And I only started using digital notes with OneNote extensively when I started writing my tech book project. For everything else, I use a notebook.

You don’t want to let any good ideas to slip off your head because of information overload. If you are like me, your brain is always busy processing stuff.

I process hundreds, even thousands, of information in my head at any given time. I have a full time job, side projects, and personal life (family and friends) just like normal humans do.

I have to keep track, therefore, of work tasks (workflows, deadlines, etc), project milestones and progress, budgets, mortgage, bills, and what not.

My notebook is an extension of my brain. I love it this way because I don’t have the distraction of having to deal with the technology layer of a simple task such as recording a thought on a smart phone or tablet.

Recording to a notebook is almost instantaneous — find the next empty page, then write; and, you’re done.

Keeping a notebook for many is a challenge. And I understand why.

Here are some of the reasons why you fail at keeping a notebook as a system of recording your thoughts and ideas:

1. You write notes and ideas you need to retrieve right away. If you keep records of things you need in a couple of days and write tons of notes more in that short period, chances are the information you need might have been buried in the notebook black hole.

2. You use a notebook to record information you need at your finger tips on short notice. If you have pages and pages of information and you don’t have any way to retrieve that in short amount of time, then using a notebook is not very intuitive.

3. You depend on index mechanism to search for information. It just doesn’t work with an analog notebook.

4. You use your notebook for your daily to-do list. If you’re wondering why your notebook is so convoluted, chances are to-do lists are part of the clutter problem. If you’re using your notebook to remember how many tray of eggs or how many gallons of milk to buy, you’re doing it wrong. The proper place for most to-do lists is not your notebook but things like the hipster pda or loose 3×5 index cards.

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Steve Jobs is a visionary. And many are like him.

Erik Calonius has documented the “why’s” of how these visionaries achieved great success at their respective fields in his book, Ten Steps Ahead: What Separates Successful Business Visionaries from the Rest of Us (affiliate link).

I kept Erik’s book in my personal library simply because I love it. Erik found out that these visionaries are not really apart from us – they are only ahead of us. We possess the same quality they possess. But the difference is how they see things differently. And, you, too, can learn to see things differently.

This is the main idea in my latest post titled, “Visionary: Seeing Through Defects” (posted in my personal blog).

Go one step ahead, read Visionary: Seeing Through Defects.

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Enter Carlo…

We all have our little habits; the routines and rituals that we adhere to on a daily basis, or the day itself just doesn’t feel right.

Many of these are rooted in our activity before and after work: that morning cup of coffee, that evening glass of wine and even certain clothing that we like to wear on certain days.If we miss any of these little rituals out, it can affect the way we feel and even the way we behave.

In a peculiar way it can have a pronounced on our productivity too. However, there are other habits that we take with us into the office – and these can have a more dramatic and negative impact on what we do.

Here are five habits that could be limiting your productivity.

#1- Time-wasting emails

Research from the Australian Bureau for Statistics has found that over 50% of employees admit to wasting at least an hour a day answering emails that have nothing to do with work.

While they might feel important to you, answering and reading these emails takes a significant portion of your time and translates into loss of money for the company as a whole.

The study found that in companies with over 1,000 employees, the annual bill for wasted time added up to around $10 million.

#2- Turn off Twitter

Social networking is another huge digital distraction. If it’s not on your computer, then you’re likely have an app that allows you to log in to your favorite social networking sites.

The most distracting part of this is the notification alert tone that sounds each time one of your contact sends you a link or posts on your page.

The simple answer is to deactivate the notification alerts; you can check what’s going on in your social circles during your lunch hour.

Book Recommendation: Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload  (Amazon affiliate link)

#3 – Post-It procrastination

Many people work from lists, allowing them to prioritize tasks and quickly see what they have done and need to do. However, when those lists consist of post-it notes stuck to the wall or the computer monitor, things can very quickly go awry.

If you’re going to work from a list, then ensure that it’s as organized and as easy to read as possible, or your performance can be hampered because you may lose notes or simply be unable to read them.

#4 – Go and tidy your room!

Your office is an area in which you are supposed to be your most productive. However, if you’re the type of person who treats your workspace like a teenager’s bedroom, then you could be costing yourself a lot of time when trying to find the right files or locate the best tools for the job in hand.

