Productivity and Facebook Friends

A fellow tumblr, Bill Israel, posted this on his tumblelog:

Resolutions are lame

I’ve spent the past week thinking about last year and how I want this year to be different. I realized very early in this thought process that I have no idea what my New Year’s Resolutions for last year were, but I’m reasonably certain they didn’t stick. So I’m not making resolutions this year; they never last.

Instead, I’m starting a list of things I’d like to do to improve my quality of life. There’s no pressure with this list; if something isn’t working out, then it either isn’t improving anything or I’ll simply try harder.

So, with that in mind, here’s my first pass at this list:

Slow down
Learn a new programming language
Budget better, save more
Write (at least) one original article per week
Read more
Commit to a todo system (regardless of which one)
Consume less frivolous media (less RSS, for example)
More music, less TV
More time with family/friends, less with my computer
I don’t think it’s an unreasonable list, and hopefully I can look back at this in a year and think “Well, I’ve done all those things…now what?”

I like that idea. Like I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fan of resolutions. I don’t like the idea that I need to change myself to be better. Lots of little improvements are much better than 1 big improvement in my head. So, I’m thinking about adopting that list. I’m not sure about the programming language, mainly because that’s one thing I really have no use for in my life.
One thing I have spent a lot of time reviewing recently, and would really like to focuse on in the coming future is increasing my productivity. Its something I’ve added leaps and bounds to in the past few months, but I think I can do more.
I’m taking my advice from two articles I’ve read recently, both based on the Getting Things Done idea. One is Practicing Simplified GTD by Gina Trapani on Lifehacker. The other is Improving Your Process: Boosting Productivity by Jonathon Christopher on Monday By Noon.
I’m not going to rehash these articles for you because they’re both quick reads, and they both will be beneficial, even if you don’t follow their advice exactly. But, I’m going to give you a little rundown on how I plan on implementing the advice they offer.
Really, what it comes down to for me, and both of these articles offer great solutions, is coming up with todo lists. My plan is to keep a daily todo list, a projects list (for anything that requires more than one step), and a someday, dream list. The other thing that needs to change is my e-mail. I was very good for sometime at keeping my inbox at zero(as per Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero, but I’m back up to about 100 messages in there (granted, they are all read, which is a big improvement). What I need to do is start dealing with e-mail on my terms, not on someone elses.

But now, you’re probably asking yourself, how does this affect me? Well, the Boosting Productivity article talks about cutting back on social networks. I’m constantly being flooded by news and information about people who I rarely think about or have no bearing on my life. So I’ve decided to take an hour and thoughtfully purge my friends list on Facebook. I’ve already deleted my MySpace acount (I think), but I enjoy the good aspects of Facebook, so I’m planning on keeping it. I’m not setting a goal of a certain number of friends I have to stay under, but my method is going to consist of eliminating friends with names I don’t recognize immediately (a sure sign I haven’t talked to them in quite a while) and people I haven’t talked to in considerable amounts of time and I honestly don’t see myself talking to them soon.
So, to those friends who don’t want to be deleted, chances are if you are reading this, you won’t be.
And, if you are one of the unlucky ones, its not you, its me.