Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with productivity

I need a sense of urgency.

Kiwi — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:57:00 -0800

Like most people, I work much more efficiently when there is a looming deadline to focus my mind. Has anyone found a way to 'trick' their minds into thinking a deadline is more imminent than it is, to increase productivity?

As a productivity coach how can I best serve information workers.

jeffreyclong — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:14:53 -0800

As a productivity coach how can I best serve information workers. I have discovered that after years of reading and implementing the systems and tools of Getting Things Done, Lifehacker.com and other productivity resources I have become a marketable professional resource to information workers. I have successfully coached for free 2 people in a high stress major software company in order to gain experience. I am now looking to understand their work environment better and hone my skills. I imagine there are many information workers on metafilter so I'm hoping you can help me out.

1. What are the specific difficulties that hinder you from being as successful at your work as you would like to be.

2. If you were going to work with a coach, what would be the best means to communicate in a manner that would not interfere with your work. My sole means of communicating so far has been email. But I am finding that my clients only fit me in, rather then having me be on their calendar. I've wondered about a 10-15 minute phone call twice a week with followup emails that review the conversation and contain action steps. What do you think?

3. What have been your most successful collaboration tools. One client's work email is and meetings are such high volume due to her involvement with multiple projects that she has little time to actually work. I suggested that groupware like a wiki, or backpackit.com or other 37signals webapps would significantly improve her team's productivity and slow down the flow of email. What similar tools have you used successfully. Can you recommend PC server-client software (I use a mac) for this purpose or webapps that are secure enough for a company that needs to protect its information.

4. If you would be willing to pay for such expertise, what would you or your company be willing to pay? What would be the return on investment that you would expect?

Thanks for any help you may provide.

Recommendations for digital voice recorders.

TheOtherGuy — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:02:11 -0800

Looking for a dictaphone/digital voice recorder. Your personal recommendations please! I am in the market for a dictaphone as part of my universal capture routine. I would be using it mainly for notes-to-self and capturing ideas when they pop into my head; but would also like the option to record the occasional meeting or lecture.

Here are a few criteria:

- a dedicated tapeless digital voice recorder: i am not really interested in mp3 players or cellphones that also have voice recording capability.

- Reasonable sound quality in both recording and playback: Just as long as I can easily understand what is being said is cool.

- Compatible with Mac (and Ubuntu linux would be a bonus!) My understanding is that some recorders use WMA format which can be a bit fiddly on these systems, but is certainly not a deal breaker.

- Good file management. USB accessible, preferably without the need for proprietary software to get to it. Are time and date-coded audio files possible? I have also seen a couple that allow for splitting and merging of audio files. That would be great, as I think I would prefer to have a single file of a days brainstorming rather than a bunch of small 5 second clips.

- Price range: Somewhere in the ball park of £50 ($80 USD) or less.

In a nutshell: a digital voice recorder that works with a minimum of faffing about.

I have also looked at a couple of previous threads - but they seem a little more focused on high-end recorders for podcasting and creative media. This thread recommended the Olympus VN-960 PC, but in a different context to how I would be using it. But from what I can gather, Olympus seem to be the brand to beat. The other threads I have seen may be a little out of date

I have looked at a few different models but am really keen to hear personal recommendations from users.

I'd also love to hear about how people have integrated a dictaphone into their lives. How else have you found it helpful and how do you like to organise the files that you produce?

Thanks!

Help me get out from under all these piles of to-do lists!

lunasol — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:52:37 -0800

I'm looking for a productivity app that can help me manage both my projects and my time. I use google for email and calendars (my employer uses google apps, plus I have a personal gmail account). I use two computers, both of which are PCs, and an iPhone.

I have a job where I have up to 10 different projects going on at any given time, all with varying timelines and complexity, and many involving other people. My current system of making to-do lists of the things that have to get done today is really not going to cut it anymore.

Here's what I'm looking for in a productivity app:

- Something that can sync across all the platforms I use on a daily basis (iPhone, gmail/google calendars, PCs)

- The functionality to easily take big projects and break them into smaller tasks. For instance, if the project is "Go grocery shopping with Susan," I could break it up into: "ask Susan what time works best for her," "make a meal plan for the week with needed ingredients," "Check pantry to see what I already have," "make shopping list," "go shopping."

- The ability to give these tasks a deadline and/or schedule, and then integrate them into my calendar. So if something needs to be done at a specific time, it automatically goes on the calendar at that time. Bonus points if I can easily take a day's to-do list and slot the tasks into empty spots in my calendar (drag and drop, maybe?)

