One of the things that comes along with writing a blog about improving ourselves is that I consume many blogs as well. If I didn’t have a method in place to help me with this process, I would soon be overwhelmed with massive amounts of out-of-date information. Here is my method for processing blogs:

The Software

Google Reader

The first key in managing blog reading is to have the blogs come to me rather than having to go to the blogs. I use Google Reader as my blog catcher. I like it because there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts built-in, and because I can flag articles with a star.

Read It Later

The next part of the arsenal is a service called Read It Later. This free service, found at ReadItLaterList.com, allows me to store my reading list on the ‘net, accessible from many places. Read It Later also integrates with Google Reader via a Firefox add-on, so I can put an article on the list with a single keystroke from within Reader.

Del.icio.us

The next part of the trio is the on-line bookmarking service Del.icio.us. Using a Firefox add-on, I can bookmark any site with a two-key shortcut.

The Process

I make multiple passes at the information to get it where it needs to be. Here is the process:

The Initial Screening

From within Google Reader, I will quickly go through the articles. I click in the left-hand pane at my top grouping of folders (see Blog Reading For Beginners) and using Shift+x to open and close a folder, I go to each blog (Shift+n) and open it in the reading pane (shift+o). The individual articles are set to display as a list, oldest article first. By using the keys n and p I can move to the next/previous articles quickly. If I see something I like, I will press the key i to insert it into my readi it later list. When I have finished scanning all the titles, I press Shift+a to mark everything read.

Some of my blogs I always read in place. I love the pictures at OddlySpecific, so I will press the space bar to open up the article and read it. (Here’s a little-known secret about me: if a blog doesn’t have full content showing in its feed, I unsubscribe.)

I perform the above process about once a week. (Maybe twice if it’s really slow at work.)

Reading It Later

Once I have my articles selected, I switch to using the Read It Later add on for Firefox. I open up a new tab in Firefox, and click on the Read It Later button. This brings up the oldest page in my list (oldest by when I saved it). At this point I will either skim it or read it thoroughly, and decide what to do with it. I have four things I can possibly do with an article: take action on it in my personal life, either immediately or on a “someday” list; mark it for use in the open loop segments for this blog; save the location in my bookmarks; or discard the article.

For the first three, I use the Del.icio.us add-on for Firefox. By pressing Ctrl+D, I open the Del.icio.us window and I can enter the appropriate tag: @Action, @openloop, or something to file the page under.

When I am done with the article, I press Alt+W to mark the page as read in Read It Later, and to load the next one in my list.

Processing Del.icio.us

To take care of anything that needs further attention, I have to look at both the @Action and @openloop tags in Del.icio.us. Once a week, I take the information in the @action and enter it into my tracking system. @Openloops are left until the next time I need to write an Open Loop article.

I hope this gives you an idea of how I process the blogs I read. Currently on my reading list is 102 blogs. Yet I spend less than three hours a week processing all that information.

Photo by HiMY SYeD / photopia

One of my main barriers to being productive is I consistently take on too much. And as with any juggler with too many things in the air, something is going to drop eventually.

Autofocus and Dismissing Items

When I was looking at Autofocus (see Autofocus 2…An Initial Report), there was a notion of “dismissing projects.” The oldest block of tasks you hadn’t worked on were put “on notice”, and anything not actioned on by the next day are just dismissed. Gone.

Changing My Mind

What a concept! To give myself the freedom to change my mind after I had committed to it.

I find that it gives me a great relief to know that I can give up on things.

No Autofocus, but Applying Dismissal

I don’t follow Autofocus anymore, because I find it doesn’t help me move forward on the big picture items. But who’s to say that I can’t apply parts of it?

Applying Dismissal to my List

My list is out of control again. I have several projects on there that are not making progress. It’s not that there are things on the list that I really don’t want to do. It’s a matter of not having enough time.

Tonight I sat down and looked at my list. Everything I looked at, I asked myself if I was truly going to move forward on them. There are things that simply have to wait. Not indefinitely, but for the time being.

Leave a comment if you like or dislike this method of paring down projects…

Photo by eva101

If you want to be in the drawing for a copy of the DVD that goes along with The Spark, please:

• Do something you’ve been putting off for a while
• Leave a comment saying what you did here or on the original post.

It’s that simple. From the comments I have received by midnight EST on Mar 4, 2010, I will randomly select a winner to receive the DVD.

