Productivity

Office 2.0

1 Comment » Written on August 12th, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity
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One of the companies I have been casually following in the Business Process Management space is Intalio, mostly because the business is based on an open source model which I find fascinating. The CEO of Intalio is one Ismael Chang Ghalimi. I have never met Mr. Ghalimi, but I get some broadcast email from him from time to time. What intrigues me in his email is his signature which has url's to three sites:

  1. The Intalio corporate website.
  2. A Google Calendar showing free and busy times - a rather simple, yet neat idea.
  3. His blog.

His blog, IT|Redux is worth a read. Two articles that stood out for me:

  1. Monolab|Incubator: This article discusses shared office space, and the area of interest here for me is the vision of how "Office 2.0" would be implemented in such a set up, and the choices of workspaces and tools. I think there is actually a lot of good information here for freelancers, mobile workers and the 4-hour workweek crowd.
  2. Extreme Productivity Seminar: Mr. Ghalimi has developed an "extreme productivity system" around Dave Allen's Getting Things Done. He has apparently packaged this system into the Extreme Productivity Seminar, and his system seems to integrate Salesforce.com into GTD. He says:

As of today, I use it to manage over 200 independent projects, with more than 500 tasks related to them. In other words, it scales pretty well.

That sounds pretty impressive! Check it out.

One way to start thinking about Office 2.0 and extreme productivity is to subscribe to the Life Sutra today!

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140 Characters

No Comments » Written on July 3rd, 2008 by Brick
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Once upon a time there was a Prince who, through no fault of his own, was cast under a spell by an evil witch. The curse was that the Prince could speak only one word each year. However, he could save up the words so that if he did not speak for a whole year, the following year he was allowed to speak two words.

One day he met a beautiful princess (ruby lips, golden hair, sapphire eyes,) and fell madly in love. With the greatest difficulty he decided to refrain from speaking for two whole years so that he could look at her and say "my darling". But at the end of the two years he wished to tell her that he loved her. Because of this he waited three more years without speaking (bringing the total number of silent years to 5).

But at the end of these five years he realized that he had to ask her to marry him. So he waited ANOTHER four years without speaking.

Finally as the ninth year of silence ended, his joy knew no bounds. Leading the lovely princess to the most secluded and romantic place in that beautiful royal garden the prince heaped a hundred red roses on her lap, knelt before her, and taking her hand in his, said huskily, "My darling, I love you! Will you marry me?"

The princess tucked a strand of golden hair behind a dainty ear, opened her sapphire eyes in wonder, and parting her ruby lips, said: "Pardon?"

Source: You Make Me Laugh Humor List.

I have spoken highly of twitter, and despite its many uses, I took the term micro-blogging to heart, and I have used twitter literally as "what happens between blog posts". However, one thing that I had trouble with at first was the 140 character limit! It forces you to think about what you want to say and get to the point.

According to Wikipedia, Mahadev Desai, the original translator of Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, translated "Everyone should fast and stop work" to "Let all the people of India, therefore, suspend their business on that day and observe the day as one of fasting and prayer."

I think the use of twitter has forced me to be more cognizant of getting to the point, and I have started to take this lesson over to other mediums, mostly email, but also the telephone. Just the other day, a friend of mine emailed me regarding having been let go from his company and whether I thought the settlement they offered was fair. I ended up writing an easily 1000 word response expressing my sympathy, discussing my own  experiences, sharing my thoughts and outlining some suggested courses of action. After I hit the send button I thought, how would I have responded in 140 characters or less. I knew right away: "Get a qualified opinion on the settlement offer. Consult a labor lawyer or expert." This would have been a much better response.

Further Reading: Some tips on living within 140 characters.

How about this for getting to the point: Subscribe to the Life Sutra today!

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7 Lessons from Kitchen Nightmares

2 comments Written on June 17th, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity
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I really enjoy the television show Kitchen Nightmares. The show features acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsay:

In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence.

Source: Wikipedia.