I'm willing to pay a bit for such a program if necessary. Also, I'm already mucking around with Remember the Milk and Evernote - both of these are appealing, but don't have the ability to easily break projects into tasks and neither integrates the way I'd like with calendars. Although I'm new to both, so let me know if there's something I'm missing!

Improving Personal Productivity in a Modern, Short-Attention Span Age

Dukat — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:04:36 -0800

Why do I feel compelled to seek distractions while working, and what can I do to stop it? Time management/personal productivity filter. Senior college student with very good grades.

Even though I like what I'm working on (most of the time), I have to stop a constant compulsion to seek distractions--fiddle with something else, check my e-mail, etc., even if I KNOW I don't need to fiddle with something, or that I have ABSOLUTELY NO MESSAGES and simply need to do the work. I've read a couple of time-management books (the "get it done" method seems to be working well), and I've done very well in college so far, but I know I'd simply have more *actual quality free time* if I buckled down and did the work rather than sought distractions all the time.

So:
(1) Why do I want to seek these distractions?
(2) What can I do to stop it?
(3) How can I work more efficiently? And learn how to value the 40 minutes of quality free time when I'm finished with the work over the 8 crappy, low-quality, 5-minute e-mail "breaks" I might take?
(4) Also, some of my projects (papers and presentations) require work with a computer, and that makes it difficult not to check the Internet. Not looking for blocking programs so much as an internal tool. I've actually considered doing more "paper/essay" work by hand, even though that's slower, because I wonder if I get less distracted and actually get it done faster relative to the computer/Internet distracting me. Ideally, I'd be able to work like a machine on the computer, and save a lot of time without being distracted.

Know there are a ton of threads on this, and have searched through them without much help--but welcome suggestions and thread recommendations anyway.

Help me move around without arrow keys!

phaedrus441 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:54:51 -0800

How can I rebind the arrow keys to some other sequence (eg left becomes control-j, right becomes control-k, etc) so that I can quickly navigate around documents that I'm editing without needing to move my hand over to the arrow keys? I regulary use OS X and Windows versions off Word, as well as google docs. Bonus points if someone knows a portable way to do this so I can use computers at the lab.

Looking for a particular website

Senator — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:40:13 -0800

My PC crashed with all my bookmarks (bad me), and I can't remember a certain websites address nor can I find it on google. It was similar to this but showed apps that were designed to keep you more productive. People could comment below, and I found it very useful. I remember it had a brown logo at the top. I am sure some of my fellow metafites probably visit it. Shot in the dark.

Does taking breaks for ergonomics hurt flow?

defben — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:16:12 -0800

Doesn't taking breaks for ergonomic reasons hurt "flow"? I've recently been having tendinitis issues at work (I'm in the IT field). I've bought an ergonomic keyboard, started correcting bad habits and I also installed Workrave; a small program that "forces" me to take the occasional break.

I've begun to wonder if these breaks are hurting my overall productivity. Specifically with regard to the psychological concept of "flow". Am I wrong or is this just something I have to deal with?

Why Should You Use Social Networking at Work?

Jaybo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:06:47 -0800

Many workplaces ban social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and so on. What are some of the reasons workplaces should allow (and even encourage) staff to use social networking sites? I'm particularly interested in the case you would make to someone in the healthcare field but examples that are applicable to other areas, especially those that may ban social networking site for privacy or productivity reasons, are welcome as well.

Can you help me figure out a hybrid paper/electronic system with an iphone or something completely different?

Not Supplied — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:52:50 -0800

I just need a 'Getting Things Done' system that works. Can you help me figure out a hybrid paper/electronic system with an iphone or something completely different? I really want to implement the getting things done system, but having a hard time finding a system that works.

I thought I needed an electronic system. I find it hard to lay out a project in sequential order on paper so using a system that allows subprojects where I can shift things around to my hearts content seems right. I enjoyed using omnifocus on a mac.

Partly on the strength of that I got an shared iphone contract with someone. However, I hate using omnifocus on the iphone its fiddly and rsi inducing...and I don't own a mac to do the main work on there. The iphone is good for occasional email and internet on the move but I don't like using it much.

Also stuff doesn't integrate that well...omnifocus can't do alarms for tasks when I need them or integrate with the calendar etc.

I'm quite attracted to the hipster pda idea where you use index cards etc to make a paper based organiser. I like the idea of capturing ideas on paper with mind maps etc. However I find it hard to see how I won't be endlessly rewriting lists...no way of rearranging projects and subtasks. Also for phone book, diary etc you can't really beat a pda.

