Todoodlist is an Ebook written by Nick Cernis of putthingsoff.com. It’s available for $14.00 from the Todoodlist site.

Unlike other productivity ebooks and programs (Nick does mention David Allen’s Getting Things Done and is a fan of Leo Babuata’s Zen to Done), Todoodlist is an eBook about getting back to paper. The blurb on the front cover reads -

a simple book about falling in love with paper, simplifying your life, and following your dreams.

The author provides a system of simple mindmapping to-dos, calendar systems and tagging notebooks which can replace all those Web 2.0 online to-do lists, productivity tools, list applications, reminder systems, iPhones, PDAs and beeping technology which most of us welcome into our overly complicated lives and then end up not using to their full effects - or worse, spending hours each week getting them programmed up to speed with all those projects, tasks, reminders and tags only to find you have no idea what to do next.

The Todoodlist Ebook design itself is simple, but with a slightly zen-like oriental slant. Major sections are highlighted with large page numbers, and simple drawings are used for cover-art and internally. The book is split into three parts.

Part I      7 Essays on Simplicity

Part II     5 Simple Solutions

Part III    Embracing Simplicity

In the first seven essays, we are introduced to the concepts and reasonings behind the author’s return to using paper as a simple form of listing and reminder systems. Nick Cernis talks about our human propensity to overly complicate any problem, has a bit of a rant about e-reading devices like the Kindle and other technology which he suggests may not be providing a resolution towards any of our problems, and gives some interesting examples using Einstein and his own failed Web 2.0 application for to-do lists.  In the chapter about e-reader devices I initially found the rant against paper-less books slightly contradictory, considering I was reading it in an eBook anyway, but the later chapters help put this into perspective.

Through this Part I of the Ebook we are given a good idea of the author’s background, and the concepts which lead into the central How-to section. We are also given a good idea of the humourous writing style of Nick Cernis - something quite important when you get to a solution about using a banana as a reminder system.

Part II describes the Todoodlist system - a mindmapped simple to-do list (on paper, of course), a Soduku-like paper calendar, tagging a notebook with file-tabs, using icons or graphics (called glyphies) for shorthanding notes, and the banana reminder system (really - it’s a location based system of timely reminder notes - if you want to write it on your lunchbox banana, then please do so).

Part III brings this all together in methods to re-introduce simplicity back into our lives. The five steps are summarised on Page 88 of the ebook as - Automate, Delegate, Reduce, Drop and Focus. In this section there are convincing arguments - most we’ve all heard before - towards why we should be doing this, and how. For me, this was the most important part of the book in total.

This final section is completed with some templates to help us out. The Blueprint to Launch is a simple questionnaire to work out whether we have the resources to take on a new project. In the earlier five steps listed in this section, it has become obvious that human beings often over-commit ourselves towards multiple projects. As a fun bonus, Nick then offers his Blueprint for Lunch - questions to try to get the best from meetings and business lunch meetings.

Throughout this eBook, Nick Cernis mentions other productivity gurus out there, and links to some of his favourites. His concepts are, in many ways, not new to us, and are quite compatible with those of others out there. However, it’s high time that we saw something like all those productivity systems become more workable and realistic over controlling the problems we wade through in our everyday lives. Nick Cernis wants us to simplify those problems, and take control of them with his final quote -

“Lead a simple life. Chase your dreams. The rest will follow.”

But Does it Work?

Firstly, let me give you a brief history of what my current life is - from this list you will have some knowledge of the complicatedness and possible over-extensions on my time and ability to achieve which surrounds me as I write this: -

