Achieve more in life.
Posts tagged productivity
Big Things Are Important, But Little Things Count
May 4th
The small todos that don’t get done.
We all have them.
You know, the little things that always seem to slip through the cracks.
We tell ourselves that the small things will take care of themselves.
But, what happens when they don’t?
What’s Not Getting Done?
Normally, it is about getting the big things done.
After all, we have to stick to our priorities, right?
However, if we let enough little things by… they start to add up.
Before we know it, the flood waters have reached our waist.
And then there is a lot more work to do.
Little things unattended become big things.
Tasks undone create more work.”
We intend to do these seemingly simple and innocuous tasks, but we never get to them.
Why can’t we get the small things done?
Catching the Little Things
The small tasks are often the hardest to get done.
They are the ones that linger on our todo list indefinitely.
Here are some tips to ensure that you “Do the Little Things:”
- Have a System – If you hope to catch the small things, you must have a method to do it. Many people miss the small things simply because they are not tracking them. Keep a list. It doesn’t matter whether it is on paper, or on your smartphone, but ensure you have a way to track your todos.
- Capture Them – Small tasks are easily forgotten. When one presents itself, don’t let it slip by. Write down even the tiniest of tasks down immediately.
- Review Regularly – Your todo list can’t have your back if you don’t look at it. Ever find that abandoned list in your desk drawer of the things you were going to do? Look at your list regularly, and keep it in a prominent easy-to-see place.
- Do Them Bit-by-Bit - When the list of “small things” piles up, it can become quite daunting. A todo list with 100+ items can leave you wondering where to begin. However, small tasks are easily whittled down. Attack that list bit-by-bit. Soon it will be under control again.
- Fit Them In – Small tasks are just that… small. You can fit them in during even the smallest of opportunities. Instead of wasting that 5 minutes before the meeting playing “Words with Friends,” use the time to get a small task done. Return a call, answer an email, or prepare for your next appointment.
- Delegate Them – Small tasks are often the best ones for delegating. They can often be done by others without much explanation. So, keep the tasks that require your expertise and delegate the smaller ones that a team member or colleague could address.
- Do One Thing You Wouldn’t Have Done Today – Small tasks are ones that don’t scream for our attention. So, you need to give them extra effort when appropriate. Do one extra small task each day that has been lingering on your list.
- Group Them – Small tasks don’t take much time. When you have a small time block, do 3-5, or even 8-10 little tasks in a bunch. Knocking out small tasks in groups is not only productive, but feels great! This motivation can help drive your bigger priorities, as well.
Adding Up the Small Things
Getting the most important tasks done is normally our priority.
However, you can’t ignore the little things.
If you do, they will catch up to you.
So, take a look at your list and make an extra effort to do a few small things today.
Question: What small things regularly slip by you?
One Simple Thing You Can Do To Instantly Improve Your Day
May 4th
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” – Etty Hillesum
Are you familiar with those days where you feel like you have too much going on – way too much work, a dozen errands, e-mails to check, voicemails to listen to, and a growing list of things you really need to handle?
Or what about those days where you feel like you’re on autopilot and just going through the motions? Nothing is really wrong, but for one reason or another you just feel…blah.
I am way too familiar with all of those types of days. In fact, I spent years having crazy days, blah days and all the other type of mentally draining days in between. It wasn’t that I didn’t have those “great” days, but they absolutely didn’t show up as consistently as I would have liked.
I thought, “There has to be a better way. There must be something I can do differently.”
I knew I wasn’t supposed to rush through my day. I also knew that I was supposed to really live and experience the day — and sometimes I was able to actually do that. I had glimpses of how good the day could really feel, but I just wasn’t able to consistently not get sucked into the day.
But, one day I figured out stumbled into “Time Ins” and life hasn’t been the same since.
Take Some “Time In”
A “Time In” is simply a conscious decision you make to take a break from all that you have going on and give yourself just 60 seconds to relax, recharge and most importantly enjoy silence.
You can be anywhere — work, in the shower, at a stop light, waiting for an elevator. The key is just to stop what you are doing, make a conscious decision to unplug from the world for just one minute and to focus on taking some deep breaths.
I think one of the greatest things about any day is that we can choose to make little changes and instantly see things improve. It doesn’t take much to make the day better, but it does take intent.
And, all that is required is that you choose today to change your routine up a little and add some “Time Ins” to your day.