I know it's a bit vague, but I'm basically saying 'help' I've been looking on the net for ages and just can't visualise something that would work for me...so has anyone got any ideas that might work out better. I could use my iphone or could look at trading in for something else..really need to get organised!

Then I can cross finding this off my list.

lucyleaf — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:17:31 -0800

Help me find the website/youtube vids of this handwritten to-do list methodology, please! I can't remember it and can't find it in my saved links. The name of the website/methodology doesn't have "lists" in the name, and I think that's what's keeping it just out of my sight.

The general idea behind it is keeping a notebook dedicated just to written to-do's. You scan over all your to-do's and do only what appeals at the moment. You cross off what gets done and keep adding to your list. There isn't really discussion of breaking down tasks, listing projects vs next actions, etc. Very simple stuff. I remember there being a youtube video interview with the guy who came up with this. A white guy in his 50s (maybe?) who had a British accent (I think?).

This sounded *genius* to me at the time. I've forgotten about it and recently thought about it again. I spent the weekend looking for it on my home laptop with no luck.

(Ahem, I just realized that all the effort going into finding the website, rather than just doing the methodology, is a form of procrastination. But still...)

I ran across it in March, and it may have been linked from someone's blog. I've searched through my links and through productivity blogs I frequent and haven't had much luck. Ring a bell for anyone?

Help me help him find some software!

Aleen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:37:13 -0800

What are the best Windows programs dedicated to making to-do lists? The CEO of my company is looking for software to help him keep track of his ever-growing list of things to accomplish. If he had a Mac, I would recommend OmniFocus, The Hit List, or Things. Which Windows equivalents of these programs do you recommend and why? While I won't say that web-based solutions are out, they are not preferred.

Google brings back odd results and past MeFi questions don't really help.

Thank you!

Transitioning from Mac to PC: Is there an expose-like feature? Your tips for coping with the transition?

NikitaNikita — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:00:29 -0800

Transitioning from Mac to PC: Is there an expose-like feature? Your tips for coping with the transition? There are a lot of Mac-specific (i think?) functions which greatly enhanced my ability to navigate through open windows and navigate my folders and desktop... namely, Expose. Any tricks to make my life easier at work now that I am on a PC? I'm even missing my mac shortcuts for locking my computer/turning it to screen saver with a macro or mouse movement.

I found a few good ones in this thread, like Windows+D, but any other tips would be helpful. I also use Outlook a lot if you've got tips related to that.

Thanks!

MS Project like to-do list

Muffy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:09:43 -0800

todolist filter: I know there are dozens of questions here about to-do lists already, but, alas, none of them fit my requirements. I really like MS Project - it's hierarchical (tasks can nest), and can enforce due dates, but it's too heavy handed for what I need & old tasks don't disappear. I need something like MS Project, but simpler... Things I like about MS Project.

* You can easily add/edit task names without opening a new window - everything is editable in the cell a-la MS Excel.
* You can easily manage due dates without opening a new window - same as above.
* Tasks can be nested & the top nest becomes the "folder" that contains the sub-tasks & the interface for nesting is very simple.
* Nested tasks can be collapsed easily
* Tasks can have predecessors & don't really become 'to do' items until the predecessor is complete - this is a nice to have, but not necessary.
* You can assign people/resources to tasks - again a nice to have, but not necessary, I can just use (parens) to indicate in the title.
* I don't need GANTT charts, but they're a nice to have.

Things I don't like about MS Project (for this use).

* You can't simply 'checkbox' select a task as complete.
* Tasks don't disappear when they're completed, so it's not a good way to track day-to-day tasks.
* You can't easily sort tasks by due date & priority or hide the tree.

Task Coach gets about 80% of the way there, but the interface is a dealbreaker for me. I've also tried Swift To Do Lite, which is in some ways even better, but the inability to nest (though there is a sort of tree structure in the left pane), and the inability to see all tasks related to a project regardless of subfolder is an issue. Web Based (not preferred, but acceptable) TaDalist lacks due dates. Tasks Jr. is very good and I used it for a while & may go back to it, but being web (and non AJAX) it each task addition is a new screen, but there were some other issues I had with it that I didn't like (but don't right now remember).

Is there anything out there that does what I want? Free is better, but I'll pay for something that checks all the boxes.

