Month: February 2022

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BookCast: The Myth of Multitasking, Second Edition by Dave Crenshaw

This week, Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art start a new series on ProductivityCast, BookCast, to discuss books in time management-related genres. To start us off, we’re discussing The Myth of Multitasking, Second Edition by Dave Crenshaw. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/125 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing BookCast: The Myth of Multitasking, Second Edition by Dave Crenshaw from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | BookCast: The Myth of Multitasking Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | BookCast: The Myth of Multitasking Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. BookCast: The Myth of Multitasking, Second Edition by Dave Crenshaw Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi, PhD Rube Goldberg machine bricolage MacGyver 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 mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Hello, and welcome to ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:22I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:23I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:24And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25Welcome, gentlemen. And welcome to our listeners to today's episode. Today, we are doing our second book caste, book discussions on books that we are reading and we wanted to share what we are reading with you today we are discussing the Myth of Multitasking how doing it all gets nothing done the second edition by Dan Crenshaw, he has written several books on productivity. But most notably, he has written and produced several courses on lynda.com, now known as LinkedIn learning, and that is the Microsoft owned company, LinkedIn, LinkedIn learning and the lynda.com platform. So if you ever go to LinkedIn learning or lynda.com, and you look at any of the productivity courses there, they're likely done by Dan Crenshaw. And so he has written this book this, do we call this an allegory or a fable of Helen and Phil, Phil being a productivity consultant that has come into this company to help out GREENGUARD with their productivity, specifically, the CEO, Helen, what did you guys think of the book? What were your ideas that initially kind of after finishing the book you thought about, and then then we can get into the kind of particulars of what Phil is really trying to portray here. What Crenshaw is trying to portray here through the character of Phil, Augusto Pinaud 1:40another book was a really enjoyable I agree on on the issues of multitasking and the problems of lack of attention and lack of focus. So I, I think, for many people who think that they can be to certain degrees effective multitasking, it's important to understand what Crusher coal, by ground tasking, you know, that you can drive and listen music and versus actually when you need to put attention on the work and what is the cost of not putting the right attention to this to these tasks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 2:20He did attempt to bring a couple of new definitions to...
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Personal Knowledge Management With Zettelkasten

This week, in continuing on our recent episodes about note-taking methods, Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art are taking on a closely-related topic of personal knowledge management to discuss Zettelkasten. Don't know about Zettelkasten? Listen in and learn! (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/124 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing Personal Knowledge Management With Zettelkasten from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Personal Knowledge Management With Zettelkasten Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Personal Knowledge Management With Zettelkasten Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFZHuWLA09M Zettelkasten The Zettelkasten Method: Examples to help you get started. Getting Started • Zettelkasten Method OneNote Evernote Obsidian Instapaper Flipboard Feedly Pocket Maker’s Schedule and Manager’s Schedule by Paul Graham 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 mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place. ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things productivity, here are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:23I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:23Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:24And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. This week, we are going to step our toe into a little bit more of our note taking methodology topics that we were talking about earlier. And of course, that's going to get very muddy very soon. But we're interested in discussing the concept of zettelkasten. And today, what we're going to do is we're going to define the concept of zettelkasten, as best as we can, as the ProductivityCast team, and then talk about the ways in which people use zettelkasten in the in their own personal productivity methods and systems. And then talk a little bit about how you can maybe get started utilizing zettelkasten in your own work and life. And so let's start off with jumping into what is zettelkasten. And for those of you who are a little bit confused, it's ze TT ELKSTN. zettelkasten is a German word that means Slingbox, kind of like, think about the Dewey Decimal System in the old libraries, where you would put little cards into those little slip boxes. That's the the term that was used by this particular gentleman who developed the system. Art Do you want to give us a little bit of background on zettelkasten, where it came from, and then we can all kind of dive in and give our interpretations of what several caston is, Art Gelwicks 1:44here's the nutshell version, the original premise. And unfortunately, I'm going to, I can't, I'm drawing a blank on the author's name, or the the writers name, but he's maybe a goose, or maybe Ray, you remember his name, very prolific writer, 400, articles, books, everything generated huge amounts of content. And he developed this system called zettelkasten,
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How to Manage a COVID-era Ineffective Employee

Is there at least one staff member in your office whose lack of productivity has been exposed by COVID? Before the pandemic, you had a favorable opinion, in general, of the person’s performance. But once they began to work from home, their output plummeted. How should you intervene? Is it worth the time and effort?

The fact is, you may be in a bit of shock. In each company, there are employees with diplomatic skills who excel in social gatherings, are constantly active via email and get along with everyone. They’re always available to help, playing the role of a consummate corporate professional. Some dress and speak with authority, enjoying a first-hand relationship with members of the C-Suite.

However, working from home has been a breakdown for them. While you couldn’t imagine an office without their daily presence, the pandemic has taken away their ability to impress. Now, they are being judged solely by their most recent outputs. Unfortunately, since March 2020, you can hardly point to anything they have created of significance. While others have shined, they have disappeared.

As you look back, you wonder. The truth may be that their performance was always lacking. Perhaps they just didn’t keep up with technology. Or new knowledge. A few were living on past successes, reminding everyone of their historic value.

Sadly, you conclude that they had become experts in “keeping” rather than “doing” their job. Now, you must make a decision about their future. Here are some steps to follow.

  1. Get the facts

Oftentimes in Caribbean companies, low performance goes unflagged because managers are unwilling to have difficult conversations. The result? Years of performance reviews which produced stellar reports. In short, there may be no written record or warning of any issues whatsoever. Any discussions which hinted at a problem are, in the past, forgotten.

If this is the case, in the absence of any other information, it’s safe to assume that the employees have no idea they have fallen behind. While they may have personal, private suspicions, don’t speculate. Most employees care about doing a good job and have some degree of anxiety regarding their continued employment. Don’t presume an emotional state.

Instead, focus on the facts and separate them from any interpretations which you have added. If you need to write them down for the sake of clarity, do so. By the end, each factoid should pass the video-tape test: visible actions that could have been recorded if a camera were available.

If you recall incidents which took place before COVID versus those which showed up after, all the better. However, if you have no facts; stop. You can’t take further action until you can satisfy yourself (and others) that it’s all not just a figment of your imagination.

  1. Prepare for the Conversation

With the facts in front of you, take time to prepare to have a difficult conversation about what they mean. If you have never used a feedback model before, find one you feel comfortable with. I prefer the Observation-Impact-Suggestion framework as a kick-starter. It begins with the observed facts, continues with their impact, and concludes with a suggestion.

Practice this conversation opener with a colleague. Ask them for coaching to make it as effective as possible, even as they roleplay extreme reactions.

When the time comes, be ready to have a lengthy exchange with your employee to come to some sort of agreement on a way forward. Be prepared to help.

  1. Confront the Work from Home Reality

Beyond this individual’s performance lies the reasons why this discussion must be conducted in the first place. Performance management in most regional companies is weak, a fact which COVID has revealed. In response, some managers are itching to go back to the way things were, when they didn’t have to confront low-performers.

Make no mistake: the newly exposed low-performers also want to return to the safety of the office. Hence, both parties are in an awkward spot. But they will receive no mercy from the high-performers, who have found ways to motivate themselves during the pandemic. Freed from micro-management and wasteful commutes, they have shined brightly; some for the very first time.

What would it be like to have a full complement of self-motivated staff? If you commit to such an outcome, don’t simply lapse into business as usual, acting as if COVID was just an unwelcome interruption.

Instead, grasp it for the opportunity it is to transform the culture of your workplace. This bump in the road could be a catalyst for breakthrough results. Perhaps it’s an answer to your prayers.

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Productivity Labs, Methods Edition—Bullet Journal

Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art art starting a new "series" called Productivity Labs here on ProductivityCast. We're going to be discussing methods, skills and research we're experimenting with in our own personal productivity systems (even when they are not what we normally use) so we can report back to you what we've learned. This week, we're diving into how using the Bullet Journal method worked for us. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/123 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing the Bullet Journal method experiments from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Productivity Labs, Methods Edition—Bullet Journal Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Productivity Labs, Methods Edition—Bullet Journal Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Episode 035 - What Is the Bullet Journal?Episode 073 - Tailoring the Bullet JournalPatrick Rhone » The Dash/Plus System Going Further With Evernote masterclassAugusto referenced Anything But Idle, Episode 052, when discussing some research on taking notes on a laptop versus by handwriting notesGoodnotesEvernoteOneNoteOneNote Bullet Journal communityThe Bullet Journal Method: Track the Past, Order the Present, Design the Future by Ryder CarrollWorkflowyRocketbook notebooks 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 mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:23I'm Augusto. Francis Wade 0:23And I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:25I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:27Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, what we're doing is we are introducing a new I guess, we can call it a series in which we are going to be talking about different experiments, that is just discussing how we have each experimented with various methods and tools. Today is one of those methods discussions. And we're going to be talking about the bullet journal, we've of course, talked about the bullet journal in the past both what it is in Episode 35. And then again, we talked about really how you can tailor the bullet journal to your own needs. And episode 73. I'll put links to those in the show notes for us. dogfooding. A methodology when you're very used to another is very interesting. And I thought, well, we could do this more often, we could actually try these things out. And since art had had experience with the bullet journal already, I thought, well, let's put this together. And so good stone, I really started ideating. Well, let's do this with other methods over the course of time. And so that's really where productivity Labs was born from. And so let's get into it. Let's talk about the bullet journal in its most basic sense, because like I said, you can jump back to Episode 35, and go deep in to what the bullet journal method is. But let's do a an overview of the system itself.
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Note-Taking Methodologies

