I use windows. I use Jasc software design and love it

We’ve put together a tutorial on how to use Outlook without folders and without filing to save a lot of time in email administration.

http://cnxn.ca/NoFoldersTutorial.html

Mark

I have posted several tips, but I recently came across a great tool to increase productivity and reduce mundane but essential tasks. As a mobile professional with a desktop at my home office, a desktop at a company I consult, and a tablet I was constantly finding that I need files off of the different computers. I looked at external hard drive and I even set up an ftp so that I could get to files on the different machines. However, keeping track of the most recent file became very tiresome. Finally I revisited Foldershare. I now have it installed on all the machines and they are syncing up every time I make a change to a file no matter what machine I am on. If you work on multiple machines give it a try. It is so liberating to never worry about whether you have the most recent version and it is an automatic backup of your files on multiple hard drives.

BTW, I would love to win a Windows copy.

My main productivity boosters involve simply making use of the obvious features of now ubiquitous software.

1) Firefox’s RSS feeds, as “live bookmarks” – I can, for instance, put jkOnTheRun onto the bookmark toolbar, and take a quick glance at the list of blog updates with the click of a button. This makes it much easier for me to cut down on how long it takes me to stay in the loop on many sites. I also organize my bookmarks on the toolbar into different folders depending on the main idea, so if I want to browse all the sites

2) Media Player Classic does about all that ever has to do with video files or streaming stuff off the net without all the hassles of opening Windows Media Player and trying to keep it out of my way. I use it when I want to listen to a podcast or a list of podcasts (with the playlist feature). It’s simple, small, and does the job.

3) Not really all that ubiquitous, but I found it thanks to reading these comments: I downloaded Sciral Consistency and bought it about 20 minutes later. It’s simple, fast, and is already a great addition to my routine. Most prominently, I have used it to keep track of my bills, and at a glance I can tell which ones are going to be coming up soon so I can stay ahead of them. It’s one of the simplest personal management tools I’ve ever seen for all the use I get out of it now. Of course, there’s room for improvement (I have a few ideas, but posting them here won’t get anything accomplished

4) On tasks at work that are primarily typing or transcribing, I found that I am far faster at it by going through it in passes
- 4a. The bulk of the wording, for example, I simply type as it comes to mind, only correcting typos out of habit (I almost reflexively hit the backspace key these days…).
- 4b. On the second pass I format the stuff (bolding, bulleting, moving around, subscripting/superscripting etc).

- 4c. On the final pass I subvocalize it (read while thinking of saying the words – normally when I read things I don’t do this, as it slows my reading down) so that I can “hear” how it “sounds”, and I make any adjustments.

- Before I started forcing myself into this routine, I would spend sometimes as much as 3x the amount of time on one batch or paragraph, because I would format, shift around, subvocalize the sentences while I was typing them. Of course, if I formatted, moved around, or read stuff that I later undid or redid, that was time wasted that I could have better spent on something more exciting, like going home and watching grass grow. Basically I am not a fan of long typing/transcribing tasks, so I use those few passes to minimize the time it takes me to do them.

5) I almost always have music going on in the background, either via radio or the computer. This helps me to keep my focus on the task at hand, because it satisfies (some of) my boredom and tendency to daydream and wander off to the web while I’m at a browser doing some research.

6) I usually try to avoid Google goose chases. If something I’m looking for doesn’t show up in the first two attempts at a Google, I’ll just go post in a forum of some sort. When I do a Google goose chase, it often takes me longer to find out that I can’t find it, and on average if I do find something I’m looking for by a Google goose chase, it’s taken me longer to do so than it would have taken me to go on a forum or into an IRC channel and ask.

My best productivity tip is “Write it down.” I have seen and experimented with many ways to do this, but the real productivity gain is to write down the things you need to do, keep the list somewhere handy, and refer to it often.

I use computer-based lists, but some of my staff us all paper lists and they see a productivity gain, too.

A corollary to “write it down” is “save the important writings.” This means keeping a file of project plans, telephone call results, contacts, technical references, standards, templates, etc. At my company, I am the go-to guy whenever anyone needs to know something about a past project. I typically have a file with the key pieces of information, and can find that file in minutes.

1.Keep all your tasks and to-do’s in one place. Don’t have Post-it notes scattered everywhere. Decide on a tool to use – whether it be a notepad or software. Suggestions for some top software for task management below.

2. Keep your task list with you at all times. You’ll find it stress relieving to braindump actions onto your to do list as and when they arise.

