There’s a long-standing misconception (in Ray Sidney-Smith's humble opinion) that habits are how you become more productive. But, it’s actually your routines that power your habits, and therefore, your personal productivity. In this episode of ProductivityCast, we discuss the power of routines, and specifically look at the morning routine. We discuss each of our morning routines and discuss some challenges facing building a good morning routine.

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit http://productivitycast.net/037 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | The Morning Routine

Ray Sidney-Smith

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | The Morning Routine

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

Why Rituals are Superior to Habits

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, PhD

A Workday in my Life With Evernote

Duolingo

Mango Languages

Raw Text Transcript | The Morning Routine

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).

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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 are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Good morning,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17

everybody. And welcome to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and I'm joined here today with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Welcome, gentlemen. Good

Unknown 0:28

morning, Ray waiting for this morning. Good

Unknown 0:31

morning, everyone. Good

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:33

to have you both. Today, we are going to be talking about routines. And specifically today in the next this in the next episode, we're talking about morning routines today. And in the next episode, we're going to be talking about evening routine. So we're going to talk about how we bookend our days to be more productive. So I wanted to start us off with the definition of routine and talk a little bit about why routines are important and how they benefit us, we're going to then go around and talk about our own morning routines, what really underlies what's the framework under underneath which we created our routines. And then we'll talk about some of the design challenges for implementing a morning routine, what what types of challenges any of us on the productivity cast team has experienced and how we overcame those challenges. Let's start off by discussing what a routine is. And I'm going to give my own take on this, and then you all can jump in. So my thought here is that many times people talk about habits and habits being something that can be a huge productivity enabler. And for me, I really fundamentally disagree in large part that habits are what we should be focusing on. Because habits are really difficult to develop habits are automatic, once they're done. And so they're, they're efficient in one way, but very ineffective. And another if you need to change in any way shape, or form or be flexible. And that's where routines fit in. And so routines are just a set of practices. It's a procedure in essence, that you that you regularly follow. So it's flexible, it's adaptive. And what we want to do with routine is, is, in essence, connect multiple types of things, which could include habits as an anchor for doing that thing, you get up every day, that's a habit, you know, you get up out of bed every day. And then you can execute a routine because it's all fundamentally tied to one another, right, it's a set of practices, you might get up and brush your teeth, you might then drink a glass of water, you know, go for a run, whatever the things are, that are connected in your morning routine, they're all fundamentally connected together by this by this procedure, well, Asian efficiency, which is a efficiency calm, and they, they, their blog has been blogging about habits and rituals for quite some time. And they talk about rituals as what I would hear the term routine. And I don't believe this is semantic, because routines are secular, they're not there's no kind of religious connotation here. Whereas rituals to has a specific religious or spiritual connotation. So I, I always shy away from using that term, because I feel like people who want to have a ritual are looking for something that's spiritual or religious Lee connected. And so it just doesn't, it doesn't click in my head to do or to have rituals in that sense, when when they're saying ritual. I'm presuming I'm just hearing me saying routine, because I think that they are different in that sense, but also in the sense that that what they talked about here, and I'm just I'm scrolling through the article here now just to pull up their pieces here. But they they in essence, are talking about routines or rituals in there saying, being specific, having the first step clarified, emotionally connecting with your ritual, understanding your motivation, I suppose. And then the fourth item being that you use, quote, unquote, sticky tactics to maintain rituals. So again, I think that rituals are something different. But routines themselves are at the heart of what probably makes a series of habits more easily attainable in a morning routine, but they're also what allows us to be able to be flexible when those things don't happen. For example, if you're trying to develop a habit and you miss some component of it One morning, that doesn't mean that you you lose it because you have the routine as structure for being able to support you going forward. I think

Francis Wade 4:49

you're I think your definition of a ritual is spot on. That is a deep question that you're getting at for the reason that were having the podcast is to this particular topic is to discuss why why set up a set of activities that become habits that turn into a ritual and I think the Why is the big sort of question that people come to this with, which is, why should what's the benefit to me from having a ritual? What purpose Am I trying to serve? And if I am curable, my purpose, then what design rules do I follow in order to achieve the result I want? And I think it takes a certain kind of presence to identify the end result of the routine ahead of time before you've achieved it, and say, Okay, let me go, let me know that I've settled on what I really want to feel and the state of being I want to accomplish, then how do I design all of the elements, but I think that, that, that knowledge of the, or the awareness or knowledge of the presence that you want to cause for yourself, take some introspection, it takes some thinking, it takes some,

I think it takes some reflection, because if you if you can look back at the past and say, okay, on Mondays, I tend to end up being frazzled on Tuesdays. And I tend to end up being calm on Wednesdays, I tend to end up being energized. And if you kind of look back and say, Well, this is all happening by accident, that's not by design, then the question is, what how do I want to end up on each given morning? And then how do I accomplish that. So I think the Y is sort of the big question that made people who talk about rituals don't they had a hint at it, but they don't help the user or the reader to define their way,

Art Gelwicks 6:54

I hear ritual and I hear routine and I look at it from a slightly more pragmatic position. To me, a ritual is something that is a series of steps that must occur in that sequence to achieve a specific end goal. It could be religious in context, it could be a recipe, I mean, it's it's that type of thing that they have to happen in that order. If they don't, you either can't achieve the end goal, or it doesn't have the same significance. So for example,

if you think about the ritual of getting up in the morning, and you get up,

you eat your breakfast, you brush your teeth, you if you change that ritual around. So now you brush your teeth, and then you have your orange juice, bad things happen, if you flip it around, and you have that same ritual, you're mentally setting yourself into a position a routine, to me are things that happen in a not necessary a specific sequence, but they happen together. So I look at like, for example, going to the gym, there may be a series of exercises that you do, and you want to do, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do them in a specific order, you might. And if you do them in a specific order, every time that becomes a ritual, because then it doesn't feel right if you don't, but if it's just a routine, it's just knocking out this group of things at a time to get to that end goal. I just, I feel that routines are a little more forgiving,

but they still need to happen, rituals are much less forgiving, and much more structured, at least that's my assessment.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 8:46

Yeah, thank you for that both of you. And, and I think it's good for us to kind of have the listeners know, where we overlap, as well as not overlap, RUN RUN concurrent with with regard to all of these kinds of words, you know, language doesn't make a difference. And as we talk about these things in the productivity community, not having a central definition of some of these things,

Commonly, we discuss how to better manage your personal productivity through the effective use of task lists. Today, we discuss a counterintuitive productivity concept that Augusto Pinaud has been using for many years--the "Do-Not-Do" List. In this way, this is another use of task lists but, in this case, it's a way to identify what you shouldn't do. In this episode of ProductivityCast, we discuss the idea of the Do-Not-Do list and how you might use it in your personal productivity system.

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit http://productivitycast.net/999 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | The Do-Not-Do List

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | The Do-Not-Do List

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

How Do I Create a Not-to-Do List? by Michael Hyatt

Levenger - Steve Leveen

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Raw Text Transcript | The Do-Not-Do List

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio).

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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, hear your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17

Welcome back everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and I am joined here today, as usual by Augusto Pinaud, Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Good morning, gentlemen. Good morning. Hey, guys, great to have you all here. Today, we are going to be talking today about something called the do-not-do list in deference to not messing up what this very vital productivity tool can be to you. I'm going to pass the microphone over to a goose. Joe okay. So do you want to explain to our audience a little bit about what the do-not-do list is and and how it functions. And then we can get into conversation about how it might be practical in a productivity system. Yes.