Keeping the writing momentum in short nuggets of time.

stefnet — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:25:44 -0800

Simple enough: I have a lot of writing to do (finishing my master's thesis - research is done, just have to finish the writing) and we have an 8 month old baby. In the pre-baby past, I used to spend a long time working my way up to getting a big chunk of work done, but now I need to be able to jump in quickly and get writing in the few hours I have each day between her bedtime and mine. What are your best tips for picking up the threads each day to get the writing done? Also, every so often, I try to get some extended time in when my mom visits and babysits, so there's that. And I also recommend finishing one's thesis prior to babies arriving, for any grad students that might be reading, FYI.

This stuff really needs to start working together

Breav — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:48:56 -0800

How can I use a pda, a netbook, and a desktop computer in an integrated way that keeps me more organized and productive? My hardware/software collection is based on a bunch of unrelated blog posts. Each is pretty good in its own right, but together they don't represent any type of integrated system. Can you help?

I primarily use a Windows desktop computer for my work. I don't anticipate changing that anytime soon. It runs, among other things, the Palm desktop application I use for contacts and calendar. I've never been a big fan of the Palm's task management capabilities. I leave the machine running most of the time and have found that if the Palm app is open and the system restarts for any reason I lose all of the data I have entered in that session-- extremely frustrating. I use Thunderbird to manage my personal and business email. The personal address will be going away at the end of this week and replaced by gmail.

Additionally, I recently purchased a netbook running compatible business software and Firefox for web browsing. While impractical for everyday use, it's fantastic for working offsite with clients or in other locations. I generally pack up the files I need from the desktop onto a flash drive before I head out.

My handheld device is a Palm TX, which travels with me infrequently. Right now the battery is dead and it hasn't been sync'd in at least three weeks. I've used it once or twice for the internet, but never really liked the interface. In short, I wish I liked that PDA better than I do.

I have a separate cellphone that is not smart. I have no interest in a data plan with my carrier and my current phone seems to meet my needs. No iphone for me. I have an ipod nano. It's cool, it's pink, and I like it.

That totals a giant pile of unconnected hardware that doesn't make me very productive.

I'd like to achieve a hardware/software solution that would provide me with a calendar, todo, and contacts I could access and synchronize between the desktop, netbook, and handheld device. I'm thinking about "collapsing" the ipod and Palm into the Ipod Touch, but have read mixed things about the Touch's PDA capabilities. I also don't know how well it synchronizes with a Windows based machine.

Gcal is a good idea, but I am concerned about not having access to my calendar when I have no internet connection. It would be very cool if I can receive meeting invitations via email and they would drop into my calendar a la Outlook, but not Outlook. I also need a way to track hours I spend working on various client projects. I have jotted notes in my Palm calendar, only to have them disappear when Windows restarted.

I have a small hardware and software budget if there is something additional I need to make this all work. Any ideas?

Too much time, too much to do.

SNWidget — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:54:40 -0800

TemporalFilterRedux: I've got about two weeks (starting today) before my graduate classes kick back up. I have a bunch of things I need to take care of between now and then, in no particular order. I've always had a problem with time management (as previous questions of mine demonstrate), so I'm looking for advice on how to deal with this two week block, and how to make sure that I get everything, and don't just sit around, watching TV. There are errands, things around the house, and prep for school that all needs to get done. Unfortunately, I work best on a schedule that is imposed by others - whenever I make my own deadlines, I feel no problem just breaking them.

I'm looking for general advice on how to parse up this amorphous blob of time and get my things done - if my track record is any indication, I'll come up with grand plans and lists, and then never quite figure out an order, so I'll sit around and play "Turtles in Time" on my SNES emulator.

Some example things I need to take care of: deposit checks, clean kitchen, pick up something at the mall (20 minutes away), book a hotel for next weekend, go up to campus (30 minutes away), spend a few hours there doing a menial task for my instrument (making reeds), call my bank, etc etc.

I have (most) of these things out of my head. I just can't organize them into a way I feel that is "most efficient," so I just don't do any of them. My brain works in very screwed up and mysterious ways sometimes.

I've been working on time management issues I posed in a previous question, but this is different for me - it's the combination of having a bunch of little (and some big) things to do, but without any sort of constraints on them.

Any advice on how to deal with this? The reason that this is pressing is not so much that everything I need to do in the next few weeks is mission critical, but that I'll be starting my masters thesis in the fall, and that is sort of the definition of a large project with lots of steps over an amorphous period of time. And I'd like to have this worked on by then...

Thanks in advance, HiveMind.

