Tag Archives: 时间管理

How I Use Things To Set Up A GTD Workflow

轉載自:http://vanseodesign.com/online-business/things-gtd/

最近也在研究用什麼軟件好,由於我使用iOS平臺,所以搜索了一些網絡上的文章,覺得這篇文章寫得非常好,如果你有興趣,可以去原文頁面訪問一下,評論也很精彩!Things以前有限免過,現在也在促銷,

Understanding how a system like GTD works is the theory. You have to put the theory into practice to gain any benefit. Typically that means finding a tool to store all your tasks and setting it up in a way so you can make use of the system.

For the last few weeks I’ve been talking about focus and productivity. I mentioned Getting Things Done (GTD) as the system I use and the difficulty using GTD for creative tasks and projects.

wpid-things-inbox-empty

One negative of GTD is it was written with a pre-digital focus. It holds a very physical paper and physical inbox view of work. It would be great if the book were updated. Using email or phone as a context meant something 20 years ago. It really doesn’t today, when you almost always have access to both.

There’s nothing wrong with using physical tools to organize your tasks and I’m sure it works fine for some, but we live in a digital world now and most of us will use digital tools to manage our tasks.

Things for Mac

My tool of choice for managing tasks is Things by Cultured Code. It’s a Mac only app and there are versions for OS X, the iPhone, and the iPad. I only have the OS X version at the moment and it’s that version I’ll be talking about.

If you work on another operating system, I realize many of the specifics that follow won’t apply to you, though I suspect they can still help you set up a GTD workflow in a different app. It might even help something about GTD make a little more sense.

When I was looking for an app the choices were basically Things or OmniFocus. The latter is probably the better app if you want to strictly follow GTD and it’s the app David Allen recommends.

I chose Things in part because it’s more flexible and while you can use a GTD workflow with it, you don’t have to. Things also has a shallower learning curve and in the end I thought it was better designed and I enjoyed using it more.

At the top of this post is a screenshot of the app with an empty inbox. If you look down the left hand sidebar, you’ll notice there are four main sections.

  • Collect
  • Focus
  • Active Projects
  • Areas

Collect is where you add new items to your inbox for processing. Focus is a mix of organization and viewing what’s in your system. Active Projects and Areas help you organize tasks multiple tasks into a directory like structure.

The Focus Section

The Focus section provides different filtered views about your tasks. You use the views in this section to find the tasks and projects you’ll work on when you’re ready to work on them.

The Today view is a Things addition and not something that comes from GTD. I tend to move items into the Today view and work off that list each day. It’s not how you should work GTD, but I can’t seem to break the habit.

Next is the view you should work from most of the time. Within the Next view you can select the different criteria to filter your tasks. Things uses a tagging system so you aren’t limited to the four criteria of GTD. For example I have a tag for each client so I can quickly find tasks specific to each.

I use the Scheduled view as a reminder to look at something. On Friday I’ll schedule a few tasks to appear on different days the following week. I currently have a task set to call a client Thursday at 1:00 PM. The task is scheduled to appear in my Today view Thursday morning so I don’t forget.

Note: For those of you who worry about things such as these, my scheduled task reminded me to make the call like it was supposed to. My client and I had a pleasant conversation and there was much rejoicing.

The Someday view is for projects with loftier goals like write a novel or sail around the world. I also move projects I’m not currently working on, but will again, into Someday so they become inactive projects. It helps to keep the list of active projects more manageable. In this view I have projects like redesign this site, which I’ll do someday, but not in the next few weeks or even months.

Projects and Areas

Projects and Areas are where your tasks are organized. The Projects listed under the Focus section include all your projects (both active and someday) and those under Active Projects are the ones currently set as active.

I have both Active Projects and Areas closed in the screenshot (sorry I can’t show everything in them), but to give you an idea how I have things organized, a project might be site maintenance for a client and all the specific requests from a client will be tasks within. The project can be set as a recurring project if the tasks repeat each month. Another active project I currently have set is to work on a series of guest articles for another site that I’m sure you know.

