All Questions
19
votes
10answers
600 views
Methods for reducing time spent in meetings
One of the biggest hits to productivity is time lost in meetings.
Are there any methods to avoid unnecessary meetings and improving the productivity of the meetings that are held?
19
votes
10answers
612 views
How do you fill in the “dead” time when using a computer?
Working with a computer generates periods of "wasted" or "dead" time. I'm talking about the time during which the computer compiles your program, performs a sophisticated computation or downloads an ...
19
votes
9answers
2k views
How to motivate people to self-improve themselves?
I'm the curious type of person that likes to learn more, do things in less time, do things better, etc. I take that as a personal challenge and I honestly love it. Of course, it IS a challenge, not ...
19
votes
11answers
968 views
Why do I start wasting time when I am excited about learning some technical stuff?
I make plans, todo lists, etc. about the technical stuff which I have to study.
I am not, but I do wish to become an excellent C++ programmer.
Now, *
(when I am pretty excited about learning the ...
19
votes
5answers
942 views
Why am I not motivated in this excellent situation?
I am working as a freelance contractor. For a long time I have been paid by the hour. This has worked fine and my motivation has never been a problem. Now, I have gotten a deal where I get half of any ...
19
votes
4answers
835 views
How can I eliminate fear of phone calling?
I've always been a shy person, never really speaking up or trying to take the leader role. But I tried to change and step out of my comfort zone, and now I'm not really afraid of most things. I don't ...
18
votes
7answers
2k views
How to use GTD both at home and at work
I'd like to use GTD, but work in an office away from home. I rarely take work home with me, but sometimes, for example, bring bills to be paid to work with me. I would especially like to hear from ...
18
votes
8answers
582 views
Being productive without energy
I use a variety of GTD-related systems that work smoothly for juggling many projects---as long as I have plenty of energy to pick out the right actions for 'now' and get cracking. However, when I sit ...
18
votes
3answers
2k views
How does office temperature affect productivity?
I'm curious if there have been any studies that can tie office temperature to productivity. Is it better to be warm or cold or 'just right'? Is there a standard temperature that is best for ...
18
votes
4answers
367 views
What are the first steps to unfreezing a mind paralyzed with stuff bouncing around in it?
This happens to me so often I've lost track.
I have so many things to do. One thing gets to the frontal lobe (top of the heap, whatever) then something else jumps on top of it before I have a chance ...
18
votes
11answers
4k views
How do I get faster at typing when you already have a decent speed?
At the moment I type roughly with 60 words per minute. What kind of practice would I have to do to get to 90 words per minute?
What practice is best and how much time would it take?
18
votes
6answers
689 views
How to keep up with academic publications (papers) as a researcher?
As an academic researcher involved in a field with lots of academic publications, I find it hard to keep with these constant stream of publications. Even if my field is already specialized, there are ...
18
votes
2answers
449 views
What methods exist to keep yourself motivated when working alone?
When I studied, I went to the library to have some form of social control. The social pressure made me work better.
I'm now working from home for a living. It's my first week and my motivation isn't ...
18
votes
3answers
2k views
How do I properly integrate The Pomodoro Technique with GTD?
The Pomodoro Technique isn't merely about setting up a timer and working for 25 minutes. To truly benefit from the technique one must look at how to spend those 25-minute blocks across tasks. This ...
18
votes
2answers
740 views
Personal experiences with image streaming
Did any of you invest significant time into training image streaming? How much time? Did you do any modifications to make the process work for yourself?
If so did it produce subjective benefits?
Did ...
17
votes
5answers
1k views
How to overcome lazyness and procastination?
My greatest defect.
Present in almost all aspects of my live... Like my house, it's a mess right now, but I have time to clean, I just don't do it. I'd rather stay in bet and do nothing (high ...
17
votes
6answers
558 views
Are there fundamental behaviors that cut across multiple productivity systems?
