They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but for me, it's more like laziness is the mother of invention. Some of the most creative solutions were dreamed up simply because someone didn't like how complicated or difficult something was.

So, I have an idea. A topic that focuses on how we approach tasks in our lives, how we can reframe or reorganize them to be easier to handle, and how we can transform difficult ideas and tasks into easy and doable tasks.

An example would be in a problem with dishes I used to have. Simply put, we had so many that it was always a chore. So one idea I had was to simply start buying paper plates and cups. With paper plates and cups, I no longer had to worry about so many dishes being washed, and thus the task became easier to handle and I was able to make a habit of washing the few dishes that were left over. Another solution I considered was just buying a dishwashing machine, but that was pretty expensive.

The basic idea behind this thread is to present issues we may be having, in how to handle tasks or what not, and perhaps we could help each other to figure out novel and interesting solutions which reduce the workload and help to make the tasks more managable and doable.

I live with my mum, and we have a dishwasher machine! :D

But my mum always complains about how much electicity it uses up, and now i'm the new dishwasher. :(

I did the same thing with the dishes!

Okay, here's another:
My kitchen faucet was leaking.
I took it apart and put it back together again 3 times until it stopped leaking.

I always try new organizers and new organizational methods. I end up wasting time. I am trying to do everything out of Microsoft Outlook and THAT IS IT! I need one centralized place and when I get distracted, just being able to go to ONE PLACE to get back on track is nice. Now I am obsessing on how to jam as much information as possible into Outlook and stop the cycle of having stuff on the web, on paper, notepad, etc. etc.

1 place!!! Wish me luck!!! :)

I always try new organizers and new organizational methods. I end up wasting time. I am trying to do everything out of Microsoft Outlook and THAT IS IT! I need one centralized place and when I get distracted, just being able to go to ONE PLACE to get back on track is nice. Now I am obsessing on how to jam as much information as possible into Outlook and stop the cycle of having stuff on the web, on paper, notepad, etc. etc.

1 place!!! Wish me luck!!! :)Have you tried looking at "outlining software" ?

I always try new organizers and new organizational methods. I end up wasting time. I am trying to do everything out of Microsoft Outlook and THAT IS IT! I need one centralized place and when I get distracted, just being able to go to ONE PLACE to get back on track is nice. Now I am obsessing on how to jam as much information as possible into Outlook and stop the cycle of having stuff on the web, on paper, notepad, etc. etc.

1 place!!! Wish me luck!!! :)
Outlook! that's my territory... here are little-known cool things you can do with Outlook:

1. Drag & Drop files in an Outlook folder
2. Color your received messages or font size based on who sent you the mail, or who the mail is addressed to (and by practically any condition you can think of)
3. Search help for "In-Line editing", where you can change priorities of messages, change the subject lines to something more useful to you (for remembering later)
4. Add a custom checkbox to your view and call it "done". Set up a condition that whenever that checkbox is checked, your email message gets a strikethrough through it. Then you can use your email as a Task list. (or you can just use the Task feature)

I have template some of my more common responses. After a while of being a member here you begin to run into the same questions over and over so with a few of them I have out lined the information and I simply modify around the core out line so I do not leave out any information nor do I have to re-type it over and over.

I have a template of my moderator closing remarks so I do not have to type

***Any concerns or questions regarding this moderator note or staff actions should be private messaged directly to staff, this will prevent further disruption of the discussion. Thank you.***

Over and over again.

Also I do not use my check book very often instead of having a separate check book thingie in my purse I simply have a few checks stuffed in my purse in case there is actually some place that doesn't take a debt card and I keep my record in the extra note pages of my address book eliminating the check book gadget completely. My address book has every thing in it like my calender for appointments, phone numbers, and grocery list, printer cartridge numbers and even some auto infor in it like tires sizes and oil filter numbers. . . . . . I had to learn how to organize long before computers or PDA's came out so I use some thing like a day planner that fits inside my purse. Naturally having dyslexia means few people can actually read it. . . . any time Gary needs information out of it he just hands it to me and ask me to read in for him in "real people talk". . . . .

Very good topic, but I'm going to nitpick.

I have found that I often do more work to avoid work than just doing the original work.

For example I used to do alot of account creation here, and in order to make the task less error prone I wrote an interactive webscript to take the information to create the account.
Perfecting the script took about two weeks and got very little use.

I have found that I often do more work to avoid work than just doing the original work.


LMAO - I wish I didn't relate to this but in all honesty I do. . . . .

I think that has a lot to do with the perception that by putting in a bit more effort, you can minimize future effort a lot more than by simply doing it the normal way.

In that sense, when you "do more work to avoid work", it's more that your mind sees a long term advantage in doing something more now, than having to do even more later on.

