4 Cultivating Good Habits

4 Getting Focused Easier

4 Making Meetings Work

4 Productivity 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 2010)www.ProductiveMagazine.com

LeoLuis MigueL

urrea guia

Our Magazine joins Productive Firm to receive regular updates

From the Editor

By Michael Sliwinski, Editor

I am very happy to offer you this

newest, fifth issue of your Productive!

Magazine. This is a breakthrough

issue as I believe we have nailed the

way this magazine will be published in the

future and it’s going to be an exciting time

for you and for our small team.

We have some really fantastic authors

publishing regularly for us and we decided

to give you a new issue of the magazine

every two months until the end of this year.

In December, based on your feedback,

readership and the experience gathered

publishing this magazine, we’ll decide how

often 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 of this site. I’m sure you’ll love it.

Members of Productive Firm will also

receive inside scoop before the magazine

gets published, will be able to read

the entire, uncut interview with each

issue’s guest and more. Speaking about

our guests, this time we decided to try

something different and you probably

don’t know the person on the cover of

the magazine. But believe me, you want

to get to know him.

I got many emails from people saying

I focus 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 of my closest

friends and one of the most famous

Spanish sculptors – Miguel Guia.

Luis Miguel Urrea Guia (that’s his

complete name) is a sculptor, an artist who

also runs a series of successful companies

in Madrid, Spain. We used to work closely

together on some projects and I was

always amazed how he got stuff done. He

quickly became my productivity guru and

actually he inspired me to build the first

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version of Nozbe – my GTD productivity

app. In the interview Miguel Guia explains

his way of approaching productivity and

cultivating good habits that help him get

more done.

Continuing the theme of successful

entrepreneurs and productivity in small

companies, we’ve got great articles by our

regular contributors like Leo Babauta (who

was our featured guest in the last issue of

the magazine), Michael Hyatt and others...

Hope you like the new changes to the

magazine and how it is coming together.

I’m sure you’ll love this issue of your

favorite productivity magazine and now,

without further ado I encourage you

to prepare a beverage of your choice, sit in

a comfortable armchair, and grab the iPad

to read this new issue of the Productive!

Magazine. Enjoy!

Yours productively,

Michael Sliwinski (@MichaelNozbe)

Founder, Nozbe – Simply Get It Done!

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05 Michael SliwinskiDitch the bad habits and cultivate the good onesInterview with Luis Miguel Urrea Guia

08Leo BabautaFrictionless Work:How to Clear Your Life of Non-Essential Tasks

10

Michael HyattScheduling Time in the „Alone Zone”

13 Howard FlombergQuick&Dirty Guide to:Meetings – how to make them work

16 James MallisonGetting Things Done…FASTER

18 Stephen SmithKanban Changes the Perspective 22 Michael Sliwinski

7 ways the new AppleiPad will increase yourproductivity

Table of contents

20 Andrew FilevFocusing on GettingThings Done with ProjectManagement 2.0

Productive!Magazine

www.ProductiveMagazine.com

Sponsor:

www.Nozbe.com

Your Online tool for Getting Things Done

– available in your computer browser, mobile phone and

on your iPhone.

Chief Editor:

Michael Sliwinski

editor@productivemagazine.com

Technical Editor:

Maciej Budzich

tech@productivemagazine.com

www.blog.mediafun.pl

Editorial Team:

Lori Anderson

Delfina Gerbert

Dustin Wax

Tribute:

Marc Orchant (1957-2007)

The Productive!Magazine is dedicated

to the memory of a productivity guru,

great blogger and a very close friend,

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 of the David Allen Company.

24 Jocelyn Glei10 Laws ofProductivity

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Q: Who are you and what do you do for living?

I’m Luis Miguel Urrea Guia and I’m a sculptor and painter

known under a nickname “Miguel Guia” and I’m also an owner of

several businesses and a senior semi-professional athlete – I’m

the residing champion of 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 of

beauty, as a sculptor and painter I’m completely in love with art

and as a second generation of an artisan family, throughout the last

ten years, I have intended to bring back more dignity of art pieces

to homes in all over the world.

Productive! Magazine Interview with Luis Miguel Urrea Guia

by Michael Sliwinski

Ditch the bad habits and cultivate the good ones

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Q: What is the rhythm of your day? How

do you work?

I have intense days, although for 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 didn’t

believe in them?

Well, it is not really a matter of belief, it’s

a Spanish custom and I respect it. I know

there are people who can’t live without it. I just

personally prefer to sleep well during nights

and use every minute of 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 if I can’t,

I postpone them for the following day.

As I have said before, I write down the

topic and the main points of each action,

if I have to call I add the phone number,

some commentary about the person and

the main purpose of the call. Now, at

the time of the phone call I have all this

information right here in my notebook.

The most important part of 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 fill in with green.

As a sculptor and painter I’m completely in love with art.

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Q: I know you are an early riser. Why is

getting up early so important to you?

For many years now I have preferred

to enjoy the light, peacefulness and good

vibration after good rest. No one bothering

me with daily things. I’m the first person

in the office and I’m getting a lot done

before anyone shows up. This way I’m

progressing very well throughout the

day. I have an expression that perfectly

describes this: “if you don’t get up early,

you’ll keep on running the whole day with

your tongue out of 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 from team.

