Save the newbie - advise the best productivity books

[Marina Afanasenko]

Hi everyone!

Some of our newbies really need the help of MLO users. They have many questions not only about the app functions, but also about GTD, productivity and time management. So MyLifeOrganized team decided to regularly publish useful information concerning this topics, which will be based on MLO users advices. Please, help newbies with the first question - which books are the best to learn productivity tips on your opinion?

Marina

[Andrey Tkachuk (MLO)]

Hi all,

Let me introduce Marina. She joined MyLifeOrganized team recently and will help us to improve communication with our users.

Andrey.

[Steve Kunkel]

Hi Marina!  

I'm a newbie too here at MLO, but I've been a "student" of time-management for a long time.

The biggest game-changing book for me was 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith. 

After that I read 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Steven Covey.  I had seen 7 Habits in books stores for years, but had avoided it.  It was so popular that I expected it to be a bunch of superficial pop-psychology junk.  But in fact it is an excellent book.  I highly recommend it...to everyone!

I think that Smith and Covey actually are religious folks, and that is often a turn-off for me, but they both do a really good job about keeping that out of their books.  Really there's no church content at all and they're not "preachy."

Time-Management form the Inside-Out (Julia Morgenstern) is decent.  Not a "game changer" but worth reading.

And, obviously, folks need to read Getting Things Done by David Allen.  

Smith and Covey help us focus on things that are "wholistically" important, for lack of a better term--but Allen gives us real world nuts and bolt tools that will make or break us. 

Side Note:  There is going to be a 2015 edition of David Allen's book...  You can "pre-order" the Kindle edition on Amazon... I'm not sure about the paper version though.  

[JimboDimbo]

Hi Marina, welcome aboard.

Yes, I remember books. They were made of wood someone told me? :-)

My voyage of discovery in the productivity world has been, erm, erratic, with long periods adrift. David Allen is always there, somewhere. Revisiting GTD and Making it all work is often helpful to me. I find that when I do catch a wind of enthusiasm I am googling mostly around a specific productivity topic. Just now I am looking at the Important/Urgent stuff again. Often the concepts are straight-forward, but the daily application is frustratingly difficult. Reading the MLO forum is good. Several people have suggested some sort of wiki or index to the nuggets that are hidden in discussions over the years. Maybe you can think about that? I also wouldn't mind seeing Dwight and Lisa's bookmark list around GTD/MLO/Time Management/productivity, and other experienced MLO users.

Attached is a picture of mine for GTD, although it's more time management stuff than true GTD.

[aside - sorry about the unread emails in the Inbox(!). I filter incoming emails with a tool called mailwasher and only load wanted emails into Outlook. I turn off the auto read so that emails are only read when I open them fully, so I know I have actioned it, others (unread) are information or do not need actions so remain unread and can be searched easily later (I keep about 1 year or so active and archive older emails). Seems anti-GTD, but works for me.]

[Marina Afanasenko]

Steve, 

Thanks so much for suggesting really cool books! I think it's a good start for our newbies, and I will continue looking for more. If you will remember something else, please, don't forget to write it here)

четверг, 22 января 2015 г., 20:00:30 UTC+2 пользователь Steve Kunkel написал:

[Marina Afanasenko]

Hi! 

Thank you for the bookmark list, it was really interesting to read it! And I was excited to see MLO blog there :-)

пятница, 23 января 2015 г., 10:04:35 UTC+2 пользователь JimboDimbo написал:

[Dwight Arthur]

On Friday, January 23, 2015 at 3:04:35 AM UTC-5, JimboDimbo wrote:

[...]Yes, I remember books. They were made of wood someone told me? :-)[...]

Hi, Jimbo. I remember books too, along with newspapers and magazines. I have not really learned anything interesting about productivity from a book since reading David Allen's first book. If I was asked to offer guidance to a neophyte who had no clear picture of what s/he wanted to know or what problem s/he was solving other than the overarching topic of "productivity" I would recommend the lifehacker website.

