• Stever Robbins • Pat Brans • Chris Edgar • Laura Stack • Leo Babauta • • Michael Hyatt • James Mallinson • Mike Vardy • Michael Sliwinski •

magazine

Exclusive Interview

Sponsored by

#6 (November 2010)www.ProductiveFirm.com/Magazine

Stever robbinS

4 Why Single-Tasking Really Works4 How to Work Less... and Do More4 Why Your To Do List is Not Set in Stone4 Engagement, Next Actions... and more

on Working Less and Doing More...

Single-tasking when reading Productive! Magazine on my iPad

From the Editor

By Michael Sliwinski, Editor

W elcome to the issue #6 of your favorite productivity magazine. We’re gaining momentum with

our publication and we’re hoping to make it a regular one that lands on your com-puter or iPad at least every two months for the coming year or so. If everything works well, maybe we’ll turn it to a month-ly publication. It all depends on you, my great readers and your response to what we have prepared for you.

Meet Stever RobbinsOur featured “star” of this issue is Ste-ver Robbins – the “Get-It-Done Guy” who runs a fantastic weekly podcast on

I “read” it through and can’t recommend enough. It’s a great addition to Getting Things Done with a lot more humor (although David Allen can be funny, too :-) ) packed with even more practi-cal tips and tricks that will boost your personal productivity.

Single-tasking is the theme of the issueSomehow each issue of our magazine has a theme and although we never ac-tively seek a theme beforehand, it amaz-ingly enough emerges from the submis-sions we receive and this time around it’s all about single-tasking and focus.

“Working Less and Doing More” – which is one of the top podcasts on produc-tivity on iTunes. It’s funny, short-and-to-the-point and it’s jam-packed with pro-ductivity advice and handy tips and tricks. I have been listening to it every week for more than 6 months now so I’m very humbled to be able to interview Stever for this issue of the Productive! Magazine.

Stever has just published a book called “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More” which I immediately pur-chased as an audiobook (and luckily Stever himself is reading the book).

! Links: Stever’sPodcast:“Get-It-DoneGuy’sQuickandDirtyTipstoWorkLessandDoMore”

Stever’sBook:“Get-It-DoneGuy’s9StepstoWorkLessandDoMore”

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As Stever says, it’s all about working less and doing more and single-tasking helps you achieve just that. We’ve got two new takes on single-tasking by two new contributors – Pat Brans and Chris Edgar... and an additional geeky ap-proach by yours truly. To accompany our theme we’ve added articles that also touch on focus and single-tasking by our regular contributors: Leo Babauta, Michael Hyatt, James Mallinson, Laura Stack and Mike Vardy.

Productive! Magazine on the single-tasking iPadAs you know, starting from issue #5 and together with good folks from Maco-scope Company, we started publishing your favorite productivity magazine as a native iPad app. The first reception of the app was really great and we want to make this issue even better on the iPad. The PDF version of the magazine is and will always remain free and each issue on the iPad is just $0.99 to cover the costs of preparation (it’s more than dou-ble the work to make the iPad issue, but we believe the reading experience is worth the extra work).

With the iPad app we are aiming to make radical shift in the publishing in-dustry where the traditional big maga-zines like Wired or Newsweek experi-ment with their iPad versions and even small and niche magazines like ours can join the same league by offering their

readers a perfect reading experience on this great device. Times are changing and we want to be on the bleeding edge of not only technological shift, but an in-dustrial shift as well.

Have a great and productive timeOn behalf of the entire team and all the contributors, let me wish you a very pro-ductive and inspirational read (on your iPad, computer screen or paper). Hope you’ll enjoy this new issue of your favor-ite magazine and implement some of the tips and tricks to, as Stever would put it, work less and do more.

Yours productively,

Michael SliwinskiEditor in ChiefProductive! Magazine

! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Productive!MagazineiPadApp

MichaelSliwinski’sBlog:“InternetBusinessProductivity”

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Productive!Magazinewww.ProductiveFirm.com/Magazine

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

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.

05 MichaelSliwinski

How to Work Less and Do more Interview with Stever Robbins

10 PatBrans

Myths on Multitasking

12 ChrisEdgar

Mindfully Moving Beyond Multitasking

14 MichaelSliwinski

Single-tasking is good for you

16 LauraStack

Engaged Employees are More Productive

19 LeoBabauta

How to NOT do everything on your to-do list

21 MichaelHyatt

10 Reasons Why You Aren’t Done Yet

23 JamesMallinson

The Art And Science Of The Next Action

24 MichaelSliwinski

Productive! Show Videos Road Warrior Bag, Big Inbox and a Productive Body

25 MikeVardy

What’s the DEAL?

Table of contents

• Stever Robbins • Pat Brans • Chris Edgar • Laura Stack • Leo Babauta •• Michael Hyatt • James Mallinson • Mike Vardy • Michael Sliwinski •

magazine

Exclusive Interview

Sponsored by

#6 (November 2010)www.ProductiveFirm.com/Magazine

SteverrobbinS

4 Why Single-Tasking Really Works4 How to Work Less... and Do More4 Why Your To Do List is Not Set in Stone4 Engagement, Next Actions... and more

on Working Less and Doing More...

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How to Work Less and Do moreSteverisobsessedwithfindingwaystodothingsbetter,strongerandfaster.Heisheretohelpyouworklessanddomore.

Interview with Stever Robbins, the “Get-It-Done Guy”

Michael Sliwinski: You’re the host of weekly podcast “Get it Done Guy’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Work Less and Do More” – how did you come up with the idea of the podcast and what kept you going to make it one of the best productivity podcasts in iTunes?Stever Robbins: The podcast idea was born of two impulses. The humor and style came because I wanted an outlet where I could be fun and creative – two things generally frowned upon in busi-ness. The topic came because I’ve spent my life obsessed with finding ways to do things better, stronger, and faster. When I realized that other people val-ued the ideas I’d developed and collect-ed, it seemed like a great way to turn my lifelong quest into a podcast that could help people.

