Productivity and Organization, Part 2

• Posted by DynamicHedge
• on January 17th, 2011

Tackling large amounts of work can be daunting and lead to avoidance and procrastination.  Procrastination is something that even the most productive people struggle with.  Twitter and other “social” distractions don’t help either.  One way I combat this is a little mind hack I developed.  I set a timer for 30 minutes and tell myself that I will work solid until I hear the alarm.  Simple, right?  Anyone can buckle down and work for a half-hour.  By the time the alarm sounds I’ve either forgotten my procrastination, discovered something interesting in the project that drives me to complete it, or I’ve already completed the project.  Try it for yourself and see how you do.

I’m already a busy man, which means I reject a lot of pointless appointments and requests.  If I accept more work, it means it’s critical. New business usually falls into a gray area between postit and full appointment.  It’s important, so I can’t just scribble on a postit and potentially forget, but I hate going through all the hassle of creating a calendar event for something I will probably complete in 4 hours.  Enter Due the (minimalist) Cadillac of timing and scheduling apps.  It’s perfect for quickly creating reminders for tasks you need to complete, and creating reoccurring alerts for all the mundane BS you always forget.

Due: The Missing Reminder App (DueApp)

Due Is a Simple and Quick Reminder App for Your iPhone (Lifehacker)

Do one thing. Do it really well. Repeat. (BoingBoing)

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