Augusto Pinaud 1:04

So I discovered that the idea of the do-not-do list a long, long time ago. And it was under the understanding that as you get into being more productive, getting more into productivity, getting done the most important things, there is also a set of things that you should have stopped doing that you need to pay attention is not only what we do, but he's also us important what we stopped doing because there are things that are simply not worth it, that simply should not be in your list that you need to acknowledge that you need to stop doing that doesn't matter what there are they would they, you know, like in productivity that will change from person to person. But it is important to acknowledge that they are things that may have been good to do or may have I never good to do that do that you need to stop doing. And that's how this idea of the do-not-do list came for me. So I've been practicing this list. And he has growing and under things now that I'm so conscious that I will never do again that I have even removed out of the list. But the idea was, see what things on your day to day do you do that in the name of productivity you need to stop doing or you should stop doing so

Raymond Sidney-Smith 2:29

ago. So this is likened in my mind. And we can compare and contrast this to the National Do Not Call list registry. I don't know why that comes to mind. When I think about this, maybe the do-not-do do not call but. But the idea here is that you're adding things to a list that that's filtering out in my mind, it's filtering out calls that you don't want to receive, but most likely commercial solicitations they're calling you. So by getting yourself put off to this national call. Now Do Not Call Registry, you're filtering yourself out, you're opting out of calls? Is that what you're doing in terms of the do-not-do list? Are you are you using that as a filter from from what shouldn't show up in the first place on your list? Or are you are you using this as a function for looking at it and reviewing it for saying, Okay, these are the things I'm not going to do today, this week, this month. And hopefully,

Augusto Pinaud 3:28

in some of those cases, hopefully, ever. So let me let Yes, they answer The answer, obviously, like, like a lot of these answers a little bit more complex than that. So let me see, if I can give you a couple of examples of my list that then we'll we'll give you a better idea. Okay. And I'm going to the first six, I can give you multiple, but I'm going to give you one that is controversial. Okay, years ago, my main tool since 2012 has been the iPad, that's my main machine. That's what I take every day with me and I begin receiving email on my phone before that what I learned receiving email in my one of the items on my do not do list is I do not check work email on the iPhone, okay, obviously was on the iPhone, when I discover that what I was doing was constantly opened my eyes, my iPhone, checking email, seeing if there was anything just to not do anything about it, I eventually way don't like it back to the iPad, and then do something, file organized, defined actions, whatever it was. So what I notice is, well, I've been extremely inefficient here because I'm opening this email inbox checking things three or four times when really there is nothing to do with it. So when I identify that I say you know what it is behavior me to stop so I want to put on my list I do not check work email and even when as far as the activate their work email on on my phone. And and actually remember, you and I were exchanging some information you may send it to you via email is that Oh, sorry, you need to send it to this special email, there is one special email that I only received from the phone and he's the only one to receive on the phone, you know, it's a private email, my wife have it, you have it, I think he's a total of 10 or 15 people. I don't want to receive anything on the email. That's one example that I can give you another example, I do not test productivity tools that that cannot be backed up. Okay. Part of what I do as a writer and as a coach is testing productivity tools. Because sometimes I get customers who call me and say, Hey, I will love to move to travel, what I can do about travel. And you're like, Oh, I don't know, I don't know anything about trailer. So you come and play and sometimes that plane require me to move for some days for a week. So I really understand how this tool works. And I have come to a rule for me as well for my clients. If the tool cannot be backed up. That's not a tool you want to move. Because if that tool fail, you lose everything and all the effort and all the time you have put in there. So those are two examples that come into this. They are not necessarily big things, but there are things that allow me to keep in a more consistent trend of productivity, what comes to mind is not I don't think I have a written list, but I certainly have a thought of an experience of people that I don't want to hang out with the film degree.

Francis Wade 6:35

I know that I when I when I was dating I had a sort of invisible list of characteristics that don't want to do it so

it was kind of what do not mess with this okay don't mess with that kind of person. This person has this kind of profile on match dot com doing reflect to that person don't go after the first who said that get to earn 100,000 us a year or or don't even contact me, but I hadn't thought of imaginary less than that's translated into business because I recall a project that was on and I worked with this guy who was a complete unknown to me, his behaviors were soul streams. And ultimately I was so stressed as a result of it that I went looking up, you know, definitely sinful psychopath I figured over the social and learn what gaslighting is under under the narcissist do because I couldn't figure out got it all right

all the time I did people took this list and it's a similar set of characteristics that if someone starts pending you who they are already in a project or again in the project in a proposal fees or if I'm meeting with a client for the first time and they tell you who they are my amazing do-not-do list I guess is don't mess with this particular kind of person I have a baby or in a on a project kind of basis because for whatever reason it could be on me and you know it could be that I'm just you know I just have the kind of flaws that not perfectly with a particular type of personality and the result is stressful but I do have Do not mess with that kind of person live whenever I meet someone who's a lot of matters the profile and I make sure not to take any extra step so a

Raymond Sidney-Smith 8:34

gusto does that fit into the definition of what you're talking about here what's the way in which you create different do-not-do lists so so that's my question is is is the do-not-do list one list is it a list that you then have different categories for so in this case Francis has a do-not-do list for people right do not interact or engage with these people and do you do you create separate lists for that and when when would you review that kind of list

Augusto Pinaud 9:07

Do you use paper for your productivity system? Do you use a digital system? Or, a hybrid productivity system? In this episode of ProductivityCast, we highlight the Bullet Journal, an all-paper productivity system developed by a productivity enthusiast, Ryder Carroll. It doesn't matter what you use, you can learn a thing or two about your own productivity system when you look at how others "on the other side" use their systems to get more done.

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory, please visit http://productivitycast.net/035 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | What is the Bullet Journal?

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | What is the Bullet Journal?

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

Bullet Journal

Bullet Journal - Getting Started

Example of a Bullet Journal - Ryder Carroll - Image

More artistic version - Image

Dash Plus

Bullet Journal Companion (iOS)

Evernote

MSFT OneNote

MSFT Office Lens (iOS) (Android)

Bullet Journal Resource Center

WTF is a Bullet Journal

Robert’s Rules of Order, 11th Edition

Raw Text Transcript | What is the Bullet Journal?

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast's audio).

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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 are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Welcome

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17

everybody to productivity cast episode number 35. And I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. I'm joined here today with my co-host, Augusto Pinaud. Good morning, everybody. And I'm also joined by Francis Wade, how's it going, Francis? Good. And I'm joined by Art Gelwicks. How's it going? It's going well. How about you, it's going really well. I'm excited for this episode, because we're going to let you kind of take the lead here and talk about something that you know quite a lot more about them than the rest of us here on the productivity cast team. And that is the bullet journal so I'll give you my couch bullet journaling expertise definition and and then I'm hoping that you can educate listeners on and us about more about what the bullet journal really isn't how it works. So as I understand it, the bullet journal is a complete handwriting paper and pen productivity system. The mechanism allows you to create a kind of an index at the beginning of an of a journal. And then you have your your monthly calendar and then monthly task list and you track your items that are calendar events and your task items you perpetuate v existing items forward in your journal throughout the course of the journal itself. And obviously throughout the course of time with a monthly review that allows you to transfer things from one month to the next and then from one week to the next as well is that the basics

Art Gelwicks 1:55

it's it's part of the basics. Yeah, that's that's what some of the core functionality thinks about.

