What's the best way to brainstorm and take notes? We discuss mindmapping vs outlining, and when to use each technique. There are times when you should mind maps - especially if you have the personality type for it. For others, outlines and text notes might be superior. Listen to this episode to find out which tool works best work you and which apps we recommend for each.

Cheat Sheet

What mindmapping is and why you might want to use it for information retention and organization

Dissecting the anatomy of an effective mind map

How a mindmap works and the process used to make one

How mindmaps helps you to see information in new ways and how it can stimulate the creative process

The three different types of mindmaps (and when to use each)

How to use mindmaps for taking notes when reading a book to increase retention of what you're reading

How to structure a mindmap for presenting to an audience (and why you might want to use this approach)

How to use proper mindmapping techniques to solve problems

The specific instances when you should use an outline instead of a mindmap

The advantages of outlining over mind mapping and how to leverage these advantages in certain situations

Specific use cases for how Asian Efficiency uses outlining and mind mapping

Recommended apps and tools that you can use to create killer mindmaps and outlines

Links

Tony Buzan

Effective Brainstorming Using Mind Maps (AE blog post)

7 Everyday Mind Mapping Uses (AE blog post)

Prezi

MindNode

OmniFocus

MindMeister

Shelf

Mind map for Escape Your Email

iThoughts and iThoughtsX

Setapp

Scapple

FreeMind

MindJet

OmniOutliner

OneNote

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Today we are talking about getting up early - a polarizing topic and one that we’ve discussed a lot with our community lately. Thanh and Mike share 8 strategies for getting up early, finding the motivation to get up earlier, and things you should avoid when you do get up ahead of the sun.

Cheat Sheet

Why you should consider becoming a morning person

Why the most successful CEOs all get up early

Why getting up early can be very beneficial and the science behind it

The increases in willpower you will have when you start to get up earlier

Why each hour is not worth the same and how to leverage "time arbitrage"

Practical tips for to help you transition into waking up earlier regardless of your chronotype

How to figure out how much sleep you actually need (it's probably more than you think)

The importance of “eating your frog” and how it can set your entire day up for success

How to craft your own morning routine

How to get over the fact that it’s still dark outside and dominate your day

Why making a schedule and to-do list the night before will allow you to hit the ground running int he morning

How the motivation behind getting up earlier and knowing why you want to get up earlier will help make it sticky

Things you should avoid when you do start waking up early

Links

The 3 Things You Need to Maximize Your Productivity (TPS121)

"What time do top CEOs wake up?" Guardian article

The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure

Eat That Frog!

f.lux app

Morning Ritual Starter Kit

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Brooks and Mike go round-by-round picking their top 10 essential Mac productivity apps. From menu-bar apps to task managers, this is the definitive list for 2017 on a Mac.

The 2017 Essential Mac Productivity Draft

Round 1

Brooks: 1Password

Mike: TextExpander

Round 2

Brooks: Alfred

Mike: OmniFocus

Round 3

Brooks: Hazel

Mike: nvALT

Round 4

Brooks: Bartender

Mike: Keyboard Maestro

Round 5

Brooks: Default Folder X

Mike: Popclip

Round 6

Brooks: MindNode

Mike: Shush

Round 7

Brooks: DaisyDisk

Mike: iStat Menus

Round 8

Brooks: Soulver

Mike: Tapes

Round 9

Mike: Dropzone 3

Brooks: Amphetamine

Round 10

Brooks: FruitJuice

Mike: Flux

Honorable Mention

Brooks: Ulysses

Mike: ScreenFlow

Other Links

2017 Mac apps blog post

A Comprehensive Video Guide to TextExpander

Brett Terpstra: A Useful Caps Lock Key

A Comprehensive Guide to Keyboard Maestro (Start Saving Time Today)

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We welcome new Asian Efficiency team member Brooks Duncan on the show to chat with Mike about solutions to common corporate productivity problems. If you work for an organization and are trying to make productivity systems work for you in a corporate environment, this episode will help with ideas about meetings, distractions, email, and more.

Cheat Sheet

What Brooks learned about being productive while working for a company with thousands of employees

Essential tips for dealing with and overcoming corporate working environments that aren’t conducive to productivity

Strategies for getting deep work done in open office environments

The pros and cons of coworkers "dropping by"

What to do when you have too many meetings to attend and can't get any work done

Strategies for running a productive meeting

How to create company knowledge and documentation that is accessible to everyone

How to overcome a corporate email culture and take control of your email

The real cost of reply-alls and BCCs

How to maintain your own productivity when other people are telling you what to do

What to do when you find yourself dealing with constant distractions and interruptions

Why searching for email is actually faster than archiving messages in specific folders (and how to do it effectively)

Tips for getting out of your email as much as you can

Ways to influence the priorities within your company (even if you're not the boss)

Links

How to Run Effective Meetings w/ John Poelstra (TPS87)

How to Get Things Done at Coffee Shops and Cafes Like You Would at the Office

Going Paperless w/ Brooks Duncan (TPS7)

Getting Things Done

4-Hour Workweek

RescueTime

3 Things You need to Maximize Your Productivity (TPS121)

The Productivity Project

Sanebox

Hipchat

Confluence

Deep Work

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How can you design your life and your environment so that is it inevitable that you will be productive? We are tackling this question on today’s episode, as Mike and Thanh discuss the tools, systems, and concepts you can use to make your lifestyle more productive.

