It took me almost a year to write it. I’ve put a lot of effort into it, and I am very happy with the result.

Bill Polm, one of the early readers, who also helped me with editing, predicted that the “[The] book has the potential for becoming a classic in the field. It covers [task] management better than any I have read before it“.

We’ve not even announced it yet, and several people have already purchased it! This is very exciting.

I plan to keep improving the e-book, based on the feedback I will receive. Updates of the e-book will be free.

You might have a lot of questions – so I will do my best to answer them. If you have any other questions, post it in the comments.

Who is Swift Mind Freedom for?

Swift Mind Freedom is for anyone who has a lot of things to do or keep track of, and works with a Windows computer.

If you use or would like to use Swift To-Do List, it’s perfect for you.

What will I gain from Swift Mind Freedom?

As you start applying Swift Mind Freedom, you will:

1. Experience instant and complete relief from stress and overwhelm.
2. Get in total control of your work and make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
3. Become super-efficient, racing through your surprisingly motivating to-do list in record time.

The results are permanent. Once you read this e-book, your to-do lists will never be the same.

What are the contents?

The e-book has 3 main sections:

• Introduction and motivation – this helps you understand why being organized is important, and it gets you moving. I also share the story of my personal “to-do list journey”.
• 11 Swift Mind Freedom Principles – these 11 powerful principles are the core. Each principle comes with a fun hand-drawn illustration, and an action step so you can immediately apply it into your life
• Q&A and Troubleshooting – this section lists many questions and problems, along with the answers.

Each section is divided into chapters.

It has 110 pages in total.

It comes as a PDF file, so you can read it on your computer, table or e-reader.

(In the future, I would like offer .mobi and .epub formats as well if there is interest.)

If you would like a short sample, see my recent post “Tasks and oranges“. That post explains why it’s important to break down complex tasks into subtasks. In Swift Mind Freedom, there is a whole chapter about this (it is one of the Principles), including a how-to and step-by-step instructions for Swift To-Do List.

How does Swift Mind Freedom compare to other books?

This e-book is unique because it shows you how to apply what you learn directly in Swift To-Do List.

Also, it is easy, fast and simple. It is possible to read and apply it in a single day.

I’ve read all the books on task management, time management, organizing and productivity I could find, and after a lot of research, experiments and hard work, I’ve distilled them into Swift Mind Freedom, so you can get great results fast and with minimum effort.

Each of the 11 core principles comes with a fun hand-drawn illustration. This helps you understand and remember better, and learn faster.

Finally, I am here for you. I am committed to helping you get the results you want, so you can email me at any time with your questions.

How much does it cost?

The e-book costs $39.95.

If you purchase it with a new Swift To-Do List 8 for Windows license, you will get 50% discount.

Purchasing this book is 100% risk-free for you, because it comes with 90-day money back guarantee. If you won’t be completely happy with it for any reason, I will refund you the full amount. No hard feelings. Again, I am fully committed to helping you get the results you want.

Where can I purchase the book?

Right now, it is available exclusively on our website, where you can purchase it using our secure online store.

You will receive it immediately after payment.

Will there be a sequel?

Yes, I would like to write a sequel.

Swift Mind Freedom is focused mostly on getting and staying organized, stress relief, control and efficiency. It works beautifully with Swift To-Do List.

The sequel will be heavily focused on productivity. It will build upon Swift Mind Freedom (getting organized is always the first and most important step). My working title for the sequel is “Ultra Productive: Eat your to-do list“.

I love feedback!

I would love to hear what you think. If you read the book, please send me an email and tell me what you think. What you loved and what you didn’t care for. While I know that Swift Mind Freedom is already pretty good, your feedback can help me improve it further.

Any questions or thoughts? Post them in comments below!

