It just might be the best and greatest to-do list software ever created for Windows.

The new version adds:

• Scheduling calendar
• 33 new tree icons
• Ability to assign tasks to multiple people
• Ability to set times of day for tasks
• Improved Time Estimate, Time Spent and Time Left fields
• Improved Secure Cloud Sync
• Ultimate features for everybody
• … and many other improvements

You can download the new Swift To-Do List 10 here.

See more about What’s New in version 10 (includes more screenshots).

Customers who have already tried the new version love it!

That upgraded calendar feature is totally awesome dude. -Malcolm F, USA

This truly has become the perfect product! Thank you so much! -Robert G, USA

Download the new Swift To-Do List 10.

If you have already Swift To-Do List installed, all your data will be fully preserved.

If you already own Swift To-Do List, you either get the new version for free (in case you’ve purchased Swift To-Do List on November 24, 2015 or later and thus own a subscription), or with a discount. To claim your discount, simply download the new version and click the “Upgrade to Subscription” button on the top-right.

Enjoy the new Swift To-Do List and your new control of your time!

Related Posts:

• What we are up to in 2016: Swift To-Do List 10 is coming
• Introducing Swift To-Do List subscription plans
• Swift To-Do List app for iPhone and Android released!
• Beta testers wanted for attachments sync
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• How to use Due Dates in your to-do list correctly

Swift To-Do List 10 with scheduling calendar released! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

If you are a busy professional, the audiobook is a big boon. You can listen to it while commuting, exercising, doing chores or running errands. It allows you to easily learn the material or to review it, so you can become dramatically more productive, eliminate procrastination, master your habits, and more.

Meta Productivity is a very important training, because as Peter Drucker said: “For the first time in human history, we will have to take responsibility for managing ourselves”.

Click here to learn more!

Related Posts:

• Double your productivity, stop procrastinating and master your habits with new video training
• Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”
• This one simple habit will help you get everything done
• The Key To Higher Productivity
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2023 Goals

Meta Productivity training now includes an audiobook! is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

This book will change the way you look at productivity forever.

You will dramatically increase your productivity, master your habits and kill your procrastination.

I’ve worked on this book for over 3 years. I’ve applied everything I’ve learned over the past 10 years about productivity, and condensed it all into proven, simple & powerful systems that anyone can start using immediately, with the least effort possible.

The book turned out really well, and I’m super excited about it. It can truly enrich and inspire you.

I’ve organized this training into 5 short e-books (modules) – each has about 20-40 pages.

In module #1, “The Secrets of New Productivity“, I list 7 common productivity problems (that no one talks about) and how you can overcome them.

These include lack of willpower and self-discipline, perfectionism, the fact that your to-do list is infinite, decision paralysis (being overwhelmed), to-do list guilt, and more.

You will also learn why “meta productivity” beats “productivity”: When you try to be productive, you burn your willpower on a particular task. So it’s not really sustainable. But when you are meta productive, you use your willpower and mental energy to make yourself more productive permanently.

In module #2, “The Meta-Habit™”, I share the most powerful method for taking control of your life and time I know of.

Habits are actions with huge ROI (return on investment). Just a single habit that helps you to be more productive, healthy, energetic or joyful can pay you huge dividends for the rest of your life.
And what’s the best way to take control of all your habits? With a habit!

The Meta-Habit™ is a method of managing habits. It’s super easy – it takes just about 2 minutes per day, and yet, it will help you to successfully start new habits or break existing negative ones.

In module #3, “The Productiveness Framework™”, I share the ultimate method for dramatically increasing your productivity.

The Productiveness Framework™ is a set of 5 principles that you can organize your day around. One of them is a simple yet brutally effective method for getting a lot of real, important work done every day.

You can expect to increase your productivity by 50-100% just by implementing the tools from this module alone.

Then there’s module #4, “33 Golden Nuggets of Productivity Wisdom”.

The idea behind this module is to make you a wise productivity genius.

This module will increase your awareness of productivity, give you new powerful perspectives and deep insights that will, in the long run, result in more success in your work and life.

This module is super-fun to read. It’s a collection of the best and most valuable information on productivity I know of.

Finally, there’s the bonus module #5, “7 Productivity Power Tools”.

In this final module, you will get additional proven tools that you can use to increase your productivity even more.

Click here to learn more about Meta Productivity. Or click here to purchase it ($99.95)..

Meta Productivity is delivered to you instantly, in 3 formats (PDF, ePub and Kindle).

Meta Productivity comes with Unconditional 90-day Money Back Guarantee: If you won’t be amazingly happy with it and the positive impact it has on your productivity and life, we will give you a full refund.

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• This one simple habit will help you get everything done
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• Seriously, Stop Sabotaging Your 2023 Goals
• The 1 activity that makes you 10x as productive
• The Key To Higher Productivity

Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity” is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Free Video: The Key To Higher Productivity

Make sure to get the PDF download, and the 1-page summary sheet download as well, and do the exercise to identify the ultra high-value “money making activities” in your life and business.

In the video, Eben explains how he transformed and dramatically increased his productivity with one simple mindset and action change.

