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of 26
8/8/2019 Productive Magazine 05
1/26
4Cultivating Good Habits
4Getting Focused Easier
4Making Meetings Work
4Productivity on the iPad
Luis Miguel Urrea Guia Michael Hyatt Leo Babauta Jocelyn Glei Stephen Smith Howard Flomberg James Mallinson Andrew Filev Michael Sliwinski
magazine
Exclusive Interview
S p o n s o r e d b y
#5 (August 20www.ProductiveMagazine.com
LuisMigueL
urreaguia
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2/26
Our Magazine joins
Productive Firm to receiveregular updates
From the Editor
By Michael Sliwinski, Editor
Iam very happy to oer you this
newest, th issue o your Productive!
Magazine. This is a breakthrough
issue as I believe we have nailed the
way this magazine will be published in the
uture and its going to be an exciting time
or you and or our small team.
We have some really antastic authors
publishing regularly or us and we decided
to give you a new issue o the magazine
every two months until the end o this year.
In December, based on your eedback,
readership and the experience gathered
publishing this magazine, well decide how
oten to publish issues in 2011.
We want to give you more productivity-
related content, not only with this
magazine but also through short videos,
additional in-depth articles and books.
This is why we are launching a new
productivity membership site called
Productive! Firm and both this magazine
and my Productive! Show will now be
a part o this site. Im sure youll love it.
Members o Productive Firm will also
receive inside scoop beore the magazine
gets published, will be able to read
the entire, uncut interview with each
issues guest and more. Speaking about
our guests, this time we decided to try
something dierent and you probably
dont know the person on the cover o
the magazine. But believe me, you want
to get to know him.
I got many emails rom people saying
I ocus too much on celebrities like David
Allen and Guy Kawasaki... and I should
be interviewing people who are highly
productive... but are regular people like
you and me. So I chose one o my closest
riends and one o the most amous
Spanish sculptors Miguel Guia.
Luis Miguel Urrea Guia (thats his
complete name) is a sculptor, an artist who
also runs a series o successul companies
in Madrid, Spain. We used to work closely
together on some projects and I was
always amazed how he got stu done. He
quickly became my productivity guru and
actually he inspired me to build the rst
magazine
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3/26
version o Nozbe my GTD productivity
app. In the interview Miguel Guia explains
his way o approaching productivity and
cultivating good habits that help him get
more done.
Continuing the theme o successul
entrepreneurs and productivity in small
companies, weve got great articles by our
regular contributors like Leo Babauta (who
was our eatured guest in the last issue o
the magazine), Michael Hyatt and others...
Hope you like the new changes to the
magazine and how it is coming together.
Im sure youll love this issue o your
avorite productivity magazine and now,
without urther ado I encourage you
to prepare a beverage o your choice, sit in
a comortable armchair, and grab the iPad
to read this new issue o the Productive!
Magazine. Enjoy!
Yours productively,
Michael Sliwinski (@MichaelNozbe)
Founder, Nozbe Simply Get It Done!
magazine
#03/2009 www.ProductiveMagazine.com Sponsored by
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4/26
05Michael SliwinskiDitch the bad habits andcultivate the good onesInterview with Luis MiguelUrrea Guia
08
Leo BabautaFrictionless Work:How to Clear Your Lieo Non-Essential Tasks
10
Michael HyattScheduling Time in theAlone Zone
13Howard FlombergQuick&Dirty Guide to:Meetings how to makethem work
16James MallisonGetting Things DoneFASTER
18Stephen SmithKanban Changes thePerspective 22
Michael Sliwinski7 ways the new AppleiPad will increase yourproductivity
ableo contents
20Andrew FilevFocusing on GettingThings Done with ProjectManagement 2.0
Productive!Magazine
www.ProductiveMagazine.com
Sponsor:
www.Nozbe.com
Your Online tool or Getting Things Done
available in your computer browser, mobile phone and
on your iPhone.
Chie Editor:
Michael Sliwinski
Technical Editor:
Maciej Budzich
www.blog.mediaun.pl
Editorial Team:
Lori Anderson
Delna Gerbert
Dustin Wax
Tribute:
Marc Orchant (1957-2007)
The Productive!Magazine is dedicated
to the memory o a productivity guru,
great blogger and a very close riend,
Marc Orchant who passed away on 9th
December 2007.
All articles are copyright by their respective authors.
Productive!Magazine is copyright by Michael Sliwinski.
Getting Things Done and GTD are the registered
trademarks o the David Allen Company.
24Jocelyn Glei10 Laws oProductivity
magazine
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5/26
Q: Who are you and what do you do for living?
Im Luis Miguel Urrea Guia and Im a sculptor and painter
known under a nickname Miguel Guia and Im also an owner o
several businesses and a senior semi-proessional athlete Im
the residing champion o Spain in hammer throw my senior age
category.
Q: Please tell me more about what inspires you as an artist?
My passion is to make art accessible to everyone with sense o
beauty, as a sculptor and painter Im completely in love with art
and as a second generation o an artisan amily, throughout the last
ten years, I have intended to bring back more dignity o art pieces
to homes in all over the world.
Productive! Magazine Interview with Luis Miguel Urrea Guia
by Michael Sliwinski
Ditchthe badhabitsandcultivatethe goodones
magazine
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6/26
Q: What is the rhythm of your day? How
do you work?
I have intense days, although or a while
I have been organizing my time well. I get
up early and spend my day on advancing
all the necessary matters. My work order is
to prepare ideas early, analyze what steps
need to get done to achieve my daily goals,
and concentrate totally on these since the
very start.
Q: Spain is famous for siesta a mid-
day 2-3 hour nap. I heard you didnt
believe in them?
Well, it is not really a matter o belie, its
a Spanish custom and I respect it. I know
there are people who cant live without it. I just
personally preer to sleep well during nights
and use every minute o the day constructively
(and simply enjoy the whole day).
Q: What is your system of productivity
like? How do you use it on daily basis?
So, to start with I have a notebook
always on my table and I write down all the
things I want to do on a given day. I do my
best to see them all through and i I cant,
I postpone them or the ollowing day.
As I have said beore, I write down the
topic and the main points o each action,
i I have to call I add the phone number,
some commentary about the person and
the main purpose o the call. Now, at
the time o the phone call I have all this
inormation right here in my notebook.
The most important part o my system
is a blue or green marker once a task
is done, I cross it with the marker. This is
very rewarding as it relaxes me as the day
progresses to see the page ll in with green.
As a sculptor and painter Im completely in love
with art.
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7/26
Q: I know you are an early riser. Why is
getting up early so important to you?
For many years now I have preerred
to enjoy the light, peaceulness and good
vibration ater good rest. No one bothering
me with daily things. Im the rst person
in the oce and Im getting a lot done
beore anyone shows up. This way Im
progressing very well throughout the
day. I have an expression that perectly
describes this: i you dont get up early,
youll keep on running the whole day with
your tongue out o your mouth trying
to catch up with everything.
Q: How did practicing sports influence
your way of working and self-
organization?
Since early childhood I have been
practicing sports that required a strong
discipline and compromise with the
trainer and colleagues rom team.
With years, this routine translated
into a certain way o living. You have
to schedule your day to have enough
time or work, trainings and enjoying lie.
