Tag: Productivity

Thoughts and ideas on productivity, to-do lists and enhancing task management.

Categories
Business

JFDI

Just Effing Do It!

What a wonderful statement, that is. When you find yourself hesitating on a task… hey man, JFDI. If you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place… hey, JFDI to the rescue. While this is great, I’m pretty certain there hasn’t yet been a singular definition given for this mantra.

I’ve had a few individual discussions recently, with several WooThemes colleagues, on the meaning of JFDI and, ultimately, trying to find out what the phrase means to them. While JFDI can carry many different meanings for different individuals or companies, I thought I’d share mine, and how I feel it applies to what I do.

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Categories
Life

On goal setting and comfort zones

I’m a “lists” person. Give me a to-do list any day and I’ll make quick work of getting it from A to Z. Having a to-do list helps me feel like I’m in-check and on top of whatever I’m working on. More so than my love of lists, though, is my love of checking items off of a list. I love it. I can regularly be found planning out my to-do list for the day, as my first task when I start work in the morning, and I’m sure to check off each item from my list as I go, as well as updating any task reporting tools with the task I’ve just completed (at the moment, we use iDoneThis over at Woo- it’s pretty awesome).

As can be inferred by my love of lists, I like routines. Routines, however small and un-impactful, mean that in some small way, I know what’s coming next (and thus, can do any necessary preparation- either physical or mental). Some may refer to this as a comfort zone.

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Categories
Technology

Achieve any goal (and track your progress) with Lift

"Lift" LogoLets face it, we all have those tasks in life that we with we did more often- “I should really blog more”, is one of mine (hence this blog post). Sometimes, we have surges of motivation in which we begin our good habit-forming tasks, only to forget about them a few moments later.

The big question is, why shouldn’t we be keeping good habits and achieving our desired goals? I can’t think of any reason other than human nature, really.

Enter “Lift”, a web and iOS app that encourages good habit forming, helps to track progress and adds encouragement via the sending and receiving of “props” from friends connected through Facebook and Twitter.

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Categories
Technology

Presentations using SlideRocket

In the last week, Jeff and I presented a workshop at the GROW Academy’s BootCamp, discussing website design & development and focussing on using WordPress to do this. For both our introductory session on Monday and our more in-depth theory discussion on Wednesday, we needed a slideshow presentation to work through the various areas of website construction. Lets zoom back to Monday morning… I needed some slides… in a hurry.

As many of you know, I like to keep my computer as clean as possible. If I don’t use an application, it gets removed and everything that could go onto the machine is thought through before it’s loaded on. Thus, I don’t have PowerPoint, Keynote or anything of the sort… because I don’t need it. Suddenly, I did. Enter SlideRocket.

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Categories
General

A quick word on inspiration and driving output

What is inspiration? Where does it come from? How can it drive productive output? These are all valid questions.

At this moment, it’s a little misty outside my window. It’s early and I’m almost on my way to a nice hot cup of tea. This doesn’t seem related to the post at all, does it? It is. All of these factors are instrumental in driving productive output from within me. A relaxed environment with average, slightly overcast, weather conditions and the want for a soothing cup of tea.

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Categories
General

A quick word on the weather and productivity

Folks, it’s almost the end of June. Winter is here and it’s showing no signs of backing down.

While chatting with a colleague yesterday, we got onto the topic of the weather and how it has affected our productivity. I find that I enjoy being indoors in cold weather and that I find myself having more motivation to get things done as it’s nice and cosy and warm inside. On the other hand, it’s cold and wet and a nice cup of hot cocoa would be great. 🙂

Does the weather affect your productivity? And on that note, does anyone have an amazing recipe for home-made cocoa? 😛

Categories
General

Knowing when to extend the goal posts

A few months ago, David and Marc posted a video blog entitled “Setting small goals to achieve big ones“. This video focussed on how to rather set lots of smaller goals that are easier to atain than one or two big goals. This approach can be most effective when the smaller goals are set and met on time.

Recently, I’ve discovered an additional tip on this topic. My thoughts were prompted by the following notion: Setting small goals in order to achieve a fewer bigger goals is an effective method of working. What happens though, when the smaller goals and the bigger goal have both been achieved? The answer is simple.

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Categories
General

A quick word on to-do’s and GTD

As many of you have surely experienced, a to-do list can be both the most awesome and the scariest thing. What happens if you don’t get your day’s tasks done? They roll over to the next day. This potentially perpetual cycle can become quite daunting, preventing the smaller, quicker tasks from getting done.

My solution to this perpetual cycle occurred to me just the other day (why didn’t it occur sooner?). If I can’t fit a task into my daily to-do, I switch the task over to another day. “Doesn’t that not resolve the cycle?” But wait… I look at the days to follow and make sure to swap in a manageable task or two from a day to come. That way, tasks are getting done and being done in a time frame suited to the task. I’ve found that this also aids me in being feeling more productive, getting tasks done and (as a result of the productive feeling) getting more done.

Just a short word for a Sunday post. More of a thought, really. How do you handle your to-do list?