Productivity Tips 2.0
Posted in Blog, Communication, Forum, GTD, System, Web 2.0 |
While I wait for dinner to cook (roast chicken, yum!), I thought I’d catch up on what’s been happening in the GTD-o-sphere. Behold, a group writing excercise on your number one productivity tip from Instigator Blog. Now this looks interesting!
Write a post on your best productivity tips. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more if you want!)
It looks like I am a little late to the game (sorry, work has been busy yet strangely unproductive), as I have found a few others who have already jumped on the tag-wagon. GTD Wannabe and Ian of the Messy Desk are already on the case. Leo at Zen Habits has already been tagged, but since he’s just getting up he may not have had time to post on it yet.
My number one tip is easy: Keep your appointments, especially with yourself! I have found that using my Tickler File and Weekly Review really keep me one track. Since I have started practicing Getting Things Done these two tools were the hardest to get in the habit of using. But that is the key,to make it a habit. Once you get in the habit of keeping appointments with yourself, you will have much more trust in your system, and it will become invisible. And when your system is invisible, it will be able to work on autopilot and you can get things done without any stress. I check my Tickler every morning, and because I know that I will not miss anything I am not afraid to put anything in there. Likewise the Weekly Review - that appointment is inviolate, and allows me to keep track of where I am going, to stay on course.
Now it’s my turn to tag:
Ellesse at Goal Setting College
Let’s see where it goes… Have fun!!
UPDATE:
Here are some of the folks who have joined in, it has been running a while now and the Instigator has compiled over 100 submissions. I can’t wait for the e-book!
- Challenge Your Brain for Productivity - 5 MITA Steps by Robyn McMaster
- My Ultimate Productivity Tip: Unplug! by Hugh Hollowell
- 10 Ways Communicators Can Stay Productive by Nonprofit Communications
- One Is A Productive Number by Carolyn Manning
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity: To-Do Lists by Tonya
- The art of getting things done by Vernon Lun
- The Greatest Productivity Secret Of Them All by Roger Carr
- Productivity Tips for Writers by Yvonne Russell
- A Housewife on Steroids by GP
- Single Best Productivity Tip by Susan Sabo
- How To Organize Your Desktop to Boost Productivity by Anthony
- Productivity Group Writing Project by Vickie Turley
- What’s Your Greatest Productivity Secret? by World Wanting Peace
- Get More by Doing Nothing by Lyman Reed
- Productivity Group Writing Project by Karen Del’Marmol
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity by Jeff Simon
- Ultimate Guide to Productivity: My Tip by Gillian Hood-Gabrielson
- What is my secret to being productive? by Sunny Days
- What’s my top productivity tip? by Tracey Lawton
- The Greatest Productivity Tip in the World by Alex Brie
Ben says, “Feel free to contribute your own productivity tips, even if you weren’t tagged by someone to do so. You can start a new thread of this group writing project meme and share it with others.” So jump in!


















May 14th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
[…] morning while scanning my mails, I saw this note from Stephen Smith of HDBizblog that I’ve been tagged in a meme started by Instigator blog, to write about my best […]
May 16th, 2007 at 5:05 am
[…] HD Bizblog: Keep your appointments, especially with yourself. […]
May 17th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[…] Productivity Tips 2.0 by Stephen […]
May 24th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
[…] Productivity Tips 2.0 by Stephen […]
June 4th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Thanks for the linkage, Stephen! There sure are some great posts included in this. And I love yours - it’s something I’m always working on. Appointments with others isn’t a problem, but since there’s no (immediate) accountability when it comes to myself, it’s just too easy to say “Aww… I’ll do it another time.”
June 4th, 2007 at 9:44 am
@ Lyman - Like asking for help, it is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself! Trust your system.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:54 am
[…] have offered this tip before, but setting an appointment with yourself is a great way to make sure that some of the […]
August 19th, 2007 at 1:48 am
[…] your appointments. Keeping your appointments saves rescheduling time for all parties involved. Meetings also partition your day, and the time in […]