magazine

Exclusive Interview

Sponsored by

#9 (June, July, August 2011)www.ProductiveMagazine.com

Laura Stack

More articles on:4 Starting your day productively4 Making meetings really work4 Living more while needing less

On being Super Competent and Finding Time

• Laura Stack • Al Pittampali • Chris Edgar • Graham Allcott • Francis Wade • Art Carden • Leo Babauta • Mike Vardy • Michael Sliwinski •

Promises unbroken From the Editor

By Michael Sliwinski, Editor

I t’s the end of August and we’re de-livering (as promised) the issue #9 of your favorite productivity magazine.

We’re slowly making sure the magazine is getting more regular and hopefully #10 will appear on your iPad (or computer) right in time for October. Unsurprisingly this issue is about accountability and keeping promises. Let’s keep ours.

Meet Laura Stack Laura, the Productivity Pro®, is the first woman to be featured on the cover of our magazine, and she’s a fantastic per-son. She’s a regular contributor and has been active in the “productivity indus-try” for almost two decades. That’s a lot for a person who’s barely in her forties.

us to be accountable to ourselves by digging out our inner productivity, and Mike Vardy, as always, finishes up with a humorist approach to productivity, ex-plaining his conversion to Eventualism.

Promise me to share this magazine :–) No, you don’t have to do that. Howev-er I’d appreciate it very much if you sent this magazine to your friends and fami-ly and recommend our iPad app to your fellow iPad–owning–colleagues.

Yours productively,

Michael Sliwinski

Editor in ChiefProductive! Magazine

! Links: MichaelonTwitter|MichaelSliwinski’sBlog

Productive!Magazinewebsite|Nozbe–SimplyGetThingsDone!

We had a great chat, and I learned a lot from her. We obviously share the same passion for productivity and the great Zig Ziglar has been an inspiration for both of us, too. We’ll also dive into the principles behind Laura’s latest book, “SuperCompetent” as she explains how everyone can get a grade A on the com-petence and productivity real–life test. One of the keys to this is... you guessed it: Accountability.

The main theme of the magazine is re-inforced with other articles from our great contributors: Art Carden reviews his new favorite book “The Promise Doctrine” Francis Wade explains how we should move to Time Management 2.0, Graham Allcott and yours truly give you two dif-ferent (yet somehow similar) ways to ap-proach your morning, Leo Babauta ex-plains his minimalist mindset (a recent inspiration of mine), Chris Edgar wants

�

magazine

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 MichaelSliwinski

On Being Super Competent: Making Time Interview with Laura Stack

10 AlPittampali

Why you need to kill your weekly staff meetings

12 ChrisEdgar

3 Keys To Developing Inner Productivity

14 GrahamAllcott

Morning Pages: A simple technique to turbo–charge your creativity

16 FrancisWade

Time Management Training in the World 2.0

18 MichaelSliwinski

Prepare your next day in the evening

19 ArtCarden

Review of The Promise Doctrine

21 LeoBabauta

Live more, need less

22 MichaelSliwinski

Productive! Show Videos

23 MikeVardy

How I Became Eventually Productive

Table of contents

�

magazine

On Being Super Competent: Making TimeMeet the Productivity Pro® who’s been studying, researching and speaking on personal productivity exclusively since 1992. It’s her business, life, passion and what she’s all about.

Interview with Laura Stack, the Productivity Pro®

�

magazine

and that’s pretty much it. So, if I’m not talking to clients, if I’m not researching, if I’m not writing, if I’m not standing on a platform then I’m not doing my job.

MS: In my case it was really hard, I start-ed Nozbe – as a one–man–shop. It’s a prob-lem because you are used to doing every-thing. And then at some point you have to just figure it out, you’re not really good at all this and you need help. LS: Yes. And transitioning from actually doing a lot of the work yourself to lead-ing your company and managing other people is a huge shift for many entre-preneurs, and its a shift that indeed many people don’t make. And they still, years later, are spending midnights assembling marketing materials, doing $10–20 an hour work instead of doing the $250 an hour work and really moving their com-panies forward.

MS: And as for your career, how do you switch between client work and speaking? LS: I’m mostly a professional speaker. That’s my passion, that’s my love, I like to get on the platform. About half of my speaking is at conferences doing key-notes and break out sessions, the oth-er half is more in the trenches training in corporations doing half day and full day workshops and seminars.

The book writing, all of the work with newsletters, and all my social media is ultimately moving me towards speaking, training, and consulting engagements, because that’s what I love the most and that’s where the majority of our revenues as a company come from.

Michael Sliwinski: You say productivity is your passion. Why productivity? Laura Stack: Well, I admittedly have al-ways been fascinated by human perfor-mance, potentials, and time manage-ment. I saw Zig Ziglar when I was 14 and I knew back then that I wanted to be a speaker. I was in one of the strange families, where my mother would actu-ally send me to motivation conferences. My father was an instructor at the Air Force Academy. He had a Ph.D in phi-losophy and my mother had a degree in psychology. I’ve skipped several years of school, I did my undergraduate in col-lege in 2.5 years and I had my MBA when I was 21. I had the record, at that time, at the University of Colorado for the youngest MBA.

I’ve always been driven this way and it was a very natural progression for me to get involved in the personal productivity industry. I worked as a trainer in a cor-porate setting for a few years and I de-cided I needed to open my own com-pany so I opened my doors in 1992. I’ve been speaking professionally now for 19 years.

