New newsletter announcement – Work in Progress

Tue, 24 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

It is finally here: what was DailyPM now turned into a new newsletter called Work in Progress. Weekly notes on productivity and work, to help you get your week started and make progress on your biggest plans.

The newsletter is not just a newsletter. It is also a way for me to keep you posted on the progress of the international version of my Dutch bestselling book GRIP. Can’t wait to share that with you.

If you’re interested, sign up below!

Automatically Color Coding Google Calendar

Thu, 30 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Update: @bigal123 sent me a link to this Coda doc which can do even more than I’m describing below. One caveat: you have to give another party access to your calendar. That is not necessary when you’re using the script below.

Koen Bollen wrote a little script for me to automatically color-code my calendar based on the first character of the event. It is super handy. More people asked me how I do this so this is a short guide how to set it up.

Here’s how you set it up:

Go to https://script.google.com/home
Click ‘New script’
Paste the following script:

function ColorEvents() {

  var today = new Date();
  var nextweek = new Date();
  nextweek.setDate(nextweek.getDate() + 7);
  Logger.log(today + " " + nextweek);

  var calendars = CalendarApp.getAllOwnedCalendars();
  Logger.log("found number of calendars: " + calendars.length);

  for (var i=0; i<calendars.length; i++) {
    var calendar = calendars[i];
    var events = calendar.getEvents(today, nextweek);
    for (var j=0; j<events.length; j++) {
      var e = events[j];
      var title = e.getTitle();
      if (title[0] == "[") {
        e.setColor(CalendarApp.EventColor.CYAN);
      }
      if (title[0] == "!") {
        e.setColor(CalendarApp.EventColor.RED);
      }
      if (title[0] == '#') {
        e.setColor(CalendarApp.EventColor.GREEN);
      }
    }
  }
}

Save the project and give it a nice name
Click the ‘Play’ button to execute the script. A dialog will open to ask for additional permissions. Allow access to your calendar.
Click the button with an icon of a pin with a clock in it (Triggers)
Click ‘Add trigger’
Select ‘ColorEvents’ in the list of functions to trigger
Change the type to ‘Minutes’ and have the trigger run every 15 minutes. Save the trigger.

This script now automatically colors events that start with a [ cyan, with a ! red and # green. Adjusting the character and/or colors in the script should not be too difficult.

Done!

Doing a quarterly review

Mon, 02 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I just did my quarterly review this Saturday, and wanted to share how I do that. It will take around one hour to do it, and a little longer if you’re sharing it with someone else (which I recommend, I love that part).

Why you’d do this? Well, we’re running out of time for this year: just three months on the clock. If we want to live intentionally, we need a plan. And to make sure our plan is right, we need to evaluate how the last three months went so we know what to change.

Alright, let’s dive in.

There are two important components to review, when looking back over the past three months:

1. Your goals

If you did set goals, you’ll want to review them. Be as honest as possible, because that’s the only way you’ll become better at setting them.

2. Your process

Regardless if you did actually set goals, you can review how you lived the past three months. Are you happy with the way you work? How your day is structured? How you fill your evenings and weekends? Again, whether you set goals or not, this is something you can review at any time.

Onto the review itself, it’s actually quite simple:

Review your calendar for the past three months and make a list of things that catch your eye: accomplishments, but it can also be other things you think off that had a big impact on how you feel.
Review your goals. Get your list of goals out and go over each of them: did you make it? Did you not make it? What went well? What did not went according to plan?
Summarize how you feel about the past quarter: now you have the results of your goals, and created a list of things that jump to mind, are you happy with the past three months? Are you happy with your goals? How do you feel about the different processes in your life?

This is a great kickoff for compiling your goals for the next three months, and there is no better time than right now! You know how things go: December will be busy with family and friends, so plan now to make the most of October and November.

