What's up at Producteev?

“You have the power to make New York City the global capital of innovation and entrepreneurship” - Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Tech Meetup (NYTM).

 

Producteev is way better than RTM! 

Pretty much ;) One year ago, that’s what they said!

 

Like his t-shirt gives away, Daniel Buchner is a developer with heart! He currently works at Mozilla as a product manager, is married, has a pet dog, and goes mountain biking for fun. 

Daniel manages his entire workflow on Producteev, which at the moment includes the supervision of three engineers. He also takes advantage of our multiple workspaces feature and is hacking away on a fancy side project. Shhh, it’s in stealth mode! 

As a devoted product manager, he admits to occasionally being behind on deadlines. His advice for staying on track, in spite of minor setbacks?

When a task is late, don’t just ignore it. Change the deadline, and write the reason(s) why in the notes. 

Good call, Dan! He adds:

Producteev really has the right set of features for developers! It’s way better than RTM, in my opinion. Especially how it’s organized. The UI, sidebar, filter….are all great details! There’s a decent set of standard features. 

Daniel, like many of you, is a Google and Android fanboy. Here at HQ, we’re working on building even better Google integrations, as well as finishing that native Android app! The latter of which includes deadline modification notations. :)

Stay tuned for another exciting product manager story, with our very own Stephane!

Organizational culture powerfully influences a company’s performance — or at least we say so. I often hear executives reassure me that projects will get done because “we have an execution culture,” or that customers will be well taken care of because “we have a culture where the customer comes first.” At the same time, culture is also one of the great rationalizations for managerial shortcomings. Many times I’ve heard that a project was delayed because “we don’t make quick decisions around here,” which is the managerial equivalent of “the dog ate my homework.”

But the problem with all of these statements — both positive and negative — is that they don’t really mean anything. Worse yet, they can’t be translated into any kind of action. At best these declarations are vague generalizations; and at worst they are misleading stereotypes.

The truth is that most leaders don’t know how to develop a useful picture of their organization’s culture, which is why they resort to platitudes. However when managers can better articulate the behavioral patterns that constitute the culture, they can determine which behaviors facilitate results — and which behaviors should be avoided.

For example, a large automotive parts company had just completed a merger, and the senior team — made up of leaders from both firms — struggled with making decisions. They either took too long to decide, or the decisions just didn’t stick. To fix this problem, the team asked themselves some simple questions about the decision-making culture: To what extent are decisions currently made by consensus or by the CEO (on a scale of 1-10)? On that same scale, how were decisions made at your heritage company? And on the same scale, where should the decision-making process be in the new company?

Each person on the team answered these questions separately, and a facilitator consolidated them as the basis for a group discussion. When looking at the answers, the team quickly realized that the previous companies had very different decision-making cultures (one was a slow process of building consensus, and the other used open, time-bound debate with final decisions made by the CEO). The team members also had very different expectations for how the process should work. By making these differences concrete and conscious, they were able to have a constructive dialogue that led to ground rules for decision-making.

Any management team can assess its culture by asking these kinds of simple questions across a range of organizational behaviors. For example: To what extent do we reward individual vs. team results? To what extent do we share information broadly or parcel it out narrowly? To what extent do we encourage or discourage risk?

Asking these kinds of questions can smoke out the differences in expectations that people have about the organization. Not everyone experiences culture the same way, so a structured way to discuss those differences can increase alignment and the ability to take collective action. In practical terms, culture is not an intangible cloud that hangs over a company, but an outcome of the way people behave on multiple dimensions. Better understanding of these behavioral patterns — and how each person experiences them — makes it possible to decide whether to continue them or not.

To what extent do you question your organization’s culture?

via blogs.hbr.org

Matt Murphy was always one of our strong advocates, so we decided to interview him, to learn more of how he used and continues to use our services. Matt is an inspirational youth worker by day, and a super blogger/jokester by night! But ah- that didn’t stop him from obtaining his MSW from Adelphi University and a M.Div. from Denver Seminary.

How did Matt do all this?!? Haha, of course with Producteev!

Pre-Producteev

Before using Producteev, Matt used a combination good old-fashioned pen and paper, and iCal- which worked quite well for him with small projects. As the responsibilities starting piling on, he came to realize that he needed something that would help him organize and make timelines. 

Prior to joining, there were several incidents that took place, which led Matt to realize that he needed to spice things up with his task management. He wrote us, “Once I didn’t realize, but the system had an error and asked me where do I want to sync my tasks and calendar from. I clicked the wrong button and poof!  Right before the busiest time of the season I lost all of my tasks (assignments) that were due in all of my classes then and there. Missed the due date on one assignment, scrambled and had to spend all that time re-entering all my data again.”

Syncing data across platforms and new computers proved to be challenging as time went on, and Matt decided to look for Productivity software on his iPhone. One of his buddies heard of this, and was quick to enthusiastically suggest Producteev. Matt has been hooked since then.

The Awakening

Matt was quick to learn how to maneuver Producteev, and is a fan of each update that is rolled out which is “making it better, not more complicated.” He also appreciated the fact that he could create a workspace for each aspect of his life, “It gives me the ability to see them all or just focus on one task. Additionally, being able to tag and prioritize tasks helped me either do a particular urgency of a task first or find the one that I needed to get done.”

He soon noticed a difference in his execution of tasks, especially those outside of school. He loved that he could set guidelines and timetables to assist him with completion. Matt found that he was able to multitask better across jobs and classes in his seminary. When it came to schoolwork, Matt would “organize using the tags to group by class and then look at everything by date. By noting which ones were bigger (by giving them a higher priority) I knew if I needed to focus on a task later in the calendar first, rather than a task in the immediate future.” As less tasks were falling through the cracks, Matts level of confidence was increasing.