I have suggested that I would love to see a show developed called Productivity Nightmares. In such a show, a productivity guru would visit failing businesses, or managers at a larger company, and help them make a dramatic impact in productivity and effectiveness. In the meantime, it occurred to me that there are recurring themes (lessons, best practices, or whatever you want to call them) that keep recurring in Kitchen Nightmares. I figure these lessons could be applied to almost any type of business or work:

1. It's a Business

First and foremost, what you are doing represents a business, whether you own your company, or are an employee (in which case you are actually in the business of selling your time/effort, albeit to a single client at a time, namely your employer). You cannot afford to get too emotionally attached to the work itself, a specific product, or way of doing things. The bottom line rules: you have to make money to keep the whole thing viable.

2. Simple, Honest

"Simple, honest food, made from locally grown ingredients." I think Gordon Ramsay says this at some point in every episode. outside of the restaurant, I think this means keeping the basics in mind and getting them right. Perhaps at times we try to be too fancy, or provide a product or level of service that is not consistent with our means or resources. Providing simple and honest work (or a simple and honest product) often works remarkably well.

3. Customers

It's all about getting customers in the door, coming back, and saying good things about what you do or produce.

4. Balls

You have to have balls. Everything at work is not going to be easy. You have to say what you want and stand up to anything or anyone that gets in the way. This isn't about being mean or ruthless, but to have a clear vision of what needs to be done, no matter what, to move the enterprise forward, for the ultimate betterment of all. Which leads to the next lesson:

5. Confront and Eliminate Problems

How many times are we afraid to confront problems or a problem person? It can be extremely uncomfortable, and as a result, we often tend to avoid dealing with these things, somehow wishing they will fix themselves or just go away. When you are treading water, you cannot afford not to confront problems, and if necessary, eliminate them (yes, sometimes that means firing people).

6. Simple, Thoughtful Marketing

If you've ever watched the show, chef Ramsay usually goes out into the neighborhood to draw new customers into the restaurant. The approach is usually extremely straightforward, and thoughtful - maybe with an interesting twist - but always very simple. He'll take a tray of sample food to the local train station, or parade through the town with a big banner proclaiming "Where's the gravy?". We need to market ourselves and/or our businesses to get the word out that we exist and get customers in the door. Sometimes you simply need to parade yourself in front of your target market more than you need to spend time and money on things like fancy SEO strategies and glossy brochures.

7. Mentor

There is no denying that the simple fact of Gordon Ramsey being present may be the catalyst to turning a restaurant around. In the same way, we can find a mentor to help us turn our own businesses around. Don't be afraid to seek out an expert and ask for help.

Here's another best practice: subscribe to the Life Sutra!

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What Happened To The Newly Rich?

2 comments Written on June 10th, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity
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palmThe New Rick are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rick: time and mobility.

Source: 4-Hour Workweek.

I just read a post by Hilary Catherall over at her personal blog. She writes about her discouragement with the 4-Hour Workweek. Besides having written a guest post for The Life Sutra, Hillary was one of a handful of 4-Hour Workweek bloggers I started to follow early on when I first initiated this blog. Hilary is not the only 4-Hour Workweek blogger that seems to have had some frustration. I think she shares the same frustration that others have, in particular with respect to "muses" which Timothy Ferris, the author of the 4-Hour Workweek describes as:

...an automated vehicle for generating cash without consuming time.

Source: 4-Hour Workweek.

I have always thought that the "muse" component of the book was the weakest part, and came across like an infomercial. If it was that easy to create these cash generation machines, everyone would have them! Wanting something doesn't make it so.

Of Chickens & Eggs

I think we should all appreciate something about Timothy Ferriss and muses: Tim had the basis of his main muse before he had his breakthrough regarding what it means to be one of the newly rich. It seems that he was conventionally rich before he was newly rich. Regardless of the financial metric and definitions of the term "rich", his supplement business pre-existed the 4-Hour Workweek. It's easy to talk about muses when you already have one! How many people have developed products and services that have not become muses??? Those people might have the exact same philosophy as Tim. Hopefully you get the point - the 4-Hour Workweek philosophy and the ability to create "muses" are not necessarily correlated at all.

Mutual Funds

I want to talk briefly about mutual funds. You may think I am digressing here, but I promise I am not! There is no question that mutual funds could be used as part of a personal investment strategy and could provide value to the purchasers of these funds. However, you should always keep something in mind: mutual funds are products not investments. While, as a product, they may provide value for investors, they are, as a product, meant to provide the greatest value to the shareholders of the mutual fund company! And so it is with the 4-Hour Workweek.