The client who’s site I’m maintaining and the website for which the article is being written will both be Areas and each can have several projects at any given time. The site might have “write series X” and “write article Y” as projects The client might have projects to add a shopping cart or build a mailing list signup form.

Adding Items to Your Inbox

A keystroke combination will open a new window (see image below) where you can add any new item to the sytem. You have the option to select where the task goes (anything under Collect or Focus) and if it’s part of a project. You can also assign tags, notes, and a due date if necessary.

wpid-things-new-to-do

I usually dump everything into my inbox for later processing, but soemtimes I’ll process items as I add them to the system.

Tagging Tasks to Add Filtering Criteria

You create and use tags in Things to add the different criteria (context, time, energy, priority). I don’t bother with priority since I don’t find it helpful, though I do have tags set up for it. You can see some exampes of tags I have set up for each criteria in the image to the right or listed below.

 

wpid-things-tags

  • Context ( @work, @home, @errands )
  • Time ( < 15 minutes, < 30 minutes, < 1 hour, +hour )
  • Type of work (mental energy) ( creative, analytic, busy work )

Instead of high, medium, low for mental energy, I prefer to use the type of work. I need a differnet energy for creative work and analytic work. Busy work is for those times when I have little mental energy of any kind. Again, one reason for choosing Things was so I could be more flexible with the system.

I have tags for different areas of focus so I can filter next actions based on the area. Since my areas of focus are mostly clients (me being one), it helps me quickly find what I need to do for a specific client. Other areas of focus are this site, my forum, this blog, and general home projects are all included under the me category.

You can nest tags as I’ve done with the time criteria. This way all tasks that will take less than 15 minutes will also be listed when I select less than 30 minutes or an hour. If they weren’t nested then tasks 15 minutes and under would only show under that specific tag.

I’ve experimented with tags for specific devices or apps. I tried being more specific about the type of work (design, development, writing, marketing, etc.) I have tags like email and phone that I sometimes use, but I don’t find these useful as I always have my phone and a way to email within reach.

Reviews are Important

I do a quick daily review to make sure I catch any time sensitive tasks. I findwrapping up the week with a review on Friday afternoons very helpful. How in-depth of a review I do depends on how I’m feeling that particular day. I make sure to review all tasks and active projects every week, but the bigger picture stuff is more when I have time and energy.

As I’m nearing the end of a project I start to spend more time with my inactive projects and decide which will become active. Part of my recent lack of focus is I have to get through a bunch of single tasks across a variety of projects so my active project list is larger than I like.

A Better Things

While I like the flexibility Things offers and while you can use it to set up a GTD workflow, there are a couple of features that would make it much easier to use.

The first is a greater abiity to nest projects. Nearly all of my projects involve subprojects. Right now the best you can do is elevate every subproject to project status and then group them inside an Area of Focus. It works to a degree, but more ability to nest projects would be better.

A way to set tasks in series or parallel would also be appreciated. Nothing special is needed for parallel tasks. For tasks that need to be perfomed in series there’s a hack to make it work.

Inside any project you can organize the tasks in any order you like. You can then set projects to show the next 1–9 tasks. Organizing tasks in the order they need to be performed and then showing only the next task is like seeing the next item in the series and not seeing more until the first one is completed.

Unfortunately it means for every set of tasks in series you need to create a new project in Things. Without the ability to nest projects it can get unmanageable in a hurry. You also set how many tasks to show for all projects and not per project so it’s either all series or all parallel. With better nesting this wouldn’t be an issue, but the ability to nest projects isn’t there.

While Things can use a few features to make it work better with GTD, I can also do a better job working with the app. I really should work off the Next view and use Today for tasks that are truly time sensitive. My system of tagging can probably be improved as well.

Closing Thoughts

Things isn’t the only tool you can use to manage tasks and projects in a GTD system. OmniFocus is probably the first app people reach for on the Mac and iOS side of things.

