Kolz Blog

A few things got me thinking about why we try to be more productive. The first was a stimulating (and emotional) discussion of value, fees, and life purpose in my recent post A conversation with Laura Stack, the Productivity Pro. Toward the end a reader brings up the important of "Why?" The second thing was Laura Stack's post How to Be More Productive: Have you become more productive or just learned how? She's clearly given it some deep thought. Finally, early on I wrote It's not about productivity..., and I'd like to revisit the idea. So what follows are a few "Is it all about..." thoughts. No answers here, just a some starter possibilities. Your thoughts on this are very welcome. Time? I use the term "self management" in my work (instead of the traditional "time management") because there's a limited supply of it and it can't be saved, so how can you manage it? ("Saving time" doesn't make sense either.) However, our time is extremely precious (we've been allocated a fixed amount of it, though we don't know the number) so how we spend it is crucial. (Hmmm - maybe we should talk in terms of a time budget?) My friend Pascal Venier called me on this a while back. His response to my post Is GTD the "Extreme Programming" of Time Management? is worth a look: Now ... is GTD really about time management? Action? OK, so if it's not about time, how about action? A central tenet of Getting Things Done is managing action. "You can't do projects, only actions" is a key concept. This relates to the psychological stress of what Allen calls incompletes or open loops - your mind only relaxes when it trusts they're being tracked and dispatched, so that they feel as if they are complete. But this leads to asking which actions are important. I believe strongly that getting on top of everything in our lives is a critical first step, but just because we have lots of lists doesn't mean we're living our lives like we want to. Proactive vs. reactive? In the article Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency (which my friend Bob Walsh did not like) the author says:

Scientology says that the static in our heads is caused by "engrams." In GTD the problem is stuff.

And stuff is an important piece of Allen's thinking - it's the start of much of what we need to take care of, including problems, ideas, and opportunities. However, this seems to frame the issue in reactive terms - things coming at us. In The Instant Productivity Toolkit Len Merson talks about "being proactive in a reactive world." To him being proactive means:

meeting new challenges head-on, not procrastinating until they become crises. Being proactive means diving into your tasks knowing you are going to accomplish them well and on time. ... thinking "That's what I'm going to do *next*," not obsessing about a stack of folders on your desk and falling into despair over what you haven't done.

(You can find related thoughts here.) Goals? That's getting there, but how do [Read more]

Many people don't realize there is a great synchronization feature available to keep your tasks on track with MOSS 2007 and Outlook 2007. If you spend your day within MS Outlook, are constantly on the go or just simply like working on the desktop more than through your web browser, then check out how easy it is to bring the SharePoint task list to you. Say your project manager has scheduled out a few tasks on a SharePoint site. He or she may have used a tool like IntelliGantt to quickly publish a project, invited SharePoint members to the site and is now expecting these tasks to get done. If you'd rather work with them in Outlook, here's how: First, on the SharePoint site, go to the task list in question and select 'Connect to Outlook'. Remember, this is an Office 2007 only feature. MS Outlook pops up a dialog asking if you really want to do this. If you say yes, Outlook goes and gets the SharePoint task list data and creates a view for you. [Read more]

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft If you're itching to get your hands on Windows Home Server, Ars Technica reports that a number of retailers are ready to ship the new Microsoft OS. But if you're not ready to drop $150+ on an operating system that essentially lets you backup and share files on your home network, it looks like the OS has reportedly been leaked onto the BitTorrent sites. The folks at Ars Technica took Windows Home Server for a spin and report that it serves it purpose reasonably well. But they also conclude that if you've already got some sort of network attached storage device, [Read more]

PC Magazine 100 Favorite Blogs - “Keep in mind that these are Our Favorite Blogs, not the Top Blogs or Best Blogs. The list is even more naturally subjective than our Top Web Sites stories. It doesn’t necessarily comprise the best sites the Web has to offer (though that case can be made [Read more]

Hi everyone, I’m Michael Deutch, the director of solution marketing at Mindjet. It’s my first time posting on our blog but I plan to update everyone periodically on Mindjet solutions, events and partner offerings. I just returned from PMI Global World Congress in Atlanta. It was a great event and my first time exhibiting for Mindjet. Our presentations on Sunday with PM Practice, Inc, and at the Microsoft booth demonstrated the growing interest in using MindManager to improve how you capture, share and use your volumes of project information. If you missed us at the event, you can see some of what you missed from our webinar with PM Practice, MindManager 7 for Successful PMBOK-based Microsoft Project Schedules. Overall, the best part of our PMI presentation was when the audience starting sharing their experiences and the benefits of using MindManager to develop work breakdown structures, capture project requirements, develop effective charters, align teams, mitigate risk and more… I must have met hundreds of MindManager fans as well as introduced hundreds of others to our company and product. [Read more]