He also shares:

• How to use the little bit of willpower that you get each day to leverage UP your productivity for the long-term
• How to identify the activities in your business and work that make you the most money – so you can do more of them every day (and make more profit
• The one consideration that richest and most successful investor of all time uses to decide where to invest his attention, time and money
• The exercise that he uses to discover where he is wasting time – so he can re-allocate it to doing things that create success, growth and profit
• And much, much more…

This video is about 18 minutes long, and will change the way you think about time management and productivity.

The best part is that you can watch it for free, by just opting-in here:

Free Video: The Key To Higher Productivity

Watch it now (it will be up only for a limited time), and don’t forget to download the PDF exercise and summary tip sheet!

Related Posts:

• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”
• Double your productivity, stop procrastinating and master your habits with new video training
• Freedom vs. Structure …and Productivity
• How to Overcome Resistance to Work – 4 Techniques
• What are you not going to do?

The Key To Higher Productivity is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

In order to beat procrastination, first of all, pick just one important task you are procrastinating on. Then use the following 3 techniques, and I personally guarantee you that you will stop procrastinating and start working on the task immediately.

1. Explore and map the task

Procrastination is often related to fear. We are often afraid of unknown work. After all, it might be too much work, or we might be unable to do it. The easiest way to reduce this fear is to explore, map and research the task.

So, how do you explore a task? Well -

Just break the task down into subtasks! This is the best way to “explore” it, unpack it and see what’s really going on.

If you use Swift To-Do List, to break a task down into subtasks, simply select it, then start adding subtasks with all the steps necessary for completing the task.

Add even all the small steps. Try to order the subtasks roughly in the sequence they need to be done.

While you are adding the subtasks, pay extra attention to all the “research” actions – steps that require you to gather extra information and data in order to move forward. These “research” actions are what you want to do first, because doing them will help you to unpack the original task even further.

Once you break the task into subtasks AND start gathering all the necessary information, materials and data, and possibly discuss it with your co-workers or boss, the fear of unknown will diminish, and as a result, you will be able to start doing the task right away without procrastinating anymore.

2. Find the smallest possible next step – then do it!

When we procrastinate, we often feel that we are simply unable to do the task. However, when you identify a tiny easy action to get started on the task, you will be absolutely confident that you can do it.

For example, you might be procrastinating on this task: “Write the 70-page Q3 report”

So, you quickly think about what you actually need to do to get started on it, and determine this smallest possible next step: “Open MS Word and write a rough half-page outline of the Q3 report”

Can you open MS Word and write a rough half-page outline? Of course you can! You know you can absolutely do it. You are confident. So there is no reason to procrastinate anymore. You can just do it. So you do it.

And once you do it, you can simply repeat this process – what is the next small easy step?

3. Schedule fun and limit the work

This technique might seem counter-intuitive at first, but it’s extremely effective. It uses powerful reverse-psychology.

Get this -

Another big reason for procrastination is the fear you will miss out on all the fun and pleasant things in life.

The solution is ridiculously simple: Guarantee the fun first. Then limit the time you have available for work.

Simply schedule some fun! Plan and schedule a night out. Or, schedule any of your favorite relaxation, entertainment, sport or fun activity that you just love.

Ideally, schedule this pleasant activity right after work.

Next, limit the time you have available for your work. Give yourself a hard time limit that forces you to stop working at a specific time of the day. Absolutely no overtimes allowed. This will motivate you to stop procrastinating and get to work, right now.

Tip: When scheduling the fun activity, ideally pick an activity right after work that involves other people. You will know that you HAVE to be there because of the other people, so you will know that there is a very real time limit on your work today. This will strongly motivate you.

As an extra bonus, the fun activity will help you recharge your batteries and sharpen your saw, so the next time you get to work, you are strong. Obviously, this also makes you immune to burnout.

How procrastination works

If you want to learn more about how and why you procrastinate, you will love this.

Here’s my summary of The Now Habit, which is probably the best book on procrastination ever written.

This summary will give you the most important insights from the book in just a few pages.

In the summary, you will also learn additional causes of procrastination (perfectionism, fear of judgment, fear of success, and more).

Related Posts:

• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating
• Custom Task Priorities
• “Why should I care about being organized?”
• Hidden Procrastination
• The Key To Higher Productivity

3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

The book talks about 7 principles, and I see a common theme between the principles. It’s the question What are you NOT going to do? (By the way, the word “decision” originally means “to cut off from”. So – are you decisive?)

I think that Mark Forster is brilliant; a true time management veteran with a lot of experience under his belt. Some of the ideas and principles he presents are truly eye-opening. It’s so easy to forget them – or worse, never realize them.

Because the book doesn’t present a coherent productivity system (Such as GTD or One Minute To-Do List), it can help you even if you are already organized or use some organizing system.

It is mainly a collection of principles and concepts that you can use to improve your efficiency and creativity, and make your output more predictable and streamlined.

In this post, I am going to summarize the 7 main principles presented in the Do It Tomorrow and provide additional insights of my own.

#1 Commitment vs. Interests

We can have many interests (e.g. writing), but only a fairly limited amount of commitments (e.g. getting a regular column published in a local newspaper).

Was Beethoven interested in music?

Was Einstein interested in physics?

Was Bill Gates interested in software?

Was Abraham Lincoln interested in politics?

You get the idea.

Most people have many interests, often conflicting. That’s because they have no clear vision.