First and foremost, it is a book that is designed to provide revenue and profits for its author, its publisher and those that sell the book. The book is a "muse" for the author! Does this mean it is somehow not as valuable? Hardly. Just like mutual funds, this product can provide value for the purchasers. I am also quite sure that the stakeholders intend to provide that value. Most businesses truly wish to provide value to their customers as such value is what will ultimately ensure ongoing revenues and profits.

The Hype Cycle & The 5 Stages of Grief

I have written previously about the 4-Hour Workweek's hype cycle. After reading Hilary's post, I started to wonder if any disillusionment (the Trough of Disillusionment in the hype cycle) with the 4-Hour Workweek could somehow be equated with the 5 stages of grief:

  • Denial: This is probably what is occurring on the downside of the peak of inflated expectations. You loved the book and you don't want to admit that maybe creating these muses to fund the lifestyle of the newly rich is perhaps not so easy.
  • Anger: This is when you realize that the whole muse concept is cheesy.
  • Bargaining: This is when you figure you can work 50 hours a week instead of 60 and call it a victory. The book was at least somewhat helpful.
  • Depression: This is when you realize you are still working 50 hours a week. Has anything really changed?
  • Acceptance: This is when you turn to Buddhism.

The Ugly, The Bad, And The Good

So yes, the muse idea could be labeled as cheesy. There are no free lunches - ask an economist or even a physicist. But there is a lot of good ideas in the 4-Hour workweek. Hilary even reminds us of the main attributes of the truly rich:

  • You do the least possible amount of work for money.
  • You control your own time & location as if you were independently wealthy.
  • You use stuff & money as means to having exciting, fulfilling experiences.

Source: Hilary Catherall

In a way, Ferriss is only trying to show how these are possible. Put another way, how many of us do so much work, only not to be compensated fairly, or for others to be compensated more for the same amount of work? How many of us are slaves to someone else's clock? How many of us are slaves to our possessions instead of having fulfilling experiences?

What happened to the Life Sutra? Find out by subscribing to the Life Sutra feed today!

Credits

Thanks to Rhett Maxwell for the photo of the palm tree and rainbow.

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Incrementalism

5 comments Written on May 26th, 2008 by Brick
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The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
- Lao Tzu 

 

journey

Here's my definition of incrementalism: One step at a time. One problem at a time. Working and producing in small batches. Here's another definition and some examples (from Wikipedia):

Incrementalism is a method of working by adding to a project using many small (often unplanned) changes instead of a few (extensively planned) large jumps. Wikipedia, for example, illustrates the concept by building an encyclopedia bit by bit, continually adding to it. In a similar vein, it is said that Virgil wrote the Aeneid in an incremental process, averaging one line per day.

 

To me, incrementalism is the opposite of gold plating: adding an excessive amount of features or attributes to a given endeavor because they are possible, or cool. In a direct way, incrementalism is the negation of my post on perfection and why it's a productivity killer.

One thing that has always amazed me about software development is that once you have a small core set of functionality, you can incrementally add new features here and there over time. Before you know it you have an amazing feature set and the software often starts to take on a life of its own.

Same goes for blogs: You put in some time setting it up, writing some pillar content to get it going, try to market it, etc. After a while, you are mostly just adding a post here and there. Before you know it, it takes on a life of its own and you have a huge amount of material, and hopefully readers!

Here's an example I have often reflected on: I notice that Google often releases very simple software, or at least software that could easily have many more features than it initially has. But instead of releasing a gazzillion features all at once, they get the simple stuff right and add to it over time, with equally small upgrades. Sometimes the pace is almost frustrating, but the software is always good.

So what fundamental assumption are we questioning here? How about these:

  • Go big or go home.
  • If you are going to do something, go big.
  • Start with a splash.
  • It's all or nothing.
  • You have to have "critical mass".

How about this instead: you can start very simple, and incrementally build on it. Time is on your side, have patience. I would say, wanting everything up front in and of itself is enough to dissuade you from starting anything. Something is better than nothing!

