We have been quite on this blog for a while now. But rest assured we are still here! We have been really busy lately working on the next version of JetTask. We have been listening to product feedback for over a year and a half now and finally all of the feedback is starting to come together into one solid product. It's looking great! The new version is a complete re-write of the current version, but we have worked hard to make sure we are adding extra features without adding complexity.
We will hopefully be in private beta next month with a full release a month or two after that. For the moment, we don't want to give too much away because features will be added and removed over the next few months.
So apologies if we have been quite. We are here and we are listening. Please keep sending the great feedback!
posted @ Wednesday, July 23, 2008 5:46 PM | Feedback (0)
The 80/20 rule is a rule that is used in a number of different situations but in terms of time management and productivity it says that 20 percent of the work produces 80% of the result. How can you use this rule to be as productive as possible?
What the 80/20 Rule Means in Terms of Productivity
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, states that 20% of the work produces 80% of the result. This means that by focusing on the 20% that brings in the best results you can be more productive and get things done quicker, you may even be able to leave out some work you would have done previously.
Work out What Your 20% is
In order to know where to focus your attention to get the best results you need to look at what your 20% is in a number of areas. What are the 20% of the tasks that you are doing that bring in 80% of the results? What are the 20% of the journals or reading materials that bring you 80% of the value? By working out what 20% in your life is bringing the most value you will know where you should focus your efforts.
Start with 20%
Once you have decided which 20% is bringing you the most value then start by focusing on these. Toss out other reading materials that are not bringing you as much value and leave tasks that do not bring value until last. Starting here ensures that you get the bulk of the work done that you need to as effectively as possible, and you get maximum value from what you read.
Do You Really Need To Do That Last 80%?
Once you have completed the first 20% that is bringing you the maximum results consider whether it is really necessary to do the last 80%. If you have achieved your expected outcome and done what needs to be done then you may not need to do 80% of the task, consider how much time you would have saved by simply following this principle?
If You Do Need to Do More, Break It Down Again
If you do need to do a bit more of the task in order to reach your expected outcome or finish the project desirably then break the task down again working out the 20% that will bring the best results. Continue doing this until you have completed the task satisfactorily.
The 80/20 rule states that 20% of your tasks give you 80% of the results. By focusing on these 20% you can improve your productivity, finish tasks quicker and perhaps not even need to complete the remaining 80%. You should follow this rule before completing tasks in order to work out exactly what is required.
posted @ Wednesday, May 21, 2008 2:55 PM | Feedback (0)
Do you have to work from home occasionally or on an ongoing basis? Do you have some little children running around and making this a little difficult? Web Worker Daily had a post on "10 (more) tips on doing productive web work with kids in the house" but these tips can really apply to anyone who has to do productive work at home and here we have picked some of our favorite tips from their post.
Get Up a Little Early or Go to Bed a Bit Later
Web Worker really had these as two separate tips but I have combined them as one because, well, most of us have some time of the day when we are more productive and it is usually not both earlier and later. Decide whether you are a morning person or a night owl and then adjust your sleeping patterns in accordance. If you are an early riser then rise a little earlier to get more work done, if you are a night owl then get some work in after the children have gone to bed.
Enroll Your Spouse
Working together with your spouse to both get more productive work done and keep the children happy and occupied can be a great benefit. Take it in turns to do your work while the other one deals with the children and keeps them away from the one who is trying to work and you will find that you get a lot more done and can work synergistically.
Teach Them to Play by Themselves.
Personally I feel that this is very important, to teach children how to play by themselves. Today children are often occupied either with computers or TV but what happened to the days when we would make up fantasy games to play or play with good old board games, cars and dolls? Teach your children how to enjoy these simple pleasures again, by themselves.
Send them to Relatives
Grandparents and aunts often love having their grandchildren, nieces and nephews to stay and children usually enjoy spending time with their grandparents or aunts. Encourage this bonding and you will also have more time available to focus on your work and be more productive.
Turn off the Computer and Play with Them
Since this post by Web Worker Daily was written for web workers it says to turn off the computer but the same applies to whatever your job is, put it aside and spend some time focusing on your children. Children will often become more demanding if they feel they have not had enough attention from their parents so make sure that you do spend time playing with them or enjoying their company and then when you do want to work they will be more willing to give you that time.
Web Worker Daily had a number of good tips in this post but we feel that these are some of the best ones - firstly, give your children the attention they need regularly so that when you do want to work they will not be desperate for your attention. Adjust your sleeping patterns to fit in work while the children are sleeping, work together with your spouse and encourage other family bonds as well. By implementing these tips you should already find yourself becoming more productive at your work with children in the house.
posted @ Wednesday, April 23, 2008 5:44 PM | Feedback (0)
Perhaps one of the most annoying times for productive people is meetings. Often meetings go on for a lot longer than necessary and never really accomplish all that they should. Organizing LA published a post about having stand up meetings and personally I think this is a brilliant idea for getting meetings done more effectively and achieving more in less time.