3 Tips For Integrating “Time Ins” Into Your Day:
- Do it 3 Times A Day. Aim to take a “Time In” three times a day for 60 seconds. Ideally, you will take a “Time in” in the morning, the middle of the day and the evening. You can certainly take more if you remember, but three is a good number to start with. After you continually take “Time Ins” day after day, you will most likely want to take more than three. This is definitely a situation of “the more, the better” – so take as many as you can.
- Use All 60 Seconds. Take the entire minute to unplug. Just relax and focus on taking deep breaths for 60 seconds. Really focus on slowing down your mind and enjoying the “Time In”. Enjoy the silence and let go of whatever you were thinking about for just 60 seconds. Use a “Time In” When Needed. If you notice your energy draining or that you are getting worked up, stop what you are doing and take a “Time In”.
- Use the “Time In” to recenter and reenergize yourself before you jump back into whatever you were doing. It’s amazing how taking just sixty seconds to yourself will instantly relax and recharge you.
Start taking your “Time Ins” today. I promise it will be one of the best things you have ever done for yourself.
(Photo credit: Painting Sky via Shutterstock)
How to Make a Difference as a Time Management Coach
May 2nd
Many managers and coaches feel an immediate burden when they review an employee or client’s performance and think to themselves, “They need some better time management skills.” As they review their limited options, they quickly conclude that none of them fits their needs and none of them are likely to work. The fact is, in order to make a lasting difference, they need to go beyond the options that currently exist and create a much larger context for the employee to succeed.
Let’s start by looking at the options that you have as a time management coach.
Toss Them a Bunch of Tips
This approach is the simplest. Just observe the employee closely, and when you can find a pearl of wisdom that applies to an observed shortcoming, toss it their way. For example, “Hey Andrea, ever hear of a To-Do list?” Some look for websites like Lifehack with lots of relevant tips and forward posts in the hope that the employee/client will be able to go ahead and “just do it.”
This rarely works because the skill of “time management” is a complex one that’s made up of a number of intricate habits, practices and rituals assembled over several years. It isn’t the kind of skill that’s improved much by shortcuts, tips and tricks; there are no miraculous, instantaneous results. Instead, successful improvements come from shifting ingrained patterns of behavior in a systematic way over time. It helps to know this before you attempt the first coaching session.
Buy Them a Book
A better option than “tossing tips” is to buy them a good time management book. At the moment however, all the well-known authors say essentially the same thing:
“Follow the methods in this book exactly as I have laid them out and you’ll be successful.”
The problem is that very few professionals are actually able to achieve this goal. If you compare notes with others who have read the same time management book, you quickly realize that you both have cherry-picked ideas from here and there, to the point where your individual systems may bear little resemblance to each other. This is actually a good thing, but it means that when you buy your employee your favorite productivity book, don’t expect him/her to end up doing things the way you do.
This is due, in part, to human nature. There can never be any one-size-fits-all approach to anything but the most simple of habit patterns. When it comes to complex patterns, we are just too different from each other in too many ways to use a single approach effectively. Instead, we all need custom methods that suit our individual goals and idiosyncrasies.
Furthermore, when you consider the impact of new technology, it’s hard to imagine how an author could claim to have stumbled upon the ultimate solution.
Dezhi Wu’s research also shows that we have different needs at different points in our careers. In her book, “Temporal Structures in Individual Time Management”, she has found that college students manage their time better than their professors and administrators. One reason might be that they are forced to deal with more information and therefore develop fresh systems that are able to cope with more inputs. Unfortunately, her research implies that once today’s students become tomorrow’s professors and administrators, they too will be surpassed in time management skill by their students – probably because they, like the rest of us, rest on their laurels and stop coming up with fresh new methods to deal with technology shifts and life changes.
In short, don’t expect your employee or client to use the book the way you did.
Send Them to a Program
In my first year of employment at AT&T, some of my colleagues attended a time management program based on a popular daily planner. They all came away with shiny new 3-ring binders with custom refills and I remember what one attendee told me:
“The binder was the best part. All the other stuff they tried to teach us was nonsense.”
Most programs take the same one-size-fits-all approach that books take, which is a drawback, but the benefit comes when participants learn the truth from each other – they aren’t going to be doing “all this stuff” anytime soon. While this may run contrary to the expectations of the time management coach, participants take comfort in confirming their suspicion that each person plans to do their own thing. It reinforces the fact that what professionals need is not another prescription to be blindly followed, but skilled training in how to put together their own custom system.
