Disclosure: I received a software license in return for my review and Gaetano assured me he wants my unbiased and impartial review only because anything less would insult my readers’ intelligence.

You’re smart, folks. So here it is.

Part 1 — Stop Procastination Now eBook

FruitfulTime comes in a .zip compressed download package bundled with a free Adobe .pdf eBook.

I found this book very valuable personally. Your mileage will vary.

It arrived at the right time for me, when I was at last begining to see personal results from my new commitment to self-management, often misnamed “time” management.

You may delay, but time will not.
— Benjamin Franklin

Before I get too deeply into it, I’m going to make a plug, not for my own wisdom, but for the wisdom of some brilliant men and women I’ve learned from. This collection is on my night stand. Here are 58 profound quotes on time and life. I highly recommend you read them all.

Find any of these 58 time quotes helpful? Download your free copy here

The Good:

The author addresses the main reasons people procastinate and ruthlessly addresses the truth.

Like lying to people when you make commitments you can’t keep. Or offering excuses why you didn’t do what you said. Like lying to yourself about the kind of person you are.

You know, character problems.

The author’s cutting refreshing honesty was enough to make me stop dead in my tracks and ask myself, “Have I done this?”

The answer, is yes.

I resolved to do it less, including lying to myself.

I started with realizing the biggest thing holding me back was not getting out of bed when I planned. I lied to myself about how my day would start, and it got worse from there.

So I immediately walked to the computer, opened Google, and entered this search string:

how to become an early riser

Well, wouldn’t you know there was an article written with the exact same title? It’s on Steve Pavlina’s “Personal Development for Smart People(tm)” blog.

He had 1 2 3 related articles and I did what they said.

The result? After hours of practicing (yes practicing) how to get out of bed when the alarm clock goes off, I now automatically get of bed each day, weekends included, at 5 a.m. as planned regardless of when I go to bed. If my beautiful girlfriend has called me and woken me a bit early, at 5 a.m., I say, “I love you, Bear. I have to go. Click,” and start my day.

She knows the next hour’s for me. And by doing this for me, I will be a better person for us, long term.

There are 5 simple habits I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I never consistently did ANY of them for more than 4 days in a row. Not for years. And I’ve never done all of them in one day.

Ever.

I decided I would have my “Personal Victory”, “Rudder of the Day”, “Hour of Power” and get things off to a great start at “oh five hundred”.

I didn’t have enough time for all 5 in that hour so I thought long and hard about what ones to do and chose 4:

1. reading aloud my “autosuggestion” card with feeling and visualization once and once only (no delay here!), describing my purpose in life in 5 areas – spiritual, physical, personal, business, and financial – and 13 habits, qualities, and/or attitudes I want to have, think, and do
2. nutritional supplements including a green superfood drink and desicated liver, probiotics, and vitamin D
3. physical training
4. education in a specific personal skill

Then a funny thing happened.

Now that I’d begun practicing moving to each item without delay, drilled and rehearsed in it, at 5:47 a.m., I was done.

The next day, I added the 5th project, education in another specific personal skill, to my list.

This start to the day means I have eaten a healthy breakfast, showered, shaved, and done an hour’s work over and above my 1st hour to myself (working on me) by the time most people wake up. And I have more energy.

I am eating healthy too throughout the day and into the night. I credit this in large measure to my excelellent start, and the people who helped me learn how.

The habit of moving quickly to the next task, even if that task is making a decision about what to do, and carrying on has been a tremendous gift to me.

In 39 pages including the title page and introduction, 1.5 line spacing, and plenty of pictures, there’s a lot of great tips here, which will jumpstart you to acting on an answer to some of your challenges.

You should go to FruitfulTime and download it for the eBook reason alone. If you don’t, well… maybe you don’t have a problem with procastination…

… or maybe you have a really B-I-G problem with procastination!

The Bad:

English isn’t the author’s first language and there are more typos and grammar errors than there should be. And not colloquial “sales copy” grammar errors (like starting a sentence with the word “And”).

The author, whom I’ve corresponded with several times now and is an intelligent friendly guy, should hire an English writer to proofread his eBook since it reflects on his company to many people. I look beyond spelling, but my mom wouldn’t.

The Ugly:

Not a whole lot.

There are a few areas where I differ with the author, yet trusted mentors of mine agree with him and not I. Others, like David Allen of Getting Things Done® are closer to my approach.

I’m not a huge fan of breaking projects down into tasks and subtasks, nor do I think time limits are right for many projects. For a space shuttle launch, sure. But for 90% or more of projects, this is a better approach: Inboxes at Zero.

(When reading that link, you can skip to the image where you see “Daunting Projects” down to the part by Mark Taw about “Cascading Next Actions” and stop at “Oh the joy:” if you like.)

