Productivity helpers

A few weeks ago I spent the weekend away with my family and some friends of ours up north. Yes, Americans, I already live up north – but we went up north-er! Since things at the church had been crazy busy for a little while, I decided that I would leave all tech gadgets – laptop, cell phone, PDA, etc – at home and “go dark” for a weekend – primarily because I’ve found that my degree of connectedness is not really related to my degree of productivity.

As an artist and a procrastinator, getting things done is a big challenge for me. I will naturally work on 5 or 6 projects at a time and do them piece by piece rather tha sit down and just focus on finishing one thing. It drives my wife crazy but for some reason that’s how I work best.
I’ve developed a couple of my own systems for making sure that I DO get things done – with all these little things on the go, I’m notorious for forgetting things. At work I have little notes taped to the inside of my office door that remind me to check tomorrow’s calendar before I go home. At home there’s a little notepad where I write something down as soon as I remember that I need to do it.

I’m also big on finding productivity tools – this year I bought an HP iPaq and that has really been a big help for me because I have my calendar with me wherever I go. It has wifi so if I’m on the road I’m able to check email and sync it with my office Outlook – pretty cool.

Here’s my latest in my quest for productivity – https://www.behance.com/Outfitter/Products/Action-Book/4

The Action Book was designed by the Behance team and is based on the Action
Method. The four distinct zones on each page provide a flexible template to get
the most out of meetings and everyday brainstorm sessions (see usage guidelines
below).
Your Passion is your work, treat it well. The Action Book’s cover is
a unique suede-to-the-touch hard cover. The pages are made of 80lb Premium Blend
paper with a subtle texture (30% post-consumer recycled), printed full bleed,
double perforated, and three-hole punched between both perforations for maximum
flexibility.
The Action Book is part of Behance’s Action Method product
line, the first in a series of Behance projects to help creative professionals
boost productivity and make ideas happen. The Action Method was designed to help
us push projects forward by organizing our ideas and focusing on action steps.
An accordion-style pamphlet on how to practice the Action Method accompanies
every product.

I’ve ordered one and I’ll report back when it arrives.. But I’m pretty excited about trying it out.

Anyone else have productivity tools or tips that they use?