MS: Prior to your podcast you’ve had a great career and you were involved in many com-panies (also during the Internet bubble) – what were the key points in your career that led you to the point where you are now?SR: What I’m doing now draws from all my careers: my early career as a pro-grammer taught me systems design. My management training in Total Qual-ity Management helped me figure out which systems to streamline. And pro-fessional speaking developed my vocal technique. My hobbies also play a big role: comedy improvisation gave me the humor, and NLP/cognitive psychology helps me understand the mental side of how people achieve things, so I can cre-ate techniques that fit smoothly into how people think.

In terms of events, my path has been unpredictable. After time as an executive coach, I was ready for a change. I decid-ed to do a 3-year experiment of follow-ing my passion regardless of whether it would pay off. The podcast started three months later, after I wrote a fan letter to Grammar Girl and proposed myself as

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9 a.m. I do my best writing in the morn-ing, so that’s when I’ll work on articles or other writing-based projects. I work out around lunchtime, grab lunch, and my afternoons often have more people activities.

I keep focused using the Autofocus 4 system developed by Mark Forster. It keeps my to-do list in front of me on paper, and I often return to it to make sure what I’m doing is actually useful, and not just a random diversion.

In my book, I pose a thought experi-ment. Imagine you’re talking to the De-ity of your choice. He or she asks, “Are you living the life I gave you to its full-est, whatever that means to you?” I keep motivated by doing what feels like living my life to its fullest, and I drop whatev-er doesn’t meet that hurdle. The moti-vation comes naturally.

(To those of you who have read the book, you’ll realize that this is actually a fancy way of pre-deciding. I’ve creat-ed an “Absolute YES” list with one cri-terion: living life to the fullest.)

The hardest part for me is dealing with money. I’ve often chosen passion or so-cial good over money, and it can lead to second-guessing, especially when the money isn’t following.

MS: Apart from a successful career, do you have a family or significant other? How do you manage to keep a healthy family life with your highly successful career?

SR: I do! We’ve been together for sever-al years and have been fortunate to have very prolific brothers and sisters, so we get our kid-time through our six nieces and nephews. We try to spend at least an hour together before bed, have one date night each week, and take a week-long trip or two during the year. And hug. Lots of hugs. We both work from home, so we see each other a lot.

I’m also a big opponent of business travel. I’m very, very clear on why I do what I do (I read chapter 1 and built my Life Map, which I use regularly to keep my life aligned around my priorities) and where it fits in my life. Business travel must bring a lot of money, connections, or passion into my life in order for me to be willing to take it on.

I also try to take 100% responsibility for my own actions and for making the relationship work. (If you each take 100% responsibility, then pretty much every-thing will get handled, with a big percent left over to spare!) Along with my pro-ductivity tools, I’ve experimented with many self-help tools. The one that pro-duces the fastest, best results for me is The Work of Byron Katie, which helps me calm down around conflict and be willing to consider both sides of every issue.

MS: I’m a big follower of GTD methodology – are there any parts of GTD which you’d say are more important than others in helping us, busy professionals, work less and do more? Which concepts of the GTD method work for you?SR: I used GTD for years and love many parts of the system. My favorite con-cepts are achieving a Zen mind by hav-ing a trusted system you can put every-

a podcaster on her channel. The podcast was so successful that it led to a book contract for my new book Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More. Gradually, most of my efforts have shift-ed to support the book and I’m now hop-ing to build a business around working less and doing more.

MS: It’s really great that you’re doing the pod-cast every week. It’s short, to-the point and fresh every week. I love it. What tips and tricks help you be so consistent with record-ing a great new podcast episode each week?SR: In the chapter: “Step 7: Optimize” of the book, I discuss using learning logs to capture learning. I use a get-it-done log to capture ideas that might make good episodes. Sometimes someone shows me a cool tip, or they’ll say they wish they knew how to deal with a difficult situa-tion. The topic goes into my log, which I mine for ideas on weeks when I don’t have a listener question to answer.

Production-wise, I script the podcast and keep the script to roughly 1,100 words max. That keeps episodes a con-sistent length. Episodes have developed a rhythm. Each starts with humor that introduces the problem, then gives a so-lution with examples (some funny, some not), and I try to wrap up by concluding the humorous story that started the ep-isode.

I’ve wanted to start introducing some longer story arcs with my characters Ber-nice and Melvin, but haven’t yet had a chance to figure out how to do that and still keep the podcast mainly about productivity. Once I have some free time, I’ll work on this some more.

MS: What’s your typical day like? What are key parts of this day that help you stay pro-ductive, focused and motivated?SR: Typical day? There’s no such thing. I usually get up and start working around

Itseemedlikeagreatwaytoturnmylifelongquestintoapodcastthatcouldhelppeople.

Typicalday?There’snosuchthing.

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thing into, and having a someday/ maybe list for things that aren’t action-able right now.

I’ve adopted a different task-list man-agement system, however. I use Auto-focus 4 by Mark Forster. It’s much, much simpler than the GTD system, it includes right/left brain components for motiva-tion, and it has a built-in mechanism to make sure everything gets done or dropped. There’s no weekly review nec-essary.

MS: Now you’re a published author with a fan-tastic book (I know, I’ve read it), “Get It Done Guy’s Nine Steps to Work Less and Do More” – what made you write the book and how easy/difficult was it? When did you start working on it?SR: I started the book in Fall 2008. Then I took a full-time job, worked on the book a bit during the job, and then worked on it full time after returning to self-employ-ment in mid-2009. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done – even harder than MIT, though for different reasons. I’m good at writing, but it doesn’t come eas-ily. My brain needs focus to write, so I ba-sically dropped out of my life for eight months to finish the book.

In Chapter 2: Stop Procrastinating, I introduce Action Days as ways to mo-tivate yourself by involving other people in your goals. An action day is a simple hourly check-in with other live humans to keep each other on track. I scheduled action days every day for the last six weeks of writing. Without those action days, I would never have finished.

