DazzlinDonna » GTD

Increasing Computer Productivity With Multiple Desktops

Donna — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:49:48 +0000

There are many ways to get things done in a more productive manner when you’re doing work that involves a computer, and I wanted to share one that makes a world of difference for me on a daily basis. I use multiple desktops to keep my most used tasks separate but easily accessible, as you’ll see in the video below.

Everyone is familiar with their computer’s desktop. It’s what we stare at as we type, or surf the web, or do any work on our computer. It contains our menu, and our windows, and our icons, etc. Before long, windows stack up on top of windows, and icons litter the entire desktop, and it just becomes one great big mess. We’ve all probably learned to deal with it over time, and may not even notice how frustrating it can be since we’re so accustomed to it. But there can be a better way, and everyone has access to this for free.

What if you had more than one desktop? What if you could easily switch between 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 6 desktops? What if each desktop could hold its own set of icons and windows? Imagine having your browser open on one desktop, the document you’re typing open on another desktop, your Twitter client open on another, and so on. Imagine just jumping from one to another with just a click, or a flick of the mouse.

Linux users are used to having multiple desktops, and that’s where I first stumbled across it. The video below is a screencast I just took of my 6 desktops. (I could use more or less if I wanted, but 6 works great for me right now). Five of the desktops always have one or two main windows open that I use regularly. The sixth is always a clean slate with nothing open, so I can do whatever I want with it. Actually, I can do whatever I want with any of the desktops. I mean, it’s not like I can’t open and close new programs and windows on any of them at any time. But I personally like to keep them mostly the way you’ll see in the video below – nearly all the time. Play the video now, quickly, to see what I’m talking about. It’s less than 30 seconds long. (Sorry about the low quality of the video).

That’s my computer, and a quick glance at all six of my desktops. This ability to segment my work and keep a visually clean desktop at all times, keeps me much more productive – and much less frustrated – than I used to be.

You can have it too. It doesn’t matter if you run Windows or Linux or Mac. They all have free programs you can run to give you multiple desktops. I’m not very familiar with the various ones available for Windows and Mac, but I’ll list a few for you to investigate on your own. I just quickly searched for these, so there may be others that are better out there.

For Windows, you can get Microsoft’s own PowerToys virtual desktop manager that lets you have up to 4 desktops. And yes, it’s free, or you can try Dexpot, which lets you have up to 20 desktops.

As far as I know, Mac, like Linux, comes with multiple desktop capability built-in, but there are programs available to manage them more efficently and/or give extra functionality. One such program for Mac is Desktop Manager, and the one I use for Linux is Compiz, which also does a ton of other things besides handle multiple desktops.

I recommend trying out multiple desktops for a week or two and see if it makes your workday a little saner and a little more productive. I know it’s helped me a lot, and I would hate to have to return to the old days of using just one desktop. Hopefully, this is one little productivity tip I can pass along to you to make your work days a little smoother.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: desktop, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Windows, Virtual desktop, virtual desktop manager

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How Determined Are You?

Donna — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:43:04 +0000

Determination. That’s been my mantra for the last few weeks. You see, I knew that I’d let a few things get away from me over time, and that I needed to buckle down and really get some stuff done. I have a couple of websites that desperately needed some attention, so if you think I’ve been quiet here and elsewhere, I can tell you why.

Determination.

I’ve been determined to focus, focus, focus, and work, work, work at getting things done that needed doing.

That determination is paying off big time. The sites I’ve been focusing on are growing by leaps and bounds, and the content is attracting both search engines and visitors.

I may have put this blog on the backburner the last few weeks, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t been working really hard. It just means I’ve used my determination elsewhere.

What about you? How determined are you to get things done! How determined are you to not get distracted? How determined are you to focus, focus, focus?

The level of your determination will help determine the level of your success down the road.

So ask yourself the question: “How Determined Am I?”

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Dealing With A Massive To-Do List

Donna — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:35:26 +0000

We all face the extra-long to-do list now and then. Because many of us wear lots of hats in our one-person businesses, and we don’t always have a team of people to help us out, our to-do lists can become unwieldy – sometimes to the point of outrageousness. Once a task list reach that stage, we can often become completely incapable of getting any of it done! It’s as though the big, bad, scary to-do monster has paralyzed us with indecision and overwhelmed us into inaction.

Here’s what I do when I’m faced with the monster of all monster task lists. I divide it up into 3’s: Must-Do’s, Should Do’s, and Everything Else. Each item on my to-do list has to be re-routed to one of these three new sublists. Here’s how to determine which items go into which list.

