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This is a guest-post from Jon Gatrell @ spatiallyrelevant.org - many thanks to Stephen for the opportunity and the subject! @Stephen was kind enough to remind me of a very simple blogging basic - build and extend ideas for your readers, the piece he thought might best be extended was 10 Tips to Deal with the Fact You Will Never leave Your Job.

Complacency is a really interesting thing - it’s comfortable - like that old quilt you have for cold and rainy days when you settle in will movies, soup and sleep. While this post is an extension of a previous piece, as recommended by Stephen, the original concept was originally focused at your career, this is more so about that high tide and low tide of productivity we seem to always move between in all aspects of life.

With the increasingly short attention span of folk, sometimes we are just as likely to move on to something else when we hit one of those tough spots in a gig - nothing to write, a really tough task or a seemingly useless hoop which just has to be jumped through. Even in lower supply than our attention, is our time - so find a way to keep the momentum on a project, task or even a hobby because you ain’t getting your time back team.

Productivity is often a sine curve - the good with the bad, the mountains with the valleys. The productivity is nothing when it is something we like, new or challenging; however the biggest challenge is what to do in the trough of productivity. Those low productivity times are great for procrastination, low quality and limited creativity - sounds like FUN!

The productivity trough requires continued effort and initiative to move out of and begin that ascend to the peak - when it is just a little more fun. As I look historically at my less motivated moments on projects or in life, I find it is the opportunities when I engaged other people, enriched the effort and found something to enjoy along the way is when moving from zero to something was a bunch easier. The easiest way is to change the way you look at something. There is little to no fun in lack of progress and getting all OCD on what’s left to be done. Baby steps help too.

Engage

To break out of a productivity slump I just do the 3 E’s, engage, enrich and enjoy. I’m a knowledge junkie, so engage is really going out a getting input from other folks. There are great number of folks doing good things all over the place and they just might be working on something close to what you are working on, so seek them out. I reach out to other authors, my circle of friends and randoms to get a fresh view on something.

Engaging for me is reading, asking questions and looking for divergent views. By triangulating on content inputs, I often find I can quickly qualify ideas, find creative solutions and enhancements which I wouldn’t have gotten via my own thought process. Once you are engaged and building a baseline, it is now time to enhance the subject your writing about, the task at hand or the project which you never seem to start. What can YOU bring to a situation to create unique value?

Enrich

Typically engage is held as being part of the conversation in the social media world, but I would offer that without adding value to the conversation, it becomes difficult to see engagement as a value added activity. It is different points of view and taking the conversation somewhere else which is valuable. Plenty of folks engage in the conversation, but what is the value is statements like “I defer to the majority” or “Whatever is fine by fine” or “I look forward to the final copy” - these acknowledgments are certainly engaged, but not very productive or value add. To move out of the trough, you need to put in a little energy and get the benefit of making something different, better or just having a meaningful impact on the final product.

Got a little too social media/bloggy there. So what is the project equivalent of conversing without enriching the discussion? Doing something in a mechanical, lack luster way — Phoning it in or taking a spaghetti approach - just throwing it out and seeing what sticks. Not a whole lot of fun in that.

Enjoy

How much time do you spend executing towards getting something done? All the time, I suspect - chores, work, hobbies and even when you are at play - these is a little bit of goal oriented effort. So is the enjoyment in the process, progress or the end product? For me it should be all three, but rarely is - so I take it where I can get. That’s the odd thing about doing things - you never really know if you will really enjoy it unless you engage and attempt to enrich a situation.

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

My friend Dan has graciously allowed me to post the contents of his new newsletter that outlines the features of the terrific service GTDAgenda. (Disclosure: GTDAgenda is a paid service, and a sponsor of Productivity in Context - there are free plans, a $4.45/month plan and a $7.95/month plan)

You may have noticed the new Sponsor graphic that went up in the sidebar recently, as I have been using the GTDAgenda service for a few weeks now and give it my seal of approval. This online task and project manager is just what I have been looking for in a digital app. (And you know that I have been very critical of digital productivity tracking apps!) It is not too loaded-down with useless features, not is it just an Outlook or Lightning replacement. Take a look at my dashboard (I have edited it a bit for privacy reasons):

You can create lists of Goals, each containing the appropriate Projects and Tasks. Each Project gets assigned a list of Next Actions, with their own particular contexts and due dates. The context list on the right-hand side is particularly useful. It updates automatically and when I sit down at the computer to do some work I can look at this list and not have to flip through a handful of lists or scan thru one big list to find all of the NAs assigned a particular Context.

I have found this to be an excellent addition to my daily routine and a great place to list my NAs while I plot out my week during the Weekly Review. Great job Dan!

I do recommend that you check it out. Here is the newsletter:

UPCOMING FEATURE: In a couple of days, Gtdagenda will receive
another cool feature: Sharing of Projects and Contexts. You’ll
be able to invite people, share your lists and collaborate.
Stay tuned.

Why and How to set Goals

Successful people are goal oriented. They have written
specific goals and plans for their lives, careers and
businesses.They know exactly what they want to achieve and
when they will achieve it by, and they have clearly defined
the specific steps they will take to achieve these goals.

Having a clearly defined written goal will motivate and
energize you to go out and achieve anything that you want
in your life, career or business. You’ll be amazed at how
easy it will be for you to get whatever you want, once
you bother to figure out what it is.

