7Breaths

A week on Tumblr - more things to think about

2008-04-23T21:13:00.001+01:00

“No shortcuts exist to achieving greatness; it just takes strenuous hours of putting in your time to become better at what you do.
http://learn.trizle.com/posts/1040-how-do-you-treat-talent

People work better when they are working to a system. People feel more confident when they are working to a proven system. People need systems
. http://www.gaviningham.com/2008/04/16/the-sales-apprentice-2008-sales-training-tips-from-the-hit-tv-show-part-iv/

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
http://www.robinsharma.com/scripts/ic_blog.php?id=424

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

- Disraeli
http://www.execupundit.com/2008/04/quote-of-day_13.html

Time Audits

2008-04-16T20:02:00.003+01:00

I've posted about logging your time before and I think it's a useful exercise from time to time to see where your time is actually going. Dwayne over at Genuine Curiosity has a nice article with some ideas to help do a time audit - I'd recommend checking it out.

David Allen On The Curse Of The Eternally Urgent

2008-04-14T22:05:00.003+01:00

Nice post from David Allen over at the Huffington Post. Great quote "A crisis should be a crisis. Urgent things should be urgent. And they should be exceptional"

Seems to feed in to Covey’s ideas on Quadrant II tasks - Important, Not Urgent - work on these and the Important and Urgent tasks should arise a lot less frequently. Good explanation of it here. So how do you know what to be working on? I like the way Nicholas Bate ( If you've not come across him already I'd advise setting aside a good block of time to read his blog - a real 'thought leader' for me) describes these tasks:

Important
Investing
Interesting

Identify the tasks that fit these criteria and spend more time in Quadrant II working on things that will have the long term payoffs.

Why do you blog

2008-04-14T21:12:00.003+01:00

Why do you blog - to take part in a conversation or to make money? Seth has some thoughts on the matter.

I get numerous benefits from blogging, but making money is certainly not one of them at the moment. I continue to blog though as I remain passionate about my subject matter. In the end it would not matter if no one read this blog as just by having to write I am crystallising my thoughts and working things out for myself. This is the major payoff for me. The second benefit I've found is the conversations I have had with fellow bloggers - it certainly opens up whole new ideas and perspectives.

Why do you blog? If you don't why not?

Death By PowerPoint (and how to fight it)

2008-04-14T18:38:00.003+01:00

Just came across this on YouTube. How I wish more presenters would think about how they use PowerPoint.
Get back to basics and remember you need

Significance
Structure
Simplicity
Rehearsal

A week on Tumblr

2008-04-12T11:18:00.002+01:00

Here are some quotes I've collected on Tumblr from my week of web browsing - just a few things to think about over the weekend. Check out my tumblr site to find the sources of these quotes....

“ Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity - Charles Mingus

“The energy and anxiety that you invest in putting off an activity can consume more energy than is required to perform the activity.” - Jeff Davidson

“ Happy people plan actions, they don’t plan results” - Dennis Wholey

“Don’t tell me how hard you work. Tell me how much you get done.” -
James Ling

“ Consider this: every interruption you take trains other people about how to work with you. If they know they can drop something on you at the last minute, they’ll have no reason to think that’s not the way to work with you next time as well. "

Small Things, Done Consistently, Create Major Impact

“ There is no “set and forget” in self-management

“ On Time Management
It can’t be done. You can manage your choices, though. But then you can’t blame anyone; but you are OK with that aren’t you?

“ On work/life balance
It’s the wrong question: get life balance. It’s the work/life balance question which is the real problem. Did the tinker, tailor, baker or farmer have a work/life balance issue? No. Live a life where is little distinction between work and play. A foolish dream? What’s wrong with one of those?

Twitter - A one month trial

2008-04-07T19:54:00.002+01:00

Signed up for twitter this month. Hearing about it on various blogs and wondering if I could benefit from it. Not sure where it will lead but going to stick with it for April before deciding if I'll continue. I'd love to hear others experiences with using it - what for, benefits for productivity, downsides etc??

