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“Life is a marathon, not a sprint.”
“I’m in this for the long-haul.”
“I can see the finish line — not letting up now.”
“I’ll sleep when I’m old” or “I’ll rest after I finish this next big phase.”
“I’m so passionate about what I’m doing that I don’t even NEED a break!”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve uttered one or more of these motivational phrases to yourself as you pursued a big project or business idea. As female business owners and entrepreneurs, we often try to do it all — build our business, eat healthy foods, stay fit, be social, take care of our home and loved ones, and be cheerful on top of it all.

It can be exhausting.

And contrary to all the popular mantras, treating life and business like a marathon might not actually be in our best interest. 

My Ill-Timed Book Breakdown

I experienced this first-hand after having a complete and utter breakdown three weeks before my book, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want, was set to come out.

I had been working on the project for over two and half years, and in the final months I ramped it up to an obsessive around-the-clock endeavor (in addition to my full-time job at Google). I felt like I was on Mile 23 of a marathon — I could see the finish line and now was no time to rest or let-up.

Because I wasn’t willing to take a break, life knocked me on my ass (that’s the technical term) and forced me to rest. Despite the fact that my book was going to be released in three weeks and I had an impossibly long to-do list of important tasks to complete, I was a miserable, crying, nonfunctioning mess. Even though I was incredibly passionate about my project, not building in any rest stops had been a recipe for disaster.

The Alternative: Manage your energy, not your time

Tony Schwartz, author of The Power of Full Engagement, recommends that we manage our energy not our time.

Rather than treating our life and businesses as a marathon, Schwartz advises we treat them as sprints and recovery (recovery being key here!).

We all know we are going to have big sprints — that’s what makes pursuing a project or business so exciting. But it’s imperative that we build in equal parts recovery.

5 Tips to Make Room for Recovery

1. Schedule it. No matter whether or not you think you need a break, schedule fun or relaxation activities in advance and stick to them.
2. Double the break you think you need. I know how this goes, “Sure, I’ll take a break — I’ll give myself a whole hour off!” Not good enough. Whatever the break you think you need, double it. You are most likely underestimating the toll that all of your hard work is taking on your body and mind — even if you’re having fun.
3. Enlist family and friends. If you schedule a weekend get-away with family or friends, you’ll have no excuse but to unplug. Family and friends can be great accountability buddies for taking the breaks you need.
4. Make a list of the benefits of R&R, and brainstorm your favorite rejuvenation activities. I know that even after reluctantly taking a break, I will come back refreshed, more cheerful and more creative — which puts me in an even better position to do my best work once I’m back at it. Making a list of the benefits will help motivate and remind you to actually take the breaks you’ve set-up. At a loss for what to do? Make a list of any/all activities that bring you joy or relaxation. For me that’s reading, yoga, a glass of wine (with chocolate) and watching a few shows on Hulu.
5. Break down your biggest goals into achievable, measurable chunks and reward yourself often! For every day that you make a massive to-do list, add a “reward” item at the end that brings you joy. Maybe it’s reading a book, a gossip magazine, or going out to dinner with a friend. For many of us, we only take breaks or celebrate when we hit the BIG goals — but those can take months to achieve. Instead, break them down into smaller parts and reward yourself for all of the smaller milestones you hit along the way.

So the next time you’re headed for a big business sprint, make sure you build in recovery rest-stops. For those of you who already do this, what did I miss on the list above? How else do you balance hard work with rest and play?

Courtesy of Y.E.C.

Jenny Blake is an author, blogger, life coach and yoga teacher. She is currently on a three-month sabbatical from Google to go on a self-funded 14-city book tour for her recently released book, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. The experience of leaving school before her friends inspired her to start her blog, LifeAfterCollege.org, in 2007 which was later voted #1 Gen Y blog by her peers, and recognized by Suze Orman and the Wall Street Journal.

via Y.E.C.

Co-Founded by Natalie MacNeil and Scott Gerber, Y.E.C. Women is an initiative of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a nonprofit organization that provides young entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, community and educational resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth. Y.E.C. Women’s members are successful female business owners, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

via blogs.forbes.com

I actually met Jenny Blake at her book launch in NYC! Feel free to check out the following

related productivity post: The Secret of High & Low Energy Tasks

Photo credit: Ed Mitchell

Most working professionals  complain about the volume of email they receive each day.  What they don’t know is that they have their eyes on the wrong target, and instead should shift their attention to the time demands buried in electronic messages.