What’s annoying is that the time management coaches seem oblivious to this fact. They might mention that “no-one actually uses all this stuff”, but they give little help in assisting trainees in learning the more challenging skill of self-designing a custom system. They are on their own.
They also ignore the most recent research on habit change, which regular readers of Stepcase Lifehack will recognize readily. Changing habits, practices and rituals is often slow, painstaking work that requires setting up a savvy set of supports. The best approach is to take small steps, focusing on a few at a time.
In the program, what’s inevitable is that your employee will be handed a slew of great ideas to implement…all at once, with no hint of the fact that they need a support system.
The lack of help in focusing on a few habits within a good support system dooms most participants to failure, It’s no accident that many graduates of these programs revert to their old, familiar practices after only a few days.
A New Mentality
As a manager, you can make up for these shortcomings. Knowing that they exist is a big plus and they can be introduced into conversations quite early in the game with a time management coach. Understanding the bigger picture frees you both to narrow your focus down to a handful of habits or practices to work on. You should also show clients or employees how to upgrade whenever the need arises and teach them to expect this to happen several times in their careers.
Fortunately, recent research shows that your unique relationship with your trainee is often the best form of support and you can leverage this fact to hold the employee or client accountable for taking the small steps that can eventually add up to a huge improvement.
Employees and clients who are armed with these insights are then free to find ideas from the Internet, books and programs in order to discover the latest improvement opportunities. Instead of struggling, they can take charge of driving their own improvements, using you as their guide.
(Photo credit: Silver Whistle Next to Play via Shutterstock)
I'm an advocate of Time Management 2.0 - the idea that all professionals need unique methods to be personally productive, and need to keep upgrading them throughout our professional careers. My focus for 2012 is on helping coaches, managers and professional organizers to improve the productivity of others.
Easy Project Organization in 10 Minutes Flat
May 1st
One of the easiest things you can do when starting a new project is create a bunch of ideas. These ideas come naturally because you are so enthusiastic with the thought of something new and potentially beneficial to you or your business ventures. But, you soon see that all those ideas become incredibly hard to sift through and organize into a project.
Project organization can seem like it takes forever, especially if you get caught “in the weeds” of the details of your project. The fact is that initial project organization, for almost any size project, can take as little as 10 minutes if you follow these simple steps.
2 Minutes – Define
Take the first 2 minutes of your planning sessions to write out the goal of the project. Answer these questions to further solidify the goal:
- What is the purpose of the project and what will it accomplish?
- How will you know when you are done with this project?
Answering these two questions is essential to organize any project. Without knowing what you are trying to accomplish and what done looks like you won’t be able to identify the right tasks and actions moving forward.
1 Minute – Identify
Take the next 1 minute to identify the single next, physical action of your project. If you are a GTD nerd then you know all about the power of the next action and how it can propel you to get form “I don’t know what the heck I am doing” to “one step closer to done.”
When I say “the next, physical action”, I mean that exactly. If you need to call someone to get a quote on a new set of tires but you don’t know the number of the tire guy, then you next action would be “Google tire guy’s number”. That seems obvious, but it can also be quite subtle.
Rather than say my next action is to “think about ‘x’”, ‘x’ being anything under the sun, make my next action “draft 10 reasons why I want to ‘x’”. This gives you a next action that is physical and something that is accomplishable.
It may seem extreme, but identifying your next action gives you a stake in the ground to start from. Since you identified what the project will look like when it’s done, you now have the starting point and the ending point.
5 Minutes – Organize
The next 5 minutes is spent organizing the next steps of your project. This is where you can become too detailed if you aren’t careful; don’t let that happen to you. Instead of analyzing why a certain task will be the best one to do after another certain task, which tasks can be parallel to one another, or what are all the major and minor dependencies of tasks and sub-projects, simply find the tasks that can be done at any time or have a natural order to them.
You don’t have to plan the entire project in a matter of 5 minutes, what you need to do is organize a list of tasks in a natural order to move the project past the next physical action. You can always come back and do another 10 minute project planning session to finish your project organization.
2 Minutes – Review
Now that you have the bulk of your project organization out of the way, take the last 2 minutes to step back and review your project. If you see any glaring things that need to be changed before you dive in or pass it off to a coworker, take care of them now. Make sure that you next action is truly a next action. Ensure that your list of subsequent actions are laid out naturally and aren’t full of awkward dependencies.
