16 Ways to Keep A Razor- Sharp Focus at Work

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Glen Stansberry of LifeDev (feed).

Focus is something of a novelty these days. We’ve got cellphones for texting and calls, IM, Twitter, Email, RSS feeds, Facebook, Myspace… the list goes on and on. If you don’t have ADD before you start working online, it seems it’s almost inevitable thanks to these inputs. If you’re a web worker who uses the Internet for the majority of the day, you’re especially at risk for losing focus.

Focus is something that must be fought for. It’s not something that automatically switches on when you want to. You have to make sure your surroundings are perfect for working if you want to be focused. Here’s a few ways I’ve found this to work:

Life Coding: 9 Ways to Fight Feature Creep in Our Lives

Editor’s note: This post written by Glen Stansberry of LifeDev (feed ).

As a web developer, I’m constantly struggling with the concept of feature creep. Feature creep is when the developer keeps adding features to the software to the point that the core product starts to lose it’s focus. The software slowly becomes less elegant and very un-simple, which is a developer’s worst nightmare.

The worst part about feature creep is that it’s almost always the result of the best intentions. The developer takes a mindset that by adding more features, more people will want to use it. Pretty soon the documentation for the product resembles a dishwasher and requires the smarts of a doctor to decipher it. Eventually it takes so long to learn how to use the program that it’s no longer useful.

36 Great Tips for Keeping Travel as Simple as Possible (and Two Poems)

“He who would travel happily must travel light.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

When you travel, do you want to be as light as possible? A light bag, and a light itinerary?

Many of us have had the nightmare experience of lugging around too much luggage, waiting in the baggage claims area, trying to cram too many activities into each day, and generally being so stressed that we need a vacation when we get home.

Instead, simplify your travel.

5 Amazing Mac Apps for Getting Things Done (Plus a Custom-Rigged Setup)

The ideal for anyone interested in Getting Things Done (more on GTD, and more)– or just being productive and organized, for that matter — is to be able to quickly add things to your to-do lists without interrupting your work; to be able to see what you need to do right now, without worrying about everything else; to be able to organize stuff without too much work.

And of course, GTD fans like tools that are just cool.

Exclusive Interview: Stephen Covey on His Morning Routine, Blogs, Technology, GTD and The Secret

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” - Stephen Covey

It’s such a thrill to share with you this interview with one of my heroes, author Stephen Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame.

Covey, of course, is one of the inspirations of this site, and has informed all of my writings (including Zen To Done) that talk about getting important things done, not just everything on your to-do list.