To explain, let’s start with a definition of a “time demand,” which is nothing more than a mental, individual commitment to accomplish a task in the future.  It’s a peculiar invention of the human imagination, and has some distinct characteristics.  A time demand is:

• created in the mind of the person making the commitment
• automatically assigned a likely duration, and starting time
• something that disappears when the task is completed
• the cause of stress when too many of them are carried in one’s memory

Email, phone calls, text messages. physical letters, action items in meetings and tweets are just some of the carriers of time demands. We process these pieces of content, and as we’re doing so we create time demands.  The more content we process, the more time demands we are likely to create:

The average person in the year 1750 saw as much information in their entire lifetime as one sees in a typical Sunday New York Times.

However, the problem isn’t as simple as cutting back the number of emails received each day, or the number of pages read on one’s Kindle.  After all, we two hundred emails in a day might only result in 1or 2 time demands that require 15 minutes to complete.  In like manner,  3 emails could result in hundreds of time demands spanning several months.  The problem isn’t in the volume of messages we receive, but their contents, and how to process them.

Given that fact, it’s not hard to see that the modern workplace has progressed tremendously since the widespread adaptation of email in the 1990’s.  Back then, time demands were transmitted in two ways:  through real-time conversations and via paper memos.  Today, in addition to these two channels, the average working professional must also master a number of others, such as text messages, email, social networking updates, instant messages and voice-mails.

Also, we must all must deal with the fact that our access to these channels has shifted.  In a smartphone world, access to them has become a 24 hour per day, 7 day a week phenomena, rather than one that is restricted to “working hours.”  (In fact, the very concept of “working hours” is fast receding due to the fact that the work of processing time demands never seems to stop.)

When we forget that we are looking for time demands within incoming messages, we often learn the bad habit of “skimming.”  Instead of dealing with each message once before dispensing with them, we take a quick look and then decide to take action “later,” before moving to the next message.  In no time, we end up with inboxes that are overflowing with time demands that we have put off until some time in the future.

These time demands prey on our minds, and make us feel overburdened as we realize that we’re not very good at remembering the exact nature of each item.  We feel stressed when we realize that some are falling through the cracks as our memory fails. 

Thankfully, there are better techniques available. Our research shows that it’s better to switch to keeping lists, once the number of time demands exceeds a certain threshold.  This works for a while, until another threshold is reached, and at that point it’s necessary to switch to keeping a single, electronic calendar.

We don’t know that a hard and fast rule exists about when these upgrades must happen, as they depend a great deal on the user.  Our coaching is simple:  make the upgrade when you sense that your peace of mind begins to suffer by trying to mentally keep track of too many time demands.

When possible, process emails immediately. Make it a routine to archive and delete messages once a week, perhaps during your weekly review (for those who are fans of GTD).

Focusing on time demands, and their effect on our peace of mind, is the best way to make these changes, and to avoid making the mistake of focusing too narrowly on email volumes.

Francis Wade is a proponent of Time Management 2.0, and writes for several newspapers, as well as his research website: http://2time-sys.com. He is @fwade on twitter and can be found on our productivity resources twitter list.

For help with Producteev email sync and integration, check out the following options:
http://www.producteev.com/#emailsync

If you’re at TechCrunch Disrupt come say “hey.” We’re in aisle B of Startup Alley!

Photo credit: TechCrunch

Here’s some great reading for working better, cheers!

101 Tips for Becoming a Productivity Superstar

How To Manage People Distractions

3 Power Tricks to Supercharge Your Day with Gratitude

7 Not So Obvious Habits to Maximize Your Productivity

9 Famous Quotes that Will Super Charge Your Day

Kickstart Your Creativity by Writing 750 Words a Day

3 Simple Steps to Chilling Out When You are Having a Negative or Overwhelming Day

How to Make a Mind Map for Maximum Productivity

The Really Simple Way to Get Work Done

How to Pay Attention & Not Lose Your Job: 5 Myths About Multi-Tasking

Photo credit: Sam Randall

[UPDATE DEC 18, 2012]: This is no longer available, but two features we planned to bring back at some point.

We’re launching two-way task sync for both Outlook To-Dos and Google Tasks, which are linked to the top two email clients out there! Are you jumping for joy right now!? 

