Mike Vardy's Blog, page 110

The Perils of "Binge Productivity"

I've noticed lately that due to my propensity to schedule "heavy lifting" days and "light lifting" days that the heavy ones seemed to be getting heavier and the light ones not all that much lighter. When that happens, there's the danger of burnout -- and I've felt on the edge of it for the past few days. Signs of burnout for me vary from grinding my work day to a halt earlier than usual, fiddling with my task manager list and apps to better fit what's current, and so on. But the biggest sign of burnout is what I like to call binge productivity.

Binge productivity occurs when you have large chunks of downtime followed by binges of hyper-productivity (or even hyper-scheduling). The tasks I complete when this happens are often low energy ones. That's because I'll fall into the habit of quantifying my tasks rather than qualifying my tasks, so the tasks that actually mean more on a grander scale don't get touched while smaller tasks that can be done quickly and with less toll on me are completed. I wind up lulling myself into a sense of being productive when all I'm really accomplishing is "doing" productive. And that's not good for the long haul.

So how do I get out of this trap?

Honestly, it took me a while to figure out the best way to escape. But when my scheduled time to complete my weekly review came up, that's when it hit me. By reviewing what I'd done (and, more importantly, not done) over the past week it became clear to me that I'd been caught in the web of binge productivity once more. The review process help me conduct a mild reset and spread things out in a way where quality and quantity meshed in a beneficial way. I actually added some of my heavier lifting items to my light lifting days -- but only after my wife and kids were in bed. I kept my Saturday as task-free as possible, meaning I could steer clear of my task manager until the next day if I so chose. 1

(If the review process doesn't work on its own, you may have to complete an entire assessment of your priorities, projects, and workflow. I did that recently, and it was also helpful.)

David Allen has extolled the practice of the weekly review in his work, and beyond what it can do for your long-term productivity, it can actually help you get out of a case of binge productivity. That said, if you don't actually schedule a weekly review time for yourself then it may just be one of the things that you let slide for checking that one email or other bit of minutia that you're trying to get past.

Photo credit: winjohn via SXC.HU

1 Before you can do this, however, you need to set yourself up in a way that gives you the awareness to know you can steer clear of it. I can't stress that enough.

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Saying Things Done: A Quick Look at Capturing Tasks Through Voice

I'm a bit of a talker. If you've ever listened to Mikes on Mics or seen me speak, then you probably know that already. So it should come as no surprise that there are occasions where I capture my thoughts and tasks in audio form. There are numerous tools out there that you can use to do this if you want to give it a try, and each has features that will serve some people better than others.

Here are just a few that I've used -- and some that I still use -- as part of how I get things out of my head and where they really need to be.

Siri

If you've got a fairly recent iOS device, then you've got Siri. I've written about how you can use Reminders as a simple task manager before, and Siri is one of the best ways to capture tasks for that purpose. If you use OmniFocus as your task management application and have managed to hook Siri up to it, even better.

The benefit of using Siri is that it transcribes your voice to text immediately, meaning your thoughts become written tasks, projects, etc., as soon as they are confirmed. When Siri is down, however, the prospect of using it is gone. (That doesn't happen very often, but it has happened and will possibly happen in the future.)

But not everyone has an iOS device, and not everyone is comfortable using Siri regularly. I rarely use Siri anymore for this purpose, although it's nice to know it's still an option.

(I have used audio capturing with OmniFocus on the iPhone and iPad, but when I set up Siri in conjunction with Reminders to send tasks to my OmniFocus inbox that practice quickly became a thing of the past.)

Evernote

I capture a lot of my big ideas in Evernote, and attaching audio to notes is a great way to flesh out those ideas in a way that allows me to have a better understanding of them when I look at the note later on. I use audio capturing in Evernote for my tasting notes for beers in my cellar, I use it to capture thoughts or ideas that I'd like to put in any of the writing I do, and I like to have the audio capture feature at the ready when I'm trying to figure out how to map out larger projects such as our urban garden or for making quick notes while reviewing apps and other products so I have them available when I get down to the actual writing.