Evernote 3 Beta - My new capture tool

2008-04-05T12:47:00.004+01:00

I've been using the new Evernote 3 Beta as my capture tool for the last few weeks and must say how impressed I have been with it. The main advantage with it is that I have access to my notes wherever I am because of its ability to synchronise seamlessly between my computer, the web and my windows mobile phone. Now wherever I am I can capture a thought and have access to it no matter what platform I am working on. This is a massive advantage for me over OneNote where most of my notes where stuck on my home machine. There is the ability to tag notes and also to mark notes as to-do items - so I may switch to using it as a next action manager, although I have not at present.

If anyone is interested in trying it the folks at Evernote have given me 10 invites for the Beta Program so drop me a line.

Here are some detailed reviews of Evernote which will give you a much better idea of how it works.

100+ GTD links

2008-01-03T10:57:00.000Z

Firstly I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year, I hope you had a relaxing holiday period and are now ready for another productive year. If you feel the need for a little GTD kick start I'd recommend having a look at this list of 100+ GTD links from the folks over at Bootstrapper.

Things have eased off for me at present so I should be getting some more regular posting done soon.

David Allen in British Medical Journal

2007-10-17T21:40:00.002+01:00

I've just come across this interview with David Allen in the British Medical Journal.

The interview is fairly short, but I enjoyed reading his ideas on work (which should be fun) and 'working' whilst on vacation - "Why would you not want to do fun things on a vacation? ". He addresses why we should be taking breaks from work -

"If you have to take a holiday because you're burning out, you're in the wrong job or you're not working appropriately. If you want to take a holiday because you need a new perspective, fabulous, but what's the value of a new perspective? To see things you haven't seen before, to come up with creative ideas you haven't had before, to see things in new ways. So of course I'm going to have a note-taking device with me on holiday because that's where I'm going to have some of my best ideas."

I'd encourage a look at the whole interview.

Getting Things Done

2007-09-30T14:46:00.000+01:00

Well, just as I decided to try and post more a big new project lands in my inbox. This one is going to take a fair junk of additional time for me and something has to give for now. Looking at my commitments and goals during my quaterly review I've decided to put the blog onto the back burner for a while. Things will hopefully calm down by late December, so I will hopefully get back to the blog in Q1 2008. Until then there may be a very occasional post, but I'm not even sure about this. I'll still be collecting GTD and related ideas during the coming months and will have drafts in my someday / maybe file - hopefully I'll hit the ground running in 2008. Thanks to all subscribers for your support over the last few months, please keep a little place in your readers for 7breaths - I'll be back....

Thursdays Blog Recommendation.

2007-09-13T09:18:00.000+01:00

I'll be posting about a blog / website I find useful each Thursday.

My first post is about Jason Womack and his Fit and Effective Blog.

Jason used to work for the David Allen Company as a
Executive Coach/Facilitator. He has since branched out on his own forming the Jason Womack Company and is currently providing Workplace Performance Coaching . In addition to all this he also finds time to take part in triathlons and long distance cycle rides. Jason's attitude to top performance and productivity fits well with my own thoughts on the subject. I like blogs which stimulate and challenge me and Jason certainly does. His focus on Goals, Engagement, Commitment and Focus has certainly given me ideas and inspiration. I'd recommend you check it out, maybe try this post.

7 steps switch off before sleep.

2007-09-11T21:56:00.000+01:00

After a busy productive day I often find I'm still thinking too much about what I need to do tomorrow, rather than relaxing and getting ready for sleep. A restful and refreshing sleep is vital to a performing at your best the following day. Here are some steps you can take to get things off your mind, ready for a refreshing nights sleep:

1. EMPTY YOUR INBOX: 1-2 hours before bed - empty your inbox, process your stuff and plan the coming day.

2. PREPARE FOR YOUR FIRST COMMITMENT: Look at your schedule - what is the first thing you have committed to. Ensure you have done all the work needed and have all the stuff you need for this commitment. Feel confident in your preparation.

3. DO A BRAIN DUMP: There will often be something nagging at you, so 30 to 60 minutes before bed empty your head. Dump it in your inbox. Don't process your thoughts, just realise they are in a safe place where you can deal with them tomorrow.

4. FORGET ABOUT THE COMING DAY: From this point on DON'T think about what you have coming up - just relax in the knowledge that it's in your trusted system and you are prepared for your first commitment tomorrow

5. ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SUCCESSES: Once you've 'emptied your head' fill it with positive thoughts. Don't think what you need to do - acknowledge what you have done today. Look back on the day - remember what you have done which showed engagement and commitment. Remember how positive you felt during this time. Congratulate yourself on your days accomplishments.

