Exclusive Interview

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#14 (September–December 2012)www.ProductiveMagazine.com

Augusto Pinaud

Articles on:4 Practical tips that save you an hour each day4Making meetings work magically4Becoming action–oriented, “doing” tasks vs “managing”

on saving minutes that can save you hours!

• Augusto Pinaud • Michael St. Pierre • Robert Terson • Craig Jarrow • Graham Allcott • Laura Stack • Maura Nevel Thomas • Michael Sliwinski •

Productivity tricks and gurus

From the Editor

By Michael Sliwinski, Editor

W elcome to the 14th issue of your favorite (and only) pro-ductivity magazine. This time

around I invited a good friend of mine and a fellow GTD (“Getting Things Do-ne”) enthusiast – Augusto Pinaud. He just published a fantastic short book on productivity where he talks about his fa-vorite 25 tips and tricks that really reso-nated with me.

Apart from Augusto’s tips and tricks, I chose additional tips and tricks from the submissions of my great contribu-tors to make sure you get as much val-ue from this issue as possible.

! Links: Michael on Twitter

Michael’s Website

I’m trying to help you achieve “small victories” to help you gain momentum and get more done, with lots of small tips that will help you move forward.

Enjoy, and if you like this issue, please share it with your friends through email and social media. After all, the advice in this magazine is free... but the bene-fits of implementing it will make a mas-sive impact in your life. I love learning new things from great authors every time I’m compiling a new issue of Productive! Magazine.

Yours productively,

Michael Sliwinski

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Productive! Magazinewww.ProductiveMagazine.com

Sponsor:www.Nozbe.com

Your Online tool for Getting Things Done – available in your computer browser, mobile phone and on your iPhone.

Chief Editor:Michael Sliwinski

Technical Editor:Piotr Wozniak

Technical Advisor:Maciej Budzich

Editorial Team:Lori Anderson

Delfina Gerbert

James Tonn

Tribute:Marc Orchant (1957–2007)The Productive! Magazine is dedicated to the memory of a productivity guru, great blogger and a very close friend, Marc Orchant who passed away on 9th December 2007.

All articles are copyright © by their respective authors.

Productive! Magazine is copyright © by Michael Sliwinski.

Getting Things Done® and GTD® are the registered

trademarks of the David Allen Company.

04 Michael Sliwinski

Interview with Augusto Pinaud

09 Michael St. Pierre

7 Ways to Put Your Family First

10 Robert Terson

Working Smart

12 Craig Jarrow

21 Ways to Crush Your Procrastination

14 Graham Allcott

How to make your meetings magic!

16 Laura Stack

Personal Productivity as a Habit

18 Michael Sliwinski

Getting Tasks Done vs Managing Tasks

20 Michael Sliwinski

Productive! Show Videos

21 Maura Nevel Thomas

Productivity Lessons Learned at the Dojo

22 TimeDoctor

The Productivity Gurus

Table of contents

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Augusto Pinaud: I’m a writer. I spend most of my time writing about productivity and writing

fiction. Productivity is one of the things I need most. I have been spending quite an amount of time learning how to be more effective, how to save minutes in order to save hours.

Michael Sliwinski: I got to know you be-cause we are both passionate about GTD (Getting Things Done) and we participate in a virtual GTD study group. Recently you self–published a book “25 Tips for Produc-tivity” and it’s only in “e” version, so you can get it on Kindle from Amazon, right?AP: At least until December the e–version is exclusive from Amazon. In the USA it is in paperback at both Barnes&Nobles and Amazon, however, the paperback is only available from Amazon in the rest of the world.

MS: I just read the book. I really love it. It’s very down to earth, 25 really cool tips.AP: Actually, I did two experiments with this book. This is the first book that I wrote in Spanish first, which is my primary language, and then I translat-ed it into English. The other two (fiction books) I wrote in English.

The idea was to write a really fun book to read. The first draft came in just a week. I started on a Monday and by Friday afternoon I had the first draft. It was a rough first draft but it was just a first draft. It happened very, very fast and was really fun to create.

MS: I know for a person like yourself, who read “Getting Things Done” many years ago and implemented most of it, you men-tion that in your book many things be-come common sense for you, become log-ical things. And I like the chapter in your book where you question common sense, because, what is common sense for you – doesn’t mean it is common sense for ev-eryone, right?

Interview with Augusto Pinaud by Michael Sliwinski

How to save minutes here and there in order to save hours of your time every week. Also, 25+ more productivity tips and tricks.

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AP: Yes, I make that point and I have been saying it for years – common sense is the most uncommon of the senses actually. :–)

If you touch, and everybody can touch, everybody has a feeling, has the same feeling of touching, but when you talk about common sense, common sense really depends on your experience. Even if you mention the book “Getting Things Done” there is a part in the book where David Allen, the author, said himself that all these principles are just com-mon sense and I always chuckle at that part. To tell you the truth, it’s common sense after you apply these methods.

I remember to this day, the first time I read about the “two minute rule”. My reaction to the two minute rule was something like “Why have I nev-er thought about this? It’s fantastic!”. And if you would ask me today, yes it is common sense but back in 2003 when I read the book the first time – it wasn’t.

MS: Another point that you make in the book is related to the video which I post-ed a few months ago on my Productive! Show. I showed how I can type without watching the keyboard or the screen, re-ally fast. I thought it was common sense, I mean everybody knows that you should learn how to touch type, right? But after the video many people approached me to say: “Yeah, I think I should learn this”. And you also mentioned that learning to type is the essential skill for everyone right now.AP: Well, the reality is, good or bad for all of us, is that we are sitting in front of

a computer at least 70% of the time. And when I wrote that chapter I had a con-versation with a friend of mine, whom I had sent this chapter to, and he told me “Well, you know what is interesting, is that when you talk about typing with people everybody thinks they type faster than what they actually do”. That’s the reason I put it in the book.

