From October 1st to 4th, our customer support may slow down due to the company reunion that is taking place during these days. Thank you for your understanding❤️
Imagine this: instead of switching between writing a report, making a phone call, and checking emails, you group all phone calls together, batch your emails, and set aside dedicated time to focus on writing.
See how to organize your inbox and email communication and how to deal with incoming messages to be more effective, productive and safe. Also check how to integrate Nozbe with your email inbox.
Nozbe is a simple app you can use in many ways and contexts. Even though it isn’t packed with complex features, you can still manage your team and get your work done efficiently in a joyful manner. Today, let’s focus on following progress in projects in Nozbe.
At Nozbe, our own app helps us run the company effectively and efficiently. We use it not only for internal communication and product development but also to take the best care of our clients and provide the highest level of service.
Over the last almost 17 years of running Nozbe we’ve developed our main values that dictate how we run our business, how we build our product and how we treat our customers and each other.
In today’s fast-paced world, effective cooperation is key to success in any project. Whether you’re working with in-house teams or contractors, finding the right tools and methods for collaboration can streamline your processes and boost productivity.
Is your team struggling with chaotic cooperation and communication, an increasing workload or disorganization that’s affecting productivity and office morale? So, you notice this and decide to implement Nozbe. The goal is to organize your projects and make sure everyone’s on the same page and knows what tasks they are responsible for. Unfortunately, you may face resistance.
Find out all about “task ping-pong” which is how we call a model process of getting tasks and projects done in a team, using basically any collaboration app out there.
The rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) technology have paved the way for solutions that can enhance your workflow and maximize productivity. We present top 10 free or low-cost AI-powered tools that will not only boost your efficiency but also empower you and your team to focus on working with clients and doing other things the AI can’t do… YET.
You’ve just decided to move your work to a project&task management app but you are not sure, how to start? See what are projects and how you can break down your work into tasks and projects! Further down, you’ll also find practical examples of projects you might want to set up in your work management tool.
When working in a team, no matter how hard you’re trying to push projects forward, the outcome doesn’t entirely depend on you. Sometimes it can feel frustrating. There is a way for your teamwork to thrive, though. You need an environment that supports teamwork. A sound communication system and a well-designed collaboration tool will help you reach your goals faster together – no matter whether you work in an office or remotely.
Software developers earn some of the highest wages in the country. OK, but it’s not without its challenges. The landscape is marked by intense competition. The relentless evolution of technology creates significant pressure to continually upskill, innovate, and deliver.
Unveil the secrets of Nozbe pricing adjustments - see how we kept our valued customers while raising prices. Join the CEO of Nozbe on his journey and discover the strategies behind it.
Running a small law firm can be challenging, but it can also be very rewarding. As a small law firm owner, you want to provide your clients with the best possible service while also being productive and profitable. In this blog post, we will share 10 tips to help you improve productivity and profitability for your small law firm. These tips are designed to be simple and actionable, so you can start implementing them right away.
🎉 Today marks the “sweet sixteen” birthday 🎂 of Nozbe - a to-do app that I launched on my own way back on February 1, 2007 from my small rented apartment in Warsaw, Poland. 🎉
As a virtual assistant, you want to manage your time, resources, and communication with clients and contractors smoothly so you can accomplish all your assignments on the dot. The best task management software is what you need.
Either at our job or in our private life, we are always surrounded by energy thieves that break our balance. They work underground, so the stealing is hard to perceive. Let’s dive into the most frequent types of behaviors that steal people’s energy.
Here are 10 reasons why “teamwork” may not be bringing about success. Dangers lurk everywhere and can result from who your team members are, how the team is being managed, and what habits people follow. Read this article to avoid any surprises.
Tracking productivity is an essential aspect of running a business. Whether you have a small close-knit team or a growing team with remote members, productivity can make or break a company. However, productivity isn’t always based on the motivation or effort put in from your employees, and there are a number of different reasons why productivity isn’t as high as it could be.
If you think that an ideal work environment doesn’t exist, then you probably don’t know what it’s like to work for Nozbe. The values that we follow in our company’s day-to-day operations also significantly influence the way our apps function. Read on to learn how to develop a great work culture in your company!
