Top Performers have strange and unique routines
This is a must-read article! It's from LifeDev.net. It shows the very unique working routines of powerful thoughleaders and creatives. Here's a clue. They don't sit all day staring a the computer, waiting for the next mail, to tell them what to do.
The lives of great people give us interesting clues about how to organise our days.
All of them attached great value to their daily routines. This is because they saw it as being part of ‘becoming who they are’, as Nietzsche puts it.
For the same reason they were also highly individual in their routines. They had the courage to go against popular opinion and work out often strange daily plans that suited them.
link: 10 Ways History’s Finest Kept Their Focus at Work | LifeDev
Key Findings:
- Get a lot of real mental rest
- Work less
- Do a variety of things
I love the way talking long walks figures extensively in this list. Recently I find that going out for a no-purpose walk is my best way to regain focus.
Link spotted on Zenhabits.
- Jens Poder
Stop doing half-actions
One of the main productivity tips I have been given is this: eliminate half-actions in your daily habits. Focus on getting the job done to a level, where the value of the job is achieved.
“It’s only the last turn of a bolt that tightens it - the rest is just movement.” - Shigeo Shingo
What is a half action? Well... you see them all the time. It's everytime someone has started on something and then haven't brougt it to the level where something was actually accomplished. Here is some examples:
- Garbage taken halfway out. Now it sits in front of the door in smelly pile of bags. Moving the bags the final 4 meters would haven taken just a little more. Now the task remains. Nothing has been accomplished.
- Starting on a job you haven't got the time to finish. If you start on a knowledge task, and only gets half-way through. Instead break knowledge work into manageable chunks. Do the brainstorm/outline whatever. Don't write half a paragraph, then leave it, and ditch it and start all over in the morning.
When you start to consider these half-actions, you'll be surprised how many of them you do out of sheer habit.
I tend to empty the dinnertable, and then put all the dinnerware and the plates in a big pile on the kitchen-table. Why didn't I put them straight into the dishwasher?
I also have a bad habit of leaving my newly washed clothes in a pile on a small chair next to my wardrope, and THEN, some time later, put it into the wardrobe. How weird is that?
In your daily life such half-action habits are just annoying, perhaps especially for the people living with you. But in the workplace they're a real hazard for completing anything. It's where I have gained the most value from this shift of habits.
You need to cut through the tendency in busy organizations to get a lot of projects moved very little, instead of focusing. This is mainly done out of a misplaced will to show stakeholders that you put in some effort. Don't put in the effort. Deliver the goods instead.
Sometimes you will feel the urge to "get started" on something, where you haven't actually got the time or ressources to finish the task. I say take a break instead, or find something you can actually complete.
When I succeed with this kind of willful focus on finishing tasks and reaching goals, instead of just satisficing and shuffling papers around, I accomplish much more
Half-completed knowledgework doesn't mature with age, like fine wine. It gets stale and crumbles like bread. Stop a couple of times every day, and ask yourself: "Am I about to complete this?"
- Jens Poder
Iphone Omnifocus: A quick review
So, at last I got my Iphone and Omnifocus, and thus the possibility to have one system for all my todo and GTD needs across platforms.
Overall, Omnifocus is very nice. It does everything you want it to do. It syncs with my mac through mobileme, and that is the killer value I wanted. One system to rule it all...
But it has a couple of problems, that I find annoying, especially considering the price. It is among the most expensive Iphone apps.
It's still in beta! You are actually participating in Omnigroups development phase. This means you're risking your vital data. I would be in deep trouble, should I loose my todo-data. This has happened to some users! So beware! Daily builds and upgrades is part of the iphone omnifocus experience.
It's rather slow! When opening, it loads everything, and it really takes quite a long time. I tend to leave Omnifocus running when putting my iphone to sleep. This lets me start my iphone in omnifocus and capture stuff to the inbox faster. I would love a quick fast capture app, to put stuff into the inbox, without loading and syncing and whatnot. Speed is of the essence, when you want to capture something.
Mobileme syncronization is expensive. I'm not a big mobileme fan. In my view it's just a pricey bundling of services pioneered by others. It's the one product category where Apple isn't innovating. So I would love a simple way to sync my data without the mobileme webdav. Perhaps some of you out there have ideas.
All in all, it works. But it isn't the power-experience you have come to expect from the makers of OmniOutliner, OmniGraphle and OmniFocus for mac. It works. But it didn't blow me away.
- Jens Poder