MS: Your newest book, which I highly rec-ommend is: “SuperCompetent”.LS: Thanks, this is my 4th book. My first, “Leave the Office Earlier” came out in 2004 and then “Find More Time: How to Get Things Done at Home” was done in 2006. Then I wrote “The Exhaustion Cure” in 2008 because the readers were saying, “how do I get the energy to be productive”? And then “SuperCompe-tent” came out in August 2010. My next, “What to Do When There’s Too Much to Do” will hit stores in May 2012.

MS: So, in “SuperCompetent” you are talk-ing of six keys that help you be competent, to achieve your goals: Activity, Availabil-ity, Attention, Accessibility, Accountabil-ity and Attitude.

LS: So, SuperCompetent is kind of a summary of the work I’ve been doing for the past 19 years and I have found six basic things to be true of people who perform at their productive best.

It all starts with activity. Basically, knowing what you should be working on. And this seems kind of like common sense, but I think it is true for so many of us that have a hundred and seven-teen things to do everyday and we of-ten pick incorrectly what it is that we should be doing.

So, that’s the first key. What are the activities that need to fill your day?

MS: It’s like with this ladder that you climb up the wrong wall. You climb very nicely, but that’s not the wall you should be climb-ing, right? LS: Sure. We get so occupied by other things that we first have to get back down to the core of what am I supposed to be doing? Why am I here? What is the ultimate responsibility that I have?

In my company for example, as the president of The Productivity Pro, I’m re-sponsible for building my brand, and for speaking and bringing in the business,

I saw Zig Ziglar when I was 14 and I knew back then that I wanted to be a speaker.

I’m mostly a professional speaker. That’s my passion, that’s my love, I like to get on the platform.

�

magazine

I’m now also the president 2011–2012 for the National Speakers Association. My business all rotates around profes-sional speaking.

MS: So being a Zig Ziglar with very nice hair and make–up? LS: Oh, thank you, that’s sweet. You know Zig Ziglar is a personal hero of mine. I’m 42 and though I’ve been in this business for many years, I feel like I’ve just started. I have so much excite-ment and enthusiasm still about pro-ductivity and it’s such an exciting top-ic and luckily one that is still very much in demand.

MS: Oh, increasingly so, because of the pace that everyone is running at right now. LS: You know, that’s fabulous and that’s where a lot of people get their motiva-tion. Fundamentally, the principles, the foundations of productivity have never changed. In “SuperCompetent” I’ve re-ally tried to reinforce evergreen truths.

Facebook is the new water–cooler.

�

magazine

You have to know what it is you have to work on. You have to make time for it. You have to focus on it. You have to be organized around it, and always be ac-countable for your results, trying to im-prove and never giving up. That’s it.

MS: From one of our previous interviewees – Michael Hyatt, I learned a lot about ac-countability and responsiveness. He said, always, that his key to success was that he was always quick to respond to people. LS: It’s hard to do... I know what you are saying. Accountability to me, I define a bit differently, in terms of teams, keep-ing your commitments, in doing what you said you would do, meeting your deadlines, and always looking for more efficient ways to do things. It’s kind of a state of mind.

MS: Yes, and the other thing is Attention – people lose it on Facebook for example. LS: Oh, Facebook is the new water–cool-er. Oh, we can talk about how we make connections, I mean you can spend whole day updating your profiles and you know everything about the web... but how is that really contributing to your revenue? Entrepreneurs need to put the Facebook in a box and recognize that it is just one more distraction if you are not careful. It’s self control and self disci-pline. So, while I would say it is impor-tant to be responsive I really think we have to control our obsessive compul-sive email disorder :–)

possible to compartmentalize while the kids are home, because I see a lot of parents sort of half way paying attention to their children, still really working, or they slip back into the office a little bit. So again, these are personal boundar-ies that we have to decide what they are for ourselves and then choose not to break them. And that comes down to discipline.

MS: This problem is especially difficult for us, because we love our work so much, that we have to really set up our bound-aries for ourselves. LS: My husband and I, for example, have a date night. We try to go out every Sat-urday night, and grandma comes over or my daughter, who is 16, can babysit, but it is on the schedule. See, if your workout time isn’t on the schedule, your date time isn’t on the schedule, your

Sunday with the family isn’t on the schedule, you allow your life to evolve kind of willy–nilly and you don’t get all those elements in. It took me 255 pag-es in the book “SuperCompetent” to ex-plain these very easy 6 things, but that’s fundamentally what we have to do.

I fly over 100,000 miles a year. It’s a job hazard of a professional speaker: I do travel. I try to be careful about being home at night. You know, fly out, spend a night, wake up, give a presentation in the morning, and fly home.

MS: Tell me, how is your work–life bal-ance? I mean, you have three kids and a husband, how did you manage to run a successful company for so many years and then have it work with you and the family? LS: Again it comes down to really un-derstanding what am I trying to create in whole context of where I spend my time. The biggest thing in my life to me is to be a mother and a wife and if I fail there I fail everywhere. My kids are 10, 11, and 16, and I’m just like everyone else, trying to run a house and I’m mar-ried and I’m in business. For example at the beginning of each year I block out 4 weeks of vacation on the calendar and it’s non–negotiable. It’s hard if you don’t create the boundaries for yourself first. You know, people just say “I just don’t have time”, well nobody really has time. You have to make time. Fortunately, we

also work from home, and my husband works for the company as well, so he’s here when I’m on the road.

