ToDoOrElse.com

Your 80/20 Productivity Matrix

If you're like me, you have way too many things to do and not enough time to do them. How do you choose what  gets your attention and what doesn't? Getting Things Done is great for corralling all your tasks, but then what? That's where the 80/20 Principle can really help you decide which tasks and projects should go forward.

If you haven't heard of the 80/20 Principle, it’s a simple idea: about 80 percent of the value comes from about 20 percent of the inputs.  For example, 80% of a company's profits comes from 20% of its products; 80% of productivity comes from 20% of your activities. And 20% of your tasks and projects are going to yield 80% of the value while the other 80% of the stuff on your plate makes cauliflower look good.

Here's a simple, low-tech way to apply the 80/20 Principle: make a Productivity Matrix:

Ignore for the moment my non-existent freehand illustration skills. Along one axis, there's Value from low to high. What's "Value"? Money works (well!). So does personal satisfaction, alignment to your higher values, what your boss wants from you; whatever floats your boat. Along the other axis there's Effort, again from low to high. Effort is trying to write something others will want to read when it's 4am, working till midnight or beyond, e.g., work.

Now, make a list of your current top tasks or projects, say 1 to 10, and then write them into your Matrix. Interesting things tend to happen – most times there will be 2-4 items in that good High Value/Low Effort quadrant and the rest elsewhere. That's the 80/20 Principle at work again. Focus on getting those Few tasks done first so you can collect most of the value, then worry about the rest. Better still, get those done then repeat the process with the next 10 tasks or projects on your plate.

If you want more info on 80/20, check out Richard Koch's site, http://www.the8020principle.com/ or his new book, Living the 80/20 Way. He's the guy that has been really working this for years. You'll also find two other applications of 80/20 I'm posting today at http://codesnipers.com and http://mymicroisv.com .

Technorati Tags: Productivity, 80/20
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Blogging from Word 12, beta2

If you are reading this post every blog posting application including my favorite, BlogJet, is in trouble. That’s because I’m writing it in Microsoft Word 12, beta2 and just clicking the nice Publish button.

Good:

• No more crappy TypePad editor!
• Simplification of my life.
• Supports posting to different blogs.

Bad:

• Too new for much info on how to post to a WordPress blog,
• Categories are unsupported if posting to TypePad.
• Posting embedded images directly to TypePad does not work.
• All the good social bookmarking, technorati tags will need to be added (Or will it? – Investigate this!)

Office 12 Beta2 is freely downloadable from Microsoft. It's far from perfect – it's a beta! But the long and short of it is being able to blog from Word is simply awesome.

technorati tags: Office12
del.icio.us tags:  Office12

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Your Online Attention Timer

I've noticed over the past few months that I've been spending more and more time online at Digg, various forums, numerous blogs and more web 2.0 sites than I can count. And less and less writing words and writing content - the stuff I get [hopefully] make money doing.

Time for the Timer From Hell.

Starting today, I'm tracking the amount of time I spend online each day as a painful reminder of where I am spending my time and attention. It's so easy to get sucked into a never ending stream of web sites, blogs, RSS and Diggs. Too easy. It's high time to start running the meter on my online journey; otherwise I'm going to be taken for a ride.

Need a dose of reality too? Here's a link to a 80-odd Windows OS timers at Downloads.com: Listing for Timers.

technorati tags: Getting things done

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Remerging with the online traffic.

Nope - I've not been off doing the business trip from Hell,  or one of those funny things called a "vacation" I hear about every so often. I've been absent from this blog for these past several weeks, thinking.
Thinking? Thinking.
Basically, I've been thinking about how to move this blog, http://mymicroisv.com, my micro-ISV, Safari Software and not coincidently my life to the next level. And, providing people like you who read this blog on the web or in your RSS reader with some real value.
I think I've got the answer now, so I decided to drop a quick post here to explain what's up. First up is a total redesign of my company's web site, http://mymicroisv.com and this blog, so be cool for a little while longer - good things are happening.