Related Posts:

• How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating
• How to murder your productivity
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Always get stuff out of your head
• “Why should I care about being organized?”
• Centralize Your Lists with Swift To-Do List

Swift Mind Freedom released! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

About Bill: Bill Polm was a career probation officer in Southern California, near Disneyland. Throughout his career he wrote and painted watercolors to keep his creativity alive. He now lives in Oregon, USA, where he finds lots of lovely scenes for painting, and he is working on a novel. He is a grandfather of 6, and thanks God for all of them and good health at 70!

A while back it has been now, I read a post by Jiri on how to format Swift To-Do List to work with Michael Linenberger’s clever strategy for getting control of my workday. Simply put, with Lieneberger’s system (somewhat like David Allen’s Getting Things Done), you list to-dos under 3 categories: (1) Critical Now, for things that must be done today, (2) Opportunity Now, for things that can wait a bit but that I want to get done eventually for sure, and (3) Over the Horizon, also for things I want to do but I’m putting off for longer than those in the Opportunity Now category.

These 3 categories are really priorities. Daily, I do the Critical Now tasks first, then read over my Opportunity Now tasks, if and when there’s time, to decide if and which to tackle.

These lists don’t have to be rigid. They can be flexible, but for me to get the most and the most important tasks done on a continuing basis, it works best for me to do the tasks pretty-much in their prioritized order. I added one priority, since I do a lot of reading in the evening and a few tasks to remember: “Evening”. Here is a screen shot of my Manage Priorities window:

The bottom “Priority” is really only a list of my ongoing projects.

Also, I find it helpful to take frequent small breaks, especially if the tasks involve a lot of sitting and reading or writing and computer tasks.

Now if I want to arrange the tasks within a category, most often I use numbers at the head of the Task Name, like “1 Work on novel planning” then “2 Read a fiction writing tech book,” and so on. At any point, when doing this, I can click on “Task Name” at the top of a category to sort these tasks handily. So if I start with my number 1 in the Critical Now priority-category, I am assured i’m working on the most important task for that day. Notice the numbers heading the first three tasks in the screen shot below…

Since I usually have a lot of projects in the works at any given time, I like the “Reminder” function to remind me that I need to schedule and work on a particular task. I like to work on most my current projects some each day. So Swift To-Do List helps me keep that organized so I know what I’m doing and what I need to do next.

Also, I use the “Recurrence” function to have my tasks repeat. This is particularly helpful to me since I have a lot of ongoing tasks that repeat a lot. And, for example, within the Opportunity Now category, I usually use the “Recur after task is completed.” This creates another of the same task for me, for the next day, once I put a checkmark in the little square box at the left of the task, marking it done.

But I also use the Reminder function to pop-up reminders on particularly important tasks within the Critical Now category. My day is usually filled with a number of different things I want to get done, so it’s easy to forget something. The Reminder function prevents my forgetting–unless I choose to!

I set a reminder in this window, chosen from within the Edit Task option:

I can choose any time to the minute, any date.

Then the reminder pops up on my monitor screen (assuming I have Swift To-Do List running in the background and click on its button in the tray when it flashes. As long as I have my speakers on, it get a pleasant little “doorbell” ring to alert me).

At this point I can click the little down arrow at the right of “Snooze (3 hours) at the bottom, and get this…

There’s something really nice about a “Snooze” button for an occasional procrastination!

I’ve started, recently, using the for lists of things and potential projects.

I created a new To-Do List in the Tree called “MEMOS” and then fit each memo under it with a descriptive title, like “Potential Projects” or “Novel Planning Ideas,” etc.

Having these memos at the left in the Tree means I can click and read them quickly when I want to refer to them.

Also, I use the multi-level numbered lists/outlines in notes to expand my ideas in an organized fashion–very handy, and makes a quick scan of any given list quicker.

Summary: Swift To-Do List has a nearly limitless capacity for storing and organizing your to-dos. The Ultimate edition has even more handy features.