But it's bullet journal is is become or has become its own, I almost want to say metaphor for productivity, I would put it almost analogous now with getting things done. And the reason why I say that is because it has developed a very rabid following around the benefits of it. Now, let me backtrack a little bit and explain you are absolutely right on target. The bullet journal process was created for all intents and purposes as it stands by a product designer in New York named writer, Carol. And if you have an opportunity, I highly recommend you go up to his website, bullet journal. com has some great background on it. And the great baseline understanding of the principles of what bullet journaling is about. But in a nutshell, it starts off has an analog Well, that's how it was originally designed paper and pen,

the idea is to capture everything that's going on. And we all know, with all the different systems that we utilize, whether it's GTD, whether it's to do us whether it's paper, whether whatever, that one of the core principles of productivity is capture

the

bullet journaling system encourages you to do that. And it mitigates one of the biggest weaknesses of analog systems, which is not only capturing things, but tracking things to execution, being able to follow them through and act on them and know what's been addressed, what hasn't and what state it's at.

So if you think about something at the most basic, if you want to understand how a bullet journal works, you can do this little exercise, take a piece of paper, take a pen,

write a note down on the on the paper, just one line about something that needs to be done

in front of that line draw small circle, you have now created the first step of your bullet journal. Because that little circle now indicates to you that that is a thing that you need to do. It's like the classic to do checkbox.

But this is where we start to scale it up.

Now, you start to collect lots of those things. If we think about just going through the course of a day, and we're capturing all these different things we have rattling through our head. Well, some of those lines, we write down our actionable items, they would get circles next to them. Other items aren't actionable, but we have to remember them. So in those cases, maybe we put a dot next to it indicates it's a note. But there's nothing we really need to do with it.

Maybe it's an actionable item that we don't get to. So we're going to maybe draw a little arrow in front of it, that indicates that it carries forward to another day. So you can see, instead of just writing stuff down on our legal pads, like we do during meetings, we can apply this bullet journal concept to start to capture what we're supposed to do with these items. Now, this is where we continue to scale this up. Because now instead of having just this massive list of everything going on in the day, now, we start to create pages within our journal to deal with different topic areas could be home activities, could be work activities could be a particular project. But the technique is always the same. That consistency of notation, and even writer Carol says it himself flat out on his website, there is no correct way to do this. There is no standard structure that you must follow you design this the way work that works best for you. I have a variant that I use, because I use graph paper a lot. That's completely different to the structures. But it works great for me.

So as we start to build these lists and structures together, you can immediately see again, another place where analog falls down. How do I know what's where if I have them on separate sheets of paper, I have a list here, I have a list there. I have a list there. But if it's all in one bound journal, which is one of the operating pieces of this, how do I know what page it's on? How do I know what list is where. And that's where you introduce a table of contents, either at the beginning or at the end. So as you add new lists into your bullet journal, you add those pages into your table of contents. And you can then quickly reference from one section to the other. Now, that being said, it sounds fairly basic, and it is very basic. I honestly, anybody can sit down in about a half hour start to do bullet journaling. If they do it that way. I would say they probably have about two weeks of effective time and bullet journaling before they start to run square into all the limitations of things like, hey, this thing does remind me what to do, how do I remember what has to be done. And that's one of the I have to say is one of the limitations of it, you have to look at it all the time. It is analog, it's up to you to provide the smarts in the interactivity.

Augusto Pinaud 7:07

There is a writer called Patrick grown and he began talking about something he called a Dodge plus system that I understood when I moved to the wall, the journal that the bullet journal was, in a way, a better way to do that dodge PA system it is it allows to grow more My problem was delivered. There's two big limitations for me in particular one is my handwriting I have an awful when writing my handwriting is so poorly that while I was in college, I had more than one class where teachers preferred to bring their personal laptop for me to type their my test done for me to hand write test, that's how great my hand right and he's so that that's where my first problem was a bullet journal comes my character rated, but I can read it ever again. So, you know, ways like a mystery productivity. And let's hope web gets done. Not great. By the way. My second problem comes exactly on what art was coming. That was a part of the reminders, you know, one i'm a i'm an omni focus guy. And I love the fact that I can set reminders by location by time at by many other thing Plus, I can look at the things depending but I don't want to go and look into a folder of things and try to find the stuff that I need to be remember of. The other thing is, I think this is for a person who requires dot attention, who, you know, basically what he's out of mind is out of sight out of mine, I think it may be even better than than a different system. That said,

This week, we discuss on ProductivityCast the importance of productivity habits and/or routines. What are your best productivity habits/routines? And, we ask that of each of the ProductivityCast teammates. Spend some time thinking this week about how you can level up your productive habits and/or routines. And, let us know about them in the comments!

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory, please visit http://productivitycast.net/034 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | Productivity Habits/Routines

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | Productivity Habits/Routines

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

Tiny Habits program (BJ Fogg, PhD)

Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise

RescueTime

Todoist

Persistent starting (The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play by Neil Fiore, PhD)

IFTTT

Evernote

Instapaper

Raw Text Transcript | Productivity Habits/Routines

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio).

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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 are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17

Welcome back everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and I'm joined here today as always with Augusto Pinaud and I have with me Art Gelwicks and Francis Wade. Today we're going to be discussing one of my favorite topics to discuss, which is habits and routines and why you should have a habit or routine and what some of the criteria are for a good productivity habit, and a routine. And then what I thought would be really fun is for us all to go round robin and choose our what we believe is our best productivity habit or routine and, and then we can kind of each discuss with one another why we've chosen that as our best habit or routine. So let's start off with what any of us believe are maybe a criterion or criteria for having a productivity habit, and or routine. And I'll just get started with this particular in my particular flavor of how habits are developed. I really believe that habits are developed through the stringing of existing habits. So I really do believe that productive routines are the way in which you establish new habits, let me make this or sensical for everybody. So if you think about starting a habit, everybody talks about how habit development is very difficult, it's true. And you have people like Stephen guys, and BJ Fogg, who have talked at length about how to reduce the habit size to really help you get started. I think those are really great techniques, tactics. But as a strategy on the whole, I really do believe that the routine the stringing of habits to one another that are already existing is the way that you really develop stronger habits. So all of these tactics involved on top of the strategy of using an existing routine, I think, is really, really powerful. So that's my big thing is like, if you want to, you know, drink more water, well, choose points in your day, when you naturally are going to already be walking by the water cooler, and or say, Okay, before I leave for lunch, I'm drinking a glass of water. Or when I get back from lunch, I drink a glass of water, now you have something that's natural anchoring your day, it's already happening. So that's the trigger for you to be able to do that next thing. And then you can make it a tiny habit, or a mini habit, or whatever you want to, in terms of encouraging yourself to make that part of your routine. But I think it's the I think it's the routine. It's the well worn path and your existence that makes it easier for everybody to be able to sort of continue with the role.

Augusto Pinaud 3:05

I'm a big proponent of habits. And, and I agree with you, it is important to identify transition point as places where you can help with the habits and where you can do things. If you do not, don't walk necessarily true to that water cooler talking about water. Well, what are the transition points that you normally do that can help you. So for example, well, you know what, I tend to walk out of the office at noon perfect then before that. And if you take lunch pretty much at the same time, you know, in a semi regular way, then make sure before you walk half a glass of water, or fill up the water when you came back in. I've been saying, for example, for years, for the weekly review,

I recommend people to go outside of their place. So in my particular case, I go to a coffee shop, okay, and get a coffee that I normally drink, espresso, no milk. And when I get to the coffee shop for weekly review, I get a latte, okay. And the reason is, is something completely different than my traditional routine, but at the same time acts as a trigger, that's something different needs to happen. And those kinds of things. As soon as I do that, over time, my brain has clicked to say, Oh, we are going to do thinking right now we're going to dip think we're going to review what we have been doing. And all those little things really help to make those things more powerful.