Lastly, quickly go over the goal of the project and what will be true in your world when the project is completed successfully.
There isn’t anything like being able to take a large amount of ideas and snippets of actions and quickly put them together into a full fledge project in 10 minutes. It helps keep the momentum of the ideas flowing and greatly reduces the resistance between idea andaction. While this simple plan may not work for a project like “build a replica of Taj Mahal”, many of the projects that we need to accomplish for our work and lives can be organized in a matter of 4 steps and 10 minutes.
(Photo credit: An image of a hand with a pen drawing a sketch via Shutterstock)
The Best of Lifehack: April 2012
May 1st
April has come and gone, and so it’s time for another installment in our Best of Lifehack series. This series showcases articles from the month just gone by, just in case you missed some of what we offer each and each every day at Lifehack.
This month we delivered posts on a wide variety of topics, focusing on fitness, nutrition, communication and overall productivity. You may have also noticed a lot of new contributors have joined the fold, largely as a result of our “How to Write for Lifehack” post that was published back in March. The result has been a slew of great articles from some very talented writers — and we’re going to bring even more of that to you from this month onward.
As we bid April farewell, here is The Best of Lifehack from the past month.
How to Get Stuff Done: A Quick Guide
Have you ever felt like your to do list is completely out of control and you’re just not getting anywhere? You have jobs piling up and you just don’t know where to start? Zoe B. has put together a primer on how to get stuff done that’s well worth checking out.
7 Things You Should Add to Your Stop Doing List…Right Now!
You probably make lists of things to do and follow them through. But what about the things you should stop doing? Successful people do not do the following things but chances are you still do. Paul Sloane recommends that you make a decision to add 7 things to your “stop doing list” starting today.
Hack Your Weight Loss Workout – Lose Weight In 15 Minutes a Day
A weight loss workout doesn’t have to be boring. It shouldn’t require you to workout for hours every day to be effective either. You can actually lose weight and excess body fat in just 15 minutes a day. Lifehack contributor Curt Pedersen explains how you can do just that.
The 3 Best iPhone Apps to Help You Remember
Regular Lifehack contributor Royale Scuderi has discovered many very useful apps in her quest for better life management. Here are a few of the best iPhone apps to help your remember and that she has found to be very helpful.
Productivity Hacks: 8 Things That Are Hurting Your Productivity
Fixing minor issues can sometimes play a big role in enhancing your overall productivity and allow your creativity to flow like never before. Uttoran Sen offers up 8 things that are hurting your productivity — and how to hack them.
Lifehack Presents: A Mini-Guide for Weight Loss for Men
Lifehack Associate Editor CM Smith has been assembling some excellent mini-guides over the past couple of months, and this one is no exception. If you’re a guy who’s looking to lose some excess pounds, give this a good read. And then follow through!
Top 10 Reasons Why People Don’t Reach Their Goals
With everything that happens around us, it is sometimes difficult to reach our goals. Robert Chen hasn’t just listed the top 10 reasons why people don’t reach their goals, but he’s also included a quick fix for each of them.
20 Encouraging Quotes to Level Up Your Life
With everything that happens around us, it is sometimes difficult to reach our goals. Robert Chen hasn’t just assembled the top 10 reasons why people don’t reach their goals, but he’s also included a quick fix for each of them.
How to Be 25% Happier in Five Minutes a Day
Remember when you got a raise and bought a new car, and you were happy ever since? Neither does Cara Stein. So rather than dwell on that, she outlines ways that you can be 25% happier in just five minutes — each and every day.
Seven Truths About You
In this excerpt from the book Kiss That Frog: 12 Great Ways to Turn Negatives into Positives in Your Life and Work, Brian Tracy and Christina Tracy Stein explain that no matter where you are today, or what you have done or not done in the past, you need to accept seven essential truths about you as a person.
(Photo credit: Golden leader of business team via Shutterstock)
Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.
7 Ways to Leverage Your Time to Increase Your Productivity
Apr 30th
We’re all busy people. Some people, though, are busier than we’d ever imagine, yet are somehow are able to stay on top of things so well they seem to go about their life in a lackadaisical manner, while we struggle to produce good work and maintain a household.
What’s their secret? Why do they seem to have everything figured out; always unstressed and ready to go?
Leverage.