Cheat Sheet

How Thanh came upon the concept of Lifestyle Productivity

The Asian Efficiency definition of personal productivity

How where you live impacts your productivity

Why the people who surround you might be sabotaging your productivity

Keys to creating an environment where it is inevitable that you’ll be productive

How to create personal systems to achieve next-level productivity

How to identify the 80/20 of personal productivity

How to evaluate the pros/cons when choosing what productivity tradeoffs you have to make in order to be successful

Tips for changing the technology and the tools that you use

9 ways using the Amazon Echo can make you more productive

The big difference between podcasts and audiobooks

Closing open loops to increase productivity

How subtracting things from your life can help you become more productive

Keys for designing your life in a way where productivity is inevitable

Links

Become a Minimalist w/ Joshua Becker (TPS90)

Live a Minimalist Luxury Lifestyle (TPS78)

8 Productivity Predictions for 2017 (TPS124)

How to Discover Your Own Core Values (TPS126)

9 Ways I Use the Amazon Echo to Double My Productivity

Amazon Echo

Hue Lights

Kolbe Test

Nest

IFTTT

Zapier

Wemo

Automatic

Chamberlain MYQ garage door opener

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Mike and Thanh explore the Asian Efficiency core values, how they came to them, and why they've changed over the years. They discuss the benefits of having core values for your personal life and your company, and how you can use core values to make decisions, hire new staff, and create a more productive work and home life.

Cheat Sheet

All about the "Mission to Mars" process Asian Efficiency uses for identifying our core values

What core values really are and how they're different from the things that you want

How having personal core values will benefit every area of your life

Why core values can be polarizing and how that can be a good thing

What core values and successful relationships have in common

How to make better decisions by using your core values

The power of alignment and how it can be a force multiplier for organizational productivity

How core values can help battle cognitive dissonance

How we landed on the AE team Core Values and what they are

Why we have the whole team do customer service

Why you don't want to frame your core values negatively

Why we chose to remove a core value and replace it with something else

What accountability really is (hint: it's not just finding someone to blame when things go wrong)

How to improve your hiring decisions using core values

Key questions to ask yourself when discovering your own core values

Why it can be beneficial to publish your core values instead of keeping them internal

A writing exercise for finding your own core values

Why having core values at all is more important than having the "right" ones

Links

Mike's family's core values graphic

TPS66: The Asian Efficiency Core Values

Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat

TPS7: Going Paperless w/ Brooks Duncan

Disc test

Kolbe test

TPS101: Lean Thinking w/ Paul Akers

TPS78: Live a Minimalist Luxury Lifestyle w/ Thanh Pham

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Mike is team iOS, arguing that this platform is superior for getting things done with ease, mobility, and focus. Thanh represents team Mac, making the case that laptops and desktops are far better at getting important things done in less time and with more automation. Listen in and decide for yourself which platform is best for your productivity needs.

Cheat Sheet

The advances in iOS technology that have leveled the playing field when choosing what platform to use

Why improvements in mobile technology have opened up doors for getting work done on the go

What you can do with the increased screen real estate when using a second monitor

How the constraints of iOS can actually provide a better environment for some tasks like writing

The benefits of iOS for single-tasking and how you can recreate this on the desktop

The travel benefits of iOS and the flexibility offered for people who move around a lot while working

How the increased battery life in iOS devices eliminates friction and allows you to work on your own terms

Why Thanh thinks Mike needs to hit the gym more and quit whining about how heavy his MacBook is

The benefits of having an always-on cellular connection on your iOS device (and how to mimic this on your MacBook)

Why you might want to use a VPN when connecting to a wifi network

The automation and systems benefits of using macOS and what the iOS equivalents are

Clearing the backlog after coming back from vacation

How to determine what your time is worth (and why Thanh uses his Mac to get his work done as quickly as possible)

Links

9to5Mac article

Workflow

Drafts

TextExpander

Keyboard Maestro

Omnifocus

Evernote

SixColors.com re: podcasting

Ferrite for iOS

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Mike and Thanh break down their productivity predictions for 2017, and discuss how the future of inboxes, notifications, and the Internet of Things will take shape over the next year.

