Indus Khaitan of The Morpheus sent me an interesting post on “How we waste time on email”.

The inbox, used appropriately, can be one of the most successful productivity tools of all time.  For most of us, however, it ends up being a huge time sink.

Yes, true!

We found there were a number of deadly pains of email, but probably the biggest one was trying to keep track of complex interdependent tasks where you have to contact other people and involve them in a network of obligations…

Yes, yes, yes.

One of the reasons such “networks of obligations” are so taxing, Bellotti says, is that crucial information may be in any one of the replies, and it’s difficult for the recipient to remember just where. Thus, copious amounts of time are spent scrolling through the thread looking for that critical project deadline or contact number. She estimates that about 20% of the time in email “is spent either organizing stuff of trying to find stuff.”

A messaging system (a.k.a email) that used to be a one on one tool has been transformed into a tool that project managers and teams love. True, it is easy to email tasks and project messages around but as the complexity increases, so will the frustration of finding things. They say time is money.

This was the whole point we created DeskAway and our one line pitch is still the same:

DeskAway is a tool to overcome the limitations of email and spreadsheet-based collaboration by helping teams organize, manage, and track their work from a central location.

Check out the article here.

I am sure you’ll have enough to read on a daily basis so this might seem a bit overwhelming. Beware!
I came across a pretty comprehensive list of top 50 productivity blogs on Zen Habits and thought it might be a good idea to browse through them and bookmark the ones that could interest you. Over the next few weeks we will be tweeting selected articles from some of these sites. If you don’t want to go through all of these then follow @DeskAway and site back and relax. We’ll do the sifting and bringing you the best articles in productivity.

The A List

• Lifehacker
• 43 Folders
• Lifehack.org
• Web Worker Daily
• Get Rich Slowly
• Dumb Little Man
• Steve Pavlina

The Rest of Us (not in any order)

• Wise Bread Personal Finance Forum
• Zen Habits
• The Simple Dollar
• LifeDev
• David Seah
• What’s the next action
• Getting Things Done
• Scott H Young
• Productivity501
• Black Belt Productivity
• LifeClever
• Productivity Cafe
• steve-olson.com
• Pick the Brain
• The Daily Saint
• Daily PlanIt
• Life Optimizer
• Leadership Training | Cultivate Greatness
• The Cranking Widgets Blog
• My Empty Bucket
• HD Biz Blog
• Open Loops
• Motivational Speaker – Craig Harper
• Your Life. Organized.
• Effective Time Management
• Laura Stack – The Productivity Pro
• Make It Great! with Phil Gerbyshak
• Slacker Manager
• Managing with Aloha
• Getting Finances Done
• Neat Living Blog
• GTD Wannabe
• Organize IT
• Matt’s Idea Blog
• Ian’s Messy Desk
• Passion Meets Purpose
• patrickrhone.com
• Achieve IT!
• Personal Development For A Greater Life
• The Positivity Blog
• Change your thoughts
• Legal Andrew
• ProductivityGoal
• Success Begins Today

If you are working from home, office, coffee shop or even on the road, here are some pretty cool productivity tips. 3 of my favorites are:

In coffee shops I have a few rules: Try to face a wall and never a busy street, and order a small drink to minimize bathroom breaks. — Corina Kellam, Founder of Life History Books Ltd.

Plan on wasting time. Instead of keeping unnecessary windows open (chats, blogs, twitter, etc.) all day long, work intently with no distractions for a given time, then give yourself (significantly shorter) blocks of time to be unapologetically unproductive. — Matthew Hall, Jr. Consultant at Mutual Mobile

Do NOT check your e-mail for the first 45 minutes that you are in the office in the morning. Don’t even open it. There are never meetings at that time and most people are settling in and reading their e-mails, so it’s a mellow time (not too much talking, few drive-bys, hallway conversations and urgent requests rarely happen). — Amanda Feifer O’Brien, Marketing Manager at Firmenich Inc.

Do you have any particular ones that you use?

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
-Paul J. Meyer

Read an interesting article on Fast company on ‘Time Blocking’ as a method to avoid distractions and increase productivity. The writer has given the example of an office with no cubicle or private space where getting work done becomes a difficult task due to constant disruptions due to surrounding people.

Today with the internet, even in a cubicle or private office a person can find himself disrupted all the time with emails, chat messages, notifications and more!

Gina Trapani suggest in the article to block some time off where you are focussing on the particular work,

Being available to your boss and co-workers is part of your job. But the most creative and important work you do requires total focus and attention for an extended period of time. Your brain needs at least 15 minutes of uninterrupted time to dive in, concentrate on one thing, and get into the zone where you’re truly focused and doing your best work. Time blocking is a technique that sets the stage for that to happen. Read More.

I totally agree with this, definitely time blocking is needed in work as well personal life! I find it crucial to spend time with myself and also with friends and family. These time outs ensure that things are going on the right or desired track.

What do you think? Is this something you do to manage time better?