Why I Keep My Work And Life In Separate Notebooks

Why I Keep My Work And Life In Separate Notebooks

There are a lot of productivity systems out there that insist that you have to keep everything in one place. There is a solid logic behind this stance: one place means you never have to decide where to put things, and you never have to figure out where to look. One life, one system.

But there is another side too. There are just as good reasons to maintain separate systems for work and non-work parts of your life. Today I will go over my reasons for maintaining two separate systems.
What is Done?

What is Done?

How do you know you are done traveling if you don't know where you're going? None of us would start a journey without some destination, or even just an idea of what you want to accomplish. Imagine running errands without any idea of what you needed to do!

Of course it makes sense when I put it like that, but how many of us know what we are trying to accomplish with our projects? Few of us actually stop and think about what Done looks like. We may have a vague idea, but most of us just plunge into the project without considering the end.
cyclical tasks

Handling Cyclical Tasks: Getting Household Things Done

It's often said that out of sight is out of mind. At the same time, things ignored pile up and can get out of hand. Getting Household Things Done really has two parts: the items that process through the system, and the items that reoccur. Today we will look at how to handle those cyclical tasks within a framework of Getting Household Things Done.
Getting Household Things Done: Setting Up Mission Control

Getting Household Things Done: Setting Up Mission Control

Most of the productivity systems and instructions out there are written for work and business. Trying to apply the system to the household can be troublesome, particularly with managing the dozens of little projects that come up just in the course of living. If you don't have a system to manage the papers and projects, Getting Household Things Done becomes a morass of unfinished and forgotten projects. The key to managing the papers and projects is having a center where everything gets processed. Over the next two articles I will share with you my Mission Control center, the key to Getting Household Things projects done. Today we will examine my Mission Control setup.
Getting Household Things Done

Getting Household Things Done

One of the downfalls to the Getting Things Done system is that it focuses on work. And in that focus, it loses sight of the myriad things that have to be done to support life.

I've suspected for a long time that the reason so many people are able to make Getting Things Done work is because they have someone to deal with the household stuff.

Today we start a series of articles on Getting Household Things Done, which will cover applying the tenets of modern productivity systems to the maintenance tasks of life.
How To Move Small Stalled Projects Forward

How To Move Small Stalled Projects Forward

The 12 Week plan is a great way to get moving on the stuff that I never seem to have time for. It allows me to break things down and schedule what I am going to do to make sure I make progress. But it works best for large, complex projects with multiple steps. What about smaller projects? Was there a way to move small stalled projects forward?
Block Scheduling

Block Scheduling: Good or Bad?

If you are looking to stop wasting time in your day, block scheduling can seem like a really good idea. I tried it for a few weeks, and I have found that it has pros and cons.

What is Block Scheduling?

Block scheduling is when you take the free time on your calendar and fill that time with intended focus and/or tasks.

As a proponent of deliberate living, this seemed like a very good thing: sit down once a week and choose what I will be doing with my non-structured time. I hoped that it would eliminate wasted time that I could be doing something productive. I also hoped that it would allow me to be more deliberate in how I was spending my time.
cell phone

Why I Keep My Cell Phone On

One of the common pieces of productivity wisdom is "turn your cell phone off." I agree that smart phones can be a distraction. It all comes down to managing the usage. And I leave mine on, even when I need to concentrate. Here's why.