magazine

Exclusive
Interview
Sponsored by
#8 (March, April, May 2011) www.ProductiveMagazine.com
Jason
Fried
More articles:
4Writing Short & Sweet Emails
4Living in Balance
4Managing Attention Span and Time
of 37signals
on Reworking Business
with Webbased Software
Jason Fried Leo Babauta Graham Allcott Michael Hyatt Chris Edgar Pat Brans Mike Vardy Michael Sliwinski
Short
and
sweet
From the Editor
By Michael Sliwinski, Editor
C
ompiling a new issue of each
magazine is a treat for me. I get
to interview fantastic people and
work with amazing contributors and its
all working smoothly which results in fan-
tastic content I want to read so many
times over. And I learn. Constantly.
Meet Jason Fried
Dreams keep coming true and Im hon-
ored I can share them with you. One of
these was to visit the offces of 37sig-
nals a Chicagobased software com-
pany which inspired me to start my web
application Nozbe. I travelled to Chica-
go and their CEO, Jason Fried, a per-
son I highly respect and look up to
agreed for an interview. Suffce to say
it was an incredible experience to meet
Jason in person. Hope you can feel it
when reading my interview with him.
The rest of the magazine is a cool
mixture of timeless advice from many
authors and contributors you already
know like Leo Babauta, Michael Hyatt,
Chris Edgar or Pat Brans. We have
a new contributor from the UK in Gra-
ham Allcott and traditionally we end with
a different approach to productivity by
Mike Vardy.
Lets keep it short, shall we? :)
One of the articles in this issue is about
the fact that our email messages are
too long... and I think my intro to the
magazine has to get shorter, too.
Thats why, without further ado,
let me encourage you to read the
Productive! Magazine #8 and
share it with your friends and
family. Also remember that if
you have an iPad... there is an
App for the Magazine, too :-)
Yours productively,
Michael Sliwinski
Editor in Chief
Productive! Magazine
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|MichaelSliwinskisBlog:InternetBusinessProductivity
Productive!Magazinewebsite|Nozbe-SimplyGetThingsDone!
2
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Productive!Magazine
www.ProductiveMagazine.com
Sponsor:
www.Nozbe.com
Your Online tool for Getting Things Done
available in your computer browser,
mobile phone and on your iPhone.
Chief Editor:
Michael Sliwinski
Technical Editor:
Piotr Wozniak
Technical Advisor:
Maciej Budzich
Editorial Team:
Lori Anderson
Delfna Gerbert
Tribute:
Marc Orchant (19572007)
The Productive!Magazine
is dedicated to the memory
of a productivity guru, great
blogger and a very close friend,
Marc Orchant who passed away
on 9
th
December 2007.
All articles are copyright by their respective authors.
Productive!Magazine is copyright by Michael Sliwinski.
Getting Things Done

and GTD

are the registered

trademarks of the David Allen Company.
04
MichaelSliwinski
In Love with Web-based Business
Interview with Jason Fried
10
LeoBabauta
Your Emails are Too Long
12
GrahamAllcott
Managing your attention span
when working from home
14
MichaelHyatt
Five Consequences of a Life out of Balance
16
ChrisEdgar
How Getting Used To Silence
Can Help Your Productivity
18
MichaelSliwinski
The Art of Being on Time
20
PatBrans
Powerful Thinking
22
MichaelSliwinski
Productive! Show Videos
Traveling light, Processing Email
and Reading Magazines
23
MikeVardy
The Eventual Planifesto
Table
of contents
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In Love with
Webbased
Business
On building great
things and reworking
the business with
webbased software.
Interview with Jason Fried, founder and CEO of 37signals
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dark out, I get more work done when it
is dark. I go to the offce most of the
time. But at night I do work from home.
I leave here at 5 pm.
MS: I wanted to ask you about the work
life balance, for example with your fami-
ly. How do you balance that?
JF: Im not very good at it. Thats the
truth, but Ive gotten a bit better at it late-
ly. I just used to like work a lot, not that
we had a lot to do, but I just really loved
it. I still do, but I have to make time for
people.
You do have to be careful about this,
especially when you love business. You
can love people and you can love busi-
ness. And if you are in love with two
things it is hard to sort of fgure out what
gets what. And in many ways it is sort
of easier to love a business, because
business isnt emotional, business
doesnt have its own needs or desires...
so it is easier to love business and to
not focus enough on people. Its tough
and Im just getting better at it.
MS: I can totally relate to that. I love my
business, too. This is why my wife is al-
Michael Sliwinski: Tell me about your ca-
reer. You started as a designer and now in
your company, youre doing web apps like
Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack and Camp-
fre. What has changed? Are you still a de-
signer?
Jason Fried: I am. I started doing web-
site design when I was in college. I dont
have a background in design; my back-
ground is actually in business, but Ive
always liked design and back in the mid
90s the Internet was starting to come
on, no one was any good at this stuff
yet, everyone was brand new. So Ive
learned from scratch like everyone else
did, and didnt know what I was doing,
I just learned. It turned out I really liked
it and was really pretty good at it, so
I started doing website design.
I started 37signals as a web site de-
sign company in 99 and we switched
to making software in 2004/2005. But
Im still very much involved with design
of the products. I design all the market-
ing sites and while Im not as involved
with the daytoday design, I do more
of the big picture stuff. I will sketch
something and someone else will work
on it, I might tweak it at the end. So Im
more like an editor. I set someone on the
right track, they write something, they
design something, I look at it and tweak
it, adjust it to make sure it is good. Make
it better and then we launch it.