Untidiness is as much a habit as being organized. You don’t have to present a pristine, sparkling workspace, but it’s worth having some sort of structure in place. You’ll find that your productivity increases as a result.

#5 – How much is too much?

Being enthusiastic at work is one thing, but being zealous is quite another – and can be counter-productive. If you take on too much, you won’t carry out each individual task to the best of your ability.

If you try to, you’re likely to miss that all-important deadline or put yourself under unnecessary stress. Don’t be afraid to delegate.

Carlo Pandian is a tutorial writer for Intuit, a small business accounting software. He loves sharing about business and productivity tips.

Photo courtesy of flickr user maurofaraoni

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Enter Andrei…

One trending topic in the last years is time management. How to get better at it, what to do in order to be more efficient and what it really means. Few people take a minute to ask themselves a simple question: why should I manage my time better?

It’s very important to start tracking your time, having time for yourself, having systems, working without interruptions or prioritizing. But you need a clear motivation as to why you should do so and how it will benefit you.

Here are 7 reasons why you should consider improving your time management:

1. You will be more productive – this is the best aspect of managing your time. The workday will be more structured, you will work according to plan, will get more done in the same amount of time and will become a great asset for the client/employer.

2. Less stress – having your tasks planned out, knowing how you usually waste time and improving it will result in less stressful situations and a more calm you. Less stress means that you will work better, faster and will be happier while completing your tasks.

3. Healthier work ethic – you will be more aware of the priorities and tasks you need to tackle, which in turn will make you a better professional. Working in a structured manner will not only make you more productive, but will help you grow professionally. You will learn more and faster than you would have before. Being more productive will help your self-esteem and help you be more confident.

3. More time for yourself – improving your work patterns will result in less need for overtime or taking work home with you. This will mean more time for yourself, time for hobbies, projects, friends and family.

4. Happier clients – all your hard work will pay off. Clients/employers will see the change and will appreciate tasks taken care of quickly. Happier clients mean leverage on your side, you will become more in control of your professional life.

5. You will push yourself – having a clear to do list and a planned course will make you work on tasks that you might not like but need to get done. You won’t be able to postpone them because you will be aware that time is ticking and you need to complete them.
6. Keeps you balanced – knowing and controlling your time and tasks will help you keep a better balance between your professional and private life. You will be able to follow how much time you actually spend on time wasters, and how much time you spend on your actual work.

7. You’re in control – all this sums up to one important thing, you’re the one that controls your time. You still need to do everything you did before, and maybe even more because you will be more effective, but now you see the big picture and see which tasks should be tackled first, saved for last or should be passed to someone else.

You won’t need to work more because you forgot some minor detail and lose more of your precious free time, because now you’re structured and covered all the bases.

Andrei Monenciu is a community manager and tech support specialist at Paymo – an online time tracking and billing application. He’s constantly in touch with the Paymo community sharing tips about time management and how to best deal with projects.

Photo courtesy of flickr use Breathing Space.

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First, let’s take a look at the stark contrast between the two productivity principles:

GTD Focuses on the Outcome <> Pomodoro Focuses on the Task

GTD deals with the collective tasks. Pomodoro works one task at a time.

You cannot just marry the two systems and forge a partnership between them in which they can work together as one. GTD is quite the opposite of Pomodoro.

GTD practitioners may find Pomodoro too limiting.

There is not much flexibility in Pomodoro. The 2-minute rule in GTD finds no room in the Pomodoro system.

The core of GTD sits on the “Five Stages Of Mastering Workflow”: Collect, Process, Organize, Review, and Do. In GTD dealing with a task has an impact on the other tasks. You have to maintain certain amount of discretion to maintain the workflow of your collective tasks.

In Pomodoro, those 5 stages are 5 separate tasks (or more if divided into smaller portions). There is only one stage in Pomodoro: Do. In the heart of Pomodoro is an effective mechanism of estimating task completion. There is truly a comfort in knowing how long it takes to accomplish your tasks.

Can GTD and Pomodoro work hand in hand?

