Go through each item on your checklist and ask these questions:

• Can I automate this?
• Can I outsource this?

Take a step back and look at the entire checklist and ask: Can I create a system or process to simplify (including outsourcing the entire checklist)?

Here are a few example scenarios:

Let’s say you have a checklist of all the items you take to the gym. There may be toiletries needed each time. Instead of transferring them from your bathroom every trip, buy travel sized versions and keep them ready to go in your gym bag.

Instead of having your Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Google+ feeds push all updates to you in real-time, schedule all of your untimely alerts to be checked once or twice a day (achieve this easily by having the alerts emailed to a particular account and stored in a folder/tag — if you use Gmail, create a filter so these never show up in your inbox).

What are your favorite automation tools and outsourcing services?

The first major difference that struck me is the prioritized backlog that is central to agile vs. the list of next actions split by context that is key to GTD. In trying to follow the non-prioritization ethos of GTD, I always have this feeling in the back of my mind that perhaps I’m working on the wrong thing at a given time. My work around has been using due dates and flags within Omnifocus. Specifically, due dates are for items that have some consequence if I fail to deliver on that date and flags are action items I’d like to complete that day.

Here are some initial thoughts of how to apply concepts from both GTD and Agile within the framework of the GTD weekly review in order to achieve some level of prioritization.

1. Start with your list of projects and stack rank them in order of priority.
2. Make sure every project has a clear next action defined along with a context.
3. When you are ready to work, considering your context, check your calendar, check items with a due date and then grab the top most item from stack.

I believe Omnifocus respects the ordering of your projects, so now, when you look at a particular context it should display the next most important item at the top.

The main difference between this method and what I currently do is the ordering of the projects within Omnifocus. One challenge with this method is that grouping projects by folder (in Omnifocus) may no longer be feasible. In that case, I would have one folder to archive all projects I’m not going to work on during the next week and the rest of the projects would be stack ranked outside of that folder. Perhaps using a tagging method could help organize the projects without of folders. I’m not sure yet how this would effect planning at the project level since I like to be able to drill down to a particular project’s folder and work with the sub-projects within.

Are you using Agile or GTD in your own personal productivity system? Do you combine personal with business? Have you merged ideas to create your own custom solution?

Now, I have found an even easier way to do this via my feed reader (which is currently NetNewsWire on Mac OSX and Reeder on the iPhone). Simply, use the following magical URL in your feed reader and enjoy:

https://mail.google.com/a/[your domain name]/feed/atom/unread

Note that you will need to authenticate your feed using your Google Apps username and login, where the username is your full email address.

Follow these simple steps to reach email bliss (or at least a slight tingling sensation):

1. You check your email and note that you did not see that email at the current moment and indeed you have disrupted your flow.
2. Click the “create a filter” link up at the top and then fill out the filter criteria. Usually I just use the From or To field because when filtering by keywords you may mistakenly filter emails that are indeed important.
3. Use “Skip the Inbox” if it is an email you would like to see at some point of your choosing or use the “Delete It” filter to remove it from your life forever.
4. Once a day or at some other frequency of your choosing type label:unread into the GMail search box to see all the emails that did not disrupt your flow, bask in your own glory and then process them at your leisure.

The value of this method lies in how aggressively you filter. After practicing this method for several months, I hardly ever see a non-important email in my Inbox (this is especially useful when checking email on the iPhone) … and when I do … filter time!

Collect Loose Papers and Materials
Gather all accumulated business cards, receipts, and miscellaneous paper-based materials into your in-basket.

• Physical Inbox
• Wallet
• Backpack/Briefcase
• Various Moleskine Journals
• Postal Mail

Get “IN” to zero
Process completely all outstanding paper materials, journal and meeting notes, voicemails, dictation, and emails.

