Hit List and OmniFocus I liked best since they let you create sub tasks but I chose OmniFocus because The Hit List doesn't have an equivalent to a "Next Actions" list and it doesn't make a distinction between a project and a generic list. Things does have a "Next Actions" list but it doesn't support subtasks which makes complex projects hard to follow. Midnight Inbox is actually better than OmniFocus feature wise but the interface is so messy and it hasn't been updated in so long so it's gotten buggy as the OS has changed.
I grew up using a paper Franklin Planner. Although using it now would be too impractical for me I do miss how it integrated a calendar, task manager, and a journal together. Nothing I've found today for your computer does that so you end up having to use 3 or 4 applications at once. I also liked the inspiring quotes it had everyday but I can just replace that with a desktop widget. Some of the Franklin philosophy I liked and I might try to find a method of combining it with the GTD philosophy.
What do you use if anything to be productive? What tips or suggestions might you have? (I put this into Off Topic rather than technology because the discussion isn't only about productivity software).
My ignore list
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
"The lord doesn't work in mysterious ways, but in ways that are indistinguishable from his nonexistence."
-- George Yorgo Veenhuyzen quoted by John W. Loftus in The End of Christianity (p. 103).
