Category Archives: gtd

From laptop to the tablet/phone: 5 FREE key tools to keep you in sync

Desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone.. – more often then not you feel like you might have too many gadgets. You are constantly searching for a website you glimpsed at only 2 days ago, and unable to find it in the browser history – so you wonder – Was I on my laptop when I found that article? Or was I on the iPad? Or maybe it was a Twitter link that I clicked on my iPhone.. ? Also, that quick note I had.. where on earth did I save it.. and on which device?

To get you sorted in this digital mess, we present to you the 5 most important tools you can use to de-clutter your digital existence Evernote, Simplenote, Dropbox, Push the Page and Instapaper:

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On Information Gathering and Archiving

Moonset

This year I promised myself not to make any public personal New Year resolutions. Life is unpredictable enough as it is, and year-long commitments are way too often bound to be broken. So, why purposely aim to disappoint myself later on? Why should I want to feel like shit sometime later for not having been able to do stuff that was not in my power to do so, in the first place?

Instead, for the past days I’ve started to try out some new professional, productivity and lifestyle changes. The difference from New Year resolutions is that they are just that – try outs; I won’t feel like shit if they don’t work out, but I will like it if they eventually turn into habits.

 

One of the things I decided to try out (for the past 4 days, but the outcome looks promising so far) is to use of a more organized note taking method(and tool). There are countless methods to do it, some of them already built into your computer. However, the difficulty is to stick to just one system, and to use it at its full potential.
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From the email bin

During the last year I almost never reposted the links and resources readers of HackTheDay have send me. It took a simple comment(might be a spam, but I hope it’s not) to make me want to get back to blogging over here on HTD.

So, here’s a couple of productivity-related links received from my readers during the last year or so, togetger with a bit of link love :) :

Enjoy your productive day, and keep in touch : I’m back, baby!

How to read 728 new feed articles in less than one second

August is a slow month for everyone. I wasn’t lucky enough to have week-long holidays like most of you, but I felt it too: August is a slow month – one doesn’t really feel like working, nor do anything else than the bare necessities. August being such a slow month(did I say that already? :D ), the main consequence was that I didn’t feel like blogging – you faithful Hack the Day readers noticed it. What’s more interesting though is that I didn’t feel like reading blogs neither, and here’s the proof:

Google Reader unread feeds

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Top links list for a Productive Desktop

Desktop OSX productive GTD
Your computer productivity is directly influenced by the ease with which you are able to launch applications or find, organize and retrieve your internet downloads. A cluttered desktop only makes you lose time and focus trying to find the things you look for among the zillions of icons.

You might remember my article on turning your desktop into a productivity tool which is one of the most popular articles on this blog so far. At the time I wrote it, I was finding it strange that no other productivity blogs had tackled this subject yet. Boy was I wrong – the subject of organizing one’s desktop proves to be a favorite topic of discussion for a lot of productivity-oriented blogs and bloggers. Talk about insufficient research – :)

Since the subject of the perfect “productive” desktop is far from being closed, I decided to give you the

Top links list for a more Productive Desktop

- introducing you to the best ideas around the web about setting up your computer desktop for improved productivity.

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Can the iPhone get YOUR things done?

iphone calendar productivity Hack the Day is probably the only blog never to have talked about the iPhone. I decided to change this now that the iPhone has launched. Everyone is claiming that it will make their lives more complete and more productive, two justified reasons to pay the price.

But is the iPhone the ultimate productivity tool, as some have been hoping? I take a look into how this device will impact your working style (disclaimer – I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in the iPhone country, so all information below is based on blog reviews and Apple’s documents) and what applications to use for your organizing and productivity purposes.

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Turn your Desktop into a Productivity tool

Like most knowledge workers you probably spend more time in front of my computer than in the living room (that is if you’re not a work-from-home freelancer as I am – in this case you spend ALL of your time in front of your computer… ;-) ). Cleaning up your desktop becomes even more important than housecleaning. After all, you can hire someone to clean out the mess in your living room, but it’s you and only you who can clean, sort and organize your hard drive and computer folders.

One of the most obscure parts of the GTD-like productivity systems is the “Research” part. David Allen’s method calls it the Collect bucket – the place where you collect anything that’s of interest for your current or future projects. He even describes a physical way to do it – the “tickler file” – mostly known as the 43 Folders technique. I won’t go into further details on that, as it seems a pretty nice way to organize your physical paperwork.

But having 43 Folders just for organizing files becomes extremely complicated to use on your computer. We need something different.

I introduce you to the way I’ve recently reorganized folders on my Mac OS X MacBook, in a manner that maximizes my productivity, making my daily information collection process a simple, organized and efficient one. This kind of setup can be made on any computer’s desktop(Windows or Linux) – it’s the method that matters, not the design.

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