6. MANAGE YOUR INPUTS: Don't engage with the news media just as you are trying to wind down - You've just spent time getting your head empty and relaxing, the last thing you want is to fill your mind with doom and gloom just before bed. Also avoid reading blogs - there will betoo many stimulating thoughts and DO NOT RECHECK YOUR EMAIL / RSS etc... Instead relax by reading a great book, listening to great music or just spending time with your significant other.

7. DISENGAGE: Perform a final bedtime routine. This can be anything that does not require any thought at all. Fill the dishwasher, tidy a room, just be... Concentrate on the act and the moment and try and forget it all - tomorrow is another day....

What do you do to mentally wind down - let's talk..

7Themes

2007-09-11T21:53:00.000+01:00

I am aiming to post more regularly and to aid me in this I've taken a leaf out of other blogs formats and will have a theme for each day of the week. I don't think I'll be posting on a daily basis but at least this will give me a structure and some impetus. I have not yet completely worked out what each days theme will be, but rather than get stuck in 'analysis paralysis' I've gone with spirit of 7breaths (Decide It. Do It) and will be posting my first Monday 7things post today. I'll work out the rest in the coming days and will post the schedule soon.

Touchgraph

2007-09-03T19:56:00.001+01:00

Just came across TouchGraph via brain based biz. A graphical interface to let you explore connections, either web sites / amazon stuff / facebook. Seeing new connections always sparks ideas for me and I can see this firing off a few.
Here is the display from 7breaths blog (click to enlarge)

Where do you think this will take you?

Weekly Review Outline

2007-08-29T17:18:00.000+01:00

gtdfrk over at Getting Things Done has a post of his weekly review checklist. He wonders about other peoples weekly reviews so I thought I'd post an outline of my current one. I keep this of course in OneNote and have just copied it over, so some formating etc is missing but the basic scheme is still there.

I like to have done all my processing already done before the weekly review. I used to spend so much time emptying my inbox and processing stuff that had accumulated that I found I had less time than I would have liked on the actual planning stage of the weekly review. I therfore try to process my inputs each day during the week and do a final processing several hours before sitting down to do my weekly review which I use for "Planning Not Processing".

Here's whats in my Checklist:

'PLANNING not Processing'

YOU ARE REVIEWING AND PLANNING NOW

PREPARE
Ensure Daily review already done .
Disconnect from the net
Sit & Think
Final Mindsweep and keep open

REVIEW WHERE YOU ARE:

Review previous weeks schedule
Did you keep your commitments
Did you work on all your roles
Did you use your time effectively

Review next weeks schedule
What commitments do you have
Are you prepared for these
Support Material
Agenda

Review Current 90 day goal list
Do all goals have supporting projects
Are you moving towards succcesful completion
Do any more projects need starting this week

Review Project list
Ensure all projects have a next action
Ensure all projects have a role assigned
Schedule time to work on each project
Any stagnating projects
Shedule time
Dump
Someday / May be
Is there a balance of roles during the week

REVIEW WHERE YOU ARE GOING:

4 week Brief Overview
Any commitments upcoming which need work now
Birthdays / Aniversaires
Events
Holidays
.....

Review Someday / Maybe list
Can anything be moved to active
Can anything be dumped

Review Dream list

Read and commit to yearly goals

FINISH

Process the mindsweep
Look at the coming week again
Visualise Successful Action
Reconnect to the net
Relax & Enjoy

Personal Development List

2007-08-27T08:41:00.000+01:00

Priscilla Palmer is collating a list of personal development web sites and amongst those she has included is 7breaths - Thanks. The list is growing rapidly - 2 sites I think worthy of addition are

Jason Womack at Fit and Effective
Stephen at HD BizBlog

Here is the rest of the list, I'm sure you will find some useful new sites here:

Aaron Potts at Today is That Day
Adam Kayce at Monk at Work
Al at 7pproductions.com
Alan Torres at Made to Be Great
Alex Shalman at AlexShalman.com
Alexander Kjerulf at The Chief Happiness Officer
Alexys at Unraveling The Spiritual Mystique
Albert Foong at urbanmonk.net
Amy Hedin at There is no Maximum to Human Potential
Andrea J. Lee at Money, Meaning, and Beyond
Andy Wibbels at AndyWibbels.com
Anita Pathik Law at Power of four Way
Anna Farmery at The Engaging Brand
Antonio Thornton at AntonioThornton.com
Ask Lucid at Ask Lucid Spiritual Development
Belle Wong at Abundance Journal
Blogfuse at LifeDev
Brad Isaac at Achieve It
Brian Clark at Copyblogger
Brian Kim at briankim.net
Bob at everyeveryminute
Carlon Haas at Possess Less Exist More
Chris Marshall at Martial Devlopment
Christine Kane at ChristineKane.com
Clyde at Feeling Good
Conceive, Believe, Achieve at Conceive, Believe, Achieve
Craig Harper at Motivational Speaker
Curt Rosengren at Occupational Adventure
Damian Carr at Soul Terminal
Daniel Sitter at Idea Sellers
Dave Schoof at Engaging the Disquiet
Davers at Language Trainers Blog
David Allen at The David Allen Company
David Bohl at Reflections on Balance
David Rogers at How to Have Great Self Confidence
David Seah at David Seah.com
Dawud Miracle at dmiracle.com
Dean Lacono at Law of Attraction for Beginners
Debbie Call at Spirit In Gear
Debra Moorhead at Debra Moorhead.com
Des Walsh at Thinking Home Business
Dick Richards at Come Gather Round
Don Simkovich at Hey Don
Donald Latumahina at Life Optimizer
Donna Karlin at Perspectives
Dr. Charles Parker at The Core Psych Blog
Dr. Hal at Northstar Mental fitness blog
Drew Rozell at Drew Rozell.com
Edward Mills at Evolving Times
Ellen Weber at Brain Based Business
Emmanuel Lopez at The Adventures of Motivatorman
Ellesse at Goal Setting College
Elly Jolly at Jolly Life Coaching
Enoch Tan at Mind Reality
Eric Napier at Quotation Collection
Frank Kanu at Frank Uncovers Excellence in Leadership
Frank Roche at KnowHR Blog
Galba Bright at Tune Up Your EQ
Guy Kawasaki at How to Change the World
Gleb Reys at Personal Development Ideas
Grayson at Modern Worker Blog
Gretchen Rubin at Happiness Project
Gustav at Success-is-in-you.com
Gyanish at Diethack
Hilda Carroll at Living Out Loud
Henrik Edberg at The Positivity Blog
Honman at Open Your Mind to Prosperity
Inkedmn at The Cranking Widgets Blog
Itzy Sabo at Email Overloaded
Jacklyn Ker at Inspiring and Empowing Lives
Jason and Michael at Black Belt Productivity
Jason Ivers at A Miracle a Day
Jay White at dumb little man tips for life
Jean Browman at Transforming Stress Into Power and Cheerful Monk
Jeff Lilly at Druid Journal
Jeffrey Phillips at Think Faster
Jennifer at Goodness Graciousness
Jeremiah Owyang at Web Strategy by Jeremiah
Jerry Hart at Blue Print to emarketing
Jerry Lopper at Personal Growth
Jim Walton at Black In Business
Joanna Young at Coaching Wizardry
John Pratt at John Pratt International
John Place at John Place Online
John Wesley at Pick The Brain
Josh Bickford at Reach For Magnificence and Reach for Magnificence
Julia Rogers Hamrick at Julia’s Blog: Journal of the Journey Home to Eden
Julie Bonner at Declutter It
Kailani at An Island Review