If you are committed to something, it means excluding everything else that might conflict with that commitment. So, by definition, we can have only a very small amount of commitments. Commitments are the deciding factor when it comes to success in your personal and work life.

Whenever you are thinking about starting something, you also must think about stopping something else.

Do many things badly, or be excellent at a few things.

#2 Have a Clear Vision

Good vision includes what you are not going to do.

Our vision should bring us clarity and focus. Far too often, vision statements act as smokescreens – don’t make that mistake! Just ask yourself: “What am I actually trying to achieve?” Make it sharp and narrow.

#3 One Thing at a Time

It is well known that multi-tasking diminishes your productivity, but the same goes for being committed to too many projects.

It is best to focus on one thing, finish it, and then go to the next thing.

We tend to think that unsuccessful people sit on their butts and do nothing, but the opposite is often true – they do so many things that they never properly finish anything. Ever heard the term “Serial entrepreneur”? These are entrepreneurs that build a series of successful businesses – and they do it one at a time.

As Steve Jobs said: “Real artists ship”. So be a real artist.

#4 Little and Often

Whenever you are tackling a large task or project, it is best to work on it in smaller chunks, but often. This applies to learning a foreign language, learning to play a musical instrument, exercise, and many other things. Our mind is the most effective when it has the time to properly incubate and develop the project. Forcing yourself to do large things in one sitting builds resistance and diminishes your creativity. Great ideas often come from sub-conscious, and take time to incubate.

And, of course, the key here is consistency. Once you commit to a project, put the effort in with religious consistency. Every day is best.

#5 Define your Limits

Counter-intuitively, we are the most creative when we are limited. In the book “Made to Stick”, many examples of this principle were presented. For example, try to think of 5 white things that you have at home. Then try to think 5 white things that you have in your fridge. For most, the latter is easier, yet it is more limited.

It is the limitations that encourage creativity.

What this means to you is that you should have very clear boundaries between your projects, both personal and work related. Once again, decide what you are not going to do.

Having no focus and no boundaries is a deceptive illusion of freedom that goes nowhere.

This is also the reason why working on a particular task in a strictly defined time burst works (Pomodoro).

#6 Closed Lists

Closed list is a list with a line drawn at the bottom, so nothing can be added to it. It is the opposite of open list, which grows endlessly.

It is easier to work with closed lists for multiple reasons. First, it’s motivating – the closed list can get only shorter, but open lists gets longer. Second, it acts as a buffer between you and new incoming work. It enables you to properly plan your work and then execute it without being distracted with new things. Closed lists reduce randomness.

One example of closed list is dealing with email in batches at specified times of the day, rather than dealing with it randomly during the day. Another example of closed list is a checklist.

When you create a to-do list, it always tends to get longer, because you will put the new incoming tasks to it. The idea of Do It Tomorrow, however, is to close the list – and do all the new incoming things the next day – tomorrow. Hence the name of the book – “Do It Tomorrow“.

Closed lists are a very effective tool for clearing backlogs: You can just seal your to-do list and isolate it as a backlog, then start completely anew. First, make sure you handle all the new incoming tasks, and second, slowly work through your backlog, which is now a closed list. Because it is a closed list, it will eventually grow to zero and you will clear it.

#7 Reduce Random Factors

Interruptions are the number one reason for preventing people to complete their work. Today, it is truer than ever.

While we probably can’t completely eliminate random distractions and interruptions, we can (and should) minimize them.

By the way, Eben Pagan, who is an extremely successful internet marketer and businessman, said that eliminating distractions might be the most important business skill of all – and his entrepreneurial training programs cover hundreds of skills! So this is definitely something to think about. (And if you want to learn how to focus, check out my post Are You a Zen Coder or Distraction-Junkie?).

With the right approach, you can be proactive, not reactive.

Do you run your day, or does it run you?

- 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:

• Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”
• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating
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• One Minute To-Do List
• 5 Counter-Intuitive Productivity Tips

What are you not going to do? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

One Minute To-Do List method is perfect for people who want to quickly start using some proven organizing system, instead of doing things haphazardly and randomly on their own, or learning some complex organizing system.

One Minute To-Do List approach is very simple compared to both GTD and “Master Your Workday Now”. And since it is so simple, I will explain it to you – along with some of my own insights and remarks – and show you exactly how to use it with Swift To-Do List.

Once you read this this post, you will:

1. Learn the proven One Minute To-Do List method
2. Know exactly how to use it with Swift To-Do List for Windows

But what this really means to you is that you will get your workday and life under control and bring intelligent system into your to-do lists. Your to-do lists will finally help you to eliminate stress, not add to it!

I’m so glad that Michael Linenberger developed this simple method that I can now teach to you. Sure, perhaps the method could be even little bit simpler, but I believe that anything simpler probably wouldn’t work. This is as simple as it gets. Do you know the 80/20 principle? 20% of the effort will bring you 80% results – and that’s exactly what One Minute To-Do List is about.

Michael is a truly brilliant guy. This method is backed up by a real-world experience of him as a very successful coach, seminar organizer and best-selling author, who has helped 10.000s of individuals to eliminate stress and become organized. It really works, and it is proven. Michael trains employees of Microsoft, GE, GE, US Coast Guard, and other organizations. And I really believe that you can reap the 80% benefits of his expertise by learning this simple method.