Blogs that do for my GPA what Get Rich Slowly did for my credit score

lizzicide — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:18:47 -0800

Can anyone point me in the direction of blogs about succeeding in college and grad school? Bonus points if they're geared towards professionals working 40+ hours a week, instead of coaching teenagers through the nuances of dorm life. What I'd like to have is a selection of blogs to pump up my RSS reader and help encourage, motivate, and direct me in my studies while reminding me that there ARE people out there taking harder courses and working longer hours, since...well...I can get discouraged. Advice, insight, tips are all welcome, and bonus points if someone can finally make GTD make sense to me. I’ve had great success in the past using personal finance blogs like Get Rich Slowly to motivate and educate myself about paying down debt and building up savings, and I'm hoping some decent productivity blogs geared towards college students will help me here.

Background on me: I'm a 21-year-old student enrolled in UMass Lowell's online BS in IT/Business Minor program, having completed about 60 of the 120 required credits. My company offers $10k a year in tuition reimbursement through undergrad and grad school, and $15k a year for doctorate courses, so the motivation is definitely there to take advantage of this benefit. This semester, I'll be taking five courses (15 credits) while working 40 hours a week -- 8 of these hours in an IT internship within my company. I'll definitely be busy and I'll definitely need the encouragement.

New Laptop = what to add?

raisingsand — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:16:46 -0800

What must-have programs do you use on your laptop for work? And travel? I took the advice of the green and bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad, it will be delivered this week. I'll use it mostly for work, having just taken a new job that involves about 80% travel. Uses include email, note-taking during meetings, project management tools, and entertainment during the long nights in hotel rooms and waiting in airports. I have MS Office already installed. I'll be adding these immediately:

Firefox and Thunderbird
AVG and ZoneAlarm and Winpatrol
Spybot, Ccleaner, Malwarebytes, and SuperAntiSpyware

What are your must-have programs? Would prefer free, but will pay for something that I can't live without. I've read previous posts, but want an updated list that focuses primarily on business apps.

Measuring improvement in ADHD symptoms

[user was fined for this post] — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:52:13 -0800

I have begun treatment for adult ADHD. What things can I do during the next several weeks to objectively measure my progress? I've started taking Strattera, which often takes up to six weeks after reaching one's target dose to see significant results. My doctor suggested keeping a daily journal in which I record how I feel about my focus, concentration, forgetfulness and so forth.

I am doing this, but I feel the need for some strategies to measure my progress in a quantifiable way, if such a thing is even feasible. Since my attention frequently wanders, I can track discrete events like "remembered to take the trash out this week" but have trouble keeping track of things like "worked for 30 minutes without fidgeting or getting up from desk."

Any and all suggestions are welcome. The other ADHD threads have some great ideas, but they seem focus on tips for dealing with symptoms rather than measuring the effects of those symptoms on a daily basis.

Possibly relevant details:

- I'm 30 years old
- I've had the usual ADHD symptoms my entire life but have never been treated before now
- I work from home at a job done entirely by computer
- My primary goal right now is to finish my CS degree when I return to school this fall (I dropped out due to my inability to study effectively)
- I use a Windows PC, if there are software recommendations
- My wife is willing to assist with any strategies that work better with the aid of another person

Thanks in advance!

Looking for an iPhone GTD app, with a small twist

edmz — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:03:13 -0800

Help me find a todo app (preferably a GTD one) for the iPhone that meets my very particular(?) needs. First of all, maybe there are websites that already have this functionality but I don't have a data plan for the iPhone and I can't get one since they are too expensive in my country.

Now, I currently use the Things app for the iPhone, but it lacks the 3 things that I need the most:

* timestamps: I would like to know when I added a task
* completion notes: I would like to type a note when closing a task, so that I can tell what I did to accomplish it
* optionally, a better log: I would like to add events to the log, thus adding more context to the tasks i just finished.

See, sometimes I use Things to track stuff I lend or borrow. For example, if I add a task saying that I need to give Peter a book back. Things will only allow me to mark that task as done.

What I would like is for an App to be able to show me when I added a specific task. Also, when I finish a task I should be able to type "I gave Peter the book back when we met for coffee". Optionally, I should be able to add an entry to the task log saying "I spent 10 dollars in the coffee shop".

I have tried ToodleDo, Task Pro and Todo, and none of these apps, which are the most popular, seem to fit the bill.

Do you have any recommendations?

Black-Belt licensing wizardry

mathiu — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:18:21 -0800

Is there any restrictions on advertising consulting services using the term "six sigma". Do I have to be certified or pay licensing fees before offering consulting services on the topic? I know of the various institutions offering classes but don't know if going through any of these is cumpolsory before starting to use "six sigma" in advertising one's product to others.

