I'm OmniFocused!

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The holidays are here and it's time to review the year that's gone by (too fast as usual) and plan for the upcoming big '09. As part of that, I took a good look at my productivity tools, and decided to finally migrate all my stuff to OmniFocus, including all my projects, tasks, references, etc. It's not perfect, but it's probably the best application I've tried so far for my GTD obsession. And it has a very nice iPhone app too, so it's easy to grab your tasks-to-go.

One thing I noticed when I was migrating is how hard it is to move completely from one system to another. On one hand, it takes a lot of time to move stuff over (maybe there's a market for GTD data migration tools?) so it's tempting to do it in multiple sessions. However, on the other hand, if you don't migrate everything right away, you are using two systems which is probably worse than having any system at all! So I limped along for a few days with almost no control of my life, it was like driving without a steering wheel, felt horrible. But I survived - made me wonder if this whole task-management thing mattered at all. Maybe I was just on a straight highway and didn't need the steering wheel?

Anyway, I'm back on track, and trying to map my behavior to this new tool (for example, my daily list of tasks is now the tasks that I flag in OmniFocus - doesn't quite accomplish the same results, but also has some integrity benefits since I have to choose from tasks that are on my list of things to do) but net-net I'm pretty pleased with it.

We also got a new puppy for the girls. Turns out that having a puppy does not increase your productivity, but does make everyone happier. How does that fit into my productivity equation? :)

- Gummi

About... to... fall... asleep

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Today was one of those days. I just kept almost falling asleep in front of my computer. Very unproductive. So what do you do when you're just so tired and not in the mood to do any work? I've never used this before, but a long time ago I bought the Observation Deck just for fun. It's a tool for writers who have a block and need some nudging. And I needed some serious nudging.

I was working on some ideas for products that we should look into developing for 2009, and I really wanted to get the draft out before the end of the day. So I pulled out the deck and got "Be Specific." So that's what I did. And it worked! I did not expect this to help me, but I started to write out very detailed, specific descriptions of how our users might use some of our products and the text just started flowing. I finished the draft and could go home happy that my most important tasks of the day got completed.

Of course the real underlying issue here is that I was just tired. I got home, cooked dinner for my younger daughter and mother-in-law (my wife was at my older daughter's ballet performance, second out of five), got my younger daughter into bed (she's been sick at home the whole week) and then just crashed. Almost fell asleep standing.

And now it's 11:26 PM and I'm wide awake...

- Gummi

Obsessed about productivity, part one: the Basic Package

Quite a few people have recently asked me about my email checking habits, or have been surprised about my observation that not drinking coffee could make you less tired and more alert. That's all good, but mostly I've realized that I'm obsessed about this stuff. So I'm going to be a little more structured in my writing about it, starting with this post.
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There are a few "levels" of productivity obsession that you can get to, but you have to be comfortable with each level before proceeding to the next one. So here are a few things which I consider "level one" productivity obsessiveness, let's call it the "Basic Package". This is not GTD or anything like that, and for a lot of people, this is more than enough to maintain a sane life and stay above the water level of life in general.

Check email twice a day

I've talked about this before in a previous post, and it's quite simple: don't spend your day checking email. Email is a wonderful, often necessary tool to stay in touch with people you work with, your loved ones and other friends, but if you let it take over your life, you won't ever get anything done. No work gets ever done via email. Actual work gets done by writing code, preparing briefing documents, analyzing data, digging ditches, preparing building sites and so on.

Stay on top of things

Quite simple to say but hard to do: know what's coming at you and never let inbound stuff pile up. This may sound obvious, and at the same time somewhat counter to the email advice above, but it's quite important that you clean your email inbox, open your mail, listen to those voicemails and just know what's being thrown at you. This does not mean you should act on everything right away, but rather just make sure there are no time bombs waiting to blow up in your face. My usual schedule is to empty my email inbox at least once a day, listen to voicemails as soon as I see them, and open my mail as soon as I get home from work.

Figure out your priorities

It's very easy to get sucked into just doing "stuff." That's not productivity, that's busy work. You need to be proactive about what matters to you, and stick to those priorities. And it really helps to be explicit about those priorities, at least to yourself. You can keep it in your head, or write it on a list, or just scribble on random post-its and stick it, doesn't matter, but you really need to have that conversation with yourself.

Block time for things you want to do

Now that you've stopped wasting time on email all day, and know what you want to do, it's time to actually do it! Ask any productivity guru, and the one thing they will all agree on is that the mind is not designed to multi-task. If you have the habit of checking email while you're calling the airline to change that ticket and trying to finish that presentation for that important meeting this afternoon, stop. Block off time for the stuff you want to do, and you know what? It will actually get done.

Take time off

Finally, just like you need to rest between gym exercises, you need to rest your body and soul between work. Plan your time so that you get time to hang out with friends, spend time with your spouse and kids, and just plain be yourself without the constant nagging feeling that you're not doing something you should be doing. My rule here is simple: I don't work on weekends (unless there's a real, real, real emergency; which almost never happens by the way) - make your own rule and stick to it. You'll have more energy when you actually get back to work, and you'll enjoy life more :)

That's the Basic Package. No complicated systems to master, just simple rules that will make you feel more in control of your life - and hopefully just a little more obsessed about productivity.

- Gummi