Also, it may have to do with the creativity factor. Your mind is stimulated and engaged when you're actively trying to improve your procedures and strategies, and that creates stimulation and gets you hooked on getting it done.

In that sense, the mind can become more actively engaged when the work is not routine, but will definately have a long term benefit in reduing future workload, more so in engagement than doing things in the routine.

-Get rid of stuff you don't use or need. Keep your living areas as minimalistic and clutter-free as possible. I've been doing some heavy cleaning and reorganizing of my room lately with this goal in mind, keeping pretty much only the stuff I use on a regular basis... and yeah, the results have made a huge difference for me.

-Adopt a raw foods diet so you don't have to cook anything. Big time saver, big money saver, and it's healthier too. You won't have to bother cleaning up all the dishes and the rest of the kitchen all the time either.

-If you exercise on a regular basis and do any kind of time-intensive cardio... like jogging/biking/stair-climbing/whatever for 30+ minutes... drop that routine and start yourself on an interval training program, like HIIT. It's a lot less boring and you'll save a lot of time (you can do a HIIT session in as little as 4 minutes) and you'll be more pleased with the results you get. I did read a book called "PACE: Rediscover your Native Fitness" by Al Sears M.D. that is a pretty good manual for this sort of thing and I think the principles behind it make a lot of sense.

-I personally think organizers and day planners and such can be an impractical waste, because you'll spend inordinate amounts of time organizing your schedule of things you need to do, time that could be better spent on actually doing them. A lot of people might be better off just investing in a simple pocket memo pad to write things down when they need to rather than rummaging through some burden of a day planner to accomplish the same thing. Moleskine makes some nice ones, I wish I hadn't lost mine recently lol.

-When you need to organize information, take notes, and/or do brainstorming, forget writing things out in hierarchical lists. Dry, boring, your brain will hate you for them. Use mind maps (also called concept maps) instead. They're much more engaging (as it is something of a creative process) and *vastly* cut down the time I spend studying new material and significantly enhance my comprehension and later recall by many orders of magnitude.

-Does anyone have any experience with Roombas? I think I'd like to have one for vacuuming and save myself the hassle so I am wondering if they are worth a damn or not.

I could go on and on with suggestions. I'm all about optimizing life so I can have more time to... well, figure out even more ways to optimize life, heh.

-I personally think organizers and day planners and such can be an impractical waste, because you'll spend inordinate amounts of time organizing your schedule of things you need to do, time that could be better spent on actually doing them. A lot of people might be better off just investing in a simple pocket memo pad to write things down when they need to rather than rummaging through some burden of a day planner to accomplish the same thing. Moleskine makes some nice ones, I wish I hadn't lost mine recently lol.

The thing about organizers and planners that I've noticed is that they can work well, as long as there isn't an overemphasis on them. I mean, instead of putting down times that you need to do them, simply use them to jot down tasks and goals you want to accomplish in the day, but keep the times out so that you don't feel you "have" to do them at certain times.

Sometimes I go days without even working within it, but when I feel ready to get some things done, I can look at my planner and see what goals I want to work on and achieve.

It's good as a sort of shorthand memory to keep track of the projects and tasks I want to do.


-When you need to organize information, take notes, and/or do brainstorming, forget writing things out in hierarchical lists. Dry, boring, your brain will hate you for them. Use mind maps (also called concept maps) instead. They're much more engaging (as it is something of a creative process) and *vastly* cut down the time I spend studying new material and significantly enhance my comprehension and later recall by many orders of magnitude.

You can also add re-writing notes in there, drawing symbols and acronyms, and active recall to that list. I find that those also help in studying and getting your mind organized.

You can also add re-writing notes in there, drawing symbols and acronyms, and active recall to that list. I find that those also help in studying and getting your mind organized.

Yeah... whenever I take notes, it all ends up looking zany, full of little symbols, arrows and lines criss-crossing here and there, random illustrations and scribbles, abbrevations, nonsensical words, and other stuff I make up on the fly as I'm listening and writing which codify all the information for me into a format I know I will remember. I've had a lot of professors who glance at my notes during class and get an amused perplexed look on their face lol.

I do the same thing. I also have the peculiar habit of once I have written some notes, I go back and reorganize and rewrite them so that they are cleaner and more integrated. I keep the images and symbols, just organized to fit better.

I do the same thing. I also have the peculiar habit of once I have written some notes, I go back and reorganize and rewrite them so that they are cleaner and more integrated. I keep the images and symbols, just organized to fit better.

Ya, occasionally I will do this as well... particularly if some topic was really entertaining for me. I should do it more often because it definitely does enhance my learning.

LMAO - I wish I didn't relate to this but in all honesty I do. . . . .Yeah I think we sometimes have to step back and realise that this is not productive it's just add making busywork for us.