Displaying All Posts tagged with time management

Episode 18 – Jason Womack: Work Awesome Podcast

On this week’s episode of the Work Awesome podcast (the first under new ownership, I might add), we start a new era. A new theme will greet listeners as they tune in, but a familiar voice can still be heard as host.

I continue my journey with this site in my new role as Podcast Prodigy, and every other week the Work Awesome podcast will bring tips, tricks, interviews and more. This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Jason Womack, noted productivity expert and author. Jason is one of the principals at The Womack Company, a company that aims to help those in all walks of business (and in life) “level up” their productivity.

Jason recently inked a book deal with Wiley Publishing, and his first book under its banner, Your Best Just Got Better, will hit bookshelves later in 2011.
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Personal Life Outside of Work

Scott McIntyre 20th April Office Life 8 Comments

Are you spending longer at work these days, putting in extra hours just to get everything done? And, when you finally clock out and leave, do you bring your job — and workplace worries — through the front door with you?

It can be a constant struggle protecting your precious personal life from the pressures of work. And it’s a battle many people are losing.

The temptation is to do the extra hours tonight in the weak hope you’ll get caught up and be able to relax a little in the morning. But, the ‘to do’ list keeps on growing — and you end up waiting behind again tomorrow. Click Here to Read Article …

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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 17 – James Shelley

Mike Vardy 3rd April Podcast 1 Comment

This week’s guest on the WorkAwesome podcast is James Shelley. James is a highly-regarded online writer, offering articles on productivity and time management — as well as attention and willpower. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

That said, James is also a storyteller and speaker. He has spoken to high school students about the challenges the world has to offer as well as looking at lifestyles choices and decisions that need to be made. These kind of musings don’t just apply to the youth of today; we all can learn from James’ work online. His work at JamesShelley.net is a great place to start.
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The Path to Productivity: Short Hours, More Breaks

Cara Stein 25th March Productivity 10 Comments

You want to be more productive. Who doesn’t, right?

We’ve all heard suggestions for packing more work into the idle moments of our day and shrinking tasks by reducing the time we make available to them. If you have too much work, you’ll just have to work more to get it done. But maybe that’s actually the opposite of what we should be doing. The goal isn’t really to do more; it’s to accomplish more. We need to accomplish more of the things that are most important and do high quality work.

One counterintuitive way to increase your productivity is to work fewer hours per day. Even back in the early 1900s, studies had shown that working 10 hours a day did not result in any more production output than eight.

That’s why Henry Ford decided to scale back the work week for his employees, while still paying them the same amount. First he cut back from 10-hour to 8-hour shifts. Then, he trimmed the work week from six days to five.

“Now we know from our experience in changing from six to five days and back again that we can get at least as great production in five days as we can in six… Just as the eight hour day opened our way to prosperity, so the five day week will open our way to a still greater prosperity.” — Henry Ford

Experiments in his own factories demonstrated that workers accomplished no more in 60 hours a week than in 40. It didn’t make sense to keep them there more hours if it didn’t result in more production, so he didn’t.

This was a radical move, and it still would be today. Many workplaces encourage and reward longer hours when they should be rewarding accomplishments. If factory workers get tired and experience degradation of performance over the course of a long day, how much more do people who do mental work?
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WorkAwesome Podcast: Episode 15 – Adam Lisagor

Mike Vardy 10th March Podcast 2 Comments

Our guest on this week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast is Adam Lisagor. Adam has a lot on the go, including developing iPhone apps (like Birdhouse with Cameron Hunt), being involved in a couple of podcasting projects (You Look Nice Today with Scott Simpson and Merlin Mann) and acting as what some may call as a “reluctant” pitchman for products such as Square and Flipboard.

But what Adam primarily does is make video. Really good video. With clients that include the aforementioned Square and Flipboard, he also has created some great spots for Jawbone’s JAMBOX and Peel. Adam’s videos don’t really feel like commercials, which is what may have led to a steady stream of work over the past few years. WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy has more of a discussion than an “interview” with Adam about things like workflow, how he keeps on top of all that he has going on, and his particular drink of choice. (Hint: it’s not coffee, tea, or soda…)
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Review: GTD Agenda – Versatile Productivity Software

Leslie A Joy 28th February General 7 Comments

It seems like every day there’s a new task management app for a new productivity system. GTD Agenda breaks out of that mold by making a task management app that can be used for multiple productivity methods.

In fact, my absolute favorite thing about GTD Agenda is that in addition to the standard tour and features page, they have pages dedicated to how you can use GTDAgenda for different productivity systems (GTD, The 7 Habits and Highly Effective People, and Zen to Done) and different activities (the gym, school, and software development).

GTDAgenda allows you to easily break up your work across Goals, Projects, and Tasks. In addition, you add Contexts to your Tasks and label tasks as Next Options. There’s also checklists, schedules, and a calendar.

Dashboard

The Dashboard isn’t the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen, but it’s comprehensive. First and foremost, when you login, you see your Next Actions and have the option of grouping them by Priority, Project or Context. On the right-hand side, you have your Calendar. Then underneath your Calendar, you have a box of your Contexts. Underneath that, your Projects.

This setup makes it super-easy for you to have an idea of what’s due when, what to do next, and enables you to quickly pick a task to work on.

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The On/Off Principle

James Hayton 25th February Your Job 5 Comments

If you’re the kind of person who thinks outside the box when it comes to work (as most WorkAwesome readers are), then you probably know all sorts of tricks and techniques for getting the most out of the working day. Whatever your “top tips” for time management are, there’s one element which underpins them all; one fundamental ingredient which determines whether you stick to a program of time management or slip back into chaos or procrastination.

Working State

If you’ve ever read a list of tips or even a detailed manifesto like David Allen’s GTD system, you were probably sold on the principles instantly. You’d spent a couple of afternoons being productive, but then promptly fell off the wagon and straight under the crushing wheels of habitual routine.

What matters most isn’t so much your system, but rather your state of mind. You might have had days when work just happened effortlessly — like an athlete in the zone — when everything just seemed to come together. Unfortunately, if left to chance, this doesn’t happen so often.

The key to any program of self-management, self- motivation, self-improvement — call it what you will — is to take responsibility for your own brain first.
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The Best Way to Make Time for Passion Projects

Cameron Plommer 14th February Productivity 19 Comments

Do you have a blog, startup idea or just want to start/build something outside of you day job? Do you have enough time to make it as awesome as you envision? I’m sure most of you would nod your head in agreement.

Most of us that have a blog, want to start a side business or just have a passion project that is maintained outside a full-time job struggle with making time to work on such projects. Working hard by putting in extra hours — which is common in many work places — to get the work done is not an option. We cannot act like The Technician working more and more hours to get the work done as Michael Gerber describes in his book The E-Myth.

Time is limited by not only a full time job, but also by family and other commitments. In order to make time to progress in our passion projects we must work extremely hard, but we must also work smart. Working smart means being efficient and not wasting the precious time we carve out in the day. To get passion projects finished or make them a success we must combine working hard with working smart, while finding those few hours each week to do the work itself.
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