Mike Vardy's Blog, page 121

Hacking Lifehacks

Over the past day or so I’ve exchanged a few tweets with Clewless that alludes to a post I’d written about Lifehacker over a year ago.

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Even with the additions of the “How I Work” series and an increase in content that I’m enjoying up until the beginning of this month, they still publish material that keeps that old post in the back of my mind.

It’s those pieces of material – the ones that I’m not fond of at all – that also reminded me of a TEDx talk I did just over a year and a half ago called Hacking Lifehacks: Reimagining How We Speed the Right Things Up So We Can Slow the Right Things Down. While the delivery is okay (I’ve improved quite a bit since 2011 with my speaking), I believe the theme of the talk still holds true – along with a great deal of the content.

I think things like using coins to open bags of chips isn’t where the future of lifehacks lies. In fact, I don’t even think these really are lifehacks at all. If anything, they should be called “MacGyvers” as an homage to the fictional television character who was able to use what he had to do something outside of the realm. I think those types of posts belong on MakeUseOf far more than Lifehacker…but maybe that’s just me.

I invite you to check out my TEDx talk below and decide for yourself. Considering I wrote and gave this talk almost two years ago and seeing that practical productivity seems to be on the rise1 while these “mutated” lifehacks appear to be on the decline, maybe the writing was on the wall even back then.

1 Don’t get me wrong…there are a lot of people still using Lifehacker as a resource for practical productivity tools, tips, and tricks. Is the other stuff that I believe are hurting more than helping the idea of lifehacks.

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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Check Yourself

Before you start looking at checking off any of the tasks on your to-do list, check yourself first. It may sound a bit ridiculous, but it can be a real time-saver.

Why?

Because when you check yourself first you have a better chance to grasp what you really are capable of doing on that to-do list. Capability can boil down to energy level, limitations of time and space, or the level of desire. No matter what it is, by checking yourself you are more attuned with the list you’ve made…as well as yourself.

The saying “check yourself before you wreck yourself” isn’t too far off from the truth when you really think about it with productivity in mind.

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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Drafts: A Truly Indispenable iOS App

I’ve written about my text editors of choice before, and while I still use Byword and Scrivener for their respective strengths, there is one app I use that is by far the most indispensable.

And that app is Drafts by Agile Tortoise for the iPhone and iPad.

Today the app saw another great update, and even before that it was my go–to app for all of my initial capturing. That’s the main thrust of what I use Drafts for: to capture my ideas quickly and have a means to get them where they need to be in as frictionless a manner as possible. Drafts lets me do that….and a whole lot more.

Drafts replaces so many other apps on my iOS devices, so much so that it really isn’t funny. It does Markdown preview, it sends stuff to OmniFocus (along with Things, The Hit List, and Clear), it sends posts to Byword (among other text editors), it sends quotes to Quotebook, and it conducts email (and now URL) actions that speed up processes for me like nothing else. And that’s just for starters.

In fact, Drafts does so much that it reminds me a lot of OmniFocus and Evernote. It can be used for so little if you want, but can also be used for so much more should you need it. It is staggeringly powerful, and if you have an iOS device1 and you want to get writing — and a lot more — done more efficiently and effectively over the long haul, then spend some time with Drafts. It is worth every minute you spend with it…and every penny that it costs (which is only $2.99).

I’ll be sure to dive deeper into Drafts in future posts, such as how I use it and where it fits into various workflows. For now, I’ll just let you in on something: I wrote the idea for this post in Drafts, sent it to Byword from Drafts, and then sent it to Poster via the clipboard so I could post it here. And I could have written this post in Drafts and sent it to Poster2 just as easily.

Drafts is simply the most versatile app on my iPad (where I write a great deal from) and iPhone (where I store many of my captured stuff), which makes it one of the most powerful as well.

1 The new update even works on the original iPad. Unreal.

2 This is the first iOS app I’m actually able to trust with my blog posts. Still am only savign them to drafts there, but getting closer to pulling the “publish” trigger.

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 Fire Within

Today was supposed to be a day where I focused completely on my book launch party happening in my hometown later tonight. It certainly started out that way, and make no mistake I am ready. My wife has definitely helped out – in ways that I can’t even possibly begin to thank her for – but as for my stuff? It’s also good to go.

