What’s Your Productivity Style?

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productivity style

Want to be less stressed and get more done too? Check out my book, Listful Living: A List-Making Journey to a Less Stressed You. It will help you design a more productive and less-stressed life.

One of the biggest hurdles people face when they’re trying to be more organized is figuring out what works for them. It’s why I recommend a variety of apps and tips on this blog and created Listful Thinking Masterclass. There is no one solution that suits everyone. Once you understand your productivity style you can cater to your work schedule around your needs.

Follow this list to discover your productivity style.

1. Are you a morning or night person? Most people know when they are most productive, but they often make the error of trying to correct it. Forcing yourself to wake up earlier if you can’t possibly write a sentence at 6am doesn’t help anyone. It may sound simple, but stop trying to change who you are. Instead plan to do your most difficult tasks when you’re at your most productive even if that’s in the middle of the night. Read more

Stop Googling Yourself

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mentionI have a confession — I’ve been known to casually Google myself every now and again. Come on…we’ve all done it! I even have Google alerts set up for my name, and a few keywords like list making and to-do lists. But there’s a better way!

I’ve discovered the app and website Mention. It’s amazing and acts like your own personal Internet trolling system. I started using it just before my book Listful Thinking launched because I want to know who is talking about it on the Internet. It can be hard to track them down using Google alerts only.  Infact, Google alerts hasn’t alerted me at all about the book. What’s up with that? Read more

3 Ways Short Deadlines Help You Do More

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Italiano: Autore: Francesco Cirillo rilasciata...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The problem with time management is that humans are, in genera, fairly bad at judging time and how long things take. For example, five minutes seems like a short amount of time, but try holding a heavy box for five minutes and it’ll seem like an eternity.

So when we say we’re going to work on a project for an hour, we’re often setting ourselves up to fail. That’s why I believe splitting up your task into manageable chunks is actually the fastest way to get it done.

As a TV producer I’ve had years of practice so I know what 45 seconds vs. two minutes and 45 seconds feels like.  It takes a while to get the feel just right.  But when you do — it can be an amazing productivity tool.

Here’s some easy ways to break tasks into bite-sized pieces: Read more

Don’t have time to read my blog? I’ll read it to you!

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I’m all about shortcuts.  I stand in the right spot when the subway shows up so I can get to work faster, I pre-register for flights, buy gifts in advance and I’ve started listening instead of reading.  It’s just quicker to have something read to me while I commute rather than read half a page of a book and then forget where I left off because I get distracted or arrive at my destination.

So in the past few months I’ve been listening to more podcasts and using a really smart app called Umano.  I’ve written about Umano before but briefly it was created for people like us who are on the go.  It contains lots of articles that you can add to a playlist and they will be read to you while you commute, workout or hang out on the couch!  I loved it so much I partnered with them.

So now you can hear me read many of the blog posts I write here on ListProducer.com on my Umano channel.  I’ll also read some of the guest posts that I write for other sites as well.

I hope you’ll subscribe and give a listen — it’s free!  Oh and my good friend Terri Trespicio is on there too — she’s got a great voice and lots of fabulous content too!

Apps That Save You In a Pinch

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iphone-410311_1280If there is one thing organized people fear, it’s when life doesn’t go as planned. It’s because we make lists and detail everything out in order to leave as little room for error as possible. Sadly, no matter how organized you are, things can still go wrong.

I’ve struggled with this my whole life. But I think there’s a reason I became a TV producer – it has helped me deal with this. When I worked in live TV – I always needed a backup plan…just in case.

Here are some apps you should download for when things go awry you aren’t caught off guard and can immediately move on seamlessly: Read more