With years, this routine translated

into a certain way of living. You have

to schedule your day to have enough

time for work, trainings and enjoying life.

This kind of physical and psychological

fitness is required in sports like athletics

or american football. They help you

develop your will to make the extra effort

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 I’m a bit of

Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, although

none of them wins. My artistic vision does

not allow the company part to destroy

the artistic essence of our projects, and

the business part does not allow the

business topics influence the former. As

a sportsman, as I have said before, all the

effort and dedication that is used in this

field 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 before all

the interruptions and daily office life makes

you resolve them improperly.

In this life it is all about habits, good

ones.. or the bad ones. You just really need

to get rid of all those bad habits and pick

up new ones that will help you in your path

to an organized life. Getting up early, sports

and strength of will are always a good

start. It’s about a conscious decision how

you want your life 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

famous 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 he’s committed to getting it done.

He takes inspiration from masters like

Picasso, Dali or Chillida among others.

His web site: MiguelGuia.com

About „Miguel Guia”

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Scheduling Time in the „Alone Zone”You schedule time for large meetings, small meetings, conference calls, and phone appointments. 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

You need time for what Jason

Fried and David Heinemeier

Hansson, authors of Rework,

call “the Alone Zone”:

Long stretches of alone time are when

you are the most productive. When you

don’t have to mind-shift between various

tasks, you get a boatload done. (Ever

notice how much work you get done on

a plane since you’re offline and there are

zero outside distractions” (p. 105).

But this kind of alone time doesn’t

happen by accident. Like everything else

in the leader’s life, you must be intentional,

if you want to be effective.

I personally schedule four kinds of 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 before I leave

for the office. 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 of “Office Work.” I generally do this

on Sunday night as I prepare for the next

week’s meetings. When I am really on the

ball, I do this a month in advance. The

beautiful thing is that when someone asks

for that time slot, I can legitimately say, “I’m

sorry, but I already have a commitment

then.” It’s a commitment to myself.

3. Quarterly reviews. I schedule a day and

a half by myself each quarter. I have

written about it on this blog before, so

I won’t repeat myself here. However,

this is a time when I can reflect back

over the previous quarter and then look

forward to the coming quarter. It’s an

opportunity to poke my head above the

clouds and see where I am going with

my business—and my life.

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. If that’s not possible, I get

an exit row seat. (It’s difficult to be

productive when the person in front

if you has their seat reclined, and

their head is practically in your lap!)

Specifically, 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 of the secret is by

scheduling time to get it done. What about

you?

Michael Hyatt

is the President

and CEO

of 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 four

books, one of which landed on the

New York Times bestseller list. Hyatt

serves as Chairman of the Evangelical

Christian Publishers Association

(ECPA). He has been married to his

wife, Gail, for twenty- eight years. They

have five daughters and two grand

daughters and live outside of Nashville,

Tennessee.

Michael’s 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!

Time and Project Management for Busy Professionals and their Teams

Frictionless Work: How to Clear Your Life of Non-Essential Tasks“It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

by Leo Babauta

How much of 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, filing,

sitting in meetings, driving, doing errands,

and so on? How much of that could be

cleared up for more important work?

Imagine this for a moment: you have no

administrative tasks, only the core work that

you love doing. Your day has been cleared

for creating, building, doing high-impact

projects. Isn’t it lovely?

Is this a pipe dream? Perhaps for some,

who have little control over their work. But

if you have a larger degree of control, let’s

explore the idea of “frictionless work” or

even “frictionless living”.

If you have little control, consider a

change.

My Frictionless Business

I know I don’t have a typical job, but that

didn’t happen overnight and I did this on

purpose. Today, I have a few successful

blogs and a handful of successful books.

Only a year ago, that required a lot of

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-free … each

comes with work of 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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calls, following up, checking the quality of

work, doing contracts, reviewing terms,

clarifying, firing, searching for a better

employee/contract company, paying, filling

out tax info, and on and on.

The better solution is to simplify. Eliminate

non-essential tasks. And so I did, slowly:

- I eliminated comments from Zen Habits,

cutting back on a huge amount of work

for me. Comments turn a major blog into a

forum, where the blogger is the moderator.

It takes hours to moderate a major blog, and

while I outsourced that for months, it was

always a major headache that required a lot

of work. Eliminating comments, which only

a tiny minority of readers used, eliminated

my need for that admin work or for hiring a

moderator.

- I stopped doing work that required me

to do paperwork or admin work. That meant

losing some income from consulting and

other business, but it also meant a lot more

free time for what I love doing.

- When a guest writer submits a guest

post, I no longer format the post but require

the writer to format it and submit for my

review. Mostly now I just need to read over

the post and hit publish.

- I got out of a bunch of ad networks

that were always asking me to do admin

work. That was a loss of income, but it also

simplified my website. Now I sell one ad a

month (which I’m 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, for the most part,

except for collaborative projects (which are

few and far between). My email time went

from half my day to a few minutes a day.

- I sell ebooks automatically through

e-junkie, and affiliate 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 affiliate payments, and transfer money

to my bank account (and from there, my

bills are automatically paid and money is

automatically transferred 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 frictionless work.