This kind o physical and psychological
tness is required in sports like athletics
or american ootball. They help you
develop your will to make the extra eort
and to pursue your goals.
Q: What differences are there between
being a boss of a company, sculptor and
sportsman?
As a boss and an artist Im a bit o
Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, although
none o them wins. My artistic vision does
not allow the company part to destroy
the artistic essence o our projects, and
the business part does not allow the
business topics infuence the ormer. As
a sportsman, as I have said beore, all the
eort and dedication that is used in this
eld helps me to work better with my team
at work, too.
Q: What tips would you give to people
who do not know how to organize
themselves and do not know where
to start?
I have been giving little hints all though
this interview. To organize work well, it is
essential to prepare all the topics in the
morning and work through them beore all
the interruptions and daily oce lie makes
you resolve them improperly.
In this lie it is all about habits, good
ones.. or the bad ones. You just really need
to get rid o all those bad habits and pick
up new ones that will help you in your path
to an organized lie. Getting up early, sports
and strength o will are always a good
start. Its about a conscious decision how
you want your lie to be and how you want
to live it.
You have to schedule
your day to have
enough time for work,
trainings and enjoying
life.
Luis Miguel
Urrea Guia is a
amous sculptor
and painter,
a national
athlete and a
businessman. He lives and works in
Madrid, Spain in Europe. His mission
is to bring world-class art to every
home (under nickname: Miguel Guia)
and hes committed to getting it done.
He takes inspiration rom masters like
Picasso, Dali or Chillida among others.
His web site: MiguelGuia.com
About Miguel Guia
magazine
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8/26
Scheduling imein the Alone Zone
You schedule time for large meetings, small meetings, conference calls, and phoneappointments. If you are like many leaders, you often feel that your life consists of nothing
BUT meetings. As a result, there is no time to complete the work you volunteer for, agree to,
or are assigned in those same meetings. What can you do? Simple: Schedule time for you.
by Michael Hyatt
Y
ou need time or what Jason
Fried and David Heinemeier
Hansson, authors o Rework,
call the Alone Zone:
Long stretches o alone time are when
you are the most productive. When you
dont have to mind-shit between various
tasks, you get a boatload done. (Ever
notice how much work you get done on
a plane since youre ofine and there are
zero outside distractions (p. 105).
But this kind o alone time doesnt
happen by accident. Like everything else
in the leaders lie, you must be intentional,
i you want to be eective.
I personally schedule our kinds o alone
time:
1. Morning time. I typically get up at 5:00
a.m. I do my most important tasks right
away, including exercise and reading.
I also try to get done my single most
important to-do item beore I leave
or the oce. Why? Because I know a
thousand interruptions and distractions
await me once I arrive.
2. Weekly appointments. I literally block
out time on my calendar with the clever
title o Oce Work. I generally do this
on Sunday night as I prepare or the next
weeks meetings. When I am really on the
ball, I do this a month in advance. The
beautiul thing is that when someone asks
or that time slot, I can legitimately say, Im
sorry, but I already have a commitment
then. Its a commitment to mysel.
3. Quarterly reviews. I schedule a day and
a hal by mysel each quarter. I have
written about it on this blog beore, so
I wont repeat mysel here. However,
this is a time when I can refect back
over the previous quarter and then look
orward to the coming quarter. Its an
opportunity to poke my head above the
clouds and see where I am going with
my businessand my lie.
4. Travel time. I am never more productive
than when I am in an airplane. However,
I have to be very intentional. I upgrade
when I can. I thats not possible, I get
an exit row seat. (Its dicult to be
productive when the person in ront
i you has their seat reclined, and
their head is practically in your lap!)
Specically, I try to work on projects
that require extended creativity. I plan
in advance which projects I am going to
tackle.
I am sometimes asked, How do you
get it all done? Part o the secret is by
scheduling time to get it done. What about
you?
Michael Hyatt
is the President
and CEO
o Thomas
Nelson, the
largest Christian
publishing
company in the world and the seventh
largest trade book publishing company
in the U.S. Michael has written our
books, one o which landed on the
New York Times bestseller list. Hyatt
serves as Chairman o the Evangelical
Christian Publishers Association
(ECPA). He has been married to his
wie, Gail, or twenty- eight years. They
have ve daughters and two grand
daughters and live outside o Nashville,
Tennessee.
Michaels blog: MichaelHyatt.com
Michael on Twitter: @MichaelHyatt
About Michael Hyatt
Long stretches of alone time are when you are the
most productive.
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Nozbe web app syncs with native iPad and iPhone apps... and Evernote!
ime and Project Managementor Busy Proessionals and their eams
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Frictionless Work:How to Clear Your Lie oNon-Essential asks
Its not the work which kills people, its the worry. Its not the
revolution that destroys machinery its the riction.
~ Henry Ward Beecher
by Leo Babauta
How much o your day is spent
doing administrative tasks,
and not creating or doing other
important work?
How much time do you spend responding
to emails and IMs and social networks,
making payments, doing paperwork, ling,
sitting in meetings, driving, doing errands,
and so on? How much o that could be
cleared up or more important work?
Imagine this or a moment: you have no
administrative tasks, only the core work that
you love doing. Your day has been cleared
or creating, building, doing high-impact
projects. Isnt it lovely?
Is this a pipe dream? Perhaps or some,
who have little control over their work. But
i you have a larger degree o control, lets
explore the idea o rictionless work or
even rictionless living.
I you have little control, consider a
change.
My Frictionless Business
I know I dont have a typical job, but that
didnt happen overnight and I did this on
purpose. Today, I have a ew successul
blogs and a handul o successul books.
Only a year ago, that required a lot o
administrative work so much so that I
hired an admin assistant to help out, and
outsourced other work.
But assistants, employees, delegating,
and outsourcing are not hassle-ree each
comes with work o its own: email or phone
Imagine this for a moment: you have no
administrative tasks, only the core work that you
love doing.
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11/26
calls, ollowing up, checking the quality o
work, doing contracts, reviewing terms,
clariying, ring, searching or a better
employee/contract company, paying, lling
out tax ino, and on and on.
The better solution is to simpliy. Eliminate
non-essential tasks. And so I did, slowly:
- I eliminated comments rom Zen Habits,
cutting back on a huge amount o work
or me. Comments turn a major blog into a
orum, where the blogger is the moderator.
It takes hours to moderate a major blog, and
while I outsourced that or months, it was
always a major headache that required a lot
o work. Eliminating comments, which only
a tiny minority o readers used, eliminated
my need or that admin work or or hiring a
moderator.
- I stopped doing work that required me
to do paperwork or admin work. That meant
losing some income rom consulting and
other business, but it also meant a lot more
ree time or what I love doing.
- When a guest writer submits a guest
post, I no longer ormat the post but require
the writer to ormat it and submit or my
review. Mostly now I just need to read over
the post and hit publish.
- I got out o a bunch o ad networks
that were always asking me to do admin
work. That was a loss o income, but it also
simplied my website. Now I sell one ad a
month (which Im also eliminating), and do
almost no work the advertiser presses a
Paypal button to reserve the ad, and emails
me the ad image and link code.
- I eliminated email, or the most part,
except or collaborative projects (which are
ew and ar between). My email time went
rom hal my day to a ew minutes a day.