Go online and take a free test of your speed, you will be impressed. The first time I did it, I was shocked. And peo-ple think that because they only do little things on the computer they don’t need to type faster. Or they think they can type with two fingers and go faster. Trust me, I did too. I resisted learning to type for many years because if I’d only type five lines, where was the need to type faster? After I learned and improved my speed, it was really a night and day difference.

I also mention in the book, when I got an iPad and realized I can only use it with a keyboard and I thought... if I’m only go-ing to use the iPad with a keyboard... what is the reason to have an iPad in-stead of a laptop... and I was at the point of getting rid of mine when a friend point-ed out... “Why don’t you get a typing tutor for the iPad? There is an app for that!”. Again one of those common sense things, right? I got the app!

Do I type fast on the screen of the iPad? Not yet. I type at 60–65 WPM (Words Per Minute). I understand for a lot of people that’s incredibly fast, but I can do 85–90 on a regular keyboard, but this is at least a speed that I can work with. When I did the first typing test on the iPad it was 15 words per minute... so now I’m more than 4 times faster!

MS: When I made the switch to the iPad I was trying to simplify my set up and I’ve been commenting about this on my blog, how this simplification influenced other areas of my life. You also dedicat-ed several chapters to simplifying in your book. I’d say I enjoy embracing minimal-ism, to have as little clothes as possible, as little things in the office as possible. I really like your message there to really simplify things and to have a “not–to–do list”, right?AP: Not to have and not to do. You know, I’m careful with the use of the word “min-imalism” because there are a lot of peo-ple who are going to the extreme. If it works for them, that’s great, but I think that because of that extreme many peo-ple who read this might walk away from minimalism.

I believe people should simplify, I be-lieve that you should get rid of most of the junk you have accumulated over the years, and it was actually Patrick Rhone who used the word “Enough”. And the first time I heard it, it became common sense to me. I said, “that’s exactly what I want”. It is not an extreme minimalism, I don’t want to go to the extreme like the people who have 30 items. I just want to have exactly what I need and no more.

It’s been a difficult process because you are trained as a kid and growing up to collect stuff. Because, in a way, collecting stuff is a symbol of status. Hey, if you have three cars it means you made it!

There are people who can live with two pairs of shoes and there are people who need five and those are both correct an-swers. The question is, what is your cor-

“Common sense” is the most uncommon of the senses...

I’m careful with the use of the word “minimalism” because there are a lot of people who are going to the extreme.

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rect answer and after you discover what it is then aim for it and try to get there.

The “not–to–do” list follows the same path. There are a lot of things that that we do that we shouldn’t – period. For example, I’m now working on redesign-ing the blog and the web–page. Could I spend the time and money to learn Wordpress well in order to do something that looks decent? The answer is yes. But how many hours is that going to cost

me? In my case, an incredible amount. But what if instead of that, I hire some-one and use my saved time to write? How about that? There are things you should not do.

I also mention reading. I love to read. I have a yearly goal of reading more than 52 books. I have made myself this goal since 2008 or 2009. Every year I read at least 52 books. And one of my rules is that if I’m reading a book and I don’t like it, I drop it. If I get to a certain point and it’s always around 20% of the book and I don’t get into the book then I drop it. I even encourage people if you get my books and you are 10%, 15% or 20% in-to the book and you don’t enjoy it, drop the book. Don’t finish reading it. It’s not worth it. There are so many good books out there, why are you going to waste hours of your time on something that is not worth it?

MS: I’m totally with you on this one. And there is some advice that you give in your book for people who travel or just move between office and home office for exam-ple, about chargers and other accessories – that we should buy more of them, right?AP: You will hear the following complaint “oh, you know, I don’t have time, I really need two hours more in the week”. The thing is, people look at their calendar and their list and their stuff... and they are trying to see how they are going to find two more hours to save. In my ex-perience, you are never going to do that. But if you look into the small things you will find those two hours just by saving minutes here and there. We have just been talking about typing, right? If peo-ple double their typing speed the amount of time they will save is incredible. It is the same thing with many things you use on a daily basis.

If you double your typing speed the amount of time you will save is incredible.

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Augusto Pinaud is

a writer with two fic-

tion novels and a best–

selling “25 Tips for Pro-

ductivity” book. He lives

in Fort Wayne, Indiana,

is married, has a little girl and three dogs to keep

him company.

! Augusto Pinaud

I always had a computer charger in my office, a computer charger in my home office and a computer charger in my bag. Always. Why? Because believe it or not, those five minutes it takes to get down on your knees and get down under the desk to plug the computer charger and later unplug it... and you do it several times a day... When you add the two minutes you need in the morning to the two minutes you need to go home that’s four minutes a day. OK? If you work 5 days a week that’s 20 minutes and assuming you don’t do it at home. If you do it at home, that’s 40 minutes. If you noticed, we are al-most at 50% of those two hours we just mentioned. And there are so many oth-er things like that!

The other thing is email. In all of my email messages it says on the bottom “Sent from my iPhone”. And it’s there regardless if I send it from my Mac, iPad or the iPhone. The reason is sim-ple: when I send you an email with this

signature and I send you just two lines of text you won’t think anything of it. You received an email that reads it came from the phone and you are OK with the fact that the email is short. If you don’t have that, people will assume you sent it from a computer and if you send the same short email that was fine a min-ute ago, now that email is rude because it’s too short.