Sure, tactics like maintaining “to-do” lists (or “done” lists), setting goals, and decreasing the amount and time of meetings can all help. But really, these are all tactics that fall into a strategical category of leveraging our time.
Leverage is an awesome force–it allows us to multiply our abilities by applying a little pressure to something.
In life, we can leverage our time, and here are seven ways to do just that:
- Get it out of your head. If it’s in your head, chances are it’s taking up valuable storage space that you can be using to get things done. Every time you think of a task, to-do item, or idea, write it down. Getting it out of your head not only lets you focus energy elsewhere, rather than trying to remember things, it also helps you clear your mind so you’ll be more effective when you do try to tackle that massive list of chores.
- Organize your day. Do you go to work and just “jump in” to all the work that’s in front of you? Try this instead: organize your day into chunks of time–10-15 minutes for emails, an hour for that large project due at the end of the month, etc. Focus on knocking out the most important things on the list, earlier in the day to increase your productivity. As your day draws to a close, the easier or shorter items on the list will require less effort, allowing you to de-stress at the same time.
- Use other people’s time. One of my favorite entrepreneurial tactics is leveraging other people. This doesn’t mean using other people–no one likes that. Leveraging other people means empowering and allowing coworkers and employees, or even outsourced help, to help you with some of your routine tasks throughout the day. If you run a website, consider hiring someone to maintain the server, site, comments, and emails.
- Focus on the prize, but work in “chunks.” Don’t let the looming pressures of finishing that massive report get you down. Focus on how awesome it will be, but actively seek to “chunk” it into manageable parts that you can work on steadily. Give yourself a small reward every time you finish a chunk, and yes–give yourself a large reward when you finish the final project!
- Allow time for yourself. One of the most overlooked aspects of the American working life, leading to stressful people who are spread too thin, is giving time to yourself. Plan and write down a segment of each day that you can take 10-15 minutes (at least) to just unwind and do nothing. Don’t think, don’t check email, don’t call your friend. Just sit, relax, and let your mind recharge. You’ll come back refreshed and more able to leverage the time you have. In addition, take a breather for one day a week or every other week if possible to increase your productivity. Do some easier tasks or the “fun” parts of your work, but don’t let yourself get carried away turning Sunday afternoon into another workday.
- Use technology. Technology is an evil temptress for productivity–it can suck us in with promises of simple task management, planning, and keeping us in the loop. But we can easily get caught in the vortex of more, more, more tech. Use a simple task manager if it suits your work style, but give yourself limits on social networking sites, checking email, and even text messaging (if that’s your thing). Ironically, there are really cool apps and software packages that help increase your productivity, so be careful and mindful of how you’re leveraging their help.
- Keep learning. The day you stop learning is the day you stop producing good stuff. Keep reading, trying new things, and implementing them. To leverage your ability to read, start listening to audiobooks in the car to and from work, and during workouts. Don’t let your RSS feed reader bog you down during the day, but make sure you keep tabs on your favorite blogs and news sites a few times a week, if for no other reason than inspiration.
Leverage is only useful to us if we’re using it in the right direction: if we let the pressures of our lives get to us so much that we feel like we’re drowning, leverage is to blame. But it’s leverage in the wrong direction.
Use leverage the right way and you can free yourself from the mundane things that you never want to do, allowing yourself the ability to create the things that motivate you, inspire you, and keep you pushing toward the weekend.
Or a better tomorrow!
What about you? What are some other ways you’ve been able to leverage your time at work, at home, or elsewhere in your life to give you more “you” time?
(Photo credit: Close Up of Newton’s Cradle via Shutterstock)
Nick Thacker is a writer from Texas, and he's interested in hacking life to make it better. His posts are helpful for writers, bloggers, and pretty much anyone who wants to hack their life! Check him out on his website, www.nickthacker.com.
Lifehack Deals: Win The Mac SuperBundle!
Apr 28th
Looking to power up your Mac — and to do it for free?
Well, Lifehack Deals has another great giveaway lined up for you — as in we’re giving 1 lucky winner The Mac SuperBundle!
The apps in this bundle can help you in a wide variety of activities, from converting and managing digital media with Roxio Toast to searching for files more efficiently and effectively with Houdah Tembo to keeping track of your home inventory easily with Compartments.
All 9 apps would normally retail for $453 on their own!