And that’s because of the fire.

Not the fire that scarred my hand earlier this summer, but the fire within.

The fire within is what compels you to do the things that matter most. The fire within can also lead you to finally doing the things you were supposed to do in advance, but it’s not a lasting fire. It’s more like a match that was place under your ass to get you moving – in any direction. The fire within I’m talking about burns brightly. It burns in a way that can’t be ignored, let alone extinguished.

I went above and beyond what I thought I could accomplish today — both with my duties at home and my duties with my work. I felt great every step of the way. I prepared things. I delivered things. I made things happen — more than I thought I could in such a short time span. The fire within made that possible (along with a healthy dose of willpower).

So how do you stoke the fire within?

Do things that matter deeply to you. Spend time on those things. How you do that is going to be up to you. Some people – like myself – like to take a more mindful approach to the fire within and use a robust app like OmniFocus to do it (I’ll be talking about cultivating a more meaningful to-do list at The OmniFocus Setup next week). Some people only need to capture and go. Some people can stoke the fire within through journaling.

Some people just need to look inward now and again and then connect that with what’s on their list of things to do. And then do only what works for them, and not against them.

Sadly, some people don’t stoke the fire within often enough. That means they go through a hell of a lot of matches.

It was the fire within that helped me finish The Front Nine, and tonight I’m not only going to celebrate the book with my neighbours and friends in Victoria, but that fire within as well.

While many of you can’t be with me at that gathering tonight, I hope you’ll celebrate your fire within wherever you are – and help it shine just a little bit brighter and burn a little bit hotter going forward.

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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Productivity is Hard

Actually being productive is hard. Really hard.

There are ways to make being productive less hard. Building a framework that lends itself to a more productive lifestyle is one way. Spending time with resources that aim to help you work through adopting positive productivity practices are another. Looking at several aspects of me and then thinking about them is yet another.

It’s easy to get stuff done, but it’s hard to get the right stuff done. Why is that? Because all of the stuff that isn’t right (although not necessarily wrong) can obstruct your view.

Checking your email is easy. Ignoring your email is hard. Its always easier to have someone else tell you whats next than to figure out whats next for yourself. You’ll rarely second guess someone else openly, but you’ll more likely do that to yourself. Unless you send yourself email, by checking email you are letting someone else have the ability to shape your day from the onset. (This is where the Ready Retreat Workbook on Email Management can help.)

Keeping track of time is easy. Keeping track of tasks is hard. We got so caught up in time management that we forget about task management, and that’s going to impact your productivity in a negative manner. Focus on task first and time second. It will make a world of difference. (This is where the Ready Retreat Workbook on Task Management can help. Same goes with the Time Management Workbook.)

Having ideas is easy. Making them happen is hard. Ideas come and go, with only a handful (if that) seeing the light of day. The flow of ideas can’t be quelled, but they can be kept from going. All you need to is foster them by making note of them, capturing them, and giving them enough time and space to grow. That’s all you need to do…and that’s hard to do. (This is where the Ready Retreat Workbook on Idea Management can help.)

It’s all hard. All of it. Life, work, balance, building…it’s all hard. While reading this weblog can help (including some of the stuff I’ve set aside in a self-published e-book), sometimes you need something that you can call upon quickly and easily. Even the manifesto I’ve written might be too long for moments such as those.

When that happens, you can call upon an oath that I have created. It’s clearly inspired by my love for the Green Lantern (and written as I wear the Green Lantern ring my kids got me for Christmas, no less). I believe it incorporates the best aspects of what it is to not only be a productivityist, but to be someone who wants to get the best – and the most – out of life. It’s called The Productivityist Oath, and hopefully it will bring the best out of you whenever you need to call on it.

To keep what’s most important always within sight;

To check off not all boxes, just the ones that are right;

Whether the day’s lifting is heavy, or its lifting is light;

All these things in tandem are the Productivityist’s 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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Some Productive Time with My Daughter

Earlier today I sat down with my seven year old daughter Grace to ask her a little bit about the things I do and the things she does – and wants to do – in the future.

Me: What do you think productivity is?

