More on Time Management
10 months ago I posted about my zero email inbox strategy. Since then I have changed some bits, and kept some bits the same. I still try and run with an empty inbox, and I still use an Action folder/tag to separate emails that I need to refer back to in order to complete.
I don't use Remember The Milk anymore, not because it wasn't good, but because I'd started using Appigo Notes to synchronize my notes from my iPod to Toodledo and using two web based applications seemed like overkill - so I switched over to Toodledo completely.I use the Appigo ToDo iPod Touch application to synchronize my task list between my iPod and Toodledo. I have a Toodledo application on my igoogle page which allows me to add tasks quickly. When I read an email which I want to add to my task list, I email it straight to toodledo making use of the shortcuts like @, #, *, % in the subject line to get the tasks into the right place. I can even send a twitter direct message to @toodledo to get a task registered. In short, there is NO excuse for tasks not to get recorded.I've read a couple of time management books, Eat that Frog and Do It Tomorrow. I found Do It Tomorrow to be an excellent book, really easy to read and easy to implement and a book I'd recommend for those wanting a simple system. The conclusion and general policy is "Few things are so urgent that they wouldn't be better put off till tomorrow".I've got much better at scheduling things in for the next day, and have completed a lot more items in a lot less time. I still need to get much better at turning my email off, my instant messenger client off, and my twitter client off and to learn to focus without distractions more - I've been trying out the pomodoro system to help with this aspect and even created my own Pocketmod based Pocket Pomodoro booklet to put my weeks tasks into - this has helped but I need to be disciplined to actually record the outcomes properly.As usual, still a work in progress.