GTD Digest 2008-08-31

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

[11 Entries]

What Is Wrong with GTD?
By WHAKATE
Many users still find it useful and many others now offer their own customised version. A new book by author David Allen promises to expand the concept to address work and life harmony. Beyond GTD: Why Thousands of GTD Fans Are Looking ...

Toodledo helps manage your life in bite-sized pieces
CNET News - San Francisco,CA,USA
Earlier today one of my colleagues from Gamespot spent most of lunch gushing to me about his new favorite GTD tool. Called Toodledo, it's diminutive name ...

Getting Things Done - Part 5 (Moleskine Miscellanies)
By toddbumgarner
This is the concluding post in my Getting Things Done series. See also Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4. In this part, I’ll be expanding on my Moleskine Setup by writing on a few miscellanies that didn’t make it into the setup post. ...

Initial thoughts about “Getting Things Done.”
By Kevin
Earlier this year it seemed like I was reading about David Allen’s book Getting Things Done all over the place on the internet. Most of the time it was on Twitter where people would shorten it to GTD. So I decided to take the plunge and ...

Top 10 ways to implement GTD Simply
By Chris
I thought I’d put a post up about implementing David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD). I won’t use this post to explain what GTD is as it is explained all over the place, but for a good explanation please look here ...

GTD Cafe: Using GTD Radar to Spot Open Loops
By thedailysaint
Ah, the frustrated life of a GTD practitioner… As a refresher, an open loop is some aspect of a project that is left undecided, un-taken-care-of or just neglected. Sadly, these open loops can wreak havoc on productivity. ...

20 Tech Habits to Improve Your Life
PC World - USA
A few new habits can make the difference between staying on task, finding what you need, and getting things done--or having a tech meltdown. ...

Back to School and GTD Go Hand in Hand
By Lisa M. Hendey
But the good news of GTD, Getting Things Done, is that the system gives us a "smarter way to live and work". By defining, capturing and organizing all of the items on our to do list into concrete "next actions", you and I can make the ...

Sales Pipeline Management, The GTD Approach
By Bill Rice
Getting Things Done (GTD), the powerful efficiency concept from David Allen, is often applied to our task list and our email inbox, but rarely to more complex processes like our sales pipeline. However, the principles are the same and ...

Mega GTD resource list
Getting Things Done: How to Achieve Stress-free Productivity (commonly abbreviated as GTD) is an action management method created by David Allen, and described in a book of the same name. Both “Getting Things Done” and “GTD” are ...

Michael Dolan: Are you smarter than a kindergartener?
By michael.dolan@davidco.com (mdolan)
In his book, Getting Things Done, David Allen recommends creating various action lists, a "waiting for" list and a project list. Here's a simple but useful trick that I often share with my clients: When you're in the midst of processing ...

Remove Help and Support from your XP Start Menu

The Windows Help and Support function inevitably gets in my way.  It sounds dumb, but almost every time I try to select START | Run, I accidentally choose START | Help and Support.  It drives me nuts because it take so long to load, and I don’t need it at that time.  In fact, I have never needed the Help and Support function.

So I decided to remove it.  Here is how:

1. Open Notepad (or your favorite text file editor)

Copy and Past the Following text into Notepad
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"NoStartMenuHelp"=dword:00000001

2. Save the file to your Desktop and call it NoStartMenuHelp.reg

3. Double Click the Desktop file you just created called NoStartMenuHelp.reg.

4. When prompted with;
 
Click Yes

5. Reboot your computer for the change to take affect.

When your computer restarts, the START | Help and Support function will be gone.  To clean things up, you will want to delete the Desktop file you created called  NoStartMenuHelp.reg.

Jott is out of Beta – Is it worth paying for?

I am a big fan of Jott.  What is Jott?  Jott is a (previously all free) service that allows you to call a toll free number, record a message, and have it transcribed and emailed to someone (or yourself).  I wrote about Jott last year.  I Jott messages to myself when I am on the road.  I Jott messages to myself if I am in the grocery store.  I Jott messages to myself just about anywhere.  With Jott, I never forget an important thought or to-do because it ends up in my e-mail inbox.

Apparently I was not the only one who loved Jott.  Many. many, many more people did too.  In fact, it became so popular, the makers of Jott decided that by charging for Jott, they could turn this Beta product into a viable business.  Time will tell if they are right.  I love Jott, but I’m not convinced it’s worth paying for.  Fret not; if you are like me and not convinced that Jott is worth paying for - Jott does come in a free, ad supported flavor.