MS: Apart from the podcast, what takes most of your focus now: book promotion, speak-ing engagements or client work? What ex-cites you the most?SR: For the last six weeks, most of my focus has been on book promotion. That’s beginning to ramp down a bit and become more of an ongoing initiative.

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Hostofthe#1iTunes

businessGet-It-Done-

Guypodcast(more

than7milliondown-

loads),SteverRobbins

isuniquelypositioned

totalkabouthowtoturnproductivityintoabet-

terlife.SteverholdsanMBAfromtheHarvard

BusinessSchoolandaBSinComputerScienc-

esfromMIT.HeisagraduateofW.Edward

Deming’sTotalQualityManagementtraining

program,aCertifiedMasterTrainerEliteofNLP,

andaCertifiedExecutiveCoach.

Stever Robbins !

I am very, very selective about speaking and consulting/coaching work as I men-tioned above, so that’s being kept to a minimum. What excites me the most is the possibility of turning the podcast and book into a media career.

MS: The book is published, podcast is one of the most successful on iTunes, what’s the “next action” for Stever Robbins? Can you share your next goals and aspirations?SR: What’s my biggest aspiration? It’s one I borrowed from a Zen friend of mine: to live a happy life and help ev-eryone around me do the same. The spe-cifics change daily, and they run the gamut from fun-and-meaningful to fun-and-hopefully-profitable.

I’m talking to multiple television pro-ducers about a TV show. These things move at a glacial pace, so I won’t even know if there’s anything real about the talks for several months. Meanwhile, I’m co-writing a one-man musical based on my book. My collaborator is Joel Derf-ner, who recently scored the Off-Broad-way Signs of Life. It’s incredibly fun and exciting. The show will be about 40 min-utes long, will contain several tips from

my book, and can be delivered anywhere a business keynote would work. It has humor, drama, tension, productivity tips, and of course, zombies.

On the business front, I am creating a suite of products and projects based around helping people work less and do more in different areas of their life. My newsletter will announce these products as they become available.

The one that’s furthest along at the moment is JobTacToe.com, where we take several “get-it-done” principles and apply them to job hunting. We educate people about how to find a job, and we help them turn the education into spe-cific action and then help them motivate

Mybiggestaspirationistoliveahappylifeandhelpeveryonearoundmedothesame.Thespecificschangedaily...

MyfavoriteconceptsofGTDareachievingaZenmindbyhavingatrustedsystemyoucanputeverythingintoandhavingasomeday/maybelistforthingsthataren’tactionablerightnow.

themselves and stay motivated on their job hunt.

Ask me again in a year and hopefully these projects will be up, running, and successful beyond my wildest dreams. Or there may be new things on the ho-rizons. Whatever the details, I plan to be living life to the fullest! a

! Links: SteveronTwitter|Stever’sNewsletter|Stever’sWebSite

Stever’sPodcast:“Get-It-DoneGuy’sQuickandDirtyTipstoWorkLessandDoMore”

Stever’sBook:“Get-It-DoneGuy’s9StepstoWorkLessandDoMore”

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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!

By Pat Brans

J im Whitehurst started his career as a software engineer. Barely over forty years old, he has made

a name for himself as somebody who gets things done: he did this as COO of Delta Airlines, and now as CEO of Red-Hat. Jim thinks people who multitask in an attempt to get more done are mis-guided. He says you’re much more ef-fective if you do one thing at a time.

Myths on MultitaskingPeoplewhomultitaskinanattempttogetmoredonearemisguided.You’remuchmoreeffectiveifyoudoonethingatatime.

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a situation in which she has to respond quickly to a lot of different people, but then the overhead of context switching gets out of hand. One key difference be-tween a person and a computer, is the computer can switch context with one hundred percent accuracy, whereas a hu-man being loses information each time she stops one task to start work on an-other. So on each switch, a computer loses time, but not information; where-as, a person loses both time and infor-mation.

Not surprisingly, this shows up in ex-periments. For example, a study con-ducted at the Institute of Psychiatry, Uni-versity of London by Dr. Glenn Wilson in 2005, found that “Those distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQ – more than twice that found in studies of the impact of smoking marijuana”. a

When I spoke with Jim Whitehurst about time management he told me, “this idea of doing your email while you’re on the phone, or using your Black-berry during a meeting is extraordinari-ly inefficient. I’m all for making use of dead time, such as when you’re waiting in line at the airport or exercising in a gym. But there I’m talking about time where your mind is not required to be in two places at once”.

“I insist that people close laptops and not use Blackberries during meetings”, Jim says. “Because when you get right down to it, you aren’t really being that thoughtful on your laptop or your Black-berry and you aren’t paying attention to the meeting either. In the end you’re do-ing both badly”.

And according to Jim, even when you’re on the phone, the other person can get irritated if you’re doing something other than participating in the conversation. “You can tell when you are on a call with somebody and they are simultaneously

doing something on their computer. They might say something, but it’s almost like they’re saying something to prove they’re listening. They wind up not being very useful on the call. On top of that, I’m sure they aren’t doing a very good job with whatever it is they’re doing on the com-puter. It’s a waste of time”.

The CEO of RedHat summarized his feelings about multitasking. “I think this idea that multitasking saves time is ri-diculous”.

Let’s look at it from another perspec-tive. The term “multitasking” comes from the computer world, and it refers to the

PatBransisfounderof

MasterTheMoment,

anewapproachto

timemanagementand

personaleffectiveness.

MostofBrans’corpo-

rateexperiencefocusedonapplyingtechnolo-

gytoenhanceworkforceeffectiveness.Nowhe

takesproductivitytoanotherlevelbyunveiling

thesecretsofhighachievers.Bransisauthorof

twobooks,visitingprofessorattheGrenoble

GraduateSchoolofBusinessandheconsults

andprovidesenterprisetrainingontimeman-

agementandproductivity.

situation where several programs are vy-ing for the services of a single CPU. The CPU can only really work on one thing at a time, but it has to fairly distribute its time among the different tasks. There are different strategies for allotting time to each activity, but in all cases over-head is incurred each time a processor switches tasks.