MS: As a president of the company, apart
from the design what else do you have to
deal with everyday?
JF: Whole bunch of things. There is the
general administrative stuff, you know
things that come up in a business that
you have to deal with... We just built our
new offce, so I spent 3 months there al-
most everyday while it was being con-
structed. Watching, making decisions,
making tweaks, telling them this, telling
them that, answering questions.
I also do the hiring of staff, thinking
about new products and features ideas.
Also a lot of people want to meet for
lunch so I have to do that occasionally.
A lot of business stuff. Every day is a lit-
tle bit different...

MS: ...and there are people like me com-
ing and asking for interviews...
JF: Yeah, I like that. I enjoy this actual-
ly, this is fun.

MS: So there is really no typical day?
Or are they any typical parts of day that
you always have?
JF: Well, the thing that is typical for me
is an Inbox. There are about 130 emails
there every day. People asking ques-
tions about our products, our compa-
ny, or they want some advice... so
I have a lot of that to do, too. Thats
about the only typical thing, everything
else is based on what we are working
on at the time.

MS: Are you more of a morning person,
or late night person? How would you de-
scribe yourself?
JF: I get up early, but I feel like Im do-
ing most of my best work the second
half of the day. And then a couple of
hours before I go to sleep only to get
back on and work. I just like when it is
Im more like an editor. I set someone on the right track,
they write something, they design something, I look at it
and tweak it, adjust it to make sure it is good.
If you want to make
something great you
have to cut it in half.
Youve got to keep
it short.
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ways complaining about it like: Michael,
I get it. Youre really passionate about all
that, but come on, we have a life here!
JF: Its tricky. I mean ultimately, you just
got to put people first, but it is hard
sometimes.

MS: Defnitely. Now, lets talk about Get-
ting Things Done. Tell me which aspects
of GTD actually speak to you?
JF: So, Im not a huge fan of systems
personally. What I like about the GTD is
that if forces you to really fgure out what
you really need to do. And this whole
thing about knowing what you dont
need to do right now, like Someday/May-
be, I like that but in general Im not a big
fan of set systems as I think people are
sometimes too religious about them. And
they become so enamored with the sys-
tem itself that they actually create more
work for themselves because they have
this system they want to fill up with
things to do.

MS: ...and they blindly follow the system?
JF: Yes. So the way I tend to do things
is to keep in my head a few things
I need to do and I sort of forget about
other things, and then important things
keep coming up again and I have to
do this. Now this also means I miss
some things sometimes. And that is
not good, but I just found that I have
never been able to be religious about
a system and then the harder I try the
less stuff I seem to get done for some
reason. Because I create more and
more work for myself.
If you have a bookshelf, you have to
fll it with books. So if you have getting
thingsdonelike system you have to
fll it with tasks. So sometimes you cre-
ate more work for yourself then you ac-
tually have to. Thats been my experi-
ence. I like forcing myself to not keep
track of everything. If I dont have a sys-
tem in place I cant remember a lot of
things, so I tend to have only few things
that I need to do. I dont have daylong
list, I have short lists. So that what
works for me.
MS: You have written a book with David,
called Rework. How did you come up with
the idea of a book?
JF: Well, the book has actually been writ-
ing itself for the past 10 years. Weve
been blogging for 10 years. A lot of these
ideas which are started at the blog.
So we didnt set out to write a book, we
set out to share and then over ten years
of sharing we went back and looked over
and thought: hey weve got a book here
probably. We then looked at the blog
and we extracted the best of what we
talked about, polished it, and made it in-
to a book. We started doing this early in
2009. It took us about 10 months or so
to get the book right.
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We went to our publisher and there
was lots of editing back and forth. Our
goal was to keep it as short as possible.
This book can be easily read in just 3
hours. Most business books take you
much much longer then that... days or
weeks actually. I dont feel that is a good
thing, I dont feel that a book should take
that long to read. Especially, if they are
about business, which is all about get-
ting back to work. I simply want to get
through this book, get the big ideas and
get back to work. Thats why it is short.
The cool thing is that we took it from
about 57,000 to 27,000 words. So we
cut the book by half on the last draft to
make it better. This is certainly my be-
lief that if you want to make something
great you have to cut it in half. Youve
got to keep it short.
MS: Wow. Wasnt your publisher unhappy
about that?
JF: They were initially. The contract said
40,000 words. So they were happy with
57,000 words, but the last draft was
27,000 words so we are 13,000 words
short to the contract.
Their frst reaction was this isnt good,
we cant do this with this deal, but we
said just please read the book, dont
judge it before you have read it. They
have read it and they said We love it.
We are totally on board with what you
have done here and this is the right way
to do this and now lets think about how
to thicken it a little bit cause the thing
about books is that people want books
that are thicker on the shelf.
This is psychology. We decided to in-
clude an illustration with each essay.
Which ultimately would increase the
page count by about 80. We hired a tal-
ented illustrator, Mike Rhode, and now
each essay has an illustration and there
are 88 essays in the book. Thats how
we went about thickening the book up
without adding the fller words. A lot of
books have a problem that about half or
a third part of them is good, and then
they have to fll it up with more words to
make it thick. We wanted the words to
be the spot on and then the graphics to
add to the words.
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MS: I actually read Rework several times.
I started with the audio version. Then
I bought one to make notes on and now
I have one with your autograph so its even
better. The thing is Ive talked to many
people about this book and the reaction
was this is so great, it is so small, so short
Ive read it in one shot everyone was like
it was 3 hours and I was done people just
loved this concept of it being short, be-
cause the messages are straight and to
the point
JF: Yes, there is no fller... directly to the
point, each essay is a page or two long
and thats it. And you dont need much
more than that. You really dont. This is
not a book about very specifc solutions,
its a book about ideas, ways to ap-
proach problems, to think about your
business and it is up to you to fll in the
blanks, not up to us.
MS: The book is a bestseller (New York
Times, Amazon, etc... the whole nine
yards). Congratulations. So now what?
You have the web apps, you have to book,
youve got the business running very well.
So what is next for you?
JF: Well, we want to improve our prod-
ucts. That is sort of an obsession of ours
to constantly improve our products.
Weve got two new product ideas we
want to experiment with this year. May-
be start on one of them. We want to work
on integrating our products better, we
launched a suite of products so you can
buy all of them at once, but they dont
really talk to each other so much yet.
You can love people
and you can love
business. And if you
are in love with two
things it is hard to
sort of fgure out
what gets what...
When people become enamored with
the system itself (like GTD) they actually
create more work for themselves...
JasonFriedistheco
founderandPresident
of37signals.Jason
believestheresreal
valueandbeautyin
thebasics.Jasonco
wroteallof37signalsbooks,andisinvitedto
speakaroundtheworldonentrepreneurship,
design,management,andsoftware.
Jason Fried !
We want to work on that this year.
I want to build the team a little bit more,
I want to continue to learn, I want the
team to get better. For me its really
great to see everyone getting better all
the time. Thats a real treat when I can
see how people mature and take on
more responsibilities. Well still have
most of our focus on improving the
products and making them integrate
better and hopefully if we get the
chance well get these two other prod-
ucts done. Im really excited about
those, so well see what happens.