• Process Physical Inbox
• Process OmniFocus Inbox
• Process Email
• Process Missed Calls, Text Messages and/or Voice Mail
• Process Voice Recordings
• Process Data from Note Applications
• Process Imported Photos
• Process Computer Desktop and Downloads Folder
• Process External Project Management Software
• Process Journal
• Process Time Log
• Process Book Annotations

Empty Your Head
Put in writing and process any uncaptured new projects, action items, waiting-for’s, someday-maybe’s, etc.

• Add them to the OmniFocus Inbox and don’t worry about processing them yet.

Review Previous and Upcoming Calendar Data

• Review past calendar in detail for remaining action items, reference data, etc., and transfer into the active system.
• Review upcoming calendar events – long and short term. Capture actions triggered.

Review Lists

• Evaluate status of projects, goals and outcomes, one by one, ensuring at least one current action item on each.
• Make sure each next action is really a next action and write it as if I were delegating it to someone.
• Browse through project plans, support material & any other work-in-progress material to trigger new actions, completions, waiting-for’s, etc.
• Review for any projects which may now have become active, and transfer to “Projects.” Delete items no longer
• Assign time to any critical projects on the Calendar

Review Any Relevant Checklists
Use as a trigger for any new actions.

Be Creative & Courageous
Any new, wonderful, hare-brained, creative, thought-provoking, risk-taking ideas to add into your system???

What does your checklist look like?

But what about the case where there is an email that is critical and you need to know when it arrives right away? Option 1 is to sit in front of your email hitting refresh every 30 seconds, option 2 is to use some sort of notification program that pops something up when you receive a new email. The problem with option 1 is obvious and option 2 is a bit more subtle. Every time you see that pop up or see a number next to your email client you will likely be distracted and break your workflow to check email, only to discover some non-important email.

So this post introduces option 3. Setup a special filter to redirect the email you are looking for to your phone via SMS. This tip assumes that your SMS is primary used for urgent matters. Following are the specific steps to do this in Gmail; however, you can adapt easily to any email client that provides forwarding functionality.

Step 1:

Click the “Create a filter” link.

Step 2:

Fill in the filter criteria to suite your needs. For example, you may choose to forward any email coming from a certain email address.

Step 3:

Click the “Forward it to:” checkbox, use one of the following formats to fill in the textbox and then click “create filter”.

• AT&T: number@txt.att.net
• Qwest: number@qwestmp.com
• T-Mobile: number@tmomail.net
• Verizon: number@vtext.com
• Sprint: number@messaging.sprintpcs.com or number@pm.sprint.com
• Virgin Mobile: number@vmobl.com
• Nextel: number@messaging.nextel.com
• Alltel: number@message.alltel.com
• Metro PCS: number@mymetropcs.com
• Powertel: number@ptel.com
• Suncom: number@tms.suncom.com
• U.S. Cellular: number@email.uscc.net

Step 4:

Perform a test by sending a test email to your phone to ensure that you can in fact receive a text message from an email. I tried this method with AT&T on my iPhone and it worked as advertised.

Source for email to text information.

Whenever I am taking notes and I realize that the item I’m writing down will end up being an action item, I add [A] to the beginning of the text. Then when I do inbox processing, I open up Notational Velocity and type [A] into the search box and then all notes that have pending action items appear. When I click on the note, all the instances of [A] are conveniently highlighted. Then I take each item and process through my GTD system (OmniFocus) deleting the [A] as I go along. For those with less complex task management needs, this could be the only system you ever need. Very simple, scalable, programmable and no vendor lock.

Do you manage notes using simple text files? What is your method?

Of course, you could use the old fashion method of simply telling your friends and family your resolutions, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading MakeUseOf.com if you participated in such old school methodologies. I’m kidding of course, but if you are reading this, you are interested in how to help make your resolutions a reality using free web 2.0 tools.

Following are two free social networks that can help you create, share and follow through with all of your 2010 new years resolutions and beyond.

ToolstoLife.com

If you prefer a guided approach, then this service is what you need. According to their latest blog post, there is a free program called the Personal Freedom Revolution of 2010 that will walk you through the process of creating real change in your life day by day.