We will cover 4 areas here: Prioritizing Tasks, Capturing Tasks, Reviewing Tasks, and Keeping the List Reasonable. Feel free to skip the “Why this works” box for each area, although the boxes can provide you with better understanding.

You can start using this method today. Just follow the instructions. Let’s get going!

1. Prioritizing Your Tasks

The One Minute To-Do List method works with just 3 task priorities, all based on urgency:

1. Critical Now
2. Opportunity Now
3. Over the Horizon

The Critical Now priority is for tasks that are urgent and must be completed today. At any point, you shouldn’t have more than 5 tasks with this priority. This priority should be used only when necessary. If any action is not urgent and doesn’t absolutely have to be done today, then don’t prioritize it as “Critical Now”. It is perfectly OK to not have any “Critical Now” tasks.

Opportunity Now is for tasks that you would like to do today or this week, given the opportunity. You shouldn’t have more than 20 tasks with this priority.

Over the Horizon is for everything else. It’s great for tasks that are not concerning you right now, but that you don’t want to lose. You will revisit these later.

Why this works: Prioritizing by urgency makes much more sense than prioritizing by importance, because we tend to think that nearly everything is important. There is always some reason why any particular task is important. Yet, if everything is important, nothing really is. Also, it is the urgent tasks that are the most stressful. You simply need handle these first in any case. Mark Forster (Author of “Do-It Tomorrow”) also agrees that prioritizing by importance is a guaranteed failure. If you stop doing do the less-important things, they will eventually pile up and clog up your work.

How to implement this with Swift To-Do List: Because Swift To-Do List is very flexible, there are multiple ways of implementing this. You could either edit the inbuilt task priorities using menu Manage – Priorities, or, you could create a separate to-do list for tasks of each priority. Let’s go with the priority customization here, as that will allow you to use the to-do list tree for something else than priorities (e.g. project/area categorization).

Start Swift To-Do List (Download it if you haven’t already). Then, use menu Manage – Priorities:

This is how the default priorities look like:

Let’s delete the “High” and “Low” priorities, so only “Highest”, “Medium” and “Lowest” remain. Then, we will rename these remaining priorities:

1. Edit the “Highest” priority and rename it to “Critical Now”.
2. Edit the “Medium” priority and rename it to “Opportunity Now”.
3. Edit the “Low” priority and rename it to “Over the Horizon”.

This is how it should look once you are done:

And hey, feel free to change the colors. It’s your to-do list after all!

2. Capturing Your Tasks

• Always use the next action necessary to accomplish the task as the task name. That way, all task names will be actionable. It will be obvious what you need to do to move things forward.
• All your tasks should be in one place. The best place is your computer.
• All new incoming tasks should be put into your to-do list, regardless the source (email, phone, notes from co-workers or family members, meetings).

Why this works: Having actionable task names removes friction when it’s the time to actually do the task. You won’t have to think about what’s the next step, and it will be less intimidating. Having all your tasks on your computer is important, because your computer is the place where you carry out most of your work. Even if you would have your to-do list somewhere else, you would still need it on your computer. To-do list software has many advantages over paper to-do list. You can easily re-prioritize things, easily capture new tasks, write notes for each tasks, create reminders or recurring tasks, attach files and emails to your tasks, email tasks to others, and many other advantages. If you ever need a paper to-do list, you can simply print it. Mobile devices are useful for capturing new tasks, which you can put later into your main to-do list on your computer.

How to implement this with Swift To-Do List: Not only you should put all new incoming tasks into Swift To-Do List, but you should move all your existing tasks and lists into Swift To-Do List as well. This includes any tasks you have on your phone, on paper, in text files on your computer, or in other software.

To quickly enter multiple tasks, use menu Task – Add Multiple Tasks (Ctrl + H), then enter one task per line. If your tasks are in other software or spreadsheet, you can usually export them to CSV, and then import the CSV file into Swift To-Do List by using menu File – Import Wizard.

With Swift To-Do List, it is especially simple to create tasks from emails. If you use Outlook, Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Lotus Notes, The Bat, or other desktop email client, you can just drag & drop the emails into Swift To-Do List to create tasks. Here is a quick video how to create tasks from emails.

3. Reviewing Your Tasks

You should review the “Critical Now” tasks about once per hour.

You should review the “Opportunity Now” tasks once per day or more often.

You should review the “Over the Horizon” tasks once per week.

Why this works: If you review your urgent tasks often, you will feel in control, always know what needs to be done, and therefore greatly reduce stress. But it’s not enough to review just the urgent tasks, because non-urgent tasks will eventually become urgent too. You need to “catch” these before they get the chance to become urgent, and that can be accomplished with the daily and weekly reviews. Additionally, the reviews will help you to constantly re-focus to adjust your efforts. If you are focused on the right things at the right moment, you will be very efficient and productive.

How to implement this with Swift To-Do List: First, to be able to quickly review the Critical Now tasks, learn to use the global hotkey for quickly displaying Swift To-do List. This will allow you to review your tasks as often as you need. The default hotkey is Ctrl + Alt + S, and can be changed using menu File – Options. (In the Options window, it is located in the Hotkeys section.) Start using the hotkey often. It is useful especially whenever you are not entirely sure what to do next, and/or if you get distracted or interrupted.

