Exclusive Interview KawasaKi -...

4 Setting SMART Goals for 2009

4 New Year’s Resolutions

4 Motivation and how not to lose it

4 Practical Brainstorming with Mind Maps

4 Productivity Steps for everyone

Guyabout Entrepreneurship, Technology, Internet and Getting Things Done

• Guy Kawasaki • Dustin Wax • Leo Babauta • Michael Hyatt • James Mallinson • Kris Rowlands •• Andrew Mason • Michael Deutch • Andrew Yang • Michael Sliwinski and more...

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10great articles about:

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#2 (April 2009)www.ProductiveMagazine.com

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Changing the way the world of productivity works

I’m on the airplane 36,000 feet

above Greenland heading towards

San Francisco for the GTD Summit

organized by the David Allen

Company. It’s been almost a year since

we’ve met with David Allen for the first

time and I’m very excited to be able

to participate in his event and in the first

worldwide gathering of GTD (Getting

Things Done) advocates and enthusiasts.

I’m going to meet David again, but

not only him. I’ll have a chance to talk

to most of the Davidco crew and to many

many friends I’ve come to know online

while promoting my GTD web application

– Nozbe. Finally we’ll be able to connect

in person. I think this part is the most

exciting of all. Can’t wait to exchange

laughs, talks and ideas with them.

I’ll make sure to share all these experiences

from the GTD summit in issue #3 of the

magazine.

This issue of the Productive Magazine

took significantly more time to get ready

but it’s here on your screen, so it means

that after the very successful issue #1

we’ve managed to get #2 out of the door

eventually and we’re looking forward

to have #3 ready sooner than later.

As a tradition, for the cover of the

magazine and the key interview I’m

constantly looking for people who are not

only famous, but most of all inspire me

to be and do better. After David Allen, the

father of GTD in #1, I was honored to be

able to interview the legend of Silicon

Valley and my personal entrepreneurship

From the Editor

By Michael Sliwinski, Editor

guru – Guy Kawasaki. When I told Guy

about the #1 of the magazine, he loved

the idea and rushed to help me promote it

and spread the word. When I later asked

him for an interview possibility, he didn’t

hesitate a second. During the GTD Summit

we’ll meet in person for the very first time.

Can’t wait.

As we’re developing the concept of the

Productive Magazine, we’ll be looking

for patterns and “themes” for each and

every issue. The first issue didn’t have

such a theme. It was about different

aspects of productivity. After all, it was

�

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our starting point. This one is still not

totally themed, but we’ve tried to focus

more on resolutions and on what inspires

us to move forward and be better. I’ve

also added the intro to the 10-step Simply

Get Things Done Course at the end of the

magazine. It’s a course many of my Nozbe

users found useful when starting with GTD.

I’m still not sure whether we should be

reviewing different productivity solutions

or applications... but we definitely will be

taking different productivity techniques for

a spin. This is why, in this issue, you’ll learn

more about Mind-mapping – something

I’m using all the time for my “strategic”

thinking. If you follow our Productive

Magazine blog carefully, you know I’m

planning each issue of the magazine in

a mind map.

Our “Productive Magazine Family” is

also growing. I’ve received great support

from Lori Anderson, Sarah Lauser, Joe

Pirola and Dustin Wax to help me edit this

issue and prepare foundations for the next

one. We are accepting articles from more

�

and more bloggers as they come to us with

great content and enthusiasm. The future

is wide open and I can’t wait to give you

PM #3 with my impressions from the GTD

Summit.

Meanwhile let me invite you to check

out our second issue of the Productive

Magazine and hope you’ll find it a great

read.

Michael Sliwinski

Editor, Productive Magazine

Founder, Nozbe – Simply Get Things

Done! web (and iPhone) application

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Sponsored by www.Nozbe.com#02/2009 www.ProductiveMagazine.com






05 Michael Sliwinskiwith Guy KawasakiThe Art of Changing the World

08 Dustin M. WaxHow to Set Goals That Lead to Success

10 Leo BabautaThe Single Secret to Making 2009 Your Best Year Ever

12 Michael HyattHow to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week

14 James MallinsonWhy You Shouldn’t Do New Year’s Resolutions

15 Kris RowlandsSay “No” to make “Yes” sound better 18 Michael Deutch

Making it all work – GTD with Mindmapping 22 Michael Sliwinski

Simply Get Things Done Course – from 0 to Productivity in 10 simple steps

Table of contents

16 Andrew MasonWhat’s Wrong With New Year’s Resolutions? 20 Andrew Yang

Productivity For Groups – Because You’re Not Really In Control

Productive!Magazinewww.ProductiveMagazine.com

Sponsor:www.Nozbe.com

Chief Editor:Michael [email protected] Editor:Maciej [email protected]

Editorial Team:Lori Anderson, Dustin Wax, Sarah Lauser, Joe Pirola

Your Online tool for Getting Things Done – available in your computer browser, mobile phone and on your iPhone.

Tribute:Marc Orchant (1957-2007)The Productive!Magazine is dedicated to the memory of a productivity guru, great blogger and a very close friend, Marc Orchant who passed away on 9th December 2007.

All articles are copyright © by their respective authors. Productive!Magazine is copyright © by Michael Sliwinski. Getting Things Done® and GTD® are the registered trademarks of the David Allen Company.

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mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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Michael Sliwinski: I can’t conduct an

interview with you without talking

about the „Apple time” in your life. How

did it happen that, from a „jewelry salesman”, you

transformed into hi-tech Mac-evangelist?

Guy Kawasaki: In one word, the answer is

„nepotism.” My college roommate hired me into

the Macintosh Division to work for him. Steve Jobs

must have been out of the office that day because

on paper I had neither the work nor educational

background for the job.

This experience illustrates an important

point about productivity and hiring: sometimes

one should look beyond the lack of a perfect

background. What’s as important as work and

education is whether the person „gets it” and

„loves it.” I got and loved Macintosh from the first

moment I saw it in 1983.

The flip side is also true: people with the perfect

backgrounds who don’t get it and don ‘t love it can

fail. Ideally, you’d like the right background and

a love of the product, but most companies focus

on only the former. My ranking of importance

is: get it/love it, work experience, and then

educational background. Ý

Reality CheckThe Art of Changing the World

Interview with Guy Kawasaki

by Michael Sliwinski

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MS: You said that back in the ‘80s you were

changing the world with the Mac. Looking

at the current Apple products, do you still

believe they are changing the world?

GK: Macintosh made computers

accessible to “the rest of us” because of its

user interface. It enabled people who didn’t

use computers to now do so, and it enabled

people who were using computers to use

them better. That’s not as true with iPod

and iPhone because they didn’t open up

entirely new markets to the same degree as

personal computers. Still, they do kick butt.

MS: If you believed so much in Apple, why

did you leave in 1997? Just when Steve

Jobs was coming back? Didn’t you want

to change the world with him?

GK: It’s a long story: an entrepreneurial

opportunity presented itself that I couldn’t

resist, and Apple with Steve Jobs didn’t

need little old me to succeed--as history

has clearly shown!

MS: Taking the step as an entrepreneur,

weren’t you afraid of all the potential

risks? Giving up the great job with Apple,

the company you believed in so much,

and starting on your own? Many people

fear this kind of leap.

GK: You have to understand Silicon

Valley. Here, people wonder why you

don’t start a company, not why you left

an existing one. The mentality is very

different from most places--and one of the

keys to the success of Silicon Valley. I don’t

know of a place on earth where failure is

more tolerated than Silicon Valley.

MS: During your career as an entrepreneur,

can you list the biggest mistake that you’ve

made? What did you learn from it?

GK: During the dot-com boom times,

I over-expanded Garage.com. I had

to layoff quite a few people when the

bubble burst. I learned that “trees do not

grow to the sky”--more tactically, I learned

not to expand in anticipation of success.

To this day, this is a very common

mistake for entrepreneurs. Most of them

spout off about how their “conservative”

forecast is that they will achieve

$100 million in sales in year three, so

they need to build an infrastructure

immediately. Suffice it to say, the revenues

don’t come but the overhead is in place.

As a rule of thumb, I divide their

conservative forecasts by 100 and add

a year to the shipping date. That’s proven

to be about right.

MS: Right now the dark clouds of crisis are

approaching and the whole planet seems

to be affected. No job is secure now and we

learn each day of many companies falling. Any

tips for entrepreneurs, as well as employed

professionals, on how to survive the crisis?

GK: I wish I had the definitive answer

to this question. Right after Christmas,

I was at the Stanford Shopping Center.

There were three kinds of stores: (a) 50-70%

off sales; (b) no sales but no customers; (c)

no sales with customers. The only store in

the third category was Apple.

It’s easy for me to say, but there’s

a lesson there: create stuff that’s

compelling and unique. That’s the key

in hard times. We’re in the middle of

a drought right now, so maybe you can’t

do anything right away, but you can

prepare for the end of the drought by

keeping this concept in mind.

Also, you have to believe that “this too

shall pass.” Business is cyclical, and business

is also deceptive because things are never

as good or as bad as they seem. This is one

of those times that you just have to gut it

out. There’s no magical solution.

MS: It really inspired me when you said

“entrepreneurs shouldn’t be focused on

making money, but on making meaning”.

I’m reminded about it each time I get an

email from a user of my Nozbe app saying

how it improved their life and how much

they can get done thanks to it. Are there

still many startups coming to you focused

only on making money?

GK: Don’t get me wrong: approaching

a venture capitalist with a pitch that starts

off, “We don’t care about making money...”

isn’t going to succeed. My issue is the

order of priorities: If you change the world,

you’ll probably make money. But if you set

out to only make money, you’ll probably

attract the wrong kind of employees and

strive to achieve the wrong metrics.

Obviously, a balance is needed because

you can’t change the world if you don’t

have revenue--unless you are a not-for-

profit, though even these organizations

do need donations and that is revenue of

a sort. However, when all is said and done,

the companies that changed the world, like

Apple, eBay, Google and Cisco, also make

a ton of money..

Returning to the venture capitalist pitch,

the right approach is “This is how we want

to change the world.... When we do it, this

is how we’ll make money...”

MS: Speaking of apps, I know your killer

app is Twitter. I even heard you say you

could easily give up your mobile phone but

you wouldn’t give up Twitter. Why do you

prefer Twitter to your beautiful iPhone?

GK: I can easily give up my iPhone or any

other cell phone. I don’t talk much on my

iPhone, and I use it mostly as a portable

email and Twitter machine. I’m just not

a phone person--when I need a phone,

I can use a landline as a substitute or grab

someone else’s phone for a quick call.

By contrast, I know of no substitute

for Twitter. How else can I reach 144,000

people instantly and for free? Twitter is the

best marketing tool since television, and

unlike television, you don’t need to spend

millions of dollars to buy exposure.

MS: Isn’t constant Twittering distracting

you from daily activities and daily work?

I often shut down my Skype, IM, and

other tools to make sure I can get stuff

done. With you being constantly on

Twitter, how do you get stuff done?

GK: Maybe this is rationalization, but

Twitter is not a social diversion for me. It

is core to my business. I am in the business

My issue is the order of priorities: If you change the world, you’ll probably make money.

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of, for example, promoting Alltop right

now. Twitter enables me to do that, and

the more people who follow me on Twitter,

the better I can promote Alltop.

For many people, Twitter is a way to make

friends, entertain oneself, and have fun. For

me, Twitter is a weapon. In this sense, Tiger

Woods approaches golf differently than the

weekend duffer. For him, it’s a business—

he probably enjoys golf, but it is a business.

I enjoy Twitter, but it’s a business.

MS: Speaking of getting things done, did

you read the GTD book by David Allen?

Do you apply any of the GTD principles in

your life? Or do you have your own way of

getting things done?

GK: I haven’t! I need to get it because I need

to get more done. The secret to my success is

that I am willing--I even enjoy--grinding it out.

I used to think that the key to success was the

brilliance of the idea and implementation was

easy. Now I think that ideas are easy, and the

key to success is implementation.

MS: Your new book is out: Reality Check.

The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting,

Outmanaging and Outmarketing Your

Competition. How is it different from The

Art of the Start? What’s the main purpose

of the book? What’s the main message?

GK: The purpose of Reality Check is

to provide a reference book for starting

and operating a business. It is the superset

of all my writing, blogging, and speaking.

There isn’t a single message in the sense of

most business books--think of it as more

a Chicago Manual of Style for business.

MS: I must say this new book is quite thick.

I’ve heard you say it’s twice as much value

as The Art of the Start. Did you want it to be

your ultimate piece-of-advice book?

GK: Yes, to use another book analogy, it is

to me what Management was to Peter Drucker-

-not that I’m saying I’m a Peter Drucker! Many

business books are one idea stretched to 200

Twitter is the best marketing tool since television, and unlike television, you don’t need to spend millions of dollars to buy exposure.

About Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology

Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, and a columnist for

Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at

Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including

Reality Check and The Art of the Start. He’s also an Internet

celebrity with close to 60K followers in Twitter where he’s

promoting Alltop – an “online magazine rack” of popular topics. Both Guy Kawasaki

and Michael Sliwinski will meet in person for the first time this March, where they have

been invited by David Allen to be panelists at the first GTD Summit in San Francisco.

Visit Guy Kawasaki’s home page www.guykawasaki.com

Visit Guy’s Blog “How to Change the World”

Buy Guy’s newest book Reality Check on Amazon

pages. Reality Check is 200 ideas stretched

to two pages. People shouldn’t read it once,

put it down, and never come back to it. It’s

a reference that you come back to over and

over as you encounter new challenges.

For example, there’s a chapter that explains

how to look good on a panel if you’re ever on

a panel. You might not need this information

right away, but someday you may be on

a panel at a conference. Similarly, you may

not be pitching venture capitalists right now,

but someday if you do, you need to read the

10/20/30 rule of PowerPoint that’s in the book.

