ProductivityCast

This week, the ProductivityCast team discusses the tools and tricks for producing content productively. Content production is not just for marketers; it's a fundamental component of many of our job duties. So, producing content productively can really help us save time and garner a stronger reputation among our peers and employers. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit h...

We had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO of Radio.co and Podcast.co, James Mulvany, about Entrepreneurial Productivity for his 30 Interviews in 30 Days challenge. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/074 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd l...

On ProductivityCast, we talked about the Bullet Journal method, the paper-based personal productivity methodology developed by Ryder Carroll, and tailoring the Bullet Journal method in our own personal productivity systems (as well as managing it in digital environments). (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/073 for clickable links and the f...

Over the past decade, Nozbe has become known as one of the best task managers on the market inspired by the Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology. (We've done a GTD podcast series, and we've recently interviewed David Allen, creator of GTD.) They have now come out with a completely independent product called Nozbe Teams, and as you can imagine it’s focused on small organization productivity inspir...

What do you do when you can’t create more time, but have more to do? That’s the topic we try to tackle on ProductivityCast. From enlisting virtual assistants to hiring productivity consultants to professional organizers to handyman services and everything in between, we discuss personal outsourcing to get more done. Note: Art Gelwicks was with us for this episode, but unfortunately a technical pro...

Today on ProductivityCast, we are interviewing David Allen, who is most often quoted for saying, Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them. David Allen, author of Getting Things Done David Allen is the author of best-selling book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (the revised edition was published in 2015, among other works), and the eponymous GTD methodology, as well...

We originally recorded this episode in July 2019 and the discussion we had couldn’t be more salient today--remote work. Remote work, working from home, digital nomadic lifestyles and more were trending upward before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now we are grappling with the realities of the shifting world of work out of necessity. In this blissfully-unapparent-of-the-future dialog, the ProductivityC...

We get your listener messages and we love them! So, keep them coming! We try to respond to most of them via email response when we get them. For those that require more than an email, we have started to respond to them here in episodes together. And, this is the premiere edition of our Ask ProductivityCast episode series. Whenever we get a few questions that require some heavy lifting, we’ll put o...

As we are living through a challenging period, and while some work may be limited, it’s still good to know proper skills like project planning in uncertain circumstances. In this week’s episode, the ProductivityCast team discusses the challenges we face when project planning in uncertain circumstances and ways to push through, along with tools to help. (Please visit https://productivitycast.net/06...

We are in uncertain times, indeed. So, here are some strategies to consider when approaching working from home in the age of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19. We wish you all safety and health throughout this difficult period. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/066 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.)...

Episode 065 | Ergonomics and Your Productivity With James Olander, The Roost Laptop Stand For James, he found the right thing to work on by being very close to a problem that affected him personally and discovering an unsolved problem in that space.  He had been working at a laptop for years, hunched over, until it put him out of commission. RSI (repetitive stress injury), carpal tunnel, constant...

Indecision can be one of the powerful productivity inhibitors. It can be a powerful force against projects and actions that can help move your professional and/or personal life forward. We wanted this episode to help you make great decisions and provide you with strategies and techniques to combat indecision. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast...

A recent article in The New Yorker, "Was Email a Mistake?," triggered a conversation around the veracity of email in the Digital Age. The author, computer science professor Cal Newport, discussed this on a recent interview on NPR. This is our response to the question, was email a mistake? (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/063 for clickabl...

Most don't think about it, but aside from finding the best productivity planner for ourselves, the very paper planner (a/k/a agenda, diary, journal, scheduler, notebook) didn't even exist until roughly 90 years. What did humankind do for the prior millennia upon millennia?! It wasn't until Gustav Grossmann came around with his own 200-page manifesto and leatherbound planning notebook in the 1930s,...

If you haven’t heard about Kanban before (which many of our productivity enthusiasts had not, so you’re not alone!) started as a lean manufacturing process by Taiichi Ohno. It has since branched off into a process management and improvement method used by many in the productivity community (especially in the Lean, Six Sigma and Agile communities). In practical terms, with Personal Kanban, you crea...

Are you always hearing excuses from others about why they didn't get something done? Or, are you coming to terms with making excuses yourself for commitments you are making and breaking? In this cast, we discuss the particulars of excuses (and making justifications, and perhaps appropriates "reasons") for not getting a task or project completed. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app,...

We all intuit the importance of our spaces in being and staying productive throughout the workday. Yet, companies and management have different goals and objectives when it comes to how they structure those spaces. In today's cast, we discuss the topic of open office spaces, and whether or not they are a productivity enabler or disabler. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please v...

You’ve likely experienced good and bad meetings in your work and personal lives. Meetings that seem to never end, or as aimless or dull that they possibly lull you to sleep or madness from boredom. On this week’s episode of ProductivityCast, we cover the anatomy of a successful meeting so that if you’re able to, you can lead your organizational gatherings, volunteer group huddles, church committee...

What we did this week is unusual for us, but we hope this works out to be a good format for an ongoing series on the podcast. Each of us proposed an independent topic, a productivity potpourri if you will, and we asked it of the other ProductivityCast teammates. We all went round robin and answered and discussed these topics. And hopefully we get into a place where we realize, some of these topics...

Social Media is ubiquitous today. Almost every mobile or Web-based app we use has social technologies built in—like buttons and emojis, commenting, rating and review systems, and the ability to connect, share and collaborate with others. While these features have made social media technology companies billions of dollars, they have also created some deleterious effects on humanity at large. How sh...

We are picking up from where we left off on the last cast in our discussion of two books, The Power of When by Michael Breus, PhD, and When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Dan Pink. On this cast, we discuss the power of having an ideal daily schedule and we reflect on our own daily schedules and how we use our understanding of our chronotypes for optimal productivity. (If you’re readi...

Every day, we wake up, we go about our day, and then we go to bed. In that span of one Earth rotation, we hope to and frequently achieve our basic needs. And, many of us want to do more. This where an understanding of chronotypes and how it impacts your productivity can help! Most people know about night owls, and maybe about morning larks (or, “early birds”) and hummingbirds. But, in this cast, w...

Do you see the world in a half-glass-full or half-glass-empty perspective? And, pertinent to us, how does optimism versus pessimism affect your personal productivity? That’s the topic we tackle on this week’s episode of ProductivityCast. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/053 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of th...

Are you struggling with controlling interruptions that are hampering your productivity? This week, the ProductivityCast team looks at the issues surrounding interruptions and how we can do our best to mitigate and manage them when they happen. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/052 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript...

In this week's episode, the ProductivityCast team discusses managing digital notebooks. With so much data flowing through your systems, taking and keeping track of our notes and reference information in our software of choice is critical to our personal productivity. How do you manage your digital notebooks? (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast....