How does minimalism affect your personal productivity? And, is there such a thing as a minimalist approach to productivity? I believe ardently that our physical and digital worlds are a manifestation of our mental-emotional world, so I sought out some answers about these thorny questions. After about 30 hours of research and uncounted hours of pondering, here are my thoughts on these two questions. Read more.

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Quick announcement: I have launched my new podcast, ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. It’s a longer podcast show format. If you have productivity questions, please head over to the podcast website and ask it; maybe we’ll answer your question on the show! Check it out in your favorite podcast directory, or by visiting productivitycast.net. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy it!

When Brig. Gen. Henry Martyn Robert proposed the use of parliamentary procedure for common meetings back in 1876, he likely didn’t foresee the future of meetings as they happen today. However, while seemingly an anachronism or overly formal to some of you listening/reading (unless you yourself are a parliamentarian), Robert’s parliamentary law was as needed back in the 19th century as it is relevant today for the future of work to be done in more transparent, collaborative, and productive ways. Here’s why and how.

Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra.

Read more...

Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality.

• It stifles your creativity
• It distances you from dealing with conflict in a healthy manner
• It closes doors, metaphorically
• It saps you of emotional energy
• It makes sleeping feel less restful

• Opening communication lines and deepening relationships
• Increasing your capacity for compassion
• Converting conflicts to solutions
• Motivating you to action
• Refueling your mental, emotional energy stores

1. Plants don't have "bad" days.
2. Whether vegetable, flower or fruit-bearing bush, plants need balance. Imbalance in the amount of light, food, fertilizer, water and other conditions and plants' flowering or growth will be severely hindered...and it may kill the plant.
3. Seasons clearly affect a plants' life, but it is taken as a natural response to the ebb and flow of Nature's resources as the planet rotates around the sun.
4. Plants are a diverse kingdom. For example, the arctic poppy can withstand immensely cold weather and blossom. They understand that not every kind of plant is suited for every environment, and they specialize to suit their environment.
5. Plants land in a location and make the best of their time given the resources they've been handed.
6. It turns out that plants are stimulated by the human voice and the sound will induce growth without the plant every responding to you. It turns out that listening is one of the plant's greatest sensory skills to adapt to its environment.
7. For most plants, staying hydrated is one of it's three most vital needs.
8. Plants take a lot of deep breaths throughout its existence to intake nourishments and exhales deeply to get rid of what it doesn't need.
9. Plants tend toward striking a balance between function and aesthetics through a constant testing process. It doesn't experience its current form as an end, but just another point in its continual journey.
10. Plants' temporal existence is easily overshadowed by its legacy of being an integral part of human's primary support network.

I hear people tell me often that I "work too much." While this may seem like the case, I can assure you that's not the case. I have a different paradigm about the definition of "work" and how it fits into my life. Life is dynamic and long-term process. Instead of worrying about if you're working too much (and definitely worrying about whether someone else is working too much), I suggest that you determine how satisfied you are with how you spend your time. And, you know what I'm going to say...there's only one way to know that...track your time! In this episode, I'd like to explain my calculation of what I call life-work balance (because I work to live, not vice versa) and therefore "life" should proceed "work," but perhaps not in the way you think.

Typically, it shouldn't take you more than a week or two of tracking your time on, say, an hourly basis. There are myriad applications that you can use, as well as a good old-fashioned printed spreadsheet with date, description of the task, and length of time spent on that task. At the end of this period of tracking, you'll have a pretty good sampling of your activities across work and life. Now, categorize them into your life categories. You can use a series of colored highlighters or just noting the category next to each task for which you tracked time. Are you starting to see any patterns?

Now, think about your life and life categories. In an ideal world, 

Think of your life-work balance as a pie chart. All that matters is that the pie is whole and that you have a healthy perspective about its slices. That's balance...not a 50-50 balancing scale between all that is life and all that is work. Will your pie always be full? No. Will your pie sometimes burn? Yes. That's life and nothing a little elbow grease can't fix. But you know what your life-work balance pie should look like, and that'll help create better focus for you on how your pie should look, smell and taste.

I'll add this one final thought credited to my fellow productivity enthusiast and journalism professor Kenna Griffith (who you can find blogging at profkrg.com) who coined life-work balance instead as "Work-Life Negotiation" since all of life is a negotiation. Semantics makes a difference, so give that some thought. Thanks, Kenna! 

1. Let's start with what you should and shouldn't follow in terms of blogs and bloggers. Less than three major media outlets...the sometimes pump out hundreds of articles per day and it can quickly overwhelm; if they have best-of feeds that limit to just the most important. Monthly purge of articles from blogs which you haven't read *any* posts...this keeps your list manageable. You can only read so much, and you owe it to yourself to find the material that best suits your personal tastes and professional needs.

2. Use an RSS feed reader, like Feedly, to combine all your blog reading into one centralized repository. I have keep two different accounts: one for personal and one for professional reading. You likely don't need that separation, but I need to so I don't get enticed into reading about cognitive neuroscience, personal productivity and electronics gadgets at the office when I should really be reading professional industry blogs! 

3. Process this RSS feed reader inbox into Pocket, Instapaper, Readability or another reader app for offline reading if you can't read all the articles in your RSS feed reader in one sitting and you know you'll have time away from your computer or laptop, where you can bang through those articles that same day.
3. Once you set up your RSS feed reader, make the determination whether you will have a master feed from which to process incoming posts, or whether you'll use folders to segment groups of blog feeds together based on category or context. I have days when one or the other method is best suited for me, and I like being able to use different folders for context (@airport, @subway, @brain-dead, etc.) while at times just looking at All Items view and just processing from the master spigot of articles. You decide which best works for you.
4. Every morning, midday or evening before whenever you look at your RSS feed reader again, make sure to clear out your items in your reader app. This way, you don't start to compound reading material that you just aren't going to get to. One trick is to make sure to categorize by tagging every item you receive in your RSS feed reader (either automatically if it's available in your application, or manually as you select the important articles you want to read or reference later, as opposed to something you'd *like* to read for fun but isn't important enough to tag or track), as well as those you add to your reader app. That way, if you just swiftly archive everything you haven't read any given morning you can always retrieve the important reference materials from the category tags in the future quickly and easily. Don't depend on the built-in search functionality of your RSS feed reader or reader app to do the job only your brain can do of cataloging items you believe are important.  

So there you have it, a set of techniques for making blog reading a well-greased productivity engine!

Habit
I will push you onward or drag you down to
failure.
I am completely at your command.
over to me and I will do them - quickly and
correctly.
Show me exactly how you want something done
and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.
and alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I work with the precision of a machine
plus the intelligence of a person.
it makes no difference to me.
I will place the world at your feet.

I am your constant companion.

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden.

Half of the things you do you might as well turn

I am easily managed - you must be firm with me.

I am the servant of great people,

I am not a machine though

You may run me for profit or run me for ruin -

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I? I am Habit.

According to their website:
Why should you go paperless?
If you do the quick math, that's conservatively two billion sheets of paper used every year just in the United States! We know better and we can do better...and the benefits are great for us...greater efficiency and higher productivity at work and at work.
It just takes small decisions and workflow changes. Using tools like Google Drive, HelloSign, and Nitro (which is a PDF creation tool) changes the print and paper chase of working to seamlessly collaborating and sharing documents and file without a single fiber of tree having to be used. 
On the flip side, the companies like Lemon Digital Wallet, ShoeBoxed.com and Fujitsu's ScanSnap help you turn paper into digital files so that you can defeat the paper monster once and for all. The efficiences that can be found by having all your documents in one central, digital repository (even if you do keep the physical paper around for tax, legal, financial or other logical safekeeping).
While not a Paperless Coalition member, I am a big fan of Evernote and use that to capture my paper notebook pages after I go to a meeting so that even though I like the kinesthetic benefits of handwriting notes, I can still go paperless quickly and easily. With the Google Drive smartphone application, you can snap a photo and upload it directly to a Notebook folder as well.
You can find them at paperless2013.org where you can sign up for their monthly e-newsletter with tips and tools. I hope this sparks your interest in going paperless and gets you started toward a Paperless 2013.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the average US office worker uses 10,000 sheets of copy paper each year. In 2010, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 334 pounds for each person living in the US, according to the American Forest & Paper Association.

Every time you don't make a NYR happen, you feel like a failure or worse, you don't remember you made the NYR. Why is this bad, you say? Either way--whether you feel negative emotions or you're numb to your own planning--your brain remembers it all. These brain pathways (that is, physical brain matter) mitigate future growth by stopping you from planning in the first place. It equates planning with pain and your brain's flight-or-fight response thinks it knows better so it helps you avoid activities that promote pain...even if "no pain, no gain" sometimes unlocks great potential. Or, your brain says, heck, you don't do the stuff you plan to do so why waste energy on these brain functions! At the end of the day, you get the short end of your own gray matter.
So, what should you do instead of NYRs? Here's what I've done for the past decade and while I haven't achieved a single NYR (because I haven't made one), I have achieved every goal I've set out to accomplish.
First, I chose a non-calendar end of my year. I chose my year-end to be October 31 and my "planning year" to start on November 1. November happens to be a significant time of year for me, my birth month, while it's also an arbitrary time of year for most people. I like November because it's before the major holidays (Thanksgiving and the winter holidays season) and yet it still gives me time to end the calendar year strong. So, during the month of October, I choose a number of goals for my upcoming year, by my life planning categories and by month. I try to focus on one life category per month through my year, then breaking down each goal into monthly activities and weekly activities and then daily activities. Monthly and weekly activities are usually planning and reviewing activities, while daily activities are usually the small, habitual tasks toward achieving that specific goal.
In all, make goals year-round and add activities toward those goals into your daily life.

There was a time when I started first studying psychology and its relationship to my personal productivity when I thought  my "productivity system" meant automation. Boy, was I sadly mistaken! It took me a long time (18 months to be exact) to figure out that my productivity system wasn't all about automating my life. It turns out that DOING was a huge part of my productivity system, and *I* had to do the DOING. What a shock to my system this was when I spent all that time setting up this amazing system and planning all day! Nothing got done! So, what is the purpose of your productivity system?  I've come to define the purpose of a personal productivity system as a way to facilitate you DOING more consistently and better and KNOWING what you're not able to DO at any given time so you can relax and focus on what it is you can do.
Let me dive into this a little further so I explain this correctly.
The first part of that definition is that your personal productivity system is about doing more and better when you're able to. Doing more means, that by planning out the most efficient ways to get from A to B for any given task or project, you're able to get more done in a focused period of time. This isn't something you can do consistently without a system; believe me, for years, I tried! Next up is the adjective "better." What I mean is, that your productivity system should have a way for you to track what you've done and review what has been done to create as accurate a historical record as possible. Therefore you can match or increase your output sustainably from there. Again, no system equates to not only allowing in subjectivity about "better" but also about using potentially your fuzzy memory to recollect what you accomplished, or didn't. What does better look like for you?
Finally, one of the great, rarely spoken truths about personal productivity is the fact that you can't do more of anything without doing less of something right now. Your productivity system needs to be able to help you track when you can do things and when you cannot. Do you know what you can't do right now so you can start doing the one thing now that you can? If so, you likely have a system. If you don't, now you know why you need a system, and what a system really is. 
How do you define "personal productivity system?" I'd love to hear from you in the comments or via email.

2. Now that you have your relationships list, go down the list and mark each person with symbols representing whether you feel good or not when they come into mind. I use + or - signs, or :-) :-| or :-( , for my symbols. Not good includes however you define it but typically encompasses for me annoyance, frustration, indifference and dislike. Follow that exercise with placing an asterisk next to contacts with whom you must have a relationship. Perhaps I'll explain my thoughts on how I perform this data collection and analyze this data on a more granular level in a future episode. Some thoughts to ponder: what is the ratio of must relationships to positive symbol ones? Are there more not-good than feel-good contacts on your list? Does the happiness of the people you listed correlate to your relative happiness in life?
3. Moving onto the final phase of the pull method,  take your list and filter to two new lists: one for your feel-good's and one for your not-good but must-have relationships. Now, for your feel-good's, plan ways in which you can see those people more (yes, in real life), deepen your relationships and generally show your appreciation for having them in your life...ergo, pull them closer to you! For the must-have's, put together a plan to increase positive interactions and carefully but steadily address the aspects of these relationships that make it not-good. Remember, some of these things that you don't like in your must-have relationships are likely present in your feel-good relationships as well; I'd start with confronting the issues in the not-good must-have relationships before backtracking to those of the feel-good's.
There you have it! The pull method for more productive relationships.

The human mind can keep approximately 150 social connections in their conscious mind at any given time. This median average comes from Dunbar's number named after the British anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, who theorized the oft-cited social metric. I have thousands of people that think they "know" me because they've connected with me in some light touchpoint manner at countless business and social events, hundreds of seminars and presentations I've spoken at, email messages and via Social Media. I'm truly blessed to be able to communicate with some really great people in my professional and personal lives all over the world, and I honor and appreciate every communication I have in my life. However, these online platforms create sometimes a false perception of relationship and genuine community and I want to make sure I'm fostering healthy, productive relationships with the people I truly care about and want to get to know better. So for several years, I've developed a technique to keep myself from being overwhelmed by the overconnectedness of social networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
I call this technique, the "Pull Method." Here are the basics:
1. First, make an accounting of the people you care about. On a piece of paper with pen (that is, without any address books or electronic aids), wrote down everyone important in your life today; broadly, the categories are family, social and professional connections. Number them.  If there are more than 200 contacts, you should likely review the list to *really * consider whether you care about these people or that you just remembered them. Note, this isn't a memory challenge but a practice in determining about whom you really care. Once you've done that, you can move on to the next two phases.
In the next episode, I'll cover phases two and three of my "Pull Method" for more productive relationship. Stay tuned!

Services mentioned in this episode:

• Unroll.me
• Sanebox (I get a free 5$ account credit for each person that signs up using this link.)
• Boomerang Gmail (I get some kind of credit for you signing up using this link, but I can't figure out what that is!) :-P
• Gmail Valet

The first step is to shut off the email spigot. Create a strategy for sustainably processing your inbox from today forward. Then look at your backlog and attempt to establish a breadcrumb method for dealing with the back email messages. For example, a friend and colleague of mine takes the oldest days worth of email and the last two days' email to process. Doing this every workday along with keeping up with the inbound email today is manageable and in just a few days or weeks's time, you're back to Inbox Zero. 
 
To help with shutting off the email spigot, there's an email service called Unroll.me. It helps you unsubscribe from all those email newsletters you think you should be receiving but they're really just distractions.
 
Another service is called Sanebox. It automatically filters messages that you don't need to deal with right now so that you can bring those into view when you actually want to address them. I really enjoy being able to train Sanebox and seeing the statistics of how many hours it saves of my time.
 
Also a favorite service of mine is Boomerang Gmail. It enables you to send email out of view then come back to you at a predetermined date and time. Also Boomerang Gmail is able to schedule an outbound email and has several other really great features so check this one out, for sure.
 
And finally there's a new service called Gmail Valet. What I understand about the service is that there are real humans who have access to your inbox. And, as new email arrives they review your email to see whether or not it's actionable. If it is, they add it to a task list for you and otherwise move nonactionable items according to your specifications. It's currently free to use in beta!
 
So there you have it, a strategy for dealing with email overload and some services that can possibly help you from it getting overwhelming in the first place.

The author uses a strategy composed of Definition, Elimination, Automation and then Liberation (the acronym, DEAL) to effectuate his "lifestyle design" concept. 
First, Definition boils down to planning. What are your goals, needs and wants? 
Next, Elimination is the where he discusses effectiveness over efficiency. And, while I disagree with his bases for the discussion, he effectively discusses using the 80/20 rule here to learn to focus, say "no," and eliminate distractions (for example, the idea of going on an "information diet").
Then, the section on Automation is about tactics to create passive revenue streams; basically, businesses that can run themselves. While this idea is appealing, I say stick to doing what you're passionate about and avoid this get-rich-quick scheme-y thought stream. Either way, I think he adds some great thoughts on hiring a virtual assistant (see ProdPod Episodes 38 through 41 on outsourcing parts of your life for greater productivity)!
Finally, Liberation covers the concept of making your life mobile, if possible.
In a practical sense, I think you'd apply his methodology as Definition, Elimination, Liberation and then Automation, if you're already working full-time for an employer; but that's up to practicalities of finance and time/energy resources available to you.
One key concept that I really enjoyed about the book was his idea of mini-retirements so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor before you're too old and gray to really enjoy life.
Altogether, the Four-Hour Workweek provides you a framework to understand that your time and life are valuable beyond the 9-5 humdrum. And for that, we can all appreciate ourselves a little more.

At a very young age, we understand that some things are more important than others. As soon as we're born, we learn that the scent of our mothers is important for our survival as the source of our nutrition. As we get a bit older, we realized quickly that mom and dad are more important than the strangers on the street. And as the comparison between objects and concepts get stronger and more complex, we learn to differentiate. 

Did you ever hear that 80% of your success comes from 20% of your effort? Inversely, you commit 80% of your effort on outcomes that provide you only 20% of your success.

Daily affirmations:

1. First, you need to identify what you think are your strengths and weaknesses. You can probably name quickly off the top of your head how you're a best asset to your family, your friend network and at the office in your job duties or beyond. Now, where do you feel like you could improve? Write down a list of "I" statements of your strengths. Then, do the same with your weaknesses but write them down in the inverse. For example, if I felt my weakness was in follow-through with my coworkers' requests, I would write something like, "My coworkers can depend on me to follow-through with their requests in a timely manner." Now, merge the two lists and read them aloud to yourself (perhaps in a mirror if that helps) every morning. This will build the brain pathways to unlocking new strengths and solutions.
2. Next, write down every negative word you say in the course of a week as you recognize them and pay attention to change the language whenever you hear yourself saying something negative about yourself.

Negative Self-Speak Lexicon:

3. Finally, enlist your friends, family and coworkers with scripts encouragingly worded to alert you of negative self-speak when you don't notice it. With each alert, remember to restate your self-speak positively. This may even help your friends, family and coworkers resolves some of their own negative self-speak!

With daily affirmations, knowing your negative self-speak lexicon and the help of your friends, family and coworkers, you'll be on your way to conquering your negative self-speak for good!

We all have an inner voice; it is a collection of our approximately seventy thousand thoughts per day converted to words as we consciously think them. Let's enlist for our purposes of this discussion Dr. Stephen Covey's Seven Habits definition of control, which is the space between stimulus and response. If that's the case, then when we verbalize our thoughts aloud, we vet our thoughts more thoroughly commanding only the best quality of decisions to act upon. Think about it, if you say what all your decisions are going to be out loud (even privately in your own office/home), aren't you going to be more mindful?
I tend to think of this technique in the face of high distraction or procrastination, so I'll give a real life productivity scenario of my own to demonstrate. My ideal morning routine is to check my inboxes, processing and responding to my morning messages before I start the rest of my workday. I'm a FIFO kinda guy (that is, first in, first out -- meaning, I scroll to the bottom of my inbox and read the chronologically first message in, process and/or respond, and move on to the next message). If I'm having a particularly difficult time keeping focused on my inbox or starting at all, I'll literally say out loud to myself, "Ray, you're focusing on the first message to read & respond." I'll repeat myself ad nauseum until I re-focus and continue on my decision to process my inbox.
So, go forth and take control of your work and life by talking yourself into greater productivity!
// Let's take this idea of talking to yourself into a real life productivity scenario. I come into the office in the morning after a long and trafficked commute. I open up my computer and prepare myself for the day, but still feeling a tinge frustrated by the tribulations of my morning so far. Up pops my email and I scroll down to the bottom to find the first email in from last evening (as I'm a last in, first out email kinda guy). The message is from a client barking orders about this or that and I lose my temper at this client's clear lack of regard for my time and how much work I've put into the process. Pause. Let's take my inner voice and make it my outer voice now. "I'm frustrated by this morning's commute. And, this client wrote me at six o'clock last evening. So, they clearly didn't intend for me to read this message in this negative mindset.

Let's take the example of how Whole-Being Fitness works in real life. that I've decided to run a marathon in a few months. So, to prepare for the mental image of a successful marathon photograph of me crossing the finish line I need to think first about my physical fitness...cross-training along with my core endurance training, then working up to personal training milestones (which for me are 18 and 24 miles). Further, let's look at the additional areas of Whole-Being Fitness as ways of making sure that I don't put the cart before the horse. Mental Fitness clues me into how I intend to run this marathon. There're several methods for running marathons, including the increasingly popular Galloway method. As well, what's my mindset for finishing this marathon? Just finish, or am I trying to set a personal time record? Broadly, emotional and social intelligence fitness guides me in getting all of my running friends together so that I have support during training and potentially someone to run the marathon with me. They may also be folks to support me along the way so I can shed gear and get a snack as I make my way along the marathon course on race day. To be Nutrition fit I have to make sure I'm taking in enough calories and the right balance of macronutrients to fuel and replenish what my body is going to burn during cross-training and long runs. My Rejuvenating Fitness teaches me that I need self-care to motivate myself through short, medium and long-term rewards for getting across the finish lines of every training run. And the all important Sleep Fitness gives my body the needed rest for my body to recuperate from the punishment it's going to take. Literally, if I don't sleep properly three or four nights straight before my long runs, my running speed will suffer. Finally, Do you see how interwoven each area of Whole-Being Fitness is to your overall success? I cannot emphasize enough that I cannot work harder at only one of these Whole-Being Fitness areas to compensate the fitness lacking in another. I do so at my own detriment.
Although I used an endurance athletic event as an example, Whole-Being Fitness matters in every aspect of your productive life. The more fit you are in each area, the better your productivity.
// If you look at every aspect of your work and life productivity--every major work project, job role or personal goal--these seven fitness areas touch on your ability to perform in them interdependently and better. So, whether it's learning to play an instrument better...to writing that next sales proposal...or passing that upcoming exam, you need to contemplate how Whole-Being Fitness can make achieving your goals and overcoming your challenges easier and more sustainable. 

The late Dr. Stephen Covey, of which many of you know I'm an ardent fan of his works, took the humanistic psychology principles of HPM and turned them into a book, The 8th Habit, which was a culminating work from his most well-known book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. You can find several PDF summaries of The 8th Habit via a Google Search. From Aldous Huxley to Anthony Robbins and Abraham Maslow to George Leonard, Dr. Covey wraps the principles of these proponents into a simple and effective action plan based on the premise that your life (and society at large) will get exponentially better when people find their own passion, mission, vision, life purpose, professional goal or what have you (and he calls this "finding your voice"), then help others find their voice. 

This bears repeating: find your voice. Then, help others find theirs. If you want to dive deeper into this concept, review the PDF summaries or buy the book. 

By the way, this is not a supplanting of the seven habits outlined in Covey's acclaimed The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and it is I believe a supplement to productivity systems that promulgate time management (Forrester, Morgenstern and those folks) as well as action management (for those of the Getting Things Done or GTD, methodologies). The Human Potential Movement has come a long way and we have much to thank for it, so don't let it lie their in vain. Head out and find your mission and vision (which you can do by yourself or using a tool like the Mission Statement Builder at franklincovey.com/msb) and make it a productive life! 

That second type of clutter is that which resides in your mind. Start a bucket list in a single, good-old-fashioned paper notebook. This isn't a task or project list. It's a list of all your emotional memories as they come to mind, your current emotional state, anxieties as you feel them, and worries about the future. Ruminating is a clear symptom that you're in need of psychic decluttering. Writing it down with pen and paper (in my experience and observations of others) is the best way to counteract these unhealthy stores of emotional baggage.

Finally, there's no doubt that as our lives become ever more digital, there's bound to be more data on our computers, our mobile devices and the Web about us that we have to manage. I remember when everything I owned in digital data could be held on a single "Microfloppy"...which, for you Millenials and younger, those were 3.5" floppy diskettes that held a whopping 1.44MB! Those were the days. I'd carry that "Microfloppy" with me everywhere and I felt like I held my entire world in my pocket. Well, today, I carry a smartphone that holds literally 22,755.5 Microfloppies worth of data and there's countless more data on the Web about me.

That doesn't mean you can't find ways to get rid of massive amounts of dead-weight data and organize it so that it's no longer clutter, but meaningful data that you can protect and use effectively. The first step is admitting to yourself you have digital clutter!

I know this is just a primer on how to start hardcore decluttering but my hope is that it sparks action and you can come up with new, innovative ideas about how you're banishing clutter. I'll be covering clutter type specifically--physical, psychic and digital--in future episodes so stay tuned!

[image: Venn diagram of physical/psychic/digital-->center area: Hardcore Decluttering]

PHYSICAL
Let's start with the easiest clutter to identify, the physical stuff hanging around your home, office, carrying bags (such as a briefcases, shoulder bags or purses), and the car. One way to help you make headway on physical clutter is by calculating its worth (or, rather, its cost to your bank account annually). So, what's the monetary value of your stuff? Create a spreadsheet or just make a paper list and start tabulating the cost of storing it in your home, storage or elsewhere? Every cubic square foot has a cost per year that's being eaten up by clutter; measure it and add the space to your spreadsheet. Next, how much did you pay for all that stuff? What's its market value today? Find those out and add them to your data. Add this information to the reality that this clutter is depleting your emotional reservoir of good feelings. Ready to start selling and donating and trashing that stuff now? Great! So, head to Craigslist.org for your nearest locality, sign up to give stuff away on Freecycle.org and Google your nearest Salvation Army or Goodwill store to see what you have that they might be accepting. 

That's only one of three clutter-prone areas of your productive life. We'll continue in the next episode with covering psychic and digital clutter, so stay tuned! I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod, I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening. Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less!

To get started...
Grab a paper ledger journal from the local office supply store (or if you're tech savvy, create an Excel or Google Spreadsheet workbook). Each sheet is dedicated to one person. Discuss with your barter buddy (or buddies) the terms of your arrangement. Each task is worth one credit and you should both track the credits of yourself and the other, so you can make sure that you're responsibly handling any conflicts that may arise. Determine how the credits can be used and make note of them in your journal or spreadsheets. Some credits will have expiration dates, some bartering relationships will reset every month, quarter or year. And, in the initial phase, I'd make sure to start with a test period where you can renegotiate the bartering relationship with your barter buddy after the first few times for any reason if the arrangement is just not working for either of you, without hard feelings or false assumptions. Relationships are far more important than a few poorly-laundered t-shirts!
The best items to barter are routine items that each party does on a weekly or monthly basis so there's less management involved. But, I've found that with co-workers you can get around many management problems and organizational productivity shortcomings by creating a bartering market. There's no doubt this requires much more planning but it can pay off if executed properly and managed responsibly. I believe that bartering tasks and projects for greater productivity is an untapped resource we all have access to in our ever-increasingly hectic lives, and all you need to do is ask the people you know.

You know what bartering [http://www.gettingmoneywise.com/2011/12/swap-share-and-land-bartering.html?m=1] is. You have an apple and I want to buy an apple. And, I have an orange and you want an orange. But, neither of us has any currency. So, we decide that instead of buying the fruits from each other or from a market, we'll just exchange your apple for my orange. It turns out that we can translate bartering vis-a-vis your productivity.

Think about everyone in your life: co-workers, spouses, children, other family members, friends, acquaintances, and more. Did you ever find that you like to do certain things in life and others in your life enjoy doing the things you find difficult, boring and time-consuming? Why not swap tasks for greater efficiencies? For example, do you hate grocery shopping but love doing laundry? Ask your friend who lives nearby if s/he would be willing to swap duties. Or, perhaps you have to send out holiday cards every year and you always struggle to get them out on time, and your mother is great at the task but needs some help every year wrapping all the grandchildren's presents and that happens to be something you enjoy doing. Why not barter the card-writing for the gift-wrapping? I'm giving very simple examples, but get creative. You'd be surprised what your support network doesn't want to do and would be willing to do for you not to have to do their own stuff. You will find the efficiencies remarkable when you realize how little work it is to do a bit extra work doing what you enjoy and not do the things you really don't want to or never get around to doing.

In the final episode in this series, I'll give you a quick-start guide on how to begin personal tasks bartering.

In the last episode, I introduced the idea of hiring a virtual assistant, personal concierge and daily money manager. In this episode, I'll explain what each is and why you need one.
Virtual assistants are never physically present and the equivalent to having an executive assistant. Many small business owners use them for varying levels of administrative, marketing and management duties. While they are utilized by businesses and executives most often, there's no reason why you can't hire them to do the same tasks that you would otherwise need to do yourself when you have better things to do with your time. Do you need research done for a report you need to write? Have your virtual assistant research and organize it for you. Do you need to organize your music library on your computer at home? Use a secure service such as LogMeIn Free and have him/her log in to your computer to do it for you. In the Internet Age, there's very little that cannot be done with merely a cellphone, email and a Web browser.
On the other hand, personal concierges are usually hyper-local services and are good for checking in the on the fish while you're away on vacation, waiting for the cable guy to supervise the installation of your new service and equipment, or picking up the dry cleaning or groceries. For those of us with long work hours and without spouses (or both spouses work full-time), these routine errands can really be a bear and a personal concierge service can be mighty beneficial.
Do you find it tough to find the time to pay your bills regularly or have the discipline to save? Does your mother or father's aging limit their ability to do their financial management as well as they used to? Or, are they forgetting to pay utilities? Well, you may not need a financial planner or accountant for these simple, personal bookkeeping duties. This is where a daily money manager might just be what you need.
The opportunities abound when it comes to outsourcing in your personal life, and I know that not everyone has the money to pay for a virtual assistant in their life. So, in episode 40, I'll be talking about a different way to outsource your personal tasks that doesn't require hiring anyone. Stay tuned.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening. Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less!

For many of us, we feel overwhelmed not by the many things we are doing on a daily basis but by the many things we want to be doing additionally or instead of what we're already doing everyday. Furthermore, we find ourselves responding more often to communication than actively doing what we've planned. Think of Dr. Stephen Covey's thoughts on doing more "important, not urgent" activities than the other three quadrants of "not important, not urgent," "not important, urgent," and "important, urgent" distractions. If you don't know what the Merill/Covey Matrix looks like, head over to Google Images or Wikipedia and search for it to see how this long-term goals planning tool works.
Well, if you are struggling with these distractions (which many times still need to be managed or handled in some way, shape or form) I think there's an answer for you. There's a burgeoning industry in the area of personal outsourcing; the IT sector has seen the greatest growth and media exposure in outsourcing generally but this is even more defined. Administrative, professional and executive secretaries, assistants and concierges (some with very specialized skills) are jumping on the entrepreneurial bandwagon and are helping everyday people at reasonable prices to get the laborious, time-consuming and mundane tasks of life done.
Now, while there's plenty of discussion about virtual assistants on the Web today, the fact is that you probably need a variety of people to do more specialized outsourcing in your personal life. That is, everyone who can afford it should hire at least a virtual assistant, then possibly a personal concierge and a daily money manager for more specialty tasks. In the next episode I'll explain what each of those roles are and how you can utilize them.

At the office, you have a policy for just about everything. So, why not have a policy that actually helps your email and other communications to facilitate uninterrupted, productive time for you and your coworkers to get things done.
Find a way to escalate important-urgent messages. Talk with your coworkers about how to call attention to matters that need an immediate response. In other words, answer this question: "When someone needs something 'right away,' how do we ask for them to help us?"
For example, you might decide that if something can wait for hours or even a day or two, to send your message by email. If something needs a faster response, consider using the phone, text, instant message or a "tap on the shoulder." Then, of course, if you need a digital paper trail, send an email.
Try a five-day experiment with just one or two people on your team, people you work with well. You're likely to find that the more you practice these techniques, the more efficient and productive you'll become...and the rest of your organization.

In 1996, Daniel Goleman wrote his hit book, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Mr. Goleman is a journalist, and not a scientist, but nevertheless he made a break-through in the way in which humans understand ourselves by giving context to the new ways scientists were learning about our psychology. Here's the book in a nutshell and how it relates to productivity. The premise of the book is quite simple: raw intelligence (IQ) tests score a human metric that doesn't correspond directly with success in life, and that emotional intelligence (or, EQ) is a psychosocial skill that should be taught so that humans are more productive members of society. Goleman heavily relies on studies to support his theory, and I think he does so quite successfully. The study that stood out for me the most when I read it fifteen years ago now, was a study that appears deep in the book in Part III, Chapter 10, "Managing with Heart." In this chapter, the author describes how researchers basically test high IQ people using emotional intelligence tests. They found that the high IQ individuals that were mostly average and below average on the EQ tests were also those that started many projects or tasks at a time and didn't complete them. Those that shined on the EQ tests were the ones that took pride in completing their projects or tasks. We know anecdotally that successful people in life are usually those that get things done not just get things going. I think this makes a real statement for all of us living in the Digital Age. Focus on finishing what you set out to accomplish and don't get distracted and fragmented in your goals. You'll not only have greater emotional intelligence but you'll also see more success in your productive life.

Partly because I'm a tech geek and partly because of my professional responsibilities, I get to see a dizzying array of new technologies every day. And, I try to keep most of them swimming around in my head to differentiate the potential winners and likely losers in the market. FastCustomer is a productivity tool that I believe is one of those potential winners. According to its website, it is trying to "make customer service better for both companies and consumers." I think the concept (as I'll explain momentarily) is amazing and I hope it continues to be adopted by the broader consumer market and corporate customer service departments. Here's the problem it solves, how it works and what it means for your personal productivity. As you know, trying to get customer service on the line can sometimes be a major headache. FastCustomer steps in as a free Web, mobile SMS and smartphone app technology that waits for you, then connects you to customer service so you don't have any wait time. You can access the service via FastCustomer.com, install their Firefox or Chrome Web browser extensions, text 936-CALL-PLS, or use their Apple iOS or Android-based smartphone applications. You let them know what company you need a customer service call from and they do the rest for you. Once a representative is brought on the line, FastCustomer calls you and puts the representative on the phone. Poof! Think of the hours you'll save waiting from on hold! A few important details:

• the service is available in the United States and Canada presently and not all businesses' phone systems support FastCustomer;

• there's a human element to FastCustomer, meaning that the customer service rep needs to listen to FastCustomer's directions when they get on the line so that they don't disconnect your call before you pick up the line; and,

• if a company is not listed, you can request them to get listed but that doesn't mean they have to listen.

I'm rather comfortable with conflict resolution, but I see an abundance of poor conflict handling in the media today (especially coming from our politicians), I thought it might help to give an explanation of two foundational principles, Think Win-Win and Principled Negotiation, that have served me well in my business and personal life. If you've ever read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you probably remember Habit #4, Think Win-Win. If you're not familiar, Dr. Covey basically espouses that you should strive for three win's in any long-term solution or agreement: mine, yours and ours. Therefore, if any of those three parties should lose, it's "no deal." The reasoning is that it's a loss for everyone in an interdependent group when one person loses. It was several years later while studying Conflict Resolution and Mediation that I learned about the book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, [great summary here] by Fisher, Ury and Patton (a book that was born out of the Harvard Negotiation Project). This seminal work primarily focuses on teaching us Principled Negotiation, which is to:

1. "separate people from the problems" (so that you can be compassionate with people, remove ego from the scenario as best as you can, and clearly see your other party's perspective);

1. "focus on interests, not positions" (which brings the parties to discussing what they want and not their superficial stance when conflict arises);

1. "mutual gains" (as the source of Covey's Habit #4 encouraging brainstorming and viewing the issues broadly); and

1. "insist on using objective criteria" (by using fair standards decided upon upfront).

What do MRIs, Buddhist monks and meditation have to do with each other? It turns out, your productivity. There are many studies past and ongoing [here's a recent article of one such study] that reveal that meditation has innumerable benefits for helping the mind focus, which is one of the key ways in which we can take advantage of our productive hours of the day. However you express yourself secularly or spiritually, calling it meditation, prayer, quiet time, introspection or otherwise, as long as you focus your attention calmly and steadily, you can gain the mental benefits. By the act of teaching your brain to focus, the rest of the collateral benefits in your productive life follow naturally. I've meditated for many years and here's a quick exercise that I still practice to this day when I find it difficult to let go of my day ahead, or the day's events. With eyes closed, sit in a relaxed, quiet space. You may need ear plugs. And, you should turn your electronic devices off and put them somewhere outside of the room. Start at a small number, say, 20. Breathe deeply through your nose into your stomach (otherwise known as "diaphragmatic breathing" or "yogic breathing"), hold for a moment, and then slowly exhale to the count of three. As you do this, keep your hands rested supine on your legs to combat restlessness and raise your chest slightly as you inhale on occasion to fix your posture. Count silently, "Twenty." Take another deep breath into your diaphragm and repeat as you count down to one. Increase the number of your breaths as you find more time to meditate or reduce the number and tuck several sessions throughout the day. There are many meditative practices, so while this exercise may not fit you forever, use it while you find one that does. Your productivity will be glad you did.

Of course, the power going out isn't the only frustration with digital productivity systems. If you have to work somewhere (like a satellite office location or a client's office) that lacks Internet access to outsiders, proper cellular signal or (as in the US Department of Defense) permission to bring in electronic devices, how will you manage? What happens when you fall off the wagon? Projects and tasks pile up or stagnate on your digital lists, right? Are you going to trust your inboxes and lists to manage yourself at that point? Probably not. These are just a few reasons I advocate that everyone who spends the effort developing a robust digital productivity system do themselves the favor of establishing a redundant framework in good old-fashioned paper. Some basic questions to ask yourself about a paper-based redundancy:

• Where will I put tasks and projects on paper should my computer or smartphone not be available?

• Can my digital system print to a paper list format? I happen to think this is a critical determinant for deciding to use any desktop or Web-based tool.

• How often will you test your paper system? Once a year, once a quarter or more often?

• I think that how often you test is a result of this next question: what aspects of my system do I need if my paper system needs to be around (a) just for today, (b) for the next week or next few weeks, or (c) for the near long-term?

• And, finally, how can I reduce transition cost (time, energy and other resources) between digital and paper?

Five minutes at the beginning and ending of the day, plus one minute of every 8-hour workday equates to his 18 Minute Ritual.

1) At the beginning of the day, decide what you'll do today and calendar it.

2) Check in every hour with yourself. As Peter notes, "manage your day hour by hour. Don't let the hours manage you."

3) The end of day ritual.

1. How did the day go? What success did I experience? What challenges did I endure?

2. What did I learn today? About myself? About others? What do I plan to do differently or the same tomorrow?

3. Whom did I interact with? (Actions: And I need to update? Or thank? Or ask a question? Or share feedback?)

(Bregman gives this "end of day" ritual 5 minutes but it always takes me more time than that. Notwithstanding, there's his 18 minutes.)

Paraphrasing the author about this "end of day" ritual, "These minutes" of reflection and quick actions "are the way to making tomorrow even better than today."

I'll leave you with my favorite quotation in the book from Peter Bregman.

"The world doesn't reward perfection/ It rewards productivity."

Here's Clare's process:

First: Find a quiet space where you're comfortable and won't be disturbed. You may even want to do a relaxation technique or meditate for a few minutes to release any tensions from the outside world at that moment. Then, with pen and a notepad, make a list of all the most important events that occurred in the last two years.

Next: Create a list or pie chart of the different areas of your life. In GTD, we call these Areas of Focus and Areas of Responsibility combined. 

Now, you can go category by category and write down anything that makes you feel stressed, tense or anxious, sad, angry, limited or judged. The author notes you should make sure not to self-judge or self-censor while doing this part of the exercise. Continue writing down items with their categories until you've exhausted ideas.

Then, lay out the categorized lists, mindmaps or however you created them, and look for commonalities, patterns and relationships among the categories' items. From here you should be able to do two things: 1) note which items need change, and 2) asterisk which items need change as soon as possible!

Finally, the part most people leave out when doing any kind of assessment: create a strategy for change! Using SMART goals (see episode 19), create steps for achieving a lower-stress lifestyle. Make sure to include key players in your life: your boss, your spouse, family, friends, coworkers and children.

You know you've reached a point of success when you can start checking off items from your SMART goals list for reducing stress.

Bernard M. Baruch once said, "Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see."

Many times people ask me for the latest tool, hack or tip that will get them an edge on their life and work productivity. While I don't mind giving that advice, so often I'm baffled that more people don't look at the tools we already have available to us.
Have you ever noticed that of the many tools available to us, there is usually one right tool for the job? You know you shouldn't hammer a screw into the wall or call your father with your washing machine. One of the most prevalent productivity crimes I see is using your calendar as a task or projects list. What tool may you be misusing when it comes to your own productivity system?

Finally, learn how to the use the tools you have fully and correctly. Nine times out of 10 you don't need the newest features on a tech gadget that's just been released; honestly, you've lived for how many years without it and you've done pretty well, right? Your current tools probably have features and functions that you've yet to explore completely. Learn them well and you'll trust your system more than ever.

Getting to know yourself, your current productivity tools and how to use them correctly is a definitive step in creating flow in your productive life. In the words of the photographer, Ken Rockwell, "Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools."

I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. This is Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening! Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.
Have you ever noticed that of the many tools available to us, there is usually one right tool for the job? You know you shouldn't hammer a screw into the wall or call your father with your washing machine. One of the most prevalent productivity crimes I see is using your calendar as a task or projects list. What tool may you be misusing when it comes to your own productivity system?
Finally, learn how to the use the tools you have fully and correctly. Nine times out of 10 you don't need the newest features on a tech gadget that's just been released; honestly, you've lived for how many years without it and you've done pretty well, right? Your current tools probably have features and functions that you've yet to explore completely. Learn them well and you'll trust your system more than ever.

Getting to know yourself, your current productivity tools and how to use them correctly is a definitive step in creating flow in your productive life. In the words of the photographer, Ken Rockwell, "Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools."

I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. This is Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening! Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.
Finally, learn how to the use the tools you have fully and correctly. Nine times out of 10 you don't need the newest features on a tech gadget that's just been released; honestly, you've lived for how many years without it and you've done pretty well, right? Your current tools probably have features and functions that you've yet to explore completely. Learn them well and you'll trust your system more than ever.
Getting to know yourself, your current productivity tools and how to use them correctly is a definitive step in creating flow in your productive life. In the words of the photographer, Ken Rockwell, "Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools."

I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. This is Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening! Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.
Getting to know yourself, your current productivity tools and how to use them correctly is a definitive step in creating flow in your productive life. In the words of the photographer, Ken Rockwell, "Maybe because it's entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools."
I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. This is Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening! Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.
I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. This is Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening! Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less.

We have one of the greatest miracles in the universe, our bodies and specifically as Mr. Baruch mentioned, our minds. There's a world of knowledge at our fingertips about the way we work if we're willing to pay attention.

In 1955, a British naval historian and prolific author, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, wrote an essay for The Economist, in which he wrote what now has become the renowned Parkinson's Law, that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." He was actually talking about bureaucracy expansion from his experience in the British Civil Service.  

Unfortunately for Mr. Parkinson, the meaning of the phrase he named "Parkinson's Law" has birthed several corollaries, many of which have computer-related meanings, and his meaning has all but bit the dust.

Now we have several versions such as...

Data expands to fill the space available for storage.

Storage requirements will increase to meet storage capacity.

and...my favorite...

Nature abhors a vacuum.

However, it's the Parkinson's Law corrollary in regard to time management that I think will pique your interest:

It states...the amount of time which one has to perform a task is the amount of time it will take to complete the task.

 I recently read about a study in which several groups of undergraduate students were allowed to choose their own course deadlines in varying degrees, some were allowed no deadline, that is, to have everything submitted before the end of the course, some got to choose their deadlines during the semester but once chosen they were fixed dates, and then there was a control group with the professor's normal deadlines. Surprisingly, the ones with the professor's deadlines, scored the best. The second best were the ones with the self-prescribed, staggered deadlines throughout the semester. This provides at least some statistical evidence that humans are naturally bound to healthy pressure when it comes to the productive use of our time, and once again gives us heed to listen to Parkinson's Law when deciding how much time to dedicate to a particular task or project.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of ProdPod. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and thanks for listening. Here's to your productivity success...in two minutes or less. 

1- How often do you use each of the devices you own? Like with your wardrobe, if you haven't worn it this year, it's likely you won't use it next year. 

2- Can you consolidate functionality? If you've had a printer, scanner and fax machine sitting around your office or home office for several years, now might be the time to think about consolidating to a wireless, network multi-function printer/scanner/copier and getting a service such as MyFax or eFax that allows you to send/receive faxes by email. This will reduce the devices, clutter and gives you more telecommunications options.

3- Are there new Cloud-based technologies that help you become more device-independent? For example, if you carry a smartphone and an MP3 player, you may want to try out Google Music (the new Web-based music player hosts up to 20,000 of your songs for free so you can access them anywhere) by going to music.google.com and phasing out the extra device. 

The beauty of living in an age of advanced technology is that you can also streamline, so why not take advantage!  

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS.  

Said another way, your productivity system should be divided into three areas (as we discussed in episodes 3 and 4 regarding the special theory of productivity): plan, implement and evaluate. For those prone to plan too much or procastinate, planning and evaluating should be contained to about 20% of your time and energy, while implementing (what we call "Doing" in GTD lingo) should be about 80% of your productive time and energy. 

This may seem simple, but for many people who are highly interested in productivity, we spend an inexplicable amount of time on lifehack.org, gtdtimes, 43folders and zenhabits, learning about new and innovative topics about productivity and organization, We are actually going beyond the 20% of our time devoted to planning and evaluating instead of the activities that are on our lists. Think about this reality the next time you set aside your focus on getting things done and open up a site that distracts you from being productive. Once you start to be mindful and return to your to-do list, I have no doubt you'll be satisfied that you did! 

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS.  

Every Thanksgiving, I'm reminded about all the wonderful people in my life as my greatest blessing. In our modern, global society, though, it's easy to take many things for granted the rest of the year. As way of example, when's the last time you've harvested your own fresh produce or livestock for your family? Even with our deeply interdependent lives, we aren't given many opportunities to highlight the unsung heroes and unseen everyday people who work behind the scenes to make sure our lives are productive.

Interdependence will forever remind me of the words of Dr. Stephen Covey from his 1989 book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
Independent thinking alone is not suited to interdependent reality. Independent people who do not have the maturity to think and act interdependently may be good individual producers, but they won't be good leaders or team players. They're not coming from the paradigm of interdependence necessary to succeed in marriage, family, or organizational reality.
I bid you to be thankful for the great blessing of a productive, interdependent life during this and every Thanksgiving!

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS.

Perseverance is not the prettiest word. It sounds harsh and dark and sharp. It turns out, though, that to persevere is the one characteristic unique among all successful people. Whether it's in love, a kid's soccer game or corporate America, the fact that you didn't give up is the key for moving beyond the short-term wins and losses and onto the greater goal. I started to think about my own life and how I could think about perseverance vis-a-vis my productivity. I persevere when I don't feel like working anymore for the day and I do that *one more item* on my Next Actions list that doesn't take much energy. I persevere when I decide to dive into a large project by doing just the next thing (e.g., that first phone call, email or the first sentence of a vision/mission statement) and then decide to continue on with the next action on that project. In what ways do you persevere every day?

I encourage you to think about these possibilities to persevere whenever you can, every day. There are opportunities to overcome challenges, competing priorities, and take advantage of openings in your schedule throughout the day to greater productivity.
"Become a 'possibilitarian.' No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities-- Always see them, for they are always there." ~Norman Vincent Peale
 
I'd like to invite everyone listening to the podcast to my new live, monthly Twitter conversation, Productivity Chat or prodchat. Please visit productivity.podbean.com to learn more, and see how easy it is to join the conversation!
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS.

The first accepted definition is procrastination being a lack of motivation leading to non-action. The second common definition of procrastination is the putting off till tomorrow what you can do today. The third, lesser known and my personally-accepted definition, is the doing of lesser-priority activities instead of doing higher-priority activities. Therefore, procrastination is a supplanting of activities, delaying activities of higher importance as a by-product; not laziness, not lack of motivation, and not lacking in self-efficacy. 

Normally I would say that asking yourself why you're thinking a particular way would be the first step to conquering any unproductive behavior; however, this is an exception to that as I think you shouldn't think one more minute about why you procrastinate and stop defining procrastination as a character trait. Banish the term "procrastinator" and the statement "I'm a procrastinator" from your vernacular. It's a behavior and behaviors can change by building new, productive behaviors. 
 
Heck, procrastination can be positive; for example, doing a high priority activity when the right energy, emotion or competence is not available can be detrimental. Doing the lower-priority activities during those times can be the best use of your time. 
 
I'll have many more episodes on conquering and finding balance with procrastination, and I wanted to set a good definition in place for the context of managing procrastination and, ultimately, your productivity.

First: If you do worry a lot, there is probably a good reason why you began worrying often between adolescence and young adulthood. I'm not going to be able to help you much in that regard, but to say that some introspection is in order. If you find the source of your worry, you can address it and let it go.

Second: Emotions are easily swappable. So, with worry, all you need to do is use that energy to think about the problem not just about worrying. Specifically, I want you to think about what the worst thing is that could happen for whatever is the focus of your worry. Take yourself to that place momentarily and determine whether it's that big of a deal or not. Once you've gotten yourself adjusted to whether triage is needed or planning; that is, it is a big deal and you need to go into immediate action to stop damage to life and limb, or, it's possible to plan and act to reduce possible issues.

Third: If you've decided you can limit the catastrophe you're worrying about, go ahead and start doing the things that you can to make the outcome better for you. I'm not trying to say that everything is always going to turn out perfectly if you actively mitigate potential problems, but why sit around and worry knowing you could have done *something* to stave or halt problems from occurring? The very act of doing instead of ruminating limits your mind's ability to actually worry.

When I was in my late teens and was into reading books on financial literacy, I learned along the way a peculiar definition of "savings." Savings, according to this definition, is the deprivation of something now for later benefit. I struggled for many years of swallowing the idea of depriving myself, since savings was a positive tactic in financial strategy books I read. Savings was supposed to help you feel safe and pacify you about the uncertainty of life, not something that was scary and made you think of scarcity in your everyday life. I learned many years later that the true lesson of my unfortunate relationship with the definition of savings was that self-control, discipline and habits are inherently positive and deprivation was not the right choice of words. It wasn't until I read Steven Covey's 8th Habit when he discussed the concept of discipline as freedom, that I broke this negative association with the word savings. What those financial strategy books were trying to explain but never quite expressed was that a productive life means having the self-control to determine your own path--past, present and future. I mean that by understanding and guiding one's experiencing self and remembering self, you build a skill to build a life of fulfillment. It wasn't about a mass of money I'd put out of reach so that I'd miss rich life experiences only to be able to afford to keep up with the cost of living when I'm old and fully gray. It was even more than the adage "a penny saved is a penny earned"...it was that small habits of planned giving and taking make huge positive impacts long-term. This lesson has always been intensely motivating and I use it regularly to remind me that it's not about doing more with less, but doing more begets more and doing less begets less and both are useful tools.

I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS.

I use the SMART criteria specifically during my planning phase of any project, for writing out my project descriptions thoroughly. For example, before I used SMART criteria for my goals, I would write a goal as: Increase company's third quarter revenue. Now, using the SMART goal format, the revised goal is written as: Empower sales managers to implement our sales/marketing plan to increase company's third quarter revenue by 15% in the southeast region to determine annual bonuses, by dedicating one day of every week to the team.
 
By its face, it's certainly much longer than the original, but more importantly, the detail with which the goal is defined, it allows me to view my Projects list with no question about the mission, vision and general action plan for how I'm going to complete this project. It answers the questions of why, what and how, so you can get to work, motivated and ready for action. I hope writing SMART goals becomes a useful tool (and regular productive habit) for you in getting more of your important, not-urgent projects accomplished.

