Mike Vardy's Blog, page 115

Being Mindful with the Home Context

One of the most common contexts (or tags) used in task management apps is “Home” because there are certain things you can only do – or want to do – at that location.

But if you work from home, then using that word as a context can be problematic.

For one thing, it can be incredibly vague. It can encompass the entire home, which would include whatever room you use as an office. I don’t use the “Home” context very often at all, mainly for that reason. Instead, I’ll use particular rooms in the house where warranted (the kitchen, for example) and areas around the home (the yard, for example). I try to keep the word “home” out of the equation because I work from my home – I don’t want to muddy the waters.

I realize this may pose a problem when it comes to using geo-location. But considering I’m in my home for nearly every hour of the week, reminders of what to do at home (or when I get home) don’t really need to be set. The workaround for that would be to really look at the task associated with the context in this case. A task like “take out the garbage” is going to inform the context more than the context will inform the task.

There are other non-conventional contexts I use (like apps, energy levels, and others that I touched on during my OmniFocus Setup talk in January) and by limiting my use of a nondescript context like “Home” I’m in a better position to use ones that hold a deeper meaning.

If you spend most of your time at home, then you might want to consider keeping “Home” out of your contexts. It’ll help keep the work out of your home and the home out of your work at – which is exactly what you need to be more efficient and effective overall.

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Published on April 22, 2013 15:33

Being Mindful with the Home Context

One of the most common contexts (or tags) used in task management apps is “Home” because there are certain things you can only do – or want to do – at that location.

But if you work from home, then using that word as a context can be problematic.

For one thing, it can be incredibly vague. It can encompass the entire home, which would include whatever room you use as an office. I don’t use the “Home” context very often at all, mainly for that reason. Instead, I’ll use particular rooms in the house where warranted (the kitchen, for example) and areas around the home (the yard, for example). I try to keep the word “home” out of the equation because I work from my home – I don’t want to muddy the waters.

I realize this may pose a problem when it comes to using geo-location. But considering I’m in my home for nearly every hour of the week, reminders of what to do at home (or when I get home) don’t really need to be set. The workaround for that would be to really look at the task associated with the context in this case. A task like “take out the garbage” is going to inform the context more than the context will inform the task.

There are other non-conventional contexts I use (like apps, energy levels, and others that I touched on during my OmniFocus Setup talk in January) and by limiting my use of a nondescript context like “Home” I’m in a better position to use ones that hold a deeper meaning.

If you spend most of your time at home, then you might want to consider keeping “Home” out of your contexts. It’ll help keep the work out of your home and the home out of your work at – which is exactly what you need to be more efficient and effective overall.

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Published on April 22, 2013 14:01

The Productivity Path

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There’s a task funnel I’ve been using more and more – something I call The Productivity Path – and it has proven to remove quite a bit of friction from my work life and life outside of work. My particular path is one that those who have invested in iOS and OS X devices can use, and it’s actually quite simple to adopt.

On my iOS devices, Drafts is the “launching pad” for all of my tasks that don’t come from email messages. If it’s a task – something that is actionable – then it gets entered in Drafts and immediately sent to OmniFocus. I don’t add contexts or anything during this process; it’s all about getting it to the right inbox as quickly as possible. If it’s something that is more of a reference item or isn’t solely a task itself gets sent to Evernote.

So while I capture things in Drafts (both for the iPhone and iPad), they certainly don’t stay there for long.

If a task comes in via email, I’ll forward it to my OmniFocus Mail Drop address. I’ll rename the subject to clearly define the task, but I still don’t add contexts and the like during this phase. I do that when I’m in my OmniFocus inbox. When reference items come in via email, i’ll send it to my Evernote email address.

For OS X, I use Postbox as my email app and that allows me to clip items slated for Evernote to be added through the app’s Evernote integration. Tasks are sent to OmniFocus via my Mail Drop address, just like I do on my iOS devices.

As for direct entry, I’m using Alfred more and more for that. I used to use Shawn Blanc’s Oopsie Focus script to quick enter into OmniFocus when the app wasn’t open, but Alfred has workflows that take care of that now. Even the OmniFocus “quick entry” option isn’t something I use nearly as much now that Alfred 2 is around. In fact, the only reasons I’ll use either of the old methods is because they are so ingrained in my mind. The more I play with Alfred, the more it will become ingrained.

From the browser, I use the “Send to…” option provided for OmniFocus and the Evernote Web Clipper does the trick for my reference and research materials.1

As you can see, I generally use three points of entry for anything I need to keep in Evernote or OmniFocus (the apps I use for reference material and task management). Those are the apps I use, but The Productivity Path can be put in place for a wide variety of other apps and other platforms (Drafts can send captured items to other apps that are alternatives to what I use). I encourage you to find something that will allow you to create The Productivity Path that is ideal for you. You might find that not just knowing where your stuff is supposed to go -- but knowing how you are consistently going to put it there -- can really take your productivity to the next level.

1 While I have them installed on my mobile versions of Safari, I rarely use them on those devices. Instead I’ll just share links via email and send them to whatever address makes sense.

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Published on April 21, 2013 13:58

The Productivity Path

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There’s a task funnel I’ve been using more and more – something I call The Productivity Path – and it has proven to remove quite a bit of friction from my work life and life outside of work. My particular path is one that those who have invested in iOS and OS X devices can use, and it’s actually quite simple to adopt.

On my iOS devices, Drafts is the “launching pad” for all of my tasks that don’t come from email messages. If it’s a task – something that is actionable – then it gets entered in Drafts and immediately sent to OmniFocus. I don’t add contexts or anything during this process; it’s all about getting it to the right inbox as quickly as possible. If it’s something that is more of a reference item or isn’t solely a task itself gets sent to Evernote.

So while I capture things in Drafts (both for the iPhone and iPad), they certainly don’t stay there for long.

If a task comes in via email, I’ll forward it to my OmniFocus Mail Drop address. I’ll rename the subject to clearly define the task, but I still don’t add contexts and the like during this phase. I do that when I’m in my OmniFocus inbox. When reference items come in via email, i’ll send it to my Evernote email address.

For OS X, I use Postbox as my email app and that allows me to clip items slated for Evernote to be added through the app’s Evernote integration. Tasks are sent to OmniFocus via my Mail Drop address, just like I do on my iOS devices.

As for direct entry, I’m using Alfred more and more for that. I used to use Shawn Blanc’s Oopsie Focus script to quick enter into OmniFocus when the app wasn’t open, but Alfred has workflows that take care of that now. Even the OmniFocus “quick entry” option isn’t something I use nearly as much now that Alfred 2 is around. In fact, the only reasons I’ll use either of the old methods is because they are so ingrained in my mind. The more I play with Alfred, the more it will become ingrained.

From the browser, I use the “Send to…” option provided for OmniFocus and the Evernote Web Clipper does the trick for my reference and research materials.1

As you can see, I generally use three points of entry for anything I need to keep in Evernote or OmniFocus (the apps I use for reference material and task management). Those are the apps I use, but The Productivity Path can be put in place for a wide variety of other apps and other platforms (Drafts can send captured items to other apps that are alternatives to what I use). I encourage you to find something that will allow you to create The Productivity Path that is ideal for you. You might find that not just knowing where your stuff is supposed to go — but knowing how you are consistently going to put it there — can really take your productivity to the next level.

1While I have them installed on my mobile versions of Safari, I rarely use them on those devices. Instead I’ll just share links via email and send them to whatever address makes sense.

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Published on April 21, 2013 05:12

A Simple Way to Keep Your Email Inbox Under Control

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I’ve been reading Mark Hurst’s Bit Literacy and came across a tip that I’ve employed for eons but others may not have thought of before. In fact, I never even thought to share it (until earlier this week on Twitter during #prodchat) because it just seemed second nature to me now.

It’s a simple tip that will help you keep your email inbox under control, and you can make this simple adjustment now and begin to see it pay immediate dividends (whether you use your email inbox as a task manager or not.1

Here it is: Change your inbox settings so that the oldest message appears at the top.

Now this can’t be done on iOS devices yet – at least not in a way that I’m aware of – but if you do this on your main mail application either in its web interface (Gmail, for example) or in your email client (Outlook, Mail.app, Postbox, etc.) then the email you received least recently will be at the top. This will keep it in your face when you review your email and will help you deal with it sooner (which you should, since older email messages arrived in your inbox sooner than your most recent ones).

While this tip may not help you get to inbox zero (which is the wrong zero to chase anyway), it will help you deal with email in a way that it should be dealt with: first in, first out.

1 That said, you really shouldn’t use your email client as a task manager. There are applications that do that sort of thing far better: OmniFocus, Things, Asana, Flow, Doit.im, Astrid, IQTell…and the list goes on.

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Published on April 19, 2013 11:16

I Don’t Normally Use an Alarm Clock…

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But when I do, I use Sleep Cycle.

Sleep Cycle is an iPhone alarm clock app that essentially monitors my sleep patterns so that I am woken up during my lightest sleep phase. Seeing as I’m a night owl, Sleep Cycle comes in handy when I absolutely must get up at a certain time. (Today would be an example of such an occasion.)

There’s not much to the app in terms of set up. You simply choose the time you want to wake up and it creates a window of time that ensures you’ll be roused before that time. My window is set for 30 minutes, but you can customize it to lengthen or shorten that. When you’re ready to hit the sack you start the alarm process and place your iPhone underneath the top sheet on your bed — screen side down. The app recommends that you make sure your iPhone is plugged in, but I’ve been able to avoid doing that (our bed really isn’t conveniently located near a plug) and haven’t had any issues.

