1: The goal? To be more productive and less stressed.

Google productivity expert  Laura Mae Martin believes there is one simple thing we must do.

Make a list of every open loop we currently have in our brains.  

Personal. Professional. Projects. Deadlines. Ideas. To-Dos of all types and flavors.

“If we do only one thing from this entire chapter, it should be this,” Laura writes in her book Uptime: A … continue reading

1: So how exactly do we define productivity?

Google productivity expert Laura Mae Martin tells us in her book Uptime that productivity is comprised of three distinct elements:

Step #1: Defining clearly what we want to do,

Step #2: Setting aside the (right) time and place to do it, and

Step #3: Executing well within the designated time.

Productivity, Laura believes, is closely aligned with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi‘s concept of … continue reading

1: What if we worked backwards?

What if we did the year in review? But at the beginning of the year?  

“With slides and a full presentation about how we hit our sales numbers.”

That’s how Google productivity expert Laura Mae Martin describes “one of the greatest leaders I’ve worked with” in her book Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing.

This leader conducted an annual “pre-postmortem” … continue reading

1: What if someone were to stop us in the street and ask us to share our top three priorities?

What would we say? Can we answer quickly and confidently?  

“This is the very first question I ask anyone I’m coaching,” says Google productivity expert Laura Mae Martin in her book Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing.

“The first step for productivity is defining clearly what … continue reading

1: It was the early 1970s, and cognitive psychologist Virginia Valian was stuck.

She “found herself so paralyzed by work anxiety that she couldn’t write a word of her PhD thesis,” Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts.  

Our lives can be shaped by what it is we are trying to avoid, Oliver observes. “We talk about … continue reading

1: As leaders, what’s more addictive than flying in as Superman or Superwoman to save the day?

“It feels downright intoxicating,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire.

The only problem with regularly donning our capes?

Our teams become dependent on us to provide all the answers.

“It may feel good,” Dan observes, “but over time one … continue reading

1: “When a professional tosses a bowling ball down a lane, it knocks over nine or ten pins,”  Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire.

What happens when Dan’s eight-year-old son goes bowling?

More often than not, the ball goes right into the gutter.

Unless… Dan puts up bumpers.

“With the bumpers, he’s almost as good as … continue reading

1: As the CEO of his company, Brad was tired of all the “upward delegation” he was experiencing.

His team members would line up outside his door to ask for his guidance to help solve their problems.  

By the end of the conversation, somehow Brad now owned the issue.

“These problems were sucking his time and energy,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim … continue reading

1: No one ever gets it right.

“That’s one thing many entrepreneurs think,” Dan Martell writes in his book Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom, and Build Your Empire.

The good news? There’s an easy way to solve this problem.

Dan calls it: A Definition of Done. Or, simply: A DoD.  

“I use this for every person at every level in my company,” he writes.  

“For … continue reading

“Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever.” The Tao Te Ching

1: Who doesn’t love a new beginning?  

New projects. New things. New relationships.

“Because the moment of starting belongs to the world of limitlessness: For as long as we haven’t done any work on a project, it’s still possible to believe that the end result might match the ideal in our minds,”  Oliver Burkeman writes in Meditations … continue reading