Francis Wade 4:50

Well, what makes for a great habit in my sort of day to day practice is that it's a an activity that doesn't get triggered or doesn't, doesn't get started out by an external event. It's something that happens from inside of me, like, for example, getting feeling hungry, and then having lunch. So a good habit for me that doesn't require outside and outside remainder. It's something that's in my experience in my control, either in my psyche or in my physiology, but it's something related to my internal state. And that triggers the activity, then once the activity gets going, it sort of has this effortless feel to it, that once once I once a trigger don't start, it's easy to execute. It feels familiar, it doesn't require a lot of attention. It's as if my mind could almost go to sleep. And they're my body or my brain, or my my tongue, or whatever it is that's engaged in the habit just keeps going and going and going without any any input of extra energy.

Art Gelwicks 5:57

Well, for me, habits, probably one of the hardest things to create, because I have a tendency to break them very quickly, they develop on their own. So for example, I have a morning habit of doing a specific sequence of steps each morning, once I arrive at the client site. And if I don't do those are, if I don't have the opportunity to do those, everything feels off kilter. It it's a level set, for all intents and purposes for me to to know that, okay, this is the, the jumping off point into the day. And if, if I could equate it to something, if you've ever watched like a swimming race, it's that series of steps. And they, they step up onto the platform, they stretched it, they all basically, they do the same thing, and then they hit the water, and then they swim. So for me, that's, that's what this has to be, I just find that I can't force myself to develop one, they, it just kind of develops on its own. If it's working. If it's not working, it falls apart and goes away.

Unknown 6:57

Great,

Raymond Sidney-Smith 6:59

great. Those all great criteria for building productivity habits and routines. And so I'd like to now go around and for us to each choose kind of our favorite are what we consider our best productivity habit or routine and, and why you while you use that, why that routine works for you, you know, and maybe why you believe that routine has helped you be more productive. And so I'm going to pick on you first to gusto Okay, so what's your favorite, what's the best habit or routine you've invested into your or implemented into your productivity system, and, and how is it benefited you,

Augusto Pinaud 7:41

you know, for for many years I've been I've been talking about this the best habit I have implement, or one of the best if not, is the use of two browsers. And why I have four year says that one should work on a browser on play on a different one. So for example, if you do work, do the work on Chrome, and then you go and do personal research or play in or whatever you do on the web on safari, or Firefox. What that had allow me is to Kip when I'm working, you know, completely focus on work, people don't notice how quick they open another tab, and then they start, you know, fooling around on the web 45 minutes happened, and you were will what I just did on the last hour, well, do you really work 15 minutes and full around the other 15, the other 45 when you separate the browser and you only do work corner browser and then do only the rest of the things you're doing the web on another one, what allows you to do is to keep yourself a lot more focus. And you tend to be a lot more efficient than when you do everything of the same browser.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 8:59

So good. So how did you how did you get yourself a tuned to using the two different browsers because it is so easy to just open a new tab I for one, and I'm interested in doing this,

We get up every day, and we walk out of the house with the tools we need to get through the day. Do you stop and think about what it is that you carry, and why? Are there things that could help you? Are you carrying items that you don’t need? In this episode of ProductivityCast, the team discusses their everyday carry for personal productivity.

(If you’re reading this in a podcast directory, please visit http://productivitycast.net/033 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | Everyday Carry, Productivity Edition

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | Everyday Carry, Productivity Edition

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

Augusto

Briggs & Riley Baseline Rolling Cabin Bag

iPad

Apple AirPods

Art

Motorola Moto Z2 Force

Fieldnotes notebook

Leatherman multi-function tool

Todoist

Chromebook

Midori’s Traveler’s Black Leather notebook

Ray

SIM tool

Mini multi-function tool with belt holder (Leatherman)

Leather pen holder with two pens

Cole Haan Men's Credit Card Holder

Micro-USB to USB-C adapter

Lesoom Bluetooth headset

WysiWipes Multi-Purpose Wipes (one to two tablets)

Blistex medicated mint lip balm

Business card holder

Episode 10 - The Most Productivity Smartphone

Alton Brown

Raw Text Transcript | Everyday Carry, Productivity Edition

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio).

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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 are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:22

productivity cast Episode 33. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith and I'm joined here today with Augusto Pinaud, Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks, we are going to do something, I think rather interesting today, something that has become sort of an internet sensation. In a way, it's the idea of what's called an everyday carry. And we're putting a little bit of a twist on it today. But I wanted to explain a little bit what the everyday carry is. And I think art might be able to explain this a little better than me. So I'm going to try and then I'm going to turn it over to you art and you can give a little more. And then what we're going to do is actually talk about it from a productivity perspective. So the everyday carry in my understanding is basically the things that you carry on your person, or maybe carrying a laptop bag and or suitcase, a briefcase or something like that backpack to work and what those things are that you carry every day. And, you know, just to sort of get through the day. And obviously, that can include a wallet and keys and those kinds of things. But more from our perspective, what's going to help you be more productive art to like, catch the essence of it? Can you explain a little bit more sincere, much more

Art Gelwicks 1:23

familiar with this than I am? Yeah, the I basically live out of my backpack. So my everyday carry is on my back. But if you think about it, as it's the stuff in your pockets, it's the stuff within immediate perimeter to you that you really wouldn't leave the house without, you feel unprepared. Without and expanded into the digital space. I like to think about it. Like if you get a new device. Let's say you buy a new iPhone or you buy a new Android phone, what are the productivity apps, you immediately load? What are the first ones that you put on there that you know that if you don't have those, you're just not ready for what's going on that to me. That's what every day carry is the things that make you feel not only successful and make you successful, but they make you feel comfortable in your daily activities.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 2:11

Thank you for that. I think I think this is going to be a really fun and interesting episode for us all to kind of talk about the various things that we use so I am going to turn it over to a goose to to start us off a gusto Would you like to cover your everyday carry, and then all of us are just going to inject and ask oddball questions about why you carry those things. So a goose Joe, take it away. Good morning, everybody.

Augusto Pinaud 2:39

So I shoot a star. In my case, with a little bit of history in the sense that I might everyday carrier has been strength and significantly since around 2006, 2006.

I was traveling around 250,000 miles a year. And basically my bag was an hour, 60 pound bag was two laptops, printers, Kenner an incredible amount of useful things that people may call junk in 2011, when the iPad came, I wouldn't quickly and saw the possibilities of reduced that 60 pound bag to an iPad with a keyboard. No, it was not as romantic as it just sounded took a little bit longer. But since 2012, I mean mostly I but only and that has changed my carry bags, even to the point that I now carry instead of a big bag, a small one that basically feed the iPad on a couple more things. And if I need for any reason to carry a laptop, or or an extra additional gear, I go and get a second pack. And what that allows me to do is to keep my everyday carry super alive.