When it’s time to have the processor begin work on a new task, the operating system must first store the state of the current task for recall at a future point. Then it must load the state of the new task. Before the CPU can start working on the new task, the operating system must perform this procedure, which is called “context switching”. As you may have guessed, context switching is pure overhead, because the processor does no useful work during the switch.

The amount of time allocated for each task to run is called a quantum. If an op-erating system is configured with a quan-tum of four milliseconds, and a context switch takes one millisecond, the com-puter will spend twenty percent of its time context switching. In the extreme case where a computer is spending al-most all its time switching and very lit-tle time performing any one task, it is said to be “thrashing”.

Now consider a case where the quan-tum is set to one ninety-nine millisec-onds, and the context switch takes one millisecond. Here the overhead of con-text switching will be minimal – only one percent. However, when the quantum is set too high, and the computer is ser-vicing multiple users, all of whom re-quest attention at the same time, some users will perceive a delay. People who design and configure operating systems have to make a trade off between opti-mizing overall CPU usage and minimiz-ing the delay experienced by users.

A person managing her time has to make a similar trade off. She may be in

Pat Brans!

Yourmindisnotrequiredtobeintwoplacesatonce.

Thisideathatmultitaskingsavestimeisridiculous.

! Links: PatBransWebsite|Pat’sBooks:“MastertheMoment:FiftyCEO’sTeachYoutheSecretsofTimeManagement”

“MobilizeYourEnterprise:AchievingCompetitiveAdvantageThroughWirelessTechnology”

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Mindfully Moving Beyond Multitasking It’sbecomeatruisminproductivityliteraturethatweshouldn’tmultitask.Constantlyswitchingbetweenprojects,we’retold,wastestime,becauseourbrainsneedtimetogetreorientedwheneverwechangetasks.

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again, and my clients again found them-selves changing tasks. This cycle repeat-ed throughout the day, and thus my cli-ents weren’t accomplishing what they wanted in their work.

Until these people deliberately focused on it, this whole process was happen-ing unconsciously – leaving them at the end of the work day feeling frustrated and confused.

Let The Experience BeOnce they were aware of the unwanted experience that was having them multi-task, I invited them to try a different way of responding to the experience. Instead of trying to avoid the sensation by jump-ing between projects, I asked them to try dropping their resistance to the ex-perience and just letting it be.

In other words, I asked them – when-ever that experience came up – to just sit there, keep breathing, relax their bod-ies, and let that sensation pass away on its own – in the same way people often do during meditation.

When they tried this exercise, they dis-covered something remarkable. When they just let that tension, nausea, itch-ing, or whatever it was pass away, with-out running from it, the sensation start-ed to seem more comfortable and familiar. It no longer felt so threatening and dangerous.

More importantly, the more comfort-able they got with the experience they’d been avoiding, the less they found them-selves multitasking. They became able to move forward in their work, even when that sensation was coming up – and found more efficiency and ease in their work as a result.

By Chris Edgar

I n working with clients on productivity issues, I’ve noticed that, although some people understand intellectual-

ly that multitasking is bad, they have trou-ble kicking the habit. As hard as they try to zero in on a single project, they find their attention constantly jumping around – from writing that e-mail, to coding that program, to folding their socks, and so on.

In other words, for these people, mul-titasking isn’t really a choice – it’s more like something that happens to them. But why is this?

Notice The Pre-Multitasking ExperienceThese clients found an answer when I asked them to take a close look at what they were thinking and feeling right be-fore they changed tasks. Each one no-ticed that, in that “clutch” moment be-fore they switched projects, some sensation came up inside them that they found uncomfortable.

As everyone’s mind and body is unique, this sensation was different for each person. One client, for instance, felt tension in his shoulders right before he was about to switch tasks. For an-other, it was a mild nausea that came up in her stomach.

Naturally, because they found this ex-perience disturbing, they wanted to get away from it. Thus, to distract them-selves from what they were feeling, they turned their attention to a new project.

The trouble was that, a few minutes later, that discomfort reared its ugly head

ChrisEdgarhelpspeo-

plefindfocus,motiva-

tionandpeaceintheir

workthroughhiswrit-

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workshops.Heisthe

authorof“InnerProductivity:aMindfulPathto

EfficiencyandEnjoymentinYourWork”,which

“GettingThingsDone”authorDavidAllencalls

“agreatreadandausefulguidebookforturn-

ingthedailygrindintosomethingmuchmore

interestingandengaging”.

Christopher Edgar!

The Exercise In a NutshellIf you find yourself constantly switching between tasks, I invite you to try this ex-ercise. First, get a clear idea of the thought, sensation, or emotion that comes up right before you’re about to change projects.

Then, practice dropping your resis-tance to that sensation, and letting it fade away on its own. Notice that sim-ply allowing the sensation to be doesn’t hurt or destroy you – it’s actually safe to sit there and let it pass.

As you practice this, I think you’ll find that sensation getting easier to deal with, and your multitasking habit falling away as a result. a

Getaclearideaofthethought,sensation,oremotionthatcomesuprightbeforeyou’reabouttochangeprojects.

! Links: ChristopheronTwitter|Christopher’sWebSite

“InnerProductivity:aMindfulPathtoEfficiencyandEnjoymentinYourWork”

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Single-tasking is good for youHowmyMacbookAirhelpedmedevelopagoodhabitoflaunchinglessapplicationsatatimeanddoalotmoresingle-taskingthanmulti-tasking.

By Michael Sliwinski

M y Macbook Air has a limit of 2 GB of RAM and although it’s a limit I’m not happy about

(and I’m getting the new Air with 4 GB of RAM and more room to breathe), it actually helped me develop a good

habit of launching less applications at a time and do a lot more single-tasking than multi-tasking.