Quitting Internet

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Great interview with Aziz Ansari on Quitting the Internet in GQ magazine, where he shares why he deleted almost every app from his phone:

Whenever you check for a new post on Instagram or whenever you go on The New York Times to see if there’s a new thing, it’s not even about the content. It’s just about seeing a new thing. You get addicted to that feeling. You’re not going to be able to control yourself. So the only way to fight that is to take yourself out of the equation and remove all these things.

I very much agree and unfortunately I’m prone to this as well.

I wanted to stop that thing where I get home and look at websites for an hour and a half, checking to see if there’s a new thing. And read a book instead. I’ve been doing it for a couple months, and it’s worked. I’m reading, like, three books right now. I’m putting something in my mind. It feels so much better than just reading the Internet and not remembering anything.

I’m trying to get mature and evolve as a person. Even cutting out the Internet and social-media stuff, and reading more, is a good step in the right direction.

This is an approach I really like: you don’t have to swap a habit with something that’s perfect, you only have to swap it for something that is a little bit better. This is gradual improvement, and if you do that every day, it will add up quickly.

Social Media Productivity

Sun, 30 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Jeff Nagle wrote a short post where he describes a possible future where people consuming social media will be looked at the same way as we are all looking at people who smoke right now. He sounds a little cynical though and it seems like Jeff mostly has bad experiences online:

By and large, social media is not good for you. There are a few instances where it works well but for every 1 nugget of goodness that there is, there are 4 nuggets of bad. I know I am sounding negative here, but it is the truth. I almost never feel good after my experiences with social media.

I have a mostly positive experience. Jeff continues by describing why social media is bad for you:

Like smoking, social media is just another addiction to distract our brains from what it is lacking. We smoke to reduce stress, aid in social situations, attain social status and to kill time. Isn’t that what we do when we consume social media streams? Instead of blowing smoke, we simply stare at our phones and blow off our nearby friends.

This is an interesting and highly relevant topic to research.

I recently finished Irresistible, where Adam Alter makes a similar point (he compares our devices to cocaine, talking about picking your examples): the way we’re using our devices and social platforms might not be as innocent as we think. The book is a bit long, but in general I think I agree with his writing: we’re still very unaware of the long term, structural effects of social media on our life, work and relationships.

The fundamental, obvious difference is that social media does not kill you in the sense that smoking or using cocaine does. Or, I should say, our devices and social media have not been around long enough to either prove or falsify these claims.

But let’s take a look at this from a productivity perspective.

I’m a huge fan of Cal Newport, who does not use social media (among other things, he also has a really strict email policy) in order to have more time to think and to do what he calls “deep work”. Newport knows how he can do his best work, and that is by making sure he does not waste his time on things that do not bring him the value he needs.

Social media by definition is distracting, because it is built for exactly this: pulling you back to the different platforms and keeping you there for as long as possible. And not for a good reason: the only motive Twitter and Facebook have is showing as many ads as they possibly can within the time you’re spending on their product. They don’t have your best interest at heart.

When thinking about this, I keep returning to this nuclear strategy as probably the best possible option. On the other end of the spectrum, I believe there are simple things we can do to minimize and optimize the time we spend on social media.

Let’s start with the goals I have for using social media:

I want to be inspired
I want to learn stuff
I want to keep up to date with what is happening within the industry and with my friends
I want to see things that make me happy

I’m adding this one as well, to be completely honest:

I want to have a place where I can be distracted for a short while for moments when I’m switching tasks or when I have a couple of minutes to kill

Fleshing out these goals makes it easier to make decisions on exactly which things I’m reading and which things I’m avoiding. I have two main strategies:

Strategy one: add barriers

In order to spend less time on social media, I’m making sure it is harder to reach it. Just like I make it harder to snooze by locating my alarm clock at the other end of the room, I’m using a plugin I built for Chrome which makes Twitter, Facebook and YouTube way less appealing to look at on my Mac. This one extra step is a huge help in using it less.

Removing the apps from your phone or using a tool that completely blocks access to certain websites can also be a huge help.

There is also the app Forest, which helps you to keep your hands off your phone by rewarding instead of punishment: as long as you’re not touching it, you’ll grow your forest.