Photo Credit: Shyald

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Anti-Anti-Hacks

No Comments » Written on May 23rd, 2008 by Brick
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There are hacks, and there are anti-hacks. Both have their merit. I think this blog has been a mixture of both almost since the beginning. I like certain things about Getting Things Done ("GTD"), and yet I detest productivity for productivity's sake. After all, it was the book The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss that actually inspired me to start writing on "lifestyle" in the first place - a book dead set against work for work's sake.

A Theme Evolves

As I have evolved, or perhaps more honestly, stumbled along in writing my posts, I keep coming back in my mind to the double edged sword that the Life Sutra or "rules of life" represent. On the one side, the "rules of life" represent unquestioned assumptions dictated by conventional wisdom. These rules often limit our potential without us even knowing it. At the same time, those brave enough to question these assumptions about how life works often uncover hints towards new rules of life - the positive side of the Life Sutra - that offer new possibilities and perhaps even revolutionary change.

Consider my most popular post to date - an update on a high intensity training program I used at the gym as the basis for a new fitness regimen. When you think about it, the whole concept of high intensity training is a questioning of accepted conventional wisdom which has always dictated that you have to train long and hard to achieve significant muscular growth or maintain peak fitness. High intensity training suggests you can achieve better results through significantly less training! So that series of posts is really all about questioning the existing "rules", and seeing what is possible once you step out of the self imposed barriers they often create. And this was a post about going to the gym! 

The theme repeats itself... what if what we experience is not really "real" outside of our thoughts? What if perfect isn't really the best? What if you didn't go to your office when you needed to be at work? What if you didn't keep true to your dreams?

Being In The Question

Let's consider another example, something I have not really written about directly. Proponents of Getting Things Done will argue persuasively about the productivity gains such a system provides with simple concepts like capture easing the mental bookkeeping often required in our hectic lives. The budding anti-hack movement observes lives built around a productivity system and a myriad of to-do lists - maybe having a system is necessary, but the productivity system should not become an end to itself. Both sides make compelling cases. However, maybe the real question is what exactly are you trying to get done? Should you even be doing this? Those are the questions that I find the most powerful. Yes, it is good to argue the merits of this or make fun of that, but sometimes it is better to question the axiom itself.

So that is what I think the Life Sutra is all about: questioning so-called "rules of life" and seeing where that takes us. Sometimes you don't even have to answer the question to discover new possibilities. In fact, once you start questioning these tacit assumptions, maybe you should avoid coming to any kind of "answer". If you think about it, an answer hints at some kind of finality. Answers inhibit the possibility of new options by stopping the question.

A New Focus

Soon you will see a few changes here at the Life Sutra - things like a new tag line and some consistent themes between posts. I think I have finally articulated a way I want to look at lifestyle design, productivity, personal development, life hacking and anti-hacking - by considering some of the fundamental assumptions upon which popular productivity, lifestyle and hacking techniques are based. At the same time, I want to keep it practical. Yes, perhaps the ultimate solution is to sell everything, meditate (or chant - I think chanting in the monastic movement is underrated with all the hype over meditation - is it just me???) and hope for enlightenment. I tried that once, but I momentarily left the state of Nirvana to get a beverage and upon returning had insufficient funds for the cover charge.

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The Top 5 Posts That Subtly Mock This Blog And A Zen System For The Artful Ridicule Of The Life Sutra

2 comments Written on May 1st, 2008 by Brick
Categories: Articles, Productivity, Web & Tech
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jumpingThe honest and sincere ones invite ridicule,
While the false and scheming ones enjoy praise.

- Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

 

Instead of writing something original, I thought I would simply rehash some existing content on the Internet. I just read a hilarious post over at one of my all time favourite blogs The Growing Life and it occurred to me that I could use one of my beloved, top secret techniques (mysteriously named "Ctrl+C") to quickly add content to my own blog!