- I sell ebooks automatically through
e-junkie, and aliate payments are also
computed automatically.
- I now have almost no admin work to
run my blogs: I write, and publish. Once a
month I log into my Paypal account, send
out aliate payments, and transer money
to my bank account (and rom there, my
bills are automatically paid and money is
automatically transerred to savings).
This is not to brag. I know I have it easy
compared to most, but this has all been
done gradually and on purpose. I created
this rictionless work.
What Are Your Admin Tasks?
Take inventory o your work: what admin
tasks take up your time? Add to this list
over the course o the next couple o days,
because youre probably orgetting some.
Now ask yoursel: which o these can be
eliminated? Many o you will probably answer,
Very ew, because youre used to the way
things are done. This is how things are done.
But thats an articial limitation instead, ask
yoursel how it can be changed. How might it
be possible? Think radically dierent.
To eliminate tasks, you might have to
make major changes over time, but the
beauty is that youll also be reeing up time.
Consider some examples:
I you do a lot o paperwork, can you
require orms to be lled out digitally,
perhaps online? This will eliminate a lot o
work, and i the database is set up right,
eliminate ling.
I you spend a lot o time on calls or
email, can you provide other ways or
people to get ino or get things done?
Perhaps put up an FAQ online, so common
questions are answered (like Google does
or its product support), or provide web
pages where people can automatically
download products or get other things
done without you as the bottleneck? Or
can you route those requests to someone
else?
Also unsubscribe rom newsletters and
notications and so orth, so you dont
have to spend time processing them in your
inbox. Consider each email that comes
in and ask yoursel: How could this be
eliminated?
Can you eliminate meetings, or at least
get out o them? How can you get the ino
By radically rethinking your work, you might be able
to eliminate a lot of admin tasks.
Paulus Rusyanto - Fotolia.com
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12/26
without meetings? How can projects get
done without the meetings?
I you worked at home, you wouldnt
have to commute, or do a lot o other tasks
associated with working in an oce. Its not
always possible, but oten you can work
towards that goal.
Can you drop clients or parts o your
business, losing a little income but
eliminating all the admin work that goes
with it? The ree time could be spent
creating something that would more than
make up or the loss o income.
Can you eliminate eatures that arent
completely essential, so you dont have to
do all the work to support those eatures
(similar to how I eliminated comments)?
Can you stop worrying so much about
growth, customers, competitors, statistics,
and so orth and ocus instead on what
you love doing? A great quote by web
designer and developer Sam Brown: I
used to stress a lot about my business, my
clients, the amount o work I was doing and
my competitors but the minute I stopped
worrying about all o that and ocussed on
just doing great work that I was happy with
it really made a big dierence, to me and
my business.
I you think a task is necessary under the
current conditions, consider changing the
current conditions.
These are just a ew ideas and
questions to get you started, but you can
see that by radically rethinking your work,
you might be able to eliminate a lot o
admin tasks.
And ree up time or what truly matters.
Frictionless Life
This concept o eliminating admin work
can apply to your personal lie as well.
Imagine your personal time with as
ew chores, errands, paperwork, and
commitments as possible. Youd be ree to
well, do what you love most.
I cant claim to have done this
completely, but I have made huge progress
towards a rictionless lie. O course, I still
have chores to do (washing dishes, laundry,
etc.), but Ive eliminated a lot o personal
tasks:
I dont pay bills anymore. I either
pay them in advance i I get a big lump
payment, or I set up automatic payments
each month. In act, because all my
transactions are electronic, I never go to the
bank.
I dont le personal paperwork anymore.
Ive gone paperless, so all documents
that I needed to keep are scanned, and
everything else is already digital. Even
contracts are done digitally.
Housework is minimal. Admittedly, my
wie does the laundry, but we share in
cooking and cleaning duties, and most
o it is painless as we have a pretty sparse
home. Its airly clean all the time.
Errands are minimal too. Mostly its
going to the grocery store or post oce,
and we moved last year so those are within
walking distance. So we oten walk to
those errands, getting a nice workout and
enjoying the outdoors in the process.
There isnt much else we have to do,
except things with our kids and each other.
The un stu. Much o the riction o living
has been eliminated.
A Warning
Its not always easy to change your work
and your lie to get rid o the riction o admin
tasks, but once you do, its simply lovely.
However, there will likely be a temptation
to ll up your reed time with more email,
social networking, blog reading, and so
on. Im not saying you shouldnt do this,
but beore you do, consider how you really
want to spend your time. Do you want to
remove the riction just to ritter it away with
distractions?
Im a big an o doing nothing, o
solitude and relaxing and playing. So i
thats how you use your ree time, Im
jumping with joy. You might, however,
spend this time creating, and thats one o
the true wonders o creating rictionless
work and a rictionless lie. Spend your
time doing what you love, living your
passion, making something new and
beautiul. Youll be glad you did.
The world is wide, and I will not waste
my lie in riction when it could be turned
into momentum. ~ Frances E. Willard
Leo Babauta
lives in Guam
(soon moving to
San Francisco)
and is married
with six kids.
Hes a writer and a runner and a
vegetarian and he loves writing Zen
Habits - his blog that in a couple o
years became one o the top blogs
on the Internet with 100K+ readers
subscribed and counting. Hes a
published author o a bestselling book
Power o Less
Leos blog is Zen Habits
Leo on Twitter: @Zen_Habits
About Leo Babauta
I now have almost no admin work to run my blogs:
I write, and publish.
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Quick&Dirty Guide to:Meetings how to make them workTerri, theres a product meeting at 3 oclock
3 oclock on a Friday? What lamebrain set it up?
Check the Email, Terri
Oh.by Howard Flomberg
- Terri adds insult to injury by asking
Greta to take notes.
- Marv wonders where the coee is
- Ernie wants to talk about the monthly
status report
- Terris boss ollows Ernie down that path.
Ater the prerequisite hour, Terri tries to
call the meeting over, her boss, however
has decided that since everyone is here
lets talk about the Christmas party.
Sound familiar?
It is said that a camel is a horse designed
by a committee (*1). This saying sums
up the popular opinion o committees
and meetings. The general consensus
is that a committee can do nothing
successully. Let me rephrase that: an
unorganized committee can do nothing
successully. You can easily substitute the
word meeting or the word committee
they are essentially interchangeable as
So Terri, Ernie, Terris boss, Greta
and our or ve o their closest
riends go into the meeting.
Heck its only been scheduled
or one hour. What can possibly go wrong?
Shall I list problems that come up?
- Terris boss takes over the meeting
- Bill and Brett want to know why this
meeting was called.
Kelly Young - Fotolia.co
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6. Dont schedule meetings on Fridays
please! Especially during the spring and
all. 10:00 in the morning is always a
good meeting time its long enough
beore lunch so that they can still sneak
out or an early lunch. 1:00 is deadly.
People will straggle in. they will be
sleepy and non-participatory. I you
schedule a meeting or 3:00 (especially
Friday at 3:00) you will get what you
deserve. I I am an invitee Ill totally
orget it.
7. The memo must go out at least one
ull business day beore the meeting.
Two or three days would be much
better. More than three days would
invite people to conveniently orget.
When you see the person in the
hallway, you might remind him(*2)
once. Any more than that and you will
see him avoid you like the proverbial
plague. One o my avorite ways to
remind someone is to joke Dont
orget Terri, youre bringing the booze
to the meeting.
