Comments on: Cutting Down the Overload: Ask Yourself What's Important

By: mariekshan

mariekshan — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 05:37:55 +0000

As a web worker for a news organization, every day it’s like starting from scratch. The tasks never stop, the updates never cease. So my colleagues and I have adopted a mantra to A.) keep us sane and B.) force us to unplug:

“Done Enough.”

By: engtech

engtech — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 08:58:38 +0000

I’ve been tempted to switch to using index cards with tasks taped to the wall in order of priority so that it’s always extremely obvious what i should be working on.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:01:18 +0000

Great post! It’s nice to see other web developers pondering what’s important and what’s not, because we get so much thrown at us. Heck, we get so much thrown at us as humans in general.

If anyone is struggling with this personally, I recommend “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. It’s been around for a long time, and everything he talks about is still completely relevant.

What applies most to Mike’s post? Set a weekly schedule instead of a daily schedule – that way, you can accomplish what you really want in life by repeating the things that need to be repeated, and getting rid of the mundane activities that you don’t enjoy. He said it right when he talks about how your activities are based on your goals, which are based on your principles – what you stand for. Figure out what you stand for in life.

As a side note, I love Web Worker Daily – it’s the one blog I truly enjoy reading every day!

By: Terrance

Terrance — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 02:54:15 +0000

It’s hard to say with the RSS feeds. As a writer, almost anything I read could be an inspiration for some thing I’m writing or hadn’t previously thought about writing.

Of course, I have multiple inspirations in my head at any given moment, and have trouble deciding which of those is most important.

By: David Hollingworth

David Hollingworth — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 21:30:26 +0000

A great posting, thanks. I too spend plenty of time being unproductive (I don’t believe there’s such a thing as being unproductively productive) and I often have to ask myself, “Is what I’m doing contributing to getting my work done?”. If it isn’t I then have a choice to continue doing it or to get some real stuff done. The empowerment is in recognizing that I have the choice.

By: rick gregory

rick gregory — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 19:50:43 +0000

Mike,

good article. one of the things I’m bemused by is that the freedom so many web workers talk about is usually subsumed in 14 or 16 hour days. It seems to me somewhat contradictory to switch to a life and workstyle that give the chance for more freedom and flexibility only to throw that away.

To Nerd’s point and that of your post… you can’t evaluate what you should be doing in the moment if you don’t have an idea of what is important in your life overall. Miss the dance recital or the trip? Well, look at the longer timeframe and bigger picture. Then judge. Ideally, do that before you have the kid whose recital is coming up… if your career is much more important to you, maybe delay the kid… or choose not to have them.

Having thought about the values framework, the in the moment decisions come more easily. And now I’m going to go clean my kitchen… ;)

By: macgillivray brampton

macgillivray brampton — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 17:07:58 +0000

I found a great book along these lines to help me deal with the massive amounts of distracting “noise” I have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

Check out “Getting things done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity” by David Allen. Its a godsend to anyone who is way too busy for a simple to-do list approach to managing their professional life. You can find him at http://www.davidco.com (I’ve not been on his site before now, but I thought I better track down a link given this digital environment.

I haven’t mastered the “Art of Stress Free Productivity” by any measure (I’m a tax accountant by trade after all) but his POV is very helpful. Check him out too,

By: secondchancetolive

secondchancetolive — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:27:46 +0000

Hi Mike,
Great post. I agree with you. Efficiency versus’s busyness. Several years ago, in a time management course, I came away with a piece of information that has enhanced my productivity. Make a decision when you touch something. What I gathered from this bit of adivce, was that if I put my hands on a piece of information, I need to decide what to do with that information the first time I pick it up. Through practicing this strategy, I have been able to file and sort information as I get it, rather than putting it off until a later time. Through following this plan I have reduced my need to catch up.

By: Mike Gunderloy

Mike Gunderloy — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 14:17:50 +0000

Oh, heck. Here's the corrected link. Sometimes WordPress is not my friend (and I don't have an easy way to edit articles on a Saturday morning).

By: Leo

Leo — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 13:53:02 +0000

Great post. I recently wrote about similar topics: Do More to Be Less Productive The Art of Doing Nothing Keep up the great work, Mike!