Stand up & ditch bad habits: Ways to improve creativity & productivity

Productivity — an overarching term, for sure, and your productivity can be increased or reduced by various internal and external forces. Whether it's an ambitious personality, lifestyle habits, elevated work expectations, or an innovative environment, the level of sustained work productivity is influenced by a lot of factors. For creative professionals such as writers and graphic design experts, maximizing creativity and improving productivity are essential for a successful career. The good news?  Changing your environment and breaking norms can help enhance your productivity and creativity.

Stand-Up Desks & Walking Stations

Most of us have experienced the fatigue of sitting at a desk in front of a monitor for a long time. Extensive studies confirm that a sedentary lifestyle is linked to a shorter lifespan and increased risk of certain diseases, high-cholesterol levels, blood clots and inflammation. Prolonged sitting is harsh on your body and exhaustive, and those of us who are slaves to desks and computers are reminded of the health risks.  So what can we do about it?

I've been thinking of replacing my traditional desk with an adjustable-height desk.  I think it would be a fun change of pace, but I've also been reading about some of the health benefits of standing desks.  For example, Dr. Ron Joine (vice president and medical director of GlaxoSmithKline's environmental health and safety group) says that standing while working stimulates the mind, increases energy levels and can burn up to 200 calories per day.

Change is good, too.  I've been reading that it is healthy to switch things up by using different ways of working, such as standing desks, traditional desks, walking stations (treadmill desks) and desks with yoga balls. The notion is that by moving around more, your productivity and efficiency will increase, which also boosts morale, optimizes health and sparks creativity.

For a long time, I've found that if I stand during conference calls I am more focused and the calls are not only more productive, they tend to wrap up more quickly - less wasted time, in other words.​

Performance Norms & Habits

Sitting vs. standing is only one dimension of this - you can reduce periods of low productivity by breaking bad habits, revamping your routines, changing up norms and setting more aggressive goals for yourself.

As a leader of a team, raise "the bar of performance expectations by setting elevated goals" and measure performance progress, says Forbes.com contributor Jack Zenger, a strengths-based leadership development expert. You can start by assessing where you are -- give yourself an honest performance evaluation. How would you rate your ongoing level of productivity? Mike Myatt, Managing Director of N2grwoth, tells Forbes.com that he gives himself "hourly gut checks." For 20 years, Myatt asks himself every single hour, "am I doing the most productive thing possible at this point in time?" If the answer is no, change gears an focus on something productive. I think this is an interesting approach to make accountability a person habit.  If you want to do this, a timer (on your computer, or a kitchen timer) can help remind you to ask yourself this question.

Create new, productivity-enhancing norms such as:

• Fuel up in a healthy way and nourish your body with nutrient-rich foods. Focus on how superfoods make you feel. Eating sugary or fatty foods in large portions makes you feel sluggish and dulls the brain. Sharpen your mind and creativity with vitamin and nutrient-rich fuel.
• Maintain a productive workspace that's free of distractions and clutter. Keep your desk minimally decorated and you're less likely to "drift off" while you work. Is your desk optimized for work and focused intention?
• Make small changes to feel refreshed and eliminate the mundane. Recharge by changing anything from the type of coffee you drink and lunch you eat to the light and sounds of your surroundings. If you have the luxury to work from home, add some variety by occasionally working at the library or different coffee shops as a change of scenery.

​What about you?  Do you any tips and tricks that help you feel more productive?  Have you switched to a standing desk?  I'd love to know what is working for you.

Short-circuit your task list

The past couple of weeks have been pretty busy for me, both professionally and personally, and I've been a bit negligent in regularly reviewing my task list.  I didn't want to lose track of my commitments, high priority items, etc. but I also didn't want to be distracted by the volume of "candidates" in my task list.  I'd like to share a technique that works for me in these situation, in hopes that it may add a tool to your toolbox.

Limit your options to increase your leverage

For this technique, I continued with one of the tools from my last post:  index cards.  Here is how I used them for this technique:

Weekly:  Pick your targets for the week

• At the beginning of the week, do a quick and dirty review of your task list.  
• Decide no more than 10 things you feel your must get done this week - these should be items that create meaningful outcomes, or fulfill important commitments you have made.
• Grab an index card and write those items on the card.  This is your target list for the week.

Daily: Pick two priority outcomes

• At the beginning of the day, pick two things (ideally, outcomes - not granular tasks) on your weekly target card that you will focus on for the day.
• Write them down on a different index card.  This is the one card you'll carry with you all day and use to focus your attention.  Try not to exceed two - remember this is all about focus.

During the day: Focus yourself and manage the distractions

• Any time you have discretionary time, take out your card and decide on a next action you can take that will help you achieve your two targets for the day, and begin working that next action.
• If you find yourself working on another item, stop it if you can (I know there are emergencies you can't just say "no" to, but make sure it really is a non-optional item if you're going to do it).
• If you work on anything other than your "big two" for the day, write it on the back of the card so you can reflect on it later and determine if it was really necessary or not.