Computers and humans get tired when switching too much between apps and tasksI noticed that switching between many applications I had open quickly became tiring for me and after each switch it took

me a longer period of time to focus on what I had to do next. At the same time, my laptop (with more and more apps open) needed more time to switch be-tween these as well. And when you have 2 GB of RAM, at some point you hit the limit and the slow disk-cache needs to be used. Apparently we’re not that dif-ferent from computers after all. We both are getting tired with too many apps open at a time.

Clutter leads to distractions while beauty and zen lead to productivityWith more clutter and smaller icons in the Application Switcher it’s hard to find what you’re searching for and it’s easi-er to get distracted. In Mac OSX the icons in the Application Switcher (Cmd+TAB on a Mac and ALT+TAB on Windows) are bigger the less apps you have open and are smaller the more you have them running. I must say it’s visu-

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ally very rewarding when you see nice, big, gorgeous looking icons in front of you, so the less apps I have open, the more beautiful the icons become. And this pretty sight makes me feel better... and this makes me more productive and motivated to get stuff done.

Hard drive opens faster than saves files... and you get turbo speed with SSD diskWhen the RAM is full, the computer starts to save data on the hard disk and it’s a lot slower than the RAM memory.

But the hard disk opens apps very fast, especially when you have one of the new SSD drives (like the one on the new Mac-book Airs from Apple). This makes the habit of quitting apps even more appeal-ing. When you need them, you open them up quickly. When you don’t, just quit them.

iPad and iPhone help develop single-tasking habitThanks to heavy use of both my iPhone and my iPad recently, I learned to ap-preciate doing one thing at a time (which is a must because of their small screen real estate). This also helped me create a new habit of closing apps and open-ing them only as needed. Now, on my laptop, I have just a few apps open all of the time – Browsers (Opera and Chrome), Evernote for note-taking, Noz-be (as a fluid stand-alone app) and Find-er which has to be launched all of the

time. Mail and other apps are opened only when I need to use them.

Learn to single-task and focus on the task at hand. Experts are with me on this oneMany studies have shown that single-tasking it more effective, efficient and cre-ates a more focused environment than constantly multi-tasking. And as I’ve writ-ten above, you don’t get tired, your com-puter doesn’t slow down and you’re get-ting a lot done. Good luck! a

MichaelSliwinskiis

yourchiefeditorofthe

Productive!Magazine

andahostofthenew

Productive!Show.Ev-

erydayhe’stryingto

helppeoplegetmoredonewithhiswebappli-

cationNozbe–nowalsoavailableasanative

iPhoneoriPadapp.

Michael Sliwinski!

ThelessappsIhaveopen,themorebeautiful(andbigger)theiriconsbecome.

Harddisksopenappsveryfast,especiallywhenyouhaveoneofthesenewSSDdrives.

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

Nozbe–SimplyGetItDone!|MichaelSliwinski’sBlog:“InternetBusinessProductivity”

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Engaged Employees are More Productive

Imaginethatyou’rethecoachofaprofessionalfootballteam–andthatonareallygoodday,maybe10ofyour45playersare100%committedtotheteam’ssuccess.

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By Laura Stack

A bout half are kind of committed (as long as you rev them up with a great pep talk first and keep

pushing them, you can count on them to go out there and perform). The rest? Well, those players show up, suit up, and sit on the bench most of the time. They make the minimal amount of effort nec-essary to squeak by, collect their pay-checks, and go home. Can you imagine such a thing?

Oh, wait. That’s a typical NFL lineup, isn’t it? All joking aside, my point is this: with a team like that, how many games are you likely to win? I’m betting very few. Oh, you’ll win some – against teams a lot like yours. But a dedicated team like the 2008 Steelers would wipe the floor with you, because too few people on your team actually care enough win.

Now, let’s translate that analogy into the business environment. You’re a man-ager instead of a coach. Your team is still a team, but they’re a bunch of white-collar business professionals rather than athletes. So, given the breakdown I’ve outlined above in terms of commitment, how well do you expect your team to compete, either within the company or in the global business environment? The answer, of course, is “not very”. If you’re a manager worth your salt, this won’t be acceptable to you. But you can’t just fire all the under-performers, or sadly, you might not have much of a team left. A more effective solution is employee engage-ment.

You’ve probably heard this term be-fore, and maybe you’ve dismissed it as just another corporate buzz phrase. In some cases it is, but when taken seri-ously, it becomes far more than that; stud-ies have repeatedly demonstrated that employee engagement is a significant

factor in the success of any company, large or small. Simply put, the higher the percentage of employee engagement, the higher the employee productivity and the greater the corporate success.

So what is employee engagement, ex-actly? While not everyone agrees on the precise terminology, the consensus is that an engaged employee is one who’s en-thusiastic and fully involved with his or her job and organization, and who makes a sincere effort to contribute to both team and company success. The engaged em-ployee is proud of what they do for a liv-ing and proud of where they work.

As commonly articulated, employee engagement is a relatively new concept, dating only from the early 1990s. The field splits employees into three categories: the actively engaged, the unengaged, and the actively disengaged. Depending up-on the study, somewhere between 17-29% of employees are actively en-gaged. (Returning to our football analo-gy, those are the players who are 100% committed to winning.) About half – liter-

ally the “mediocre middle”, as my col-league, Mark Sanborn, calls them – are unengaged. They may like their jobs, and they may be good at them, but they don’t really care much about the company’s goals (often because they have no idea what they are). At the bottom of the heap are the remaining employees – again, 17-29% – who are actively disengaged. These are the people who go to work just so they can get their paychecks. They’re not committed at all, and they couldn’t give two hoots about the company’s mis-sion and vision, even if they knew what

they were. They’re just marking time un-til they can retire.

Fortunately, these numbers aren’t set in stone. It’s possible for you as a lead-er to change them, and it’s crucial that you try. Indeed, it’s the leader who real-ly makes the difference here; time and again, researchers have found that the relationship between employee and man-ager is an excellent gauge of the em-ployee’s engagement level. As the say-ing goes, workers don’t leave companies, they leave managers. If that sounds like it’s all on your shoulders, well… to a large extent, it is. You’re the leader of your team, and to most employees, you’re the direct representative of the compa-

ny – and possibly the only such repre-sentative they encounter regularly. Along with everything else required of you, it’s also your responsibility to ensure that your employees are engaged to the high-est possible extent.

