Now read this: Zen to Done. Zen to Done takes bits and pieces from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and merges them into 10 guiding principles that you can pick and choose a la carte, these are the high-level habits. It then offers specific advice and examples on how to implement these habits. When I read GTD, I did not like having to slog through anecdote after anecdote, and with Zen to Done, you don’t have to. The book is structured so that you can just get the habits down, or just the specifics, or you can read the whole thing. Plus, it’s an e-book, so it’s dirt cheap and you can read it… now!

While you’re there, you might as well check out the Zen Habits Blog. Lots of great stuff on there too.

In his own words, “43 Folders is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.” He is now re-dedicating his site to people who want to actually do stuff. GTD is great, he claims, but he’s tired of pampering the converts who don’t have a clue how to GTD once they’ve inbox zeroed, and reduced background noise.

It’s a really risky post, but boy did it inspire me. Check out Merlin’s post on 43 Folders here.

It felt just like an experience I had when I needed a creative boost. I’m an illustrator, and a year or two ago I was feeling stuck so I read the first few chapters of “The Artist’s Way” and started the practice of Morning Pages. Each day, I’d wake up and write three pages of whatever came out. This was meant to get my juices flowing, and to spark my creativity. I’d scribble streams of consciousness, sense or nonsense, I’d write…. for an hour, or two, and then work at my job which was more meetings and less drawing. After about a week I felt like the baker who spends all his time making sure his shop looks nice, and who forgot to actually do any baking. So I swapped the pages for morning art and started doing a painting each morning (my inspiration was my commute). Soon after I actually left that job and now paint and draw full time.

So, we at GrowthPop applaud Merlin’s clarity of vision, and courage to get it done even against the inertial energy of his very popular site.

Many times a day, I’ll jump into my iTunes to switch up the playlist, or find something new. I have a big library, so there’s lots there. Should just take a second, right? Not if I get sucked in to fixing duplicates, changing all the artist names to be spelled the same way (GrowthPop, growth pop, gRowth_Pop?).

This ends up eating a lot of my day, so I found a solution. I tried using Fixtunes, but it didn’t recognize the hundreds of songs I have with no information, and hung exactly 100% of the time. Then I found Jaikoz! Jaikoz fixes your tags, and does it by checking not only the track info you have, but will check the actual audio file itself and compare it to its database. It basically listens to your music, and recognizes the song. Then you can tell it to just autocorrect the whole thing.

One word of caution, it’s got a lot of options, and it’s made by one guy, so you’re best off reading the documentation to make sure you do it right. This is what worked for me, and we make no guarantees…

This is what we did:

• Drag your music library in
• Click “Action->Remote Correct->Get Acoustic ID
• Click “Action->Autocorrect
• Close the program and say “yes” to save out the changes

For a lot of files, it takes a while, and I had to drag all my music back into iTunes, but hooboy, it’s nicer to look at than a spotless kitchen!

Check out the software here.

Growth Potential: Personally, I don’t follow his bible to the letter, but I use some of techniques and feel much less worried all the time: worried that I’m forgetting something, or which movie was that I wanted to see, or “did I forget my bills this month?” Allen’s mantra is a good one, “Do it, delegate it, defer it, or drop it.” One example: put your morning todos in a place that you will go look at in the morning. If you put something on the bag you take to work, you’ll see it. If you put it on your desk, you might not. So now I always store information in places that I will literally trip over, and it works!

Pop Potential: This book or audio is really for everyone. That said, this is a national bestseller with testimonials from Ken Blanchard (The One Minute Manager), The Wall Street Journal, Fortune and Entrepreneur magazines, he’s got the credentials. With great quotes from famous artists, writers, scientists and political leaders. Even so, you don’t have to be a self-help or transformation junkie, this is for anyone who does anything at anytime ever. Do you ever go shopping? Buy groceries? Do anything? Get this book.

“Get Real” Potential: I listened to the audio version, and the narrator is a little slow. The book repeats itself a lot, which is pretty good for remembering stuff if you missed it, but Mr Not-So-Exciting leaves me a little dry (his guilty pleasure is trimming his hedges). He also calls his email inbox an “inbasket” … I don’t feel like I need to explain my feelings on that.

What I Got out of it: I got a few techniques for organizing my head that I wouldn’t do without. I’m not a convert, I won’t be putting on his brand of black sneakers or buying the kool aid, but I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to enjoy their life with a little less worry. I’d then go pick up the Four Hour Workweek and move to Europe. I’d say more, but I have an “inbasket” to take care of.

Purchase Getting Things Done, by David Allen