MS: Exactly, people can be offended, be-cause on the computer your email sig-nature can be bigger than the content of the email, right? I also like what you said about the ritual that you have for your “Weekly Review”. You have your special type of coffee there and every-thing. I read something about this theo-ry of small victories. When you manage to achieve a “small victory”, and then anoth-er, you get the momentum and when you get the momentum, you get things done.AP: I’ve been doing that ritual for years. It’s a Venti coffee from Starbucks, I only get it when doing my weekly review. If it happens that I do another weekly review during the week I get that same kind of coffee. I do rituals with a lot of things, because I have discovered that they help me get in the mood much faster. A lot of people have rituals, some of them con-scious, most of them are not. If you learn to identify what they are, making your rit-uals conscious, you are going to be able to get in the mood much faster.

It’s like people who do exercise, I had a friend who would leave work in his gym clothes. What happens is that he drops into gym much more often than before. Usually when going home from work he’d say: “I’m going to stop at the gym” and then in the middle of the way he’d go “Oh, I’m tired, I’ll go to the gym to-morrow”. Now that he started dressing up in his workout clothes and drives with his sneakers on, he said that he’s im-proved on stopping at the gym by more than 50%. The barrier of entry is low-er now that he’s dressed and he goes:

I write short emails. In all of my email messages it says on the bottom “Sent from my iPhone”. And it’s there regardless if I send it from my Mac, iPad or the iPhone.

“Well, you know I can go now for 5 mins” and that is his trick.

It is something simple, a little ritual, but those tiny tricks really make a huge difference. I have been a big proponent of the iPad as my main machine and one of the fun changes I’ve made when writing is that I only write in plain text. Why? It is simple, if I open a laptop and I open Word or Pages, I start looking at the italics, settings and margins. I waste an incredible amount of time on this in-stead of writing. With plain text I do not have that option.

MS: It’s just PLAIN text...AP: Exactly, just plain text. So my op-tions are: to write or not to write. With this simple trick I’ve been able to double my output on writing. And that was my goal.

MS: Thank you Augusto! For many more small tips that will help you work more ef-fectively and get more things done check out Augusto’s book “25 Tips for Produc-tivity” on Amazon. "

I do rituals with a lot of things, because I have discovered that they help me get in the mood much faster.

! Links: Augusto on Twitter | Augusto’s Blog | Augusto’s Book “25 Tips for Productivity”

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Productive! Magazine – like Wired Magazinenow also available as a native iPad app!

...just like your favoriteProductivity Application: Nozbe.com

...just like your favoriteProductivity Application: Nozbe.com

By Michael St. Pierre

I ’m not immune to this as I’ve on occasion, returned home later than I had hoped. As I get older though,

my wife has helped me to see that get-ting home late is a major no–no.

If you don’t think that it’s a marriage killer, try it a few times and when you get the evil eye (which is taught in the wife handbook, page 104), shrug it off. That will go over really well…

Andy Stanley of Northpoint Church wrote about this dynamic in his book, Choosing to Cheat. He essentially says this: be clear about whom you are go-ing to cut short in terms of time. Every day, you must choose one priority over another. Once you know your priorities, you can choose the most important ac-tions to take.

What he means is that if you believe your spouse really comes first in your life, you really don’t have the luxury of making a social withdrawal by coming home much later than you had planned. As Covey famously said years ago, “put first things first”. This applies to your family as much as anything.

So here is my quick list on simple ways that you can put your family first in the whole work–family dynamic:

1 Leave work at a particular time every day. Whether it’s four, five or six pm, try to stick to a partic-

ular time. This will help your spouse with planning dinner or the occasional errand on a weeknight.

2 Surprise your spouse once a month by coming home early. This works every time and shows

your spouse that work doesn’t always come before family. My wife isn’t crazy about flowers but sees time home ear-ly as an even better gift from me to her. I love showing up at the back door and surprising her.

3 Believe in the concept of a meet-ing “with yourself”. That way, you can leave on time, knowing that

your meeting is actually a time to get home and be with your family.

4 Practice transitioning. You can take a deep breath before you en-ter the house, reminding yourself

that you are no longer at work. You can also use the time in which you change

your clothes to refocus on the second part of the day (i.e. 5–9 pm). Very pro-ductive people know that a short amount of time is needed in order to shift from work to home mode. Without the transi-tion, you’ll end up being short with your spouse as if you are still in work mode. Not a good idea.

5 In the event that you are running late, call ahead. Better to commu-nicate when your lateness shows

up rather than when it blows up a few hours later.

6 Go into work late once in awhile. This can’t apply to everyone but if your job allows for any degree

of flexibility, go in later and make up the time on the backend. Sometimes a breakfast with your spouse can go a long way to tell her that you consider family more important than work.

7 Turn off your gear. When you’re home, don’t check email or your phone. This is super difficult,

I know, but nothing says “you’re not important” more than checking email when you should be helping your kids with their homework.

By practicing these habits of “family first”, you can communicate to your fam-ily that they matter. Big time. Now that’s a habit that will pay dividends now and into the future. "

7 Ways to Put Your Family FirstA friend of mine has a habit. About twice a year he loses track of time at work and arrives home very late, hours after his family expected him. As you can imagine, this habit is not one that his spouse is particularly fond of.

! Links: Michael on Twitter | Michael’s Blog: “The Daily Saint”

Michael St. Pierre is

President of Morris

Catholic High School

in Denville, NJ. He is

the editor of The Dai-

ly Saint productivity

blog and podcast.

! Michael St. Pierre

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calls on the telephone to increase call volume. The idea intrigued me so much I gave it a four–week test run. I was bucking the old adage “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”, especially since a telephone approach is much easier for a prospect to blow off than a face–to–face encoun-ter. The telephone demands superior re-butting skills and voice presence than in–person interaction. The experiment worked: I significantly increased presen-tations, which produced a higher dol-lar volume. I found a way to work more productively, to work smarter. The in-dex cards and closest–to–the–next route went by the wayside. I worked this way for another 15 years.

