Interruptions: From Laura’s Desk – 1 February 2017
In February, we are going to be looking at interruptions. We'll look at what causes them, how to deal with them, and how to get back on track. To start the month out, though, I wanted to put forth an idea: Interruptions are a choice.
Is Your Someday-Maybe List A Never List?
The Someday-Maybe list is a mythical being of great power. You give it the things you would like to do, and it keeps them for you. But like most mythical beings, it has a dark side. Most of the Someday-Maybes consume the projects and expand to dangerous levels, until they topple over and explode on your current work, peppering you with shards of guilt and disappointment. When I first read about the Someday-Maybe list (Getting Things Done*), I was thrilled. Finally I had a place to stash all of those things I wanted to do eventually, but just didn’t have time for now. I started cheerfully putting stuff on the list. After all, I would get to it someday, right? Someday is a really poor place to plan on doing things. Because someday is never now. And by definition, we will never get to those things. They…
12 Week Year: Skyrocket Project Completion By Shrinking Your Year
Have you ever set yearly goals and then put off working on them because you had plenty of time left? Did you actually accomplish them? The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months can help you break through that barrier. I have set yearly goals for 5 years now. I go through all the effort of envisioning what I want, breaking it down into projects, and putting it into my planner. And then I blissfully ignore everything, in spite of monthly reviews, until it comes to be about August, and I realize that I am not going to get everything done. Talk about a morale killer! I knew I needed a better way. So I picked up this book.
MultCloud: Your Cloud File Organizer
Have you ever been unable to find a file because you couldn't remember where you put it? Today we will look at managing multiple cloud drives with a simple site.: Multcloud
Getting Started With Bullet Journaling: Infographic
This was a great info graphic I ran across at Tiny Ray of Sunshine. If you want to know more about bullet journaling, check out Tiny Ray of Sunshine.
Cloud Storage: Files in the 21st Century
If you find yourself emailing a file or putting something on a thumb drive, please stop and come into the 21st century. Due to the nature of my career choice, I move between multiple computers every day. Sometimes I need to get things off of one computer or another, and I am certainly not going to drive out to a client site just to retrieve a timesheet. That's where cloud file storage comes into play.
Black Holes: A Danger To Productivity
Have you ever lost track of a deadline, in spite of your best intentions? Your task might have been sucked into a productivity black hole. I realized the other day that I have a couple of these productivity killers laying around. The first two were folders on my computer where I put stuff for filing -- a "file" folder, and a folder in my pictures. I have been stashing things in there for a long time, and I can't remember the last time I emptied them. I also have a black hole within my productivity system - my someday/maybe list. I put things on there, and then forget all about them. Huge productivity black holes.
Getting The Most From Coffee: Infographic
My daughter recently presented me with a sticker: “I turn coffee into code.” My coffee consumption is well-known…in fact, my first bell students quickly learned that if I stopped talking and started looking around, someone needed to find where I left my coffee. Here is an infographic on getting the most out of your coffee (Source: TollFreeForwarding.com)
