This post is me gathering some info for a future post…a survey, if you will.

Basically what I’d like to know is if you shower in the evening, before you go to bed, or in the morning before you go to work…and why.

I’ll refrain from what I do and why until the next post.

I want to thank everyone who shared their experiences with Instant Messaging. The results weren’t all that surprising, but I find it interesting to read how others use IM.

h3. IM and productivity rarely mix

I’ve been experimenting on my own over the last few weeks, and that–combined with your feedback–leads me to the conclusion that IM might be a real problem for people trying to be productive. There is no doubt that it’s a useful tool–under the right circumstances.

For personal communication it’s pretty cool and there is no doubt there are times when it can be just the thing.

Unfortunately it seems that more than anything else it’s a constant distraction that eats time. The biggest issue, that I can see anyway, is that there is almost no way to triage incoming messages. Sure you can block people, or set your status, but if you have it open and are receiving incoming IMs you have no way to keep from dealing with things that come in.

With a phone you can let it go to voice mail. With e-mail you can respond at your leisure. Not so with IM. Even if you’re ok with leaving people hanging there is almost a pressure to respond. It’s like bees in your head.

The only true way to avoid this problem is to turn it off.

My advice for those who use IM and are having problems getting things done — don’t use it anymore. If you do use it, only use it when you choose to use it and keep it off when you’re trying to focus. My feeling is that the disadvantages of IM far outweigh it’s advantages, at least when it comes to work.

I do think it can be a great tool if used sparingly and under “controlled” circumstances, but as an open communication channel it’s really not good unless you’re wanting to chat or have time to kill.

How many times per day you have a conversation via IM? Do you hardly ever IM? Or do you find yourself having multiple conversations throughout the day? I’m also curious to know if those conversations are trivial or are they something you find integral to your day. Do you talk to friends, family, coworkers?

Anything you can tell me would be of great interest to me. Once I’ve got some feedback I’m going to post the results as well as talk a bit about my IM theory. Thanks in advance!

There was a great piece in the New York Times Magazine a few days ago about Microsoft’s efforts to find ways of taming the interrupt driven workstyle that has come to dominate us. I wish Microsoft well in its efforts, but the scientists look at it as something to accomplish “someday maybe” rather than right now.

We can’t wait for someday maybe. We have to take back control of our attention and our intention now.

h3. Attention vs. Intention

Similar words, but very different meanings:

* Attention: the act or state of attending, especially through applying the mind to an object of sense or thought.
* Intention: a determination to act in a certain way.

Getting things Done talks about both, but intention tends to get shorted.

Without intention, you spin and whirl in all directions focusing on this email or that web site or that document or that decision, steadily exhausting yourself as the day slips away until you can’t go on and you ask yourself, “If I didn’t get anything done today, why am I so damned tired?”

Intention is the learned and developable ability to commit a specific outcome and regardless of distraction, move to it.

h3. Developing determination

A quick story. Way back when, I earned the dubious distinction in my Tae Kwon Do (a Korean martial art) school to be the first black belt to slip back to being a red belt because I just could not break my boards one more time.

Elbow strike – that was easy. Jump sidekick – natch. Knifehand strike – thud. Try it again: thud. Try it two more testings: same results, and the black belt comes off, and here’s your red belt back. Not one of my most enjoyable moments.

Now, make no mistake, breaking those 9 #2 pine _ inch boards had my full attention each time. But I didn’t have the intention of breaking those boards.

When it came time to test again (stubbornness is my middle name) after sparring, and doing my form, and watching the board holders set up, and the rest of the school watching, I suddenly realized that no matter what I was going to break those boards. It didn’t matter whether it hurt. It didn’t matter that there was a roomful of people watching. None of that mattered. Nothing else mattered. I no longer cared or paid attention to whether my hand would go splat against the wood, or if I landed on top of the students I had to jump over to break those boards.

I was going to break those boards, no matter what. And I did. That’s the difference intention makes.

h3. Building your Intention

You don’t need to scream at the top of lungs the next time you are trying to ignore distractions and get something important done (although it might help!). But you do have to tell yourself regularly and in repeatable way that when you sit down to do something, your intention is to get that thing done, no matter what distractions popup on your screen. Developing your “intention muscles” can be the missing ingredient in your Getting Things Done recipe: give it a try.

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.

Umm, yeah.

So, I’m not a huge stats geek or anything but I’ve just done my monthly check of my sites and was absolutely astonished. See, I’ve been running this fairly well read and trafficked site for about 3 1/2 years now and it’s only taken To-done around 5 months to over take it. I’ve got about double the subscribed readership (who are like, “thanks for the useless post dude”, right now) and I’ve almost crept up to the same spot as far as incoming links on Technorati.

