The Cranking Widgets Blog

Eliminating Distractions is Easy.

OK, maybe it’s not “easy”, but there’s certainly no magic to it. Books upon volumes have been penned about this fairly straightforward topic; books full of hacks, wisdom and tricks that will help you maintain your focus and not get sidetracked. But I’ve got some news for you, Jack…
It’s entirely up to you. Anything that [...]

Productivity Systems Don’t Suck, But Sometimes I Do

Written by Andy Parkinson

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Few would argue that Merlin Mann is the Godfather of GTD/productivity blogging. About a month ago he posted Four Years and followed it up with Time, Attention, and Creative Work. If you haven’t read these, please do so now… It’s good stuff.
What do you think?
I look at both of these posts in a positive light. [...]

Are you Ready?

Written by Brett Kelly

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If you were to ask me for the true marks of a really productive person (which I’m not, incidentally, so take this with a grain of salt), I wouldn’t say anything about their work area, notebook collection, or pocket contents. I wouldn’t even necessarily cite their ability to consistently meet deadlines (because that just means [...]

Ask the Readers: What happens to “Do it Now” Actions?

Written by Andy Parkinson

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As we process our stuff and determine next actions, as good GTD practitioners we do any action we’ve just defined that will take less than two minutes to complete. After doing the action, how do you handle the piece of stuff and the action that was just processed & done?
Some things I’m thinking about while [...]

Converting Coworkers to GTD

Written by Brett Kelly

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So you’ve read through GTD for the ump-teenth time and it looks like you used it to beat back a pack of wild boar. You’ve got your all of your inputs handled and your edges are so clean you could eat off of them. I hate to pee in anybody’s punch, but that was the [...]

Get a Job Interview: 5 Tactics for Drastically Increasing Your Odds

Written by Andy Parkinson

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The recent financial turmoil has created a situation where unemployment could be a problem for quite some time. The good news for the unemployed is that there are tangible things that you can do to increase your chances of getting noticed for the jobs that are available.
Sure, jobs are going away, but jobs are also [...]

How to Reclaim 15 Hours of Your Life Back – Every Week!

Written by Andy Parkinson

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A guest poster over at Get Rich Slowly recently shared an incredible tip for how to use a recording device to get control of your TV watching habits so you can redirect your attention to far more productive endeavors.
Erica Douglass writes:
750 hours a year is 14.42 hours a week, or just over two hours a day. Besides [...]

I am Productivity (And So Can You!)

Written by Andy Parkinson

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Hello, My name is Andy and I’m the new guy here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. While I hope to share far more valuable information in the months and years to come, I’d like to kick things off by getting some answers to the obligatory “who the heck is this guy?” out of the way.
I’ve [...]

As the Saying Goes, “Many Hands Make Light Work”

Written by Brett Kelly

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Well, as you’ve probably noticed, posting around here has slowed practically to a crawl. There are several reasons for this, many of them good ones, many of them attributable directly to the laziness of yours truly. I’m not happy about it, but this little blog has been the victim of what a database administrator would [...]