Mike Vardy's Blog, page 118

Out of Whack

The reason I review is so that I can make sure I’m not getting out of whack. As inconvenient as it may be to look at where the going is taking you, it’s essential. Reviewing helps to remove friction…even though conducting a review can be a form of friction at first.

I’m writing this as I sit in my chiropractor’s office, waiting to get an adjustment. I haven’t seen her in a while — I didn’t feel as if I needed to — but since I began the process of getting back into shape I’ve noticed things weren’t right from the get-go. My left hip feels out of place. It really felt out of whack during my run on Monday. So I’m getting some maintenance done, which might have been averted had I reviewed myself in this regard regularly. If I’d been coming to see my chiropractor even while I wasn’t trying to get into shape then my body wouldn’t have been so out of whack…or perhaps it wouldn’t have been out of whack at all.1

You need to review your body of work — what you’ve done and you still have to do — regularly. That way you can spend less time out of whack and more time on the track.

1 Following my appointment, my chiropractor told me that based on where I’m at, a visit once per season is good. I guess I was in better shape than I thought — or felt.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Taking Advantage of Mail Drop

Mail Drop isn’t necessarily a new feature for OmniFocus users, but perhaps the way I have just started using it will be.

Or perhaps I should say the way “we” have just started using it.

Spurred on by the conversation Michael Schechter and I had with Gentry Underwood (CEO of Orchestra, the developers behind the incredibly popular Mailbox iOS app) on Episode 55 of Mikes on Mics, I’ve decided to make my Mail Drop address one that I share with my wife. We’re going to see if we can alter our communication behaviour enough so that she uses my Mail Drop address for anything she wants me to do, and my regular Gmail address for everything else.

I’ve already been forwarding tasks from my various mail apps (Postbox on Mac, Mailbox on iPhone, Mail.app on iPad) to my Mail Drop address, and now I’m inviting the most important person in my life to email tasks directly there instead. We’ve tried Flow in the past — she liked it, but not enough to make her use it on a full-time basis1 — so we’re going to try doing this and see if we can skip the email inbox for tasks and go right to the OmniFocus inbox.

Will it stick? I’m not sure. But it certainly is worth a shot.

1 At this point Flow would be my ideal collaborative task manager, so if this sticks then maybe a return to Flow might be in the cards for us as a team.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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It Doesn’t Just Happen Overnight

Making adjustments is a part of improving your productivity. But those adjustments, while some are done in one fell swoop, don’t always have an impact right away.

Think of that front end work I’ve talked about before. You could say that the impact of it won’t be felt for some time — even a long time. But it will last.

I’ve started to get back into a fitness routine. I began that journey last week. I’ve had many “restarts” when it comes to that aspect of my life — and I’ve had to take my own advice from The Front Nine with this latest attempt. I have dropped the ball a lot, even though I knew that picking it up again was going to be on my radar soon enough. My problem with getting back into exercise is that I took the wrong approach time and time again. I didn’t look inward enough and realize what would work best for me…I simply tried to force it.1

And that is one thing that is never simple.

This time around, I’ve been more mindful and thoughtful about my approach. Additionally, I’ve paired those attributes up with being realistic. I know what will compel me to stick with it this time, and am keeping that at top of mind. I’ve placed it as a priority in my apps of choice and it most certainly is a repeating task in OmniFocus. I’m listening to myself and my habits, and am putting myself in the best situation to succeed.

I just need to do my part. And while an app or piece of paper can inform me, it can’t perform for me.

The same thing goes for anything else that you might be struggling with (whether that’s simply because you’re stuck or not prepared for the struggle in advance by doing that all-important front end work). If you go in with the mindset that it doesn’t just happen overnight, then you will be able to better handle it when it does happen.

1 As for what my new routine is, I’m not going to share it just yet. I’ve found that sharing this kind of thing too quickly works against me rather than for me. When I’m ready, I’ll let you know.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Why You Should Use Universal Tags

One of the most effective things you can do with apps like Evernote, nvALT, Flow, Asana, and others is to invest in the use of tags. By using tags, you are creating easily searchable identifiers for your notes, tasks, and/or projects so that you can access them whenever you want quickly and easily.

That’s why it’s key to make sure that when you’re using tags that you keep them as universal as possible across all of your apps. (If you’re using OmniFocus, which uses contexts instead of tags, then you can apply those contexts as tags in the other apps you’re using.)