Considering the timeframe, that is f’n unreal.

Since I didn’t really expect anything more out of this site than a simple place for me to work out and share my ideas in regards to GTD and work/life balance, I’m pretty impressed. I’m very, very glad that people out there are getting something out of this site and I fully plan to keep it going as it has been.

So, thanks for the continued interest y’all!

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.

h3. I’m sure as hell sleeping better!

One of the basic parts of GTD is being able to put things out of your mind so you can focus on the task at hand. Well, if you’re someone like me, sleep is often a task. Don’t get me wrong, I love to sleep and I love to relax, but sometimes life conspires against you. Stress, or even simple “busyness” can weigh on your mind.

I’ve found that as I move things out of my head, get more organized and take care of daily tasks with more efficiency, I also find myself sleeping better. Often times, if I go to bed with something undone or on my mind, I’ll wake in the middle of the night. This can’t be good for me, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.

What I’ve taken to doing is getting up and doing something about what’s on my mind. I’ll either work, or set up some reminders to take care of it, or simply do something. This has helped me get back to sleep. In the past I’d be up all night thinking, with the bees buzzing around my head.

In general, though, I find myself sleeping better and more deeply than I have in years. Now, I’m no doctor, so I can’t say for sure, but my guess is that GTD is helping me sleep. I mean, I’ve also got more going on than I’ve had in years, and I seem to be getting through it all much easier than I’m used to. AND I’m sleeping better and feeling more relaxed in general.

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.

Now, we all know Outlook’s New Item alerts are like little leaches that suck away your focus, time and attention, right?

Do not do this at home; do not do this at work!

Over the past few years, I’ve seen about a dozen business executives and managers respond like Pavlov’s Dog to the ding of an incoming e-mail. The more dings, the more they could respond, the more they could do something, even though it was anywhere from a complete waste of time to responding to something they should do later.

Being a writer, a micro-ISV and a contract programmer, I can’t afford to be cattle prodded out every five minutes out as I’m coding or writing: a slew of these interruptions completely ruin a Flow (more on what I call Butterfly Stroke Productivity in a future post here.). So I’ve set Outlook to never interrupt me as a rule.

But on the other hand, there are times when you damn well better be ready to respond to an email, heads down being productive or not. So, how are you going to know about a must-read email from a client, or God Forbid, an Editor? Google Search in Sidebar mode is the answer.

Here’s a picture of part of my desktop recently. I’ve in a Flow, but I had to keep an eye out for an email I needed to respond to. Instead of letting Outlook Email Alerts out of its cage, I let Google Search morph into its Sidebar mode.

Watch, but don’t touch, your email while you’re getting things done.

With Google in Sidebar mode I could watch my email flow, but not get engaged in it until and if the email I was waiting for came by (It was the AdWords email, but that’s another story.)

Another great advantage is that I could in 10 seconds flat write a note to myself in the Scratch Pad Panel of Google’s Sidebar, then later do it if it only took a minute or add it to my MasterList Professional without breaking my concentration. Depending on what you’re world looks like, you can watch news headlines, weather, RRS feeds and IM flow by in Google Sidebar, but not lose your focus on the task at hand.

I’m dead certain that as Google pumps more developer resources into this whole Sidebar thing, this tool is going to get ever more useful. Add in Microsoft’s totally coincidental resurrection of the Sidebar in Vista and I think you’ll be seeing more of this kind non-invasive information flow management.

The worse thing you can do for your productivity is let others control your attention!

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.

Those of you who’ve been married might know what I’m talking about. I can barely see the floor of my condo because it’s covered with boxes. Sure these boxes are filled with gifts (and popcorn! AHHH I hate the popcorn! why do we need a box full of popcorn to send a simple cookie rack? I mean it’s about 1/10 the size of the box for crying out loud) but they’re really stressing me out!

I think I’ve said before that piles and clutter can cause stress, but this takes it to a whole new level. I mean, I’m working from home now and it’s something that is almost constantly on my mind. All this stuff sticks in the back of my mind as something I need to take care of. Thing is, I literally can’t. Not right now anyway. We simply don’t have room.

(Staci, if your reading this, stop now…)

I find it ironic that people give us gifts to “get us started in life.” We don’t need any of this junk. Plus, it’s going to force us to move to a bigger, more expensive house. Any of you ever hear the George Carlin bit “A Place For My Stuff”? Well, that’s me right now.

Because of all this stuff, I need to work harder, to make more money to buy a bigger house to put all this stuff. I can feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about it. People, take my advice, before you add stuff to your life, get rid of some other stuff. One can only take so much stuff. With stuff you need a place to put it, you need to feel like you’re doing something with it. This can be very, very anti “getting things done” and cause a tone of stress.

