<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>Justin Levy&#187; Productivity</title>
	<atom:link href="http://justinrlevy.com/tag/productivity/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://justinrlevy.com</link>
	<description>Social Strategist &#124; Speaker &#124; Author &#124; Content Creator</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:46:30 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1</generator>
		<item>
		<title>Developing Routines and Finding Time</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/11/developing-routines-and-finding-time/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/11/developing-routines-and-finding-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:49:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Routines]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2735</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Making anything a routine is hard. This becomes harder as the demands on our time increase. And with increased demands on our time come increased stress to accomplish it all and it becomes easy for things to fall off of our plates, even when we have the best intentions. It can feel like you&#8217;re in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55432818@N02/5500963965/"><img class="aligncenter" title="Clock, by Dalo_Pix2 on Flickr" src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5178/5500963965_2776bf6a98.jpg" alt="" /></a></p>
<p>Making anything a routine is hard. This becomes harder as the demands on our time increase. And with increased demands on our time come increased stress to accomplish it all and it becomes easy for things to fall off of our plates, even when we have the best intentions.</p>
<p>It can feel like you&#8217;re in a never-ending struggle of trying to always make <em>something</em> in your life a routine. You may work hard at making getting back to the gym part of your daily routine and once you do that, you&#8217;re now working at trying to get more sleep or spend 20 minutes reading a book every day. In my case, it&#8217;s working on making writing part of my routine again.</p>
<p>When I look at my blogs and see that I haven&#8217;t written in several months I let out a deep sigh. It&#8217;s not that I haven&#8217;t had ideas to write about. It&#8217;s not that I&#8217;ve given up on writing. It&#8217;s that writing fell out of my routine, then eventually dropped off of my calendar and to-do list and I stopped making time to sit down and write, even if it&#8217;s just jotting down my <a href="http://www.cc-chapman.com/2011/random-thoughts/">thoughts for the day</a>.</p>
<p>On the flip side, this year I have focused on living a healthier lifestyle. I&#8217;ve always been a health-nut having managed a GNC for several years during college and always interested in vitamins and supplements. But, I let the demands of work and travel get to me and over the past few years didn&#8217;t put a priority on sleep, eating as healthy as I could or getting to the gym as regularly as I should. Around the start of this year I made a commitment to myself that these would become part of my daily routine. I began eating healthier only having one cheat meal per week, sleeping a couple extra hours per night and working out 6 days per week. Because of that focus and commitment, over the past 10 months I have lost 50lbs and 20% bodyfat while making significant increases in strength and tone.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s important when adding something new to your routine is to try avoiding drastic changes.  When possible, make small changes.  For example, I&#8217;m going to focus on writing for 15-30 minutes a few times per week.  I&#8217;m not making a lofty goal of writing a new post every day for multiple blogs. That&#8217;s unreasonable and will result in failure.  Writing for 15-30 minutes a few times per week is achievable and it&#8217;s better than not writing at all so that&#8217;s where I will start as it becomes part of my routine again.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re always working on developing routines. Sometimes these tasks or projects will fall by the wayside to make room for something that&#8217;s a higher priority.  That&#8217;s ok.  It&#8217;s an ongoing process.  Don&#8217;t be hard on yourself.  Just work it back into your schedule with small, achievable victories along the way and before you know it that task or project will be part of your routine.</p>
<p><em>Photo Credit:</em> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55432818@N02">Dalo_Pix2</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/11/developing-routines-and-finding-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Recharging and Disconnecting</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/02/recharging-and-disconnecting/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/02/recharging-and-disconnecting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Feb 2011 13:47:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Disconnecting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Recharging]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2664</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[How important is recharging to you?  No, I&#8217;m not talking about the importance of keeping your gadgets charged.  We already know that we should always be charging all of our digital leashes.  What I&#8217;m talking about is taking downtime away from the constantly connected worlds that we live in and allowing yourself to mentally and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/killermonkeys/128619313"><img class="aligncenter" title="Disconnecting" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/47/128619313_80708b3c22.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="332" /></a></p>
<p>How important is recharging to you?  No, I&#8217;m not talking about the importance of keeping your gadgets charged.  We already know that we should always be charging all of our digital leashes.  What I&#8217;m talking about is taking downtime away from the constantly connected worlds that we live in and allowing yourself to mentally and physically recharge.  Many of us work long hours, often times deep into nights and over weekends.  Even when we do get some downtime from the office, such as on the weekends, that time is usually filled with everything else in our lives that demand our attention whether they be household projects, cleaning, errand running, or a number of other to-dos.  All of this slowly wears us down, especially if you&#8217;re adding a lack of solid sleep, high stress environments, business travel, a lack of exercise or a sound diet to the mix.</p>
<p>Even when we do get an opportunity to take a vacation, we&#8217;re usually still very much plugged in and connected though albeit on a slower schedule.  When I take weekend getaways or domestic vacations I know I&#8217;m guilty of this.  I might not spend all day on email, Twitter, Facebook and RSS as I do during a regular workday but I&#8217;ll still check in a few times throughout the day.  Even if I don&#8217;t take action on the emails coming in, I still know what&#8217;s going on and therefore may be adding stress into the getaway because of knowing what&#8217;s awaiting me when I get home or feeling an urge to deal with the situation while away.</p>
