Personally, I found Perry Marshall's newsletter inspirational, and he gives excellent list of action items that can be done. On top of it, he buttresses his action list with testimonials, which gives them great credibility.

I can see where you are going with this, you are looking for an online version of a "life" coach. But perhaps you are looking too broadly. There are web-based approaches to helping people lose weight, quit smoking, or sell more. These involve domain knowledge. On top of it, if you can build a community of journeyers, who can support each other as they go along, to provide visibility, accountability and encouragement, then you're onto something really useful.

David:

Two lightweight tools that allow you to get at your notes or lists from anywhere are:

SyncNotes ({ Link }

Ta-Da List ({ Link } - from the makers of Basecamp which you've already gotten a couple of recommendations for in your previous post)

[A working tada for non english chars would be a start ;o)]

David, some of the action based examples are not so much of action management as you might think them to be. :)

As examples of what worked good, I really meant the accessible from everywhere aspect. Because it does not interrupts my work anymore, with switching from paper to computer and back again. Getting rid of this problems allows me to focus instead of being distracted.

I have used two feedreaders for a long time but since I started bloglines as my sole feedreader I actually am able to follow my feeds. The inspirational part in it is to clip save things for later working through, a kind of 'process this later' with a preset of folders for easier access later. Flexibility in handling is the key to easier access later plus not needing to handle the saving on my site. This allows me to work with the entries instead of just leaving them because it is a hassle.

Bloglines also allows me to explore other feeds and look into them without the hassle of first subscribing or downloading. It offers me relation between them.

Gmail is my not my main mailprogramm but it is near there. It allows me to archive things so I can get them out of my inbox. Clean, easy interface, very good search mechanisms, just works. These are two examples of getting rid of the main hassle - synchronisation between different sets of computers and easy access.

I would like to use the advantages of a working outliner to structure thoughts based on different aspects to look at them (tag them differently). This is not action management but about production of ideas.

If I start brainstorming, I usually get as a result dozens of papers around me on different topics. At the moment I am keeping ~10 sheets of paper where I start outlining some books I am thinking of, for example 'what you really should know to survive excel'. So just one outliner view is not enough, I want notes. But not in the unstructured Wikitype and not in that ugly window of editing wiki normally has.

Enter everything which comes to my mind, tag it later, sort it later. If I enter categories / tags, I want autocompletion. This helps tremendously. I want different views on such projects - list form, graphical view.

I do like inspirational quotes - in fact, my homepage for my browser shows one of a selection each time I load it. Creates thinking about that each time.

My last one: Nothing is so smiple that it can't get screwed up.

;o)

Nicole

I wrote up some habit changing tips, and created a page that you should make as your homepage if you're finding that the internet has become a major time sink.

{ Link }

{ Link }

People seem to like it, and I've received a lot of positive feedback on it.

My partner has written a reminder program that we use in our company. You send it an email, which it will then send back to you on a recurring basis. You can set up when the first message gets set, and how often they get resent when the trigger time has passed.

For example, I use it for household tasks like watering the plants (four days after the last water, reminder once a day till I do it, reset to four days), and cleaning the electrostatic furnace filter (one month after the last clean, once a day reminder till I do it, reset to 30 days).

It's not inspirational, but it is helping me to do things which I'd otherwise have to think about at some level.

We're also using it for 'nags' between members of our team, because I think it is irritating on many levels to be asked to do something more than once by someone. But, it's important to be reminded. So, one person can set up a reminder for another, and then the social part of the nag goes away.

We've been using this for 6 months or so, and it has filled in a huge gap in our reminder system. It bridges todo lists and hard calendar items.

I've been using Cool Running's great running log for over a year now. { Link } Highly motivational. I used to use an excel spreadsheet to log workouts, but I'm hooked on this site. I log all exercise, not just running. Concept2 ({ Link } also has a great log that is intended for users of their rowing machines, that includes rankings, competitions, challenges, etc. I find logging anything I'm trying to accomplish or get better at extremely motivational.

I haven't used it long enough to know if it passes "stick with it" test, but I got ThinkTQ's Time Prism workshop about 45 days ago, and it has been good. There are 10 focus areas and a workshop that you go through for each (one short set of activities each day for 30 days). You do most of the activities off-line (mostly reflecting and feeding stuff into my GTD trusted system) then you update your "what I'm doing / what I'm not doing" status at an online portal. What it's helped me do is get to a good "gap analysis" based on a test you take when you first begin, which has allowed me to prioritize which workshops I do first to develop better habits. So far, so good.

Not exactly web-based, but computer based:

1) My computer periodically displays images related to the ends I'm working toward.

2) Likewise, I've got my computer set to periodically remind me how much progress I've made already, so I can relive some of the rush of success.

BJ Fogg, a researcher at Stanford, calls this Captology.

Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people's attitudes or behaviors.

{ Link }

Not the current version of Weightwatchers online, but the one they used in 2003 (I find the current one inferior).

Reasons why the old one worked:

1) Its "food calculator" educated me about what foods and quantities were healthy for me. Excellent long-term education here.

2) The system set a weekly target in straightforward units called "points." I had a right to 20 points per week (or something like that.) On a daily basis I would enter what I ate and how much I exercised, and it would compute my positive points (what I ate) and subtract my negative points (what I exercised). It was quite easy to enter the data and to have the system translate it into points.

3) The web-based system tracked my progress over time, both food and exercise. It also kept track of my overall weight, which was the ultimate goal. It was inspiring to have access to my progress graphs over several weeks.

What I think could be transferable to a GTD web-based system:

1) Create a quantitative way for people to self-evaluate how well they applied GTD this week (e.g., rate the scuzz factor re. your stuff using a scale of 0-10; rate your dissatisfaction with unkept commitments with self; with others; rate how satisfied you are with your weekly review; rate how empty your inbox is, rate how much you trusted your system this week; etc.);

2) Compute "GTD score" based on self-evaluation in (1). System sets next week's target as better, but doable (small increments).

3) Provide tracking mechanism for person to see progress over time, over one or several of variables above. Graphs are good.

4) Provide practical tips, general as well as targeted (e.g. user consistently does not improve in one of the dimensions defined in (1)).

5) Perhaps send automatic motivational emails to users, containing tips and success stories (WW also did that.)

I second the suggestion to check out ThinkTQ. I am only a subscriber to their free DailyTQ, but it is clear that here is an insightful, high-quality planning and focus virtual coach. I will probably buy their pay-based subscription, based on the quality of the stream of insightful questions, day after day, in their free subscription. Also, since they cover different territory than you (10,000 ft+), you might be able to partner with them in some way.

Here's a funny one, but nobody has mentioned it yet, so... check out www.flylady.net. A set of standard daily reminders, testimonials from "flybabies" and "flywashing" essays to help us change attitudes, love ourselves and our families and keep our homes in order. Easy to dismiss, but has been remarkably helpful to this professional.