Disclaimer :

NET is not affiliated with any of the software / application company. While I am helped by certain features of these programs, in no way I can guarantee that they will give the readers the same results. Always back-up your file before doing major changes to your computer.

OK, I’ll readily admit it. I have a weakness in getting my tasks done. Sometimes I let myself get too immersed in the details that I have difficulty in prioritizing and managing my tasks. That, and the all-too-common dilemma of procrastination of course. Am I getting familiar already ? If you share the same problem with me, read on to discover a possible method to get out of this productivity inefficiency trap.

It’s not that there isn’t a possible solution for my problem. The basic, underlying issue is time ( and self ) management here. The “First Things First” method of Franklin Covey quickly came to mind as I outlined this post. Yet I particularly want to make a certain emphasis on the wildly-popular way of “Getting Things Done” ( GTD ) as preached by David Allen, a recognized author and productivity coach across the globe. There’s a reason for this. While whether or not GTD works for you will remain up to you to decide, the benefit of practicing it can best be summed b y its tagline : “The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”. Now, that’s a promise I heartily embrace, to let go of the stress of daily life.

At its core, basically GTD works by collecting your thoughts ( I like to think of it as actually get the stress blocks off my head ), processing them ( by assigning them to the appropriate contexts ), organizing, reviewing and doing them. I am summarizing a lot here. For more information of how exactly this system can get the stress out of your head and help you increase your productivity, the Wikipedia article of GTD has an excellent set of article references that should help you. My focus, instead, is to point us into one of a great ways to practice this action management method.

Enter Thinking Rock. Developed since 2005, it is a free, open-source and multi-platform (Linux, Mac OSX, MS Windows, …) organizer software, designed to practice GTD. Now I have been an avid user of task managers like Rainlendar or Outlook, but Thinking Rock differs from them radically by employing the GTD method straight from the home screen itself.

Thinking Rock

From the home screen, you are straightly coached and encouraged to employ the GTD method of collecting and processing your thoughts. This has forced me to alter my old task-management way of simple listing, to actually classify them as actionable or not. In the end, it saves me a lot of time and help me prioritize my life in such a way that I now have more time to do the tasks themselves rather than just pondering about them. Translated, it should spell less-stress for my life.

In their own words, Thinking Rock “is NOT another to-do list. It allows you to:

• collect your thoughts, also called dump your mind;
• process them into actions, projects, sub-projects, reference items or someday/maybe items;
• actions can be done by you, delegated to someone else or scheduled for a particular date;
• projects can be planned into ordered list of actions and sub-projects;
• you can review all your actions, projects and other information quickly and easily to see what you need to do or to choose what you want to do under your current context at a particular time. These views can be easily modified by you to tailor for your needs;

Having been using it for more than two weeks now, I can certainly testify that it helps me organizing my life. And as the title of this post series implies, I hope that it will also help you all. I certainly enjoy it.

The free community version of Thinking Rock can be downloaded here.

If you ever think about building your persona online, and build a business from there, there are some things that you can not afford to neglect. If you’re like me, you will feel unsatisfied at some point. I mean, back then I wonder, – OK, I’m on Twitter, Facebook, and I blog, – now what ? How do I use my profile to my advantage ? How do I build my online credibility to the point where I could gain something from it ? This is the point where I sat back and consider the best lesson there is : the Internet celebrities, – so to speak.

You see, when we consider the most prominent Internet personas and the way they market their respective credibility, the first character trait that comes to mind is consistency. From the larger-than-life Robert Scoble, the calmer proto-blogger Dave Winer, web strategist Jeremiah Owyang, or marketer-cum-writer Guy Kawasaki with his Alltop portal; – they all have consistency as the main key and leverage of their success. What they do may differ dramatically, – yet they agree on that one single important point.

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First, let’s take a look at some definition. Taken from Merriam – Webster online :

Main Entry: con·sis·ten·cy

Pronunciation: \kən-ˈsis-tən(t)-sē\

Function: noun

Inflected Form(s): plural con·sis·ten·cies

Date: 1594

1 a archaic : condition of adhering together : firmness of material substance b: firmness of constitution or character : persistency 2: degree of firmness, density, viscosity, or resistance to movement or separation of constituent particles <boil the juice to the consistency of a thick syrup>3 a: agreement or harmony of parts or features to one another or a whole : correspondence ; specifically : ability to be asserted together without contradiction b: harmony of conduct or practice with profession <followed her own advice with consistency>

Taken as our starting cue, this definition serves us excellently in trying to comprehend what consistency is and apply it to what we do. The goal of this post is to underline this.

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Now, I believe there are several dimensions involved when we talk about the concept of consistency. I am going to offer two of them for you to think about.

First, consistency applies to your own credibility. You need to be consistent in building your online existence to help you gain audience and influence. Do your homework. Examine closely your strength and weakness as a person. You might even need to ask your self this question : How do I want people to know me ? Define your USP ( Unique Selling Point ), and be consistent on that. Scoble, again, is a fine example of this. He knows that his particular strength is in technology, – having spent some time working for Microsoft. And that’s what he built. Successfully.

Secondly, consistency also is closely related to the concept of perseverance when the going gets tough. I am talking about the daily grind of blog writing here, among several things. Sadly, this is where a lot of very potential person fails. They build their “brand” as a person strong and loud, – only to disappoint us in the end because their most recent blog entries is 6-months-old, – for example. Never let daily activities hinder you from maintaining what you did before. Learn from Guy Kawasaki. Devoted to his portal project alltop.com, he painstakingly keep it updated with new sections. Of course, let’s not forget how he tell the world about the new section afterwards.

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Of course, consistency is only one of the key values that you have to acquire. However, I strongly feel that it probably is the most important core value to adopt if I’m to succeed in what I do. Back to the context of this post, being consistent will help you build your online existence to the point where you gain some advantage for it. Be it a business, new client, or some other intangible benefits, – it’s your choice. Good luck !