So without further ado, the top posts containing hacks for writing  productivity articles that in reality subtly deride the Life Sutra (and really any "productivity" blog):

  1. 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It
  2. Go to The Growing Life home page and scroll down until you see the post "70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It"
  3. Google "70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It"
  4. Try this article on Digg.
  5. If it's worth saying once, it is worth saying again: 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It

Another List

Why create my own list, when I can use someone else's? Let's see how the Life Sutra measures up against these Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks (Hint: for what follows, you really have to read Clay's article first if you have not already done so - I know, I probably have not provided enough links):

1. Call Your Article a Guide or System: I am not sure I have actually called my articles "guides" or "systems". I am such a novice! However, something like GMail From The Desktop could easily have been titled "The Simple Zen Hack Guide For Accessing Gmail From The Desktop". I just wasn't thinking.

2. Make a Numbered List: I love numbered lists! For examples, you can click on almost any of my posts. I sensed early on that the "list of tips" format was a winner.

3. Include a Number in the Title: Yes, I also figured that one out on my own. Maybe I'm not such a newbie to the productivity blog genre after all!

4. Make the List Long: No, I have not done this (because I am lazy) which means that my blog was not the sole inspiration for 70 Simple Power Tao Secret Hacks to Writing the Perfect Productivity Article, Plus a Guide & System for Doing It.

5. Write a Really Good Productivity Article: Of course, this is exactly what I am always doing.

6. Make Sure you “Hack-ify” Your Tips: Yeah, I throw the "hack" word around a lot, but not nearly enough. After I hack some coffee and hack a daily creative period, I might be better able to hack a list of article ideas that can be hackified. Hack, hack, hack, hack, hack...Hold on! I'm too sexy for hacks.

7. Don’t Use Transitions: I don't even know what they are, so I definitely don't use them.

8. Use as Many Buzzwords as Possible in the Title: Lesson learned - see number (1).

9. Write About a Buzz Topic like how to wake up early, and how you’ve implemented GTD: I've done both. 

10. Ignore the Principals of Psychology: Out of sheer laziness, my lists are rather short (see 4).

11. Don’t Cite Any Research: I never do.

12. It’s OK to Write about the Same Topic Over and Over Again: Like waking up early and GTD?

13-25. Its OK To Add Fluff To Your List Just To Take Up Space: I don't do enough of this, but point taken.

26. Tell People to Write Down Their Goals: That's a great idea for a post! thanks!!!

27. State the obvious: Fish are not people.

28. Write More Things on Your list: Yes I get it, you really have a thing for long lists.

“While the laughter of joy is in full harmony with our deeper life, the laughter of amusement should be kept apart from it. The danger is too great of thus learning to look at solemn things in a spirit of mockery, and to seek in them opportunities for exercising wit.”

- Lewis Carroll

Credits

Thanks Cat Louise for the jumping photo!

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How Fine Grained Should Your To-Do List Be?

No Comments » Written on April 30th, 2008 by Brick
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In Getting Things Done, Dave Allen suggests that we must always be working from lists of actionable tasks. The "actionable" part is a powerful distinction. As Allen points out, we often end up with big chunky activities like "Marketing Campaign" on our to-do lists. The problem is that this is not actionable as you cannot really do a marketing campaign. What you can actually do is perform all the fine grained tasks that go into a marketing campaign, for example, one can research advertising channels, write copy, hire a graphic designer, create an advertising budget, etc. Without a list of actionable tasks, we run the risk of becoming paralysed when we reach something as chunky and undefined as "Marketing Campaign" on our list of things to do.

So far so good: we understand the need to break down the big things into a set of smaller, actionable tasks. However, how small do we go? How granular should we break down a task for our to-do lists? My opinion is that we should split big activities into a subset of actionable tasks based on how long these actionable tasks will take to complete. Specifically, for the sake of a to-do list, an actionable task should be something that can be completed in a single session.

A session corresponds to the typical length of an uninterrupted period in a given context.  In the office, you might be able to count on one hour of time before you could be interrupted by meetings, phones, or colleagues.  It might be as long as the entire workday if you don't usually get a lot of phone calls or interruptions. However, in the office a session could never be longer than one work day! For tasks in your house, a session might be more like 30 minutes. A session is the amount of uninterrupted time you can usually count on in a given context.

Why should we engineer it so that our actionable tasks can be completed in a single session in a given context?