If you’re interesting in learning more about either, you can watch screencasts of the tools in action at Don McAllister’s Screencasts Online. Not every screencast is free to watch, but the ones about Things and OmniFocus are. If you search the site you can find more videos using each for iOS.

I don’t have recommendations beyond Things or OmniFocus. Things is the only app I’ve used in practice and I spent some time using OmniFocus when making my choice. If you search for GTD and your operating system of choice you can find others as well as some online only apps.

There’s one more topic to get to in this series. Next week I’ll look again at GTD and Things, specifically how I manage to include creative work into the system.

Download a free sample from my book, Design Fundamentals.

使用A4纸笔记法100天就能增加逻辑思维

在企业中,有个关键能力是逻辑思维,最简单来说就是在处理事情上迅速抓住重点,层次分清的清晰表达和传播观点,看起来不难,但想掌握好这项能力可要花些时间和精力才行。如果你跟麦肯锡一类的咨询公司打过交流,就会发现他们在进行资料整理、案例分析、战略制订等工作时,用的方法都是逻辑思维。

掌握逻辑思维之后,在工作中遇到在写企划、报告、项目计划、提案时,可以立刻就写。回答别人问题或在演讲时,可以流畅的表达想法和观点,不再为词不达意,说不重点而苦恼。

最近在读《零秒思考》时,作者提供了一个非常简单的A4纸笔记法,感觉这种方法类似于大纲类的思维导图,简便易用,可以帮你在几个月内培养逻辑思维,做到零秒思考。

大家可以用这种方法坚持100天,就能培强你的逻辑思维,帮助你解决工作中的问题,立刻抓住关键,学会清晰表达,做出准确判断。

具体做法:

将A4纸横放,每张纸写一个主题,1页写4至6行,每行20字至30字。一张纸控制在1分钟之内,每天写10页。换句说,就是每天用10分钟时间手写笔记。

作用和效果:

在做的过程中头脑和情感会得到快速的整理,理清头绪。

一旦坚持做3个星期到1个月时间的笔记,脑海中的语言就会层出不穷,甚至在做笔记之前,就已经想到该怎么表达了。

1个月前还很朦胧不知道该如何叙述的事项,现在已经可以用明确的语言表达出来,想法也会不断涌现,最后动笔的速度已经赶不上大脑的运转速度了。

再坚持几个月,就能做到瞬间从宏观上看待问题,逐渐接近“零秒思考”。可以根据不同的情况,有时能瞬间抓住问题的关键,并进行整理。

相关规则

  • 写标题和正文时,别思考太多,想到的事,不论是什么,先写下来。
  • 严格坚持每页1分钟,一想到就立刻写下来,这会让你不拖延。
  • 别用笔记本、日记本、word,用A4纸是最快最方便的方法
  • 随身准备好A4纸和纸板,在任何地方都可以写,或者把A4纸折成三折
  • 可以把写好的笔记,4-6行的内容做为正文,继续深入下去
  • 对于,同一个标题可以用不同的角度来写很多页,处理问题和视野都能扩展开来。
  • 写了很多张之后,可以把笔记像扑克牌一样摆弄。
  • 一旦有了新的想法就继续补充并整理

这样做笔记可以理清思绪,变得自信积极,心平气和

想怎么写,就怎么写,把最原始的感受写下来就可以了,不用想的很复杂,也不需用考虑笔记的构成、格式、遣词造句、随时想到随时写深入挖掘笔记的拓展

大多数人虽然平时总是在思考各种各样的事情,却总是犹豫不决,在原地兜圈子。将思考的这些事情,每页纸写 1 件,那么这件事情就算大致得到了解决,所烦恼、忧虑的问题也会锐减。虽然您可能觉得,由于这件事情还留在脑海里,所以每天还是会想到、思考很多事情,但实际上可能并非如此。因为每天都要想出 10 个新的烦恼和问题也不是一件容易的事情。

范例

标题:整理自己的梦想:

  • 1年后,自己想干什么?
  • 1年后,自己变成什么样才会感觉满足?
  • 3年后的梦想是什么?
  • 3年后,自己变成什么样才会感觉满足?
  • 为此,今后半年内应该怎么做?
  • 为了实现梦想,必须要学会什么?
  • 自己的强项是什么?
  • 关于梦想应该和谁怎么商量?
  • 梦想对自己来说究竟是什么?