MS: I’ve read rave reviews about the

book. Seth Godin tells us to buy two

(or even more) copies of it. But there

have also been critics saying the advice

you’re giving is “too obvious”. I actually

believe very much in re-discovering the

obvious, that’s what Productive Magazine

is all about--to re-discover the obvious

productivity principles and give you

a kick to apply these. What’s your take

on that?

GK: Ten books a year would be published

if not for “re-discovery.” Actually, that’s an

exaggeration--it would be five. If my advice

is “too obvious,” why are many companies

doing so many silly things? As your magazine

shows, there’s knowing the obvious and

doing the obvious. The two are different.

MS: OK, your new book is out. You’re

a bestselling author, a successful

entrepreneur, a family man with four

kids, and an Apple legend. So what’s on

your schedule now? What inspires you

to continue and grow, or as we GTD people

would ask: “What’s your Next Action?”

GK: My next action is to make Alltop,

my “digital magazine rack,” successful.

The goal is worldwide domination of RSS.

The meaning I want to make with Alltop

is to enable people to find more relevant

information in an easier way than using

a search engine.

GTD fans love Alltop because it is such

a timesaver. We take 450 topics and

aggregate display the five most recent

stories from the best sites and blogs. For

example, we have http://gtd.alltop.com/

and http://lifehacks.alltop.com/when you

can read the best selection of GTD and

lifehacks content in a glance. Talk about

getting things done!

As your magazine shows, there’s knowing the obvious and doing the obvious. The two are different.

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How to Set Goals That Lead to SuccessOne of the most important things we can do in pursuit of success is set clear, explicit goals about what we want to accomplish. Most of us have a bunch of vague goals, like “lose weight” or “write a novel”. We want “someday” to do x, y, and z, but without clear goals, we don’t seem to make any progress. We chug along, picking at our big life projects now and again, rarely coming any closer to finishing, and we feel horrible about ourselves. If you don’t set strong goals, you won’t achieve them.

Dustin M. Wax

There are a lot of reasons people

don’t set clear goals. Most of them

boil down to a fear of commitment

– and of letting yourself down when

you fail to live up to that commitment. Saying

“I’m going to write a novel” sets you up for

possible failure. What if you don’t have any

ideas? What if some life crisis happens and you

can’t finish? What if a better idea comes along?

And on and on. We have a million ways

of talking ourselves out of committing

to achievement. So we avoid the

commitment. We keep our options open.

We dally.

As anyone who’s ever been in a romantic

relationship without commitment knows,

this is a recipe for disaster. In fact, it’s

a pretty good analogy, because your

relationship with your goals is a lot like your

relationship with your significant other. You

have to work at it every day, and nurture it,

and accept its quirks and even failures. And

if you lack real commitment, sooner or later,

one or the other of you will flake out.

SMART goals are easier to achieve than dumb ones

One reason goal-setting is so daunting

is because we don’t know how to set

good goals. We set vague, unspecified,

open-ended goals – goals we hope to get

around to “someday”, “eventually”, “when

inspiration strikes”, “when I have more

time”. These words and phrases need to be

banished from your goal-setting vocabulary.

What you need are crisp, clear, specific goals.

SMART goals.The idea of the SMART goal was conceived

by a business psychologist named George

Doran. SMART is an acronym, standing for

goals that are:

• Specific,

•Measurable,

•Achievable,

•Relevant, and

•Time-bound.

Let’s look at these elements one by one.

S – Specific – Set goals with specific

outcomes. Avoid loose language. Ex: “Lose

10 pounds.”

M – Measurable – Set concrete goals

that you can keep track of – and keep track

of them!

A – Achievable – Set realistic goals

that you’re prepared to pursue. Losing

20 pounds this year is reasonable. 50

pounds is pushing it. 200 pounds in a year

is almost impossible – and when you fail

to meet it, you’ll feel bad about yourself.

R – Relevant – Set goals that matter

to you, that will have a positive effect in

your life.

T – Time-bound – Give yourself a deadline

to create a sense of urgency and keep you

focused on the task at hand. Ex: “Follow

my doctor’s diet and exercise three times

a week to lose 10 pounds by March 31st.”

A bad goal – but the kind we are most

comfortable committing to – is something

like “Spend more time with family.”

That’s a dumb goal – more time than

what? How will you know if you’re

spending more time with your family?

How much more? When should you

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world, then doing the legwork becomes

incredibly relevant.

Make sure you have some way of

keeping track of your goals. For recurring

goals like “write 1000 words a day” or

“exercise 15 minutes every morning”, I like

the idea of keeping a white board handy

and recording daily accomplishments as

you finish. But a notebook, diary, computer

file, or anything else will work fine. Maybe

you can start a “goal diary” – a nice-

looking notebook that you can write goals

in, one per page, and track progress in as

needed.

Whatever you decide to use to track

your goals, make sure you keep on top of

it. Accountability, even just to yourself,

is key – both so you can feel good about

your project (especially in the middle of

a big project that seems like it will never

end) and so you can identify hangups and

other problems that are keeping you from

accomplishing your goals.

If you’re like me, you have big things in

mind for 2009. Set out on the right foot by

making SMART goals that put you on track

for success from the beginning!

spend more time with your family

– tomorrow? next week? someday? What

should you be doing with them, and how

often?

A SMART goal would be. “Get involved

with Jimmy’s soccer team and attend two

practices every week from now until the

end of the season” or “Spend an hour

every day reading to the kids” or just

“Take my partner out this Friday night

for some alone time.” You know when

to start – “now” – and you can easily track

your progress – just write it down in your

calendar and do it, or put a mark on the

calendar every time you read to the kids.

Here’s another dumb goal: “write

a novel”. It’s too big, too unspecific – it

doesn’t suggest any action. Every day,

you’ll say to yourself, “Oh, right. I really

oughtta write that novel!” and then go

back to surfing the Internet, watching TV,

or playing Wii.

Instead, set a series of SMART goals:

•Write an outline by February 1st.

•Write 1000 words every weekday until

finished.

•Complete first three chapters by April

15th.

That might not be granular enough

– maybe you’re not prepared to even write

the outline (it’s not achievable). Maybe you

need to:

•Check out 3 books on how to write

a novel and read them by February 10th.

• Brainstorm character names by February

28th.

• Join a writing group and attend every

month.

Of course, I’ve taken for granted

that spending time with your family or

writing a novel are relevant to you, and

if you've chosen them as goals, they

probably are. But you always have to think

about whether a goal is relevant, and

how it’s relevant, or you won’t have the

necessary motivation to complete the goal.

It’s boring researching competitor’s books

in order to write a book proposal – but

if you’re burning to tell your story to the

About Dustin Wax

Dustin M. Wax is

a freelance writer

based in Las Vegas,

NV. He is the editor

of Stepcase Lifehack

(Lifehack.org) and

contributes to

several other websites. When he’s not

writing, he teaches anthropology and

gender studies to university students. He

is the author of “Don’t Be Stupid: A Guide

to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at

College.”