What Are Your Admin Tasks?

Take inventory of your work: what admin

tasks take up your time? Add to this list

over the course of the next couple of days,

because you’re probably forgetting some.

Now ask yourself: which of these can be

eliminated? Many of you will probably answer,

“Very few”, because you’re used to the way

things are done. “This is how things are done.”

But that’s an artificial limitation — instead, ask

yourself how it can be changed. How might it

be possible? Think radically different.

To eliminate tasks, you might have to

make major changes over time, but the

beauty is that you’ll also be freeing up time.

Consider some examples:

If you do a lot of paperwork, can you

require forms to be filled out digitally,

perhaps online? This will eliminate a lot of

work, and if the database is set up right,

eliminate filing.

If you spend a lot of time on calls or

email, can you provide other ways for

people to get info or get things done?

Perhaps put up an FAQ online, so common

questions are answered (like Google does

for 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 from newsletters and

notifications and so forth, so you don’t

have to spend time processing them in your

inbox. Consider each email that comes

in and ask yourself: “How could this be

eliminated?”

Can you eliminate meetings, or at least

get out of them? How can you get the info

By radically rethinking your work, you might be able to eliminate a lot of admin tasks.

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without meetings? How can projects get

done without the meetings?

If you worked at home, you wouldn’t

have to commute, or do a lot of other tasks

associated with working in an office. It’s not

always possible, but often you can work

towards that goal.

Can you drop clients or parts of your

business, losing a little income but

eliminating all the admin work that goes

with it? The free time could be spent

creating something that would more than

make up for the loss of income.

Can you eliminate features that aren’t

completely essential, so you don’t have to

do all the work to support those features

(similar to how I eliminated comments)?

Can you stop worrying so much about

growth, customers, competitors, statistics,

and so forth — and focus 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 of work I was doing and

my competitors – but the minute I stopped

worrying about all of that and focussed on

just doing great work that I was happy with

it really made a big difference, to me and

my business.”

If you think a task is necessary under the

current conditions, consider changing the

current conditions.

These are just a few 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 of

admin tasks.

And free up time for what truly matters.

Frictionless Life

This concept of eliminating admin work

can apply to your personal life as well.

Imagine your personal time with as

few chores, errands, paperwork, and

commitments as possible. You’d be free to

… well, do what you love most.

I can’t claim to have done this

completely, but I have made huge progress

towards a frictionless life. Of course, I still

have chores to do (washing dishes, laundry,

etc.), but I’ve eliminated a lot of personal

tasks:

I don’t pay bills anymore. I either

pay them in advance if I get a big lump

payment, or I set up automatic payments

each month. In fact, because all my

transactions are electronic, I never go to the

bank.

I don’t file personal paperwork anymore.

I’ve 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

wife does the laundry, but we share in

cooking and cleaning duties, and most

of it is painless as we have a pretty sparse

home. It’s fairly clean all the time.

Errands are minimal too. Mostly it’s

going to the grocery store or post office,

and we moved last year so those are within

walking distance. So we often walk to

those errands, getting a nice workout and

enjoying the outdoors in the process.

There isn’t much else we have to do,

except things with our kids and each other.

The fun stuff. Much of the friction of living

has been eliminated.

A Warning

It’s not always easy to change your work

and your life to get rid of the friction of admin

tasks, but once you do, it’s simply lovely.

However, there will likely be a temptation

to fill up your freed time with more email,

social networking, blog reading, and so

on. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this,

but before you do, consider how you really

want to spend your time. Do you want to

remove the friction just to fritter it away with

distractions?

I’m a big fan of doing nothing, of

solitude and relaxing and playing. So if

that’s how you use your free time, I’m

jumping with joy. You might, however,

spend this time creating, and that’s one of

the true wonders of creating frictionless

work and a frictionless life. Spend your

time doing what you love, living your

passion, making something new and

beautiful. You’ll be glad you did.

“The world is wide, and I will not waste

my life in friction 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.

He’s a writer and a runner and a

vegetarian and he loves writing Zen

Habits - his blog that in a couple of

years became one of the top blogs

on the Internet with 100K+ readers

subscribed and counting. He’s a

published author of a bestselling book

„Power of Less”

Leo’s 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 work”Terri, there’s a product meeting at 3 o’clock”“3 o’clock 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 coffee is

- Ernie wants to talk about the monthly

status report

- Terri’s boss follows Ernie down that path.

After the prerequisite hour, Terri tries to

call the meeting over, her boss, however

has decided that since everyone is here –

let’s 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 of committees

and meetings. The general consensus

is that a committee can do nothing

successfully. Let me rephrase that: an

unorganized committee can do nothing

successfully. You can easily substitute the

word “meeting” for the word “committee”

they are essentially interchangeable as

So Terri, Ernie, Terri’s boss, Greta

and four or five of their closest

friends go into the meeting.

Heck it’s only been scheduled

for one hour. What can possibly go wrong?

Shall I list problems that come up?

- Terri’s boss takes over the meeting

- Bill and Brett want to know why this

meeting was called.

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6. Don’t schedule meetings on Fridays

please! Especially during the spring and

fall. 10:00 in the morning is always a

good meeting time – it’s long enough

before lunch so that they can still sneak

out for an early lunch. 1:00 is deadly.