<p>That is why I&#8217;ve become an increasing fan of taking sailing vacations over the past few years.  Two years ago I went on my first sailing trip down to the <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2009/04/06/a-look-back-at-paradise/" target="_blank">British Virgin Islands</a>.  Not only was it an amazing vacation but I was completely disconnected from the world for 10 days.  Not just from my connected world but from <em>everything</em>.  And guess what?  Everything was just fine.  It took about a week to get back into the saddle and caught up but it was well worth it.  When I came back I was incredibly productivie because I felt clear-headed and organized.  I had just come back from over a week of spending nights laying under the stars letting my mind wonder about anything and everything.</p>
<p>In between <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2011/01/04/the-next-chapter-joining-citrix-online/" target="_blank">leaving </a><a href="http://newmarketinglabs.com" target="_blank">New Marketing Labs</a> and before starting at <a href="http://www.citrixonline.com" target="_blank">Citrix Online</a> my family took another sailing trip, this time to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, along with a couple days on the way back in Barbados.  It was the perfect opportunity to <a href="http://socialbutterflyguy.com/2011/01/22/3-lessons-learned-from-6-days-off-the-grid/" target="_blank">disconnect </a>from everything and spend quality time with my family.  It was one of the first times, if not the only time, so far in my career where I went away on a vacation without a corporate email account.  Granted, I do have my personal email accounts and my <a href="http://www.caminitosteakhouse.com" target="_blank">Caminito</a> email account, all of which receive a lot of emails on a daily basis but still not anywhere on the level of NML or now, Citrix Online.  It was an absolutely incredible trip filled with laughter, swimming with turtles, hiking expeditions, exploration and everything that involved <em>not</em> being connected.</p>
<p>Since returning from vacation I have been thinking more about recharging and how important it needs to be in all of our lives.  Sure, recharging won&#8217;t always be taking a sailing trip around remote islands, but it doesn&#8217;t have to be.  Recharging could be taking a date night once per week with your spouse where you&#8217;re completely disconnected and ban the talk of bills, honey-do projects or any of the other stresses in your personal and professional lives.  No matter how you do it, we all need to take time to recharge.</p>
<p>How are you finding ways to recharge?</p>
<p>Oh and if you wanted to see photos from my sailing trip, check out the below slideshow:</p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="640" height="390" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fjustinlevy%2Fsets%2F72157625724572235%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fjustinlevy%2Fsets%2F72157625724572235%2F&amp;set_id=72157625724572235&amp;jump_to=" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="src" value="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=71649" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Fjustinlevy%2Fsets%2F72157625724572235%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Fjustinlevy%2Fsets%2F72157625724572235%2F&amp;set_id=72157625724572235&amp;jump_to="></embed></object></p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
<p><em>Photo Credit:</em> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/killermonkeys" target="_blank">killermonkeys</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2011/02/recharging-and-disconnecting/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Finding Fresh Voices</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/12/finding-fresh-voices/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/12/finding-fresh-voices/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Dec 2010 02:48:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goal setting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2608</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As we wind down 2010, I&#8217;ve begun assessing what I&#8217;ve accomplished and what new challenges I&#8217;m going to take on in 2011. The end of a year and the beginning of a new one is always a good time to do some cleaning whether it be reorganizing my office, cleaning out file folders, changing up [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelldavies/2219530392"><img class="aligncenter" title="&quot;Fresh&quot; spraypainted on a wall" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/2219530392_b6388e6e11.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" /></a></p>
<p>As we wind down 2010, I&#8217;ve begun <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/15/checking-recalibrating-your-goals/">assessing</a> what I&#8217;ve accomplished and what <a href="http://newmarketinglabs.com/blog/2010/12/what-are-your-new-years-challenges/">new challenges</a> I&#8217;m going to take on in 2011.  The end of a year and the beginning of a new one is always a good time to do some cleaning whether it be reorganizing my office, cleaning out file folders, changing up how I stay organized or anything else to introduce a little shock into the system and prepare for the year ahead.</p>
<p>In addition to keeping our physical and virtual systems and spaces organized, updated and refreshed, every once in a while we need to do some pruning and make tweaks to our sources of information.</p>
<p>I have been seeking out fresh voices in two main ways:</p>
<p><strong>Google Reader</strong> &#8211; A few days ago I went through all of my feeds, analyzed the stats and unsubscribed from blogs that weren&#8217;t providing value to me any more.  I then reviewed what blogs my community were often sharing content from and did some searches around specific topics that I want to dive deeper into over the next few months.</p>
<p><strong>Twitter Lists</strong> &#8211; It&#8217;s easy to build your own echo-chamber if you rely on the same Twitter Lists and searches without ever switching things up a bit.  To help find new people to connect with I headed over to <a href="http://listorious.com">Listorious</a> and found a few new lists to follow.  I then created searches for 3 sets of keywords that I want to monitor in the coming months.  Besides the new lists and searches, I went through the lists that I&#8217;ve created for myself and did some shuffling around, as well.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve been excited at the new content and people I&#8217;m being introduced to over the past week since I did some house cleaning of my RSS feeds, Twitter Lists, and searches.  The voices are fresh, new and a welcomed addition to my <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/06/my-obsession-the-consumption-of-information/">addiction to the consumption of information</a>.</p>