[...]I also wouldn't mind seeing Dwight and Lisa's bookmark list around GTD/MLO/Time Management/productivity, and other experienced MLO users.[...]

I don't have any productivity bookmarks. Confession: I'm better at MLO than I am at productivity. I enjoy hacking MLO to see what I can make it do, and I enjoy sharing that knowledge with others, so it's sort of my hobby, pastime, and recreation. If I were better at productivity MLO would just be another tool and not a hobby.

-Dwight 

[G German]

The best book I have found is the "Master Your Workday Now! " by Michael Linenberger
I found it easy to implement and easy to maintain, which is very important for me, if a system is too complicated I end up leaving it alone as the pressure of the day goes up.

[Simon Denham]

I think one of the best time management books I've read is 'the power of habit' by Charles Duhigg, its a relatively scientific light book that uses loads of good example to show how/why habits form and how you can break/change them.

[Marina Afanasenko (MLO)]

Sounds very interesting! I haven't read this one, so for me it also would be useful. I'm sure, for all newbies too :-)

[John Smith]

On Thursday, January 22, 2015 at 6:00:30 PM UTC, Steve Kunkel wrote:

The biggest game-changing book for me was 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum Smith. 

I see that "10 Natural Laws..." was written way back in 1994. Has Smith not learn anything & written an up update in the 20+ years since ?

 

After that I read 7 Habits of Highly Successful People by Steven Covey.  I had seen 7 Habits in books stores for years, but had avoided it.  It was so popular that I expected it to be a bunch of superficial pop-psychology junk.  But in fact it is an excellent book.  I highly recommend it...to everyone!

Covey's title sounds like fantastically compelling title for a book, however personally I didn't get on with it. I found it long-winded, egotistical and full of blind true-isms. And personally it did little or nothing to change my life.

However to be fair, being semi-dyslexic I find reading painful and my standards for density of rich content from the written word as a result are high. 

Maybe it's just because I'm a Brit but I am listening to Jack Canfield's "Effortless Success" and I  find it jaw-dropping just how naive / gullible / easily led our American cousins-consumers can be. 

Seven NYTimes best sellers at once or not... in truth how can anyone, anywhere swallow this stuff the way it's presented?

I am on CD 3, and much of Canfield's 1st 2 CDs in effect says: 

==> "I have have made pots of money out of teaching you this stuff - be like me!" No, Jack someone has to generate the wealth.

==> "I have had great fun giving it away to the poor." Jack you are on an ego trip. Particularly if you need to brag about it.

==>"My good friend Anthony Robins & I bought 30 bags of groceries and gave them to poor people" Jack you are name dropping.  
Jack you are salving your conscience.

Jack you are not doing any long term good towards the poor people.

Jack you are in an intensely privileged position - you are the froth on the waves of the ocean. And no, not everyone can floating froth.

This is a monumental shame because I'm quite sure that I DO have a lot to learn (from Canfield) and am persisting.

I'll keep you posted re do I recommend Jack Canfield.

 

[John Smith]

On Friday, January 23, 2015 at 9:46:35 PM UTC, G German wrote:

The best book I have found is the "Master Your Workday Now! " by Michael Linenberger
I found it easy to implement and easy to maintain, which is very important for me, if a system is too complicated I end up leaving it alone as the pressure of the day goes up.

 

Looks interesting. And I notice that Steve Pavlina prefers it to GTD.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/03/master-your-workday-now/

But  343 pages...   Really?

[John Smith]

 

Looks interesting. And I notice that Steve Pavlina prefers it to GTD.

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2010/03/master-your-workday-now/

But  343 pages...   Really?

Although I seriously question the need for so many pages [exasperated sigh] but have bought a cheap second hand copy! More later.