The problem of job burnout is so common that the World Health Organization has decided to include it in the ICD-11 International Classification of Diseases and Health Problems. This way no one can treat burnout as a whim or a drama queen thing anymore. See how to recognize and deal with burnout. The problem may also concern you and your loved ones.
As the Covid-19 pandemic shut down much of the US during the 2020-2021 academic year, a faith-based nonprofit in the United States leaned into remote work. Unable to use the co-working space, our team of 4 staffers decided to give “remote-first” a try.
Here is a way to ditch email at work and still get the most complex projects done. Learn more about Joint Projects in Nozbe! This feature will help you reduce the number of emails you exchange and get the job done faster.
Research as well as conversations with friends and self-observations show that for most people Friday is the least productive working day. I guess it stems from the fatigue of the preceding 4 days and the anticipation of the weekend. And that’s why Fridays in Nozbe are special.
Future is hybrid. Now it is for sure.
Office used to be a tool for the company management while it should be a tool for employees to get their work done in the most efficient way. Hybrid work is all about it.
We share our ideas and the best tips to arrange the hybrid work in your company.
Many people struggle to receive feedback, especially negative or constructive feedback. Are you one of those people? Or maybe you’re a manager and you try to omit giving feedback to avoid uncomfortable situations? Use the tips below to learn how to give and receive feedback effectively.
“Being productive is one thing. Being nonprofit productive takes something more.” - says Mike St. Pierre, productivity geek with over 25 years of nonprofit leadership. Together with his team, he aims to equip nonprofit leaders with simple productivity strategies to help them maximize their team efficiency and avoid burnout. Watch and read to learn more.
Come on, don’t be ashamed. We know that sometimes you think to yourself:
Why do I need this application after all? All these projects, tasks, effective team cooperation stuff? There are e-mails, chats, there is a notebook… Why complicate things? And why pay if you can have free tools…
These are pretty obvious doubts. We get them. After all, millions of people use post-it notes and notebooks, and they work just fine.
Meetings are viewed as a fundamental element of every team’s communication. Everyone likes meetings, right? Because what’s there to dislike? Meetings have nothing but advantages! Look:
The NoOffice style and asynchronous communication are keys to team productivity. Believe us. While we mention NoOffice a lot on our productivity blog, asynchronous communication still needs some clarification :) Asynchronous may sound faulty or suspiciously to some of you, huh?
See, how the Nozbe team uses modern technologies to communicate better and get more done.
No matter where your team members currently work from — or where they will work from in the future — these tips will help you improve overall collaboration.
At Nozbe, we all work remotely. And that’s not because of the COVID19 pandemic. We’ve been working like that since 2007! We know most of the work-from-home secrets… Let’s see if you can tell the remote work myths from the facts.
Attention - Achtung - Atención ‼ Registration for our free online course opens today! If your team works remotely or just some of your colleagues work from home, and you’ve been facing organization or communication problems - then this course is for you.
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The pandemic hasn’t changed much in our company. That’s because working from home has been our only work mode since 2007. See why our company operates without the main office. After all, we could all sit in a fancy office building in front of our laptops and get distracted regularly. And we could meet in cool conference rooms in order to talk through what could be discussed more efficiently within the task comments…
If you want to get started with Nozbe in your company and you need someone to guide you, here is a solution!
Augusto Pinaud, a world-class business and productivity coach has a Nozbe courses for you!
The situation is more serious we’ve ever imagined. The pandemic continues. The constraints and difficulties will go on. Those who had worked in the traditional office for years, will keep struggling. And the managers and CEOs of the so-far-office-based companies who were forced to switch to remote mode are still confused, looking for ways to manage their teams and workflow efficiently.
We want to help & we know how to do that!
Project-based work can boost agility and foster innovation in your company. Turning your business goals into projects improves good organization, structures everyone’s actions and gives the sense of accomplishment in the end.
If you work from home you need to prepare your home office well. Your working space impacts your productivity and focus.
In this episode, Michael walks us through his home office and described all the furniture and equipment he’s got. You might find his advice useful when designing your own home office space.
We’ve just returned from our Nozbe reunion – a virtual one. It was the first time we had our company-wide meeting online and it felt… not as lame as it may sound, in fact.
Our app was listed as a solution for companies and teams that are moving to remote work and utilizing more digital tools. The Goldman Sachs report, “The Future of Work,” emphasizes that seamlessly connecting all data, processes, and apps presents a serious problem for today’s companies. There is too much of everything. People have various habits, teams within the same company use different tools, and chaos arises.
Remote work has massively accelerated the shift to digital communication and workflow – and that’s fantastic.
In the 5th episode of the NO Office podcast, Michael and Rafal share their tips and tricks on how to manage emails and what’s the best solution for internal team communication.
Everyday-life examples, practical tips to improve team communication and company meetings - check out the key take-aways from Michael’s No Office book.
Michael is writing his new book on working remotely and making team communication work. It’s an open source book that will evolve forever and that is available for free at nooffice.org.
What are the benefits of runing a small team and using the services/products delivered by small teams.
In the 2nd episode of the No Office podcast Michael and Rafal tell how we build our company to keep it small and what benefits it gives us. They also discuss the quality of products and services made by small teams and how we can help them in the world where big tech companies have too much influence on our lives.
How a precise product and company vision can help run a no-office team and manage your business.
Every company, product or campaign needs a vision - a big why behind it. Sometimes, even if you know why, more or less, you do what you do, it is hard to articulate it and present it to others.
CEO of Nozbe loves sharing his thoughts and observations. In the video below, he answers some questions about Nozbe Personal and Nozbe, working remotely, and doing business after turning 40.
Here at Nozbe, we believe that task-based communication is what every team needs in order to work better, ditch the chaos, and do more in less time.
Let Michael, the CEO of Nozbe explain you what exactly is task-based communication that we love so much and mention so often. And learn what your team gets by communicating this way!
Here is the recording of the 8th live session dedicated to remote work. In this episode, Michael, Nozbe CEO, and Rafal Sobolewski share their experience with effective team communication.
On my CEO vlog I’ll be talking about team productivity and our journey of launching Nozbe Teams and running our company - our values and ways we do things - but sometimes I will just geek out and will take you behind the scenes of how I work…
This is a special episode of the vlog series by Michael Sliwinski where he shares his expertise on team productivity, remote work, new technologies, and running a business. At this very difficult time, Michael speaks of the emergency policy he introduces in our company due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Here is the second episode of the vlog series by Michael Sliwinski where he shares his expertise on team productivity, remote work, new technologies, and running a team and a business. This time, Michael explains why after 13 years in business Nozbe becomes a two-product company.
Ladies and gentlemen, we’re thrilled to present the first episode of the new series by Michael Sliwinski. From now on, the CEO of Nozbe’s going to vlog regularly and share his knowledge and expertise on team productivity, remote work, new technologies, running a team and a business, etc.
Nozbe team is an all remote team. We will soon be meeting in-person for a few days again. In November 2019 our company reunion will take place in Poznan, Poland. As a result, our customer support may slow down at that time. However, we are going to be working hard every day of the gathering to make decisions that will form the future of Nozbe and Nozbe Teams.
You keep asking at what stage are the works on the new collaboration and project management app we’re developing for small and medium-sized teams. Well, there’s been a lot going on and we want to share the Nozbe (aka Nozbe 4) progress report with you right here and right now. Let’s do this:
When working in a team, your productivity is affected by the decisions and habits of the other members. Even if you are all uber-efficient and always stick to deadlines, the team as a whole might struggle to communicate and deliver things on time. If you and your teammates/employees find it hard to get things done together, read on and see how Nozbe can help you out.
How often misunderstandings 🤦 or lack of information hinder team productivity and stop people from completing work on time? I’d say pretty often. And here is our proven method for efficient communication… which you may find too simple and obvious to get excited about. The task-based communication.
Let’s get excited about it for a while: check out what it is and how it is different from the collaboration & communication methods you know!
Project management might be traditionally considered the backbone of construction firms, architectural firms, advertising and graphic design agencies – those with an obvious client ‘project’ to manage, though it is also now making it entry into the professional services arena, assisting teams to keep track of client commitments, regulate competing priorities, and overall enable better communication between staff, better client service and delivering efficiencies that make a positive contribution to the bottom line.
For your company or organization to succeed, you must make an actionable plan. And for a strategic plan to be successful, the process that goes into creating it must be effective.
In this article, you will learn the 4 keys to successful strategic planning with your team members.
What is Strategic Planning? According to Simon Charles, a marketing specialist at Brill Assignment, strategic planning is an activity where organizations, through their management departments set priorities, dedicate energy and resources, enhance operations, and ensure organization’s employees and other shareholders are working to achieve the same goals.
Closing a successful deal isn’t easy with the business world’s ever-increasing pace. People have shortening attention spans and deals happen faster than before. The extreme pressure forces CEOs and other executives to close complex contracts through high-stakes negotiations where one slip-up can cost millions. The pressure puts these negotiators in a constant state of alert where some are prone to cracking under stress. Read this article to learn how to handle negotiations when things get stressful.
Even small business owners know the importance of using technology for everything from increasing efficiency to managing daily operations. But what about security?
According to statistics, criminals aren’t just going after fat cats with in-house IT departments and deep pockets. More than 43% of all cyber attacks target small businesses. Does your company have the funds to fend of a ransomware attack or survive a data breach?
Most don’t.
Before you launch your startup or expand your business, security automation should be an integral part of your plan.
Financial accounting is a mirror reflecting the quality of management and the efficiency of any business. Competent accounting of finance from the very start can help correctly assess its financial position and direct the cash flow to the right stream. In this article, we will talk about how to take into account the flow of finance at each stage of business development and how to analyze its financial condition.
One of the things I enjoy most about running my own business is the fact that I can make my own work rules, along with my team. Together, we can build our “perfect world.” If you’ve been following Nozbe, then you may already be familiar with some aspects of our company’s approach to work: working with the latest technology; remote work (“#NoOffice” – we don’t have a physical office employees must go to); working only four days a week, where Fridays are a time scheduled for weekly reviews and personal development (dubbed “TGIF”, as in “Thank God it’s Friday”); and our constant experimentation with new ideas.
Online authority is a digital form of the word of mouth marketing. The Internet allows everyone to publicly express their opinions about brands and products, thus adding a whole new layer of information to the traditional concept of brand reputation. In such circumstances, one of your top business goals should be to strengthen online credibility.
The future looks bright for today’s small businesses. According to Capital One’s most recent Small Business Growth Index, optimism is at a record high, with 67 percent of small businesses viewing conditions as “good or excellent.” 65 percent of those surveyed cite business growth as the reason behind their enthusiasm, followed by national economic conditions and improved business operations.
Today, it is possible for all of us to create an online website and start earning money. With such attractive possibilities, there’s hardly anyone who hasn’t thought about it, creating a startup and making a fortune. After all, it sounds so easy.
Can you believe that artificial intelligence and bots will soon revolutionize the world of project management? Any time now, we’ll all have access to systems that can perform day-to-day management and administration tasks without any human input. A scary thought… or an exciting one? Read on to see how AI will change the way we all work.
The entire Nozbe team will soon be meeting in-person for a few days again. This time, our gathering will take place in Stare Jablonki, a picturesque village in Masurian Lake District. As a result, our customer support may slow down at that time. However, we are going to be working hard every day of the reunion to make decisions that will form the future of Nozbe.
Writing a good procedure will keep yourself and your team on track for meeting your goals in an orderly and standardized way. Read on to learn how to do it.
Lawyers often find themselves so inundated with tasks that they question why they became a lawyer in the first place. The salary can be lucrative, but the work is hard. Many lawyers feel as though they’d benefit from an extra set of hands and an extra set of eyes just to get through the day to day. If you need some productivity help on your way to becoming the best lawyer you can be, you’re not alone. It doesn’t require a miracle – it’s just a little restructuring.
Productivity is the key to success. Whether you run a business, work for one, or simply work freelance, you will find that productivity plays a crucial role in the success of your work. When we think of productivity, however, we never seem to consider the importance of digital- or cybersecurity.
There are plenty of ways that cybersecurity can boost productivity, both on an individual basis and across businesses and organizations. When practicing cybersecurity to improve your productivity, you are protecting both your work and yourself—it’s a win-win situation!
You can have the best intentions in the world, but you won’t get very far if your environment is working against those intentions. Productivity requires an environment that allows people to get things done. Making a few small modifications to your work environment can keep everyone moving forward with the maximum amount of momentum.
Working remotely has many advantages over traditional “office mode”. One of them is the way we truly can’t wait to meet in person at the company reunions. Watch this short video showing how Nozbe team spent time during the last get-together in Cracow.
Nozbe supports many languages. We offer not only the app, but also on-boarding, educational materials, blog posts, email campaigns and newsletters in multiple languages. To get these materials all sorted and delivered on time, we set up a simple system for collaborating with contractors based all over the world.
Ah, productivity. It can be the bane of our existence. Whether your team works remotely or in-house, when your team isn’t on the ball, productivity suffers, morale drops, and revenue goes down.
Worst of all, stuff piles up so that everyone becomes more frustrated and even less motivated. Working on your own productivity is one thing. But how the heck do you make a whole team more productive so that stuff gets done?
Most office-based employees will be able to recognise how their working environments influence their health and wellbeing. This is where office ergonomics come in.
8Working with remote teams is becoming more and more common. Organizations can save a great deal of money on taxes and labor costs by hiring staff in different states or countries. But working remotely comes with a number of challenges. Coordinating groups operating in different time zones can be challenging, and communication is also a challenge. Follow these seven tips for improving and tracking your remote team’s productivity.*
If you run an agency or work as a freelancer you surely know that outsourcing-like agreements can be built upon either the fixed price or the time-and-material model. Selecting one of them can be tricky as well as switching from one to another. Read on to learn everything you need to know on this topic.
I’ve been running my company and the Nozbe app for over 11 years without a physical office, just an official address. I’ve hired 25 employees and 12 regular contractors. I’ve been promoting the #NoOffice concept because this is how I live and work myself… and I know it works. In this article, I’d like to delve a little deeper into the #NoOffice working style by outlining some of the reasons for operating without an office and present how this system works from an insider’s perspective.
Working remotely has many advantages over traditional “office mode”. One of them is the way we truly can’t wait to meet in person at the company reunions. Watch this short video showing how Nozbe team spent time during the last get-together in Ustroń.
Do you work in the insurance industry (or a related industry) and are wondering how to use Nozbe for collaboration with your clients? In this article, we present methods and solutions that may help insurance agents, as well as other professionals from this industry, increase their effectiveness and work in a more structured manner.
Today, project managers are being asked to run more projects with smaller teams around tight deadlines. These outrageous demands are making it harder for managers to reach project completion. In fact, less than one-third of all projects were successfully completed on time and on budget over the past year.
To pull off a successful project, managers need to master productivity — easier said than done. Juggling between the roles of a creator, manager, team player, strategist, and a leader — being productive is relatively difficult.
The good news it is possible for project managers to master productivity. With these 6 nifty productivity tips, you can get more done in a day without having to break your back — it’s all about working smart.
We have so many tools for collaboration in our team that e-mail is useless. We haven’t used it for collaboration in years. How do we share information with colleagues, then? Watch the new episode of “Ask Michael” to find out!
In a „No Office” company like Nozbe, we don’t see each other all that much in person. That’s why a few years ago we started all-company meetings. We wanted to spend some quality time together, recharge batteries, get to know the people hidden behind their avatars… and basically connect on a different level. Now, that we did a few of these, I’d like to share a few tips on how to prepare and run a successful “company retreat.”
As we do every six months, the entire Nozbe team will soon be meeting in-person for a few days. This time, our gathering will take place in Ustron, a mountain town in the South of Poland. As a result, our customer support may slow down at that time. However, we are going to be working hard every day of the reunion to make decisions that will form the future of Nozbe.
“Trust is good, but control is better,” they say. Well, Michael says the opposite: control is overvalued, and trust is the key to a focused and effective remote team. Learn why!
After the introduction of our new pricing, we received some questions about VIP support for our popular Business plan. Now you’ll know better what to expect!
Exactly 11 years ago today a young aspiring entrepreneur/programmer from a rented apartment in Warsaw, the capital of a country in the Central Europe called Poland, launched a productivity Web 2.0 application inspired by David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done”. That was me, and when I started Nozbe I never even dared to dream that 11 years later I’d be running this amazing company with Nozbe apps for all the major platforms with 0.5M people from all over the world using it… Happy Birthday Nozbe! You just turned 11 and as your founder I’m writing this post to give everyone a little more detail of where we came from and where we’re going in the coming months and years. Here goes:
We asked Nozbe Ambassadors - people who we consider to be productivity gurus and real overachievers - to share some goal-setting tips. See how Chad Garrett, Robby Miles, Mike St. Pierre, Matt Olech and Żaneta Jażdżyk plan their best year ever.
Working remotely has many advantages over traditional “office mode”. One of them is the way we truly can’t wait to meet in person at the company reunions. Watch this short video showing how Nozbe team spent time during the last get-together in Wrocław.
It feels like all those little tasks are demanding your time and you never have time for the tasks that really matter? We get overloaded with the urgent tasks instead of focusing on what’s important. It doesn’t have to be this way! Try using the Eisenhower Matrix to identify your real priorities.
As we do every six months, the entire Nozbe team will soon be meeting in-person for a few days. This time, our gathering will take place in Wrocław, a beautiful city in the South-West of Poland. As a result, our customer support may slow down at that time. However, we are going to be working hard every day of the reunion to make decisions that will form the future of Nozbe.
We have all had difficult colleagues. You know, those peers that cause you to roll your eyes and complain when they are not around. Difficult colleagues make work harder and create even more headaches for the person who has to manage her/him.
Our favourite part of each webinar is the Q&A session so this webinar will be dedicated entirely to answering your questions! Watch the webinar recording:
It’s been two months since we all met in person in Torun at our company gathering. We celebrated, worked, learned and chilled out. Now you can see what our reunions are like and find out how many different things we did.
On the first day Michael, our CEO, welcomed us, summarized the last six months of our work and progress and then… we could finally celebrate Nozbe’s 10th anniversary “live” - we had delicious cake and champagne.
An interview with Dominik Juszczyk, Gallup-Certified Strengths coach, who helps teams increase their productivity and efficiency.
During our last Nozbe reunion you conducted a workshop for our team. It was all about our talents :-) The workshop was based on our results from the StrengthsFinder test created by the Gallup Strengths Center that we took beforehand. What are “talents” anyway?
Hearing the word “talent,” we usually think of someone who can sing, dance or do something different, unique. We think of them in terms of the popular “Got Talent” TV show. Working according to the talents and strengths-based development method, we use a different definition. A talent may be an ability to make quick decisions, adopt a cautious approach to a problem, analyze other people’s emotions, or talk to strangers. Each of these traits is a talent. The Gallup Organization’s official definition of a talent is an innate and recurring pattern of reaction, feeling and action.
Today is the last day of our semi-annual Nozbe Reunion - where our “No Office” team meets to hang out, socialize, discuss, brainstorm and work together in one physical space. This reunion was very fruitful as we’ve discovered a next step in productivity evolution: Nozbe Stories.
Nozbe is a very mature product that helps more than 400,000 people all around the world to get things done. More than 10 years in business, we want to keep the product simple, effective and dependable so instead of bloating it with all the features possible, we’re searching for the next step of innovation and productivity. What’s the one feature that would take our product to the next level? We believe we found it: it’s Nozbe Stories! Here’s why:
In 4 days we will all be heading to Torun to meet “for real.” As we usually only see each other via Zoom or FaceTime, we’re all pretty excited :-) We will be away from March 27 to April 1.
Torun - One of Seven Wonders of Poland
This time we’re meeting in Torun - the hometown of Radek (Nozbe VP Apple and The Podcast co-host) and Nicolaus Copernicus. Torun is one of Poland’s main tourist attractions. It’s famous for Copernicus, having the best gingerbread, and a medieval district that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We were blown away by how many people signed up and attended our live webinar. It went so well that we decided to share the recording with you. We hope it will help you “refresh” your productivity powers and the tips and tricks will give you what it takes to achieve all of your goals this year and beyond!
Watch the recording of our LIVE webinar: “Your Productivity Evolution: from Personal to Business in the last 10 years of Nozbe”:
One of the frequently asked questions we’ve heard a lot in the last few weeks is how best to make use of the Business version features of Nozbe. To answer this question, we created a short video tutorial about team & project roles and the Nozbe Ratio. In fact, Nozbe PRO users can learn something too! Check it out!
Thanks God It’s Friday or a Mighty Friday is what helps us boost our team productivity (we mentioned it in our previous post). It’s tough to admit, but before we launched it, hardly any of us had been doing a regular review. Michael decided to change that, and now we can reveal our conclusions and tips for everyone who would like to follow this policy.
Design your Friday
The main lesson for Friday-lovers is to focus on your own schedule. Think of TGIF as a day designed by yourself, not imposed on you by your day-to-day duties, a task list or your boss. You are the only one who decides what to do after the review.
We have a new policy at Nozbe. We treat Fridays differently. And we call it “Piąteczek” (in Polish), which you could translate to: TGIF as in “Thank God It’s Friday”. Here’s what it’s all about:
Note: This is a short version of the post I originally posted on Medium where I post about remote working as a part of NoOffice publication. I’d appreciate if you followed me there and recommended my posts, thanks!
Note 2: If you prefer a different “audio” version of this article, we discussed this new TGIF policy with my co-host Radek at the #60 episode of The Podcast. We came back to the topic in the #70 episode.
Introducing an experimental policy that will give us a more productive, yet shorter workweek with more time for a weekly review and for learning new things… or not.
We’re already quite an unorthodox company. We all work remotely from our homes and we don’t have a single physical office. We’ve been working like this for almost a decade and hundreds of thousands of users of our Nozbe app don’t seem to mind that at all.
But we’re not unorthodox just for the sake of it. We are like that because it works. Because we enjoy a better lifestyle thanks to our “No Office” arrangement.
After all, we’re a productivity company. When we experiment, we do it for a reason. To work better. To be better. To grow better. And this new policy is supposed to help us exactly at that.
And it all started with 3 questions that I couldn’t get off of my mind:
Our next Nozbe Reunion is just about to start. We’re meeting in Gdansk, Poland – the city of freedom and Solidarity. We are going to discuss how Nozbe should look like in the near and further future and how we can improve your productivity even more in the years to come. Please keep following us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
Please note that our customer support might be a little slower this week as our support staff is with us discussing your feature requests and plans for the future, so please have a little more patience with us this week, thank you - it’s for your own good :-)
This post is about the company principles that we believe in and strive for. During one of my weekly reviews, I was struck by how I’d made some recent decisions. These were all about company issues like the internal discussion about our #NoOffice approach, meeting with team mates in May, and some business-related topics. I felt like I hadn’t been consistent. I wasn’t sure if I had been right and, actually, why I’d made the decisions I had.
Ever since I founded Nozbe back in 2007, the security and safety of customer data as well as the stability of our infrastructure were my biggest points of focus. To the point that I’d wake up in the middle of the night to check if our servers were still up… Over the years we’ve had our failures, outages and issues… but if you’ve been with us for the last few years you’ll have noticed that our infrastructure has been rock-solid for a while now.
In this blog post I’d like to explain why that is, what we’ve done so far and what we’ll be doing in the near future to actually make it even better and more secure for you to get things done and communicate effectively through tasks thanks to Nozbe.
I’d like to mention a few things:
how our server infrastructure is built
how we store your data (tasks, files, attachments, 3rd party files)
how we do backups
how we can keep Nozbe going even through a major catastrophe…
We believe that working remotely is the best thing for ourselves, our jobs and our families. But, of course, every team needs to meet from time to time. So do we.
Last time we met, three months ago in Sopot, we did a lot to make this time as productive as possible. Company members did internal keynotes, Michael held one-to-one talks, and we all had a lot of fun working and playing!
Watch and feel the spirit
We would like to share a video from Sopot, where we talk about NoOffice worker privileges and what we love about being together.
Note from Michael, Nozbe CEO: As you may already know from our social media channels, today is the first day of our #NozbeReunion. It’s the moment when all of our Nozbe team, who usually work from their homes, meet in one hotel, for one week, and enjoys the moment of being together. We’re going to work, brainstorm ideas, socialize and have a lot of fun!
We say that meetings are toxic and are the time of your workday “where minutes are taken and hours are wasted.” Does it always have to be like that? Is there something we could do, to retool them and make them more effective?
Solution exists!
“Meetings exist for a reason, annoying as they may be. Decisions are made, problems are solved, bonds are formed, and the needle is moved in meetings. The higher you go in management, the more meetings are your work." - admits Laura Stack in her article for Productive! Magazine. It’s true, so lets see, what - according to Laura Stack - may be done to plan and run the meeting that actually solves problems and ends up with a specific decisions and set of tasks delegated to right people.
Happy birthday Nozbe! Today marks 9 years of helping more than 300,000 busy professionals and their teams from all over the world get everything done! Nozbe 3.0 is here with better design, business accounts and a completely new logo!
To learn more about Nozbe 3.0, check out our short video:
Now that you’ve watched the video, let me tell you (1) how can you get Nozbe 3.0, (2) what’s new in 3.0, (3) some more details about new Nozbe for Business and finally (4) our newest NOZBE3 special offer. Here goes:
1. Nozbe 3.0 is available today on most of the 9 major platforms we support:
Today, we would like to talk a little bit about the productivity of your team. See, what we can do together to help your business grow.
Nozbe matures - from personal productivity to effective cooperation in teams
9 years ago, back in 2007, Nozbe started as a GTD-based personal productivity tool designed to meet mostly our CEO’s needs ;)
Over the years, listening to your feedback, we added the project sharing feature. Then, multi-personal accounts were introduced. The team collaboration flow and communicating through tasks soon became one of our priorities and strengths.
Today, we are taking Nozbe to a whole new level by creating special Business accounts dedicated to companies and teams willing to boost their productivity!
Nozbe 3.0 Business Plans - see how you can maximize your team’s efficiency
We believe that essential factors affecting team productivity are:
Hope you’re on the right track with your goals for 2015! In the last blogpost, we presented a short video about how to get your goals done in Nozbe - did you like it? Have you planned your goals yet? Since my last email we’ve improved the video to make it easier to follow - make sure to watch it again!
Did you know that as a Nozbe PRO user you can create an additional Nozbe account for your partner absolutely free?
People have been asking me how I use the application. Well, here goes.
First and foremost, we don’t use e-mails in our company. Our team consists of 15 people and we all work remotely. We only use e-mail to communicate with the customers and other people sending us e-mails with questions or offers. Inside the company - we just share projects and delegate tasks.
We simply communicate through tasks and comments in Nozbe.
Nozbe users come from all professions and backgrounds. So far, we have presented you with solutions for doctors, real-estate agents, [lawyers] law and students. This article is intended for elementary and high school teachers.
The background My experience has lead me to believe that planning by teachers can be difficult. It is a very complex issue, as it depends greatly on many factors. That’s one of the reasons why I have decided to divide the post into consecutive two: teachers and professors.
When using Nozbe with other people, in a “team” environment, we can divide Nozbe users into 2 groups that we can conventionally name: “owners” and “cooperators”. The “owners” are those who own the multi-user account in Nozbe and can add people to their own team. The number of team members depends on the plan the “owner” decided to pay for. The “cooperators” are people who have been invited to the team by an “owner” - they can have their own projects but have fewer prerogatives than “owners” when it comes to team management.
Nozbe users come from all professions and backgrounds: from teachers and students, house-wifes through managers and entrepreneurs. So far, we have presented you with solutions for doctors, real-estate agents and [lawyers] law. This article is intended for students.
The background We all are or were students at some point in our lives. Life of a student can be exciting, demanding and challenging. Depending on area of study, the mixture of the three can vary.
Nozbe is used by a lot of people. They come from all professions, from teachers, house-wifes through managers and entrepreneurs. Some time ago we have presented you with solutions that might work really well for doctors and for [real estate agents] estate. This article is intended for the lawyers.
The background I hope to, not pose, but provide you with ideas of how you can use Nozbe to serve you well in such extensive and demanding environment.
Nozbe is used by a lot of people. They come from all professions, from teachers, house-wifes through lawyers and entrepreneurs. Last week we presented some solutions that might work really well for doctors. This article is intended for the real estate agents.
The background I hope to, not pose, but provide you with ideas of how you can use Nozbe to serve you well in such extensive and demanding environment. Before Micheal invited me to work with him on Nozbe, I also worked in this field.
With increasing number of users, the structure of their inquiries changes and evolves. Recently, I noticed a new group of beginning users. They come from three main groups: education, medicine and law.
The most frequent of their questions is “HOW” - how do I apply Nozbe in my daily routine? Thus an idea to write a short series of blogs with hints, ideas that are to provide a base for your own inventions.