Second, make it a habit to review your Opportunity Now tasks either when you start your workday or when you finish it.

Third, create a recurring weekly task to remind you to review all your Over the Horizon tasks. To do that:

1. Click the Add Task button.
2. Then, in the Add Task window, enter the task name: “Review all my Over the Horizon tasks”
3. Select the Priority – this task will have the “Over the Horizon” priority.
4. Go to the Recurrence tab, select “Weekly” as the interval, and in the Action dropdown, select “Set undone and remind me”. This way, Swift To-Do List will remind you once a week to review all your Over the Horizon tasks.
5. Press “OK” to add the task.

4. Keeping the List Reasonable

With a little discipline, it’s easy to stick to the rules of having no more than 5 tasks with the Critical Now priority, and no more than 20 tasks with Opportunity prioriy Now. If you have more than that, simply move some tasks to the lower (less urgent) priority.

The real problem here is that your list of tasks with “Over the Horizon” priority can quickly grow out of proportions. This is a problem, because you want the weekly review to be fast and easy. No one wants to read hundreds of irrelevant tasks.

To keep things manageable, Michael Linenberger recommends using the Start Date field for this purpose. Using the following clever technique, you can defer some Over the Horizon tasks for later review. That way, your list of Over the Horizon tasks that you review weekly won’t become too long. This is how it works:

First, all new tasks should have the Start Date set to today.

Second, all tasks that have Start Date in the future should be hidden.

Third, you can start deferring tasks by setting their Start Date to future. So, if don’t want to (or need to) review some tasks for some time, then set its Start Date to a future date. This will hide the task, and when that particular future date comes, this task will start appearing on your to-do list again.

Why this works: The number 1 reason people abandon a to-do list or organizing system is because they get overwhelmed. They put in too many tasks – and the once helpful tool now just adds to their stress, instead of reducing it. That’s why it’s important to regularly delete irrelevant tasks from your to-do list, and hide things that you don’t need to worry about for now. That way, your to-do list will stay relevant, up-to-date and useful.

How to implement this with Swift To-Do List: First, to make sure new tasks get the “Today” Start Date automatically set, do this: Use menu Manage – Columns, and enable the Start Date field (if it’s not already enabled). Then, use menu File – Options, and in the New Tasks tab of the Options window, select “Today” upon “Start Date”, as shown below:

Second, to hide all tasks with Start Date set to a future date, we will create a new filter: Use menu Manage – Filters, then click Add. In the Add Filter window, check “Start Date” and select “Today”. At the bottom, check “Include tasks with expired dates” and “Include tasks with unspecified dates”. Name the filter “Started” (or anything else) and click OK:

After you add this filter, apply it the main window by clicking the Filter toolbar button:

That’s the whole setup part. Now, every time you want to defer any task for a future review, edit it, and set its Start Date to the desired future review date. That will immediately hide it, and the task will start re-appearing in your to-do list on the future date.

And by the way, to move multiple tasks to another priority (e.g. from Opportunity Now to Over the Horizon), select them (e.g. using Ctrl + Click), then right-click them, and use Batch Edit – Priority in the popup menu.

And that’s it!

We’ve now covered all 4 main components of the One Minute To-Do List system: Prioritizing, Capturing, Reviewing, and Deferring. You are ready to use it. Just stick to the simple rules described in this short guide and you will reign over chaos and improve your life. For the best results, re-read this guide a week later or so once you have some experience with the system.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me, or submit a Reply in the form below. I am here to help. I am also very much interested in your results, so don’t hesitate to let me know them once you try this.

And by the way, this is what Jason, one of our customers/fan wrote me recently as reaction to this post:

I’ve read most of your blogs over the past couple of months as I’ve been looking for ways to calm down the task crisis that I’ve had. They have been very helpful and I thank you for taking the time to post them all! The One Minute To-Do List blog [post] is what finally clicked with me and that’s when I finally broke down and bought the Ultimate Edition.  I’ve been using ideas from that along with my own tweaks to help organize all the tasks I have for all the work and personal projects that I have going on.  I love how I can set a new start date to review something in the future and know that it won’t be forgotten nor in the way as I focus on my current tasks.

Related Posts:

• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• How to keep your to-do list useful, short and motivating
• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Do I Need to GTD?
• Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?

One Minute To-Do List is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

I find it fascinating that whenever you want to really understand something – anything – you will discover that the real truth behind it is usually counter-intuitive.

So, here are 5 very useful productivity tips that you can immediately use.

1. Make sure your work is left unfinished

Before you take a break, make sure that your work is left unfinished. This will help you to zap right back into the flow once you get back. Your brain craves completion.

This is actually a famous writing tip from Hemingway – he always left the last sentence unfinished, so he could pick up again easily the next session.

Once you finish something and want to take a break, you could also start working on the next thing just right before you take the break, but it’s not nearly as powerful as stopping when you are 80%, 90% or even 99% done, and then taking the break before completing it to 100%.

2. Begin with the least urgent task

The tendency is to wait until something becomes urgent – and then do it. That’s bad, because most of your urgent tasks were non-urgent once.

The idea is to complete your tasks before they become urgent. And the only way to do that is to work on the least urgent tasks first.