Visit Stepcase Lifehack

Visit The Writer’s Technology Companion

Buy “Don’t Be Stupid”

Whatever you decide to use to track your goals, make sure you keep on top of it.

© V

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Vas

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om

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The Single Secret to Making 2009 Your Best Year EverI realized that there’s just one tip that’s needed to make 2009 your best year ever. And it’s not a tip you’ll read in most personal development, productivity or self-help blogs or books. That’s because if you implemented this one tip, you wouldn’t really need any others. It would put all of us out of business. So, because I enjoy writing personal development posts and books for you guys, I’m counting on you to NOT actually implement this, and to keep needing other tips I give you in the future.

Leo Babauta

Kidding of course! Go ahead,

put me and all the rest of ‘em

out of business. I’d rather have

you happy and successful, and

look for another job, knowing that I did

something good.

So what’s that single secret, the one thing

that will not only make 2009 your best

year ever, but put personal development

and self-help bloggers and authors out of

business? Are you sure you’re ready to hear

it? OK, you’re ready.:) Here goes:

Stop waiting for happiness. Happiness is right here, right now.Sounds too simple, but if you haven’t

realized this, and put it into action, it can

have an amazing effect on your life. Today.

Right now.

My Life of WaitingWhen I was young, I couldn’t wait

to become an adult. Oh, the freedom!

Becoming an adult would bring me

happiness. I couldn’t wait.

When I became an adult, I couldn’t wait

to get a good job. That would surely bring

happiness. I couldn’t wait. When I got

a good job, I couldn’t wait to get a raise.

When I got a raise, I couldn’t wait to get

married. When I got married, I couldn’t

wait to buy a nicer car. Got the car, then

I couldn’t wait to buy a house.

When I bought the house, I couldn’t wait

to … get out of debt. I could go on for

quite awhile, but you get the point. None

of my desires ever produced happiness,

because I was stuck in the mindset of

wanting more. When I got what I wanted,

I wanted something else. My happiness

was always on hold, because I was waiting

to reach a goal. Waiting for happiness.

On Goals and DesiresIt’s good to have goals. I have them – it’s

a part of living and working. But how much

are you investing in your goals? How much

of your happiness is based on your goals?

It’s also natural to have desires, but if

your life is a series of desires, one after the

other, and everything in you is in pursuit of

those desires, you will always be striving

for happiness, waiting for it. Instead,

remember: Stop waiting for happiness.

Happiness is right here, right now.

Feel free to pursue goals, and desires …

but don’t make your happiness dependent

on them. Don’t think of happiness as

something you’ll have once X happens

(whatever X is right now for you).

Life is a Journey – Enjoy It!So how do you go for goals and still

have happiness right here, right now? By

remembering that the important thing isn’t

the destination… it’s the journey!

Remember that, always: the journey is

the most important thing. Not the goal.

Not the ending point.

Think about it: if you are only happy

once you reach a goal, what about all the

time you spend getting to the goal? That’s

much more of your life than actually being

at the goal. If you’re only happy when

you’re at the destination, you’ll be unhappy

most of the time.

What’s more, if you are stuck in that

mindset, when you reach your destination,

you won’t actually be happy – you’ll be

looking toward your next destination.

Instead, remember: Stop waiting for

happiness. Happiness is right here, right now.

How do you enjoy the journey?

By appreciating life in its fullness, its

wonderfulness. By not looking so much

toward the future, but focusing on the present

moment, right here, right now. By looking

around you, and realizing that everything you

need for happiness is already here!

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projects, one after the other? Well, that’s

good, but realize that your to-do list will

never ever be completed, nor will your

project list. They’re never ending, and in

fact they’re supposed to be that way. So

you’ll never reach a destination here – all

you have is the journey! Learn to enjoy

your work – every minute of it – and

productivity will come naturally.

• Learning a new skill. Whether you want

to learn French, or to play the trombone,

or to master Jeet Kune Do, will you only

be happy once you’ve learned the skill?

No! Learn to love the learning process!

It’s an exploration not only of new

territory, but of yourself. It’s wonderful.

• Simplifying. Do you want to get rid of

clutter? Will you be happy only when

you’ve gotten rid of all excess things? No!

Enjoy the process of decluttering – it’s

one of my favorite pasttimes!:) Imagine

that I’m there next to you, enjoining you

to “TOSS IT!” with a wildly cheerful voice.

•Writing a book. Do you want to write

the Great American Novel? Don’t wait

until you’re done to enjoy the book…

love each moment you can spend

writing. It’s a miracle.

What are you waiting for before you

become happy? Can you find happiness

right now, in this moment?

Everything You Need for HappinessWhat do you need to be happy? Do you

need a fancy car and a mansion and

millions of dollars? If you could have every

single desire granted to you right now,

would you be happy then?

Or can you be happy now, with what you

have?

Can you look at the gorgeous sky, and

realize what a miracle it is? Can you look

at a sunset, a forest, a flower, a child, and

realize the miracle of each of these things?

You probably can, if you take the time

to look at them fully.

And then you might realize that your eyes

are a miracle, and that they allow you to see

each of these other miracles. If you have your

eyes, you have all you need for happiness.

What if you are blind? Can you taste

chocolate, or strawberries, or cinnamon, or

tears, and realize what a miracle those things

are? Can you hear Mozart, or John Lennon, or

Jack Johnson, and have your soul fill up with

happiness? Then you already have all you

need for happiness.

All you need is the present moment: spend

time with a loved one, talk with a friend,

watch a funny movie, go swimming in

refreshing water, smell fresh baked bread, go

for a walk or a run, curl up with a good book,

cuddle on a rainy day, give and receive a hug.

It’s true – this is the only thing you

need to know: Stop waiting for happiness.

Happiness is right here, right now.

But… What About My Goals?Should you give up your goals for 2009,

now that you’ve decided to be happy now?

Nah. Go ahead and pursue those goals, but

remember to enjoy the journey. Consider:

• Losing weight. Will you only be happy

after you’ve lost weight and are slim

and trim? When you have the perfect

body? Screw that! Make it an enjoyable

journey – exercise can be a lot of fun!

Eating clean, healthy food can also be

incredible, once you learn to enjoy it!

Enjoy the journey to health and the

great body will only be a side benefit.

•Getting productive. Do you have a desire

to crank through your to-do list, stop

procrastinating, and knock down your

About Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta lives in

Guam and is married

with six kids. He’s a

writer and a runner

and a vegetarian and

he loves writing Zen

Habits - his blog that

in a short year became one of the top

blogs on the Internet with 60K+ readers

subscribed and counting. He’s recently

a published author of a bestselling book

„Power of Less”

Visit Leo’s Blog „Zen Habits”

Buy Leo’s book „Power of Less” from

Amazon

When I got what I wanted, I wanted something else. My happiness was always on hold, because I was waiting to reach a goal.

© T

atia

na -

Foto

lia.c

om

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How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work WeekAlmost everyone I know is working more time than they would like. That’s why a book like The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss has been such a big bestseller. This is a great book, but the promise is a little over the top. I don’t know of anyone, including Tim Ferriss, who really only works four hours.

Michael Hyatt

But what if you could shave ten

hours off your work week? In

my opinion, that is much more

do-able. Virtually anyone, with

a little thought and effort can do it. Here’s

how:

Limit the time you spend online.In my experience, the Web is most

people’s #1 time suck. Yes, I know it

is a wonderful tool for research, blah,

blah, blah. But I often catch myself and

my family members mindlessly surfing

from one page to another with no clear

objective in mind. Before you know it, you

can eat up several hours a day. The key is

to put a fence around this activity and limit

your time online. Set a timer for yourself if

you have to.

This is true for Web surfing and it is

also true for email. Unless you are in

a customer service position where you

have to be “always-on,” you should check

email no more than two or three times

a day.

Touch email messages once and only once.Okay, let’s be honest. How many times

do you read the same email message

over and over again? Guess what? The

information hasn’t changed. That’s right.

You are procrastinating.

I have a personal rule: I will only

read each message once then take the

appropriate action: do, delegate, defer, file

or delete it.

Follow the two-minute rule.My to-do list is very short. It never gets

longer than about thirty items. This is

because I do everything I can immediately.

If I need to make a phone call, rather than

entering it on my to-do list, I just make

the call.

If I can complete the action in less than

two minutes, I just go ahead and do it.

Why wait? You will be amazed at how

much this “bias toward action” will reduce

your workload.

Conversely, when you don’t do it

promptly, you end up generating even

more work for yourself and others. The

longer a project sits, the longer it takes

to overcome inertia and get it moving

again. The key is to define the very next

action and do it. You don’t have to complete

the whole project, just the next action.

Stop attending low-impact meetings.If there’s one thing we can probably all

agree on, it’s that we go to too many

meetings. Either the meeting organizer

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secret: most books are not worth finishing.

Most books could be cut in half and you

wouldn’t miss a thing. The key is to read as

long as you are interested and then stop.

There are too many great books to read

without getting bogged down in the

merely good ones.

Engage in a weekly review and preview.Part of the reason our lives get out of

control is because we don’t plan. Once

a week, you have to come up for air. Or –

to change the metaphor – you have to take

the plane up to 30,000 feet, so you can see

the big picture.

I generally do this on Sunday evening.

I review my notes from the previous week

and look ahead to my calendar.

You may not be able to reduce your

workweek to four hours—and honestly,

who would want to?—but you can

certainly scale it down to a manageable

level by cutting out the wasted motion and

developing a few good habits.

isn’t prepared, the meeting objective

isn’t defined, or you can’t really affect the

outcome one way or the other.

Every meeting should have a written

objective and a written agenda. If you

don’t have these two minimal items, how

do you know when the meeting is over?

Could this also explain why meetings seem

to drag on and on until everyone is worn

out?

If the content of the meeting is

irrelevant to you and your job or if you

don’t feel that you really add that much

to the discussion, ask to be excused.

Schedule time to get your work done.This is crucial. As the saying goes,

“nature abhors a vacuum.” If you don’t

take control of your calendar, someone

else will. You can’t spend all your time

in meetings and still get your work

done.

Instead, you need to make appointments

with yourself. Yes, go ahead and actually

put them on your calendar. Then, when

someone asks for a meeting, you can

legitimately say, “No, I’m sorry, that won’t

work. I already have a commitment.” And

you do—to yourself!

Cultivate the habit of non-finishing.Not every project you start is worth

finishing. Sometimes we get into it and

realize, “This is a waste of time.” Fine, then

give yourself permission to quit.

I do this all the time with reading. It’s

why I am able to read so many articles

and books. Here’s publishing’s dirty little

About Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt is

the President and

CEO of Thomas

Nelson, the

largest Christian

publishing company

in the world and the seventh largest

trade book publishing company in the

U.S. Michael has written four books, one

of which landed on the New York Times

bestseller list. Hyatt serves as Chairman

of the Evangelical Christian Publishers

Association (ECPA). He has been married

to his wife, Gail, for twenty-eight years.

They have five daughters and two grand

daughters and live outside of Nashville,

Tennessee.

Visit Michael’s Blog MichaelHyatt.com

Visit Thomas Nelson web site

If I can complete the action in less than two minutes, I just go ahead and do it. Why wait?

© Alex - Fotolia.com

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the next twelve months, but using it as the

moment to start attempting radical habit

building with the wishy washy New Year’s

Resolution approach is not wise.

James Mallinson

Why You Shouldn’t Do New Year’s Resolutions

Much of the tips offered are

generalized and recycled

junk that end up offering

nothing practical for the

readers. Instead they build up the clean

sheet nature of a new year and leave

people with a naive optimism about what

they can achieve. The result? Badly thought

out and totally unrealistic resolutions that

are destined to fail. Remember the rule of

starting small.

Another major problem I have with

New Year’s Resolutions is that too many

people seem to have this view that a new

year is the only time to think about ways

of improving their lives. Because they

also tend to have minimal knowledge

about the process of habit breaking and

building, it’s not unusual for all their

efforts to fall apart within the first month.

That leaves another eleven months before

they decide to start the process all over

again. It’s hardly constructive, especially

if you have quite a large selection of

resolutions, which is often another

element of the typical new year’s list. How

do you focus your time on a handful (or

more) of habits? I can guarantee you that

as soon as you slip up on one of them,

it will be like a domino effect and bring

down the progress on every other habit.

You need to keep the list small and keep

it compact.

However, perhaps the biggest problem

with New Year’s Resolutions is that they

are such a big deal, partly because of the

way they are built up in the press, partly

because they cover an entire year and

partly because the new year is regarded as

a fresh start for everyone. This is actually

all really bad as it hypes the process up in

your head to the point where one slip-up

typically brings the whole process down.

“It’s such a big deal, what will I do if I fall

off the wagon one day? That’s my progress

for the rest of the year ruined!” It breaks

one of the other basic rules of working on

your habits. You should use a suitably short

timescale, such as a week or even a day

and certainly not think about your progress

yearly.

So you decide not to do New Year’s

Resolutions for 2009, but what do you

do instead? A new year is definitely a great

chance to review your progress and determine

what sort of direction you want to go in over

It’s something of a tradition at this time of year that everyone writes advice about New Year’sResolutions. Whether it be on TV, in magazines or on blogs (ahem…), they all seem happy to dish out ill thought advice left, right and center. However I am going to buck this trend and provide a damning indictment of the New Year’s Resolution.

About James Mallinson

James Mallinson comes from the UK and

is an aspiring author. He started Organize

IT nearly two years ago after he began

dabbling in productivity, and wanted to

share his tips and experience.

Visit James’s blog – Organize-IT

Badly thought out and totally unrealistic resolutions that are destined to fail.

“It’s such a big deal, what will I do if I fall off the wagon one day? That’s my progress for the rest of the year ruined!”

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People don’t like to hear the word „no”,

but when coupled with the explanation

of why you are saying „no”, you can

inform them that you would not be able

to invest the time it would take to see the

task to fruition and be able to do it with

quality.

But when you do say „yes” to a task

or project, people will realize that

they will get your best quality work

that you can offer, and that it is indeed

an exception point that you have said

„yes” to their request. When you learn

to say „no”, people will begin to value

what you do for them and value when

you say „yes”.

Say “No” to make “Yes” sound better

I’m quite sure that there is more than

one person reading this that can

answer „yes” to that question. But

I have a question back at you:

How do you ever Get Things Done?Saying “yes” is an affliction that the even

the best of us have. A good deal of the

time, it’s a great deal easier to say “yes”

when we are asked for something rather

than to say “no”. But how can you be

personally productive if you are always

doing for others? The simple answer is that

you can’t.

In order to keep your own life on

track, you must have time to be able

to complete the tasks and goals that you

have set out for yourself. Not only for the

obvious reason of being organized, but

for the unobvious reason: you cannot feel

productive and organized if you aren’t

doing so.

Setting our own goals and being

organized enough to accomplish them

is a very important part to the humans’

psyche. The psyche is geared to feeling

good about itself when you are able

to accomplish tasks for yourself. Now

you might be thinking “How the heck am

I going to get anything done for myself?

I have so many things to do for other

people…..”. There is a way….and it may

take you some time to learn it, but learn it

you must. You have to say

NO.Saying no is a key component of being able

to be organized and Get Things Done. You

have to be able to use this word in order

to fulfill your own agenda and also in order

to be able to feel good about yourself. When

you say “no” to people, and you have the

time, list for them a few reasons why you are

saying „no”. Such as, “I would love to be able

to take care of that for you, but due to tasks

A, B, and C, I would not be able to do this

for you in a timely and efficient manner. My

other commitments have my plate full at

the moment. Might I suggest that you speak

with X in order to complete your task?”

Are you a “pleaser”? Do you habitually give in to other people because you just can’t stand the thought of upsetting them? Do you put your needs to one side because you get a buzz from someone else’s happiness, only to find that he or she is not a bit grateful? If so, you are a classic „people pleaser,” and you are, in all probability, not getting what you want out of life. It’s time to shift the focus from others to yourself, and stop being a martyr.

A good deal of the time, it’s a great deal easier to say “yes” when we are asked for something rather than to say “no”.

Saying „no” is a key component of being able to be organized and Get Things Done.

AboutKris Rowlands

Kris, being the

child of a hoarder,

has grown up her

entire life organizing

things around her: it

is as natural to her

as breathing. With

over twenty-five years experience, she is

honored to offer you her services, in this

time of need for busy professionals and

entrepreneurs. She’s running a productivity

blog „Fresh Focus”.

Visit Kris’s blog „Fresh Focus”

Kris Rowlands

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task, usually involving a major change

in the way your life is run. I still love the

losing weight quote from Billy Connolly,

which is to “Eat less and move more”!

Any major goal in your life is going

to need the support of your family and

friends. Personally, I think that most

people are ridiculed with their New Year’s

resolutions, because virtually nobody

keeps them. When you set and break these

resolutions, people lose faith in what you

are saying and do not offer you the support

you need. I can not think of a worse time

of the year to announce to the world

that you will shed 70 lbs., or run a half

marathon. Expect to get a tongue in cheek

reaction from the people you tell.

In summary, if you want to change your

life, don’t wait. Make a decision, and act

now. After all, there is no time like the

present!

Andrew Mason

What’s Wrong With New Year’s Resolutions?

Most of these people will

have at some time set

a New Year’s resolution.

I know that for years I did.

Most of the time, the resolutions were

pretty much the same every year, and it

seemed like the correct thing to do, to let

people know that you were going to make

an effort in the New Year.

I live and breathe goals, next actions,

and projects, yet I have not set a New

Year’s resolution for years! Keep reading

to find out why. I kind of disagree with the

idea behind New Year’s resolutions, and

would like to share my thoughts into why

I think they are flawed, and how they can

be improved.

January the 1st occurs once each year,

and this is normally brought with a swollen

head from too much alcohol and the first

line from Rabbie Burns’ Auld Lang Syne.

How many of us have made New Year’s

resolutions?

Let’s take a snippet from Wikipedia

to see what a New Years Resolution is

defined as..

A New Year’s Resolution is

a commitment that an individual makes

to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle

change that is generally interpreted as

advantageous. The name comes from the

fact that these commitments normally go

into effect on New Year’s Day and remain

until the set goal has been achieved,

although many resolutions go unachieved

and are often broken fairly shortly after

they are set.

Hmm, even the Wikipedia entry points

out that “many resolutions go unachieved

and are often broken fairly shortly after

they are set“.

So, what is the problem with New Year’s

resolutions?

Well, I am a goal setter and avid

fan of the Getting Things Done

methodology from David Allen. As well

as this, I subscribe to the good stuff from

motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar and

Tony Robbins. I strongly believe in the

power of decisions.

When I make a decision, I follow this

up by action! Too many of us do not

understand the importance of making

a decision. A New Year’s resolution is

a perfect example of procrastination,

that disease that we all suffer from time

to time, and some, a lot more than others.

What we are saying with

a New Year’s’ resolution is that you want

to do something, but you will postpone

it a few weeks until New Year’s Day. For

example, if your resolution was the timeless

classic “I want to lose weight”, you would

gorge yourself over the festive period,

happy in the knowledge that it is OK as you

are going to lose weight in the New Year. If

you want to lose weight, make a decision,

take action, and lose the weight. Don’t put

it off for a few weeks due to some time

constraints. Setting out on any major goal

planning such as this is destined to fail, and

probably why so many do.

I firmly believe in what I call All Year

Resolutions, also known as goals.

It is very true that you cannot hit

a target that you do not have. However,

action must be taken in order to realize

your goals. Losing weight is a mammoth

The timeless classics for the New Year’s resolution is to lose weight or improve your appearance. This is normally an automatic next action after a festive season of over indulgence! Eight pounds is the average weight gain in the UK over the festive period, and I can talk first hand of people who love nothing more than to drink and be merry over Christmas and the New Year.

About Andrew Mason

Andrew set up DidIGetThingsDone.com

in January 2007 as a way for him to share

what he knows about the ever changing

topics of productivity, motivation, and self

development. He started the blog at the

same time as he started with the Getting

Things Done book from David Allen.

A lot of his early posts are based upon his

interpretation of the book and how he

implemented his own version of the GTD

Methodology.

Visit Andrew’s blog „Did I Get Things

Done”

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Visit Nozbe.com to sign up today!

Simply Get it Done on the Move!


I was working on, both personally and

professionally. I used MindManager

to perform a ‘mind-sweep’, which is

a process of capturing everything I’d been

thinking about – all my unfinished projects,

unanswered emails, unfulfilled dreams. It

was a great relief to get everything out of

my head and into one place that I could

refer back to. Next, I experimented with

Michael Deutch

Before my introduction to GTD,

I thought I had most things in

my life under control. What

I didn’t realize was just how

much energy I was using to keep my

unfinished commitments top of mind.

I was suffering from ‘Information Overload’

and apparently, I wasn’t alone. The

research firm Basex estimates that this

problem costs the U.S. economy over $900

billion per year. And the problem doesn’t

appear to be going away anytime soon.

I was being bombarded with information

from all directions at an ever increasing

pace… e-mail, junk mail, text messages,

phone calls, RSS feeds and meetings.

Sound familiar? Don’t worry, it doesn’t

have to be that way. Determined to combat

this issue and increase my productivity,

comprehension, concentration, innovation,

and maybe most importantly peace of

mind, I incorporated GTD principles into

my workflow to regain control of my life.

The results? Fantastic. Here are some tips

and tricks that I picked up as I started

to fine-tune and apply MindManager and

GTD to my work and life.

Capture:To be in control of my life, I needed

a trusted system to capture everything

going on within it. I started to use

a combination of MindManager and

Outlook to capture everything, big and

small, so I wouldn’t have to remember

anything. Ultimately, this freed up my mind

so I could be more present with everything

Gain Control. Are you looking for better ways to ‘Get Things Done’ (GTD)? Bestselling author and MindManager user David Allen explores this topic in his new book, Making It All Work.

Making it all work – GTD with Mindmapping

© Marek - Fotolia.com

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MindManager add-ins like Gyro-Q which

allowed me to quickly add ideas & tasks

into a map, even when MindManager was

closed. This minimized the impact of the

constant interruptions in my life. With

everything now in one place, I started

to clarify what everything that I captured

really means to me.

Clarify:I was amazed at how much information

I was retaining in my mind, trying to ‘hold’

everything together. Deadlines, promises,

deliverables. I was involved in a lot of

different activities at work and it was hard

to keep track of everything consistently or

know at any point in time what I needed

to do to move all my projects forward.

Now, I’m still engaged in a wide variety

of activities, but I also know what needs

to happen to move items from an inbox

to my desired outcome. That’s a huge

change in how I process everything.

I keep the following trigger questions

in a map that helps me quickly process

the constant flow of information that

surrounds me.

Is this actionable? What do I hope

to achieve? What do I need to do next?

When items were not actionable,

I started to delete them (this was tough

for me as I’m a bit of a digital packrat),

file them as reference material or create

tasks that I categorized as something that

I might like to tackle in the future. By

defining the required actions and expected

outcomes for all my tasks, I was able to be

more strategic about how to use my time

and energy.

Organize:Organization is both fun and dangerous

for me. I love to be organized but need

to be careful not to spend more time

organizing than doing actual work.

I began to use Microsoft Outlook as the

single place where I managed all tasks.

If I’ve captured a task or something I’m

waiting for in a meeting map, I added it

to Outlook. Emails with actions for me

quickly became tasks by either dragging

them into the task section or using the

GTD Outlook add-in. Task categorization

was essential to simplify and streamline

the processing of tasks. I reviewed my task

list by category and worked through the

list based on my location, my access to the

Internet, how much time and energy I had.

And, by priority. For instance, I leveraged

my commute for items that didn’t require

internet access, like phone calls or

reviewing emails and research. This let

me leave work and be more focused, with

fewer interruptions. Organizing by context

allowed me to pick the activity that best

suited my present circumstances.

Reflect:Here’s an area that I’m still working on,

my daily and weekly reviews. I use another

MindManager map to guide me through

my review process. Reviews help ensure

my system is updated and complete. As

a result, I have the ‘big picture’ perspective

that guides me when I’m deciding which

tasks to tackle from moment to moment.

Engage:Here’s where the ‘rubber hits the road’ and

where MindManager really shines. GTD

has been a great and flexible methodology

that helped me process and decide what

tasks to do. MindManager improved

how I thought through and completed

each task. They’re perfect complements.

Whether I’m planning a project, running

a meeting, managing information, or

brainstorming ideas for new products

or strategies, I use MindManager maps

to capture and organize all my thoughts,

ideas and information into coherent

strategies and plans. I see the big

picture, uncover hidden relationships and

accomplish more, with less effort.

About Michael Deutch

Michael Deutch

is Mindmanager’s

Chief Evangelist,

writer and a faithful

follower of Getting

Things Done. He

regularly writes on

the official Mindmanager’s blog.

Download all of the mindmaps from this

article by visiting this post online.

Visit Mindjet’s web site to learn more

about Mindmanager.

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don’t match. For example, parents in

a playgroup may want the kids to just

focus on socializing while others may want

religious-based instruction. Better to air

out these differences early than find out

later. Be careful of trying to be all things

to all people. Many goals take a significant

amount of commitment and resources and

to try to make everybody happy often ends

up making nobody happy. Understand your

fellow members’ goals and collectively

agree on a good set of clear, specific goals.

Put together a planOnce the goals are established, put

together a plan to accomplish the

goal. Brainstorm with the group

to find the right projects and activities

to undertake. The best ideas rarely come

from one individual. Solicit opinions from

Andrew Yang

There are a great many books

written on leadership and teams

but most of these excellent

works are focused on corporate

teams. However, many groups operate

outside of work such as sports teams,

hobby groups, political action groups, faith

groups, playgroups, support groups, even

families. Different than corporate teams,

these groups don’t have an authoritative

boss structure and many groups have no

say in who joins. Despite these limitations,

these teams can be highly productive.

Understand the motivationsDon’t assume you know what everyone

wants. Why are members participating

and what do they hope to get out of

it. Good alignment with your members

improves motivation and participation. For

example, you may have some players on

a sports team who want to win the league

championship and others who just want

to learn or play for fun. While everyone

is playing the same sport, they may have

wildly differing goals, and expectations.

The best thing to do is to spend time with

each member (or as many as practically

possible), ask open-ended questions and

LISTEN.

Craft, communicate and agree on a good

set of goals – once you understand what

people individually want, set up goals that

the group can largely agree on. You may be

surprised on how difficult this can be. Hard

but good choices have to be made.

You may need to do a reset for

some members whose individual goals

Quick quiz. If you take a group of people who are individually productive, do you automatically have a productive group? Some strategies and tactics for improving personal productivity can be applied to groups. However, when you add multiple people to the mix you are guaranteed to have unpredictability and possibly terrible dysfunction.

Productivity For Groups – Because You’re Not Really In Control

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other similar groups. Some savvy searching

on the Web should uncover plenty of best

practices and ideas that you can borrow for

your group.

Break long-term projects into

manageable chunks. Make each chunk have

an owner and a deliverable and monitor

their progress. Ask often for status and

whether there is anything that might block

progress. Putting together a good plan

and schedule of activities will help make

the group excited and engaged. Monitor

frequently.

Establish rules of engagementSome people are naturally process-heavy

and others completely lack process. Find

a happy medium. Create your own “rules

of engagement”

•How do people interact with each

other? How should disagreements be

dealt with? How do you move forward

after a divisive decision was made?

•How are meetings

conducted? Whole books have been

written about how to conduct effective

meetings. Preparation, meeting goals,

a few ground rules and rigorous “next

steps” can go a long way to making

meetings more productive.

•How are decisions made? Some groups

decide by majority rule. While others

have a designated decision-maker.

Determining your decision-making

process will reduce conflict down the

road and also prevent the dreaded

“analysis paralysis.”

Devote time in establishing how your

group engages with each other and makes

decisions. Then lead by example. Repeat.

Social engineering for resultsThe great thing about groups is that they

can be much greater than the sum of its

parts. Mixing personalities, experience, skills

and operating styles unleash creativity and

efficiency. Of course monitor these groups

closely. Sometimes there’s not enough

common ground to make the group operate

effectively. When creating subteams, think

about the right mix of individuals. A team of

stars may not be better than a balanced team

whose members complement each other well.

Delegate, delegate, delegate.Nothing makes members feel more

involved in the group than when they take

ownership. When leaders delegate, they

not only reduce their workload, but also

get much needed “buy-in” from people who

are involved in the process. Let the “critic”

own the problem – often their passion will

get the best results. Where possible, get

volunteers and let them take responsibility

for important things that make a difference.

Keep everyone on the same page

– groups can quickly dissolve from lack

of activity and communication. When

it comes to people’s increasingly busy

schedules, group activities can take a back

seat to that urgent thing that regularly

pops up. Setting up a group web page

and group email is a great way to help

provide indirect cohesion across time and

space. Communicate early and often. Set

up a central website, shared calendar,

automated reminders and group email

to help provide needed communication

infrastructure for the group for direct and

indirect communication. Complement

the real-life interactions with virtual

interactions.

Putting it all together.Putting together a group of people

always makes things interesting. While

a group is composed of a collection

of individuals with specific goals,

motivations and skills, the collective

can have its own goals, motivations and

skills too. With a little proper guidance,

a well functioning group can be a thing

of beauty that can accomplish things that

no individual can.

About Andrew Yang

Andrew Yang is COO at Qlubb, a leading

provider of social collaboration solutions

for real-life groups. Andrew has served in

various executive roles at several Silicon

Valley firms and was a management

consultant in previous life. Andrew has

been an active participant, leader and

provider of solutions for many non-work

groups and corporate teams.

Visit Qlubb’s blog

Visit Qlubb’s web site

Many goals take a significant amount of commitment and resources and to try to make everybody happy often ends up making nobody happy.

© cornelius - Fotolia.com

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This course is about learning to get

things done and it’s not about Nozbe

– my Getting Things Done web-based

application. While I will sometimes refer

to Nozbe throughout this course – you can

use the ideas from this course by mixing

other applications, paper notes, 3x5 cards,

etc... whatever works for you.

The ideas presented in this course

are ideas that work for me... and I’ve

implemented them all in Nozbe... so

to show what I mean – to illustrate what

I’m getting at, I will be referring to Nozbe.

It’s just easier like this. I don’t believe

in theory, I believe in practice. Thus

I will show you how I put all of the GTD

(„Getting Things Done”) concepts into

practice using Nozbe. You can later choose

if you wish to use Nozbe to help you get

things done. Whatever works for you is

always a good choice.

To master your productivity – you should

still read THE book.

If you put the ideas from this course

into practice – you will get things done

and you will be more productive than

ever. Guaranteed. If you want to study

your productivity even more I strongly

encourage you to read David Allen’s book

Michael Sliwinski

Step 0 – Introduction: Who is this

course for?

This course is for anyone

who wants to live a more productive and

happier life. Anyone. You can be a student,

an employee at a small or big company,

a junior or senior manager, an executive...

anyone who just wants to get more done.

And most of all – you don’t have to know

the „Getting Things Done” principles or

what „GTD” (abbreviation for Getting

Things Done) actually is.

If you want to get more done and be

more productive – this course is for you.

Period.

Before we start getting things done...

Let me introduce myself. My name is

Michael Sliwinski and I was born a very

disorganized person. I actually don’t know

if I was born like this or if I just picked up

bad habits... but even though I’ve always

managed to be fairly successful in whatever

I was doing, my lack of self-organization and

structure was killing me and was seriously

holding me back from a greater success.

I decided to approach this problem

from a scientific perspective and learn

to be more productive. I studied many

different books, tried out many to-

do lists and other various approaches

to personal productivity and got so-

so results... until I stumbled upon the

great book by David Allen: „Getting

Things Done – The Art of Stress-Free

Productivity”.

The book changed my life forever.

David Allen’s concept of ‘Getting Things

Done’ seemed just so easy to actually put

into practice and yet made perfect sense...

so I decided to give the system a try. As

I was basically spending most of my day

by the computer, I decided to start coding

a simple program that would help me

implement the GTD (Getting Things Done)

system.

Right from the start I decided this

would be a web-based program. This

created room for future collaboration

between other members of my company;

and provided the opportunity to learn

‘Getting Things Done’ from one another

while working on various projects.

I actually was thinking big from the start –

it wasn’t about just me anymore – I wanted

my entire company to achieve ‘Getting

Things Done’.

A guide to a more productive, focused and accomplished life... or how to make it through the day with a smile on your face and an empty to-do list.

Simply Get Things Done Course – from 0 to Productivity in 10 simple steps

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– “Getting Things Done – The Art of

Stress-Free Productivity”. You can get your

copy at Amazon or probably your local

bookstore.

I will publish next lessons of the

course in future issues of the Productive

Magazine. However you can click on the

links now to get to know each step on the

Nozbe web site (with a video version).

The course is divided into 3 major parts

and 10 steps.

Part I – Next Action – the basics of Getting Things DoneThe idea is to start improving your

productivity as soon as possible, so after

Part I of the course you should already be

getting more done and using the Getting

Things Done principles in your daily

practice. It’s all about how to clear your

head, set up your projects and decide what

your “next actions” are.

Step 1. Clear your head

Step 2. Get organized with Projects

Step 3. What is the Next Action?

Part II – Organize and Process – next level of ‘Getting Things Done’ masteryMore advanced steps and another

productivity boost – working in contexts,

gathering reference material and most

of all – using the system on a daily basis.

Anywhere, Anytime, Anyhow.

Step 4. Work in Contexts

Step 5. Manage your reference material

Step 6. Be productive everywhere – on

the move, online/offline

Part III – Zero problems – black belt level of ‘Getting Things Done’You’re on your way to becoming a master

in productivity when you learn to delegate,

work in teams, review your system on

a regular basis and improve constantly until it

all comes naturally, until you find your flow.

Step 7. Share and Delegate – Synergize

Step 8. Review your stuff regularly

Step 9 and 10. Seek guidance and keep

improving your system and get things done

now – final tips and tricks

Good luck with ‘Getting Things Done’ in

the 2009!

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