8. At the beginning o the meeting review
the agenda. I someone wants to add
something relevant to the agenda ask
i everyone agrees. I its not relevant,
see the discussion below on the
parking lot
9. Do not allow the meeting to go or more
than one and a hal hours. Schedule
another session i there is a need.
Heres why you have six (?) people
in a small room. In todays oces you
need a wrecking ball to open a window.
O course you close the door. Now you
have a bunch o Homosapiens all busy
converting oxygen to carbon dioxide in
a room with poor ventilation. And you
wonder why you get sleepy? Its oxygen
deprivation(*3)
ar as accomplishments. Most qualitative
methodologies and decisions involve
(evolve in?) meetings. In many, i not most,
cases meetings become massive time
wasters. In an uncontrolled environment,
meetings can and requently do become
conrontational. People tend to go o in
tangents and the reason or the meeting
rapidly becomes lost. So, how does one
control a meeting? Or can a meeting be
controlled?
Memorandum
To: H. Aardvark, C. Jones, L. Lopez,
M Miles, P. J. Peterson, S. Sutra and Z.
Zaplitney
From: H. Lee
Date: 07/04/76
Re: Corporate strategy, 07/05/1776
Meeting Room A. at 10:00 a.m.
We will be meeting next Thursday to
discuss the orientation o our new product,
the American Revolution. The Specic
Topics to be discussed are:
Tactics will we ght in an open plain or
shall we be hiding behind trees?
Uniorms Mr. Washington has
requested Bu and Blue, however Mr.
Rogers-Clark insists that orest green
would give us a decided advantage
Living quarters shall we have the
men supply their own tents or can we
standardize? I we standardize, we need to
appoint a subcommittee to recommend a
supplier and pricing.
Rank Structure Mr. Washington insists
on traditional military ranks; however our
Boston contingent eels that the men
should elect their own leaders.
How shall we decide these issues?
Please email your acceptance to the
meeting. I you cannot make this meeting,
please tell me who will be representing you.
- Lighthorse Harry Lee
Heres how you do it:
1. Prepare an Agenda. Without an agenda
you are wasting everybodys time.
The agenda should spell out, in some
real level o detail, the reason or the
meeting as well as the topic to be
discussed. See the example above.
2. The names in the agenda
memorandum are in alphabetic order.
Yes there are people who look at these
things as an indication o political
power. Head that one o. As a matter
o act, alphabetize the names in all
memos that you write.
3. Topic, time, date and location are
prominently placed at the top. Insure
that everybody knows the location o
the meeting. A ast email the day beore
the meeting containing this inormation
is not a bad idea. Sending out more
than one email IS a bad idea.
4. Each topic has a brie description.
I there is to be a decision, indicate
the choices. Any more detail is not
needed. This is your guide or the
meeting. Stick to these issues. Putting
too much inormation just invites more
discussion.
5. When you send the agenda out, ask
or an RSVP. I you are emailing
generate a return receipt. You want
to head o the I didnt know about
the meeting. I they approve a return
receipt, theyll show up. I your
company uses a scheduling program
like Outlook use it.
An unorganized committee can do nothing
successfully. You can easily substitute the word
meeting for the word committee.
Without an agenda you are
wasting everybodys time.
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Howard is a
Retired Systems
Analyst, Adjunct
Proessor and
Author. He lives in
Denver, Colorado.
Howard on Twitter: @hfomberg
About HowardFlomberg
Set up a Parking Lot. Have a place to record
topics that need resolution outside of the
meeting.
10. The Parking Lot. So Terri brings up
her avorite complaint the striping
in the parking lot. She is concerned
that someone might trash her 71
Gremlin. Set up a Parking Lot. Have
a place to record topics that need
resolution outside o the meeting. It
should be either a black/white board
or a large sheet o paper in plain view
to everyone. So you now say: Terri,
we really do need to discuss that,
lets put it in the Meeting Parking Lot.
This is your secret weapon! You can
get poster sized yellow stickies (*4)
rom your oce supplies vendor. Stash
them somewhere. Once someone nds
out that you have the stickies, they
will disappear. Take one sheet and
put it on the wall. Label it Parking
Lot. The parking lot is where you put
those items that will take you down
the wrong path. But by posting them
you have assuaged Terris ego. Her
idea has been recognized and not
ignored. Youll nd that in a relaxed
environment, ater a while when
someone brings up an item that is not
appropriate, youll hear a chorus o
parking lot and laughter.
11. Danger Will Robinson! I at all possible,
do not invite your manager (or your
managers manager or that matter).
I you do, the meeting becomes his
meeting. I you must invite him
establish privately the procedure that
you are going to ollow and get his
support. I he reuses to ollow your
wishes get your resume in shape. This
one can be a career ender i handled
poorly. Try and make that discussion
with your boss light. Review the agenda,
ask or his opinion, let him know youll
give him a ull report, beore he says
hell be there.
12. Again, i a topic is brought up that
is not on the agenda steer the
conversation back to the agenda
reschedule a meeting to discuss that
point or put it on the parking lot.
13. I you notice each item in the agenda
is phrased as an Action Item For
example: Living quarters shall we
have the men supply their own tents or
can we standardize? I we standardize,
we need to appoint a subcommittee
to recommend a supplier and pricing.
Discuss each item. I it is too large or
important to settle at the meeting have
someone ollow up on it or schedule
another meeting. I you ask, Who
wants to ollow up on this? in most
cases you will be greeted by a wall o
silence. Ask someone with an interest
in the topic to ollow up. Terri, can
you ollow up on this? Everyone is
relieved that you didnt ask him or her
and is staring at Terri. You now have
peer pressure working or you. At the
end o the meeting, review the action
items. Note who has taken the action, i
an action has not been resolved either
schedule a meeting to discuss it, or
appoint a volunteer.
14. Ensure that every issue is either
resolved or assigned to a person at
the meeting or resolution. Ater the
meeting, review each Parking Lot
item. Have someone assigned to it. A
sneaky way to control these items is to
ask: Terri, you brought up Parking Lot
Striping can you ollow up on it? Terri
will never do that again.
15. Another real important item I you
must ask someone to take notes
NEVER ask a woman. She will hate you
or the rest o your lie.
16. Ater the meeting send out a memo
promptly reviewing the decisions and
any topics assigned to someone. Send
this memo out immediately, even i you
have to stay late to do it. List each action
item, who it is assigned to and how will
it be reviewed. Dont orget the use a
return receipt. I you ask: Please let me
know i you disagree you probably will
not get any response until its too late,
and someone has been ticked o. More
successul is the language: I assume
that i no one responds by the end o
the week then there are no corrections.
Always take an active position.
17. One last point Spell check the damn
thing! One learns by screwing up. We
all do. When I was interviewing or a
consulting spot, one o my avorite lines
was Ive been doing this or many years
and Ive made a gazillion mistakes. You
get them all or ree Hopeully Ive saved
you rom some o them.
*1. I really love camels :-)
*2. Is my use o him oensive to
anyone? I so please accept my apology.
*3. I am NOT a doctor or a chemist. This
is a totally non- -scientic guess but its
based on years o experience
*4.I call all Post-its Yellow Stickies no
matter what color they are. That should
be my worst habit..
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GettingTings
DoneFASER
When it comes to maximizing how productive you can be there is a lot o talk about adopting
rameworks like GTD or Coveys Seven Habits, cutting down your projects list to the essentials,
fnding the right tools, avoiding procrastination etc. However in this article I want to discuss
another point to increasing your productivity that tends to get overlooked speeding up your work
so that that you will be getting things done aster (or the purposes o this post lets call it GTDF).
by James Mallison
Imagine a manuacturing plant. The
quicker products can be brought
through the construction line to
completion, the more productive the
plant is considered to be. Why can the
same approach not be applied to your
own work? You may not be a machine
who works 24/7, but the benets are still
clear get your work done more quickly
and it will leave you with more ree time to
play with.
O course there is a catch to all
this. We also dont always have to
work quickly through our work, though
with our jobs becoming stressul and
demanding it is becoming increasingly
important to achieve more in less time.
Also, some projects dont suit well to
being done aster, especially those
that require lots o brain power and/
or creative thought. However there are
those projects that you can work at more
Pick a set time on a
clock or stopwatch
and then see how
much you can get
done beore the time
runs out.
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out-dated it slows down the entire
production. Likewise you need to have
systems in place that help you achieve
your goals with minimal complications.
GTD is very reliant on speed, with David
Allen stating that i you cant add a
next action to your system within a ew
seconds you simply wont do it. The same
applies whether you are trying to clean
dishes with poor quality washing liquid,
or trying to save les over a poor quality
network. Find and develop the right tools
or all the jobs in your workfow and i
something doesnt work quickly enough
or you, replace it!
Lay the groundwork
Imagine again, the setup o a
manuacturing plant with its mass
production setup. It is a nely tuned and
intricate system which is able to create
a set number o products quickly and
eectively. You can mirror this by having
habits, approaches and best-practices
in place in your lie that encourage ast,
ecient unctioning. Knowing what works
or you and continually optimizing that
approach is key to getting things done
aster. That way you dont let your bad
habits, like procrastination, and lack o
knowledge, like not having had any training
to use a particular sotware, slow you
down.
quickly with negligible loss o quality,
or as David Allen would call them, the
widget cranking projects.
With all this in mind, lets look at how we
can work aster
Set time limits
One o the most basic but eective ways
to speed up your work is to set time limits.
There are two undamental approaches to
using time to your advantage:
The more traditional approach is to see
how quickly it takes you to do the task or
project, log the time, and then regularly
challenge yoursel to beat that time. Its a
simple but eective way o keeping your
motivation high using your competitive
drive, while allowing you to gradually
improve your overall speed and eciency
over time.
Pick a set time on a clock or stopwatch
and then see how much you can get done
beore the time runs out. This is useul i
you have limited time and want to become
more disciplined with how you use it. For
example, recently I decided to clean out
the storage cupboard. However I had to
t it in with my other work, so when I had
some spare time I gave mysel a thirty
minute time limit and set a challenge to
see how much I could clear out beore the
alarm went o.
Keep focused
Manuacturing plants are active most
o the time, i not 24 hours a day and
though you obviously cant be expected
to be that active, it is important you stay
ocused as long as possible on what you
are doing so as to build up momentum
and in turn speed up your work. For
instance, i you have the TV on in the
background as you do your work (as I
am doing while writing this) its dicult
to keep ocused long enough to get
any momentum (hence this is taking
longer to type than it usually would). As
much as possible nd a chunk o time
to work where you wont be interrupted,
disconnect the phone and turn the TV o.
While it is dicult to keep ocused or
any length o time, or those periods we
are able to shut the rest o the world out,
its important to take advantage o it.
Maintain energy levels
Well maintained machines dont get tired or
have o-days, and though we as humans
cannot maintain 100% energy levels all the
time, there are measures we can take to
stay as alert and energized as possible and
not try to work at an high pace when our
energy levels are low (you wouldnt try and
drive a car on an almost empty uel tank
would you?). Discussing ways o keeping
energized and alert is a topic worthy o
its own post so I wont discuss it in detail
here, however in brie:
Get enough sleep. The average person
needs around eight hours to gain the ull
benets, though this can vary rom person
to person. Note, that getting too much
sleep can be nearly as bad as not getting
enough.
Each person naturally eels more alert at
dierent times o the day, which is where
the night owl and early bird terms come
rom. For instance, i you do your best
work in the morning, you can also do your
quickest work.
Eat healthy and take exercise. This
doesnt really need much explanation but
i you are physically healthy youre also
mentally healthy and this really helps with
your energy and ocus levels.
Use the right tools
Manuacturing plants have huge, oten
complex systems in place specically
designed to do their job quickly and
productively. I one machine is old and
Get enough sleep. Eat healthy and take
exercise.
James Mallinson comes rom the UK
and is an aspiring author. He started
Organize IT nearly two years ago ater
he began dabbling in productivity,
and wanted to share his tips and
experience.
Blog: Organize IT
James on Twitter: @JMallinson
James Mallinson
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Kanban Changes the PerspectiveFrom Wikipedia: Kanban is a
concept related to lean and
just-in-time (JIT) production.
The Japanese word kanban
is a common term meaning
signboard or billboard.
According to Taiichi Ohno, the
man credited with developing
JIT, kanban is a means
through which JIT is achieved.
by Stephen Smith
or implement the Kanban process.
I personally like to use index cards but
you can use slips o paper, sticky notes, or
even digital applications online or or your
mobile device.
For the purposes o this article, lets think
about our Tasks and Projects as index cards,
then you can translate the concept to your
own version o this system. First, imagine
that each card contains a single Task or Next
Action to be completed. Everything on your
list can be written on a card which will then
be put on the Kanban board in one o two
zones: The Queue or Work in Progress (WIP).
In the image o the bulletin board, above,
you can see that it is divided into three
Zones: the let-hand side is or storing
cards that are yet to be acted upon;
the center area is or cards that you are
working on, or have prioritized to be part
o your list o things to do; the right-hand
zone is or collecting and organizing the
Tasks and Next Actions that have been
completed, these things are Done.
How Tasks Enter the Kanban System
My process or generating Next Action and
Project cards is quite basic, they usually come
to me while I am making my daily Journal/
Morning Pages entries, or when I am reading.
Cards are also generated by tasks that are
assigned to me, or to someone on my team,
via an input mechanism such as telephone or
e-mail. Each new card then simply goes into
the Queue and each morning I can assess the
situation, choose the tasks that I eel are most
important (or urgent), and move them into the
Work In Progress (WIP) zone.
I would like to mention an important
caveat here the Kanban board is not
a replacement or your calendar when it
comes to the time-specic inormation
that you need to manage. Remember
that according to the principles o Getting
Things Done only three things are to be
entered into your calendar:
1. Time-specic actions
2. Day-specic actions
3. Day-specic inormation
Thats it. Because your calendar is a tool
that you use to tell you where you need to be
and when you need to be there, or when
something is scheduled to happen. Your
Kanban board is where you manage Tasks.
Use these two tools together or planning
your activities. For example, during your
Periodic Review you may decide that there are
some Most Important Tasks that you would like
Kanban is a signaling system
to trigger action. As its name
suggests, Kanban historically uses
cards to signal the need or an item.