I distinguish between someday's and maybe's. Someday's I *will* do. Maybe's maybe not. For someday's I always put parenthetically after the description "Resources Needed/Wanted:" which asks the question: what would I need or want to happen that would trigger me to do this someday item right now? For me, this makes someday's realistic and available for when that "missing link" becomes available, whether that's time, money, emotional energy to invest, credentials, a new delegatee, a call from my mother, or so on.
 
So, in practical terms, I use two context lists to manage the various someday/maybe's in my life and work. This puts an intrinsic greater importance on somday's than on maybe's, so I typically review someday's every week during my Weekly Review. Whereas, my maybe's are items that I plan to review at least quarterly, but most of the time I come across the list monthly when I find the mental-emotional energy and time to think about my maybe's list. By its nature, they end up being somewhat of a wishlist of things I'd like to accomplish but haven't yet figured out how to accomplish, but with a little creativity I can make them a someday or perhaps even an actual project or next-action.
 
This is just one modification of many to GTD that I've implemented in my own personal productivity system, and it benefits me by allowing me to move stuff to definable goals without cluttering my active projects or next-actions lists with yet-to-be-productive items.

Dr. Spencer Johnson wrote and published his NY-Times-5-years-running bestselling book, Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal With Change in Your Work and in Your Life, in 1998. I read this oft-cited business fable back in 1999 or 2000 for the first time, and it represented a major change in my thinking about my life, and specifically my productivity. Dr. Johnson uses "cheese" to represent happiness and success, whereas I substituted his definition for my highly productive state called sometimes "flow."

The gem of the book arrives near the end of the book when one of the four characters, after facing the root of change avoidance: fear. He writes on a wall these words of wisdom...

Change Happens

They Keep Moving The Cheese

Anticipate Change

Get Ready For The Cheese To Move

Monitor Change

Smell The Cheese Often So You Know When It Is Getting Old

Adapt To Change Quickly

The Quicker You Let Go Of Old Cheese, The Sooner You Can Enjoy New Cheese

Change

Move With The Cheese

Enjoy Change!

Savor The Adventure And Enjoy The Taste Of New Cheese!

Be Ready To Change Quickly And Enjoy It Again

They Keep Moving The Cheese.

Final thoughts: Who Moved My Cheese is a great book and worth the read.

I'm the first person to extol the virtues of change. I've actually got an episode upcoming about just how to handle change. But, when it comes to changing to an entirely new productivity system, in this episode's lesson, I explain why change on that macro level can be truly counterproductive and to think twice.

First, every productivity system is founded on habits and productive habits take time to develop. As I discussed in episodes 12 through 15, we have reason to believe habits take much more time to become evergreen than we've long-theorized. Take it consideration the time and effort to learn new productive habits in the context of a whole new productivity system.

Next, change is incremental and is based on what you already know. Your system may look completely different from five or more years ago, but it has your unique fingerprints all over it. No matter what system you adopt, it comes with the history of your past system and lessons learned from it. Analogously, Bruce Lee's martial arts methodology and life philosophy, Jeet Kune Do, took the best aspects of then-known martial arts systems and blended them, not to create a new system but to highlight the virtues of these established systems. His students were encouraged not to replace their systems, but to continuously learn lifelong about new styles. The same goes for you to continuously learn and grow from understanding your productivity methodology and values as well as unproductive obstacles, such as procrastination, evaluation deficits, and even avoiding true progress by adopting new systems.

Finally, too much change too quickly will present a level of chaos that's unproductive not only in the short-term but it trains you to become used to long-term disorder. Also, it's not sustainable to throw away any system completely as dramatic changes in critical habits usually lead to a dramatic return to the most unproductive habits in lieu of said change. Productivity overhauls have a ripple effect in an interconnected society, so expect that chaos to affect others in your work and personal life.

First and foremost, always beta-test your new productive habit with a balanced perspective (not a critical one)...if you think of this as trial-and-error you'll be motivated longer to build the productive habit. 

Second, Do more of the activities that develop the productive habit while conditioning yourself at the very end of habit development, so that when you feel ready to move to your normal habit schedule you're actually just slowing down not having to ramp up.

Small, phases/milestones with no real end goal...definitive goals are a habit killer; adjust for habituation; and, reward good habits (extrinsic motivation helps). Visualize yourself doing the new habit, but also think about the emotional fulfillment you'll feel when you practice the new habit.

This is part three of our 4-part podcast on How to Form a Productive Habit. In this episode, we'll be discussing the realities of forming habits using the most current scientific data on automaticity.
About a year ago, the research associate in Health Psychology, Dr. Phillippa Lally, at University College London DEPARTMENT OF EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH in the
HEALTH BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH CENTRE performed a study on habit formation systematically as they reach automaticity.
The findings are quite interesting, albeit there are some constructive criticisms of the work. Here are the four main outcomes of the study and how it may help us with forming productive habits.
1. Automaticity took on average 66 days to be reached. Yes, 66 days. Banish the old concept of doing something repetitively for 21-30 days as once was thought.
2. Each person varies for similar habits. In the study, we found that the times ranged from 18 to 254 days to reach maximum automaticity. There are many variables why this may be the case: trying to learn too many new habits at once, not enough focus, time and/or attention, or other not-so-easily distinguishable idiosyncrasies. Ergo, don't think about reaching automaticity so much as the work of forming the habit. It'll reduce burnout.
3. Complex behaviors take more time. This may seem obvious but our previous understanding contradicts this. Don't beat yourself up so much about not building a productive habit of exercising regularly; it turns out that it may take significantly longer to reach that automatic state.
4. Counter to the great psychologist William James's theory, you can actually omit a behavior (say, miss a day at the gym) and it will have negligible effect on automaticity and long-term impact. However, there was some evidence that the effects of omitting the behavior was cumulative and so it's not a ticket to slack off, otherwise you won't be able to build that productive habit.
So, there you go. The real deal, theoretically, about forming habits from the latest in psychological understanding. Please join us for episode 15, our final part of How to Form a Productive Habit, where I'll be covering practical aspects of learning productive habits.

This is part two of our 4-part podcast on How to Form a Productive Habit. In this episode, we'll be discussing Unproductive Habits.

Most productive habits start by the realization of an unproductive one. So, my first piece of advice is to stop digging as best you can. If your clothing caught on fire, you shouldn't run as the fire will spread. The best thing to do is to stop, drop and roll, to cut off the oxygen vital to the fire. Much of your behaviors that built your unproductive habits were noticeable when you first formed them. Combat the unproductive habit by taking the time to reflect on it before replacing the unproductive habit with your newly-formed productive habit.

Next, ask yourself: What was the original purpose or reason for the development of this unproductive habit? What need/want did it fulfill? And what is the new necessity or desire you want to achieve? Write this down. Put it in a drawer and come back to it as often as necessary.

Negate as much negative self-speak and internal dialog. I also suggest not talking about habits as "good" or "bad" as it connotes judgment more than if something is quantitatively or qualitatively productive or not. And one final guideline: Avoid using the present or past tense of the modal auxiliary verbs: will, should, would, could, can, must, ought to, had better, dare and need. I find that people who keep their self-speak in the present indicative mood (I am a productive person. INSTEAD OF I will be a productive person.) tend to shed bad habits faster and long-term.

In this 4-part podcast, I'll be discussing how to Form a Productive Habit. In this first episode, I'll explain the groundwork for determining how you'll tackle the formation of a new habit. So, let's get right to it.
To make sure we're all speaking using the same understanding of terms, I'm going to define a few key items: habit, automaticity, habituation and sensitization. Then, I'll explain their relationship to forming productive habits.

A habit is an automatic response pattern developed by repeating a behavior until it becomes almost or completely unconscious.

Automaticity in psychological terms has been described as "unconscious competence" or the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing them to become a habit. Some examples include driving a car, riding a bicycle, music sight-reading while playing the piano, and even speaking.

Habituation is the non-associative learning, psychological process, where a person decreases response to a stimulus after repeated exposure. A good example is your clothing. Once dressed, you feel your clothes on your skin but within minutes you no longer actually sense the clothing as your mind attends to more important stimuli.

Sensitization is another form of non-associative learning where a person responds because of a progressively increasing level of stimulus. Try rubbing your arm progressively faster until it burns; your response is to pull away because your brain initiates a pain response. 

It's best to determine when you are forming a habit, whether you need to concern yourself with habituation or sensitization. For example, forming the productive habit of washing the dishes daily may be one part forming the habit and the other part realizing that something in your youth triggered a fear of dishwashing liquid. You'll need to habituate to the dishwashing liquid touching you before you'll ever be able to form the productive habit. And, you may even have a spouse or roommate remind you (with your permission) to perform the habit-in-process until you do it, so that with each reminder, your brain eventually initiates a crescendo-like response to your own commitment to wash the dishes.

We have so many forms of communication available to us today. Technology keeps improving and with a globally-connected, 24/7 society, you could easily have engaging conversations 'round the clock. With all this capacity and experience with digital communication technologies, it makes sense that some of our interpersonal skills will change or need refreshing, like active listening. This episode is a series of quick tips I've gathered over time for power productivity through active listening.

1. Ask more questions than giving declarative statements, then stop talking and listen to the answers being given. You'll be surprised how much you can accomplish when you let others do and say more.
3. Ask clarifying questions to let your speaker know you're listening and engaged.
4. When possible, make eye contact and pay attention to body language.
5. Repeat back what is said in your own words, so the speaker knows you listened and understood what was said. This is also an opportunity for her to clarify in case you haven't.
6. Once you have mastered the art of active listening. Teach it to others. Pay it forward. As the old adage goes, if you teach something you learn it twice, plus it will save you time and hassle in the future.

2. Hearing is a sense. Listening is an active process. Develop your skills for listening not just hearing.

What if we can take the benefits of single-tasking--focus, greater creativity, more time to relax and less stress, and faster completion of tasks, and add the mythical promise of getting more done by multi-tasking?
First, break your day into locations and activities. For example, Home, Commute, Office, Gym, Commute, Home, and Bed are my basic times within which I control my work. Next, ask yourself what tasks daily, weekly, monthly, or any other repeating schedule, do I have to do things like meal preparation, laundry, cleaning, calling customer service or tech support with extended wait times, grocery shopping, etc. For each repeating errand, I can calculate conservatively from experience how much time they take. Finally, I look at my next-actions or projects list and find items that can be grouped together and done during these times when much of my activity requires waiting, for example, while the laundry and dryer are going, I can accomplish two to four 15-minute tasks.
When I'm planning my week ahead, I just review my calendar for these repeating errands and I can quickly and easily fill that time in with more productive tasks.
Remember, in order for meta-tasking to truly be beneficial is to prioritize tasks where shifting focus is minimal and gives you ample time to finish. Set yourself up for success by having small tasks grouped together. Satisfaction is the goal here, not just efficiency.

