{"product":{"product_id":"0142000280","title":"Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity","price":null,"image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41YJyWQCBZL._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0142000280"},"comments":[{"body":"I've had luck with finding a methodology and running with it. I'm currently doing a modified version of \"Getting Things Done\" https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280 \r\n\r\nMy last sales manager used it and did way more than I thought a person could do, and seemed VERY on top of everything.","subreddit_name":"sales","author":"velocazachtor"},{"body":"Ah yes, the ol' \"getting motivated at night and then totally not following through.\" I am well acquainted with this. It started because I had a job where there weren't a lot of demands for the first few months. I came off a previous job that was super demanding. So I slipped into coast mode like a comfy barstool. It took me literally over a year to break these bad habits.\r\n\r\nA few things that I focus on:\r\n\r\n1. reasonable goals (not six hours of undistracted work, but three)\r\n2. what actually needs to be done first\r\n3. a really good organization system. May I suggest [Getting Things Done](https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280). I don't follow it 100% but I plundered his good ideas. Ignore the really lame cover. I think this guy has a good system.\r\n4. silence. music and work is not for me. Nor are any other distractions. Social media is a killer.\r\n5. metrics for tracking work. I dunno, it just helps and makes me feel like I did something. I used to be a huge metrics hater when it came to productivity.\r\n6. setting up an \"entry point\" for work. For me, it's responding to email and doing administrative tasks first. I know exactly what I'm going to do first each day when I sit down at my desk. Sometimes I even write a sticky note the night before of what to do first.\r\n7. getting up earlier than I need to do and getting active first thing. I either work out or clean my house for 45 minutes before starting my work. No matter what time I get up, the first 45 minutes to an hour are garbage time anyway and I never accomplish any work.\r\n\r\nHope any of this is helpful. It's not a good feeling to make promises to yourself and not be able to keep them. I know exactly how you feel.","subreddit_name":"PennStateUniversity","author":"nolumberfooting"},{"body":"If you've never read [Getting Things Done](https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280), you should. You can adapt however you like, but the basics broken down in that book are incredible. It was written before we had all the tech we have now, so it is the core principles of how we manage the things in our life.\r\n\r\nI rely on my calendar, Things 3 for my tasks, and make sure I'm stepping back often to review my overall goals and progress on a weekly basis.","subreddit_name":"productivity","author":"peerless-app"},{"body":"Getting things done, the art of stress free productivity.\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280\r\n\r\n\r\nRead the book, and apply to your life. It will define your priorities, keep you focused at work, and relaxed afterwards. You don't have to apply it 100%, but even the basic implementation will give huge benefits.","subreddit_name":"PhD","author":"llothar"},{"body":"Unfortunately, every company is different. I can tell you that you might want to pick up a book about Emotional Intelligence (easily googleable) as it's a skill based on dealing with people. A lot of people recommend Getting Things Done by Dave Allen for managing projects https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280","subreddit_name":"foodscience","author":"itsmeadamyee"},{"body":"\u0026gt;It is not something they tell you (\"they\" being all those people that have endured business ownership long enough to tell you about it, have enough energy to share, or giveafuck enough to warn you)\r\n\r\nExcuse me, but do not take this out on other business owners. I have no doubt many of them would have warned you, had you bothered to ask, and even if they hadn't.... google? There's no shortage of information outlining the difficulties of going into business for yourself. Fellow entrepreneurs can be a great resource when you find yourself in the trenches, but I have a feeling they will be more helpful if you don't shoot them down first.\r\n\r\nThat being said, /u/nofugginway has the right idea. Get a mentor. Sometimes small business stresses are actually about the business, but a lot of the time they're just about you, your own personal capabilities, and your own approach to organization and self-discipline. Even a book is a step in the right direction ([Getting Things Done by David Allen](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280) might be a great start).","subreddit_name":"smallbusiness","author":"numberjack"},{"body":"I mean I can't help you with the bigger projects because honestly I have the same problem. But I'll let you know this, I have a big backlog of movies too and I could never figure out when I felt like watching such and such so I made a system where I wouldn't have to choose for myself, I wrote down all the movies I wanted to watch on little pieces of paper and I put them in a container and when I want to watch one I shake it up and pull one out, and that's the next movie I watch. even if I don't get to it that day, I know that's next on my queue. It's easy and it's fun because those're movies I want to watch just I get bogged down in the choosing, because there's so many.\r\n\r\nI'd also actually read a book called [getting things done](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280) it's a really good organizational system.\r\n\r\nGood luck!","subreddit_name":"DecidingToBeBetter","author":"aop42"},{"body":"Oh cool! Yeah, [Getting Things Done](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280). It's a thin little book. Fun read, and useful too.