Now, to the dumpster.

To kick things back off I want to do something I’ve not done a whole lot of here at To-Done–get the reader’s perspective on something. I want to have an honest and open discussion about the whole Getting Things Done/DIY/Lifehack/Productivity movement.

h3. Too Much GTD?

In the last day or so, as I’ve been catching up with feeds, e-mail and such, I’ve noticed that there are many folks out there who feel a bit over- (or under-?) whelmed by the “hype” of GTD online. I mean as Greg pointed out there are GTD and DIY blogs popping up all over the place and while I don’t think they’re all bad, and I’m pretty sure there is some value there, I do agree that it can be a bit overwhelming at times.

Then again, you can’t deny the interest in this stuff. As my poll over Lifehacker shows, it’s on people’s minds. My guess is that there’s value in there somewhere. But where to draw the line?

For the purposes on this site, GTD was never supposed to be the focus. It’s about work/life balance and my hope is to keep the noise level as low as possible. (I know some of you are thinking, “what about that sock post? Well, it was kind of supposed to be funny.) The one thing I can say is that GTD, of itself, has really helped me stay organized and keep track of my ideas, etc. It’s been a great help. I’ve also come across quite a bit of lifehackery that I’ve found useful as well.

I’ll agree with the nay-sayers that the majority isn’t all that useful and there are times when the noise level gets pretty darn high. But, I feel that’s the Web in general and it’s not limited to topics like GTD, DYI and lifehacking. You’ll find the same thing with Web design, health, music, pop culture, etc. To deal with it you need to ignore much of it and try to rely on sources that will editorialize well enough to pull out the diamonds.

But enough of what I think. What do you think about this personal productivity and DIY hype, both on- and off-line? It’s it just a cult that should be ignored, or do you find value in blogs like this one? Do some do it right and others wrong? Lemme know what you think.

I’m going to walk you through my process for managing my calendar. There are a couple of software specific tricks to it. I use iCal – the Mac’s built in calendar. I’m not sure what Bill packaged for my PC cousins, but I’m sure there are options available.

Let me state at the outset that this system works for me because my work CAN be planned ahead of time. Through experience, I know roughly how long certain tasks are going to take. Also, all my work is time-based. That is to say that when I write a proposal, I base my estimate on actual hours worked. Which is where we’ll start today’s journey.

I use a program called Omni Outliner to brainstorm a project’s requirements when coming up with an estimate. I simply make a list of every element I can imagine will be required to get from point a to point b. Then, I go back and put a time estimate in a column next to each item. It’s a quick and easy way for me to put a dollar value on even the most complex projects.

Now, this works for me because I have a pretty good idea how much time it’s going to take me to do each task. This comes from experience. It also comes from breaking each task down into small components.

One of the reasons I favor Omni Outliner is how simple it is to nest lists. I start by making top level tasks, then revisit the big items to break them down in a nested list. The number of levels I break something down into is a function of how complex the task is. See the example below from a recent print project.

At this point, I’ve got almost all the information I need to schedule my project. Omni Outliner and iCal play together pretty nicely. It’s possible to convert an Outliner list into an iCal to-do list, saving one the necessity to re-type each aspect of the project. (If you want to know how, just google “omni outliner to ical”)

Next, it’s a matter of creating a new calendar for each project. In iCal, it’s simply a matter of clicking a button, naming the calendar, and choosing a colour (to change the colour, make sure the info pane is open [button at the bottom right of the ical window], select the calendar you want in the calendar pane, then lick the colour next to the calendar’s name in the info pane, then choose ‘other’ to select from apple’s colour picker).

In iCal, I can simply drag a to-do item onto the calendar. Easy as pie.

This system does require a bit of maintenance. Moving items forward when they inevitably snag is a pain. I’ve gotten into the habit of simply scheduling blocks of time for a given project. Then, at the start of the week, I’ll refine the schedule to reflect specific tasks. Moving a large block of time is easy. Moving a whole bunch of little blocks is still easy, but it’s a real pain.

iCal can sync with any palm device or ipod, meaning I’ve always got my schedule with me. I do leave a fair bit of flexibility in each day though, and I think that’s key to the system’s success. For example, I rarely schedule more than 8 hours of work, yet I work more like 12 hours a day. This flex time means that I can still take care of the inevitable delays or emergencies that always come up.

This is my life schedule, not just my work schedule. If there’s something I really want to do, putting it on the schedule greatly increases the odds that it will happen.

If you’d like to see a larger view of my calendar, to get a better idea of exactly what I’m talking about, please click here.

I’ve actually written a bit about this before. If you’d like to see how my system has evolved, you can read an article I wrote at Almost Cool titled omniOutliner + iCal = my wicked work flow.