3. If you’re using Outlook as your task manager then you should definately consider using the Outlook 2007 Public Beta. There’s some important improvements to task management in the 2007 release, including showing tasks on your calendar and the new “To Do” Bar.
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/programs/outlook/overview.mspx for details

Outlook’s certainly one of the top task managers. If you’re struggling with lots of conflicting priorities though, you may benefit from MLO or Lifebalance (see below) which have more of a focus on organising your to do list so you focus on the most important priorities

4. Get the balance right between different areas of your life (work/household/family etc). LifeBalance is particularly good at tracking where you are spending most of your time and encouraging you to shift your priorities in life. LifeBalance interfaces with PocketPCs and many other devices
http://www.llamagraphics.com/LB/LifeBalanceTop.html

5. Separate out the important from the urgent tasks. My Life Organized is good at this.
“The essence of genius is to know what to overlook.” — William James (1842-1910) Doctor, Psychologist, Philosopher.
My Life Organized is probably one of the most developed and tested task managers. Its strength is the ability to present you with a prioritised to do list that considers how IMPORTANT a task is as well as its urgency/deadline. MLO interfaces with Pocket PC’s and Outlook.
http://www.mylifeorganized.net/
User Group http://groups.google.com/group/myLifeOrganized

6. Finally, ToDoList’s main advantage is its free, has a nice interface and some pretty cool features, though its not as advanced as the others I’ve listed.
http://www.codeproject.com/tools/todolist2.asp?forumid=25857&df=100&select=1418220&msg=1418220

I run Windows OS

My suggestion actually involves using Mind Manager. I am in Construction Management and I stumbled on the trial program by accident. In my profession like may others, organization involves scheduling, of both personel and of materials, and the time when things are arrive and are installed are also critical. I use Mind Manager as both an organizational chart to collect my thoughts and “brainstorm” but also a project scheduling program similar to Microsoft Project. I date each entry so I know when I performed the entered task, and leave the task in my mind map so I can sequentally and cronilogically follow the progression of the task. This way if there is ever any dispute of when clients select certain products resuling in delays, or just a quick way to visually see what items have been done and what is left to complete, I have it right there in a one stop shop. Cheers all.

Sometimes I find myself putting off some of life’s less-desirable tasks. There are lots of tips floating around out there about how to stop procrastinating, but I have found two that work particularly well for me that I thought I would share.

Commit to just 15 minutes
Tell yourself that you’re going to work on that task you’ve been putting off for just 15 minutes. If at the end of 15 minutes, your attitude hasn’t changed, you’re free to change tasks as well (consider this a good start and take another 15 minute swing at it later). If however, at the end of 15 minutes, you have found that the task isn’t really all that bad after all, keep going and knock it out. I’m always amazed at how much I can get done in a very short time if I stay focused.

Reward yourself
I have an acquaintance who is as fit as a fiddle, but wasn’t always. The way he finally motivated himself to start regularly exercising…no kidding…was to reward himself with a banana split every time he worked out. At first he knew it was counterproductive, but over time, the exercise became reward in itself and he cut out the banana splits. Years later, he is in excellent shape and gives the banana splits all the credit. This same principle applies to almost anything. If, for example, you’ve been putting off that monthly status report, tell yourself that after you get it done, you can spend a half hour reading from jkOnTheRun!

I would die for a Windows copy of MindManager!

Here are two systems which have made me much more organised and productive.

1) Email management

Most of the things I need to do are triggered by the arrival of email. I have managed to achieve complete control over my email and the actions they lead to by using the following system, which is a simple application of GTD, using Outlook 2003.

a) I use the flags feature to mark each email that requires an action or that I will need to come back to in the future. The meanings I have assigned to the flags are:
– Red: Reply to the email
– Orange: Action needed (other than a reply
– Blue: Need to read the email or attachment
– Green: Information I will need later
– Purple: ‘Waiting’ – an email I have sent and for which I am expecting a reply

I keep the flags toolbar always displayed, so that I can apply a flag to an email in one click. I have customised the icon labels in this toolbar according to my meanings, and added buttons for displaying the reminder dialog box, marking an email as ‘done’ and removing a flag.

b) I set up Search folders which display only the emails having specific flags. I really only use two of them: one for ‘Reply’ and ‘Action needed’, the other for ‘Need to read’.

c) I set up rules to automatically sort in specific folders emails which I receive on a regular basis: newsletters, notifications, etc.

With this simple setup, I am able to process my email very quickly, keep an empty inbox and always keep on top of things I need to do. Because all recurring emails are automatically stored in folders using rules, my inbox contains mostly emails which I should pay attention to. Once or twice a day, I will go through my inbox, applying a flag to each email as appropriate and immediately filing it in a folder. That way, my inbox is always empty at the end of the day. I can use the Search folders to review all my action items or all the things I need to read – with Outlook’s views, it’s easy to sort and group these lists by date, subject (folder), etc. When I have completed an item, I just mark it as done and it disappears from the Search folders.