People will straggle in. they will be

sleepy and non-participatory. If you

schedule a meeting for 3:00 (especially

Friday at 3:00) you will get what you

deserve. If I am an invitee – I’ll totally

forget it.

7. The memo must go out at least one

full business day before the meeting.

Two or three days would be much

better. More than three days would

invite people to conveniently forget.

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 of my favorite ways to

remind someone is to joke – Don’t

forget Terri, you’re bringing the booze

to the meeting.

8. At the beginning of the meeting review

the agenda. If someone wants to add

something relevant to the agenda – ask

if everyone agrees. If it’s not relevant,

see the discussion below on the

“parking lot”

9. Do not allow the meeting to go for more

than one and a half hours. Schedule

another session if there is a need.

Here’s why – you have six (?) people

in a small room. In today’s offices’ you

need a wrecking ball to open a window.

Of course you close the door. Now you

have a bunch of Homosapiens all busy

converting oxygen to carbon dioxide in

a room with poor ventilation. And you

wonder why you get sleepy? It’s oxygen

deprivation(*3)

far as accomplishments. Most qualitative

methodologies and decisions involve

(evolve in?) meetings. In many, if not most,

cases meetings become massive time

wasters. In an uncontrolled environment,

meetings can and frequently do become

confrontational. People tend to go off in

tangents and the reason for 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 of our new product,

the American Revolution. The Specific

Topics to be discussed are:

Tactics – will we fight in an open plain or

shall we be hiding behind trees?

Uniforms – Mr. Washington has

requested Buff and Blue, however Mr.

Rogers-Clark insists that forest green

would give us a decided advantage

Living quarters – shall we have the

men supply their own tents or can we

standardize? If 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 feels that the men

should elect their own leaders.

How shall we decide these issues?

Please email your acceptance to the

meeting. If you cannot make this meeting,

please tell me who will be representing you.

- “Lighthorse” Harry Lee

Here’s how you do it:

1. Prepare an Agenda. Without an agenda

you are wasting everybody’s time.

The agenda should spell out, in some

real level of detail, the reason for 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 of political

power. Head that one off. As a matter

of fact, 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 of

the meeting. A fast email the day before

the meeting containing this information

is not a bad idea. Sending out more

than one email IS a bad idea.

4. Each topic has a brief description.

If there is to be a decision, indicate

the choices. Any more detail is not

needed. This is your guide for the

meeting. Stick to these issues. Putting

too much information just invites more

discussion.

5. When you send the agenda out, ask

for an RSVP. If you are emailing –

generate a return receipt. You want

to head off the “I didn’t know about

the meeting.” If they approve a return

receipt, they’ll show up. If 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 everybody’s time.

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Howard is a

Retired Systems

Analyst, Adjunct

Professor and

Author. He lives in

Denver, Colorado.

Howard on Twitter: @hflomberg

About Howard Flomberg

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 favorite 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 of the meeting. It

should be either a black/white board

or a large sheet of paper in plain view

to everyone. So you now say: Terri,

we really do need to discuss that,

let’s put it in the Meeting Parking Lot.

This is your secret weapon! You can

get poster sized “yellow stickies (*4)”

from your office supplies vendor. Stash

them somewhere. Once someone finds

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 Terri’s ego. Her

idea has been recognized and not

ignored. You’ll find that in a relaxed

environment, after a while when

someone brings up an item that is not

appropriate, you’ll hear a chorus of

“parking lot” and laughter.

11. Danger Will Robinson! If at all possible,

do not invite your manager (or your

manager’s manager for that matter).

If you do, the meeting becomes his

meeting. If you must invite him –

establish privately the procedure that

you are going to follow and get his

support. If he refuses to follow your

wishes – get your resume in shape. This

one can be a career ender if handled

poorly. Try and make that discussion

with your boss light. Review the agenda,

ask for his opinion, let him know you’ll

give him a full report, before he says

he’ll be there.

12. Again, if 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. If 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? If we standardize,

we need to appoint a subcommittee

to recommend a supplier and pricing.

Discuss each item. If it is too large or

important to settle at the meeting have

someone follow up on it or schedule

another meeting. If you ask, ”Who

wants to follow up on this?” in most

cases you will be greeted by a wall of

silence. Ask someone with an interest

in the topic to follow up. “Terri, can

you follow up on this?” Everyone is

relieved that you didn’t ask him or her

and is staring at Terri. You now have

peer pressure working for you. At the

end of the meeting, review the action

items. Note who has taken the action, if

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 for resolution. After 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 follow up on it? Terri

will never do that again.

15. Another real important item – If you

must ask someone to take notes –

NEVER ask a woman. She will hate you

for the rest of your life.

16. After the meeting send out a memo

promptly reviewing the decisions and

any topics assigned to someone. Send

this memo out immediately, even if you

have to stay late to do it. List each action

item, who it is assigned to and how will

it be reviewed. Don’t forget the use a

return receipt. If you ask: “Please let me

know if you disagree” you probably will

not get any response until it’s too late,

and someone has been ticked off. More

successful is the language: “I assume

that if no one responds by the end of

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 for a

consulting spot, one of my favorite lines

was “I’ve been doing this for many years

and I’ve made a gazillion mistakes. You

get them all for free” Hopefully I’ve saved

you from some of them.