If you take the brief time necessary to familiarize yourself with the features, you’ll be able to fit your style of getting things done. I am constantly tweaking my setup a bit here and there. It’s easy, and heck, most of the time it’s fun!

- Bill Polm

Related Posts:

• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• Swift To-Do List Review by Chuck Gallozzi
• Swift To-Do List Review by Darryl Benjamin
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Swift To-Do List Review by Elius Levin
• How to murder your productivity

“How I use Swift To-Do List Ultimate” by Bill Polm is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

It is very important to understand this process, because it actually happens every time we want to make a change – be it our thinking, behavior or habits. Once you understand how this works, and apply the one proven technique I am going to teach you in this post, you will be able to make sustainable and meaningful changes in your life.

What do I mean exactly by looking at our neocortex using the FIFO concept? Well, it means that if you put thought A into your brain, and then put in thoughts B, C, D and E, the original thought A will be pushed down in the queue by the new thoughts. And once you put enough new thoughts in, the original desired thought A will get pushed completely out of your mind by the newly upcoming thoughts. Just small residue in your subconscious mind will be left.

One of the biggest challenges of life in the modern society is that new thoughts are forced into your mind all the time, whether you like it or not – advertising and distractions being just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The problem: You want to make a change, so you put the thought of change into your mind, and sooner than you think, it’s being pushed out by other stuff – while nothing has really changed.

Because in the FIFO analogy, all thoughts are eventually replaced by new thoughts, it is vital to keep putting the desired thought into your mind daily. That way, you will be able to maintain focus and attention, which is crucial for any meaningful change. And if you put in the desired thought enough times, e.g. on 30 to 60 consecutive days, its imprint in subconscious mind will become significant and self-sustaining for some time.

Time management expert, Mark Forster, says this the best in the introduction of his book Get Everything Done and Still Have Time To Play: “(…) regular focused attention is the key to virtually every problem and challenge, and the more we learn how to direct and focus our attention the more skilled we will be at life. This is because anything that we give our attention to will start to change.”

And how do you actually do this? It is deceptively simple:

1. Create a sheet of paper that contains both your vision (how you want your life to look like), and goals (what you want to achieve in the next 3 to 12 months to get closer to your vision).
2. Read it every single day (and don’t skip or stop)

Sounds easy and not that new, right? But the devil is in the details.

First, this works great for goals and can be made even more effective with visualization. And second, there is one significant but not obvious benefit.

When it comes to goal achivement, applying this concept is especially powerful. In the book Master Your Workday Now, Michael Linenberger describes a concept of “spinning goals”. In his metaphor, each idea in our mind has a spin velocity, and just as with a gyroscope, when the velocity is high enough, it is very hard to divert its course. Daily reading of your goals or vision is thus referred to as “spinning” and increases the energy of desired thoughts and ideas in your mind. Michael argues that this is extremely important if we want remain on track to achieving our goals and fulfilling our vision. His is a similar concept of what I am describing here, just seen from a different angle.

But Michael adds one very significant addition to this: Visualization. It is well established, especially in the athletics field, that visualizing something before actually doing it increases the performance very significantly. He argues that it is very important to visualize your vision every time you read it.

The hidden benefits of daily focus

There is one huge benefit of this technique that is not obvious.

In the breakthrough book The Power of Full Engagement, the authors (Dr. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz) emphasize the importance of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy for any meaningful achievement (and sustainable productivity). While the physical energy can’t be harnessed using our minds and requires proper exercise and nutrition, the 3 other energy sources (mental, emotional, and spiritual) can be all renewed by regularly reading and visualizing your goals and vision.

It is not just my personal experience that if you have a well written vision statement, just reading it will make you feel great (emotional). It will also help you focus (mental), as it will make clear what you need to do. And it can even show you the high-level big picture of your contribution and purpose (spiritual).

How to write your vision and goals

The vision should state how your ideal life looks like, and your goals should eventually take you there.

