Warning - this is a more personal post and one that isn't about hardcore SEO tactics. Despite this, I think that I have some useful lessons to share and I hope you find it useful. For thoughts on similar principles but more from an SEO project perspective rather than an individual efficiency angle, you could read project management for SEO.
How I get things done as founder of an SEO agency
After becoming a dad 6 weeks ago, I have been trying desperately to squeeze efficiency gains out of my day. Just before my daughter was born, I was stretching my day out and was regularly at my desk by 8am and still there well after 7pm at night plus working in the evenings and at weekends. Many of you may work even longer hours than this. I don't think it's uncommon among business owners. In a previous life, I worked in management consulting and the hours were brutal. I always wanted to build a company that didn't rely on long hours, but somehow even (generally) succeeding at that didn't stop me working long hours.
As a general rule, I was fine with it and not coping too badly.
However
I don't want to be the kind of dad that is never home. I want to be there for bathtime.
But I also don't want to compromise my ambition. I don't want Distilled to suffer and I don't want to hold up or let down my team or our clients.
So, I'm left with finding a few hours a day of 'efficiency savings'. I need to get better at what I do and more efficient at how I do it. It's not like I wasn't trying before, but now it's serious. Since I've been putting so much effort into it, I thought I would also share with you some of my biggest wins and the tools, tips and tricks that help me get things done. I hope they are helpful whatever your role in the SEO process - certainly I have been sharing some of this stuff with the team here at Distilled and I also think that there is a lot of scope to use these same techniques and ideas in in-house roles.
Overarching principles
Everything is based on Getting Things Done (GTD). To my mind, this is all about your mind. Specifically, it's about finding the things your mind is bad at, and seeking ways to fix it. Here are some key ways my mind is broken - maybe yours is too:
- I'm easily distracted by did you see this kitten?
- I can remember phone numbers from 15 years ago and forget to return a phone call despite a post-it note stuck on my monitor
- 'Background thinking' tasks (like trying to remember a list of priorities) make me massively less efficient at whatever I'm actually doing
As a result, I like the fact that GTD builds habits and systems that enable me to:
- Get all the trivial stuff out of my head...
- ...and into a trusted system where I know I will find it again...
- and delineate my time away from distractions of new information (like email)
If you have never tried it, it's hard to describe how powerful a trusted system is. If you trust yourself to work from your todo list and therefore you manage even your most important tasks that way, you free up so much of your mental capacity. I have been guilty in the past of having a todo list, but then using post-its for important stuff. But then I stopped checking my todo list because I never got through the post-its. Similarly, if you try to empty your inbox, but leave really important email in there so that you don't miss it, you're doing it wrong.
Email - inbox zero
Many of you will have heard of the concept of inbox zero. I highly recommend watching Merlin Mann's talk at Google on the subject:
While I'm recommending Merlin's stuff, do your colleagues a favour and have a read of his article about writing good email and check out his talk on time and attention (something I need to do more thinking about).
I only really got the inbox zero thing when I realised a few crucial elements:
- Getting your inbox to zero is not the same as having no email left to deal with (that would be crazy)
- There is huge value to separating the emails you are working on from the place new emails arrive
- Move tasks out of email onto your todo list when you can
Oh, and keyboard shortcuts are your friend (gmail is excellent for this).
Working on the right things
There is a danger with efficiency systems that you just work faster and faster on trivial things. I have two ways of trying to make sure I'm working on important stuff:
- A weekly review: which involves running through all the stuff I want to achieve and adding tasks to my todo list (balancing the trivial urgent things that tend to accumulate on there). At the same time, I try to clear out the cruft - removing irrelevant things and modifying deadlines where needed
- Daily prioritisation: I have recently started ending my working day with a checklist (checklists rock - see Tom's post) - the last item on which is "list 5 tasks to do tomorrow"
Apparently [I haven't found a solid reference - link available if you supply one] Charles Schwab once happily paid a fortune for the following efficiency advice:
Each evening, pick six things to do tomorrow. Then do those things.
Supposedly it changed his life. I started with five things (because I mis-remembered that advice, actually) but even so, it's already making a difference after only a couple of weeks. My record isn't perfect - only on special days have I managed to do all 5 things, but it keeps me focussed on the things I want to get done.
Delegation and management
It's all well and good having your own todo list in order. But hopefully you don't do everything yourself. You probably delegate things, ask others to do things and rely on other people managing their own time and todo list.
Teams work best when everyone takes responsibility for their own performance and their own job - but that doesn't mean you should just assume they will. I used to think that following up on things you had asked others to do was micro-management. But I'm coming round to the view that actually, that's just management.
Just as with managing my own tasks, I have found that there are really two critical steps to doing this effectively:
- Note them down somewhere I trust
- Review that list
Building both habits is hard. In the past, I thought it best to build #1 first (as there is no list to check until you are writing things on it). In a similar way to the "important task" dilemma described above, however, I found myself never putting things on the list because I wasn't in the habit of checking it. So recently I have flipped this on its head. I'll let the noting down take care of itself but I will religiously check the list at the end of every day.
When I say list, I actually mean two things:
- A list in Remember The Milk (see below)
- A tag in gmail ('followup') - also more on this below
My tools
My basic toolkit is pretty simple:
- Laptop
- iPhone
- Moleskine notebook and nice pen [this is an area where I find that if I make it fun to write notes, I'm more likely to write them]:
At Distilled, we recently switched over to Google Apps for our domain which means that we finally have gmail. Suffice it to say I'm a big fan - the search is revolutionary to those used to Thunderbird / Outlook (especially as the IMAP access means we aren't forcing the web interface on anyone). My little tweaks so far:
- Turn on keyboard shortcuts (then use "?" to view a list of available shortcuts)
- Turn on labs
- Turn on "send and archive". A small tweak, but an awesome one.
- Turn off unread counts for inbox - avoid having it bug you to check new email
- I would use "multiple inboxes" to show my followup and starred email on the same page but it currently conflicts with:
- Rememberthemilk addon (I use the Chrome version) - more on RTM below
- Create a follow-up filter so that when you email [email protected] it is tagged for followup later
Most of the software I use is either web-based or has applications for most desktop OSs and mobile platforms. I'm on Windows 7 (and iPhone). Screenshots below from the iPhone:
Remember The Milk
I have tried a few todo-list-management tools and nothing beats Remember The Milk in my opinion. I don't use all its coolness, but do rely on:
- A few lists:
- Work
- Personal
- Delegated
- Projects
- GTD - a "meta" list to remind me to run through my checklists weekly etc.
- Some tags - particularly tagging tasks I have delegated with the name of the delegatee - making it easy to group them for follow-up
- The ability to email tasks into the system
- The gmail addon mentioned above
Evernote
I use Evernote (which essentially syncs text, photo and voice notes across devices) for two main tasks:
- Capturing stuff to process later (quick notes, web pages, photos) - especially on the notes front this is handy if I don't have pen and paper on me - I almost always have my phone
- Managing my daily list - again because I have it with me all the time, this is where I keep my 'daily' list of 5 things along with my end of day checklist
I also have it set up so that I can email stuff into it much like rememberthemilk.
Incidentally, I'm only scratching the surface of what you can do with Evernote. @swerveball pointed me to this excellent article from Ruud Hein on implementing GTD with Evernote but I have to admit I'm a bit scared of it.
Supporting tools
There are a few tools that aren't strictly for getting things done, but nonetheless help me be more efficient:
Salesforce
.jpg)
We use Salesforce for keeping track of contacts, prospects and leads (as well as for managing much of the contract process - but that's another post). I use the iPhone app to keep access to thousands of contacts wherever I am. I particularly love the fact that the screen above has a button to 'clone' Rand.
Readitlater
I mentioned earlier that I am easily distracted. One of the tools I use to manage that is Read It Later - which is a combination of Firefox plugin and iPhone app (integrating with Echofon for Twitter on the iPhone) that means I can save interesting articles to read later. This means that (most days) I don't get overwhelmed by the stream of great stuff to read and can capture it in one place to read when it's convenient to me rather than when I should be working on that document.
Dropbox
In the interests of being able to work everywhere and grab important documents even when mobile, I am increasingly loving Dropbox. That link is clean, this one gets me an extra 256Mb of space - I hope no-one minds that little semi-affiliate link-drop [Update - apparently if you use my referral link, not only do I get more space, but you get more space on your free account too - which is super-cool]. Syncronising files between computers and having a mobile app - it's pretty damn close to magic.
My checklists
Finally, I have mentioned checklists a couple of times. Here are the two most important ones I use:
Daily
- Review internal emails - gmail search: (label:starred OR label:inbox) AND (from:distilled.co.uk OR from:distilledconsulting.com)
- Follow up delegated tasks
- Remember The Milk list
- Gmail label:followup
- Delay urgent starred / todo items that can't happen today
- List 5 things to do tomorrow
Weekly
- Review open projects and create next tasks
- Clear inboxes --> todo list
- Rememberthemilk
- Evernote
- Notebook
- Review all todo tasks
- remove unnecessary ones
- create / adjust deadlines where necessary
Incidentally, it's not all about working smarter. I wish it were. There is still a large degree to which it's sacrifice and hard work. I am writing this post at 11.30pm while my daughter sleeps beside me. I sleep a lot less than before (even factoring in the baby effect) but somehow (at least for now), it's all OK.
Also, if you are waiting for an email reply from me, sorry! None of this makes me perfect, but imagine how bad I'd be without it!