• I am currently involved in the major project, the 30 Day Challenge. This, for me, started in mid July, went all through the official 30DC month of August, and now continues with a team through all of September. Not 30 days, more like 80 of them.  Each day there are online videos to watch (up to 3 or 4 of them, for up to 1/2 hour each), lesson crib sheets to read, and exercises to do, including a lot of social networking, website development, internet marketing and plain old learning - often this project alone should take up to 2 hours of my every day.
• I am currently enrolled in a paid-for six month online writing course, How to Think Sideways, and am sitting in Week 6 of this, without having done the weekly exercises from Week 3. Each week there is new reading materials, some video content, several subsidiary exercises. I should spend several hours a week doing these.
• I am currently enrolled in a paid-for six month online blogging course, Blogging Mastermind. This course, again, has weekly exercises to read through, videos and audios to watch or listen, additional links and content to source out, and web development exercises to step through. I should be putting forward several hours a week towards these exercises.
• I am also enrolled in another paid-for six month course, in which I am trying to take away all the content from, to use for later.
• I own three blogs currently - a longstanding one, this one, and another on Writing. Both the Writing one and this one are part of either the 30DC or Blog Mastermind programs and exercises, and both require consistent content to be added to them (sometimes several articles per week). My other longer standing blog is not getting as much attention of course.
• I am writing two EBooks myself, one of which requires the creation of quite a few crafting products, each of which can take a day to complete (I’m a slow crafter).
• I am planning to (if possible) write a novel in a month in November, with NaNoWriMo.
• I am a mother of a five year old, and a part-time worker at the local primary school before and after-school kid’s club.
• My family is at the end of the Adoption Process assessment, and will shortly be attending a panel meeting where, if approved, we face a future of suddenly welcoming a new child or children into our family. And we don’t have any furniture for them.
• My closest companion is an old english sheepdog named Simon. Simon needs walking once a day.
• My house - like yours - needs regular attention, and cleaning. And I probably need to cook dinner each night, too.

If you didn’t get through past item two above, I’d not be surprised. Does this sound like an over-committed life? Possibly - but I couldn’t choose the timings for when all those online programs ramped off, and technically I do have the time to commit to each of these. However, to win through so many inboxes (as Nick Cernis calls them) calling for my time, I’m going to have to be much more organised than I may have needed to be in the past, even when I was working full time and managing twenty other people’s tasks and projects.

On my computers I tried out several to-do list applications, database applications, ebook and article writing applications, and I’m a bit of a social networker (it’s encouraged through the 30DC program) and love all things technical anyway. I tried out online to-do lists, and discounted online calendars, but settled recently on a PC application which I can share the database across my two computers more easily. I don’t like online for to-do lists - I don’t know why, but it possibly makes things a bit more centred and real if it’s closer to me. Online is distant. On the PC is closer - there and in your face, especially if I have it open first thing each morning.

So, would a paper-based system work out for me, as being even closer? Afterall, I can’t take my laptop with me everywhere, can I? And sometimes I don’t start it up, even. Some days, I spend all day with my family, because that’s the priority.

I tried the paper Todoodlist, and can say that it just doesn’t work for me that well, as a general list. I just have too many projects on the go right at this moment to make it workable on paper. There are dependencies between the projects and tasks which I can’t link across several pages of paper in any manageable order.

However, mindmapping and diagrams are something which appeals to my own creative mind, and something I always use. So I am currently and slowly developing a mutant between the two - my PC Task Management software, and a physical todoodlist for the day, in mindmapping and glyphie style. What I do in my Task Manager application is filter for all of today’s tasks, then draw those down quickly onto a one-sheet todoodlist. Scratching it out in diagrams on paper is a reminder system in itself - it ingrains the tasks into my mind from first-thing (just as any hand-drawn mindmap will do) and it’s actually quicker than setting up settings, turning the printer on, finding paper, and printing it out.

But most importantly, It feels good to be able to then cross those off with a physical (and often quite dramatic) mark out. It also takes me away from the worrying bigger picture of looking at all of those project tasks in the central Task Manager - looking at that makes my life look way to scarey.  I can even add in more if I need to, without cluttering up my screen with many un-needed fields. A simple box, circle task, and mark it though when completed - it mentally does one good to be able to do that on paper.

I’m not such a fan of the Soduku calendar approach, but then - I’ve never had a problem with remembering recurring dates. My desktop is setup with a simple diary program with these recurring and one-off appointments. I don’t have reminders setup very often at all - the chances of me opening my emails to find those reminders, or sitting in front of the PC when the reminders go off is remote anyway. Instead, I glance down the calendar list - which shows the week in list form, and month with icons for tasks (pin notes and the like). This is normally done the night before, to remind myself of things of importance. This has an easy slant into Nick’s banana (location and time specific) reminder system. I can take the most important out to sticky notes and place them on my PC mouse, or bathroom mirror for the next morning, should I see the need.