 

[pottster]

Hi Marina,

A little off topic but you might find this recently published webinar useful in terms of the current state of task apps and personal productivity. This is the type of discussion MLO needs to be on the agenda for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak_DRf2_e_0

Go to 4:45 for the start of the presentation. It's just under 90 minutes long but there's a lot in it and really interesting insights into what people want from a task manager and what the leading apps offer. 

[G German]

Hi John
He spends the second half of the book talking about goals, visualizations, career objectives, etc. The actual method is dealt with in the first half.
This is the only system I have stuck with in the last 2 years, minimal maintenance, so easy.

[Steve Kunkel]

I see that "10 Natural Laws..." was written way back in 1994. Has Smith not learn anything & written an up update in the 20+ years since ?

Yea, it's a bit dated.  I think he has another book or two out, but I haven't ready them.  In retrospect, I guess one reason that this book had a big impact on me was because it was one of the first time-management books that I ever read; and I was at a point in my life where I needed to read it.  I do have to say though, that the wisdom in it is still valid.  The 10 natural laws are, as one would gather from the name, timeless.   

[John Smith]

GGerman.

One problem I have is that I am rather dyslexic and read only with difficulty. Are you aware of nice short "in 30 minutes" / "condensed book" or "concise summary" written up anywhere ?

Many thanks

J

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[Steve Kunkel]

Amazon has some summaries of the classics, for Kindle at least. Also do a good old Google search for "Summary of xyz." Try YouTube too...

[Henk Walraven]

You also can search on Youtube, for keyword like:

• David Allen
• GTD

I like to watch this kind of videos because it more easy remember what I heard or saw in a video

regards

Henk

Op zaterdag 7 februari 2015 16:24:02 UTC+1 schreef Steve Kunkel:

[G German]

indeed, the autor has a free 'one minute' shortened version of the system, although I prefer the full one :-)

you can find it here, it is free

http://www.michaellinenberger.com/TheOneMinuteTo-DoList-Ebook.pdf

[James D]

I've read and attempted to use, or at least implement ideas from, nearly all the books mentioned thus far, and it's a great list. I have been using a lot of David Allen's GTD ideas for years, and MLO provides great support for GTD concepts, especially contexts and his notion of projects.

One of my recent favorites that many have not heard of:  "Getting Results the Agile Way", with info here: http://sourcesofinsight.com/getting-results-the-agile-way/

However, as it turns out, the author has what I consider to be a better presentation of most of the information free, on the web here:

http://www.30daysofgettingresults.com/2011/10/day-1-take-tour-of-getting-results.html

I like the bite-size daily 30 day program, with assignments.  It actually fits very nicely with MLO;  "Agile Results" has the concept of "3 small stories for the Day, 3 medium stories for the Week, 3 larger stories for the Month, and 3 BIG stories for the year."  This fits nicely with MLO's way of creating folders (and tasks in the folders) and then marking the folders as a Goal for the Week, Month, or Year.

For those people who have had experience with Scrum and other similar types of "agile" development practices, there will be a lot of familiar ideas.

One of the most helpful suggestions, for me personally, from Getting Results the Agile Way was to refactor action items out of reference material, and have them in clearly separate places.  The way I eventually wound up implementing that was to start using Evernote for my reference system, and then to paste any Evernote Note Links (hyperlinks) for action items into the MLO task.  For example, I have a recurring task in MLO to do oil changes on each of my vehicles. But, I'm not a mechanic, and at oil change time, I can't always remember the right oil, the right oil filter, the right wrench size.  And, I don't want to keep historical service logs and mileage information in MLO either.  So, in the MLO task, I have a hyperlink to the Evernote note that has my car's reference information and service history.  I can click on the link in the MLO (Android) mobile app,and presto, there is my Evernote note with all the information I need, plus maybe helpful pictures I took from last time, to help me remember details needed to do the job quickly, like where the darn oil filter is (actually it's a cartrdige, but on a Saturn I had, it was really, really hard to find the darn oil filter, and pictures help).  Or, let's say I have an MLO project to build a projection screen (for a big-screen video projector) from some plans/blueprints provided by the projection cloth supplier (Carl's place).  In the MLO project entry, I'll have a link to the plans, captured in Evernote, from Carl's Place.  Not trying to turn this into an Evernote commercial, lol, but it's awesome to be able to use it together with MLO, and the combination has revolutionized my productivity.  So anything involving "action" or "projects" and "tasks" and "dependencies" is in MLO, and anything other than cursory, disposable reference information (like the part number to buy at the store) is in MLO.