Grace: It’s an activity that’s a product.

You know, she’s not too far off with that definition. When defined as a noun, productivity is the product of whatever our activity is in certain – or several – aspects of our work and life. Depending on how we engage in that activity, the resulting product will be greater or lesser. So our everyday activity will determine the product. The idea is to make the best product we can.

Me: Do you have a to do list?

Grace: No.

Me: But do you have things you have to do?

Grace: Yes. Like cleaning.

Me: So you clean without having to have a list to tell you to clean. Why do you clean without having to have a list to tell you to clean?

Grace: Well, you and Mommy tell me to sometimes. But mostly because I want to play in a clean area and not have to worry about running into stuff.

Even kids need to have time and space to make the most of what they really want to do. And even though we ask her to clean up, she says she mostly does it because of her desire to be able to do her thing in a clean space. That’s important to her, which is why she really doesn’t need a list to make sure it happens.

Me: What is a task?

Grace: Something you want to challenge yourself to do.

Me: Not all tasks are challenging though, right?

Grace: No.

Me: Do you like doing tasks that aren’t challenging?

Grace: No.

Me: Why not?

Grace: They’re too easy for me. Because sometimes when you do something that is too easy for you, it gets boring.

After we finished chatting, she asked me why I chuckled when I asked her what a task was. I told her it was because I liked what she said a task was and that I wish more people did that. I told her that often people think of a task as any one thing they have to do – challenging or not. She looked at me like I’d said something crazy. I liked that even more.

Me: If you could do anything all the time, what would you do?

Grace: I would probably play.

Me: You’d play everything?

Grace: Some things.

Me: Like what?

Grace: Play wizards, movie stars, play cars with Colton, play guitar, sing, and dance.

Now my daughter haas an iPod Touch, but the only thing she’d have to use it in tandem with is the singing and dancing. Everything else is both imaginative and analog. Some of the questions I asked her later gives me hope that shell be able to “probably play” for most of her life.

Me: Do you like chores?

Grace: Yes.

Me: Why?

Grace: I kind of just like cleaning.

Me: What chores don’t you like?

Grace: Scraping plates and clearing the table.

Me: So you’ll be asking us if Colton can do those when he’s old enough, right?

Grace: Yes.

(Read: She’s already got outsourcing on the brain. I seem to be raising a productivityist after all.)

Me: Do you have enough time?

Grace: Yes.

Me: Are you busy all the time?

Grace: No.

Me: Would you want to be?

Grace: No. Because I’d want to have time to spend with Colton and my friends.

I hope I can instill this in her on an ongoing basis. Busy doesn’t equal productive. In fact, I think she’d get bored being busy all the time.

Me: What do you want to do when you grow up?

Grace: Be a teacher.

Me: How will you do that?

Grace: Of course, go to school. And I probably try to pass the tests they give because I really want to be a teacher.

If she makes this happen, she will get to play…a lot. It won’t always be easy play, either. It will be challenging play. But it will be play. And that’s great.

Me: If you could teach one lesson to people right now, what would it be?

Grace: Be helpful to others and not to hurt others. And music. I’d teach them music.

Me: And you think that would be the best use of your time?

Grace: I think so.

I loved this answer. She’s using her instincts to answer the question but isn’t absolutely sure that it will be the best use of her time. We all deal with this. We can only go with we can connect with at any given time. Writing this piece right now might not be the best use of my time, but I’m doing it because it feels right. And while having this conversation with my daughter might not have been the best use of my time at the time, it sure did feel like it.

Regardless, I’m very glad that I did it.

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 Top 8 Apps on My Mac That Fuel My Productivity

I’ve been reviewing my apps on my MacBook Air to get a sense of what apps feed – and fuel – my productivity more than others. Some talk to each other seamlessly, others sync across platforms, some do both of those things, and others simply do things on their own that help in their own way. You’ll also notice that some could be used for something that I’ve tasked to another app.

Here we go…

Postbox

My email app of choice works well with TextExpander, talks to Evernote (which is where I put note-based emails), and thanks to a right-click action when necessary, can send things to OmniFocus as needed. While Mail.app could do two of the three things listed above, it’s that Evernote integration that makes it unique in my workflow. (And Postbox has its own built-in features that save me time, which shouldn’t be discounted.)