I follow the delightfully complex enough to handle real life GTD workflow process…

Do you feel this workflow chart is a bit intimidating at first, but promising? Download your free copy here

… and prioritize in the moment using the Dwight D. Eisenhower “importance-urgency” matrix (popularized by Stephen Covey in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”), and I also consider David Allen’s criteria of context, time available, and energy available. With the caveat that where possible, I do the hardest thing first.

Especially the emotionally difficult thing.

Want to have your copy of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s matrix with 3 extra things to consider that make the matrix practical in the real world? Don’t want that reminder to do the hardest thing first, but realize you need it? Download your free copy here

Part 2 — FruitfulTime Task Manager Software v. 1.0

The Good:

FruitfulTime is set up almost exactly the way Sybervision’s awesome (I mean life-and-mind-transforming) “Neuropsychology of Self-Discipline” program says you should manage goals and tasks.

It breaks them into subtasks when you want. You can also set start and end dates for each task as recommended by the above and set priority. You could use this for “critical path” and “float”, two ideas championed by Sybervision.

The Bad:

One problem. I don’t use it.

I use the “give project a name”, “set project goal”, “determine Next Action” approach… and only plan projects which need it.

Even then, I use different methods per project.

For example, my physical training plan is workouts of no more than 10 exercises pre-printed by myself on a recipe sized index card: calisthenics, calisthenic mixed with “strand pulling” (resistance bands), midsection training (like it sounds: includes the back, and internal organs with power breathing), and cardiovascular workouts with many options on one card.

That’s the plan. I pick one card a day. How much more planning does it need?

So FruitfulTime works the way many people say you should work… it just doesn’t work how *I* work.

An item in its favour is it can be run from a USB thumb drive so its portable. I’d prefer it syncing with a web browser and giving me online access, and it doesn’t.

I use Google’s wonderful Calendar synced with my Thunderbird Lightning (plugin software for Thunderbird, my email client) for scheduled events (and a paper planner: giving serious thought to finally purchasing an electronic PDA for managing contacts and scheduled tasks, synced with my computer and the web, and will still keep index cards held together with a binder clip as my primary walking around input medium).

Google, astonishingly enough, doesn’t support tasks at all. It’s a ludicrous oversight. I have to use clunky “all-day events” to simulate tasks I perform when I’m by my home office phone, say.

So, for the right person and that may be you (download it, read the free eBook, test it, see if you like it) there is a place for FruitfulTime. You may love it.

For me, I’m sticking with my wide selection of linear lists I can scan quickly, not “subtask” lists.

It’s like threaded comments on a blog. Some people love them. Some people don’t. I like comments to appear one after the other. Unless it’s a tech support forum, then threaded works.

I have a folder in my computer called “Next Actions” and that becomes an @computer list. My desktop has a Next Action tray (in addition to an inbox) and this similarly becomes a Next Action list, which is also great if I’m working on something and get interrupted.

I toss it in there, deal with the interruption minus the stress, and get back to it when it makes sense to do so. It’s there. I see it. I like that tray empty so I get it done.

All my email funnels through to one inbox and I send using multiple identities, in other words, personal and business, mostly. That saves time logging in all over the place.

Even my Firefox web browser’s bookmarks are customized with a toolbar so I can drop and drag links into my “Next Actions” and assorted folders for processing.

See where I’m going? I have a “Next Actions” folder in my Thunderbird email client and that becomes another Next Actions list too.

I also keep Next Actions list(s) organized by context (@out, @client’s factory, etc.) when I need them, anyway, in my portable stack of index cards, behind a red tab.

With all these lists, folders, trays, virtual and hard copy, I also have a “waiting for” and “someday/maybe” option.

I even have a Google Desktop sidebar with my 5 purpose statements and 13 habits, qualities, and attitudes rotating up top with photos of the woman I love and want to be with and our friends and family rotating below. Below that, is, yes, you guessed it — another Next Action list for tasks I need to do sitting at my computer.

I have a spreadsheet with daily and weekly next actions in it. Repetive tasks to put in my pocket paper planner (and one day, electronic PDA).

These, plus my 43 folder hard copy tickler file helps me stay on top of things without messing around.

I use the right tool for the right place and job. Yes, FruitfulTime could have a major place in a trusted “complex enough” system. I don’t see it as being a total solution.

If you use it, you’re dependent on your hard drive. Like always, back up weekly, even daily. (You’re asking for trouble, time lost, and maybe major money down the drain or even a business failure fool if you don’t back up. I’m sorry if that startles you in any way, but it’s true. I say it for your own good.)

If you’re not backing up (hey, I’m a bit “obsessed” with it!), turn it into a project and figure out how.

Here’s one way to get started. Here’s another.

Note: They fit together gorgeously.