The tag book isn’t that new a concept to me - I often owned the only tagged meeting notebook in my corporate career, and was always able to find what I needed relatively quickly. But I see this as being applicable outside of any productivity system and into that of my own writing side. Carrying around a writer’s notebook, which can have all kinds of things in it, is quite relevant to any eBook or other writer. The tagging of important pages in there with a structured tagging file tab is a great idea, and one I intend taking through to my own notebooks.

Possibly some of Todoodlist’s Simple section is what will really be taken onboard with my own systems in the near future. I am already leaning towards using only one email inbox, and being an ex-IT manager, know well how to drop some valueless projects, if found to be so, in time. Todoodlist’s Part III re-emphasises the simplification approach which I always almost let slip through when juggling around so many projects.

So comes the time when I recommend this as an eBook, and this discovery is no different. Todoodlist is a wonderful eBook for anyone looking to recover some control over their lives. You will find the concepts in here compatible with whatever system you may be using yourself, and possibly even better.

Todoodlist has 97 pages, and at $14.00 is a good bargain for the concepts and methods contained within. I’m a fan, and will continue to open this book, for both a good laugh, and some basic ordering of my own life, for quite some time.

Link : Todoodlist Purchase

Technorati Tags: productivity, recommended, review, todoodlist

Many on the net may be aware of the force that is John Cow. He’s been blogging for many years, and offering a lot of expertise. One of my favourite free Ebooks out there is John Cow’s Building a Business NOT a Blog eBook.

Did I mention it’s free? Oh yeah, it is. And at 134 pages of on-the-spot information, there’s no excuses for you not going and getting it. The book is the outcome of a blogging competition between John Cow and Gary Conn. The competition attempts were documented on the blogs, and have since become this eBook, available through JohnCow.com.

From goal setting, to making a commitment to working a blog as a business, the Building a Business NOT a Blog book must go down as a blogger’s bible out there. The book is huge in content, including everything from planning for why you want a business blog, to setting up the correct affiliations, using systems like clickbank, aweber, feedburner, wordpress; and techniques for on-page optimisation, promotion, and of course - the ever-present task of keyword identifications, research and usage on the page. Much is applicable to an eBook writing business also, of course.

As a newbie into all of this from a business sense, this eBook is a fundamental arsenel to my own knowledge and what I need to do here, and it’s also a very good example of the kind of eBook which I would like to be involved in writing in the future myself. The book style is fun, with the expected cartoonish graphics which make the John Cow site itself such a fun visit, and it has a good contents page, and resource links at the back.

And, did I mention - it’s Free!

To get your copy of Building a Business NOT a Blog eBook, go here.

Technorati Tags: blog, business, john cow, recommended

Without one doubt, I would suggest that currently Zen to Done is my favourite eBook. It’s about productivity, not eBooks, but the format and simple teachings inside make it a must-read for me.

Written by Leo Babauta, this book is a compilation of his blog series, Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System which featured on his popular blog, Zen Habits. It was my discovery of Leo’s first eBook, Zen to Done which first set me off on wanting to write my own also. Since then he has also produced another eBook compilation from his site, called The Zen Habits Handbook for Life, which is another good read, and bargain at the price.

The ebook’s style, with a simple table of contents image at the bottom is what initially drew me to the book itself - very Zen-like in appearance. The eBook itself contains copious information, requiring perhaps more than one read to take it in. There are grammatical errors I noticed also at the start - but I found Leo’s writing style as skillful as the principles and methods he has developed. The eBook is pure information however - I would have liked perhaps some more graphics to break up the sheer weight of the information, perhaps. However, the text in Zen to Done is broken up with sidebars and quotes rendered in a very appealing style. And despite those minor niggles, I must re-iterate that it was the actual style of the whole eBook which actually drew me to it in the first place.

Then I delved into the contents, which can be summarised as -

1. 1. The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified (10 habits)
   2. How to implement these key habits with tips on forming a habit.
   3. How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in your life in its place.
   4. How to simplify what you need to do.
   5. Minimal ZTD. Also includes an even simpler version called Minimal ZTD.

The 73 page eBook contains 17 sections plus some checklists and exercises which extend David Allen’s Getting Things Done principles (fundamentally task management for business users) with Stephen Covey’s goal setting and prioritization methods.