As thought systems, they are incompatible. You cannot just focus on one particular task and maintain that same focus for all your other tasks.

Pomodoro is singular in its approach; GTD is collective.

Photo courtesy of flickr user Tragic

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If you already know what this is, move on. There is nothing new for you here. If you’ve never heard about it before, continue reading below. This is a good start.

Honestly, I haven’t actually implemented it fully myself. I have adapted the concept in many instances and integrate it to my home-made productivity habits; but I never implemented it purely the Pomodoro way.

I am yet to name my productivity system which is a combination of GTD and 80/20 Principle that relies heavily on Momentum.

The Pomodor0 Technique itself is an amalgamation of various principles, namely:

1. Time-boxing used in project planning

2. Cognitive techniques by Tony Buzan who is famous for his mind mapping book

3. Dynamic of play as popularized by Hans-Georg Gadamer, a known personality in social science (“Acculturation”, Intercultural Communication, among others). And,

4. Concepts from Tom Gilb’s Principles of Software Engineering Management.

So, a Pomodoro, the Italian term for “tomato”, is the name attributed to the 30-minute window you spend to accomplish a particular task. The formula looks something like this:

25 minutes of work + 5-minute break = 1 Pomodoro

Since we’re dealing only with the very basic of Pomodoro Technique in this post, let me just describe to you the very simplistic implementation of this technique.

To get started, you only need a to-do task list and the Pomodoro Timer (affiliate link) or any 30-minute kitchen timer. Start with your first task in the list. Set the Pomodoro Timer to 30 minutes. Start working. Pay attention to the timer.

If you reach the 25th minute, stop working and take a short 5 minute break. You might get tempted to just continue working but you must stop. You must follow the system. The 5-minute break must be a moment of just “not doing anything” – don’t check email, make calls, or any other source of distraction.

If you finished the task in under 25 minutes, say 10 minutes, don’t stop the time. Use your extra 15 minutes to review the task. The 25-minute rule is set in stone. You cannot go under or over it.

A task may need more than a Pomodoro. Some may need 3 or more. If you reached the fourth Pomodoro, the fourth 25-minute mark, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes depending on the level of your energy.

You can use this 15-30 minutes to do an activity not related to your current task – like a quick lunch or snack, or maybe exercise. But then you still have to steer clear of any activities that might take your attention away from your tasks.

So, you take a short 5-minute break between Pomodoros, and a longer 15 to 30-minute break after the fourth one. A recommended maximum allotted number of Pomodoros in a task is 5-7. If a task needs more than that, you should consider breaking that tasks into multiple tasks.

This is just the first of the many posts I am planning to write about Pomodoro. The whole principle of the Pomodoro Technique is documented in a book that you can purchase from amazon – The Pomodoro Technique (affiliate link), or you can download the free version of the book at the Pomodoro Technique website.

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Maybe it depends, but do we need restrictions on social media?

Here’s an interesting infographics by complianceandsafety.com

Featured By: The Compliance and Safety Blog

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We all should remember that.

[ Buy the GTD book that started it all: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity ]

Brain – Courtesy of flickr user Aban Nesta

 I don’t practice GTD 100%. It just doesn’t work for me, or, should I say, for the type of work I do. Some element of the system doesn’t apply to me. For instance, I don’t need the tickler file.

But I am a believer in the system.

Some obsess on the mystery of GTD Philosophy. Some are crazy over it. Some just don’t believe in it. Some just dismiss it as nuisance.

Some of those who tried to integrate the system in their work habit and failed concluded that GTD is a big failure – does not work.

I can tell you exactly why GTD fails for these people.

They focus so much on the system itself and not on producing. These people have all the GTD tools in their arsenal – tools that are only useful for collecting or listing (inbox) tasks.

And, take note, all “apps” that are available online – free or commercial – that claim to be “GTD Tools” are not, I repeat, are NOT, GTD Tools. I have said this in the past.

GTD is an abstract. You can jot down all your task on your To-Do List, or manage your projects in a cute dashboard, but that’s not GTD.

GTD is a frame of mind.

Your focus should be on emptying that mind full of clutter.

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Paperless Office – Courtesy of flickr user Dimi15

Paperless office is a unicorn. It is technically impossible to implement a zero-paper office environment for now. I know that as a fact.

