Productivity
27 articlesSynthesis Project Management
Project management redesigned for AI capabilities. A craft that complements traditional PM tools by creating documentation AI can query, synthesize, and act on.
Travel Checklist for Personal & Business Trips (2024 Edition)
Pre-Trip Preparations Carry in Person (Personal Items) Clothes Worn While Traveling Choose appropriate items based on the following tags: Tags Items Packin...
The Power of Being Present: Why Working 24/7 Reduces Your Productivity & Innovation
As a longtime CTO and Chief Product Officer, I've seen firsthand the toll that constant work can take on individuals and teams. Many of us in the tech indu...
The Evolution of the 50/25 Meeting Format: Why Starting Late is the New On-Time
Introduction: An Updated Perspective on Time Management In a continuous quest to boost workplace effectiveness, it's useful to revisit our approaches. Ten ...
An Executive’s Daily Routine for Productivity and Balance (Summer 2023)
My friends occasionally ask how I keep a mostly even keel despite the pressures of an industry that needs to do more with less, and how I’ve managed to com...
Why I Recommend Using Spike for Email, Instant Messaging, and Video Chat (Review)
Background I care deeply about the people in my life. I value my relationships with them. I cherish in-person, face-to-face conversations. In my personal a...
Activities, Outputs, and Outcomes — A framework for your job
This is a framework for understanding, describing, and actually performing your job in a way that creates real value. After years of watching talented peop...
An Example of Respectfully Declining a Meeting at Work That is Already in Your Calendar
Here is an example of how to respectfully decline a meeting to make time to work on a higher priority. We occasionally find ourselves in meetings when our ...
CTO Mind Map: Culture, Technology, Operations
In the role of chief technology officer, you have to be concerned with many topics. Some relate to functions you have direct supervisory responsibility for...
Dear Makers, On Fridays My Office is Yours — An Experiment
Some senior leaders choose to work alongside their teams in cubicles, eschewing private office rooms. New York City’s former mayor Michael Bloomberg is an ...
3-5-7 Meeting Format for Weekly Staff Meetings
If you are the manager of a team of people at your job, here is a format we suggest for running your staff meetings. We call it the 3-5-7 format because of...
Posted Signs for Productive Meetings
You can post these slides as signs in your meeting rooms and offices or include them at the start of your presentations. You can also open the original Goo...
Template For Requesting an Outcome-Focused Meeting
Most meetings are wasteful because they're organized around what people will discuss rather than what they will accomplish. "Let's meet to talk about the ...
Templates for Replying to Meeting Requests & Polite Ways to Decline Meetings
By default, we should only attend meetings where we are active participants, not passive attendees with not much to contribute to the desired outcome of th...
When to have and when not to schedule meetings
Companies should, by default, avoid scheduling meetings that start before 10am or end after 5pm. If an employee comes to the office at 8am on some days, it...
50/25 Meeting Format
Update (2023 September 17): I published an update to this system based on data, experience, and the advice of colleagues. If you manage a team, value your ...
Using Laptops or Smartphones in Meetings
Using smartphones — or worse, laptops — during in-person meetings diminishes productivity, is disrespectful to others and decreases your brainpower. Yes, s...
Maker’s Schedule (For Managers Too)
The following memo from a department head to staff is an example of how to implement a productive maker's schedule at your workplace. This approach recomme...
5 Productivity Tips for Executives in Leadership & Management Roles
Here are 5 productivity tips for executives in leadership & management roles. Each tip involves the number 5. Every morning (or the night before), make a p...
Your Brain At Work (Book Review)
Let me tell you a story about my friends Emily and Paul. Emily and Paul were struggling in their demanding jobs and in managing their busy family life rais...
Productive Business Meetings
Here are some suggestions for making business meetings more productive, efficient and effective. Based on readers' feedback, I have split this article into...
How to Avoid Duplicate Search Results when using Apple Mail.app with Gmail
I use Gmail's IMAP feature with my Apple Mac OS's built in Mail.app program. Mail.app keeps local copies (on all my personal Macs) of all my email messages...
7 Tips for Effective Email
Some tips for making better use of email at work and in personal life Realize that busy people may skim your email instead of reading it thoroughly, especi...
List of Open Source or Free Software for Home and Business Use
Here is a list of some open source or free desktop software that you can use for personal use at home or at your business. Using open source software can s...
Sometimes extra steps in workflows are good
When implementing a content management system or other product, customers often ask for workflows that require the least number of steps required to any gi...
Personal & Business Travel Checklist
This checklist, that I have been using for many years since I was a teenager has now been replaced by my 2024 Personal & Business Travel Checklist. Related...
Do not celebrate until after your success – Life lessons from a chess tournament
The Sanskrit verse still echoes in my mind: "vinaash kaalae vipreet buddhi" (विनाश काले विपरीत बुद्धि). In my childhood years, I heard these words during...