That, initially, sounds quite complicated, but Zen to Done provides ten very do-able habits, and even provides a “4-Point” Simple ZTD system called “Minimal ZTD” (located on Page 17) for those who want it. The final product actually simplifies the GTD system for anyone like me who found the GTD system quite overwhelming at first, and gives it structure. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about regarding GTD, then Zen to Done may also be a very good book to get hold of, simply because it makes no prior-knowledge expectations on your own productivity skills.

If you do a search over the web for Zen to Done reviews you will find several sites where the ten habits are listed along with some discussion over these. I won’t be doing that here, because I believe to get the most from the principles, you can at least pay out the small charge for this information, and purchase a Zen to Done copy for yourself. Here are the 10 habits however, to allow you to see the layers of information found within this economical and highly recommended eBook:-

1. 1. Collect.
   2. Process.
   3. Plan.
   4. Do.
   5. Simple trusted system.
   6. Organize.
   7. Review.
   8. Simplify.
   9. Routine.
   10. Find your passion.

Looked at this way, it makes sense. And Leo Babauta’s eBook gives you the processes and habits to be successful in that passion.

Leo Babauta’s Zen to Done system makes a workable solution to our busy personal lives. For the principles and depth of content inside, Leo only charges $9.50 through his site. That’s incredibly reasonable pricing for a system which will easily prompt us all into organising our lives into more productive ways. I actually consult this eBook consistently.

Recommended reading : Zen to Done (5 out of 5)

Technorati Tags: productivity, Recommended Ebooks, review, ztd

I’ve heard a lot about this ebook around the web. For many high profile marketing gurus, this eBook about eBooks appears to be the recommended choice. However, as a starter in all of this, I obviously had to think around the price - Desperate Buyers Only sells for $77. That’s it. There’s no reduction, it’s not an ebook which you see peppered over the internet, and available for various prices or in those huge ebook packages which come with reseller rites either. It doesn’t even come with another free ebook thrown in, or some bonus info products or mailing list signups. You can only get Desperate Buyers Only from the one place, and at the one price. It comes with a 30 minute teleconsultation with the author only.

It’s not necessarily defined just towards eBooks either - DBO provides equally appropriate information towards a new Blogger looking at niche markets or other info products. It’s a How To Book for Ebooks, Info Products and Web Businesses. Still, the price seemed a bit daunting for me initially given the page quantity and my own budget. Could it be worth it in content, I wondered?

So, if I were to take this whole thing seriously, and keep away from where many thousands of others have fallen, I knew that I needed to invest in my own education and learning towards the entire ebook industry. So today I found that $77 and downloaded the ebook itself.

Written in 2006 by Alexis Dawes, Desperate Buyers Only contains over 90 pages of sense. There are other websites, blogs, reports, eBooks, mail lists and people saying the same thing, but this ebook is convincing, and rings true to the soul of any wannabe eBook writer like myself who realises just how saturated the internet is with eBooks out there, many on the same few topics. And many not making their writers the riches that the great Ebook Dream told them it would.

The book stopped me at Page 7 with the following -

How to Choose Topics That Attract Buyers Like Bee’s to Honey - (It has NOTHING to
do with “Doing What You Love”)

Online infopreneurs fail for 3 main reasons–

1) They focus on general topics.
2) They focus on so-called ‘hot’ niche topics.
3) They follow the all-time favorite, and frequently quoted, adage, “Do
what you love and the money will follow.

Do I agree whole-heartedly with what Alexis says? Hmm, I’m of the “Do What I Love” school. Being a wannabe writer first and foremost, I want to enjoy what I write about (and possibly live in the distant hope that somebody else might to?). Alexis also maintains an opportunistic slant on choosing topics. She favours writing about anything that has a desperation around it - and not sticking to the one or two niches where you might become an expert at. This initially may grate against those sensitive writers like myself.

But then, I happen to have lived virtually in a hobby community for many years, and in which I could easily write eBooks for, with a lot of love, knowledge and passion. But would I have any hope of selling them to that community? Nope, not on your life! My hobby is full of community boards, women and websites which not only expect to get their information free, but also has hundreds of volunteers across the world working on those boards and blogsites who are giving away that information for free, and who are doing it for no pay also. Now, that’s love, but not exactly a profitable topic for me to spend my time writing for, and expecting a buyer to somehow materialise from the niche when they can find out all they want for free.