The other change that has happened in my everyday carry was the introduction of the iPad Pro with the Apple Pencil I had try every stylus that has come out to see if I could do any kind of handwriting more specifically to see if I can live in a paper that I carry for no other reason that paper is heavy. I need Watson on till the Apple Pencil that I was finally being able to get something that I can do my awful handwriting on and then I can revisit eliminating really the need for me to having to carry a piece of paper that make my everyday carrier a lot heavier. My everyday carrier has an iPad Pro a pencil and on top of that I carry some Advil

Raymond Sidney-Smith 4:56

that's it. I think it's really interesting how the program of going from quite a lot of stuff being carried to being less stuff that you carry because of the fact that life circumstances have changed, right. So your productivity system the lesson here is that your productivity system needs to be adaptive and flexible to the changing nature of life and work he is but he but if you think about it, there is also an evolution of where the technology has come you know I still I still have

Augusto Pinaud 5:29

you know a possibility with the scanner I can now sign documents on the iPad they were although things that were impossible you know years ago I I remember being traveling and then needed to print in a hotel room and that's part of the reason I carry a printer sign a document is Kenneth bikes and you can email that then Okay, that he was really challenging I at the time there was really not an easy way to do that on a piece See, and even when I moved to the mag later on, it wasn't easy to do that. So you needed to print to sign to rescan now you can do all that directly on the iPad or if you get the paper document just take the images and go on so also technology has has evolved you know the things that I can do on on my iPad today I didn't even dream that were some of them possible in in 2012 so I'm on as we discussed on a previous episode when I said the eye but that's because that the device I use but doesn't matter if you go for for an Android tablet is exactly the same thing you know you will be able to do things that simply five eight years ago were you were not even a possibility that makes all those devices a lot more powerful and a lot more accessible when we discuss the I the iPhone vs Android Apple iOS versus Android you know my when it when we did the research for that episode My advice for people when when people come and ask me about tablets has changed to the point that I now ask what is your boys you use was your mobile device and that he said always you should get on your tablet so if your phone is ons or make sure you get an Android tablet on if it's an iPhone to get an iPad but don't mix and match because it makes them mad it's going to make you less efficient but I think they everyday carrier form for must be bull has come a lot lighter just because the technology has evolved in an incredibly way that simply was impossible before Francis tell us a little bit about your everyday carry for productivity purposes.

Francis Wade 8:01

I think I had a similar evolution to the one that was to described I used to carry on one of those I'm sort of carry on with wheels that's made for like a mini office so you could put a laptop in there a bunch of files and it has a sort of a low profile but along Hatton handle I don't know what that's called anymore because I don't see too much of them but I had everything in it that I had my laptop I had files and I had all sorts of other do does that I thought were really important and it wasn't quite 60 pounds but it was it was heavy you know it was something I didn't want to have to live too often put an overhead compartment but that's about it no when I travel I I carry a very small backpack and it keeps my laptop and I think I carry just about the basics I carry a charger.

In this cast, we tackle the questions:

What is rejuvenating, re-charging, and rebooting your personal productivity system? And, what reasons might lead you to need a reboot of your personal productivity system?

What are existing methods you know of or have tried for rejuvenating your productivity?

What are some hurdles to be mindful of when doing a rejuvenation/recharge/reboot of your system(s)?

The ProductivityCast team discusses how they view and approach productivity rejuvenation and overcome obstacles to having a well-maintained personal productivity system. Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast | Rejuvenating Your Personal Productivity System

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Show Notes | Rejuvenating Your Personal Productivity System

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

Dunning–Kruger effect

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie

Daily Questions - Marshall Goldsmith

https://medium.com/@fwade/the-evergreen-guide-to-choosing-your-next-task-management-app-5e4ad21212af

https://medium.com/@fwade/3-superpowers-to-survive-improvement-overload-53a343e695e3

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/how-one-couple-saved-their-marriage-asking-each-other-simple-ncna833266

http://scheduleu.org//wp-content/uploads/sites/31/files/sites/5/2016/12/Slide1.jpg - graphic of time management system development from childhood

http://scheduleu.org//wp-content/uploads/sites/31/files/sites/5/2018/01/errors-in-execution.jpg - graphic of symptoms

2nd edition of Perfect Time-Based Productivity - http://perfect.mytimedesign.com

Raw Text Transcript | Rejuvenating Your Personal Productivity System

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors.

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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 are your hosts, Tracy Smith, and a goose open out with Francis Wade and our gal wicks.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17

Hello, and welcome back everybody to Episode and of productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm recently Smith and I'm joined here with my co host Augusta burnout. And Francis weight is joining us today we are going to be talking about the concept of rejuvenating, recharging. rebooting the productivity system. And so what we're going to do today is really talk about it in three parts. One is what and how do we define the concept of rejuvenating, recharging. rebooting what have you and what might lead a person to go ahead and do that, why you might want to refresh your productivity system. And there's a good reason why you might decide that you know, your system, something about it isn't quite right. And this is an opportunity to kick the tires and make the rest of your year really be on solid infrastructure. So we're going to talk about that, then we're going to segue into what are some existing methodologies that we either know of, or have tried in rejuvenating a system. And then finally, talking about some of the hurdles, one might come into contact with and experience as you try to rejuvenate your system. And therefore, hopefully, we'll be able to guide you around some of those things circumnavigate them, so that you don't experience them as you try to rejuvenate if you do attempt such process. So let's start off with what is the concept of recharging. rebooting? How do you define that idea, and I'm going to throw this out to you a Cousteau. Thank you.

Augusto Pinaud 2:00

Well, you know, the interesting thing was printed, juvenile eating is we tend to think that because we found a solution or on a certain instant, our system that can work for us that working things are going to permanently continue on that way. And the system that we have will work forever.

The reality is that for a system to work, there is a lot of variables that play a factor into keeping this things moving, you know, being the obvious ones are volume, but that there are others like how you are feeling where you are, how much traveling, have you doing, how are yous are you to travel, and how much things are changing on your surroundings that are also going to affect how effective that system is. And once in a while, you need to come and clean the house, you know, clean rejuvenate is no other than clean all those mushy things that make your system less effective. There are many ideas that you can do. And later on, I will share one of those that I do often when I work with people I recommend because it helps revenue germinating your system. I need help getting some of that has come out of it out of there.

Francis Wade 3:34

I have a radical view, I think, which is that there's only a small percentage of people who care about rejuvenating maybe a two to i of the population. If that many who are sort of your productivity geeks like we are. But I think most people aren't interested in rejuvenation, they kind of go along and go along, they noticed some unwanted symptoms. And then they ignore them. For the most part, they go along, go along and go along and they it gets worse. And they ignore it some more. And they go along, go along. And eventually, they only decide to make changes when they problem becomes a cute arose when they start suffering in a major way. And they can't possibly bear it anymore. So I was most, years old. And I was next door playing with some friends. You know, having a good time playing football, soccer, I totally forgot that it was time to leave to go to a big event to see my father receive the biggest award. He had ever gotten in his life. Up to that point. And that time I got home, I was faced with a locked up house car was gone. No sign of life.

So I think I was young enough to decide. I need to do something differently. And I think that's what people don't do anything with their productivity system. Because it. It's too hard to, to change. There's too many choices. Too many know, we have too many options. The only do so when there's some critical event or some long term suffering becomes sort of acute, I think most people don't don't want to do anything.

Raymond Sidney-Smith 5:10

And they try to put up as long as possible. And then when they do something, sort of, when they have, I think they're sort of two camps of people in terms of extremes. And those are probably the productivity geeks, you were talking about. Which are those folks who pay attention, or at least are aware of the fact that there's the space between doing and, and planning, which is that maintenance area. And, and sometimes that requires this kind of rejuvenation, this kind of recharging kicking the tires, so to speak, then there are the other folks who just really don't care. And they I'm presuming they're okay with it, the fact that things pile up and then eventually, it becomes refuse or fires are lit. And there's a chaos and commotion and sort of jumping into action. A lot of things get done, maybe not in the best possible way. But they they resolve themselves in some way, shape, or form, maybe worse for wear. And then they move on to the next blank slate. Now, because that big chunk of whatever it is, is gone. And now they can approach the next part of their world. And so in a, in a kind of a way that is burning down the house because he didn't want to move. So for me, I genuinely believe in the concept that rejuvenation and, and the concept of renewal should be happening on a on a very regular basis as opposed to something that's just sort of a one off. So I really believe in in incremental ism as relates to renewal of rejuvenation. But I do recognize that sometimes there's a really great opportunity to just decide what is it that can be really brought up to a much better state of being. And I think we'll talk a little bit about that today. And, and just so that we're all in the same same page, you know, rejuvenation is, is a really a more of a scientific term in my mind, you know, the idea of making oneself younger, we're using this here, obviously, to talk about the idea of bringing your productivity system up to either the standard which you have its head, set it in the past, right, for some reason, the system isn't operating at full potential that you had had it set at one point in the past for the future. And or you want to bring it up to a new level, right, you want it to do more for you than it had been doing in the past. So maybe you didn't have a reading list, and you know, that you now have a lot of reading that needs to be done. And you need to, to organize and manage that functionality. Well, that would be something that I would consider a rejuvenation of the system, right, you're looking at adding a new component to your personal productivity system. In order to be able to bring it up to a new level, it's now going to help you manage your reading. And that means you may need either just paper and pen to track it on paper. Or you might decide a digital option. But the point is, is that you're bringing your system up to a new level. And in a way that's a recharge or reboot in my mind as well. Do you, do you guys agree or disagree with that,