This won’t help you to eliminate genuine emergencies, but your overall emergencies might drop by up to 90%, and the stress along with them. Your efficiency will increase, and predictability and reliability of our your output as well.

3. Schedule the fun first

We all have trouble with procrastination. There are many causes of procrastination, but one effective technique of reducing it is to schedule the fun things first, and then work only between these blocks of fun time.

This way, your reptile brain won’t feel threatened when you want to do the work, because it will know that the fun is guaranteed.

So – schedule the fun first, and then work in the “free” time.

This tip comes from The Now Habit book. If you are struggling with procrastination, read my detailed summary of The Now Habit.

4. Work less to get more done

By setting a time limit on your work sessions, you will get more done than if you have all the time in the world. Instead of beating yourself up because you are procrastinating and having trouble getting started, you will be able to jump out of the inertia and soon feel eustressed about finishing your stuff in the allocated time.

Limit both your work sessions (60-120 minutes), and your weekly output (40 hours).

It’s interesting that scientific evidence shows that working more than 40 hours is not sustainable in the long-term anyway; and yet, in the Do More Faster book (which is a collection of interviews with startup founders) almost everyone is working 14-16 hours a day for many months. How is that possible? I would argue that if you love what you are doing, it’s a bit different. But still, one has but to wonder what the real productivity of these entrepreneurs are.

Working hard is not just about the quantity (time), but about quality. To increase the quality, you need to decrease the quantity. There is a sweet spot for every one of us. Experiment with limits to find it.

5. If everything is on fire, go for a walk

Sometimes you just get stuck during your work session. For some unfathomable reason, the more urgent and important something is, the harder is for you to make progress.

If you’ve hit a wall, you need to break the downward spiral of procrastination and bad feelings. (More on breaking bad behavioral patterns in Outsmarting Yourself for Success.)

If you can’t push yourself to do something, just stop the losing battle and go for a walk. Chances are, on your return, you will jump on that task with unexpected eagerness.

There are many reasons why this works. One simplistic explanation is that when you walk, your body is in movement. When you come back, you have to sit down and stop your body – but since things in motion tend to stay in motion, all that energy will get transferred into the work. Plus, when you walk, you can’t work even if you want to – and this makes you realize how much you actually want to work.

What works for you?

If you have some productivity tip that you’ve discovered (counter-intuitive or not), please share it with me and others in the comments below. I am fascinated by these things.

- 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, and 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 that I’ve been working on for over 7 years now. You will be amazed.

Related Posts:

• The next actions and prioritizing
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• “Why should I care about being organized?”
• How to murder your productivity
• Hidden Procrastination

5 Counter-Intuitive Productivity Tips is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Declaring war on stupid typing

In many jobs, you have to type something again and again, whether each day or multiple times a week. And not just one thing, but many different things. Again and again.

In our book, that’s stupid. It’s soulless work. Where’s the juice, the passion, the excitement in that?!

Human beings shouldn’t do stupid repetitive things. That’s what we have technology for.

FastPaste can do the stupid typing for you, so you can have more time for learning, creativity, real contribution, your family, friends, hobbies, fun and relaxation.

Did you know that 10 minutes saved daily is 60 hours in a year? That’s equivalent of one and half of work-week! In that time, you could learn a new language, launch a new project, go on several wonderful trips, get fit – or anything else that you love doing.

And that’s just in 1 year. If you can save 60 hours each year, the extra life you will get stacks up rapidly.

FastPaste is here to give you YOUR time back

How it works?

Example: Pressing Ctrl+1 can insert my name (“Jiri Novotny”) into any application.

FastPaste allows you to insert text with hotkeys. There are 30 clips (fields). Each has a customizable hotkey. The first clip has default hotkey Control+1, the second Control+2, and so on.

When you press the hotkey, FastPaste will automatically insert the text in that particular clip (field).

FastPaste can paste plain text, rich text (RTF), images.

Keyboard scripts

You can also create keyboard scripts, to send key sequences and/or combinations.

You can use the scripts to do many cool things, like filling various forms with just a single hotkey.

Here is an example of a FastPaste script:

John
{TAB}
hawai777
{CONTROL}{ENTER}

The script above will type “John”, then send the Tab key, then type “hawai777″, and then send Control + Enter combination.

What’s new in FastPaste 3

Because the new version is a complete rewrite, there is nothing left unimproved.

The new features include:

• Keyboard scripts that you can use to fill forms, send key sequences and key combinations and much more. It can emulate not just typing, but a press of any key or key combination.
• Encryption to protect your clips and data from unauthorized access
• Portable – can be deployed to USB thumb-drive
• New beautiful look and feel
• Resizable window
• Docking support, so you can dock FastPaste into sidebar
• Display clips in 1 column, 2 columns, or 3 columns
• 10 quick projects with global hotkeys; access over 300 clips with keyboard
• Unicode support
• Support for various screen DPIs
• Better handling of global hotkeys, only hotkeys for used clips are registered
• Smart detection of conflicting hotkeys
• Nicer HTML export of hotkeys overview
• Ability to paste images with transparency
• Preview images directly in the main Fast Paste window
• Ability to contact us directly from the program (using menu Help – Contact)

Download fully functional 30-day trial of FastPaste

If you would like to give FastPaste a go, you can download a fully functional 30-day trial of FastPaste. The only limitation in the trial is that it can’t deployed to USB thumb-drive.

