Notes from Less Is More: Simple Productivity Hacks

This past weekend I attended the World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon. One of the sessions I attended on Sunday was Less Is More: Simple Productivity Hacks presented by Julia Roy (@juliaroy). For those who missed the session, my notes are below. For more productivity hacks, check out Julia’s web site.

As these are notes taken during a session, do not expect perfect grammar, or even full sentences. Assume errors exist and that I may have misquoted or added information as I took notes. Leave any questions in the comments and I’ll try to clarify as much as I can remember.

Use Tools Strategically

No system works unless you have the bigger picture. Too often people use BaseCamp and other tools like a diet pill, rather than changing their lifestyle.

Julia still spends most of her time in e-mail, on Twitter and in Facebook, even though she writes about productivity.

Use One Mode At A Time

There are apps that prevent you from leaving e-mail when you’re in the e-mail app. When you are in the e-mail mode, just handle e-mail. Don’t link out and start reading.

Keep Working At New Systems

Don’t give up on a new productivity system. Use it for a week or two before giving up on it. After that, feel free to ditch it or modify it to your needs.

E-mail Tips

Best when working within a team.

• Use Prefixes for Subject Lines
  [Decision Needed], [FYI], [Important: Read Now], [Action Required], [Question]
• If Your Message Is Short, Put the Entire E-mail In the Subject
• Change Subject Lines For Replies
  Add Prefixes, Make the Subject Clearer If Required
• Put a Manifesto Link at Bottom of E-mails
  Include info like How I Process E-mail, What Prefixes Mean, etc.
• In Gmail, Use Icon’s to Flag E-mails
  Set up Gmail to use exclamation marks, question marks and other icons in addition to stars.
• Bullet Your Questions
• Avoid Open-Ended Questions
  Instead of “Do You Want To Go To Lunch?”, propose a specific time & place and let them reply back with alternatives if that doesn’t work.
• Never Just Say “Thanks!”
  E-mails with one word responds that say “Thanks!” just clog up e-mail & force you to process more e-mail.

Meeting Tips

• Put the agenda in the meeting description.

Project Management Tools

• Trello
  Easy to use card system for project management. May be useful for Personal Kanban.
• Podio
  Like BaseCamp, but more customizable. Like Facebook, but for project management. Works well with teams
• Action Method
  Task management with team support.

Gmail Tools

• Other Inbox
  Auto-archives e-mails and places them into folders and gets them out of your inbox.
• Boomerang
  Ask that the e-mail be sent back to you on a specific day. Or set a reminder when you send the e-mail for any action steps. Or it can send an e-mail later for you.
• Find Big Mail
  Find the big pieces of e-mail in Gmail and helps you delete them.
• Attachment.me
  Will sort e-mail by attachments.
• Canned Responses
  Can create fixed responses. In Gmail Labs.
• Rapportive
  Shows the person’s Twitter link, profile, e-mails sent by the person, etc.
• Send And Archive
  Can change the default to be to auto-archive after you send it.
• Undo Send
  Retrieve the e-mail before it finally gets sent after you press the Send button.

Social Media Tools

• Buffer
  Good for sharing links. If you’re on a web site, you can send it to a queue to process later. Can set up posting schedule.
• Cotweet / Social Engage
  If you have multiple people managing a single social media account.
• Antisocial / Freedom
  Turns off all social networking for a set amount of time. Freedom turns off the Internet for a set amount of time (or you need to reboot).

Writing Tools

• OmWriter
  Full screen writer.
• Scrivener
  Similar to OmWriter.

Other Tools

• Text Expander
  Use it to paste text. Can be used across any application.
• Rescue Time
  Shows you where you spend your time throughout the day. Can also tell you when you max out on your goals (e.g. 2 hours of social media a day).
• Readability / Clearly
  When looking at a web page, takes everything off except for the text.
• Evernote
  Take a picture of a business card & it will read the text.
• PDFPenPro
  Open up any PDF & add your signature. Avoids having to sign & scan. Can also add your signature in the Preview app on Mac for free. PDF Studio is a cheaper alternative.

For more of my notes from the World Domination Summit check out Indie Publishing Demystified and Book Concepts That Sell.