How to Organize your Ideas and Notes Effectively by Creating Simple Drawings

Posted by J.J. on November 12, 2008 under Books, GTD, Personal development, Productivity, Self development, Shortcuts, Time Management, Visual Thinking | Be the First to Comment

When I have an idea for my blog post, article or work; I would tend to procrastinate due to several reasons:

• I couldn’t find my favorite pen.
• I was outside and I left my notebook at home/office/car.
• Just being lazy when ideas popped out during bedtime and I would actually forget it in the next morning.

So I’ve come out of solution to these problems as mentioned above with simple methods:

• I don’t actually bother what should I use to draw. I’d normally use any pencil, pen, marker and etc – as long I can draw and jot down short notes.
• Based on the previous point, I would draw simple diagrams or write short notes on a simple piece of paper, post-it pads, rough paper, back of an envelope, or anything that is writable – personally I would prefer post-it pads.
• If I don’t have both as mentioned above, I would use my cell phone in which has one of the “Organizer” features like “Notes” – it is meant for texting short message as your simple note-making.

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The Pomodoro Technique – Rediscover the 90’s Italian Timeboxing Technique to Eliminate Procrastination

Posted by J.J. on October 24, 2008 under GTD, Productivity, Shortcuts, Time Management | 6 Comments to Read

Who would ever think that a frustrated Italian university student – who was having difficulties in managing his heaps of homework and time for study, that could develop a simple timeboxing technique in which originated from a kitchen timer that resembles the appearance of a tomato.

Therefore, that’s the reason why it is called the Pomodoro Technique in which the word “pomodoro” means “tomato” in Italian. It was firstly discovered by Francesco Cirillo in the 80’s for the means of improving personal time management by eliminating distraction and increase productivity.

It was developed when Francesco wanted to maximize the use of his time (perhaps 10 minutes) on his revision since he had several upcoming exams. It didn’t work that well as he expected in the beginning, but he enduringly putting his time and efforts of improving his timeboxing idea in which is comprehensively discussed in present team productivity workshops.

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