At the end of the week: Study how you did and learn from it.

• Repeat this process every day during the work week.  
• At the end of the week, look at what you've done, review the distractions you've noted on the back of your daily cards, and see what there is to learn.

I think you'll find you have either completed quite a few (if not all) of your "must do" items, renegotiated them, or decided they weren't really "must do" after all.  

I also think you'll have some good insight into the things that detract from your focus during a typical week.  What (or who) are your biggest distractions, and what can you do to overcome them?

Keep in mind, this is not a technique I use very week -  I just fall back to it when I feel overwhelmed by the choices in front of me.

What about you?  Do you have any good techniques that work for you?  I'd love to hear them.  I'd also like to know how the technique I describe works (or doesn't work) for you.

​

Hands-on Review: iPad Mini vs. Normal iPad 3

I've been an iPad user for a long time.  In the past, I've written here about how I use my iPad to be more productive with a Zagg keyboard and Evernote.  I've had the original iPad, the iPad 2, and the iPad 3;  the the iPad 3 is the main basis for my comparison here.

A few weeks a go, I received my iPad Mini (it took a couple of weeks for Apple to ship it - well worth the wait) and have been using it regularly long enough to share my experiences.

By the way, I have the iPad Mini with AT&T LTE broadband, and 64GB of memory - I went with the larger memory because I download a lot of movies to watch on business trips, and they take a lot of room.  I chose the broadband because I am often in high-security buildings where I cannot get on WiFi and I need another option.

Summary of my experience

Size

I wasn't sure what to expect from the iPad Mini, but I must say that I was very surprised at how much smaller, lighter and thinner it feels when you carry it.  It is comparable in size and weight to my Kindle Touch e-Reader, which means I don't have to think twice about whether to bring it with me or not (I sometimes left my iPad 3 at home on long trips to save weight and/or free up space in my laptop bag.  

Not only does the iPad Mini fit well in my laptop bag, it is small enough to fit in the pocket of my jacket - I love that.  Since I use the iPad for so much of my note taking, list making, etc. for my productivity habits, it is a huge benefit when I can take a device almost anywhere.

Screen and on-screen keyboard

The screen has a much lower resolution than my iPad 3, but the lower resolution works well due to the smaller dimensions of the iPad Mini. The screen is plenty bright when you turn it up, and I end up turning it down pretty far for normal use (which also saves battery life).

I didn't have trouble using apps normally, and haven't yet found any apps that don't adjust correctly to the iPad Mini screen.

One thing that required adjustment:  The on-screen keyboard.  in Landscape mode, the screen is now too narrow for me to try to mimic touch-typing (I have big hands) but in Portrait mode, I can now thumb-type very well.  As a side effect, for quick notes using the on-screen keyboard, I rotate it to portrait mode and jot things down in email or Evernote.

After a week or so of thumb-typing I ended up ordering Zagg's keyboard case for the iPad Mini, (right) as well.  This is the little brother of the keyboard I reviewed previously.  Zagg makes a 7-inch keyboard case that is the same width as the iPad Mini, but I went for the slightly larger 9-inch keyboard because I have larger hands.  Even the 9-inch version is plenty small to pack or carry, and I have been very glad that I bought the Zagg keyboard.

Battery life

In spite of its much smaller size, the battery life is comparable to my larger iPad and meets the claimed 10-hour battery life Apple claims.  This means I can use it to take notes  and check email all day, I can watch movies on flights, and I can look things up online without having to worry much about when I'll be near a power outlet.  

Miscellaneous

• I have the Apple Smart Cover for the iPad Mini but I don't like it nearly as much as I like the Smart Cover for the iPad3.  The smaller size isn't as stable when using the cover as a stand, and the new magnet mechanism doesn't hold on as firmly as on the larger iPads (Apple covered the magnets in rubber rather than leaving them exposed, which I think leads to a weaker connection).  Therefore, I rarely use the Smart Cover, and tend to use the Zagg case most of the time.
• The iPad Mini is another one of those devices that uses the new Lightning connector.  This is fine for me, since I already have an iPhone 5 and had to go through the pain of getting extra cables and adapters for my old docks and accessories to work with the new connector.  If you already have a sprawling ecosystem of chargers, cables, and docks from your older iPad, factor this into the transition process.  
  • I highly recommend getting a short adapter to convert your older, 30-pin connections to Lightning.  I prefer the kind with the short cable rather than the all-in-one adapter that is a solid block of plastic - I find the short length of cable makes it far more useful.

Net-net:

Pros of the iPad Mini:

• The size is perfect for everyday use, and much more practical than my larger iPad.
• The battery life is great.
• Cameras (front an rear) are very good (and you don't look quite so foolish taking a picture with this one, like you do with the larger iPad.
• Screen is bright and very usable for email, reading, note taking, movies, and games.
• Huge ecosystem of existing apps works great with the iPad mini.

