All it took was signing up on this free website and programming their number into my cell phone. It’s called Jott.com and it’s what keeps my head clutter-free and in a (more) Zen state of mind.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

Daily, I use it to track billable hours, leave notes and send myself reminders. There are some more advanced features, but the basic function alone is truly a saving grace. I can’t remember the last time I found a web application so useful.

So there’s my sales pitch. Hope it comes in handy.

Here are the links and brief descriptions:

Forbes Live Video Chats | Stephen Covey

Forbes.com Vice President Michael Smith talks with the author of the seminal bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey discusses how those seven habits continue to be relevant in an increasingly interconnected world and the evolution of management techniques.

David Allen Getting Things Done: Time and stress management… how to be more productive and get the most out of your time and life

In this fast paced, information rich hour, David Allen creates a mindmap of the core elements of GTD best practices to increase your productivity. You’ll learn how technology – in particular mindmapping using MindManager software – can be a powerful tool to support at least four of the best practices for Getting Things Done

These two leaders in their respective fields have provided a very useful framework for getting your life in order. If you like what you’ve see, I’d suggest the following books to supplement your interests:

Why
Trust is not achieved through mental exercise alone; you’re much too smart for that. Becoming trust-worthy is the fruit of keeping commitments that you make, regardless of whether those commitments are to yourself or to others. Out of this trust grows the holy grail of self-confidence – no wonder there is such a thriving community of GTD enthusiasts on the web.

David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) system creates an environment where every single one of those commitments that we make is recorded and tracked. As you manage your commitments more effectively, your foundational trust strengthens in tandem. Greater and greater feelings of confidence arise as you follow down the path to GTD. This all stems from an internal knowing that you will make the best choice and that you will ‘get done’ what you say you will ‘get done’.

Allen’s techniques teach you to to be keenly aware of everything that you allow into the spectrum of your life; to scrutinize each idea, email, and friendly request with a sharp eye – all with the understanding that this is really your well-being that we’re talking about.
As he states in the book,

“You’ve probably made many more agreements with yourself than you realize, and every single one of them -big or little- is being tracked by a less-than-conscious part of you.”

Commitments and Our Shrinking Bank Accounts
Stephen Covey refers to the existance of an emotional bank account that each of us have; and this is precisely what David Allen addresses with his system – How to keep it full of deposits. It works like so:

or

Here’s are some common examples:
The gym, errands, appointments, etc.

How
The powerful practice of capturing every bit of information that you deem important is the foundation for building this trust. To be like David Allen, one must live (and work) with a high level of discipline. This is not something that can be so easily taught, but it is something that can be learned – let me explain. The trick is being mentally prepared to accept the fact that good things never come easy. It is the journey, the experiences we have, as we strive towards a goal that make it worthwhile. If such things were effortless, living a fullfilling life would be the norm, not the exception. Likewise, we would never know the joy and satisfaction that comes from conquering obstacles and achieving those goals. Life would be pretty dull.

Lucky for us, life is not dull. It’s full of challenges – and with each new challenges comes an opportunity to grow and know what it means to truly and fully experience all that life has to offer.

In closing, A Favorite Quote:

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all
- Helen Keller

If you’re familiar with 37signals’ “Backpack” application, you’ll have no problem getting used to it’s half sister – Zoho Planner. Zoho.com (a competitor of 37Signals) has just released an upgraded version of this personal/project planning application. I found it much more streamlined and less cluttered than it’s Backpack counterpart. Another huge advantage it has is the unlimited storage that accompanies the free user accounts (you may upload files to your account – not to exceed 10mb). You’re looking at $5 per month with Backpack and you still don’t even get as much storage space. I’ve just been using it for a day now, but am already hooked.

A brief overview of the features are as follows: there’s no apparent limitation to the number of pages you can create, and within each page you can add a description along with multiple occurences of To Do Lists, Notes, Appointments and Attachments. In addition to sharing these pages with others, Zoho Planner also provides a comprehensive overview of your To Do’s and Reminders. You can mess around with the demo sign-in and make up your own mind…or, if you’re looking for more opinions, here’s another recent review:

Web 2.0 Journal Product Review: “Zoho Planner” — The Zoho series of online software products from AdventNet has been growing quickly over the last year, and their Zoho Planner product has just been revamped. Designed specifically for the Web 2.0 era, Zoho Planner is an online service for managing task lists and appointments.

There is very little down side to this application, but a few things that I’d like to see added in the future are as follows: a print view (for use with paper planners); persistent URL’s for each individual page (helping integration with components of other various planning systems); sync or export capabilities with MS Outlook 2003 (a feature that no one has perfected to date – not even Microsoft itself)

For the record, I’m only using this as one component of my complete organizing system (based on Getting Things Done by David Allen & First Things First by Stephen Covey). Project planning and brainstorming appear to be the most effective uses for me; but it’s much more capable than this and may even meet all of your planning needs. I’ve had some difficulty finding reviews of this software, so please feel free to add your own or post links to others…thanks for reading!