Blogs and Discussions Best Picks for February

Setting smart goals and finding the right leaders to see the goals through are top priorities for organisations and individuals alike.

Influential bloggers such as Seth Godin and Steve Pavlina write about how goals set individuals on a path to work hard. Hard work opens possibilities to achieve results, though sometimes the results one gets in the end are far different than what was intended. Psychology Today posted that goals which are clearly defined and attached to one’s personal value system are more likely to come to fruition.

The style of leadership required to face our current global realities needs to be empathic, flexible and positive, as the Harvard Business Review blogs assert. The Leadership Turn blog says that leaders should also be patient and able to see the larger picture, two traits, they claim, many of the internet generation do not possess.

In an interview with Guy Kawasaki on Careerealism, he revealed that the most important career advice he can give as a serial entrepreneur is to not take your first job seriously and to find joy in your family.

The Tools for Thought blog ran a comprehensive post covering time-management guru Julie Mortgenstern’s tools to get control over one’s time. In a candid post about productivity, The Illuminated Mind tells readers that productivity for productivity’s sake merely amounts to rejecting our true purpose to find happiness.

Our Top Five Career Effectiveness Picks

All Things Workplace

How To Influence Up

Harvard Business Publishing Blogs

A Time For Flexible, Positive Leaders

Management Issues

Little Fish – Little Pond

Careerealism

Career Do-Over: Interview With Serial Entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki

Leadership Turn

Leadership’s Future: The Evolving Brain

Our Top Five Personal Effectiveness Picks

Slow Down Fast

Five Myths About Life And How You Should Be Living It

Steve Pavlina’s Blog

Goals Into Habits

Psychology Today

Self-Regulation Failure (Part 1): Goal Setting And Monitoring

Seth Godin

The Goals You Never Hear About

Stepcase Lifehack

Change The Way You See Fear And Change Your Life

Our Top Five Personal Productivity Picks

Tools For Thought

Six Time Management Tools From Julie Morgenstern

Productivity In Context

FAQ #1 – How Can I Get Organized?

Pick The Brain

Do It First Thing, Every Day: How To Tackle Any Project

Illuminated Mind

Why Trying To Be Productive Is A Huge Waste Of Time

Web Worker Daily

Twitter: Productivity Tool Or Time Waster?

Our Top Five Online Discussions Picks

Getting Things Done Yahoo! Group

Autofocus And GTD

For fans coming over from GTD, one of the main attractions of Mark Forster’s Autofocus system is its simplicity. Users at the GTD Yahoo groups commented on how the discrete steps in GTD’s work flow (Collect, Process, Do, Review) were collapsed into a single activity (a “pass”) in the Autofocus system. Also, because it is significantly easier to implement on paper than GTD, new users found it easier to try.

Steve Pavlina’s Forums

What Truly Makes People Follow Through?

In this thread, members discussed what it took to make people take action once they have learned something. Some members suggested encouraging action by either increasing the benefit of acting or deepening the disadvantage of not acting. Other tips covered positive reinforcement, inducing passion and desire, and a structure for giving feedback.

Davidco Forums and WLC Forums

Daily Short List
Davidco Forums
WLC Forums

When there are simply too many things to do in a day, David Allen advises creating a short task list of crucial items that need to be done for the day. Forum members gave positive feedback on using these short task lists, which some called “Most Important Tasks” lists, to ensure that top priority things got done during the day. It was also advised that the list be done in the morning, before performing any other action for the day.

Get Everything Done Forums

Update On Autofocus
Autofocus has had a good run in its beta stage and has been announced to be free of charge on Mark Forster’s website (See Whakate’s article here.)

Users have found it easy to deploy in a variety of settings and occupations, such as in offices, writing, academia, managerial positions, project management and even retirement. There is also a video showing Mark Forster using the system himself. (Click here to see it.)

ZenHabits Forums

Fighting Burn Out

A student struggling with school work shared how her frustrations were slowly causing her to break down mentally, physically and emotionally. Members contributed tips to help bring the student’s life under control with suggestions for more effective note taking, rest, regular exercise, and not pushing for perfection.

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