Why should you bother? Because by all accounts, engaged employees are super competent employees, the type of people you build an organization around, and the ones you count on to help take your organization to the next level. According to a recent study by Gallup, world-class businesses

Asthesayinggoes,workersdon’tleavecompanies.Theyleavemanagers.

Studieshaverepeatedlydemonstratedthatemployeeengagementisasignificantfactorinthesuccessofanycompany,largeorsmall.

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(e.g., those that make money hand over fist, have great safety records, and ex-hibit low employee turnover, among oth-er things) have engaged employee/dis-engaged employee ratios of about 9.57:1, as opposed to a disappointing 1.83:1 for average businesses. It’s clear that, as the researchers put it, “The world’s top-performing organizations un-derstand that employee engagement is a force that drives performance out-comes”. Gallup sets an engaged/disen-gaged benchmark of 8:1 for successful, world-class companies, giving us all a standard to shoot for.

The Gallup researchers go on to note that actively disengaged workers cost American companies an estimated $300 billion annually in lost productivity alone. And here’s another interesting statistic, this time from Serota Consulting’s 2005 study of 28 multinational companies: companies with high employee engage-ment had share prices that rose an av-erage of 16% over the course of the study, whereas the industry average was just 6%. In 2003, a study by ISR found that companies with high levels of en-gagement saw their operating profits rise

by nearly 4% over three years, while those with low levels of engagement showed drops in net profits and operat-ing margins on the order of 1.38% and 2.01%, respectively. (If you don’t think those percentages sound significant, multiple them by a few million dollars and think again.) And consider the fact that in the long run, engaged compa-nies outperform their less-engaged com-petitors by up to 28% (one of the key findings of the Conference Board study of 2006).

Clearly, engagement is a key driver in achieving and sustaining outstanding productivity in any organization, if only because it dramatically increases em-ployee satisfaction and retention. En-gaged employees are far more produc-t ive and more valuable than the mediocre middle unengaged employ-ees, or of course the actively disen-gaged. Naturally, that affects the bottom line, so doing everything you can to in-crease employee engagement is simply good business. That being the case, you need to understand what factors drive engagement, and how you can put them into play to engage your employees.

Now admittedly, some level of engage-ment is based on an individual’s person-ality; a bright, bubbly person is generally more easily engaged than a dour one. Oth-erwise, engagement is driven by a num-ber of interrelated factors, which I boil down to the six that are most critical to maximizing employee engagement:1. Employee confidence that they can do

their job properly and will be allowed to do so with minimal oversight.

2. The nature and quality of the job itself.

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Doingeverythingyoucantoincreaseemployeeengagementissimplygoodbusiness.

Youwantyouremployees’jobtobesomethingthatthey’reproudofandenthusiasticaboutdoing.

3. Career development and opportuni-ties for growth.

4. Ongoing communication and feed-back from management.

5. A clear understanding of the compa-ny’s goals, and why employee con-tributions matter.

6. Trust in the company’s integrity, and pride in their place in it.

In other words, you have to do all you can to make an employee’s job more than just a job: you want it to be some-thing that they’re proud of and enthusi-astic about doing – ideally, something they actually look forward to.

In ConclusionMaximizing employee engagement is crucial if you want to maximize your team’s performance. While the two con-cepts aren’t synonymous, the most pro-ductive people do tend to be highly en-gaged, and they’re much less likely to want to leave you. So take a look at the above factors and consider how you might implement them among your em-ployees.

It may not be easy, and you may not succeed with everyone. However, I guar-antee that if you’ll genuinely try, your col-lective productivity will soar. a

! Links: LauraonTwitter|Laura’sWebSite:TheProductivityPro

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How to NOT do everything on your to-do listGTDshouldbeadaptedtofityourpersonalworkingstyle–it’snotacookie-cutterapproach.Onemethoddoesn’tworkforeveryone.

By Leo Babauta

R eader of my blog, Jeremy Mar-tin, wrote in with this question:This week, I started the switch to

the GTD system. I have mostly learned what I know from your site and other ar-ticles about GTD, but I also have the book on order. The mental freedom it has afforded me has been such a major relief! I immediately push out all of the little thoughts that come to my head to process later, which works very well for me because I am a person with a very active mind that never seems to rest. I can-not remember when I have had this much peace of mind.

My problem is that if I have a list of things to do, no matter if they are high priority or personal projects for myself, I feel guilty if I am not working to shrink that list. This can lead to periods of burn-out for me, where I barely get anything done. I never know when it is okay to relax, or when it is okay to take a break and play that video game, read a book, or some other leisure activity. Do you have any tips that might help me out?

This problem is one that many of us deal with, and there’s no easy answer. I have a number of suggestions that might help, but let me first say that they are not from the GTD system – they are things you can add to the system to make it work for you. GTD should be adapted to fit your personal working style – it’s not a cook-ie-cutter approach. One method doesn’t work for everyone.

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In the end, you can try these methods out, but you’ll have to find what works for you. Some of these tips might work, some might not be for you. It’s our sys-tems that have to adapt to us, not the other way around! a

You’llnevergettothebottomofyourlist.ThisissomethingIhadtolearnthehardway.

Here are my suggestions1. Set 1-3 Most Important Things (MITs) for the day (you might have already read about this on my site)… the top 1, 2, or 3 things that you really want to get done that day. This is an addition to the GTD system, not a part of it, but I find it helps

me to focus on what’s important. GTD assumes that you will know what needs to be done, which is true, but it’s help-ful to determine that at the beginning of each day, and make sure you get those things done.

2. Get your MITs done early in the day. Then everything else you do is extra. And if you feel like taking a break and playing, after you do the MITs, you can do this without worrying that you’re not getting important stuff done.