One of the reasons I'm a fan of Evernote for this purpose is that it means there's one less app to deal with. It helps me gain a broader knowledge of the app (and its companion apps) and that makes for a better overall experience. And since I'm using Evernote as my primary "notetaking" app, it only makes sense that all audio notes go directly into it -- no matter what device I'm using or where I'm at.

(If you're new to Evernote, the folks at Grovo have a pretty cool contest they're running right now. Simply go to this giveaway page and enter your email. Once you've done that you'll be entered to win 1 year of Evernote Premium and the training to go with it (1 year of Grovo Pro). Not a bad prize, so go and check it out.)

Say&Go

Say&Go is an iPhone app that does one thing very well for its $1.99 price tage: capturing whatever you say in short bursts and share recordings in several ways with very little friction.

By default, the app gives you 7 seconds to record your thoughts (although you can decrease that to as few as 4 or as many as 10 in the app's settings), which I found to be a pretty neat feature. When I tested it I used it for quick quotes or ideas I had that I wanted to deal with either outside of my task manager or those things that came to mind while driving. Since my iPhone is positioned in a mount next to my steering column, I just opened Say&Go when I'd get in the car and if I had an idea come to mind I'd tap the "Record" button and get it off my mind straight away. The app also allows for auto-start upon opening (much like the video app Capture) so you can open it, say it, and go.

In the Recordings screen -- which you get to by swiping left -- you can send each "say" via email, to Dropbox, or create a reminder right within Say&Go. There's also a Quick Reminder option that will automatically set a reminder interval time for you (which you can adjust in the app's settings) so that you don't need to fiddle with dates and times in the regular Say&Go reminders area. You can also create a Quick Reminder for each recording right from the Recording screen by swiping to the right after each "say" is recorded.

All in all, Say&Go is a very clever app with a clean and simple interface. While I can't see adding it to my arsenal of tools on a regular basis, it could be something I would use when I'm on vacation and need to capture thoughts with as little friction as possible -- and keeping me out of my task manager and Evernote in the process. So I'm not removing it from my toolbox altogether. I'm just putting it under a few of my other essentials.

Dictation Apps

David Sparks has spoken highly of Dragon Dictate in the past -- he used it quite a bit to pen some of his earlier books. I often use it when I'm constructing talks that I'd like to give as my improvisation background helps me freestyle a bit and get some really great thoughts out through saying them rather than writing them down. I don't really use it for writing all that much anymore.

However, when I severely burned my right hand a fire last year I used OS X's built-in Dictation to handle some of the writing for me. Over time it worked better than expected, which has led me to use on occasion when I want to get something out my head quickly and onto screen.

I'm also putting the iPhone app Rev Voice Recorder through the paces right now, and will have a review of it up in the not-too-distant future. It looks promising, though.

Writing things down is a must. Taking photos of things so you have a quick visual is also worthwhile. Audio capturing -- when using tools that work well for you and your workflow -- can be incredibly effective, especially if you talk much faster than you write (which almost all of us do).

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Taking Journaling to Another Level

I've always journaled in some form or another. I did it to either chronicle my day, get thoughts out of my head that needed to be captured elsewhere (but not publicly), or -- more recently -- to leave something behind for my children to read after I'm gone. I've generally journaled at night, prior to going to bed but lately I've added something to that routine.

I'm journaling twice per day -- once in the morning and once in the evening. And so far it's working out great.

Here are some of the benefits I've found to journaling twice daily:

It helps me shape my day.

Sure, I have my task managers to help inform me of what I want (and need) to do first thing in the morning. But I've found that by getting those ideas out of my head right when I wake up not only jumpstarts my day, but also helps to shape it. Jason Womack has discussed the notion of creating your Ideal Day, and I think that by journaling first thing in the morning that I actually am that much closer to getting to that every single day.

It creates a keener sense of awareness.

By writing things out both in the morning and in the evening I have a greater sense of awareness regarding all the things I've got on my plate. I know what I've done, know what I want to do, and know what I haven't done and don't want to do all through the simple act of journaling twice daily. Journaling has essentially helped me go beyond my to do list, which is exactly where you want to go.1

It helps keep me accountable.

My morning journal entry helps me shape my day, and my evening entry chronicles how the day went. The later entry illustrates what I did -- and didn't -- accomplish that day, which serves to create more accountability on my part. There have been times where I knew leading up to the later entry that I still had things to get done that day, so I wind up doing them at that point before making the entry. The increased awareness leads to greater accountability.

It bookends my day nicely.

My day begins and ends in my journal. It's become a routine, which has actually helped me stick to other routines around it. Things like updating YNAB, flossing my teeth, and so on. Being mindful about my journaling practice has led to a great start and end to every day...no matter what the day has thrown at me.

There are plenty of options that you have available to start your own journaling habit. Some of the best options include:

Day One: Day One is a journaling app for the Mac for $9.99 and for the iPad and iPhone for $4.99. It syncs across all devices, meaning you can journal anytime and anywhere. It also has a bunch of other additional features that can help you create a journal that you'll really enjoy sharing now or later on. The ability to add photos, tags, and the like really enhances the journal writing experience, and you can set reminders so that you don't miss recording an entry -- no matter how many you choose to do per day. (You can also create an even greater Day One experience by using Brett Terpstra's .)
A Paper Journal: The Bullet Journal has been a very hot topic as of late, but I'm not referring to that. I'm talking about a plain old writing notebook that you can use to journal regularly. Whether you choose to use something like a Moleskine (or another high-end notebook) or you decide to use something a little less expensive, the idea of journaling on paper can allow you to better connect with your thoughts and ideas without the interference and noise of digital tools. Plus, paper won't exactly crash on you and doesn't have any platform compatibility issues, either. If you want to preserve a paper journal over the long haul, don't go too cheap. Make sure you get a journal that contains paper that will stand the test of time, like acid free paper. (A new notebook on the scene, the Baron Fig, has captured my attention recently. It's got a very classy look and seems well thought out.)
Evernote: Evernote can make a great journaling tool. First off, it has so many other uses that it allows for you to spend less time learning how other apps work (like Day One) and stick with one that has so many practical applications. You can also record audio entries, photos to accompany your entries, and tag entries. You can even create notebooks to start separate journals (one for morning entries, one for evening entries, or perhaps even a weekly journal to chronicle your week) and you can sync them across several platforms and devices or keep things local. Evernote also has several companion apps (Evernote Hello, Evernote Food) that allow you to create a truly unique journaling experience. And with the use of the Evernote Smart Notebook, you can use paper to start and digital to finish. (Brett Kelly's Evernote Essentials covers a lot about Evernote and can get you up and running with this app in very little time. It's worth a look.)

If you're not journalling already, then it's something that is definitely worth exploring. It can actually help you become more productive over the long run by increasing your overall awareness and can enhance a prosperous and mindful workflow. Give it a try -- you just may find it can help you out in more ways than one.

Photo credit: teyoo via SXC.HU

1 Speaking of going "beyond the to do list", we had Erik Fisher on Mikes on Mics this week. Definitely worth checking out.

             

Technical Difficulties

I wrote this piece today...and then posted it shortly thereafter. I don't normally do that.

Up until I started writing it, I had no idea what I was going to write about today. Sure, I had ideas of what I could write about today, but I didn't actually feel like writing any of those.

Today has been a day where I've accomplished little of what I usually do on Mondays and more of what I usually reserve for my lighter-lifting days -- Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It's nearly 4 p.m. here and the things on my list that I had in mind to do are still not done. Why?

First, my energy level hasn't been high today. That meant little writing and more of the easier stuff. I've still been productive today, but not exactly with the things I was hoping for.

Secondly, I've got too much on mind. Even though I've reassessed a lot of my stuff lately, that doesn't mean I'm immune to getting stuck in task or project paralysis. Today has been more about what to do (and not to do) next with my work as a productivityist. There's much to consider, and that's not only sapped my energy, it's sapped my will to muster up the energy needed to move forward.

I'm facing technical difficulties.

Much like a television station, I know what I'm supposed to be doing but there's a glitch in the system. I think that by writing this post I'm making inroads towards finding that glitch and eliminating it -- but I won't be sure of that until I've done everything associated with posting this piece.

