Weekly Round-Up #112: Creative Workspaces, Routines, To-Do Lists and Down Time
In this week’s round-up we look at how you can get yourself into a productive routine, how to use Gmail Offline and how taking a break can actually make you more productive.
Welcome to this week’s round-up, this week we look at my issues with how you use your calendar, why using Gmail offline is a bonus and a new project management too for Google Apps.
7 Tips for Getting Into a Routine … Again! – The Love Nerds
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word “routine” I often associate it with being bland, boring, doing the same thing over and over – but that isn’t the case! Since I’ve got into a “proper” routine with my work and blogging schedule I’ve become super productive – I just need to sort out my morning routine and bedtime routine out and it’ll be wonderful! If you’re not sure why you need a routine or how to figure out what yours should be check out this post from the Love Nerds and you can read my thoughts on routine here.
Use Gmail Offline and Enable Email Scheduling & Snoozing – TechSpot
This article covers how you can use Gmail when your internet connection is down – but how about turning your internet connection off to help you manage your email better? How many times have you opened up Gmail in a browser tab quickly followed by tabs with Twitter and Facebook? Going offline allows you to concentrate on the task at hand: You can breeze through your emails without any other distractions. As a bonus, the article covers the Boomerang Chrome Extension which enables you to schedule messages to and from your inbox.
The Most Productive Men Don’t Keep a To-Do List – The Good Men Project
I hestitate about including this link in the round-up. Not for it’s slightly sexist title but because I’m not sure about the content. After re-reading it a couple of times I’ve decided to add the link as the content itself is worthwhile, I just think the title is somewhat misleading.
I’m very much an advocate of not using your calendar as any form of to-do list (see this post from facile things for reasons why you shouldn’t). What this article from The Good Men Project is actially suggesting you do is to block out time for activities not tasks! Things like exercise, reading or research time are important activities that often get overlooked on a long to-do list but adding them to your calendar is a way of giving yourself permission to stop what you’re doing to work on the scheduled activity.
Time Management Is Ruining Our Lives – Gulf News
Do you feel inadequate thanks to your time management skills? Then you’re not alone! It’s interesting to read in this article that Merlin Mann has given up on his productivity manifesto. Mann was one of the first people I came across when I was looking for productivity information and I found his take on the matter refreshing. His website hasn’t been updated since 2011 (which is why you won’t find it on the Top 100+ Productivity Blogs list) but there’s still a wealth of information there if you want to look through it.
I do agree that it can be all too easy to concentrate on the tools surrounding the act of productivity rather than the act of being productive itself but people are obviously still interested judging by my increasing page views!
6 Things Great Entrepreneurs Don’t Do That Set Them Apart From The Mediocre – Forbes
You may think that successful entrepreneurs hand all of their tasks down to subordinates and sit drinking martinis all day and that you can’t do anything about your lot as it’s all out of your control but that’s not necessarily true. This Forbes articles gives you 6 tips that everyone should be able to apply to their work lives in some way.
5 Surprising Qualities That Can Shape Very Effective Teams – Team Gantt
There are some really good ideas in this article. I really like the idea of “dissent” as a positive tool. We’re not talking about complete disagreement and argument that will cause bad sentiments, instead it’s a way to foster great ideas and expand knowledge. I’m all up for a bit of constructive argument – as long as it has a positive outcome.
9 Easy Tricks for Creating a Productive Workspace – Little Coffee Fox
There are some great and easy-to-implement tips in this article from Shelby at Little Coffee Fox. I completely agree with the fact that natural light can make all the difference (as long as you don’t get any glare on your monitor) and that plants in a workspace can make all the difference to your productivity (if you suffer from “Black Thumb“ as I do with anything that isn’t a herb check out these 20 hard to kill house plants from the Good Housekeeping website)
Project Management for Google Apps – Workep
I need to take a proper look at this tool but it looks like it could bring some great missing features to Google Apps. I love the look of the visual project statuses – this is definitely something that would be really useful for larger projects if your an individual or when managing teams. I’ll definitley be looking into this tool in more detail.
How to Use Breaks to Be More Productive – Quid Corner
How should you use your breaks to be more productive? Read my weekly round-ups and newsletter of course! But for the rest of the week you’ll need something else to do so this infographic breaks down what you can fit in to your various breaks so you have no excuse not to have some “me” time or learn something new.
30+ Timeline Templates (Excel, Power Point, Word) – TemplateLab
If you have something consistent that you can use from project to project that allows you to feel confident in your organisation and time estimation skills then you’ll use it again and again, right? If you’re looking for a way to manage your projects through gantt-like timelines then check out these great templates that allow you to manage your time efficiently – whether you’re working on your own or in a team they can help you keep your project on track, on time and on budget.
Have A Great Week
If you have anything that you’d like to share with me readership then please contact me or send me a tweet
Until next week, stay productive!
- Follow Katy Whitton on:
