Tag Archive for: productivity

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The Checklist Manifesto

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The Meeting Gauntlet

Surprisingly, no one I have ever worked with has canceled a meeting unless there was a significant attendance issue. Meetings have inertia that people seem afraid to impede as if the default position of the working universe is to have meetings.

I argue that the opposite is true.

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My Morning Routine

An illustrated scene of a serene morning view from a window. The window frames a landscape with lush greenery and distant hills under a soft sunrise sky, in hues of orange, yellow, and blue. On the wooden window sill, there's an open notebook with a pen resting on it and a white cup of coffee, inviting a peaceful moment of reflection or journaling.

I like magic tricks as much as the next person, but I usually find effective magic tricks to be frustrating.

I know there is a trick; some secret, technique, or special tool that lets the magician perform the trick. The trick is effective because I don’t know how it works, and it frustrates me that I can’t figure it out.

Sometime over the past two years, I figured out how to perform a magic trick on myself; and I am frustrated because I don’t know how it works, just that it does.

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Anatomy of an Action Item

I have written before about the hierarchy of tasks (i.e., action items) in OmniFocus. In this post, I will zoom in on the base unit of productivity, an action item, and identify the characteristics every action item should have.

I like using OmniFocus and calling tasks “action items.” Regardless of the program you use, and whatever you call the things you need to do, you should think about how they are composed. As of March 2021, I think these are the essential parts of an action item. When I clear to neutral every day, I make sure each action item that goes into my system has been reviewed for each of the following characteristics.

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Why I Have a Blog

I started this blog in June of 2015. At times I have taken months or even a year in between posts. However, what once started as an offshoot of a grad school project has turned into an act of public humiliation/vulnerability that I have now done 100 times. This is my 100th blog post!

For my 100th post, something that never crossed my mind when I registered this domain, I decided to write about why I am doing this (and why I think you should too).

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