Comments on: Plan.txt : The Most Effective Productivity Tool That You’ve Never Heard Of

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:10:15 +0000

I found the Next Action lists (yeah, David Allen) very useful - if you can keep them up to date, that is…

The weekly review aspect of the plan.txt is great (integral part of the Getting Things Done “path” as well), but in general it does not feel to make me closer to my goals, since its “to do list” aspect is too vague. The “next actions” have a sense of immediateness. Whenever I have time to do something or figure out what to do, they give the exact next step, reducing the cognitive effort of turning “to-do” items into actual steps.

Anyway, the same method does not work for everyone, and if one gets down to do a plan.txt, it’s already better than nothing.

By: Managing your tasks, simply by Communications from DMN

Managing your tasks, simply by Communications from DMN — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:34:28 +0000

[…] while back, though, I stumbled across this blog post. Like me, the poster uses a text file. But the descriptions of his tasks are very detailed. As he […]

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:44:47 +0000

Where can I find more info on the red book strategy?

This article is good high-level summary of the ideas from the red book:

http://calnewport.com/blog/2009/03/09/the-straight-a-method-how-to-ace-college-courses/

By: Dave

Dave — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:30:18 +0000

Where can I find more info on the red book strategy?

By: How to Succeed at Life and Get Everything Done | Ever Becoming, Never Completed

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:55:39 +0000

[…] does Ubuntu not have a solitaire game? To be fair this comes from Cal Newport, whose productivity ideas should be a regarded class for incoming freshman […]

By: Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Drastically Reduce Stress with a Work Shutdown Ritual

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 21:53:45 +0000

[…] I review my plan.txt file where I keep my unstructured plan for the week. I often add a little annotation about what got […]

By: Student Interview B | Nexterous Labs

Student Interview B | Nexterous Labs — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 04:52:08 +0000

[…] However, I believe you need more. From our discussions, I feel that you are not the student that would want to stick to a dedicated schedule. You need some randomness in your life - some sort of guideline to help you stay on track but no rigid enough to interrupt and allow you to enjoy your activities. This is the perfect time to introduce Cal Newport’s Freestyle Productivity. […]

By: A New Productivity Tool (Part II) « lean and green

A New Productivity Tool (Part II) « lean and green — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:10:44 +0000

[…] graduated almost 20 years ago but I could read that blog for hours!! A gem I found on this site is Plan.txt The Productivity Tool You Haven’t Heard Of. when it comes to planning out what we do each day, my experience is that there’s no magic […]

By: Student Interview B

Student Interview B — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:01:37 +0000

[…] However, I believe you need more. From our discussions, I feel that you are not the student that would want to stick to a dedicated schedule or plan. You need some randomness in your life - some sort of guideline to help you stay on track but no rigid enough to interrupt and allow you to enjoy your activities. This is the perfect time to introduce Cal Newport’s Freestyle Productivity. […]

By: Study Hacks » Blog Archive » The Stable Mucking Method: A Freestyle Approach To Keeping the Annoying Little Stuff Under Control

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:20:58 +0000

[…] post is a companion to last week’s essay on using a plan.txt file to organize your work. Both are inspired by my freestyle productivity philosophy. However, whereas last week’s post […]