A variety of productivity systems and techniques are discussed on this site (e.g. GTD, Inbox Zero, FTF, Pomodoro, etc.); however, lots of folks probably land here because they're looking to learn more ...
17
votes
11answers
763 views
How to solve my personal issues to be productive and happy person
Until two years ago, I was a positive thinker, easily forgot petty issues, and was productive. After that I started studying for a masters in Computer Science and started a full time job. This means I ...
17
votes
12answers
2k views
What is the best way to improve English vocabulary?
I want to improve my English vocabulary. I want to know some of the best ways to improve my vocabulary.
How many words should I learn daily?
What resources should I use?
17
votes
10answers
644 views
How to stop your rss feeds becoming a mess/information overload?
So like probably many i use Google Reader to manage, read, filter my subscribed rss feeds. Subscribing only as much feeds as you can read doesnt really work. From time to time i delete some feeds, but ...
17
votes
11answers
894 views
Waking early without waking others
At present I'm a night-owl. However, I'd dearly like to change.
One of the problems is obvious - going to bed earlier. But I'll ignore that for this question.
The question is - if I want to wake ...
17
votes
8answers
4k views
Are there alternatives to the GTD system?
What are likely alternatives to the Getting Things Done productivity system?
Full fledged alternatives that "compete" with GTD
Group of smaller systems used together to replace GTD
"Simpler" systems
...
17
votes
8answers
2k views
My thoughts distract me, how do I keep my focus?
I recently started working full-time as a software developer. [potentially unnecessary background info here]
I've always had a problem focusing. It's very difficult for me to push down my curiosity ...
17
votes
7answers
483 views
How to stop myself getting caught in the unimportant details of a task
I find it so easy to get bored with what I should be focusing on and I start going into all the finer details and processes around actually doing the task. Before long something that should be a quick ...
17
votes
4answers
704 views
What nutrition is best to stay productive throughout the day?
I read in Steve Jobs's book that he used to avoid coffee during the week and drink lots of water to remain productive and energetic throughout the day.
I would like to know what food and beverages to ...
16
votes
9answers
782 views
How can I improve my workplace to have less interruptions?
In the past week I've tried switching between several work spaces
Office
If it's open space and someone starts talking loudly you get distracted.
There are also people around who may want ...
16
votes
9answers
625 views
How can I become a more effective listener?
I believe that I am a poor listener. Often after meetings, I find myself having a lot of loose ends, but in the situation I am not enough aware of this to be able to ask a specific question. I am ...
16
votes
11answers
1k views
How to stop being controlled by others opinions?
I'm 21 years old. And I dream to be a computer programmer, I really do. The problem is (I am going to get a bit technical here) that when i decide to learn a certain programming language that i see my ...
16
votes
9answers
528 views
How do you organize ideas?
I'm trying to figure out the best way to manage all the ideas related to a project (drawings, text, pseudocode, etc.). Until now I tried:
Notebooks/paper:
Pros:
Cheap
Easy to use
Hard to change
...
16
votes
11answers
757 views
Where should I store good advice?
I sometimes come across good advice like 11 Essential Habits for Success or How To Listen Effectively, and I can't use it immediately but I like it enough to want to keep it around.
However, if I ...
16
votes
5answers
445 views
How to organize my gaming time?
I see all kinds of people (including some of my friends) that simply don't know when to stop playing (for instance, wake up, play WoW, eat , play WoW, eat, play WoW , sleep). Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
I ...
16
votes
8answers
566 views
What features should I look for when choosing task-management software?
There are a seemingly-endless variety of tools available for keeping track of tasks. From feature-clogged behemoths that will do everything (tracking time and generating Gantt charts) to the venerable ...
16
votes
3answers
415 views
Why am I wired to be motivated to go to work everyday and not motivated to do other things?
I have wondered for some time why I find it so hard to keep motivated to do things like exercising, reading, looking for business opportunities, getting up early etc. I have tried a raft of different ...
16
votes
3answers
394 views
Is written stenography still useful?
