I know, I know. Another productivity software post! But this one is really about a method of getting things done that is designed for paper.
It’s true that I change approaches to task management like I change outfits. But after two and a half weeks I am enamored with this approach. In 2.5 weeks I have added more than 600 tasks to my list and have just over 230 to do. I did something last night I have been putting off for two years. I feel that this method of getting things done is probably the best way to beat procrastination!
So what is it? I can’t tell you. LOL. But go to www.markforster.net and sign up for the Autofocus beta testing link for free and Mark will tell you! It is definitely easy to understand and can really be life changing.
I am using Appigo’s ToDo to access Toodledo for my Autofocus lists and I love it. Toodledo may be the most flexible task management software I have used. It isn’t perfect but it’s getting close! However, paper works just peachy.
I am off to mark “do a blog post on productivity” off my list!
It all started when my then 11yo son asked me why I didn't have an IPod. I told him I would get an IPod when they made it a phone, too. He said, "They have that!" He proceeded to show me the Steve Jobs video unveiling the original IPhone. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a technology junkie. I was hooked and counted the days until the IPhone would be released. Waiting is not my strong suit, so it wasn't a good thing that it wasn't due to be released for several months after I saw the video. I was dreaming about it. Then I had the problem of my cell phone contract not being up. The June 2007 release date came and went and I had no IPhone. My next problem was that my husband is NOT a technology junkie. Convincing him that this was something that I "needed" was a challenge. I begged him to buy me one for Christmas and then I was losing sleep worried that he'd gotten me a plain ole IPod instead, thinking that it was "cheaper" and "just as good." But he surprised me and I was ECSTATIC to get an Iphone last Christmas Day!
Since then, I have counted the ways the IPhone has changed my life. Now don't get me wrong. No one NEEDS an IPhone. If you are struggling to make ends meet, know that I've been there. Even more thrilling than an IPhone is not having to use a cash advance from one credit card to pay off another and wondering when the next check will come bouncing back to you! Everything an IPhone can do, you can do for free or next to nothing the old fashioned way. So if money is tight, forget the IPhone! You don't need one. But if you are in the market for an IPod and/or cell phone and/or PDA, read on.
A girlfriend of mine once told me that wearing thong underwear would change my life. It did for the few minutes that I could tolerate the feeling of having meat stuck between my teeth being extended to my nether region. The IPhone is not like that. Here are all the reasons I thank God for IPhone:
1) Email device – I can keep up with email anywhere!
2) MP3 player – I can listen to my music during workouts.
3) Song name determiner – With Shazam, I just put it next to the music and it immediately tells me the name of the song, album, artist, etc. and links me to ITunes to buy it.
4) Babysitter – I have downloaded a few games, kids' shows and movies to keep the kids from screaming and hitting each other in the waiting room. Turn taking continues to be a problem, however!
5) Workout logger – To do my first Body for Life challenge, I had to carry paper and pen. No more! I take Gyminee with me.
6) Grocery List – I use SplashShopper and Tasty Planner and I'm ready to shop!
7) Chore Timer – The kids are timed doing their chores every day and they earn privileges based on their ranking for the week. I use the IPhone's built in timer to track their times.
8) Allowance Keeper – I use the Spend app to set up a "budget" for each child. The program automatically adds their weekly allowance. When a child makes a purchase, I can deduct the amount on the spot. No more trying to remember and kids losing the actual money.
9) Calendar – I sync iCal with Google calendar so I can make changes to my calendar from my IPhone or from any computer connected to the Internet. This distractible woman loves being able to use alarms or text messages to remind me to do just about anything!
10) To Do list – I use Mark Forster's Do It Tomorrow approach to task management and use Cultured Code's Things to keep tasks in order. I've tried lots of different approaches and right now this is my favorite. I will blog more about DIT in the future.
11) Bible – When I am on the go and even when I am not, I use the free Bible application on my IPhone to quickly look up verses.
12) Reader – I can keep up with all my blogs much better having them on Google Reader on my IPhone. I have read half a free book on my IPhone, too, but it's not as appealing as real books so far.
13) Radio – I love being able to choose any genre of free music to suit my mood. I can put Christian music on to listen to while I'm doing devotions, for example.
14) News – I wish I had time to watch TV news or read the paper. I don't! My dh keeps me informed and when he doesn't, I can check into what's going on with the vSNAX app on my IPhone.
15) Photo Album – No longer do I have to say, "Oh I'll have to show you that photo sometime." I can keep all my most recent or favorite photos or even scrapbook pages on my IPhone. What's more is I can share home videos, too!
16) Weather Center – I used to spend a lot of time trying to time the news just right to catch the weather. Even the weather channel was a challenge! Now I just click on the native weather app or WeatherBug on my IPhone and I know right away what to expect this week.
17) White and Yellow Pages on the go – Can't tell you how many times I have used this. For example, I've quickly looked up restaurants, called them by tapping the number, and gotten directions pronto!
18) Navigator – I am map challenged, so having the ability to toggle between a GPS-enabled map and a list of directions has saved me more times than I care to say. I'm actually glad the thing can't talk to me because I wouldn't want to hear it!
19) Connector – Being able to quickly touch base via Facebook, Twitter, and AIM helps me feel as though I am not neglecting friends and family despite my very busy lifestyle.
20) Remote – I connected my computer's ITunes to the older whole-house speaker system we have. Using my IPhone I can control the music and even the volume that's playing throughout the house. If only I could control the kids with it!
21) Countdown keeper – If I had a dollar for every time I've been asked, "How many days til my birthday?" I would be only a little consoled. But at least I have Ticker, an IPhone app that keeps track of all of that for me!
22) Note taker – I can add text, audio, and photo notes via multiple applications and store them online. For example, I have used the built-in-camera to record my parking space in a garage and I have recorded my Bible memory verses in notes.
