Lifehack.org describes it as “any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing.”

Lifehacker.com explains that its website, which is dedicated to publishing life hacks, as “tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently.”

The term originated from a man by the name of Danny O’Brien who studied and polled a group of highly productive computer programmers versus their less fruitful piers.  O’Brien summarized his research in a 2004 presentation called Life Hacks: Tech Secrets of Overprolific Alpha Geeks. Sounds like a fun read!  From this point websites and blogs such as the two listed above as well as 43Folders.com and ZenHabits.net emerged – among others – as places to go to learn about such tricks and hacks.

In future posts I am going to focus more on some of these simple ideas I have picked up on.  In the meantime I thought I would provide some links to some of the better posts I have found online.

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks lifehacker.com

Top 42 Exercise Hacks zenhabits.net

Peter Walsh’s Clever Hanger Trick 43folders.com

50 Ways to Make Your Home more Organized, More Attractive, and More Efficient lifehack.org

So much to do, so little time! Time management and productivity guru, David Allen takes his bestselling book, Getting Things Done, to new heights with Making It All Work. In this video, he illustrates how to gain control of your to-do list and offers tips for finding focus and perspective.

My first stab at a video blog.

If you want to see more about the Flip Note check out www.flipnotefan.com

In two previous entries I have written about the first 2 stages of mastering the flow of work.  I thought it would be interesting to post a recent video that showed David Allen the author of the book Getting Things Done going through what some of his own personal system looks like.

As noted before I think it is interesting to see how everything goes into the in-box from a piece of note paper to his audio recorder.  The setup as you can see is not that elaborate and does not require big bucks to start.  GTD at its most advanced level is all about simplicity.

GTD five stages of mastering workflow: collect, PROCESS, organize, review and do.

Process

I think this is the phase that really sold me on GTD.  There is obviously more to it, but this is the beginning of really getting clarity and de-cluttering your life.  In the Process stage, the bucket or in-box is emptied.  It is important in this phase that you start at the top of your in-box and work your way down.  For the magic to work it has to be arbitrary – you cant go digging down into your in-box to find what you think is most important to start with first.  You have to win the battle to trust the system over the worries in your head.  Simply start at the top and follow the flow chart.

This flowchart can also be downloaded for free at the official David Allen GTD website at this link: http://www.davidco.com/pdfs/tt_workflow_chart.pdf

As discussed in the previous post the first time you do this I can take hours and hours.  If I am being really good I empty my in-box daily and if not at a bear minimum once per week.  This phase also introduces the need for some additional tools.  Just as the in-box is critical in the collection phase a fresh stack of plain paper sized folders is critical in the processing stage.  Of course folders can take on the electronic form as well but since we are not yet a completely paperless society the suggestion is to always have and start with the “low-tech” folder and file system.  Below I have attached a video from a guy by the name of James Marwood who walks you through his office as well both paper and electronic forms of his GTD system.  It is a great example of what the finished product looks like.  The great thing about GTD is that everyone’s system looks a little different.

James’ GTD Description from James Marwood on Vimeo.

other resources:

gtd cheatsheet: processing your stuff (lifedev.com)

gtd desktop wallpaper

how to make a GTD system for about $20 (crankingwidgets blog)

140 characters or less to tell the world what you are doing.  Twitter is being used today by everything from News Media Outlets to bloggers using the network to self-promote (guilty as charged).  Recently Kevin Rose, founder of two of my favorite media outlets digg.com and Revision3, talked about ways to increase your Twitter followers.  Kevin should know a thing or two about this being the #2 most followed person on Twitter behind President Barack Obama only.  Read the full story here.  By the way, you can follow me on Twitter by going to www.twitter.com/jalbright