Articles – Page 2 – Productived.net

Improve productivity with Apple Watch sleep trackers

Your body plays a big and important role in life, and also in your work. If your body disagrees, you won’t be able to focus, and won’t be able to do efficient work.

A crucial factor is sleep. If not well rested, concentrating will feel hard. While possibly being able to physically come to work, the actual work will definitely not be very efficient, or as efficient as it could be.

Try to improve your productivity by having a good sleeping schedule and hygiene. There are many smaller things which can help with this. Tracking your sleeping time will give insight on what to improve. Using a smartwatch, like the Apple Watch, can help further.

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Evernote web clipping plus todo lists as a reliable read-later tool

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Workflows | automation evernote setup tools webclip

There are often things you read in web, which are actually interesting, but just come in the wrong moment. Directly before a meeting, or when actually searching for something completely unrelated.

It is still important to keep track of these things, ideally in a way that is archived, so even when the blog post in question disappears from the web, you can have access to this knowledge. Web clipping and read-later tools come to help.

This article will discuss a way to first use the Evernote web clipper efficiently for this purpose. Then, to not forget clipped items, it will look into ways to automate the workflow from web clipping an article to a reminder in your task management tool, and the right tagging to be able to actually retrieve older clipping.

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Creating reminders for the long term

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Workflows | gtd methodology setup tasks

Sometimes, there are tasks which are rare or only relevant in the long term, but still important – even in daily life outside of work.

For example, home maintenance: Spring cleaning, washing curtains, washing bedding. The small things, which are often forgotten way too quickly. And before you think about it, you sleep in months of your own sweat. When using task management, think in the long term.

This article will go over on how to efficiently use task management in the long term to not forget even the rarest occasions.

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Launching Productived.net

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | News | news website

Welcome to Productived.net. After a long time of preparations, this post marks the public launch of Productived.net.

This blog aims at helping readers to find interesting new ideas to enhance workflows. In extensive reviews, it provides analyses of utilities, applications, and services which can help with easing your work.

In regular updates this website aims at providing a constant stream of new ideas and apps to try out and incorporate into your workflows.

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A web-based approach to GTD with GTDNext

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Reviews for Tasks | gtd tasks tools

This review takes a closer look at a task management service called GTDNext. The very acronymic name already tells half of the story: If familiar with GTD – which by the way stands for the Getting Things Done method – it almost explains itself.

The application is a niche app fully tailored to a single approach to task management. It does not allow much customization, but implements a single paradigm for task management very well and structured.

Is this app something for everybody, or rather a niche app for productivity fanatics?

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A todo list for every platform with Todoist

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Reviews for Tasks | automation gtd tasks tools

Todoist is one of the most prominent applications in the genre of task management. It is used by many, and thus often recommended throughout the productivity community.

The web-based service uses a one layout fits anywhere approach with an app for virtually any platform, providing the same appearance and featureset everywhere. It approaches task management rather simple: With fewer features, less distracting elements and a bit of gamification; to be an efficient companion in daily work.

We will take a look at the service to see whether it is a valid choice for your task management needs. Can it compete with other giants in task management?

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Book: Getting Things Done

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Literature | books gtd literature methodology tasks

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?

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The Inbox in task management

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Workflows | gtd inbox methodology setup tasks

When working with an app like Things 3 or OmniFocus 2, 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 relevant 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, we will discuss its purpose, how new tasks should be captured, and how to make sure that the inbox stays tidy.

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Sending emails to the task inbox

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Setups | automation inbox tasks

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.

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Approaching personal productivity

by Marc A. Kastner | November 23, 2018 (updated) | 0 | Workflows | balance methodology

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.

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