My example above would have Alexis explaining this as the difference between an interest (or want) and a genuine and desperate need for information. And that’s a difference which will, well, make all the difference in finding the correct topic.

The premise of Desperate Buyers Only is therefore to give anyone who needs to locate a profitable topic for their eBooks the tools to do so. This is obviously centred around locating topics which are so sought after by desperate buyers out there willing to whip out their credit cards as soon as you give them the product. And those buyers know how to find it also. Alexis’ methodology goes roughly like this (for “audience”, you can also substitute “topic”)-

1. Choose an Audience - the section has 13 different types of audience bases listed (and most of them you have probably heard of all over the net).
2. Find the websites for your chosen audience - where do they hang out. DBO suggests methods of how to outsource this. Personally, I’d prefer to know what they’re talking about, so that I do…
3. Study the audience habits and terminology. Steps 2 and 3 are about the Who, What, When, Where and How of your topic.
4. Isolate the audience’s most pressing problems - what questions keep popping up for them.
5. Understand the psychology around those problems - what pains (niches) are they feeling
6. The Dealbreaker - methods to work out if potential buyers are searching for a solution to these problems.This is more than following standard traffic-driving marketing guff, it’s understanding how people go about searching for their own solutions.
7. Assess the competition - this sounds a bit obvious, but Alexis gives us methods to differentiate our product from that of any competitive product.

The Book itself is broken into sections, and I very much enjoyed the writing style within. Alexis writes creatively, and provides some interesting stories and personal examples which personifies the entire thing. She doesn’t pull punches however, including details which makes it obvious that this isn’t a get-rich-quick promise. The eBook acknowledges that choosing the right topic, researching this, and writing it is hard work, as is the marketing needed to allow your targeted audience to find your product. Alexis also gives details on how much marketing money she spends to earn the income she does get from her best-selling reports. And she packages all of this information into a succinct and reasonably small package (at 99 pages) with only four main sections.

The list above comes from the first section on choosing a topic. Other sections are listed in my own words below -

Choosing a Topic
Quick Content Creation - some simple methods for writing short quick reports
Taking on Competitors - an excellent section on how to create great sales letters
Websites - and generating traffic

The Sales letter / copywriting section in Desperate Buyers Only is good enough to have sold me the book in itself. As my own first venture into the thick of internet marketing and into a world with terminology I have little knowledge about, I had a few strange ideas (and abject dislikings) for those sales letter pages I constantly come across on the internet. Alexis’ Five Point Fish Hook, describing in no uncertain terms how to annihilate the competition, began to frighten me - until I saw the same details become an exciting sales letter - and one which would entice me personally (as your pathological reluctant viewer of such webpages).

Each section ends in some defined actions. The book itself would work well as a workbook for students, and gives copious details and methods in everything from the sales letter copywriting I spoke about earlier, to keyword searching, and affiliate marketing. Page 93 is a tabulated checklist which can be printed out when working through the selection of topics for a winning and successful info product. There are plenty of other websites and books out there dealing with the same areas, but having everything so detailed and packaged into common sense means this book is a winner for me.

I will re-read this ebook often, I am sure. Although the whole emphasis on making money from desperate buyers is a little off-putting to my own naive thinkings, I still understand that the information inside contains workable methods for my own writings and marketing. I have a fresh understanding from this eBook over how to find topics (even within my own passionate niches where I would ideally love to write for) and topics which will be profitable for me to spend time and energy within. The author has introduced me to methods which will allow me to get to know my potential customers, and build an expert reputation with them.

For my first Review on a product advising on eBooks, I am surprised to find that I’ve purchased a keeper and one I would definitely recommend to anyone wanting to write and publish eBooks. Desperate Buyers Only gives you the tools to find the topics within the something you love, or other desperate markets, and locate areas where buyers are willing to spend money on your problem-solvers for them.

The book should be read by beginners in the field before they go out and write that eBook (blog, or other information product) they always had in them, then come crashing down because they can’t make money out of it. But it has also received good reviews from experienced infopreneurs and internet marketers out there on the web.

This eBook should be on all of our reference library e-shelves, and is a genuine go-to Report for your collections. Without any doubt I will be referring to Desperate Buyers Only often. It won’t just gather pixel-dust on the hard-drive.

Recommended reading : Desperate Buyers Only (5 out of 5)

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