Benefits of List Making | List Producer

I’m Hosting a Free Productivity Apps Webinar

February 9, 2014/0 Comments/in Apps, Benefits of List Making, Increase Productivity, Reduce Stress, Saving Money, Saving Time, Technology, Tool for Success, Uncategorized, Webinar/by Paula Rizzo

A few weeks ago I hosted a free webinar – “Boost your Productivity in 2014“. I really enjoyed sharing all of my tips with you and one of the most frequently asked question was about which apps I find most useful. So, I am happy to announce that on February 26th at 8pm EST, I will holding my 2nd FREE webinar : Productivity Apps!!

If you follow my blog, then you know I love all kinds of apps and just can’t get enough of them! I am constantly researching and testing out new ones to see which work best for my productive needs. Apps have recently been taking over my “Fab Find” column on Fridays.

When I see people using the “Notes” app on their iPhones to keep their to-do’s or tasks, I literally cringe thinking back to when I used to do the same! There are so many great apps out there that blow “Notes” right out of the water. And don’t fear – they are mostly all free!

Checklist for Moving

February 4, 2014/0 Comments/in Benefits of List Making, Home, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, List Making, Pets, Reduce Stress, Uncategorized/by Paula Rizzo

Moving Day (Photo credit: Gavin St. Ours)

Recently, Jay and I made a major change — we bought a new apartment in Manhattan (YAY)! Totally exciting, but as I have come to realize, it can also be very stressful and overwhelming. I thought that after we finally closed on our place that there would be a sense of relief. But moving out of our old place and moving into our new one is a totally different story. So, as I embark on this new journey, I thought I would create a few lists (as usual) to lessen the stress!

Packing up the old memories and moving everything out.

Address change. Don’t forget to change your address to the new place. Here are forms on how to do it

Stock up! Make sure to stockpile boxes and tape! Having extra is okay in this case. You don’t want to run out mid packing and have to stop to buy more. Color coding the labels doesn’t hurt either.

De-Clutter! There is a lot more extra junk than you would think lurking around (even if you are organized.) Anything that you won’t be able to use in your new space should be donated. You can find a new home for anything like furniture, books, clothing or even a vintage car! If this is the case and you don’t want to sell your car, you will definitely need to organise car storage. With regards to clothes, you can either sell them, store them or give them to charity.

Organize Anything With SpringPad

January 30, 2014/2 Comments/in Apps, Benefits of List Making, Boost Memory, Increase Productivity, Learning With a List, List Making, Reduce Stress, Technology, Tool for Success, Wine/by Paula Rizzo

A friend of mine is moving for a new job and needed to get a lot organized in a short period of time. She tried a few apps that I’ve suggested on the site, but even my hero app Evernote couldn’t keep up with everything she needed to do. She needed an app that would allow her to make notebooks that could include tasks, people, events, lists, location information, and important links. While I can think of the best apps to handle each of those things individually, I couldn’t think of any that handled them all together. Until we found SpringPad.

SpringPad is a multi-faceted personal organization tool that is designed to help you plan or organize anything. Create custom notebooks for yourself, or share them with others to collaborate. Then, start filling those notebooks up with “springs.”

A spring could be anything, like:

Movies – When I spring a movie title Springpad creates a small icon with the poster of the movie. The app notifies me when the film comes out in theaters (and will help me find showtimes), when it comes out on DVD, and even when it is available on Netflix.

Links – For links, I usually use the “Spring It” feature, a button that lives in the bookmarks bar and allows me to “spring” any website to my SpringPad account. It’s a great way to save articles and videos to watch later. Read more

6 Productivity Shortcuts To Save You Time

January 19, 2014/2 Comments/in Benefits of List Making, Increase Productivity, List Making, People, Reduce Stress, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

Recently, a friend told me she heard a statistic that claimed that the average American living in suburbia can spend up to 3 years of their life waiting at traffic lights. I live in NYC so this time-waster doesn’t apply to me directly, but it really got me thinking about how I might be wasting time even in my very productive life. I’ve written before on the basics – laying out your clothes the night before, having a plan for the morning, etc – but I believe that just like goals are achieved by focusing on the small steps, maximum productivity is achieved through shortcuts.

Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Using keyboard shortcuts – The tech experts at brainwave.com estimate that you save 2 seconds per minute when you use keyboard shortcuts (vs. reaching for the mouse). If that doesn’t seem like a lot of time – that 2 seconds per minute adds up to 8 workdays per year – that’s an extra vacation!

De-cluttering Advice From Katie Couric

January 12, 2014/1 Comment/in Benefits of List Making, Home, List Making, People, Tool for Success/by Paula Rizzo

Recently, I read a Woman’s Day article where Katie Couric admitted that her nickname in college was “Pig-Pen” because of her messy dorm room. I’ve admired her forever, so I was shocked to discover that someone I would have bet money was a list producer would admit to being so disorganized!

It’s pretty cool that Katie admitted to still battling her “hoarder ways” and it helped me realize that my list making is actually a tool I use to prevent getting burnt out from balancing too many things on my plate. Sometimes, we all need tips and hacks to keep us on track, so here are a few tips on de-cluttering from Katie and me!

Katie’s Tips: Read more