Hot answers tagged home
50
Get a separate office space/computer, that you only use for working.
The kids aren't allowed in there.
You aren't allowed to use that space for gaming or web surfing.
Get a program or a script to clock yourself in and out - if you want
to take a break or hang out with your kids, clock out.
Having to purposefully switch modes makes it easier to stay in ...
17
You have two basic choices:
Use the same system for home and work (e.g. a paper-based system, a PDA/smart phone, online software) and treat @Home and @Work as different contexts. This seems to be the way David Allen and others recommend, because then you only have the one system to maintain.
Use a different system for home and work. This is what I prefer, ...
17
If you enjoy your cooking but don't wish to compromise what you cook, here are some speed-ups:
Minimise washing up if no dishwasher. Re-use bowls, giving them an instant rinse if necessary. Use just-emptied cans to measure liquids instead of measuring cups. Reuse measuring spoons by measuring out dry ingredients first (so they don't stick to a wet spoon), ...
16
Don't do that my friend!
What we can do for preventing your games & movie times in the weekend? It's 100% up to you. It doesn't matter if you are a programmer or not.
Let me say, do you have a to do list? Or is your to do list like this?
Of course you should play games & watching movies if you like. Do it sometimes, not every weekend. But these ...
13
There are a few things I do, because very much like you with work, family, home there is very little time for side projects or as my wife says "do more work".
I spend some time up front (like 15 minutes) mapping out features, tasks, etc that need to be done to complete the project. I then group these into kind of logical stopping places (kind of like you ...
10
David Allen says repeatedly - though not as a first thing - that there is no difference between Home and Work for GTD. It is all project, context and actions.
The main difference, I think, is that most of the time you may rely on your coworkers to do the tasks you delegated to them. That's in their contract and they are paid for it. With a spouse, you ...
10
That's tough. One option is to spend an hour a day on it after work. Progress is slow. But slow but steady is better than nothing. Planning on how you can make small tasks helps find the motivation. It's less overwhelming to create a form with one element than a whole app.
Other options are to work on it during your commute (if you take mass transit) ...
10
I use a trivially simple system suggested by David Allen's Getting Thing Done:
things go into manila folders labeled with a cheap printed label maker (easier to read than hand-written) (the one I use).
name folders the first thing that comes to mind when you go to file the item; that's how I decide between things like car insurance vs. auto insurance or ...
9
I can think of three choices:
Read (like when people read a magazine in the bathroom or Google puts up their "testing in the toilet" newsletter on the wall of the stall.
Think/relax/take a break - it is possible to be too productive. This is one of the few times nobody is talking you to you. Sometimes if you let your brain relax, ideas will come to you. ...
8
Even if work and home tasks are separate, your GTD system needs to track both.
I struggled with the same issue and ultimately discovered that using GTD only at work--doesn't work. In order to realize the benefits of getting your to do list out of your mind and into a system, that system needs to capture everything. This means whatever single system you use ...
8
Honestly I find the following works for me.
More energy = more productivity (work and home)
I got more energy by learning about my body and understanding that it's a machine like the ones I program. I learned about exercise and nutrition and frankly I have more time for every thing and more importantly, everyone now. Having a healthier mind also improved ...
8
Here are some thoughts.
1) Learn how to use a microwave oven. Not all food that comes out of a microwave oven has to be fast food or taste bad. You can also use it to cook "real" food. Look for a cookbook that focuses on microwave cooking.
2) Precook fresh food in larger batches, keep it in the fridge, and heat it up when you're ready to eat. I have ...
7
My answer would depend based on your comfort-level with technology. If you're used to using the command line and you're running on OS X 10.6+, you have the option of using Fat Free CRM with Pow.
If you're not really a command-line person, I would suggest something like Highrise by 37Signals. I love everything they do, and using Highrise means you can access ...
7
First, change your expectations. You don't have a full 5 hours a day you could be spending on your project - you have a family, and you can't expect to be able to ignore them all evening. If you start out by thinking you should be able to do 5 hours of work, you'll always end up disappointed and unmotivated. I find that if I expect rapid progress and ...
6
From the female perspective, it seems that it is harder to separate work from home when you work at home. Maybe because most of us are socialized to pick up that mess, or do that laundry we see that needs to be done or wash those dishes the kids just left in the sink. And many women stay home and work from home when the kids are sick. My advice is to be even ...
6
When I'm not spending time with others, I have the most productive weekends when I get an idea in my mind around Wednesday of something I want to focus on for Saturday. For example, if I have a few days ahead of time thinking that "Saturday I will reorganize my file cabinet" or "Saturday I will go to the library and study macroeconomics", then when Saturday ...
6
Did you try Trello?
It's
free
web-based (so u can access from anywhere)
can easily collaborate with other project partners (if any)
6
Eat and enjoy the food. Talk to my family.
I believe it is unhealthy to swallow down stuff while you are otherwise engaged. You lose the ability to recognize the signals that your body gives you regarding the amount and type of food it needs. Building awareness is part of the therapy in eating disorders and food related diseases like diabetes. Preserving ...
5
I actually have a similar situation, it's rare that work and home overlap, but they do on occasion.
The context idea is one way to separate home from work. So, paying bills would be an online task (at least for me), I can do that at work or home.
What I have done is created two separate lists of projects and next-actions, one personnel, and one work. ...
5
Your first job is to find how much light do you need.
The Australian Standard AS 1680 suggests lighting levels in an office environment as follows;
"Ordinary" visual tasks should be in range 300 to 400 lux [320 lux (task) and 160 lux (Background)]. Illumination is measured in units of LUX - lumens per square metre
For more demanding visual tasks, ...
5
Schedule "relationship time" as one of the projects that needs to be done, and include it in your lists. Create metrics that allow you to track the time you spend investing in the relationship, and make sure you achieve whatever goals you set for those metrics.
In GTD (Getting Things Done) terms, make sure you are allocating your time appropriately across ...
5
One option not yet mentioned is selecting food types which require very little active time.
Stir frys are quite rapid from start to finish. These are my go-to if I am in a rush
Dishes like pasta bakes can be very effective: a short amount of prep time, then bung in the oven and go and do something else for the 30 or 40 minutes it will take to cook.
Soups, ...
5
You will increase the efficiency of your kitchen and greatly increase the quality of your food if you do all your food prep ahead of time.
Be in possession of two or three medium sized bowls and half a dozen little monkey bowls and 2 or 3 SHARP, good quality knives.
Get all your ingredients together in one place before you start.
Chop all your veg and ...
5
If your methodology is anything like mine, it goes along the lines of:
Ask spouse/family what to eat today. Often it's along the lines of "what we didn't eat yesterday" (which is why batch cooking doesn't work for me).
Decide to look inside fridge for inspiration, finding a lot of expired meat or lots of that thing we ate yesterday.
Drive out and find ...
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