At ToolsToLife.com you have the opportunity to invite friends (within and outside of the website) and share all types of content, including blogs, video and photos. All of the programs on this site are free and include: the 90 Day Tools to Life flagship program, Body Makover Jumpstart Tools, Get a Job Tools, Tools to Optimum Health and Start Living Green Tools.

The programs take you through a daily 15 to 30 minute regimen that is located in a metaphorical toolbox. In the toolbox you will view a video, listen to audio, read an article, create and execute a checklist and answer questions. There are also other tools included such as a goal setting mini-application.

Another interesting feature, are the challenges. Here you can create a challenge and invite others to participate with you. During the challenge you update your progress and have the ability to “nudge” those who are lagging.

If you need more inspiration or motivation, head over the Achievements and Inspiration tabs. There you will find blogs written by the community members (at the time of this writing there are over 35,000 members) and the coaches. The coaches are the members who actually created the free programs.

43Things.com

At this writing, 43Things.com claims to have recorded over 207,044 new years resolutions. It’s no wonder, since they provide a very easy way to get your resolutions out of your head and into their system.

First, if you need some inspiration or ideas, check out the tag cloud on the home page and then check out the links along the right hand side under “New Year’s Resolutions”.

Next, create your account and get started. As with all social networks, I recommend you spend some time filling out your profile completely.

43things.com is used generally to list out your goals, cheer and be cheered by others (the equivalent of receiving a thumbs up or Digg) and comment on the goals of others. For each item on your goals list you can add blog entries, set reminders and mark the goal as done. Once you mark the goal as done, you can explain how you did it, providing inspiration for others.

They have enable a feature specifically for 2010 Resolutions; you simply click on the tab that says “2010 resolutions” from your own personalized profile page and answer the question: “What do you want to do in 2010?”

One drawback, in terms of building an accountability network, is that you can only subscribe to the lists of others. It think it would be best if we could invite others to subscribe to our lists also.

Conclusion

Whichever method you choose, it is important to take a moment and reflect on 2009 and think about where you want to go in 2010. It is my hope that at least one of these tools will help you create the changes you want and need in the coming year.

Do you remember your 2009 resolutions? Did you use any web based tools to help you follow through with those resolutions? Do you plan to use any of these tools, or do you have alternate suggestions? I can’t wait to hear your experiences!

1. TimeBridge – Getting the Meeting Together

The messiest and most mind-numbing part of any meeting happens before you even get there. Trying to organize an online meeting is a terrifying education in just how awkward and uncooperative a team of professionals can be while still getting paid. Part of the problem is psychological – tell the team to be in Conference Room A by 2 pm and they’ll likely show up. With virtual employees scattered all over the globe, though, that room would have to be the size of America. Going online, some staff see cyber-meetings the same as e-mail – something to be shuffled to whenever they feel like doing it.

A web project manager is not a secretary, and if you just laughed “Sometimes it feels like it!” then you are doing your job wrong. Your time is too valuable to waste chasing appointments and staring at schedules – live up to your job description and let the web do it for you. TimeBridge is an online application which sends out a mass mail to the attendees, collects possible times, then organizes the best window available. It’s automatic, it’s impartial, and it’s the perfect example of proper online task tools – you tell it to do something, and it comes back done.

2. Qtask – Getting Things Done

Once TimeBridge tells you when to meet, it’s time for some project management; use your Qtask Calendar to remember where and when you all have to get together. A single e-mail isn’t enough to ensure attendance, as even the most important meeting invite is invisible in a thousand-message-plus inbox. Uploading meeting information to Qtask means that everyone can always find out when it is and what it’s about, whether they’re checking at their desk or using mobile management systems to keep track. What’s more, Qtask automatically manages time zones so you don’t have designer in London logging into the meeting at 2 AM.

