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Photo credit: Russ Glasson

You’ve recruited the individual members of your team. You’ve established your goal. You’ve developed a plan and a timeline. Now the trick is to get all those unique individuals working together toward the same goal. Given the varied personalities, communication skills and personal agendas individual members bring with them to the team, getting your team to work cooperatively can be a challenge.

In the most productive teams, members are individually and cooperatively focused on reaching the team’s goal. Members understand the interdependent nature of the team: that their individual work depends upon and affects the quality of others’ work and, ultimately, the ability of the team to reach its goal. Members respect, appreciate and recognize each person’s unique contribution to the team’s efforts, but place the greatest emphasis on cooperative achievement of the team goal.

Experiential team building was all the rage not long ago. The team would travel offsite for a “fun” day of rope games and unusual problem solving, typically at an outdoor education center. Unfortunately, too often there was little follow-up and any lessons learned never made it back into the workplace. Today, the emphasis has shifted to in-house team building exercises that can be accomplished at the beginning of a meeting.

Follow these key steps to plan a productive team building exercise:

1. Keep it simple. It should be quick and easy to set up in a typical meeting room.

2. It doesn’t need to be expensive. You can get a lot of mileage out of basic office supplies or a few items from your kitchen pantry.

3. The exercise should be geared for normal office clothing or team members should be told ahead of time to dress appropriately.

4. People have a hard time relating to large groups, so divide the team into small units of 2 to 4 or 6 people. By breaking down barriers and creating partnerships within these small groups, team members will be better able to relate to the larger team.

5. Instructions must be easy to understand, especially by any non-native English speakers in your group.

6. Limited instructions may be part of the team building exercise. Forcing people to figure out what to do or how to do something helps team members identify skills and abilities in themselves and their peers that can help them define their roles on the team: leader, facilitator, problem-solver, communicator, etc.

7. The exercise should engage all members quickly.

8. It should present a problem that has multiple solutions to allow for creativity, but that can only be solved through collaboration and cooperative action.

9. You can increase the difficulty level of any exercise by adding a complication such as “no talking,” or by speeding things up by asking, “How can you do it faster?”

10. At the completion of the exercise, it is crucial that a facilitator, often the team leader, lead the team in reflecting on what happened, the choices made, and how they interacted with each other. Team members should discuss what they would do differently next time. Reflection is critical to identifying and reinforcing learning.

Try these team building exercises to get your team off on the right foot.

1. Scrambled Jigsaw. Before the team arrives, place a jigsaw on each table. To manage the time element, use large-piece children’s puzzles of 100 pieces or so. Remove 5 pieces from each puzzle and move them to another table. As the team arrives, divide members among the tables. Instruct teams to fully complete their puzzle, by any means, in the shortest amount of time possible. As puzzles are completed and teams realize pieces are missing, they will be forced to negotiate with other teams to complete their puzzle. This exercise promotes flexibility, communication, negotiation and cooperation.

2. Creative Assembly. Purchase 3-D punch-out wood dinosaur puzzle kits. Divide the team into groups of 2 to 4. Without comment or instruction, give each group the unpunched puzzle pieces, one complete puzzle per group. Do not let the group see the boxes, pictures or instructions or in any way identify what you have given them. Instruct each group to assemble its project, telling them they can only use what is in front of them. You’ll get some interesting and creative constructions, a lot of laughter and some good natured frustration, particularly with the winged dinosaur kits. When time is up, ask each group to describe its construct. In this exercise, creative thinking, brainstorming, problem-solving, cooperation and consensus will certainly get a workout.

3. Slight of Hand. Divide team into groups of 4 to 6. Hand each group 4 tennis balls. Tell them each person must handle all 4 balls in the shortest time possible. Do this several times, each time asking, “How can you do it faster?” This exercise will progress from the obvious passing of the balls down a line, to around a circle, to some interesting ball drops and hand swiping. Your team will practice cooperation, quick thinking and creative problem solving in this exercise.

4. Going Up. Divide team into groups of 2 to 6. Give each person one 8 1/2” x 11” sheet of paper and one 5” strip of masking tape. Instruct each team to build the tallest possible free-standing structure. This exercise promotes cooperation, creative thinking, problem-solving, consensus, leadership and division of labor.

5. Gnome Dome. Divide the team into groups of 2. Give each group 20 gumdrops and 12 toothpicks. Instruct each group to build a dome. Problem-solving, creative thinking, cooperation (and possibly snacking) will be practiced during this exercise.

6. Poisonous Web. Stretch a piece of rope across a door frame, securing it to the frame or connecting wall with duct tape. You’ll need two pieces of rope, one 3 feet off the ground, the other 4 1/2 feet off the ground. You are creating a “window” 18 inches wide that you describe to the team as a “poisonous spider web.” The team must work together to get all members through the opening without touching the ropes. They must go through, not under or over the ropes. If a team member touches either rope, the entire team must go back to the beginning and try again. This exercise builds cooperation, leadership, creativity and problem-solving. It also forces team members to trust and depend on each other.

7. Hang Ups. Hand each person a wire coat hanger. Tell the group they may work individually or create their own groups. Instruct them to make something useful from their coat hanger. Set a time limit of 5 to 15 minutes. Ask each person/group to describe his “tool” and its use. This exercise will indicate which of your team members are natural leaders or born socialites as well as which are more shy and may need to be drawn out when working with the group.

8. In the Picture. This is another puzzle game. Divide the team into groups and give each one a jigsaw puzzle from which you have already removed one piece. Each team will complete a puzzle with one missing piece. Ask each team what this represents in terms of the team. You’re aiming for discovery of the importance of each individual to the successful accomplishment of the team’s goal, but you may get some interesting responses about proper planning, supply officers and quality control.

9. All Aboard. This is another physical game. Depending on the size of your team, place a 1-foot to 3-foot square of cardboard on the floor, or mark off a square with masking or duct tape. Draw numbers, one for each team member. In order of the numbers drawn, team members must stand in the square. As the number of people in the square increases, members will have to work together and get creative to get everyone aboard. This exercise practices cooperation, problem-solving and leadership.

10. Bridge the Gap. Divide the group into teams of 2 to 4. Give each group a small ball of modeling clay and 12 toothpicks. Instruct them to build the longest cantilever bridge they can. Award points for speed of construction, length of bridge, ability to stand without tipping over and ability to hold weight (to measure this, stack quarters until the bridge tips or breaks). Team members will practice creativity, problem-solving, consensus (and manual dexterity).

To be successful, teamwork must be more than a method of dividing up the work to get the job done. Teamwork must embrace a cooperative attitude of mutual respect, shared responsibility and open communication. Teamwork recognizes each team member’s individual contribution to the team in the context of the interdependency of those efforts in cooperative pursuit of the team’s goal.

via corporateculturecounseling.com

It was geeks galore on our very first (and uber-successful) game night on 8/31/11! We all gathered ‘round in teams, and battled each other in a game of Celebrity, which is a cross-breed of Charades and Taboo. Oh, and food? Of course we got that covered! There was pizza, drinks, and prizes! The prizes given included Producteev t-shirts, and ThinkGeek gift certificates! Check out the slideshow!

We would like to thank all the attendees for making our game night a raging success. There will surely be more to follow! Would you like us to host a game night for geeks in your city? Let us know in the comments below, or heck, you can even tweet us!

Coming soon to a Wi-Fi connection near you  

Time Management Software

via timedoctor.com

Awesome infographic on how people waste time at work. Are you guilty?

Team Spotlight: Mark Hamilton- Developer, Musician, Fearless Martial Arts Warrior

Fav Features:

• Multi-platform
• Multiple Workspaces
• Mail2Task

Key Benefits:

• Less Stress
• Flexibility
• Accessibility
• Centralized

Mail2Task

 

I’ve been on the Produceev team for over 4 months now, but I first fell in love with the service over a year ago. The feature that first hooked me in was the ability to turn emails into tasks. I hate having a full inbox, but with just a few keystrokes in Gmail I can forward the email to task@producteev.com and archive it for good. In around a minute I can clean out and tag around 15-20 emails. By assigning stars, labels and deadlines for all these tasks directly from my email client, (just add “##Follow Up 5* Tomorrow” to the subject,) I have effectively curated a task list that I can scan at a glance.

 

At the time of this writing I have 8 workspaces. Two of these are used for testing new features, one is for personal tasks, and the remaining five are for collaboration and other projects.

Multiple Workspaces

I keep between 2-3 of my workspaces open during my day at the office. I leave them in separate tabs and use the “pin tab” feature in Google Chrome to keep it tidy.

 

 

Neat Tip: Ctrl+1 in Chrome will display your first tab, Ctrl+2 will display the second, etc.

 

Having these always open eliminates any incentive for me to jot down my notes on paper. Besides—paper notes don’t have push notifications.

 

When I’m working on projects, I create new tasks as new issues arise and ideas pop up so I don’t forget about them. All the ##bugs that are introduced are prioritized and tracked, and all the ##issues that I have to bring up to the team are dealt with quickly.

 

At this point, I’m left in a very comfortable position. Since the software is handling all of the dates and priorities while I’m working, I don’t have to worry that I’ll forget about anything. If I sort by deadline or priority I can see exactly what needs to be done first without having to go through my email account, notes, and various other online services. Most importantly, throughout this whole process Producteev isn’t sucking up all my time dealing with project management since adding and editing tasks are quick processes.

 

My Personal Workspace gets a lot of traffic from me during the day, too. I drop in articles to read later, set reminders to catch up with friends, and add an occasional note to check out new technology or videos. I also use it for more the important things, like making sure I pick up my son’s records from school and getting my taxes done. Personal time is hard to find sometimes, so breaking things down into really small tasks is what makes this workspace feel less overwhelming.

Since the Producteev service is centralized on the web, it synchronizes with native applications, like the iPhone application. There’s also a light mobile web version that you will see automatically by going to Producteev.com from your phone. I’m using both. I love the notifications and offline features of the free iPhone app, but I also keep bookmarks directly to my most used dashboards on my home screen.

 

Lastly, I am still able to create milestones and a basecamp-eque workflow with my fluid style of working. For instance, in a major release cycle I can just create a new label (e.g., Version 1 Release) and assign it to all the tasks that fall under that milestone. If I need to see all the tasks within that milestone, I can just use that label’s filter. I find that Calendar view on the web app helps out a lot here by letting me drag tasks around for this.

Producteev is Indispensible

The burden of managing the tasks lies on the software. It rarely takes more than 15 minutes per day to manage my tasks, so I can focus on what I love doing (programming) rather than worrying about what I need to work on next. I automatically get reminders and notifications when I need to do something. I also don’t have to worry about sorting through notes, meeting minutes, emails, and a countless number of online services to remember what I need to get done. It’s all in one place.

If I have to meet a critical deadline, I can sort tasks by due date to make sure I hit my personal goals for the day, and if I’m running behind schedule, I can judge that quickly by looking at my list. On the other hand, if there’s no rush, I know I have some extra time to work on less critical, lighter tasks; this is stuff that normally get pushed around for ages. Additionally, the mobile and web apps are available virtually anywhere for a lot of platforms, so I can— and do— use it anywhere.