Jott now comes in 3 flavors;

Jott Pro
$12.95/month
30 second max recording time
Unlimited Voice-to-Text Notes & Reminders
Manage Notes & Lists In your email or Online at Jott.com
Includes Hands-free Email & Text Messaging
Available Jott Apps includes; Jott for BlackBerry, Jott for Outlook, Jott Express, and Jott for iPhone

Jott
$3.95/month
15 second max recording time
Unlimited Voice-to-Text Notes & Reminders
Manage Notes & Lists In your email or Online at Jott.com
Includes Hands-free Email & Text Messaging
Available Jott Apps includes; Jott for Outlook, Jott Express, and Jott for iPhone

Jott Basic
Free but ad-supported
15 second max recording time
Unlimited Voice-to-Text Notes & Reminders
Manage Notes & Lists Online at Jott.com
No Hands-free Email & Text Messaging
Available Jott Apps includes; Jott Express, and Jott for iPhone  

I was a bit disappointed at first.  I did not feel like Jott Basic would serve my needs.  I really liked the fact that I could Jott directly to my e-mail inbox.  With Jott Basic, e-mail directly to my inbox was not an option.  My e-mail inbox was my safe place for things to land.  I could go to Jott.com, login, and retrieve my messages - But, what a drag.  I’m not disciplined enough for that!

That is, until I discovered Jott Express.  Jott Express is a new application from Jott that allow you to create a desktop window into your Jott.com inbox.  Jott Express acts as an open window showing all of your incoming Jotts in real-time.  With Jott Express you can categorize your Jotted messages, add a priority flag, set a text message reminder or mark your Jotted tasks as complete.  For me, Jott Express make Jott Basic (Jott free!) worthwhile.

I’d highly recommend giving Jott Basic with Jott Express a try.  It’s free, you can’t go wrong!  Visit www.Jott.com for more information.

Do you use Jott?  Are you using Jott in a creative way?  Leave a comment and share your Jott experience!

GTD Digest 2008-08-24

I’ve been too busy to get to any regular posts this week.  We are getting new siding on our house, a new garage door and front doors.  This week was all about picking out colors and styles.  This exercise has been far more complicated than I would have ever imagined!  The work on the house started this weekend.  I can’t wait for everything to be done!

I took some time tonight to get caught up on GTD stuff around the web.  Below are the highlights. Enjoy!

 

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

[10 Entries]

5 Simple Steps to Getting Things Done
By ready2grow
Getting Things Done. Most people start projects by making a list of what they need to do. Nothing wrong with that. But when your business is growing quickly with a lot of projects on the go, you can easily end up with a lot of lists ...

Michael Dolan: The inbox: your loading dock of raw materials
By michael.dolan@davidco.com (mdolan)
If you are somewhat new to GTD and you are interested in implementing the principles in Getting Things Done, make sure that you actually get and use a magical little device called the inbox. If you've read the book or been to a seminar, ...

Time Management Training: We Don’t All Think About Time the Same Way
Corsavoo.com - Bastia,Corse,France
Perhaps you have another team member who is much less concerned about getting things done fast and much more concerned about getting things done right. ...

Clearing Your Mind and Getting Things Done
By Jose DeJesus MD
Here are some tips and techniques for dealing with the clutter and worries that weigh on our minds, and getting more things done.

Getting Serious About Getting Things Done
By Rich
Productivity guru David Allen is the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, the 2001 book that has sold more than a million copies and has been translated into 30 languages. His eponymous, $8 million ...

An alternative to GTD: Lego brick self-assessment
By ewan.mcintosh@blueyonder.co.uk (Ewan McIntosh)
Having reached the underwhelming nirvana of having nothing on my GTD list for the first time in three years, I'm considering a change of tack after reading about this on Info Aesthetics:. an alternative way to represent time schedule ...

What should I do: Annoying co-worker disrupts productivity
TechRepublic - Louisville,KY,USA
I simply told them that my work atmosphere is no longer conducive to getting things done and that my productivity is being affected due to the current ...

Getting Things Done - Part 4 (My Moleskine Setup)
By toddbumgarner
This is a continuing post on long, drawn-out Getting Things Done series. See also Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3. Without further ado (see Part 3 if you need the ado), here is how I go about setting up a new Moleskine: ...