*1. I really love camels :-)

*2. Is my use of “him” offensive to

anyone? If so please accept my apology.

*3. I am NOT a doctor or a chemist. This

is a totally non- -scientific guess – but it’s

based on years of 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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Getting Things Done… FASTER

When it comes to maximizing how productive you can be there is a lot of talk about adopting frameworks like GTD or Covey’s Seven Habits, cutting down your projects list to the essentials, finding 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 faster (for the purposes of this post lets call it GTDF).

by James Mallison

Imagine a manufacturing 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 benefits are still

clear – get your work done more quickly

and it will leave you with more free time to

play with.

Of course there is a catch to all

this. We also don’t always have to

work quickly through our work, though

with our jobs becoming stressful and

demanding it is becoming increasingly

important to achieve more in less time.

Also, some projects don’t suit well to

being done faster, especially those

that require lots of 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 before 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 if you can’t add a

next action to your system within a few

seconds you simply won’t do it. The same

applies whether you are trying to clean

dishes with poor quality washing liquid,

or trying to save files over a poor quality

network. Find and develop the right tools

for all the jobs in your workflow and if

something doesn’t work quickly enough

for you, replace it!

Lay the groundwork

Imagine again, the setup of a

manufacturing plant with its mass

production setup. It is a finely tuned and

intricate system which is able to create

a set number of products quickly and

effectively. You can mirror this by having

habits, approaches and best-practices

in place in your life that encourage fast,

efficient functioning. Knowing what works

for you and continually optimizing that

approach is key to getting things done

faster. That way you don’t let your bad

habits, like procrastination, and lack of

knowledge, like not having had any training

to use a particular software, slow you

down.

quickly with negligible loss of quality,

or as David Allen would call them, the

widget cranking projects.

With all this in mind, let’s look at how we

can work faster…

Set time limits

One of the most basic but effective ways

to speed up your work is to set time limits.

There are two fundamental 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 yourself to beat that time. It’s a

simple but effective way of keeping your

motivation high using your competitive

drive, while allowing you to gradually

improve your overall speed and efficiency

over time.

Pick a set time on a clock or stopwatch

and then see how much you can get done

before the time runs out. This is useful if

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

fit it in with my other work, so when I had

some spare time I gave myself a thirty

minute time limit and set a challenge to

see how much I could clear out before the

alarm went off.

Keep focused

Manufacturing plants are active most

of the time, if not 24 hours a day and

though you obviously can’t be expected

to be that active, it is important you stay

focused as long as possible on what you

are doing so as to build up momentum

and in turn speed up your work. For

instance, if you have the TV on in the

background as you do your work (as I

am doing while writing this) it’s difficult

to keep focused long enough to get

any momentum (hence this is taking

longer to type than it usually would). As

much as possible find a chunk of time

to work where you won’t be interrupted,

disconnect the phone and turn the TV off.

While it is difficult to keep focused for

any length of time, for those periods we

are able to shut the rest of the world out,

it’s important to take advantage of it.

Maintain energy levels

Well maintained machines don’t get tired or

have off-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 wouldn’t try and

drive a car on an almost empty fuel tank

would you?). Discussing ways of keeping

energized and alert is a topic worthy of

it’s own post so I won’t discuss it in detail

here, however in brief:

Get enough sleep. The average person

needs around eight hours to gain the full

benefits, though this can vary from person

to person. Note, that getting too much

sleep can be nearly as bad as not getting

enough.

Each person naturally feels more alert at

different times of the day, which is where

the night owl and early bird terms come

from. For instance, if you do your best

work in the morning, you can also do your

quickest work.

Eat healthy and take exercise. This

doesn’t really need much explanation but

if you are physically healthy you’re also

mentally healthy and this really helps with

your energy and focus levels.

Use the right tools

Manufacturing plants have huge, often

complex systems in place specifically

designed to do their job quickly and

productively. If one machine is old and

Get enough sleep. Eat healthy and take exercise.

James Mallinson comes from the UK

and is an aspiring author. He started

Organize IT nearly two years ago after

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 of paper, sticky notes, or

even digital applications – online or for your

mobile device.

For the purposes of this article, let’s think

about our Tasks and Projects as index cards,

then you can translate the concept to your

own version of 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 of two

zones: The Queue or Work in Progress (WIP).

In the image of the bulletin board, above,

you can see that it is divided into three

Zones: the left-hand side is for storing

cards that are yet to be acted upon;

the center area is for cards that you are

working on, or have prioritized to be part

of your list of “things to do”; the right-hand

zone is for collecting and organizing the

Tasks and Next Actions that have been

completed, these things are Done.

How Tasks Enter the Kanban System

My process for 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 feel 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 for your calendar when it

comes to the time-specific information

that you need to manage. Remember

that according to the principles of Getting

Things Done only three things are to be

entered into your calendar:

1. Time-specific actions

2. Day-specific actions

3. Day-specific information

That’s 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 for 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 for an item.