Here’s what’s in this latest Lifehack Deals giveaway:
1. Roxio Toast 11 Titanium
Completely redesigned from the ground up, the best-selling Roxio Toast 11 Titanium features a new user interface that’s up-to-date, innovative and intuitive! With newly refined workflows, built-in video tutorials and much more, Toast 11 is the ultimate digital media toolkit for newcomers and experienced users alike. From capturing audio and video to converting media to copying, sharing, burning and more, Roxio Toast 11 quickly and easily gets you the media you love…wherever you want it! Regular price: $100
2. RapidWeaver 5
RapidWeaver 5 gives you the easiest yet most powerful tools available to create stunning websites on your Mac! With Code-Free creation, 11 built-in page types, 45 flexible design themes, including 6 new themes from world-renowned designers and built-in support for FTP & SFTPuploads, you’ll be creating and publishing an incredible website in no time at all. Whatever your website needs, a slideshow, company site or personal blog, RapidWeaver 5 lives up to its name – fast, fun and complete! Regular price: $80
3. Panorama Maker 5 Pro
Whether you’ve got landscape or city skyline digital photos or nature or vacation experiences on video, Panorama Maker 5 Pro offers a simple and easy way to turn your photos and videos to amazing panorama masterpieces. With a complete set of auto stitching tools, five different stitch modes, powerful media file management, photo editing and a built-in online print service; Panorama Maker 5 lets you produce stunning panoramas photos just like a pro! Regular price: $80
4. Disk Drill Pro
Designed by Mac users for Mac users, Disk Drill PRO is the way to recover important lost data in almost any situation. With patented technology that deep scans your hard drive; Disk Drill PROfinds files you thought were gone forever. Disk Drill PRO is the data protection and recovery app you need to protect your music, photos, import files, presentations and more. Offering Quick Scan & Recovery of HFS/HFS+, FAT and NTFS and Deep Scan & Recovery for any or no file systems, Disk Drill PRO is the perfect investment in your data’s safe and secure future. Regular price: $89
5. Hallmark Card Studio
Great for all occasions including birthdays, holidays, weddings – or just to say hello. You also get 10,000+ clip art images to complement your cards and projects. Hallmark Card Studio for Mac makes selecting photos for cards and projects easy. And, there’s no better way to personalize than by importing your own photos from iPhoto or an iSight camera. Regular price: $40
6. Houdah Tembo
Make finding files as easy as possible with Houdah Tembo – the efficient search tool that’s based on the Spotlight engine! Get search results grouped by categories and then drill-down for real search power – up to 2500 search results within each group! Context filters, including subject, sender and recipient, help you refine your results. With Tembo you’ll get more than just a file search tool – it even works as an extension to Apple Mail to locate messages or to Safari to search browsing history, bookmarks and more. Regular price: $15
7. Musicbox
It’s easy to download songs from your favorite music websites with Musicbox! Just paste or drag a URL with an audio or video player onto Musicbox for fast download and conversion into a native mp3 format that can be imported into your iTunes library. With Musicbox you can listen to your favorite web audio on your iPod, Mac or iPhone — anytime and anywhere! Regular price: $15
8. Font Explosion 500 Volume 1
Font Explosion includes five hundred 100% royalty-free, sensational TrueType® fonts for home, school and office. Each font is fully-scalable to any point size and easily integrates with your favorite applications like Microsoft Word, Pages, Keynote, Adobe® Photoshop® and more. With each font family fully compatible with all popular inkjet and laser printers, the Mac SuperBundle Font Explosion software makes print jobs a breeze! Regular price: $20
9. Compartments
Compartments is fast and effective home inventory app for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard. Its beautifully laid out user interface ensures that you don’t have to spend hours entering your home inventory information. Access every category with keyboard shortcuts, enter dozens of your personal items in seconds with the Quick Add feature or select multiple items and tag them with Quick Apply, plus add photos and generate PDF reports. With Compartments you can even keep family members up-to-date with automatic data syncing via a free DropBox or MobileMe iDisk folder. Keep your valuables organized and protected with the easiest to use home inventory software available today. Regular price: $15
How to Win
The contest ends on April 30th at 11:59PM PST, after which we will select the lucky winner (The winner will be notified directly). To check out all of the official rules and regulations, head over to this page.
Once you’re done that, go here and enter and give yourself a chance to win a bundle that will stack your Mac!
Best of luck!
Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.
10 Ways to Be Smarter About Your Smartphone
Apr 27th
Smartphones.
