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.
Here are some practical tips that will help you plan your holiday. Check out what to think about and how to organize your vacation to keep it stress-free, exciting and safe.
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.
Learn 7 essential techniques that will help you be more productive at work, achieve your goals, work smarter and save time for what you like to do. You’ll be surprised how simple it is!
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.
In the hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose your way and become reactive instead of proactive. Your job is getting down to just putting out fires. You miss important things, you fail and lose credibility with your customers, colleagues and your boss. One of the solutions to this problem is a weekly review!
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.
When your brain isn’t busy remembering everything, it works better, your creativity skyrockets and your stress level goes down. Writing things down is the first and most important tip you should try to implement in your team to boost your productivity. See why.
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.
Have you ever continually checked the time almost every 5 minutes while you are at work? You are just too tired to cope with the day’s work and you can’t compile the work to wait till the next day. You’re now wondering how to pull through this situation.
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.
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?
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.
️
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!
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.
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.
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!
As a result of companies switching to remote working mode, many of us, remote workers, have faced the biggest challenge: staying productive while working from home.
Here is the recording of the 7th live session dedicated to remote work. In this episode, Michael, Nozbe CEO, and Mike St.Pierre share their experience with running a remote team.
Here is the recording of the 5th live session dedicated to remote work. In this episode, Michael, Nozbe CEO, and Augusto Pinaud, share their experience with working from home effectively.
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…
At Nozbe, we all work from home on a regular basis. We don’t have a physical office at all. Throughout all these #nooffice years, we’ve learned how to be the most productive while working remotely.
Work-from-home as the ultimate solution Companies across the world are already encouraging more and more people to work from home. Businesses’ and employees’ daily routines don’t have to be hindered by switching to a home office system.
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.
The more productive we are, the more we can achieve at work, home, school and every other facet of life. It’s on this premise that a wide range of productivity tools have emerged. These tools promise to make individuals and organizations more efficient, and many of them actually do what they promise (most of the time.)
Nevertheless, productivity tools aren’t a positive force in every situation.
Time management seems to be a difficult task for many of us. In this article, we are going to share essential tips to help you track your time properly, plan your day well and maintain a work-life balance.
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!
Stress is our body’s natural reaction when it comes to dealing with difficult situations in our lives. Whether it’s because you are cramming to meet your deadline, or you are late for your meetings and are rushing through the commute to work, or you probably had a fight with your significant other - all of these can trigger stress. And sure enough, stress is already a part of our everyday life. But what makes a difference is on how we can prepare our mind and body for it. Here are some tips that might help you reduce stress.
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.
Do smartphones serve us – or do we serve them? I just recently discussed this topic on ThePodcast.fm (episodes 168 and 175). In addition, I just finished reading Cal Newport’s latest book, Digital Minimalism. All of this led me to review my system of apps, notifications and all the other stuff I constantly kept checking, even when I am spending time with my daughters… In this post, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on this subject with you.
First things first: I’m heavily biased toward Nozbe. This post will demonstrate where my bias comes from. To me, Nozbe is much more than a simple task manager: it’s a whole-life system, guiding all areas of my life.
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.
Forget New Year’s Resolutions in 2019 and instead focus on accomplishing your goals.
Well-defined goals help you create a vision to work towards so you can get better results. Otherwise, you’ll be working hard to fulfill others’ objectives, not your own.
What gets measured and planned gets done… so set your targets, track your progress and easily achieve what you’ve planned this year.
With Nozbe, setting goals and working towards achieving them is easy and fun. Just see for yourself:
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!
Everyone can be productive. Productivity is not a rocket science. Frankly, it’s a matter of adopting a couple of habits, building a personal system and using some tricks or techniques on a daily basis.
You can struggle and learn the above from your own experience (after many years), you can read hundreds of blog posts and study productivity resources or… you can check out my latest book and become an efficient project manager in no time.
“10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity” on pre-sale!
I am so happy to announce that my new book: “10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity” is here!
We all feel down at some point in our lives. Especially when we feel like we are failing at something or that someone is better than us at something. These feelings, however normal, can break our spirit and make us not want to do more. Luckily, there are some things that you can do for yourself:
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.