Hey Will. I disagree with only one part of your post. "Warning - this is a more personal post and one that isn't about hardcore SEO tactics."
Those of us that work their own businesses, in addition to having families, are always short of time to accomplish what we need to.
If this post helps me find just 1 more hour in a day, I'll be 6.25% ahead of the game. I haven't had time this morning (LOL) to do anything but quickly scan this article, but it's being printed out as I type this, and I'll be taking it with me to a Dr's appt today where I'll be able to absorb it while in the waiting room.
I'll be back later to comment. More.
This may sound elementary, but for Mac users, I highly recommend Quicksilver. If I want to open a folder or application that lives deep within the machine, hitting Cmd + Space and typing the first few letters of the folder / app's name and hitting enter opens it. No searching required. Over time, this saves lots of hassle opening windows and searching through lists of folders and apps, especially if you're not entirely sure where something is. I believe there are alternatives for Linux and Windows as well.
However, there was one specific thing I found online that made me more efficient and productive. I can't recommend it enough. It frees up lots of time instantly. It's simple to use and only takes one click. Try it today for free.
I use this all the time, it's a life saver! And it also means my desktop isn't cluttered with all kinds of docs and applications...
And for you're other suggestion, LOL!!
Yeah - Quicksilver is a great app. The closest I've found on Windows is Launchy. Thanks for the reminder, Jane.
Launchy is excellent. My desktop is finally complete empty. Not an icon on it. Love that.
I am going to D/L this tonight for my computer at home, That's where i get the most amount of work done.
Downloaded and I'm going to start using it, no more mouse for me! :D
Great link at the end of your comment Jane. I wish I used the service so I could then turn around and follow your advice to find more time. But being qwertyless in my mobile, I never got into it.
My compliments Will and wellcome to the club of the SEO Dads.
As a father of two baby boys (known also as the "trolls") I recongnize myself in any word of your post.
And, as I was always someone not really lover of the time organization, now that I've to deal with clients and family even more than before I found myself in the need of finally find a method.
My main instruments are:
1) Gmail
I create a specific folder for any client/potential client asap I receive a first mail asking for a quote.
I use the "superspecial" icons in order to classify the priorities
If someone is asking for a quote I give myself a 72h timeframe to answer (this 72h time in the automatic form reply to the client is stated too).
In order to not accumulate mails in the inbox, I firmly dedicate to this issue at least 30 minutes at mid morning and other 30 minutes at the end of days (usually during my Espresso break)
2) Gmail + Remember the milk
I too use Remember the milk, but the Gmail extensions
3) Skype
I use a lot Skype as a way of communication with my clients. I procure to be visible just in precise moments. My icon status is usually put on "at work". I discovered (quite surprisingly) that my clients respect this advise.
4) Timetables
Asap I start working on a project, the first thing I do is to draft a timetable for the project, with advices to my email (somehow ironically menacing myself)
5) Datas
I was a man used to saved important information in so many files and folders that finally I was loosing everything.
Therefore, now, the first thing I do when I receive informations from a client is to update my client dbase, which has all the fields I need (name, fiscal datas of the clients, phones, email, contacts, ftp datas, cms datas, dbase of his web datas and other subsidiary infos as "past client", "present client", "potential client"). This sort of bible is the most backuped files of my PC (both in a external HD and in the Server)
And I agree... there are also so many offline tecniques in order to maintain productivity. And one is: stop yourself at least a couple of time in the morning and a couple of time in the afternoon. Your brain has to relax from time to time or it risks to get overloaded.
Finally... music on (soundtracks mostly). Silence is totaly counterproductive... at least in my case.
Background music while working at the computer is essential. What's the database you use for your clients if it's not too rude to ask?
It's a "simple" Filemaker dbase that I created crafting it from another I was using once I was working in television... you know, when you get used to your old tools.
As far as I'm not overwhelmed by clients and projects to follow at the same time and I mostly act as a one-man-band, it's a tool that suit my needs quite well.
My absolute #1 tip for efficiency improvements in my life over the last two years, has had nothing to do with technology whatsoever.
Its a Kawasaki ZZR600, compared to South Eastern Rail (Kent to London on daily return).
I save 2 hours a day (seriously) and about 50% of the total costs.
sometime the biggest savings are "offline"!
Ooh, yeah, there's another one. And one that few people can replicate :) I live 4min, 40sec walk from work (yes I timed it). Take that, TFL! Rob Kerry, Ayima's head of search, beats me though, as he can see the Ayima building from his flat. Some may call that too close; we call that a good reason to investigate zip wires.