笔记的整理

作者建议用透明的文件夹进行统一整理,按不同分类进行标记,每三个月整理一次,重读一次。

个人建议可以直接用印象、有道笔记做为存储方式,直接拍照就可以,加上相关的Tag,使用时搜索一下,这样效率很高,而且可以随时查阅。

注意做笔记时一定要手写,别用APP或电脑。大家现在就可以找一张A4纸,用1分钟来尝试一下。刚开始时可能会难一点,多写几次,思维就会清晰不少。

 

转载自微信:warfalcon

 

讓你工作更有效率的『蕃茄時間管理法』



编者按:著名的番茄工作法,25分钟凝聚你的注意力,再休息5分钟,接着继续工作,让你在张弛有度中完成看似不可能的任务。

如果你經常讀一些關於提高工作效率或時間管理類的文章,一定聽說過蕃茄時間管理法(Pomodoro Technique),這是一種極好的幫助你集中注意力、獲得更高工作效率的方法。

基本上,它的實行方法是這樣的:

  1. 確定你想要做什麼(例如:翻譯一篇外文)。
  2. 設定一個25分鐘的定時器。
  3. 工作,直到定時器時間到:這就是一個“蕃茄鐘”。
  4. 休息5分鐘,繼續下一個蕃茄鐘
  5. 每4個番茄鐘做一次長時間的休息。

有很多像Tomato Timer這樣的應用程式都是為這種時間管理方法設計的。大多數人都會對其做一些細微調整來適應自己:例如,你可以選擇每兩個番茄鐘,而不是四個,做一次長時間的休息,這特別是你剛開始使用這種方法時。

為什麼這種方法會有效

你是否曾計劃要在辦公桌前坐兩個小時來寫篇部落格,結果卻發現自己一會兒整理桌面、一會兒看看臉書,不斷的被一些有趣連結分心,或就在那兒浪費時間?

按時間段工作能幫助你保持工作狀態

當有分心的事情出現——例如『我需要發一個email』或『我想看看臉書上有沒有人回覆我』——你可以這樣告訴自己:這個番茄鐘完成之後再做這些事情。

如果你在寫部落格,將寫放在一個蕃茄鐘內、修改放在另一個蕃茄鐘,你會發現這個方法十分的有效,如果一個蕃茄鐘寫不完,在加一個蕃茄鐘,看看你能完成多少。

蕃茄時間管理方法的名稱由來

如果你是第一次聽說『蕃茄時間管理法(Pomodoro Technique)』,你會奇怪它為什麼叫這個名稱。Pomodoro就是意大利語裡的“蕃茄”。Francesco Cirillo——蕃茄時間管理法的發明人——使用的就是一個形狀像蕃茄的定時鐘。

關於蕃茄時間管理法的用法有很多,主要都是用它來防止干擾的:如果你試過這種方法,並發現它真的能提供你的工作效率,那就也做一些研究、豐富它、延展它。

挑戰

今天就嘗試一下蕃茄時間管理法或下一次你寫不落格時,看看你能做到何種程度,歡迎在下面的評論裡告訴大家你的經驗。(在這篇裡也有提到過蕃茄時間管理方法『談遠距離辦公的個人效率』

[英文原文:The Pomodoro Technique: How a Tomato Could Make You MUCH More Productive ]

英文原文:http://www.dailyblogtips.com/the-pomodoro-technique/ 

本文:http://www.inside.com.tw/2013/11/03/the-pomodoro-technique

本文轉載自『外刊 IT 評論網』http://www.aqee.net/pomodoro-technique/

进入文中提及的在线计时器,即tomato-timer

他发明的笔记记录法,50 年后才被全世界用起来

沃尔特·鲍克(Walter Pauk)是一名大学教授,出过一百多本书,其中一本是在大约 60 年前(20 世纪 50 年代)出版的《如何在大学中学习》(How to Study in College),在这本书中他介绍了一种非常适合听课、听演讲和阅读的笔记记录法,并设计出一套基于该记录法的 6R 学习法