TextExpander

This app speeds up communication more than anything else. Back when I worked for Lifehack I used it extensively for emails, I use it for quickly creating custom emails that I’m using for The Front Nine, and there are some regular snippets I use for certain repetitive text that crop up from time to time. I’ve saved over 30 hours with the app – and if I was still with Lifehack I’m sure that number would be much higher.

Evernote

While I don’t use it for much beyond keeping notes – as opposed to what I tried to do late last year – I am actually using it more for notes since my experiment. Sharing notebooks with my wife and pal/colleague Michael Schechter (we used it as recently as this week to prepare for this week’s episode of Mikes on Mics featuring Jonathan Coulton), research for blog posts and other posts that I can keep locally stored, and much more. Now that I’ve decided that Evernote is my notetaking app of choice, it is getting used more often. A lot more often. (Again, if you’re having trouble wrapping your head around what Evernote can do for you, pick up Brett Kelly’s excellent Evernote Essentials.)

Alfred

I switched to Alfred from LaunchBar recently, and the interface has won me over. I’m still tapping into all that it can do for me, but having a quick launcher like Alfred in my arsenal is an absolute. You should make it one as well.

OmniFocus

The center of my productivity workflow, OmniFocus has a lot of power under the hood. It is where my day begins and ends – and is the one I use most across multiple platforms. Since I installed Shawn Blanc’s OopsieFocus (and also since CM Smith created the Productivityist.com OmniFocus themes), I’ve been using it more and more on my MacBook Air. The thing about OmniFocus is that you can make it work in a way for you that is as simple as you’d like but iti s powerful enough to give you all you’ll ever need in an individual task management solution. And there’s no time like now to give it a try, because you can give OmniFocus on Mac a go while we wait for the arrival of OmniFocus 2. Not to mention that there is a wealth of resources both online (like Kourosh Dini’s excellent book Creating Flow with OmniFocus, Sven Fechner’s stellar site SimplicityBliss, and Asian Efficiency’s recently-released OmniFocus Premium Posts package) and offline (like The OmniFocus Setup taking place later this month in San Francisco). You really can’t go wrong with OmniFocus.

Asana/Flow

Asana is the app I use for collaborative task management. Its barrier to entry is low for those who don’t traditionally use a task manager (read: it’s free for teams less than 30 in number) and it does allow the work to get done between myself and the few clients I have in a more efficient and effective way. That said, there is another collaborative task management app that I enjoy using more – and that’s Flow. The interface is aligned with that of OmniFocus, its web clipper is fantastic, and it just looks as good as it works. The only reason I don’t use it more is that it’s difficult to convince others to pay for it (it’s $9.99 per month or $99 per year). I use Asana out of necessity at this point – and I like a lot about it. But I use Flow because I enjoy using it – which is the ideal scenario when choosing apps for a productivity workflow.

Fantastical

I’ve always been torn between Fantastical and QuickCal. Admittedly, I’m not as torn as I am with Asana and Flow, because I’ve been actively using Fantastical for a long time. I don’t use the iOS version (I’ve got another app of choice there), but the natural language entry is what makes it the winner on my Mac.

Neat

I know a lot of folks that use the ScanSnap coupled with Evernote or have a Doxie as their paperless tool of choice, but I’ve become a big fan of Neat over the last year. I got my first good look at their line of products at last year’s Macworld/iWorld (and have a NeatDesk scanner), and with the arrival of NeatMobile and their cloud services, I have found my paperless product line of choice – bar none. (The fact that I can categorize receipts to comply with Canadian accounting practices makes it all the better in my books.)

These apps are the ones I’ve incorporated in my productivity workflow on my Mac – and don’t really include apps that are part of my writing workflow (although you could make a case that Evernote crosses over both plains). When you look at something like my writing workflow – or my podcast production workflow – you’ll find there are far less apps that come into play.

There are other apps that I use from time to time that also add some juice to my productivity (and others, like Keyboard Maestro, that I need to incorporate more). However, the ones I am using now elevate things to a level that not only lets me get the right things done – but also lets me get them done better.