MS: Cool. I wish you all the best and thanks
for being a part of our Productive! Maga-
zine, Jason.
! Links: JasononTwitter|JasonandDavidsbook:Rework
Jasonscompany:37signals|37signalsblog:Signalvs.Noise
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Nozbe web app syncs with native iPad and iPhone apps... and Evernote!
...just like your favorite
Productivity Application
Productive! Magazine like Wired Magazine
now also available as a native iPad app!
Your Emails
are Too Long
If you cant write your idea on the
back of my calling card, you dont
have a clear idea. David Belasco
By Leo Babauta
O
ne of the worst problems Ive
seen when people send me
emails is amazingly common:
theyre way too long. Im a fairly busy
guy, but who isnt busy? I try to be re-
sponsive but when I get an incredibly
long email there is no way Ill answer
quickly. If an email is short, Ill shoot out
a reply as soon as I read it.
So why send long emails?
Heres a rule: a long email is never nec-
essary. Never.
Why am I writing this? Is it a rant
against people whove emailed me? No,
its a general problem that Ive seen with
email, and I hope this will help people
write more effectively.
How I Use Email
Ive written before about how I ditched
email. Thats only 90% true. I still do
email on a limited scope mostly for
people I collaborate with (partners, de-
signers, printers, etc.). I also respond to
customer emails (refunds, download
problems).
For reader feedback and comments,
I use Twitter. For family communication
(like my family on Guam and other parts
of the world), I use Facebook (I dont
friend anyone other than family, and
have fewer than 100 friends on FB).
That said, my email problem isnt
unique to my situation. No matter how
you use email, no one youre emailing
wants to read a long essay or respond
to 10 questions. We are all busy, and we
all value our time.
When I do email, I try to get through
all of it quickly. I dont like to be stuck
doing email all day, so I get in, read and
respond or archive/trash, and get out.

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3
You ask too many questions. I wont
be able to answer all of them with-
out half an hour of my valuable day.
So dont ask so many just ask one
or two.
I wont respond. If youre looking for
me to read the email right away, or worse
yet, do something for you, good luck
with that. Im not a diva, but I also have
things to do and cant get to every long
email. And there are many of them, not
just yours.
Rules for Short, Effective Emails
Ignore these rules at your peril
1
Keep it to 5 sentences. No more.
I stole this from fve.sentenc.es of
course, but Ive used it for years and it
works. I usually try to do fewer than 5.
2
Figure out your main point. If you
think you need more than 5 sentenc-
es, you havent fgured out the key thing
you want to say. Take a second to fg-
ure it out, and stick to just that.
3
Ask one thing. Dont ask 10 ques-
tions, just ask one. Or two at the
most. Youre much more likely to get an
answer quickly.
4
Edit. If you stretched it to 8 sentenc-
es, cut out 3.
5
Link. If you need to refer to info, in-
clude a link to it on the web.
When someone sends me a long email,
its likely to be archived. If I absolutely
have to respond, I probably wont do it
that day.
Please note: this post is not just about
me. Its about anyone who is busy and
who values his or her time. If you send
that person a long email, you are saying
you dont value his time, and youre say-
ing you havent thought out whats im-
portant. And youre decreasing your
odds of getting a response.
Why Long Emails Suck
A few brief reasons
1
It takes too long to read. I dont have
a lot of time to read, and by send-
ing me an essay you are saying your
email is more important than the other
things I have to read.
It doesnt respect my time. When you
send me an email, youre making a re-
quest on my time (to read, process, re-
spond). If you send a long email, you
havent edited. You havent decided
whats most important. You are saying,
in effect, that I have to do that instead.
Youre sending a message that your time
is more important than mine.
2
You dont get to the point. Whats
the main point youre trying to
make? Whats your main question? Spit
it out, or it will get buried.
Heres a rule: a long
email is never
necessary. Never.
When someone sends
me a long email, its
likely to be archived.
If you send a long email, you havent
edited. You havent decided whats
most important. You are saying, in efect,
that I have to do that instead.
6
Post it. If the info you need to share
isnt on the web, put it there. Cre-
ate a long answer or long background
document (then edit it to the essential
info) and post it online. Use your blog,
or one of the many free tools for post-
ing info. Create an FAQ if its useful. Link
to it in your email.
This post, by the way, is an example
of the last rule. a
Dont ask 10
questions, just ask
one. Or two at the
most. Youre much
more likely to get
an answer quickly.
LeoBabautalivesin
SanFranciscoandis
marriedwithsixkids.
Hes awr i t er and
arunnerandavege-
tarianandheloves
writingZenHabitshisblogthat,inacouple
ofyears,becameoneofthetopblogsonthe
Internetwith100K+readerssubscribedand
counting.Hesapublishedauthorofabestsell-
ingbookPowerofLess.
Leo Babauta !
! Links: LeoonTwitter|LeosBlog:ZenHabits|LeosBlog:Minimalist
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Managing your attention span
when working from home
I was recently asked for advice about time management and productivity
when working from home. The person in question wanted to know how to
build breaks into their day as they found they were working hours on hours
without a break for even a drink.
By Graham Allcott
W
orking from home brings with
it a set of unique challenges:
you have no coworkers or
boss to turn around and chat to and less
of the structures good and bad that
offce life provides. This can take peo-
ple down one of two routes: those that
spend all day repotting plants, making
slowroasted dinners and adjusting pic-
ture frames and those that bury their
heads in work without coming up for that
allimportant air.
Attention spans tend to diminish at
around 45 minutes, so unless you take
breaks regularly, youre likely to be ex-

