How do you even pronounce ‘productivity’?

Posted by William Gallagher

There’s a new podcast from the productivity site Asian Efficiency which I had a listen to on my morning walk. (This is a new thing. A morning walk at 5am. This is a new stupid thing.) And the podcast is fine, I’ll listen to more before I know whether I want to urge you to try it, but the very first sentence made me stop in my tracks.

Frankly, anything can stop me in my tracks when I’m walking at that time of day.

But it was how they introduced the topic of productivity and pronounced the word as if it were pro-ductivity. And I realised then that I always say it as prod-uctivity.

Maybe that means they’re more professional about it and I’m the type who needs a good shove to get going. I’m okay with that.

Important presenting tip: don’t press buttons

Posted by William Gallagher

If it’s a speech or a story, I like to memorise what I’m going to say so that I can look at the audience and perform rather than just read. Fine. But I do bring the speech and I bring it on my iPad where I will have been making changes along the way. Also fine.

Just be careful, okay?

I gave a performance last night reading from a script I had in Drafts 4 on my iPad. I’d changed the settings so that the text was extra large and that it was white text on a black background so that I didn’t have an unearthly glow about my chin.

All very, very fine.

But Drafts 4 is for writing and doing things with text, it isn’t for reading. And at one point, about a third of the way through, I smoothly scrolled down to the next paragraph – and my finger caught an on-screen button.

With two hundred people staring at me, this button highlighted half the script, ran a macro over it all, inserted URL links and pasted whatever in the hell I last had on the clipboard. I watched this thing doing rapid-fire editing changes in front of me and saw my script reduced to unreadable rubble.

I realise now that I could’ve picked up the iPad and shook it to undo but have you ever done that in front of a capacity crowd in a theatre? I’d look like I was twitching.

I’ve listened to the recording and I can tell you the moment it happened. But I did have the speech memorised enough that I could carry on. And it worked out. One woman from the audience told me afterwards that my speech had made her cry. I thanked her but I was actually thinking “yeah, me too”, though probably for different reasons.

Lesson: don’t press buttons. More practical lesson: lock your script early and save it as PDF rather than keeping it as editable text.

“No Meeting Wednesdays” and other good advice

Posted by William Gallagher

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Dustin Moskovitz, the co-founder and CEO of Asana and former co-founder of Facebook holds, “No Meeting Wednesday’s.”

Moskovitz says that, “No Meeting Wednesdays” is something he borrowed from Facebook. “With very few exceptions, everyone’s calendar is completely clear at least one day out of the week whether you are a maker or manager.” He goes on to explain, “this is an invaluable tool for ensuring you have some contiguous space to do project work. For me personally, it is often the one day each week I get to code.”

He explains further in a internal document you can read the full post here.

Tech CEOs Favorite Productivity Hacks – Julie Bort, Business Insider

I think this is my favourite of all the advice in Julie Bort’s Business Insider article – and not just because today is Wednesday. (I do have meetings today, by the way.) But she’s collected productivity tips from many CEOs and while they’re all bosses of technology companies so, as you’d expect, tech tips score heavily with this group, there is much for everyone. Read the full piece.

Who makes this stuff up? Annual Clean Off Your Desk Day

Posted by William Gallagher

It’s a thing. Apparently. The second Monday of January is Clean Off Your Desk Day and I’m prepared to call that utter bollocks but for how I was thinking of cleaning off my desk just about around then.

I learnt about this just now on ProductivitySOS since I am coping with a sluggish day by reading productivity advice. I see the irony. And, I see the irony.

(I’m reading instead of doing and I’m also running a productivity site, so.)

Mind you, last year the same day coincided with National Rubber Duckie Day and I wish I were kidding.

Small moves to make big(ish) gains

Posted by William Gallagher

I liked this from Fast Company about making little changes that can help greatly, though I also enjoy that my iPad just autocorrected “liked” to “lied”.

When we think about New Year’s resolutions, we often think about huge life changes: losing 50 lbs, being happier.

There’s nothing wrong with these goals, except that they’re so big they’re intimidating. A better approach? Look at tiny tweaks that take a few minutes, but have big payoffs. Choose and stick with anything on this list, and 2015 could end with a much happier, healthier you.