Francis Wade 8:18

I think, I think people are are aware of

the because the example you gave us pretty simple, I think people are a lot of people are no aware that the the changes that are available to them are complex. So there's a sort of a growing, understanding that it's, it's sure there's simple stuff you can do. But a lot of it is is is very, very tricky.

In our last cast, we discussed the power of active tracking for greater productivity. If not, it’s highly recommended you go back and listen to that cast first. You will learn about empowered choice and for that alone, the previous cast is worthwhile. Today on this cast, we discuss the importance of taking charge of the passive data being collected about you already and learning to track data that you can use productively without having to do all the work. In contrast to our active tracking discussion, we delve into the world of ambient data ripe for the picking, if you know the right ways to do so. Also, the pitfalls, perils, and opportunities that abound with passive productivity/wellness data tracking. Pull up a seat and join us for this important and timely discussion on passive tracking for productivity.

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes

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

Some recommended readings, even though we didn’t discuss these in the recording itself:

The Perils of Time Tracking

Productivity and Continuous Improvement - Measurement (and RescueTime) makes it happen, both Personally and at Work

If You’re Not Collecting Productivity Data, You’ll Never Succeed at Work

Items we discussed in the recording:

ManicTime

Statistics

Khan Academy - Statistics and Probabilities

Freshbooks

Google Fit

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Quantified Self

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler

Exist

Instant

Gyroscope (mobile)

Time Doctor

WorkPuls

Worksnaps

RescueTime

ProcrastiTracker (OSS for Windows)

Workrave (RSI prevention but helps passively track your mouse/keyboard activity, free, Windows)

Upwork

Other notables we didn’t mention in this cast:

http://www.chronosmonitor.com/

https://motivateclock.org/en/features/

https://galapag.us/

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors.

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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 productivitycast

the weekly show about all things productivity here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Welcome back everybody to productivity cast the weekly show about all things productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. I'm here with Augusto Pinaud, Francis Wade, and Art Gelwicks. Last cast we discussed the concept and the power of active tracking and looking at that data in order to to increase productivity and and so if you have not listened to the last cast. I highly recommend that you go back and you listen to that one before you listen to this one, but generally we talked about the idea of empowered choice and that means taking the information that you have and then making in that informed choice going forward. So today I'd like us to discuss the importance of taking charge of passive data that is data that's being collected about you already. It's just being picked up from ambient the ambient environment in which you operate and the importance of actively tracking data passively that is being able to get data tracked around you and going forward and doing that. So today we're going to we're going to talk about the world of ambient data, you know, which I believe is really ripe for picking if you and and really it's all about knowing the right ways to do so some of the pitfalls perils and opportunities that are around you. When it comes to passive data collection and tracking. So let's let's dive into this. I really want to discuss sort of a couple of things here what passive tracking is to you all to to to to us here on productivity cast and why you would track your data passively and again I'll probably make this argument several times, but the data is already being collected about you. You just don't know it yet. And then we'll talk about what other data you can track passively through other means what you should track what you should pay attention to what you shouldn't pay attention to and some ways in which you can harness that data, whether that be through apps or other kinds of devices. The technology is is certainly you know wide reaching today in terms of wellness and fitness applications and health applications to to all other kinds of passive tracking data. So let's let's start off with what is passive tracking. I mean, I kind of gave a compare and contrast there with regard to it being not active tracking, but I know that we had a little dialogue before we were recording about the itself so Augusto Do you want to start us off with how do you see the difference between active and passive tracking

the difference between the active and the passive is the active will require you to do some kind of effort. Well, the passive their electronic device or the system will track it for you without you needed to do anything. So last week I was talking about how impressed I was with my Apple Watch, and the tracking and I can give a perfect example inside of the watch. I said that I have been working a standing up for many, many years and now the watch out automatically track how many hours I am standing up or how many times in an hour. Stand up on that it does it automatically without me doing anything to just give me a report at the end of the day, but exercise, for example, is something that I need to tell so standing up is passive watch will do it with or without all that I need to do is where the watch the active will be for example when I want to register that I'm doing some kind of exercise so I need to go open a certain application and tell them. Okay. From this moment on I will be riding the bike or I will be walking or I will read run or will be swimming. So the difference will be how much interaction do require in order to track to to certain activity. I use a program that

tracks my time. It's called manic time. I think it's mentioned in the show notes and it's one that I set up and it tracks all of my basically my keystrokes and what I use my computer to do out call that passive, to some degree, even though I set it up. But the fact is I have to go in each week and actually assemble a full record of my time because I've been tracking my time for for years because my time doesn't track time. For example, when I'm in a meeting that doesn't involve my computer or when I'm on the road or when I'm doing some reading that's offline or away from my laptop so I have to supplement it. So there's some there's some active and passive that I have to do tracking I have to do in order to create an accurate record of my my week but that's the one that I that I use the most that question. And what do I use it for and that's that's as appropriate get into the next, I believe.

Okay. The difference for me between active and passive tracking is actually pretty simple. It's a matter of does whatever I'm tracking require me to remember to push a button. If it's active obviously I need to make a conscious effort to start and stop the tracking process if it's passive. I don't have to think about it, it's just going to happen and somewhere in the middle there are the actively passive tracking things where I start something tracking, but it will keep tracking and change state depending on what the state changes. So if I bucket this stuff active tracking is like a time tracking tool, something like in fresh books for example where I go in and say this is where I'm starting to work this is what I'm stopping to work done on the other end of the scale something that's completely passive maybe location tracking within Google to identify where I've gone within different places in the middle is things like my fitness tracker like a gusto was talking about where I say it's always kind of tracking things like my pulse rate and activity level for walking around, but if I'm exercising I push a button to started tracking the different types of exercises that I'm doing. So for me, there's kind of three areas, but it's still boils down to. Did I remember to push the button or not.

Yeah, and I think there's a very fine line between mincing active versus passive tracking and I think it's important to just recognize that there is, as you said, are a kind of Active Passive tracking and then a passive tracking. Either way, the, the reality is is that if you're not recording the data yourself and doing the measurements. I consider that passive, but I can see how because you have to push a button in order to start say a timer or start an application in order to start tracking what you're doing in terms of time or movement or otherwise you might consider some of that activity. It kind of harkens to my, you know what, what, how, how short should the next action be in sort of GTD you're getting things done lingo people start to get very manic about how much granularity you know is pick up a pencil, the appropriate next action for writing a book or drawing a picture when you know picking up a pencil really doesn't trigger you know you to actually do that thing you know becomes a little bit too too granular on some level that I think it's just a matter of is the data is the data being collected without you having to track all of the data points right and and i think that's important for everybody to just take heart to so I wanted to, I wanted to talk about a little bit about why you would track data passively and and some of the reasons behind

tracking this data and and how you can actually use it right.