Related Posts:

• Swift To-Do List 10 with scheduling calendar released!
• Meta Productivity released! “Dramatically Increase Your Productivity”
• The Key To Higher Productivity
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• What are you not going to do?
• One Minute To-Do List

Declaring war on stupid typing with FastPaste 3 is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

Acknowledging that you need help can be a difficult thing. But rather than wait for some sort of efficiency intervention, it’s always best to come to the conclusion yourself when it pertains to your productivity. Although the realization that you need to enhance your efficiency and better organize your workflow won’t instantly improve your results, it can act as a definite indication that you need to adopt GTD practices. Taking simple steps within the large realm of GTD practices – such as changing your perspective and taking control — can put you on the path toward increased efficiency and improved work performance. So how do you make this determination? Many telltale signs of the need for GTD exist, but here are a few that stand out in our minds.

Top 5 Reasons You Need to GTD

1. You’re reading this article
2. You’re falling behind
3. You have trouble “getting motivated”
4. You’re not sure if you’re productive
5. You’re overwhelmed by stuff

You’re Reading This Article

Knowledge is power. But power doesn’t equal results, so you’re going to have to move from awareness of the issue – which is commendable, as ignorance is anything but bliss in the workplace – to action on the issue. So if you’re reading an article to help you decide whether GTD is relevant to your interests, great. But that’s not going to make you more productive. In fact, investigating the issue without acting can be what I call a ‘procrastination proxy.’ That is, instead of just being full-out unproductive, you’re putting off tasks that are seemingly beneficial but are still keeping you from the tasks you need to accomplish. Sometimes, your needs have to come before your interests. Reading about GTD may ease your conscience, but it doesn’t address your productivity problems; it’s a proxy for procrastination.

When I work from home, sometimes I feel an incredible urge to clean the kitchen or read up on a topic somewhat related to my work. And while these activities can be described as productive, they don’t help put words on paper, which tends to be my primary goal. When you are seeking out information related to GTD, be sure you’re not just a passive spectator, but are instead consuming the information with the intent to utilize it – be sure your activities are productivity partners, not procrastination proxies.

You’re Falling Behind

No one likes to be behind on work (or play, for that matter), but it’s better to reach the conclusion than to be told about it. If your to-do list grows by the day and tasks keep getting pushed from one day to the next, chances are you’re not keeping up. That’s why Swift To-Do List is so advantageous – it provides a clear, easy-to-understand list of your tasks so you can see individual items that need work and an overall view of the big picture. Swift To-Do List 7 lets you prioritize items and provides customized reminders of your choosing to keep you on task. A personalized, prioritized task list with deadlines makes you accountable and can prevent you from falling behind.

You’re Having Trouble “Getting Motivated”

There are many reasons why you don’t feel motivated to complete work. Stress, lethargy and a lack of interest are possibilities, but a common cause is not knowing where to start. A big part of GTD is gaining perspective; thus, getting your goals and tasks on paper is essential. Visualizing the work you need to complete, in the order you need to complete it, provides a framework for productivity and an impetus to get started because your goals are clear and attainable.

Using Swift To-Do List 7 can get you motivated with on-screen reminders, e-mails, printed task lists and settings for types and priorities of list items. Thus, you won’t just know where to start but you’ll want to start. The ability to attach files and maintain notes on each list item can also help you get over the anxiety of getting to work because you’ll already have some work done to get you off on the right foot.

You’re Not Sure If You’re Productive

At this point, you may be wondering if GTD is really for you. If you’re not consistently behind on tasks or receiving warnings from superiors, you may feel as though you’re productive enough. But could you be more efficient? Honestly, we all could.

One way to tell is to time your tasks. Swift To-Do List provides a timer so you can see how long your work takes you; this allows you to track your performance and see if there is a trend – perhaps you work quicker in the morning or on Tuesdays or after having pancakes for breakfast. Whatever the circumstances, a timer allows you to take notice and take control.

But a less common, though equally advantageous, use of the timer is timing how long you are not on task. Create a task “not working” and time track it every time you surf over to Facebook or start shoe shopping. This will show you just how long you are at work but not working; the results can be astonishing. Tracking this downtime can help you avoid being unproductive in the future by making you cognizant of the time you’re wasting and by making you re-think what you’re about to do; the act of starting and stopping the timer is a reminder that you’re not being as productive as you could be. Save the aimless surfing for your lunch break or you might find yourself permanently on break.

You’re Overwhelmed By “Stuff”

In the workplace, “stuff” can loosely be defined as all of the things standing in the way of you and your work. Whether it’s remembering to grab ice cream on the way home from work or filling out an office survey, having a lot of stuff floating around is never beneficial for productivity. GTD can help you cut through the stuff, if you have the right tools. Stuff tends to be most distracting when it’s floating around your head, so putting your stuff on paper to keep track of it can help you move through it. But still, the stuff remains. What is truly useful is a tool like Swift To-Do List 7’s filters – these allow you to choose what stuff you see, based on due dates, status, start date, priority or task type. This makes your stuff more manageable and keeps you from seeing your stuff until it’s absolutely necessary to do so.