For two years in Spain I lived in the same building as our office - that had its advantages, but it did make taking a sickie totally impossible...
especially as my local pub was right next door :(
The pub reference is a must... for me is the coffee bar (which has also a wifi hotspot)... the coffe is great, the ambient not too noisy (strange, being a spanish bar, as I live in Spain as MOGmartin did, curious where?) and therefore, I find it also as a great place for informal meetings with clients.
estuvo viviendo en la costa del sol desde la '83, hasta el 2007. la mayoria del tiempo en fuengirola, pero tambien pase 7 anos en marbella,
saludos!
martin
That's something that I lack at the moment. I need to get myself some sort of vehicle. I wake up at 06:45 every day to leave for work at 07:55 to get that at 09:00. If I go in the car, it takes me 10 minutes to get to work. Not only could I arrive at work at 08:45 and start work AT 09:00 but I could also get some more beauty sleep and lose a bit of weight.
Hey MOGmartin. I would think that the train would have been an ideal transport. You could work undistracted while the engineer did the driving.
I find it really difficult to work whilst moving. I can concentrate for a certain amount of time but after a while I start to feel sick. I can usually check all of my emails, write a to-do list and a few other small tasks but when it comes to doing proper work, it's difficult.
I'd agree that driving saves time in a different way. Trains are too limited when it comes to time, with driving you can make your own decisions about when and where you're going to get somewhere.
thats a sensitive inner ear problem. you get pills for that.
I may have to... Fortunately I don't get travel sickness unless I'm reading whilst moving or concentrating on small images, for example. It's annoying on the train.
you've never been on a london commuter train. standing space is a luxury, nevermind a place to work...
Besides, you've got the fact that in inner cities it isn't the safest situation to be using expensive technology.
Long before SEO, I had a strong obsession about time management and effectiveness. I was long time user of Franklin Covey even in college...and indoctrinated a fair number of those around me and many of my fraternity brothers into Franklin as well...we referred to our planners as our "life." Of course, this was pre-PDA's and smartphones and the widescale presence of laptops.
At some point, like many, I guess I drifted away from that regimented focus.
But now it seems, in this world of always-on and the crazy world of SEO consulting, that strong control of time is more important than ever.
I think those who work in our space (SEO, search, online, etc.) live and work on the extreme...we are constantly online and easily bombarded with "more," and the flow of information is constant...and constantly growing.
This was a fantastic post and I, ironically, need to set aside some time to come back and look through this in more detail and the various tools.
You're so right.
How well one or a team organize and distribute the schedule of any process is something that I felt so much also in a seemingly totally different enviroment as a tv station... and at those time there wasn't much more that the still good Outlook by Microsoft and craft-at-purpose CRM (but, hell!, what a school television was with all needing to be on the news).
Now, with Cloud computing, we still have the same problems about organization. Honestly, despite of the solutions we can find (and all the ones presented here are great for one thing or the other), the first "optimization" has to be done on ourselves. It's the hardest, I can state it on myself, but the most needed.
Hey identity. I was a long time user of Franklin's cousin, Daytimer. I was at my most productive when using it (It was uber modified to my particular sales job).
Congratulations Will! Speaking as another London SEO who has just had a baby girl (mine's only 3 weeks old), I'm going through exactly what you are (including the sleep deprivation!), so your post couldn't be better timed.
I actually find Outlook works pretty well for staying on top of things but if you're not in front of your PC that's when stuff gets missed. Much though I try, my trusty old Windows mobile is too much hassle to use, so I fall back on pencil and paper. Reading everything above, I've got a feeling that this might be the post that tips me over the edge into getting an iPhone - something I've been considering for months.
Whatever happens, I want my evenings and weekends back as I don't want to miss out on my daughter growing up. I already had the first clash last week - a choice between writing a client presentation or bath time. Bath time won. :) Start as you mean to go on.
Nice ideas! As a new mum trying to get back to work it makes me feel better to see how other people struggle to get things done as well...I hope i will find the time to give your suggestions a try!
Hey msaez. Thumbs up for being a new mum.
Another thumbs up from me!! Congratulations!
Love the post and have used a few of the tools. Would love to see a further post on, the day or week in the life of. More to do with how you slice up your day or week and the various jobs you do. For example do you spend all Thursday link building? Do you take a day out to read a new SEO book?
Better not to think where somebody could find the time and the necessary peace to read a SEO book...
First of all, congratulations on becoming a father Will! That's fantastic news. Everyone seems to be having children at the moment. As long as it wasn't on March 30th that's cool. Otherwise they've hijacked my birthday :-(.
One thing that I suffer with in a productivity sense is distractions. When I'm working, I tend to have echofon running in the background, along with Adium so I can talk to my friends. When I'm at home, I also usually have a TV show or a movie playing in the background. Otherwise, it's music and switching songs - however, I relax when music is on so it helps me to work. One thing I need to do is stop getting distracted until it's not a problem, I could definitely get work done more quickly if I did this. I always make the excuse that I work fast anyway, but I could get much much more done had these things not distracted me.
