One tenet of Getting Things Done is to always have a tool that you can use to capture thoughts and actions as they pop into your head. I get crazy ideas in the oddest places and times, so it’s important to have a tool at my disposal to quickly capture them. I always have my cell phone on me, so it’s a natural choice for a capture tool. I needed a service that I could dial into and leave a message which would be then transcribed and in my inbox when I returned to my computer. For a long time, I’ve been using Jott, but Google Voice has taken over as my tool of choice for capturing next actions and ideas.

Why the switch to Google Voice?

1. It’s free
2. It’s easily accessible – In addition to a great web client, GV has a great Blackberry application.
3. Better transcription quality – I’ve found the quality of voice transcription to be better. That means less corrections to make for me when adding actions to my GTD system.

Set up your Google Voice Account for Getting Things Done

1. Add your cell phone to your list of contacts if it’s not already present

   

2. Edit your google voice settings for the contact you just created. Select “Send to Voice Mail”

   

3. If this is a phone that you’ve connected to the account, you’ll need to navigate to settings and then the phone tab. Click edit and then show advance settings. Set voicemail direct access to “no”. Be sure to save your changes.

   

Calling your new capture tool for the first time

1. Dial your google voice number
2. Press 1 to go directly to voicemail once it starts ringing
3. Leave a message

Setting up more automation

• If you have a GMail account, you can set up filters to have a specific inbox for captured voicemails
• If you use Remember the Milk, You could also set up a rule to automatically forward the email notification to your inbox there.

Google Voice has become a vital part of my GTD workflow. Even if you’re on a low tech system like an excellent Moleskine, using Google Voice as a capture tool when you’re on the road is a safe and free alternative.

I’m a huge fan of getting things done and constantly honing my productivity. I recommend that everyone should learn about different methodologies and blend them together into your own. It takes a unique and different approach for everyone to score their goals. The triple deke might have worked for the Mighty Ducks,

But, for me, I use a mix of things I’ve learned from these books:

• Getting Things Done – David Allen’s analysis and structured system around productivity is a must read for those that want to boost their productivity
• The Ultimate Sales Machine – This book builds on the idea of E-Myth by Michael Gerber in creating a system for a performing company. In it, there is a short, simple chapter on productivity. The basic gist is that before you start every day, you outline what tasks you want to complete and then assign timeboxes to each task.
• The Four Hour Workweek – I’ve tried to implement a lot of the stuff Tim Ferris outlines, but outsourcing to date has been more work for me than it has been worth. I do try to be on an information diet and I’m a firm proponent of the 80/20 principle, however.

My mix basically translates to Getting Things Done + Daily Tasks. I use Things.app to do project planning on a weekly basis. Every day, I select or create approximately 6 tasks I need to complete for the day and mark them as “Today” in Things.app. I schedule them out and order them sequentially. I use GeekTool and a handy AppleScript I’ve modified (gtd.applescript.txt) so my withstanding daily tasks are always in my face on my desktop. I’d really like to have it as a dashboard widget too, but I haven’t taken the time to look for one just yet.

Any system you use requires relentless discipline. It’s really easy to fall off the productivity wagon. Don’t use a system just because it’s the latest fad – use it because you want to be more effective at what you do.

How do you get things done? I love to nerd out about productivity tips so let me know what works for you!

Do you find yourself checking your email when you should be coding? Reading Reddit while your test suite runs? Finally, comes an app that is off to a great start when it comes to focusing on the task you’re performing. Concentrate!

You can set up profiles based on the context of your action. My contexts are set up as follows:

Away

• Sets Skype status to “Away”
• Sets Adium status to “Away”

Blogging

• Opens up MarsEdit
• Opens up Things – I often track blogging ideas there
• Closes my GMail Prism Instance
• Closes Tweetie
• Sets Adium status to Away as “Writing”
• Sets Skype Status to Away

Code

• Launches MacVim
• Launches Gitx
• Launches iTerm
• Launches Lighthouse Keeper – Bug Tracking
• Launches PivotalTracker Prism Instance – Story/Feature Tracking
• Launches Propane.app – Campfire Client
• Launches RallyClock Prism Instance – time tracking
• Closes Tweetie
• Closes GMail Prism Instance
• Opens Ruby on Rails API Documentation in Firefox
• Opens Rdoc.info in Firefox
• Opens JQuery Docs in Firefox
• Sets Adium status to Away as “Coding”
• Sets Skype status to Away

Conference Call

• Launches Google Calendar Prism Instance
• Launches GMail Prism Instance
• Launches Skype
• Sets Adium status to Away as “On a Call”

GTD

Getting Things Done is a methodology for organizing tasks and projects. I practice it using the following workflow:

• Opens Firefox
• Opens Things.app
• Opens VoodooPad – my personal wiki
• Opens Jott in Firefox – when I’m on the road, I will call in actions as they pop into my head. Jott isn’t great at transcribing my messages but I can re-listen to them when I’m doing my weekly review, etc.
• Opens my RescueTime Dashboard – I use this to analyze productivity and see what apps I’m using heavily

Marketing

• Opens Firefox
• Opens Gmail Prism Instance
• Opens Tweetie
• Sets Adium Status to “Away”
• Opens Google Analytics in Firefox
• Opens my Fat Free CRM instance in Firefox
• Opens up the WWR Forums in Firefox

I will continue to refine this list and add to it. Having used it for over a week, I can say Concentrate.app has helped me become more efficient and focused when I need to switch contexts. There are some problems with it and Vimperator I think, but overall it has become a de facto tool. I hope you find it useful!

So I’m a big fan of David Allen’s GTD System. For a long time, I’ve been looking for a personal information system that could help me get the job done.

I’ve been extremely impressed with the early versions of Things. I’m starting to get very excited about their iCal sync feature.

If you’re looking for an electronic version of David Allen’s system, this is the tightest app I’ve seen for it. I especially like the “Areas” feature, as most apps I’ve used lack this feature.

Once I have the ical feature, I will be able to sync this info with my PDA. That’s really the only problem with Things in its current build. Once I’m able to access this information on the go, I’ll feel a lot better about having an offline app for this type of organization.

Kyle del.icio.us’ed me this article and I really dug it. Work has been really crazy lately – we’ve been ramping up development efforts so both coding and project management needs have increased.

Have you ever asked yourself the question: “Am I busy or productive?”. I’ve been asking myself that lately. Sometimes, less is definitely more. In the Agile Software world, there’s this whole idea of sustainable pace.

How productive are you as a developer after 60 hour workweeks and a lack of sleep? Every good developer should know when quitting is actually more productive than staying busy. If you’re burning the midnight oil and making frequent mistakes give these ideas some thought:

• Am I introducing flawed code that is going to haunt me later?
• If I’m observing many mistakes that I’m making, is it possible there’s many more I’m not realizing?
• Am I really contributing to burndown/velocity effectively?

Know when to quit! Your team members and your supervisors will thank you.