As touched on in a previous post, I use my inbox as a larger part of a task management system; most of the emails I receive are directly related to things that need to be done.

Because I’m running Google Apps, every message is archived; deleting an email doesn’t mean that it’s not accessible if I ever need to look back for reference. Of course, at times, a certain email may contain pertinent information to an ongoing project. I’m not recommending deleting emails like that – have a folder system set up where you can move the message, then flag or color-code according to the task it relates to. But don’t leave it in the inbox.

Upon completion, deleting the email equates to checking off on a to-do list. Maintaining a clean inbox doesn’t waste time, it ensures prioritization and proper use of the time you have. And if you take care of messages as they come in, worries of a pileup are nonexistent. When you’re faced with a massive heap of emails, not only does a sense of desperation set in, but it’s difficult to know where to start – especially if there’s notifications from Twitter and Facebook all over the place.

I’ve had nothing but positive results from inbox zero.  What works for you?

Last weekend, LessConf, a two-day conference about technology, startups, and business, was held at Georgia Tech Research Institute in Midtown Atlanta. This was the second iteration of the event; last year’s was in Jacksonville. Organized by Steve Bristol and Allan Branch, this was without a doubt the best tech event I’ve ever been to. Both Steve and Allan were incredibly chill and, more than anything else, just wanted everyone to have a good time. And that I did.

Day 1

Flickr: jay_tennier

Upon registration, attendees were able to pick up a copy of Seth Godin’s Linchpin, as well as various other stickers and giveaways. After a hilarious intro, the talks kicked off around 10:30. The lineup for the first day consisted of the following amazing speakers:

• Cameron Moll (AuthenticJobs)
• Chris Wanstrath (GitHub)
• Saul Colt (Thoora)
• Dan Martell (Flowtown)
• David Hansson and Jason Fried (37signals)

I especially enjoyed Cameron’s talk about finding inspiration in design. The difference between influence and inspiration was an interesting concept: influence is actively sought, while inspiration is not. Valuable insight was also given on how to capture inspiration when it surfaces; Cameron mentioned setting up a wall of paper next to a workspace, as well as keeping a dive slate in the shower. As someone primarily focused on front-end web development, I was able to gain new perspective on how to approach a project by taking a step back and becoming passively engaged. The revelation also hit me that good design shouldn’t always be focused on logic, but on how you feel.

Lunch was a great networking opportunity; my associate Adam and I had the chance to sit down with the Grooveshark team and exchange ideas. Shane’s Rib Shack catering provided by Balsamiq was also much appreciated.

The afterparty was held at Whiskey Park, inside the W on 14th Street. It was a prime location to talk with Shane Reustle, Geoff Hamrick, Chris Wanstrath, Julia Roy, and many more awesome people. Like everything else associated with the conference, it was about as off-the-hook as it gets. Loud music, dim lighting, flash photography, and free drinks (sponsored by MailChimp) made a perfect close to a day full of intelligent geekiness. It’s just how New Dorks roll.

Day 2

The second day of the conference started with bacon-infused pancakes, sponsored by Storenvy. After a good half-hour of catching up from the last night, the second round of speakers kicked off with:

• Alex Hillman (IndyHall)
• Peldi Guilizzoni (Balsamiq)
• Clay Hebert (TribesWin)

Clay’s talk about becoming a linchpin was extremely inspiring; the value of resumes was discussed, with him outlining that a traditional PDF leaves little room for creative expression. A great example was shown through a Foursquare mockup resume, in which badges represented positions and achievements. In short, be so good they can’t ignore you.

The education portion of the talk also spoke to me; Clay expanded on how the current educational system trains the factory workers of tomorrow, primarily instilling the ability to follow instructions in graduates. From my personal experiences, I can unilaterally vouch for these observations. Question the status quo. Break rules. Be a leader.

At 11 that night, the final afterparty kicked off at Noni’s Bar and Deli, where Regator’s Kimberly Turner was DJing. I was interviewed by BZD Films about both Rank ‘em and the conference in general, and also had great conversations with Jessica Barnett, Janette Crawford, Chris Turner, and everyone else who made it out. I really didn’t want the two days to be over, but had an outstanding time and look forward to next year.

Final Thoughts

LessConf rocked. The end.

Productivity is very important to me; over time I’ve developed a system that fits my needs. Although different people require different methods, I thought I’d share different components of my GTD system and how they work – so I can.

Desktop

I’m a firm believer in keeping a clean, minimalistic desktop, both physically and virtually. The only icons present are hard drive partitions and a link to my Dropbox folder. I do use GeekTool to monitor the ps command, as well as a live feed of /var/log/system.log, but apart from that – nothing. If it’s on the desktop, it hasn’t been dealt with (the same concept as a full inbox). Plus, I find wallpapers to be much more visually appealing without the clutter of icons.