MS: You’ve been in business for so many years and still 24 hours is 24 hours. I mean there is no way to bend it. LS: It doesn’t change and for me pro-ductivity is all about love. It’s figuring out how to love your work, your family, and to get it all done. And I think you can have it all, just not all at the same time. I really try to force myself as much as

You know, people just say “I just don’t have time”, well nobody really has time. You have to make time.

...transitioning from actually doing a lot of the work yourself to leading your company (...) is a huge shift for many entrepreneurs, and its a shift that indeed many people don’t make...

�

magazine

LauraStackisaper-

sonalproductivityex-

pert,author,andpro-

fessional speaker

(nowpresidentofthe

NationalSpeakers

Association).She’sthepresidentofThePro-

ductivityPro®,Inc.

Laura Stack!

MS: So you first saw Zig Ziglar when you were 14, and when did you first talk to him? LS: When I joined the National Speak-ers Association. Zig Ziglar is a member, so I was so thrilled of course to meet him and explain how important he was in the role of getting me into this crazy business of speaking and so I have had the honor and the opportunity of seeing him on many occasions now.

MS: Your future right now is the presi-dency of the National Speakers Associ-ation, more speaking engagements... and a new book? LS: Sure. I write a book every two years. So I have a new one that I’m working on. I’m always writing. I give about 80 speaking engagements a year, so I learn a lot in the trenches, on the road, talk-ing to people, learning and hearing what’s on their minds. I’m always trying to be fresh and relevant. So, yes, you will see a new one from me in 2012 and I will continue my message of produc-tivity. I can’t imagine anything that would pull me away from that right now. At least in the very near future, I imagine I will be doing exactly the same thing I’m doing now. a

! Links: LauraonTwitter|LauraonFacebook|Laura’sWebSite:TheProductivityPro

Laura’sNewsletter|NationalSpeakersAssociation

�

magazine

Nozbe web app syncs with native iPad and iPhone apps... and Evernote!

...just like your favoriteProductivity Application

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

Why you need to kill your weekly staff meetings

Whether you’re a huge corporation, small business, or an entrepreneur – killing old processes, traditions, and rituals that have outlived their usefulness is a mark of a leaderand a pragmatist, someone who is concerned with

increasing productivity and eliminating waste.

©P

etrV

acla

vek

/Shu

tters

tock

10

magazine

is like washing your dishes with Evian water, it’ll work but it’s really expensive, and somewhat absurd. Think about it: 20 people at $100/hr, comes out to $2000 in a conservative estimate. With so many other communication options available, people abhor the idea of be-ing herded into a room just to be force fed information they could have gotten through less intrusive means.

3 To socialize and network with our colleagues. Let’s face it, we’re social creatures, we love

to find any excuse we can to connect with others and meetings are one of them. Unfortunately, you may want to slow down and chat, but that doesn’t mean everyone else does. It’s not fair to hold others who have more pressing things to do hostage, just because you want to socialize.

So how do we kill the weekly meeting and not only survive, but thrive? Here are 3 things you can do.

1 Force individuals to make deci-sions, not meetings. One indi-vidual should take responsibili-

ty for a decision. Sure, she can consult with people individually if she needs in-put, but she ultimately needs to make the decision herself. Now, if a meeting is necessary to get buy–in from the group, alter a decision, or coordinate the resulting action plan, go ahead and call one.

By Al Pittampali

W hen Jack Welch stepped into his role as CEO of General Electric, he noticed a foot high

stack of papers on his desk upon arriv-al every morning. It was an overnight worldwide sales and inventory report that was assembled daily by a small team. It showed how much (down to the unit) was in each one of his warehouses all over the world.

One day he asked his staff, “Why am I getting this report”? “I’m not sure, that’s just the way we do things around here” they replied. So Jack killed the report.

There is no process that needs to be considered for the chopping block more than regularly scheduled staff meetings. Just do a twitter search for #meetings and you’ll see the tweets of some pret-ty miserable people stuck inside meet-ings, searching for the answer to an ob-vious question: “Why am I here? What’s the point”?

Why do we have staff meetings? Let’s explore the 3 most common purposes of regularly scheduled staff meetings, and why they may have outlived their usefulness.

1 To make decisions and resolve is-sues. If you’re trying to make a decision inside of a meeting,

good luck. Large groups are great at dis-agreeing, but horrible at agreeing. Dem-ocratic decision making with a large group of people is almost always a rec-ipe for disaster, and can cause stress and anguish for all. And even if there aren’t any issues to discuss, having a regularly scheduled meeting guaran-tees you’ll invent some.

2 To get critical info to your staff. Using a meeting to communicate information and announcements

AlPittampalliisameet-

ingculturewarrior.He’s

onamissiontochange

thewayorganizations

holdmeetings,make

decisions,andcoordi-

nateaction.Hisbook/manifesto:“TheModern

MeetingsStandard”waspublishedonAugust

2ndthroughSethGodin’s“DominoProject”.

Al Pittampalli!

! Links: AlonTwitter|Al’sBlog|Al’sBook:“ModernMeetingManifesto”

Democratic decision making with a large group of people is almost always a recipe for disaster, and can cause stress and anguish for all.

2 Use email, audio, or even video to communicate info. Let people consume this info on their own

time. They’ll thank you. Here’s the deal though, we have to create a sacred pact, you’ll agree to cancel the weekly meet-ings, but all must read the memo.

3 Schedule a dedicated social event instead. Camaraderie, network-ing, and team bonding are criti-

cally important. But doing it under the guise of a meeting is silly, misleading, and ineffective. Not only is it a bad way to get things done, but it’s a bad way to socialize. If you want to have a social gathering, do it. Just make it short, make it voluntary and make it fun.

So, here’s my challenge to you: kill your regularly scheduled meeting tradi-tion for a month. If you miss it, you can blame me. But once you realize you don’t miss it, let it die... forever. a

11

magazine

3 Keys To Developing Inner ProductivityWhy are people still hungry for productivity advice, even with so many ideas and techniques out there? I suspect one reason is that most approaches don’t address one of the biggest obstacles to working efficiently – our own minds.

By Chris Edgar

A s I’ll bet you know firsthand, it’s hard to get much done when our minds keep drifting off into the

past or the possible future – replaying arguments with loved ones, worrying about the size of the bonus we’ll receive this year, and so on. The usual “tips and tricks” – efficient ways to organize email, make to–do lists, hold shorter meetings, and so on – can be useful, but they won’t do much to help us get more done if we can’t focus our attention.

The good news is that what I call “in-ner productivity” – the mental and emo-tional state we need to work at peak ef-ficiency – can be cultivated.

©Y

uriA

rcur

s/S

hutte

rsto

ck

1�

magazine

As you practice this exercise over time, you may find that, when distracting thoughts arise in your work, you begin naturally, unconsciously bringing your attention back into your body and thus into the present.

2. Intention Another common reason we find our at-tention floating away from our tasks is that we aren’t working with a clear, com-pelling goal in mind. Perhaps there’s no grand vision behind what we’re doing –we’re only working to pay the bills, or we just feel like “we’ve got to do some-thing”. Or, although we have a definite goal – maybe, for instance, buying a big-ger house – that goal comes from a de-sire to meet others’expectations, and doesn’t deeply move us.

In these situations, I’ve found, it’s help-ful to connect with our desire to contrib-ute to and serve others. A yoga tech-nique often called “breathing into your

heart” is a wonderful way to do this. Ac-cording to yoga, there’s an energetic center in the heart area called the “heart chakra”. When we “open” the heart chakra by breathing into it, we feel our sense of compassion for others, and our desire to give to the world.

To breathe into your heart, clasp your hands behind your back at the level of your heart, and stretch out your arms. Then, breathe deeply so your upper chest rises and falls with the breath. (You may even be able to do this without getting out of your chair.) Feel the warmth and openness in your heart area, and no-tice any tension melting away.

Many methods for doing this have been around in the East for thousands of years, but are just beginning to enter the “main-stream” in the West. I’ll describe what I see as the three basic elements of inner pro-ductivity – Attention, Intention, and Foun-dation – and some exercises for devel-oping them within ourselves.

1. Attention We’re most efficient, and produce our best work, when our task has our full at-tention. Often, our awareness is only partly focused on our project, and the rest of it is lost in memories and possi-ble futures.

How can we build our capacity to hold our attention on our work? One helpful technique, which comes from medita-tion practice, is to notice the sensations you’re feeling in your body – whether it’s a warmth, tingling, tension, or some-thing else.

A great way to start doing this is to train your awareness on part of your body that’s in contact with an object, such as your feet on the floor or your back against your chair. Focus your at-tention on the pressure of the object against you.

Although our thoughts are often lost in the past or future, the sensations in our bodies are always happening right now, and thus focusing on them helps to bring our attention back into the pres-ent and onto the task in front of us.

3. Foundation An important, but often overlooked, fac-tor in our productivity is how comfort-able we feel with ourselves. If we’re con-stantly afraid of making a mistake in our work, as if a setback could destroy us, we’ll over–think and second–guess ev-erything we do, and we won’t make the kind of progress we want.

According to yoga, there’s another en-ergetic center at the base of the spine called the “root chakra”. Breathing into the root chakra gives us a sense of grounded–ness and stability. Doing this can be very useful when you’re feeling anxious at work.

To breathe into the root chakra, put your attention on the base of your spine, where the spine meets the pelvis. If fo-cusing on that area is difficult, place your hand on your lower back, and concen-trate on the sensation of pressure there. With your attention on the base of your spine, take a few deep breaths. When

you do this, you’ll likely feel a deep–seat-ed sense of solidity, and that paralyzing worry will start to fade. a

We’re most efficient, and produce our best work, when our task has our full attention.

An important, but often overlooked, factor in our productivity is how comfortable we feel with ourselves.

ChrisEdgarhelpspeo-

plefindfocus,motiva-

tionandpeaceintheir

workthroughhiswrit-

ing,speaking,and

workshops.Heisthe

authorof“InnerProductivity:AMindfulPathto

EfficiencyandEnjoymentinYourWork”

Christopher Edgar!

! Links: ChristopheronTwitter|Christopher’sWebSite

InnerProductivity:AMindfulPathtoEfficiencyandEnjoymentinYourWork

1�

magazine

Morning Pages: A simple technique to turbo–charge your creativity and get your day off to the best possible start

©le

edsn

/Sh

utte

rsto

ck

1�

magazine

A few years ago I had the pleasure of being given a copy of Julia Cameron’s book, “The Artist’s Way”. It had a transformative effect on me, and removed my long–standing songwriters’ block. One of the tools in the book, the Morning Pages, is something I still use occasionally today (although I do wish I was more disciplined with it and used it every day as Julia prescribes).

By Graham Allcott

I t’s a great technique, not just for artists, but really for anyone who needs to create value out of infor-

mation, be creative, avoid procrastina-tion, or just work out what the hell is bugging you at the back of your psyche.

It works like this: take 3 pages of A4 paper and a pen. Note: the techies and iPhone app freaks amongst you will try to find a more elegant solution. Don’t. The primitive nature of the tools are part of why this works!

to the page. Getting started. This acts as a ritual to show you that you have the motivation to start.

Secondly, it allows your mind the time to blurt out all the gunk and release it –all the worries or anger, ideas or excite-ment that might otherwise preoccupy you all day are gone, and you feel much more focused.

Thirdly, you’d be amazed what you find going on in there when you really listen to the voice inside your mind. You’ll find amazing creative ideas you never knew you had in you and you’ll find things you might have been stressed about that you can easily address.

In the information–overload culture we live in, we so rarely spend time listening to ourselves, and valuing our own thoughts and instincts. The Morning Pages is a really simple tool to help us do just that. a

OK, it’s early in the morning. You’ve poured your coffee. Sit down with the pen and paper and write.

Any artist will tell you the hardest part of creativity is showing up to the page.

Grahamspecializesin

personalorganization-

alsystems,strategies

todealwiththeinfor-

mationoverloadand

‘actionmanagement’.

Anaturally‘toostrategictobeorganized’person

whohastrainedhimselftobeproductivethrough-

outthedevelopmentofpersonalwork-flowsys-

temsanddevelopingthepowerofgoodhabits.

Graham Allcott!

! Links: GrahamonTwitter|Graham’sThinkProductive!

OK, it’s early in the morning. You’ve poured your coffee. Sit down with the pen and paper and write. Write whatever comes to mind. Don’t stop writing until you have filled 3 sides of A4. That’s it.

This is an exercise on listening to your mind. Some may find this is a gentle form of meditation and since I’m no expert on that, I’ll just say that it’s probably true. If you can’t think of what to write, you must continue the rhythm of the writing anyway. Just write “I can’t think of any-thing to write” over and over again until something else arrives in your mind.

Once your 3 pages of A4 paper are done (which in my experience usually takes about 20 minutes), you put them somewhere no–one else will read them. I personally also developed a little add–on task to this: My mind often blurts out new ideas or actions that are not in my system so I use it as a place to capture and collect these, marking them with a star, and then at the end of my 3 pag-es I just run through and transfer any starred items into my GTD system.

This sounds so simple, so why is it so powerful? Well, first of all, any artist will tell you the hardest part of creativity is showing up

1�

magazine

Time Management Training in the World 2.0Back in the mid 1990’s, before the first PDA was introduced, professionals used multi–tabbed organizers like DayTimers. They showed the world that their owners were serious about productivity. Today, there’s hardly a paper diary to be seen, and instead we have smartphones. Unfortunately 62% of their owners admit to using them to play games: the most popular category of applications. Furthermore, in the same study, productivity was cited as only the 10th most popular use, at a mere 22% of users.

ject wrote books and taught seminars that gave precise practices to follow, and new jargon to use. The sometimes unspoken but clear message was “follow my rules, or else you will fail”. Some of these reci-pes were quite good, and “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, is one of the very best cookbooks in the bunch.

In our brave new world, new technol-ogy is driving new habits. The tail is now firmly wagging the dog.

Your father’s time management sys-tem may have only been about his hab-its and practices, but in today’s world your system is likely to also be about:! your choice of gadget (smartphone,

cellphone or none at all)! the software you use to manage your

email (Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, Yahoo Mail, etc.)

! the web services you employ (Nozbe, Remember the Milk, OmniFocus, etc.)

! the capture software you prefer (Ever-note, OneNote, etc.)

! the number of channels through which you receive messages (email, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instant Message, phone, etc.) – the sheer volume of mes-sages you receive daily that place a de-mand on your time

For many of us in corporations, our choices tend to be driven by some guy or gal in IT who sets software policies and limits individual choices. Changing companies can be cause for a complete change in individual systems, and some-times not for the better. Just ask Apple users who join companies where the iMac is “not supported” and therefore forbid-den. Obviously, the old approach of giv-ing out strict instructions and detailed rec-ipes is coming to an end.

Introducing Time Management 2.0 If Time Management 1.0 was all about following other people’s recipes, and those recipes have stopped working, then

By Francis Wade

Nowadays, when we claim to be more productive, we indicate our ability to tweet from trains, read

email on beaches and surf the internet while lying in bed. The most productive person has the most extreme stories. Many can’t complete a meeting or con-versation without giving in to the “Black-berry Itch:” the thought that something better is happening in cyberspace that is more interesting, and we might be miss-ing it, so let’s check.

How did this happen? When did great-er convenience become equated with “enhanced productivity”? Where did these new habits come from? Should smartphones be taken away? Is it too late to save companies from widespread attempts to save time that only make things worse?

Getting Left Behind The good old days were much simpler. Back then, we were encouraged to think about time management and personal pro-ductivity in terms of habits and practices, without bringing in technology at all. Those who knew a thing or two about the sub-

1�

magazine

you and I must find a way to take care of ourselves. We must own and take charge of our own time management systems in a way that is new.