View feature specifications, download & install, and watch video tutorials at:
http://producteev.com/#emailsync

Here are some brief notes on installation:

Once the Outlook Plugin is installed, go to your Outlook Tasks. To the right of the Producteev tab, select settings. Enter your Producteev credentials and log in. Adjusting other settings are optional (sync frequency and direction). The important thing to note is that changing which workspace is synced can be accessed on this tab. Press sync on Outlook to force sync. Refresh the task list on Producteev to sync.

Connecting Google Tasks Sync is easy. From your Producteev workspace in the left sidebar, select Workspace Administration and the Email/IM tab. Scroll down to Google Tasks (immediately after Google Calendar), and hit connect. Grant access to Google, and you’re set! Refresh the task lists to force sync.

Tame the email beast! ;)

A special thanks goes out first and foremost to all our beta testers. You help great apps happen! Lastly, none of this would be possible without the skills of CTO Aric Lasry (behind Google Tasks Sync) and David Podhola, a third party developer based in Prague. 

A wise Windows developer and gamer once said, “Outlook is one of Microsoft’s more diabolical creations.”

Photo credit: Lou Gallois-Disant

Team Spotlight: Ilan Abehassera — CEO, husband, father

fave features: 

• natural language processing
• collaboration
• priority

key benefits:

• control of email based workflow
• convenient access
• high flexibility

In the past I’ve shared how you can use Producteev for your CRM needs, but this is what I am going to focus on now: how I use it in my daily workflow, focusing only on tasks.

Mail-to-Task
Like a lot of you, I manage a great quantity of emails every single day. I personally hate that actionable emails sit on my inbox for ever, because there’s no way to rank them by priority or set deadlines.

Since I’ve been using Producteev in my work life, I simply forward those actionable items to task@producteev.com and let Producteev do the rest. I use our natural language processing features a lot, and that saves me time and ranks those emails into my task list automatically.

iPhone
One other reason why I am using Producteev on a daily basis is: shopping lists. Of course, we can use pen and paper, and lots of people are using emails… I use Producteev so my wife can create lists for me, I get it automatically on my iPhone when I am shopping, AND I check off what I am buying one by one. Works like a charm. Simple, and collaborative. Remember, you can collaborate with one other people on Producteev for free! So try it out by inviting someone to your workspaces.

Desktop & Web
The way I am updating Producteev is really as multi-platform as you can imagine, I use pretty much all of our integrations: IM, Email, iPhone, Google Apps and Gmail Gadget, and the Mac app (yes you’ll have it too!). At the end of the day, I use Producteev as my task dropbox, and when I get to the office, I simply open the desktop app (formerly the web app), rank my tasks by priority (because this is mostly the way I get things done), assign some of my tasks to teammates, and get cracking on that to-do list!

Bottom line, I don’t use all of our features, but I certainly harness the power of the platform we’re creating. Producteev gathers all my tasks across other tools I use, and then lets me access and track them no matter where I am working.

Photo credit: Hector Pierna Sanchez

It’s morning. You’re staring at your Next Actions list like you would a creature out of nightmare — something huge and ugly that’s reaching out to crush your soul into unproductive little pieces. It’s been this way for a week or so now, maybe more; you’ve lost track. All you know is that this GTD thing everybody goes on about — the super-productivity system you thought would save you from overwhelm — has turned on you. And it’s seriously kicking your ass.

Something has obviously gone wrong. But now what? You’ve invested a lot of valuable time into Getting Things Done, and the thought of starting all over again, either with GTD or some other system, is near mind-shattering. The longer you stare at your computer, though, the more appealing the idea of taking a hammer or some other blunt instrument to it becomes — and that can’t lead anywhere good. So again you ask yourself: Now what?

We’ve all been there (I’ve probably been there more than many, in fact) and it always seems bleak — but it’s a lot easier to get your productivity system back on track than you might think. It just depends on your approach.

If you’re anything like me, you got into GTD to take control of the crazy amount of things you need to accomplish on a daily basis. At least, that was part of it for me. I was also afflicted with the “big think” virus: I would have a goal (or 10) in mind — something huge and fantastically creative of course — and then I would just jump in to it (them) with both feet, flapping my arms about wildly while I tried to figure out a good place to start. My old vocal coach-slash-counsellor called it “Trying to build a house from the roof down.” Eventually, I would expend so much energy flapping, that I would just burn myself out. That lead to last-gasp analytics of the projects, which would inevitably end with me so overwhelmed by what needed to be done and how to go about it that I would just say “screw it” and go play video games. What I needed to break things down to a manageable level, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done system seemed like the perfect thing to help me make that happen.