 

I’d like to go into more detail about my day here, but I’ll save that for another time. There’s just so much to get done!

 

You can overcome obstacles to productivity! Great tips below:

27 Great Tips to Keep Your Life Organized

How Can I Avoid Distractions At Work?

Coping with Speech Noise in the Modern Workplace

5 Ways to Get Faster Email Responses

Determine Never to be Idle: A Simple Productivity Strategy

Best Time Management Strategy— Prioritize

Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity

Organize Your Workspace For Maximum Productivity

To Be More Productive, Add More Fun To Your Day

Getting More Done

 

 

27 Great Tips to Keep Your Life Organized

How Can I Avoid Distractions At Work?

Coping with Speech Noise in the Modern Workplace

5 Ways to Get Faster Email Responses

Determine Never to be Idle: A Simple Productivity Strategy

Best Time Management Strategy— Prioritize

Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity

Organize Your Workspace For Maximum Productivity

To Be More Productive, Add More Fun To Your Day

Getting More Done

Image Credit

For those of you that want to know what we’re all about
This is 10% luck, 20% skill
15% concentrated power of will
5% pleasure, 50% pain
And a 100% pure hardcore #hustlesesh baby!

Today I’m passing on the torch to the stunning Farhana Rahman, our new social media / community intern, but not without saying a few parting words. ;) I’ll leave her to fully introduce herself in a moment, but just to give a sneak peek there will be a lot more content on the Producteev blog.

“The pivot is arguably the most important part of a startup.”

Well, in this case, it was the most important aspect of my internship. I was primarily brought on for content creation, but Ilan and Judi recognized my talent at evangelizing our app, and thanks to them I was able to pivot and run with this in hopes of getting even more market recognition for our brand. I quickly started hustling and evangelizing Producteev to every living soul around me! Even your mother - is she liking Producteev, btw? ;)

I learned how to pitch our product in a casual conversation and give sales presentations (thanks Made to Stick!) This even eventually helped me turn a “no” hiring decision from Producteev into a “We’re sold! Let’s try out your crazy marketing plan and hire you again” (more on that in a future blog post).

I’ve done everything from co-founding a new meetup group for techies to helping with copy for our web redesign to going out and attending networking events almost every night, promoting our app like crazy (and having fun while at it!)

I’ve had 7 internships so far and I never get tired of them. In fact, I highly recommend them as they’re a great learning experience. When else do you get your own personal mentor for free?!

And because this time I was working from an office as Judi’s (Producteev’s community manager) apprentice - who was already ingrained within the world of social media and community management - I got access to a wealth of information. I thought I knew all there was to know about social media before starting at Producteev, but to my surprise there was still much to learn. More importantly though, I got to make amazing connections (and eat lunch at Googleplex East) through Judi’s network. I’ve lived the startup life nonstop for the past year, with humble beginnings at Social Bicycles. Working out of an established startup’s offices every day of the week, however, allowed me to bounce ideas off Judi and get invited to impromptu outings - the best part of my job.

As of today, I’m embracing a new role as a Community Developer and heading up a new, stealth project codenamed Krazy Kangaroo. If you’re a student (or one at heart) and would like to get a taste of the life mentioned above or be involved in helping a startup expand, you can do just that by working with me! Apply here: Krazy Kangaroo

This summer’s internship has been the most exhilarating, challenging, and awesome experience I’ve ever had… and now it’s your turn, Farhana :)

Hi! My name is Farhana, and I am the new interning Social Media Manager!

I was born and raised in New York, was a writing prodigy, and was quite the social butterfly growing up. I now enjoy all things tech and all people tech! What cooler way to combine these elements than a career in social media?

Prior to joining Producteev, I have held positions that were always journalistic, writing intensive, or social media-centric. It’s difficult to describe the rush I get out of typing a storm on my keyboard. I’ve yet to type till smoke comes out of it though.

When not on social media platforms at work, you would find me engaging my wonderful like-minded buddies on Twitter. I have a reputation for being an ‘ego-booster,’ am adored for my self-depreciating humor, as well as my zany content on Twitter. I also work pretty hard to maintain a decent Klout score - my goal is 84.

Don’t be shy to drop me a line, and let me know how I may assist with your experience using Producteev!

You can’t get work done on an empty stomach! And for some, you can’t get work done without that jolt of Joe. ;)

The following foursquare lists, courtesy of the Producteev Beaver, were made with love:

Best Eats NYC 

Best Coffee NYC

Photo credit: Tom Magliery

Feel free to let us know your favorite places to eat and get coffee/tea in your cities!

Now — eat, drink, be Producteev! Seize the day and most importantly, your to-do list. :)

A new Producteev help center with fewer but hopefully better organized and more helpful articles will soon be available.

In the spring, we thought it would be a good idea to relocate support. While that may be accomplished in the future, for now we’re making it our priority to:

• respond in a timely fashion
• decrease the amount of incoming requests with better documentation

The above are possible even without relocating, so although we had planned to move the support center (in order to combine it with the idea forum), it is instead staying right where it is at: http://support.producteev.com/. And like the envisioned relocation, the made-over Producteev Support will be “streamlined, simplified, and easily searched.”

Just aiming to make it leaner, meaner, and having it better serve you! Stay tuned via blog this month. :)

Early stage of makeover process

Thanks for your patience with our recent growth and new users, and sorry for lags with our back-to-back releases. Summer’s been busy with the launch of our mac desktop app, mobile web app, crowdsourced tasks, and email sync for outlook and google tasks. More improvements across the board — support, community, and especially product — to come!

Are your employees happy and productive?

Or do they waste inordinate amounts of time complaining and procrastinating?

Employee productivity is a challenge that faces all companies.

Are your employees happy?

And more importantly, what are you doing about it?

Happy is Productive

When was the last time your company made an effort to keep its employees happy?

Too often companies neglect their employees’ well-being.

Many leaders think a touchy-feely issue like “employee happiness” is better handled by the HR department. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Employee happiness is not an HR issue. It is a leadership issue.

Good leaders know that happy employees are productive ones.

Yes, times are tough. And money is tight.

However, that doesn’t mean that you have to make your employees live a miserable existence. Good leaders know that taking care of their employees leads to increased worker performance.

Happy employees not only work harder but have higher feelings of company ownership.

Unhappy employees often will not go the extra step when it comes to work.

Happy employees have higher retention.

And despite what HR will tell you, unhappy employees will leave. Yes, even in this economy. (And the good ones leave first.)

So, when was the last time that you (or your company) did something to make employees happy?

Productive and Happy About It

There are some HR types who will argue that happiness does not equate to productiveness.

And it doesn’t by itself. It takes leadership, purpose, and drive.

However, in the same situation, who do you think will perform better? Happy employees or unhappy ones?

I guarantee that happy workers will out perform unhappy ones every day of the week. (Especially on Mondays)

Here are just a few tips to help “Keep Your Employees Happy and Productive:”

• Recognize Them – Most companies are very poor at this. In fact, a large number of companies have no employee recognition. Publicly recognize your best employees and reward with something that is important to them. (Danger: Recognizing the wrong employees can be an explosive issue. But, that is a topic for a different leadership article.)
• Thank Them – Sometimes you don’t even have to recognize them, how about just thanking them. Employee happiness is not tied to awards and rewards. Sometimes a well-placed and sincere “Thank You” is all it takes.
• Listen to Them – Want your team to be happy and productive? Listen to them. Leaders sometimes think they have all the answers and fail to listen to the team. Not only does the team often have the “answer,” but sometimes they just want to be heard.
• Be Straight With Them – Employees want the straight scoop and they feel respected when they get it. Don’t wrap announcements in legalese or HR speak. Any leader that thinks that employees can’t “read between the lines” on corporate memos shouldn’t be in charge.  Instead, tell your employees the truth.
• Give Them a Day Off – Rewards don’t have to be trips and monetary incentives. (Although those are nice!) Try rewarding hard work with time. Time off that is. A simple day off can be the difference between a happy recharged top performer and burnt out jaded one.
• Pamper Them – As I have mentioned, rewards don’t have to be expensive or lavish. Sometimes it is the little things. Go for the small ones. Sometimes they make all the difference. I once worked with a call center and one day we replaced all the workers chairs with brand new rolling ones. People were literally “rolling” through their day and were on cloud nine.
• Remove Obstacles – Want happy employees? Then don’t put silly rules and obstacles in the way of them doing their job. As a leader, your job is to remove the things in their way. Except when it comes to safety, problems are not solved by putting “rules” in place. Want increased happiness and productivity? Remove the red tape! (See: The Difference Between Blue Tape and Red Tape.)
• Surprise Them, In a Good Way – Surprises can be a great motivator for employees. Just make sure you are in tune with your employees or else you risk surprising them with something that could backfire.

Happy and Productive

When your employees are not happy, they are not as productive as they could be.

Unhappy employees are unmotivated and uninspired to work at their potential. Even your best performers will leave when they are unhappy.

Many companies do not make the effort to keep employees happy because of the assumed costs. However, most employees are not looking for expensive perks to encourage them.

They will be driven with a little recognition, support, and thankfulness.

Oh, and don’t forget to listen to them.

When was the last time your company boosted productivity by making employees happy?

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via timemanagementninja.com

After launching Producteev for Mac just two weeks ago, we’ve gotten a lot of awesome feedback - thank you! Things like:

There’s been a surge of questions lately, so we wanted to address those while working on the next update.

Producteev for Mac crashes at launch?Deleting ~/Library/Preferences/com.producteev.Producteev.plist should do the trick

I signed up for Producteev with Facebook, Yahoo, Google / Google Apps and don’t know my password to login to the app?We wanted to have our apps out to you as soon as possible! =) As such, unfortunately, some of our apps don’t have single sign on integrated yet. If you originally signed up with facebook, yahoo, google/google apps, and try to use another app (like Mac, Astrid, iPhone, etc.), you’ll have to create a password in order to proceed. Select the ‘forgot password?’ link on the website homepage and enter your email login. Follow the email prompts to create your password. You will then be able to access all apps.

I’m loving your Mac app. Is there an iPad app on the roadmap, and, if so, when is it planned for?An iPad app has been started, but there is no planned release date yet. Follow our twitter for updates. Some of us at the office are pushing just as hard as you are, though =)

Are you going to update the iPhone app soon to coordinate with super cool desktop app?Yes, we have started working on an update to the iPhone app.

And there are many more exciting things to come down the road for Producteev. Stay connected for more information =)

 

Release of the highly anticipated, native Producteev Android app is again post-poned. Now before you go all Angry Birds on us, you should hear us out.

The latest version of a Producteev Android app was indeed beta tested by a select group of superusers. Their verdict? The app, in its current form, is not ready for public release.

Like the previous two 3^rd party Android developers, the most recent 3^rd party developer is also unable to continue the project and make the necessary changes to improve the app and bring it up to par. Which leaves us right back where we started a year ago – still without a native app to complete our Google suite.

Before making the difficult decision of whether to launch the app as is – since we had no other viable option with this 3^rd party developer – the team thought long and hard. Ultimately, we could not put the app on the market as is. Sorry to repeat another delayed release and for your disappointment and frustration with us.

Below, however, is just one example of beta tester feedback which speaks to the condition of the current app.
I think you have the basis of what could be a good app but I really don’t think you should consider releasing it at the moment as I think you will get negative feedback from the majority of users…. I hope you find this email constructive as this is how I mean it to be.

ING New York City Marathon 2010

Now the reason a native Android app was not initiated in-house in the first place was because no one on the Producteev team had the related experience and skill set. Starting this week, however, a fully-dedicated in-house developer has begun a native Android app from scratch. He, along with the rest of the team and beta testers, are determined to see this project through to completion. Or Ilan, CEO, will have his head! ;)

We know that we dropped the ball, perhaps we shouldn’t have made launch estimates based on an app that was not being built by our team. We know that our Android users deserve more and are not secondary to our iPhone users. A native Android app is Producteev’s top priority – not just in theory but in practice. We can only hope for the opportunity to make it right and keep the community updated with its future development.

We really do want to make an app that is awesome! In the meantime, the new mobile web app may help make your wait more bearable.

See the full gallery on Posterous

We just had a baby! Say hello to Producteev for Mac, currently available in the Mac App Store.

This was truly a labor of love, taking nearly nine months from start to completion. We’re so proud of our new addition to the Producteev app family that, like many beaming new parents, we’re sharing photos with the world!

Join us in welcoming the beautiful Producteev for Mac app, and download it now. And give us some love with a wonderful App Store review! :D

A special thanks goes out to all our beta testers — you really helped the last couple of weeks. We appreciate you!

The Collaborative Home (infographic)
 
A guide to academic productivityThe productivity trifecta for a balanced life

6 productivity tips that are like treadmills for the mind5 places to focus on to declutter 80% of your life

Winston Churchill’s top 6 fundamentals for a successful lifeStop Procrastinating By Thinking of Your Future Self

How to adopt a growth mindsetAre you taking productivity too far?

Don’t Exist, Live: powerful ideas that will bring greater clarity into your lifePhoto credit: Ornella M

As previously mentioned, we left some things off of the public roadmap. Our new mobile web app is one of them! Now you can add, organize, assign and track your to-dos without any native or 3rd party mobile applications — all you need is a Wifi hotspot or 3G connection and you’re good!

Jon Steinberg of Buzzfeed, one of the earliest adopters, calls the app, “a work of art.” It’s pretty amazing, if we don’t say so ourselves ;) What once started as a side project in one dev’s spare time (talk, dedication!) has really taken off and become completely company-backed.

Access the mobile web app on your device by going to: producteev.com or m.producteev.com. It works on works on iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry….you name it!

Below’s another attractive screenshot. Happy Hand-held Tasking!

Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls…

Did you know that there are 48 million tourists that visit NYC every year? We <3 NY and thought of a neat way to bring NY to you! Even if you can’t be one of the 48 million this year. ;)

This season kicks off the Producteev Summer Tour! We’ve been planning a unique way to highlight local attractions for some time. Today, with the arrival of our official foursquare cling (sticker letting visitors know they can check into a particular venue), we’re getting the party started!

We’re leaving tips all around NYC from our brand new foursquare account. Most of them will be secrets that only native New Yorkers usually know! Some of them will make fun of tourists from a local’s perspective. Either way, we hope they’ll be engaging and humorous. So, whatcha waiting for!? Add the Producteev Beaver as a friend and find out more about the city that never sleeps (or challenge yourself to complete to-dos should you decide to visit!)

Your Wellbeing in Mind
Valuing productivity means creating a healthy balance between work and rest. This summer is as appropriate a time as any, to remember to enjoy your surroundings and soak up some rejuvenating relaxation. Cheers & don’t work too hard! ;)

Photo Credit: Guiseppe

 

Thanks to those of you who’ve been persistent in getting roadmap updates from us! We even received the following feature request in our UserVoice idea forum:

We’re constantly improving the product, and here’s the short list of current projects:

• mac desktop app: done; pending app store availability
• native Android app: beta 

• surprise apps & features*: preparing for launch

• subtasks: started
• website redesign: started

*If we told you everything, it would kinda take all the fun out of it. ;)

The above list is in order of status, with the top projects being the most complete. Since we’re adding a few new pages to our website, the suggested Product Roadmap is under consideration as well.

More importantly :D we are open to empowering a small team of power users/brand ambassadors to take the lead with roadmap updates and become our Product Super Heroes. What this involves:

1. working closely with the Producteev team
2. serving as Features & Product liasons between the team and all users
3. maintaining roadmap estimates on a monthly/bi-weekly basis (method & frequency to be determined)

The approximate time commitment is 1-2 hours/month. Piece of cake, right!? If this volunteer opportunity excites you, drop us a line at: community@producteev.com. Perks include product exclusives, handwritten thank you cards with smileys & hearts on them, swag, and other cool things.

The bosses are out buying new desks today. The reason? Another new face at headquarters. Meet a second summer intern, Florian!

I’m Florian Auban, and I just joined the Producteev team for a six-month web developer internship.

I didn’t hesitate one second to leave the cozy French riviera and discover the City That Never Sleeps! I’m in my fourth year of engineering school in Nice after the 3 first years in Paris (following my high school in Carcassonne, in the south of France). In Télécom ParisTech, my engineering school, I specialize in Information and Web Technologies, Networks and Multimedia. 

I have been passionate about web social technologies for the past 5 years. I even developed a social cooking website for a school project! Cooking is another passion of mine :) 

When not coding, I love playing soccer. And even if it’s not America’s favorite sport, I hope to find other French and American players while here in NYC!

At Producteev, I already find inspiration from such a dynamic team, and being set in an exciting city is a bonus! Follow me on twitter @pioupioup. 

Thanks to everyone who came out to our 3 year anniversary party last night. We had a blast celebrating with Producteev users and friends! As Ilan Abehassera, CEO, said in a short appreciation speech, “We wouldn’t have made it without the support of investors, our loved ones and families, and you — our customers!” See you next year!

‘Work smarter not harder’ is one of the most popular catchphrases fueling the information age.  Yet most of us frequently overlook the fact that time is the only true luxury we have in life.  Being more productive doesn’t make you stronger, cooler, or wealthier.  It allows you to get more done in less time so you can use the time you save to get more enjoyment out of life.

Here are 50 ideas to help you do just that:

1. Do what you don’t want to do first. – If you handle the toughest tasks first when your mind is fresh, you’ll get done quicker and make the rest of the day more enjoyable.
2. Focus on high impact tasks. – Figure out what will have the greatest impact today, and make sure you address the most important stuff first.  Don’t get caught up in odd jobs, even those that seem urgent, unless they are also important.
3. Don’t confuse being busy with being productive. – Stop and ask yourself if what you’re working on is worth the effort.  Is it bringing you in the same direction as your goals?  (Read The Success Principles

   

   .)
4. Accept imperfections. – Perfectionism is the enemy of completion.  Don’t ignore the forest for the sake of one lonely tree.  Most of the time small imperfections aren’t even noticed, so don’t waste all your time on them.
5. Create and refer to a TO-DON’T list. – A to-don’t is a list of things not to do.  It might sound funny, but it’s useful for keeping track of unproductive habits, like playing online flash games, checking Facebook, etc.
6. Use productive shortcuts. – There are productive shortcuts for almost everything you do.  Finding and using them can save you a few minutes here and there on a daily basis.  If you use a computer, learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use most often.  If you can permanently delegate one of your regular tasks to someone else, do it.  Is there a route to work with less traffic?  Where can you hit two birds with one stone?
7. Narrow the number of ventures you’re involved in. – Productivity is not usually my challenge, narrowing the number of ventures to be productive in is.  Even when you have the knowledge and ability to access super-productive states, you get to a point where being simultaneously super-productive on too many fronts at once causes all activities to slow down, stand still and sometimes even slide backwards.
8. Pick-up the phone. – We’ve become so accustomed to communicating digitally, sending emails, IMs and texts, etc. that we forget we can get some tasks accomplished in a fraction of the time with one or two quick phone calls.
9. Use technology to automate tasks. – From creating email filters, to automatically backing-up your hard drive, to automatic bill paying.  The more you automate, the more you can get done without with the same level of effort.
10. Learn to search Google effectively. – If Google is the portal to the information superhighway, Google’s advanced search operators are the most efficient vehicles on the road.  Once you learn them, you will find what you seek in half the time, every time. For example, with Google, you could search for “life lessons” site:www.marcandangel.com to find all of the life lessons posted on our blog.  Spending less time looking for information means that you can get more done.
11. Group similar tasks back-to-back. – Switching gears between different types of tasks can be tough.  It takes most people several minutes to get into a productive mental groove geared for a specific type of task.  Therefore, it makes sense to group similar tasks in an effort to minimize the number of rough patches, and thus wasted time, between task orders.
12. Pay attention and get it right the first time. – The better listener you are, the more you will learn.  The more you learn now, the fewer questions you will have later, and the less time you will spend searching for answers.  And obviously, doing things right the first time eliminates future delays.
13. Eliminate all distractions for a set time. – Distractions are everywhere.  They arrive via email, cell phone, coworker inquiry, etc.  I’ve found that cutting out all distractions for a set time is one of the most effective ways to get things done in less time.  You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be nearly four times as productive while you are.
14. Plan ahead and start early. – 10 minutes of dedicated time planning each evening will save you from 30 minutes of ad-hoc preparation each morning.  Likewise, starting your morning on purpose 30 minutes early will likely inject at least 60 additional productive minutes into your day.  Think about it.
15. Organize your space. – How much time do you think the average person wastefully spends searching for items they’ve misplaced?  Keeping both your living and working spaces organized will undoubtedly allow you to get thing done more efficiently.
16. Choose a dedicated spot. – Don’t put your car keys, cell phone, etc. in a different spot each evening after work.  Choose a dedicated spot and make it a habit. There is nothing more frustrating in the morning than looking for the stuff you need.  Morning scavenger hunts are a huge waste of time.
17. Productively use waiting time. – Waiting time does not have to be wasted time.  When you are waiting at the doctor’s office, the post office, or on hold for the next available representative, what simple tasks could you complete while you wait?  How about sorting through your snail mail or email, writing those thank you notes you’ve been putting off, reading the book you keep meaning to read, reviewing/editing your to-do lists, etc. 
18. Stop over-analyzing things.  – There comes a time when you have to stop evaluating something and just bite the bullet and do it.  Contemplating taking action isn’t taking action.  It gets nothing accomplished.
19. Handle 2-minute tasks immediately. – “The 2 Minute Rule” is single greatest tip I picked up from David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done

    

    .  If you roughly estimate that a task is going to take you less than two minutes to accomplish, do it right now.  It’s a waste of time and energy to keep small tasks like this on your to-do list on in the back of your mind.
20. Make reservations. – When a one minute phone call now can save one hour of waiting later.
21. Ask more questions. – The trial and error process can be a huge waste of time.  Often people view asking questions and relying on others as a weakness, but they are sadly mistaken.  Asking legitimate questions will bring you closer to the people around you and likely save you a huge chunk of time.  Win-win.
22. Buy in bulk and cook in bulk. – Buying stuff and cooking food are two of the most common unplanned consumptions of time.  Most people buy replacements in small amounts only when they need them and think about food only when they’re hungry.  The problem is these issues will often arise at inopportune times.  The most efficient way I’ve found to counteract this is by doing bulk loads of both.  I know I’ll always need gas in my vehicle.  So instead of putting in $25 here and $25 there, I top off my tank every time I’m at the station regardless of the sticker shock.  Likewise, I know I’m going to be hungry at lunch time every day this week.  So on Sundays I’ll grill up five extra chicken breasts and make a chicken wrap or sandwich for every day of the week.
23. Standardize common tasks. – If you find yourself performing the same set of tasks on a regular basis then it makes sense to establish an efficient, standardized way of accomplishing them.  Are certain tasks easier to perform in the morning?  Are there additional resources that can be utilized only at a certain time?  It’s up to you to find an efficient pattern, standardize it and follow it.
24. Stop consuming the headline news every day. – Most news has no long term value.  Mainstream media primarily focuses on ‘what’s hot now’ instead of ‘what will be useful tomorrow.’
25. Stop mindlessly browsing online ad infinitum.  – Web browsing is one of the immense black holes in time spending.  Before you realize it, you may have spent hours browsing while generating very little value.
26. Turn off the TV. – Nuff said.
27. Make better usage of commute times. – Listen to audio books, make calls, do some proactive time planning, etc.  I use Evernote on my iPad and capture tons of ideas and thoughts when I’m commuting and traveling on business.
28. Write things down. – Nobody’s memory is perfect.  If you don’t take notes and setup to-do lists for yourself you will end up wasting time several minutes of time every day trying to remember things that would have taken you seconds to write down.
29. Consolidate all daily errands into one trip. – Consolidate all of your errands into one trip instead of driving back and forth several times from home to the store to home to the bank to home, etc.
30. Exercise daily. – I know it sounds counter-intuitive.  You have to spend time exercising.  But exercise boosts cognitive function, creativity, problem solving and productivity.  In fact a NASA study showed employees who exercised daily worked at 100% efficiency after seven hours, while those who didn’t saw a 50% drop, meaning it took them twice as long to accomplish the same thing.  (Read The 4-Hour Body

    

    .)
31. Use a timer. – I use a timer to limit the amount of time I spend on daily tasks such as email, returning calls, cranking through my to-do lists, etc.  This keeps me from getting overly distracted from the truly important tasks I must accomplish during the day.
32. Harness the power of teamwork. – I heard a story once about some horses that were in a competition to see which could pull the most weight.  One horse pulled 3,000 lbs and another one pulled 4,000 lbs.  Someone suggested the horses team together to see how much they could pull.  Most guesses were in the 7,000 lb to 10,000 lb range but when those two horses worked together, they pulled an amazing 20,000 lbs.  That’s the power of teamwork.  Good teamwork can get a large project completed in an amazingly short amount of time.
33. Just say NO!  – While saying yes can take us down some wonderful roads, there’s also a ton of value in saying “no.”  We’re only given a certain amount of hours in our lives; do you really want to give yours away so easily?  If you don’t have to time to commit to a new project, complete a favor, or serve on another committee, it’s a good idea to just say “no.”
34. Focus your attention on one thing at a time.  – Cutting out multitasking (or “multi-slacking” as I call it) leaves you to focus more intently on one task and finish it to completion, rather than having many tasks started and nothing finished.
35. Create productivity triggers for yourself. – If you’re fighting yourself every step of the way, forming diligent habits is hard.  You need to create triggers to help you out.  A simple example would be packing your gym bag the night before to keep you from having an excuse not to go to the gym.  Or put the books you need to take back to the library in front of the door, so you can’t leave the house without seeing them and remembering they need to be returned.
36. Touch inbox items only once. – This one is difficult for most people (myself included), but it really makes a difference.  For new email or other communications, look over it and decide what to do with it right away: archive, respond, flag for follow-up, etc.  Regardless of how you process communications, just make sure you deal with them once rather than wasting time by looking at them without taking decisive action.
37. Clean up your inbox. – Your inbox (email and otherwise) should only be for priority communication; otherwise it just wastes your time.  Set-up email filters to keep things organized and filter spam in your email inbox (here’s how in Gmail).
38. Use time multipliers. – Effective delegation of lower priority tasks is a time multiplier.  Eliminating time wasting activities is a time multiplier.  Screening phone calls is a time multiplier.  By practicing creative procrastination on anything that doesn’t propel you toward your goals, you can multiply the amount of time you have to achieve those goals.
39. Relocate closer to your place of employment. – In every major city in the world there are people traveling over an hour to reach their work destination from home.  This is a huge chunk of time that could be used far more productively.
40. Avoid meetings. – Not all meetings are a waste of time, but many are.  If you frequently spend time in meetings, but would rather be doing your actual work instead of listening to other people talk about things they could have sent you in an email, see if you can get out of some of those meetings.  You’ll get a lot more done.
41. Let your mouse do the walking. – Shop online, rent movies online, pay bills online, etc.  It’s so much more efficient.
42. Keep it simple. – Keep your to-do lists and planning simple, and don’t waste time playing with new tools.  There’s always going to be shiny programs that promise to make your day faster and more efficient.  Stick with one, and learn to rely on it.
43. Tell other people and hold yourself accountable. – It’s always a smart thing to tell people what you’re working on.  If you tell your colleagues or friends that you’re going to get something done, it motivates you to see it through to completion.  People who have a support system almost always find it easier to make things happen.
44. Hire someone. – Sometimes it makes more sense to hire someone to do something, especially if your time is worth more money than you’re paying that person. For example, if I have a large yard that would take me five hours to maintain (it’s pretty big), it makes more sense for me to pay someone as I can earn more during those 5 hours by working. Other things you might pay someone for: other home maintenance projects, washing your car, doing errands or laundry, doing your taxes … just about anything where doing it yourself isn’t cost-effective.
45. Spend minutes now to save hours later. – During happy hour last Friday I spent some time listening to one of my colleagues confess her utter distaste for the Windows 7 Start menu.  “The system is organized all wrong.  The programs I need are buried and the ones I never use are right at my finger tips.  I waste so much time digging through menus,” she said.  “But you can easily rearrange that,” I replied.  She looked down with a despondent expression on her face.  “I know,” she said.  “Someone else told me that too, but I haven’t taken the time to figure it out.”  Bottom line:  Sometimes you have to spend a few minutes now to save hours of grief in the future.
46. Practice the 80/20 rule. – Generally speaking, the 80/20 Rule states that 80% of our results come from 20% our actual work, and conversely, that we spend most of our energy doing things that aren’t important.  Figure out what that 20% is comprised of and focus as much of your energy as you can on it.  (Read The 4-Hour Workweek

    

    .)
47. Time box. – Assign a set amount of time per day to work on a specific task or project.  Focus entirely on that one thing during that timeframe.  Don’t worry about finishing it, just worry about giving it your undivided attention for the set timeframe.  (This is the opposite of having fixed goals.  For example, you don’t get up until you’ve written a thousand words, or processed 25 orders, or whatever.)
48. Remove information sources containing little value. – Unsubscribe from RSS feeds and newsletters that give no bang for their buck, and set up quick email filters to delete or de-prioritize the junk mail that isn’t easy to unsubscribe from.
49. Don’t underestimate the time it takes to do something. – Know the opportunity cost of your actions and how long something will truly take to do.  All things being equal, the best solution is the one that takes the least amount of total time (including maintenance time for fixing and support). What might have been a great idea with an hour of projected work would likely be a horrible idea if it took all day.
50. Start now. – In the end, all the tips in the world won’t make as productive as you could be if you simply started to get things done right now.  Don’t waste another minute!  START!

Photo by: Brandon Christopher Warren

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Filed under Hacks, Life, Productivity

via marcandangel.com

5.5 UPDATE: Integration with Evernote!

Here’s just one more reason to really love Producteev – integration with Evernote!  Check this out – you can actually leverage the new note linking feature within Evernote to clip a link to your task. 

Then, create your task in Producteev, and paste the link from Evernote in the description! 

Then, when you are ready to take action on the task, you simply click on the link, and your computer will automatically open that note in your Evernote!  Genius, I tell you!

via dangoldesq.wordpress.com

Our sincerest thanks to Dan Gold, a mega super user and true Producteev Ambassador!

People no longer have to register for Producteev to collaborate together. This is good news for EVERYONE!

For Producteev users:
Any created task can be made public in one click. Simply select the facebook or twitter icon in the task details. A short URL for the public task will appear, indicating crowdsourcing was successful.

Your public task can then be broadcasted in your networks (facebook, twitter, email). To broadcast the public task via facebook or twitter, enter your facebook/twitter credentials to share the task on your wall or in your timeline. You will have the option to comment on the crowdsourced task, just as you would with any other link that you share via facebook and twitter. Instantly access your crowdsourced task by clicking View from the task details. Once a task is complete (yay!), or you’d like to remove access for any reason, it can just as easily be closed with the Make Private option in the task details.

For collaborators:
Any person with a link to the public task can participate. Comments and feedback are easily added: using Producteev — or for non-users — facebook or twitter credentials. A collaborator also has the option of email-subscribing to public task updates in one click.All comments and public tasks will match on both the crowdsourced link, as well as a Producteev user’s workspace (dashboard). Users can answer any collaborators’ questions, or simply add additional commentary, from within their workspace. Simply post a note to the public task from the Task List or Task Details page. It’s that easy! Your collaborators will see feedback immediately!

Pretty nice to be able to collaborate without the extra steps of registering, right? We think so. You’ll have some great tasks to crowdsource now, and we’d love to hear all about them. :)

Should you need ideas to help you get started, below are 10 examples:
Personal Productivity

•   plan a trip
•   raise donations for a cause
•   ask for assistance doing term paper research
•   plan a night out with your friends
•   hunt for an apartment

Productivity for your Business

•   get help with hiring
•   collect small-scale feedback on a new feature, product, or prototype
•   get tips for making event reservations
•   find vendors, get help with important purchases
•   receive other recommendations

Budgeting principles that transfer into a basic productivity paradigm

Give your desktop a productivity boost with these organizational wallpapers

7 ways using your calendar could actually diminish your productivity

Six ways to stay motivated during hideously boring tasks

Tips to increase productivity: Prioritize, delegate, beat procrastination, change environment, beware of perfectionism, and reward yourself

5 steps of long-term goal-setting for procrastinators

Focus on task management instead of multitasking: four tips to increase productivity

Turn up to music to motivate yourself and GTD

8 Gmail Labs features to boost your productivity

Forms of movement and breathing from yoga that can help you find efficiency and ease in your work

Photo credit: Sean MacEntee

Browse: Home / Featured, Statistics / Students that Use Twitter Score Higher GPAs

Students that Use Twitter Score Higher GPAs

By Erik Qualman | June 21, 2011

In a recent study (see infographic from Master Degree Online below)  of 125 students those that used Twitter for educational purposes in the classroom outperformed students using traditional learning methods.  Aside from higher GPA’s the Twitter enable students were also 2x more engaged in the classroom.

++ Click to Enlarge Image ++

Via: Masters Degree Guide

Posted in Featured, Statistics | Tagged Twitter in the Classroom, Twitter Infographic | Leave a response

 

Erik Qualman

via socialnomics.net

Thanks for participating in our developer throwdown! The deadline has arrived, so we’ve now closed the floodgates. Tasky, the beaver, is busy taking a look at the apps, but we’ll make sure that he posts them next week when you’ll be able to vote on them. Thanks again for participating and we hope that you’ll keep developing on top of our API even though the contest is over - there’s a lot of community-requested apps we could use your help with!

Hello community, Judi, your CM of one year here :)

In economics, we learned about something called the Division of Labor. It may sound fancy, but all it really means is people get better at what they do when they specialize. 

Wearing lots of hats as community manager is a challenge I’ve enjoyed meeting; however, starting today, with the addition of a Social Media-Community intern I’ll be able to specialize and give customers — like you — better support.

This is something we can all be thankful for! Without further ado, meet Tushar Khandelwal, the latest and greatest add to the team.

I’m Tushar, a recent engineering grad, who joined the team as the new Social Media intern! I was born in India, but grew up in Tokyo, and came to New York to get a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia. I’m a self-proclaimed tech geek, read lifehacker and techcrunch, and have even served as an early adopter for everything from Producteev and Gmail to foursquare and other smaller startups.

I’ve been hardware hacking (with a little programming) for most of my life and besides serving as tech support for my family + friends, I also built an automatic wall painting robot! In the past couple of years, I’ve come to love the NYC tech and social media scene; as such, I’m excited for my internship at Producteev, helping people discover our apps and manage their tasks online.

When I’m not at my desk, you can find me biking the streets of New York or discovering new events and areas the city has to offer. My favorite productivity killers are Roll a D6 and a video I directed of my previous bosses madly running all over NYC. Feel free to keep in touch / follow me on twitter (@tushark) or stop by my blog at http://blog.tushark.com.

Photo credit: hawkexpress

We asked, and you answered! Here’s a list of “best” non-computer/non-software tools that increase productivity.

• highlighter
• pens
• set of 10 color Stabilo 0,4mm Fineliners (point 88)
• set of 6 color markers
• idea paint
• magnetic whiteboard
• moleskine white book
• contact manager
• daytimer (for those still not up with technology)
• index cards
• binder clips
• coffee
• train ride
• quiet time
• blocks of time
• productivity method or system
• networking
• social media – ways to get your message out to more people

Thanks to Producteev fans, Joseph Vilalta, and Ashton C. Mouton, Jr. for their contributions.

You might also like: The Endlessly Versatile Binder Clip

Five days til we call “time!” To enter to win the Developer Throwdown, be sure to get your apps submitted by midnight PDT on Monday, June 20, 2011!

OneTask - a new app to help you focus on one task at a time (think Pomodoro technique) - now syncs with Producteev. Put an end to the misleading myth of multi-tasking! Start one-tasking with OneTask & Producteev, to help you focus and get things done one priority at a time. ;)

See the complete list of integrations on our Directory of 3rd Party Applications. And if you’re a dev, hurry up and code something for our 2nd Annual API Contest. One week to the deadline is no hurdle for a hardcore hacker!

“No need to spend time writing long emails or follow up with colleagues on a specific task, Producteev takes care of it all! In the end, the collaboration tool makes work relationships seamless :)” - Mathilde Le Rouzic, CEO, epicurean, geek around the edges.

fave features:

• iPhone app
• calendar view
• labels

key benefits:

• management of multiple websites, from development to marketing
• scheduling flexibility
• greater team communication, greater actionable activity

Quaelead is an e-commerce suggestion engine. Mathilde le Rouzic is the founder, and she and her team make recommendations on gifts, decor, jewelry and other products. Created in 2009, the company manages 3 sites: UnCadeau.com (founded October 2009), jeveuxdesBijoux.com (founded November 2010), Bijouxpascher.com (founded January 2011).

Although Producteev is multi-platform, they mainly use the web application, with a workspace tab always open on each team member’s browser. “It’s part of the productivity trio: Gmail, Skype, Producteev,” Mathilde insists. As a busy and often on-the-go CEO, she regularly uses the iPhone app, especially while commuting to and from the office. “I use my down time productively,” she reveals, “to review my upcoming tasks, as well as my team’s tasks.”

Her team is also a fan of Calendar View and the drag-and-drop interface. It helps them shift tasks around on any given day. From a team standpoint, they claim that Producteev has drastically reduced the number of emails they used to send to each other. Instead, they rely on the task manager for full online collaboration, including adding notes and files. They add that they use Skype for quick communication, anytime they’re missing elements to complete specific tasks.

Their single most used label is titled “DEVELOPMENT,” and all the technical aspects of all 3 websites are managed through Producteev. Being able to modify details, like assigning a task, priority level, deadline and so on, breaks down project management into simple task management for them. Each one of them freely rearranges their tasks through out the week.

In addition, Mathilde harnesses the power of Producteev for our a lot of Quaelead’s marketing campaigns, from newsletters, to coupons, to strategic partnerships…

According to her, Producteev has improved their business by making everything super efficient, as well as centralized in one common location. In fact, she’s going to launch a couple of other e-commerce websites, and once again Producteev will remain the central communication and productivity piece. “We’re just so satisfied with it,” Mathilde concludes, “and the more our team grows, the more we need it to manage our work!”

Bonus: What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs, especially in e-commerce, about productivity?
“Through the years, I got used to capturing a lot of notes, in the very moment that I thoguht of them. I continually take time off from answering emails and taking calls every day, in order to process my most important tasks. I also force myself to spend at least an hour a day on less important tasks. It’s not as interesting, but way less annoying than letting them pile up!”

Producteev is proudly available in French.

We’ve been focusing a lot on online collaboration and team task management, and we’ve got a few more lined up this month.

This summer, however, is going to be all about personal productivity and creative, individual and family use cases. Michele K. actually does use Producteev as a packing list and to check off items in preparation for travel.

You may have a really neat way to organize to-dos on Producteev. Leave us a comment below, we’d love to hear your ideas!

Productivity & Purpose from Life After College by @jenny_blake

Judi’s guest post on the Productive Life Concepts blog by Royale on June 8, 2011

Photo by Galo Delgado at The Photobooth Project

Life After College, a new book by Jenny Blake, has been full of productive inspiration for me. In fact, I had the pleasure of attending the book launch in New York City, where I got to meet Jenny. I was truly blown away by her charisma.

The major themes of Life After College are: seizing the day, as well as the counterpart to that, which is instilling balance. The race to success, especially wealth and prestige, are so ingrained in the American lifestyle that it’s sometimes hard to remember to pause and recharge for your longterm wellbeing.

However, Jenny’s book helps with that and offers practical advice, workbook-like exercises and even recommended reading. The format also includes quotes from both famous people and everyday people on twitter. Divided into several sections, Life After College delves into: an overview on life, work, finances, the home, organization, friends & family, relationships, health, fun, and my favorite: personal growth.

To paraphrase the chapter on personal growth, the takeaways include: embracing the moment, as well as choosing when not to work, and instead doing the things that make you happy.

Often underestimated, they’re actually fundamental to personal productivity.

According to Jenny, personal growth also entails treating yourself well — on a psychological level. She gives advice on friending your inner voice.

The most valuable lesson from Life After College is the inspirational aspect and somehow mustering the courage and audacity to dream. After reading, the work has prompted me to write my major life goals, a sort of bucket list, if you will. Though somewhere in my mental repository, I had procrastinated writing them down out of fear.

Change starts now.

In her book launch speech, Jenny told the story of how her book was turned down numerous times by the publisher, but she refused to give up on a project she believed in. Any book, whether about life after college, a different period of life or other self-help issue, that encourages grand actions and provides tools for achieving them, is a book you won’t want to miss. Consider it my summer reading recommendation for you, regardless if you’re a part of the recent grad demographic!

Tags: book bytes, lifestyle, personal development

via productivelifeconcepts.com

You might also like the following post by Jenny Blake: 5 Tips for Managing Your Energy, Not Your Time

The French iteration is now live! Thanks to the handful of volunteer translators who helped do the work. It was a labor of love, we’re sure!

More languages on the way. Feel free to comment below if you’re willing to help volunteer translate.

To enable, select the French flag from the drop down in the far right corner.

Thanks to Dave Weinber, of Silver Spring, MD for participating in our twitter contest yesterday. Producteev’s three-year anniversary is just around the corner and we’re throwing a little get-together!

Save the date for Tuesday, July 5, 2011 (the technical date of incorporation was July, 8, 2008). We’re planning a party here in New York City. So even if you can’t come, you can still help organize. 

Should we 

• go a tad formal and do wine & cheese, or
• make it a bit exotic with sushi!?

Beavers eat fish, right? You can count on there being birthday cupcakes. We’ll send more info and the link to RSVP in an upcoming newsletter. Keep your eyes peeled and your creative juices flowing. Cheers!

Photo credit: Josh Kenzer

We’ve kept quiet about Mark Hamilton, our new Windows dev. He’s been chucking away at over 4,000 lines of code. If you’re interested in beta testing what he’s developing (it’s going to kick A$#, by the way) drop us a comment below!

In Mark’s own words: 
Hello everyone, I’m Mark, a 24-year-old developer that just joined the Producteev team. I’ve been programming for most of my life, starting from the day my dad taught when I was a little kid. My focus has changed a lot over the years as I drifted from project to project, but it’s given me the opportunity to work on everything from palmtop computers and desktop applications to websites and video games. I’ve arrived here at these offices by happenstance, but my goal is very clear; I’m helping create a solid product that people use around the world.

When I’m not at the office, walking the streets of New York, or spending time with my family on Long Island, my rock star alter ego likes to come out and jam on the bass guitar. If you’d like to keep in touch, you can follow me on Twitter at @askmarkhamilton or stop by my blog at http://www.markhamilton.info.

Image via Wikipedia

“Life is a marathon, not a sprint.”
“I’m in this for the long-haul.”
“I can see the finish line — not letting up now.”
“I’ll sleep when I’m old” or “I’ll rest after I finish this next big phase.”
“I’m so passionate about what I’m doing that I don’t even NEED a break!”

If you’re anything like me, you’ve uttered one or more of these motivational phrases to yourself as you pursued a big project or business idea. As female business owners and entrepreneurs, we often try to do it all — build our business, eat healthy foods, stay fit, be social, take care of our home and loved ones, and be cheerful on top of it all.

It can be exhausting.

And contrary to all the popular mantras, treating life and business like a marathon might not actually be in our best interest. 

My Ill-Timed Book Breakdown

I experienced this first-hand after having a complete and utter breakdown three weeks before my book, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want, was set to come out.

I had been working on the project for over two and half years, and in the final months I ramped it up to an obsessive around-the-clock endeavor (in addition to my full-time job at Google). I felt like I was on Mile 23 of a marathon — I could see the finish line and now was no time to rest or let-up.

Because I wasn’t willing to take a break, life knocked me on my ass (that’s the technical term) and forced me to rest. Despite the fact that my book was going to be released in three weeks and I had an impossibly long to-do list of important tasks to complete, I was a miserable, crying, nonfunctioning mess. Even though I was incredibly passionate about my project, not building in any rest stops had been a recipe for disaster.

The Alternative: Manage your energy, not your time

Tony Schwartz, author of The Power of Full Engagement, recommends that we manage our energy not our time.

Rather than treating our life and businesses as a marathon, Schwartz advises we treat them as sprints and recovery (recovery being key here!).

We all know we are going to have big sprints — that’s what makes pursuing a project or business so exciting. But it’s imperative that we build in equal parts recovery.

5 Tips to Make Room for Recovery

1. Schedule it. No matter whether or not you think you need a break, schedule fun or relaxation activities in advance and stick to them.
2. Double the break you think you need. I know how this goes, “Sure, I’ll take a break — I’ll give myself a whole hour off!” Not good enough. Whatever the break you think you need, double it. You are most likely underestimating the toll that all of your hard work is taking on your body and mind — even if you’re having fun.
3. Enlist family and friends. If you schedule a weekend get-away with family or friends, you’ll have no excuse but to unplug. Family and friends can be great accountability buddies for taking the breaks you need.
4. Make a list of the benefits of R&R, and brainstorm your favorite rejuvenation activities. I know that even after reluctantly taking a break, I will come back refreshed, more cheerful and more creative — which puts me in an even better position to do my best work once I’m back at it. Making a list of the benefits will help motivate and remind you to actually take the breaks you’ve set-up. At a loss for what to do? Make a list of any/all activities that bring you joy or relaxation. For me that’s reading, yoga, a glass of wine (with chocolate) and watching a few shows on Hulu.
5. Break down your biggest goals into achievable, measurable chunks and reward yourself often! For every day that you make a massive to-do list, add a “reward” item at the end that brings you joy. Maybe it’s reading a book, a gossip magazine, or going out to dinner with a friend. For many of us, we only take breaks or celebrate when we hit the BIG goals — but those can take months to achieve. Instead, break them down into smaller parts and reward yourself for all of the smaller milestones you hit along the way.

So the next time you’re headed for a big business sprint, make sure you build in recovery rest-stops. For those of you who already do this, what did I miss on the list above? How else do you balance hard work with rest and play?

Courtesy of Y.E.C.

Jenny Blake is an author, blogger, life coach and yoga teacher. She is currently on a three-month sabbatical from Google to go on a self-funded 14-city book tour for her recently released book, Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want. The experience of leaving school before her friends inspired her to start her blog, LifeAfterCollege.org, in 2007 which was later voted #1 Gen Y blog by her peers, and recognized by Suze Orman and the Wall Street Journal.

via Y.E.C.

Co-Founded by Natalie MacNeil and Scott Gerber, Y.E.C. Women is an initiative of the Young Entrepreneur Council, a nonprofit organization that provides young entrepreneurs with access to tools, mentorship, community and educational resources that support each stage of their business’s development and growth. Y.E.C. Women’s members are successful female business owners, entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

via blogs.forbes.com

I actually met Jenny Blake at her book launch in NYC! Feel free to check out the following

related productivity post: The Secret of High & Low Energy Tasks

Photo credit: Ed Mitchell

Most working professionals  complain about the volume of email they receive each day.  What they don’t know is that they have their eyes on the wrong target, and instead should shift their attention to the time demands buried in electronic messages.

To explain, let’s start with a definition of a “time demand,” which is nothing more than a mental, individual commitment to accomplish a task in the future.  It’s a peculiar invention of the human imagination, and has some distinct characteristics.  A time demand is:

• created in the mind of the person making the commitment
• automatically assigned a likely duration, and starting time
• something that disappears when the task is completed
• the cause of stress when too many of them are carried in one’s memory

Email, phone calls, text messages. physical letters, action items in meetings and tweets are just some of the carriers of time demands. We process these pieces of content, and as we’re doing so we create time demands.  The more content we process, the more time demands we are likely to create:

The average person in the year 1750 saw as much information in their entire lifetime as one sees in a typical Sunday New York Times.

However, the problem isn’t as simple as cutting back the number of emails received each day, or the number of pages read on one’s Kindle.  After all, we two hundred emails in a day might only result in 1or 2 time demands that require 15 minutes to complete.  In like manner,  3 emails could result in hundreds of time demands spanning several months.  The problem isn’t in the volume of messages we receive, but their contents, and how to process them.

Given that fact, it’s not hard to see that the modern workplace has progressed tremendously since the widespread adaptation of email in the 1990’s.  Back then, time demands were transmitted in two ways:  through real-time conversations and via paper memos.  Today, in addition to these two channels, the average working professional must also master a number of others, such as text messages, email, social networking updates, instant messages and voice-mails.

Also, we must all must deal with the fact that our access to these channels has shifted.  In a smartphone world, access to them has become a 24 hour per day, 7 day a week phenomena, rather than one that is restricted to “working hours.”  (In fact, the very concept of “working hours” is fast receding due to the fact that the work of processing time demands never seems to stop.)

When we forget that we are looking for time demands within incoming messages, we often learn the bad habit of “skimming.”  Instead of dealing with each message once before dispensing with them, we take a quick look and then decide to take action “later,” before moving to the next message.  In no time, we end up with inboxes that are overflowing with time demands that we have put off until some time in the future.

These time demands prey on our minds, and make us feel overburdened as we realize that we’re not very good at remembering the exact nature of each item.  We feel stressed when we realize that some are falling through the cracks as our memory fails. 

Thankfully, there are better techniques available. Our research shows that it’s better to switch to keeping lists, once the number of time demands exceeds a certain threshold.  This works for a while, until another threshold is reached, and at that point it’s necessary to switch to keeping a single, electronic calendar.

We don’t know that a hard and fast rule exists about when these upgrades must happen, as they depend a great deal on the user.  Our coaching is simple:  make the upgrade when you sense that your peace of mind begins to suffer by trying to mentally keep track of too many time demands.

When possible, process emails immediately. Make it a routine to archive and delete messages once a week, perhaps during your weekly review (for those who are fans of GTD).

Focusing on time demands, and their effect on our peace of mind, is the best way to make these changes, and to avoid making the mistake of focusing too narrowly on email volumes.

Francis Wade is a proponent of Time Management 2.0, and writes for several newspapers, as well as his research website: http://2time-sys.com. He is @fwade on twitter and can be found on our productivity resources twitter list.

For help with Producteev email sync and integration, check out the following options:
http://www.producteev.com/#emailsync

If you’re at TechCrunch Disrupt come say “hey.” We’re in aisle B of Startup Alley!

Photo credit: TechCrunch

Here’s some great reading for working better, cheers!

101 Tips for Becoming a Productivity Superstar

How To Manage People Distractions

3 Power Tricks to Supercharge Your Day with Gratitude

7 Not So Obvious Habits to Maximize Your Productivity

9 Famous Quotes that Will Super Charge Your Day

Kickstart Your Creativity by Writing 750 Words a Day

3 Simple Steps to Chilling Out When You are Having a Negative or Overwhelming Day

How to Make a Mind Map for Maximum Productivity

The Really Simple Way to Get Work Done

How to Pay Attention & Not Lose Your Job: 5 Myths About Multi-Tasking

Photo credit: Sam Randall

[UPDATE DEC 18, 2012]: This is no longer available, but two features we planned to bring back at some point.

We’re launching two-way task sync for both Outlook To-Dos and Google Tasks, which are linked to the top two email clients out there! Are you jumping for joy right now!? 

View feature specifications, download & install, and watch video tutorials at:
http://producteev.com/#emailsync

Here are some brief notes on installation:

Once the Outlook Plugin is installed, go to your Outlook Tasks. To the right of the Producteev tab, select settings. Enter your Producteev credentials and log in. Adjusting other settings are optional (sync frequency and direction). The important thing to note is that changing which workspace is synced can be accessed on this tab. Press sync on Outlook to force sync. Refresh the task list on Producteev to sync.

Connecting Google Tasks Sync is easy. From your Producteev workspace in the left sidebar, select Workspace Administration and the Email/IM tab. Scroll down to Google Tasks (immediately after Google Calendar), and hit connect. Grant access to Google, and you’re set! Refresh the task lists to force sync.

Tame the email beast! ;)

A special thanks goes out first and foremost to all our beta testers. You help great apps happen! Lastly, none of this would be possible without the skills of CTO Aric Lasry (behind Google Tasks Sync) and David Podhola, a third party developer based in Prague. 

A wise Windows developer and gamer once said, “Outlook is one of Microsoft’s more diabolical creations.”

Photo credit: Lou Gallois-Disant

Team Spotlight: Ilan Abehassera — CEO, husband, father

fave features: 

• natural language processing
• collaboration
• priority

key benefits:

• control of email based workflow
• convenient access
• high flexibility

In the past I’ve shared how you can use Producteev for your CRM needs, but this is what I am going to focus on now: how I use it in my daily workflow, focusing only on tasks.

Mail-to-Task
Like a lot of you, I manage a great quantity of emails every single day. I personally hate that actionable emails sit on my inbox for ever, because there’s no way to rank them by priority or set deadlines.

Since I’ve been using Producteev in my work life, I simply forward those actionable items to task@producteev.com and let Producteev do the rest. I use our natural language processing features a lot, and that saves me time and ranks those emails into my task list automatically.

iPhone
One other reason why I am using Producteev on a daily basis is: shopping lists. Of course, we can use pen and paper, and lots of people are using emails… I use Producteev so my wife can create lists for me, I get it automatically on my iPhone when I am shopping, AND I check off what I am buying one by one. Works like a charm. Simple, and collaborative. Remember, you can collaborate with one other people on Producteev for free! So try it out by inviting someone to your workspaces.

Desktop & Web
The way I am updating Producteev is really as multi-platform as you can imagine, I use pretty much all of our integrations: IM, Email, iPhone, Google Apps and Gmail Gadget, and the Mac app (yes you’ll have it too!). At the end of the day, I use Producteev as my task dropbox, and when I get to the office, I simply open the desktop app (formerly the web app), rank my tasks by priority (because this is mostly the way I get things done), assign some of my tasks to teammates, and get cracking on that to-do list!

Bottom line, I don’t use all of our features, but I certainly harness the power of the platform we’re creating. Producteev gathers all my tasks across other tools I use, and then lets me access and track them no matter where I am working.

Photo credit: Hector Pierna Sanchez

It’s morning. You’re staring at your Next Actions list like you would a creature out of nightmare — something huge and ugly that’s reaching out to crush your soul into unproductive little pieces. It’s been this way for a week or so now, maybe more; you’ve lost track. All you know is that this GTD thing everybody goes on about — the super-productivity system you thought would save you from overwhelm — has turned on you. And it’s seriously kicking your ass.

Something has obviously gone wrong. But now what? You’ve invested a lot of valuable time into Getting Things Done, and the thought of starting all over again, either with GTD or some other system, is near mind-shattering. The longer you stare at your computer, though, the more appealing the idea of taking a hammer or some other blunt instrument to it becomes — and that can’t lead anywhere good. So again you ask yourself: Now what?

We’ve all been there (I’ve probably been there more than many, in fact) and it always seems bleak — but it’s a lot easier to get your productivity system back on track than you might think. It just depends on your approach.

If you’re anything like me, you got into GTD to take control of the crazy amount of things you need to accomplish on a daily basis. At least, that was part of it for me. I was also afflicted with the “big think” virus: I would have a goal (or 10) in mind — something huge and fantastically creative of course — and then I would just jump in to it (them) with both feet, flapping my arms about wildly while I tried to figure out a good place to start. My old vocal coach-slash-counsellor called it “Trying to build a house from the roof down.” Eventually, I would expend so much energy flapping, that I would just burn myself out. That lead to last-gasp analytics of the projects, which would inevitably end with me so overwhelmed by what needed to be done and how to go about it that I would just say “screw it” and go play video games. What I needed to break things down to a manageable level, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done system seemed like the perfect thing to help me make that happen.

In the beginning, it was all roses. I got my system set up — I even figured out how to integrate it with Evernote, and then later with Producteev — and got things humming along just nicely. Unfortunately, as time went on, I ended up with longer and longer lists of next actions. My contexts were bursting at the seams, and there was just no way for me to keep up.

I looked at my lists and felt that old overwhelm creeping up on me again. Then I started to avoid looking at them altogether. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, at first, and the problem was, to make myself feel like I was still continuing with the GTD system, I was still collecting new tasks. In the end, the tasks weren’t even making it to the processing stage anymore, and I found myself with a faux-GTD system that was all Inbox — just a fancy shell over my original way of (not) doing things. I had completely reverted — and my computer was shivering in fear of the imagined sledge hammer by my desk.

In any case, that was the past. I now have my GTD system up and running again, and it’s working the way it should be. To get there, all I had to do was follow these five relatively simple steps:

Identify the Problem
Start by taking a step back. Overwhelm is an insidious beast and you won’t be able to do anything about it unless you approach with a clear mind. Think of it like cleansing your palate while eating particularly rich foods. Everything will taste better, and you’re that much more likely to make it through the meal.

Now pull out a pen and paper and start to write down your main goals again. If you have trouble doing this, you have already discovered the core of your difficulties. Nothing ever truly gets accomplished without a clear goal to apply it to.

Once you have your goals in hand again, use them as a focal point as you examine your approach to productivity over the past few months. Try to identify what worked and what didn’t work, what you liked, and what you found frustrating. Think about the tools that you use, any modifications that you made to the methodology to suit your life, and the different projects you’re engaged in. Then do your best to identify all of the other things that you’re giving your attention to. Write it all down. This is the best way to discover where the bottlenecks are, and what about your approach has allowed things to backlog.

For me, the problem was as simple as not adding how long a task might take (which lead to scheduling too many things on any given day), combined with collecting things under the banner of my overall goals that really should have been either ignored, or put into Someday/Maybe-land. A little more analysis also revealed that I was not nearly disciplined enough with my weekly reviews, which would have helped me to identify those two problems in the first place, thus saving me from the hole I had dug myself into. Finally, I discovered several things outside of the GTD system that were distracting me. Things like keeping my email open, social media notifications, and working in a place easily accessible by my lovely wife and extraordinarily cute little girl. They don’t mean to be distractions, but how can they not be?

Once you’ve identified the problems that have lead to GTD-breakdown, find ways to streamline your system. Remove extra steps, use a better tool, cut out (or at least cut back on) distractions, and do whatever else you reasonably can to deal with what is getting in the way of your productivity.

Reprocessing
This might sound scary, given that you are here because of an already overwhelming amount of task data. Don’t worry, though — at least half of the work has already been done for you. You already have things collected, and a number of those things are already processed into tasks. Now, all you need to do is take a look at those tasks, and reprocess them based on your newly refined goals, working around the problems that you identified in the first step. Chances are good that you will find a lot of tasks that are already complete, or no longer relevant — and every one of those tasks that you get rid of will make you feel just a little bit better. Kill them dead with impunity!

The easiest approach to reprocessing may be to start with your Projects list, as it will be smaller than your combined tasks, and it will be easier for you to identify the projects that can be removed completely, or added to Someday/Maybe. Once you have gone through that list, you can simply throw away any tasks related to those removed or moved projects, which will speed up your overall processing time, and get you in the right frame of mind to approach other tasks in the same way.

If this still seems overwhelming, then do the reprocessing in chunks. You won’t lose anything if you don’t do it all in one day — just make sure that you keep coming back to it until it’s done.

Reestablish the Collection Process
Now that you have the backlog out of the way, it’s time to start collecting again. The difference here will be that you are once again sure about your goals, and your system will be tweaked for optimal collection and processing. That’s a fun and fancy way of saying that you’re back on track, focused, and ready to rock your way to the productive lifestyle you aspire to.

Before you get going here, however, do a final check to make sure your refined Inbox is as easily accessible as you need it to be. If you are using Producteev or another online tool, be certain that the email addresses, extensions, apps, and other methods to send things into those services are in your contact lists, installed, and/or otherwise ready to go. Give yourself some leeway here, as well. It’s possible that things may not work entirely as you thought they would, so you may need to do a bit more tweaking over the next week or so.

Create Good Habits
GTD or any other productivity methodology is really nothing more than a collection of habits. It starts with discipline, certainly, but after a while the things that you do daily to maintain the processes should become second nature. Problems arise, however, when we have or create conflicting habits that could drag the system into another breakdown. Since you’ve already identified the bad habits that contributed to the last crash and burn, you are already a step ahead in the game. Unfortunately, bad habits don’t go quietly, and creating good habits in the face of the bad is not easy.

The key here is to not try to do everything at once. If you try a massive attack against all bad habits, trying to replace them with the new good ones, you will end up with a fight on your hands that will lead you back down the path to overwhelm. Instead, go with surgical strikes. Make a list of those bad and good habits and attack them one at a time. If you lapse here and there, don’t flay yourself over it. Just methodically get back on the proverbial horse and eventually, you will be successful.

*The Weekly Review is Your Friend
It’s human nature to get a little lazy with things now and again, and this can be a problem, if you let it. Again, don’t be overly harsh with yourself, as it will only make you more likely to abandon your system. Who wants to do anything daily that is attached to self-recriminations and other forms of negativity? Not me — and probably not you, either. Instead, just make sure you keep up with the parts of the system that are there to help you keep things together. Chief among those is the Weekly Review.

The Weekly Review is where you get the chance to check on the health of your system. You can see where your projects are at, and can examine what worked and what didn’t work over the past week. I can’t put enough emphasis on the importance of taking the time to do this — and thoroughly — every single week. If you let it slip too far, you will miss out on key indicators that could help you catch a problem before it starts or spins out of control. Schedule at least an hour every week — two hours, or more, if necessary — and go through your review in detail. If you get done early, that’s a bonus for you! Either way, the time spent will be worthwhile, and will save you more time in the end. Just make sure you reward yourself when you finish so that you have incentive to keep coming back.

As a final thought on getting back to (and keeping up with) GTD, remember that good visual presentation goes a long way. This isn’t to say that a pretty app or sexy Moleskine notebook is the best approach for your system, only that anything that makes it easier for you to look at and process your data will increase the likelihood that you’ll keep coming back.

Bonus:

• Make sure that your contexts are clear and well organized.
• Keep next actions on any given project down to one or two at a time, if possible.
• Make tasks obvious that will take a while to complete.
• I’m sure you get the idea…

Most importantly, if your system starts to break down again, don’t wait until you are on the verge of a mental breakdown before you do something about it. GTD can be a powerful ally to the productivity Jedi — but if you give it enough leverage it will turn around and give you an ass-kicking you wouldn’t believe. Eternal vigilance and such, dig?

Share what you do to keep your GTD on track!

Bobby Travis is a geeky dad with passion for writing and online marketing, coupled with a serious bent for productivity systems. You can chat with him on Twitter (@bobby_travis), connect with him on LinkedIn, or read more of his work on 40Tech. He is also a big fan of money, so if you want to hire him for some freelance work, he won’t be mad at you! Email him at contact@bobby-travis.com.

Learn more about Producteev weekly digests. Tune in to our first twitter chat about productivity! 
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 from 1pm - 2pm EST. Topic: Getting Things Done.

How to Deal When GTD Kicks Your Ass

 

It’s morning. You’re staring at your Next Actions list like you would a creature out of nightmare — something huge and ugly that’s reaching out to crush your soul into unproductive little pieces. It’s been this way for a week or so now, maybe more; you’ve lost track. All you know is that this GTD thing everybody goes on about — the super-productivity system you thought would saveyou from overwhelm — has turned on you. And it’s seriously kicking your ass.

 

Something has obviously gone wrong. But now what? You’ve invested a lot of valuable time intoGetting Things Done, and the thought of starting all over again, either with GTD or some other system, is near mind-shattering. The longer you stare at your computer, though, the more appealing the idea of taking a hammer or some other blunt instrument to it becomes — and that can’t lead anywhere good. So again you ask yourself: Now what?

 

We’ve all been there (I’ve probably been there more than many, in fact) and it always seems bleak — but it’s a lot easier to get your productivity system back on track than you might think. It just depends on your approach.

 

If you’re anything like me, you got into GTD to take control of the crazy amount of things you need to accomplish on a daily basis. At least, that was part of it for me. I was also afflicted with the “big think” virus: I would have a goal (or 10) in mind — something huge and fantastically creative of course — and then I would just jump in to it (them) with both feet, flapping my arms about wildly while I tried to figure out a good place to start. My old vocal coach-slash-counsellor called it “Trying to build a house from the roof down.” Eventually, I would expend so much energy flapping, that I would just burn myself out. That lead to last-gasp analytics of the projects, which would inevitably end with me so overwhelmed by what needed to be done and how to go about it that I would just say “screw it” and go play video games. What I needed to break things down to a manageable level, and David Allen’s Getting Things Done system seemed like the perfect thing to help me make that happen.

 

In the beginning, it was all roses. I got my system set up — I even figured out how to integrate it with Evernote, and then later with Producteev — and got things humming along just nicely. Unfortunately, as time went on, I ended up with longer and longer lists of next actions. My contexts were bursting at the seams, and there was just no way for me to keep up.