But it is really possibly to go paperless on the personal level?

Outside of the office, I think it is possible to go paperless. Here’s how:

Ditch The Tree, Go To The Cloud

I’m old school. I own Moleskines. I take notes on 3×5 Index Cards. This is almost unnecessary now because we’re all on digital age, or even way past that as others would like to believe.

Evernote and SimpleNote are two of the most popular note-taking apps that are cloud-based. They are also platform agnostics, you can access them via any computing device (smart phones, tables, laptops, etc.).

Ditch The Bill, Automate The Payment

Stop your service providers from sending you monthly statements. Most Credit Card companies give you the paperless option for your statements.Most banks have similar paperless option. Inquire with your provider if they offer that option.

Or better yet, automate your bills to get paid directly from your bank accounts (Disclaimer: this is not a finance advice).

You can also try online services such as Mint or Pageonce to manage your bills and other accounts.

Ditch The Ink, Read The Pixel

I’ve been trying to go the paperless route on my reading life. I have been unsuccessful so far. Last year I purchased a Kindle reader so I would stop buying physical books and magazines.

This could work for other people. This is an aspect where you can go paperless.

Ditch the Subscriptions, Say Yes To Digital Subscription

I am a subscriber to dozens of trade magazines and vendor publications. I usually opt for the digital subscription if offered.

But there are other third-party companies that do not have the digital option. Weigh in if you still need that publication and, if not, you can ask these companies to stop sending.

Look for Do-Not-Mail services to help you get rid of junk or unwanted mails. Take a look at Catalog Choice for the idea.

Ditch The Printer, No Don’t Print That!

There is almost no need to print. Unless you are told to print something, do not print. Ask if you can scan and archive a document instead of printing it.

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Ask any knowledge worker you know about their top books, and they tell you easily 7 Habits is one of them.

The 7 Habits mean different things to different people, depending on their perspective in life. A businessman would look at it as principles to live by in running his business. A farmer would look at it probably in the same fashion, principles to live by, but through a different lens.

1. Be Proactive

Like what Stephen said in the book, you cannot control circumstances around your life but you can always control how you react to them. Bad things happen to good people, as they always say.

An event could easily turn your world upside down. A devastating calamity could befall you. You don’t have the power to control things outside of yourself. But you have the total control over your volition.

2. Begin With The End In Mind

What’s your mission in life? What do you think is the reason why you are called into this world. You can approach this question in a metaphysical way, but your answer doesn’t need to be too deep to fathom.

If you are a CEO of a company, you just know what things to accomplish to fulfill your purpose. If you are a parent to a child, you just know what your mission is – to help that child grow to become a good person.

3. Put First Things First

Knowing the mission is just a small step. In fact, the steps you’d take to accomplish that mission are not as important as the mission itself. How often do you find yourself dwelling in success of achieving a very important step in your life, only to realize you’re drifting away from your original goals?

Things change. Our goals change throughout our life. Our mission should not.

4. Think Win/Win

There is one truth in life that you must accept, you cannot always win. But you can always make any circumstance favorable, if not to you, to the other person.

Win your relationship with your wife, with your colleagues, with your subordinates. You might have to disagree with another person, but you have the chance to turn that disagreement into a favorable situation.

5. Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood

In every situation regardless of circumstances, we look at everything through our own lens. We are born, or sculpted to have, our own sets of belief by which we gauge our world.

We look at every interactions through our own perspective. We always seek to be understood, then we understand. Learn to look at things from the eyes of the other person. See things with the sight other than your own. Then you’ll understand.

6. Synergize

No man is an island, so the adage tells us. And this is true. Building relationships is an imperative in this life.

You can only become a better person only if you become a better partner first, or a better worker first, or a better brother or sister first.

7. Sharpen The Saw

Becoming a good person is not an end in itself. It’s a continuous process. It’s one thing that requires us to continually strive to reach out to other people, to our partner, to our co-worker.

Becoming a good person is an endeavour that calls for incessant practice.

Earlier this week, the author of 7 Habits died. This post is my little tribute to the man. You owe it to yourself to read the 7 Habits book.

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