If you wish to find out what to do in order to read faster and memorize everythig you read - we have a fantastic source of basic info for you. If your reading speed doesn’t worry you as much as stage frigth and anxiety you have to deal with before presentations, public speaking etc., we recommend this Nozbe.how template.
Reading is among the first skills we develop in school. We harness this skill throughout our life ― when driving to the office (yes, we read traffic signs), when processing our emails or digesting a report, when browsing the news, when checking social media and the list goes on. We barely see reading as an act that ignites our passion or changes our life.
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.
So you’ve decided to give Nozbe a try. You’ve registered and downloaded the app to your computer or smartphone… We are thrilled! And you will be, too! Read on, follow the tips and take your productivity to a whole new level. Let’s get started!
Did you know you can integrate some of the time tracking apps with Nozbe? This way you will be able to view exactly how many hours you spend on various projects, tasks and other activities!
Great news for all time tracking enthusiasts: PomoDone, one of the leading apps on the market, can now track your time spent on tasks! Read how it works and how to get a free month of PomoDone 🙂
In the last episode of this season, Michael offers advice on how to maintain a healthy life despite being busy with work and responsibilities. It’s totally worth it to follow!
You are not alone – it’s our motto. You may get your work done with other people. It’s fine, however, to keep all your projects private and manage them individually. Nozbe gives you all the tools you need to work independently!
Distractions are a killer. In fact, studies have been done on this, and they show that the average worker losers 759 hours a year to distractions. That’s 759 hours of your life that could have taken you closer to goals and dreams that could change your life. It’s crazy, and it’s going to be a wake-up call to many.
Are you waiting for a data sheet to be delivered by your subordinates?
Are you waiting for a daunting task that has been in the air for a while, but your boss keeps procrastinating to delegate and specify?
Are you waiting for a colleague’s response as to whether he/she would like to participate in your project?
Are you waiting for the brand-new headphones that you ordered recently?
If some of those sound familiar to you, you may have some things on you plate, or rather on someone else’s plate, and this is the key here.
Batching in productivity means grouping similar tasks and getting them done at a certain time, one after another. Why is that better than doing them separately? Michael has the answer!
A long, long time ago (it’s been almost six years!) I started using my iPad not only for consuming content but also for work. It started off as an experiment on April 8th, 2012, after I picked up my newly ordered white iPad 3 with Retina display, 3G and ZaggKeys Flex Bluetooth keyboard.
Initially, I wanted to give it a 30-day trial to see whether I could change the way I work by completing about 80% of my tasks on the iPad. Although that iPad was based on iOS6 (with all the limitations of that operating system), the experiment turned out to be a success. From that moment on, I didn’t want to go back to my old mode of working. I even convinced my friend Augusto Pinaud, who also uses his iPad for work, to write a book together with me. That’s how, a year later, on July 12th, 2013, the book “#iPadOnly – The first real post-PC book. How to use only your iPad to work, play and everything in between” was created.
During the latest Nozbe Reunion, as usually, we spent a couple of hours sharing our personal productivity tips and insights that we’ve gathered since the last meeting. We listed many fantastic ideas and time savers! Some of them are particularly worthy of sharing with a wider audience! I think you might find them life-changing.
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.
There are many benefits of being able to take online classes at home. Studying from home makes it possible to have a job, take care of your children and save money on gas. Also, there are many options regarding what you can study: a foreign language, writing, marketing and even university courses. There’s no reason as to why you can’t focus on self-development: if you have internet, some free time and a computer, you have everything you will need.
Presenting is tough but for many people it is also critical to their success at work.
While we can’t all give mesmerizing speeches, there are lots of small things we can do to improve presentation skills. We got you some great tips and tricks in our latest Nozbe.how template. If you are thinking of having your own podcast - there is a practical guide for this too!
In my previous blog post, I described new workflows for my morning and evening routine, as well as some other ways for automating productive habits. After it came out, some people asked me how it is possible that a productivity guy like me uses several different apps for taking notes. Where is the effectiveness and simplification in all that? Where did the idea of using several apps that basically do the same thing come from?
All Facebook users should be concerned about their security and privacy – not only because of the scandal with Cambridge Analytica that has been revealed a couple of weeks ago. A data leak is just one of the threats that can affect you. It’s time to check your protection, set privacy boundaries… or leave Facebook altogether. All with this nifty, all-in-one checklist.