However, other devices such as plastic markers
(Kanban squares) or balls (oten gol balls) or
an empty part-transport trolley or foor location
can also be used to trigger the movement,
production, or supply o a unit in a actory.
It was out o a need to maintain the level o
improvements that the Kanban system was
devised by Toyota. Kanban became an eective
tool to support the running o the production
system as a whole. In addition, it proved to be
an excellent way or promoting improvements
because reducing the number o Kanban in
circulation highlighted problem areas.
The wikipedia article on Kanban is
a good one, showing how the Kanban
system can be used to manage enormous
projects and collections o tasks, such as
an automobile actory. Most o us dont run
car actories, but we can still benet rom
the basic principles o Kanban which are
so simple that they will amaze you.
Create a System That You Enjoy Using
As the above article excerpt mentions,
there are many ways to do Kanban,
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Write the date o generation on any
card that you put into the Kanban system.
This will aid you in deciding i an item has
gone stale, is not not as important as you
once thought, or perhaps its urgency has
increased.
Write the date that a card was moved
rom the Queue zone into the WIP zone, or
the same reasons listed above.
Write the date that the Next Action
was completed, in order to make periodic
reviews more eective, especially in
tracking your accomplishments.
Make cards or Next Actions that have
been delegated to others, and keep them
in the WIP zone, with the date that the task
was assigned and the date that it is due.
Use a spatial reerence or prioritizing
Next Actions, more important tasks should
be placed in the top let o the appropriate
zone, as this is where your eye is trained
to look rst when scanning a page o
inormation.
This is just the tip o the iceberg when it
comes to the useulness o the Kanban system
or your productivity practice. Searching
Twitter and Flickr can give you plenty o
inspiration or enhancing your own system.
Please consider sharing your thoughts and
experiences with Kanban, Ill be happy
to publish a summary or ollow-up article.
to assign as time-specic (or set a deadline or
completion). Enter these in your calendar, or
create a Next Action Card with a due date on it.
Put that card in the Queue zone.
When the assigned time arrives, and
your calendar reminds you o the Task,
move that card rom Queue to WIP. This
method will work whether you use a paper
planner or a digital calendar/PDA.
When you are Done
One o the best eatures o this system, or
me, is in the moving o Next Action Cards
into the Done zone. This gives me a simple
and easy way o reviewing exactly what was
accomplished in the previous period (day,
week, month, whatever scale you operate
on). The real beauty o this system is that it
replaces messy handwritten lists and gives
an instant overview o what is happening
right now. This is especially helpul in
recognizing when there are simply too many
things happening at once. The concept o the
overview provides a tool or managing your
current workload and the backlog o Tasks in
the Queue and creates a Pull mechanism
or adding new tasks to the WIP zone.
The Pull occurs when a task is
completed and a space is created when
the card is moved to the Done zone. As
the cards move rom let to right across the
board I am able to see and measure the fow
o work that is being completed. This visual
sense o accomplishment is very gratiying!
Kanban and Delegation
I use a Kanban board both in my home
oce, and in my oce at work (I manage
a restaurant in a small resort hotel). As you
can imagine this system comes in very
handy or delegating tasks to my team.
Each o my supervisors takes a look at the
Kanban board at the beginning o their shit,
in order to see which tasks or Next Actions
have been assigned to them or the current
work period, and they can also see what is
planned or them in the uture (in the Queue).
For example, projects can be completed
by multiple people as they can assess
each upcoming Next Action by evaluating
the time required to complete it, their
own energy level, and the external
circumstances then choosing those Next
Action Cards that t the situation.
I am nding that this system o managing
our activities is very helpul to actual
productivity. A daily assessment o Next
Actions to be completed keeps priorities in
perspective, avoiding the mindless churn
that so oten happens when we get caught
up in the day-to-day routine o handling the
res and interruptions. It is very important
to be able to prioritize our activities, because
the tasks and projects shown on this board
are things that we do to support the main
objective o our jobs to ensure that our
guests have a superior dining experience.
This happens out on the restaurant foor, not
in the oce or at a computer.
Moving from Lists to Next Action Cards
Changing your personal productivity tools
can be a cause o stress and anxiety, so
I recommend starting slowly, perhaps
with a ew sticky notes on the wall used in
conjunction with your current system. Learn
to capture inputs onto these sticky notes, or
perhaps in a similar ashion on your digital
device or smartphone. Then take some
time to practice and learn the technique o
assessing the Tasks and Next Actions that are
in progress, or are simply waiting to be started.
A list with tens or hundreds o items
it unwieldy and in drastic need o
perspective. Simple space limitations
will remind you that one can only work
on so many things at one time. Filling in
the Queue and WIP zones can orce you
to prioritize your Next Actions, assess their
validity, and perhaps push them back into
the Queue or a more appropriate time. Or
simply decide that a particular item on a list
is not worth doing ater all.
Tips for Maintaining Perspective and Next
Action Value
Here are a ew tips or making your
transition more painless and benecial:
Simple space limitations will remind you that one
can only work on so many things at one time.
Stephen Smith
is currently
a restaurant
manager who
uses basic
productivity
principles to
enhance the guest experience.
His Blog: StephenPSmith.com/blog
Stephen on Twitter: @hdbbstephen
About StephenSmith
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20/26
Focusing on GettingTings Done with ProjectManagement 2.0
Lets have a look at a typical project managers day. In the morning, he comes to his ofce and
checks his e-mail or messages with project updates. He then spends hours calling his team
members, e-mailing them or meeting them in person to collect all the inormation he needs and to
make sure that everything is well and on track... by Andrew Filev
... and ater that, the manager has to
merge these updates into the project plan.
The updates also need to be communicated
to the upper management. So the project
manager has to make reports and hand
them in to the companys executives to
keep them aware o the projects progress.
The manager also has to ollow up on
clients eedback or partners actions.
During the course o the day, he constantly
has to resolve issues through another
endless series o e-mails, phone calls and
meetings.
Looks amiliar, doesnt it? E-mail is still
the most popular project communication
tool. An employee on an average project
gets between 30 and 100 e-mails per day.
The majority o these e-mails contain tasks,
change requests and discussions, so its
hard to overestimate the knowledge buried
in e-mail inboxes every day. This knowledge
oten bypasses project management tools
like Microsot Project.
Have you ever missed an important e-
mail? Or orgot to send a reply to an urgent
request? Was it ever easy or you to nd an
indispensable piece o inormation buried in
the thousands o messages that you have
in your inbox? What i you werent CCd on
that e-mail? It gets even worse when you
need to quickly share inormation thats lost
in your inbox with a newcomer.
This knowledge, buried in e-mails, causes
project managers in too many organizations
today to waste hours on transerring
inormation rom e-mails into their project
management systems and back. As a
result, their productivity and eciency are
damaged by this unnecessary routine.
Instead o being a project leader, a project
manager turns into a project secretary.
Traditional project management systems
oten are not integrated with e-mail.
Systems like Microsot Project are designed
with the top-down project management
approach in mind and arent suited well
to leverage collective knowledge in an
easy way. It means they create dozens
o needless, routine jobs or the project
manager. Thereore, instead o helping
project managers, these systems make the
managers workload even bigger.
What i managers could bring this
project secretary job to a minimum and
concentrate on the leadership part o the
management job? How much more ecient
and productive would the whole team
become as a result? Experts say this is
possible.