In the world of video gaming, the most exciting new games, like Little Big Plan-et, actually teach users how to create their own characters, contests, worlds, weapons, skills and more. Software com-panies like Media Molecule have found innovative ways to teach their users how to pull off these tricks, and have been surprised by some who have gone fur-ther than they ever anticipated. In a note-worthy example, one gamer created a vir-tual, working computer within a game.

In Time Management 2.0, I’m among a handful of writers who are trying to make the same thing happen. How can you and I, as users, learn how to craft our very own time management systems that are custom built for our lives, as if we were learning to develop our own per-sonal recipes for our favorite dishes?

Fortunately, (and maybe surprisingly,) there are a LOT of people who are com-ing up with their own systems, even if they don’t ever name them. If you are reading this edition of Productive! Magazine and were able to set the time aside to get to this point, then I imagine that you are us-ing a time management system that works pretty well in some ways!

I also imagine that your system is unique, idiosyncratic and “all yours”. You put it together over several years, pulling together a mix of habits, gadgets, soft-ware and other components, using a pro-cess of trial and error. Perhaps you used hints from a variety of sources to arrive at something that works for you.

If I were to give you a book, or put you in a time management class it’s likely that

you would do the same. Take bits and pieces, and use them to modify your sys-tem. You are VERY unlikely to drop your current system all at once, and pick up a new one after just a few hours. As you might expect, the research that’s been done points to this phenomena in all ar-eas of adult learning the involve behav-ior changes.

While some feel guilty at this fact and blame themselves for being bad students, the next best step is not to try harder to drop our current system. It’s better to ac-cept our genius for adaptation, and to work with it, not against it. While some would interpret the lack of uniform be-havior as a failure of the instructor and his/her method, I think it’s a valuable clue. It tells us how to help people develop their own systems by giving them some “self–programming skills”. This clue, and others like it, is the starting point for the process used in Time Management 2.0: 1. Each of us has a unique system, and

if you want to improve it, start by un-derstanding how it works, or doesn’t work.

2. Use this understanding to paint a pic-ture of the desired end–result using sound design principles.

3. List the habits, practices, gadgets, soft-ware, etc. that need to change to fill the gap.

4. Use a calendar to spread the changes you want to make over time.

5. Focus on no more than one or two changes at a time, and once the de-sired level of mastery is accomplished, move on to another.

These 5 steps can be undertaken by any professional at any level of time man-agement skill, and the process can be

repeated whenever an upgrade is desired, or being contemplated.

When I upgraded my system from one that’s PDA–based to one that’s based on a smartphone, I was able to use this pro-cess to make some critical choices be-fore making the purchase. These steps also explain why traditional Time Man-agement books and training have not been successful with more people. They assume time management training to be a one–time event for a particular kind of person, in a particular kind of life situa-tion that never changes.

If anything, the recession has taught us that those who stay stuck are doomed. Being flexible is the key to survival and success, and the rate at which life is changing is forcing us to adapt new prac-tices at a faster rate than ever before.

Anyone who isn’t continuously upgrad-ing their skills in this area is likely to be left behind, and the new training must equip us with what we really want to learn: how to help ourselves. a

In our brave new world, new technology is driving new habits. The tail is now firmly wagging the dog.

FrancisWaderesides

in the Car ibbean,

whereinspiredbydif-

ferenceshe’sdiscov-

eredbetweentime

managementinJa-

maicaandNorthAmerica,he’sbeenabletosit

backandreflectonwhatittakesforprofes-

sionalstobeproductiveanywhereintheworld,

regardlessoftheircultureandbackground.

Whennotworking,Francisisanenthusiastic

triathlete.

Francis Wade!

! Links: FrancisonTwitter|FrancisTimeManagement2.0blog

1�

magazine

Prepare your next day in the eveningThere are just a few productivity tips that always work. If you follow them, improvement is guaranteed. It always astounds me when I test these out and see immediate results. One of these tips is to prepare your next day in the evening before going to sleep. Sounds easy and trivial. But it’s really powerful.

By Michael Sliwinski

It takes only 5 minutes to create a to–do list for tomorrow That’s it. Just in the evening review your day, decide what’s REALLY important that needs to be done tomorrow and write these tasks down on a piece of pa-per. Limit yourself to 3–4 tasks that need to be completed as soon as possible. Don’t open your Nozbe or other task manager – put these 3–4 tasks on piece of paper next to your computer.

Close your email programs and other apps, including most (if not all) of your browser windows. The next day when you walk to your computer you’ll have the task list next to it. You’ll open your MichaelSliwinskiis

yourchiefeditorofthe

Productive!Magazine

andahostofthenew

Productive!Show.

Everydayhe’strying

tohelppeoplegetmoredonewithhiswebap-

plicationNozbe–nowalsoavailableasana-

tiveiPhoneoriPadapp.

Michael Sliwinski!

! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Productive!Magazine|Productive!Show

Nozbe–SimplyGetItDone!|MichaelSliwinski’sBlog

My last 2 weeks have been uber–productive That’s right. For the last two weeks I’ve been religiously, every day, compiling my lists of tasks “for tomorrow” and each day was just perfect. I feel I’ve done so much! The thing is – we’re just humans and we tend to be side–tracked by oth-er people, projects, and events. Howev-er, with the golden list “for tomorrow” I’m guaranteed I’m going to get the big things done before I enter the reaction mode of email, social networks, and responding to the other folks from my company.