In the beginning, it was all roses. I got my system set up — I even figured out how to integrate it with Evernote, and then later with Producteev — and got things humming along just nicely. Unfortunately, as time went on, I ended up with longer and longer lists of next actions. My contexts were bursting at the seams, and there was just no way for me to keep up.

I looked at my lists and felt that old overwhelm creeping up on me again. Then I started to avoid looking at them altogether. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, at first, and the problem was, to make myself feel like I was still continuing with the GTD system, I was still collecting new tasks. In the end, the tasks weren’t even making it to the processing stage anymore, and I found myself with a faux-GTD system that was all Inbox — just a fancy shell over my original way of (not) doing things. I had completely reverted — and my computer was shivering in fear of the imagined sledge hammer by my desk.

In any case, that was the past. I now have my GTD system up and running again, and it’s working the way it should be. To get there, all I had to do was follow these five relatively simple steps:

Identify the Problem
Start by taking a step back. Overwhelm is an insidious beast and you won’t be able to do anything about it unless you approach with a clear mind. Think of it like cleansing your palate while eating particularly rich foods. Everything will taste better, and you’re that much more likely to make it through the meal.

Now pull out a pen and paper and start to write down your main goals again. If you have trouble doing this, you have already discovered the core of your difficulties. Nothing ever truly gets accomplished without a clear goal to apply it to.

Once you have your goals in hand again, use them as a focal point as you examine your approach to productivity over the past few months. Try to identify what worked and what didn’t work, what you liked, and what you found frustrating. Think about the tools that you use, any modifications that you made to the methodology to suit your life, and the different projects you’re engaged in. Then do your best to identify all of the other things that you’re giving your attention to. Write it all down. This is the best way to discover where the bottlenecks are, and what about your approach has allowed things to backlog.

For me, the problem was as simple as not adding how long a task might take (which lead to scheduling too many things on any given day), combined with collecting things under the banner of my overall goals that really should have been either ignored, or put into Someday/Maybe-land. A little more analysis also revealed that I was not nearly disciplined enough with my weekly reviews, which would have helped me to identify those two problems in the first place, thus saving me from the hole I had dug myself into. Finally, I discovered several things outside of the GTD system that were distracting me. Things like keeping my email open, social media notifications, and working in a place easily accessible by my lovely wife and extraordinarily cute little girl. They don’t mean to be distractions, but how can they not be?

Once you’ve identified the problems that have lead to GTD-breakdown, find ways to streamline your system. Remove extra steps, use a better tool, cut out (or at least cut back on) distractions, and do whatever else you reasonably can to deal with what is getting in the way of your productivity.

Reprocessing
This might sound scary, given that you are here because of an already overwhelming amount of task data. Don’t worry, though — at least half of the work has already been done for you. You already have things collected, and a number of those things are already processed into tasks. Now, all you need to do is take a look at those tasks, and reprocess them based on your newly refined goals, working around the problems that you identified in the first step. Chances are good that you will find a lot of tasks that are already complete, or no longer relevant — and every one of those tasks that you get rid of will make you feel just a little bit better. Kill them dead with impunity!

The easiest approach to reprocessing may be to start with your Projects list, as it will be smaller than your combined tasks, and it will be easier for you to identify the projects that can be removed completely, or added to Someday/Maybe. Once you have gone through that list, you can simply throw away any tasks related to those removed or moved projects, which will speed up your overall processing time, and get you in the right frame of mind to approach other tasks in the same way.

If this still seems overwhelming, then do the reprocessing in chunks. You won’t lose anything if you don’t do it all in one day — just make sure that you keep coming back to it until it’s done.

Reestablish the Collection Process
Now that you have the backlog out of the way, it’s time to start collecting again. The difference here will be that you are once again sure about your goals, and your system will be tweaked for optimal collection and processing. That’s a fun and fancy way of saying that you’re back on track, focused, and ready to rock your way to the productive lifestyle you aspire to.