For example, if you’re using Flow as your task manager of choice and Evernote to store notes for those tasks and projects, then it’s a good idea to use similarly-named identifiers across both. I’ll use “Writing” as a tag in Flow and if I’m compiling research for written work in Evernote, then I’ll be sure to tag those notes as “Writing”, but as mentioned in my tagging strategy on Evernote, I’ll tack the letter “v” onto the end of it.

You can only keep track of so many things in your head. Since your task manager and capture tools helps out with a lot of that, all that is left is knowing what to look for within your task manager and capture tools. The benefit of universal tags is that you don’t need to know nearly as much, which is just enough to get you to where you need to be so that you can get doing what you need — or want — to do.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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How I Get Unstuck

Yesterday I got stuck.

So stuck, in fact, that I got very little done, let alone writing. I had my list of tasks that I was meant to work on, but I just couldn’t make marked progress on any of them. Sure, I’ve talked about I’ve used Unstuck to get out of situations like this — most recently on the Unstuck site itself — but even it wasn’t going to help me this time around. That’s because this kind of “stuck” was brought on by forces outside of my work life, and I knew it was only going to be temporary.

Still, it was frustrating.

So I tried other ways to get out that state of “stuckness” instead. I’ve used all of these methods at one time or another when the events of an email gone wrong or some other item of note has me off my game. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find some of the following helpful in your war against stuck.

Walk Away

The first thing I’ll do is walk away from my computer and try something else. Often I’ll do the dishes or tidy up around the house in order to get my mind in a place where it can start to tackle the work challenges once again. A change of pace and scenery can do wonders, and I have found that simply by walking away that I have a renewed sense of vigor when I return to the keyboard.

Exercise

Another thing I’ll do to get unstuck is to exercise. The best way for me to get back into some sort of flow is to go for a run, with or without a soundtrack of some sort playing through my earbuds. Further to that, I’m using the Nike+ Running app to monitor how I’m doing and I’ve connected it to Path so that my inner circle of friends using it can cheer me on. That combination of getting my body moving and having my friends there in the background to pat me on the back when I’m done creates both a sense of accomplishment and gets my mind moving again.

Cook

I really do like cooking…and lately I haven’t been doing enough of it. So I’m trying to use instances of stuck to get me back into the hobby. Cooking is one of those hobbies that can serve a larger purpose when you’ve got a family to feed (unlike my newest hobby, building up a beer cellar). I’ve been adding recipes to Basil regularly, but I’ll often just pull out one of the paper-based cookbooks we have and start going. Whether it’s baking fresh croutons or making a killer slow-cooked dish, making food can also increase my appetite for making words when I’m stuck in the deepest sense of the word.

Video Games

I don’t play many video games at all. But when I do, it’s almost always on my XBOX 360 and it’s usually when I’m stuck and need to find my way out. The games I play have an ending, though…and fairly quick ones at that. I generally play sports games (football, hockey, etc.) because I can play one game at a time and get sucked in too deep. I’ve enjoyed playing RPGs in the past — and still do so in my leisure time — but when I know I’m stuck I don’t play those. It can be too tempting to stay in that world instead of coming back into the real world….and that’s a whole different kind of stuck that you don’t want to find yourself in.

Switch Up Your Tools

One of the reasons I have several apps as part of my workflow is that when I get stuck I can use any one of them to help me get out. I can use:

EISENHOWER to help me get my priorities in order30/30 to help me allocate time to certain tasks (if I want to go that route)My Minutes to look at what areas I’m trying to spend time in “deliberate practice” on (like guitar) and shift into one of those areas instead of the one I’m stuck in

There are other I’ll use (like *bloom to push me into something more unconventional to do that might get me out of my funk or Day One to journal my way out), and there’s also paper to work with — which I use regularly.

Whether it is switching up the app you’re using to get you back into the groove or switching up the platform you’re using (going from digital to analog, for example), it can really help to get me out of that state of “stuckness” by using a different tool.

You’re going to get stuck every once in a while — that’s inevitable. That’s not the problem. The problem is when you spend too much time being stuck; that’s when productivity can really grind to a halt. I invite you to try any or all of the above to help you get out of “stuck”, and get into getting things done.

(And if you’ve got some suggestions on how to get unstuck, let me know. I’d love to hear them and give them a try.)