I am a procrastinator. I don’t know if the cause lies in perfectionism, being overwhelmed, or just being unmotivated. The end result is the same: I put things off.

However, I have found the great boost of energy that comes from doing something I’ve been putting off.

A Challenge For You

Today, I’d like to challenge you to find this boost of energy too.

Take one thing that you have been putting off, and do it. I don’t care how large or small it is. Just do it.

The Reward

Here’s something to get you motivated: leave a comment on this post about what you did and I will randomly select one person to receive a copy of “The Spark: Fit, Firm and Fired Up” DVD (US format). (This is the companion video to The Spark) Make sure to leave a valid email address. Comments can be entered until midnight, EST on 4 Mar 2010.

I have trouble sleeping. This is an ongoing problem since my teens, and I will wake up many times during the night. Once I am awake, I have trouble falling back asleep.

This affects every area of my life. When I’m tired I can’t concentrate, I lack motivation, and I’m short-tempered. Pile up a few sleepless nights and I have physical consequences.

I don’t like the side effects of pharma remedies. Naps make it worse. I fall asleep hard, and wake up groggy and feeling hungover, way past the time I should have woken up.

A few years ago I learned about Pzizz. Using a combination of binaural beats, spoken work and soft music, the software produces MP3 tracks to help power nap.

I was skeptical. But I was also desperate. I bought it, fully prepared to use the generous money back guarantee. I generated my first 20 minute nap, and tried it out on a weekend, with an alarm clock as my backup. I was surprised to find that I fell asleep easily, woke up when I was supposed to and felt wonderful afterward. I next purchased the night-time module to generate tracks to go to sleep with. It worked as well.

I am a very satisfied Pzizz customer. If you want to check out the products, click on the link in the sidebar of this article. They are well worth the price, even if you don’t have trouble sleeping, but especially if you do.

Note to iPod Touch/iPhone users: Pzizz has also released applications to generate naps on the go. These work very well, without the hassle of having to generate a nap and transfer the resulting MP3.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Pzizz. I joined the affiliate program because I believe in, and use, the product.

Photo by liquene

Focus essential,
eliminate distractions,
realistic goals.

Sometimes you just need to take a break.

After a week of playing catch-up and being swamped at work, not feeling 100%, and watching blogging tasks pile up, I was getting downright snarly. And getting even snarlier because I knew I wasn’t getting things done according to my schedule.

Well, sometimes, you just have to throw in the towel. Will the world end if the kitchen isn’t swept? Nope. Will the economy come to a halt because I didn’t write a blog article? Nope. Will I be even more frazzled if I just keep going? Yep.

Sometimes life piles up. And during those times it’s important to let yourself know it’s OK to not get everything done.

Photo by anna carol

I dislike wasted effort. And since I spend most of my days (and nights) on a computer, typing the same thing over and over again is wasted effort.

I’ve had long experience with text replacers over the past five years. I started with ShortKeys, tinkered with AutoHotkey, and looked at many others over the years. Most didn’t even last a full day on my computer. AutoHotkey was too much like work (literally, since I’m a programmer). And ShortKeys has no shortage of quirks.

Enter Breevy. It’s a program that has taken the best of the programs without any annoyances.

The Basics of Breevy

Breevy is an auto-text expander. It not only allows you to expand text as you type, but you can also launch programs and websites using it.

The program itself is written in a non-Microsoft dependent format. This means when Microsoft randomly forces an update of your operating system on you, it is not likely to break because of a dependency on Microsoft code. It is also very light on memory (3748K on my machine), registering at less than half what ShortKeys takes up (12,740K).

The Breevy Interface

The left side of the Breevy screen contains a list of folders. These folders can be used to group your abbreviations together — something I find very handy. I have split mine into work, email, HTML and others. You can change folders by clicking on the folder, or see everything by clicking on the top level. You can even nest folders more than one level, allowing for a great deal of organization.

The right side of the screen contains the list of abbreviations in the folder. You can change how they are sorted, making it very easy to find the one you are looking for.

Clicking on an abbreviation brings up the modification area at the bottom of the screen. You can set your abbreviation key, the case-sensitivity, replacement text, and the description. All of these columns show in the abbreviation area and can be sorted by.

Breevy Abbreviation Options

One of the strengths of Breevy is the ability to control, by abbreviation, the case-sensitivity of the output, and when the text is replaced.