然而这个方法在大约 10 年前才被全世界广泛接受和使用,并被冠以了他所在大学的名字——康奈尔笔记记录法。

康奈尔笔记替代了以前一般的笔记方式,它创建了一种不断记录、回顾的螺旋上升式记录方法,让你自然地不断总结、发散所学聂荣,并最终内化为自己的知识。

下面咱们详细说说:

康奈尔笔记,如上图所示分为三部分:

左侧:索引区(Cue)
右侧:笔记区(Notes)
底部:总结区(Summary)

沃尔特·鲍克设计的与之配套的 6R 学习法 (Record, Reduce, Recite, Reflect, Review and Recapitulate) 是指:

1、记录(Record)

在听课或阅读过程中,在右侧「笔记区」尽量多记有意义的论据、概念等讲课内容;

注意:尽量不要使用过长的句子,多使用符号和缩写来代替那些冗长的专业词汇。

2、简化(Reduce)

下课或阅读告一段落时,尽快将「笔记区」的内容,简化为结论、概念写在左侧「线索区」;

3、背诵(Recite)

遮住右侧「笔记区」,只看左侧「线索区」,尽量完满地回忆、叙述所记录的课程、演讲或阅读的内容。

4、思考(Reflect)

将自己的听课随感、意见、经验体会之类的内容,与讲课内容区分开,写在卡片或笔记本的某一单独部分,并随时归档。

注意:此部分可添加与任意相关的材料,这时用印象笔记的好处就突显出来,因为可以添加任何形式的书摘、网页、图片、语音和视频。

5、复习(Review)

每周都要回顾、复习:主要看「线索区」,适当看「内容区」。

6、总结(Recapitulate)

用一两句话总结你这页记录的内容,并写进「总结区」,这个工作可以延后一点儿做,起到促进你思考消化的作用,另外也是笔记内容的极度浓缩和升华。

一句话用法总结:先右侧记录,再左侧简化,然后添加相关内容,最终进行整页总结。

长按下方二维码,再点「存入印象笔记」,收藏「康奈尔笔记」模板:

如果你更喜欢用纸和笔记录,那么也可以保存此模版后,点击其中的 PDF 模板下载链接,打印并使用你的「康奈尔笔记」。

还是喜欢纸上写字的感觉?

在一次印象笔记在上海 Apple Store 的用户活动中,当我们把「康奈尔笔记」模板分享给一位用户时,他由衷的说:

这个东西,会让我的效率提高不止一倍。

同时:

一项发表于 2007 年的研究报告指出,在威奇托州立大学的课堂上,使用「康奈尔笔记」会使学生在综合和吸收知识方面做得更好,而另一种「要点记录法」则在回忆基础知识方面作用更突出。

参考文献:Jacobs, Keil. A Comparison of Two Note Taking Methods in a Secondary English ClassroomProceedings: 4th Annual Symposium: Graduate Research and Scholarly Projects [79] Conference proceedings held at the Eugene Hughes Metropolitan Complex, Wichita State University, April 25, 2008. Symposium Chair: David M. Eichhorn

本文選自:我的印象筆記 公眾號

如何一周工作80-100小时还能拥有自己的生活?