In this week’s ProductivityCast episode, Ray, Augusto, Francis and Art voiced their thoughts on note-taking methodologies. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/122 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing note-taking methodologies from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Note-Taking Methodologies Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Note-Taking Methodologies Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. OneNote Workflowy Cornell Note-Taking Method Mind Mapping 3 Best Note-Taking Methods Common Note-taking Methods 7 Most Efficient Note Taking Methods Evernote FreeMind/Mind42 TheBrain 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 mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place. ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things productivity, here are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and a goose open out with Francis Wade and art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:23And I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:24I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:25And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:26Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. Today, what we're going to be doing is starting kind of an ongoing conversation we're going to have over the next few episodes on notetaking. And what I thought we would do today, what I thought we could have a conversation around is really the the note taking methodologies that we know of, and use and kind of go from there. So let's start off with some of the most popular note taking methods that are out there. And then we can kind of touch base on what we use, how we've used them in the past, and maybe some pointers in terms of how people can bridge the gap between the hybridization of notetaking, which is that people have to toggle between paper and digital so often today, even though they don't realize it because we get a lot of paper in our world. And we take digital notes many times, but yet we actually don't make them actionable. And I think there's this balance between making things, reference and action. And I'd like to have a conversation about that as well around these the baseline methods that I know of like outlining, the Cornell note taking method, there's mind mapping, there's just unstructured note taking. There are many other ways in which we can take note taking, where do you want to begin in terms of note taking methods that you know about, and you'd like to discuss? Art Gelwicks 1:52Well, for me, it's a pretty straightforward one, I'm an outline guy. I love outlining, I use outlining that's, that is my fallback method, I find constantly doesn't matter what tool I'm using, I'll find myself creating outlines for organizing and moving through content. Mind Mapping is probably the counterpart in my mind to outlining, because it's that freeform structure, which outline limits a little bit, but I don't think, too, not to an extreme. But both, interestingly enough, translate just as well analog to digital, I can do them in both platforms.
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Writing Strategic Plans an Inside Job

Can someone from outside your company create your organization’s strategic plan? After all, if your future depends on the quality of this document, shouldn’t you hire an expert to do the job? At first glance, this makes sense, but as you contract with an outsider to execute the task, you may have misgivings.

As a consultant, I sometimes receive requests from potential clients (often via an RFP) to draft their strategic plan. It’s a bittersweet moment. While I’m happy to help, I also have a painful duty.

Now, I need to set about changing their mindset around the entire activity. Furthermore, I know something they don’t: these are non-negotiable. To be plain, if they refuse my efforts to change the definition of the project, I won’t work with them. What’s my reasoning for such a drastic demand?

  1. Strategic Plans Are Not Documents

While it’s the norm to equate a strategic plan with a document, the reality is quite different. It all has to do with where the document originates and what it’s intended to do.

The best plans lay out a very specific future. This is no 3-line vision statement with vague, undated aspirations which cannot be measured. Instead, it defines a detailed outcome and a realistic pathway to get there.

Ideally, its creation involves the top 10-18 leaders. Together, they seek to understand the current results and the external environment. Nowadays, this always includes the role of incipient and disruptive technology.

Once a baseline summary is created, a fresh, inspiring future can be defined. Usually, it’s selected from several possible candidates. Once the new vision is translated into numbers, it should be “backcasted” to the current year to produce a feasible

plan. This roadmap is converted into projects which are assigned to accountable individuals.

While there may be a document produced at the end of this process, it’s a poor facsimile of the hard conversations which preceded it. In retreats, we warn team members at the start: “Expect to make the 10 or so most difficult decisions needed to thrive in the future.”

Furthermore, they must do so with imperfect information. And they require courage to step into a world of uncertainty to declare a new Promised Land, even though they still live in Egypt.

As such, the document is optional – far less important than the final decisions, and the struggle to make them. Instead, the RFP I receive should focus on following rigorous, analytic steps as a team.

  1. There is No Real Delegation

However, there are companies in which the norm involves a CEO spending a weekend at a resort, locked away. During her hiatus, she writes the entire strategic plan. Her team receives the document on Monday morning.

One year, she may decide that she’s busy or needs outside input. She requests a quote from a consultant to perform the task instead. She explains: “My staff always agrees with the plan I come up with, and hardly give any comments. You should have no problem.”

When I share the bad news, she complains. “I just want you to write the plan, nothing else.” Is she making a mistake?

In a word, “Yes.” She hasn’t realized that her team has been left out of the process. Now, they are trained to give her “lip service.” They expect that by saying as little as possible, she’ll leave them to return to their operational, tactical jobs. Business as usual. They are “too busy to be distracted by strategic questions”, she complains.

By taking this path of least resistance, she makes a grave error. By relying on her strength alone, she under-estimates the need for their buy-in. Unless she’s in a tiny company, she actually needs them to do much more to succeed.

Instead, everyone in the leadership team should be engaged in crafting the strategic plan. This is the only way for the most important stakeholders to make challenging decisions. When she disappears for the weekend, she discounts their input.

Furthermore, she acts as if implementing the strategic plan involves no more than ordering people to play their part. This approach is far inferior to the alternative: involving the leadership team so that they can, in turn, engage others.

The bottom-line is, she’s been following a process that doesn’t work. Delegating it to an outsider only makes things worse.

If a consultant is employed, that may help. But the outside assistance shouldn’t diminish the challenge, it should only improve the experience and the final output.

True strategic planning, especially in these turbulent times, is no vacation-like exercise. It involves far more than prose. Instead, the stakes should always be high. The responsibility to confront tough choices and implement them lies with the leadership team.