No tool can really help with technical difficulties like this (although Unstuck for iPad is a decent way to try). Paper can help. Journalling can too (in fact, I'd go so far as to consider this a journal entry of sorts). The best thing you can do is take a step forward with something bigger than what you think you can do right now. Writing this was bigger than that -- all I wanted to do was watch television or go outside with the hopes that the technical difficulties would sort themselves out.

They won't. They can't. But you can. So can I.

And we should.

Because you can't go anywhere at all -- let alone forward -- when you're standing still.

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Assessing Workflow

I started to give my workflow a good look during my reassessment -- and then I listened to Matt Alexander on Bionic #57 discussing the very idea of workflows. Matt's always made a lot of sense (my buddy Michael Schechter goes into things a little deeper in this post over at Workflowing), so I began to look at my workflow once again -- this time through a different lens.

And I realized that I'm doing a pretty good job with mine "as is".

If anything, I can use my current apps better. Things like Evernote and OmniFocus, for example. Instead of diving into apps that can become part of my productivity gestalt, I will use resources to help me get better at apps I'm already using so I can wring more out of them. Admittedly, Evernote is one app that I've still only scratched the surface with. So I'm going to re-read Brett Kelly's Evernote Essentials and make note of what more I can (and should) do with the app.1

The same goes for OmniFocus. I know I can get more out of it, so I'll dive deeper into Asian Efficiency's OmniFocus Premium Posts and make that happen where I can. I'll also revisit Kourosh Dini's books to see what else I can take from there and apply as well. After all, his most recent book is called Workflow.

My "productivity path" will remain the same, but it's time for me to draw from other resources and get better at using that path. Funnily, by completing the first two aspects of my assessment -- priorities and projects -- I have a much clearer head to get better at using the tools that help make up my workflow. That wouldn't be the case if I'd looked at my workflow first.

I look at the overall assessment I've done almost as if I've cleaned my "mental" desk. I figured out what was most important, decided what to work on going forward, and then put in place the things I needed to make that forward movement as efficient and effective as possible. I know the desk will get messy again at some point, but I only need to give it that really good clean when I just can't move forward with it as it stands. I'm not going to do it just for the sake of doing it (and avoiding doing the things I really need to be doing instead).

Now that my desk is clean, it's time to get to work. Really great work.

1 And its additional components.

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The Labour

Today we celebrate the achievement of the labourer -- the worker. That means you and me.

So let's look at what labour is.

Labour is defined as the following:

"productive work, especially physical toil done for wages."

But that's only the first definition. There are several others where "labour" is a noun, including:

difficult or arduous work or effort
a particular job or task, especially of a difficult nature
the process or effort of childbirth or the time during which this takes place

Then when it's a verb, there's these ones to consider:

to perform labour; work
to strive or work hard (for something)
to make one's way with difficulty
(of a woman) to be in labour

Whether looked at as a noun or a verb, one things is clear: labour is not easy. It's not easy in its delivery or in its demand. Labour is, by its very nature, difficult.

Which is why the payoff is generally very rewarding.

I use the word "generally" in that some forms of labour don't always have that great payoff you'd want. Sometimes it's because the expectation of the reward was too high. But sometimes it's because the difficulty of the labour was low. The problem is when the latter happens and yet the reward expectation is still high.

We should know better.

We should know that if the effort put in isn't that labourious that the reward won't be as satisfying as when the labour is more difficult. We should know that "garbage in" often means "garbage out" as well. Yet there are (and will be) times where knowing that doesn't stop us.

Sure, when we get better at something then the effort to produce similar results decreases. The more you write, the better you get (or should get) at writing. The more you rehearse, the better the final performance should be. The more you cook, the better you should get at cooking.

But there are times -- in some case too often -- where we stop worrying about getting better and just worry about getting done. We are okay with the reward. We are tired of tougher labour. It will happen for some things while other things flourish, but the danger is that it can happen for more things rather than some things. Worse, it can happen for the wrong things.

We should strive for better.

Look at the definitions of "labour" again. Specifically, focus on the last definition of the word as both a noun and a verb.

the process or effort of childbirth or the time during which this takes place
(of a woman) to be in labour

Think of the reward that comes after going through this type of labour.1 The payoff is huge. The effort expended to deliver such a payoff is unreal -- I've seen it twice and can't imagine going through it myself. So I asked someone who has: my wife. I asked her how it felt to go through the labour (in her best words) and then how it felt:

"(Labour was) the most physically and mentally challenging, most painful event of my life."

Today, I'm going to be labouring. I'm putting forth some serious effort to make some great things. Then I'll spend some time with my (and my wife's) greatest achievement: our kids.

I hope your day will be as much of a labour of love as mine.

Photo credit: vailiki via SXC.HU

1 I know that sometimes the reward doesn't happen as expected. For the purpose of this piece, I'd rather focus on the rewards that do rather than those that don't. As a father of two, I can't imagine how it feels when the reward isn't there at the end of it all -- and my heart breaks for those who do.

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Assessing Projects

After assessing my priorities first, the next thing to look at during my reassessment were my projects. This took some time as I've got many projects in various stages of completion, and the tough part was making sure I placed them in one of the following categories:

Pursue: Keep moving forward on the project.
Pause: Put the project on hold for a period of time.
Punt: Toss the project altogether.

(I find I work better using patterns in these sort of evaluations, so The 3 P System is a good fit for this exercise.)

One problem I have when I don't reassess my projects every once in a while is that too many of them end up in Pursue and not enough of others get moved to Punt. The other problem is that too many of them stay in the Pause category for longer than they should when I don't take a deeper look at them in the proper perspective (beyond my usual Weekly Review, of course).

I'll go through some examples of projects that needed to be moved to other categories after assessment.

The Productivityist Video Series

I've had my share of podcasts, and I've never had much of a problem shelving (or abandoning them) when they either don't fit any longer (Eventualism) or will encroach upon others I'm doing (ProductiVardy). A few months back I started to map out an ongoing video series for Productivityist, and it was progressing nicely. I'd planned a few episodes, had done some shooting, and even decided the best ways to deliver it. But as time went by I realized that I'd been delaying the effort consistently during my Weekly Review process every week once all of the aforementioned stuff was done.

When I took a closer look at all of my projects (both surrounding Productivityist and projects separate from the site), I realized that the timing wasn't right and I could find another way to make video happen down the road if I decided to rekindle the project.

So I moved all of the project files as notes into Evernote (under a notebook called Productivityist Videos) and deleted the project from OmniFocus. That way I still had the work stored somewhere but the bandwidth that project took up every week just by seeing them was eliminated along with the project itself.

Essentially, this project went from Pursue to Punt because I removed it completely from the task manager I use.

Various Comedy/Fiction Projects

I've spoken about my comedy background on several podcasts -- most recently The Better Guy Show -- and I still had a slew of them sitting in the Pause category in my task manager. In fact, all of my creative pursuits revolving around fiction still sat there, doing nothing other than reminding me that I wasn't moving forward on them.

I've never said I was going to give up comedy altogether -- but it's certainly not my focus any longer. Yet by leaving projects around comedy and fiction writing in the Pause section brought it forward every week to steal some of my focus -- focus that is needed elsewhere. So I did the same thing with these projects as I did with the video series one mentioned above. And things became a whole lot cleaner...and clearer.

These projects went from Pause to Punt because they'd been in holding for a while and hadn't seen the Pursue category in ages.

Valden

Remember when I was going to build my outdoor studio? Well,...that still hasn't happened. And it never will.

I realized that my time is (currently) better spent becoming more proficient at what I do here and elsewhere -- write, speak, and podcast. I know that eventually we'll have more floor space in our house, so when that happens I'll get my office. By focussing on my efforts with my own work -- work I already do well -- I'll get even better at it and earn more money at it. That means we'll take over the rest of our home sooner, meaning that I can have my office by simply working at becoming a better "productivityist" instead of a better handyman.