1
把你爱的人排日程/存起来
Calendarize/Memorize your love

对于这些工作时间超长、真的很忙的人来说,千万不要认为情感对你不重要。

你要把你爱的人排进日程,是真的“排日程”。

把自己的时间也当做与上班开会一样重要,你就会被迫找到工作与生活的平衡。

打给你妈妈的时间,和男朋友吃午餐的时间,和朋友喝咖啡的时间都需要提前安排。否则永无止境的会议和项目会填满你的日程,你将和那些你爱的人、在意的人渐行渐远。

如果你们之间隔的距离太远甚至还有时差困扰实在无法相见,那还可以使用印象笔记 Evernote,在同一个群聊小组里每天更新自己那端的新鲜事,让彼此即使忙碌却仍能同步生活。时不时在琐事中穿插一段情书也是惊喜满满~

如果你真的迫不得已有段时间无法联络她们,那请尽早通知并真诚地道歉。而不要把你的忙碌当作你坏脾气或和他们疏离的借口。

别把他人对你的爱当做理所应当,即使是亲人,即使是家人。

2
优先考虑你的健康
Prioritize your fitness

我们读过太多英年早逝的故事。无论何时,提醒自己:身体是第一重要的事情,不论再忙,你都需要照顾好它。

养成健康的工作习惯至关重要。按时上床睡觉、充足的睡眠、早晨起来吃一顿丰盛的早餐、喝足够多的水、做适度的可以让你保持精神的运动。即使要加班,也按时吃顿晚餐。

3
别沉迷于咖啡因
Caffeine is not friend

很多过度工作的人喜欢喝咖啡提神。所以这个建议听起来可能违反常理,但是这是我给同龄人甚至老板的最好的建议。当你能正常集中注意力时,别喝太多咖啡、可乐或者红牛。如果你已经上瘾,请试着有意识地减少摄入量。

只有这样做,当你真的累了,这些提神饮品才会变得非常有效,比如需要持续工作24小时。我现在不喝含咖啡因的饮料。我喝果汁,如果晚上需要熬夜时我会喝点绿茶。

4
找到你爱的人
Find your love

或许很多人认为,每周工作那么长时间我不需要爱情了。

但实际上,找一个人,你愿意和他一起度过有限的私人时间,陪伴、欢笑。人和人之间的某种勾连,永远是工作不可能给你的,但也是你永远需要的。

Find someone you like to spend your limited time with and laugh together.

5
更聪明地工作
Be more effective

每个人都需要努力地工作,同样,每个人都需要聪明地工作。

别忘了80/20效率法则——做那些可以让你达成目标80%但只需要花费你20%的事情,尽多地去完成任务但花费最少的时间。

还有,多和你的老板和团队沟通。如果你花了一整周时间的东西并不是你的团队或者老板真正需要的,那么感觉会很糟糕。

沟通沟通再沟通,因为你没有那么多时间浪费。

6
暂时的切断与宁静
Have some quiet time

很多成功人士早晨的第一件事是——冥想。简单地盘腿,以一个舒适的姿势坐在床上,专注于呼吸,摒除杂念。我通常用手机定时15分钟。

有时在工作进行中你也需要这么个15分钟,切断他人的干扰、切断与工作的联系,甚至切断手机电源,好好地喘口气,完全放空地一个人走一走。

7
假期给自己充个电
Recharge yourself

当你申请休假时,千万别觉得惭愧!好像他人都在忙碌时你没有在工作是件值得内疚的事,但并非如此。你需要假期!

去不同时区或和你工作环境不一样的地方看看。海滩、山脉、沙漠,甚或是大城市的水族馆,不论什么。

我喜欢假期去爬山。我爬了很多山,这既减轻了压力,又十分有趣、有挑战性。最棒的是,当我站在山巅时,那一览众山小的感觉实在太棒了!

8
明智地选择
Choose wisely

实际上,工作80到100个小时一周并不是每个人一定的选择。

有的人可能认为将生活的绝大部分时间奉献给工作没什么,但很多人会认为不应该这样——例如说,很多父母想多花时间陪孩子,平日可以送孩子去上学,周末带他们去动物园。

一切的一切,你需要的首先是一个明智的选择。无论你做出什么样的选择,你都是对的。

想一想:你的目标到底是什么,每周工作100小时是否可以帮你达成它。

如果你每周工作80-100个小时,做的竟是自己不喜欢的事情,那种感觉简直如同阿鼻地狱。

事实上,除了工作的时长(quantity),你更该关注的是工作的质量(quality)。

本文轉自:Linkedin(Linkedin-China)