Over the past several weeks, you’ve set up your year for success using Nozbe’s spring cleaning templates. The same principles that apply to getting your year in order apply to taking action each and every day.
January and February have passed. March is slowly reaching its end. But it’s never too late to review and reflect on your actions. You can always handle your matters in such a manner as to make your year great in every way. Read on to find out what tips I have for you regarding this subject.
One of the best things about Nozbe.how public templates is that they’re accessible for both their creators and their audiences. How can you find them? And in what languages are they available? That’s what this episode is about!
Depending on where you live in the world, Spring is often a season of “new things”. In this post, Nozbe Ambassador Mike St. Pierre shares strategies for aligning your productivity with the new opportunities of the season.
It’s been almost 3 months since you set up your goals and created the action plan for 2018. Are you sure all your strategies are working out? Don’t your tasks, projects and decisions need a detailed review?
If you read my first article of the food series, you already know that eating well can have a huge impact on our effectiveness at work. Not only does a healthy and balanced diet keep you fit, it also helps you be more productive and more energetic throughout the day.
There are so many things you can do with mind maps! If traditional notes with bullet points are not enough for you to brainstorm efficiently, mind mapping may become your life saver.
Waiting at your desk for your computer to boot up or for a website to load is usually only nominally frustrating because you’re relatively in control – plus, you have things with which to occupy yourself. Similarly, waiting at either your home or office for someone to arrive affords you the opportunity to take care of other tasks, although you still might feel slightly imposed upon.
This month we thought of you and your beloved one ♥ If you still have no idea what to do on Valentine’s day and how to organize the best date - you can’t afford to miss this month’s Nozbe.how template.
Do you ever find yourself in a rush for work and without the time to grab anything to eat before leaving the house? Or do you just go straight to your favourite bakery to pick up a donut or a large caramel latte macchiato with skim milk and whipped cream on top? And only an hour later, you’re probably surprised to find yourself sluggish and unable to focus at work.
We all know that staying energized and focused for eight hours a day can be a hard task. Sometimes, even after having a good night’s sleep, you feel tired and not really able to work. You can, however, eat your way to a more effective day. Read on to learn what to eat to be more productive!
We all start every new year with an intention to fulfill our goals. It is a state of mind that leads us to push ourselves even further in life and in work, no matter what we achieved the previous year. The last day of the year came and went, and during the celebration of the New Year, it is likely that your mind wandered to the achievements you hope to accomplish in this year to come.
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.
When you plan, you plan to succeed, don’t you? And this is the first step towards it :) When you plan wisely and carefully, you design your way to success, anticipate possible problems and adapt the “trail difficulty” to your abilities. It’s worth planning. And the January Nozbe.how templates will help you with this: New Year, new me and Productivity planner
Suppose that you have a major presentation coming up that might enable you to land a big client for your company. Are you relaxed enough to be at your best? Let me offer a story and some observations that drive home a crucial point.
A good productivity planner can easily help you boost your efficiency and achieve your goals. It gives you the opportunity to come in, push everything aside, and focus on what you need to get done for the day. With a smart system, you will begin every morning with a clear action plan and ample motivation.
Some of us make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking, work out more often, etc. But the fact is that only 12 out of 100 people really stick to their resolutions. Why is that? Which New Year’s resolutions will you keep?
Wow! And here we are in 2018! Time flies, and that’s why we are constantly learning how not to waste it! Let’s start with planning our new year’s resolutions, setting big goals and following productive routines. Join Michael’s upcoming webinar, and make 2018 the best year ever!
Use the following step-by-step guides to conduct a perfect personal end-of-year review and to buy the right Christmas gifts! You can apply this month’s templates right away and share them to inspire others, too.
Are you living in real time or are you trying to catch up? Sometimes, in the quest to catch up with today, overturning some of your time-honored routines can help. For example:
Let’s take a look at stress from a slightly different perspective, moving away from psychology and putting the blame on the times we live in. It is important to be practical and down to earth as we review its causes. Let’s also see how to avoid stressfull situations. Here we go.
Use the following step-by-step guides to learn two useful things: how to create mind maps and how to take beautiful photos. With these templates, you can adjust our ideas to your needs, apply them right away and share them to inspire others, too.
