In this week's episode, Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art gathered round the microphones to discuss what they noticed happening in the world of personal productivity, and then what their plans are for next year (in terms of their own systems and other work they are doing).

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In this Cast | 2021 in Review, 2022 in Preview

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Art Gelwicks

Francis Wade

Show Notes | 2021 in Review, 2022 in Preview

Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context.

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Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith.

Augusto Pinaud 0:23And I'm Augusto Pinaud.

Francis Wade 0:24I'm Francis Wade.

Art Gelwicks 0:25And I'm Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:27Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, we're going to be doing a year in review and a year in preview for personal productivity, both in the world of productivity and in our systems. So we're just going to cover some of the notable things that we kind of noticed this particular year. And it was a kind of an odd year, considering we've been dealing with the pandemic over the past two years. And so we're gonna highlight some of the notable items there. We're then going to talk a little bit about the things that we think happened, notably in our own personal productivity systems, or kind of in our world, and then what would like to what we'd like to happen again, the good things, and what we'd like to be different the areas of improvement, so to speak. And then we'll talk a little bit about what we're planning for 2022. For those of you who kind of follow it, pay attention to what we're doing out there in the world, you can kind of see and follow along with us as we make these kinds of implementations into our own worlds. And so let's start off with what were the kind of notable productivity events of 2021. What were the things that you really noticed in the personal productivity world that happened?

Art Gelwicks 1:37I mean, I think the biggest things that everybody is knee deep in right now and have truly recognized that wasn't necessarily new in 2021. But it became part of our norm is the understanding that the office as we used to know it has changed working from home hybrid from work, full remote work, whatever you want to call it, is here, and it's not going anywhere, it's no longer just a perk, it's no longer just a fun thing that you occasionally get to do this, this is a part of the new norm and will not be going away. And from a personal productivity standpoint, it changes the dynamic for us, because now, we don't have that clear dividing line of getting up driving, you know, commuting into an office working at a different location, and then coming back home. And having that separation for if you had that separation at all to start with. Now that's completely gone, because now work is in your house. So I think the impact of that in 2021 is forcing us not only personally and professionally, but on a deep individual level, to rethink what productivity really means to us to avoid overwhelm to avoid burnout, to really have a sense as to this is what is important to me. Do you think

Raymond Sidney-Smith 3:05that that means that for the for the vast majority of people who still do need to go into an office environment, and there are still going to be people who need to do that? There's no question plus the folks who want to? And does that mean that we all have to be, in essence, like road warriors, we have to understand how to use our mobile technology better. What has this year really taught us about the fact that because if every organization in some way, shape or form is hybrid, and work is happening in different locations at different times, how do we how do we deal with that switch context happening across an entire organization?

Art Gelwicks 3:44See, I think this is one of those situations where the inflammation workers are getting a little dose of reality. Because if you think about most professions, let's say for example, a carpenter or a plumber or something like that, they will go to a job site, they will take their tools with them, they will go they will do their work, they will work as long as they need to they will come back but that's not their office as per se, information workers, especially in a corporate environment have gotten spoiled to say Oh, I will come in My computer will be there, it will be set up for me my desk will be there. They'll give me a nice office chair. And it doesn't have to be that way. And it isn't that way anymore. Those of us who have worked remotely or or worked in environments where we go to client sites and things like that we're used to going in with everything in our world in our backpack or our computer bag and setting up and working and leaving. So there's no harm in that. There's no harm and getting comfortable with that type of a road warrior mentality, not so much to the degree of Oh, everything has to be you know, maximum in functionality minimum inside but we have to be thinking about flexibility. And we have to also take responsibility, because we are now responsible for a lot of this stuff. It is not going to come and set stuff up Your house for you, you become truly responsible for things like your internet connection, getting your mouse working those types of things. And it's just, it's gonna sound a little harsh, but this is when people actually have to grow up about this stuff. Especially professionals.

Augusto Pinaud 5:19And yes, I'm laughing as you say they need to grow up because they should have grown up many, many years ago, but, but he's true. And all in those lines, yes. Now you're going to be but it's even more complex and deep like that, you know, you are seeing on manufacturing now that the production workers, okay, that's those people who is in the line who, okay, who has been traditionally they still need to go into the office, okay, they need to manage production, they need to help with all that are asking HR, okay, why they other people can be hybrid? And we cannot, how can we get our schedules more human? Because normally you have, you know, three shifts, you know, that shift in the morning, a shift in the midday the shift in the night. And the shift on the night for most people is like the worst shift the punishment shift. And now they're asking, well, how we can make it better, because otherwise, we are going to start looking for other solutions. And as you said, people is discovering, okay, now I don't have that it to help me connect my computer and fix it. And they are need to go out of their comfort zone. And that is on every level, we're not talking about the entry level guy, we're talking about the VPs, and the high level on the food chain, given on some of them, they still can call they it may not come but may remotely login into their computer, and help them fix. But it is a problem that we are seeing every day. The good news with all this is that most people experience what they quote unquote geeks has experience for years, in software, in teamwork in how to make these things more effectively into No, we don't need to sit into that conference room for two hours, we can make it in 15 minutes in a zoom call or a Google me or a Google or, or a teams. And that I think it's showing a lot of people in that corporate world that it can be done better. Now we are going to come for a long period of resistance, you know what we are been listening Oh, the big quitting thing that is coming? Well, that is part of the resistance. And he's the resistance of the old school saying we are not going to make the change. And the new younger generations are or geeks in this case, coming and saying, Well, if you don't change we're leaving. And that is going to be a really or make for a really interesting thing. In the year to come,

Francis Wade 7:58the pathway to be more productive, is going to be more clear, because we're online. The fact that we're online means that now we can actually we must actually measure certain things not most, but the software we're using is going to start telling us, it's going to start giving us analytics about our productivity. You know, for example, at some point in time, Google meats and zoom will start to give you back analytics that tell you how well the meetings are being run. At some point,