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couraging you to measure your activity
and output in units on 25 minutes. This
is a simple but powerful tool when you
have a few hours to spend on desk
work, so might be just what you need.
Create a meeting room
So, you have a desk, but do you have
a meeting room at home? You might be
wondering exactly WHO youre going to
meet with when you work from home!
Well, use breaks in your workflow to
make phonecalls or do creativethink-
ing to change your environment. Your
meeting room could be in the shed at
the bottom of the garden, at the bottom
of the stairs or even a local coffeeshop.
By moving around, you get blood fow-
ing, you add structures to the day and
you keep your brain alert.
Turn your emails off
(at certain times of the day)
On our Getting Your Inbox to Zero
workshop, one of the things we talk
about is the idea of turning off email,
even for short periods of time, in order
to help focus on the important rather
than the urgent and reduce interrup-
tions. This might help you to break up
the day into sections and also not feel
pressured to continue working on ur-
gent issues rather than have a much
needed break.
Feed your brain
Keep a jug of water, fruit and nuts on or
next to your desk. Again, these will in-
periencing diminishing returns in your
productivity as you continue working
and you might therefore be more pro-
ductive if you spent LESS time working
by building in those breaks. Here are
a few ideas.

Pretend its a real office
Build in the times in the day to increase
physical movement and put some clean
edges around whats work time as op-
posed to home downtime by pretending
youre working in the offce. So, go for
walk frst thing in the morning (perhaps
to buy milk or a newspaper) and make
that your walk to work. At lunchtime, ei-
ther go out to buy lunch or take your
packed lunch out to the local park.
At the end of the working day, close
down your laptop just as you would if
you were in the offce, then go for a walk
or run to end the day.
Try Pomodoro
This is a great technique for managing
attention (which, as everyone on our
workshop last week will testify is more
important than trying to manage time!)
and enforcing rest time. The basic prem-
ise works on building in rest time every
half an hour for 5 mins, as well as in-
creasing focus and productivity by en-
crease your attention span and keep the
brains energy levels at their peak (ap-
ples are a great natural substitute for cof-
fee by the way!), but also theyll help
tempt you away from the keyboard and
encourage you to seek nourishment.
Batch process
Chunk together tasks that are similar,
such as reading reports or making calls.
By doing this, you could grab the stash
of reading materials and take them to
a quiet outdoor spot or coffee shop
nearby. A change is as good as a rest.
I will often store up a list of phone calls
and go and sit on the beach while
I make them. Then, what might have
been a chore becomes a memorable
treat!
Get a cat!
This always works for me as my cat is
very needy! In all seriousness though,
stroking a pet is proven to lower blood
pressure levels! a
At the end of the
working day, close
down your laptop just
as you would if you
were in the ofce,
then go for a walk
or run to end the day.
Grahamspecializesin
personalorganisation-
alsystems,strategies
todealwiththeinfor-
mationoverloadand
actionmanagement.
Naturallytoostrategictobeorganisedperson
buthastrainedhimselftobeproductivethrough-
outthedevelopmentofpersonalworkfowsys-
temsanddevelopingthepowerofgoodhabits.
Graham Allcott !
By moving around, you get blood fowing,
you add structures to the day and you
keep your brain alert.
! Links: GrahamonTwitter|GrahamsThinkProductive!
13
magazine
Five Consequences
of a Life out of Balance
If you are working more than fftyfve hours a week, you are working
too much and likely out of balance. You may be able to work more than
this for a season, but it is not sustainable. If you persist in working
this much or more something will eventually break.

