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Tips For Choosing Your Productivity Tool

16 March

People ask me at least once a week, “What’s the best tool for staying organized?”

The best methodology I know of for self-mastery and self-management is called Getting Things Done. But most people who ask this are simply looking for the name of a software application where they can manage their agreements. If you’re in the position of looking for a personal productivity tool, here’s what I’ve learned about selecting a good one.

Tips For Choosing Your Productivity Tool:

  1. Make sure to choose something you LIKE. To me this is the most critical factor in determining how long you’re going to keep using it. Follow your enthusiasm.
  2. Digital or paper-based systems? What works better for you? Are you highly kinesthetic? How fast do you type and navigate a computer?
  3. How portable will it be? Can you add to/review it from any location? How important is this for you? Do you really need to work from anywhere? Should it sync with a smartphone or tablet?
  4. Is there integration between Email, Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks? Is this important to you? Some people love to have everything in one program. Other people can switch easily between a calendar app like iCal and a task manager like OmniFocus. Personally, I’m in the former category.
  5. Where does most of your work show up? Delegated by your boss? Emails from clients? Projects created from your own imagination? If you “live in email”, I suggest a system that’s well-integrated with your email program. Look at where you spend your time and make sure the tool you choose aligns with that.

When in doubt, a paper planner is always a great way to start. That’s how I started over ten years ago, with a simple three-ring binder and some computer printouts of calendar pages and action lists.

Now you can get a fabulous paper planner (with all the necessary innards) from David Allen Co. Everything you learn about managing your workflow in a paper planner can be transferred to a digital tool if you later decide to go digital.

But the vast majority of people who ask me about choosing a tool already know they want to go digital. Here are a few options to consider, some of which are probably already on your computer:

1. Options that integrate with Email/Calendar:

  • Outlook
  • Lotus Notes
  • Gmail/Google Tasks
  • Do.com – I know of several GTDers using this with great success.

2. List managers that don’t integrate with Email/Calendar:

  • OmniFocus (Mac only)
  • Word Documents / Excel Spreadsheets / Text documents
  • Google Docs / Google Spreadsheets
  • Evernote
  • Notes (Mac only)

This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the tools I’ve explored. Some of the other applications out there don’t have everything you need, where others are simply less popular. If you come across a different application that you love, let me know and I’ll be happy to tell you what I think of it: lisa@peakeproductivity.com. Better yet, leave a comment below so we can all benefit from your experiences.

Annual Review 2011

22 December

Hello and happy holidays to you!

I wanted to share with you my actual template that I’ll be using for my annual review this year. I’ve been tweaking my annual review for the past five years, and here is what has stuck, plus a few new gems.

Annual Review Template 2011
by Lisa Peake

1. Completing and Remembering The Year
Adapted From David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter, here: http://www.davidco.com/newsletters/archive/1209b.html

You might think about your answers in relation to various areas of your life:

  • Physical
  • Emotional
  • Mental
  • Spiritual
  • Financial
  • Family
  • Community Service
  • Fun / creativity / recreation
  • Review your list of all completed Projects. If you don’t have a list like this, make one up.
  • Review larger outcomes – Areas of Focus, Affirmations, Goals, Visions, Missions, Purpose and Principles.
  • What was your biggest triumph this year?
  • What was the smartest decision you made this year?
  • What one word best sums up and describes your experience this year?
  • What was the greatest lesson you learned this year?
  • What was the most loving service you performed this year?
  • What is your biggest piece of unfinished business this year?
  • What are you most happy about completing this year?
  • Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life this year?
  • What was the biggest risk you took this year?
  • What was the biggest surprise this year?
  • What important relationship improved the most this year?
  • What compliment would you liked to have received this year?
  • What compliment would you liked to have given this year?
  • What else do you need to do or say to be complete with this year?

