26.05.2009
Not a GTD Disciple? Don’t Worry About It
|
Posted: 25 May 2009 04:00 PM PDT Written by Pamela Poole. Recently, I attended a Barcamp for web workers, where I popped in and out of two groups discussing Getting Things Done (GTD). There was a beginners’ group, and one they called “Kung Fu GTD,” for the hardcore efficiency crowd. Despite not being a GTD user myself, I picked up one really useful tip from these sessions. The few times I’ve looked into GTD methods, I’ve found them to be incompatible with the way I function. Already the time it takes to decide if something can be done in under two minutes is time I feel I’ve wasted. GTD seems to be a system I would have to impose from the top down, which is not how I operate. I tend to adopt tools and methods only if they organically find their way into my workflow. Strict GTD is too linear and stifling for me. And, I have to admit, it just seems complicated. But I did pick up one extremely valuable tip from the “Kung Fu” GTD bunch. One woman in the group said that simplicity is paramount, and it all boils down to Stephen Covey’s four quadrants of activity management. This is a great method for classifying tasks that I immediately incorporated into my workflow. Essentially, you assign tasks one of four priorities:
Compare this method to a complicated GTD diagram. Once you do this, everything falls into place. In my task management app, I have groups in which I keep associated tasks, but I also have a group for each of Covey’s quadrants. I drag things from task group to priority group, or I put new tasks directly into a priority group. It’s made my life a lot easier. This UI/NUI/UNI/NUNI system (which is also lots of fun to say) is incredibly useful, and I can’t believe I never heard of it. But then, not being much of a self-help book consumer, I didn’t read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Covey, which is where it came from. And I was way too footloose and fancy-free to be thinking about that kind of thing back in 1989, when the book was published. One other bit of wisdom that I stumbled across while investigating Covey’s quadrants: It appears that people tend to expend most of their energy on the Urgent/Important and Urgent/Not Important tasks, get burned out, and go straight to the NUNIs to relax. Prevailing wisdom says that you shouldn’t neglect the NUIs. They’re good for your soul. Be sure to read Celine Roque’s post “The Perfect Productivity System” in which she gives good advice on ways to find a system that works for you! Share your productivity tips in the comments.  |
| How Do You Organize Your Email, Dawn Foster? Posted: 25 May 2009 07:00 AM PDT Written by Dawn Foster. After reading Aliza’s post about how she organizes her email, my biggest piece of advice in using Gmail is to embrace the organizational chaos. I’ve been using Gmail for over three years, and I use it as my primary email. I have a dozen or so email addresses, but they all get forwarded to Gmail. I use it as my central inbox for everything, so my email volume in that one inbox is high. Prior to Gmail, I used Outlook for email, which has a less-than-optimal search capability. In other words, if I didn’t file an email into the proper folder, my chances of ever finding that email again were slim. When I first started using Gmail, I brought this filing behavior with me, and I obsessively tagged and labeled everything. I ended up with a bunch of labels that I probably didn’t need. At some point, I realized that Gmail’s search facility is so amazing that labeling and filing every email became unnecessary. Now, for most emails, I read them, respond if necessary, and archive. All without bothering to give them labels. Now, to contradict myself. I also make extensive use of Gmail’s filtering capabilities to automatically add labels to some email. However, I reserve this capability for the really important stuff, like client email — you know, the people who pay me money to do stuff. I want to keep careful track of those emails. When I get a new client, I create two separate filters for that client. The first one looks at the “from” address and applies an appropriate label (for example, “coolclient”) to any email coming from its domain (”*@coolclient.com”). The second filter looks for anything in the “to” address that matches the same “*@coolclient.com”. Now, I can click on the “coolclient” label and see all of my correspondence with that client. Like most people, I also have an issue with too much email overflowing in my inbox, and I don’t want to miss any of those important emails from clients, so I need to have the client email stand out. Gmail lets you apply colors to labels, so for important clients, I make the label bright green to make sure that I can see all of my client email at a glance. I handle my big list of labels by using a keyboard shortcut that lets me go directly to a label without having to scroll for ages. To do this, you have to enable keyboard shortcuts under “Settings”, and then go to Labs and enable the “Go to label” feature. Now, I can hit “g” then “l”, type in my label, and get dumped right into that label. Again, it’s important to embrace the chaos of having too many labels and use this feature to avoid scrolling through them.