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By Michael Hyatt
W
hen I frst began my publish-
ing career, I was determined
to succeed. Part of what drove
me was fear. I didnt have any experi-
ence, and I was scared to death I would
be found out.
However, I was also driven by the de-
sire to achieve. I would later learn from
the StrengthsFinder test that my top
strength is Achiever. As a result, I loved
climbing the corporate ladder, moving
from one level to the next.
In those early years, I would arrive at
the offce at 5:00 a.m. and not leave un-
til 6:00 p.m. Since I would usually be at
my desk during lunch, this was thirteen
hours a day. I would almost always go
into the offce on Saturday, too. I was rou-
tinely working seventy hours a week.
My dear wife, Gail, was patient, but
with several small children, she really
needed relief. It took some serious mar-
riage counseling for me to realize that
my work/life balance was totally out of
whack. It was simply not sustainable.
Think of it this way: If you are working
more than fftyfve hours a week, you
are out of balance. You are putting at
risk at least fve very important assets.
1
Your health. Early in my career,
I thought I could get by by eating
junk food and not exercising.
However, I learned that this will inevita-
bly catch up with you. How many peo-
ple do you know who have died young,
simply because they refused to take care
of themselves?
2
Your family. You cant afford a di-
vorce. The cost is incalculable.
Just ask those who have gone
through one. You also cant afford to ig-
nore your children. If you dont invest in
them now, you will be forced to spend
time with them later in rehab, in juve,
or worse.
3
Your friends. Sadly, I didnt real-
ly have any close, personal friends
unt i l about f i ve years ago.
I thought that my work colleagues and
church acquaintances were enough. Not
so much. I have several great friends
now that mean the world to me. But
I must have margin in my life to invest
in those relationships.
4
Your efectiveness. I think you
are the most productive when
you are relaxed. Work is like golf
or any sport. The harder you work, the
less effective youll be. You are the most
productive when you are not stressed.
The number of hours you work has al-
most zero correlation with your effec-
tiveness.
5
Your example. Your people will
unconsciously mimic you. They
cant help it. As a leader you set
the pace. If you work seventy hours
a week, your people will think they must
work seventy hours a week. Most of
them wont be able to keep up. And
you will be responsible for the conse-
quences.
Dont get me wrong. I still work hard.
But now I have boundariesand balance.
I get into the office at 8:30 a.m. and
I leave promptly at 6:00 p.m. I also work
for two hours on Sunday evening, pre-
paring for the new week. In total thats
about 50 hoursgive or take. a
It took some serious marriage counseling
for me to realize that my work/life balance
was totally out of whack.
Think of it this way:
If you are working
more than fftyfve
hours a week, you
are out of balance.
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|MichaelsBlog:IntentionalLeadership
MichaelsfreeeBook:CreateYourPersonalLifePlan
MichaelHyattisthe
Chairman(andex
CEO)ofThomasNel-
son,thelargestChris-
t i a n p u b l i s h i n g
companyintheworld
andtheseventhlargesttradebookpublishing
companyintheU.S.Michaelhaswrittenfour
books,oneofwhichlandedontheNewYork
Timesbestsellerlist.HyattservesasChairman
oftheEvangelicalChristianPublishersAssoci-
ation(ECPA).Hehasbeenmarriedtohiswife,
Gail,fortwentyeightyears.Theyhavefve
daughtersandtwogranddaughtersandlive
outsideofNashville,Tennessee.
Michael Hyatt !
15
magazine
How Getting
Used To Silence
Can Help Your
Productivity
Sitting alone in a quiet place can be difcult.
Without distractions, we can feel bombarded by our
thoughts and emotions. All the ways were unhappy
or uncomfortable can come raging back into our
awareness when theres space for them to come up.
By Chris Edgar
I
ts no surprise, then, that our cul-
ture is hostile to silence. Everywhere
we go, it seems, were confronted
with some kind of noise background
music in stores, cars and airplanes go-
ing by, and so on. And when were alone,
we often fnd ourselves habitually switch-
ing on the TV or radio to fll the empti-
ness.
Why Being With Silence Is Important
However, the ability to be with silence is
critical to getting our work done effcient-
ly and enjoyably. My sense is that, for
most of us, our work requires us to
spend a lot of time focusing on a single
task in silence. Although phone calls and
emails come in occasionally, the bulk of
our time is devoted to working on that