When you feel as if you’re not being as productive as you could be, or that you have strayed from your desired path, ask yourself: “What is the most effective use of my time?”
I wrote this post to show you how I transformed my weekly review in the GTD style. It saves me two hours total each month, which I can now devote to things I enjoy outside of work. Read on and try it yourself.
Most of my clients are completely overwhelmed when it comes to work. They are typically over committed and under organized, so when it comes time to get things done, very often they don’t know where to begin. They open their productivity app of choice and glance at their Priority or “Due" list and don’t know where to begin because they have 35 tasks “due” today. This is an easy habit to get into and thankfully there is an easy solution, with two ways to mitigate this problem.
Relentless work stress and routine gradually push you into burnout? It is a serious problem that affects not just your own performance and well-being. See how you can reinvent yourself on the job and rediscover what initially attracted you to this profession.
Use the following step-by-step guides to boost your productivity with Gantt charts and make your dream to write a book come true. Adjust our ideas to your needs, apply right away and share them to inspire the others too.
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.
Which kind of coffee will energize you the best? For sure the one that contains lots of caffeine. It’s pretty obvious. So which coffee to choose, then? That is not so obvious at all. The common opinion is that coffee with a strong taste is the most powerful and contains the greatest amount of caffeine. Actually it works the other way round.
Research indicate that human beings are better able to handle challenges earlier in the day rather than later. Peak energy and alertness for most people is at 8 a.m. Also, fewer interruptions are likely earlier in the day.
Use the following step-by-step instructions to guide you in difficult situations and boost your productivity. Adjust our ideas to your needs, apply right away and share them to make the others' lives easier.
We rely deeply on cloud solutions. Dropbox is one of them: it’s where we store our team files. Watch the new episode to learn how it looks under the hood!
In this post I’d like to share with you 6 ideas on how to de-clutter your to-do list, even when you feel like you’ll never dig yourself out of all your obligations. I’ll show you how I managed to achieve “zen” in Nozbe by minimizing and simplifying many things and letting go of rules I thought were important for a long time.
Since we prepared our [“Back to Work” promo][s] to motivate you to achieve all your goals by the end of the year, we’ve decided to run a special webinar to share our best tips to help you get all your projects done in time!
How do you become more productive and better organized? You will find some answers in this blog for sure. Now I want to focus on something else: how to take the first step and get started. For most of you the answer might be simple and right in front of you, on your desk. And it tastes like nothing else – coffee! If you are the kind of person who can’t imagine work without a cup of coffee, this post is for you. Caffeine can work even better than you think and it may increase your efficiency. Let me show you how.
Productive people know that time is the most precious resource they have. And that good organization skills and effective scheduling are the keys to success.
We are looking for people willing to work with us on the impending release and promotion of our “10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity” book!
Launch Team recruitment We are working on creating, publishing and promoting the “10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity” book. Our main goal is to prepare a valuable package consisting of educational and motivational materials that will help readers adopt productivity-increasing changes and habits. Would you help us?
Our favourite part of each webinar is the Q&A session so our last webinar was dedicated entirely to answering questions! Tens of participants took their chance to AMA - Ask Michael Anything! And he replied to as many as he could! :-)
Watch the recording and see how you can improve your productivity with Michael’s tips.
Hi. With Nozbe I became much more productive. So productive, that I have the feeling that what I have to do never ends. I do so many things that before I would have left out and when something is done, there’s always many things to be done again. So it never stops. Would be great to have a blog post to discuss this topic, have your point of view and tips to continue to have a work-life balance when you have such a powerful productivity tool in your hands :-).
And so, here are 10 ways to deal with a never-ending to-do list. Follow these tips and enjoy some more free time.
It’s Tuesday evening. I called it a day and grabbed a book since I could finally go to bed. Although the book is super interesting I can’t focus on it at all. I keep thinking about how unproductive I’ve been today…
And voilá! Here’s a list of things I tend to waste my time on. I wrote it down in order to try to eliminate some silly cases of negligence and counter-productive habits. I hope you’ll make your list too, and try to work on crossing a few or them out.
Ladies and gentlemen we are thrilled to announce the Nozbe.how contest winners.