Added bonus – your mind is working when you sleep That’s another thing – some tasks I set out to do the next day were quite com-plicated, but since I had defined them in the evening, my mind was working on them while I was sleeping... and when I woke up I suddenly had most the an-swers and never felt “stuck”. I don’t have any scientific evidence for that but only a gut feeling that’s how it works. My last two weeks proved me right. Trust me.

Don’t go to sleep without a plan for tomorrow That’s the key to my everyday produc-tivity. A small trick that gets a job done. a

computer and you’ll know exactly what to do. It’s that easy.

I know it’s still hard to withstand all the temptations to check email, Face-book, Twitter... but don’t go that way... just proceed to complete the tasks you’ve set out to do.

After that you’ll have a really good day Once these tasks are done, you can pro-ceed to email and other activities. You can open your task manager to check other tasks and manage your projects. You can quickly check off the things you’ve done in the morning with a feel-ing of satisfaction and accomplishment. Now the day starts and you have a head–start on completing the most important actions for today.

The next day when you walk to your computer you’ll have the task list next to it. You’ll open your computer and you’ll know exactly what to do. It’s that easy.

1�

magazine

Review of the Promise Doctrine:

I first heard Jason Womack on a “Productivity Show” pod-cast in 2006, when he was still with the David Allen Company. Jason is one of my favorite thinkers on productivity, and “The Promise Doctrine”, which is co–authored with his father, is his long–awaited (by me, anyway) book on productivity.

It brings a lot to the table and will make a fine complement to the productivity bookshelf of people who are already fa-miliar with other productivity thinkers like David Allen (Get-ting Things Done), Tim Ferriss (The Four–Hour Workweek), and Steven Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People).

A guidebook and system for consistently delivering on your promises! – by Craig P. and Jason W. Womack.

19

magazine

Elements of the Promise Doctrine” (promise, perform, hurdles, renegotiate, trust, celebrate) and then fold–out pag-es discussing each of these elements.

The fold–out pages are especially in-teresting in terms of book formatting, but they capture the essentials of what they are trying to communicate about each element in single (large) pages. De-sign–wise, I found these a little difficult to handle (the stiff foldouts in the latter part of the book make it difficult to thumb through from front to back).

Reflect for a moment on how much more productive you and the organiza-tions with which you interact could be if there were a near–certain expectation that what people (including you) prom-ised would be delivered on time, every time. I’m sure you would be much more productive and likely much happier. You wouldn’t bind yourself up in unproduc-tive commitments and relationship–dam-aging, or trust–eroding strings of broken promises. Craig and Jason Womack of-fer a simple handbook that can help you avoid this through well–managed com-mitments. a

By Art Carden

Before I dive into the book itself, a brief digression is in order. One of the most important principles

in economics is that trade creates wealth. It allows us to specialize and to use our time and energy in ways that are more productive–i.e., that allow us to achieve more of our goals. The publication infor-mation is telling about the myth that trad-ing with poorer people around the world will bankrupt Americans: “Conceived, written and designed in the United States of America. Printed in China”. Interna-tional trade allows Americans to special-ize in advanced thinking on personal pro-ductivity, and we’re all richer for it.

The short lesson in economics aside, the book’s central theme (unsurprising-ly) deals with making good on your prom-ises. Indeed, I was surprised (and hum-bled) to find myself quoted in the preface regarding the ideal for promise–making and promise–keeping: deliver more than what is asked for before the deadline. As devotees of organizational systems know, we have more options and op-portunities today than anyone who has ever come before us. It’s a dizzying and wonderful time to be alive. Nonetheless, we have to constantly adapt our orga-nizational systems to these changing possibilities and opportunities.

The book begins with a Foreword by author Marshall Goldsmith, who points

out that good promise–making and prom-ise–keeping is an important part of good business ethics. The ability to make wise promises like this is a skill that can be learned from practice, repetition, failure, and reassessment. Is it easy to say “yes” to every request? It is. But it isn’t wise.

The Promise Doctrine is a quick read that isn’t designed to be read, ingested, and discarded. It’s essentially a work-book. There are regular exercises and assessments throughout, and it coach-es the reader through various steps along the way with lots of white space, bold headings, and offset questions and statements that make it easy to skim.

Their “one central principle” is simple to remember but deceptively difficult to practice: “Do what you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it” (p. 11). They express this in a specific prac-tice on page 13: “Make important prom-ises, and keep them”. Once again, it’s easy to say and very hard to do. Often, we get ourselves in trouble when we make short–run concessions with long–run consequences we don’t fully appre-ciate. I, for one, do this far too often, and I would suspect that if you’re reading this you do the same.

Exercises and implementation begin in earnest in chapter 3 and an instruc-tion on p. 17 to “carry this book with you for at least the next 14 days” because “every page of ‘The Promise Doctrine’ provides tools, prompts, and guides that clear the path for promise making and promise keeping”. They make good on the promise, as the rest of the book con-sists mostly of exercises and “The Six

ArtCardenisAssistant

ProfessorofEconom-

icsandBusinessat

RhodesCollege in

Memphis,TNandan

AdjunctFellowwith

theOakland,CAbasedIndependentInstitute.

Art Carden!

! Links: ArtonTwitter|ArtCarden’spage

“Do what you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it”

“The Six Elements of the Promise Doctrine” (promise, perform, hurdles, renegotiate, trust and celebrate)

�0

magazine

©o

lly/

Shut

ters

tock

By Leo Babauta

W hat does it mean to focus on living? It’s a shift from caring about possessions and status

and goals and beautiful things… to car-ing about actual life. Life includes: taking long walks, creating things, having con-versations with friends, snuggling with my wife, playing with my kids, eating simple food, going outside, and getting active.