\r\n\r\nMcGonigal's \"The Willpower Instinct\", you may just want to browse chapter 10 at the bookstore or library and see if anything resonates with you.","subreddit_name":"ValhallaChallenge","author":"fuck_gawker"},{"body":"I have a few reasons for going with the bullet journal.  When it comes to personal life, I just find it much faster to just open a book and double-check something than going into an app and having to click several times to get to what I need.  I just flip to the bookmark in my notebook, and there it is.  The second reason is that I use a desktop computer at work, but I'm in meetings fairly regularly.   I use it to take notes, but it also helps me answer questions on work I've done while at my desk (have I heard back from this Dept about such and such?  That sort of thing.)  The last reason is that I like notebooks.  I've been an avid journaler for years and I love the feel of a new notebook.  This feeds that strange obsession.\r\n\r\nOther people I work with, who are setting timelines and dealing with teams, tend to use OneNote to keep things straight.  You can use OneNote as a digital bullet journal, but that might even be selling the program short.  My coworkers are also big fans of David Allen's book, [Getting Things Done](http://www.amazon.ca/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280).  I've read a few places that it fits in with bullet journal really well, but I... haven't quite gotten around to read it yet. \r\n\r\nI can think of nothing I want to do less than being a project manager, but I have a friend who is very firmly in the INTJ camp (scoring high in all aspects), and she excels at it.  :)","subreddit_name":"intj","author":"kidamy"},{"body":"I've been using Things for a couple years now, but its lack of MobileMe support to sync up between my various computers and iPhone has been a giant hassle. To the point where I've dropped the whole GTD habit for months now. As of today, I'm now using OmniFocus (which syncs via many different options – including MobileMe) as of today. So far I love it. There's a hotkey that lets you add a todo from anywhere. Super handy. You can also highlight text from the web (not sure if you can also do it from anywhere, but I think you can) and then add that clipping as a todo.\r\n\r\n**EDIT**: In case you haven't heard of GTD (Getting Things Done) your life will be changed once you read [this book](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/ref=sr_1_1?s=books\u0026amp;ie=UTF8\u0026amp;qid=1308101771\u0026amp;sr=1-1).","subreddit_name":"mac","author":"otown_in_the_hotown"},{"body":"I guess that is kind of a reasonable description in the sense that a list is just a page with things to do in linear order.  I think the power comes from being broken free from the linear way of thinking and representation.  They should not really just consist of a central theme with a collection of bubbles radiating out but each concept or task or whatever is composed of child nodes of grandchild or ggchild etc nodes,which describe further the problem or task and connect it to other aspects of central theme or idea.  There certainly is the possibility that these maps can become unruly and chaotic just like the human mind.  So using them takes discipline.\r\n\r\nI would say that the books by tony buzan would be the place to start to understand better (he is credited with originating them, but I would imagine people have been using them or something like them before him).  He emphasizes the use of colour and the maps in his  book are very readable.  \r\n\r\n\r\nIn case you havent heard of it.  The book \"Getting things done\" or simply GTD is what you should read I think if you are interested in organisation and productivity.  Mind maps can and probably should be incorporated in your system and are fully compatible with a GTD style system of organisation which is not rigid, you choose what tools work for you.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280","subreddit_name":"reddit.com","author":"[deleted]"},{"body":"Buy [this book](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;s=books\u0026amp;qid=1269283367\u0026amp;sr=1-1).\r\r\n \r\r\nI read it 1.5 months ago. I already felt more relaxed in the first week and it keeps getting better. It really helps you to focus on the thing that needs to be done.","subreddit_name":"AskReddit","author":"[deleted]"},{"body":"[David Allen's Gettings Things Done](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/) is a read worth the time. The gist of it is that you should maintain a list of on-going projects so that you are able to focus on one thing at a time, and not constantly keep everything in your head. Anything that comes up shall be processed according to the “do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it” rule.","subreddit_name":"AskReddit","author":"pilt"},{"body":"I came here to say this. GTD seems like it would exactly meet your needs. I was a disorganised mess. After reading it I am still a mess, but I am organised.\r\nThe general thrust of GTD is:\r\n\r\n* your brain can hold one thought at a time\r\n\r\n* you need to manage when things appear in your mind so that they are only there when you can actually do something about them\r\n\r\n* Once you know what you *can* do *right now* then do it right now\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThere is much more to it than that, seriously though, read [the book](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8\u0026amp;s=books\u0026amp;qid=1268339701\u0026amp;sr=8-1)\r\n","subreddit_name":"cogsci","author":"fizdup"},{"body":"I recommend the book \"[Getting Things Done](http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280)\" by David Allen. It's an entire organization system, but it makes so much sense that you actually see the benefit of putting it into practice, and you just do it as a result.","subreddit_name":"self","author":"pmoney24"}]}