2. Releasing The Year
Adapted from an exercise as told by Alexandra DeFurio, photographer: http://defuriophotography.com/

  • Gather small pieces of blank paper, and a pen. Unlined junior legal pads work well for this, or post-it notes, or simply cut up pieces of printer paper.
  • Write one thing you would like to release or complete from the past year on a single piece of paper. Start a new paper for each new topic. Write as much as you wish to, and if you need multiple pages for one topic, go right ahead.
  • When you’re complete with the writing, gather and carefully dispose of all of the papers by burning them in the fireplace, or by shredding. This is similar to free-form writing, but with a special focus on releasing the past year.
  • Congratulations, you just took out the trash for a whole year.

3. Asking For Feedback
Borrowed from Les McKeown’s Predicatable Success blog, here:
http://predictablesuccess.com/blog/the-leadership-lesson-you-missed-in-2010/

  • Send the following email to a few of your colleagues, friends, mentors, coach, boss, and family members:

“Hello

I’ve just finished a review of what I did well, and what I didn’t do well in the last year. I learned a lot of valuable lessons which I’m looking forward to applying next year. However, I’m pretty sure I haven’t caught everything, and as you know me well, I’d love for you to help: would you please hit ‘reply’ and in one ruthlessly constructive sentence answer this question honestly?:

What’s the one big lesson that above all else you think I should learn from the past year?

Thanks!”

4. Creating The New Year
Adapted From David Allen’s Productive Living Newsletter, here: http://www.davidco.com/newsletters/archive/1209b.html

  • What would you like to be your biggest triumph of next year?
  • What advice would you like to give yourself next year?
  • What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results next year?
  • What would you be most happy about completing next year?
  • What major indulgence are you willing to experience next year?
  • What would you most like to change about yourself next year?
  • What are you looking forward to learning next year?
  • What do you think your biggest risk will be next year?
  • What about your work, are you most committed to changing next year?
  • What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore next year?
  • What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that next year?
  • Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving next year?
  • Who in your world can you ask for help and support next year?
  • What one word would you like to have as your theme next year?
  • What quality will support you in creating your ideal year? (e.g. Trust, Honesty, Loving Discipline, Abundance, Focus, Creativity, etc.)
  • Schedule some time to create any Ideal Scenes, Vision Boards, or Affirmations that will support you in the coming year. Put it on your calendar. Make sure you will have any relevant supplies by then (markers, magazines, paper, poster board, etc.) Enjoy this special time of preparation and visioning with yourself.

As always, be sure to take the parts that serve you and leave out the rest.

Wishing you a year’s end full of graceful completions, loving connections and radiant joy. Talk to you next year!

-Lisa

Re-post: Being More Productive with David Allen and Tony Schwartz

25 August

I can’t believe this gem of an article escaped my notice a few months back. Thanks to a friend who brought it to my attention. Maybe you didn’t see it either, or never got around to reading it.

Here’s an interview with two of the people who have most influenced my approach to working smarter and happier. You’ll need to subscribe to Harvard Business Review or pay if you want the full length PDF. What they offer you for free, though, is not half bad.

Being More Productive

An Interview with David Allen and Tony Schwartz by Daniel McGinn (May 2011)

Here’s the absolute bottom line:

Tony Schwartz: Organizations need to recognize that human beings are basically organisms containing energy. And that energy is either being renewed or being dissipated over time. An organization has to realize that part of its responsibility, whether it wants it or not, is to ensure that people have full tanks of energy. This is one of the big variables that will determine which organizations thrive in the next 10 or 20 years.
David Allen: Think about it this way: While we’ve been sitting here talking, stuff has been piling up in our in-boxes and our voicemails. Some of it has the potential to meaningfully shift our priorities. When we turn to this accumulated stuff, we’ll need to eliminate old business that is pulling on us, that’s taking our attention, and reallocate our resources to these new priorities. You can only do one thing at a time, and you only have so many resources. You either feel OK about sitting here talking to us, or you feel bad about the 9,000 other things you’re not doing. Everybody needs a system to make those choices wisely.

Read the rest here: Being More Productive

Books by Tony Schwartz

Books by David Allen