With this system, I feel I get the most important benefits of GTD for managing email: I only process an email once, I can easily review the things I need to do as a result of email, and my inbox is always almost empty. Since I started using this system in a systematic way two years ago, I’m not stressed by managing email any more!

2) Filename tagging

For some files, I apply specific tags as prefixes to the filename. For example ‘c_’ indicates that the file in progress (‘under Construction’) and that I need to complete it. ‘w_’ indicates that the file is used as part of another file (for exemple, an Excel file containing charts that are used in a PowerPoint presentation). So a filename could be, for example: ‘cw_March results.xls’, indicating the the March results spreadsheet is not finished yet and used as part of another file.

You can draw up a list of what tags are useful to you and what letters you want to use. The important thing is to always use them consistently and systematically.

Another advantage of this approach is that files are automatically sorted on the tags in any program that displays the files of a folder in alphabetical order.

Here are a handful of productivity tips that I have integrated into my work day:

1. Checking voicemail only twice a day – Unless I’m expecting an important telephone call, I check once when I arrive in the morning and once before I leave at night. My greeting states that if the caller needs to speak with someone right away, then the caller should speak with my assistant. I want to have some uninterrupted time.

2. Checking email at set points during the day – Same reason as above.

3. Blocking off “work time” – My colleagues tend to be meeting happy. Aside from deciding which meetings I must attend and which meetings I can decline, I block off “work time” (2 to 3 hour blocks) on my Outlook calendar so no one can schedule meetings at that time. I also purchased a “do not disturb” sign for my door – if my door is closed and the sign is out, then I’m not to be disturbed unless it is an emergency.

5. Clipping with OneNote – I’m an information hound, and I love collecting information. Often, using my Tablet PC, I clip parts of web pages or articles (or send complete web pages) to OneNote. There I can organize by section to provide “ticklers” (like, remember to buy this book or DVD, read this article from the WSJ when I have time).

6. Onfolio – I use Onfolio as well for more directed research and for my RSS feeds.

7. Keeping my “in” box empty by handling/filing documents once – I’m not perfect at it, but I have a deep “in” box that I do my best to keep empty by handling/filing documents once or twice.

8. Migo Professional – I have Microsoft Exchange at my disposal, but the Internet Explorer interface is not user-friendly. I use Migo to replicate my work computer on my laptop at home in the evening, and I can quickly go through my email without having to hook up to the Internet, then sync when I return to the office the next day.

I guess the main “theme” to a lot of my productivity tips is to use whatever tool is at your disposal, techie or not, to help you capture all of the information you need to, so you don’t forget it. My primary information capture tool is my Tablet, using OneNote and EverNote. This combination of tech has really helped me become so much more organized with my work notes and documentation, because I don’t have loose papers all over the place that easily get lost and are not quickly searchable.

For the times I don’t have my Tablet with me, I use a pocket-sized Moleskine and my ever present Fisher Space Pen. I have one for work-related information, and another for personal stuff, like grocery lists, movie recommendations, info I read in magazines while I’m browsing at the bookstore, etc.

And for the times that I can’t even be bothered to take out my Moleskine and pen, I use my cell phone camera (or my small camera, if I have it) to make note of things like the cover of a book I want to look up on Amazon, or a little magazine blurb, or some item at the store I want to buy later (did a lot of this at home improvement stores like Expo, Home Depot, etc.).

Having my Tablet as my primary computer has also allowed me to be more productive because during downtime at work, I have access to my non-work-related apps, like my suite of photo managing/editing software to do a bit of photo editing over lunch, or to blog (I only log in to my blog from my Tablet to keep it separated and off my work machine, even though I’m using a web-based blog editor). I don’t have to make a note of some quick 20-min thing to do later after work, since I have all of my apps with me wherever I take my Tablet.

A couple miscellaneous productivity tips:

- When I get paper bills and don’t have a chance to schedule a payment online right away, I write the due date on the front of the envelope, and then stack the bills either right on top of my Tablet keyboard so that I don’t forget about them (even when I put the Tablet away in my bag when I go to work), or put them on the little table in the family room that I set my Tablet on so that I am sure to see them when I get home after work. When the bill is paid, I write a big “P” on the front.

- Online bill payments in general are a big time-saver so that you don’t have to snail mail stuff. Auto-deducting bill payments are even better.