Before you get going here, however, do a final check to make sure your refined Inbox is as easily accessible as you need it to be. If you are using Producteev or another online tool, be certain that the email addresses, extensions, apps, and other methods to send things into those services are in your contact lists, installed, and/or otherwise ready to go. Give yourself some leeway here, as well. It’s possible that things may not work entirely as you thought they would, so you may need to do a bit more tweaking over the next week or so.

Create Good Habits
GTD or any other productivity methodology is really nothing more than a collection of habits. It starts with discipline, certainly, but after a while the things that you do daily to maintain the processes should become second nature. Problems arise, however, when we have or create conflicting habits that could drag the system into another breakdown. Since you’ve already identified the bad habits that contributed to the last crash and burn, you are already a step ahead in the game. Unfortunately, bad habits don’t go quietly, and creating good habits in the face of the bad is not easy.

The key here is to not try to do everything at once. If you try a massive attack against all bad habits, trying to replace them with the new good ones, you will end up with a fight on your hands that will lead you back down the path to overwhelm. Instead, go with surgical strikes. Make a list of those bad and good habits and attack them one at a time. If you lapse here and there, don’t flay yourself over it. Just methodically get back on the proverbial horse and eventually, you will be successful.

*The Weekly Review is Your Friend
It’s human nature to get a little lazy with things now and again, and this can be a problem, if you let it. Again, don’t be overly harsh with yourself, as it will only make you more likely to abandon your system. Who wants to do anything daily that is attached to self-recriminations and other forms of negativity? Not me — and probably not you, either. Instead, just make sure you keep up with the parts of the system that are there to help you keep things together. Chief among those is the Weekly Review.

The Weekly Review is where you get the chance to check on the health of your system. You can see where your projects are at, and can examine what worked and what didn’t work over the past week. I can’t put enough emphasis on the importance of taking the time to do this — and thoroughly — every single week. If you let it slip too far, you will miss out on key indicators that could help you catch a problem before it starts or spins out of control. Schedule at least an hour every week — two hours, or more, if necessary — and go through your review in detail. If you get done early, that’s a bonus for you! Either way, the time spent will be worthwhile, and will save you more time in the end. Just make sure you reward yourself when you finish so that you have incentive to keep coming back.

As a final thought on getting back to (and keeping up with) GTD, remember that good visual presentation goes a long way. This isn’t to say that a pretty app or sexy Moleskine notebook is the best approach for your system, only that anything that makes it easier for you to look at and process your data will increase the likelihood that you’ll keep coming back.

Bonus:

• Make sure that your contexts are clear and well organized.
• Keep next actions on any given project down to one or two at a time, if possible.
• Make tasks obvious that will take a while to complete.
• I’m sure you get the idea…

Most importantly, if your system starts to break down again, don’t wait until you are on the verge of a mental breakdown before you do something about it. GTD can be a powerful ally to the productivity Jedi — but if you give it enough leverage it will turn around and give you an ass-kicking you wouldn’t believe. Eternal vigilance and such, dig?

Share what you do to keep your GTD on track!

Bobby Travis is a geeky dad with passion for writing and online marketing, coupled with a serious bent for productivity systems. You can chat with him on Twitter (@bobby_travis), connect with him on LinkedIn, or read more of his work on 40Tech. He is also a big fan of money, so if you want to hire him for some freelance work, he won’t be mad at you! Email him at contact@bobby-travis.com.

Learn more about Producteev weekly digests. Tune in to our first twitter chat about productivity! 
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 from 1pm - 2pm EST. Topic: Getting Things Done.

How to Deal When GTD Kicks Your Ass

It’s morning. You’re staring at your Next Actions list like you would a creature out of nightmare — something huge and ugly that’s reaching out to crush your soul into unproductive little pieces. It’s been this way for a week or so now, maybe more; you’ve lost track. All you know is that this GTD thing everybody goes on about — the super-productivity system you thought would saveyou from overwhelm — has turned on you. And it’s seriously kicking your ass.

Something has obviously gone wrong. But now what? You’ve invested a lot of valuable time intoGetting Things Done, and the thought of starting all over again, either with GTD or some other system, is near mind-shattering. The longer you stare at your computer, though, the more appealing the idea of taking a hammer or some other blunt instrument to it becomes — and that can’t lead anywhere good. So again you ask yourself: Now what?

We’ve all been there (I’ve probably been there more than many, in fact) and it always seems bleak — but it’s a lot easier to get your productivity system back on track than you might think. It just depends on your approach.