The last paragraph is as much about my mistakes in how I tried to use MLO earlier.  I was trying to use MLO to replace another great outliner-based app (Ecco Pro on Windows) that I used to support my brainstorming processes, plus reference,  plus action.  I tried to use MLO the same way; bad, bad idea.  Once I learned to use MLO only for projects I'm committed to doing, and limiting what I put into MLO to a horizon of only a year or so, things went so much better. 

Of the books above, I did use Michael Linenberger's "Master Your Workday", and while it was helpful, as a "system" it wasn't a great fit for me in the long term.  It would be great for a lot of people though, and has a ton of helpful ideas, which will work great for many types of people.

The other "book" I have found helpful this year, is actually an audio book, Peter Bregman's "18 minutes", which I got through Audible.com.  One of the most important ideas from "18 minutes", for me, is limiting my "buffet plate" to roughly 5 "portions", for the next year.  I know this is fundamental stuff for many people, but the analogy resonated for me, because I tend to overstuff my plate and myself at buffet restaurants and then later wind up wishing I had practiced moderation. The book has a helpful packaging of many fundamentals, in a useful, practical, accessible way.  I wound up with 8 areas, instead of 5, including 5 personal, 2 work, and 2 that are both work and personal. However, for me, that's a big improvement, especially since I made explicit decisions to NOT tackle several "plate overfiller" projects this year.  Not "give up" on them, just defer any real work to the year I decide to adopt them as a focus.

One of Bregman's best quotes is that "traditional time management books start too late, and end too early."

"They start too late, because they usually begin with how to manage your to-do items, and skip the fundamental step of making a deliberate decision about what we should really be doing. For this reason, it is very likely that you may accomplish many of the wrong things, wasting your time (and your life.) He thinks the majority of time management books end too early, because for people, usually the most difficult part of managing their time is not making a plan, but its day-to-day execution: getting started, keeping their focus, prioritizing and avoiding the distraction of what is really not important."

A terrific summary of some key ideas from the book is here: http://top-productivity.com/take-control-of-your-life-by-making-a-habit-of-accomplishing-the-right-things/

[James D]

Just when I thought I was the only one who might conceivably post about it here... 

I noticed on JimboDimbo's post, the screen shot showed "Getting Results the Agile Way" as a bookmark!

https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized/attach/efcd1db09010955b/GTD%20Bookmarks%20Jan2015.jpg?part=0.1&authuser=0&view=1

JimboDimbo, any thoughts to share on that book, or the (I believe), even better presentation of those ideas here?

http://www.30daysofgettingresults.com/2011/10/day-1-take-tour-of-getting-results.html

[James D]

Correction: In this post I meant to say: 

"So anything involving "action" or "projects" and "tasks" and "dependencies" is in MLO, and all reference information other than cursory, action-oriented info (e.g., part number to buy at the parts shop) is in EVERNOTE."

[Steve Kunkel]

I guess I'll add 

http://www.amazon.com/How-Productivity-Ninja-Worry-Achieve/dp/1848316836

to the "good books" list.  

In many ways the "productivity ninja" approach is similar to Allen's GTD.  I think Allcot does a better job of tackling email overload though.  Also he puts a big emphasis on working with your own natural energy levels.  When energy levels are high, go into planning mode.  When energy levels are low, go into no-brainer production mode.  Also there are exercises at the end of each chapter, which is nice.  

Re the Kindle version:  You can get a free "preview sampler" which is the first part of the book.