1. PUT A FRUIT BOWL ON YOUR COUNTER
According to Cornell professor Brian Wansink’s research, people who have fruit bowls on their kitchen counters weigh eight pounds less than those who don’t. It’s an easy way to turn mindless grazing into increased produce consumption. Try putting a fruit bowl on your desk, too, and an apple might just become your go-to afternoon snack.

2. EAT BREAKFAST
Various studies find that breakfast eaters weigh less than those who don’t, and that the vast majority of people who have successfully lost weight eat breakfast. Don’t overthink this meal. Hard boil five eggs on Sunday and voila! That’s a week. Grab some string cheese and eat that. Keep yogurt in an office fridge. Buy a piece of fruit wherever you buy your coffee in the morning. That alone may ward off cravings for mid-morning donuts.

3. PACE
Gyms are great, if you go. Most people don’t (or else they join January 1st and quit by February). But anyone can squeeze in extra movement here and there. If, on each workday, you take 200 steps during a phone call, another 100 steps while waiting for food to heat up in the microwave, and 100 steps while brushing your teeth in the morning, you’ll walk an extra mile each week. That’s 50 more miles per year than you would have been walking.

17 Small (And Totally Doable) Tweaks That Will Change Your Year – Laura Vanderkam, Fast Company

Read the full piece.

Clickhole: Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule Will Make You Feel Worthless

Posted by William Gallagher

Oh, enough already.

Think you’ve got it together? Well, you might want to take a look at this before you start congratulating yourself on being productive and having your life in order. We transcribed this page of Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule from 1776. Just look at all the stuff the famous inventor and Founding Father managed to get done in a single day!

June 16, 1776:

2:00 AM: Wake up early, as is the Benjamin Franklin way.

2:00 AM-2:15 AM: Invent shower.

2:15 AM-2:30 AM: Shower.

Benjamin Franklin’s Daily Schedule Will Make You … | ClickHole

There is much more. Much more. Read the full piece.

Rubbing it in

Posted by William Gallagher

I didn’t get up at 5am this morning. I’ve got a speaking engagement late afternoon/early evening and decided that it would be sensible for me to appear conscious while talking.

Unfortunately, I then spent most of 5am to 7am thinking about this so I’m not sure I got any benefit and I am sure that I’ve started the day of wobbily. I nearly forgot to put the bins out – had a few thrilling moments racing as big trucks with flashing yellow lights got nearer and nearer – and in general I’m just struggling to get going.

Then I read this email:

Your morning routine sets the stage for the rest of the day.

Think of it as the most precious 60 minutes you have every day.

Out of all 24 hours you have, the first hour after waking up is THE most important. This is where it gets determined whether you’ll be productive – or not.

We have noticed ourselves that whenever we don’t follow our morning routine, we just aren’t as productive as we know we can be.

We never get “in the zone”. Things don’t flow. Everything takes a little longer to complete. Procrastination kicks in.

Overall, it’s not a good look.

Stick to your morning routine as much as possible. It functions like a catalyst for your productivity. Get it up and running, and you’ll be off to the races.

“Your Hour of Power” email – Asian Efficiency (6 January 2015)

Asian Efficiency is a very good outfit that normally I can’t praise too much. But this morning, it’s like they peeked into my soul and I want to go back to bed, please.

Receptive receptionists

Posted by William Gallagher

I did not realise that this was a thing or that I did it. But I’ve just read a productivity article that advises being nice to receptionists. We need articles? Why wouldn’t you be nice?

Except I am being a bit disingenuous there: I’ve seen how some people are with receptionists or, I don’t know, bar staff perhaps. (I’ve been bar staff. I’ve seen it close.) It is shamefully common to see someone come in to a firm and be rude to a receptionist then all smoothly polite and conscientious to whomever they were coming to meet.

The only difference with me is that I know receptionists have a crazy-mad job. They get gits like that for a start. But they’re also juggling a lot of work – I once saw someone answering calls for several companies at the same time; depending on which light lit on her equipment, she’d say a different hello spiel and would know entire staff directories for each firm. It was fascinating and impressive and I said so.

I’m getting uncomfortable here, like I’m either claiming to be a fabulous human being or that I’m about to advise you to suck up to receptionists. Just be normal like anyone else and if they have time to talk to you, talk to them. Why wouldn’t you? People are so interesting. Everything is so interesting. (Except football.)