GTD RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATORS
By CNEIL(CNEIL)
A few weeks ago I posted about the catalysts that led me to take up the implementation of Dave Allen's GTD system. Today I've decided to post a list of resources that may help other teachers implement this conceptual framework: ...

Laura Stack’s Top Thirty Best Practices for Scheduling Your Day ...
By LauraStack
This is the feature article for August's productivity newletter. For this month's complete newsletter, please visit http://www.theproductivitypro.com/r_newsletters.htm.

GTD Digest 2008-08-17

Back by popular demand!

Weekly recap of GTD highlights (news, views, tips and tricks) from around the web

[10 Entries]

Simply GTD with Kelly: Two reasons why we procrastinate
By kelly@davidco.com (Kelly)
We all do it: kick something around on our lists (if we were even brave to put it ON a list), curse it, skip over it and try really hard to ignore it. Yet, we can't let it go. The longer it lingers, the guilt and stress builds or the ...

Achieve e-mail goal using 'Inbox Zero'
Myrtle Beach Sun News - Myrtle Beach,SC,USA
This is where the father of Inbox Zero - a series of productivity principles known as "Getting Things Done" or "GTD" to geeks - comes into play. ...

Spaced out
By gtdsex
Here at The Alternative GTD approach to life; we encourage the act of spacing out. Many people would say that it was a waste of time, and that people who do so are usually drunks, stoners, people not progressing/achieving in life…but I ...

Getting Serious About Getting Things Done
BusinessWeek - USA
He is the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity , the 2001 book that has sold more than a million copies and has been ...

Getting Things Done: Three Big Lessons
By noreply@blogger.com (Promod)
This time, we'll look at improving your workflow using ideas from Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen. You can only feel good about what you're not doing when you know what you're not doing. — David Allen. Three Big Lessons ...

Getting Things Done
By Brandon
David Allen started it with his hit book, “Getting Things Done.” Mr. Allen helps teach people how to prioritize and liberate their mind of things to do, thus giving them an action plan to do them. While I have never read Mr. ...

Getting things done - book review of David Allen’s GTD-book
By iHanna
I have bought and read David Allen’s book Getting things done translated to Swedish and called Få det gjort!. This is my review and thoughts about the book! Let me know if you’ve read it and what you think of it! ...

Getting things done
By Anna(Anna)
Svart bälte i vardagseffektivitet/Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. I have now found that this book seems to be part of a "movement" on the Internet (try googling GTD or Getting Things Done. ...

Small office / Home office Clear your inbox, free your mind
Seattle Times - United States
This is where the father of Inbox Zero — a series of productivity principles known as "Getting Things Done" or "GTD" to geeks — comes into play. ...

Stop blaming your Blackberry
Ottawa Citizen - Ontario, Canada
The most popular blogs are productivity blogs, and David Allen is a rock star in this demographic. So young people are constantly using prioritizing tools ...

Are you interested in the future of online productivity & collaboration?

The Office 2.0 conference might be for you.  The Office 2.0 conference is focused on how to get productive using online tools, and understanding the implications (practical, techinical, legal, sociological) of doing so.

I would encourage you to check it out.  It looks interesting.  The cost is $1,495 + T&E.  The conference is being held at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco on September 3-5.

Given the high $ to attend, I will have to wait for an invitation to speak at the Office 2.0 conference :).  If you get a chance to attend, drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it.  Thanks!

Packing Toiletries for your Next Trip

toi·let·ry Pronunciation[toi-li-tree]

–noun
any article or preparation used in cleaning or grooming oneself, as soap or deodorant.

Ever gone on a trip and realized you forgot your razor?  Ever forget toothpaste?  …or a toothbrush?  I have, and it’s a drag.  Here is a quick tip to help make sure you bring everything you need on your next trip to make you the best looking you in the morning. 

Step 1: Get 3-4 Ziploc bags.  Some gallon sized, some quart sized.

Step 2: As you get ready in the morning before you leave, put your toiletries in Ziploc bags.  When you are done, toss the bags in your suitcase.  It’s that simple!

When you get out of the shower, remember to take your favorite shampoo or conditioner.  When you finish shaving, grab that can of Edge and your razor.  When you finish brushing your teeth, toss your toothbrush in it’s own Ziploc bag (since it’s wet) and don’t forget your toothpaste.  Anything else; cologne, aftershave, antiperspirant, comb, brush; toss them into a Ziploc bag right after you use them and I guarantee, you will not be missing anything when you travel.