They are supposed to make our lives easier.
They are supposed to help us get things done.
Yet, often they are a source of frustration and distraction.
Is your smartphone making your day smarter?
Is Your Phone Smart?
Phones have come a long way since the introduction of the iPhone.
Yet, many people don’t know how to use their smartphone.
Steve Jobs once said referring to smartphones,
“The problem is… they’re not so smart and they’re not so easy to use…”
There is no doubt that smartphones have taken over our lives.
Most people don’t leave home without them. And if they do, they turn around and go back to get them.
Yet, many people would agree that their phone interrupts their day and is a source of distraction that keeps them from being productive.
Be Smarter
Is your phone easy to use? Does it make your life easier?
Or is it a technology leash that controls your life?
Here are 10 Ways to Be Smarter About Your Smartphone:
- Know How to Use It – If you are going to get that fancy smartphone with all the nice features, make sure you take the time to learn how to use it. The Internet is full of great bite-sized training videos. In a few minutes with YouTube, you can learn a few new tricks with your phone.
- Know How to Silence It – If you learn one thing from tip #1, make sure it is how to silence your phone. It is amazing how many people carry these devices and don’t know the most basic task of turning off the sound. I was with an executive recently and his phone kept ringing. The strange part was that he was holding his phone. He kept getting frustrated that it was making noise. I finally said, “You know you can silence that ring by pushing the little button on top?” He thanked me like I had given him a magical gift.
- Have Some Etiquette – Others don’t need to hear you take that call from your BFF while in a restaurant. The simplest version of phone etiquette is to treat it like you would like others to treat it.
- Be Safe – Smartphones have become the bane of the roads. Instead of putting your life, and more importantly the lives of others, at risk. Get a headset. Don’t text while driving. It’s common sense that isn’t so common.
- Turn Off Push Email – Email is one of the most abused smartphone features. You do not need to check your email every 30 seconds. Workers complain about being tied to work, yet they are the ones doing it. I recommend that you turn off the email on your phone except when you need to check it.
- Turn Off Notifications – Do you really need all those push notifications? Do you need to know right now that it’s your turn on Draw Something? Or that your friend just posted a picture of their lunch on Instagram? Limit the interruptions that your phone causes in your day.
- Clean It Up – Just because you can have 100′s of apps installed, doesn’t mean that you should. Regularly, clean up your phone. I bet there are a dozen apps that you could delete from your smartphone right now.
- Put It Away – We don’t need to see your phone at all times. Nor do you. Work meetings have devolved into a gathering with 10 smartphones on the table that randomly dance as they vibrate. Whether at work or play, put that phone away when you are not using it. In your pocket or purse is a good place for it.
- Back it Up – What would you lose if you lost your phone? Hundreds of contacts? Thousands of personal photos? Make sure you back up your phone regularly. If you use an iPhone, it is as easy as turning on the free iCloud backup. (Yet, most people don’t do this.)
- Remember Who Is In Charge – Remember, your smartphone is there for your convenience, not the other way around. Use it in ways that make your life easier and more productive. You don’t have to check that email, or even answer that call. You are in charge.
Outsmart Your Device
Smartphones have taken over our lives.
They are the new personal computing device and have given us new capabilities that make our lives easier.
Yet, left unchecked, they can be a source of distraction and hindrance.
Your smartphone is there for your needs, not the other way around.
Make sure you are smart with yours.
Question: What is your best smartphone advice or tip?
Team Task Management App Asana Introduces Premium Workspaces
Apr 24th
We’ve profiled Asana on Lifehack before (it’s my task manager of choice and I have given it the “30 Days With…” treatment), and its versatility and ubiquity is one of its strengths. So was the barrier to entry in terms of price point, because for teams of 30 or less individuals it is free.
Well, today Asana has introduced Asana Premium Workspaces, which allows for larger teams to use Asana to efficiently and effectively manage their tasks — and their teams. Here’s what Asana Premium Workspaces offers its users:
More Workspace Members
By upgrading to a higher tier of members, starting at just $300/month you can add up to 50 teammates. Tiers of larger teams (75, 100, or more members) are also available.
Project-level Permissions
You can share private Projects with a small group within your Workspace, so exactly the right people see the Projects they should see. This is a huge bonus in that you can really get as granular as you want within a Workspace and not overwhelm your team as a whole by subjecting them to Project updates that they don’t really need.