<p>Are you regularly seeking out fresh voices?  If not, use the end of the year as a good excuse to start doing it.</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/12/finding-fresh-voices/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Why Work Doesn&#8217;t Happen at Work</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/11/why-work-doesnt-happen-at-work/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/11/why-work-doesnt-happen-at-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Nov 2010 02:51:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disconnected]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drive]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2586</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It is common to hear people, especially nowadays, complain that they have so much work to do that they&#8217;re pulling long night and weekend hours just to stay near the surface. Are these people working anywhere between 10-18+ hour days because they really have that much work? Maybe so. Or maybe it is because we&#8217;ve [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>It is common to hear people, especially nowadays, complain that they have so much work to do that they&#8217;re pulling long night and weekend hours just to stay near the surface.  Are these people working anywhere between 10-18+ hour days because they really have that much work?  Maybe so.  Or maybe it is because we&#8217;ve become accustomed to not being able to get actual work done while we&#8217;re at work.  </p>
<p>This inability to get work done during the workday isn&#8217;t because of laziness or procrastination.  It happens for many reasons but the main culprits include <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/12/meetings-are-broken/">broken meetings</a> and our <a href=http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/18/are-we-addicted-to-interruption/">addiction to interruptions</a>.  We&#8217;re also a society that is constantly connected and tools such as Twitter, Facebook and email make it even harder to disconnect.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tis-the-season-to-work----new-survey-from-xobni-shows-most-americans-will-be-doing-work-email-during-thanksgiving-and-other-holidays-this-season-110113154.html">recent survey from Xobni</a> even shows that 59 percent of employed Americans will be check work email during traditional family holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas while 79 percent report receiving work-related emails during these holidays.  </p>
<p>It leads me to question how we actually break this cycle so we can get back to doing work <i>at</i> work and spending more time disconnected, recharging and spending time with our friends and family.  Even if you&#8217;re not disconnecting, if you&#8217;re going to be doing work outside of the office, it shouldn&#8217;t be because you&#8217;re stuck in meetings all day.  If you&#8217;re working after-hours, it should be because you&#8217;re putting in extra time on your projects or on improving the service that you&#8217;re providing to your clients and customers.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.twitter.com/jasonfried">Jason Fried</a> of <a href="http://www.37signals.com">37Signals</a> and the author of <a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&#038;bc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;fc1=000000&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;t=thsgrprbl-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;m=amazon&#038;f=ifr&#038;md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&#038;asins=0307463745"><i>Rework</i></a> (affiliate link) recently tackled this topic during a TEDxMidwest where he discusses that the main problems are M&#038;Ms (yes, M&#038;Ms but not what you&#8217;re thinking) and offers a few suggestions on how to breakthrough this problem and get back to getting work done at work.</p>
<p>If you can&#8217;t view this video, you can find it over on the TED website <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work.html?awesm=on.ted.com_8io0&#038;utm_content=awesm-site&#038;utm_medium=on.ted.com-copypaste&#038;utm_source=direct-on.ted.com">here</a>.</p>
<p><center><object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param><param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/JasonFried_2010X-medium.flv&#038;su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JasonFried-2010X.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=1014&#038;introDuration=15330&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=830&#038;adKeys=talk=jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work;year=2010;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=a_taste_of_tedx;event=TEDxMidwest;&#038;preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;" /><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgColor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/JasonFried_2010X-medium.flv&#038;su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/JasonFried-2010X.embed_thumbnail.jpg&#038;vw=432&#038;vh=240&#038;ap=0&#038;ti=1014&#038;introDuration=15330&#038;adDuration=4000&#038;postAdDuration=830&#038;adKeys=talk=jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work;year=2010;theme=not_business_as_usual;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=a_taste_of_tedx;event=TEDxMidwest;"></embed></object></center></p>
<p>What&#8217;s your take?  Do you have this problem at your office?  Do you need to be<br />
<a href="http://www.workshifting.com">workshifting</a> to get anything done?</p>
<p>While you&#8217;re at it, don&#8217;t forget to <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/17/realizing-the-value-of-time/">realize the value of time</a> and that <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/11/13/being-a-big-deal-isnt-such-a-big-deal/">being a big deal really isn&#8217;t such a big deal</a>.</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/11/why-work-doesnt-happen-at-work/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Realizing the Value of Time</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/realizing-the-value-of-time/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/realizing-the-value-of-time/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:11:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Social Media Strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[content strategy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[emotion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inspiration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tungle]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2493</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An underlying theme of some of my recent posts have been the value of time. One of the main reasons why meetings are broken are because they take too much time and distract you from what is important. The reason why I was able to say &#8220;I love you&#8221; to my mom before she passed [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>An underlying theme of some of my recent posts have been the value of time.  One of the main reasons why <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/12/meetings-are-broken/">meetings are broken</a> are because they take too much time and distract you from what is important.  The reason why I was able to say &#8220;I love you&#8221; to my mom <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/10/using-death-as-a-motivator/">before she passed away</a> was because my friend was a few minutes late picking me up.  Both of these examples rely on the difference of a few minutes.  If you could regain 15 minutes back from every meeting, you&#8217;d save hours per week (or more!) into your schedule.  If my friend had been on time to pick me up, I would&#8217;ve regretted my last words to my mom.</p>
