You've seen how the built-in scheduler for Linux/Unix systems, Cron, can help you automate tasks to make things like auto-switching wallpaper easy and simple. Incron, a scheduling tool available in most Linux repositories, works on the same principles, but from a different starting point—it watches files and folders for changes, then launches actions when they do. Linux.com's guide shows how you could have a sound play every time a file is created in a certain directory, or have files be auto-deleted when other files are created, or do pretty much anything your imagination can dream up. The scheduling app is limited to command line functions, but it's only a matter of time until someone hacks up a helpful GUI front-end to it. Hit the link for a guide to getting started with Incron.

Feel like you're spending far too much time on less-than-important meetings, phone calls, and other daily drudgery? Take a tip or two from the prioritising managers at General Electric. An editor at Harvard Business Review sat in on one of their training sessions and walked away with a few practical tips. One simple idea in particular can help overcome burdens you didn't even know you were shouldering.

Compare your calendar with the priorities. Label the purpose of every regular or recurring activity on your quarterly calendar and highlight those activities that are connected with your top five priorities. This simple exercise will reveal where you're squandering your time.

Read More »

The New York Times' Shifting Careers column interviews Peggy Klaus, author of The Hard Truth About Soft Skills and noted proponent of the power of blogging, about the "soft skills" that everyone—especially the productivity-obsessed among us—can use occasional coaching on. Among the questions is one that any freelancer or over-scheduled office worker has probably pondered: How do you tell a boss or an important client that you can't tackle a project, whether due to deadlines, preferences, or nearly any other reason. Klaus' response:

Read More »

Group scheduling web application When Is Good makes picking the best time for everyone easy as pie. Similar to previously posted Doodle, no registration is required at When Is Good: simply fill in the calendar with your proposed times for a conference call, meeting, or family reunion. Then enter your email to get an invitation message with a unique URL to your event. Send that sucker out to your invitees, who choose which times work for them. When Is Good is smart about time zones, too—your cross-country invitees will see the available times in their local time zones. Much better solution for figuring out what time works for everyone than that endless email thread.

Read More »

Plan your days productively with personal development weblog APPD's productivity heat map. When the wheel is red, you're at your most productive; when it's green, you're unable to focus or be creative. The goal is to record your natural rhythm and learn how long you can sustain your focus until you need to take a breather.

Knowing what your rhythm is allows you to plan the right tasks for the right times. I think a lot of personal planners miss this and people look at all chunks of time as being equal. All chunks of time are not equal!

By applying this chart methodology to your everyday tasks, you can figure out when you're most productive and ensure that you get the most done during the right times of the day.

Read More »

I spotted a blog writeup over at Wired about a scheduling app called Sched.org which was designed to give attendees of the conference a simple to use online tool for planning their time at the conference.

"The Sched.org website displays the entire conference calendar, covering the interactive, film and music events plus parties and unofficial galleries, on a dynamic, easily customizable web page. The site has proven itself to be a godsend to overwhelmed attendees trying to figure out where to go, when to get there, what the most popular events are and who you'll see once you arrive."

Underwire describes Sched.org as the hit of SXSW, and I have to admit the web interface looks great.
Sched.org was tailored for SXSW but I hope and assume that the developers will be looking at opening up this tool for use by other conferences. Even better, open source it. :)

SXSW: This year's Twitter? A simple scheduling app that brings order to the masses [Underwire - Wired]

Perfect your writing style by following the habits of great writers, especially with regards to scheduling. The Study Hacks weblog has reviewed interviews of many non-fiction writers and discovered that most writers schedule their work in the morning. To apply this advice, the article suggests that you spread out your writing over a few days, and when you do, get up early. Go to an isolated location and jump-start your day with an activity to get the blood in your brain flowing. Work for a few hours and then take a break. Don't write during other times. While this advice may be sound for morning people, reversing it to the night may be more practical for night owls. The takeaways are to make the writing "me" time and keep yourself far from distractions.

Read More »

Setting up a meeting agenda is easy—at least compared to the task of finding a time that all the participants can and will make. TimeBridge, a free meeting scheduling web app, sends out emails to every attendee you enter in and asks them which of the five time slots you've picked out work for them. If they all reply, TimeBridge figures out which time works best, confirms it and emails you back. If nothing works or you've got the inevitable one or two stragglers, you'll also find out. It's not an entirely new idea, but the instant sync with Google Calendar or Outlook (through a plug-in) certainly takes away one more step from the often tedious process. For more tips on shepherding your important discussions, hear how our readers answered a call for help.

The New York Times' Shifting Careers blog offers up five time management tricks, including Inbox Zero and unnecessary meetings, and strikes upon a truth of effective scheduling: Knowing your time-wasting weaknesses and laying down a firm policy against them.... Read More »

With the push towards "flexible workplaces" employers seem to be cottoning on to the fact that people have different body clocks and work rhythms, so they hit their peak productivity times at different points of the day. If you can adjust your work cycles to accommodate this, you can see some great results, says the New York Times Shifting Careers blog:

"Find your rhythm and schedule around it...Meeting people for lunch always derails me, yet for a while, I regularly met people for lunch. Then I got smart and instituted a fairly strong no lunch policy. Friends and colleagues teased me at first when I announced this. But they soon got used to my new approach, warming up to the idea of afternoon coffees. This works for me right now, but I’m sure I’ll find a new way of working six months from now. I’ll then tinker with my schedule again. Observe your schedule and notice the patterns you follow on your productive days. Then build a schedule around those patterns."

This ties in with another tip she makes: avoid unnecessary meetings. I've had lunch meetings away from my home office every day this week and it really cut into my productive work time. Worse, by the time I was back at my desk I was well and truly into my mid-afternoon brain slump. I'll be more strict with my scheduling from now on!

5 Time-Management Tricks [New York Times, via Web Worker Daily]