Strategy two: curate regularly

To get more value out of the networks you do use, make time to regularly curate what you’re seeing.

This starts by picking the networks you want to invest in. I’m using Instagram for it’s positivity (if you disregard the comments – you should never read comments anyway) and Twitter for news.

Facebook has good tools for curation which really helps to define what you’ll see. You should get into the habit of actually dismissing things you don’t like whenever you see something.

On Twitter and Instagram, the value of your visits largely depend on who you are following. Purging this selection really pays off as well.

You could also let someone else do your curation. Nuzzel is a great app that takes your Twitterfeed and sends you an email with the stuff you shouldn’t miss. This is a great way of leveraging the value of social media, without actually using it.

I agree with Jeff: it is very well possible to have mostly negative experiences with social media, if you don’t do it right. We need a solid strategy, and with that there is a way to not only eliminate the negativity, but even get a lot of value out of using social networks.

Focus as a lifestyle

Wed, 21 Jun 2017 06:00:13 +0000

As some of you know, for the last 10 months I've been shooting an almost daily vlog. Some a little better than others, but I have to admit, especially the first couple of videos are actually quite bad. I've been learning a lot around shooting video, editing and talking to a camera, which has been great (and necessary too).

One of the recurring themes in the vlog was focus. However, if there is one thing my YouTube channel actually lacked, it was just that. So it was something that really needed to change. Even while focus is something that is on my mind a lot, I still don't do it as well as I would like to.

Focus is not something that you do for a day and you tick off after that. It should be a state of mind you're in continuously. Like a radar that scans the environment, we should be checking in with our focus every single day.

This is why I'm refocussing my channel. I'm focussing on creating content around productivity. I'm switching from Dutch to English. I'm no longer aiming for daily but committing to a weekly video. This feels refreshing, it feels like a new challenge and it really renewed my energy for the project.

All I needed to do was to take the time to reflect and to really figure out what I wanted to do.

So the question is: where do you really need to rethink your focus?

PS. On the channel I've launched a Productivity Bootcamp series. In the first episode I'm talking about remembering less. If you're interested, subscribe!

What kind of leadership does your team need in order to grow?

Wed, 10 May 2017 06:00:04 +0000

When you're thinking about leadership and how to develop yourself as as leader, we often start with asking ourselves: what kind of leader do I want to be? Directive and forceful? Visionary? Someone who leads from behind?

An interesting question, which can lead to all kinds of insights that will help you to do better. I would like to grow in understanding others better, because I want to be a thoughtful, helpful and supporting leader. Thinking about how I envision a great leader helps me to set better goals.

However, this might not be what the people you're leading actually need. In order to be a better leader, the question “what kind of leadership does my team need in order to grow” can completely flip your actions. Don't confuse this with “what kind of leadership does my team wants” though. Those two are often very different things.

What kind of leadership does your team need in order to grow?

The read/act ratio

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 06:00:22 +0000

I was thinking and writing about email this week. It is a quite fascinating topic and it is not the first time I'm covering it. Especially since it is something that we are all dealing with on a daily basis, and frankly most of us don't really enjoy.

Still, while we loathe processing all the boring and complicated requests we have to deal with via email, we keep checking our mailbox. In a US study conducted a while ago, they found out that on average, a work related email is read within 6 seconds. For something we dread, we check it an awful lot.

There is a perfect explanation for that. As Nir Eyal describes in his great book Hooked, email contains all ingredients to be highly addictive: there are plenty of external triggers available (notifications), it is full of surprises (you never know what you'll get until you look) and it is super easy to access (which makes it the ultimate escape for your lazy brain when you should be working on something difficult).

When I was thinking about my own behavior, I noticed one recurring datapoint: my read/act ratio is completely off. Meaning: until the moment I'm actually processing my email, I have already read it multiple times.

Zooming in on this problem, I found that this mostly happens om my mobile phone. So to tackle that, I'm launching a new experiment where I have removed my email access from my iPhone. I'm interested how that changes my effectiveness when it comes to email and the added peace of mind that this might give me.

Here are some other ideas around email that might be helpful:

This is an absolute must and you probably already have done this: turn off notifications. I'd suggest switching them off for almost any service, but especially for email.
Don't spend time archiving email into folders. Search is really powerful these days, and be honest: how many times do you actually access your carefully curated folders with old email?
Spend some time learning a couple of details about your mailclient: what are pro-features you don't know? Are there keyboard shortcuts that could help you improve your flow?
Schedule a couple blocks of time where you handle email, during your day. Before you feel the urge to check, take a 10 second break to rethink if you really should be doing this right now.

I'm curious how you're dealing with email. Do you have found your magic bullet? Let me know!

Serendipity

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 06:00:27 +0000

In the fairy tale “The Three Princes of Serendip”, three sons of a great and powerful king are going through tough times. SPOILER ALERT: it ends well. The main storyline is about a missing camel, and by stumbling on pieces of what seems to be unrelated data while on the road, the brothers successfully recover the animal. With that, their lives are spared and all is good again.

Horace Walpole derived the word “serendipity” from this story. Making discoveries of things you were not looking for.

Quite big inventions are attributed to have been discovered by serendipity instead of a focussed search: penicillin, the post-it note, the microwave, to name a few.

Take penicillin for example: this antibacterial was discovered by Alexander Fleming while cleaning out his laboratory, because he noticed that something had contaminated one of his experiments. This failure resulted in an idea that saved millions of lives.

You can write a book about this topic, but let's limit it to two characteristics of serendipity in this post.

Serendipity is about broadening your perspective

If Fleming would not have been paying attention to his cleaning efforts, he would never have spotted this weird effect that was going on. At any given moment, there are things going on around us that could spark new ideas and new inventions. But, in order to see them, we need to have a broader perspective. You can't make new connections if you're not moving the parts around. We need to play with our building blocks, throw them together and break them apart, and then closely monitor what happens.

You definitely need to get rid of your tunnel vision to come up with a groundbreaking purpose of a failing type of glue (the post-it).

Serendipity is about appreciating the unexpected

I find this one really conflicting with things I like very much: structure and predictability. By eliminating randomness, there is less room for the unexpected. If we accept the fact that often the best ideas appear when we are not looking for them, we need to spend more time not looking.

This is why I think serendipity is, in a way, a skill: you need to be tuned in, all eyes, all ears, in the right position. To be ready to discover what you are not expecting.

Ok, now what?

I do think that there are a couple of things we can start doing to “tune in more” and to accelerate serendipity.

Change your location. One of the ways to get new ideas is to be confronted with input from the outside. Changing your location will accelerate that. Move to another city. Sit at another desk.
Show up. Invites to anything are basically tickets to a lottery of ideas.
Ask more questions. At the core: the more you're open to learn something, the higher the chance that you'll discover something new.

Don’t overcomplicate prioritization

Sun, 19 Feb 2017 07:00:19 +0000

Companies are built on the principle that money must be made. In order to do that, problems need to be addressed and new features need to be launched. And by definition, there will always be more problems and ideas than that there is time to address them: we need to choose.

Don't fall into the trap to overcomplicate this prioritization process. The goal of defining priorities is to prevent big mistakes and to make sure you're not missing out on big opportunities. A lot of companies are defining complex algorithms that produce precise priorities based on very imprecise input data. Focus on eliminating the big mistakes instead over controlling the tiny details.

At Blendle, we're trying to get better with priorities by using a value/complexity matrix. A simple spreadsheet which allows you to enter things like customer benefit, opportunity size and development effort. For each feature, a score between 1 and 5 is entered. The end result is a score for each feature. While helpful, the input is quite imprecise and often subjective. This is by design, but that also means that you should not treat the output as a perfect way to sort things out. It is just as imprecise. The way to get to the list, by filling each column, is what is actually important.