Make your stuff work for you – prioritize appropriately by using lists and sublists (the colored icons can serve as great mental reminders) and your stuff won’t seem so imposing any more.

Related Posts:

• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Basics
• Getting In The Ready State (To Get Things Done)
• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Perspective
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• One Minute To-Do List

Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Do I Need to GTD? is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

The explosion of mainstream technology, in the form of smart phones, net books and tablet computers, has served to provide ample opportunities for employing your own personal GTD methods, but it has also created an atmosphere ripe with distraction and potential for inefficiency. The key is creating a balance by – to borrow terms from Allen’s book – maintaining proper perspective and control of the tools of your trade.

While you may be tempted to cut corners as a means for GTD, that’s not what GTD is at all. Rather than forcing you to accept impaired productivity due to the inefficiencies of your resources and your efforts, GTD allows you to streamline the work process to get everything that you need accomplished finished and polished in the time you have. Instead of cutting corners, adopting GTD practices is a process of rounding off sharp edges so that your tasks fit into the time allotted and in a properly prioritized order. It all comes down to perspective and control.

GTD on a Digital Desktop

Although GTD should be easier in a digital age, it is often more difficult. From the minute you start up your computer, you’re under assault by information – warnings from your anti-virus software, pop-up ads from the internet and perhaps underneath it all, information you actually need. For this reason, it’s important to make your desktop work for you. The best way – in addition to removing unnecessary startup tasks from your computer’s settings – is to employ a desktop GTD client, such as Swift To-Do List 7. Having such a tool essentially gives you a desktop secretary, as this program in particular not only allows the creation of a to-do list, but also offers multiple settings for reminders, the attachment of files and notes to items on your list and the ability to time how long you’re spending on each task. Swift-To-Do List 7 cuts to the heart of GTD, as it puts you in control of your work and gives you a broad perspective on what needs doing, when it needs doing, and how it can be done.

GTD and YOU

The primary benefit of GTD is that it takes stress off of you so that you can focus all of your efforts on the task at hand, one-by-one, until everything is finished. A tenet of GTD is not relying on your memory to put things in proper order and remember when assignments are due. GTD preaches creating external reminders, which is exactly what Swift To-Do List 7 does. You can choose to get desktop and e-mail reminders, and upon each reminder – or any other time you review your tasks – you can also see your personal notes, attached files, images, links and other relevant information associated with the task. And instead of seeing just one task in isolation, you can see all of the items on your to-do list, which gives you ample perspective and opportunity to control your workflow. Swift To-Do List allows you to relieve your brain of its mental notes so that you’re less prone to distraction and a wandering mind.

Timing is Everything

A key component of control and perspective is being aware of timing. You should have a timeline of your tasks and know not just how long you are spending on your tasks, but how long you can afford to spend. Thankfully, Swift To-Do List 7 has a timer integrated with the program, so you can see where you’re putting your temporal resources. And take it from me – having a timer on your screen keeps you on task!

In essence, GTD is what you know you should be doing but just haven’t had time to implement yet. Luckily, as soon as you adopt GTD practices, you’ll enhance your perspective and control and have more time than ever to tackle your tasks.

This tutorial is written by Brian J. Willett.

Related Posts:

• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Do I Need to GTD?
• Getting In The Ready State (To Get Things Done)
• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Perspective
• 30-second check: Do you get the maximum from Swift To-Do List?
• Swift Mind Freedom released!
• One Minute To-Do List

Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Basics is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog

I’ve always liked this system, but not everyone knows it or wants to use it. That’s why we have decided to make the priorities fully customizable in Swift To-Do List 7 – now you can use Swift To-Do List with any time management / prioritizing system you want. You can easily turn it into 4-quadrants task management software and this post will show you how.

Create your own custom priorities in Swift To-Do List 7

Using the 4-quadrants system with Swift To-Do List 7 is very easy. Click the Manage menu and then Priorities…. Here you can customize all your priorities. Simply rename the default priorities to:

1. Urgent and important
2. Urgent and not important
3. Not urgent and important
4. Not urgent and not important

(You can delete the rest of priorities). Now, all you have to do is to set the correct priorities to your tasks and always try to do as much of the important tasks as possible.

Tip – you can also use some coding for the priorities to make them shorter, like I-U (as = Important & Urgent), I-NU (Important & Not Urgent), NI-U, NI-NU, etc. Use your imagination.

Using Stephen Covey's 4-Quadrants Time Management technique with Swift To-Do List 7, the number one task management software for Windows

When you fully develop this habit, you will become much more efficient. Stephen Covery further expands on this in his another book Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People.

But hey, you can even invent your own prioritizing system. We are all unqiue, so perhaps you already have an idea what might help you to be more productive.

You can choose your own colors for your priorities – or you don’t have to use colors at all. Creating custom priorities can be fun, and Swift To-Do List 7 gives you the power to do just that.

This is how the Add Task dialog will look like after you edit the priorities:

Add Task dialog with 4-Quadrants priorities

Related Posts:

• Custom Task Priorities
• Swift To-Do List 10 with scheduling calendar released!
• 3 easy techniques to instantly stop procrastinating
• One Minute To-Do List
• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Do I Need to GTD?
• Getting Things Done (GTD) Tutorial: Basics

How to use 4-Quadrants Time Management using your own custom priorities is a post from: Swift To-Do List Blog