Valden has gone from Pause to Punt as well -- and it went from Pursue to Pause very early on in the process. This time I only kept decor ideas and moved them to Evernote because nothing else was really relevant based on my new plans.1

An Array of Products

The Productivityist Workbook has done very well, and I'd like to make more products. Workshops, more books, and so on are ideas that have come to mind and I'd like to get them started sooner rather than later.

But not all of them are going to be pursued at once. So the ones that are in progress now are staying Pursue, the ones that are up next will be in Pause until the current ones are completed (basically as one is finished another will begin), and the ones that don't fit the scheme of things anymore are being "punted" after this assessment.

When I first started assessing my projects -- Personal and Family ones included -- I had 31 projects altogether. Here's how they were categorized:

Pursue: 23
Pause: 8
Punt: 0

After the assessment, here's how things were sorted:

Pursue: 12
Pause: 11
Punt: 8

I've essentially cut my current project load in half by doing this assessment, and cleaned a good chunk of "dead" projects from my mind altogether. Based on the fact that several of the projects are ongoing ones (Productivityist.com, Mikes on Mics, Foster Beer Garden, etc.) I feel that I've still got both a manageable workload and a project list that will propel me forward in all of my life's priorities.

Next up: Assessing Workflow

1 I have yet to create a project called "New Home Office" in OmniFocus because it's still too far away to be in any category other than Pause. I'll likely add it to my projects as of November, when it's more than just a blip on the radar.

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Assessing Priorities

I recently assessed everything I had going on, and the first place I decided to look was the aspect of my life that would have the greatest impact on my projects and workflow: my priorities. By reassessing priorities first, the rest of the assessment becomes more aligned not only with where I am now...but with where I want to go.

I took a look at all of the areas of my life:

Personal
Family
Professional

Before I only had the Personal and Professional categories, but I noticed that there was lot of priorities in there that were getting lost in the shuffle. If you've got a family, then I suggest you also separate the personal aspect of your life from the family aspect because as much as they can intersect, they also have some clear differences. The separation of the two (by creating the Family area) allows me to be very clear with both areas, which was somewhat muddled before I decided to split the two of them up.

Once I started to break down my priorities in each area, I was able to see where certain ones impeded others. This often was the case whenever I examined professional priorities with ones in the other two categories. The key to assessing priorities is to make sure you look across all areas of your life at once. You can see where the overlapping takes place, where the outdated ones are, and where the categorization of priorities is misaligned. I'd placed some professional priorities in the personal area -- mainly because they somehow seemed more part of who I am than what I do.

Using paper when doing this exercise was a big plus for me.1 Here's how I used paper to make the assessment happen:

I captured all of my priorities under areas in list form.
Then I used the idea of The Crucial Cube for each area, placing the values of each area in the center and using the remaining quadrants in a fashion similar to The Eisenhower Matrix. (The Crucial Cube Exercise is included in The Productivityist Workbook .)
After evaluating the results for each "cube", I rewrote the initial list and then transferred it into Evernote as a note. (I put the list in my Evernote Smart Notebook for easy transfer -- and it also means I have my priorities recorded in the written notebook for easy access.)

These priorities won't go into my task manager. Instead, they'll inform my task manager when it comes to projects and tasks. By taking the time to assess my priorities once again, I've placed myself in a better state of mind going forward. That can only help me be more efficient and effective in what I really want to do -- and what I value doing as well.

Next up: Assessing Projects

Photo credit: zxyt via SXC.HU

1 Here's a post I'd written on The Big Paper Exercise, another exercise I use frequently.

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Winding Down the Week

This week has been a full one, which included a ton of writing yesterday. It was also a week full of happenings elsewhere, and I thought I'd shine a bit of a spotlight on them in this post.

The Better Guy Show

Gary Miller of A Better Guy was kind enough to have me on his podcast, and we spent over two and a half hours in conversation as a result. He's released the discussion in three parts, listed below:

How To Choose Work That Matters
Project Killing | How and Why To Let Go Even When It Hurts
The Business Of Writing and Why Working From Home Isn't Always Sexy

There's some stuff in there I haven't talked about before, including some of my guilty pleasures (one of which I seem to share with the host).

