Ironically, reading blogs about productivity can often be the perfect reason for procrastination, and actually diminish our actual productive output. There is one blog, however, that seems to avoid just that. It is the Ultimate Productivity Blog, and also the ultimate minimalist blog.

It is published through Tumblr, which is another microblogging tool. It is supposed to be anywhere just in between Flickr, and regular blogging. Short and sweet like Tweeting, meets the ability to share anything and everything, from any platform (including your phone). I am going to look into Tumblr some more, and follow up on whether it might be useful in business, marketing, or writing at a later point in time.

Bookmark the Ulimate Productivity Blog though. I think it is to the point and perfectly true; ultimately… you get more done if you just get to it. So stop reading about how to get more done, and just do it.

Although Google Docs has been around for years, I am still trying to get into the habit of using it regularly. Without a doubt, having access to certain documents anywhere in the world, from any computer, is an amazing luxury that far surpasses the inconveniece of carrying around USB keys and portable harddrives. I always seem to misplace my USB keys, and they have to shuttle between the three bags I carry routinely, only varying in size to meet my storage needs on any particular day.

Google Docs can save you from all that USB key misery though. There is nothing to remember to bring with you, and nothing to really lose, when using Google Docs. Any document is available at any point in time, basically making your documents in progress mobile. And with “mobile” I actually mean portable, not necessarily restricted only to being available on a mobile device (although that, too, is possible).

The secret to using productivity tools

Like any productivity enhancing tool, the tool is only as useful as the user makes it. In other words, if you don’t get yourself in the habit of using something, it will of course not do anything for your productive output. Google Docs is exactly the same, and as I mentioned, I am also still getting into the habit of using it regularly.

However, essentially there are factors we cannot change in our day that influence (or reduce) our productivity. One of them is time: there are, and probably always will be, only 24 hours in a day. No sense in wishing there were more, I’ve tried and it doesn’t change anything. We also cannot change activities that cost a certain minimum amount of time without having to deal with serious long term consequences, like sleeping, commuting, and socializing. What we can do, is make use of those minutes here and there that are lost by simply not filling them with a useful activity.

Using two minutes here, and five minutes there, to work on your next novel (for example), will actually result in said novel being done years sooner than when you are constantly hoping to free up three solid hours of writing time. Anyone who has tried to sit down and seriously write, will know this will never happen. Although this is an example for writers, it applies to anyone trying to produce something over a longer period of time. If you are a student and are given an assignment, you should really start early and do bits and pieces of it. Yes, most students (and I used to do it too) cram all the work into the evening before the deadline. This is setting yourself up for reasonably bad habits though, because deadlines will still exist in the “real world”.

How Google Docs ramps up your productivity

When you upload your documents that are a work in progress (reports, assignments, novels, short stories, poems, you name it…) to Google Docs, and keep a Google Docs page open in one of your browser tabs to function as a reminder, then you can easily fill those lost minutes with some productive typing. Even if you are just free writing, you are probably going to produce something more useful than if you don’t try at all. You might also spend those minutes you are on hold on the phone editing some of your work uploaded to Google Docs. I almost ‘lost’ at least an hour and a half on hold with various airlines and organizations this week, had I not filled that time with some editing and some writing as well. It is amazing how much more you get done by just not wasting the five minutes here and there that tend to get lost during the day. It is almost like reckless spending, but instead of money we’re losing time. There are people who routinely buy small ticket items that are not really necessary (candy bars, pop, etc), and when adding up the real cost over the course of a year, it is shocking.
The very same goes for our productivity. By wasting those ten minutes on hold on the phone, taken over the course of a year, that’s at least one more chapter for a book, a short story, or an article.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in time-well-wasted on occasion, but the reality is that there are many instances during our day when we might as well use our time wisely, and productively.

Sometimes keeping things simple is the easiest way to ensure you don’t miss your appointments or lose all your data to a technical screw-up. The most basic way to keep a calendar would still be the good-old-fashioned pen and paper approach. This comes at a price though: not just the minor cost of purchasing a new calendar each year, but mostly the cost to your back from carrying it around every day.

A more back-friendly option is a digital calendar, and virtually any computer, phone or PDA you buy comes with such a device built in. The problem is that you need to either decide which of these devices to use as your calendar, or find ways to sync the same calendar onto different gadgets.

Keeping an online calendar

If you keep a copy of your calendar online, the obvious benefit is that you can access it from any computer, anywhere in the world. For those who commute to different offices or locations for work, or have off-site meetings and are generally not always carrying their laptops with them, this is a nice back-up option.