Cons of the iPad Mini:

• On-screen keyboard is not great for extensive text entry.
• Smart Cover not as useful as on the larger iPads.
• Accessory ecosystem still limited (but this will improve once this device has been around longer).
• Pricey.

The bottom line?  I really like the iPad Mini.  If I were buying today, or I could only have one iPad, I'd choose the iPad Mini.

Wonderful Day: Productivity, Jerry Seinfeld style [Updated]

I've been experimenting with a new productivity / motivational tool that I discovered the other day.  It is called "Wonderful Day," and it is an iOS app that is designed to give you an easy, in-your-face way to establish and reinforce productive habits.  It reminds me of that old adage, "How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time."

Apparently, this app was inspired by Jerry Seinfeld's productivity technique - very interesting.

Set a goal, create a chain

The premise is simple:  You pick a goal you want to achieve that requires persistent commitment, and you put it in the Wonderful Day app.  You decide how often you want to perform some activity that contributes to your goal (daily, weekly, etc.), and set up how often you want to be reminded / nagged so you don't forget.

Now, for each of your goals, you have a "punch card" that you use to record whether you actually did what you set out to do.  The objective is to build a "chain" of punches that advance your goal, and to keep at it so you don't break the chain.  If you stick with it, you'll get a lot done, improve yourself, and establish new habits.

My example

One of the goals I used Wonderful Day to track was to spend at least 30 minutes each day working on a specific work project.  I wanted to do this because I keep forgetting about this particular project, but I want to get it moving.

Now, the app reminds me of this project every day and I pick some element of the project and work on it for 30 minutes.  Each day I do that, I get to punch my card in Wonderful Day.  I didn't think this was rocket science, but punching that card turns out to produce a rewarding feeling.  Here are a couple of screen shots to give you an idea (these aren't mine - they are from the App Store, but I think they illustrate it very well and show a longer "chain" than the ones I have so far):

In the screen on the left, you see the Activities (I call them Goals in my head) and you can have as many as you'd like.  I recommend starting with no more than 5 to keep from overwhelming or annoying yourself.

On the right, you see one of the "punch cards" I mentioned.  Each dot is an interval (in this case each dot represents a day).  The green dots represent the times you did what you wanted to do, and the red dots are times when you didn't do it.

This is a pretty simple and effective way to log your progress and ingrain habits into your daily life.  I think the Wonderful Day app is a novel approach to getting things done, and worth a look.

If you try it out, let me know how it works for you.

Stay In Sync On Holiday Shopping

Well, it's that time of the year - holiday shopping time.  Maybe it's just me, but one of the challenges of shopping is coordinating the "divide & conquer" approach with my wife.  

We have 3 kids, grandparents, nieces, siblings, etc. that we want to buy gifts for and we have busy schedules, so we want to make sure everything gets covered, we don't duplicate efforts, etc.  There are a couple of tools we've evolved that make this easier and I wanted to share them here in case they'll help you, as well.

Part 1: Gather ideas during the year

The first method is pretty easy - I create a note on my smartphone for each person I want to buy gifts for.  I call them "Gift ideas for <name>" so I have a separate note for each person.  Then, during the year, when I hear them mention something they want or I see something that might be a good gift, I add it to the list.

The list gets replicated on all my devices (iPad, computer, phone, etc.) so I can add items (and URL's if appropriate) to make it easy to shop when the time comes.  You can use notes in Outlook, iOS, Google Notes, or Evernote - it's your choice.  I'd pick one that can be replicated across all the devices you use - that makes life a lot easier.

By the way - these lists work for birthdays and anniversaries, too - not just holiday shopping.

Part 2: Stay in sync with your shopping partner(s)

When we get into the shopping season, I create a shared spreadsheet in Google Docs.  You could also use Office360, a cloud storage location, or something similar;  I like Google Docs because it is free and multiple people can edit simultaneously so there are no versioning problems.

The tool is pretty simple.  As you can see from the screen grab above, you just make a list with one column for each person you want to shop for, along with a Status column.  You farm your "Gift ideas…" lists and add them to this spreadsheet, then you share the list with your shopping buddy (my wife, in my case) so they can get to the list.

In the status column, you can enter things like "Have," and "Ordered" to indicate which things are already covered.  You can also enter someone's name so you know who is expected to handle the shopping for that item.  Don't forget that you can add comments and notes to the items - this is a great place to elaborate, add URL's, specify colors, etc.

The only caveat:  don't share the sheet with anyone who's in it, otherwise they'll know what you're getting them!  For my wife, I just stick with tracking things in the "Gift ideas for…" note - including tracking what my kids have gotten for her. (That reminds me: when we hear what other people in the family are getting our kids, we track that in this spreadsheet, too - that helps prevent duplicate gifts.)

If you have your own tips and tricks for holiday shopping, please share.