So, what are you doing when you're multi-tasking? You're actually quickly changing focus back and forth between each task. And just like a car, you cannot turn the vehicle in two directions concurrently. And every time you turn the vehicle, you must slow down, recalibrate the car's direction then return acceleration to your original cruising speed. This takes careful focus and time not only with a car but with a change in each task.
In essence "single-tasking" to complete a task fully as the only item you're focusing and/or working on is more efficient than the notion of multi-tasking. The ancillary benefits are focus, less stress and faster project completion. This all equates to more time to relax or accomplish more goals that are fulfilling to your productive life.

Productivity and presentations can almost be considered antonyms to the common seminar or  workshop attendee. Everyone's time is limited and they usually don't take the information gained into action. I've heard statistics that over two-thirds of individuals use *none* of the actionable information from professional conferences. One of the main reasons, I believe, most people accomplish so little when they leave educational events is that they do not design their experience for the outcome that's most advantageous to them. This episode's tip: How to leave a presentation ready for action with handouts.
Initially, I assess the information and giveaways I receive from tradeshow exhibitors or sponsors. Are really worth keeping? They become distractions once you're seated if you don't properly commit to putting them out of sight once the speaker begins. While I'm at it, I usually try to get a seat early on to make sure I have a clear view of the presenter, I am within audible range in case the speaker doesn't have suitable amplification, and I confirm any visual aids I've identified are in sight.
So, with no external distractions that are within my control, I pull out the materials and give it a general context and content overview. I quickly underline or star the margins in areas where I'll want to make sure I pay special attention. On a separate sheet of notepaper, I use my flavor of Note-Taking explained in Episode Seven. As soon as the presentation is over, I make sure to follow GTD practice to process what I captured and then organize it into its proper list/tool (calendar, reference file, project, next-action, someday-maybe and so forth). Because I managed the information well both before and during, I can now engage in networking and getting refreshments with ease of mind. When I get back to my office, I'm very likely to take my hard work to the next level and it's all ready for me...ready for action.

THIS EPISODE'S TIP IN OUR SERIES ON EFFECTIVE MEETINGS: CORNELL NOTE-TAKING METHOD FOR MEETINGS. CREATED BY WALTER PAUK, EMERITUS, AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY THIS METHODOLOGY WAS CREATED TO HELP STUDENTS TAKE NOTES AND LEARN FROM THEM THROUGHOUT A COLLEGE COURSE. I'VE MODIFIED THE CONCEPTS SLIGHTLY TO SUIT MY PROFESSIONAL NEEDS. IF YOU GOOGLE "CORNELL NOTE TAKING TEMPLATE" YOU'LL FIND A VISUAL AS I DESCRIBE THE LAYOUT.
IN SHORT, YOU HAVE THREE AREAS DESIGNATED ON A SHEET OF NOTEPAD PAPER WHICH ALONG THE LEFT-HAND SIDE COLUMN IS THE CUE C-U-E COLUMN, TO THE RIGHT OF THAT IS THE NOTE-TAKING AREA AND THE BOTTOM TWO INCHES ARE DEDICATED AS A SUMMARY AREA. I PUT THE MEETING AGENDA NEXT TO MY NOTEPAD SO I CAN FOLLOW ALONG WHILE I TAKE NOTES.
AS YOU ATTEND THE MEETING, TAKE SUBSTANTIVE NOTES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER AS THEY ARE DISCUSSED IN THE MEETING AGENDA IN THE NOTE-TAKING AREA. AS THE MEETING ADJOURNS, THIS IS YOUR TIME TO REFLECT ON THE MEETING BY REVIEWING YOUR NOTES AND USE THE CUE COLUMN, AKA RECALL COLUMN, TO CREATE TWO TO FOUR WORD QUESTIONS (FOR EXAMPLE, HOW TO DESIGN BROCHURE?) AS A REFERENCE REMINDER FOR THE CONTEXT OF EACH OF THE NOTES IN THE NOTE-TAKING AREA. RIGHT AFTER YOU'VE CUED YOUR NOTES, IN THE SUMMARY AREA, SUMMARIZE THE OUTCOME OF THE MEETING IN TWO TO THREE SUCCINCT SENTENCES AS WELL AS NEXT-ACTIONS. COME YOUR GTD WEEKLY REVIEW, OR WHENEVER YOU REVIEW YOUR WEEK PAST AND WEEK AHEAD, YOU HAVE YOUR NOTES IN A FORMAT THAT WILL HELP YOU QUESTION AND ANSWER YOUR WAY THROUGH THE MEETING FOR OPTIMUM RECALL AND RETENTION.
FOLLOWING CORNELL NOTE-TAKING METHODOLOGY FOR MEETINGS AS I'VE DESCRIBED, YOU'LL KNOW THE PURPOSE OF EVERY MEETING, WHAT WAS HANDLED IN THEM AND WHAT THE OUTCOMES WERE AT A GLANCE WHENEVER YOU NEED TO REFER BACK TO IT.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

THIS EPISODE'S TIP IN OUR SERIES ON EFFECTIVE MEETINGS: STARTING AND ENDING YOUR MEETINGS ON TIME BUILDS A CULTURE OF TRUST. WHETHER IT'S A FAMILY COUNCIL ON FINANCES OR A CORPORATE BRAINSTORMING MEETING ON NEXT YEAR'S MARKETING PLAN, KEEPING MEETINGS ACCORDING TO SCHEDULE IS A PRIME MEANS TO GETTING PEOPLE TO ATTEND AND KEEPING THEM ENGAGED.
HERE ARE A FEW TACTICS I SUGGEST YOU TRY FOR YOUR NEXT MEETING: ONE. REVIEW THE MATERIALS TO BE COVERED IN THE AGENDA. DOES THE TIME ALLOTTED ALLOW FOR A FULL DISCUSSION OF TOPICS? CAN THE TIME BE SHORTENED OR DOES IT NEED TO BE LENGTHENED TO BE REALISTIC? TWO. COMMUNICATE THE START AND END TIME EXACTLY TO YOUR ATTENDEES. IF THE MEETING IS VIRTUAL (USING TELEPHONE OR VIDEO CONFERENCING TOOLS) MAKE SURE TO INDICATE THE TIME ZONE FOR THE TIME YOU INDICATED. THREE. BEFORE THE AGENDA IS PASSED OUT, LET EVERYONE ATTENDING KNOW THAT THEY SHOULD KEEP TO THE AGENDA AND ANY NEW ITEMS CAN BE TABLED FOR A LATER MEETING UNLESS ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL. FOCUS IS KEY. AND A BONUS TACTIC: BRING AN EGG TIMER OR SOME OTHER ALARM. I USE THE TIMER ON MY IPHONE THAT GIVES A PLEASANT BELL TOWER GONG MELODY WHEN WE'RE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE MEETING IS ENDING, SO WE CAN WRAP UP DISCUSSION AND DEFINE NEXT ACTIONS AND WHO THE RESPONSIBLE PARTIES ARE.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

WELCOME TO OUR FIFTH EPISODE OF PRODPOD, THE PODCAST OF PRODUCTIVITY TIPS IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. I'M RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND I'M YOUR PRODUCTIVITY GUIDE, THE CURRENT ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE DC MEETUP & THE FOUNDING ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE NYC MEETUP. YOU CAN FIND ME TWEETING ON TWITTER AT G T D D C AND AT G T D N Y C USING THE HASHTAG PRODPOD.
THIS EPISODE'S TIP IN OUR SERIES ON EFFECTIVE MEETINGS: MEETINGS DON'T HAVE TO BE. IT SOUNDS TRITE BUT MANY PEOPLE TODAY AVOID MEETINGS BECAUSE THEY DON'T TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEM. THEY AREN'T ATTENDING AND PARTICIPATING IN THE MEETINGS FOR THEM TO BE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE, BUT BECAUSE THEY ARE OBLIGATED AND DON'T UNDERSTAND THEIR VALUE IN BEING PRESENT.
STEP ONE OF AN EFFECTIVE MEETING BEGINS BEFORE A MEETING IS BORN: ASK THE QUESTION "WHY?" OFTEN. WHY ARE YOU BEING ASKED TO ATTEND THE MEETING? CAN YOU SAY NO TO ATTENDING AND JUST RECEIVE THE MINUTES/NOTES OF THE MEETING FOR NEXT ACTIONS OR INFORMATION THAT IS REFERENCE? STEP TWO IS TO MAKE SURE THE CRITICAL PARTIES ACTUALLY ATTEND THE MEETING BEFORE IT'S SCHEDULED. MAKE SURE THEY (AND YOU) KNOW WHAT THE MEETING IS ABOUT, THAT YOU HAVE BUY-IN TO THE MEETING OBJECTIVES BEFORE EVEN CALLING A MEETING.
KNOW AND COMMUNICATE WHY YOU'RE MEETING AND WHO'S NEEDED IN THE MEETING, AND YOUR MEETINGS WILL EXPONENTIALLY INCREASE IN PRODUCTIVITY. THERE'S MORE TO COME IN OUR EFFECTIVE MEETING SERIES.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