Priority Support
Any questions and issues from customers in Premium Workspaces go to the front of the line for response from Asana’s support team, which is a great resource to have at your disposal since Asana is still relatively new — and not necessarily intuitive for those who haven’t used a task management app before.
For teams that don’t need to go past the threshold of 30, they can also upgrade to a Premium Workspace to enjoy the benefits of Project-level Permissions and Priority Support for just $100/month.
Asana has seen amazing success since its launch almost 6 months ago, with 10 million Tasks created in Asana and 4 million of them seen through to completion. Better still, Asana has experienced a 75% retention rate, meaning that those using Asana haven’t switched to another task manager in the process. They’re sticking with Asana — which is a pretty incredible accomplishment considering the sheer amount of productivity-type applications (both web-based and native) that are available in the marketplace.
We’ve been using Asana here at Lifehack for the past couple of months, and we’re excited to see where it’s going. Adding Premium Workspaces is just one of the many additions we hope to see in the coming months from this team task management app.
Mike Vardy is the Managing Editor at Lifehack. An independent writer, speaker, podcaster and "productivityist", you can read more of his writing at Vardy.me. He is @mikevardy on Twitter.
4 Simple Steps to Lift Your Dark Cloud of Stress
Apr 23rd
Is there a dark cloud over your head? Do you find it hard to get out from under the feeling of “always being behind the eight-ball?” Do you want to see the sun again? Do you want to feel contentment and happiness in your life?
The hustle and bustle of everyday life can really create a dark cloud over (and even around) you. This dark cloud weights you down, it leaves you feeling “crazed” and always behind. This dark cloud can start impacting your health, happiness and relationships.
While I don’t believe that you can eliminate stress from your life completely, I do believe there is a lot more we can do to reduce it. There is not a “one size fits all” solution either — you need to find the strategy that works best for you. Maybe even combine one or more strategies together and make a game of it.
Here are some strategies that I use to help banish my daily stress. Give them a try…I believe you will find them to be very helpful:
- Support Systems. If you’re constantly running on empty, your mind, body, and soul will suffer the repercussions of your tenacity. There’s no shame in asking for a helping hand. Sometimes, you’ll be able lean on a spouse, coworker, or friend, but other times you may have to hire help. Start with having a discussion with your partner or family and see if you can brainstorm a way to share the chores around the house. Even just taking turns cooking dinner is helpful.
- Self Care. What do you enjoy doing? Knitting, relaxing in a bubble bath, drawing, lounging in bed watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy? Indulge yourself in your favorite restful activity a few times each week. Carving out a few hours each weekend to indulge in your favorite lazy activity. Choose at least one weeknight to relax after work. Start with a walk outside. I know you might need your sunglasses because you have been under that dark cloud for so long. But trust me — there is sunshine, fresh air, beautiful things to look at out there!
- Simplify life. Simplify your routines, your commitments, your information intake, your cluttered rooms, and have less stress as a result. Identify those things that are most important in your life…and then get rid of the rest. It may not be quite that easy, but you can certainly start somewhere with this idea. Think of just one thing that has been bothering you that you can remove and do it. Once you start with one, you will see a ray of sunlight.
- Meditation. With meditation we can learn to transform our minds from chaos to calm. And it is really not as hard as you might think. My favourite meditation is a “Breathing Meditation”. It is simple and you can do it anywhere. Sit in any comfortable position, with your eyes partially closed. Now breathe. Just breathe normally through your nose. Notice how your body moves and what the air feels like. If your mind wanders, just bring it back to your breath. Even just practicing this for two minutes a day will add another ray of sunlight. (If you’re looking for a more in-depth look at meditation, check out Lifehack’s Mindfulness Meditation Mini Guide.)
Sometime stress seems like it is a normal part of life, but it doesn’t have to be that way if you’re willing to put your sanity and happiness first. Most of the time there’s a simple fix to the challenges that are causing you stress. Simply adjust the way you perceive the issues and how you address them.
Small simple steps on a daily basis will create a huge momentum in your life and you will feel the dark clouds life away and the warm breath of the sunshine on your skin.
(Photo credit: Businessman Dark Portrait via Shutterstock)
Lori Lynn Smith is a passionate and an authentic teacher who shares her real life experiences about creating a more nurturing and fulfilling lifestyle. Get her free ebook and MP3, The 5 Myths of Self Care.