However, other devices such as plastic markers

(Kanban squares) or balls (often golf balls) or

an empty part-transport trolley or floor location

can also be used to trigger the movement,

production, or supply of a unit in a factory.

It was out of a need to maintain the level of

improvements that the Kanban system was

devised by Toyota. Kanban became an effective

tool to support the running of the production

system as a whole. In addition, it proved to be

an excellent way for promoting improvements

because reducing the number of 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 of tasks, such as

an automobile factory. Most of us don’t run

car factories, but we can still benefit from

the basic principles of 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 of generation on any

card that you put into the Kanban system.

This will aid you in deciding if 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

from the Queue zone into the WIP zone, for

the same reasons listed above.

Write the date that the Next Action

was completed, in order to make periodic

reviews more effective, especially in

tracking your accomplishments.

Make cards for 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 reference for prioritizing

Next Actions, more important tasks should

be placed in the top left of the appropriate

zone, as this is where your eye is trained

to look first when scanning a “page” of

information.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it

comes to the usefulness of the Kanban system

for your productivity practice. Searching

Twitter and Flickr can give you plenty of

inspiration for enhancing your own system.

Please consider sharing your thoughts and

experiences with Kanban, I’ll be happy

to publish a summary or follow-up article.

to assign as time-specific (or set a deadline for

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 of the Task,

move that card from Queue to WIP. This

method will work whether you use a paper

planner or a digital calendar/PDA.

When you are Done

One of the best features of this system, for

me, is in the moving of Next Action Cards

into the Done zone. This gives me a simple

and easy way of reviewing exactly what was

accomplished in the previous period (day,

week, month, whatever scale you operate

on). The real beauty of this system is that it

replaces messy handwritten lists and gives

an instant overview of what is happening

right now. This is especially helpful in

recognizing when there are simply too many

things happening at once. The concept of the

overview provides a tool for managing your

current workload and the backlog of Tasks in

the Queue and creates a “Pull” mechanism

for 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 from left to right across the

board I am able to see and measure the flow

of work that is being completed. This visual

sense of accomplishment is very gratifying!

Kanban and Delegation

I use a Kanban board both in my home

office, and in my office at work (I manage

a restaurant in a small resort hotel). As you

can imagine this system comes in very

handy for delegating tasks to my team.

Each of my supervisors takes a look at the

Kanban board at the beginning of their shift,

in order to see which tasks or Next Actions

have been assigned to them for the current

work period, and they can also see what is

planned for them in the future (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 fit the situation.

I am finding that this system of managing

our activities is very helpful to actual

productivity. A daily assessment of Next

Actions to be completed keeps priorities in

perspective, avoiding the mindless churn

that so often happens when we get caught

up in the day-to-day routine of handling the

“fires” 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 of our jobs – to ensure that our

guests have a superior dining experience.

This happens out on the restaurant floor, not

in the office or at a computer.

Moving from Lists to Next Action Cards

Changing your personal productivity tools

can be a cause of stress and anxiety, so

I recommend starting slowly, perhaps

with a few 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 fashion on your digital

device or smartphone. Then take some

time to practice and learn the technique of

assessing the Tasks and Next Actions that are

in progress, or are simply waiting to be started.

A list with tens or hundreds of items

it unwieldy and in drastic need of

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 force you

to prioritize your Next Actions, assess their

validity, and perhaps push them back into

the Queue for a more appropriate time. Or

simply decide that a particular item on a list

is not worth doing after all.

Tips for Maintaining Perspective and Next

Action Value

Here are a few tips for making your

transition more painless and beneficial:

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 Stephen Smith

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Focusing on Getting Things Done with Project Management 2.0Let’s have a look at a typical project manager’s day. In the morning, he comes to his office and checks his e-mail for messages with project updates. He then spends hours calling his team members, e-mailing them or meeting them in person to collect all the information he needs and to make sure that everything is well and on track...

by Andrew Filev

... and after 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 company’s executives to

keep them aware of the project’s progress.

The manager also has to follow up on

clients’ feedback or partners’ actions.

During the course of the day, he constantly

has to resolve issues through another

endless series of e-mails, phone calls and

meetings.

Looks familiar, doesn’t 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 of these e-mails contain tasks,

change requests and discussions, so it’s

hard to overestimate the knowledge buried

in e-mail inboxes every day. This knowledge

often bypasses project management tools

like Microsoft Project.

Have you ever missed an important e-

mail? Or forgot to send a reply to an urgent

request? Was it ever easy for you to find an

indispensable piece of information buried in

the thousands of messages that you have

in your inbox? What if you weren’t CC’d on

that e-mail? It gets even worse when you

need to quickly share information that’s 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 transferring

information from e-mails into their project

management systems and back. As a

result, their productivity and efficiency are

damaged by this unnecessary routine.

Instead of being a project leader, a project

manager turns into a project secretary.

Traditional project management systems

often are not integrated with e-mail.

Systems like Microsoft Project are designed

with the top-down project management

approach in mind and aren’t suited well

to leverage collective knowledge in an

easy way. It means they create dozens

of needless, routine jobs for the project

manager. Therefore, instead of helping

project managers, these systems make the

manager’s workload even bigger.