Live more, need lessThe more I focus on living, the less it seems I need.

Why do I need to shop when I already have everything I need – I can spend time with someone or create, and I need very little to do that.

That’s living... not shopping, or watch-ing TV, or eating loads of greasy and sweet food not for sustenance but pleasure, or being on the Internet, or ordering things online, or trying to get popular. Those things aren’t living – they’re consumerist pastimes that tend to get us caught up in over–consumption and mindlessness.

When I focus on living, all those other fake needs become less important. Why do I need television when I can go outside and explore, or get active, or take a walk

LeoBabautalivesin

SanFranciscoandis

marriedwithsixkids.

He’s awri ter and

arunnerandavege-

tarianandheloves

writingblogs:“ZenHabits”and“Minimalism”.

He’sapublishedauthorofabestsellingbook

“PowerofLess”.

Leo Babauta!

! Links: LeoonTwitter|Leo’sBlog:ZenHabits|Leo’sBlog:Minimalist

with a friend? Why do I need to shop when I already have everything I need – I can spend time with someone or create, and I need very little to do that.

These things I do now – they require al-most nothing. I can live, and need little.

And needing little but getting lots of satisfaction… that’s immensely reward-ing. It’s an economy of resources that I’ve never experienced before.

These days, I need nothing but my loved ones, a text editor, a way to post what I create, a good book, simple plant–based food, a few clothes for warmth, and the outdoors. a

�1

magazine

David Allen, Constant Improvement and Cool Offices

David Allen on Getting Things Done ad 2011 (Episode #34) WejustcelebratedportingProduc-

tive!Magazineissue#1totheiPad

andforthatIinterviewedDavidAl-

lenofGTD(GettingThingsDone)

fame.HadablastlearningfromDa-

vidwhathe’suptothisyearand

howweseesproductivity.

Productive Office – rooftops of Warsaw (Episode #15)Iworkfromhome.Yetveryoften

Ilovetochangemyworkenviron-

mentandsometimesIcrashmy

friend’sofficesorchoosereallycool

cafeteriastoworkfrom.It’salways

funto“stirthecup”alittleand

changetheplaceyouwork.

By Michael Sliwinski

Areas of Constant Improvement

(Episode #16)ListeningtoTonyRobbinsIrealized

thatasmallchangeinourmindset

canhaveahugeimpactontheway

weseeanddothings.Likechang-

ingourrolefrom“Father”to“Su-

per–dad”canempowerustobe

abetterparent.Andtherearemore

trickslikethis.

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: Hopeyouenjoyedtheseshortproductivityvideos.Clickheretobrowseallepisodearchive.

��

magazine

You see, I was so obsessed with productivity that I was watching television while showering.

How I Became Eventually ProductiveI’ve never had the opportunity to tell the story of how I eventually became an Eventualist before, but when Shenee Howard asked me to tell a story for her “EightThirtyFive Initiative” I only hesitated because the word “initiative” was mentioned. I eventually got past that, and decided to offer up my origin story... an origin story that is rivalled only by the story of the word origin itself.

By Mike Vardy

Back in 2007, I was addicted to productivity pornIt sounds far less sinister than it is, main-ly because I wasn’t addicted to actual porn. But let me assure you, productiv-ity porn is a problem that is sweeping the globe, and I had fallen victim to it.

I was all about getting more productive with my work. I was trying every system out there, from good old–fashioned pa-per and pen to the most complex produc-tivity software. I was getting really good at learning about how to be more produc-tive, but was making little progress on ac-tually becoming more productive.

Eventuallyself–pro-

fessedproductivityex-

pert,founderofthe

newproductivityide-

ology:Eventualism.

Eventuallylaunched

anewpodcast“ProductiVardy”.Authorofsev-

eraleBooksonproductivityand...eventualism.

Mike Vardy!

It was during an episode of The Col-bert Report that I had an epiphany. I re-alized that my bio on my Eventualism blog says that I had the epiphany while I was showering. This is also true. You see, I was so obsessed with productiv-ity that I was watching television while showering. I was living on the edge, both in terms of handling my time and han-dling my electronics.

What Stephen was saying resonated with meMuch like he had been persecuted by what was being done by “the left” I was being persecuted by what I had “left” to be done. My mind was blown – as I’m sure that last sentence blew yours. I came to the realization that, much like

government, things could be done in such a slow and eventual manner that it would barely be noticed at all. Espe-cially if one was able to spin it in the right (or “left” way. Not only was I clean in body thanks to my shower, but I was clean in mind thanks to that golden mo-ment that Colbert had bestowed upon me. I was no longer ignorant. I call that shower my “golden shower”.

Without diving into the depths of hard-core productivity I would never have been able to develop the methodology, ideol-ogy, and philosophy known as Eventual-ism – not even eventually. I strongly be-lieve that you have to know your enemy so expertly in order to fight back against it. The power that comes from knowing the opposite of what you’re saying is the first step toward believing in the oppo-site of what you’re saying.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it… eventually. a

! Links: MikeonTwitter|Mike’sBlog:Eventualism|Mike’sPodcast:ProductiVardy

��

magazine

Get the newest book by Laura Stack

magazine