YANML but you might know how this industry is set up. I am in Germany but information must not be limited to my home country.

Working with Kids

Static Vagabond — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:12:20 -0800

I've been asked to look after two work experience kids (young teens) for the coming two weeks to experience and learn what I.T. is all about. What tasks can I give them that will educate and enlighten them while not killing my productivity? I get one per week, so I can repeat tasks for the second one if need be, the important thing for me is they get something out of the experience.

I can't really let them play in the sandpit that is my usual day to day work, as it's mostly dealing with custom systems and touches a lot of confidential information.

Rock meet hard place.

I want to make that time spent as useful for them as possible, and would ideally focus on tasks that are fairly easy to set in motion, then backing off while they explore/complete that task. Then getting involved again at the end to review/problem solve.

So what tasks can you suggest I could give a total newcomer to I.T that helps demonstrate the work of a techy?

I've thought of:

- Reformatting/installing machines. (easy and time-consuming)
- Getting them to install a backup solution on the above, then ripping out the hard drive (as a hardware failure example) and asking them to recover the computer/certain files.
- Software support for the main office workers (word, excel etc) if they're savvy, but I think they're just in the 'hmm.. I.T. might be interesting' stage and we don't generally run into problems with Office.
- Teach them how to make a network cable.
- If I can find a few machines to format, get them to create a little test network, with file-sharing, cross backups etc.
- Create some posters/adverts for the stores (not really I.T...)
- Create a webpage (in Dreamweaver or something WYSIWYG) for some part of our company site, even if it's never published.

Let those ideas flow!

How to be productive all day?

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:35:20 -0800

How do I become the kind of person who can be productive all day? This is kind of a question about stamina, kind of a question about motivation, and a little bit of a question about self-esteem.

I have this vision of how I want to behave, and in that vision I am up early in the morning and go-go-going (with reasonable breaks) all day long, getting things done. In this vision, I get enough done that, ultimately, everything I want works out. My activity level, in this vision, is not insanely high--all I imagine is 8 or so hours a day of solid work, which I think is enough to get amazing things done if managed well.

In reality, I have a really hard time go-go-going for more than an hour or two a day, and sometimes there are streaks of days where even that is a challenge. I am currently unemployed (deliberately at first, but these days I'm looking), but even back when I had a job I was like this. I always had the kind of jobs where, if you were efficient, you could easily do two or three hours of work a day and still get more than enough done. Since I am not working right now, it seems even more absurd to me that I'm not filling my days by getting good things done--and I do have things to fill my day, but I won't list specific tasks in order to preserve anonymity. I don't think it's that pertinent, anyway--just assume a combination of light physical things and mental things, with a dash of the artistic.

I do have streaks of high productivity, but it tends to taper off after a month, and one of the reasons I have a hard time getting started again is often "well, in a month I'm just going to fail again anyway." Other reasons include things like low energy and self-doubt, but those two vary a lot, while my low productivity doesn't vary half as much. I sometimes suspect that if I could just get over this idea that it's pointless to pound away at trying to be solidly productive again, I'd be better off. I have developed a deep skepticism for anything that smacks of a "plan" to get myself together more, but at the same time: Where else do you start?

What I truly want is to hear from people who have gone from the state I describe myself as being in to the state in my vision, where you get a lot done. How did you do it? What changed? My biggest question is probably whether it is possible to change; my brain tells me it is, but my emotions are not at all convinced.

However, I'd also love advice from anybody who happens to naturally be the kind of person I describe--someone who doesn't just show up for work, but who works, solidly, for more than five or six hours a day, and gets good work done. What do you think makes you able to do that? If you found yourself in the state in which I describe myself, where you're just not able to sustain effort, what would you do to correct it?

I don't necessarily want health tips, unless you're someone who has gone from one state to the other as a direct result of changes in health. Drink more water? Eat less sugar? Exercise? Get my thyroid tested? Sleep well? Gotcha, thanks. For some of those, managing to get going in the first place is key, anyway, and in my experience even when I have all of those things managed, I still struggle.

Do you like Things?

hapax_legomenon — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:24:39 -0800

[ProductivitySoftwareFilter]: I'm thinking about using Things both on my computer and iPhone. If you've used it I'd be interested in hearing the good, the bad and the ugly about your experiences. Help me decide if I should shell out 60 bucks or not. Thanks.