You can track almost any kind of data and then review and reflect on that data to make informed decisions about your productive future. Most people, however, do not. Movements, like that of Quantified Self, whose tagline is “self-knowledge through numbers,” aim to help individuals track data to improve their lives in whatever way they choose. In this cast, the ProductivityCast team looks at the state of the world through the lens of active tracking (versus passive tracking, which we’ll cover in the next cast). We will talk about what active tracking is, how to be a productivity enthusiast with empowered choice, why and what to track, and how to do so with good ol’ pen and paper, or with the latest digital technologies. You don’t want to miss this conversation, so queue us up and listen as we discuss this prime topic of this hyperconnected time and Internet (of Things) Age.

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes

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

Quantified Self (DC Quantified Self)

Google Keep

Don’t Break the Chain

RemindMe

LifeSum

Goodnotes

Evernote / Penultimate

Eli Finkel’s Relationship/Marriage talk, in which he discusses a Gratitude Journal

GitHub

One Way to Overcome a Limit of the Quantified Self - Using Notifications

Becoming like the elite 11% who get all their tasks done each day Part 1

Can you be productive in 40 hours?

OmniTrack - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRIuENNRjEM

Toggl

Habitica - (Contact Ray if you want to join the GTD Party)

GTD Productivity System in Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel template and tutorial

LoseIt

MyFitnessPal

BulletProof Coffee

MapMyRun

Google Fit

Apple Health

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio).

Read More

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. Welcome everybody to productivity cast the weekly show about all things productivity. I'm particularly excited about our discussion, but this episode and next episode and and there's a very good reason why you see everyone identifies their overall satisfaction and fulfillment with their day differently, but there's no doubt that whether the factor or factors, by which we define our productivity is emotional or logical. It's all based on data, whether that data is correct incorrect positive or negative doesn't really matter. Today, thanks to technology and and greater awareness of this more people than ever are tracking all kinds of data.

about themselves and then using that data to make informed decisions about their productive futures. However, I think most people. Sadly, don't purposefully track that data around areas they like to improve and obviously I think they should movements like that of quantified self, which I'll describe in more detail and a bit their tagline is self knowledge through numbers and aims to help individuals track data to improve their lives in whatever way they choose. So we're going to have a conversation today about the state of the world through the lens of active tracking versus passive tracking which will cover in next week's cast, we're going to talk about what active tracking is how to be a productivity and disease through empowered choice. This is kind of a term of art. I've I've chosen to use empowered choice why and what to track and how to do so analog digital and or through a hybrid approach.

And those of us here on the recording each have our own way of doing that. I think it would be really a great discussion around that as well. So I'd like to start off with a definition of active tracking and why track data for greater productivity at all you know what's the what's the purpose. What's the utility of that. So I'm gonna get started with just just my own definition of active tracking and then I'd like to hear your thoughts gentlemen on the idea and so I'm going to start off with, with just a couple of items that I think are points of or elements of the description or definition of active tracking, which is to say that active tracking is the process of being able to purposefully capture data and then review and or reflect upon that data in order to make impact.

movements in your life. And that's pretty much the extent on both ends of it right for me in terms of active tracking that is it's purposeful and that you're going to review and reflect upon that data in order to make forward progress on some area in your life, not necessarily on the definition i

i agree on the definition is I think that is tension that I will make your definition is that

this active data that we are collecting could be us not only for personal but also to professional perspective and and the reason I will make the distinction is because the analysis and the use of both are completely different.

The professional tend to have more dollars assigns or attach to it. While the personal it goes.

into other things as well being as healthy as energy as vitality and other elements so that even that is still the same

objective of quantified self your yourself it's look from a really completely different perspective. Right. So, so for listeners who may not know, I wanted to actually talk a little bit about quantified self and then I'm happy to respond to your thought there Cousteau because I think it's salient so quantified self or what some people have called Life logging is the idea of using numbers right using data collection and that includes active and passive collection of data about one's self in order to make awareness, a regular part of your life. That is the awareness of different parts of your life, whether that be health and wellness, whether that be.

productivity, whether that be any number of other particular components of one's life being able to gain greater self knowledge through numbers as its as its mission or tagline states is the whole purpose and movement of quantified self and so this was a. This was something that two gentlemen based out of San Francisco. They started as a monthly I think meetup or something like that and it has grown into quite a substantial global movement as a disclaimer. I'm actually one of the CO organizers of the DC quantified self meetup. And it's nearly 1000 members strong in Washington, DC. And so we have statisticians and you know data scientists and all kinds of people who come together as well as enthusiasts, you know, data science enthusiasts and quantified self enthusiasts who come together every month to discuss these various ways in which people are using their data to become better and that includes people who who are tracking their children's.

activities to tracking heart rate to identify health, you know, many, many areas of your life that can be tracked and actually just as an aside, most recently we had a professor come to the University of Maryland for one of our meetups and she talked about an application called Omni track that she's developed that she created and it allows her to do active tracking she can go in there and identify things that she's working on and then purposefully put that information in as she makes progress on them. And so there are many, many different areas where this is really, really powerful. And I think you're right at gusto there is there's two sides of this right how do I improve my personal life and then how do I improve the professional life. And I think I think we can have a thoughtful discussion around that as well. I do want to make one more point which is to say that I'm a huge proponent of what I called an.

What I call empowered choice and I'm sure that this comes up in stoicism or somewhere else in in philosophy before me, but it's just a term of art that i've you know taken hold of which is this idea that today more than any other time in history. We must I think it's an imperative. We must take the reins in terms of the data that surrounds us and through that sort of, you know, taking control of that data we're allowed to then make good choices empowered choices right we're being imbued with the with the information to make good choices, whether they be good choices or bad choices, but we're we're imbued with the ability to make choices that we otherwise wouldn't be able to make without that information and I think it's really important. I think it touches almost every area of our life from public policy to personal and professional effect. Yeah, sure. I'll jump in. I I've always been a tracker. I guess of some kind.

I used to track my times time I spent studying for my exams. When I was in high school,

so I had, you know, had a schedule and I take off how closely. I could stick to it and this is when I was about 15 or 16, years old, so I've always I've loved the idea of tracking and as I got a bit older, I guess I got a little more sophisticated that graphs and different ways to show data so I could understand how well I'm doing it different things. This is totally tied in with the fact that I'm an industrial engineer operations researcher so right in line with my training but what's great No,

As we discussed email in the last episode, email management of multiple accounts has its positives and negatives. All of us, Augusto, Art, Francis and I have multiple email accounts. And, to be honest, I don’t know many people who have only one solitary email account. But, whether you have one inbox, or 10 inboxes, one methodology that’s cropped up and lingered for nearly two decades is the idea of Inbox Zero. In this cast, we discuss the history of Inbox Zero (with the pros and cons), some related concepts that I’ve theorized over the years (namely my Inbox One and Tab Zero methods, the former of which I hinted at in the last cast), and get feedback and permutations from the ProductivityCast team. We close with some thoughts on email message processing. Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9UjeTMb3Yk

“Inbox Zero” (GoogleTechTalks) by Merlin Mann

Getting Things Done by David Allen

43 Folders Series: Inbox Zero (also by Merlin Mann)

Forget ‘Inbox Zero’: Your empty email account means nothing

Evernote

Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 (ScanSnap Cloud)

Ray’s Web browser corollary to Inbox Zero, Tab Zero

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio).