Working SmartFrom the Editor: This is Chapter 28 from Robert’s book: “Selling Fearlessly” and Robert offered to share it in our magazine as these are his productivity tips. Even though it seems so, this piece of advice doesn’t only apply to the people in sales. Follow the link in Robert’s footer to find out how to buy the book.

The First 15 YearsEvery business has ways to work smart. In the first 15 years of my advertising ca-reer, I called on owners in person at their businesses. I prepared the night before by organizing prospects into a stack of 50 index cards, in a closest–to–the–next route. The next day I drove around mak-ing my calls; this led to immediate pre-sentations and setting appointments. The index cards and closest–to–the–next route, at the time, were examples of working smart.

Change oneAfter those first 15 years, about twen-ty–five years ago, I decided to make my

By Robert Terson

Working Smart“Working hard and working smart sometimes can be two different things” — Byron Dorgan.

Working smart means wringing maxi-mum production from your work sched-ule. It’s coming up with new ideas to bring that about. Working hard without working smart is as foolish as carving the Thanksgiving turkey with a dull knife in-stead of the electric knife your wife just bought you.

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Change TwoTen years ago I made a second change. This time I opted to devote Monday strictly to setting up appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday. Once again I gave it a four–week trial run, which proved successful. The number of pre-sentations increased. I had found a way to work even smarter.

The three–stage 30–year process was like candlelight to gas to electricity: each step enabled me to be more productive.

Multiple CountsBefore 1980 I worked midsize towns like Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Lima, Ohio. I did 5,000 counts: the number of telephone–book–covers mailed to up-scale homeowners. Then I got the idea of doing multiple 5,000 counts in cities like Lexington, Kentucky, and Tucson, Arizona. Depending on the size of the city, I did four to six sections – 20,000 to 30,000 total counts. I more than qua-drupled my income. If an idea could be framed and mounted, that one would be hanging prominently in the Louvre. The only downside: I had to fly to work, which meant leaving Sunday instead of early Monday morning – a sacrifice I’d make again in a heartbeat.

When to Call on a BusinessThere were other work–smart consider-ations in my business; for example, when to call on a particular type of business. Call on a beauty salon after Wednesday and your chances of speaking to the own-er are remote. Call on an auto repair shop early in the morning when customers are dropping off cars or late–afternoon when they’re picking up their cars, and your odds of success diminish greatly. Here are a few other examples of when not to call on a business: a florist during Val-entine’s Day week, Mother’s Day week, Thanksgiving week, or the Christmas sea-son; a real estate salesperson on Tuesday mornings, it’s usually when she’s out on

caravan inspecting new listings; a heat-ing/air conditioning contractor on a 100 degree day in mid–August; a tax preparer between January and April 15th; a caterer or restaurant from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm.

Flout any of these timing taboos and you’ll be spinning your wheels. You’ll be working dumb instead of smart.

Time MismanagementHave you ever visited an automobile dealership for service and observed a group of salespeople standing around shooting the breeze? There isn’t a single customer in the showroom and they don’t have a thing to do. I pity their lack of ini-tiative. If I were a car salesperson, I’d be on the telephone during that “downtime” calling potential customers from hot lists; but then I’m used to calling on people, not waiting for them to drop in.

ReferralsAn essential part of working smart is asking for referrals; a referral is worth a pitcher full of cold calls, and your clos-ing percentage will rise proportionately when you’re presenting from referrals. This is how I asked for referrals after I made a sale:

“Ben, may I ask a huge favor?”. Peo-ple will go out of their way to assist you if you ask for help.

“Sure, what is it?”“Our most effective way of calling on

businesses is by referral. Are there any businesspeople you know personally, that you feel good about, whom you think we could serve effectively? Any-one you can think of; I can’t begin to tell you how important referrals are to us”.

I succeeded two out of three times, and when I did I always asked permission to use the client’s name with each referral he’d given me.

Never walk out of a sale without ask-ing for referrals.

New IdeasThere are always smarter ways to work, if you’re on the lookout and willing to challenge conventional wisdom. Some-times a tiny tweak can make a huge dif-ference. George Bernard Shaw said, “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that nev-er were and ask why not”.

My friend Barry Thalden, the architect I spoke of in the Introduction, has been in business 38 years and is constantly searching for new ideas to make his com-pany’s presentations more effective.

I encourage you to do the same. Be on the lookout for opportunities to work smart. Concentrate, analyze. A new idea can be worth a fortune in additional sales. "

Robert Terson has

been a sales profes-

sional and entrepre-

neur his entire adult

life. He retired from

his advertising com-

pany in 2010 after 38 years in business. Today,

Terson writes, speaks and generously shares

his time with others. He lives in suburban Chi-

cago with his wonderful wife Nicki.

! Robert Terson

There are always smarter ways to work, if you’re on the lookout and willing to challenge conventional wisdom.

! Links: Robert on Twitter | Robert’s Website | Robert’s Book “Selling Fearlessly”

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By Craig Jarrow

S ometimes you just need a good start to get yourself going in the right direction. Rituals and habits

are good when dealing with procrastina-tion. They tell your mind and body that you are ready to work. They can instant-ly turn on your creativity and energy. By replacing your lollygagging and boon-doggling ways with more action–orient-ed ones, you can banish procrastination.

How Do You Beat Procrastination?Each person’s procrastination is differ-ent. You need to determine which meth-ods work for you.

Here are 21 Ways That I Use to Crush My Procrastination:

1Just Start... NOW – Stop over–thinking. Stop waiting. Just do it now. Sometimes you need to

jump right into the task even if you think you aren’t ready. A bumpy start is bet-ter than no start.

2Turn Everything Off – Eliminate all distractions. Turn off your email app. Your phone ringer. Close

your door to interruptions. Whatever it takes to give yourself quiet to work.

3Set a Timer – Set a timer for a short duration. Whether it is 30, 20, or even 10 minutes. Dedicate

yourself to working for that period. You’ll find that by the time the timer goes off that you have built momentum to keep you going.

21 Ways to Crush Your Procrastination

How do you overcome procrastination? We all have rituals, habits, and tricks that we use. I’d like to give you 21 ways to crush your procrastination. Because procrastination is a habit, and a very bad habit, you can train yourself to overcome it.

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4Get Some Exercise – Want to kick procrastination? Hit the gym (or the running trail). A workout will get

your blood flowing and energy pumping.

5Read Something – No, not any-thing. Read something related to the task you need to accomplish.

Whether it is some background info or supporting documents, once you get in-terested in the task at hand, you will be more motivated to jump into it.

6Review Your Last Win – Some-times we procrastinate because we are nervous or lacking con-

fidence. If this is the case, think back to one of your recent wins to give you encouragement and remember what it feels like to win.

7Take a Walk – Sometimes you just need a quick break to snap you out of your funk. Get outside for

a few and get active. The fresh air does the body good, too.

8Take a Shower – If it’s been a long day and you are exhausted, tak-ing a quick shower can revive

you. Not only will you feel clean, but you will have a renewed energy–level. When you don’t have time for a shower, simply changing your clothes is a good start.

9Tell Someone About the Task – Describing the work to be done to someone else can help get you

excited about getting it done. It can al-so be a great source of accountability. Just make sure you transition from the talking to the doing.

10Set a Hard Deadline – A task without a deadline seems to go on forever. Set a hard

deadline and stick to it. Having a time limit and a finish line will help you com-plete the work on your terms.

11Break a Piece Off – If you are procrastinating be-cause the task in front of

you is large, then break off a smaller piece. If you are writing a book or re-port, break off one chapter to write. If it is a clean–up job, then select one sub–area to clean first.

12Take A Nap – Wait, isn’t this counterproductive? To the contrary, a quick rest can

reset your energy levels. Many leaders are famous for their daily naps.

13Get Help – When you can’t get the task done by your-self, get help! Know when

to call in reinforcements from your friends and colleagues. Not every task is best done alone.

14Turn Off the TV – Watch-ing TV, endlessly surfing the Internet, playing video

games. All of these are good in mod-eration, but no one was successful sit-ting on the couch. Turn off the TV and do something productive.

15Put on Some Music – Mu-sic can be a great motiva-tor. It can instantly improve

your mood and turn up your energy lev-el. Keep your favorite inspirational mu-sic at the ready.

16Caffeine – Sometimes you need an energy boost. Whether your choice is cof-

fee or Red Bull, a little caffeine can go a long way to getting you going. (And going and going and going…)

17Reframe the Task – A good way to get a task unstuck is to “reframe” it. In other

words, look at it from a different angle. Instead of procrastinating on “clean-

ing out the car”. Think of it as “pre-paring the car” so that you can take your significant other out on a date this weekend.

18Examine the Consequences – One way to motivate your-self is consider the nega-

tive consequences if you do not act. What will happen if you don’t get this job done?

19Get Up Early – The early bird does get the worm. Getting an early start can

put you ahead of the game and your peers.

20Set a Reward – Set yourself a reward appropriate to the level of the task. It can be

something small or even something big for an important task.

21Get Emotional – I’m not talk-ing about having a break-down here. But, get pas-

sionate. Your energy levels will quickly elevate and your resolve to act will in-crease.

Crush Your ProcrastinationEach of these is a great way to beat your procrastination. Develop your own rituals and habits. Soon, you will have banished your procrastination. Or at least be able to crush it any time you choose. "

Craig Jarrow is the au-

thor of the Time Man-

agement Ninja blog.

He helps individuals

and companies re-

claim their time.

! Craig Jarrow

! Links: Craig on Twitter | Craig’s “Time Management Ninja”

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The 40–20–40 Continuum: Before, During & AfterIf you ever need to hold a meeting and you want to make it a success, use the 40–20–40 Continuum: focus 40% of your attention for each meeting on prepara-tion and getting everything right before you meet, then 20% of your attention on the meeting itself – the time you’re all to-gether – and then spend 40% of your at-tention on the follow through.

Like all golden rules, it appears to be simple and even a little obvious on first view, but in reality it’s rarely prac-ticed and can be difficult to stick to. Our temptation is to spend all our attention on the meeting itself: what the agenda will be, how it will be structured, and so on. In actual fact, more important than these are getting the venue, personnel and “framing” right. Crucial to the meet-ing having any impact is, of course, fol-lowing up to ensure that things actually happen afterwards.

Here are a few tips – based around this 40–20–40 principle – that I hope will help you question the need for certain meetings and transform the meetings you have.

40% BeforePurpose – are you AND all other attend-ees clear on what the intended outcome of the meeting should be and how you’ll know if you’ve achieved it? Make sure your agenda includes a simple statement of purpose (“By the end of this meeting we will...”).

Practicalities – does it need to be a “physical” meeting at all? Would Sky-pe, phone, webinar or something else be a better option? Are we presuming it should be an hour long because that’s what we’ve always done here? What would it look like if we changed it to 15 minutes?!

Place – the room, the cakes, the com-fort–level... these things matter if you’re serious about giving people an environ-

How to make your meetings magic!Take a moment right now to think about your experience of meetings. Chances are, a little part of you is groaning inside at the mere thought of meetings. What a fantastic way to waste time, lose focus, fan some egos and talk about getting things done rather than just getting on doing things! The truth is that we have far too many meetings.