The change comes with the growing
popularity o Enterprise 2.0 principles
applied to project management. Project
Management 2.0 relies on the same
concepts as Enterprise 2.0. The power o
many, also known as collective intelligence,
helps to build, maintain and evolve an up-
to-date picture o operations. Flexible
Project Management 2.0 tools merge this
picture rom various pieces, giving a perect
example o what enterprise social sotware
researchers call emergent structures. The
sotware supporting these two concepts,
collective intelligence and emergent
structures, open new opportunities or
boosting your own eciency and your
teams eciency by cutting the daily routine
and leaving more room or creativity and
leadership. They make a project managers
lie easier by bringing three major benets:
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21/26
Andrew Filev
has been
managing
sotware teams
since 2001
with the help
o new-generation collaboration
and management applications.
His best practices are based on
implementation o Enterprise 2.0
sotware in project management.
Now Andrew is an expert in project
management, a successul sotware
entrepreneur and the CEO at Wrike.
com. Andrews ideas about improving
traditional project management
are refected in his popular Project
Management 2.0 blog.
Visit Andrews Project Management Blog
Andrew on Twitter: @andrewsthoughts
About Andrew Filev
Reducing routine work
Project Management 2.0 practices and
supportive tools eliminate the need or
extra meetings, phone calls and e-mails,
thus saving you time and letting you ocus
on getting things done. The best tools in
this area are integrated with e-mail. They
dont break the habitual workfow, allowing
project participants to communicate via
e-mail messages. At the same time, they
automatically absorb inormation rom e-
mails, which usually bypasses project
management systems and is traditionally
buried in the teams inboxes.
With project management 2.0 tools,
this knowledge is shared and available to
everybody on the team at any given moment
in time. Just imagine: theres no need to call
and ask your peer to nd the important e-
mail rom a customer who wanted to make
changes in a project schedule. Tasks, clients
requirements, status updates, ideas and
project discussions are all captured by a
single system, are shared among the project
participants and are available at any given
moment in time. So even i you need the
inormation when nobody is in the oce,
you can still get it immediately. No need to
call your employee on Saturday evening
when you suddenly need to know where the
project stands. Besides, theres no need or
the manager to manually adjust project plans
and individual team members schedules.
Project Management 2.0 lets you to
avoid micromanagement by allowing team
members to mark updates o their part o
the project work in the shared collaborative
environment. This gives the project manager
the up-to-date picture o where his team
and the project stand. The top-down
control comes in when the project manager
aligns and guides those activities. Project
Management 2.0 practices and tools let
you gain harmony between top-down and
bottom-up management styles.
Providing multiple project views
Besides giving an up-to-date picture
o internal project operations, the new-
generation technologies enable managers
and other members o the project team
to view projects dierently. Project
participants can pick any reasonable sub-
set o tasks, create a view with these tasks
and share the view with someone who
needs it. It means that more people can
collaborate and contribute to the project
work productively.
Each o these views can be changed
by team members as the organization
and its environment changes. The whole
structure evolves with time. Managers, who
have access to more perspectives and to
broader views, can align multiple projects,
avoid scheduling conficts and set the right
priorities. Flexible, many-to-many structures
that allow creating, sharing and easy
merging o views are an important part o
the Project Management 2.0 approach. This
approach enables collective intelligence
and leads to collaborative planning. In turn,
collaborative planning makes organizations
more productive and transparent.
Giving the complete picture of all projects
Upper-level managers can access the
global organizational view, which gives
them a clear picture o where the business
stands. Project Management 2.0 tools
merge individual employees to-do lists
into one picture that is always up-to-
date. It means that corporate executives
are constantly in the loop with whats
going on in the project. The inormation
is always at their ngertips. As a result,
the organizations leaders can adjust
strategic plans to changes in the business
environment much aster. It becomes easier
or them to rapidly and cost-eciently
recognize changes and adapt to them. The
whole organization becomes more agile
and thereore more competitive, thanks
to very simple tools and the powerul
practices o Project Management 2.0.
The key to the making the whole
organization more productive lays in
gaining eciency or the project manager
and his team. Project Management 2.0
tools and practices become a catalyst to
important innovations on the organizational
level. They let everybody rom team
members to project managers and
corporate executives ocus on getting
things done and spend less time on
routine tasks. Naturally, sotware will not
do the whole job alone, but it empowers
people and multiplies their eorts. Project
Management 2.0 democratizes project
management, bringing it outside o
enterprise project management oces to
other departments, as well as to small and
midsize businesses. It makes companies
more agile, projects more controllable and
people more productive.
Naturally, software will not do the whole job alone,
but it empowers people and multiplies their efforts.
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22/26
7 ways the new Apple
iPad will increase yourproductivity
With the iPad many believe the era o traditional computing is over. The PCs
and Macs are not going to be mainstream. The iPad-like devices are. They
are great or mass content consumption and... productivity. Heres how.
by Michael Sliwinski
The Apples iPad is still causing
lots o controversy all over the
Internet and since its just been
shipped, one can already nd
a number o ways the iPad will improve
your productivity:
1. Theres no right way to hold it, it
rotates automatically to adjust to you
iPhone users know this already, but
or many olks this can be a new
thing - you can just grab the iPad and
it rotates to adjust to the way you
grabbed it. It doesnt orce you to think
how to hold it - just grab it and start
playing with it.
2. Pinch and zoom photos, tap articles
to make them bigger and better for
reading
Again, nothing new or the iPhone
users, but on this kind o device its
unprecedented - just pinch and zoom or
simply tap to read an article better, to see
more details, to make sure your eyes are
not working too hard. This will make it a
perect computing device or people with
sight problems.
3. Process email inbox to zero beautifully
The beautiul all new interace to email
will make processing messages to zero
un and cool. Youll be inclined to process
more messages at the time just because
o the cool interace o the new email
app - the paper-like eel to the email
messages and ease o use will encourage
you to get email done. O course, the only
thing problematic here is the perormance
o the on-screen keyboard, especially
or people like me who are touch-typing.
But you can get a bluetooth keyboard or
some serious writing.
4. Single-tasking will improve your focus,
its a feature, not a bug!
People complain about the act that you
can be in one app at a time on the iPhone
and will do the same on the iPad... but
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23/26
Michael Sliwinski
is your chie
editor o the
Productive!
Magazine and
now a host o
the new Productive! Show site. Every
day hes trying to help people get
more done with his web application
Nozbe.com - now also available as a
native iPhone or iPad app.
Michael on Twitter: @MichaelNozbe
Michaels Blog:MichaelNozbe.com
About MichaelSliwinski
this actually helps boost your ocus and
decrease distractions. Youll get more
done, one app at a time.
5. One email message at a time in vertical
view
Similar to the point above, iPad has
another ocus-boosting eature in its email
client - when you rotate the screen you see
the email message in a beautiul vertical
view and you see only this message, no
inboxes, no olders, no clutter, just the
message that you can give ull attention
to. Similarly other iPad apps work this
way, making the iPad the ultimate ocus
machine.
6. Beautiful calendar will encourage
planning your Weekly Review
The calendar app on the iPad is incredibly
similar to the good old-school paper calendars
we used to carry around with us. Im sure this
app will encourage more order and better
planning... and who knows, maybe well nally
be able to schedule your GTD Weekly Review
more oten than once a month? Lets hope so!
