Articles

The book Getting Things Done by David Allen can easily be seen as one of the bibles of personal productivity. It is a business book, initially released in 2001 and raised up to be a bestseller in its field.

It covers a combination of time management and stress management, but gives these disciplines a different name: Attention management. It is a guideline on the mindset to approach thought processes and ideas, and how to deal with them. With that, it gives a way to implement task management – to organize how to approach projects and ideas.

In this article, we will take a look on the book, have a brief overview on the methodology itself and what makes it different from other methodologies. Many applications are built upon this concept, but does it hold up to its fad?

Capturing new tasks is an important habit needed for successful use of a task management software. Many tasks in daily life involve incoming or outgoing emails as it is a main tool of communication with supervisors, business partners, and colleagues.

There is a convenient feature called Send-To-Inbox, which is supported by many task management applications. The idea is simple: Every email sent to a specific email address will be added to the task management as a new task.

In this article, we will discuss how to set up such a workflow, go over a couple of interesting use cases and in the end talk about how this feature can be used for automation.

The term productivity is vague. It can mean different things. Does one want to have more working time per day, or rather do the same work in less amount of time? Personal productivity is about having balanced workflows, reducing stress, and enhancing the quality of work.

How does one measure the rate of output and is it worth measuring? Is it mentally advisable to cramp as much working hours as possible into each working week?

In this article, we discuss at the goals of personal productivity, how to approach it, and a healthy way of thinking about personal workflows and such.

When working with an app like Things 3 or OmniFocus 3, one will quickly notice the folder in the top, called “Inbox.”

After using emails for decades, the concept of an Inbox should be clear, but what is its meaning in task management? Can one not enter tasks directly into the appropriate task list or project? Why is there an extra step, adding a task to an “Inbox” folder, when it will be temporary anyhow?

This feature will help streamline your workflows if used correctly. In this article, I will discuss its purpose, how new tasks should be captured, and how to make sure that the inbox stays tidy.

After creating the habit of using to-do lists, they can get messy. What to put into a task management app? Where to start when structuring tasks, sub-tasks, and projects? Most apps have a variety of features, but it is hard to use them properly, especially for a beginner.

Especially if having a large amount of tasks, to-do list apps or task management systems can get out of hand. There are many things to do at once, but not everything can be done at once. Maybe stuff cannot even be done because something else needs to be finished first. Maybe there is a date attached, from when a task can be worked on.

Having a proper structure helps to create trust in the system and workflows, gaining security. It helps to be reliable and not forgetting tasks. Finally, it helps to tackle work which would be overwhelming, otherwise.

On this site I cover a variety of topics on different areas related to productivity. However, for our launch we planned a series of articles on task management and Getting Things Done, including reviews of our most favorite apps.

In the following, we will outline all our articles related to task management.

A task management software is designed to be helpful. To remove noise from life. But when not organized properly, it can quickly backlash and result in something which adds more overhead than actually being helpful. The plan is: Avoiding and removing any noise, stuff which is not helpful for work. If tasks are entered wrongly, the list will be endless.

This article will go over a variety of tricks and tools to get the most out of task management by decluttering unneeded information. Not all task management applications will support every discussed feature, but a majority can be made to do a part of it. Mostly, this article focuses on methodology. They are ideas to try out or at least to keep in mind. The implementation of it will be very individual – both from the standpoint of used task management application and personal taste.

When looking at options for to-do lists, there are so many tools. How to choose the right one? What are the best options for which kind of user?

Different apps are for different users. They focus on a different core audience. A user should not adapt to an app. The app should adapt to the user. Therefore, it is wise to select a task management suite after the available features. Minimalistic vs. feature packed? Simplicity vs. customizability?

This article will go over some of those decisions. Which are the important things to consider before choosing an app; and which different methodologies result in what different needs. Last, some recommendations suited to different user groups are given.

When using a multiple of productivity apps, the number of inboxes can get overwhelming. An email from a supervisor and a related task in a task managing app. Each app serves its own purpose, but a variety of apps cause noise. This causes the stigma, that productivity geeks are busier with handling their workflows than handling their work.

So, how to avoid such situations? Automation is one way to solve this. There are more situations, where automation helps making workflows more efficient.

The following will give an overview of apps and utilities worth mentioning when talking of automation. A more hands-on approach with screenshots and examples will be part of future setup articles.

Many people like to work. Many people do not. If browsing websites about productivity, one is probably in the former camp. One way or another, it is important to keep health in mind.

There are a couple of things which can make a healthy lifestyle. Food, sports, sleep. The number of hours just working plays a big role. Despite loving work, less is often more.

During the work, it is important to have regular breaks. After work, forcing oneself to actually have a break is a good start. There is no need to think about work-related things all night.