By Graham Allcott

I n a 2007 study by Bert van der Zwan (of internet company WebEx) 28% of middle managers said that reduc-

ing their number of face–to–face meet-ings would improve overall productivity at work, with a further 21% saying they would feel less stressed and 18% felt they would have a better work–life bal-ance. So many meetings are held with-out agendas, without a clear purpose and without consideration to who real-ly needs to be there – or not.

But sometimes, a great meeting can change the world.

Some of the great meetings I’ve at-tended over the years were conduct-ed by my colleague Martin Farrell, Think Productive’s “Meetings Magician”. Mar-tin is a professional meetings facilitator, brought in by organizations like the Unit-ed Nations, the UK Government and the Fairtrade Foundation.

With a great facilitator, it’s like hand-ing over your car keys and sitting in the backseat to enjoy the ride: you still own the car and get to influence where it goes, but you have a great driver en-suring everyone reaches their destina-tion safely. This leaves you able to be on the lookout for the really interesting things you notice along the way. Watch-ing these meetings unfold, I am always struck by the clarity of thinking, focussed discussion and clear outcomes that de-velop. It seems like Martin is doing mag-ic and it feels very natural.

In reality of course, what he is doing isn’t magic at all – he’s applying a me-thodical set of principles to every meet-ing, and can do this whether he knows a lot about its subject matter or not. It was Martin that introduced me to the most powerful meetings principle I have come across. This was developed by Lois Graessle and George Gawlinski, who worked with Martin on the book “Meeting Together”. The principle is the “40–20–40” continuum.

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ment in which to think, appreciate, con-tribute and decide. Great creative and strategic decisions are rarely made in dimly lit basements!

Pace – you can only go as fast as the slowest person in the room, so what can you do by way of preparation to get people up to speed and ready to fully participate? Use the meeting itself for discussion and decision, not infor-mation–sharing that can be done more productively by people in their own time.

Plan – Ever thought about writing the minutes of a meeting BEFORE the meeting happens?! Of course things will change on the day, but doing this will give you the time to fully prepare and anticipate the consequences or nuanc-es of the discussion. Or write them col-laboratively during the meeting!

20% DuringParticipation – create an environment where people’s contributions are val-ued. Meetings where only the loudest are heard don’t suit everyone’s learn-ing style and sometimes the quietest

of contributions are the ones you most need to hear.

Pace and Pauses – try to take a “step back” from the discussions to notice body language and be conscious of whether people’s attention or enthusi-asm may be flagging. And remember, no matter how fascinating the discus-sion, it’s never as memorable or atten-tion–grabbing as a full bladder!

Practicalities – ensure that you or one of your team looks after the practical-ities so that you leave participants to focus on the thinking, learning or deci-sion–making.

40% AfterProductive Follow–through – there’s no point everyone signing up to actions or committing to further work if none of those people are going to be held ac-countable after the meeting has end-ed. Ensure during the meeting that every action has a SINGLE owner and a clear deadline. During the meeting, talk about how and when people will be held ac-countable and when progress will be re-

viewed. Follow up quickly after the meet-ing to confirm the details of who’s doing what – the day after a meeting is the cru-cial time to either capitalize on the mo-mentum gained, or lose it completely.

It’s amazing that we obsess so much on that middle 20% (the participation), without really optimizing the 40% prep-aration or the 40% follow–through. So next time you have to organize a meet-ing, practice using 40–20–40 and watch your meetings go from pointless drain to productive gain. "

Graham Allcott is the

founder of productiv-

ity training special-

ists Think Productive

and author “How to

be a Productivity Nin-

ja” and runs a range of productivity workshops,

including “Making Meetings Magic”.

! Graham Allcott

! Links: Graham on Twitter | Graham’s Think Productive!

Make sure your agenda includes a simple statement of purpose.

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By Laura Stack

B ut knowing what to do doesn’t matter if you don’t do it, day in and day out, in all circumstanc-

es, even when you don’t feel like it. For-tunately, human nature serves you well here. Once used to a task, you can shift into a semi–automatic mode that allows you to perform the task efficiently, with-out having to remind yourself about what comes next. Having such a routine saves you time, effort, confusion, and con-scious thought.

Now, I’m not telling you to just turn off your brain, and I certainly don’t mean you should ever stop looking for more efficient ways to do your job. But habits can help you achieve a consistent lev-el of productivity. Mind you, this falls in-to the “easier said than done” catego-ry, because the overall productivity habit consists of numerous smaller, self–re-inforcing habits that come together to maximize efficiency.

Formulating a PlanMost of your actions stem from estab-lished habits. The problem is that individ-ual habits can work against each other. To use an analogy, if you hitch a wag-on to four strong horses, all pulling in four different directions, you won’t make much progress. Ah, but when you get the horses yoked together properly and go-ing in the same direction, off you go at a good pace.

So examine your routine and ask your-self what each of your existing habits does for you. If necessary, document your entire day from the minute you ar-rive at the office to the minute you leave. You may discover that some of your hab-its actually work against you. If you reg-ularly arrive late or take a smoke break every hour, you can safely say you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Personal Productivity as a Habit

By this point in your career, you’ve certainly figured out the basic requirements for achieving workplace productivity. You have a good idea of how to manage your time, set goals, prioritize your task list, shake off procrastination, and dodge perfectionism. In other words, you’ve learned the principles of high performance.

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Even necessary tasks can hinder productivity if you approach them the wrong way. Email is the classic exam-ple – checking it repeatedly diverts your attention and destroys your focus. Un-less your job requires otherwise, a bet-ter habit would be to process your email in batches several times a day.