Are handwritten stenography systems (such as Gregg shorthand and Pitman shorthand) still useful today for personal productivity? If so, how can they be incorporated into daily life in a digital age?
15
votes
9answers
558 views
Be able to focus and read books when your partner watches TV
I like reading books a lot. Usually have only time for that at night, after work, but at that time my wife likes TV a lot and specially zapping; continuously jumping from one channel to another. I ...
15
votes
8answers
415 views
How to control the urge of refreshing the forum pages to see if someone has replied?
That wastes time. Huge time.
I also tried setting up mail notifications so that I don't have to keep on refreshing tabs, but in this case I get dragged to keep a parallel eye on the Gmail as if my ...
15
votes
4answers
366 views
Which is more productive: doing lots of work in parallel or one by one?
I always feel hesitant about this particular problem of mine. Sometimes several ideas come to me, and I feel, I should start doing all of that once. But then I have a problem, I get lost in Where I ...
15
votes
9answers
759 views
How do I get my motivation going?
Often, tasks are delayed till a reasonable time before the deadline. Just because you feel like you can do it later; so, you are basically procrastinating by surfing the web, chatting with people, ...
15
votes
15answers
2k views
Is there software to log tasks daily?
My boss wants me to write a logs about what I do during my work day, and he wants me to write how much it takes to perform the given task and details.
Something like:
Revising the CSS of the main ...
15
votes
5answers
937 views
Paper vs. digital: both have advantages, but which adv. is more important?
I started wondering recently if paper really could be the way to go. That is, in my everyday, non-GTD-obsessive personal issue tracking and task management. Here's why I'm considering this:
A task ...
15
votes
7answers
285 views
Staying concentrated during small pauses
My workflow includes some steps that make me wait for 0.5 to 2 minutes to complete: long remote git operations, creating / rebooting an instance in the cloud, etc. It's safe to assume that these ...
15
votes
2answers
421 views
How to profit from quitting gaming? (aka how to overcome the quitter's anxiety?)
It always seemed to me that gaming itself was counterproductive, and I've always struggled to spend less time on it, but really never managed to. That is, until now. The only way I found to keep the ...
15
votes
4answers
521 views
What are some of the techniques on increasing memory stamina?
Maybe it is my age (approaching 41), but my short term memory isn't as good as it was when I was younger. As such, I feel that my level of productivity is suffering. I am looking for ways to increase ...
14
votes
14answers
9k views
Training yourself to sleep less
I have been trying to reduce the amount of sleep so that I have more waking hours to do stuff. If I am asleep, I can't do it. I have read this question, and this one but it does not really give ...
14
votes
10answers
1k views
Is there a proven method for managing emails?
I find I often have an overflowing email inbox. Are there any methods or systems to help efficiently and effectively filter through, sort, and reply to emails?
14
votes
6answers
669 views
Methods for Goal Setting
There are a lot of methodologies for doing more and doing things faster.
The problem is that you end up doing the wrong things faster.
At the other end of the scale you set many important goals, but ...
14
votes
11answers
694 views
How can I learn about complex subjects?
I am very interested in certain subjects which are quite complex (and not very mainstream), but I find it hard to learn about them since there seems not be a lot of introductory content about such ...
14
votes
9answers
3k views
Touch Typing for Programmers
I have been using Typing Master to learn touch typing, but it doesn't cover the symbols and numbers I user as a programmer to any significant extent. Is there any touch typing software that is more ...
14
votes
13answers
918 views
Version control for homework?
Background:
I'm a high school student. I've noticed lately that I'm not particularly fond of my current scheme for keeping my files up to date (ferrying around a USB stick, naming files 'essay-1.doc', ...
14
votes
11answers
2k views
Is it possible to learn foreign languages effectively by watching tv series?
Some people say that watching TV series can be very helpful in learning foreign languages.
However, I am skeptical about it as I think that this kind of activity is just too passive.
My biggest ...
