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I originally posted this article back in July of 2007 (which was the last time I got the flu), and since I was down for three days again this week, I thought I’d re-post it as a reminder:

“How to bring your system back online when an unexpected incident occurs.”

1. Start with an Overview

Pause before you begin your day to take a look at your most recent Weekly Review notes. Catch up on where you were the last time you gave your Actions and Projects a review. This will “re-boot” your mind and create a fresh starting point for the coming week.

2. Review Your Hard Landscape

Scan your Calendar, Waiting For, and Next Actions lists. Check your capture notebook, and Collect everything that may have been by-passed or delayed during your illness. This will ensure that anything you might have had planned gets re-scheduled if you missed it. Some time-specific events or notes may no longer be valid, and perhaps a deadline has passed and the Next Action is no longer appropriate. On the other hand, a Next Action or Waiting For that was not pressing may now need to be moved up on your list of priorities - becoming a Most Important Task for today.

3. Make Notes for the Next Weekly Review

When your schedule gets off-track, because of an illness or an emergency situation, it is important to plan for your next review of Next Actions and Projects. Make an appointment with yourself to get back into your routine. I would recommend blocking out some extra time for this particular Weekly Review. Use the extra time for extra brainstorming and/or creative thinking about where you are and where you want to be. This forward-looking activity can give you a jump-start into the following week. This is a powerful method of motivation, providing inspiration for future goals rather than prolonging the feeling of “playing catch-up”.

Bonus Tip: Ask for Help

Letting things go due to unforeseen circumstances creates feelings of frustration and anxiety. Remember that (in most cases) you can ask someone for assistance. You have friends, associates, family, and co-workers that you can likely go to for some assistance in completing tasks that need to get done. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of having a mature perspective. Asking for assistance can be one of the greatest gifts that you can give yourself.

Now I get to take my own advice! I have a meeting this morning, that I am ready for because of the Overview. When I get back I will be able to address the rest of my MITs for the day and get some things done.

I do need your help with one thing: One of my goals for this month is to increase the number of subscribers. We are not quite there. Please subscribe by clicking this link, and you will be able to download a free copy of my new E-book Project Planning in Context. Thanks for your help!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5o3llw. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Today’s guest post is from Mike St. Pierre of The Daily Saint.

Last night my wife and I were going for a drive- a great GTD moment ensued:

“Can you remind me next Monday at 6 o’clock about our appointment? ”

“I’ll remember if you write it down for me.  I don’t have my Palm with me so I’ll bet that we’ll forget.” 

“Well at least we’ll both be forgetting at the same time!”

Do two forgets make a remember?  You know, do they cancel one another out so that we remember next Monday at 6 o’clock?

One of the great things about GTD is the constant emphasis on capturing key information so that there are less open loops and more Monday appointments at 6 o’clock remembered.  With all of the talk about the Moleskine notebook, the many Palm devices that are available and plain old pen and paper, there are more ways to capture than ever before.

When we got to the supermarket, I asked the pharmacist for a scratch piece of paper and I scrolled in big, bold letters, “MONDAY, 6PM.  CARY APPOINTMENT.”  The gal behind the desk probably thought I was nuts, but who cares?  Information captured, mission accomplished.

Quote for the Road

“Tell me, I forget, show me, I remember, Involve me, I understand.”
Carl Orff

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6aqv3u. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Happy Tuesday, readers! I am really sick today, so Joshua Clanton has stepped up to provide a guest post for your reading pleasure. Quick tip, grab your notebook before you start reading, there are three great tips here!

Photo from hanssolo

When most people talk about productivity, they speak of lists and priorities and contexts, but I’ve rarely heard anyone mention the possibilities of drawing. “Drawing?” you might be thinking, “I’ve got serious work to do here.” I completely understand. It seems like everyone is always rushing from one task to the next, and no one wants to waste time on something frivolous. But taking the time to draw (or learn to draw) on a regular basis actually has some pretty concrete benefits. Besides the cultural and recreational side of things, here are three ways that drawing can help you become more productive.