I've always been a great believer in To-Do Lists and keeping all of one's admin in order before actually beginning the work. Not only does it feel like there's a massive weight off one's chest, but also it puts tasks into order that may've otherwise been forgotten or had very little thought. Much to my colleagues' dismay, I usually spend 30 minutes to an hour prioritising tasks for the week so that I know what I'm doing.
One thing I'm really starting to use when I commute is my iPhone. Since I got it back at the end of February, my life seems to have begun to revolve around that and the apps that I use to organise myself at work. Email is the most useful to be honest, it allows me to get all of my personal and work emails out of the way before I even get to work, so when I get there I don't have anything to read and can just jump straight in.
Thanks for taking the time to write this article, it must be difficult to find any time at the moment with a six week old daughter.
Great review, Will - I'm a big GTD fan. I have to admit that I was really reluctant about it at first. A lot of entrepreneur friends recommended GTD, but the near-cultish following turned me off. What I ended up really loving about David Allen's book is that it's so non-tool specific. He's not trying to sell anything.
I ultimately found that the same Excel to-do list I was already using was fine, with a few minor tweaks. The biggest one was not trying to put absolutely everything in front of my eyes all the time. I pulled out the daily, short-term and long-term, and it made a world of difference.
I've also struggled with distractions, as I often work from home, and have had to come to the difficult realization that I don't multi-task nearly as well as I'd like to think. This is true for 99% of internet professionals. Just because you CAN Have 15 things running at once doesn't mean you're efficient. It's amazing what I can accomplish when I set the iPhone timer for 30 minutes and shut off everything (no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, etc.).
That's why I love so much when I spend a weekend on the beach... no internet connection, no 3g available... it's there when I can concentrate on the Big Plans in a sort of retirement and "cleaning" from what I usually call Web Pollution.
Same here. I quickly find myself with 15-20 tabs open if I'm not careful.
E.ggTimer.com is a nifty web-based count-down timer that sounds an alarm when the set time is expired.
RescueTime also has a FocusTime feature that blocks "time wasting" websites for the duration of time you set.
And then there's the plain old egg timer, which Lisa Barone swears by. It has a nice ticking sound to remind you you're on the clock.
When all else fails I just exit the building and go far, far away from a web connection. Good for writing.
I like the egg timer idea.
Hi Will and the Moz Community!
I read through your post and most of the comments and was surprised that nobody mentioned the Holy Grail of time management tools developed on the GTD framework. Local company (Seattle that is) Omni Group has created an award winning application (only for Macs) called Omni Focus. Ever heard of it?
They also have an amazing iPhone App for Getting Things Done.
The integration between the App on the Mac and iPhone is pretty neat. I think they even have a 14 day trial if you don't want to cough up $40.
I have been using their software for a couple of years now, and it is truly amazing. Anyone else use a Mac on this forum?
Good luck, All!
Excellent post, Will -- thanks for carving out time to do it! (Now take a nap.)
To me, the key insight of GTD is to break the mental tasks apart by function -- you do the collecting in one step, then the sorting (do, delegate, defer, discard), then the creative thinking/brainstorming in another. To look at an inbox full of "tasks" that range from 1 minute to 1 year, one step to one hundred steps, is to numb the brain.
The point of "zero inbox" is not to do everything in your inbox. You only do it if it takes 2 minutes or less, otherwise the other 3 Ds come into play. Most things are "deferred" to followup, projects etc.
I love posts like this, Will. Thanks for writing it.
Mapping my own progression in this regard is interesting. I've come a long way in productivity and rely on many of the tools you've cited here (though my application of the GTD philosophy is decidedly less formed).
Probably the hardest thing to master, in my experience, is reliably identifying the important work (instead of just the urgent). That instant judgment call is one thing that a tool can't manage. And it may be the most important aspect of productivity.
Congrats on becoming a dad!
I agree 100% re: the urgent / important judgement calls. That is something I am constantly trying to improve. I find that getting all the cruft out of my head (as per this post) frees up the mental space to make better calls on that front.
Thanks :)
The horrible for me was when I shortly worked for an agency where everything was flagged as "Urgent"!... as when someone read a text all in bold...
Excellent post Will; thank you for your time (...management).
I stopped using RTM a while back because I kept forgetting to put stuff in it, whereas Evernote begs to be used. I *will* conquer GTD on Evernote. One day. When I get round to it. :p
Love the Schwab reference. I'm not sure I'm going to give you $100,000 for the advice but I've just started the checklist before bed and I reckon it would be well worth that sort of investment if I had the sort of money kicking about that Chuck has.
It's really nice to have the tools and insights provided here... now it will be just about overcoming my own inner-demons and DOING IT.
Thanks Will and everyone else for the further thoughts!