The Ugly:

I have no idea why it asks you for a password by default every time you open it. Since it’s primarily designed to be used on your desktop, this seems overkill. Instead, the software designers should have made this a configurable option and included a “ReadMe” file or a pop-up message on installation informing the user of this.

Recommended?

P.S. I shall be eternally grateful for your Stop Procastination Now eBook.

The software? It’s not set up the way I like it; however, it may be set up how you like to work (there’s no rule that says you have to use subtasks, determine priorities in advance, and select start and end dates where they aren’t needed) and it’s certainly set up in a logical way as recommended by many project planning and time management experts. It has value. You decide how much.

I hope some of the information contained in this review has been helpful to you. As one of my favourite salespeople, Joe Girard, says, “I don’t want to sell you. I want to help you make the right choice.”

UPDATE March 25, 2008: Removed all links back to FruitfulTime.

I wrote this review because the co-founder wrote to me and asked me to.

I completed the application process, which I thought would be a formaility, and was told it would be reviewed by the company.

I was then told because my site is, “not tuned to sell FruitfulTime software” (not my original intent with writing this review anyway and incidentally I was going to add a disclosure statement to that effect, similar to the one about receiving a software licence at the top of this post), I can’t have an affiliate account.

Before being informed that my site is inadequate for their purposes, the co-founder asked me if I would, as “a well connected salesman”, be interesting in “pushing” FruitfulTime to my offline contacts. To which I replied, “No.” As a professional salesman, I don’t push, certainly not as a rule, nor to my most valued contacts. And the people I value is pretty much everybody. I ask questions, I listen, I lead when I have enough information to understand whether it’s good for the other person. There is a difference.

If I push anything, it’s for a person (myself first, foremost, and after dinner) to better themselves. And to that end, I thank the co-founder for his eBook.

Everything I said in the review stands. The product isn’t better nor worse for this.

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He read this blog and asked me to review TaskManager v1.0.

I said I’d be delighted to and, due to other things on the go, would get his review to him by the end of this month. Then I sent him the link where it will be available once its published and entered it into my personal GTD system.

Apart from software, FruitfulTime publishes free self improvement content at blog.fruitfultime.com. I haven’t made it to the blog for more than a quick perusal yet. Last night, I delved into their decepitvely brief eBook, Stop Procastination Now.

It’s awesome. Really made me think. Yes, I am a fan of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s work on the “importance and urgency” matrix popularized by Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. And I admit the complex, comprehensive methadology of Getting Things Done® by David Allen is the finest work I’ve ever seen on handling life in a world full of exploding information.

For quality of information, if not breadth, this eBook is up there. Focussed like a satellite GPS weapon targeting system on one thing, it nails the main reasons for procastination covered by the above authors, and adds more. It put great clarity to concepts I’d thought about, but never really grasped to the same extent or in a formalized way. It introduced new ones.

Very well thought out. Highly recommended. 4.5 stars out of 5, easy.

The book is 39 pages long, table of contents included, one-and-a-half line spacing, with lots of photos, and it’s free. It’s the equivalent of a stiff chapter in a larger book.

Read it all. And start now!

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ChristophDollis.com Sales Pro
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© 2007-2008 Christoph Dollis Enterprises. Moral Rights Asserted.

Common wisdom has it that Apple is prettier.

Not just the computer, the operating system with scrolling images to browse, that sort of thing.

I found a nice add-on to Mozilla Firefox. It can liven up a Windows user’s visual browsing experience. Or a Mac’s too since it’s fully compatible.

The meat is coming up in just a moment after the intro… ever lose that great website you were looking at before which had the answer to your problem? Or a better way of doing something? And of the six different ones your reviewed, this is the one you’re going with? And now you’re looking through your browser’s history log trying to find the right site mixed in with dozens of similar sounding names? Well stay tuned because a major NASDAQ traded software company may be introducing the answer…

It’s from Intuit Software, the makers of TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Quicken for personal finance among other well known titles. They also have a range of enterprise software solutions and companies

One of their initiatives I learned about today is Intuit innovation lab (iLab). This is where they roll out “roughcuts” — early versions of software they think solves a problem.

See ThumbStrips in action.

It works like this. You browse… and it creates thumbnail images of the pages you were on in a hideable bottom bar. Click a button on your browser and you can visually see all the sites you visited.

For people like me who simplify things — no more than necessary! — and take an easy step to reduce a headache down the road, this type of getting input from the community to build better software appeals. To me, developing an answer to a problem I’d had 50 times and offering it to me is much appreciated.

→ DOWNLOAD LINK FOR THUMBSTRIPS ←

It’s now available as a Firefox add-on for PC or Mac and has passed the author nomination and editor review process at the Mozilla Foundation; it’s now approved there for public distribution.

HERE’S THE UPDATE I REFERRED TO: Mozilla declared ThumbStrips to be a Recommended Add-on for Firefox.