  1. Because once you start it, you can finish it and therefore partially completed tasks do not litter your to-do list.
  2. Because you will always complete something you always have a sense of progress and accomplishment.
  3. If it will take longer than a single session, you probably have not thought through the activity in enough detail, and what is involved in completing the overall task. So it is a good check.
  4. It eliminates a desire to put off or procrastinate on the "big things" because, well everything and anything on your to-do list fits into your working time.

Joel Spolsky provides excellent advice on creating task lists for software development projects that is equally applicable to just about any to-do list:

Pick very fine grained tasks. This is the most important part to making your schedule work. Your tasks should be measured in hours, not days. (When I see a schedule measured in days, or even weeks, I know it's not real). You might think that a schedule with fine grained tasks is merely more precise. Wrong! Very wrong! When you start with a schedule with rough tasks and then break it down into smaller tasks, you will find that you get a different result, not just a more precise one. It is a completely different number. Why does this happen?

When you have to pick fine grained tasks, you are forcing yourself to actually figure out what steps you are going to have to take...These steps are easy to estimate...because you've [done them] before.

If you are sloppy, and pick big "chunky" tasks... then you haven't really thought about what you are going to do. And when you haven't thought about what you're going to do, you just can't know how long it will take...

Here's another reason to pick fine grained tasks: ...By being forced to plan ahead at this level, you eliminate a lot of the instability in a ... project.

Source: Joel On Software. 

Here's something actionable for your to-do list: subscribe to Life Sutra.

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Productivity Nightmares

3 comments Written on April 28th, 2008 by Brick
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Anyone who has followed this blog from the beginning will know that my wife and I are big fans of cooking, and the Food Network on television. One show that I particularly enjoy is Kitchen Nightmares. The show features acclaimed chef Gordon Ramsay:

In each episode, Ramsay visits a failing restaurant and acts as a troubleshooter to help improve the establishment in just one week. Ramsay revisits the restaurant a few months later to see how business has fared in his absence.

Source: Wikipedia.

I would like to see someone produce a show called Productivity Nightmares. The synopsis for the show would be as follows: In each episode, productivity guru <insert famous guru's name here> visits a failing business to make a dramatic impact in productivity and effectiveness in just one week. <insert famous guru's name here> revisits the business a few months later to see how it has faired in his/her absence.

You could do shows about disorganized and non-productive homes as well as businesses. I think a guru that is brutally frank and not afraid of a little confrontation (like Gordon Ramsay) would work really well. Unlike the restaurant business, we would probably all be able to relate to the various shows in some way.

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Number 1 Productivity Practice

1 Comment » Written on April 28th, 2008 by Brick
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You may have noticed that I have been missing in action for a couple weeks. The culprit behind this absence? Multiple projects and an ongoing problem with perfectionism. With respect to the projects, I am working on two major activities at work, one of which is completely new, uncharted territory with the requisite, and inefficient, trial and error attributes. On top of that, I am in the middle of a significant home renovation. My wife was also on the road, leaving me to care for the kids! Busy, busy, busy! Of course, the curse of perfectionism has kept me from being out there (this post, being somewhat off the cuff, is my attempt to start addressing this issue).

In the past, this amount of stuff occurring concurrently at work and at home, coupled with a lack of family support would have drowned me in stress and anxiety. While I wasn't organized enough to post, and fell behind on other tasks on a few occasions, I was pleased by the general lack of stress over the last couple of weeks. I attribute it to all the work I have done on personal productivity and lifestyle, including the great many blogs out there sharing lessons, tips and mentorship on productivity, simplification and life hacking.

It all got me to thinking, what is your number one productivity, or life hacking practice? After the challenges of the last couple weeks, I know what mine is: capture. The concept of capture is very well articulated in Dave Allen's Getting Things Done. Basically it amounts to capturing everything, whether mail, to-do's, ideas and even random thoughts into a real and tangible "inbox". In this way, we can clear our heads, knowing that we won't loose track of potentially important items that require our attention. In the midst of so much work, I was able to to stay sane knowing that everything and anything was captured in my system, and even though I had yet to process most of it, everything was there in my inbox - I didn't have to mentally keep track of anything. While it is just the starting point for Getting Things Done (GTD), in my opinion, capture alone provides 80% of the benefits of the GTD methodology.

What is your number one productivity practice?

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