#idonethis

Habitica is awesome. The service, which until recently went by HabitRPG, is one of those gamified “as you do good things in life, you gain level up” sort of lifehackery services. Here’s why I like it so much:

It’s smart enough to sort different tasks into 3 different buckets: habits (which you can do/not do at will), dailies (which you must do every day) and todos (which you do once)

It doesn’t take itself too seriously

It has a team aspect that really does help, but doesn’t overwhelm you with features.

Here’s the problem -- I have two other todo list type things I already use.

iDoneThis, which is a delightful early Web2.0 holdover, emails me every day and asks, simply, what I’ve accomplished. I’ve got 3 years worth of diaries on that thing -- it’s the most consistent diary-style service or habit I’ve ever used.

EngMatchingLogs, a newer service by Hakka Labs, does something similar, then uses machine learning to match me up with a new friend every week. It’s quite delightful!

There are also small apps on my mac that interface with iDoneThis for easy todo list integration.

Wouldn’t it be nice to create a tool that syncs between all those services? Checking off something on Habitica could add an entry in my iDoneThis as well write to my EngMatchingLog.

Nick Loper from SideHustleNation.com shared these two productivity tools.  I have been using both Toggl and IDoneThis for the past year and find both very helpful.  

What were you doing this time last year?

Can you remember what you were working on this time last year? Don’t feel too bad about it if you cannot. I couldn’t remember what I did either. At least not until I took a look at my iDoneThis calendar.

I felt the urge to look back at how productive I was today compared to last year. Not long after wondering I plunged right into my team calendar.

On my calendar I was able to see that I did two…

I've been testing out iDoneThis as a way of steam-lining the reporting for our team's morning stand-up meetings.

It's a simple concept. It sends you a reminder email each day which you reply to with what you completed, this goes into a daily calendar and a digest is sent to all your team members each morning. There are other useful features too but that's a good summary.

Previously I was keeping things in a list in Trello, but my personal Trello boards were getting out of control so I'm hoping iDoneThis will be a good way of moving some of the clutter elsewhere.

So far, so good. But I wanted to reduce the friction a bit further and found that Chad Stovern had created a workflow for the Alfred launcher (which I friggin' love). There is a how-to and download link for it.

One thing was missing though... It relies on having Postfix properly configured in OS X, which it isn't out of the box. So here are the instructions you'll need to configure Postfix to use Gmail as a mail relay...

Open a Terminal window

sudo vim /etc/postfix/main.cf

Add the following lines to the file and save it.

# Gmail Relay Configuration relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587 smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous smtp_use_tls = yes smtp_tls_security_level=encrypt tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom

sudo vim /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Add the following line (use an application-specific password if you have 2-factor authentication enabled on your Google account):

[smtp.gmail.com]:587    [email protected]:PASSWORD

sudo chmod go-rx /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd 

sudo postmap /etc/postfix/sasl_passwd

Test it out... printf "Subject: Testing Postfix" | sendmail -f [email protected] [email protected]

Working at a startup means moving fast and breaking things, but sometimes the goals you've set out to achieve can appear to be overly ambitious. I know I've certainly felt nervous when the work day was coming to a close and the project appeared virtually unscathed. In this post over on iDoneThis, the author quickly goes over Marc Andreessen’s so-called "Anti-Todo list" as an aid to recognize daily accomplishments and stay motivated. It's a fairly short read and I encourage everyone to read it that's ever faced a seemingly insurmountable task.

  Links referenced:

http://blog.idonethis.com/post/34170232603/marc-andreessens-productivity-trick-to-feeling

I've been using iDoneThis for almost 2 years now to keep a daily log of what I do each day. Work stuff. Life stuff. Eating. Sleeping. Everything.

I'm not perfect, and miss days here and there. But recently I've noticed what a profound impact that small habit has had on my life. Just the simple act of taking 2 minutes (iDoneThis tells you it should take 30 seconds, but my memory isn't that sharp) to think about and write down the things you accomplished that day is cathartic in itself.