Firefox? It’s the better web browser.

For most people. Internet Explorer is useful in a closed corporate intranet where certain proprietary applications can only be operated in IE; however, Firefox is so customizable, so effective to set up for productivity, and so much more secure that it has actually been recommended for use by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, I think you should test drive it if you haven’t already.

To get you started if you choose to try out this innovative Firefox add-on from Intuit, I’ve created three films for you titled, naturally enough:

* Included in this ThumbStrips package is the site I reviewed in the previous post.

6-Step Directions:

1. Right click on Productivity, Growth and/or Sales link(s) above and save the *.film file to your computer. (Using Firefox this is “Save Link As…”)
2. With your Firefox browser and the ThumbStrips toolbar open, click:
   “configure > My ThumbStrips… > Load from disk…”
3. Browse to the correct file and open it.
4. The thumbnails will all appear.
5. Don’t forget to make this list your own! Click:
   “configure > Save/Share…”
6. You’ll see the “Save to My ThumbStrips” radio button will be selected. Give your file a name and click “OK”

You can add new sites, delete sites you don’t get value from, etc. Some extra capabilities include you can start or stop “recording” new thumbnails anytime. And adding sites to a “block this site” list. All that means is it won’t create a thumbnail for that site. You might want to block your own website, for example, since you already know where it is.

Ready to get started and find those sites you loved, but never thought to bookmark at the time?

Make sure you have Firefox. Then install ThumbStrips.

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They each have their place.

Yes, when you cut out things you don’t need to do this is a good thing. However, if you’re over your teenage years you might have actually figured out what you like to do. So rather than have someone tell you you should shut off your high-def TV and wake up an hour earlier, wouldn’t it be nice to get some of the things done you have to do anyway in a fun stress-free way so you can turn on the game or pick up your favourite magazine?

So that’s why these past few months I’ve gotten into learning about personal productivity.

Here’s a terrible secret…

… I used to be the most disorganized person on the planet. I’d have big ideas and managing the details could be overwhelming.

Have you ever looked at your email inbox or your workload or your calendar and said to yourself, “How can I get this done?”

“Without being totally stressed out?”

I don’t have all the answers. The site I’m going to introduce is based on a “Four-hour workweek” in concept and theory. Even if this is possible, I like working too much to want to be that hard core (soft core?) about it that I’m putting in 48 min. a day.

But… it’s these types of personal hacks that simplify your life so you can read, learn, and grow in addition to just work and produce. Because isn’t it really the synergy between these two ends that lead to your greater results and happiness over time?

life sutra — the 4-hour workweek journal was started by Brick Andrews, a friendly guy to have a mini-conversation with me in his comments, and also to share his ideas about living a good life. At the same time, he gets a social and public reason to refocus his mind on these important ideas. Kind of like why I’m writing my website.

He’s based his concept on a book “The 4-Hour Workweek” by a man named Timothy Ferris which you can order here through Brick’s online Amazon store.

Obviously this book takes a different approach from Getting Things Done®, my personal productivity “go to” resource of choice.

GTD is based on capturing everything so nothing falls through the cracks. Near as I can figure 4-Hour is based more on doing only what is essential and not sweating the rest. I think that’s difficult to implement in sales because if you work an average — say — 45-hour workweek to be productive as a sales pro, what 41-hours of activity can you cut out and still wow! your clients, allow for your own professional growth, and collect purchase orders, cheques, and financing arrangements?

But hey. I think it can be done for someone in a different profession. However, like a doctor, if you enjoy what you do you want to work it.

So why not drop by Brick’s contribution to advancing the cause of life-work balance, maybe order that book or GTD, and see which approach might help you best avoid stressing over what you want to do, but haven’t done yet?

Brick gave me a great idea I really appreciate: Just using one email inbox and having everything filter to it. From all your accounts.

I didn’t use Google’s GMail like he does. In fact, I don’t even really like GMail and am not sure why everyone does. Yet the idea’s sound and I’m using it with my web hosting company’s huge email inbox.

So if you send me an email to either my business or personal accounts, it shows up and I filter it through the GTD system as appropriate:

… without fiddling with two accounts. And I can send email from either email address using just one inbox yet it appears to come from whatever of my accounts I want it to.

Brick’s idea also helped with contact backup.

He uses GMail contacts. Yet he doesn’t really like them and neither do I. So I use Thunderbird, my IMAP email client’s native address book, and sync it with Plaxo, which works beautifully online. I also sync my Thunderbird Lightning Calendar with GCal from Google and from there sync that with Plaxo. Data accessibility, backup, and redundancy are important.

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The place to come for more appointments, more people in the door, and more sales!(sm)
© 2007-2008 Christoph Dollis Enterprises. Moral Rights Asserted.