<p>Have you ever taken the time to break down time and realize how valuable time really is, even down to a millisecond?  This <a href="http://tungle.me">Tungle</a> video, produced by my friend <a href="http://un-marketing.com">Scott Stratten</a>, breaks down time by providing powerful examples that will cause you to look at time in a new light after watching it.</p>
<p>If you can&#8217;t view this video, you can watch it over <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xp7h3xZXbY">here</a>.</p>
<p><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="600" height="362" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Xp7h3xZXbY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="600" height="362" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Xp7h3xZXbY?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>A powerful underlying concept, eh?  <strong>&#8220;Stop wasting time on things you can&#8217;t control, and focus on the things you can.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>Now, if I didn&#8217;t tell you earlier that the video was created for Tungle or if you didn&#8217;t watch the last couple seconds of the video, you would&#8217;ve thought it was just a motivational and inspirational video.  One of thousands available across the internet.</p>
<p>But, go deeper than that and realize what Tungle and Scott Stratten have done by publishing this video.  They have created emotionally compelling content based around the subject of time, the very issue that Tungle helps us to manage.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve never heard of Tungle, they are:</p>
<blockquote><p>&#8220;…a calendar accelerator that let&#8217;s you easily schedule meetings and share with people inside or outside your business, even if you use different calendars. Tungle is not a calendar &#8211; it integrates with your current calendar, giving you the flexibility and control to connect, collaborate and get more done.&#8221;</p></blockquote>
<p>Instead of a video about how to use their service, Tungle has created a video that illicit emotion thus causing you to want to share the video with your social graph.  Think you&#8217;d have the same feeling if it was a video about how great Tungle is and how much time their tool will save you?  Probably not.</p>
<p>The 71 videos that Tungle currently has uploaded to their YouTube channel, they have received a total of 83,428 views.  Of those 83,000+ views, the above video has 25,132 views or 30% of all views and it has only been live for 2 weeks, as of this writing.</p>
<p>Looking for the underlying lesson here? <strong>Find ways to create compelling content that don&#8217;t just pimp your product.  Tell a story, illicit emotion and give your community a reason to share your content.</strong></p>
<p>Oh, and if you haven&#8217;t tried Tungle yet, go try it because not only does the tool rock, they&#8217;re team is pretty awesome, too.  I f you want some more info about Tungle, I <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/04/21/a-little-bit-about-tungle-me/">interviewed Tungle&#8217;s CEO Marc Gingras</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/realizing-the-value-of-time/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Meetings Are Broken</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/meetings-are-broken/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/meetings-are-broken/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Oct 2010 10:45:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meetings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2474</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In most companies meetings are broken. You and I both know it. We organize and attend meetings that take too long, are unstructured, involve too much rambling and not enough follow-up. We meet for the sake of meeting, not out of necessity. We allow individuals to hijack the meeting so it takes twice as long [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/292407844"><img class="aligncenter" title="Useless Meetings Suck, by Kevin Lawyer" src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/101/292407844_c0c1384b8a.jpg" alt="Useless Meetings Suck" width="500" height="375" /></a></p>
<p>In most companies meetings are broken.  You and I both know it.  We organize and attend meetings that take too long, are unstructured, involve too much rambling and not enough follow-up.  We meet for the sake of meeting, not out of necessity.  We allow individuals to hijack the meeting so it takes twice as long as it is supposed to.  For the few minutes per day that we&#8217;re not in meetings, we&#8217;re being <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/18/are-we-addicted-to-interruption/">consistently interrupted</a>.  Yet, we&#8217;re still expected to complete all of our work on time even if we spend the majority of our life in meetings.</p>
<p>Does this sound like a conversation you might have had recently with a co-worker?</p>
<p>I know this has happened to me.  I know that I&#8217;ve been both the culprit and victim of broken meetings.  But, lately, I have become increasingly restrictive of how easy I&#8217;ll agree to a meeting without questioning the need to meet and the length of time required.  Too often, as I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ve experience, hour long meetings are scheduled because it sounds like a nice, round number.</p>
<p><b>Meetings don&#8217;t have to be the source of this much frustration.  Meetings don&#8217;t have to zap your team&#8217;s productivity.  Meetings don&#8217;t have to suck!</b></p>
<p>Now, this isn&#8217;t to say that meetings aren&#8217;t necessary.  They are very much needed, when they&#8217;re structured, are respectful of your time, involve follow-up, and aren&#8217;t just a meeting to meet about the last meeting you had.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re stuck in an organization that enjoys meeting just to meet, how can you fix it?  How can you regain back your precious time?</p>
<p><a href="http://www.43folders.com/">Merlin Mann</a> has come to the rescue once again.  A few years ago he began preaching from tall mountains on how each of us could <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/06/28/slaying-the-inbox/">regain control on our inboxes</a> with his, now famous, <a href="http://inboxzero.com/video/">Inbox Zero</a> speech.  Now Merlin wants to help you fix broken meetings so that they return to be useful allocations of your time.</p>
<p>Merlin recently publicly rolled out this new presentation during a session at <a href="http://twitter.com">Twitter</a> HQ.  The <a href="http://www.43folders.com/2010/10/06/broken-meetings">entire presentation</a> is a little more than an hour long but is worth every minute of your time.</p>
<p><center><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/15579561?color=ffffff" width="400" height="265" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p><a href="http://vimeo.com/15579561"></center></p>
<p><center>
<div id="__ss_5375914" style="width: 425px;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/15579561"><object id="__sse5375914" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="425" height="355" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=mann-brokenmeetingsandhowyoullfixthem-101006153205-phpapp02&amp;stripped_title=broken-meetings-and-how-youll-fix-them&amp;userName=merlinmann" /><param name="name" value="__sse5375914" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed id="__sse5375914" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="355" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=mann-brokenmeetingsandhowyoullfixthem-101006153205-phpapp02&amp;stripped_title=broken-meetings-and-how-youll-fix-them&amp;userName=merlinmann" name="__sse5375914" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center></p>
<p></a><br />
In case you missed it during the presentation, Merlin shares 10 patterns for improving meetings.</p>
<h2><strong>10 Patterns to Improve Meetings</strong></h2>
<ol>
<li>Purpose</li>
<li>Agenda</li>
<li>Grazing</li>
<li>Edges</li>
<li>Guests</li>
<li>Timekeeper</li>
<li>No Ratholes</li>
<li>Focus</li>
<li>Follow-Up</li>
<li>Consistency</li>
</ol>
<p>What are your thoughts about broken meetings?  Did you find a nugget or two of actionable information that you can take back to your organization and implement?</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
<p><i>Photo Credit:</i> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kplawver/292407844">Kevin Lawyer</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/10/meetings-are-broken/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>12 Cloud-Based Tools to Stay Productive</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/12-cloudbased-tools-stay-productive/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/12-cloudbased-tools-stay-productive/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 24 Jul 2010 00:12:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cloud-based tools]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[software]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2336</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When I was at my old company I had a large outsourced team based in the Philippines.  Since I was only able to make it out there once every 10 weeks or so, we had to rely on tools that would allow us to transfer reports and communicate with one another from close to 18,000 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/2441332480"><img class="alignleft" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2188/2441332480_bf4c950b6c.jpg" alt="clouds" width="300" height="225" align="left" /></a></p>
<p>When I was at my old company I had a large outsourced team based in the Philippines.  Since I was only able to make it out there once every 10 weeks or so, we had to rely on tools that would allow us to transfer reports and communicate with one another from close to 18,000 miles away.  At the time this was primarily done via email, IM and FTP.  That feels so long ago because now, just a few years ago, we have seen a sharp increase in cloud-based tools for individuals and businesses.  At the heart of these tools is the goal to keep people connected by allowing for access to data and the ability to easily communicate through a variety of channels.</p>
<p>I utilize cloud-based apps all throughout my day and didn&#8217;t realize just how much I rely on them until I sat down and began thinking about how I store and retrieve personal data and how I communicate with a number of team members, clients, and partners on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Here are the top 12 cloud-based tools that I use to stay productive.  I use many other tools as well but these are the tools I wouldn&#8217;t know what to do without.</p>
<h2><strong>12 Cloud-Based Tools to Stay Productive</strong></h2>
<ol>
<li><strong>Google Apps/Docs:</strong> I use <a href="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html" target="_blank">Google Apps</a> at both <a href="http://newmarketinglabs.com" target="_blank">New Marketing Labs</a> and my <a href="http://caminitosteakhouse.com" target="_blank">steakhouse</a>. I also heavily use <a href="http://www.gmail.com" target="_blank">Gmail</a> and <a href="http://www.google.com/docs" target="_blank">Google Docs</a> in my personal life.</li>
<li><strong>Google Bookmarks:</strong> <a href="http://www.google.com/bookmarks" target="_blank">Google Bookmarks</a> ensures that I have access to my most frequently used bookmarks from any computer, anywhere I&#8217;m at.  I also use <a href="http://www.delicious.com" target="_blank">Delicious</a> but I use that more for storage and curating together lists such as <a href="http://delicious.com/justinlevy/socialmediapolicies" target="_blank">corporate social media policies</a> or <a href="http://delicious.com/justinlevy/recipes" target="_blank">food recipes</a>.</li>
<li><strong>Google Reader:</strong> <a href="http://www.google.com/reader" target="_blank">Google Reader</a> is the primary way I&#8217;m able to <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/06/my-obsession-the-consumption-of-information/" target="_blank">consume so much information</a> on a daily basis.  There are a variety of tools available for the iPhone and iPad plus I can access from any computer with a browser.</li>
<li><strong>Mozy:</strong> <a href="http://www.mozy.com" target="_blank">Mozy</a> allows me to sleep at night knowing that all of my data is being backed up.  I have other backup processes in place including external hard-drives and heavy use of Dropbox but Mozy remains at the center of all of these processes.</li>
<li><strong>Backupify:</strong> Just as Mozy allows me not to worry about the data that&#8217;s stored on my computer(s), <a href="http://www.backupify.com" target="_blank">Backupify</a> ensures that my social media data is backed up and available for future reference.  Backupify can secure your data from a variety of services including: Flickr, Twitter, Delicious, Zoho, Google Apps/Docs, WordPress, Basecamp, Gmail, Facebook, Google Calendar, and many more.</li>
<li><strong>Dropbox:</strong> <a href="http://www.dropbox.com" target="_blank">Dropbox</a> keeps my most used files available to me wherever I am.  Not only does this serve as a backup of those files, it also allows me to access from my iPhone, iPad, or any other computer.  This comes in handy all the time and helps me to stay responsive to business requests for copies of files.</li>
<li><strong>Evernote:</strong> I have been a fan of <a href="http://www.evernote.com" target="_blank">Evernote</a> since it was first launched. I have multiple notebooks that I use for all sorts of things including my task management, <a href="http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/15/checking-recalibrating-your-goals/" target="_blank">goal setting</a>, lists of all kinds, and random notes.</li>
<li><strong>Hootsuite:</strong> While technically I could&#8217;ve listed all of the different social platforms, I would like to think that would be sort of obvious. However, <a href="http://www.hootsuite.com" target="_blank">Hootsuite</a> is important because it allows me to stay connected on too many Twitter accounts and Facebook Pages to count.</li>
<li><strong>Yammer:</strong> We&#8217;re just deploying <a href="http://www.yammer.com" target="_blank">Yammer</a> at New Marketing Labs but it is being used to keep our team connected so that we&#8217;re not constantly interrupting each other and so that we can stay in contact when we&#8217;re traveling.  We had used other internal networks such as <a href="http://www.socialcast.com" target="_blank">Socialcast</a> and they worked great but a few of our partners were already using Yammer so we decided to give it a try. So far, it&#8217;s pretty awesome!</li>
<li><strong>ScrewTurn:</strong> <a href="http://www.screwturn.eu/" target="_blank">ScrewTurn</a> is what we use for our corporate wiki where we keep information on just about everything we do including our policies, timelines, meeting notes, discussions and lots of other great uses we&#8217;re finding for it.</li>
<li><strong>Zoho:</strong> When we first launched New Marketing Labs we bounced around between a few CRMs and finally settled on <a href="http://www.zoho.com" target="_blank">Zoho</a>.  I wanted a full-featured platform because I had spent 3 years as the administrator of <a href="http://www.netsuite.com" target="_blank">NetSuite</a> at my old company but we didn&#8217;t have the needs of, for example, a software company that has hundreds or thousands of leads coming in each day.</li>
<li><strong>GoToMeeting:</strong> Even though Citrix Online is a client of mine, I have been using <a href="http://www.gotomeeting.com" target="_blank">GoToMeeting</a> for years.  I already travel a lot.  If it wasn&#8217;t for GoToMeeting, I would have to rent a closet at an airport because I would never be home.</li>
</ol>
<p>What are some of your favorite cloud-based tools to stay productive and keep connected?</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
<p><em>Photo Credit:</em> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestrated1/" target="_blank">bestrated1</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/12-cloudbased-tools-stay-productive/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Are We Addicted to Interruptions?</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/are-we-addicted-to-interruption/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/are-we-addicted-to-interruption/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:51:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Business]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Communications]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[meetings]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2318</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[An issue in many offices is that the real work gets done outside of the office, either early in the morning, at nights or on the weekends because team members are in meeting after meeting during regular work hours. Those meetings typically only add more to the to-do list and also soak up time that [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>An issue in many offices is that the real work gets done outside of the office, either early in the morning, at nights or on the weekends because team members are in meeting after meeting during regular work hours.  Those meetings typically only add more to the to-do list and also soak up time that could otherwise be spent being productive working on projects.  When not in a meeting, the remainder of the day is filled with interruptions, emergencies that usually aren&#8217;t true emergencies, and just simply trying to get settled in to actually get into a flow.</p>
<p>Right about this point you&#8217;re probably nodding your head up and down admitting that you&#8217;re experiencing this same issue.  It&#8217;s not surprising because the modern workplace has become addicted to meetings and other forms of interruptions.</p>
<p>This is a consistent issue for me even though my team tries to run as lean as possible and reduce the number of meetings and miscellaneous interruptions we have.  However, when I&#8217;m not traveling, a normal week will have 40-60 meetings appear on my calendar.  One of the reasons for this is because we&#8217;re a fast-growing company with big ambitions and a lot of moving projects that require our attention while the other part is that we have weekly status calls with each of our clients and I lead the majority of these calls.</p>
<p>As more meetings and interruptions have continued to find their way into my work day, I&#8217;ve learned to block out time on my calendar that is marked &#8220;DO NOT SCHEDULE!&#8221;  This allows me to schedule blocks of time to get work done instead of only small windows of time.</p>
<p>With how often I travel, I&#8217;ve also learned how to be productive from anywhere and how to leverage any time available even if it is only 15 minutes.  This has lead me to become very good at getting work done with short pockets of time in between meetings and at home.  Even if I have a day without a lot of meetings, I have found that I am more productive on projects when I&#8217;m <a href="http://www.workshifting.com" target="_blank">workshifting</a> because I find that I can focus more because it&#8217;s just me, my laptop and some great music.</p>
<p>Just as I was thinking about this while sitting on my couch doing work on a Sunday afternoon, I came across an interview with <a href="http://twitter.com/jasonfried" target="_blank">Jason Fried</a>,co-author of <a href="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?lt1=_blank&amp;bc1=000000&amp;IS2=1&amp;bg1=FFFFFF&amp;fc1=000000&amp;lc1=0000FF&amp;t=thsgrprbl-20&amp;o=1&amp;p=8&amp;l=as1&amp;m=amazon&amp;f=ifr&amp;md=10FE9736YVPPT7A0FBG2&amp;asins=0307463745" target="_blank">Rework</a> (affiliate link) and Founder of <a href="http://www.37signals.com" target="_blank">37Signals</a> where he addresses exactly this issue.  Jason describes some of the tactics that his team uses at the 37Signals office and offers some tactical advice that you could implement into your office.</p>
<p><center><script src="http://video.bigthink.com/player.js?height=290&amp;embedCode=03NG42MTqVnn6kOnuDv8k_iDC2HEGniT&amp;width=516&amp;autoplay=0"></script></center></p>
<p>Have you broken your company of their addiction to meetings and other interruptions?  If so, what were the tactics you used?</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank">subscribing to the feed</a> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/07/are-we-addicted-to-interruption/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>6</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Slaying the Inbox</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/06/slaying-the-inbox/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/06/slaying-the-inbox/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:14:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Videos]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=2163</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A consistent theme through many of the conversations I have regarding productivity, work/life balance and time management focuses on the never-ending deluge of emails that many of us are receiving nowadays.  In addition to more and more email piling in, we&#8217;re being expected to and judged by how fast we can respond to said emails. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/financialaidpodcast/3271150373/"><img class="alignright" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3535/3271150373_d8492a60e5_m.jpg" alt="chrispennsword" align="right" /></a></p>