But having a log that you can go back to every now and then, and see how far you've come, where your mind is now vs. a year ago (they have a neat TimeHop-esque feature that reminds you what you "Got Done" 3 months, 6 months, and a year ago) is a great booster.

Everyone has ups and downs, but starting and running a company often increases the frequency of that wave, and often the amplitude. Big highs one day, crushing lows the next. Keeping things in perspective and taking time to celebrate the small successes is extremely important. For me, this activity has helped remind me to do that.

iDoneThis also has a neat feature where you can see what terms you use most often in a word cloud, and you can see how the use of those words changes over time. The adjectives I use have trended much more positive the past year, which I guess is a good thing :)

Ya seas un emprendedor o trabajador corporativo temporal, lo más probable es que elijas trabajar desde tu casa. Sin embargo, dejar de lado un espacio de trabajo tradicional, podría pasarle la cuenta hasta a los trabajadores más diligentes.

Para ayudarte a idear un sistema que te funcione bien, te presentaremos 5 aplicaciones y herramientas que te ayudarán a aumentar tu productividad. Desde recordatorios para manejar tu tiempo hasta sistemas de recompensa empresarial, estos productos te ayudarán a mejorar tu flujo laboral, organización y comunicación.

RescueTime

Es una herramienta de productividad online que ayuda a analizar y maximizar la eficiencia. La aplicación se instala en la barra de estado de tu Mac o PC, midiendo las ventanas y los programas que estás usando activamente, durante un periodo de tiempo determinado. Por ejemplo, Photoshop y Twitter.

Si lo que necesitas es trabajar sin distracciones, ajusta la app en modo Concentración por un tiempo específico. Durante ese tiempo, los mensajes y sitios potencialmente distractores serán bloqueados para tu acceso.

Después de usar RescueTime por un tiempo, puedes entrar a su interfaz web y ves un panel de control con gráficos e itinerarios que analizan cómo has utilizado tu tiempo durante el trabajo.

Precio: Versión Lite, gratis. Versión Pro, $6 dólares mensuales.

Coffee Break

Es una aplicación de iOS y Mac que te recuerda periódicamente tomar descansos programados de tu trabajo. En Mac, la aplicación se sitúa en la barra de estado. En un menú, tú fijas cuándo quieres tomarte un break y cuánto quieres que dure. Fija las preferencias, como alertas de sonido y avisos en pantalla.

Precio: $2,99 dólares.

Work+

Al trabajar desde tu casa, puede que las paredes comiencen a encerrarte. Para remediar la claustrofobia, lleva tus tareas a cualquier otra parte. Está accionada por Foursquare y busca otros espacios laborales ideales, basado en tus propios criterios, como cafés con wifi, paz y tranquilidad, etc. La aplicación sugiere lugares cercanos para acomodarse a tus necesidades de productividad. Una vez que hayas llegado, inicia sesión, comienza a trabajar y haz reseñas.

Nota: Por el momento, esta app sólo está disponible en Nueva York.

Precio: Gratis.

Pomodoro Technique

Desarrollada por Francesco Cirillo en los años 80, la técnica Pomodoro mantiene la productividad más efectiva en intervalos de25 minutos.

Usa tu propia versión de un temporizador con las apps gratis para Android y iOS, que te ayudarán a segmentar tus proyectos laborales en períodos de tiempo, manejables y eficientes.

Lo divertido es que Pomodoro es tomate en italiano y la teoría de Cirillo es que generalmente se ven temporizadores de cocina en forma de tomate; por eso el nombre.

Precio: Gratis.

iDoneThis

Al trabajar de forma remota, puede ser difícil mantenerte en contacto con colegas, sin mencionar lo que puedes obtener de ellos, para lograr tus tareas.

El servicio iDoneThis, manda un correo a cada empleado al final de cada día. Simplemente la idea es que detalles los proyectos que has logrado para que así tus colegas pueden comentarlos y darles el visto bueno.