Dock

Across all of my machines, the dock looks exactly the same. More than anything else, this is just a result of my compulsive habits, akin to never having anything in the Trash. Yet there’s a deliberate workflow in the order of applications:

1. Finder & Dashboard. Basic OS X functionality.
2. Safari & NetNewsWire. Information and aggregation. Serves as a base for everything else.
3. Mail.app, iChat, Skype, & Tweetie. Communication. Allows for expansion and distribution of information.
4. Pandora. Music. I almost always have music playing while I’m working. I see Pandora as a buffer between the fundamental apps of information/communication and task management.
5. Things. Task management. Everything else in the dock points to Things.
6. Terminal, Activity Monitor, & System Preferences. Backend and configuration apps; appropriately placed in the back of the dock.
7. Currently running apps. Other applications that don’t permanently reside in the dock.

Obviously the dock has its share of shortcomings. Quicksilver‘s a much more effective way to open apps without leaving the keyboard, although I still use the dock to help with the order of open applications.

Spaces

I don’t know what I would do without Spaces. I was disappointed that Windows 7 did not include a native virtual desktop solution, although that makes me appreciate Spaces all the more.

If you scan across the top two spaces, you’ll see windows open in the same order as they appear in the dock (NetNewsWire, Mail.app, iChat, Skype, Tweetie, Pandora, and Things). Regardless of what I’m working on, these apps always stay open and in the same position. The 6 spaces below are temporarily delegated depending on what tasks I have going at the time (this blog post is currently in space A2). Some projects, such as coding, will usually take up multiple spaces (one for SSH/FTP, one for HTML/CSS, one for WebKit, etc.). At the peak of a good workday, I’ll have everything filled up with different tasks. When they’re finished, they get closed out and checked off in Things.

Applications

NetNewsWire

Until a month ago, I was a staunch user of the Google Reader webapp, but NetNewsWire’s switch to exclusively sync with GReader turned me on to a desktop app. I’ve never been against a local feed reader, but the availability of a webapp was more important to me. Now I can have both.

I subscribe to 26 feeds sorted into 6 folders.

1. Tech News
2. ATL Startup
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Web Design
5. Misc
6. Media

The first thing I do when I wake up every morning is catch up on feeds. On average, I get about 200 each day, although I don’t necessarily read every word – just enough to get what’s going on. Due to the distracting, anti-productive nature of RSS, I usually close out of NetNewsWire after the early morning, and don’t open it again until late at night.

Mail.app

Unlike RSS, I handle email as soon as it comes in. Since most of my emails are closely related to productivity (Google Group alerts, Goplan notifications, etc.), it wouldn’t make much sense to block myself from email while working. I’ve even gotten to the point where I’ll be asleep, hear the Mail.app bling, and wake up to check my inbox.

I try to practice inbox zero as much as possible. When an email comes in, I either deal with it immediately if it’s a quick fix/reply, or file it into the appropriate folder and add it to Things. Nobody likes an overflowing inbox.

Tweetie

Classification of Twitter as productivity might be a far stretch; I’ll let it slide with the justification of a networking tool. I’m a former Seesmic Desktop user – I liked the ability to scale it full screen with columns of tweets, @replies, and DMs. After a while, I just got tired of dealing with Adobe AIR’s resource usage, plus, Seesmic’s UI was a bit clunky. There’s not many Twitter clients that don’t run on AIR; two that come to mind immediately are Nambu and Tweetie. I’ve been extremely satisfied with Tweetie on the iPhone, so I figured I’d give it a shot on the desktop. I still don’t hate Seesmic, but every day with Tweetie makes it increasingly difficult to go back.

Things

I can’t stress enough how large of a role Things plays in my GTD system. It’s by far the best task management solution I’ve come across – with a syncing iPhone app to boot. By default, tasks are divided into:

1. Today
2. Next
3. Scheduled
4. Someday
5. Projects

I’ve added a few projects ranging from web design to my grocery list. Projects are simply larger items that consist of many tasks.

Below that, I have 10 “areas of responsibility” that differ slightly from projects. They don’t get checked off – it’s more of a grouping/tagging feature. I classify remaining tasks as:

1. Personal. Not directly related to traditional work – items such as getting a haircut, filling up gas, or going to the store.
2. Entrepreneurship. Career-oriented work, like updating my resume or shooting off an email.
3. Blog Posts. A list of ideas that I’d eventually like to turn into full-fledged blog posts, frequently paired with notes or links.
4. Purchases. A list of stuff I’d like to buy. This is the one category that’s never empty.
5. Social Media. Mostly related to this blog without being straight-up ideas for posts. Includes tweaks ranging from adding plugins to reformatting permalinks.
6. Matt-3. Media Center PC. (Matt 1-3 are the names of my computers. Usually these categories don’t get clogged up; although if I need to install some software or, as of now, install Snow Leopard, it goes in the appropriate computer’s area of responsibility.)
7. Matt-2. MacBook.
8. Matt-1. Main machine.
9. General Computing. Anything that doesn’t specifically fall into Matt 1-3. Right now the only task in this area is some troubleshooting that I need to do with my router.

It’s taken a while to get a definite system set in stone, but I’m satisfied with my current workflow. I haven’t felt the need to change anything over the past few months, although I’ll reevaluate everything roughly twice a year to see if there’s a more efficient way to work. Comments and suggestions are welcome ; I’m always looking for ways to increase productivity.