Web Worker Daily

Being a project driven nomadic my-company-is-my-laptop web working entrepreneur or employee can be like being stuck in a drier on high with a fire hose of information and data stuck in for fun. How do you cope?

For years as a developer and writer I’ve used David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology; but I’ve been increasingly nagged by the question of whether GTD out of the box really worked for my increasingly webized life.

Earlier this month I had the chance to interview David Allen so I grabbed the opportunity to scratch that itch and ask him a few questions about GTD and web work. (Read part 1 of the conversation, focusing on health and stress)

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For most web workers stress is an inescapable fact of life – and sometimes death. The links between stress and serious, you-are-so-screwed illness are real and the news is anything but good:

Many people report experiencing physical symptoms (77 percent) and psychological symptoms (73 percent) related to stress in the last month. Physical symptoms of stress include: fatigue (51 percent); headache (44 percent); upset stomach (34 percent); muscle tension (30 percent); change in appetite (23 percent), teeth grinding (17 percent); change in sex drive (15 percent); and feeling dizzy (13 percent). Psychological symptoms of stress include: experiencing irritability or anger (50 percent); feeling nervous (45 percent); lack of energy (45 percent); and feeling as though you could cry (35 percent). In addition, almost half (48 percent) of Americans report lying awake at night due to stress.” - APA study.

For me, the single biggest stress reduction tool I’ve found this decade has been David Allen’s Getting Things Done: A Guide to Stress Free Productivity book and what’s become something of a movement among web workers: Getting Things Done (GTD).Earlier this month, I interviewed David Allen with an eye towards finding out how he stays healthy. Excerpts from that conversation:

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With this entry, Chris Poteet joins the WWD team as a contributing writer. Look for his posts every week. Welcome, Chris! -Ed

Every once-in-a-while I find an application like Jott that truly revolutionizes the way I organize my life.

We all write notes on pieces of paper, napkins, etc.; but they often get lost in the shuffle. Jott comes along and helps you consolidate your tasks, notes, and events into one spot. All you do it call the Jott number, and you hear a voice that says: “What do you want to Jott?” You then give the folder name you’ve created, contact, or application and simply speak your message. Jott translates voice into text and then, based on your preferences, either e-mails you or adds the event. It also stores the message for historical purposes on the Jott website.

The premise is simple, the sign-up is easy. After signing up you can then call the Jott number to record messages instantly.

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You’ve probably read a few articles on how to get your email inbox to empty (if not, read David Allen, Merlin Mann, or even a couple articles by me). Clearing your inbox and keeping it clear is just a tremendous boost to your psyche and sanity, if not your productivity.

Getting it clear is one thing (be prepared to spend a day or two doing this if you have thousands of emails), but keeping it clear if you have dozens of emails coming in every hour can be a real challenge.

First, you should try following these simple rules:

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While many of us are almost completely digital, and do just about everything on the web, there’s a growing movement to go back to analog. Paper is retro, it’s portable, it’s quick and dirty, and even aesthetically appealing.

And of paper systems, along with my Moleskine notebook, index cards are my favorite. They’re cheap, they come in stacks, and they’re infinitely adaptable.

How can using index cards keep me organized, you ask, ever so quizzically (almost mockingly)? I’ve already got the ultimate web apps to do that?

Glad you asked. Here are just 20 things you can do with the ever-handy index card.

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This week I haven’t been able to work because my 1-year-old daughter has had the flu and she won’t let me put her down long enough to get any work done. While I have no complaints about taking care of my children, when I got back to work this morning, I had a stack of papers to go through, a ton of email, a full RSS inbox, forum posts to read, comments on my blog to respond to, and late assignments that were all screaming for attention.

While everyone has different reasons for allowing a backlog of papers and digital messages to build up, there probably isn’t anyone among us who hasn’t faced a pile of work and messages to go through.

And it can be intimidating and stressful, especially when everything seems to be needed yesterday.

How do you get through such a backlog? Well, there’s as many methods for handling this as there are people reading this post, but let’s take a look at a simple but effective method that I’m using today. It’s done in three stages.

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