Case Sensitivity

Each abbreviation comes with three casing options: case insensitive, case sensitive, and “adapt replacement case to case of typed abbreviation.”

The first option allows you to use your abbreviations regardless of case. For instance, if you had an abbreviation called “l8r” that expanded to “later”, you could type any one of L8R, L8r, l8R, l8r to have it expand.

The case sensitive option allows you to have multiple expansions for a given set of letters. Thus, you could have replacements called L8R and l8r expand to two different things.

Feature alert: Breevy is smart enough to catch possibly conflicts between case-sensitive and case-insensitive abbreviations, and warns you that there might be a possible conflict.

The third feature, which I’ve never seen in a text expander before, adjusts the text to match the case you typed in. So if you have an abbreviation “cc” that expands to “camel case”, you would get the following:

• cc — camel case
• CC — CAMEL CASE
• Cc — Camel case

Text Replacement Options

Most text replacers allow for a global text replacement option. You need to trigger the replacer by either prefixing or suffixing the text you type in with a sequence of characters. Breevy allows you to set this by abbreviation. You can have the text trigger immediately when you type in a sequence, when you press a “word-ending character” (fully customizable in the settings) or by pressing a trigger key after the sequence.

Having the text replace when you have matched the sequence is great when you have special characters. For instance, when I type in “/H1″, I want the expander to put out HTML H1 codes. This customization means I can put in a prefix of my own without worrying I will accidentally insert them into a letter.

Having a replacement trigger on a word-ending character is the type of thing you see in replacers within word processors. This fixes errors as you type. Great for common typos.

Having the trigger key (customizable) allows you to use a key to force the program to put the text in. I find this is good for codes I may want to put in that may actually be words that stand on their own.

Breevy Features

Here are the things I really like about Breevy:

• Folders for organization. As mentioned above, this is an important feature for me. My ShortKeys list had 500+ entries in it. I rarely found anything. Breevy has allowed me to split out the abbreviations into functional areas.
• Program launch. Although I use Launchy, it was difficult for me to get specific websites set up to launch on command. Breevy does it with little effort.
• Imports Word Autocorrections. Yes, it will import the entire Word autocorrection file in, giving you the same sort of spelling replacement in other programs.
• Include clipboard. You can tell the abbreviation to include the contents of the clipboard in the replacement. This is great if you routinely wrap clipboard text with something else (in my case, with HTML).
• Special symbols. Breevy can handle special symbols, like © and non-English letters, like umlauts and accents.
• One screen editing. I really dislike programs that have screens everywhere for editing. Breevy’s interface is one-stop shopping, all on screen. The screen also doesn’t vanish when you switch to another program, like ShortKeys does.
• Cursor positioning. You can include the cursor position in your replacement text. This allows you to put your cursor at the place you would start typing without having to move the arrows or mouse.
• Variable date insertion. You can use Breevy to insert dates and date parts into your text. For example, for my work comments, I have it put the date in a YYYYMMDD format. Breevy handles this with no problems.

What is Breevy Missing?

I haven’t abandoned ShortKeys completely. That is because ShortKeys allows me to access Alt, Control, Home, End, and the arrow keys. This allows me to move around on the screen. For instance, one frequent replacement I do is on the fourth line from the top of the screen in a document.

The good news is when I asked the developer about this, he indicated it would be forthcoming in a future release.

Conclusion

I am really impressed with Breevy. I have put it to use and really tested it in my everyday working. It is as flexible as I could possibly wish, and really works quickly, with no noticeable lags or system loads. I also couldn’t get the thing to crash, and I tried.

Since buying Breevy entitles you to lifetime free upgrades as well as protection by a 30-day money-back guarantee, I suggest you give it a try. You will be very surprised how much it improves your time on the computer.

Special Offer for Simple Productivity Blog Readers

16 Software has generously offered a limited time 25% off discount on their product for readers of Simple Productivity Blog. To take advantage of this offer, you can use the direct link, or use the coupon code of SIMPLEPRODUCTIVITY. This offer will be valid from 15 Feb 2010 to 21 Feb 2010.

Disclosure:

Note: I was provided with a free full working copy of Breevy to evaluate and write this review from. I have no other affiliation with 16 Software.

I have tackled and completed the challenge of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) the past two Novembers. It had always been a dream of mine to try writing and I had ideas that had been brewing for years. So when I came across NaNoWriMo I decided to go for it.