If you are responsible for a meeting then consider throwing out the chairs in your conference venue and instead have everyone stand while you discuss important matters. You will find that instead of everyone arguing about many subjects that are not really on topic they will keep to the subject of the meeting and try to get things decided as soon as possible so that they do not need to stand for very long.
On the Organizing LA blog, John Trosko says, "Because the meetings were so long someone on the team suggested we institute 'stand up meetings' instead of sitting at a traditional conference table, we took the chairs out of the room and ran meetings while standing on our feet. Well the length of the meetings DRASTICALLY dropped, because people didn't want to stand for long. Meetings went from 30-60 minutes to roughly 1/2 of that while still delivering meaty content."
Admittedly there are some meetings where this may not work, and if it is going to take a long time just to get through the items on the agenda then it probably is best to have chairs, but for those short meetings that are only meant to get through a few items try limiting the amount of time it takes by instituting stand up meetings.
Instead of having everyone use up your valuable time in meetings, cut the time it takes to get things decided and discuss agenda items by instituting stand up meetings. Stand up meetings make people feel like they need to get through the items quickly because they do not want to stand for long. Sit down meetings are often long and unproductive.
posted @ Thursday, April 10, 2008 4:41 PM | Feedback (1)
Since many of us spend most of our day on the computer, one of the best things we can do to improve our productivity is to learn how to be more productive on our computers and how to get them to be more productive for us. We thought we would share some of our ideas with you to help get you started on improving your computer productivity:
1. Get a Good Firewall and Anti Virus Software and Set Them to Run Automatically
The first step to ensure that you stay consistently productive on your computer and that nothing happens to harm your computer is to get a good firewall and anti-virus program installed. Set your anti-virus program to run automatically at a time when you will not be using your computer so that it does not slow down your computer while you are working but that it still gets done regularly.
2. Only Install the Minimum Amount of Software Required
Don't load your computer with dozens of programs that you will never use. Try to keep to the minimum you require (and maybe a few games you enjoy) and get rid of the rest. If you have Windows then open your "Add/Remove programs" software and take a look at how often you are really using different programs and whether they are actually necessary on your computer and delete any you don't need.
3. Make Use of Shortcut Keys
Shortcut keys can be very powerful ways to improve your computer productivity by speeding up the amount of time it takes to get into any program that you use regularly. Although the amount of time may not seem that large for each program, add up all the amount of time you have saved and it could end up a substantial amount.
4. Do Computer Maintenance Regularly
Regularly run your Clean Disk application, defragment your drive and do any other computer maintenance that is necessary. The best idea is to set these tasks to run automatically as well so that you do not waste time doing them manually. You may however want to do the Clean Disk operation manually to ensure you do not lose any important information.
5. Organize Your Desktop and Filing System for Optimum Productivity
Lastly, customize your desktop so that it works for you and that you can get the things done quickly that you need to. You should also have set up an effective filing system so that you can quickly and easily find files that you need to work on.
Today computers are an important part of our lives and improving the way we work on them is one way to improve our productivity. In order to do this you should first ensure that you have a good firewall and anti virus application installed, only install other programs that you will use regularly, and do computer maintenance regularly. Learn how to use shortcut keys and set up your computer desktop and filing system so that you can quickly and easily find and open the programs and files you need to work on.
posted @ Monday, March 31, 2008 11:42 AM | Feedback (0)
I have recently been thinking quite a lot about the fact that on the whole life has become so very complicated. We are constantly filling our lives with new gadgets, new activities, and generally ending up with a very cluttered life. Can we perhaps achieve more by doing and having less?
Simplify Activities
Is your life so cluttered with activity that you are not really accomplishing anything with any of your activities? As we mentioned in a previous post, are you too busy to be productive? Instead of trying to do more and more think about doing less and less, but more effectively and productively. Think about the one thing that you truly want to achieve greatness in and focus on that. Do only those activities that are important to getting where you want to go.
Simplify Your Accounts and Memberships
Often we tend to have more accounts and memberships than we really need or can effectively manage. Take a serious look at your bank accounts, credit cards, and other memberships. Do you really need all of those? By cutting back we can often get more out of those accounts and memberships that we do have, you may be able to get a higher credit limit or have more time to use your memberships and get the most out of them. The time spent managing too many accounts and memberships also often eats into time that we could spend more productively and effectively elsewhere.
Simplify Your Personal Possessions
Do you have more things than you really need? Is your house cluttered with items that you never really use? Try to think minimalist and get rid of all those items that you don't need. Give to charity and you will not only spend less time searching through your items for the one item you truly need, but will also contribute to society and be able to get a tax break as well. Clutter can often be a big time waster so simplify your possessions and you will find it a lot easier to know where things are when you need them.
Has your life become too complicated to be truly productive? Do you need to get rid of some activities, accounts, memberships or personal possessions? By simplifying your life in these ways you can often find a lot more time that was previously wasted and can become more productive and efficient at those tasks that you do focus on and find important.
posted @ Monday, March 10, 2008 10:54 AM | Feedback (0)
There are a number of different systems available today that look at improving productivity, helping you to set goals and stay organized. Some of these are very popular, while others may be less well known, but this is not really what makes it the right productivity system for you. In order to correctly choose a productivity system that will work for you, you need to see which one suits you best personally.
Consider Your Lifestyle
The first thing to consider when choosing a productivity system that suits you is your lifestyle. Choose a system that is neither too complicated for your lifestyle, nor too simple. The productivity system should do everything you need it to, but if it is too complicated then it may take up more time rather than making you more productive. Let's take for example the idea of 43 folders, for some people this is really needed while for others having 43 folders would just build up clutter and they would never use that many for their type of lifestyle. You may only need one or two folders to keep your life productive and well organized.
Know Your Personality
Your personality is another important consideration when choosing a productivity system. If you have an artistic temperament then you want something that reflects this and that will work with you; but likewise if you have a more logical temperament then you will want to work with a system that reflects this. Think carefully about how the productivity system you choose works with your personality.
Create Your Own Productivity System
If you cannot find the ideal productivity system for your particular personality and lifestyle then consider making up one of your own. Take what you learn from other systems and adapt these until they suit you. The truth is that probably no productivity system is 100% suited to the person you are because it was made by someone else who was trying to reflect their own best productivity system. Take what they have learnt and make this personal.
In order to choose the right productivity system for you it is important to consider your personality and lifestyle, and even then there is a good chance you won't find the perfect system. If you are not happy with any of the productivity systems that you find then try learning from each of them and using different aspects of these systems to create a productivity system that is ideally suited to you.
posted @ Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:10 PM | Feedback (0)
Many people today are using logging as a useful way of getting information about how they are spending their time, how productive they are and what steps they can take to improve their productivity; to others though this seems a slightly daunting task. Personally I believe that this can be a very powerful habit to get into, not only in terms of productivity but also in terms of how you spend your money and perhaps a number of other areas as well.
Logging Makes You Aware of What You Are Doing
The first reason you may want to consider logging is that it helps to make you aware of what you are doing and how you are spending your money, depending on the type of log that you keep. By becoming aware of your activities and expenditure it puts you in a better position to make changes where necessary.
Logging Points out Areas You Need to Change
By logging your activities and expenditures you can easily see where you are going wrong - what are buying that you should not be? Where are you spending time on unnecessary activity? You can also get a clear picture of how these improve over time when you start taking action on them. By using logging to change your habits, you can improve your productivity and save more money.
How to Develop the Habit of Logging
In order for a goal to be effective it needs to be written down. You should write down exactly what you are going to log, what tools you need in order to log this effectively and become accountable to someone for your logging habit. Then commit to logging every day for about 30 days, this should give you enough time to start developing this new habit and make it easy to continue with it.
Logging can be a very useful tool in terms of becoming aware of how you are spending your time and money, and then making changes to use these two resources more effectively. When you start logging you should write down what you are going to log and make yourself accountable to someone for developing this habit.
posted @ Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:59 PM | Feedback (0)
Getting Things Done is a very popular productivity and time management system created by David Allen that has a number of benefits, but at the same time can be a bit too complex for many people. In this post we share our thoughts about this system - its benefits and disadvantages, so that you can decide whether this is the right productivity system for you.
Getting Things Done is a very Organized System
One of the benefits of "Getting Things Done" is that it is a very organized and methodical system with steps and processes neatly outlined for the workflow process, levels of focus and planning. The workflow process for example consists of five steps - collect, process, organize, review, do, and all of these processes are explained. If you need something methodical and organized to keep you on track then this may be a great help.
Getting Things Done Brings Perspective
Another thing I really like about the "Getting Things Done" process is that it brings perspective. It gives you six areas of focus from current actions through to lifetime goals. Something I learnt very young is that seeing the big picture and getting perspective can really help to reduce stress levels and make you a lot more productive. I believe that David Allen's "Getting Things Done" system helps you to achieve this and so can help to improve your productivity.
Getting Things Done Can Be Too Complicated
One of the disadvantages I see to David Allen's system is that it is often too complicated. For example one of the devices that this system uses is the 43 folders concept. Most people, I believe, do not need nearly as many as 43 folders. The steps themselves, although organized and methodical, can also become a bit complicated if you focus too much on them - rather focus on getting things done then on the five step process of how you are doing them.
Getting Things Done, although a very popular system has both advantages and disadvantages and it is important that you decide for yourself whether this is a system that you would like to use or not. It is a very organized and methodical system with a good view on perspective, however if it is too complicated for your particular lifestyle then it should probably be avoided as it could keep you from being productive rather than being more productive.
posted @ Monday, January 21, 2008 1:44 PM | Feedback (0)