Displaying All Posts tagged with Productivity

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 13 – Gina Trapani

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 13 – Gina Trapani

WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy had the pleasure to interview Lifehacker founding editor and highly-regarded developer Gina Trapani on this week’s episode of the podcast. Gina’s got a ton of projects on the go on the web, all of which are awesome in scope and in nature. She’s regarded as one of the top productivity experts on the web today (one could go as for to say that her reach expands well beyond the Internet realm as well), and it was truly a privilege to have her on as a guest.

Show Notes

  • Gina discusses the reason behind starting started Lifehacker and the reason for eventually leaving the site.
  • Why Gina believes that productivity has had (and still does have) such an appeal to so many on the Internet.
  • Todo.txt app, Gina’s self-developed task list application, is discussed.
  • Gina gives a rundown of her daily workflow, including IRC, email and other tools she uses.
  • What is ThinkUp? Gina spills the beans.
  • Mike and Gina offer a requiem for the late, lamented Google Wave.
  • The status of Gina’s standing desk experiment.
  • Apparently, Gina occasionally dances while she works. So what’s on her playlist?
  • Gina digs Gmail…she explains her reasons, what aspects of Gmail’s features she uses and some of the other apps she has to keep tabs on things.

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5 Smart iOS Apps to Revolutionize Your Workflow

Most people have a schedule or timetable to be able to plan out their days. But if you have one for work, this’ll probably be the most hectic. Luckily, there’s a wealth of ways to help you manage your schedule and a lot of those solutions are available on shiny Apple devices. After paying $500 or more, surely an extra few to save you countless hours is worth it, right? Being able to have a clear view of what’s ahead will help to increase your productivity by reducing the time you need to work out what to do. Then you can just get started on what’s important: the work. A lot of my free time is spent writing for various causes. The biggest, coincidentally, are for the various Envato sites that I contribute to. Even since getting my iPad early last year, I’ve been trying to find a viable timetabling app that’s oriented around tasks rather than events. Here’s my roundup of the five apps that I’ve found to be the best.

1. Sorted

Sorted is a fairly simple, yet ingenious app for the iPad that serves as a checklist. You can add tasks to it with all only a title required. You can leave it at that or you can add notes, set priorities and schedule reminders. The highlight of this specific app is the role that priorities serve. You can create levels of priority in the settings (from a bank of many colours) and use these to easily identify the most — or least — important tasks. Click Here to Read Article …

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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 12 – Patrick Rhone

This week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast features a “less than minimal” interview with renowned minimalist and talented writer Patrick Rhone. Patrick’s writing covers the landscape of productivity, technology analysis and practical tips, all with a tremendous amount of articulation, thoughtfulness and flair.

Patrick is the writer and curator at Minimal Mac, a website that promotes subjective simplicity to Mac users everywhere. However, Patrick’s philosophy goes beyond the Mac platform alone (although admittedly, it is his platform of choice) and he has taken it to the next level with his new podcast, entitled Enough – The Minimal Mac Podcast.

Patrick and WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discuss the nature of minimalism (what it is and, more importantly, what it really is), workflow and the crux of the term “enough” as he sees it. Since Patrick is a busy guy, we delve into how he achieves balance in all that he does — both in work and life — and the shift that has been happening for him with the rising success of his writing career. He also mentions some of those that he thinks are doing awesome work with their writing these days. We even talk about email strategies.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 11 – Stephen Smith

This week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast features an interview with productivity consultant Stephen Smith. Stephen has been involved in the productivity realm for many years, and his most recent endeavour is the work.life.creativity site, which is described as:

…an open community and are looking forward to hearing new ideas and perspectives. We are not tied to any one system, methodology or answer. We are simply interested in finding solutions that help us get the most out of life. We wish to spend less time “doing” and more time “living”. In our minds, the goal of life is not about doing, it is about being done.

Stephen has also been involved with SOBCon, an annual event “where some of the best minds in the Internet space gather to present models, discuss insights, and determine best practices.” It has been growing every year — in both size and number of occurrences.

WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy discusses with Stephen the various projects he has on the go and how he manages to keep all of these projects alive — and thriving — with a full time job on his plate as well.
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When Goals Become Counterproductive (And What To Do About It)

When Goals Become Counterproductive (And What To Do About It)

Goals, goals, goals. They are the cornerstone of most methods of productivity, and for good reason. They can be great motivators, and they give you a sense of achievement when you reach them. There is a problem that many people unknowingly experience, though, when goals start to get in the way of themselves and start to harm your chances of success.

An Introductory Anecdote

This past fall I began to study kenpo, a martial art not dissimilar to karate. My goals in learning a martial art were to reap physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits of the practice itself, as well as to gain solid, useable self-defense skills. When I achieved my yellow belt (the fist level above the beginner’s white belt), I felt more pride than I had anticipated at the achievement. The feeling of achieving this level relatively quickly made me start wondering about how fast I could progress if I added to my training time, and I began to give myself goals of achieving certain belts in certain timeframes.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 10 – Ben Brooks

This week’s episode of the podcast feaures an interview with Ben Brooks of The Brooks Review.

The Brooks Review has quickly become a “must read” by productivity and technology fans alike. Brooks’ insightul and informed writing has garnered the attention of well-known web personalities such as Merlin Mann and John Gruber, and the site delivers its content in a very reader-friendly design.

During this interview with podcast host Mike Vardy, Brooks discusses the various productivity methods and tools he uses and why he started The Brooks Review, among other things. Ah, yes…they also talk about Things and his “review” of the Playbook.
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 9 – Dan Benjamin

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 9 – Dan Benjamin

This week’s episode features an interview with Dan Benjamin of the Internet broadcasting network 5by5. This relatively new network features shows that involve not only Dan himself, but other well known “Internetians” such as John Gruber (Daring Fireball), Marco Arment (Instapaper), Jeffrey Zeldman (A List Apart) and Merlin Mann (43 Folders).
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 8 – Shawn Blanc

WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 8 – Shawn Blanc

On this week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast, Mike Vardy had the pleasure to speak with Shawn Blanc, known for his elegant posts at his own site, shawnblanc.net.
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