My time management doesn't come close to this! Very interesting to see the various tools you use as well. Would be worth having a look at to see if they could work for me too.
And congrats on being a dad!
Really like the ReaditLaterList - I hadn't heard of it and I could definitely use something like that. Can you tag things on the web and then access them on your phone and vice versa? That would be super-handy.
BTW - Doesn't the Dropbox affiliate link work both ways - so folks who sign up also get an extra 256MB of space? I heard this was a big part of their viral spread; that both parties benefit from the affiliate sharing system...
Ha. I actually thought I found it via you! Yes- you can tag on phone or desktop and read on either. On the iPhone you can download and read offline- not sure if that is available on other platforms.
It's also available on Android: List of Read it Later List Mobile Apps.
ReadItLater is an awesome tool. By the end of the week it's usually packed with SEOmoz articles for me, ready for a Sunday evening walk. That combined with Reeder on the iPhone is perfect.
As for Dropbox, yeah the 256mb goes both ways. I am myself trying to work my way up at the moment. I've only got 2.5gb but I'm hoping to get to 3gb within the next day or two. If anybody doesn't have an account then send me a message and I'll post an affiliate link (after will has his 8gb that is)
You're right about Dropbox - which is pretty damn cool. Also, I thought it might amuse you that the first draft of this post had your phone number in the Salesforce screen capture - Tom spotted that!
I love Instapaper for that "read it later" functionality - their mobile apps are great as well.
Thanks a bunch Mike! I followed the link and I'm back. 10 minutes later!
That site is filled with catchy headlines that practically hypnotize you into reading them.
(note to self: avoid Instapaper at all costs)
Those are the editor's picks - and they are addicting.
But Instapaper at its core is a bookmarklet / web app that allows you to quickly mark an article/post for later reading. And their iPhone app is excellent.
If you build your family to-do list first, with your wife/children, every day/week/month/year and let your business to-do list fit in with the time that remains, will you have your priorities and your life straight?
If you stay true to "that" to-do list will your family life thrive?
Will your business life suffer OR will your build a business that supports your family and family life?
So much thought, planning, strategizing, systems, technology thrown at how to get the business to work.
Wha'ts your priority, Will? Nail that down 100% and "the business" will always handle itself. Set up your business and your employees to support your family. Set up your business to support your employee's family life.
It's amazing how efficient and effective a business can be, and can be in supporting family life, when everyone gets clear about what it means for a business to support a family and to support family life.
Family first and everything else gets handled. Easily. With no regrets.
Right... make yourself and your team happy thanks a thoughtful family/work conciliation and you and your team will feel even more part of a project worth everything.
After becoming a dad 6 weeks agoHey Will congratulations I'm easily distracted and 'Background thinking' tasks (like trying to remember a list of priorities) make me massively less efficient at whatever I'm actually doing Man you just hit a nerve here, i'm suffering heavily from those problems, specially the second one. I think it's because i'm rubbish at prioritize things, maybe i should start using remember the milk. Even better if you are using google apps for your domain you should try manymoon. It's a free productivity and task management tool, i haven't tried it yet but it's the top installed app in the google apps marketplace.
we use the pro version of manymoon and love it. It integrates well with google apps (especially calandar and docs), and is much more flexible than the other project management tools (plus they seem to continue to develop it, rather than take the popular "as is" approach)
Great post, and I was so inspired by Merlin Mann's video that I've just entirely archived everything in my mail and reduced my Inbox to zero items. Will be interesting to see if I can keep it this clean for the whole week! I use Gmail so at least it feels pretty safe to archive everything, in the knowledge that should I really need to find something again, I probably can.
A couple of people have mentioned time tracking apps in their comments and I thought I would too. I've done some work with the folks who wrote Qlockwork, and they have lots of users saving significant chunks of time simply by realizing how much of it they were spending on non-productive tasks.
This is the 1st post of this ilk I have found on SEOmoz and it's great to see general management issues dealt with in addition to the SEO issues.
Especially loved the tip on ReaditLaterList - as this is something I have been struggling with recently.
Loved Merlin's video as I am a big fan of only checking email periodically and find automated Tweeting useful to schedule my Tweets so they don't all post when I check my RSS feeds.
Been trying a couple from here - trying to see the best for me.
Congrats on becoming a dad! Parenthood itself is a huge job, but more rewarding than any other I can think of, and congrats for your attitude on being dad. Trust me, you child will love you for it.
Good advice for working on the right things - determine them the day before, so you can start the day running, rather than fumbling trying to figure out what you should start on first!
too many things to do / remember to do? there's an app for that. To each there own in finding the most effective workflow I guess. Some good tips on Gmail - keyboard shortcuts
https://r.evhead.com/hodgepodge/gmail-shortcuts.html
GTD is an amazing read, and it changed the way I do things. The hardest part for me was determining how to set up my lists - digitally, on paper, or what I eventually chose: a hybrid of both. The part I initially struggled with the most was, like you, reviewing my lists periodically. Once I got in the habit though, I honestly regained control of my time and was able to comfortable take on more work and spend more quality time with my family. Great post!