No other alarm clock has really worked out for me as well as Sleep Cycle. I’ve tried WakeMate and a slew of other iOS alarm clock apps. I’ve even gone so far as to pick up a Clocky, but even it proved to be ineffective. Sleep Cycle gives me a lot of flexibility and doesn’t mess with my body clock — and that’s something I’m a huge fan of when it comes to productivity.

I’ll dig a bit deeper into the features of Sleep Cycle in the future (it has a lot of them). In the meantime, if you’re yet to find an iOS alarm clock app that works for you, I’d encourage you to give Sleep Cycle a try. It might just be the alarm clock for you.

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Published on April 15, 2013 08:34

How to Beat Task Paralysis

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We all come up against a wall every now and then. There just seems to be something stopping us from moving forward, and in some cases we can’t quite put our finger on it. It’s frustrating. You stare at your list of tasks and can’t move at all. You’re stuck in what I call “task paralysis” – and it’s not a fun place to be.

Task paralysis is often broguht on by one of three things:

The list of tasks is so long that it is overwhelming.
There are things on your list that aren’t tasks at all.
You’ve misaligned your tasks so that you can’t move forward with them.

Here’s how you can deal with each one of these and get back to the “going forward” rather than “going nowhere” instead.

1. The Lengthy List

Take a good look at your list. Identify the three most important tasks you can do to move forward or make progress1. Start a replacement list and list those, numbering them accordingly. Then take the remaining tasks and ask yourself if they really need to be done today, done by you, or even done at all. This is where EISENHOWER.ME can come in handy, as it uses The Eisenhower Matrix to help you categorize priorities more effectively (and realistacly to boot). Whatever you deicde needs to stay on the list, move to the new list. Whatever doesn’t, assign it accordingly (to a future date, to somewhere else, ot to the trash bin). Now you can move forward with the confidence that you’ve really thought about the day as a whole and can make realistic progress throughout hte day as a result.

2. The Wrong Identification

Take a good look at your list. Look at each item on the list and ask yourself if that item requires multiple steps to complete. For example, “Clean Kitchen” would be an item that requires more than one step to complete. There are several areas within the kitchen that would need to be cleaned (sweep the floor, clean the fridge, take out the garbage, etc.). That means it isn’t a task – it’s a project. That may sound silly to some, but it’s a fact. Take any mutiple step items on your list and create a new list for each of them. Then break down that larger item into the smaller tasks that make that item a project. Then feel free to move some of those tasks to your to-do list rather than work of the project lists themselves. That said, if you decide that you want to work on each proejct alongside your original (and now properly identified) task list, then go ahead. Properly classifying tasks in their purest definition (a single action) makes things a lot clearer. Clarity is a huge ally when it comes to being productive.

3. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Take a good look at your list. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) Then check out your surroundings. Are there things on your list that you can take care of in your present surrounsdings – meaning where you are with what you have? If not, then you’ve got a list that isn’t aligned with where you were going to be or what you were going to have. This is going to be rarer than the other examples because with smartphones we can often be anywhere and have a tool that can help us move forward with what we need (and want) to do.Still, the use of proper context (or tags) is crucial so that you can keep on topof things no matter where you are or what you have. If you’re using a paper planner, then it may be a good idea to use a code for different locations (a different colour ink or something like “E - Pick up drycleaning” where “E” means Errands). Find something that will resonate with you – but think about who you are and what you work best with so that you can find that something. Everyone will have their own variation of what works for them. Take the time to figure out yours – and make it a priority to implement it into your workflow.

Task paralysis isn’t permanent. It can be overcome with a thoughtful approach to the tasks you have to deal with – whether you’re stuck on them or otherwise. I can’t stress enough how doing that all-important “front end work” will limit the number of occasions you face task paralysis (among other things). With that in place, you’ll be able to go forward rather than go off madly in all directions – or in the case of task paralysis – go nowhere at all.

1For a whole lot more on contexts, check out the various talks at The OmniFocus Setup.

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Published on April 13, 2013 03:09

How to Beat Task Paralysis

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We all come up against a wall every now and then. There just seems to be something stopping us from moving forward, and in some cases we can’t quite put our finger on it. It’s frustrating. You stare at your list of tasks and can’t move at all. You’re stuck in what I call “task paralysis” – and it’s not a fun place to be.

Task paralysis is often brought on by one of three things:

The list of tasks is so long that it is overwhelming.There are things on your list that aren’t tasks at all.You’ve misaligned your tasks so that you can’t move forward with them.

Here’s how you can deal with each one of these and get back to the “going forward” rather than “going nowhere” instead.