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Why You Need to Be Ahead of Yourself

When it comes to personal productivity, we don’t necessarily approach things with a clear mind. That’s because our mind is full of so much that we have to do that we can’t possibly be at our best. We rush in, like a driver behind the wheel who is only looking to get to where they need to go as fast as they can. But rushing in is rarely the best course of action. When you do that, you’re careless with your actions. That means you may miss some things, you may overdo other things, and you may miss out on opportunities that you rush right past.

Yet being ahead of yourself is something worth exploring.

Being ahead of yourself isn’t the same as rushing in. When you’re ahead of yourself, you’re far more aware. You’re the driver that is looking further down the road to see who else is on it and what they are doing that can impact your own activity. You’re the driver that makes clearer choices about when to change lanes, when to slow down, and when to speed up. You’re the driver who is efficient and effective, and you’re not forsaking one for the other.

Being ahead of yourself simply means you’re prepared. You’ve done your “front end work” such as setting up a system of task management that works for you. You’ve thought things through so that you’re not trying to check off all the boxes, just the right ones. Your approach is mindful because you’ve put yourself in a position of having a clear mind. You’re ahead of where you’re going to be when the time comes to make decisions about what to do, which means you’ll make better decisions about what to do.

One of the best things you can do to get ahead of yourself is to do things that put you in control of your day – and do that on a regular basis. An example of something that would keep your day out of your control is to check your email first thing in the morning (and too often throughout the day). When you put email first, you are putting the requests – or demands – of others before your own. That can set you up for a day of disappointment – or even resentment, which will lead to a less productive day.1

That practice doesn’t mean you are treating email with any less value – it just means you are treating yourself with more value than what shows up in your inbox. To get ahead of yourself with email, check it at day’s end and figure out what needs doing off the top of the next day (if anything), and go from there. Then you’re wrapping up your day with the knowledge that any email that came in before quitting time is ready for you to deal with further the next workday.

There are other ways you can be ahead of yourself consistently other than treating email differently, and each set of circumstances is going to be different for each person. Regardless of what other elements of your life you choose to get ahead of yourself with, just make sure you take steps to get there on several fronts. By being ahead of yourself, you’re not only going to find you’re improving your own productivity – you’re going to find that you’re going to be putting yourself first a lot more often.

1 I have a Ready Retreat dedicated to email management, along with a digital workbook on the topic that you might want to check out.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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The Plight of Molly Campbell

This is the first post I’ve written here since the transition from Vardy.me to Productivityist.com that is fairly removed from the topic of productivity in some form or another. But it’s one I wanted to write anyway…because it was an important one to write.

This piece is about Molly Campbell, a little girl from my community that only has one thing on her to do list: beat cancer.

Despite the Campbell family living in my neighborhood and that some of her siblings go to my daughter’s school, I’ve never really seen Molly…to my knowledge. That said, I know she has played on the playground at the school, among all of the other kids her age. I couldn’t pinpoint her in the crowd because she was playing like any other child — just like my own two-year old son — which really is the point. Her cancer was in remission, she was healthy, and she was doing what she was supposed to be doing: being a kid.

Now she’s fighting cancer once again. That’s something a kid shouldn’t have to do. It’s something no one should have to do.

Molly is currently at a hospital that I’ve heard fellow 70Decibels host Stephen Hackett mention many times on his site, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. After what Stephen has said about the facility — and what I’ve heard third-hand about what Molly and her family is experiencing there — I’m certain she’s getting the best care possible. Even though her family isn’t completely together (part of her family is here in Victoria, her parents are with her in Memphis), where she is right now is the best place she could be…given the circumstances.

But ideally, she should be at home….cancer-free.

There’s not much I can do, but I’m going to do what I can.

I’m donating a personalized productivity session to the auction taking place at our local coffeehouse on March 2nd. The session will be two hours long and will cover productivity topics of the winner’s choosing. They will also get a free copy of all 4 Ready Retreat Digital Workbooks and a copy of The Front Nine e-book. I’m donating two of these (which are valued at $265 each) so if you live in or around the Greater Victoria area, I encourage you to come by and help support a worthy cause.I’m going to offer a way to allow those who want to donate can do so…and here is a link that will help you do just that.I’m going to look into becoming a bone marrow donor as well. Fellow Canadians can explore that option here and Americans can look into it here. It’s notoriously tough to find a donor, and Molly has already had two transplants. The more people that put themselves up for testing, the more samples there are to test which will ultimately lead to more donors. That means more chances for those who need transplants. It’s as simple as that.