I've been using this as a guide to manage my time more effectively, I started by creating a to do list in notepad which I print and then send to myself nightly, after I've gone through and deleted any completed tasks or added new ones from the daily printed copy. I am now experimenting with most of the services you mentioned, this post became the firs addition to my Read It later list. :)
I really like this article and GTD. The only thing I am confused about is the overlap between RTM & Evernote?
GTD dictates 1 master list normally.
Do you work with RTM then make a 5 item MUST DO list on Evernote? How do you use the two together / manage your list with Evernote?
Yeah. You're right. And since I wrote this, I have actually started doing the 5 things in RTM (using tags) and evernote more for capture of miscellaneous stuff that isn't really a "todo"...
Congratulations on your baby girl! Life and work certainly does change when a new baby comes along. Two years ago I was a first time dad, managing SEO, PPC and SM for 20+ websites. Needless to say, something's got to give. You've got to find ways to work smarter. And you've got to learn to function with less sleep!
I really want to try out some of the tools mentioned by Will and other posters, but I'm a huge fan of Basecamp from 37Signals. Basecamp is not free but it is quick and easy, allows you to delegate tasks to others, create ToDo templates, and creates a date/time stamp for every completed task. I actually use it to document even the smallest change for each site...even if I just tweak a title or description tag.
BTW, Will...it will get easier. As I remember the first 6 months was very difficult. But my friends (who are a little older than I) will say it gets much better until they become teenagers!
Its always interesting to see how others make the most of their tools. Sure I have electronic checklist galore, online, and on my phone, but some times for me, thinkgs don't sink in until I write them down. I am also a fan of the Moleskine.
I've just started using Thinking Rock - it teaches you about the principles of GTD as you use it.....it's worked for me so far. I've been using it now for several weeks and my (focused) productivity has increased massively....
Thanks Will, for sharing your strengths (and weaknesses) in time mgmt.
As I mentioned somewhere above, I'm a lifelong member of the "Daytimer" club. It managed everything in my professional life. But I've been at a bit of a loss since I've transitioned to mostly sitting at my desk instead of out selling. It doesn't fit my work anymore, but I haven't been able to make the switch wholeheartedly to the electronic solutions you and the other commenters have shared.
I carry a notepad in my back pocket(like you) but everything else is written on scratch pads (which is a terrible solution, but they're there in front of me at my desk when I need to write)
If I sound a mess it's only because I am a time management mess. I think I will take Dr. Pete's advice from above and pick one thing out of all your tips to implement.
Finally, congrats on being a Dad (although the missus did almost all the work!)
I personally use Teux Deux for my checklists... It allows me to do them on a weekly basis (Thanks Seth Godin for introducing it to me).
I may look as a caveman, but I couldn't lay my hands on an iPhone in the last year... It's still way too expensive for me. However, I'm bookmarking this post, so I know where to find useful information when I get some... ;)
Can't you use Evernote for the same porpouse that Readitlater so you simplify everything a bit?
Talking about time management, i really find those blog posts frustrating and eventually waste of time which can't be put into action immediately as they are not stand alone i.e. they demand further research/reading in order to be fully understood or incorporated into real life work. Like when someone gave a long list of market research tools (emarketer, marketresearch, forrester, federated media etc) without explaining how these tools should be used,how they work together and how exactly they help in achieving the blog post's objectives.
Talking about the current blog post, should i read:'Getting Things Done (GTD)' (as everthing is based on this)'did you see this kitten''you're doing it wrong''writing good email''talk on time and attention'applying Atul Gawande's Checklist Manifesto to SEO''Create a follow-up filter''implementing GTD with Evernote' and then also buy an i-phone and install the application 'remember the milk' in order to fully understand and appreciate this post.
I say i would love to, but where is the time dude. If i bookmark this post it will become history like the rest of posts i bookmarked in a hope that one day i will get the time to read and incorporate them into my work. If i calculate the total time required to go through all the aforesaid external resources and then try to align them with this blog post's objective it may take my whole day. I should tell someone that i am still struggling to find some time to go through that excellent post on CRO 'the definitive how to guide'. It is bookmarked but i fear whether i will ever get the time to go through it again any time soon as it is so horribly comprehensive.
