blog to discovery

Everyone is used to a task list that grows until it is overwhelming, but since introducing concepts from Getting Things Done and Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management I have noticed a large improvement in my task management. However over the last few months my task list has grown and grown and at the end of December I was overdue by 93 days. I knew I could reduce its length (12 sides of A5 paper) as I have done previously , but I felt it was time for more serious action.

There are some tasks you’ll never get to - and holding on to them generates a constant state of guilt and disappointment, feelings that have an adverse effect on your productivity.

Julie Morgenstern - Never read emails in the morning

I’ve now had my Blackberry 8800 for over two months and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how useful I am finding it. Here are six of the ways I’ve used it to help my productivity.

Themes

It is possible to change the ‘desktop’ layout through the Options>Themes menu; there are three standard themes on the device and you can download others through the same menu (use the application button and select Download Themes).

I’ve selected one of standard themes, BB Dimension Today because it enables me to see at a glance the latest emails I’ve received, my next two appointments and any calls I’ve missed.

Profiles

When I first introduced the ideas from Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management all tasks that came in today were added to tomorrow’s list which meant I had a plan of action. However when I realised this wasn’t going to work and started developing my own system I realised I missed the daily plan of action which wasn’t provided with a complete task list which just provided a list of all the things I could be working on. I needed something to lead me through the day in a clear, productive and defined way, so I developed a today planner.

Morning routine

At the top of the page are the tasks I should complete every morning to ensure I am set up for the day.

The current initiative is an idea of Mark Forster’s, so I will let him describe it:

Things didn’t go as I expected over the past week. My new role involves an increased amount of time out of the office, but I thought with my new organisation system that I could easily cope being away for a few days. And I did up to a point, but having had time to think about it over the long weekend I know that I could perform much better and be much more effective.

Last week I was only in the office for one and a half days; I had two trips to London (including one overnight) and one to Birmingham. So all this travel means I need to be make effective use of my time in the office to meet people and use specific software I can’t use on other computers, but I also need to be more aware of those tasks that I can complete while I’m out of the office. Of course, Getting things done has the solution with the use of contexts. I tried using these in my first attempt at implementing GTD, but I didn’t find it very useful because I was in the office most of the time. However I think I will benefit considerably from considering this concept again.

Work has kindly given me a Blackberry, so I can check my email when I’m out of the office. I am in the process of writing about my new organisation system which is really working for me so I’m not keen on the Blackberry upsetting it, plus I have read quite a bit about how Blackberries become a distraction and addictive. I am not keen on either of these so I am looking for any advice on how to use a Blackberry productively.

I was given the Blackberry on Friday so I was able to spend a fair bit of time over the weekend playing with it and I have to admit that so far I am impressed. I have a newer model than I have seen before and it has loads of features. The one I am most pleased with is the web browser which enables me to view real website and even view photographs in fair quality. I can also access email folders so if I continue (trying) to keep my inbox clear while I’m out and about, plus I can access my action folder which should help me to reduce my electronic to-read list. Another bonus is the GPS and sat nav, I don’t know whether I’ll ever use it, but it means I should be sorted if I do get lost!