Kammie Kobyleski at Passion Meets Purpose
Karen at Journey with Water Learner
Karen Lynch at Live The Power
Karen Wallace at The Clearing Space
Karl Staib at Karl Staib.com
Kevin Kinchen at Creative Power of Thought
Killeris at Attitude, The Ultimate Power
Kim and Jason at Escape Adulthood
Kim George at Doing What You Can Do
Kirsten Harrell at Ipopin
K.L. Masina at Be Conscious Now
Leah Maclean at Working Solo
Laura Young at The Dragon Slayer’s Guide to Life
Lee Nutter at bmindful
Leo Baruta at Zen Habits
Life Reflection at Universe in a Single Atom
Lisa Gates at Design Your Writing Life
Liz Strauss at Successful Blog
Lola Fayemi at Real World Spiritual and Personal Development
Lorraine Cohen at Powerfull Living
Lucid at Spiritual Suggestions
Lyman Reed at Creating a Better Life
Maddy at Illuminated Minds Want to Know
Maria Palma at The Good Life
Mark at The Naked Soul
Mark Forster at Get Everything Done
Mark McManus at Build Your Life To Order
Mark W Shead at Productivity 501
Martin Avis at Kickstart Daily
Matthew Cornell at Matt’s Idea Blog
Merlin Mann at 43 Folders
Michelle Moore at Happiness Blog
Michael Port at The Think Big Revolution
My Everyday Planner at My Everyday Planner
Nancy Tierney at Unconditional Confidence
Neil Patel at Quick Sprout
Nick Smith at Life 2.0
Nneka at Balanced Life Center
Organize-It at Organize-It
Pamala Slim at Escape From Cubicle Nation
Pamm Larry at My Spiritual Dance
Patricia Singleton at Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker
Paul at Paul’s Tips
Peter at I Will Change Your Life
Peter Aldin at Great Circle
Phil Gerbyshak at Make It Great
Priscilla Palmer at Personal Development Demands Success
Raymond Salas at Zenchill Powertools
Reg Adkins at ElementalTruths
Rick Cockrum at Shards of Consciousness
Rick Cooper at The PDA Pro
Ririan at Ririanproject
Rob at 7Breaths
Rob Cooke at Leave the Office
Robert at Compassionate Council
Robyn McMaster at Brain Based Biz
Rosa Say at Managing With Aloha Coaching
Ryan Marle at The Alpha Project
S.J. Yee at Personal Development for the Book Smart
Sam at Aquire Wisdom and Live with Passion
Scott Adams at The Dilbert Blog
Scott Bernadot at Keeping The Secret
Scott Ginsberg at Hello, My Name Is Blog
Scott H Young at Scott H Young
Self Pursuit at Self Pursuit
Shauna Arthurs at Breathing Prosperity and Follow Your Path
Shaheen Lakhan at GNIF Brain Blogger
Simone and Mandy at Outfit Inspirations
Slade Roberson at Shift Your Spirits
Sleeping Dude at How to Wake Up Early
Spike at Organize It
Stephanie and Jeffrey at Brains on Purpose
Steve Olson at Steve-Olson.com
Steve Pavlina at stevepavlina.com
Steve Roessler at All Things Workplace
Steven Aitchison at Change Your Thoughts
Surjit at Gurushabad
Susan Sabo at Productivity Cafe
Ted Demopoulos at Blogging For Business
Thom Quinn at Qlog
Tim Ferris at 4-Hour Workweek and Lifestyle Design Blog
Tom Spanton at TRCoach
Tim Taylor at My Agapic Life
Tony D Clark at Success From The Nest
Torlink at You Create Reality
Travis Wright at Cultivate Greatness
Trizoko at Trizoko.com
Trevor Gay at Simplicity is the Key
Troy Worman at Orbit Now!
Tupelo Kenyon at Tupelokenyon.com
Vickie at Contemplate This
Wan Qi at Meditation Forum Mantras
WildBill at PassionateBlogger