If you’re anything like me, you got into GTD to take control of the crazy amount of things you need to accomplish on a daily basis. At least, that was part of it for me. I was also afflicted with the “big think” virus: I would have a goal (or 10) in mind — something huge and fantastically creative of course — and then I would just jump in to it (them) with both feet, flapping my arms about wildly while I tried to figure out a good place to start. My old vocal coach-slash-counsellor called it “Trying to build a house from the roof down.” Eventually, I would expend so much energy flapping, that I would just burn myself out. That lead to last-gasp analytics of the projects, which would inevitably end with me so overwhelmed by what needed to be done and how to go about it that I would just say “screw it” and go play video games. What I needed to break things down to a manageable level, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done system seemed like the perfect thing to help me make that happen.

In the beginning, it was all roses. I got my system set up — I even figured out how to integrate it with Evernote, and then later with Producteev — and got things humming along just nicely. Unfortunately, as time went on, I ended up with longer and longer lists of next actions. My contexts were bursting at the seams, and there was just no way for me to keep up.

I looked at my lists and felt that old overwhelm creeping up on me again. Then I started to avoid looking at them altogether. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, at first, and the problem was, to make myself feel like I was still continuing with the GTD system, I was still collecting new tasks. In the end, the tasks weren’t even making it to the processing stage anymore, and I found myself with a faux-GTD system that was all Inbox — just a fancy shell over my original way of (not) doing things. I had completely reverted — and my computer was shivering in fear of the imagined sledge hammer by my desk.

In any case, that was the past. I now have my GTD system up and running again, and it’s working the way it should be. To get there, all I had to do was follow these five relatively simple steps:

Identify the Problem

Start by taking a step back. Overwhelm is an insidious beast and you won’t be able to do anything about it unless you approach with a clear mind. Think of it like cleansing your palate while eating particularly rich foods. Everything will taste better, and you’re that much more likely to make it through the meal.

Now pull out a pen and paper and start to write down your main goals again. If you have trouble doing this, you have already discovered the core of your difficulties. Nothing ever truly gets accomplished without a clear goal to apply it to.

Once you have your goals in hand again, use them as a focal point as you examine your approach to productivity over the past few months. Try to identify what worked and what didn’t work, what you liked, and what you found frustrating. Think about the tools that you use, any modifications that you made to the methodology to suit your life, and the different projects you’re engaged in. Then do your best to identify all of the other things that you’re giving your attention to. Write it all down. This is the best way to discover where the bottlenecks are, and what about your approach has allowed things to backlog.

For me, the problem was as simple as not adding how long a task might take (which lead to scheduling too many things on any given day), combined with collecting things under the banner of my overall goals that really should have been either ignored, or put into Someday/Maybe-land. A little more analysis also revealed that I was not nearly disciplined enough with my weekly reviews, which would have helped me to identify those two problems in the first place, thus saving me from the hole I had dug myself into. Finally, I discovered several things outside of the GTD system that were distracting me. Things like keeping my email open, social media notifications, and working in a place easily accessible by my lovely wife and extraordinarily cute little girl. They don’t mean to be distractions, but how can they not be?

Once you’ve identified the problems that have lead to GTD-breakdown, find ways to streamline your system. Remove extra steps, use a better tool, cut out (or at least cut back on) distractions, and do whatever else you reasonably can to deal with what is getting in the way of your productivity.

Reprocessing

This might sound scary, given that you are here because of an already overwhelming amount of task data. Don’t worry, though — at least half of the work has already been done for you. You already have things collected, and a number of those things are already processed into tasks. Now, all you need to do is take a look at those tasks, and reprocess them based on your newly refined goals, working around the problems that you identified in the first step. Chances are good that you will find a lot of tasks that are already complete, or no longer relevant — and every one of those tasks that you get rid of will make you feel just a little bit better. Kill them dead with impunity!

The easiest approach to reprocessing may be to start with your Projects list, as it will be smaller than your combined tasks, and it will be easier for you to identify the projects that can be removed completely, or added to Someday/Maybe. Once you have gone through that list, you can simply throw away any tasks related to those removed or moved projects, which will speed up your overall processing time, and get you in the right frame of mind to approach other tasks in the same way.

If this still seems overwhelming, then do the reprocessing in chunks. You won’t lose anything if you don’t do it all in one day — just make sure that you keep coming back to it until it’s done.