Again, easier said than done. But hab-it is all about making gradual changes to your behavior, until you break out of the old grooves and develop new ones.

Making and BreakingAs you embark on your voyage of self–improvement, don’t get in a hurry. Ac-cept that developing a new routine takes time. It’s best to work on one habit at a time (though you can simultaneous-ly break an old one and replace it with another). Don’t try to multitask; “single–task” fiercely, focusing on making the new habit a solid part of your life before moving on to the next thing you want to change.

Once you’ve chosen a habit you want to modify or establish, make it a top pri-ority. If necessary, write out a plan for setting or breaking the habit, with mile-stones to mark your progress. You may find it easier to form a new habit by mak-ing yourself publically accountable for it. Tell other people you intend to change, so their expectations keep you on the straight and narrow. You can also join forces with a buddy trying to change a similar habit, such as compulsive cell phone or Facebook checking. Either way, the support you receive can push you farther toward achieving your produc-tive ends.

Forging AheadAs you work toward setting a new hab-it (or breaking an old one), do your best to avoid falling back into your previous way of thinking. Don’t pretend the temp-tation doesn’t exist; when you get the urge to act in the old unproductive man-

ner, deliberately do something else un-til the urge passes. Don’t fall prey to ra-tionalizations like, “Just this once won’t hurt”. That can sabotage the entire effort; ask anyone who’s tried to quit smoking. Missing one day might not derail you, but missing two could. If you don’t per-sistently exercise the new behavior, then how can it become a habit?

As a mere human, you can’t possibly achieve perfection all the time; you may backslide a bit before you get your new habit on track. If it happens, don’t ignore the failure, but don’t fret too much about it. Just get right back on the horse.

And remember: Five minutes spent for-mulating and implementing your new hab-it is better than no time spent at all, even if you meant to spend an hour at it. If you just can’t seem to get going on the hab-it no matter what you do, stop and try to figure out why. You may discover that at some level, you simply dislike the new habit. If so, investigate the reasons. Do you find it distasteful? Does it require too much work? Does it simply not fit into your working style? Are you being lazy?

Once you’ve pinned that down, de-cide whether you truly want to pursue the habit. If the drawbacks outweigh the productive benefits, rethink whether you should develop the habit at all.

If the habit does seem worthwhile, de-termine which obstacles you must over-come to achieve it, and start eliminating those obstacles. Get serious about in-corporating the habit into your routine. You’ll find it much easier to do so if you can learn to enjoy some aspect of the

Laura Stack is Ameri-

ca’s premier expert in

personal productivity.

Since 1992, she has

presented keynotes

and seminars on im-

proving output, lowering stress, and saving time

in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling au-

thor of five books, including What to Do When

There’s Too Much To Do.

! Laura Stack

! Links: Laura on Twitter | Laura’s Productivity Pro | Laura’s “What to Do When There’s Too Much To Do”

task, no matter how annoying, unpleas-ant, or unrewarding it may be. If you have to, just fake it until you make it. Sweet-en the pot with some reward for putting your head down, focusing, and pushing on through. If you can subconsciously associate the task with something enjoy-able, you’ll have less of a problem mak-ing it stick.

The Bottom LineWhen properly applied, consistency is incredibly productive. Once you estab-lish a good set of workplace habits and practice them so often they become au-tomatic, you can conquer the world. Take care here: don’t switch your brain off as you work through your routine, because that can lead to unproductive ruts and “good–enough” behavior. But do take advantage of this powerful aspect of hu-man nature to boost your workplace ef-fectiveness and make productivity a glo-rious habit. "

If you have to, just fake it until you make it. Sweeten the pot with some reward for putting your head down, focusing, and pushing on through.

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Getting Tasks Done vs

Managing Tasks

This summer we had a “Nozbe Team Meeting” in one of the most beautiful cities in Poland: Crocow (Kraków). We are a team of 12 now and we all work

remotely. Some of us had not met before the event. We spent three intensive days mostly socializing and not working. We focused on talking about how we work and what we do and how we see the future of our product – Nozbe.

Our strategy. Our values. And Getting Things Done with all that.

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By Michael Sliwinski

What it means to: “Simply Get It All Done”Nozbe’s tagline hasn’t changed a lot since I launched it in 2007. It was “Sim-ply Get Things Done”, later “Simply Get It Done” and now “Simply Get Every-thing Done” or even “Simply Get It All Done”. Anyway, it’s been about “getting tasks done”.

Why does it matter? How is it impor-tant? Well, this is critical. Nozbe is very often categorized as a “task manager” application that belongs to the “task managers” or “project managers” cat-egory.

I embraced this categorization but I never liked it. I always insisted that Nozbe is not about “managing tasks” but about “getting tasks done” (and “simply” at that), meaning we are in business of “doing” and not “managing”. And mak-ing it “simple”.

A heated discussion about “most requested features”Folks who use Nozbe know my firm stand (a strong no–no) on “sub–proj-ects”, “sub–tasks”, or “prioritization”. They know that I’m all for flat hierar-chy (the flatter the better) and prioritiz-ing by dragging and dropping stuff to the top or bottom of the list (instead of popular 1–3 priority system). I believe that simple solutions work even in com-plex situations.

We do support some sort of hierarchy (you can use “labels” to group projects together, you can use “contexts” to set up priorities and you can add “check-lists” to tasks if you really want a kind of sub–task experience) but we don’t en-courage it. And that’s the difference. We want to be able to give our “advanced users” many advanced features but on the other hand we want to make sure

Michael Sliwinski is

your chief editor of

the Productive! Mag-

azine and a host of

the magazine’s Pro-

ductive! Show. Every

day he’s trying to help people get more done

with his web application Nozbe – also avail-

able as a native desktop app for Windows and

Mac as well as mobile app for the iPhone, iPad

and Android.

