dueyfinster / tags / productivity

Tagged with “productivity” (7)

  1. All the Things - Mike Vardy

    In their conversation Mike and Shawn discuss how to avoid getting caught up in the busywork of a productivity system, how to align your tasks and your time, and why all this stuff can be fun and empowering!

    Mike also shares his advice for how to stop working out of your email inbox, and what to do when you are in an email-dominant, urgency-centric work environment. Highlights, Takeaways, and other Quick Wins

    Don’t get caught up in the busywork of your system. Do the BIG things that matter each day. This is a mindset and a bias toward action that you develop over time.

It’s more important to focus on your approach to being productive than it is to focus on the apps and tools you use. Your system will change and evolve over time, but your overall approach will keep you moving no matter what the tool-of-the-day is.

Time management and productivity should be fun, because the aim is to do the things you love.

The most common mistake Mike sees retaliated to productivity is when people use their email inbox as their task manager, too.

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  2. All The Things - Ben Brooks

    Ben is the CEO of Martian Craft, a writer at The Brooks Review, and a dad and husband.

    In this interview, Ben and I talked about the importance of having a trusted system that is also a simple system. We talked about how to not feel guilty over undone tasks at the end of the day, and what to do when you’re just feeling overwhelmed by all the things on your mind. Highlights and key takeaways:

    When you need to get organized, start with the basics and the single, most-important areas of your life. Such as paying the mortgage and utilities, taking out the trash on trash day, replacing the filter in your furnace, etc. For those things that are immovable — they must happen — create a rigid system around them.

Don’t get caught up in the business of managing your tasks. Focus on action and doing stuff.

From time to time it’s helpful to do a mental “reset”. Simply brain dump all the things on your mind in order to help with that feeling of overwhelm.

A system should be as simple as possible. This will mean that you’re far more likely to maintain it and keep up with it and use it. If you venture outside of your simple system, have a good reason why.

Not everything needs to live in a task manager. Writing ideas can live inside your writing app (we both like Ulysses). Shopping lists can live in a shopping list app. Scanned documents can live in a different notes app. Etc.

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  3. All the Things - Havilah Cunnington

    In this conversation, Shawn and Anthony talk about removing distractions, building daily habits that serve your life, and finding creative flow. We also discuss something Anthony calls “The False First Step” and how you can avoid taking placebo-like action rather than actually implementing better habits. Highlights, Takeaways, and other Quick Wins

    A common mistake when people try to establish a new habit is that they go too big and too fast. Focus on small actions, repeated.
Minimalism is about removing distractions
Habits are about building daily authenticity (you regularly do the actions you want to do).
Creativity is about finding flow and doing work that provides value and that you enjoy.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard

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  4. All The Things - Anthony Ongaro

    In this conversation, Shawn and Anthony talk about removing distractions, building daily habits that serve your life, and finding creative flow. We also discuss something Anthony calls “The False First Step” and how you can avoid taking placebo-like action rather than actually implementing better habits. Highlights, Takeaways, and other Quick Wins

    A common mistake when people try to establish a new habit is that they go too big and too fast. Focus on small actions, repeated.
Minimalism is about removing distractions
Habits are about building daily authenticity (you regularly do the actions you want to do).
Creativity is about finding flow and doing work that provides value and that you enjoy.

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard

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  5. All The Things - Jocelyn K. Glei

    This is an interview I did with Jocelyn K. Glei, who was the founding editor of 99u. She now works for herself as a writer and podcaster. Her book, Unsubscribe, is a brilliant piece on managing email and tasks better. And her podcast, Hurry Slowly, is one of my favorite shows.

    The following is a conversation I have already recorded with Jocelyn, and we wanted to put it in here with All the Things because the content and topics we cover during our talk were so relevant to the very same themes in All the Things, Pro.

    In this conversation, Jocelyn and I talk about how distraction is the enemy of creativity. Jocelyn shares her story of becoming a full-time writer and author, her day-to-day structure for doing creative work, and how to overcome distractions. Highlights, Takeaways, and Quick Wins

    “Value emerges as the product of focused work.”
Daily routines help you stay distraction free.
Batch processing email is the first step toward a day that isn’t overrun by the incoming and the urgent.
Celebrating your daily, small wins is critical for maintaining momentum over the long run.
You need feedback loops and accountability with your goals
If you’re feeling like you’re not making meaningful progress in the day, you need a “Stop Doing” list. What are the things you’re not going to do?

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  6. All The Things - Eric Fisher

    In their conversation Shawn and Erik talk about being productive rather than doing productive. They also dive into some of the most common problems that Erik sees related to productivity, and what people can do to avoid those. Highlights, Quick Wins, and other Takeaways

    Two common mistakes people make related to productivity are (1) the pursuit of perfection; and (2) an over-commitment to consistency. No system is perfect, and no system can be set in stone for ever.

Sometimes you have to just “blow up” your system and start over.

Using a delightful and enjoyable app and other tools can actually be helpful to your overall productivity system. Because if you like the tools you use then you are more likely to use them regularly. And that’s the whole point.

Eriks number-one advice for folks trying to be more productive is to sit down with a piece of paper and a pen nd to brain dump everything on your mind. Do this at least once per quarter anyway. It is a chance to build your self-awareness as well as a chance to step back and then choose what you can and will focus on to build momentum.

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  7. Productive Talk Compilation: 8-episode podcast with GTD’s David Allen | 43 Folders

    As promised, here's the single-file compilation of the Productive Talk podcast interviews I did with David Allen, the author of Getting Things Done. The final version's eight episodes clock in at a considerable one hour and twenty-six minutes, so this should give you plenty to listen to while you're in line at the DMV.

    http://www.43folders.com/2006/11/28/productive-talk-comp

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    Tagged with 43 folders action based best practices business classics david allen getting things done implementation interviews life hacks personal productivity podcasts productive talk recaps 43f apple email inbox zero macs merlin mann os x produ

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