- This is sort of cheating, tip-wise, but I regularly visit such sites like 43 Folders, Lifehacker, and Download Squad (or rather I monitor their RSS feeds). They always have great productivity tips or software recommendations for all sorts of aspects of your life, personal or business.

It sounds like the oldest phrase in computing, but for me it’s the key to powerful productivity: have all your important and useful information available anywhere, anytime.

I don’t carry it with me, but it is always web-accessible. I use my 3 gig (it grows as you use it!) G-Mail account for only one thing: storing and instantly retreiving important and useful information.

With a few keystrokes, anywhere, anytime, I have what I need.

I’ve stored every imaginable kind of information, except pictures (takes up too much space…there are other good places to store photos). IT’S MY PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY.

There’s no productivity-stopper like forgetting, or not being able to access some important article, web-list, definition, summary, resource. With my g-memory…it’s always there.

I have a very simple but effective tip. If you have a laptop that has a tip pointer in the middle of its keyboad, learn to use the tip pointer. Force yourself to use it, especially if you already use to using the laptop Keyboard. The reason this gives you a productivity boast is that you can type away and when you need to use the mouse to move some where, you can do it without taking your hands off the keyboard. In fact, to use the mouse you have to move your pointer finger a total of 1-2 cms. Magic. Compare this to to moving your whole hand off the keyboard.

Hope this helps.
Molly

Some of these maybe repeats of others before me or copy righted materials so my apologies ahead of time, but the productivity tips that work best for me off the top of my head are and in no particular order are:
* Take care of those important/urgent tasks first. Always schedule time to work on those important tasks every day otherwise they’ll never get done.
* Keep your mailbox empty. I only allow open tasks residence in there. Organize the rest as reference .pst files by subject matter on your hard drive so you can access them anywhere.
* “Do it now!” If you can. All too often, I forget to do a task and don’t write it down. Then, when I am asked if I have completed it later on, there’s no “Oops!”
* An excellent procrastination resource: “Doing it Now! Overcoming Procrastination”.
* Don’t forget to schedule the mundane tasks such as disk defragging, file management, backups, “Keep in touch” emails, updating outgoing voice mail box, updating “Out of Office Assistant” (when necessary), synchronizations, cleaning up your “In Box”, organizing paper files, desk clean-up, verifying adequate office supplies, etc. It is too easy to save 5-10 minutes here or there, but then come out looking inept when something that hasn’t gone wrong before suddenly does or you have to scramble about wasting 5 times as much time as it would have taken in the 1st place.
* If there are two ways to do the same thing, always choose the simplest way. I wish I could apply that to my electronics!
* Assume that something will go wrong if it can go wrong. I always take Mapquest.com printed directions along with my pocket PC GPS. Every address isn’t in my mapping application.
* Get as much information as you can about an issue, then make a decision. If it’s the wrong decision, don’t be afraid to change you mind, but as long as you have “enough” information to make the decision, you’ll be saving time and moving forward.
* Combine 2 tasks if at all possible! I often listen to podcasts while doing routine tasks such as customer account look-ups. It also helps me to block out my noisier neighbors! Or, I’ll check over tomorrow’s appointments using IBM Via Voice on my iPaq while driving home.
* Make sure you have the necessary peripherals to do the job. You never know when you’ll have the time to work a slice of time on that project.
* Communication is ALWAYS key! If you fall behind on a project, aren’t sure how you can accomplish a specific task or aren’t sure of how to proceed, don’t chance it by remaining silent. Make sure that you are up front with everyone and you’ll save time in the long run.

If I do win, I would like it in a Windows XP format. Thanks for this site, it always has cutting edge techno information and reviews.

Gene Schmeling

Additional to switching off your automatic polling in your e-mail client:

I created an e-mail folder ‘CC’ and a rule that automatically forwards all incoming mail where I am listed in the CC line.
This way, my Inbox only contains e-mails directed to me (where my name is listed in the TO – line), and where some action or reply is needed.
The CC folder contains e-mails where I only have to be informed, but where no direct action is required. I check this folder much less often during the day.

This has helped me enormously to manage the “information overload” we’re bombarded with every day.

Hope this helps someone else as well.

Stephan

I call my productivity technique, “biting off small chunks”. It’s terribly easy to get overwhelmed in the face of a long-term project with many tasks spread over a long time frame. Instead of looking at the project as one big monolithic task, break the project up into as many small pieces as you can. Easy small task may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to complete, but the sense of accomplishment is invaluable. I use “Tasks” in Outlook (in Windows) and on my T-Mobile SDA to manage these small “bites” of tasks. A mind-mapping software package would certainly make this process even more effective.