Every few months, I reach a boiling point in my personal productivity and life direction that calls for re-assessment. In essence, life “clutter” begins to cloud my brain and my objectives. What occurs is a decrease in productivity, organization, and operational clarity. Certain areas or projects may suffer in attempts to put out fires and continue forward. Apparently I am horrible at creating powerful habits and require a recharge, a time to step back and say “why do I do that? Why am I not doing this? What about that?” Well, friends, it has once again come to that point and I am beginning the routine re-organization. Each time it is re-addressed, I typically come to the table with a few new weapons, i.e. productivity methodologies acquired since the last assessment, and each time I get a little closer to finding the meMethod™ (what works for me). Some of the concepts and books I’ve been into include:

• Four Hour Work Week
• 7 Habits for Highly Effective People
• Getting Things Done
• Mission Control
• And of course, related blogs, mags, articles, etc.

So, I come to this point in hopes of maintaining a few more habits and concepts than last time, maybe placing this “boiling point” as my last. You may have experienced similar points in your own life. Why does it happen? Should it? Maybe it is good to just re-assess every few months? Maybe we ought to be in continual re-assessment, the idea of continual minor course corrections and maintenance versus substantial correction every quarter. Which is better? I have my opinions, which I will share here but let me know, what do you think?

Regular assessment ought to be part of one’s routine. I believe frequency will depend on the area of life we are exploring. Regular project productivity ought to be explored and assessed weekly while life mission and long-term alignment may receive a hard assessment quarterly, course corrections occurring with these assessments. There even ought to be a daily assessment (I’d say the end of the day) in order to align the following day. Each of the above programs may carry ideas regarding this assessment concept, calling it by different names. I have found value in each of these and have pulled from each in attempts to create the meMethod.

If you haven’t figured out, I am passionate about productivity and personal management. The meMethod is just that, the idea of an individualized concept built upon a flexible framework of productivity theories and strategies. Each person’s personality will synchronize differently with each strategy. Often, the best is to test. Try a few out and begin formulating your meMethod.

What are some other sources you’ve used and found effective for personal productivity, time-management, or however you define it?

I find the use of a mind map as a great tool to add to the entrepreneurial tool-belt.  It allows you to “brain-dump” in a relatively organized manner while giving you a graphical representation of idea relationships, an additional dimension to your ideas.  It is not the “ultimate” tool (one probably doesn’t exist) but one I find very useful.  It plays a stage in the planning and strategy portion of my mind and allows me to organize the “chaos” that rolls around in my head (at least a good attempt at it). I then can translate and communicate the thoughts however necessary.

I currently use a free open-source program called MindMap (see here).  It is simple, easy to navigate, easy to understand, and offers the ability to use it how you want to.  Of course, it’s also free! Which is nice, especially for the bootstrapper.  I currently use the 0.90 rc3 beta and have had no problems or glitches so far.  I then am able to translate the mind maps to business plans, strategy papers, blog posts, or simply send them anywhere as a PDF or whatever I want.

If you have any solutions that you like more, let me know!

I have been running with an MSi Wind for a while now (6 months or so) and must say that I’m sold! I love the netbook far more than my ol’ laptop (and the laptop even was a tablet, which I miss on rare occasion). At first, I was wary of losing the laptop so I claimed the Wind as my 3rd option (desktop, laptop, netbook). Once I started using it however, I never used the laptop again. I have been operating largely in the “cloud” for some time, utilizing web apps for nearly everything. This decreased the necessity for much computing power and any that I do need, I reserve for use on the powerhouse desktop, (which has 4 monitors for further productivity. We’ll talk about that at another time…). So why do I like it?

The portability is phenomenal and comes in handy for each meeting I have, carrying it from room to room.

Battery life is exceptionally better than my last laptop (battery needed replaced anyway). It is the best I’ve used.

Extra RAM! One concern I had was multitasking with it but was consoled by the additional slot making 2gig of ram after the addition of a chip. The Wind was one of the only netbooks I found that had that extra slot.

I am running Windows 7 on it and it just plugs along like a trooper! The most robust apps I run would include MS Office Suite and the like. Most of my apps anymore are web-based, however. I sync most files through Microsoft LiveMesh (a sweet service that is little known, another post will share more) which makes it even more convenient, not having to remember to sync files manually, or where the most recent version is.

The 10″ screen is adequate and balanced (portability vs visibility).  This doesn’t mean it never feels cramped but what can you expect?

Just to make it more my own, I added a skin of Jackson Pollock’s 1949 painting, number 1, customized from SkinIt.

Affordable… I paid $400 with the RAM upgrade.

Gripes:

The latches that hold the battery connected broke quickly (little flimsy plastic things) so I rigged it with velcro. It works well now although not aesthetically award winning.

Occasionally the wireless adapter is not recognized and must be reset but not too often does it happen.

Overall, good times with my netbook.  The Netbook is a great tool for any entrepreneur as an additional comp or for those not needing substantial computing power.   They come in much more affordable than any laptops or desktops making them even better for bootstrappers.