Finally, I’m also going to keep Molly and her family in my thoughts. And I hope that if nothing else, you’ll do the same. Because cancer — which has affected me in that my father had skin cancer and cancer has claimed the lives of my father-in-law and my grandmother — sucks…and it needs to be stopped.

For more on Molly, visit the website dedicated to her plight.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Pre-Playing

Today as we walked home from school together, my daughter and her friend — who was coming over for a play-date — were a few steps behind me and my son, speaking quietly to each other. As I gave a closer listen, I discovered that they were talking about the roles they were going to play when they arrived at our house for the play-date. I decided to pry a little further.

“What are you doing?”

“We’re deciding who we’re going to be when we get home so that we can get right into playing,” my daughter said.

I was even more curious.

“Why? You have lots of time.”

“We want to be able to envision who we are so that we don’t waste any time with all that before we start the actual playing,” she replied.

“So you’re pre-playing?”

“Yes,” she answered matter-of-factly.

I smiled to myself.

At eight years old, my daughter has learned what a little bit of front end work can do for you — even when you’re doing it for play.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Pause and Affect

The pause is one of the most valuable buttons on a remote control. It’s also one of the most valuable actions you can take when trying to be more productive. Sure, by pausing you are suspending one type of action…but you are doing so in favour of another: thinking.

When you pause, you are taking a short break in order to shift focus. There is thoughtfulness behind that, perhaps even mindfulness at times. I’ll pause during the writing process to form a better sentence. I’ll pause a show on Netflix when I need to get up to do something else. I will pause when the time calls for it so that I can get the most out of what I’m doing.

A pause is different than a stop. A stop means you’re done…at least for now. A pause means you’re taking a break from the present action…but only for a moment. The pause can add to the value of the action, whereas the stop ends it.

I pause a lot more these days. I pause when I read about a service like Vine so that I can give signing up for it more immediate thought than immediate action. I pause my planning when I drink my morning coffee just so I can better connect with that moment — and enjoy the cup all the more as a result.

I try to pause intentionally, though. I don’t let distractions or disruptions get the better of me as much as they used to. I think because I have gotten better at pressing pause that I’m able to ward them off far better.

A pause helps you deal with your to do list — especially the important things on it — better. Even things that are urgent can benefit from a pause. The pause can affect your work and your life in ways that going full speed cannot. You can see things better. You can see things clearer. You can see things prosper.

When you’re always on the go, things become gone that much faster. But not necessarily done that much faster.

For some people, today is the start of another work week. For others, that may have been yesterday…and for others still, tomorrow. Do yourself a favour and take at least one pause today. Take a long, deliberate pause — one that is outside of your comfort zone. Then ease back into the day and see where that pause will take you.

You’ll be surprised how much further you’ll go, how much more focused you’ll be, and how much more you’ll see when you press pause every once in a while.

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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Getting Better in 2013: ThisLife

I joined ThisLife when it first was available thinking it would be the ideal place for my wife and I to share photos, no matter what device they were taken with (her iPhone 3GS or my 4S) and no matter when they were taken. I started to populate ThisLife with a lot of my photos from 2012, and was preparing to do some that famous “front end work” that I talk about when suddenly…they were acquired. That gave me pause.

In fact, it initiated a full stop.

Shutterfly acquired ThisLife just seven days into 2013, after I’d listed the service as one i’d like to get better acquainted with this year. When Instagram was acquired by Facebook, I quickly closed me account. I haven’t done that with ThisLife…yet.

I’m not the only one, either. Dave Caolo over at 52Tiger was less than enthusiastic about the acquisition as well. I don’t know if he’s bailed yet, but I have yet to add anything to ThisLife since January 7th. I’m back to using iPhoto – and I’m thinking that if I do the front end work with the “sensible default” that Apple provides that maybe I can get along just fine with that.

ThisLife was meant to help me be more efficient and effective with my photos – giving me a means to share them not only with my wife, but with others as I see fit. But maybe ThisLife’s acquisition has managed to make that happen anyway since I’m now dealing with one less service to get better acquainted with in 2013.

(What’s next on the “Getting Better in 2013″ list? I’m thinking…Alfred)

Want to start the year you want anytime you want? Pick up my new e-book published by Diversion Books The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want for just $4.99 today!

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