and these collaborated sites:

Burst Blog
Daily PlanIt
Did I Get Things Done
GTD Wannabe
Life Coaches Blog Stratagies for a Greater Life
Lifehack.org

Managing Time and Projects with Outlook 2007

2007-08-23T14:25:00.000+01:00

Despite using the weekly review to identify and discard projects which did not fit in with my current 90 day Goals I still have a tendency to take I more than time allows. To overcome this I have been using Outlook 2007 to help manage my time and projects in conjunction with OneNote 2007 - here I will describe my current workflow. This is an subtle adjustment to my previous workflow with Outlook & OneNote - a lot of it remains unchanged.

I contniue to collect & process my inputs in OneNote. When I identify a next action now I use the outlook flag CTRL+SHIFT+5 to flag it as an action and have it show up in my Outlook to do list. I then set a context for it using Outlook. I then can filter my contexts in Outlook as needed.

If I identify a project I again flag it using CTRL+SHIFT+5 and open it in Outlook. I have a set of colour catagories in Outlook based on my Roles & Responsibilities eg .R&amp;amp;amp;R - Work & Career. For each project I decide what R&R it fits into and assign it.

I use Outlooks calendar for my hard landscape. I colour code commitments for the week using the same colour scheme as my R&R. In this example I've colour coded work commitements and R&R - Work & Career both green. It all comes togehter during my weekly review as described below:

Weekly Review Workflow:

1. Preview the weeks hard landscape:

So at present just a few commitments - mostly green i.e work.

2. I then open the To-Do bar in the calander view - and review each project.

3. I then L click and drag that project to a time slot on the calendar. This way I can assign some time to work on the project and ensure I do not overcommit & underdeliver.

When I come to work on the project I click on its appointment slot, this opens it so I can then click on the OneNote link and go straight to my notes and reference materials for it.

As the week goes by I keep a track of what I've been doing - filling in the time slots in outlook and colouring them as needed. If any new projects come up during the week I know if I have the time to do it or not, rather than just putting it on a project list and hoping to get it done.

By doing this for each project and using the colour codes I can get an overview of how my week is planned and I think more importantly if I am neglecting any roles & responsibilities I have.

Horizons and Higher altitudes

2007-08-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

In my last post I can't do it all... I began to discuss the problem I was having with my workflow - that of taking on too many projects. Jeroen commented regarding using the GTD Horizons of Focus during the weekly review to help decide what you should or should not be doing, whilst SpiKe had not found this approach useful. I've blogged about Higher altitudes previously and have tried to apply Davids horizons to my own life. I found the levels he used did not fit with my thinking - so have slightly adapted things to give me a little more focus - I've tried to represent things in this diagram.

I began by looking at my long term goals and vision - I've labeled these ambitions. These are not written down - after all if you need to write down your lifes vision to help you remember it, it can't be that much of a vision.

Next I have decided what I need to do in the next year to move me towards my ambitions. I've made a checklist of these so I can reward myself for checking them off as the year goes by - just "cranking widgets" on a bigger scale.

For each yearly goal I then set 90 day targets to move towards acomplishing the goal. I find 90 days long enough to get some significant work done, but short enough to allow me to see progress to my yearly goals.

Each 90 day target can have several supporting projects ongoing at the same time, and of course each project will have next actions.

When I do my weekly review I ensure that each 90 day target has active supporting projects - if not I will decide what I need to do and start a project off. This helps keep my focus on doing what I want to do. After ensuring all 90 day targets are moving forwards I then check my projects. What projects do I have which do not seem to support a 90 day goal. These are the "reactive" projects I've picked up during the week. I very carefully review these and ask "What's in it for me?". Sometimes Projects need to be done which don't fit in with your goals, but often just the practice of reviewing them in light of your 90 day targets makes you realise that you should be re-negotiating or dumping the project.

By applying this method I've reduced the number of projects I have ongoing at a time. However I still find I can take on more than I can do if I don't consider the actual time I have to spend each week working on them - this will be the theme of my next post...

I can't do it all...

2007-08-15T15:06:00.000+01:00

Been thinking a lot recently about my personal productivity workflows. I've got all my inputs covered, nothing is missed, all my project lists are up to date, all my next action context lists are full. The problem - there is too much to do. If all my inputs stopped today I would still have weeks of work to do to clear all my projects. I've realised that collecting / processing / organising in itself is not enough. Too many things to do, too many opportunities to seize, (Don't even mention my someday/maybe list - it's just getting bigger and bigger too). Just working with my GTD lists is no longer enough. I need to incorporate the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day along with the admission that I can't do everything I want to in this time, no matter how many productivity hacks I employ. GTD is a great tool, but is not a solution in itself.
I've branched out from pure GTD and looked at other systems and have come up with a workflow that I am finding more manageable for now. I'll be posting some notes on my current thinking over the next few weeks. One thing I have taken to using is leveraging the Outlook 2007 integration with OneNote and I'll be addressing how this has changed my previous OneNote / GTD set up.
For other thoughts on "GTD 2.0" check out these ideas from Eric, Michael, Pascal and Stephen.