Happy Ending

Matt continues to use Producteev with great success, and recommended it to several people. He even blogged about his love for it! Matt clearly made great use out of what Producteev has to offer through many phases of his life, and it helped shape him to become the inspiration that he is today. That’s right Matt- you keep on #winning!

You can’t choose your family, but you can choose how you manage their needs when they interfere with your other tasks.

Whether you’re a student, freelancer, or even a homemaker- there doesn’t seem to be enough hours in the day to satisfy the needs of your family, in addition to your professional needs and goals.

The demands of family have a way of robbing you from time, thought, and energy that could have been placed towards a greater good that would ultimately benefit them. 

Scenario 1: Student and Worker

You’re a student with a job, and you’re living near or with your family. Course load is just as heavy as your workload. But you also have relatives that depend on you for tasks such as pickups/dropoffs, and accompaniment to appointments. As much as you enjoy giving them comfort with your assistance, you feel a mental strain by the end of the day, and you realize that no one could help you with your tasks as you did with theirs. How will you manage?

Solution: Schedule them in as tasks

You can use your free Producteev for Education account to create separate workspaces for school, work, and family. As you add family-related tasks, check on the overview to ensure that there isn’t going to be any overlapping. You should also make sure that you will have at least a few minutes in between tasks for transitioning purposes, because you wouldn’t want to lash out at anyone from being overwhelmed.

Scenario 2: Freelancer

You’re a freelancer juggling several clients. Each client is a drama case of their own. Some overwork and underpay you. Others demand you to work efficiently, but take their sweet time paying you for your services. And then there are those that leave you wondering just how long the assignment might really last. Aside from the tension of your mixed bag of assignments, your family needs you for financial assistance. You don’t want to say ‘no’ to them, but you also don’t know just how much you should stretch each dollar for yourself. Then they figure that since you don’t have a ‘real job,’ you will be able to help them with mundane tasks. What the heck?! How will you manage?

Solution: Schedule them in as tasks

Create a workspace that is a combination of family-related tasks, and family-related finances. You can set reminders for next month about your cousin Joey borrowing $500 from you, saying he will pay you back by then. You can also plot in having to help little Sarah with her science project, but consult the overview to make sure it doesn’t conflict with the designs and updated spreadsheets you promised the MegaClient.

Scenario 3: Homemaker

You’re a homemaker, and face it- you’re under-appreciated! A lot of the work you do goes unnoticed, because everyone in the household seems to take it all for granted. Only you truly know how time-consuming it is to complete each chore, especially with little to no help. In the middle of sorting through tasks, your family comes up to you, and asks you to make time for buying clothes and gifts for an occasion. Or maybe they want you to bake a lot of cookies for little Dannys class party. But who is going to help you with your tasks? No one. You have to do all this on your own. How will you manage?

Solution: Schedule them in as tasks

Once you plot in your daily tasks for ‘home,’ you will be able to see openings for ‘family misc.’ So let’s see… while the clothes are in the washer, you could bake the cookies for little Danny. By the time the cookies are done and cooling, you can place the clothes into the dryer, then go online and browse through stores to shop at for the upcoming occasion.  By the time the clothes are finished drying, the cookies have fully cooled, and you will know which stores to target. Fold the clothes, pack up the cookies, and head out! Hooray for multi-tasking smart with Producteev! 

How good are you at balancing family obligations with your professional tasks/goals?

 

The Twitter #TaskChat on procrastination this past Tuesday, Sept 27th was a raging success! The party was jamming well past the 1-hour mark! Everyone’s still talking about what a blast they had while exchanging humorous tid-bits on instances they procrastinated, and why they did so.

Here are all the questions that were asked, followed by entertaining collections of groupings of answers:

1) Which aspect of your life do you procrastinate on most?

 

@LeslieAJoy: I’ll procrastinate work with household chores.

@ABurgerADay: So does my wife! 

@Bydahway: I procrastinate on putting away folded laundry.

I also am told regularly that i procrastinate on settin aside time for myself- one day i’ll get to it

@Aaronrcouch I just realized my laundry is still in the wash from this morning but I’m currently in a Skype call

@aaronrcouch: What’s the difference between “forgetting” and “procrastination”?

@LeslieAJoy: HAHAHAHAHA. Forgetting is well, forgetting. Procrastinating you remember, but put it off. 

And “accidentally-on-purpose forgetting” is a hybrid of the two.

@RealSecurity: Forgetting is just forgetting. Procrastination is putting things off.

2) Are your tasks too boring, or are you THAT sure of yourself that you will get them done when procrastinating?

@Bydahway: I’ve had experiences with both. But usually if its boring I just want to get it over and d one with.

@Tushark:  neither. I’m taking a big risk by procrastinating. If it’s not imp, it isn’t worth procrastinating!

@Cygnoir: I am overconfident, sadly.

@RebeccaH83: I procrastinate at anything data-entry based…but only if I KNOW it can wait. 

@LeslieAJoy: Neither. I’m just really easily distracted. My procrastionation tends not to be intentional.

@FarhanaRahman: How long on average would you say you tend to lapse away from tasks?
@LeslieAJoy: Anywhere b/t 15 minutes & 2 days. I’ve worked at keeping it down to a 30 minute avg though.

@ABurgerADay: The problem for me is that the tasks aren’t TV/movies or video games.

3) How often would you say procrastination benefited you? How exactly? 

@FarhanaRahman: It ised to help me out in college, because I ended up putting more effory into my work to cover procrastination.

@Bydahway: I used to for school projects and they usually ended up kickA$$ cuz i’d really throw myself into it 

@RebeccaH83: I never procrastinated on college course work. I was the one that had the paper written a week early.

@RebeccaH83: Hey! That’s just how I roll when it comes to papers/writing/ projects. I live to problem solve. 

@Bydahway: Procrastinated on ordering clothes online for my family & ended up w/ a 30% off discount code for the order!!!

@SilverSteelWolf: I wouldn’t call intentionally putting things off procrastination. 

@FarhanaRahman: Well what would you call it? 

@SilverSteelWolf: Postponing something?

@AskMarkHamilton: It made me realize that if you push things off long enough, they eventually become irrelevant enough to not do them

@SilverSteelWolf: Yes, that’s true. And it has burned me in the past, unfortunately.

@AskMarkHamilton: More importantly, it made me figure out what I could cut from my to-do list, and what made me suffer when I skipped it.

@LeslieAJoy: Same here!

@SilverSteelWolf: Ahh, that’s a good point. The stress of having things hovering over my head is something I always struggle with.

@AaronRCouch: a computer class I took bored me. I spent class time doing more advanced things then did all the work the last day it was due. 

@FarhanaRahman: How did that turn out?

@AaronRCouch: Aced the class!

4) Give an example of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ procrastination.

@SilverSteelWolf: Good: Intentionally moving a noncritical deadline to clear up time and mental energy for more important tasks.

@FarhanaRahman: Good: When you end up putting in more effort, no harm done. Bad- When it harms workload/colleagues/deadlines

@AskMarkHamilton: Bad- Anything that will cause disruption the next morning has to be done the night before. I have a routine! Good- Putting off stuff I know needs to get done to spend time with family :)

@Bydahway:  i agree-if its not critical & I’ll still have time til the deadline to get it done than family first 

@Cygnoir: I suppose ‘good’ procrastination can occur when you need more input to do something properly, vs. just doing it.

‘Bad’ procrastination occurs when you delay completion of tasks simply because they are tedious or discomforting

@LeslieAJoy: Good: Using procrastionation to ram through to-do list since you don’t want to do something on it. Bad: Fake breaks

@FarhanaRahman: I took countless fake breaks in college.

5)How are you (trying) to procrastinate less? 

@Cygnoir: Phone calls. I hate playing phone-tag! If I could handle everything via email, I would get so much more done.

@AaronRCouch: ditto. Email is way better IF its used correctly on both ends. But I do prefer phone for just talking 2 ppl Im close to.

@RebeccaH83: Oh, I completely agree! Email is the way to go 

@LeslieAJoy: I used to hate phone calls till I started working home. Now sometimes that’s the only voice I hear day

@AskMarkHamilton: there’s no single trick that works consistently every time to get myself to do things. mood changes from day to day, and sometimes you just don’t feel like doing stuff.@SilverSteelWolf: That’s the hardest thing to defeat. “Just not feeling like doing stuff.” 

@AskMarkHamilton:  it’s not always the hard to do tasks, but hard to start tasks as well. 

@RebeccaH83: I have to make lists. I start out every day with a list of what I need to work on.

@ABurgerADay: The best solution I can come up with, is to shun all technology and turn off the twitter. 

@SilverSteelWolf: That’s why I have @producteev!

 

Attention old school gamers & geeks! We’re co-hosting our second Geek Rendezvous NYC meetup with Loosecubes next week. That’s Monday, October 10, 2011 7-9pm. 

Come hang & win! Geeks who attended the last rendezvous and played charades had an absolute blast. Twelve of them actually *won* something, and the next winner could be YOU!

In it to win it

Strategizing is serious business

Now if only our upcoming Game Night coincided with Comic-Con! That would make it even more awesome :D

Photo credit: Eva Blue

A team of students in the School of Computational Information Systems are thrilled to install and “get the ball rolling,” so to speak, with ProducteevEDU. 

The institute is based in Col Fabriciano, Brazil, and the educational initiative provides free premium accounts for online task management to any individual associated with higher learning (students, faculty, staff).

The campus’ Laboratory of Computational Intelligence (LIC) now has students, volunteers, as well as a lab coordinator and teaching assistant managing tasks on the platform agnostic collaboration tool.

“Producteev is simply great! Over the past several weeks, it has transformed the daily lives of students and helped to better facilitate teamwork and communication!” remarked Dr. Francisco Reinaldo, instructor of engineering, artificial intelligence and programming languages. “I’m really looking forward to Producteev making all LIC work processes better.” 

This semester marks only the beginning, as the school’s smooth transition to an online project solution makes everything from building complex algorithms to sophisticated software programs to even *bots* more manageable!

In a short amount of time, Producteev just might enable this determined set of students to take over the world!

The secret to flawlessly complete your tasks while in a clingy relationship, or even a clingy friendship, is to (secretly) treat it as a task!

Relationships are great for all the sunshine and butterflies that they offer. But in reality, they are quite up there on the Productivity Blocker Totem Pole. Have a look at the fun infographic below, and you will see that even long-distance relationships have proven to be major time-suckers since the invention of the telephone!

Photo Credit

Each of us has demands to give-in to, such as work, school, finances, family obligations, household duties, etc. A lot of these duties have little, to no room for error. But when you are faced with a partner or friend that is too clingy, too emotionally dependent, or just plain annoying at times while they are demanding more time with you- handle them as you do everything else! Schedule them in as tasks!

Tips on managing to give your partner/friend the time they crave:

Consistency: Schedule time to have small-talk with your partner/friend on a daily basis. Try to make it around the same time each day, so they know they have something to look forward to a little after lunch, or right before dinner, etc.

A Little Goes A Long Way: Carve time for coffee, or short breakfasts together- or even a simple phone call helps. For those addicted to texts, message with weekly greetings, or morning greetings saying “Hey! Have a great day!”

Weekly Evenings: Try to schedule one evening each week for a hot date. Even if it is brief, it is still something. While you’re at it, maybe you can let your partner choose what they would like to do each week for the hot date between a set time bracket. Or take turns planning it. It’s a win-win cause hey, you might get lucky. ;-)

Points to consider while prioritizing relationship-related tasks:

What is urgent and important?

What is not urgent and important?

What is urgent and not important?

What is not urgent and not important?

You can even let your partner in on prioritizing (if they won’t mind of course), and they may appreciate your efforts in trying to make it work.

Do you know of any apps that could help one out with relationships/friendships?

Sound off in the comments below, or tweet us and let us know what you think! 

This post is part of a new weekly series called “Productivity Blocker!”

 

Bobby Travis is a family man, a top notch blogger, and knows how to kick GTD’s ass.

In addition to potty training his his little one, he’s also taught her David Allen’s personal productivity techniques. Below are what I refer to as, The Four Stages of GTD Proficiency:

Game face
initially settling upon the seemingly overwhelming methodology

So far so good
coming to the realization that this GTD stuff’s not so bad 

Practice makes perfect
reinforcing positive habits leads to growth each day

I am the champion!!
thanks, Dad, for always believing in me & helping me succeed 

Our special thanks to the Travis family for making productivity fun again :)

It’s easy to be productive! Check out the links below to learn simple ways of dealing with pressure, stress, procrastination, and other evils that are trying to steer you away from getting your stuff done!

Increase Productivity by Surfing the Web at Work

Mind Programming: A Tool for Self-Growth

7 Symptoms of Procrastination and How to Fight Them

How University Students can Remedy their College-Induced Stress

Technologys Affect on the Brain: 10 Ways to Avoid Being Driven to Distraction

Six Important Points to Remember While Prioritizing Tasks

How to Stay Calm Under Pressure

14 Drug-Free Ways to Stay Awake

Working on Motivating Yourself

20 Simple Ways to Get Happy

Things get pretty hectic when you’re a student that is struggling to balance course work on top of a side job. But with  Producteev for Education, you’re in luck! 

Step One: Create separate workspaces for your studies, and your job. 

You must must MUST designate a workspace exclusively to your job. It’s up to you if you would like a separate workspace for each of your classes, or just one for all classes. For the sake of organization, it would be most helpful if you can view all work-related matters in one glance. So if you’re using one workspace, organize projects/aspects of your life with labels. If you’re using several workspaces, the overview will show you all tasks across all workspaces.

Step Two: Plot, Prioritize, Organize Tasks

Let’s assume that you’re using one workspace for any side jobs. Labels will basically serve the purpose of colored tabs and organize your to-do list by category. 

Example Jobs:

Babysitting- Got a lotta clients with pesky kids? At least your workspace can stay neat! Assign a different colored label for each client. Or if if only have one or two clients, you can assign a color for each major task, such as yellow for picking kids up from school, blue to drop off for piano lessons, and red to help them with a school project.

Dog Walking- Same as above, you can assign a color for each client. Or you can assign different colored labels for different routes- purple for ‘around the block,’ orange for ‘through the park,’ and green for ‘past the arcade-where-the-cool-geeks-are.’

Step Three: Let Producteev Make Decisions Easier For You

Once you have tasks plotted and starred, take advantage of the ‘sort by’ feature to decide on what to check off next. You can sort by: deadline; date created; label; last changed; manager; priority; and title.

If you wanna geek out and learn about GTD (Getting Things Done) labels, see the following posts:

GTD in Producteev: Utilizing Multiple Workspaces

GTD Up Close: Part 1, Labeling Your Workspace

Producteev can be used in all sorts of unexpected ways including - as soon to be described here - a to-do list on How to Flirt!

Don’t let your dating game lead to Game Over! Take it from Thomas Edwards, a successful, professional dating coach and satisfied Producteev user, and turn your night out into an awesome action plan.

Your absolute to-dos are simple:
Compliment

Tease

Touch

In greater detail, our advice goes a little something like this:
Compliment your date. But don’t just compliment them for the sake of complimenting. Only compliment when it’s detailed and specific. This gives your words more meaning and makes you more believable. For instance, you can compliment your date on his/her personal style. In addition, you can shower dates with intellectual compliments. Geeks out there - this may mean telling that special lady friend how cool/sick she is for using a hot new new geo-location app. Don’t hold back! Complimenting shows that you’re thoughtful and that you notice details. With first impressions, this matters!

Tease your date and show him/her your playful side! Think of that time you were 5-years old and on an elementary school playground. Teasing actually offsets your compliments and keeps your date in full anticipation. It also keeps excitement running high that evening. But play nice when teasing! Your goal should always be to make your date laugh/smile by sharing something silly or surprising. The last thing you’d want to happen is to embarrass them. When at a loss for bright ideas, casually throw in a “that’s what she said” into the mix. This could work for ladies, as well as gents. Just make sure your interjection makes sense in the stated context, wouldn’t want to toss innuendo that’s inappropriate for the current convo. ;)

Touch your date to reinforce complimenting and teasing. This will likely be the hardest aspect to do well. However, try to make touching a natural part of your interaction. Suggestions in case you’re struggling include: *accidentally* brushing against your date’s arm when handing him/her a beer, or placing your arm on his/her knee when talking and leaning in. Still unsure what this should look like? Pay attention and people watch in a crowded bar or other social situation, and if someone looks like they know what they’re doing, they probably are. Don’t be afraid to ask them, how do you do it?! They probably won’t bite (though we can’t really guarantee anything here!). The bottom line is, touching amplifies not only your connection but also intensifies interactions.

Recap of essential flirting to-dos:

• Recognize your date for his/her style
• Stroke their intellectual ego
• Notice details OTHER THAN purely physical ones and say nice things about them
• Make your date laugh/smile
• Throw in one or two “that’s what she said(s)”
• Find a natural way to touch your date’s arm or knee
• Don’t be shy to ask pro’s for further advice
• For personal assistance, enlist a wingman (like Thomas!)
• Get your dating to-dos on Producteev, available on multiple platforms and every device

Above all else, enjoy. Have fun on your date, that’s the entire point! Disclaimer: excessive alcohol is not recommended, particularly in initial stages of a romantic relationship.

For maximum efficiency and increasing the likelihood of a “win” or taking your date to the next “level,” alternate between the above to-dos and set them to recurring. ;) Before you know it, you’ll be flirting like a champ!

Thomas Edwards is the founder of The Professional Wingman. Deemed the real-life “Hitch,” Thomas helps singles find relationships and lead fulfilling lives through personal development. His unique approach focuses on dating strategy and lifestyle development. Thomas has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Fox Business, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Ebony Magazine and many more. You can follow him on Twitter.

Get your Twitter Chat on, and join us this September 27th at 3PM EST! The topic will be ‘procrastination.’ Be sure to include the hashtag: #TaskChat.

We will host a #TaskChat on the last Tuesday of every month- come party with us!

Special shout-out goes out to Bobby Travis, and English Atkins, for being super co-facilitators and superusers!

TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2011 was so awesome, we had to make a Swag Contest out of it!

(If you’re not familiar with Disrupt, it’s 3 day convention and contest for startups, hosted by TechCrunch.)

Innovative products include:

Shaker

If you’re a true geek you already know that the winner of the $50K and this Disrupt Battlefield competition was Shaker, an avatar-driven chatroom-styled app that mimics real life socializing. You get to freely converse with friends and others with whom you share mutual contacts. Unlike real life, before you approach them, you can learn what the two of you have in common. How’s that for conversation-starters? Congrats, Shaker, on a well-deserved win!

CakeHealth

One of the finalists was CakeHealth (which has nothing to do with cake, but everything to do with health!) Give them your health insurance info, and they will guide you through your healthcare spending. In many ways, it’s comparable to Mint.com.

Bitcasa

Bitcasa offers unlimited online data storage at $10/month. In the words of the founder, ”This folder is infinite. This desktop is infinite. Your desktop, your primary storage, is now the network. Your primary hard drive is now a cache.” So that means you can save all your videos. All of them. ;-)

Amen

And then there were apps like Amen, which (like our beloved Angry Birds) is a cute time-killer. Think of it as a universal game of Mad Libs, where you fill-in-the-blanks with the ‘best and worst’ of different things in different categories, and other users leave feedback.

Learn more about the finals by clicking here.

And now for the Swag Contest!

Tell us in the comments below, how you feel Producteev could supplement any of the apps that made it to the final cut. One lucky winner will be selected and gifted a whole bag of Producteev swag! Make your explanations good, and look for the announcement of who won on Monday, September 19th at 11:30 a.m. EST. 

Photo credit: Eva Blue

Now that shared workspaces are free for students, class collaboration on Producteev may be used to lighten your load this semester!

Having never been in a fraternity or sorority, it’s safe for me to serve as an expert in terms of Greek organizations, and an well known joke/fact about them is that members are in cohorts to cheat on exams. ;) More specifically, and to my shock and naïveté, certain fraternity organizations, keep private libraries of all course examination materials - for every single course known to man, or at least registered in the directory of classes. In turn, these materials are lent to members for “studying” purposes.

The following is a powerful paradigm, and potentially controversial concept, to introduce. However it is possible and possibly more beneficial in the long-run. 

Producteev accepts virtually all file attachments and is known to store documents. 

In theory, Producteev can be used to divide group assignments, distribute coursework, store documents (notes), and share them. Thus, individual group members have more time to do other things, like facebook! :P

If there weren’t Cliff’s notes or internet resources at your disposal, couldn’t the above method of shared note-taking via *team assignment*, in collaboration with document storage and previewing/downloading/printing be used to minimize efforts on the individual? Granted, there will be more team efforts and awkwardness, or maybe even pain in having to figure out team processes. However, the skill and experience of teamwork is infinitely more valuable and applicable to the workforce for that matter - than any single gain from having worked alone.

Though we’re not saying that a distributive and collaborative system as previously described is appropriate for all situations, but we do challenge you to be aware and open to situations where it would be effective (and absurd not to)! Should you go this route, teams of 3-7 persons are recommended for accountability, as well as manageability, purposes. In addition, regularly scheduled checkins, i.e. weekly reports/assessments are encouraged!

So why not use existing google products to collaborate this way? Well, we’re better looking, for one!

More importantly, we make it our mission to push boundaries of multi-platform integration and close-knit collaboration.

Let there be no pressure to do as the Greeks do, but let there be encouragement to always be creative, to do good, and to work together. Especially in regards to the intelligent application of technology. :) 

Producteev is one such technology to help make your life easier! The ProducteevEDU initiative offers free premium plans for students.

Creating a separate workspace for each aspect of your life only takes a few secs, and helps out A LOT with organization & reducing clutter.

Why create extra workspaces? Why not list all tasks on one display?

If you plan to lightly use Producteev on one or two aspects of your life (shopping lists, errands) then placing all your tasks on one workspace would be okay. If you plan on using it for several aspects (which you know you should) it’s best you create separate workspaces early on. 

Here is how to go about it:

On the upper left portion of your screen, click on the blue tab that reads ‘(your name)’s Workspace.’ 

A little dropdown menu will appear. Click on the white bar titled, “New Workspace.” Type in the name of the new workspace you would like to create, and click on the ‘+’ on that very same bar to save it.

That is it! Just repeat this simple procedure for additional workspaces. Plot your tasks accordingly onto each of the applicable workspaces, and you will neatly be on the road to productivity! To switch between workspaces, just click on the same blue tab, and select which workspace you would like to view. If you would like to change the order in which the workspaces appear on the blue panel, simply drag and drop!

Recommended Reading: GTD in Producteev: Utilizing Multiple Workspaces

Check out this infographic, and tell us- would you rather live in the college world, or the real world?

Producteev for Education finally launched! Premium service for anyone with a .edu e-mail address! 

The best thing about Producteev is that you can manage each of your course sections, as well as your personal life- all with one tool!

There is a delicate balance between juggling subjects, multiple students, and professional goals on top of personal matters. Summer is over, and it’s time to get back to the daily grind that is teaching. The workload seems to be ever-increasing with each passing semester, and the old-fashioned lesson planners and grade books can only go so far! Let Producteev for Education help you reclaim your life!

Simple Guide to the Path of Tranquility:

1. Using your .edu e-mail address, sign up to Producteev for Education. (Link below)
2. Once you’re in, assign a ‘workspace’ for each of your sections.
3. Under each workspace, plot the information highlighted on the syllabus.
4. Assign due dates and reminders as needed. These can be done via e-mail and IM.
5. Add some visual appeal! Assign colored labels to each category of assignment. For example: Response Papers = Red; Research Reports = Yellow; etc.
6. Observe the activity in all your sections with one glance through the ‘overview.’
7. As assignments get completed, mark them ‘done.’ Now onto the next project!

But wait there’s more! Producteev for Education adds another layer of awesome to what it has to offer.

• Hold that Thought: Add notes to your tasks! Feel free to quickly jot down any ideas you may like to implement… before the thought gets lost in another rush of ideas!
• Sharing is Caring: Collaborate with a colleague or superior on tasks!

Now of course we won’t just tell you about our amazing software, and leave you to fend for yourself! We offer videos that would help you get started with Producteev. Heck, whenever you’re ready, there are additional videos available to help guide you through the basics of each feature. Once you get into the swing of it all, you will soon find that you have… (get ready for this)… breathing room!

Whether you are a school teacher, college/adjunct professor, or even a private/after-school tutor- only you truly understand the workload that goes unnoticed with your occupation.

Unlock the door to your peace of mind, and let Producteev for Education be the key. Sign up now with your .edu e-mail address, for this free premium service by Producteev! 

Recommended Reading: Producteev for Students: Breeze Through that To-Do List!

I. Login & Accounts

Open ID
You can use facebook, google or yahoo connect to save time on your first, and subsequent, web app logins.

Be sure to set your account information password to access 3rd party applications (including the mac desktop app). The forgot password link is similar to resetting your password manually.

Forgot password
Should you forget your password, you can generate a temporary password using the “forgot password” option in the login box. Go to the homepage at http://producteev.com and instead of logging in or registering, select “forgot password.”

Be sure to check spam folders for password instructions.

Close account
If you created a duplicate account or wish to delete your account forever, you will need to email contact[at]producteev[dot]com with your request.

Currently, there is no way to delete an account on your own. The upcoming web app, however, will have this feature. Stay tuned over the next few weeks to learn more about this next iteration of Producteev.

II. Configuring Settings

Gcal
Sync to google calendar in two clicks. Select an individual workspace to be synced and select the calendar icon from the task list. Next hit “send to google calendar.”

You will then be prompted to grant access to google, be sure to accept. Note: workspaces are synced on an individual basis.

Invitations
Collaborating is easy on Producteev! Add a team member to your workspace from the People section, in the left side bar. Click “add a person,” enter his/her email address and hit enter.

If he/she hasn’t already, your team member will be prompted to register for a Producteev account in order to join your workspace. Should you have any issues, such as the email invitation getting put in the spam folder, you can share the unique invitation link in your Workspace Administration/People tab. Simply copy/paste the unique link and share with the corresponding invitee.

Notifications
Default notifications are only for tasks with deadlines that are overdue. You can turn off these notifications from your Workspace Administration panel.

Select Workspace Administration in the left footer. Next select the Email/IM tab. Edit notifications and uncheck, or disconnect completely.

III. Basic Features

Hot tasks
A task is “hot” if it has at least one star and is due today.

Email a task / IM a task
Email tasks to task[at]producteev[dot]com to add them to your to-do list.

Your login email is already configured. To configure additional email addresses, select Workspace Administration in the left footer. Next select the Email/IM tab. Add and connect additional email/IM accounts.

Any tasks added via email/IM can be accessed using the Inbox filter in the left sidebar.

Inbox
The inbox filter in the left sidebar displays tasks added via email/IM.

It is *not* a custom filter, as in David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) method.

Natural Language Processing
Certain keyboard shortcuts are available on Producteev.

See the following Support section for a list of syntax.

IV. Plans and Upgrades

Free
Producteev pricing is per workspace and workspace plans are free for individuals and small teams of two.

Any mention of the word “trial” will disappear from your account information after 14 days of use, it is merely a way to indicate that a workspace is new. 

Free Premium Plans with Producteev for Education
Click the following to learn more about this newly launched program for students and schools.

Discounts
Producteev is proud to offer discounts for non-profit use. If interested in obtaining 20% off, email contact[at]producteev[dot]com for your promotion code.

Bundles
Producteev pricing is per workspace and teams purchasing more than one workspace will receive discounts for purchasing a bundle of workspaces.

Standard bundle discounts are issued for 2, 5 and 10 workspaces. Email contact[at]producteev[dot]com for other workspace bundle needs.

V. Advanced Features

Privacy
Tasks are viewable to your workspace members, unless otherwise specified. You can change privacy settings of individual tasks from the web app.

Select a task and click on the lock icon to open up a privacy window. Checked team members have viewing privileges, so uncheck names that should not have viewing rights.

Additional Workspaces
Add a workspace to organize your projects, or by GTD context. Click on a workspace title and enable the workspace drop down menu. Add your new workspace at the bottom.

Note: Producteev pricing is per workspace and workspace plans are free for individuals and small teams of two. Although workspaces with 3 or more people do not qualify for a free plan, bundles and discounts (details above) help decrease the price.

Overview
See all tasks, across all workspaces (projects/contexts) by selecting the Overview. Click on a workspace title and enable the workspace drop down menu to display the overview option.

 

We’re so excited over the new Producteev for Windows… we just HAD TO offer you a glimpse of what’s to come!

Let us know what you think of it so far!

Aaron Couch is so good at time management that his skills get him dates! ;) More seriously, though, he is a passionate Veterinary Techonology student, and he recently shared a video of a Horseback Rider Delivering Medicine in a Hurricane. If you watch it, it may remind you of a scene from True Grit.

Like many Producteev students, he applies proven methodologies to tackle his to-do list. The following post covers several aspects of Aaron’s busy life, all conveniently managed on Producteev.

As a college student, Producteev has really changed the way I manage my tasks and has greatly improved my time management skills. The thing I like the most about it is I can have all my tasks in one place, instead of Post-It notes and scattered loose sheets of paper with lists on them covering my desk—the list or task might start there, but it always ends up in Producteev.  

Staying in Sync with Google
Having a planner in class is nice, but adding it to Producteev is awesome. I usually already have Google Docs open and typing notes, so my second tab is the Producteev web app. When the instructor says “Next week we are having a quiz over chapters 4 and 5,” I am immediately ready to type it in my tasks since my hands are already at the keyboard. Each night I then go through my planner and add any additional tasks into Producteev that I wasn’t able to during that day.

Workspaces in Producteev is a college student’s dream organization tool. It’s like completely changing your desk in your dorm with one turn (or click in this case).  As editor of my school’s newspaper, Parliamentarian of Student Senate, school event photographer, Veterinary Technology student and of course CEO of my life, I have a ton of tasks in some very different areas. I have found Workspaces really helps with this.

With each of my different responsibilities come tasks and, of course, with tasks, comes a schedule (otherwise you won’t get anything done on time). Producteev does have a calendar to see when your tasks are, but the most robust calendar client online is Google Calendar—I use it for everything! The best part is Producteev can sync with Gcal so you never need to add a task twice. Thought that was the best part? Wrong. Each Workspace gets their own calendar so you can really stay organized. 

A fellow student once told me after class, “Aaron, I wish I was as organized as you are. You have everything so organized online with your class notes and schedule!” I realized then that I really wish more students would use these tools because it helps so much to stay on top of things and get them done on time!

Applying Stephen R. Covey’s Methods
I’m currently using tags (labels) along with one of the principles from the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. I highly recommend the book to everyone: parent, teacher, employee, employer and especially students. It will not only change the way you manage your time or treat others, but it will completely redirect your life in the utmost positive direction. 

A core concept is Time Management, in which Covey describes our “to-dos” in four quadrants. They are “Urgent and Important”, “Not Urgent, but Important”, “Not Important, but Urgent” and “Not Important or Urgent”.  I’m not going to describe each one, but you can read them in the picture. So what do these have to do with tags? I recently redeveloped all my tags and thought I’d make them simple—starting with these four. I also have workspace-based tags (labels) like “Personal”, “School”, “Work”, and so on, but these four are the foundation.

Tagging, like Workspaces, is one of the fascinating features of Producteev. I love how you can adapt them to what best works for you. Some other great useful features are the filters and starring. They’re very useful if you take the time to organize them to your liking. Staring helps to prioritize your tasks from 1 to 5, five being the most urgent (and important). The “Hot!” filter is especially… hot! ;)  With labels, filters, and starring combined, you can really take hold of “producteevity”. OK enough of the puns, but really, it’s amazing how a flexible task manager with powerful Google integration, coupled with a sound productivity method, enables me to get *everything* done!

—-

If you’re a student looking to collaborate with friends and manage tasks for free, please visit Producteev for Education. 

Michael Castello makes home-made pizza, does DIY projects around the house, camps in the great outdoors *and* is saving the world as an MD/PhD student. But don’t get too excited, ladies ;) This man’s taken - happily married to a beautiful wife and living the life in SoCal.

Lucky for us, Michael makes GTD and Producteev work for him. This post is about how he manages tasks in grad school as a med student. 

For me, digital task management began with Microsoft Outlook somewhere in my “tween” years. By the time middle school came around, I was syncing it with a Windows Mobile PDA, awkwardly carrying it around wherever I could. Today, I find myself using Producteev to try and wrangle the myriad of to-do items that come with being a married MD/PhD student who has too many hobbies.

Producteev Everywhere
I use a number of different devices, so I interact with Producteev in just all about of its forms in the course of my day. On my desktop PC, I use the web interface and try to process anything I woke up remembering that I needed to accomplish. At school or in the lab, I use a MacBook Pro, and have recently fallen in love with the desktop app. It allows me to break Producteev out of the browser, sorting it to its own space and minimizing the ability of the rest of the internet to distract me while I am processing my tasks. Finally, on the go I use my smartphone, running the superior Android OS. Until there is a native Android app for Producteev, I sync with Astrid - which is actually how I discovered Producteev in the first place.

Overcoming Smartphone Challenges
One of the many things I like about Producteev is how easy it is to assign all of the relevant meta-information to a task as you are creating it. While my fingers are still on the keyboard, I can set priority, due date, workspace, and tags, so as soon as I press enter, the task is formatted exactly how it needs to be, no further processing required. 

I’ve found, however, that adding that extra information is more than a little cumbersome on a soft keyboard smartphone, simply because the symbols take extra effort to access. When I’m on my phone I’m usually in the middle of doing something else and don’t have the time to carefully format a task. I deal with this by having Astrid set to put all new tasks into the brain dump workspace. If I think of something while mobile, I enter it as quickly as possible, saving the categorization and cleanup for when I have time at a full-size computer, such as at the beginning or end of the day.

Other Integrations & Experiments
I’ve been playing around a bit with integrating Evernote with Producteev. If I take meeting notes in Evernote, I can not only search through them later, I can also email the entire note to Producteev as a task, with all the surrounding information attached. Be aware that if the note has a lot of images and other content (such as a clipped web page), it can generate a good deal of garbage notes as well.

For processing email-based tasks, I generally either still forward the email to Producteev with the appropriate syntax in the subject line or switch to the app and enter the task myself.

I’m hoping in the future to make more use of the shared workspaces, both at home between myself and my wife and between the members of my lab. I see this as being helpful for identifying tasks that require cooperation to complete and for sending others to-do items that they can prioritize as they see fit.

Adapting GTD
I’m not a strict follower of Getting Things Done (GTD), but I am enamored with the idea of organizing and breaking down tasks into items with clear contexts and end points. Heavily inspired by this article, I set up a number of different context-related workspaces. Each one contains tasks that I must complete or remember in that specific context: Home, Lab, School, Errands, Computer, and Communication. I also have a workspace for projects, and a brain dump. Keep in mind that each new workspace will need to be separately configured to integrate with Google Calendar and other services.

With this many workspaces, the overview pane becomes quite valuable - I can quickly get an idea of what has be accomplished over the next few days regardless of context. I can also switch to a specific workspace to keep other types of tasks from looming and overwhelming me. I’ve found that this has helped me focus a great deal - I can concentrate on lab tasks while at lab, even as I think of and add things I’ll need to do later at home.

Projects
I’ve found that having a separate workspace for projects and other “some day” items is helpful. This is where tags come in especially handy: A project often has a number of steps, which I try to break down into individual tasks. Tagging all of these with a project helps keep them together, and priorities can be used to assign them a kind of hierarchy so it’s obvious which one has to be tackled first.

Final Thoughts
At this point I’ve been actively using Producteev for about nine months and it’s been extremely useful for helping me organize and remember everything I need to accomplish. It’s always a struggle to not get overwhelmed and to take decisive action to complete a task, but anything that helps lower the activation energy required is a boon - and Producteev makes for a wonderful catalyst. 

—-

With the help of Michael and other college/higher education evangelists, Producteev is proud to announce free premium accounts for anyone with a .edu address. Sign up at Producteev for Education.

For more on Producteev-Evernote integration see a guest post by Dan Gold.
Browse our student tag for articles being built around task management in a school setting.

Awesome news: starting with the new school year today, we’re launching Producteev for Education and giving away our Premium plan to anyone with a .edu address.

Students are one of the most common demographics on Producteev. They use it for everything from managing their homework to keeping a simple shopping list. But, with Producteev’s freemium model, it’s been pricey for students to collaborate with others. Now it’s free!

With ProducteevEdu, you can now easily manage tasks for yourself or with your group, classmates, professors, and more - the possibilities are literally endless. And using our web, native, and mobile apps, you can take your tasks to go and manage them from anywhere!

Remember Producteev integrates with students’ favorite tools too, so you can sync with Google Calendar and email in a task! With our newest crowdsourcing feature, you can even keep a workspace completely private but get help on a specific task by sharing it on twitter, facebook, or over email in one click!

Producteev for Education is already being embraced by superusers and newbies. After doing a private demo at Columbia University (two team members’ Alma mater), student governments, developer groups, and labs on campus have contacted us about getting it implemented in their environment.

We’re really excited about how students will use Producteev! We hope you’re excited too, so don’t put off productivity a minute longer - sign up today!

Bonus: Anyone can use their unique sign up URL to refer peeps and have a chance to win a Kindle, iPod, or even access to the awesome Producteev3 beta! =)

Producteev (the ultimate to-do list application) makes it easy for you to schedule not only your coursework, but also a life outside of it!
 
What comes to mind at the mention of the word ‘school,’ or ‘college’? Ok, besides the parties! ;) It’s all the things you have to do, right? This is where the syllabus is your guide! Use it to get things scheduled and out of sight, out of mind. That way, you can enjoy other things (pssst, where’s the party Friday night?)How Producteev can help you lead an active social life ;)

• Plan your complete syllabus. That’s right, plan ahead to have more time later.
  With each syllabus, scan through assignments, plot titles and due dates accordingly, on any Producteev application (web, mobile, desktop). Tip: set reminders to give yourself a little nudge. These are available via e-mail, IM.

• Label to-dos. Trust me, you’ll thank me later. ;) Assign a ‘label’ to each class. This helps you file them and provides a good visual, in addition to our calendar view.

• Add notes to anything. Now don’t get carried away, though you’re probably suspect for getting note-happy!  The caveat is to make notes action-oriented so that you’re actually helping yourself move forward, instead of just collecting useless information. Tip: click on the number of notes (to the right of a task title) in your task list to expand the note window.

• Free & collaborative. Study buddies? No problem! Sign up below for the completely free version for groups and individual students!

• Procrastination just got easier! ;) Well, more like, you can move deadlines around with ease. Adjust dates, as your schedule sees fit. You can either change due dates in the SCHEDULE pop up, or from the Calendar View.

Bottom line for newbies:
 

Ridiculously easy interface. Not a tech-whiz? No problem! Just one look at the interface, and you will see that it is very basic and user-friendly. There are also video tutorials to help you get started, as well as additional videos to help you get moreso into the nitty-gritty.

It’s never too late, but why wait? Sign up to begin using Producteev for Education now! Doing everything you’re expected to do as a student is now a piece of cake!

Recommended article:
20 Ways to Plan for Student Success with Producteev

You shoulda been there!

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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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