The convenient Qtask “Discussion” tab means that all the organizing is kept together in an easily searchable central location. No more digging through files and folders while others wait with idle connections, everything you need to know is in one always-accessible place.
You could have the best virtual meeting in the world, and if everyone alt-tabs out to FaceBook and sets “Thank god that’s over” statuses it was all for nothing. A productive online meeting sets strict time lines, tasks and who is responsible for completion, and those should be available online too. With Qtask there are no more “I didn’t get the e-mail!” excuses for urgent work – you can keep people accountable through this robust project management solution. After the fact everyone can see what’s expected of them, and when.

3. Skype Conference Call – Holding the Meeting

If you’re in online business at all you should already be Skypeing: a free telephone service between computers, and you can call almost any land line at local rates. We could explain how much money this saves, but we just wrote the word “free” back there and don’t want to insult your intelligence.

A few tips for Skype conference calls:

a) Stick to audio connections. Skype can handle video, but it doesn’t gain anything, we guarantee that people will waste time fiddling and testing it, somebody won’t have a camera anyway, and it will actually delay all your meetings. How? We don’t want to ruin the mystique of your elite global team of cyber-employees, but for some people coding the back-end of an SQL database is easy; shaving and wearing clothes is hard. They’ll connect to audio anytime, but try to get a video link and they’ll delay you by at least an hour.

b) Advise online employees to have a separate Skype account for business, or at least set a “Do not call” status message. The Saturday project report can take long enough to process without interruptions from fake_grrl15 halfway through. (is it fake_girl15?

4. DabbleBoard – Visually Collaborating During the Meeting

If the average person could truly and clearly express what they think in a few sentences, the only online managers would be those editing “Poetry of the Year: Volume XVIII”. A picture is worth a thousand words, and since those words are being paid for at wages per hour times the number of people at meeting, you want those pictures as fast and free as possible.

DabbleBoard is an easy online whiteboard which lets you scribble to your hearts content without ever even hearing the word “JPG”. It even recognizes basic shapes and cleans up the image, so your clever re-org proposal won’t be undermined by looking like a 5-year old got at the whiskey and crayons.

Protip: If using DabbleBoard, recommend that the attendees test the site before electronically arriving at the meeting. Many online employees customize their browsers, and web services like FlashBlock or AdBlock may interfere with the program. It only takes a minute to fix – but that minute right in the middle of a ten person meeting is approximately infinity hours long.

5. Your Thoughts

Because online meeting task tools can save you all the gas, tickets, phone bills and catering fees you want; the best way to save money is still to get things done on time. What are your best tips for holding effective meetings on a budget.

Using Auction Services

If you don’t mind feeling like this guy put your stuff up for auction. In general the steps are:

1. Select the junk (um, I mean undervalued treasure) that you wish to sell
2. Clean it up and try to find all associated manuals, parts and packaging
3. Take a nice photo, perhaps from multiple angles if that would help the item sell
4. Select your preferred auction service
5. Research the going rate for similar items, you may also be able to “borrow” other peoples title’s and descriptions if its the same item
6. Put your item up for sale
7. Light a candle and wait (the candle part is optional)

Following are some auction web sites to use for step 4:

• eBay
• Amazon Auctions
• UBid
• Overstock Auctions

Using Classifieds

If you already know how much you want to sell your item for, you might find it easier to simply post the item on a classifieds site. I suggest you still follow the steps outlined above, but replace step 4 with one of the following sites:

• Kijiji
• CraigsList
• Recycler
• PennySaver

Do it Yourself Solutions

I recommend that you maintain a simple eCommerce store for all of the items you want to sell. Then while you are trying to sell items individually via the methods described above (via a promotion), you can include a link to your virtual garage sale store.

Here are a few methods to build your own eCommerce store:

• Magento with SiteGround – If you have some web development experience, you may want to have control at the code level. This solution is a good mix of simplicity vs. control. Magento is open source and SiteGround will install it for you as part of their hosting package.

For those who just want to “plug and play”, you will appreciate the offerings by eBay and Amazon:

• eBay Stores
• Amazon WebStore

Be sure to drop a link here to the stuff your selling, hey … maybe I’ll buy it, or at least agree with your significant other that it’s junk.