Similarly, if you sometimes find yourself without your laptop but need to add a quick appointment to your calendar, online storage is an easy solution. One simple but versatile system is Google Calendar. However, when keeping track of your daily appointments through different calendars, how do we get them to sync up with each other so you are not referencing three different sources all the time?

Syncing Google Calendar with iCal

It’s extremely easy to sync your google calendar with iCal (for Mac users), but it is only a one-way sync from google calendar, to iCal (not the other way around).

The only way this is useful is if you want to use Google Calendar to simply add appointments to your iCal, and not actually use it to reference all your calendar data. If you would like a mirror of your iCal information to be available in Google Calendar, then you need a two-way sync.

Two-Way Sync with GCalDaemon

If you are the experimental type, then the command line, cross-platform, beta-release application called GCalDaemon will get your blood flowing. Like any good open source application, the secret to setting it up lies in being comfortable editing the text configuration file. Lifehacker has a great description of this trick here.

Keep in mind GCalDaemon is compatible with both Mac and Windows, and can sync your calendars across multiple applications such as: Lightning, iCal or Rainlendar

Two-Way sync with Spanning Sync

Easier for the non-programmer than GCalDaemon is Spanning Sync. Spanning Sync does charge a subscription (or one time purchase) fee, but if you refer a friend you receive $5, and your friend receives a $5 discount. This can add up to a free subscription, or even some spare cash. There is a free 15 day trial version of the program, and you can subscribe for $25 per year, or pay $65 once for lifetime use.

Two-way sync with BusySync

Cheaper than Spanning Sync, BusySync offers two-way synchronization between Google Calendars and your iCal, as well as calendar sharing through a LAN connection (think: sharing your calendar with your assistant/secretary or between family or coworkers). It comes with a $25 price tag, and has a free 30 day trial.

Syncing your calendar to a mobile device

If you want to sync your Google Calendar to your mobile phone or PDA, then GooSync is your program. The supported devices are nicely listed, and pictured, here. Not surprisingly, the iPhone is among the supported cell phones for GooSync. There is a free version of the program, as well as a paid version to get more features, like the ability to sync your task/to-do lists.

To choose which option suits your needs best, consider whether you are using a Mac or a PC, and whether this means you are already automatically syncing your calendars with some device or another: some phone software allows you to sync information kept in outlook, while iCal can sync with any iPod you may already carry with you anyways. When it comes to inputting extra information, the iPod sync is not very useful, it only serves as a reference of what is already added to your iCal.

Ultimately, you would likely benefit from a Google Calendar to computer sync, as well as a sync between your computer and mobile device (cell phone or PDA). If you use your computer as a ‘master file’ of all your appointments and day to day activities, and sync these to both Google Calendar and your mobile gadget, then you can be sure you will always carry the most recent copy of your calendar with you, no matter where you are!

Drowning in research? If you are ever faced with reading hundreds of journal articles you’ll know how confusing and debilitating a paper avalanche can be. Even if you just need to move that pile of paper off your desk, but never find them back if you digitize them, then here is a trick for you!

Pause the music, and skip to your ‘document play list’ in iTunes instead.

If you love how easily you can find one of your 20.000 songs in iTunes by simply browsing a playlist, selecting a mood or genre or searching by keyword, think of how much time you would safe by organizing your documents in the same way. Now you can! iTunes is actually a very handy PDF organizer too, and it doesn’t cost you any extra hard drive space to find all your receipts, research, articles or any other document you can think of.

All you need to do, is convert any and all documents you want to organize in iTunes to PDF files. This is easy and fast if you have a Mac, but even Windows users can benefit with countless (free) PDF writers available on the web.

If you are converting hard copies into PDFs (very handy to make sure you get all your receipts and deductions filed for next year’s tax season), then you will also need a scanner.

To keep PDFs separated from your music files, here is what you need to do:

• Create a separate iTunes library for your documents:

  To create a separate iTunes library, hold down the ‘Option’ key on a Mac, or the shift key on Windows while you open iTunes. A dialogue window will pop up, from which you will select ‘create new library’:

  
• Now, name your document Library:
  

Technically, you are done setting up your new library. You can now just drag and drop PDFs into it. But, before you do… here are a few productivity tips to keep your hard drive clean, and your files perfectly organized:

• By default, iTunes copies all files you drag and drop into a library to the iTunes library folders. This means you end up with two copies of the same file; one in the original folder where you stored it, the other is placed in the iTunes library. To avoid this, you need to go into the iTunes preferences and select the ‘advanced’ tab, where you uncheck the following options: “Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library” and “Keep iTunes Music folder organized.”
• To avoid dealing with a bunch of empty fields under the ‘artist’, ‘album’ and ‘last played’ lists, just remove them by right clicking the the column header and unchecking all of these options. Because PDF files are not music files, all of these fields will be left as ‘unknown artist/album’ by default. You can use them to organize your files, but an easier way to do this is to use smart play lists.