3. You’ll never get to the bottom of your list. This is something I had to learn

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the hard way. I would try to clear one of my context lists (like @calls), but as soon as I crossed 2-3 off my list, another 2-3 would pop up. Now, I try to just get my list down to a reasonable number if possible.

4. GTD isn’t about doing everything on your list. It’s about knowing what needs to be done, so that when you’re doing something else, you know that ev-erything else that needs to be done, at some point, is accounted for in your sys-tem, and you don’t need to worry about all that other stuff at this point. In other words, get all that stuff out of your head, and into your trusted system, so you don’t have to worry about it while you focus on the task before you.

5. It’s also good to schedule time blocks. I will set a block for email and calls, another for writing, another for in-terviews (a big part of my job), etc … this way, I just try to get as much done in that block as possible, and then not worry about the rest until tomorrow’s block. This is also not a part of GTD, but a useful addition, as GTD doesn’t real-ly advocate scheduling. But without a lit-tle bit of scheduling, as you’ve found, it can get a bit stressful, because you never know what needs to be done.

GetyourMostImportantThingsdoneearlyintheday.

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

“ThePowerofLess:The6EssentialProductivityPrinciplesThatWillChangeYourLife”

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10 Reasons Why You Aren’t Done YetForseveralnightsinarow,Ididnotgettobeduntilalmostmidnight.Asaresult,Isleptinlongerandstoppedrunning.Ibecameirritableandstartedlosingfocus.ItwasclearthatIneededtochangesomething–andnow!

By Michael Hyatt

A couple of weeks ago, I was feel-ing overwhelmed with my work-load. I always leave the office at

6:00 p.m. in order to have dinner with my family. Then I typically get back on my laptop and catch up on my email. I shoot to be in bed no later than 10:00 p.m.

However, for several nights in a row, I did not get to bed until almost mid-night. As a result, I slept in longer and stopped running. I became irritable and

started losing focus. It was clear that I needed to change something – and now!

My experience isn’t unique. Every where I go, people seem to be over-whelmed by the volume of their work. With layoffs in many businesses, em-ployees are pulling double-duty. It’s time to get serious and triage our work-loads.

Late one night, I caught myself say-ing to my wife Gail for the third time, “Just a few more minutes, Honey. I’m almost done”. Immediately, I realized I was lying to her and to myself. I closed my laptop and jotted down a list of ten things that had kept me from complet-ing their work. Do these apply to you?

1. Too many meetingsHow many of meetings actually advance my agenda and the reason I was hired in the first place. Too often, meetings are

simply a way for people to procrastinate and avoid taking responsibility for their de-cisions. It’s much easier to let “the group” make the decision. Some meetings are legitimate, to be sure. But how many is-sues can I handle without resorting to a meet-ing? I need ask, “Do we really need a meet-ing to address that issue”?

�. Mindlessly surfing the webWhen I was growing up, television was the big time-waster. Now it is the Inter-net. You look at this Web page, click on that link, visit another page, and then

EverywhereIgo,peopleseemtobeoverwhelmedbythevolumeoftheirwork.

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click on another link. Before you know it, you have wasted hours and hours and have nothing to show for it. It’s time to limit our time online. I think I might even try scheduling my Web time.

�. Being distracted by online pingsI shoot to have my inbox at zero by the end of the day. But do I really need to respond to every message in real time? Do you? Unless you are in customer ser-vice, probably not. You can accomplish the same goal by “batching” your inbox processing into distinct blocks of time. This includes Twitter, Facebook, and oth-er social media services.

�. Allowing people to drop in without an agendaI usually work with my door open. I want to be accessible to my people. But some people abuse this. They drop by with-out an agenda and eat up time I don’t have. I always feel badly about bringing the meeting to a close. But if I don’t say “no” to them, I will have to say “no” to more important projects – and perhaps even my family. I am willing to chat for a bit, but I have to be more courageous about standing up and walking my guests to the door.

�. Being consumed by the urgentModern culture is addicted to urgency. People demand an instant response. It is part of our increasingly me-centered world. Everything revolves around my agenda and my priorities. But how much of it is truly urgent. My daughter, Megan, often reminds me, “Dad, you’re not sav-ing lives; you’re just making books”. Nothing like a big dose of perspective!

�. Being a perfectionistHonestly, this is my besetting sin. (Or I should say, one of them.) I am con-stantly tweaking my projects. The prob-lem is that it always feels like the change

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is smaller than it really is. This will just take a minute, I think to myself. Two hours later, I am still working on the same proj-ect. I like G.K. Chesterton’s quote: “If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly”. In other words, not everything has to be perfect. Just get it out the door!

�. Refusing to delegateThis one is also tough for me. I can’t ar-gue that I don’t have anyone to help. I have plenty of resources available. But I kid myself into thinking it will be faster if I just do it myself. I don’t want to take the time to explain to someone else how I want it done. Frankly, my own arrogance is probably at the root of this one. I need to take my own advice.

�. Not starting the day with a to-do listI am so much more productive when I take ten minutes and actually decide what tasks I want to accomplish TODAY. I use a software package called Things, and it is perfect for this. I can take any of my tasks and assign them to the “To-day Focus”. (They also have an iPhone app that syncs with the desktop.) When I just launch into the day without a to-do list, I pay for it later – in spades.

9. Not committing to an end timeAs the old adage goes, “Work expands to the time allotted to it”. This explains why the week before your vacation is one of the most productive weeks of the year. You have a fixed end-time, and that forc-

es you to be efficient. However, this also works with your daily schedule. I have a rule that I observe religiously: I leave the office by 6:00 p.m. My problem is that I sometimes take work home and then allow my evenings to become a buffer for the overflow. This has to stop.

10. Not scheduling time to workIf I don’t have a plan for my day, chanc-es are, someone else does. On Sunday evenings, I go through and schedule blocks of time that I call “Office Work”. These are essentially appointments with myself to get specific projects done. When other people check my calendar, these blocks show up as “busy”. If someone asks me if I am free at that time, I can legitimately say, “No, I’m afraid I have another commitment at that time”. This has been one of the most helpful tools in my toolbox.