Cheat Sheet

Why the term "productivity" is such a buzzword and a brief look back at the history of the productivity industry

How productivity has changed in the last decade and what it will look like going forward

Why cross-platform solutions will be so important in 2017 (and beyond)

What you should look for when choosing a task manager

How the way you monitor inboxes (and which ones) will change in the future

Why hacking email for task management is not a good approach

How to deal with and tame all the different notifications you get

Why people tend to become overcommitted with their time

Why email is so inefficient when it comes to collaboration and what tools you should use instead

How lifestyle productivity will become more important as we become more connected

How the future will feature overwhelming options and what criteria to use when you decide what tools you're going to use

8 Productivity Predictions

Cross-platform solutions will become even more important

More inboxes to monitor the more we move online

Non-traditional approaches to email as people try to hack it to make it more manageable

Information (and notification) overload with the rise of connected wearables

More business, but less effectiveness

Increased use of instant messaging (i.e. HipChat or Slack)

Breakthrough in the Internet of Things (IoT)

More opportunities to be distracted by "shiny new objects"

Links

Omnifocus

Amazon Go video

Hipchat

Slack

AEDojo.com

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Mike and Thanh discuss the tools, environments, and time needed to do your best work – deep work. Deep work is when you are devoting your entire attention to your most important task, and it’s something many people struggle with. In this episode we cover ideas like clearing to neutral, managing your energy levels, sounds and music that promote deep work, and more.

Get Podcast UpdatesDo you want to get an email with shownotes each time a podcast goes live? Then let us know where to send these updates.

Cheat Sheet

Why people struggle to make time to do deep work

The ritual Thanh follows when he does deep work

Why you should try working in 90 minute cycles

The things that you need to do to really move the needle when it comes to being productive

Setting up your environment so it is easier to do deep work

The importance of clearing to neutral and how it can help you get started quicker

Managing your energy levels in order to maximize the effectiveness of your deep work

Essential tips for working from coffee shops efficiently

Sounds and music that you can use to stimulate productivity

How items, events, and environments can act as an anchor that triggers deep work

Why you should really consider using a Pomodoro timer when doing deep work

How to create the time and space to do deep work effectively

The importance of scheduling time to do your deep work on your calendar

How to implement the 80/20 principle when doing deep work

Why a standing desk can significantly boost your productivity

How an external monitor can help you work more efficiently

How changing up your space can inspire deep work

Links

AEDojo.com

TPS88: Deep Work w/ Cal Newport

5 Ways to Apply the 80/20 Rule To Free Up 2+ Hours A Week (TPS118)

3 Keys to Using the 80/20 Rule in Your Business for Exponential Growth (TPS119)

Back to Basics: Clearing to Neutral

How to Get Things Done at Coffee Shops and Cafes Like You Would at the Office

Brain.fm

Focus@will

Bose QuietComfort 20 | Bose QuietComfort 25

Esington Glass Productivity Timer

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Mike and Thanh host this episode as Zachary plays guest, discussing his run as host of the Productivity Show. They talk about how Zack was hired to the Asian Efficiency team, some of Zack’s favorite episodes of this podcast, and what he’s learned from hosting the show and talking to guests.

Get Podcast UpdatesDo you want to get an email with shownotes each time a podcast goes live? Then let us know where to send these updates.

Cheat Sheet

How Zack got connected with the Asian Efficiency team

The way that Zack’s role has evolved at AE and how the process has helped him find his strengths

Why Zack loved hosting the podcast

Using personality tests to hire people

The different journaling practices you can learn from The Productivity Show

Zack’s favorite TPS episodes (listed below)

Zack’s favorite memory from working on the Asian Efficiency team

The one thing Zack tells people when they ask how to be more productive

Top 5 Things Zack has learned from hosting this podcast:

Journaling

Reducing Clutter

Doing Less, Having Less

Delegation

Managing time, energy, and attention

Links

TPS2: Journaling

TPS98: Making Rituals Stick w/ Nabill Idrisi

TPS69: Journaling w/ Kendra Wright

TPS5: Deron Bos

TPS7: Going Paperless w/ Brooks Duncan

TPS29: Paper Organization w/ Kacy Paide

TPS58: Getting Things Done w/ David Allen

TPS102: Essentialism w/ Greg McKeown

TPS90: Become a Minimalist w/ Joshua Becker

TPS78: Live a Minimalist Luxury Lifestyle w/ Thanh Pham

TPS28: Working the System w/ Sam Carpenter

TPS23: Optimization, Automation, and Outsourcing with Ari Meisel

TPS49: Delegation and outsourcing w/ Julia Tunstall

TPS35: A Year of Productivity w/ Chris Bailey

Kolbe test

Zack’s video interview

Wealth Dynamics test

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