Saturday Review

2007-08-11T21:32:00.000+01:00

Well - how did you spend your week. A simple exercise today - measure the ammount of time you spent on your goals and dreams, then measure the ammount of time you spent on other things. Do your priorities align with your schedule? If not - why not?

RSS - do your feeds deliver value?

2007-08-08T10:38:00.000+01:00

I'm finding that more and more feeds are just recycling the same information, especially "Personal Productivity" feeds. Although initially useful for someone trying to raise their productivity it all soon gets a bit repetitive. After all there is only so much you can say about the mechanics of any productivity system - yes I know I need to get my inbox to empty, write things down, do a weekly review etc. The trouble is that really we all know this stuff, it's just a matter of getting on and applying it rather reading about it.

What I am now looking for is new and original material, different ways of looking at things, ideas and thoughts to stimulate me. What I don't want is another simplistic list of "x ways to do y", all of which have been written many times before.

For the last few months I've been flagging each feed post if I feel it has had a new and significant impact on what I do / think / feel. I've been very surprised at how few have been flagged. I've now begun to purge my feeds - if the ratio of flagged to not flagged articles is low then that feed gets deleted.

Getting rid of these "low yield" feeds has certainly saved me time, and I really don't think I'm missing out on any vital information.

Tumblr

2007-08-07T21:01:00.000+01:00

I've just set up a Tumblr account where I'll be posting things of interest that do not require a full blog entry.
You can find it here http://7breaths.tumblr.com/ or subscribe here http://7breaths.tumblr.com/rss

RSS Overload

2007-08-05T21:27:00.000+01:00

One problem with RSS overload is the constant checking of your feed reader to see if anything has been added. This is unproductive in 2 ways - firstly the checking of the reader and secondly reading new entries as an when they crop up. This goes against the idea of batching your actions to be more productive.

To overcome this I like to break feeds down into 2 basic classes - "Time Sensitive" and "Time Independent"

"Time Sensitive"

Feeds related to keeping up to date on the latest breaking news in our field of interest. Items you need to know about as soon as they develop.

These type of feeds require reading as soon as they are updated, so I will check these on a fairly regular basis.

"Time Independent"

Feeds from blogs that cover your areas of interest, but are not time dependent. For example Jason's blog entry on "Blocks to Productivity" - it really does not matter if I read this the minute after it was published or a week after, the information is still as relevant.

In my reader I have 2 main categories depending on how time sensitive I consider the blogs to be.

"Time Sensitive" blogs go into one - these are very few in number.

"Time Independent" blogs are put in one, and I schedule very strict time for reading these. I may not read all of them in the allotted time but this does not matter as the information will still be relevant when I do get to read it. It allows me to set a defined batch of time to deal with these blogs and process them efficiently. If I don't manage to read all the posts I don't have that anxiety that I may be missing out on something - I've already decided these blogs can be read at my leisure.

I'll be posting more on managing RSS feeds soon.

Saturday Review

2007-08-04T06:33:00.000+01:00

What is not measured is not mastered.

How are you spending your time? If you want to be productive a great first step is to master your time management. There are 168 hours in the week - do you know how you've spent them over the last week?

You need to know what you are doing before trying to change anything.

The Exercise:

A useful quick exercise to see how aware you are of how you are spending your time is to:

Recall
Grab your diary and a sheet of paper.

List the hours 0 - 23 for each day of the week

For each hour write down what you were doing - use your diary to remind you. Try and be as accurate as you can, if you are not certain leave it blank.

Review

On doing this exercise you may well find that you can account for every hour - well done in that case. However even if each hour is accounted for a lot of people are surprised at how much unproductive time is spent during the week. Just as bad are blocks of time when we can't even recall what we were doing - again this is usually just unproductive time as you can usually remember if you were engaged in something worthwhile.

How did you do, I'd love to hear some feedback.

It's surprising how unaware we often are of the time we are spending. To try and get some focus on how our time is going I suggest the following challenge:

The Challenge:

Over the next week record what you are doing. Use anything to capture the data, for me I use a sheet of paper which goes everywhere with me. Each time you start a new activity record it. Try and be as detailed as you can, so instead of 2 hours on the computer break it down into its components - reading email, RSS, working on spreadsheet for account xxx etc.. Same with all activities.

Keep the record going for a week, you should have some useful data to work on for next Saturdays exercise...