What if managers could bring this

“project secretary” job to a minimum and

concentrate on the leadership part of the

management job? How much more efficient

and productive would the whole team

become as a result? Experts say this is

possible.

The change comes with the growing

popularity of Enterprise 2.0 principles

applied to project management. Project

Management 2.0 relies on the same

concepts as Enterprise 2.0. The power of

many, also known as collective intelligence,

helps to build, maintain and evolve an up-

to-date picture of operations. Flexible

Project Management 2.0 tools merge this

picture from various pieces, giving a perfect

example of what enterprise social software

researchers call „emergent structures.” The

software supporting these two concepts,

collective intelligence and emergent

structures, open new opportunities for

boosting your own efficiency and your

team’s efficiency by cutting the daily routine

and leaving more room for creativity and

leadership. They make a project manager’s

life easier by bringing three major benefits:

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Andrew Filev

has been

managing

software teams

since 2001

with the help

of new-generation collaboration

and management applications.

His best practices are based on

implementation of Enterprise 2.0

software in project management.

Now Andrew is an expert in project

management, a successful software

entrepreneur and the CEO at Wrike.

com. Andrew’s ideas about improving

traditional project management

are reflected in his popular Project

Management 2.0 blog.

Visit Andrew’s Project Management Blog

Andrew on Twitter: @andrewsthoughts

About Andrew Filev

Reducing routine work

Project Management 2.0 practices and

supportive tools eliminate the need for

extra meetings, phone calls and e-mails,

thus saving you time and letting you focus

on getting things done. The best tools in

this area are integrated with e-mail. They

don’t break the habitual workflow, allowing

project participants to communicate via

e-mail messages. At the same time, they

automatically absorb information from e-

mails, which usually bypasses project

management systems and is traditionally

buried in the team’s 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: there’s no need to call

and ask your peer to find the important e-

mail from 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 if you need the

information when nobody is in the office,

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, there’s no need for

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 of their part of

the project work in the shared collaborative

environment. This gives the project manager

the up-to-date picture of 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

of internal project operations, the new-

generation technologies enable managers

and other members of the project team

to view projects differently. Project

participants can pick any reasonable sub-

set of 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 of 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 conflicts and set the right

priorities. Flexible, many-to-many structures

that allow creating, sharing and easy

merging of views are an important part of

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 of 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 what’s

going on in the project. The information

is always at their fingertips. As a result,

the organization’s leaders can adjust

strategic plans to changes in the business

environment much faster. It becomes easier

for them to rapidly and cost-efficiently

recognize changes and adapt to them. The

whole organization becomes more agile

and therefore more competitive, thanks

to very simple tools and the powerful

practices of Project Management 2.0.

The key to the making the whole

organization more productive lays in

gaining efficiency for 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 from team

members to project managers and

corporate executives focus on getting

things done and spend less time on

routine tasks. Naturally, software will not

do the whole job alone, but it empowers

people and multiplies their efforts. Project

Management 2.0 democratizes project

management, bringing it outside of

enterprise project management offices 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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7 ways the new Apple iPad will increase your productivityWith the iPad many believe the era of traditional computing is over. The PCs and Macs are not going to be mainstream. The iPad-like devices are. They are great for mass content consumption and... productivity. Here’s how.

by Michael Sliwinski

The Apple’s iPad is still causing

lots of controversy all over the

Internet and since it’s just been

shipped, one can already find

a number of ways the iPad will improve

your productivity:

1. There’s no „right” way to hold it, it

rotates automatically to adjust to you

iPhone users know this already, but

for many folks this can be a new

thing - you can just grab the iPad and

it rotates to adjust to the way you

grabbed it. It doesn’t force 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 for the iPhone

users, but on this kind of device it’s

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

perfect computing device for people with

sight problems.

3. Process email inbox to zero beautifully

The beautiful all new interface to email

will make processing messages to zero

fun and cool. You’ll be inclined to process

more messages at the time just because

of the cool interface of the new email

app - the „paper-like” feel to the email

messages and ease of use will encourage

you to get email done. Of course, the only

thing problematic here is the performance

of the on-screen keyboard, especially

for people like me who are touch-typing.

But you can get a bluetooth keyboard for

some serious writing.

4. Single-tasking will improve your focus,

it’s a feature, not a bug!

People complain about the fact 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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now a host of

the new Productive! Show site. Every

day he’s trying to help people get

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this actually helps boost your focus and

decrease distractions. You’ll 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 focus-boosting feature in its email

client - when you rotate the screen you see

the email message in a beautiful vertical

view and you see only this message, no

inboxes, no folders, no clutter, just the

message that you can give full attention

to. Similarly other iPad apps work this

way, making the iPad the ultimate „focus”

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. I’m sure this

app will encourage more order and better

planning... and who knows, maybe we’ll finally

be able to schedule your GTD Weekly Review

more often than once a month? Let’s hope so!

7. Books will encourage readership -

you’ll read David Allen’s book again!

The iPad is to serve as an eBook reader.

You can get all of the issues of this

magazine on the iPad’s iBooks software

and read it on the go. It is the most elegant

eBook we’ve seen so far. It’ll help you

read more and learn more... also about

productivity!