The key to using Gmail effectively is to embrace the chaos: Let Gmail’s search handle most of the organization, and keep labeling to a minimum. By only labeling my client email and a few other important categories, I’ve simplified my labels down to a manageable level.
AVEC FRANCE WEB NEWS CENTER, ODP, CONNECTEZ-VOUS AU MONDE ! Gratuit pour les membres! LISEZ LA PRESSE INTERNATIONALE sur votre PC fixe ou mobile, PDA, smartphone, .... Puisez l'actualité à la meilleure source, celle de NewsCenter, premier ODP français Quels que soient le lieu et la langue, mettez l'information dans votre poche! Pourquoi faut-il contacter FranceWeb? Parce que FranceWeb propose des solutions innovantes pour accroître votre chiffre d'affaires sans prendre de risque
Devenez partenaire Famille d'Entreprises, Un réseau Mondial d'Entreprises, e-GlobalNetWork. Partagez vos informations dans un monde connecté et continuez à travailler avec vos partenaires, où que vous soyez, dans les espaces E-GLOBALNETWORK World News Center, FranceWeb, Association francophone des utilisateurs du Web, Yahoo 360°-Le Blog de FranceWeb,e-GlobalNetwork, FORUM E-GLOBAL, MyNewsCenter,WorldNewsNetwork, Stefan Raducanu, La Clé du Bonheur, How To Be Happy, Portail Famille d'Entreprises, FranceWeb Association Poissy,Stefan Raducanu Web Collection, Stefan Raducanu Web Gallery, La Scala, Restaurant italien à Poissy, Avocats Cujas, Useful Links This page lists our permanent and old partners! We are fully confident of their services and highly recommend them. Please take the time to patronize our partners and visit their websites as well. Providing content from the world's most authoritative publishers, the tools to search every bit of it with speed and precision, and the added value afforded by excellent service to our customers. We are a company founded on the idea that information matters—that it really can make a difference in the world—or your corner of it.
BOBEX, Paris Europlace, Eurotechnopolis Institut, Guy Cloutier, Partenariat France, Viaduc, PAVILLON HENRI IV SAINT GERMAIN-EN-LAYE HOTEL LUXE, 7 International, PSA PEUGEOT CITROEN, SOCIETE D'AVOCATS DU MANOIR DE JUAYE, FEDERATION DES PROFESSIONNELS DE L'INTELLIGENCE ECONOMIQUE, Trans World Search, BEIC, MEDEF, MEDEF Paris, Sergio Bello, Google, Netik, Giacomo de Pass, Sergio Bello, BATITHERMIC, 1st-affiliation.com, Agent&Co, Accentiv, Hi-Mind, Power Electronics, IFIE,Pavillon des Ibis, Patrick Chatelain, Oknos Quartet, Gestavision, Ekko Consulting, PREM group, Holliday Inn GENT-EXPO, Newsweb, Boursorama, SCIP, AFP Service français, OAG, Our Mission : Building Global Communication Networks. The World is our Workplace. Let's work togheter.
Very Useful Links SOHO Resources | AmEx Small Biz Exchange | BPlans.com | Business Forms | Business Toolkit | EntreWorld | Government Resources | SBA | Small Business State Profiles | Yahoo Small Business | IRS Small Business | Tax Checklist | MSN Investor | Morningstar | Motley Fool | The Street | Silicon Investor | Raging Bull | Superstar Investor | Whisper Numbers | Financial Data Finder | FinWeb | IOMA Business Directory | Research Links | Area Code Finder | Switchboard | Int'l Dialing Codes | 800 Directory | Yellow Pages | Zip Code Finder (Business) | Nielsen Ratings | Market Access Database | Code of Federal Regulations | State Code & Cases | Tax Code | U.S. Code How do you organize your email?  |
Not a GTD Disciple? Don’t Worry About It
19:19 Publié dans WebWorkerDaily | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Envoyer cette note | Tags : not a gtd disciple? don’t worry about it, franceweb e-globalnetwork, stefan raducanu