That productivity article – gimme a second, I will get you a link to it – argues that receptionists also know a huge amount about a company so you should ask them. I think there’s a fine line between polite chat and the receptionist phoning for security, but this truly is a time when being naturally pleasant and not pressing for anything from someone so busy will often benefit you.

Being who I am and thinking what I do, I’d say that the number one first benefit is that you have a nice chat.

But yes, you can also find out more about the company you’re visiting. I don’t think I’ve ever learnt anything as useful as the one day that I saw a rival’s name in the sign-in book on the reception desk. Or the day when I leafed through the magazines that had been left out and so learnt all about a new project the person I was coming to see was behind.

If you want to weaponise all this, here’s that productivity article. It’s from Lifehacker: Ask the Receptionist These Questions While Waiting for a Job Interview.

Day 3 of Decluttering Omnifocus – and a snag

Posted by William Gallagher

So, previously I’ve faced up to how by the end of 2014 my OmniFocus To Do database was in a right state. And I’ve been doing something about it. By now I should have my shiny 2015 database up and running – but I don’t.

I also don’t have my messy old 2014 one. I have something from in between 2014 and 2015.

It’s because a) I went through the old one ticking off what I’d done and what I was going to delete and 2) I ran out of time because of deadlines. For the last couple of days I’ve been working from the old database but with its shiny new polish. And it’s been working really well.

Even just doing this much, I am feeling on top of things again. Which, as I’ve said before, is the real benefit of OmniFocus. Above feature set and specifications, if it can make you feel this good about what you’re doing and what plates you’re spinning, I’m happy.

But I must just move it on to a new set of 2015 folders. I must. I will.

Review: DropTask

Posted by William Gallagher

If there is anything greater than the number of To Do apps on the App Store, it is the number of productivity gurus who say you should use them. They are right. But unhelpful. If you loathe To Do lists, it may be that you abhor lists of any kind. So telling you to buckle down to it, telling you how great To Do lists can be, it’s never going to work for you. You’re too busy to write out silly shopping lists of tasks, you need to be doing this urgent work. Also, when you’ve got a list, it’s far too much tedium checking it and maintaining it. Nonetheless, if you are a visual thinker, you were out of luck. Until DropTask.

DropTask aims to do two key things. The first and in every possible way the most apparent is that it is a visual To Do list. No rows and columns, no indents and tabs, just circles that you drag around. That dragging is part of the second purpose of DropTask: it wants to be very, very fast to use. You don’t have to fiddle with the onscreen keyboard to do everything, just for adding detail. Drag a blue dot onto the centre of your iPad screen and that’s a task. Drag a green dot the same way and that’s a group: it’s a large circle into which you can then drag tasks.

Picture Venn diagrams but without any overlapping circles.

Set yourself circles for Office, Home and any other main area of your life, then start filling each with tasks. The group circles grow as you add or drag tasks into them. Circles are always the same, big and clear size: they don’t get smaller when you add more, DropTask just widens your canvas. You can tap on a task to set due dates and add details of what exactly it is you need to do to complete the task. Nicely, you can separately set urgency and importance so later you can filter to see just, say, the urgent and important tasks. It’s akin to the Dwight Eisenhower grid method and is very much better than assigning random priority levels.

That’s a nice touch and the visual nature is DropTask’s killer feature. It isn’t going to cut it for you if you have a massive number of To Do tasks and entering details of the task take more taps than we’d like given the speed of everything else in the app.

There’s no OS X version but there is an online one at droptask.com and that is very quick at smoothly keeping in sync with the iPad edition. That’s particularly useful for Droptask Pro which is built to work with groups so that you can assign tasks to colleagues via the app and they can work through them anywhere.

Droptask comes as two separate iPhone and iPad editions, both of which require iOS 5.1.1 or later and both of which are free. For $65/year you get the Pro group features and subtasks. There’s also an Android version, which is free as well.

It’s definitely not for you if you’re currently looking at OmniFocus or Things. But then it’s also not for you if you’re on Wunderlist or Reminders. This is a mid-range powerful To Do manager which is good but has this visual system, which you may find unbeatable.