<p>A consistent theme through many of the conversations I have regarding productivity, work/life balance and time management focuses on the never-ending deluge of emails that many of us are receiving nowadays.  In addition to more and more email piling in, we&#8217;re being expected to and judged by how fast we can respond to said emails.</p>
<p>This is a constant battle that I fight on a daily basis.  The first thing I do when my alarm goes off is grab my iPhone and check what emails have come in over the past few hours.  This continues throughout the rest of the day and ends with a last check of my iPhone right before placing it back on the nightstand where I grabbed it at the start of the day.  I know, I know, the productivity cops are coming after me as we speak for saying the first thing I do is check email.  For me, it helps to set the pace for the day and allows me to prioritize the morning especially if something happened with a client.  On any given day I receive 200-300 emails and send upwards of 100+ emails per day.  Between my laptop, iPhone, and iPad, I ensure that I&#8217;m consistently plugged in and attempting to stay on top of my inboxes.</p>
<p>Of course, sometimes I fall off the wagon and fall deeply, deeply behind where I have to spend an entire day catching up.  Whenever this happens, I tend to fire up <a href="http://www.43folders.com" target="_blank">Merlin Mann</a>&#8216;s famous <a href="http://inboxzero.com/video/" target="_blank">&#8220;Inbox Zero&#8221; talk</a>.  Have you seen it before?  If not, check out the video below.  Though it is about an hour long, it is worth every second of your time, especially if you&#8217;re having problems organizing or keeping up with your inbox.</p>
<p><object id="VideoPlayback" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="100" height="100" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"><param name="src" value="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=973149761529535925&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=true" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width: 400px; height: 326px;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100" height="100" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=973149761529535925&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=true" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></p>
<p>What I&#8217;ve found is that I can&#8217;t use the exact folders that Merlin suggests because I find that when I tried using a &#8220;Defer&#8221; and/or &#8220;Do&#8221; folder, I never followed up with the emails.  Also, after trying out a few different folder structures, I decided that what helped me process (and reference) email the fastest was to use the following folders for my primary inbox, which happens to be my <a href="http://newmarketinglabs.com" target="_blank">New Marketing Labs</a> account:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>External</strong> &#8211; this is for all communications that are not from a client or someone on the New Marketing Labs team.</li>
<li><strong>Clients</strong> &#8211; all client emails go into this folder.</li>
<li><strong>Internal</strong> &#8211; any email from a New Marketing Labs team member is kept in this folder.</li>
<li><strong>Misc</strong>. &#8211; any email that doesn&#8217;t nicely fit into one of the other folders or may be a personal note that I want to save for personal reference is stored here.</li>
<li><strong>Travel</strong> &#8211; because of how much I travel, I&#8217;m always receiving travel confirmations, updates and changes. Though I heavily depend on <a href="http://www.tripit.com" target="_blank">TripIt</a> to keep my travel organized, I keep all backups here.</li>
</ul>
<p>This allows me to quickly decide where an email needs to be stored instead of spending 5 seconds per email deciding exactly which of 100 folders it needs to go in.  It also helps me with trying to locate a reference email because of how fast email searches are nowadays and the variety of ways that your email can be sorted.</p>
<p>This is just how I attempt to slay the inbox.  How do you handle your email?</p>
<p><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or </strong><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank"><strong>subscribing to the feed</strong></a><strong> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
<p><em>Photo Credit:</em> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/financialaidpodcast/" target="_blank">Christopher S. Penn</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2010/06/slaying-the-inbox/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>When You Hit the Wall</title>
		<link>http://justinrlevy.com/2009/09/when-you-hit-the-wall/</link>
		<comments>http://justinrlevy.com/2009/09/when-you-hit-the-wall/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:42:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Justin Levy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Personal]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[burnout]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://justinrlevy.com/?p=1574</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This was originally posted on workshifting.com (a client project) but thought these tips could be useful to you over here as well. You can always feel it coming.  You sit in front of your computer and stare at it blankly.  Watching Top Gun for the 15th time somehow makes sense.  Polishing your silverware sounds fun.  [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><em>This was originally posted on <a href="http://www.workshifting.com/2009/08/when-you-hit-the-wall.html" target="_blank">workshifting.com</a> (a <a href="http://www.citrixonline.com" target="_blank">client</a> project) but thought these tips could be useful to you over here as <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/u2slane/501387597/"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-1597" title="hitting-the-wall" src="http://justinrlevy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/501387597_12484cf4f6.jpg" alt="hitting-the-wall" width="280" height="210" /></a>well.</em></p>
<p>You can always feel it coming.  You sit in front of your computer and stare at it blankly.  Watching Top Gun for the 15th time somehow makes sense.  Polishing your silverware sounds fun.  You even shut down IM, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a>.  What&#8217;s going on?  You, my friend, have hit the wall.  You have hit a wall where you are totally unproductive.  So, what do you do?  Do you accept your fate and take some time off?  Or do you decide to fight through it and see if you can get back onto the fast track of productivity?</p>