Good vision is written as it was already true (for example, “I am very energetic and passionate about my work, because…” and not “I want to be energetic and passionate about my work, because…”), and arouses very positive emotions on you (“I am the king of the tennis court, the other guy shouldn’t even bother showing up” or “I am the ultimate business ninja”). As a rule of thumb, if reading your vision makes you crack up inside and brighten up, it’s written well.

I think it’s best to have a single sheet of paper with both your vision and list of goals, and to read it every morning, and ideally in the evening as well. Post it somewhere you can see it daily and make it a ritual of reviewing it every day. Create reminders. Heck, print and post it on multiple locations. It is crucial that you read and visualize it every single day.

By reading your vision and goals every day, you will keep pushing the positive thoughts to the front of the thought FIFO queue in your mind. This will not just help you to stay on track, focus, and embed the thought into your sub-consciousness permanently, but ultimately provide you with the much needed energy to make this change happen.

This makes change not just possible, but much easier and enjoyable.

Your action steps:

1. Write a vision statement for your life. Use active voice and emotional expressions. Reading and visualizing it should feel great.
2. Write and append a list of goals that will move you closer to your vision.
3. Post it somewhere you can see it.
4. Make absolutely sure that you will read and visualize it every day. Decide exactly when and how you are going to read it. Decide how you will remind yourself to read it.
5. Read (and visualize it) every day.
6. As your vision evolves and goals get accomplished, update your vision statement.

PS: I maintain my vision statement and list of goals in a memo in my own Swift To-Do List 7 for Windows, which I’ve been developing for the last 7 years. If you could use a task and notes organizer, then definitely download the fully functional 30-day trial. You will love it.

- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of the number one to-do list software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others to achieve their full potential.

If you liked this post, then definitely follow this blog on G+.

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Why change is so hard and how to make it happen is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

I am going to show you exactly how you can:

1. Decrease your IQ by 10 points while working
2. Make sure you won’t accomplish anything
3. Increase your stress levels by at least 100% or more
4. Get completely overwhelmed

If you learn the techniques presented in this post, you will:

1. Become completely insignificant
2. Earn less money
3. Repel successful and capable people
4. Be slave to the random whims of others
5. Get fired from your job or drive your business to the ground

Sounds good? Let’s get started!

Check email 50 times a day to prevent focus

If you won’t check your email at least 20 (and ideally 50) times each day, you will risk that you will be able to focus on your work. And if you focus on your work, you risk completing something important. So the biggest benefit of checking email all the time is that you are in completely reactive state, working on low-important tasks, which often seem urgent but are not. That’s perfect for our purposes!

Julie Morgenstern wrote a book called “Never Check E-Mail in the Morning”, but her advice is obviously counter-productive to what we are trying to achieve here. And she doesn’t know what she is talking about, anyway, because she is just the #1 USA organizer. Another expert, Michael Linenberger agrees with her in his book “Master Your Workday Now!” (which is probably the best alternative to GTD) – that’s a big disappointment, Mike!

Clutter your desk with piles of paper for constant anxiety

I recommend that you start at least with 2 large piles of paper, and build it to 5 or more piles over time.

When processing paperwork, try to avoid reading it whenever possible. And ideally, some of the papers should be important or urgent.

Never file paperwork to its proper place, because you would risk diminishing your anxiety and stress levels.

Sit in a crappy chair for physical fatigue and tiredness

All physiotherapists will tell you that good workplace ergonomics are paramount for your well-being. Feeling well could help us be more productive, so we shouldn’t risk it and always sit on a $20 horror-on-wheels.

Multi-task to decrease your IQ by 10 points

I urge you to always try to work on at least 2 tasks at the very same time. And if you get really good at it, you can work on 3 or even 4 things at the same time. The real masters of unproductivity can work on 5 things at once.

If you are beginner at multi-tasking, then at least start checking your email in the middle of doing each task.