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computer program, presentation, or oth-
er longterm project.
If we havent learned to tolerate qui-
et, we get jittery and distracted, and fnd
ourselves putting off our work to avoid
the experience. As psychologist Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi puts it in Flow: The
Psychology of Optimal Experience, un-
less one learns to tolerate and even en-
joy being alone, it is very diffcult to ac-
compl i sh any t ask t hat requi res
undivided concentration.
I think this is one reason lots of us
have trouble putting into practice the
productivity tips we fnd in books and
seminars. Many writers on time man-
agement advise us to unplug our phone
and Internet while were doing impor-
tant tasks, but they dont tell us what to
do when we cant deal with the quiet
that results. However, when emptiness
no longer bothers us, we can hold our
attention on our tasks with less effort.
Phasing Out SelfDistractions
How do we get comfortable with silence?
One useful exercise, Ive found, is to start
eliminating all the ways we create back-
ground noise in our lives outside of work.
Here are some examples.
1
Leave the car radio of. Driving
can be stressful, and many of us
use the car radio to take the
edge off the experience. But if we learn
to be with the edgy, unnerving feeling
of driving in silence, dealing with the
same feeling at work becomes easier.
2
Turn off the TV. When we get
home at night, many of us habit-
ually switch on the TV and veg
out, desperate for something to take
our minds off work. Instead, see if you
can veg out in silence try just sitting
on your chair or couch, for ffteen min-
utes, with no stimulation. Many people
are surprised at how tough this can be,
but getting used to it can have a big pos-
itive impact on our work.
3
Leave the iPod at home. Many of
us push silence away by keeping
our headphones on throughout
the day. While this drowns out our chat-
tering minds, it also diverts some of our
attention from what were doing, so the
quality of our work suffers.
Id recommend doing this exercise
gradually, phasing out your selfdistrac-
tions one by one. For instance, on the
frst day of the week, you might try leav-
ing the TV off; on the second day, you
could drive to work without the car ra-
dio, and so on. Going completely cold
turkey from background noise in a sin-
gle day can be overwhelming for some
people. When you bring silence into your
life, you may be confronted with intense
thoughts and sensations. The best way
to handle these, in my experience, is to
simply allow them to be. Keep breath-
ing, relax your body, and allow each
thought and feeling to pass away, with-
out resisting or running from it.
What youll discover, I suspect, is that
the experiences you may have been
drowning out with background noise ac-
tually arent so threatening. Allowing your
thoughts and feelings to be, just as they
are, isnt likely to hurt you. And when
your inner experience no longer seems
so uncomfortable, you become able to
concentrate on your work for longer pe-
riods, and maybe even start enjoying
what you do. a
When you bring silence into your life,
you may be confronted with intense
thoughts and sensations. The best way
to handle these, in my experience,
is to simply allow them to be.
unless one learns
to tolerate and even
enjoy being alone,
it is very difcult
to accomplish
any task that
requires undivided
concentration.
ChrisEdgarhelpspeo-
plefndfocus,motiva-
tionandpeaceintheir
workthroughhiswrit-
i ng, speaki ng and
workshops.Heisthe
authorofInnerProductivity:aMindfulPathto
EffciencyandEnjoymentinYourWork,which
GettingThingsDoneauthorDavidAllencalls
agreatreadandausefulguidebookforturn-
ingthedailygrindintosomethingmuchmore
interestingandengaging.
Christopher Edgar !
! Links: ChristopheronTwitter|ChristophersWebSite
InnerProductivity:aMindfulPathtoEffciencyandEnjoymentinYourWork
17
magazine
Te Art
of Being
on Time
Last week I had an
unusual (for me)
series of meetings
both online and
ofine, as well
as a long list of
scheduled business
calls. I was on time
for all of them.
For a person, whos
known for being
always late
thats a great
achievement...
and I want to
keep it up. It may
sound strange
for you, but being
organized doesnt
mean youre not
showing up late...
By Michael Sliwinski
Being organized has nothing
to do with being on time.
Not for me anyway
I read the GTD book 6 years ago for the
frst time (and since then reread it 10
times total in English, Polish, Spanish,
German and audio...), Ive been running
Nozbe for 4 years now and editing Pro-
ductive! Magazine for 2 years as well...
and I can say that Ive learned a lot about
being productive. Im an early riser most
of the days, I have my email inbox at ze-
ro most days, too... and I do a weekly
review at least once every two weeks
now, not bad :)
Showing up late has a lot to do
with optimism... and Im a very
optimistic person!
But Ive always been late for stuff. It runs
in the family, my dad is like this and Im
the same. You see, Im very optimistic
What it means for
others when youre
late... it means you
dont respect other
people. Sad but true.
and I always think I can squeeze one
more action to do quickly before I leave
for a meeting... and being a well orga-
nized person, I can quickly pick a task
to do right before I leave... and then I run
like crazy to make it for the meeting...
and Im usually late.
The problem is, when I arrive late, I feel
bad for the person waiting for me, for
myself... Im frustrated... and was the
extra task I did before leaving worth it?
Of course not... but being optimistic as
I am... Ill repeat the pattern again next
time. Vicious circle.