 

I looked at my lists and felt that old overwhelm creeping up on me again. Then I started to avoid looking at them altogether. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, at first, and the problem was, to make myself feel like I was still continuing with the GTD system, I was still collecting new tasks. In the end, the tasks weren’t even making it to the processing stage anymore, and I found myself with a faux-GTD system that was all Inbox — just a fancy shell over my original way of (not) doing things. I had completely reverted — and my computer was shivering in fear of the imagined sledge hammer by my desk.

 

In any case, that was the past. I now have my GTD system up and running again, and it’s working the way it should be. To get there, all I had to do was follow these five relatively simple steps:

 

Identify the Problem

Start by taking a step back. Overwhelm is an insidious beast and you won’t be able to do anything about it unless you approach with a clear mind. Think of it like cleansing your palate while eating particularly rich foods. Everything will taste better, and you’re that much more likely to make it through the meal.

 

Now pull out a pen and paper and start to write down your main goals again. If you have trouble doing this, you have already discovered the core of your difficulties. Nothing ever truly gets accomplished without a clear goal to apply it to.

 

Once you have your goals in hand again, use them as a focal point as you examine your approach to productivity over the past few months. Try to identify what worked and what didn’t work, what you liked, and what you found frustrating. Think about the tools that you use, any modifications that you made to the methodology to suit your life, and the different projects you’re engaged in. Then do your best to identify all of the other things that you’re giving your attention to. Write it all down. This is the best way to discover where the bottlenecks are, and what about your approach has allowed things to backlog.

 

For me, the problem was as simple as not adding how long a task might take (which lead to scheduling too many things on any given day), combined with collecting things under the banner of my overall goals that really should have been either ignored, or put into Someday/Maybe-land. A little more analysis also revealed that I was not nearly disciplined enough with my weekly reviews, which would have helped me to identify those two problems in the first place, thus saving me from the hole I had dug myself into. Finally, I discovered several things outside of the GTD system that were distracting me. Things like keeping my email open, social media notifications, and working in a place easily accessible by my lovely wife and extraordinarily cute little girl. They don’t mean to be distractions, but how can they not be?

 

Once you’ve identified the problems that have lead to GTD-breakdown, find ways to streamline your system. Remove extra steps, use a better tool, cut out (or at least cut back on) distractions, and do whatever else you reasonably can to deal with what is getting in the way of your productivity.

 

Reprocessing

This might sound scary, given that you are here because of an already overwhelming amount of task data. Don’t worry, though — at least half of the work has already been done for you. You already have things collected, and a number of those things are already processed into tasks. Now, all you need to do is take a look at those tasks, and reprocess them based on your newly refined goals, working around the problems that you identified in the first step. Chances are good that you will find a lot of tasks that are already complete, or no longer relevant — and every one of those tasks that you get rid of will make you feel just a little bit better. Kill them dead with impunity!

 

The easiest approach to reprocessing may be to start with your Projects list, as it will be smaller than your combined tasks, and it will be easier for you to identify the projects that can be removed completely, or added to Someday/Maybe. Once you have gone through that list, you can simply throw away any tasks related to those removed or moved projects, which will speed up your overall processing time, and get you in the right frame of mind to approach other tasks in the same way.

 

If this still seems overwhelming, then do the reprocessing in chunks. You won’t lose anything if you don’t do it all in one day — just make sure that you keep coming back to it until it’s done.

 

Reestablish the Collection Process 

Now that you have the backlog out of the way, it’s time to start collecting again. The difference here will be that you are once again sure about your goals, and your system will be tweaked for optimal collection and processing. That’s a fun and fancy way of saying that you’re back on track, focused, and ready to rock your way to the productive lifestyle you aspire to.

 

Before you get going here, however, do a final check to make sure your refined Inbox is as easily accessible as you need it to be. If you are using Producteev or another online tool, be certain that the email addresses, extensions, apps, and other methods to send things into those services are in your contact lists, installed, and/or otherwise ready to go. Give yourself some leeway here, as well. It’s possible that things may not work entirely as you thought they would, so you may need to do a bit more tweaking over the next week or so.

 

Create Good Habits

GTD or any other productivity methodology is really nothing more than a collection of habits. It starts with discipline, certainly, but after a while the things that you do daily to maintain the processes should become second nature. Problems arise, however, when we have or create conflicting habits that could drag the system into another breakdown. Since you’ve already identified the bad habits that contributed to the last crash and burn, you are already a step ahead in the game. Unfortunately, bad habits don’t go quietly, and creating good habits in the face of the bad is not easy.

 

The key here is to not try to do everything at once. If you try a massive attack against all bad habits, trying to replace them with the new good ones, you will end up with a fight on your hands that will lead you back down the path to overwhelm. Instead, go with surgical strikes. Make a list of those bad and good habits and attack them one at a time. If you lapse here and there, don’t flay yourself over it. Just methodically get back on the proverbial horse and eventually, you will be successful.

 

The Weekly Review is Your Friend

It’s human nature to get a little lazy with things now and again, and this can be a problem, if you let it. Again, don’t be overly harsh with yourself, as it will only make you more likely to abandon your system. Who wants to do anything daily that is attached to self-recriminations and other forms of negativity? Not me — and probably not you, either. Instead, just make sure you keep up with the parts of the system that are there to help you keep things together. Chief among those is the Weekly Review.

 

The Weekly Review is where you get the chance to check on the health of your system. You can see where your projects are at, and can examine what worked and what didn’t work over the past week. I can’t put enough emphasis on the importance of taking the time to do this — and thoroughly — every single week. If you let it slip too far, you will miss out on key indicators that could help you catch a problem before it starts or spins out of control. Schedule at least an hour every week — two hours, or more, if necessary — and go through your review in detail. If you get done early, that’s a bonus for you! Either way, the time spent will be worthwhile, and will save you more time in the end. Just make sure you reward yourself when you finish so that you have incentive to keep coming back.

 

 

As a final thought on getting back to (and keeping up with) GTD, remember that good visual presentation goes a long way. This isn’t to say that a pretty app or sexy Moleskine notebook is the best approach for your system, only that anything that makes it easier for you to look at and process your data will increase the likelihood that you’ll keep coming back.

 

A few tips here:

1. Make sure that your contexts are clear and well organized.
2. Keep next actions on any given project down to one or two at a time, if possible.
3. Make tasks obvious that will take a while to complete.
4. I’m sure you get the idea…

 

Most importantly, if your system starts to break down again, don’t wait until you are on the verge of a mental breakdown before you do something about it. GTD can be a powerful ally to the productivity Jedi — but if you give it enough leverage it will turn around and give you an ass-kicking you wouldn’t believe. Eternal vigilance and such, dig?

 

Share what you do to keep your GTD on track!

 

Bobby Travis is a geeky dad with passion for writing and online marketing, coupled with a serious bent for productivity systems. You can chat with him on Twitter (@bobby_travis), connect with him on LinkedIn, or read more of his work on 40Tech. He is also a big fan of money, so if you want to hire him for some freelance work, he won’t be mad at you! Email him atcontact@bobby-travis.com.

As mentioned in yesterday’s blogpost , the founders are wheeling and dealing at Google I/O this week. It’s pretty fancy, the developer sandbox especially, which is by invitation only and limited to about 100 developers from around the world. You can find the Producteev booth in the Google Apps section (map). Definitely say “hey” if you’re around!

Tune into CEO Ilan Abehassera giving a speech at 4:30pm PDT on Wednesday. Access the live stream here: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/bringing-google-io-direct-to-you-with.html.

Photo credit: Ryan Cain

The founders are off enjoying Google IO - the geekiest event ever. To celebrate and to kick off our 2nd Developer Throwdown, an API contest running through June, we’re compiling a list of all Producteev applications. To complete the directory, let us know which Producteev integrations we should add! You can also help us win a glorious prize at Google IO by voting for our short form video. Cheers!

*iGoogle gadget
http://www.producteev.com/igoogle/producteevgadget.xml

*Contextual gadget
https://www.google.com/enterprise/marketplace/viewListing?productListingId=5887+4708068531850389144&pli=1

*iPhone app
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/producteev/id306289289?mt=8

Chrome extension
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jcaeahkofldkofgllnfkbnbjhclnbiha

Opera extension
https://addons.opera.com/addons/extensions/details/producteev-extension/0.2/?display=en

Astrid
http://www.androidtapp.com/astrid-task-todo-list/

Task List Pro
http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/productivity/task-list-todo-list-pro_lkjp.html

Taskee
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/13801?lang=en

Voice2teev
http://www.appstorehq.com/voice2teev-android-311814/app

MPM mobile project manager
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hawkmoon.mpm.trial

Target Date 
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.mpm.projectarget.alpha

OneTask
http://www.onetask.com/ 

*App designed in-house

 

“I’ve fallen in love with Producteev and keep it open on a Firefox tab all day. It really hit the sweet spot and helps me stay on top of a bajillion tasks” - Rosemary O’Neill, President, community manager, movie nut, & mom of three. 

fave features: 

• calendar view
• sorting by labels
• reminder notifications

key benefits:

• daily organization
• less mental energy to do more work

Rosemary O’Neill, president of Social Strata, manages work, family and side projects in Producteev. 

She came across Producteev by googling for apps to help her get things done. Five task managers were tested before she finally settled. The O’Neill party of 5 has now been using Producteev for six weeks and has decided that it is the productivity tool for them. 

“I am all in!” Rosemary shares, “The most important thing about Producteev is being able to switch between the list view and calendar view. This helps me organize my tasks on any given day.”

Separate workspaces are also used, which are categorized into her day-to-day activities (both work and family), and special projects. It’s actually pretty smart so that her calendar - with daily responsibilities - can be in one place.

Context labels make the to-do list more manageable. As community manager of Social Strata, Rosemary is in charge of social media and customer support/relations. This spectrum of duties is entered using the web app. “I kinda appreciate being nagged when it’s time for me to do a blog update,” she reveals.

As far as her workflow and completing to-dos are concerned, Rosemary sets deadlines using the SCHEDULE IT feature. Any unscheduled tasks are then addressed by priority. 

Rather than heavy processing of tasks (Covey method etc.), she finds this method simpler and easier to work with. In effect, Rosemary spends less time thinking about what it is she has to do and more time checking off the many items on her list. Producteev’s filters help do some of the task processing work for her, and the sort by feature has been a real lifesaver.

In addition, she and her husband, Ted, make the most of their Seattle commute by dropping tasks into the Producteev iphone app. “It’s mentally freeing for me to be able to pop tasks right in there.”  

Finally, to manage her hectic schedule as a busy mom, Rosemary reminds herself to do school-related tasks for her three young children on Producteev. “I can remember to bring cupcakes on Thursday,” for instance, “and I like that Producteev emails me the day before with a reminder!”

Learn more about views and sorting and see a similar use case . 

via 6.mshcdn.com