Posted September 29, 2005 — 7 Comments
By Patrick Rhone
Not too long ago, I was asked by a client of mine how long it would take to complete a certain large project. After thinking about it for a while, I gave what I thought was a fair estimate given all of the parameters, possible hurdles and building in time for contingencies. The client then asked me if I could do it faster than that. They asked if I could do it in about a third of what I had estimated.
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Popularity: 5%
Posted in Methodologies — 7 Comments
Posted September 28, 2005 — 7 Comments
By Keith
From time to time I’ve got real trouble sleeping. My mind literally races. My thoughts coming in and out faster than I can deal with them. It’s almost like a thousand bees buzzing in my head.
It probably sounds worse than it is, but when I’ve got things going on (which during the day is great!) I simply have a hard time shutting my mind down for rest. I’ve had this problem all my life. Recently though, while I still have it, I’ve noticed that I can fight it off a bit better. I attribute this to my learning and putting into practice, techniques I’ve learned from reading Getting Things Done.
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Popularity: 5%
Posted in Miscellaneous — 7 Comments
Posted September 26, 2005 — 11 Comments
By Bob Walsh
A few days ago thanks to Keith’s kind invitation, I talked about how the new free beta of Google’s desktop search engine can make your e-mail life easier. I say e-mail life, because odds are good if you are reading this, you spend a good part of your life answering and writing e-mail!
In this post, I’d like to share with you a simple Google/Outlook trick that will immediately improve your productivity in certain common situations.
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Popularity: 8%
Posted in Miscellaneous — 11 Comments
Posted September 22, 2005 — 13 Comments
By John Zeratsky
Modern technology is often blamed for adding complexity to our lives. I frequently hear references to “a simpler time” before we had computers, PDAs, cell phones and home theaters.
Well, that’s a bunch of crap!
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Popularity: 7%
Posted in Productivity Tools, Quick Tips and Tricks — 13 Comments
Posted September 20, 2005 — 1 Comment
By Britt Parrott
Lately, I have taken on large tasks that are primarily my own responsibility. I have a little help but I alone comprise the bulk of the team. These tasks include moving a home-grown company intranet to an open source content management system and relandscaping my whole yard.
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Popularity: 4%
Posted in Methodologies — 1 Comment
Posted September 20, 2005 — 22 Comments
By Keith
I’m a firm believer that work should be fun. Hopefully lots of it.
However, we all know there are way to many tasks, even in a fun job, that simply are no fun to do. Anything you have to do routinely, for example, can be a drag. Checking and responding to e-mail, answering the phone, doing your accounting, etc. These things are, by simple nature, not a whole lot of fun. But that doesn’t have to be. Adding a little play into your day can make things quite a bit better.
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Popularity: 10%
Posted in Quick Tips and Tricks — 22 Comments
Posted September 19, 2005 — 21 Comments
By Bob Walsh
If you’re not already using Google’s new Desktop Search (Beta 2) released a couple of weeks ago as part of your Getting Things Done process, you are missing out on a seriously useful tool that costs nothing.
With this latest version of Google Desktop (GD):
- Most of the pain of using Microsoft Outlook goes away,
- You can quickly find the information you need right now from a variety of sources,
- You can stop worrying about where your information resides.
In future posts here, I’ll illustrate the second and third points, but for now, I want to show you how win the battle with Outlook. Once you’ve installed GD, you’ll find that two manifestations of Google: a new Google Search toolbar in Outlook, and a Google Search toolbar in your Windows Task bar or along the right hand side of your desktop (the Google Sidebar).
Given Google’s ultrafast search, every incoming email can be processed the correct GTD way:
- If its not an actionable email that triggers a specific task it gets dumped into Reference. I used to have over a hundred folders for all my email – project folders, vendor folders, folders within folders within folders. No more. Save non-actionable to Reference, and let Google sort them out.
- If an email does mean I need to do something on of my current projects (taking longer than 2 minutes), I dump it into to that project’s folder in my Favorites Folder list. I’ve “promoted” just my current project folders to be Outlook Favorite Folders (an Outlook 2003 feature). Even if I miss and dump it in the wrong folder, Google can find it in an instant.
- I can use Outlook’s email into appointment feature to deal with anything that should be an appointment.
- My Inbox gets emptied and stays that way every time I check email, and that a very nice feeling.
(Dumping to Reference and letting Google sort it out.)
You can search emails alone via the Google Search Toolbar, but I prefer the incremental results search I get using the Google Search Toolbar in Windows Taskbar.
(Google Desktop Search Results.)
Here’s what I got as typed in “to”:
(Incremental Search in progress.)
Often, I’ll spot other things I need at the same time.
Needing and using one search engine for everything from the web to my files and emails make life easy, and just as there are little power tricks for searching the web with Google, there are desktop search tricks (more tricks here):
- subject:spirit returns all emails with the word "spirit" in the Subject: field.
- subject:"Will Eisner" returns all emails with the exact phrase "Will Eisner" in the Subject: field.
- subject:(spirit eisner) returns all emails with both words "spirit" and "eisner" in the Subject:field. Both words must be present in the Subject: field, but they can be in any order and do not have to be next to each other.
- subject:spirit eisner returns all emails with the word "spirit" in the Subject: field and the word "eisner" anywhere in the email, including the body.
Bottom line, I get back all that time I used to spend trying to “manage” all the non-actionable emails I had to spend in Outlook, and like you, I can really put that time to better use!
Author Bio: Bob Walsh divides his time between improving and selling MasterList Professional, a personal task management application, writing a book for Apress (Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality) on how to start a self-funded startup, blogging here and at http://www.todoorelse.com, writing custom software applications for companies with needs and budgets and trying to remember what the words “time off” and “vacation” mean. He can be reached at bobw@safarisoftware.com.
Popularity: 11%
Posted in Quick Tips and Tricks — 21 Comments
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