I never thought about how I managed to find the time, until I was asked to write this article. I don’t know that I did anything original or unique – it was mostly common sense, which is often in short supply in my life.

I was squeezing NaNoWriMo into a busy work schedule and a hectic family life (my wife and I have a 6 year old and 2 year old triplets). Here are my 5 steps to fit an ambitious new project into your life.

1. Make the commitment and just get started. I did not write on November 1st and was feeling discouraged and overwhelmed. I had no idea how to get started and just about gave up on it – an unfortunate tendency I have. Instead, I got up at 5:00 A.M. on the 2nd turned on the computer and started writing.
2. Find, eliminate and utilize the wasted time in your life. I quickly realized that mornings were not going work because I use that time to exercise. After the kids go to bed and I take care of chores I have a bad habit of sitting down and turning on the TV. That pretty much ensures nothing else productive gets done before exhaustion takes over. I decided to take a hiatus from TV for the month and use that time to write.
3. Recognize your limits and adjust to them. I discovered a problem. I would write like gangbusters for a half hour or so and then would start getting sleepy. My solution was to make the writing my first priority. As soon as the kids were in bed I started writing and saved the household chores for second. It was much easier to fight off tiredness while writing at 8:00 than at 10:00 or later. I also stopped writing once I met my writing goals for the day so that other things could still get done.
4. Take advantage of your existing support system. I am fortunate to have an amazing wife who encouraged and supported me in this effort. She was also willing to adjust her schedule to help me accomplish my goal. This allowed me to attend a couple of the ‘write-ins’ that were organized in my area. I did some of my best writing during these times and benefited greatly from the interaction with the other writers.
5. Recognize that some other things won’t get done. Anytime you are trying to accomplish something big or start a new project other projects or goals will have to get put on hold. I let some other things go and tried not to let them distract or bother me.

I completed NaNoWriMo, writing more than 50,000 words and finishing a draft of my Novel, maintained my sanity and did not sacrifice my family or my job to do it. That was a huge accomplishment for me and doing it has helped me apply these common sense steps toward tackling some other goals in my life.

Photo by arquera

I’m now a few months into the Grand iPod Touch experiment, and I’m settling into my new system. I’ve discovered workable solutions (for me) to the fundamentals of a productivity system. Here is what I’m using to date:

Calendar

I’ve set up the Touch to sync with my Google Calendar. Since I also have my Google calendar sync with my Palm desktop (I will NOT use Outlook!), I have a three point entry to one repository. I can enter data in the Palm desktop, right into Google calendar, or on the Touch, and it appears on the other two. I like this flexibility because I have access no matter where I am.

Tasks

I am still using Remember The Milk (pro) to manage my tasks. I have a three point entry here as well; I can enter through the web interface, the Touch app, or by sending email.

I particularly like the email access because I can forward emails I need to take action on and have them appear in my task list, with all details attached.

I have also worked out a way to push everything from Bonsai to RTM via Excel and email that allows me to simplify my project planning.

Email

For a long time I was using the native Touch email application to get into my Gmail. It caused some difficulty because it didn’t really move messages to the Trash when I deleted them, so I was doing a lot of cleanup. I found the Google Gmail mobile site, though, and switched. (This runs through the Safari application on the Touch).

This application gives me full access to all the features of Gmail in a well-designed screen.

I actually have to be connected via Wifi to use this, but this is of little matter. For those rare times when I want to send and email and don’t have a Wifi connection, I can still use the native app.

Contacts

Google Contacts are a subset of email, and I use the native Touch application to manage them. My contacts, like my calendar, sync from my Palm desktop, so I have a copy in three places. Using Google Contacts also gives me the ability to auto-add people I have emailed. This had been a problem in my previous systems.

Notes

I don’t keep too much reference material on my portable devices – just useful information I may need on the go, like equipment modes, birthdays and clothing sizes. Since I wanted multiple points of entry on this as well, I chose Awesome Note for its ability to sync to Google Docs.

The sync process on this is manual, but since this information hardly ever changes it suits me well.

I’m always on the lookout for other productivity improvements using the Touch. I’m evaluating a few other applications right now, but the system seems to be working pretty well using Google applications.

Does anyone have any must-have iPod Touch/iPhone productivity applications?

Photo by Yodel Anecdotal