Reestablish the Collection Process 

Now that you have the backlog out of the way, it’s time to start collecting again. The difference here will be that you are once again sure about your goals, and your system will be tweaked for optimal collection and processing. That’s a fun and fancy way of saying that you’re back on track, focused, and ready to rock your way to the productive lifestyle you aspire to.

Before you get going here, however, do a final check to make sure your refined Inbox is as easily accessible as you need it to be. If you are using Producteev or another online tool, be certain that the email addresses, extensions, apps, and other methods to send things into those services are in your contact lists, installed, and/or otherwise ready to go. Give yourself some leeway here, as well. It’s possible that things may not work entirely as you thought they would, so you may need to do a bit more tweaking over the next week or so.

Create Good Habits

GTD or any other productivity methodology is really nothing more than a collection of habits. It starts with discipline, certainly, but after a while the things that you do daily to maintain the processes should become second nature. Problems arise, however, when we have or create conflicting habits that could drag the system into another breakdown. Since you’ve already identified the bad habits that contributed to the last crash and burn, you are already a step ahead in the game. Unfortunately, bad habits don’t go quietly, and creating good habits in the face of the bad is not easy.

The key here is to not try to do everything at once. If you try a massive attack against all bad habits, trying to replace them with the new good ones, you will end up with a fight on your hands that will lead you back down the path to overwhelm. Instead, go with surgical strikes. Make a list of those bad and good habits and attack them one at a time. If you lapse here and there, don’t flay yourself over it. Just methodically get back on the proverbial horse and eventually, you will be successful.

The Weekly Review is Your Friend

It’s human nature to get a little lazy with things now and again, and this can be a problem, if you let it. Again, don’t be overly harsh with yourself, as it will only make you more likely to abandon your system. Who wants to do anything daily that is attached to self-recriminations and other forms of negativity? Not me — and probably not you, either. Instead, just make sure you keep up with the parts of the system that are there to help you keep things together. Chief among those is the Weekly Review.

The Weekly Review is where you get the chance to check on the health of your system. You can see where your projects are at, and can examine what worked and what didn’t work over the past week. I can’t put enough emphasis on the importance of taking the time to do this — and thoroughly — every single week. If you let it slip too far, you will miss out on key indicators that could help you catch a problem before it starts or spins out of control. Schedule at least an hour every week — two hours, or more, if necessary — and go through your review in detail. If you get done early, that’s a bonus for you! Either way, the time spent will be worthwhile, and will save you more time in the end. Just make sure you reward yourself when you finish so that you have incentive to keep coming back.

As a final thought on getting back to (and keeping up with) GTD, remember that good visual presentation goes a long way. This isn’t to say that a pretty app or sexy Moleskine notebook is the best approach for your system, only that anything that makes it easier for you to look at and process your data will increase the likelihood that you’ll keep coming back.

A few tips here:

1. Make sure that your contexts are clear and well organized.
2. Keep next actions on any given project down to one or two at a time, if possible.
3. Make tasks obvious that will take a while to complete.
4. I’m sure you get the idea…

Most importantly, if your system starts to break down again, don’t wait until you are on the verge of a mental breakdown before you do something about it. GTD can be a powerful ally to the productivity Jedi — but if you give it enough leverage it will turn around and give you an ass-kicking you wouldn’t believe. Eternal vigilance and such, dig?

Share what you do to keep your GTD on track!

Bobby Travis is a geeky dad with passion for writing and online marketing, coupled with a serious bent for productivity systems. You can chat with him on Twitter (@bobby_travis), connect with him on LinkedIn, or read more of his work on 40Tech. He is also a big fan of money, so if you want to hire him for some freelance work, he won’t be mad at you! Email him atcontact@bobby-travis.com.

As mentioned in yesterday’s blogpost , the founders are wheeling and dealing at Google I/O this week. It’s pretty fancy, the developer sandbox especially, which is by invitation only and limited to about 100 developers from around the world. You can find the Producteev booth in the Google Apps section (map). Definitely say “hey” if you’re around!

Tune into CEO Ilan Abehassera giving a speech at 4:30pm PDT on Wednesday. Access the live stream here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/bringing-google-io-direct-to-you-with.html.

