Productivity

Anatomy of an Action Item

I have written before about the hierarchy of tasks (i.e., action items) in OmniFocus. In this post, I will zoom in on the base unit of productivity, an action item, and identify the characteristics every action item should have.

I like using OmniFocus and calling tasks “action items.” Regardless of the program you use, and whatever you call the things you need to do, you should think about how they are composed. As of March 2021, I think these are the essential parts of an action item. When I clear to neutral every day, I make sure each action item that goes into my system has been reviewed for each of the following characteristics.

2021-03-11

Productivity

Single Threading

A stylized image depicts a person at a desk with a laptop, surrounded by an explosion of colorful paper cut-out layers representing data, documents, and technology symbols, symbolizing information overload or multitasking in a digital work environment.

Except for the contexts of my high school students’ minds and technology, I am probably too young to be considered old. However, when it comes to personal computers, I am something along the lines of an Ent.

The first computer I have memories of using had a single 75 MHz processor. An iPhone 12 has (essentially) six processors in it, which total (at least) 13,400 MHz of proceeding speed.

My formative years using a computer were colored by having to choose the one thing I wanted to do with my computer, which on that computer was usually the MindMaze game in Microsoft Encarta.

2021-02-20

Productivity

Pomodoro Technique for Students

To help students be successful in my self-paced HBS class I have a tutorial that they must complete. The tutorial teaches them a variety of technologies and metacognitive strategies to help them be successful learners. Here is the objective where I teach them about the Pomodoro Technique:

2019-12-20

Productivity

Writing Sensible Email Messages- 43 Folders

This post is from more than a decade ago. However, as the school year starts and emails are flying into my school inbox, it is as relevant as ever.

Read this article and learn how to be better at email, everyone you work with will appreciate it:

Writing Sensible Email Messages- 43 Folders

2019-08-19

Productivity

Using Drafts and Shortcuts to Get Tasks Into OmniFocus

I made a video about how I use Drafts and Shortcuts to get my tasks into OmniFocus. I was inspired to make this video after writing yesterday’s post about how I have been using the Drafts Inbox recently.

2019-08-14