Productivity

The more I talk to people, the more I’m shocked to see how many of them, being incredibly good at what they do and sometimes even talented, give up on all their plans and dreams simply because of the seeming complexity of following through.

It’s time to grow up

[Read more…] about Project Management Basics

In my spirit of constant self-improvement, I’ve discovered yet another way of taking notes. As you remember, I’ve already started taking notes in a pocket notebook I always keep in the door compartment of my car. But I can’t take notes when I’m driving, and so I’ve optimized the process by switching to voice notes. Surprisingly, I find the voice recorder of my rather old mobile phone to be perfectly fit for the purpose.

Here are the main advantages of using your mobile phone for voice recording:

Taking notes as quickly as you can talk

This is probably the strongest advantage to using voice notes. Even when you speak relatively slow, you can easily fit 120-150 words in a 3-minute recording. Talk a little bit faster, and you can record even more information.

In many cases, your ideas and thoughts will have a rather vague form. It would be impossible to find time and write all of them down, while with voice recording you can do it quite easily.

Another extreme with taking notes is when your ideas are brief and short, and it can take you forever to find a pen and a piece of paper only to write down just a few words. With voice recordings it’s not a problem at all – just push the button and say it out loud.

The luxury of taking notes freely and easily

I’ve already mentioned that I use a paper pocket notebook to take notes when I’m in my car. I naturally can’t take notes when I’m driving, so while having notebook at hand somehow improves my chances of keeping all the good ideas noted, it is still limited to only the short windows of my parking stops. With voice recording I’ve finally got the freedom I was looking for: I push a button and talk. If I want to take another voice note, I repeat the same. Once I’m at home or at work, I can take all the time I need to process all the notes taken during my day.

Many phones support voice commands, which makes your voice notes taking even easier. Just push a button on your phone or your Bluetooth, say the voice command out loud, and your phone will be ready to take your notes. You will not believe how much difference voice notes will make!

Enjoy the quality of your notes going up

This is another great advantage you’ll automatically gain by using voice recording to take your notes: the quality of your notes will go up, simply because you won’t have to be in a hurry to jot something down before the street lights color changes and the traffic resumes. Instead, you’re going to get your ideas noted in full detail, so that there is no need to decypher something you scribbled in a hurry and can’t work out at all just a few minutes later.

Store your voice notes permanently

A 3-minute voice note will probably take around 300kb of memory, which means they’re perfect for long-term storage on your hard drive or CD. You can also send your voice notes over email, because the file size is pleasantly small.

I transfer my voice notes to my laptop. I do it twice a day, and initially give recordings names to match the date, like: 18-09-2006. If there are few notes taken in one day, I add some number to the file name.

Whenever I process my notes, I rename the files to also include a very short description of the note. I use the same line to describe the text note in my information manager software, so that I can easily match the voice and text notes if I ever need.

You can process your notes whenever you have time for them. Some of them are long-term or distant ideas and goals, and so you can just add the description at the time of your daily notes transfer to your PC, and listen to them to produce the text note at some later time.

Transfer voice notes to your PC in minutes

Most phones come with Bluetooth support these days, and so it will literally take you less than a minute to transfer all your recordings for the day to your PC. I don’t use anything fancy just yet – just the very standard File Transfer option of your Bluetooth will do. Once voice notes are copied into the folder on my PC, I can start processing them. Not sure about the full list of options for listening to your notes, but Apple’s QuickTime serves the purpose just fine.

That’s all I have for you today. Let me know if you find this way of taking notes useful, and be sure to let me know if you use an even better note taking solution!

Dave Cheong just posted a very good article: 18 Ways to Stay Focused at Work.

I found most of items on his list to match nicely my own way of organizing the working day, and so I would like to comment on some of them and urge you to read Dave’s article in full:

Write out a daily task list and plan your day.

I find having a plan for the day one of the most useful ways to make sure everything is under control. It doesn’t have to be a to-do list, just a list of high-level tasks or goals would do just fine – the idea here is to maintain your focus, and to stay conscious about how much you’ve done and still have to do for the day.

Do not check personal email in the morning.

I’ve agreed on 3 times of the day when I’ll check my personal email or read other blogs through my Google Reader account. The times are: 9:30, 11:30 and 15:30. Since I start my working day at 8am, I’ve got plenty of time to work through the most important issues for the day.

Set your IM status. If you use Instant Messenger, when you don’t want to be disturbed, make use of the status and set yourself as being away or busy. Your friends and colleagues will honour that. They can either send you an email or look you up later when you aren’t as busy.

For about 3 years now, I’m not using IM at work at all. There are rare cases when I need to discuss something with my family or friends, and I will log into my IM account for an hour or so, but I don’t use it regularly anymore. In fact, I rarely start my IM even at home. Most of my communications are now done via email or VOIP.

Fill up a water bottle.

I always have a tall glass with water on my desk. It’s very handy to have it within a reach of my arm, and I never have to stop working in the middle of some task just to go and drink water.

Bring your lunch and have it at your desk.

It’s a habit I got from my previous job – I always bring my lunch with me, and enjoy my lunch while reading a newspaper or some blog article printed out.

Clean up your desk.

An excellent advice! You will not believe how having a tidy desk will help you be more organized and productive! I never let anything irrelevant stay on my desks, and I enjoy having a minimum of things which could possibly distract me.

Change your mindset and make work fun.

It’s always nice to have a laugh. Sometimes me and my colleagues just stop for a quick chat to smile, laugh and swap some funny stories. The four of us in our adjacent cubicles are very sensitive to the work tension – so we all know simultaneously when it’s time for a quick break. Sometimes we go to the canteen to grab another cup of tea or coffee, and we go together simply because this way we can talk.

The article is definitely worth a look, so if you liked the ways of staying focused I’ve highlighted above, go on and read the full post here: 18 Ways to Stay Focused at Work.