1. The Lengthy List

Take a good look at your list. Identify the three most important tasks you can do to move forward or make progress1. Start a replacement list and list those, numbering them accordingly. Then take the remaining tasks and ask yourself if they really need to be done today, done by you, or even done at all. This is where EISENHOWER.ME can come in handy, as it uses The Eisenhower Matrix to help you categorize priorities more effectively (and realistically to boot). Whatever you decide needs to stay on the list, move to the new list. Whatever doesn’t, assign it accordingly (to a future date, to somewhere else, to to the trash bin). Now you can move forward with the confidence that you’ve really thought about the day as a whole and can make realistic progress throughout the day as a result.

2. The Wrong Identification

Take a good look at your list. Look at each item on the list and ask yourself if that item requires multiple steps to complete. For example, “Clean Kitchen” would be an item that requires more than one step to complete. There are several areas within the kitchen that would need to be cleaned (sweep the floor, clean the fridge, take out the garbage, etc.). That means it isn’t a task – it’s a project. That may sound silly to some, but it’s a fact. Take any multiple step items on your list and create a new list for each of them. Then break down that larger item into the smaller tasks that make that item a project. Then feel free to move some of those tasks to your to-do list rather than work of the project lists themselves. That said, if you decide that you want to work on each project alongside your original (and now properly identified) task list, then go ahead. Properly classifying tasks in their purest definition (a single action) makes things a lot clearer. Clarity is a huge ally when it comes to being productive.

3. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Take a good look at your list. (Are you sensing a pattern here?) Then check out your surroundings. Are there things on your list that you can take care of in your present surroundings – meaning where you are with what you have? If not, then you’ve got a list that isn’t aligned with where you were going to be or what you were going to have. This is going to be rarer than the other examples because with smartphones we can often be anywhere and have a tool that can help us move forward with what we need (and want) to do.Still, the use of proper context (or tags) is crucial so that you can keep on top of things no matter where you are or what you have. If you’re using a paper planner, then it may be a good idea to use a code for different locations (a different colour ink or something like “E – Pick up dry cleaning” where “E” means Errands). Find something that will resonate with you – but think about who you are and what you work best with so that you can find that something. Everyone will have their own variation of what works for them. Take the time to figure out yours – and make it a priority to implement it into your workflow.

Task paralysis isn’t permanent. It can be overcome with a thoughtful approach to the tasks you have to deal with – whether you’re stuck on them or otherwise. I can’t stress enough how doing that all-important “front end work” will limit the number of occasions you face task paralysis (among other things). With that in place, you’ll be able to go forward rather than go off madly in all directions – or in the case of task paralysis – go nowhere at all.

1For a whole lot more on contexts, check out the various talks at The OmniFocus Setup.

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Published on April 12, 2013 10:00

Exploring Mastery: A New Approach to Productivity

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On the most recent episode of Mikes on Mics, Schechter and I had a great round table with Thanh Pham of Asian Efficiency (creators of OmniFocus Premium Posts) and Kourosh Dini, author of Creating Flow with OmniFocus (which I’m currently re-reading). One of the things that came up was the idea of mastery, especially regarding the topic of productivity and workflow. Schechter made a point of saying that I’m a student of productivity — something I completely agree with — but it was also something that got me thinking.

I do spend time exploring and learning about new apps all the time. From my days at The Next Web right through until the emergence of this site, I’ve continued to do that. Meanwhile, my approach to mastery has been more along the lines of the mindful components of productivity and workflow as opposed to the mastery of tools. I think this was definitely the right course — and still is. But I’m going to make a bit of a shift in my approach to exploration and mastery going forward.

I really do enjoy exploring, but I’m going to explore mastery of apps that I enjoy using (and that work for me) rather than spend time exploring new apps (or options). That doesn’t mean I’m not going to look at new apps. But I’ll be even more selective about those I do examine, and will spend less time in them if they don’t give me that “Hell, yeah!” sensation that warrants them becoming part of my app toolbox.

Instead, I’m going to explore the depths of those apps I do use regularly, and cull those apps that I don’t. I’m going to dive deeper into Evernote (which I’m already doing), look at my writing apps and see which ones can serve me best on multiple fronts (read: nvALT), and I’m going to do this over a period of time that doesn’t slow my progress while doing so.

This isn’t a new thing. For example, Patrick Rhone has his “enough” — and it’s safe to say it works for him. My old “enough” is now too much, so I’m going to redefine my “enough” by adding more quality while reducing quantity.

My goal has always been to stop doing productive and start being productive. This new approach will help me get closer to realizing that goal on an ongoing basis.

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Published on April 09, 2013 14:31

Starting With Why

This TEDx talk by Simon Sinek works on so many levels, but especially with the idea of that I’m trying to convey in my work. Take the time to watch it – it’s one of the best talks I’ve seen.