Navigation
To Think About . . .
My Latest Book
Also available on Amazon.com, Amazon.fr, and other Amazons and bookshops worldwide!
Search This Site
Log-in
Latest Comments
Most Popular Content
My Other Books
What are your top three non-digital/internet-related tools?
The "no mind or body-related" is only in there to prevent these two predictable beauties:
"I use......... my MIND!"
"I use only my super-mental-discipline and the white-hot magma power of my unrefined pure raw male grit!"
The rest are to prevent stock answers like:
Evernote
Clear
OneNote
Toodledo
iPad
iPhone
Android
My top three (bearing in mind that these come a long way down the list after the forbidden items):
A paper diary
A loose-leaf folder (with paper)
A land-line telephone
In reality of course just about everything I make happen is either done through the internet in one way or another or with task-specific tools (lawnmower, car, screwdriver, walking boots, etc).
2. erm...
3. umm...
Actually I think 1 falls under mind/body. Can we include beer?
The most important vehicle to drive my impetus is continually answering these 2 questions.
"Why am I bothering to do this at all?"
"What makes this more important to do now/soon than all else I could be doing?"
Also I agree with what Chris says: Have a clear vision of the next (doable) step to ensure progress (and hopefully momentum will kick in as a gift) LOL!
Bottom line: I make sure I'm doing the right work via choosing MITs on a will do list. Then I (usually mentally) break it down into doable steps.
2. Due dates for tasks that *have* to be done by a certain day or time.
3. Flagging of tasks that I *want* to do today.
- Erik.
Mind/body related answers are perfect as long as you avoid the above two vague examples and their cousins.
"I use my MIND!", is funny, but vague.
"I sprint at top speed for one minute, 3x, first thing in the morning." is a great answer.
"My most used tool is my body..." or "I work out!" need more specificity.
1. Be clear about the next action to move something forwards. Things often drift because it's not clear what's happening next and who owns it.
2. Don't capture every little thing, it leads to paralysis by analysis and provides a convenient distraction from getting things done.
3. Get a full 8-9 hour quota of sleep as often as possible, every night if possible. It makes a huge difference to your ability to focus and desire to work on things.
2. Time Mapping (Julie Morgenstern). Tool: week's schedule
3. Timeboxing (Decremental, Incremental, and variants). Tool: Stopwatch
1. Spiral notebook - with a daily to do list and other notes and lists
2. Daily, weekly, and monthly checklists for routine tasks and personal development activities (read, exercise, practice piano, write a personal note)
3. Timer - don't use it all the time, but some tasks specify a time limit.
This is my first post, so thanks to Mark for this forum. I purchased and read Do It Tomorrow and then foolishly gave it away. So I guess I am using my own version of DIT.
2. Checklists for all the routine stuff.
3. A daily B.A.M. list, consisting of: (B) big three tasks to take significant action on to consider today successful, (A) appointments, and other (M) must-do-today tasks.
(The truth is that I do use forbidden [for this poll's purpose] digital tools for much of the above, although I could remain effective if everything here were done on paper.)
put off posting this as not sure if falls under "mind/body-related" restrictions. from other posts, seems it may not.
pre-visualization, or meditation, or prayer or just walking it through in my mind
usually the day before, usually to typical methods. relaxed, music, see/feel in mind.
this often leads to far better success than any other planning, method or trick to make something happen.
not that the something then happens magically. ( although sometimes does seem to ) I still end up making use of any of the typical methods such as mentioned from above posts. HOWEVER, what DOES happen is whatever the right method I need to use, I end up using, and if I did NOT know about it, seem to discover just whatever I need to know when I need to know it.
and if I do NOT do this. Or perhaps am doing the opposite but not on purpose (thinking about all the ways going to not get something done, screw up etc), then, wow, as if by magic, I don't use the method I need to use, or mess up, or don't learn what is needed.
if I know this method. then how come I still don't use it regularly? another topic.
My Everything Book. Notes for a project might be spread over several pages, but they aren't on lost papers, and I don't lose the thought while reaching for the right file.
"Next Action" thinking and breaking up projects into stand-alone units.
My weekly milestones chart.