Set up Folders

To file several related ‘playlists’ in one folder (for example: taxes 2006, taxes 2007, etc, can be filed in one central ‘taxes’ folder), simply click on File -> “new folder” -> a new folder is added to the playlist field, and you can rename it:

Setting up a smart playlist

You should use smart playlists to organize your files, for the simple reason that once you name them and drop them into your library, they are automatically added to the correct folders (i.e. playlists). This cuts back on lost time dragging and dropping hundreds of files one by one into the correct playlist, and although we all like to think we are perfect… it’s too easy to miss a file with this archaic strategy. Here is how it’s done:

1. Select “new smart playlist” from the file menu:
   
2. Select the correct parameters (as below) and enter a keyword. This will be the same of the smart playlist as well, and any documents that contain this keyword in their file name will automatically be added to the smart playlist. So, every time you upload a new reference document you want to file under ‘guidelines’, make sure the file name contains this keyword and it will automatically be added to your ‘guidelines’ folder:
   

Why use iTunes as a document organizer

Like any other productivity system: it depends on your personal preferences and organizational style to determine whether using iTunes as a PDF organizer makes sense. However, here are some major benefits beyond just saving your PDF files in document folders on your hard drive:
instead of replacing document folders, iTunes works as a complement. You still have to store files in document folders, but iTunes just helps you find them much faster. It is useful if your documents can be organized in several folders at the same time, as you can just add the same document to several playlists, without having to physically copy it (and thus lose hard drive space). This makes it easier to retrieve your files, and keep them organized and accessible, without restructuring your entire hard drive and regular filing system. Basically, instead of surfing from document folder to document folder, you can have all PDF files easily accessible in one place. It cuts down on search time, and decreases the chances of forgetting about a crucial document in your research or reference system.

Show off your intellectual side (and find a place for all those books!) by making floating book shelves.
It’s an incredible way of showing off your attractive book collection, and for the self-loving writer it is also a great way to brag about your publications! If you’re not as prolific a writer as Steven King though, then perhaps you may not have enough published books of your own to ‘float’, in which case you could just float all those ‘how to’ books about novel writing.

Business owners could ‘float’ their trade books, lawyers could even ‘float’ their law books to trade their stuffy office look for a more trendy appeal. Think of the number of books nutritionists and doctors could float! There is hardly a professional out there who could not spice up his professional ambiance with this simple trick.

Love the idea? Here’s a simple video showing how you can make this floating bookshelf happen!

How To Install Invisible Shelves

See the floating books on flickr.

Forget all those shiny productivity tools you have lying around on your desk. The one most powerful productivity tool you might ever come across is a simple sheet of paper and a pen.

To-do lists are not only for the forgetful, or the unproductive. It is rather a way to blow through your tasks one by one, and eventually just keep far more time to yourself. Almost effortless free time, who doesn’t want more of that?

So, why are to-do lists so universally effective?
Have you ever stared into space, wondering “where to start” on everything you need to do? Eventually, you might get a thing or two done, but not even close to as much you could be capable of if you have some clear direction on what needs to be done, and when.

When you put together a list, and write down absolutely everything that needs to get done, not only will you not forget a crucial item (only creating MORE work down the road!), but you will also feel more productive as you start crossing off completed tasks.
In addition, you’ll look at your list and realize that a number of these tasks on your to-do list are quick little things, like sending emails. You can finish them off while you download some files or listen to your favorite podcast. While they are easy enough to strike off the list, together everything can seem so overwhelming that you don’t get anything done before you actually put it down on paper.

Why they work
To-do lists work because of a few simple concepts:

• You don’t forget what you have to do
• While it may be hard to prioritize in your head, within a second you can see oversee what needs to be done when tasks are written down, and what should be done first.
• You can focus entirely on completing the tasks, instead of worrying about forgetting them
• Last, but not least, you can work down the list without losing valuable time deciding what to do next. Over the course of a day (or week) that can free up anywhere from an hour to half a day of free time.

Although pen and paper is as good a tool as any, most phones and computers also have to-do list options. Just pick one and stick with it, because you don’t want to end up with five to do lists in different places, and get confused by the number of places you are writing things down.