WELCOME TO OUR FOURTH EPISODE OF PRODPOD, THE PODCAST OF PRODUCTIVITY TIPS IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. I'M RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND I'M YOUR PRODUCTIVITY GUIDE, THE CURRENT ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE DC MEETUP & THE FOUNDING ORGANIZER OF THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED GETTING THINGS DONE NYC MEETUP. YOU CAN FIND ME TWEETING ON TWITTER AT G T D D C AND AT G T D N Y C USING THE HASHTAG PRODPOD.
THIS EPISODE'S TIP: THE SPECIAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY, PART TWO. IN THE LAST EPISODE, I PRESENTED THE PRINCIPLES OF TIME MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, WHICH ARE GAUGES TO RANK INDEPENDENTLY EACH OF THE THREE FUNCTIONS (PLANNING, EXECUTION AND EVALUATION). THE PRINCIPLES ARE SIMPLICITY, USEFULNESS, AESTHETICALLY-PLEASING, CONNECTEDNESS AND COHESIVENESS. SIMPLICITY  REFERS TO ITS INTUITIVENESS WHEN USING YOUR SYSTEM. USEFULNESS, CHARLIE GILKEY MAINTAINS, SHOULD MAKE SURE INFORMATION IS BOTH ACTIONABLE AND USABLE; NO REASON TO GET INFORMATION YOU WON'T EVER USE OR CARE ABOUT, RIGHT? AESTHETICALLY-PLEASING IS THE PRINCIPLE OF THE OBVIOUS, SINCE PEOPLE LIKE TO USE THINGS THAT THEY'RE ATTRACTED TO NOT TURNED OFF BY. CONNECTEDNESS, I BELIEVE, IS GILKEY'S PITHY WAY OF SAYING THAT HE WANTS A PRODUCTIVITY SYSTEM TO BE A RELATIONAL DATABASE (IN TECH TERMS). IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT A RELATIONAL DATABASE IS, IT'S WORTH CHECKING IT OUT ON WIKIPEDIA. THE FINAL PRINCIPLE OF COHESIVENESS IS REALLY JUST AN ABILITY OF ANY GOOD RELATIONAL DATABASE, AND CHARLIE GIVES THE EXAMPLE OF MARKING A NEXT-ACTION COMPLETED AND IT UPDATES THROUGHOUT YOUR SYSTEM.
WHILE DAVID ALLEN'S GTD ENLIGHTENS US TO THE SIMPLE YET EFFECTIVE QUESTIONS ON THE RUNWAY OF LIFE: "WHAT IS IT? AND, IS IT ACTIONABLE?," THE HIGHER-LEVEL NUGGET THAT COMES OUT OF THE SPECIAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY IS THE GENIUS IN ITS SIMPLICITY QUESTION: DOES YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SYSTEM ENABLE YOU TO PLAN, EXECUTE AND EVALUATE? 
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

WELCOME TO OUR THIRD EPISODE OF PRODPOD, THE PODCAST OF PRODUCTIVITY TIPS IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. I'M RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND I'M YOUR PRODUCTIVITY GUIDE, THE CURRENT ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE DC MEETUP & THE FOUNDING ORGANIZER OF THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED GETTING THINGS DONE NYC MEETUP. YOU CAN FIND ME TWEETING ON TWITTER AT G T D D C AND AT G T D N Y C USING THE HASHTAG PRODPOD.
THIS EPISODE'S TIP: THE SPECIAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY, PART ONE. CHARLIE GILKEY IS THE BLOGGER-ENTREPRENEUR BEHIND PRODUCTIVE FLOURISHING DOT COM I MENTIONED IN THE LAST EPISODE AND HE HAS DEVELOPED TWO PRODUCTIVITY THEORIES AND I'M GOING TO COVER THE SECOND THEORY NOW WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF TIME AND TASK MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AS A WHOLE.
THE SPECIAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY ACCORDING TO GILKEY IS THAT PRODUCTIVITY SYSTEMS MANIFEST A LOOP OF THREE DISTINCT AND INTERCONNECTED ACTIVITIES: PLANNING, EXECUTION AND EVALUATION. HIS PREMISE IS THAT THESE ARE SIMPLE FUNCTIONS YET MANY ARE MISSING AT LEAST ONE OF THEM; THE TAKEAWAY HERE IS TO MAKE SURE YOUR SYSTEMS HAS THEM AND IF THEY DON'T, NO NEED TO THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATHWATER BUT MAKE SURE THAT YOU MAKE THE MISSING ACTIVITY (USUALLY EVALUATION) A PRIORITY EQUAL TO THE OTHERS.
GILKEY ALSO MAKES REFERENCES TO PRINCIPLES OF TIME MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, WHICH BASICALLY ARE CROSS-SECTIONS THAT YOU CAN RANK OF EACH OF THE THREE FUNCTIONS (PLANNING, EXECUTION AND EVALUATION). THE PRINCIPLES ARE SIMPLICITY, USEFULNESS, AESTHETICALLY-PLEASING, CONNECTEDNESS AND COHESIVENESS. I'LL SUMMARIZE THOSE IN THE NEXT EPISODE.
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

WELCOME TO OUR SECOND EPISODE OF PRODPOD, THE PODCAST OF PRODUCTIVITY TIPS IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. I'M RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND I'M YOUR PRODUCTIVITY GUIDE, THE CURRENT ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE DC MEETUP & THE FOUNDING ORGANIZER OF THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED GETTING THINGS DONE NYC MEETUP, YOU CAN FIND ME TWEETING ON TWITTER AT G T D D C AND AT G T D N Y C USING THE HASHTAG PRODPOD.
THIS EPISODE'S TIP: CHARLIE GILKEY'S GENERAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY. CHARLIE GILKEY IS THE BLOGGER-ENTREPRENEUR BEHIND PRODUCTIVE FLOURISHING DOT COM. I RECOMMEND PERUSING HIS BLOG FOR THE MOST POPULAR POSTS AND READING THEM THROUGH...GOOD STUFF. HE HAS DEVELOPED TWO THEORIES AND I'M GOING TO COVER THE FIRST ONE HERE AND THE NEXT ONE IN THE NEXT EPISODE. THE GENERAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY ACCORDING TO GILKEY IS THAT PRODUCTIVITY EQUALS CREATIVE ENERGY PLUS FOCUS PLUS MOTIVATION PLUS APTITUDE PLUS IDEAL TIME *OVER* DIFFICULTY AND DISTRACTIONS.
HE DEFINES PRODUCTIVITY AS EFFECTIVENESS OF REACHING MEANINGFUL GOALS, NOT MERELY TIME-BASED EFFICIENCY. HE GOES OVER IN DETAIL HIS DESCRIPTIONS OF EACH OF THE NUMERATORS (CREATIVE ENERGY, FOCUS, MOTIVATION, APTITUDE, AND IDEAL TIME, WHICH ARE WHAT HE CALLS PRODUCTIVITY ENABLERS AND MAKES COMMENTARY THAT THESE ARE ALL SELF-IDENTIFIED AND SELF-INFLUENCING FACTORS OF BEING PRODUCTIVE). PRODUCTIVITY ENABLERS ALSO INCREASE OR DECREASE IN AMOUNTS BASED ON AN INTERDEPENDENT SYSTEM.
WHILE THE DENOMINATORS (DIFFICULTY AND DISTRACTIONS) REDUCE PRODUCTIVITY, ARE USUALLY EXTERNAL FORCES AND ARE ALSO INTERCONNECTED. EVEN THOUGH PERSONALLY I SOMEWHAT DISAGREE WITH HIS ASSERTIONS, THE GENERAL THEORY OF PRODUCTIVITY MOVES ONE AWAY FROM A MICROSCOPIC VIEW OF PRODUCTIVITY ("HACKS" AS HE CALLS THEM) TO A GREATER PERSPECTIVE AND CONTEXT. BY PAYING ATTENTION TO THESE COMPONENTS THAT CHARLIE GILKEY PROVIDES, WE ARE ABLE TO IDENTIFY TRENDS OF POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE HABITS AND MAKE CORRECTIONS TO THESE HABITS TO ACHIEVE MORE OF OUR MEANINGFUL LIFE GOALS. 
I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS EPISODE OF PRODPOD. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND THANKS FOR LISTENING! HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. 

I'M RAY SIDNEY-SMITH AND I'LL BE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY GUIDE. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT MYSELF. I AM CURRENTLY THE ORGANIZER OF GETTING THINGS DONE DC MEETUP & THE FOUNDING ORGANIZER OF THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED GETTING THINGS DONE NYC MEETUP. YOU CAN FIND ME TWEETING ON TWITTER AT G T D D C AND AT G T D N Y C. ANYTHING PERTAINING TO PRODPOD WILL BE HASHTAGGED AS PRODPOD.

AND, SO, ON TO THE MISSION OF PRODPOD, THE PODCAST OF PRODUCTIVITY TIPS IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. PRODPOD WAS INSPIRED BY TWO EMAIL NEWSLETTERS BOTH OF WHICH OFFERED TIDBITS OF INFORMATION ON MAKING EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE DECISIONS IN YOUR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LIVES. I THOUGHT, WHY ISN'T THERE ALREADY A PODCAST LIKE THIS? SINCE I'M A GETTING THINGS DONE (A/K/A GTD) ENTHUSIAST, I THOUGHT...WHY NOT USE THE TWO-MINUTE RULE TO GIVE QUICK AND SUBSTANTIVE IDEAS AND INFORMATION THAT YOU CAN EFFICIENTLY, EFFECTIVELY USE TO BUILD A MORE FULFILLED AND ENRICHED LIFE. AND, SO...PRODPOD WAS BORN.
THIS EPISODE'S TIP: TIME IS FINITE. NOTWITHSTANDING PHYSICISTS' ARGUMENTS OVER THE VERACITY OF THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM AND THE ABILITY TO TRAVEL THROUGH TIME. AS OF THIS RECORDING, YOU CANNOT MAKE MORE TIME. THE ONLY TOOLS YOU HAVE FOR MANAGING YOUR TIME ARE PRIORITIZING, PLANNING AHEAD AND STRIVING FOR BEING MORE PROACTIVE AND ACTIVE RATHER THAN REACTIVE AND INACTIVE. I LIKE TO ACTUALLY DRAW ON MY NOTEPAD OR CALENDAR WHEN PLANNING MY WEEK AN X-Y AXIS. THE X AXIS RUNNING FROM PROACTIVE TO REACTIVE AND THE Y AXIS AS ACTIVE TO INACTIVE; THEN PLACING EACH MAJOR PROJECT ON THE GRAPH (REPRESENTED BY ROMAN NUMERALS, NUMBERS OR LETTERS) TO DECIDE ON WHAT ARE MY TRUE PRIORITIES. TAKE TODAY AND THINK ABOUT ONE THING YOU CAN DO AT THE PRESENT MOMENT THAT WILL PREEMPT MORE WORK ON YOURS OR SOMEONE ELSE'S PART IN THE NEAR AND LONG TERM FUTURE.
I HOPE YOU ENJOY PRODPOD AND I WELCOME THOUGHTS AND FEEDBACK AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE PRODPODS VIA EMAIL AT RAY AT G T D USERS DOT O R G OR VIA TWITTER WITH THE HASHTAG PRODPOD. HERE'S TO YOUR PRODUCTIVITY SUCCESS...IN TWO MINUTES OR LESS. THIS IS RAY SIDNEY-SMITH FOR PRODPOD. THANKS FOR LISTENING!