! Michael Sliwinski

! Links: Michael on Twitter | Michael’s Blog | Nozbe – Simply Get It Done!

we don’t encourage too much fiddling with tasks for the rest of us.

Delfina, our Customer Happiness Of-ficer (yes, that’s her official title) togeth-er with the rest of our support gals, pre-pared a list of “most requested features” for us to talk about. It was a very heat-ed discussion with developers saying what they think can and can’t be done and support gals saying what (from the customers’ standpoint) must and must not be done. It was a tough discussion but a very fruitful one. Because between the can–dos, no–can–dos and must–dos we realized we have to take our mission into consideration.

It was a great chance of reiterating our values about “doing stuff” vs “manag-ing stuff”. We were forced to think “out of the box” about what customers re-ally needed and about what they said they wanted. From my standpoint (as CEO and founder) it was great to see the team embracing our values and an-alyzing each feature with these values in mind.

Suffice it to say, it’s not like we won’t implement what customers are asking us to. We will, but not everything, and very often in a way they don’t expect us to. We’ve analyzed features for at least 6 months ahead and we will roll them out, but we’ll never compromise our values of “getting tasks done”. Noz-be is not a “task manager” but rather a “task doer”.

By designing our app we teach people productivityIt sounds like cliche, but it’s true – the way we design the app is the way we “teach” our customers how to get things done. If we design it around lots of options and switches from the very beginning – they’ll learn it like this. And it’ll be hard for them to go back to “good habits” and “simple things that work”.

As feature requests come in, we must never stop teaching our users how to get back to their habits of “getting tasks done” and not that of “over–managing tasks”. It’s our responsibility. This is what Nozbe stands for and this is the source of our success. And it’s our promise to our users and we have to ensure we nev-er break that promise.

Seeing the team “feel” our mission is great!It was just so cool to see my team em-brace our values and take them as their own. As the founder, I always felt it was my responsibility to guard our values with my own chest. Now I see I don’t have to. My responsibility is to lead my team and they’ll guard our values as their own. Seeing this happen made me proud. Very proud indeed. "

The way we design the app is the way we “teach” our customers how to get things done.

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Working Productively on iPad and iPhone

iPad accessories for a road warriorI’m working almost full time

now on the iPad and these are

the accessories I always take

with me on every business trip.

Augusto Pinaud and his productivity tipsHere’s the full video interview

with Augusto. Enjoy his humor

and advice to help you get

more done. This magazine only

includes a part of the interview,

so make sure to watch it.

By Michael Sliwinski

iPhone 5 – “bigger” productivity?

I’m still undecided if it’s worth

upgrading to the iPhone 5 – are

the faster processor and bigger

screen worth it?

As always, here are the three new (and very short) Productive! Show videos to help, inspire, and motivate you to get even more done.

Productive! Show Videos

! Links: Browse all the past episodes of the Productive! Magazine Show

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By Maura Nevel Thomas

“Eliminating Chosa”While attending a national conference I heard a few Sensei speak on impor-tant martial art principles. One shared his thoughts on “eliminating chosa”, the act of refining your movements to remove wasted effort. This reminds me that ef-ficiency is useful regardless of the appli-cation. In martial arts, conserving your energy by eliminating chosa can provide you with the extra burst you need to win a fight or escape an attacker.

Throughout your day, how many times do you switch tasks, right in the middle, because something else called your at-tention? The phone rang while you were in the middle of writing a request via email. Or a co–worker popped into your cube wanting to know if you have just a few minutes to debrief from this morn-ing’s meeting. Or, your iChat or smart-phone is buzzing or beeping at you?

Switching between tasks greatly in-creases the time it takes to complete any task and also decreases the quality of your output, just like wasted movement in martial arts. Perhaps in your work day

the consequences aren’t as dire, but you still expend more effort and achieve few-er results in the same amount of time.

Control or Be ControlledAnother Sensei reminded us that if you understand the way that your joints and limbs move, where they are strong and where they are weak, you can control them and use that control to gain the ad-vantage in a match or a self–defense sit-uation. I believe his words were, “control or be controlled”. This is not only true in martial arts, it is paramount when you are working to control your attention.

Everyday there are a myriad of things either competing for our attention or try-ing to distract our attention. Ask your-self, what is your greatest advantage you can use today? Am I here to control my schedule and results, or will I let some-one or something else direct me? If we don’t exert control, then we put ourselves at risk to spend all of our time blowing in the wind of reaction. Just like in martial arts, if you can only react and defend, you can never take control of the situation.

Personal GrowthIn addition to a feeling of accomplish-ment and control, becoming more pro-

ductive and focused can give you more time to dedicate to other activities. It could be spent with family or friends. Or, it could be repurposed back into your schedule, helping you learn and devel-op. The martial arts activities that take place in the dojo aren’t just for sport or self–defense. They are also about per-sonal growth and discipline – an exer-cise for the mind and spirit as well as for the body.

When you can eliminate chose and exert more control, you can regain the time to devote to your goals and other significant results. "

Productivity Lessons Learned at the DojoFor many years, I was honored and privileged to be a student at the Shoshin Ryu School of martial arts. The school’s unique approach lends itself to a number of productivity lessons that can be applied by today’s workforce.

Maura Thomas is

the Chief Trainer and

founder of RegainYour-

Time.com, and author

of the new book Per-

sonal Productivity Se-

crets: Do what you never thought possible with

your time and attention... and regain control of

your life.

! Maura Nevel Thomas

© C

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! Links: Maura on Twitter | Maura’s “Regain Your Time”

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