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)

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

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

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fulfilling productive life then you've

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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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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).

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are you ready to manage your work and

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personal world better to live a

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fulfilling productive life then you've

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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 Sidney-Smith and Augusto

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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

Have you ever taken time off of work and returned to find yourself not being as productive as you’d like? Whether it’s for a couple days away to a longer hiatus, leaving work behind and then getting back to work can be challenging to your productivity and systems. In this episode, the ProductivityCast team discusses how to get back to work effectively.

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 | Getting Back to Work

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | Getting Back to Work

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

Getting Things Done by David Allen

ProdPod, Episode 69 -- “Day Reset” and Episode 105 -- “The Power of Daily Routines”

Raw Text Transcript | Getting Back to Work

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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personal world better to live a

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fulfilling productive life then you've

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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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back everybody to productivity cast the

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weekly show about all things personal

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productivity I'm ray Sydney Smith and

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I'm joined here with Augusto pinaud

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Frances weight and art Galax welcome

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gentlemen to the show thank you great to

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be here hey guys how's it going pretty

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well pretty well how's it going with you

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I've discovered that I've managed to do

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In today's world, it's impossible to remember everything we can know. From passwords to tasks to calendar appointments and more, there are data out there that simply don't belong rolling around clouding up our focus. And, thankfully, we have the ability to externalize this information from retention to recall. In this cast, the ProductivityCast team looks at the concept of the external brain as a productivity enabler. 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.

Getting Things Done by David Allen

Evernote

OneNote

TheBrain

Workflowy

Google Drive

OneDrive

Amazon Cloud Drive

Dropbox

Box

Instapaper

Pocket

IFTTT

OTIXO

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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fulfilling productive life then you've

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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 Sidney-Smith and Augusto

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Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks

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welcome back everybody to productivity

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cast the weekly show about all things

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personal productivity I'm Ray Sidney-

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Smith and I'm here with Augusto Pinaud

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25 episodes! Thank you all for listening and helping us grow the ProductivityCast community!

As we grow and change in our personal and professional lives, we should all consider if the way you see your “next actions” (the granular, physical tasks we take to move projects forward, a la Getting Things Done by David Allen). If we approach next-action crafting in time chunks smaller or larger, or based on different contexts, than you need to accomplish them, then we’ll see ourselves being less effective. In this cast, the ProductivityCast team addresses the issue of priming ourselves to appropriate next-action thinking in our productivity systems.

Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, again, 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.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Quantified Self (DC Quantified Self - Ray is the Organizer)

Eisenhower Matrix (Merrill-Covey Matrix)

Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory

Life changes to give you pause to know it’s time to reflect on the structure, time and contexts of your next-action planning:

1- Birth

2- Death

Professional Transitions

   3- I've Been Demoted!

   4- I've Been Promoted!

   5- I've Been Hired!

   6- Unemployment (whether involuntary or by choice)

   7- Changing Careers (while employed or not)

8- Starting School

9- First Job

10- Moving Home

11- Moving Office

12- Downsizing Home

13- Starting Retirement

15- Marriage / Long-Term Commitment

15- Divorce / Separation / Ending a Long-Term Relationship

Calculator - Do You Need a Task Management Improvement? by Francis Wade

Francis: “The Ultimate, Evergreen Guide to Choosing Your Next Task Management App or Practice.” Plus. the stuff on implicit vs explicit tagging is in my book which is being updated - http://perfect.mytimedesign.com. Francis also included the idea in this paper - http://www.2time-sys.com/can-time-actually-be-managed/

Francis: The idea of facing changing constraints as task load increases, and the need to see a change is also mentioned in this article: What are the greatest task management tools, and why?

Raw Text Transcript

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

On this cast, we have some fun! That is, we ask ourselves the question, can productivity be fun? The ProductivityCast team talks about the concept of adding fun into your productive life. We discuss the potential opportunities to incorporate play into your work, gamifying your productivity system, negative stereotyping by business about the idea of games in a professional space, and more. How are you adding fun into your 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 | Can Productivity Be Fun?

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

The Fun Theory

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

gamification

The Pomodoro Technique

Forest (app)

Bullet Journal

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

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Deliberate practice (developed by K. Anders Ericcson, PhD)

Getting Things Done FAST (audio program) by David Allen

SuperBetter (at Work) by Jane McGonigal, PhD

Productivity Book Group’s discussion on SuperBetter

Raw Text Transcript

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Coming soon!

The winter holidays season is upon us and soon the new year! And, there’s no time like the present to start planning for the upcoming holidays and new year. To reduce distress and increase the opportunities to enjoy and celebrate time with family, friends and work colleagues during this season, good planning (and execution) is vital. What do you do to prepare for the holidays and new year? In this cast, the ProductivityCast team converses about strategies to squeeze more out of your time and resources during the holidays season. You’ll learn about Art Gelwick’s phrase for the celebration season, “getting done while still having fun.” What are your holidays and new year planning routines? Share them in the comments, comment on this cast on our ProductivityCast Facebook Page, or contact us to let us know! 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 | Holiday and New Year Productivity Planning

Ray Sidney-Smith

Augusto Pinaud

Francis Wade

Art Gelwicks

Show Notes | Holiday and New Year Productivity Planning

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

Holiday Budget Planner (Excel template) <--you can import into Google Sheets also!

Deep Work by Cal Newport

AndroidWear smartwatches

Apple Watch

Time demands - also in Francis Wade’s book, Perfect Time-Based Productivity

Evernote

OneNote

Google Keep

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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Transcript coming soon!

You know the productivity annoyances you deal with daily or weekly when coworkers or family or friends waste your time or resources. Some things get under all of our skins. And, it's best to occasionally talk about them, and even strategize how to address them and overcome them. What are your biggest productivity pet peeves? We'd like to know! We present ours on this cast for you to know how to identify and overcome them!

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.

Getting Things Done (“GTD”) by David Allen

GTD-Q assessment

Francis Wade’s 48-point and 21-point skills assessment:

* The Evaluations Learners Complete in My Book/Training

* How I create evaluations featuring “Flowing”:

* http://plus.mytimedesign.com/index2017interaction.html

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

The Platinum Rule by Dr. Tony Alessandra (PDF)

Androgogy (Quora Q&A) (In Frances’ book he argues that learners go beyond andragogy to heutagogy.)

Evernote

OneNote

Bullet Journal - Pinterest

BLUF

Five Sentences (email methodology)

Boomerang Respondable (Web browser extension that rates your email for respond-ability)

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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Transcript to come soon!