As popularized by Tim Ferris, according to Josh Waitzkin, “A study at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points. That is the equivalent of not sleeping for 36 hours – more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana.”

That’s excellent news for us.

By doing 2 or more things simultaneously, you will ensure that none of them gets done properly and even temporarily lower your IQ by 10 points. The saying goes: If you chase two rabbits, you will catch none.

Get as many notifications as possible for constant distraction

The next thing you need to do is to configure as many real-time notifications as possible. These include:

1. Email notifications
2. IM notifications (ICQ, MSN, Jabber, Google Talk)
3. Skype
4. Twitter, Facebook, and other social media
5. News notifications (e.g. RSS)

But once you setup all the above, don’t stop! You also need to set them up on your smart phone and tablet.

If you start receiving a lot of notifications, then you are doing great, because you are always very well informed, but more importantly, guaranteed to greatly reduce your productivity and ability to focus.

Rest assured, you will be able to forget about the risk of getting into the flow state and accomplishing anything substantial. Excellent.

(And for those of you who are over-achievers, then for extra punch, keep Facebook and other social/news sites always open in your browser. After all, you never know what interesting thing could happen!)

Be interrupted as often as possible to avoid getting in the flow

Researches show that when you get interrupted at work, you will return to the original task only in just over 40% of the cases, and that it takes 20 minutes on average to resume what you were doing before. This is excellent, because randomly switching tasks is one of the most powerful ways of making sure you won’t get anything done.

So, I recommend that you implement open-door policy, invite others to come to you as often as possible with unimportant request and questions, and when someone sends you an email, then for Christ’s sake, JUMP OUT of the chair and run to them!

Build the longest to-do list in the known universe for guaranteed stress

Task management experts agree that good to-do list should be short and up-to-date. But we don’t want good to-do list, because good to-do lists helps us to be organized, productive, focused and not stressed, which is the opposite of what I am trying to teach you here!

So, what you should do is to create as long to-do list as possible.

Keep adding tasks all the time: Anything that comes to your mind. Anything that someone else suggests should be perhaps done. The less important the tasks are the better.

And never delete tasks from your list! Tasks often lose importance and priority over time, so you need to keep them there to ensure that your to-do list is as outdated and irrelevant as possible.

When it comes to task names, you should always make them abstract and non-actionable. No verbs. And don’t be specific. This will make sure that when you get to the task again in the future, you will have to think about what it actually is, which will help you to waste more effort and time.

If you get good at this, you will add about 20 tasks to your to-do list each day (most of them useless), and complete just 2 or 3 tasks (all of them useless). That’s an excellent recipe for guaranteed stress and potentially nervous-breakdown in the long-term. So keep at it, because as you can see, the potential rewards are substantial.

Also, don’t centralize your tasks and notes using a task management software such as my very own Swift To-Do List (that I’ve been working on for the last 7 years). If you place all your tasks and notes into a single place, your stress will disappear and productivity will soar. And we don’t want that, do we? It’s far better to scatter your work across dozen of documents, sticky-notes, papers, and devices.

In case you couldn’t tell, I am joking. (Or am I?)

Yes, this post is a humorous one, but if you want to prevent yourself from reaching your full potential, then stick to the advice above, because the techniques above really work – and many people apply them “successfully” every day.

But if you want to be more productive, eliminate stress, and become successful and significant for your company or business, then do the opposite.

This article is your wake-up call. Send it to others from your workplace to wake them up as well – or they will undermine your efforts for a change.

And post in the comments below – what realization you just had? What did you learn here?

- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of task management software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others. His current main goal is to create the best task and notes organizer for Windows.

PS: If you could use task and notes organizer for Windows, then definitely download free 30-day trial version of Swift To-Do List Jiri has been working on for over 7 years now. You will be amazed.

Related Posts:

• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating
• “Why should I care about being organized?”
• Centralize Your Lists with Swift To-Do List
• Is your to-do list impossible to finish?

How to murder your productivity is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog