I’m not that creative… and worse yet - I’m blonde. I still happen to have ideas, though. Sometimes :-) When I need to, I force myself to reflect and come up with a nice solution or plan. More often, interesting thoughts just pop into my head in the most unexpected situations… Because I don’t want to lose these little treasures, I always capture them. I encourage you to do the same.

The purpose of all this commotion?

Idea dumping is a really handy procedure - whether you do it routinely or spontaneously. Thoughts in your mind, although precious, can be a hindrance to productivity. When they float around in your head, they will surface again and again at inappropriate times, stress you out and, worse still, be lost when they are actually needed.

You might want to run idea-dumping sessions for two reasons:

As a tech company, we’re armed with many apps to run our business. Some of you are curious about which apps we use and how. That’s where “Ask Michael” comes in!

Since we’re in No Office model, we have no other choice than using the best available services and applications to get our work done, to communicate and to discuss our efforts. But that’s just one side of the coin. In fact, playing with new things and upgrading our toolset is our passion. :)

Have you ever searched our app or website for a handy feature or specific answer? For those who have, we’re launching a new blog post series! It will be a classic FAQ - posts will contain the answers to the questions our users frequently ask in their support emails.

I’ve been working for Nozbe Customer Support for a long time now. And I still enjoy the direct, every-day contact with our clients. All their questions, big or small issues, feedback and requests.

We’ve noticed that some of the questions repeat quite regularly. And these aren’t just from users who start their productive life with (and thanks to) Nozbe. Each user has their own workflow and habits. This often means that they skip or don’t notice some functions that our system offers, even though it would definitely improve their efficiency.

Let’s kick off with the first query:

Did you know that you can always restore completed projects and tasks? If you don’t remove them, we keep them on our servers. So you can bring them back! You don’t appreciate it until you need it. That applies to health and… data backup. With Nozbe, you can be confident that you can restore all uploaded files and written comments (unless you intentionally delete them). Today Michael explains: Why do we store all that data?

When you are faced with dozens of things to do in a day, optimizing and streamlining become essential. Following routines and creating processes that can be easily implemented and reused is key. That’s why Nozbe comes with a super-handy feature: project templates… that can be published and shared with others whenever you want. Nozbe.how templates let you show your friends and followers the way you plan, get organized and get things done.

See what project templates Nozbe community members have created lately.

Introduction

I stumbled upon Nozbe several years ago while searching – yet again – for the ideal multi-platform task management system. Even then, Nozbe had a clean, crisp, and powerful interface. Today, Nozbe stands alone as the ultimate expression of a well-designed task management system.

Each new version of Nozbe allows me to update and refine my personal productivity workflow. Nozbe, the company, works very closely with their user community to keep the flow of ideas moving and growing.

Let us introduce another episode of Michael’s weekly video series! This time, he talks about the security and privacy of the data that you input and store with Nozbe. We’re not paranoid. We don’t believe in Earth-threatening aliens. But if they existed, we would be ready for that. There are, obviously, much more predictable accidents that could destroy or compromise our databases. And if you have read any news about enormous data leaks and password hacks, you might be reasonably concerned.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the latest episodes of Michael’s and Radek’s “The Podcast”, read on and pick those you find the most interesting or timely.

86: Perfect week

Michael Sliwinski shares a pro tip he learned from Michael Hyatt: how to design a template for your ideal week. A good routine is helpful for productivity!

Listen to the episode no.86:

Here comes Productive! Magazine no.34 - the latest and the last issue of our periodical.

The reason we stop working on our magazine (that have been on-line for more than 8 years) is… essentialism :-) Michael, our Editor in Chief, explains his decision in details in his article that you will find inside this edition.

Interview with Greg McKeown

The special guest of issue no.34 is none other than Greg McKeown, the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”.

10 years in business – and just as many years listening to customers. We get feature requests every single day. And that’s what the latest “Ask Michael” episode is about! You might be curious what we do with your requests. Are they stored somewhere? Does anyone read them? First, we carefully review your requests. Then we save them in a special Nozbe project. And use them while planning future releases. But our experience tells us that (usually) simply adding new features isn’t actually what you really want.