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 a Productivity Gestalt

Yesterday I had a great conversation with Matt Medeiros for his site, Matt Report. We went into a number of things (all of which will be revealed when he releases the episode in a couple of weeks), but one of the questions was about the tools I use as part of my productivity practice. I rhymed off some of the different apps I use, including 30/30, My Minutes, OmniFocus, and more. I also talked about a method I’m using on paper. When I was done, Matt was either impressed or bewildered (perhaps both). That’s because when you look at what I use it appears daunting.

And it is…at first.

Make no mistake, there are certain apps that have dropped from my regular practice, while some have been traded for others. You see, each item in my workflow can help me be productive individually, but together they can really power up my productivity. I tend to think my “productivity gestalt” is what helps me get the best out of what I do.

For those of you that don’t know what a “gestalt” is, think back to Voltron, Transformers, or Power Rangers — the term was adopted by fans to describe the combined forms of the vehicles or robots on teams (like the Aerialbots and Constructicons, for example).

Let’s look at Voltron, for example. Individually the lions that make up the Voltron team have power, but when they combine they are even more powerful, – in fact, nearly unstoppable. Each of the team members brings something to the table – a specialization that makes the gestalt a well-rounded machine. These workflow apps do the same for me. They help make me a well-rounded machine.

I’d say that OmniFocus is the leader of my team. It is where everything begins and ends. The other apps are integral, but without OmniFocus they can’t connect. The task manager is the leader – and it should be. It informs the other parts first, then they inform it when needed – and in a way that helps the task manager move in the right direction on a consistent basis.

The other aspect of the task manager that makes it the leader is that it is capable of doing the most on its own. I know I couldn’t manage all of what I need – and want – to do with 30/30 or My Minutes. But I can do so with OmniFocus (and I’m not alone on that front).

My productivity gestalt won’t be like yours. Just as there are different teams of Transformers who become gestalts and different Zords in the Power Rangers universe, there are different apps and tools that make up productivity gestalts (I’ve even gone through several in my time). The idea is to have one, though. Whether it is made up of three tools or five tools, whether it is built with digital tools, analog tools, or a combination of both…you need to have one.

What you build it with is up to you.

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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Duly Sketchnoted

It turns out I’m a “sketchnoter” after all.

After listening to the Mac Power Users episode with Mike Rohde, author of The Sketchnote Handbook, I realized that I have been making sketchnotes for some time. Looking in my old Field Notes notebook as I transferred everything to OmniFocus, reviewing my Maruman notebook as I began using it again, I noticed that I tend to write out my notes in different shapes, cases, and sizes of lettering in order to draw my eye to the really important stuff. Taking notes that way not only makes certain things stand out, but it makes notetaking a fun exercise.

I highly recommend you listen to the MPU episode mentioned above (as well the episode of Brett Terpstra’s Systematic where Rohde makes an appearance as well), and give this method of notetaking a try. I’m a big fan of paper – especially the ones found in notebooks – and Rohde has assembled an excellent book that is well worth picking up. I’m only beginning to go through the pages, and I’m already embracing the sketchnoter that I apparently always was.

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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CommentsThat is really interesting and I'm going to have to check it ... by ExtremelyAvgThanks Mike! I'm pleased to hear sketchnoting it working well ... by rohdesignI must admit my first response on reading this was 'what's a ... by braincutleryRelated StoriesFocus on OmniFocus with OmniFocus Premium PostsHow My Minutes Fits Into My WorkflowThe Productivityist OmniFocus Themes

Five

Three never seems like enough, does it? Even if they are the three most important things you could be making progress in, when you examine your list at day’s end…you still have a sense that you didn’t do enough.

That’s why we get sucked back into checking off more of the lesser stuff.

So don’t get stuck on the number three. Instead, shoot for five.

Five is more, but not too much. Five is reasonable. Five is closer for many to be that “just right” number – more so than three.

Three is great, but so is five. As long as those numbers aren’t empty, they are productive. Better to do five great things and two less great things than have it tally the other way around.

Do not pass five. Five is that fine line between thriving and surviving.

If you can’t do three, do five. And make that whatever adds up to either number is worthwhile. Otherwise, you’re not really being productive – you’re simply counting checkmarks.

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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