F
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magazine
Hi, how are you? Whats up... and its
defnitely a better way to start a conver-
sation. It improves the outcome of the
meeting and impacts your relationships
with people positively. Its great for both
parties. And if they are late you dont
mind, because you were just catching
up with stuff on your iPhone anyway :)
Secret no. 5 its not easy to be on
time, all of the time, but its doable
Thats right, There is still a long way for
me to go. But Ive made a new policy
for 2011 for me: Im never late. Never.
Period and now I need to stick to it and
I will not accept any excuses. Its going
to be a tough journey but I believe I can
change and become an ontime per-
son this year.
Im running a company with 11 peo-
ple on board. I have a family that de-
pends on me. I work with outside free-
lancers and other great people. To make
sure these relationships work great,
I need to make this extra effort and be
on time for them. All of the time.
Are you with me? a
What it means for others when youre
late... it means you dont respect other
people. Sad but true.
Zig Ziglar quotes in his podcast epi-
sode called The power of selftalk; he
quotes a friend who also had a problem
of being on time: ...whenever I was late
what I was saying to the person I was
meeting with (without saying it) was: My
time is very important. Your time is not
worth much, because youre not worth
much. So you go ahead and wait for me
and Ill get there at my convenience...
and when I realized that I made a com-
mitment not to be late again for any-
thing... and in the next three years I was
never late for anything... and it improved
the relationships I had with my wife, my
family, my coworkers, my customers...
everyone. Just this one thing of being
on time...
When I heard that, it struck me. Its
now or never. Its time to change and
not to be late anymore. Its time to be
on time. I dont want to broadcast a mes-
sage to people that my time is more im-
portant than theirs. I never believed
that... but apparently I was spreading
this message. Thats bad. Thats not me.
Thats not the person I want to be.
How to change that? How to sudden-
ly be on time for stuff? Here are some
things I discovered that might be very
obvious for you... but that werent obvi-
ous for me at all:
Secret no. 1 aim at least
a quarter before the deadline
Thats it. Nobody ever told me that. So
when I had a meeting at 6 pm, I was op-
timistically aiming at 6 pm... and theres
always been a traffc jam, some prob-
lem with a car, public transportation,
something else unplanned... and I ar-
rived late.
The last three days I aimed 15 min-
utes before. When I had a meeting at 6,
I was aiming at 5:45... and usually I was
there around 5:50... so I was around
10 minutes BEFORE the deadline... in-
stead of being 5 minutes late... wow,
feels great!
Secret no. 2 waiting for
someone is not unproductive.
Not with an iPhone.
Remember I always wanted to squeeze
this last action before leaving for the
meeting to make sure I use the time most
effectively? Well, even if I arrive 15 or 10
minutes before the meeting, my wait-
ing time is not wasted. I can just pull
out my iPhone and catch up on RSS
news, answer a few emails or process
my email inbox to zero, listen to pod-
casts, listen to audiobooks, browse the
web... my time is never wasted when
I have my iPhone (or any smartphone
for that matter) with me. I dont even
need my laptop.
Secret no. 3 excuses dont affect
you and you dont depend on them
As I was aiming at the exact meeting
time any problem like traffc, resched-
uled train, etc. decided on me being on
time or not. I wasnt depending on my-
self, I was depending on everything run-
ning smoothly... and things never run
smoothly. Life is life. Of course I had
these perfect excuses then... but what
I found out is that people dont care
about your excuses they just see youre
not being on time and that you dont re-
spect them.
Secret no. 4 its very rewarding
to be on time people love it
When you arrive on time, you dont start
off a conversation by saying: Im sorry
I was late you start it off by saying:
Theres always been a trafc jam, some
problem with a car, public transportation,
something else unplanned...
MichaelSliwinskiis
yourchiefeditorofthe
Productive!Magazine
andahostofthenew
Producti ve! Show.
Everydayhestrying
tohelppeoplegetmoredonewithhiswebap-
plicationNozbenowalsoavailableasana-
tiveiPhoneoriPadapp.
Michael Sliwinski !
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Productive!Magazine|Productive!Show
NozbeSimplyGetItDone!|MichaelSliwinskisBlog:InternetBusinessProductivity
19
magazine
By Pat Brans
C
onsider the case of Gertrude
Boyle, a German Jew who es-
caped Nazi Germany in the nick
of time and emigrated to the United
States at the age of thirteen with her
family. This tough experience gave her
an unusual perspective later in life.
When she was fortyseven her hus-
band died of a heart attack, leaving her
alone with three children and a small
company to run. Her husband had just
taken out a loan for onehundred ffty
thousand dollars with the house as col-
lateral. Having been a stayathome
mom up to that point, she knew noth-
ing about running a business. The situ-
ation was forced upon her and she had
to dig real deep to muster the courage
to rise to the occasion.
Success didnt come quickly for her
either. In the frst few years, she nearly
ran the company into the ground. But
Gert learned from her mistakes and
turned things around. In 2008, her com-
pany, Columbia Sportswear reported rev-
enue of over 1.3 billion dollars.
As diffcult as her situation would ap-
pear to most people, to others that is,
to people who are dealt an even less fa-
vorable hand her situation was rela-
tively easy. Faced with the choice be-
tween these two perspectives, Gert took
the second one: that her situation was
relatively easy. She also chose where to
focus her energy. Rather than waste time
Powerful
Tinking
We all have one hundred sixtyeight hours
a week, yet some people seem to get so much
more done than others. It turns out that much
of the diference comes down to attitude.
dwelling on the past, she thought about
what was best to do in the present and
in the future.
Your Attitude towards Your Goals
Another aspect of Gerts attitude that
helped was that she viewed her goals
as achievable through learning rather
than as a way of demonstrating abilities
she already possessed. When she ex-
perienced failure along the way, that sim-
ply meant she needed to learn more.
If on the other hand, she had taken the
view that reaching a goal was a way of
demonstrating capacity, she probably
would have seen intermediate failure as
a condemnation of her abilities, and she
may very well have given up.
This subtle distinction makes all the
difference in the world. People who think
reaching a goal will say something about
abilities they already possess start out
with two big disadvantages. The frst
Managing ones
attitude is one
of those powerful
notions people
who get a lot done
consistently put
to use.
Falconia/Shutterstock
20
magazine
or will you focus on those things you can
change? What things will you bring to
the foreground and what things will you
put out of your mind?
Research has shown that your atti-
tude towards your goals is a major fac-
tor in how you perform in going after
what you want. This being the case, its
worthwhile spending some of your one
hundred sixtyeight hours per week
thinking about what your goals really
mean to you. It may seem counterin-
tuitive, but when it comes to working to-
wards goals, the more you can take your
ego out of the picture, the more likely
you are to consistently achieve what you
set out to do. Whats more, if your self
image is not at stake, youll have a much
better time getting things done. a
problem is when they meet with inter-
mediate failure, it follows from their think-
ing that the opposite is true: they do not
