Gaining Control Through Capture: 1. Gaining Control Through Capture – Part I 2. Journaling, Another Way of Capturing 3. Gaining Control Through Capture – Part II 4. The Capture Habit Thoughts pop into our minds and leave as fast as they came in, and create a chain reaction of other thoughts that are equally temporary. Every human being experiences this flow of ideas, which are largely lost, because the capacity of the human working memory only lasts a few seconds and reaches a maximum of only four elements. Capturing is a simple but very powerful habit, as it allows us to give a concrete and ..read more

This week we have published a new version of the mobile app (3.6.5) that includes the Collaborators option and will allow you to have your collaborators’ agendas at hand in your meetings with them. We’ve also included other small improvements and fixed some bugs. Collaborators and Agendas Access to the Collaborators option is from the main menu. As in the web application, the collaborator list is displayed divided into two lists. The first of them contains those collaborators who have at least one active action at the moment and, therefore, it will be the one you want to consult most of the ..read more

Gaining Control Through Capture: 1. Gaining Control Through Capture – Part I 2. Journaling, Another Way of Capturing 3. Gaining Control Through Capture – Part II In recent articles we have talked about the importance of capturing out of our heads everything that calls our attention to achieve real control over the commitments that we acquire in life, both those that we generate and those that come from external sources. As practical tools to capture in a massive way everything that may have relevance in our personal and professional lives, we have described the mind sweep and the focus horizo ..read more

So we have seen how capturing is the first step you need to take to gain control of your life. It is a behavior that, carried out habitually, allows you to become aware of what things concern you and are important to you in all aspects of your life, and, on the practical side, to generate a list or inventory of your pending commitments, internal or external, large or small, personal or professional. An additional way to increase your awareness and improve your control could be journaling. Journaling is about keeping a kind of diary, a written dialogue with yourself, in which you write down yo ..read more

Capturing is the first phase for gaining control of your life and building a positive relationship with your environment and the commitments you make. The goal of capturing is to identify what is relevant to you at any given moment. It’s about being aware of what things are catching your attention and, therefore, it’s an exercise that can have very important benefits on a personal level. Things that are running smoothly at the moment, or running “as they should,” are not going to get your attention at all. If your car is running properly and doing its job, you probably won’t think about it. I ..read more

We have just published a new feature in the FacileThings web application that will allow you to define Project Templates and generate specific projects from them whenever you need it. This feature has been incorporated into the Projects option itself (in the Organize menu) to facilitate the work, since the way to define a project template is practically the same as defining a project. If from time to time you carry out projects similar to others that you have done before, defining a template will allow you to automate the process and save time when launching new projects. Project Template Exa ..read more

A map is a visual representation of a geographic area that is a great help when you are somewhere you don’t know very well. Maps let you know exactly where you are and how to get where you want to be from there. They also help you if you need to take a detour for any reason and show you what interesting places are on your route. In short, a map offers peace of mind when you are in an unfamiliar place. It is also easy to feel a bit lost in life at certain times, especially when you have a wide range of responsibilities and interests (work, family, community, yourself), with constant changes an ..read more

Hello everyone! In January we published a series of small improvements, while you wait for the next new feature, Project Templates, which will be available in a few weeks. The Project Templates feature will be within the same Projects option, and you will be able to create them in the same way that you currently create a project. It will be very simple. The difference is that the actions in a project template will be “virtual” and will not appear in any general list until you generate a real project from that template. Since you can generate as many projects as you want from a template, this ..read more

We all have the ability to think and analyze things that appear in our lives to effectively determine what we should do with each of them and also to determine which of them we should do absolutely nothing with. But many people don’t do this, or don’t do it often. Instead of taking the time to think about the commitments they have in their life and work, they leave it to their mind to remind them of things. But the mind is not designed to do this effectively; it will remind us of things at any time, sometimes when we can’t do anything about it, and sometimes when it’s too late. Other times it ..read more

The main goal of the GTD methodology is to help you keep your attention on what is important for you at all times and levels. To do so, it provides tools that help you focus on what you need when you need it. At the core of GTD are three working models that have been empirically tested and validated over the years, through daily use and experimentation by people who needed a clearer vision of their lives. These three processes allow you to effectively manage workflow, projects and priorities. The first one helps you gain control and the other two give you perspective. Let’s take a look at eac ..read more