On Using Time Wisely
Sometimes when I'm working on something, I get lucky and am so lost "in
the moment" that time appears to stop and I'm hardly aware of what's
going on around me. If someone is willing to pay me to do what I enjoy
doing, then it doesn't really seem like "work" at all.
Unfortunately, a lot of the time, it's hard to get into "the flow".
Distractions, politics, egos, unrealistic schedules and uninteresting
projects are motivation-killers. So I need a little help to "get things
done". Here are some possibly counter-intuitive and even contradictory
thoughts and techniques on how to use time effectively.
1. "HOWTO: Be more productive"
<http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/productivity>
"First, you have to make the best of each kind of time. And second, you
have to try to make your time higher-quality."
2. "The Pmarca Guide to Personal Productivity"
<http://pmarca-archive.posterous.com/the-pmarca-guide-to-personal-
productivity>
"The techniques that follow work together as an integrated set for me,
but they probably won't for you. Maybe you'll get one or two ideas --
probably out of the ideas I stole from other people. If so, I have
succeeded."
3. "The Lazy Manifesto: Do Less. Then, Do Even Less."
<http://zenhabits.net/2009/01/the-lazy-manifesto-do-less-then-do-
even-less/>
"Lazy is often seen as a bad thing, but I disagree. Lazy is an amazing
thing. Here's just a few reasons why..."
4. "How to Procrastinate Like Leonardo da Vinci"
<http://newsletter.classicalpursuits.com/march-2009/34-procrastination-
march-2009.html>
"After he solved its conceptual problems, Leonardo lost interest until
someone forced his hand. Even then, Leonardo often became a perfection-
ist about details that no one else could see, and the job just didn't
get done."
"If there is one conclusion to be drawn from the life of Leonardo, it is
that procrastination reveals the things at which we are most gifted -
the things we truly want to do. Procrastination is a calling away from
something that we do against our desires toward something that we do
for pleasure, in that joyful state of self-forgetful inspiration that
we call genius."
5. "The Pomodoro Technique"
<http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/>
"The Pomodoro Technique(tm) is a way to get the most out of time
management. Turn time into a valuable ally to accomplish what we want
to do and chart continuous improvement in the way we do it."
6. TASCK
<http://tasck.com/>
A simple online to-do list manager.
