Blogs and Online Discussions Best Picks for September ´08

While the online productivity movement grew with unprecedented levels of activity over the last five years, it quickly became a victim of its own popularity. Blame the cult status of David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done” and the blogosphere’s obsession over tinkering with “life hacks.”  The result is that far too many blogs and forums have become repositories of unremarkable productivity tips, many rehashing tired ideas and concepts..

It was not too long before the members in the blogosphere responded with “anti-life hack” blogs.  Purpose-driven productivity is beginning to find its way onto the internet.

Perhaps the strongest voice in the counter-life hack culture comes from Merlin Mann, himself a pioneer in “life hacking,” with his announcement on his famous 43folders blog. To quote Mann, “43folders is… about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.”   Readers and discussion forum members gave Mann’s repurposed blog a resounding approval. Apparently, many readers have been searching for “a purposed productivity,” where a person’s work finds meaning in higher goals, rather than from being merely efficient.

In the same vein, a number of blogs also pondered the true meaning of happiness. They report that achieving happiness is more than seeking a pleasurable emotional state, but is in fact a process of creating inner contentment and meaning through one’s values and beliefs. Alex Shalman, a popular blogger, goes as far as to say that making happiness a goal may lead a person to hedonistic self-destruction.

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All Things Workplace

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Litemind

How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci

Matthew Cornell’s Blog

The Real Reasons For The Modern Productivity Movement

Slow Leadership

I Think, Therefore I Am . . . Or Maybe Not

Brain Rules

The Science Of Thinking Smarter

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Alex Shalman’s Blog

Warning! Being Happy Is Dangerous For Your Mind, Body, & Soul

Illuminated Mind

The Secret To Happiness: Stop Caring

The Positivity Blog

How To Flip Things Around: Act As You Would Like To Feel

The Happiness Project

Happiness Project: Dig Deep

The Daily Saint

Which One Thing Would You Fix?

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Simply GTD With Kelly

A Day With No New Input

Marc And Angel Hack Life

22 Swift Tips To Increase Productivity (From All Over The Web)

Tools For Thought

Productivity Through Lucidity: Why Perspective Precedes Action

Productivity501

Productivity And Values

The Weekly Review

GTD – The Backlash

Our Top Five Online Discussions Picks

Stephen Covey’s Community

Discovering Passion?
The discussion started with members talking about finding personal passions through self-discovery. This invited sharp responses from two members, who pointed out that without a sense of purpose, passions can become self-centred and shallow. Also, some members found that if a person’s passions are seen as over enthused and fleeting, that person loses credibility with others.

AnalogOrg

PocketMod On Steroids (Plans Unfolding And Scrybe)
Technology has definitely not left those pen-and-paper users behind. AnalorgOrg’s discussions were abuzz with members’ contributions of their favourite tools that helped them sync tasks and schedules from their hi-tech tools (computers) with their low-tech (paper) ones. Cited sources were PocketMod., Plans Unfolding and Scrybe. Scrybe, which is still in beta stage, has received a good amount of attention for its easy-to-fold and customised paper-based printouts.

Getting Things Done (Yahoo! Groups)

ZTD (Zen To Done)
The most popular discussion centred around the concepts covered in the popular ebook, Zen to Done (ZTD) written by Leo Babauta. Leo is also the main author of the Zenhabits blog. Many praised ZTD for managing to strip down the concepts found in David Allen’s book, “Getting Things Done,” to its fundamentals. ZTD was also lauded for giving practical advice on simplifying and minimising. However, some members said that the simplicity of ZTD might mean that many will end up needing a more comprehensive system than what ZTD offers. This would bring them back to what attracted them to Getting Things Done in the first place.

Work. Life. Creativity

How Many Times Do You Say “I’m Going To Bed Now” Before You Make It To Bed?
Though the discussion was initially intended for the topic of sleeping on time, a few excellent ideas were raised, including this one: if you’re doing interesting work, leave it for the following day. This idea is analogous to “parking on a downhill slope.” Hence, because the task was left in an interesting state, one can gain momentum faster the next day.

Davidco Forums

Frustration With Non-GTD People
Whether you use David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) concepts or some other productivity system, some of the biggest blocks to your efficiency is the lack thereof of your colleagues. In this thread, contributors mentioned difficulties with forgotten commitments and poor follow up. An interesting thought was this: if one is using a system like GTD, then one can take the lead in their workplace to keep track of other’s commitments to them, as well as ask the probing question of “what’s the next action” to keep the focus on achieving outcomes.

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