Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro

Change your Habits, Change your Life

As you wrap up 2008 and look toward 2009, it's a great time to think about your habits. Do you habits support you or hinder you?

What habits are leading you toward success? Which habits are leading your toward failure?

Do you think you could improve your results if you eliminated negative or unsupportive habits? You bet you could. So why are so few people able to actually change their habits?

In most cases, people just don't have enough motivation to change a habit. They may have tried and failed in the past.

If you want to change your habits, you need a compelling reason to change.

You also need to make a commitment to change. And you need to find someone to hold you accountable.

You Need a Compelling Reason to Change!

If you change your habits, you can change your life.

4 Hour Workweek vs. GTD

One of my favorite books in recent years is the 4 Hour Workweek, by Timothy Ferriss. Tim challenges readers to work less and play more, what he calls lifestyle design. Without getting into the details of the book here, I wanted to share a post from his blog.

Responding to a post on Entrepreneur Magazine's blog, Tim writes:

"Despite the disproportionate attention paid to them, personal outsourcing and selective ignorance are just two chapters out of 16 in 4HWW. There is a lot more to information management and intake control in 4HWW (interruption prevention, internal policies, scripts with superiors, etc.) than “batching” e-mail."

This was in response to a comment in the article:

“Timothy Ferriss is focused on outsourcing and not checking e-mail so often. The last time I checked, the amount of e-mail you get is not a function of how often you check e-mail,” [Mark] Hurst says. “David Allen’s approach is a bit of a throwback to a pre-internet age when having complex flowcharts, filing papers and creating tickler items was relevant…”

Eliminate Before You Optimize!

I thought his post was interesting and gives some insight into different methodologies to stay productive.

Unclutterer Shares Web-Accessible Project Management Tools

Barbara Beal-Lopez from Brightfarm turned me on to a site called Unclutterer, devoted to providing tips to stay organized. It's a great site with plenty of ideas on how to organize your life and business.

The site  includes  information on web-accessible project management tools. They mention a few standard tools like Basecamp as well as a few I haven't heard of, including 5pm and @task. 5pm looks pretty slick. I may give it a try. I'm currently using Central Desktop to manage some projects.

Overcoming Overwhelm

Do you ever feel overwhelmed? Do you feel like you just can't get ahead? Sometimes life is challenging. And if you fall behind it can be hard to catch up. Those are all symptoms of overwhelm. So, what can you do to get back on track?

When life gets you down, it's really important to just start simplifying and breaking things down. Most people over-complicate life. I know. Because I'm one of those people. I have too much of everything. I have to remind myself to continue to simplify. Reduce the number of physical possessions you have. Reduce the number of financial accounts you have. Reduce the number of email newsletters you subscribe to. Reduce the commitments you have.

At some point, you have to start saying no to things. At least until you can get your head above water. You didn't get into a mess overnight. And you won't be able to solve it overnight.

The best way out of a mess and the best way to overcome overwhelm is to simply start taking baby steps. Create a task list for things that will help to clean up the overwhelm. Take some time to brainstorm creative ideas to simplify things.

Start Taking Some Baby Steps!

You can do it. You can clean up your messes and overcome overwhelm. Just simply start taking some baby steps and you'll begin making progress and feeling better.

For additional ideas to work more productively and effectively, listen to my FREE audio series, the 12 Days of Productivity.

Rick Cooper, The PDA Pro
www.ThePDApro.com

Jerry Hart Shares Tips on Using Google Alerts

A good friend of mine, Jerry Hart, CEO of Hart Creative Marketing, recently shared tips on using Google Alerts. Jerry is an Internet Marketing and Social Media Expert. He helps companies craft and deliver their marketing message online through websites, blogs and social media.

Bring it up from your soul and
get it up on the Web

Jerry says:

"Know that commenting on blogs is a big traffic driver for you. So, spend less time getting to deep into any one article and comment on what you’ve read in the first or last paragraph or headline. Then, go back to your email of Google Alert results and click to your second Google Alert result, read only a bit, save that site, blog, or network and move on by going back to your Google Alerts and finding another authority you can save in your www.roboform.com or www.clipmarks.com favorite sites folder. Both are the bomb and will make you feel like a blue angel pilot flying thru sites efficiently who can find content later that you liked today."

That's a great suggestion to use your time more productively. Remember to be authentic and focus on offering value when posting a comment on a blog. Keep it simple until you have had an opportunity to post a few times. Blogs have followings and you need to be aware that people will notice if you are a little too pushy or aggressive in sharing your message. The same is true when posting messages in online discussion groups or through social networks.

Hart also shares advice on how to give accolades to other bloggers when you sincerely feel it.

Productivity Shortcuts Winter 2007 Teleseminar Series

2007 is almost over. It's time to wind down and ramp up for next year. Will 2008 be a good year for you? Why not make a resolution NOW to increase your productivity?

If you would like to learn shortcuts to get more done in less time, then join us for The Twelve Days of Productivity! We're hosting a series of 12 half hour teleseminars. They're focused and quick. You'll get a few great ideas every day to increse your productivity.

 

FREE Teleseminar Series:
Productivity Shortcuts (The Twelve Days of Productivity)

Daily through January 9th

 

What you'll learn:

• Tips to get focused
• Techniques to get organized
• Strategies to combat spam and manage your email inbox
• Lessons on prioritizing your most important tasks
• Tips to shop for productivity gadgets
• How to balance work and family during the holidays

Click here to learn more:
http://www.thepdapro.com/ProductivityShortcuts.asp

2008 can be your best year yet! Start by working smarter, not harder!

Clean Up your PDA

Your PDA or smartphone contains a lot of information. Over time, you have probably created word processing documents and spreadsheets. You have taken photos and downloaded files. Your PDA is getting cluttered and clogged. It’s time to clean it up. Here are some tips to clean up your PDA.

Before you clean up your PDA, make sure you sync it and back up the files to CD or DVD. It’s always best to make sure you can retrieve information before you delete it.

Calendar – It’s a good idea to clean up your calendar periodically. But, first consider how much history you need. Some people like to be able to refer back to prior appointments with clients. If you use ACT! or some other contact management system, you may be able to simply filter the data being synced to your PDA. That way, your contact management system will still allow you to see the complete history of contacts with a client.

Task List – Some tasks will never be completed. So, why worry about it. Take time to prune your task list. Copy old tasks somewhere else if you want to. Life is short. You need to be realistic about what you commit to. Eliminate tasks if there is no longer a need to do them.

Email – Make sure your email settings allow email to remain on the server so it can be downloaded to your computer. Purge the email messages on your PDA or smartphone every now and then. You will be able to check messages more quickly.

Contacts – It’s a good idea to review your contacts every year and archive records that you no longer need to access.

Applications – If you download software onto your PDA, you should consider how beneficial the software is and delete unneeded applications. Shareware and freeware applications can cause problems. If you have to reboot your PDA frequently, it’s time to remove old apps. When you upgrade to a new PDA, reinstall your applications rather than syncing everything over. Your new PDA may have a more current operating system. Incompatible software can cause problems.

Audio and Video Files – Nothing will eat up your storage faster than audio and video files. Archive them and delete them from your PDA. Enough said.

Taking time to clean up your PDA will reduce your headaches and simplify your life. It takes time, but it’s worth it in the long run.

Gmail Tip for Searching Email

I get a lot of email. Being The PDA Pro is busy work. I have over 10 email accounts and am subscribed to 50 Bojillian ezines and newsletters to stay on top of everything. I found that Outlook was just choking on the amount of email I was pumping through it. So, I made the decision to begin retrieving email using Gmail, the email service from Google.

I love Google. It's just the simple, but fast and effective kind of productivity tool I like to use. I was already using Gmail for a personal account and it worked great. So, I made the switch a few months ago for my business email. I have been very satisfied with how Gmail has worked for me. There are a few little annoyances, but overall it's been a great experience. I appreciate the fact that all of that data is being hosted on someone else's server.

Gmail Rocks!

Here is a quick tip from Gmail's blog written by Jen "Digital Mom" Grant. She writes:

"First, I make very specific labels for all of the categories that I might need - meeting notes, action items, personal - and I very meticulously use these labels for maybe a month or so. But then, I get overwhelmed and don't have the time to spend filing things under each of these categories. This is the point where Gmail really starts to help me out. The reason I categorized everything in the first place was to find it again quickly, right? Well, if I can find anything easily with search, then why should I take the extra time organizing? For my purposes, searching takes much less time and works just as well."

I love the labels too. They're much better than folders. I set up rules to automatically move and archive messages. This allows me to quickly read and respond to high priority client email messages first. The best part though, as Digital Mom suggests is the ability to search messages quickly. This took a lot longer with Outlook.

I strongly recommend you consider switching to Gmail. As a person who has been used to storing and archiving all of my email data in the past, I found I had a little fear around letting someone else store that data. But, as an entrepreneur, I have had to do that anyway through other services.

Go Mobile with SCOTTEVEST

I saw a great new product last night while watching The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. The witty and irreverent host was interviewing Scott Jordan from SCOTTEVEST. Scott, an attorney turned entrepreneur,  created a vest to hold all of your mobile devices including PDAs and smartphones. What a great idea!

Scott has a great story. Here's a quick excerpt from his website.

"I’m Scott Jordan, and I created the SeV to solve a very basic problem: I needed an easy way to carry AND use all my gadgets and gear. All too often, juggling my gear was a losing battle. I wanted to carry all of my favorite gadgets, but had to leave most at home, or convince my wife to carry some for me. My favorite gear consists of: iPod®, PocketPC/Palm Pilot, a cell phone, the car/remote keys, a digital camera, water bottle, and a magazine.

Clothes simply weren’t designed to hold this much stuff. Before long, I needed a bag just to carry my gadgets, and that defeats the purpose of being mobile and the perfect “man-purse” just doesn’t exist. Believe me, I tried to find something on the market that addressed my needs, but there wasn’t anything available that was fashionable, functional and affordable. So, in 2001, I decided to solve the problem myself, and the idea of designing clothing as a Gear Management Solution™ came to me. I then quit my day job- practicing law at a mega-law firm, and SCOTTEVEST/SeV® and the Technology Enabled Clothing-TEC® system were born."

Wow! What a great story. It just goes to show what can happen when someone makes a decision to become an entrepreneur. And what a great product too!

Scott Jordan, Founder and CEO of SCOTTEVEST, Inc., is pictured here wearing the vest. Mobile devices are actually stored in the liner of the vest and not visible to onlookers. Very cool! And handy too!

Great Rules to Boost your Productivity

Steve Pavlina shares 33 Rules to Boost your Productivity. He says, "Productivity heuristics are behavioral rules (some general, some situation-specific) that can help us get things done more efficiently. "

My favorite rule on his list is #2: Daily goals.  Steve states, "Without a clear focus, it’s too easy to succumb to distractions.  Set targets for each day in advance.  Decide what you’ll do; then do it."

That's great advice. I have a great new tool that will help you stay on track on a daily basis. It's called the Daily Success Priorities card. If you'd like a free sample of 5 cards to get started, you can request them by clicking here and I'll mail them to you.

Set daily goals and you'll achieve outstanding results!