<p>Sometimes it can be that your morning just got started off on the wrong foot.  That&#8217;s easy to correct.  At the far extreme, it can mean that you&#8217;ve hit burnout.  Just a bit of advice: try to avoid the burnout side of the spectrum.  Other times, it&#8217;s that you fall in between those two ends and just have an all around unproductive day.  You can&#8217;t exactly put your finger on why but all you know is that you&#8217;re just being unproductive.  Suddenly it&#8217;s night time and you can&#8217;t really account for what really got done during the previous 12 hours.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s face it.  As much as some of us don&#8217;t want to admit it, we all need to take a break occasionally.  If your family doesn&#8217;t force you to, eventually your body and/or mind will.  It&#8217;s natural especially if you keep laser <a href="../2009/02/12/are-you-focused/">focus</a> and pride yourself on the <a href="../2009/07/04/sleep-is-forbidden/">lack of sleep</a> <a href="http://www.chrisbrogan.com/no-i-dont-sleep/">you get</a>.  Sometimes you have to just accept your fate and enjoy a day off of the grid and away from the normal grind.  But, other times you have to have a few sure-fire ways to give your day that shock needed to get back on track.  Here are the 9 ways that I help get my day back from careening out of control:</p>
<p><strong>1. Turn on or switch up the music.</strong> Music is a major part of my life.  It always has been.  So, I have to have music on whenever I want to get a lot done.  Sometimes though, just turning on music isn&#8217;t enough.  That&#8217;s when I have to smash the emergency glass and pull of the musical first-aid kit.  This entails precisely of my <a href="http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/shop_online/headphones/audio_headphones/in_ear_headphones/index.jsp">Bose ear-in headphones</a>, <a href="http://www.pandora.com/">Pandora ONE</a> and/or <a href="http://www.itunes.com/">iTunes</a>.  The music has to be something with a great beat and hard hitting bass.  For me, <a href="../2009/05/25/a-little-history-on-jay-z-and-what-you-can-learn-from-it/">Jay-Z</a> is usually my go-to artist of choice.<br />
<strong><br />
2. Try for a couple small wins.</strong> Try to accomplish some of the smaller, easier tasks on your list.  Maybe that&#8217;s paying a bill or two.  Send out that rebate.  Make those 3 phone calls you&#8217;ve been meaning to make.  I find that being able to cross a few of those off the list will usually be the injection of productivity needed to switch focus to the bigger projects.</p>
<p><strong>3. Break the big projects down to small tasks.</strong> In my opinion, this is what you should be doing all the time.  But, we all forget and instead add &#8220;Take on the world&#8221; to our task list.  It&#8217;s no wonder that it keeps getting pushed off.  We find it to be daunting so we skip past it and move on to a bunch of smaller wins.  Instead of pushing it down the list, use your <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getting_Things_Done">GTD</a> ninja skills and break it into all of the smaller tasks needed to make the big win.  If you&#8217;ve forgotten about GTD, you can give yourself a refresher by watching <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo7vUdKTlhk">David Allen present at Google</a>.  I&#8217;ll sometimes make these tasks as micro as &#8220;Photocopy contract&#8221;, &#8220;Email contract&#8221;, &#8220;Send internal status update on contract&#8221;.  Again, it&#8217;s those small wins that will help you get back on track.</p>
<p><strong>4. Switch locations.</strong> Sometimes it&#8217;s not you but your environment that&#8217;s making you unproductive.  Try workshifting from a different location.  If it&#8217;s a nice day, grab your laptop and go outside.  Head to a coffee shop or a restaurant.  Find those go-to locations for yourself and head straight there.  Do not pass go.  Do not collect $200.</p>
<p><strong>5. Drop the internet and put your hands up.</strong> Even if you don&#8217;t think it is, the internet can suck up time.  Those little minute distractions of <a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/">TweetDeck</a>&#8216;s little black status box popping up or your email yelling at you that you have 10 unanswered emails can really prevent you from focusing.  So, when you really need to crack the whip, start by shutting down EVERYTHING that can interrupt you.  Yes, that means, email, IM, Facebook, Twitter, cell phone, anything and everything.   I like to switch up locations and go somewhere that I know I won&#8217;t have internet.  It helps me to focus and allows me to be creative.</p>
<p><strong>6. Get up and stretch.</strong> I find that stretching revitalizes me.  It helps to unkink the muscles that have just sat there for hours on end.  A few cracks here, a few stretches there and I feel like I can conquer the world again.  If this doesn&#8217;t work, try going for a workout or take a quick shower. These little refreshers will help to make you feel better and gives you a few minutes to clear your mind before diving back in.</p>
<p><strong>7. Take on something else. </strong> If it&#8217;s work-related tasks that you&#8217;re not able to crush, try knocking off something else.  I recently had an entire weekend where anything and everything work-related seemed like a foreign language to me.  Instead of just wasting the day away, I did a bunch of tasks around the house and ran a few errands.  This made me feel like I was accomplishing something and also helped me for the week to come.</p>
<p><strong>8. Try calling a friend. </strong> Some of my best work is done when I can co-work with someone.  Invite a friend over, meet at a bookstore or try a co-working space and knock out some work together.  The <a href="http://www.workshifting.com/2009/05/five-things-in-my-work-bag.html">tools</a> that many of us are equipped with such as laptops, broadband cards, phones and the like allow us to be <a href="http://www.digitalnomads.com/">digital nomads</a>.  Take advantage of it.</p>
<p><strong>9. Power nap.</strong> Close everything up and take a 20 minute nap.  Power naps have been proven to increase productivity.  Some companies, like Google, even provide <a href="http://glassbox-design.com/2009/google-goes-aquatic-photos-inside-an-office-quiet-room/">nap rooms</a> for their employees.  So, close the laptop, grab your stuffed animal (er, um, I mean, pillow), set an alarm for 20-30 minutes and pass out.  If you can&#8217;t fall asleep, run head first into a brick wall.  It might knock you out for a little longer than 20 minutes but you&#8217;ll probably wake up feeling refreshed.  You might even hit your head hard enough to forget about some of your worries <img src='http://justinrlevy.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
<p>These are just a few of a number of different tools I keep at-the-ready to help beat a feeling of being unproductive.  Even if I&#8217;m feeling totally productive, I will use some of these tips to help keep me pointed in the right direction.  Other times, just stop.  Take some time off and relax.  Your work isn&#8217;t going anywhere, that&#8217;s for sure.</p>
<p>Do you find these tips useful to you?  What do YOU do when you&#8217;re feeling unproductive?</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><strong>If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or </strong><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/justinrlevy" target="_blank"><strong>subscribing to the feed</strong></a><strong> to receive future articles delivered to your feed reader.</strong></p>
<p><em>Photo by:</em> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/u2slane" target="_blank">u2slane</a></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://justinrlevy.com/2009/09/when-you-hit-the-wall/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>

