How Do People Work At Work? Updated With Answers

Yeah, it's not one of the regular politics/eduction/pop culture/philosophy without a license posts. but a bit of variety never hurt. Heck, it might help me learn something.

Lifehacker has been running a weekly series that has their editors asking their "favorite writers and productivity hounds how they work, from the software and web sites they use daily to the PDA/personal organizer/system they use to keep organized." The specific questions include,

What apps/software/tools can't you live without?

What your workspace like?

What's your favorite to-do list manager?

What's your best time-saving trick?\

What do you listen to while you work?

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

What's the best advice you've ever received?

I'd like to read the answers that teachers and other non-tech gurus about their tips and tricks to stay organized, so leave your answers in the comments. I'll post my answers after this weekend's SCASD/SDFCA convention,

Update: My Answers

1. I can live without the Smart Board, but the projector to show YouTube videos, news articles, snippets of students' writing, or some stupid cartoon is something that I would hate to lose. Speaking of YouTube videos, the YouTube downloader is a necessity because the school blocks YouTube.

As a debate coach, I have to put in a plug for Joy of Tournaments online registration and tab room software that keeps saves me scores of hours each debate season.

I'll also cop out and list the cell phone which is a digital Leatherman that does nearly everything I need to outside the classroom.

2. I was a proud piles person. I could find everything until last year. This year is only 3 weeks old, but I've successfully kept the desk clean and ordered. I have set up a small two-desk fort in my room; one desk has an inbox, files for make-up work, an old pottery project that some student abandoned to hold staplers, scissors, tape, and other office supplies that students always need. The other has a phone that the office demands that I have and a desktop computer.

3. I need pen and paper. I can do the calendar on the smartphone, but my planning projects and keeping track of everything works better on paper. I suppose I should have added a Space Pen Bullet as technology that I can't live without.

4. I have to turn off the TV to save time. It's the biggest time suck in my life.

5. At school, I don't have anything on. During the summer, I listen to a lot of sports talk radio. My current music fix seems to be tighter vocal harmonies like Mumford and Sons or Little Big Town. I'm also enjoying Joan Osborne's recent blues album, Bring It On Home.

5. I think I make connections between dissimilar things or concepts well. I adapt to technology well for an old man.

6. The best advice I ever received is "it's far better to have people think you a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt." I wish that I followed it more.

Do These Mind Tricks Work??

In my world, work is work and play is work.  I don't really like work, hence I frequently procrastinate.  I also muse about methods to motivate myself and others.  Lifehacker, a website of much goodness, has posted the Top 10 Motivation Boosters and Procrastination Killers.  The list includes

10. Pick Good Sounds
9. Use Minor Distractions to Fend Off Big Distractions
8. Set a Timer and Crank Until It Beeps
7. Move and Breathe Like You're Excited
6. Make Your To-Do List Doable
5. Don't Check Email for the First Hour of Work
4. Create a Fake Constraint
3. Move Quickly on New Skills and Great Ideas
2. Have a Status Board (of Some Kind)
1. Understand and Overcome Your Fear of Failure

I really wonder if any of these work or if they are just more work.  Comments are welcome while I procrastinate.

Sunday Geek Gear Post 1

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

My mother clings to this verse as she constantly reminds me that she "raised [me] better than that."  She did her best, but she's only as good as the raw material she's been given.  When it comes to organization, she needs to pray that the "when he is old" clause in the proverb will kick in before I approach Methuselah's years.

I thought that I would use Sunday to point out accouterments that allow me to function despite my lack of innate organizing skills.  I should point out that I'm not a paid endorser of any of these items, but I'd be willing to be if someone offered.

I love 3x5 cards,  They're convenient for taking notes during meetings, keeping daily to-do lists, and organizing larger projects.  I use this Renaissance Art Leather Card Case.  I can put cards on both sides; one side has blank cards to write notes or keep track of kids who are absent or who didn't do an assignment that I'm grading for a completion grade.  Also, I am getting to the age that forces me to write stuff down, or I forget; so I keep random notes on this side.

The other side contains cards with reminders of what I want to do in each class or a list of "must-do" tasks.  The best part about these cards is the feeling that I get when I tear up one because everything on it is completed or the school day is over.

The card case also has an inner packet that holds between 10 to 12 extra cards

I try to color code cards as well.  I use white cards for note taking, a melon colored card for tasks that I should do at home, buff colored card for work tasks, and a green card for errands that require me to spend money.  When I'm ambitious, I print off cards from DIY Planner. I use the 4-up version and a paper cutter.  When I'm not, I buy non-neon packs of assorted-colored cards.

I'm not organized; I still have to sweat dozens of details that I shouldn't, but this piece of equipment allows me to function and get the really important stuff done.