Must-Do’s are tasks that you are obligated to complete, either because you have an agreement or a contract with someone else to do so. If you are a freelancer, for example, you have clients that you’ve contracted with to perform certain tasks. Those will always go into the Must-Do sublist. Likewise, you may have items on your list that absolutely have to get done for yourself (such as paying bills and/or taxes on time) or there will be fairly impactful consequences for inaction. Move all must-do tasks onto this list first.

Should-Do’s are items on your to-do list that are important because accomplishing them would be beneficial to you or your business in a rather large way. Not getting them done won’t necessarily hurt you or your business, but getting them done would make a nice difference in income or sanity or happiness, for example. Move these types of items into this sublist now.

Everything Else is … well … everything that’s not a Must-Do or a Should-Do.

Now that you have your 3 sublists, you are going to divide the Everything Else sublist into 3’s yet again. Because these items are the least important of all the tasks you have on your list, you’ll want to get as many of them off your shoulders as soon as possible. Divide these up into the following sub-sub-lists:

Kick ‘Em Off: These are tasks that really aren’t important enough to waste a moment of time on, but somehow they snuck onto the list for one reason or another. Often we think something might need to be done for a moment, and then later realize it really wasn’t important at all. Dump any of those right now.

Put ‘Em Off: There’s a good chance that a large majority of the Everything Else list will be moved into this sub-sub-list. Most of the items are important enough to get done at some point, but there’s no great urgency to any of them. Throw those here.

Pawn ‘Em Off: If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few items on the list that could be pawned off on someone else. We don’t always have a large number of people that we can rely on to help us with our daily tasks, but hopefully there is a short list of people that are there to help us on occasion (and vice-versa). If you’ve been networking, then you probably have a few virtual friends that would be happy to give you a hand. Maybe that designer friend of yours would edit a photo for you, in return for that time you helped her brainstorm an idea. That’s one of the great things about networking, so don’t forget to make use of it (without abusing it of course).

Now that you’ve divided your list up into smaller chunks, it should make the monster look much less threatening. Tackle the Must-Do’s first, then the Should-Do’s, and eventually the Put ‘Em Off’s. What was once overwhelming will become actionable, and you’ll be back on track in no time.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: designer, GTD, tackle, task list, Time management, to-do

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Juggling Too Many Tasks Results In Nothing Working

Donna — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:38:44 +0000

I’ve always prided myself on my ability to deftly multi-task, without much need for scheduling. What I didn’t realize was that there would eventually come a day when juggling too many tasks would cause the whole thing to come crashing down on me, with the end result of getting absolutely NOTHING done. Warning. Don’t let this happen to you.

My days and nights have become one long string of never-ending distractions. I end up doing so many things in one day, that nothing ever REALLY gets done. Projects started don’t get finished. Excellent ideas get pushed aside to make way for the distraction of the moment. I look around me and see a great plan that isn’t being carried out. That’s my fault. And that’s all going to change, starting today.

First things first. My new assistant brain, Sandy, has been given my new schedule, with instructions to send reminders of each task I must tackle, at the time I need to tackle it. (I spent several hours today creating this schedule, determining what needed to be done, creating a slot of time for each task, and determining how often it needed to be done. Some are daily, some weekly, etc).

Keep in mind that:

Creating a schedule is one part of the solution.

Having someone (Sandy) keep me on schedule is another part of the solution.

But the glue that holds this solution together is going to be the unplugging of the distractions.

During set hours of each day, I will unplug from the world. No IM. No Twitter. No forums. No email. No phones. No distractions of any kind, with the exceptions of true emergencies (i.e. somebody better need me to take them to the emergency room).

For several hours each and every day, I will focus solely on whatever task Sandy has reminded me of. Nothing else. No one else. Just That One Task. Get.It.Done.

Several hours will be devoted to times when I can be distracted. Communication will be turned back on. I’ll visit forums. I’ll participate in social networks. I’ll tweet, message, email, and phone. But when Sandy says it’s time to turn it all off…the switches will be flipped, and the time for uber-focusing will begin.

I’ve got a big master-plan brewing for 2008, and I’ll be darned if I’m going to let distractions get in the way. I decided to share this in case you needed to take a look at your own juggling act.

Are you doing so many things, that you aren’t doing anything?

If so, take some time to reconsider the juggling act you’ve got going on. It might be time to make a change.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: assistant, social networks, Twitter

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