1. Think viscerally

Because drawing well is dependent on a million tiny choices — What angle should I use here? How dark should it be? Should I leave that line or erase it? — it will quickly teach you to think viscerally. Or as Malcolm Gladwell puts it, it will teach you to think without thinking.

How does this help? Well, think about it this way. Isn’t each and every day also made up of a million tiny choices — Do this task now or later? What’s most important here? What materials do I need for this project? — choices that if made well may ultimately add up to something beautiful? By learning to think viscerally on a small scale, and seeing the results quickly, we can learn to make these split-second decisions even on the larger canvas of our day, our week, or our life.

2. See potential in the undeveloped

Closely related to thinking viscerally is the ability to see potential in the undeveloped. When you start a drawing, you first have a blank piece of paper, then you have a piece of paper with a few lines on it, then a few more lines, and so on. At each point along the way you need to be able to see more than just what is there already — you have to see what could be.

This too is a skill with practical value in our daily lives. If we just go through the process of completing one task, then the next, then the next, we aren’t necessarily getting any closer to our ultimate goals. We need to learn a sort of double vision so that we can see both what is, and what we really want that could be. It is holding things in this double vision that gives us a basis for deciding what is worth pursuing.

3. Increase focus

Drawing also demands attention and focus. When I first started to draw, I had difficulty concentrating on the work for more than a couple of minutes at a time. But with practice I was able to increase my focus bit by bit, till now if I get really interested in a particular drawing, I might work on it for hours at a time. And I know that the focus I gained in drawing didn’t just remain limited to that area. As my ability to focus while drawing grew, so did my ability to focus on other things.

The ability to focus on a single task for a long period of time is one of the most important skills that we can develop for productivity. Having focus means that we can get things done much more effectively than we could otherwise. Fortunately, focus is transferrable from one area to another. It’s all a matter of training.

How to get started

So, let’s say I’ve convinced you that taking the time to draw would be a productive use of your time. How would you get started? You just need three or four thingss…

1. Pen or pencil (I recommend pencil for those without much background in drawing)
2. A good notebook (If you’re reading this blog you probably already have one)
3. Something to draw (While you can draw from mental images, I find it is most helpful to have your subject in front of you)
4. Instructional materials if you think you need help (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a good place to start)

What do you think? Has drawing helped you become more productive? Any points I missed? Leave a comment and let me know!

Joshua Clanton is a freelance web designer who blogs about productivity, creativity, and web design. If you liked this post, you might also appreciate 6 Web Design Tips from Leonardo Da Vinci.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/2ujhof. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

My wife and I visited Boston this past weekend, she was working a Bridal Show at the Bayside Expo Center on Saturday and Sunday. Since I am not in that biz any longer, I took a ride on the subway Saturday afternoon to pay a visit to one of my favorite places: Levenger.

I just love this store. I have been a fan of the Circa method of notebook binding for several years now, and I was very excited to visit the store in person and make a sample notebook. That’s right, if you go into the store, you can make a sample notebook with different page types, divider tabs, etc. As they say in Boston, “Wicked cool!”

There is a station set up for this right in the store:

Click the pic to see it larger

I made a letter-sized notebook with 5 divider tabs for my new Project notebook. I am currently using a 5.5 x 8.5 sized Circa-bound notebook for Project notes and planning, but the pages are just too small. I need more room for notes and drawings and stuff.

The new notebook has three kinds of pre-printed sheets: Cornell-style lined, Cornell-style quad-ruled, and storyboard. I thought the storyboard pages looked interesting, with 3 good-sized boxes and some lines for text to the side. It may turn out to be a real creativity-booster.

Click the pic to see it larger

Bill and Bob were staffing the store on Saturday, and they were very helpful in pointing out some of the new products and assisting me with finding the right tools for the things that I wanted to do.

Thank you very much, gentlemen!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/4oy6ve. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen