Dec 03 2007
Eight Easy Ways To Be More Productive
Productivity is really about two things:
- Remembering to do things; and,
- Doing things.
Given this, here are eight ways to be more productive:
Step 1: Create a Go folder
A Go folder is what a Windows Start button wants to be (relevant), but isn’t.
A Go folder contains shortcuts to frequently used directories — direct shortcuts to sub folders for specific projects — remote desktop connection files, specific Word and Excel files edited frequently, folder paths on development servers, etc.
For Windows users, link the Go folder to your taskbar like this:
This way it’s real easy to access anything in the Go folder no matter how many torrents you are downloading and how many YouTube videos are open.
Other adjustments to your interface can help too. For example, consider linking to your most used programs in the quick access toolbar (for Windows users).
Step 2: Use a wiki for personal data
Quick access to personal data is essential. The ability to quickly update and maintain that data is even more critical.
Track account logins, blood types, birthdays, individual gift guides, clothing sizes, retirement account information, email settings, hosting control panel and web stats logins, car license plates, VINs, and repair history, home network settings, router passwords, software licenses, landlord contact information, Christmas non-denominational winter solstice period gift lists, magazine subscriptions and spousal gift histories all in one place using OddMuse.
Step 3: Use Outlook
No email client offers more productivity benefits than Outlook for Microsoft Windows. Thunderbird is far from ready, Gmail isn’t there yet, Pine isn’t user friendly, Apple Mail is too lightweight, Chandler missed the mark and Entourage lags far behind Outlook.
Two features in Outlook are key to productivity gains:
- Flagging emails. An email is nothing more than a ticket waiting to be filed in a bug tracking database. Any email that requires action beyond the immediate response you just gave (see below) should be flagged. (Be sure to create a search folder to list all of the flagged emails that need attention and follow-up.)
- To do lists. As we all know, to do lists are good as one time reminders. But they are great for recurring tasks you have to do every week, every month, every third Tuesday, etc.
(The Office 2007 interface — a leap forward in productive UI unmatched in any open source tool — along with Outlook are pretty much the last two reasons to use Windows.)
Step 4: Use Great Software
Great software works hard to make you more productive by taking care of the mundane cleverly. Use FogBugz to manage projects, Miniaim for instant messaging, OddMuse for a wiki and Microsoft Outlook for email productivity.
Step 5: Make a list
Get a steno pad and write the day name at the top of the page (say Monday). Under that day name list in 1-3 words on every other line the various tasks you need to complete that day. Try as hard as you can to complete the list for that day.
When a task is complete, cross it out. As you identify tasks for future days, simply flip the page and write the next day name and add a task.
Step 6: Brevity wins
Be concise. Continually forcing yourself to write less has the wonderful effect of pushing the core (read: real) issue to the front of your message (read: email).
This is tremendously helpful. Work emails tend to be either seeking an answer, an approval or a decision. If you make it easier to get your answer, approval or decision from your colleague, it will make all the related work now and later that much easier.
Step 7: Do the night prep
Just before you go to bed check the schedule and the task list on your steno pad for the next day. Being unprepared is a great way to kill the productivity of an entire day.
Step 8: Just do it
This is the hardest step to implement consistently but the biggest boost to productivity.
When an email comes in, just deal with it: respond to it, schedule it, fix it, build it, update it, decide it, approve it or ask it.
But don’t work on it if it will take you more than 30 minutes (then it should be a to do, task or a ticket) or it’s someone else’s task. In that case, you ought to schedule it and response to it.
That little voice in your head that says I’ll deal with this later is a strong indicator to deal with it now– because you won’t later.
A highly productive colleague once shared with me his “one-touch” philosophy: “Touch a piece of paper only once.” He swore that he would only touch papers, mail, work, documents on his desk once. Each time he touched something it would get done, filed or trashed.
I think this is draconian, but it has some merits for email. For me, the best time to respond to an email is when you first look at it.
The three exceptions to this for me are:
(1) It requires actual work/research. (It gets scheduled.)
(2) It requires thought. (This may not require work, but may require some intellectual energy to figure out what to do/how to respond thoughtfully.)
(3) You were fooled by the title into thinking the email was urgent; it’s not. The sender gets penalized by moving to the very bottom of the queue.
I forgot to ask, what’s your organization structure for your personal wiki? What are the major sections/pages you use to organize it?
Excellent. I see this website has gone into the world of cobwebs and stale crackers, but I still have to say that I enjoyed reading this entry. Its all very true. I like the wiki idea, but wiki’s tend to err on the side of a total lack of initial structure. I arrived at this site from oddmuse.org, in my quest for a decent CMS to both organize my writing chronologically, and categorically… but the average wiki is too boilerplate for me. In an effort to be productive, I’m dealing with an imperfect starting point, and seeking something ideal. Some mix of wiki and blog would be more ideal than either of the two.
You have one, or many ‘chronological views’ of the content, but none of the content is inseparable from the temporality of the blog view. Underneath, its just a wiki, but on the surface, it ‘looks like’ a blog. Something like the recent changes page of most wiki’s, but with less focus on revision history, and more focus on original/relevant content. I think I may have to end up coding this myself. So much for borrowing a wheel, for the sake of productivity.
Thanks, Jesse. I’ve been very busy. Glad you liked it.
As for CMS’, have you looked at Drupal?