planning and time management software
Jul. 7th, 2005 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslDoes anyone know of software to keep me focused on my goals, preventing me from wasting time?
This software would make my current goal (or goal-stack) *always* visible, so that it's hard for me to get distracted from my goal. It would keep track of my time spent on each goal (I could type in a sentence every half hour for annotation); to take a break from working towards a goal, I would tell the software that now I'm spending a few minutes "off-task".
The planning part would consist of a set of projects (set of goal trees), with daily and weekly reporting on the goals: whether they were reached, and if not why.
I think such a self-feedback system would make the whole thing more fun, like a videogame: you have a clear challenge.
Ideally, everything I do, every program I open, every browser window and email, would fall under a goal. Each project would be like a Unix Workspace, so when you're working in a certain project, you will *NOT* see any distracting information unrelated to the current project.
I could probably be at least 3 times as productive if I had such a system.
This software would make my current goal (or goal-stack) *always* visible, so that it's hard for me to get distracted from my goal. It would keep track of my time spent on each goal (I could type in a sentence every half hour for annotation); to take a break from working towards a goal, I would tell the software that now I'm spending a few minutes "off-task".
The planning part would consist of a set of projects (set of goal trees), with daily and weekly reporting on the goals: whether they were reached, and if not why.
I think such a self-feedback system would make the whole thing more fun, like a videogame: you have a clear challenge.
Ideally, everything I do, every program I open, every browser window and email, would fall under a goal. Each project would be like a Unix Workspace, so when you're working in a certain project, you will *NOT* see any distracting information unrelated to the current project.
I could probably be at least 3 times as productive if I had such a system.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-08 07:19 am (UTC)Start by turning off anything that can be a distraction. Turn off email notification. Turn off IM programs. Clear your desktop of clutter. Instead of having technology dictate what you must do, take charge and impose your will onto the technology. Interact with it on your terms.
Adding another layer of technology will only increase your dependence on it.
Also, Getting Things Done has helped me to get rid of the mental clutter and just do stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-08 07:54 am (UTC)True. But I find keeping track of subgoals an essential task. Especially when I'm debugging.
Start by turning off anything that can be a distraction. Turn off email notification. Turn off IM programs.
A workspace seems like a better way to accomplish this. It automatically insulates you from images. It could be an option to insulate you from sound as well.
Adding another layer of technology will only increase your dependence on it.
If the technology is under my control, that's not a bad thing.
I seriously think that making lists and checkboxes dramatically improves my productivity. And during this focused work, I should have the option of writing down interesting ideas to maybe pursue later, instead of giving myself instant gratification while escaping from the task.