This is why you need goals, and here are three reasons you
need them written down:

1) So you don’t forget

This sounds pretty simplistic, but you probably had an
idea - the kind of idea that’s so good, it interrupts
your work or wakes you out of sleep at 3 am. What do most
people do? They go back to sleep or continue their daily
activities, and a couple of hours later the idea is gone.
How about those people who wrote it down? They usually look
at the paper later, get real excited about the great idea,
and start working toward it.

2) The writing down of a goal is the first commitment to
actually going out and accomplishing it

The big goals, the really big ones, could take you 2, 3, 5
or 10 years of time, energy and effort to achieve. If you
are not willing to take 5 or 10 minutes to write it down,
what makes you think you’ll be willing to invest 5 or 10
years toward achieving it? It’s a lot easier to write it
down than to go out and get it. If you are not willing to
do the easy, what makes you think you’ll ever be willing
to do the hard?

3) The writing down of a goal makes you accountable to the
only person you can’t fool: you

You can fool anyone you want: your parents, kids, boss,
coworkers and every living person, but there’s one person
who always knows the honest truth: you. How are you going
to feel when you have to admit to yourself that you weren’t
willing to do everything it takes to achieve what you said
you wanted?

Before you begin to make your list of the most significant
things you want to achieve in the next five years, keep in
mind the three components of an effective written goal:

1) Be specific about your goals

Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want
to happen. Specifics help you to focus your efforts and
clearly define what you are going to do. Never use words
such as “some”, “a little bit”, or “more”. If you
want to lose eight kg, specify that number. If you want
to make $1 million, be exact.

2) Use time frames for your goals

When you write down each item you want to accomplish, also
write down the year you intend to accomplish it by. Remember,
a goals is a dream with a deadline. Do not use the word
“sometime”. “Sometime” is usually used when we don’t
want to do, or have no intentions of doing something.

3) Place no limits on your ability to achieve your goals

If it’s what you really want, write it down. Too many people
set their goals low, low enough so that there’s no way for
them to fail. You have to keep your focus on what you want
to succeed at, and not on what “not to fail” at.

So these are the components of an effective written goal.
As you are writing down these goals, visualize them; see
yourself successful. If you can see the goal in your mind,
it will make it much easier to be specific.

*** And if you want a tool to set your Goals, create a plan
for achieving them, and have them with you wherever you are,
Gtdagenda is always at your service at:

GTDAgenda.com

and

GTDAgenda.mobi

Some of my colleagues in the “Product-o-sphere” have taken a look at GTDAgenda also, you can see their reviews here:

Online GTD Application Review at eDragonU

The whole application is structured in 7 sections, namely Goals, Projects, Tasks, Contexts, Next Actions, Checklists and Schedules. Those sections are pretty much self-explanatory, and the GTD-savvy won’t have any difficulty to perform on this set up. Projects, Contexts, Tasks and Next Actions are easy to remember concepts from the David Allen’s book that we’ve all read.

Personal Development Blog

There are some really nice features which make this service universally pleasant - print and email options, for example. Printing allows you to print your projects, tasks or next action lists as a nice-looking list. I thing Next Actions are a great list to print - will help you stay on track even if you’re away from your browser, for example.

Using GTDAgenda with your mobile device

Black Belt Productivity is looking at GTDAgenda too.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/6n7mqm. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

If you haven’t caught up with Leadership Journal in a while, their recent edition focuses on teams and how they lead. I was especially fascinated by an article about how one church went from a one pastor model to a team approach of four men who lead together.

Can you imagine if every church was led by four instead of one? Blows your mind doesn‘t it?

The featured church, Next Level Church in Denver, explained how their model allows for deeper service, more humility, greater accountability and a healthy buffer in case one leader falls. It also allows for a community to get things done. Maybe, just maybe, it decreases the amount of ‘leadership complaining’.

All of us complain about our leaders. I just wish they would do more of this… Why can’t he be more like… It drives me crazy when… When you practice GTD, you are putting next-action thinking into play. You stop looking around and wondering why it isn‘t moving fast enough and

you
start
making it happen.

This of course builds you up as someone who actually produces results. You are then able to do the work of four instead of one.

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5a8e23. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen

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

Imagine a school that allowed every student to grow, learn and prosper.  That was the initial desire behind the No Child Left Behind act of 2002 and while NCLB is controversial, it has proven successful in at least one area- keeping schools accountable.

Now imagine a school in which Getting Things Done was implemented.

Course units might include:

• Time management
• The weekly review
• Setting up a tickler file
• How to close open loops
• Capturing ideas, then integrating them into your system
• Mastering the projects list
• Life goals from 10,000-40,000 feet

Is this vision that far from reality?  My colleagues in education would laugh at the sight of such courses and yet I wonder how Algebra I prepares one for life any better than a course in life goals or time management.

The secret of course lies in integration.  It’s not that we need a school for GTD.  Rather, we need people who can integrate GTD into what they’re already doing.  Teachers and parents who see the value of putting ideas onto paper and out of the mind.  Administrators who actually maintain a healthy set of lists and projects.  Students who can actually remember a deadline because they wrote it down.

I recently had a friend ask how I got so much done in a week.  Surprised, I had to scratch my head and wonder if GTD had something to do with it after years of practice.  Would your colleagues wonder about your secret to productivity? As in any classroom, the moment when someone asks is of course the moment in which you know you’ve set an example.  Now that’s GTD!

If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends on Twitter using the tinylink http://tinyurl.com/5has3b. Thanks, I appreciate it! Feel free to comment below, I enjoy discussing these ideas. ~@Stephen