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I am a small business Conversation Consultant and public speaker that uses the power of the internet to leverage your success. Productivity in Context is a web magazine focused on Productivity and tools for organizing. Make this your headquarters for improving your life and work through increased mindfulness, education, and workflow practices.

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…or have you just lit a fuse?

I am sure that most of us are familiar with this motivational poster with the cute little kitten:

Or, for the more cynical among us, this little gem:

I tend to find more humor the second image myself, as I am not a cat person. In addition, I find the act of “hanging in there” to be antithetical to progress and growth, if not self-destructive. Tying a knot in the end of your rope and waiting for something to happen (or someone to rescue you) is no way to fulfill your dreams, no way to achieve your destiny. What do you do to avoid becoming a pinata in the great game of life?

Change your perspective.

Stop thinking of your situation as dodging the blows of randomness, or as some kind of rope to be climbed. Make that cord in your hands symbolize something else! Visualize that “rope” as a fuse, and You are the bomb! Everything can change once you make the decision to change your perspective. No longer do you have to think of yourself as the pinata swinging at the end of some rope that is beyond your control, pulled to and fro by competing forces. Instead of a rope you hold in your own hands a fuse that needs to be lit in order to set off an explosion of creativity and motivation. You will become a powerful device for change.

What one thing can you do today, what one thing can you do right now, to light that fuse and make a change? Is there something about your job, your home life, your relationships that needs a burst of energy? Look at your Someday/Maybe list, is there something that you have been putting off for no good reason?

Light that fuse, go and do something with that bomb!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/au98du. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Brett Kelly, the former host of the Cranking Widgets blog lets loose (with both barrels): My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD. Super. Right about the time that I am having an existential crisis about my own GTD practice. The Lovely Bride and I have been on the road for just over two months now, and being 100% mobile has taught me a few things. Like it is much easier to “do” GTD when you have an office. Or a house. Try putting everything that you need into a laptop bag and a couple of file boxes.

Here is what Kelly has to say:

Having been a fairly vocal proponent of GTD for some time, this is one of those things that I’m happy to write after having removed myself from the throngs (and I mean *throngs*) of productivity/GTD bloggers. Ever since I launched The Cranking Widgets Blog, I’ve been singing the praises of this productivity methodology to any j*****s who would listen. Now, after developing a little bit of discontent with the whole thing, I can bring it to you folks without having to fear a decline in readership. Here goes.

First of all (and probably most importantly), I’m starting to feel like GTD is really effing hard. The amount of time and effort it takes to (according to the book) manage a list of tasks, a calendar and some filing shit has become prohibitively long for me. I look at a scrap of paper in my in-basket, and I’m positively put off by the effort it will require to add it to the project list, choose the next action, pull out a blank folder, label it and file it away. Perhaps I’m just being lazy, but that’s the freaking honest truth.

Built-in anxiety is almost a guarantee. Unless you’re a poster child for GTD, you’re going to have shit slip past the defenses of your system. Hell, David Allen himself has confessed to “falling off of the wagon, repeatedly” on several different occasions. And if you’ve become such a loyal adherent, the very act of *not* doing the GTD thing will create stress. This might just be my own dumb brain thinking about this stuff the wrong way, but I’d bet the contents of your wallet that this type of mental spasm is more common than you think.

What say you? Where do you want Productivity in Context to go in 2009? Is Getting Things Done over? How excited are you about the prospect of a new book from David Allen?

What did you think of the first two FAQ posts - and would you like me to work with you on developing this system (for lack of a better word) into something more (and by more I mean less, GTD has too many folders and rules - I have to confess that I only look at my Tickler File once a week nowadays).

Leave a comment, let’s discuss this. In the meantime I am going to be downsizing from 43 folders to 15.(More on this later)

Related:
James has been thinking about this even longer than I have.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/8mw5rz. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Today marks the first podcast in the Productivity Mastermind podcast series. On Thursday a few of us got together on the phone to talk about managing inputs and the various tools that we use.

Main topics:

1. Organizing your day
2. Managing inputs
3. Tools for productivity

We covered a lot of ground quickly on this call, touching base on quite a few tools and strategies. Some of the highlights:

• Using your calendar and weekly schedule template
• Setting appointments with yourself
• Many, many online apps

 

 Productivity Mastermind Call: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (480)

Listen to the whole thing, it’s about 28 minutes long, and take a look at our notes on the Google site Productivity Mastermind.

The next call will be this Thursday, 16 October, at 4:00 pm Eastern time.
The call-in number is 712-432-1699. The access code is 1005106#.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/54y8g3. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

Jared at Technotheory has too many people that he follows on Twitter. He wrote an interesting piece where he thinks about methods of grouping, hi-lighting, or restricting the updates that he gets to only see the most relevant. See ”Fake Following” to avoid information overload in social networks

Personally I’m not just interested in restricting connections’ updates, but also in highlighting the updates of others. There are a few people who I want to stay in touch with but often don’t notice amidst all the noise (on Twitter, Facebook or Flickr, for instance).

Another feature on FriendFeed’s beta would help with my situation: grouping. Grouping allows you to display the updates from a specific group of connections, and no one else. Unfortunately Facebook and Twitter are where I’m most interested in this capability.

What do you think? Is it possible, is it meaningful, to follow 1,000 posters on Twitter?

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