have the abilities they thought they had.
The second problem is they tend to work
less towards the goal, especially when
they are comparing themselves with
somebody else. After all, if they have to
work as hard as the competition, it could
be taken to mean they have to compen-
sate for a lack of aptitude.
Think of all the talented underachiev-
ers you know. Could it be that they are
afraid to roll up their sleeves and get to
work towards something tangible be-
cause they run the risk of revealing they
dont have as much talent as they
thought?
Psychologists, such as Carol Dweck,
who have studied the role attitude plays
in how well you work towards your goals,
answer that question in the affrmative.
Dweck refers to these two distinct atti-
tudes towards goals as performance ori-
ented, when the outcome is viewed as
a demonstration of competence, and
learning oriented, when a goal is seen
as something for which competence can
be acquired. Studies have shown the
latter mindset will get you much further
in life.
Managing Your Attitude
During my Master The Moment sem-
inars, people tend to perk up to this
news, but then somebody usually argues
that a persons attitude is set and theres
nothing he or she can do about it. I love
when that happens, because it allows
me to segue into one of my favorite
points: a key fnding from my research
was that managing ones attitude is one
of those powerful notions people who
get a lot done consistently put to use.
All of the top performers I talked to said
they spend time rethinking their atti-
tudes.
One way they do this is by challeng-
ing their assumptions. For example, Gert
Boyle challenged her assumption that
a fortysevenyearold stayathome
mother, who didnt know a thing about
running a business, couldnt learn how
to do so on the job.
Another way they manage their atti-
tudes is by rethinking their perspectives.
Do I need to view my work towards a giv-
en goal through the eyes of those around
me? And does it need to be a demon-
stration to other people that I possess
certain skills? Or can I take a more hum-
ble approach and learn what I need to
accomplish what I want?
Ill cover one other way they change
their attitudes: by changing focus. Are
you going to spend precious time ago-
nizing over things you cant control,
Its worthwhile spending some of your
one hundred sixtyeight hours per week
thinking about what your goals really
mean to you.
The more you can take your ego out
of the picture, the more likely you are to
consistently achieve what you set out to do.
PatBransisfounderof
MasterTheMoment,
a new approach to
timemanagementand
personaleffectiveness.
MostofBranscorpo-
rateexperiencefocusedonapplyingtechnolo-
gytoenhanceworkforceeffectiveness.Nowhe
takesproductivitytoanotherlevelbyunveiling
thesecretsofhighachievers.Bransisauthorof
twobooks,visitingprofessorattheGrenoble
GraduateSchoolofBusinessandheconsults
andprovidesenterprisetrainingontimeman-
agementandproductivity.
Pat Brans !
! Links: PatBransWebsite:MastertheMoment|Fats 8ooks: MastertheMoment:FiftyCEOsTeachYoutheSecretsofTimeManagement
21
magazine
Traveling light, Processing Email
and Reading Magazines
Travel light with carryon
only (Episode #32)
Youcantravelwithonlyacarryon
l uggage for aweek and even
2weeklongbusinesstrips.Inthis
episodeImshowingyoustepby
stephowtoprepareapackinglist,
whatyouneedandhowtopackit
intoonecarryon(anditonly
weights10kg!)
Speedreading Magazines
(Episode #6)
Magazinesaregreatbuttheyare
bulkyandyoucantcarryaround
morethan12magazinesatatime.
Butinmax30minutesyoucanpre-
paremorethan5magazinesfor
readingbycuttingoutthemostim-
portantstuff.
By Michael Sliwinski
My Simple Email Setup
with IMAP (Episode #8)
WhenIswitchedmyplatformfrom
WindowstoMacIreevaluatedmy
emailsetupandIfoundIwasusing
thegoodoldPOP3whenthereis
anIMAPwhichkeepsmyemailsyn-
chronizedbetweenmyMac,iPhone
andtheWeb.IalsofoundoutIon-
lyneed3folderstogetittozero.
As in every issue
of the magazine
theres some
short video
time for you
to enjoy.
Here are the
recent three
Productive!
Show videos
(each of around
2 minutes).
I hope the tips
and tricks
Im sharing
will serve as an
inspiration to
you and will
make you more
productive too.
Productive! Show Videos
! Links: Hopeyouenjoyedtheseshortproductivityvideos.Clickheretobrowseallepisodearchive.
22
magazine
Te Eventual Planifesto
I have written countless articles on the subject
of productivity both of the eventual and
noneventual sort. (Well, they arent really
countless in as much as Im not really willing
to count them. You probably could count them
if you wanted.) But Id never written a book
before, whether it be of the e or none kind.
I eventually did write one of the e variety.
By Mike Vardy
I
n terms of leadership, which is the
theme of this issue, I guess you
could see the leadership aspect
would be that Im one of those leading
the charge when it comes to eventually
writing an eBook.
Here are some excerpts from The
Eventual Planifesto for your reading plea-
sure (or listening if someone reads it to
you Eventualists avoid reading):
On Tasks:
If you want to be perceived as a hard
worker that takes on everything thrown
their way, then you need to become
a task collector. Simply put, you need
to gather as many tasks as you can and
do your best to get them done over
a long period of time as eventually as
possible. Remember, collectibles gen-
erally increase in value as they age.
On Goals:
if you have a goal that isnt aligned
with everyone elses then people are go-
Eventuallyselfpro-
fessedproductivityex-
pert,founderofthe
newproductivityide-
ology:Eventualism.
AlsorunsWorkAwe-
somewebsite.AuthorofneweBookcalled
TheEventualPlanifesto.
Mike Vardy !
ing to expect results from you. They want
to see what different people can accom-
plish when they think differently. Thats
why the best goal you can have as an
Eventualist is to have lots of goals. That
way you can call upon any given goal at
any time to serve your needs even if
you have no intention of seeing it through
to the eventual end.
On Projects:
Have you ever heard of Project Scope
Creep? Neither have I, but he sounds
terrifying. The idea of having that kind
of thing going on in terms of seeing
a project through to completion is
enough to make a person want to aban-
don ship and run for the hills. So do that.
But do it as eventually as possible.
On Priorities:
Priorities play an important role in both
pressing and eventual productivity. With-
out them, youll not have a roadmap for
your tasks that help you get to the goals
that matter most to you. But with Even-
tualism, because you are keeping your
goals and tasking at a highlyevolved
(and highlyeventualized) rate, priorities
are the veil or beard that you can hide
your productive nature behind.
On Procrastination:
Procrastination is about having a plan
to do something and then executing it
eventually while Eventualism is about
eventually doing something based on
a plan to do so eventually all along.
On Putting it All Together:
So, as you can see, Eventualism is
a bunch of little stuff and a whole lot of
a lot of stuff. But how do you put all of
that stuff together? You do it with a lit-
tle strategy I like to call togetherication.
Putting together all of the pieces of an
eventual lifestyle is the toughest thing
to do both consistently and eventually.
This is where the systemization of Even-
tualism comes into play.
Youll need to fgure what stuff should
be eventualized when and how be-
fore moving ahead with the next bit of
stuff, and so on. It sounds more com-
plicated than it is... and thats because
you often will only eventualize only one
or two things per day, so the so on be-
comes a nonfactor.
So, there you have it. How does this
all tie into leadership? Well, leaders
dont lead from the getgo. They even-
tually lead. So go forth and lead...
in your own time. a
! Links: MikeonTwitter|MikesBlog:Eventualism|WorkAwesomewebsite
GetMikese-Book:TheEventualPlanifest
23
magazine
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