Elegance helps getting things done

I’ve highlighted many times in this post

the iPad’s aesthetics and the fact that the

apps coming with it also look gorgeous

and I’m telling you - interacting with

pretty tools makes you want to use

them more. I should know, I’m using 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 it’s just

a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch, I’m sure this

device can be a real productivity booster

for everyone. It already is for me!

Interacting with pretty tools makes you want to use them more.

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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 of each project. (If 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, you’ll notice.

5. Work on your project a little bit each day.

With projects that require a serious infusion of

creative juice – developing a new business plan,

writing a novel, or just learning a new skill – it’s

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 flow more freely. As

Jack Cheng argues in a great blog post, “Thirty

Minutes A Day”: “the important thing isn’t how

much you do; it’s how often you do it.”

by Jocelyn Glei

10 Laws of Productivity

Here are 10 laws of productivity

we’ve consistently observed

among serial idea executors:

1. Break the seal of hesitation.

A bias toward action is the most common

trait we’ve found across the hundreds of

creative professionals and entrepreneurs

we’ve interviewed. While preparing

properly as you start a new project is

certainly valuable, it’s also easy to lose

yourself in planning (and dreaming)

indefinitely. 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 feedback that will help

refine your original idea – and move

forward with a more informed 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 of a multi-

day festival with a smaller performance

series? Take an idea for a skyscraper and

model it in miniature? Work out the flow

of an iPhone app by sketching on paper?

Once you’ve road-tested your idea on a

small scale, you’ll have loads more insight

on how to take it to the next level.

3. Protoype, prototype, prototype.

Trial and error is an essential part of any

creative’s life. As Ze Frank says, usually when

we execute an idea for the first time, it kinda

sucks. The important thing is to synthesize the

knowledge gained during the process to refine

the idea, and create a new-and-improved

version. Serial idea-makers like Jack Dorsey,

Ben Kaufman, and Studio 7.5 all attest:

Prototyping and iteration is key to transforming

a so-so idea into a game-changing product.

Rather than being discouraged by your

“failures,” listen closely and learn from them.

Then build a new prototype. Then do it again.

Sooner or later, you’ll hit gold.

4. Create simple objectives for projects,

and revisit them regularly.

When working on in-depth projects, we

generate lots of new ideas along the way.

This can lead to a gradual expansion of

the project’s goals, or “scope creep.” This

You might think that creatives as diverse as Internet entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, industrial design firm Studio 7.5, and bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would have little in common. In fact, 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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J.K. Glei is

the Director

of the 99%,

Behance’s think

tank, which

focuses on what

happens after inspiration, researching

the forces that push ideas forward.

She also regularly consults with a wide

range of creative clients to assemble

strategic plans — addressing concept,

design, execution, workflow and

staffing — to facilitate the launch and/

or growth of content-driven ventures

both online and in print.

Web site: The 99%

99% on Twitter: @the99percent

6. Develop a routine.

Part of 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 foundation for sparking

true insight. In his recent memoir, What

I Talk About When I Talk About Running,

famed 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 of lessons for start-up

entrepreneurs from Murakami here.)

7. Break big, long-term projects into

smaller chunks or “phases.”

To help manage expectations and stay

motivated for year-long or even multi-

year endeavors, break each project into

smaller chunks that only take a few weeks

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About Jocelyn Glei

or a month to complete. The dual benefit

of this approach is: (1) making the project

feel more manageable, and (2) providing

incremental rewards throughout the

project. It’s crucial to pause periodically to

take stock of what has been accomplished

– even if there’s a long way to go.

With projects that require a serious

infusion of creative juice, it’s incredibly

important to maintain momentum.

8. Prune away superfluous meetings

(and their attendees).

Few activities are more of a productivity

drain than meetings. If you must meet

(and this should be a big “if”), make

sure everyone knows what needs to

be accomplished from the outset. If

people are present who don’t help out

with achieving that objective, let them

leave. Qwest COO Teresa Taylor, recently

interviewed in the NYT’s Corner Office,

starts her meetings with the question,

„Do we all know why we’re here?” and

then follows with, „Does everyone need to

be here?” To trim the runtime of internal

meetings, you can also try the standing

meeting.

9. Practice saying “No.”

Creative energy is not finite. Seasoned

idea-makers know that they must guard

their energy – and their focus – closely.

Take author Jim Collins for example. His

books Built to Last and Good to Great

have sold millions of copies. His business

acumen and insights are in demand.

Yet, “even though Collins demands over

$60,000 per speech, he gives fewer than

18 per year.” More than that and Collins

wouldn’t have enough time to focus

on the research and writing that yield

those bestselling books. When you’re

in execution mode, keep in mind that

“unexpected opportunities” also mean

distraction from the work at hand. Saying

no is an essential part of 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 followed as

long as they are working. If forward motion

has become impossible with your current

routine, try something else. Whether

it’s taking a long distance trip, popping

into the art museum, walking around the

block, or talking to a perfect stranger,

make sure you occasionally shake up your

normal routine. Breaking habits offers new

perspective and helps recharge us to head

back into the fray.

To avoid “blue sky paralysis,” pare your idea down to a small, immediately executable concept.

© Illustration by Oscar Orozco

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Sculptures by Miguel GuiaPerfect Gifts for the Ones You Love

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