SXSW PanelPicker: Mindful Productivity

I finally pulled the trigger this year and submitted a talk to SXSW. I got together with Craig Jarrow (Time Management Ninja) and Marc and Angel Chernoff (Marc and Angel Hack Life) to create a panel discussion on something we all believe is more important now than ever before: being mindful when it comes to being productive. I'd love your help making it through this aspect of hte selection process, so if you could vote for our panel here, I'd really aprreciate it.

Mikes on Mics

This week's Mikes on Mics features guest Andy Traub, author of The Early to Rise Experience. We get into the whole early bird/night owl discussion (which is something that is somewhat relevant to an aspect of my manifesto) and we even got into some ideas for authors looking to have an even greater impact on their audience, both in terms of scale and service. Slippers are also mentioned, but you'll have to listen to the podcast to get the goods on that.

Experimentation

I've been using Less Meeting a little bit more over the past couple of weeks (and I'll share my thoughts on the service in a more comprehensive post soon). Focus@Will is getting almost as much equal playing time as Rdio lately, and my Evernote usage has undergone a bit of a change as well -- which was inspired by some of what Brett Kelly has included in his book Evernote Essentials. And my new OS X Mac app of choice, Airmail, made some changes in its beta that weren't just appealing to me...but the efficiency in which those changes were made was commendable.

I'm also looking forward to givng Haiku Deck a spin soon, not to mention the new weather app from Contrast (formerly known as AppCubby) called Perfect Weather (although I am really digging Mynd Calendar with my daily weather projections and the always handy Forecast.io for longer term forecasts).

And while I'm not diving into Todoist, I've read great things about it on the Productivity Community on Google+ and elsewhere.

The team at StackSocial has a promotion going on right now for one year of Todoist Premium for $13.99, but they've also given me the opportunity to give Productivityist readers a chance to win 1 of 3 free copies. The first three people to leave a comment on this post letting me know what you plan to do this weekend will get an email from me with the coupon code you'll need to get one year of Todoist Premium for free.

Next week I'll share more insights into the assessment I did recently, which included some adjustments in workflow -- and purging of some apps as well.

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The Process

I've been playing with Vine more recently (much to the chagrin of my Mikes on Mics co-host Mr. Schechter) and one of the "vines" I posted was a tongue-in-cheek one called "The Process", which I've embedded below.

The process is far from easy.

Sometimes the procedures get in the way of the process. The checking (or completing) of tasks that are to be done put the process in jeopardy. The assessing of tasks (or projects) on the list put the process on hold. The distractions and disruptions that are part of everyday life interrupt the process from time to time. And that's even when the process is so ingrained that it is second nature.

This is my first bit of writing posted here this week. I've posted 5 vines, many social media updates, and written a bunch of stuff that either isn't ready for primetime yet or never will be. I've made progress on a bunch of things, and that's due in part to clearing some of the other things that interfered with the process out of the way.

The process allows for progress.

It allows for procedures to be built -- and sustained. It allows for projects to be realized -- and kiboshed before they even really begin. The process is so long practiced that is almost innate, but the fact it isn't innate is actually a good thing. Because sometimes the process needs to take a back seat so that purpose can be explored once again.

Then the process can be applied once that exploration is complete. Until it needs to be done again. The process is never easy. It evolves when needed and is there regardless.

The video above is a very small part of the process. Knowing what to do, doing it, then acknowledging it is done. A series of processes is what makes up a day, a week, a month, a year.

A life.

But if you don't look past the process from time to time, then the process becomes more about doing and less about being. It becomes more robotic and less human. It becomes about quantity and less about quality.

The process is never easy. Neither is purpose (which can determine process) or progress (which can be achieved by process). That's why we tweak. That's why we fiddle. That's why we blindly do. Because doing that stuff is far easier -- both now and later.

I looked at my processes this week -- in writing and in a myriad of other things. I found some broken elements -- both in my processes and in my purpose -- and I'm making the adjustments needed to keep doing what I need (and want) to do today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and beyond.

And I know I'll have to do that again someday. I'm okay with that.

Are you?

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