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are you ready to manage your work and

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personal world better to live a

3

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fulfilling productive life then you've

4

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come to the right place

5

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productivity cast the weekly show about

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all things productivity here are your

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hosts ray Sydney Smith and Augusto

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pronounces weight and art Galax welcome

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everybody to productivity cast episode 0

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to 9 episode 29 inbox zero inbox 1 and

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processing email messages we are going

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to be talking about the all-encompassing

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inbox and how to deal with your inbox

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and so I wanted to lead off because as

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we discussed email in the last episode

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email management of multiple accounts

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has its positives and negatives all of

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us Augusto art Francis and I have

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multiple email accounts and to be honest

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I don't know how many people who have

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only one single solitary email account

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but whether you have one inbox or 10

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inboxes one methodology that's cropped

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up over the past decade is the idea of

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inbox zero it came from Merlin Mann who

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did a google Tech Talk back in 2007 and

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I will put a link to that in the show

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notes if those of you who want to watch

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I believe is about an hour or so he

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talks about this idea of inbox zero so

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in this cast we're gonna discuss a

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little bit about inbox zero its pros and

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cons some related concepts that I've

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kind of thought about over the past

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couple of years namely inbox 1 and the

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tab 0 methods and get feedback and

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permutations from the productivity cast

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team will close them with some thoughts

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on email message processing from my

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esteemed colleagues and I think this is

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gonna be a great podcast it's gonna have

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a lot of really great information for us

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all so let's kick it off with who wants

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to kind of describe in brief the concept

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of inbox 0

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what Merlin Mann was really talking

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about as a as a kind of extension of

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getting things done by David Allen and

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this idea of of capturing and then

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processing ones inboxes I don't know if

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any of us

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truly understand what the current

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definition of that is I know what mine

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is and and I'm sure - not matching

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what's in the literature but in the

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mentality of being able to get eliminate

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all actionable items and processing

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items from a common email inbox or a

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singular email inbox

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that's to my knowledge that's it in a

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nutshell now what have I missed guys I

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will add a couple of things you know

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what what Merlin man was talking about

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when he was talking about inbox zero is

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that David Allen talked about this idea

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that your task inbox should really be

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cleared out every 24 to 48 hours and I

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don't actually know what David Allen was

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specifically thinking but I have tended

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to think about that from the perspective

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that he wasn't talking about necessarily

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your communications inboxes that is

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email and voicemail boxes and so forth

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he was really talking about your in tray

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the basket in which you receive your

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inputs right so whether you took notes

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or received letters or memos or whatever

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that inbox was the one that I perceive

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him to frequently be talking about not

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necessarily your email inbox but it is

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another one of those in baskets as he

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talks about and getting things done so I

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get it my thought here is that it's

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really important or let me take a step

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back what I believe Merlin Mann was

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talking about and and sort of the the

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crux of what he was talking about was

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that very similar to the way that we

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receive mail in our home mail boxes we

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receive a an influx of physical inputs

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and we take those out and we deal with

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them and we don't put them back in the

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mail box right they it's sort of a

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one-way conveyor belt if you want to

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think of it that way that we process

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things and go go from there so

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if we want to if we want to have a clear

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sort of runway in in or ground level in

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GTD language we then need to that we

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need to then have a an ability to

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process or clarify those things that are

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coming in as inputs and and dealing with

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just the things that are new as they're

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coming in the inbox is a poor place to

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manage inputs if we've got a whole bunch

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of other stuff in there that may or may

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not even be organized but the things

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that come in into in should truly be new

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stuff coming in not just old stuff

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that's been hanging around so one of the

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interesting things about the time Merlyn

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We all use email every day. It’s hard to imagine work and personal life pre-email technology. And, while it serves many functions, it also tends to multiply in numbers--literally, the number of accounts we create and manage over time. In this episode, the ProductivityCast team discusses how many email accounts we have, and the purpose of each email account in our productivity systems. Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening!

If you'd like to discuss this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post).

In this Cast

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes

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

Apple Mail

Newton

Outlook

Opera Mail

Gmail

Inbox by Gmail

Thunderbird

 

Raw Text Transcript

Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is h:mm:ss.ms to h:mm:ss.ms (e.g., 0:00:00.000,0:00:04.000 starts at 0.00 seconds and ends at 4 seconds in the cast's audio).

Read More

1

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,870

are you ready to manage your work and

2

00:00:02,159 --> 00:00:06,120

personal world better to live a

3

00:00:03,870 --> 00:00:07,350

fulfilling productive life then you've

4

00:00:06,120 --> 00:00:09,599

come to the right place

5

00:00:07,350 --> 00:00:12,090

productivity cast the weekly show about

6

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all things productivity here are your

7

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hosts Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto

8

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Pinaud Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks

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Welcome back everybody to this episode of

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productivity cast this is episode zero

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two eight which is episode 28 how many

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email accounts do you have and why so

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email is possibly one of the most

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powerful communications technologies

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developed to date harness properly you

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can reach almost anyone in the working

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world easily and quickly and his email

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has grown in its uses so too has the

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number of email accounts each of us sort

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of has around us

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how many email accounts do you have why

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do you have them and are multiple email

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accounts making you more productive that

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is the topic of discussion today here on

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productivity cast your question is how

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many emails I have four how many emails

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I want I think it's gonna be a little

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bit of both today let's start it off

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with the discussion on how many email

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accounts each of us does have and then

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we'll get into the whys of those things

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I think it's just important for us to to

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sort of square up and see what the group

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here today is kind of dealing with so

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I'll start off and I'll say that I have

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four email accounts and the the rest I

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have I have several other email

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addresses but in terms of email accounts

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I have four and the aliases the email

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addresses that forward to my primary

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four accounts are many but but only four

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accounts how about you gusto oh I have a

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little bit more than that

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I actually don't even know the number I

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was opening my iPad to see how many

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actually they are so I can count is one

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two three four five six seven eight

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email

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counts plus I manage my two kids so that

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will be ten I have my kids off email

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addresses and I I have them in there so

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I can manage what is coming in what is

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coming out and and all that because well

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you know I think that's important it's

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it's important to set that I have

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so out of those ten accounts two or my

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kids one is our family account one is my

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personal account I also have an email

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address that every time they say oh can

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you subscribe to this but the email I

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use so that's a junk email and and then

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the rest of them are work you know I

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have I have a job I have I also am a

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writer public speaker that have their

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own email address and I have a couple of

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businesses on the side that have their

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own email addresses and so it's

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challenging to manage ten emails account

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yes it is I will I do it in a different

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way

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no I will not and I will love to get

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into more of that as a joke as a show

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progress I like about fifteen maybe only

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three of them are what I would say what

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I called public facing so when I set up

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an email account that the public can see

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it has a very different purpose than one

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which is hidden so only three of the 15

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are for the general public to

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communicate with me the other serve

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different purposes last count I had six

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I have three personal and three various

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business ones the one that's actually

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business address one that's company

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address for another company and one

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that's a client email address and that's

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where things start to get a little goofy

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where you get these selective email

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addresses that are targeted at a

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specific audience or that you get

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because you need access

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something so if so factor you wind up

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with another email address just to be

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able to get into something so right now

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I've got six active the ones that I

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really use I'd say there's probably two

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and I didn't I didn't include some of

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the applications specific email

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addresses just for audience's

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edification like Evernote you know

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provides you with an email address that

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emails items into your as a note into

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your system or remember the milk or

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todoist where they generate an email

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address that we would you know function

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to send you things but they send you to

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your task inbox as opposed to your email

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inbox

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so I'm kind I'm kind of separating those

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maybe that's what we need to think about

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with this is that rather than thinking

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about email addresses think about email

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inboxes places where we're actually

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sending and receiving email because

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you're right if I think about dedicated

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email addresses tied to a specific

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application

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oh I'm easily in double digits without

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batting an eye so right and that's why I

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was very clear to say email it counts

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and not email addresses because yeah

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that you could you could easily start to

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