Me, me, me, me….. Improving productivity can be a tad self-centred. It’s about focusing on oneself.

This misses a vital dimension. We mostly work in teams. We make demands on others. Yet we don’t think as deeply about that as we ought. We rarely give much brain space to the way we waste the time of other people.

This is hardly logical, since we know too well how much of our time other people waste.

Peter Drucker had a characteristically simple approach. To find out how and when you waste the time of others, you just ask them. Then you can eliminate it.

Effective people have learned to ask systematically and without coyness, “What do I do that wastes your time without contributing to your effectiveness?” To ask such a question, and ask it without being afraid of the truth, is a mark of the effective executive.

Peter Drucker, The Essential Drucker, 2007, p177.

You wonder about some people’s pronunciation. In what strange dialect does “teux deux” sound like “to do”?

Put it down to the world shortage of good website addresses.

Then, when you’ve finished muttering out loud and worrying people… have a look at TeuxDeux. That is, if you’re looking for a simple, free, web-based, to-do list app.

There’s no fuss or clutter. With a week in view, you can enter tasks, check them off as done, delete and move them. There’s a someday bucket. All very neat for someone who likes daily lists, and spends most of their time on an internet-enabled computer.

Apps for iPhone and Air being worked on, and Blackberry coming later, apparently.

The intro video, 2mins 20secs, tells it like it is.

TeuxDeux Demo from TeuxDeux on Vimeo.