Photo credit: Ryan Cain

The founders are off enjoying Google IO - the geekiest event ever. To celebrate and to kick off our 2nd Developer Throwdown, an API contest running through June, we’re compiling a list of all Producteev applications. To complete the directory, let us know which Producteev integrations we should add! You can also help us win a glorious prize at Google IO by voting for our short form video. Cheers!

*iGoogle gadget
http://www.producteev.com/igoogle/producteevgadget.xml

*Contextual gadget
https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=5887+4708068531850389144&pli=1

*iPhone app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/producteev/id306289289?mt=8

Chrome extension
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jcaeahkofldkofgllnfkbnbjhclnbiha

Opera extension
https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/producteev-extension/0.2/?display=en

Astrid
http://www.androidtapp.com/astrid-task-todo-list/

Task List Pro
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/productivity/task-list-todo-list-pro_lkjp.html

Taskee
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/13801?lang=en

Voice2teev
http://www.appstorehq.com/voice2teev-android-311814/app

MPM mobile project manager
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hawkmoon.mpm.trial

Target Date 
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mpm.projectarget.alpha

OneTask
http://www.onetask.com/ 

*App designed in-house

“I’ve fallen in love with Producteev and keep it open on a Firefox tab all day. It really hit the sweet spot and helps me stay on top of a bajillion tasks” - Rosemary O’Neill, President, community manager, movie nut, & mom of three. 

fave features: 

• calendar view
• sorting by labels
• reminder notifications

key benefits:

• daily organization
• less mental energy to do more work

Rosemary O’Neill, president of Social Strata, manages work, family and side projects in Producteev. 

She came across Producteev by googling for apps to help her get things done. Five task managers were tested before she finally settled. The O’Neill party of 5 has now been using Producteev for six weeks and has decided that it is the productivity tool for them. 

“I am all in!” Rosemary shares, “The most important thing about Producteev is being able to switch between the list view and calendar view. This helps me organize my tasks on any given day.”

Separate workspaces are also used, which are categorized into her day-to-day activities (both work and family), and special projects. It’s actually pretty smart so that her calendar - with daily responsibilities - can be in one place.

Context labels make the to-do list more manageable. As community manager of Social Strata, Rosemary is in charge of social media and customer support/relations. This spectrum of duties is entered using the web app. “I kinda appreciate being nagged when it’s time for me to do a blog update,” she reveals.

As far as her workflow and completing to-dos are concerned, Rosemary sets deadlines using the SCHEDULE IT feature. Any unscheduled tasks are then addressed by priority. 

Rather than heavy processing of tasks (Covey method etc.), she finds this method simpler and easier to work with. In effect, Rosemary spends less time thinking about what it is she has to do and more time checking off the many items on her list. Producteev’s filters help do some of the task processing work for her, and the sort by feature has been a real lifesaver.

In addition, she and her husband, Ted, make the most of their Seattle commute by dropping tasks into the Producteev iphone app. “It’s mentally freeing for me to be able to pop tasks right in there.”  

Finally, to manage her hectic schedule as a busy mom, Rosemary reminds herself to do school-related tasks for her three young children on Producteev. “I can remember to bring cupcakes on Thursday,” for instance, “and I like that Producteev emails me the day before with a reminder!”

Learn more about views and sorting and see a similar use case . 

via 6.mshcdn.com

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Introduce laughter into the workplace

May 03

The greatest of all miracles is health. Every day, our bodies are attacked by millions of microbes, viruses and bacteria. The body is able to repulse these invaders and protect itself through the immune response. The body’s immune response is enhanced by laughter.

Laughter is internal jogging. It fills your mind space with positive emotions. Emotionally, it is relaxing, reducing harmful muscle tension. A good bout of laughter also reduces the levels of stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol. Laughter strengthens the immune system, keeping away infections, allergies and diseases. 

Our immune system plays a very important role in maintaining good health. It has been proven by immunologists that all negative emotions like anxiety, depression or anger weaken the immune system of the body, thereby reducing its capacity to fight infections. Laughter heals and rejuvenates without costly
prescription drugs.

Action Plan to Bring Laughter in your Office

• Organize screenings of comedy Films and shows.
• Encourage cheerful people to spread good Cheer.
• Create a humor committee.
• Smile. Do not smother laughter.
• Organize a family day.
• Exhibit humorous posters and Cartoons on a Humor Board in the work area.

If you work from home, take a break and watch something funny and laugh. Do not hold back.

Productive Napping  

via kolorkube.com