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 people may have heard about or read Hugh MacCleod’s free report / manifesto, How to Be Creative. But it’s worth passing on again, if you happen to have missed it. Hugh’s blog, Gaping Void, is one of those uber-blogs which has a lot of power out there on the web, and it makes for a good read also. The subtitle for this blog is “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards” and the blog itself does have a lot of pencil drawing images in it - as does the Creative manifesto.

But it’s the How to Be Creative report which initially intrigued me, relevant as it is to both my interests in creativity and writing, and in writing eBooks also. The report, written as a free giveaway from an initial blog article on the Gaping Void blog (you can still find this full article in the archives for the blog), is now available (still free) from the wonderful Change This website, where you can find many other manifestos with some quality content, all free, and on a large range of topics.

Here’s my two perspectives on the manifesto :

1. On a creativity / inspiration front - read it.
2. On an eBook perspective, it’s a good example of using a free info product built from a popular blog article to market your blog and work further afield. Read it.

Read : How to Be Creative (Manifesto at Change This)

Technorati Tags: change this, creativity, Hugh MacCleod

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