Thanks will for putting up that warning in the very first line of this blog post. It helps me in understanding what i am going to get eventually. My purpose of this comment is not to shoot down your post or any other author's post here. But just to tell how much more practical and actionable a blog post could be if external resources are cited only for additional reading (preferable at the end) and are not used as the 'must to read' items of a blog post. We really need to know your view points. What do you make out from all the external resources you have cited? Time is money. Every second counts. I hope you got my point. No offense intended :)
This is actually a critical aspect of GTD, and I'll add something that you can put to work right away, as I completely understand your reaction. If you bookmark this post and even if you make a to-do list item that says "Work through Will's post", it's never going to happen. It's too big and too vague, and all it will end up being is mental baggage.
So, for this post, and every SEO post like it, pick just one thing you're going to learn more about. Then, decide what the first action step is to learn that thing. Don't add a list item like "Read and implement GTD", make it: "Buy a copy of GTD". You can't read a book you don't have. Or, you could pick one piece of software to try, one that already fits the hardware you have. Make a to-do item like "Install Software X".
It's better to learn and accomplish one specific thing than try to ambitiously absorb 20 things and accomplish nothing. That's been a tough lesson for me to learn. Intellectually, my eyes are much bigger than my stomach.
Thanks Dr. Pete. Its very difficuly for me to leave the other 19 things. I am just too greedy for knowledge and want to assimilate things as fast as possible. I will try to follow your suggestion.
That advice is golden Dr. Pete. Better the one thing done than the dozen things "to do"
COL (chuckling out loud) while I read your comment Himanshu. I so feel your pain. The overload of information in the 50+ SEO/Usability/Analytics/Design/etc. blogs I was reading daily practically made my head blow up.
I started paring it down, and now the only blogs I read religiously are this main blog, the YOUmoz blog and Mike Tek's Unstuck Digital blog.
And when I get behind, like I did last week, I chalk the posts I couldn't get to as lost and start fresh with the most current one.
The reason I was chuckling as I read your comment is that there is so much pure gold on SEOmoz alone, that I've often felt frustrated that they publish such a quantity of info. I know it sounds crazy, but they're just too good at what they do!
Will you are the star of usefulness! Thank you so much for your time putting this list together :)
Thanx Will, very interesting to see how different people deal with ADD-type issues. ReadItLater will be really helpful. And I'm so much more productive when I discipline myself to checklists (though I prefer pencil & paper for those). But can't imagine actually zero inbox. GTD says "geeks love assessing, classifying, and defining the objects in their world." I don't. I flag what I have to get back to. If I had to decide what to do with each incoming e-mail that's all I'd do all day.
Hi Will,I loved that post - thanks for sharing.Petra
The only missing part in GTD is that there is no place for the problem, why it can not be done right now. Every task has a #1 reason why you can not do it. Without understanding the reason, nothing happens. Your todo list becomes a todo top100 list :)
This is a wonderful opinion. The things mentioned are unanimous and needs to be appreciated by everyone. -Casey removed silly link
LOL! Do people come up with these comments, or have they created bots that do it?
Fantastic post! SEO skills and talent aside, I've got to think that anyone who incorporates your recommendations in to their work regimen will likely be one of the best, if not THE best, SEO (or whatever) in their area. Will seem like a lot of extra work at first but much greater effectiveness and efficiency will follow, not to much mention less stress and, as David Allen puts it, a mind like water.
Great post, Will. Remember the Milk is my task manager of choice - I've tried a ton of them, and nothing else compares.
Task management aside, this post hits on something I've been thinking about lately. There is so much information floating around in the SEO world on a daily basis that I need a solid way to organize and digest it. That's where Evernote and Google docs come in (sorry to the tinfoil hat wearers in the crowd!)
Hey Will congratulations for your Baby... That´s going to take a lot of time off you for sure... You are going to need a new Remember the Milk Account for that.
Thanks for sharing all the tips and tools. We all have our own ways of managing our daily tasks. I use Gmail apps with serveral functionalities turned on, also have an external hard drive that I carry everywhere with all my stuff, have a todo list that I review every day in excel, and also have a piece of paper and a pen to help me plan the day . Will be definitelly checking Remember the Milk.
Very nice post!It is very inspiring to see how other people work and achive their goals!!Good job!! :)
Cool post. I'm always interested in seeing how other ppl work and measuring up :D
I've been stuck using Outlook for so long, thinking about after these many positive reviews to start using Remember the Milk...
Wish my Palm Pre had it available as an application, thankfully have Evernote -- as that program is a blessing.
I agree with @identify, only I still USE my Franklin Covey religiously in conjunction with a plethora of online time management tools. Ultimately, it's about having a system for me. That and keeping as much brain power as possible dedicated to doing, not remembering what there is to be done. What an inspiring post to read on a Monday!
I don't have a million emails a day to deal with. (Does that make me lucky?!) What distracts me most of the time are all the great articles on industry topics like this blog. I love learning new things; I've got to be careful about how much of my day is spent learning versus how much is spent actually doing. I blame SEOmoz. ha ha
:)