Organize IT 1st Birthday Interview: Part 2

August 21st 2007

Welcome to the second part of Organize IT’s birthday special where I posed three questions to a number of my favourite productivity bloggers. The results have been very interesting to read. The second question I asked was, “What is the single productivity tip/lifehack that you have implemented that has had the most positive influence in your life?” As always please leave your thoughts and answers to the question in the comments, the results don’t have to just be from the ten bloggers

Stephen Smith: “ Get up early and get started on your day. I get up at 5:00 AM nearly every day in order to read, write articles for my blog, do paperwork, pay bills, journal, etc. By the time my wife gets up and is getting ready for work, I have completed a day’s worth of activities and can then focus on my day job or other duties.”

Getting up early as a productivity measure is interesting for me. A few months back I made a determined effort to build up the habit of getting up early. Maybe there is something to this early bird/night owl split, because no matter how much sleep I got, it never got easier to get up in the morning. I think the main issue isn’t being up early, but having a block of time with no distractions when your mind is still fresh.

Mark Shead: “The realization that most of my limits and barriers are only there because I haven’t pushed past them. The amount I can accomplish isn’t directly related to the amount of time I invest. Some people invest 10 hours and accomplish just as much as the person who invests 100 hours. Being the 10 hour person instead of the 100 hour person is a matter of raising the ceiling on my personal abilities.

When I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree I really started experimenting by enrolling in a Master’s degree program and taking on a job. In one year, I completed the two year degree and still had enough time to perform well at the high paying full time job.

Since then I’ve been on the constant look out for projects that will stretch my abilities. I tend to measure whether or not I’m pushing my ceiling in a very simple way. If all of my activities are comfortable and I have no fear of failure, then I’m not aiming high enough.“

Rosemary Honn: “I have become more effective since implementing the portable GTD mini-system, and now have my frequently changing lists in Google docs and print them out as part of the weekly review. I haven’t been able to make the switch from Yahoo mail as yet, but I love iGoogle, which allows me to customize everything I need on one page.”

Rolf F. Katzenberger: “Having a reliable system. It’s such a relief to leave the mundane task of remembering things to it. Actually, the system is the best assistant I ever had. It allows me to direct my energy towards the creative and important work. A lot of people think an organization system exists to host the extraordinary things in live. On the contrary!”

It’s great when you finally find a system that truly works for you (as I believe I have done, fingers crossed). My focus has now shifted from what tools to use, to how I can optimize the tools I am already using. My workflow has improved dramatically as a result.

Matthew Cornell: “I’ll be a bit of a contrarian and say the ultimate tip is there is no ultimate tip. I’ve found through my consulting that each person’s needs vary, and no one tip will be universally applicable. That said, the best tip I can offer is a meta tip: Figure out where you need to improve, read and learn, address it, and repeat… more here“

I think this is one of the misconceptions about GTD and most personal development practices. People often take what they read as gospel, rather than viewing it as a guide and a stepping stone for them to come up with their own ideas that apply exclusively to themselves.

GTD Wannabe: “It turns out that my lack of getting things done doesn’t stem so much from disorganization as it does from procrastination. It’s required some soul searching, but I’ve realized what kind of work I enjoy doing, and what kind I drag my feet on. My greatest hack is to ‘just start.’ If I just start working on what I’m avoiding, then it gets easier.“

Currently I’m trying out a new section on my system called “Stick to promises.” If I have a task written down for a specific day that I keep procrastinating on, then I am not sticking to my promise to do it on the allocated day, so I mark myself down in my promises box. It’s given me an extra incentive to “just start.”

Donald Latumahina: “I think it’s the two simple rules for productivity: At any given time: 1) Don’t be idle and 2) Do the most important task. They are simple enough to remember, and they help me to ‘automatically’ prioritize my tasks. In this case, the role of the productivity system (to-do list, calendar, etc.) is just to help me figure out what the most important task at any given time is.”

Dwayne Melancon: “This is a tough one - if I have to boil it down to one, I’d have to say it has been doing time audits. This is where I am able to look back and see how I actually spent my time, compared to how I intended to spend it. This then drives my plan for how to fix the areas where I’m weak. I notice that some of my productivity skills tend to atrophy if I don’t consciously manage them (such as making sure I have clear, outcome-focused goals about the important projects in my life). I recently wrote about this here“

Ironically, I’m doing a time audit this week. I hope to share my thoughts on the process next week. I used to always think that it involved too much micro management of your life. However, just for one week I want to try it out and see what results show up.

Leo Babauta: “Simplifying. I think all the productivity tips in the world are just overkill if you are trying to do too much, and not focusing on the essential tasks. You need to realize what’s important, and focus almost exclusively on that stuff. That means eliminating everything else, and leaving your life less complicated, less cluttered, and less chaotic.“

gtdfrk: “I don’t think I can ascribe it to one single tip or lifehack. It is a combination of general productivity tips (eat that frog, think on paper, determine priorities and goals, etc) with a solid foundation formed by GTD.“

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