7. Books will encourage readership -
youll read David Allens book again!
The iPad is to serve as an eBook reader.
You can get all o the issues o this
magazine on the iPads iBooks sotware
and read it on the go. It is the most elegant
eBook weve seen so ar. Itll help you
read more and learn more... also about
productivity!
Elegance helps getting things done
Ive highlighted many times in this post
the iPads aesthetics and the act that the
apps coming with it also look gorgeous
and Im telling you - interacting with
pretty tools makes you want to use
them more. I should know, Im us ing the
Macbook Air and enjoy working on it
every day.
How will the iPad improve our
productivity? Will the apps really deliver on
the iPad? Time will tell, but since its just
a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch, Im sure this
device can be a real productivity booster
or everyone. It already is or me!
Interacting with pretty tools makes you want to use
them more.
The beautiful all new interface to email will make
processing messages to zero fun and cool.
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24/26
insidious habit can make it impossible to
ever really complete anything. The best
way to avoid it is to write down a simple
statement summarizing your objective
at the start o each project. (I you have
collaborators, make sure there is agreement
about the objective.) And then this is the
part we overlook! revisit it regularly. When
scope creep starts to happen, youll notice.
5. Work on your project a little bit each day.
With projects that require a serious inusion o
creative juice developing a new business plan,
writing a novel, or just learning a new skill its
incredibly important to maintain momentum.
Just as when you run everyday, the exercise
gets easier and easier, the same thing happens
with your brain. Stimulate it regularly each day,
and those juices start to fow more reely. As
Jack Cheng argues in a great blog post, Thirty
Minutes A Day: the important thing isnt how
much you do; its how oten you do it.
by Jocelyn Glei
10 Laws oProductivity
Here are 10 laws o productivity
weve consistently observed
among serial idea executors:
1. Break the seal of hesitation.
A bias toward action is the most common
trait weve ound across the hundreds o
creative proessionals and entrepreneurs
weve interviewed. While preparing
properly as you start a new project is
certainly valuable, its also easy to lose
yoursel in planning (and dreaming)
indenitely. We must challenge ourselves
to take action sooner rather than later. The
minute that you start acting (e.g. building
a physical prototype, sharing a nascent
concept with your community), you start
getting valuable eedback that will help
rene your original idea and move
orward with a more inormed perspective.
2. Start small.
When our ideas are still in our head, we
tend to think big, blue sky concepts. The
downside is that such thinking makes the
barrier to entry and action quite high. To
avoid blue sky paralysis, pare your idea
down to a small, immediately executable
concept. Can you trial the idea o a multi-
day estival with a smaller perormance
series? Take an idea or a skyscraper and
model it in miniature? Work out the fow
o an iPhone app by sketching on paper?
Once youve road-tested your idea on a
small scale, youll have loads more insight
on how to take it to the next level.
3. Protoype, prototype, prototype.
Trial and error is an essential part o any
creatives lie. As Ze Frank says, usually when
we execute an idea or the rst time, it kinda
sucks. The important thing is to synthesize the
knowledge gained during the process to rene
the idea, and create a new-and-improved
version. Serial idea-makers like Jack Dorsey,
Ben Kauman, and Studio 7.5 all attest:
Prototyping and iteration is key to transorming
a so-so idea into a game-changing product.
Rather than being discouraged by your
ailures, listen closely and learn rom them.
Then build a new prototype. Then do it again.
Sooner or later, youll hit gold.
4. Create simple objectives for projects,
and revisit them regularly.
When working on in-depth projects, we
generate lots o new ideas along the way.
This can lead to a gradual expansion o
the projects goals, or scope creep. This
You might think that creatives as diverse as Internet
entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, industrial design frm Studio 7.5,
and bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would
have little in common. In act, the tenets that guide how they
and exceptionally productive creatives across the board
make ideas happen are incredibly similar.
Break each project into smaller chunks that only
take a few weeks or a month to complete.
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25/26
J.K. Glei is
the Director
o the 99%,
Behances think
tank, which
ocuses on what
happens ater inspiration, researching
the orces that push ideas orward.
She also regularly consults with a wide
range o creative clients to assemble
strategic plans addressing concept,
design, execution, workfow and
stang to acilitate the launch and/
or growth o content-driven ventures
both online and in print.
Web site: The 99%
99% on Twitter: @the99percent
6. Develop a routine.
Part o being able to work on your project
a little bit each day is carving out the
time to do so. Routines can seem boring
and uninspiring, but on the contrary
they create a oundation or sparking
true insight. In his recent memoir, What
I Talk About When I Talk About Running,
amed Japanese author Haruki Murakami
writes about how a rigorous routine
rising at 5am and going to bed at 10pm
every day is crucial to his impressive
creative output. (In a side note: Alex Iskold
derives a series o lessons or start-up
entrepreneurs rom Murakami here.)
7. Break big, long-term projects into
smaller chunks or phases.
To help manage expectations and stay
motivated or year-long or even multi-
year endeavors, break each project into
smaller chunks that only take a ew weeks
The beautiful all new interface to email will make
processing messages to zero fun and cool.
About Jocelyn Glei
or a month to complete. The dual benet
o this approach is: (1) making the project
eel more manageable, and (2) providing
incremental rewards throughout the
project. Its crucial to pause periodically to
take stock o what has been accomplished
even i theres a long way to go.
With projects that require a serious
inusion o creative juice, its incredibly
important to maintain momentum.
8. Prune away superfluous meetings
(and their attendees).
Few activities are more o a productivity
drain than meetings. I you must meet
(and this should be a big i), make
sure everyone knows what needs to
be accomplished rom the outset. I
people are present who dont help out
with achieving that objective, let them
leave. Qwest COO Teresa Taylor, recently
interviewed in the NYTs Corner Oce,
starts her meetings with the question,
Do we all know why were here? and
then ollows with, Does everyone need to
be here? To trim the runtime o internal
meetings, you can also try the standing
meeting.
9. Practice saying No.
Creative energy is not nite. Seasoned
idea-makers know that they must guard
their energy and their ocus closely.
Take author Jim Collins or example. His
books Built to Last and Good to Great
have sold millions o copies. His business
acumen and insights are in demand.
Yet, even though Collins demands over
$60,000 per speech, he gives ewer than
18 per year. More than that and Collins
wouldnt have enough time to ocus
on the research and writing that yield
those bestselling books. When youre
in execution mode, keep in mind that
unexpected opportunities also mean
distraction rom the work at hand. Saying
no is an essential part o the productivity
equation.
10. Remember that rules even
productivity rules are made to be
broken.
Did we say develop a routine? This and
other tips here should only be ollowed as
long as they are working. I orward motion
has become impossible with your current
routine, try something else. Whether
its taking a long distance trip, popping
into the art museum, walking around the
block, or talking to a perect stranger,
make sure you occasionally shake up your
normal routine. Breaking habits oers new
perspective and helps recharge us to head
back into the ray.
To avoid blue sky paralysis, pare your idea down to
a small, immediately executable concept.
Illustration by Oscar Orozco
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26/26
Sculptures by Miguel GuiaPerect Gifs or the Ones You Love
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