If you are feeling like your work/life balance is out of kilter, maybe it’s time for you to make a list of the reasons you aren’t done yet. If you are reading this after hours, that could be a clue. a

WhenIwasgrowingup,televisionwasthebigtime-waster.NowitistheInternet.

! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Michael’sBlog:“IntentionalLeadership”

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The Art And Science Of The Next ActionIbelieve“NextActions”arethekeypartofanyproductivitysystem.It’saconceptIfirstcameacrossinGTD(“GettingThingsDone”)andwhileatit’scoreitessentiallyinvolvesbreakingyourworkdown(hardlyanewidea)itgoesfurtherinthatithelpsyoutobeclearonwhatexactlyyouaredoingandwhatphysicalactionisinvolved.

By James Mallinson

D avid Allen describes it as, “the next physical, visible activity that needs to be engaged in, in order to move

the current reality toward completion”. If there is one tip for being more productive that I could suggest it would be this one.

I can now deal with so many more un-pleasant projects that I would otherwise procrastinate on because when I break it down all those hurdles seem less sig-nificant. I recently decorated my hall-way. I’d put it off because I didn’t want to waste my entire weekend doing it. However by breaking it down and doing one wall per day suddenly decorating didn’t become a long, laborious job.

Another benefit of a next action is that because the workload involved tends to be smaller it’s much easier to focus on it and get it done before boredom and procrastination kicks in. It also allows you to manage your time better. It’s hard-er to fit a two hour project into your schedule than it is to fit in a fifteen next action. You can juggle and plan your

workload more and be smarter with it.Below are the three key parts that make up an effective next action.

The verbVerbs usually express action, which as you can imagine, is especially important for something called a next action. For instance, you can read a magazine, write a report or phone a colleague. Imagine what happens when you take that verb

out. Suddenly you have a magazine and no idea of what you are doing with it. Are you reading it or recycling it? Then there is that report. Are you writing, print-ing or planning it? Think of the possible verbs you can use (call, email, collect,

find, meet, research, post…) and you will see all the actions you can do.

The detailThe next action needs to be clear and precise so that when you read it you know what is expected. It’s one thing to have a verb expressing what action is involved, but you need to be very clear on how and where that action is being applied. Imagine that you make a note to ring your business partner. That’s great until the time comes to make the call and you look back at that note. What are you ringing him about? Is it a casu-al call or a serious discussion? Do you have necessary paperwork to hand?

The end resultHow do you know when you have fin-ished a task? It might seem obvious most of the time because after all, when you’re done, you’re done. It’s that sim-ple, surely? However, take an example of cleaning a bedroom. How do you de-termine when you have cleaned the room enough to tick it off as complete? Where is the line drawn? When you aren’t clear on this you will often find yourself doing only half a job or doing too much be-cause you are simply not clear in your head when to stop. It’s worth noting that time limits and deadlines can also some-times serve to define the end result. For instance, when I am writing, my next ac-tion can either be to do a certain amount of pages or it can be to write for a num-ber of hours. a

JamesMallinsoncomesfromtheUKandisan

aspiringauthor.HestartedOrganizeITnearly

twoyearsagoafterhebegandabblinginpro-

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perience.

James Mallinson!

It’shardertofitatwohourprojectintoyourschedulethanitistofitinafifteen-minutenextaction.

! Links: JamesonTwitter|James’Blog:“OrganizeIT”

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Body, Inbox and a Bag

Productivity as a body: Diet and Exercise – TEDxVolcano (Episode #��)Haveyouevertriedtopersonalize

yourproductivity?Iseeitasaper-

fectbody–here’smycomplete12

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Office in a Bag (Episode #��)Howtofitanentiremobileofficein

onebag?Inthisnewepisodeof

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youhowImanagetofitmyApple

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soriesintoonesmallbag.

By Michael Sliwinski

Processing BIG Inbox after Travel (Episode #��)Everfeltoverwhelmedafteralong

tripwithallthatstuffthatneedsto

betakencareof?Well,thereyou

haveit–it’sabeautyofGetting

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onthedeskandgetitdone!Here’s

howIdoit.

TheProductive!ShowvideosarenowaregularthingonournewlylaunchedProductive!FirmsiteandthistimearoundI’dliketoshowyouthreemostrecentvideoproductivitytipsandtricks(outofmorethan25)Ihaverecordedforyoulately

Productive! Show Videos

! Links: Hopeyouenjoyedtheseshortproductivityvideos.Clickheretobrowseallepisodearchive.

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What’s the DEAL? TheDEALisanacronymfora4prongholdingpattern(asopposedtoanattack,whichinvolvesaction)thatincreasesyourabilitytobettereventualize.

By Mike Vardy

D = Delay itYou’re given a task, hold off doing it. That’s what delay means.

E = Eff itOnce you can’t delay an action item any longer, work really hard to forget about it. You know, effort it out of your mind.

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Mike Vardy!

A = Asterisk itOnce you can’t delay or effort it any-more, asterisk it so you don’t forget it again. Do that for everything on your list. Then everything becomes important. The asterisk suddenly means nothing. Mission eventually accomplished… almost.

L = Lip Service itOnce you’ve exhausted the first three components, you’re going to have to

sweet talk your way out the situation. If you’re blessed with my charm, you’ll have no problem conveying believable lip service. If not, then the lip service you may have to perform will involve some unpleasant kissing areas.

Remember… the best way to keep up with your end of the DEAL is to treat life as a perpetual Vegas card game, like poker or Texas Hold’em. That way you’ll think there’s always something to DEAL with then.

And perhaps a lot to win – or lose – when it’s time to cash in. a

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! Links: MikeonTwitter|Mike’sBlog:“Eventualism”

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Productive! Magazine recommends the new book by Stever Robbins:

Get a copy from Amazon today!