23) Camera – Yes, it's only 2MP, but it does in a pinch! No more fretting about not having a camera.
24) Flashlight – I get up to workout while it's still dark and my dh is sometimes sleeping. I use the light from my IPhone to find my way to the bathroom without injuring myself BEFORE I get to the gym.
25) Question Answerer – While in the middle of homeschooling or just about anywhere people ask a question that I don't know the answer to, I whip out my IPhone and in a few Google seconds, I know! This morning, we wondered why dogs roll in stinky things. (Answer: To make you crazy. 😉
Okay, I will be blogging all night if I don't limit myself to a quick honorable mention to the rest of the things my IPhone does for me: calculator, stock price checker, alarm clock, address book, dictionary and scrabble word checker, exercise interval timer, movie previewer, ebay broker, speech timer and recorder, bank teller, restaurant chooser, external hard drive via airsharing and datacase, mobile blogger, price checker, checklist, foreign language dictionary, portable movie player, and online shopping cart.
If you have an IPhone, comment and tell me any other ways you use your IPhone. If you don't and you're in the market for one, what are you waiting for? Get to an Apple or AT&T store!
I have to admit to my craving. I wanted a Big Mac and I got one! I have spent so many hours hassling with PCs over the years that when my dh’s computer died this week, I plunked down the money for a Big iMac–a 24″ one to be exact. Everything is so much more streamlined and easy to set up. I pulled out more than a dozen cords to move my PC and replaced them with 3. The mass of tangled cords compared to the Mac’s was so ridiculous, my 10yo agreed I should send it to Apple as a commercial idea!
You can network Macs and PCs and you can run Windows on a Mac even at the same time as your Mac operating system. And you don’t have to talk to a man in India to service your computer. I had an Indian tech guy wake me up at 11pm and tell me to fire up my computer so he could make me rerun tests I had already done twice. LOL
If you are in the market for a computer, buy a Mac. If not, buy some Apple stock. You’ll either save yourself some valuable time or you’ll make some money.
Maybe you’ve wondered if I’ve been doing a lot of this. Nope! But superheroes DO need rest! Christmas, the flu, birthday parties, church functions, and homeschooling have kept me extra busy as have two very destructive preschoolers!
But in my absence from blogging, I’ve been finding a lot of great things I wanted to share with you! Here are a couple of them.
The first is www.jott.com. Heard of it? I told one of my friends who always asks about my latest finds about it and she doesn’t have a cell phone. You have to have a cell phone to make use of this. Let’s say you’re in your car and you remember something you need to email someone or that you need to be reminded of. Just call Jott and the message is automatically typed for you in an email. Jott to yourself, your spouse, a group, even your blog! Best of all…it’s FREE!
Another free find I have for you is www.iwantsandy.com. This is a lot like Jott (and actually you can use both services together) only you email Sandy. She sends you reminders to your email or your phone as you request. What makes Sandy a big time-saver is you don’t have to take the time to enter items into your calendar. When I do that on Yahoo, I have to use several steps to also set up the reminder. With Sandy, it’s as simple as emailing r 2/5 10 am radio interview in the subject line. R stands for "remind me." Each day Sandy will email you what you have on your agenda. You can use her to keep track of your todo’s, too.
Using www.diyplanner.com allows you to create your own planner pages using your printer, a paper cutter and hole punch. If you’re a homeschooler, you’ll appreciate the flexibility of creating planning and record-keeping pages that fit with how YOU do school. Using this sytem, you can also create inexpensive planners for your kids!
In my next posts, I’ll give you more detailed information about how a paper planner can pump up your productivity (and your students’, too!).
If you have children, the best thing you can do for them and for your housework management, is to assign them chores. But if you’re short the six helpers I have, you can still benefit from the two approaches to chore management I use.
By far and away, my favorite chore management program is Managers of Their Chores at www.titus2.com. The Maxwells are homeschoolers, but designed a chore system that can be used by anyone, including a distracted single! The book is key because it provides the motivation we all need to create, implement, and oversee a chore system. The system itself uses clip-on badge holders that hold numbered cards listing one chore each. Their chore website allows one to create neatly printed cards and picture cards for preschoolers. If you or a child is easily distracted, wearing the chore list and moving chores back in the pack as they are completed is the solution! The only downfall to the system is the fee. But I believe the program is well worth it. I laminated the cards for my little ones. The unlaminated cards were quickly water damaged. Managers of Their Chores works best if you and the kids keep the same chores for six months to a year. If you don’t change your routine, you may find you no longer need the chore pack to keep you on track.
I recently found a free chore managing system on the excellent website www.organizedhome.com. Check it out for great no-nonsense tips. www.chorebusters.net is a FREE system for generating chore lists. Chorebusters can schedule chores for one person, but the real advantage of the program is it rotates less-desirable chores among family members. You can specify workload for each person. For example, I assigned my 3yo a 25% workload. You can also indicate which people can be assigned a particular chore. You can have lists emailed or you can print them directly. You can even print cleaning assignments by room! I spent the time inputting all my chores into the system and the kids are enjoying a little change of pace. The advantage again is it is FREE! The disadvantages are there are no pictures for preschoolers and I can’t seem to figure out how to print only a.m. chores or only p.m. chores. It may just be that I missed that option. One plus for us has been that I’ve put all my chores into the rotation, too, as a reminder to teach my kids how to do them. If I were to become seriously ill, it would be wonderful to know that all the housekeeping chores could be completed! They probably wouldn’t be, but I’m talking theoretically…
If neither of these approaches work for you and you have children, I’ve also enjoyed the peg board approach at www.familytools.com. Check it out! Chores don’t have to be so much of a chore.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