The contest began on June 19. You could submit your templates until June 30. We asked you to prove your creativity and you did! We received loads of practical project templates via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter. There were Nozbe.how templates in Chinese, Russian, Korean and Dutch to name a few. You had cool ideas in all kinds of areas: Home & Family, Work & Business, etc.
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:
And if you took part in the live session but would like to watch it again - we’ve got something for you, too!
Here is the recording of the webinar that Michael ran on June 22. The CEO of Nozbe presented the 3 steps to achieve each and every goal and explained how to do that using Nozbe. He also showed how to plan your holidays applying our brand new Nozbe.how templates.
Reinventing the wheel is such a waste of energy. And you just need one thing to prevent this, something that you already have: Nozbe.how templates.
There are lots of reasons why you might create public templates. You may have the most altruistic feelings towards the rest of the world and want to be helpful. You may want to offer something useful to your friends or a group of people you identify with, like car enthusiasts.
A vacation is a great time to do the things you normally (perhaps wrongly) wouldn’t dare to spend your time on. With no 9-to-5 job you get some extra space - both physically and mentally. Unless you’re going on an extreme journey in the Himalayas or something, try to use this time to reset your “hard drive,” charge the batteries and reflect on how to live better, work smarter and be happier :-)
You’re about to see a couple of project templates that you can use for yourself right away, save for later or share with a friend who’s looking for advice in marketing or constantly overvaluing nonessentials. You’ll also get a chance to learn how to create handy project templates.
In a previous episode of “Ask Michael,” Michael explained how we process feature requests. This time, he gives an example when we haven’t implemented user ideas, and why not.
We’re thrilled to announce two important things about Nozbe.how:
Its new beautiful and functional design
and
a worldwide contest for the best project templates.
Do you remember what Nozbe.how is?
Thanks to Nozbe.how templates you can actively share your own projects with others. They are super handy for bloggers, coaches and anyone who wants to show others how to act more efficiently and optimize their work.
Do you want to plan your summer holidays but just don’t know where to start? Join us for our webinar next week when we’ll focus on optimal planning, organizing, and applying project templates.
What you’ll learn:
how to create effective checklists that make sure you won’t forget anything how to plan your holidays using our brand new Nozbe.how templates how to organize your work to make sure you deliver all your projects before you go on vacation Sign up for my FREE webinar When?
Templates are a no-brainer in time management. Let’s discover why!
Project templates are one of the core features of Nozbe. Still underestimated by users. If you know the power of a template in general, you understand how it can improve your recurring actions.
From packing to a training plan, templates are always ready to use, save your time and assure you don’t miss anything important.
With Nozbe.how (a feature that allows you to share your project template with others) you don’t even need to make your own templates – one click and the shared template lands in your Nozbe as a new project.
Every newbie in the productivity world faces the problem of the overwhelming wave of tasks, coming and coming every week. How do you keep a sense of control? Michael’s answer is: the weekly review!
We really take this seriously. It’s why we created our TGIF policy – we all have to do a review every Friday. It has a positive impact on ourselves and on our team. And we write about this quite often.
This is a guest post by Mike St. Pierre, Nozbe Ambassador and online coach. Nozbe users get a 20% discount on Mike’s new productivity system, “Never Miss a Thing”!
My name is Mike St. Pierre, a non-profit leader in America and a Nozbe aficionado. My team uses Nozbe and it’s increased our productivity by 30-40% since utilizing the shared list features and the ability to delegate tasks.
In this post, I’ll be sharing how my new productivity system, Never Miss a Thing, features a “first premise” and it relates nicely to Nozbe.
Does your manager want to be up to date with your project? Or do you want to explicitly work with your client? This episode is for you.
Although we believe that trust is better than control, we see many cases when the presence of a supervisor, partner or client might be appreciated. That’s why we created a Project Guest role… and now we’re publishing Michael’s answer for today :)
Being part of a project that we are not directly involved with can be helpful for better communication and interim help.
This is a guest post we got from Robby Miles - our Ambassador, productivity guru and a really good man :-) Read on if you want to learn about the advantages of flat project management, emailing tasks and using project templates.
My name is Robby Miles and I am a dad, history teacher, Army officer, online freelancer, and Nozbe Ambassador. I probably have too much going on , but Nozbe is the one tool I trust to keep all the different areas of my life organized. So how do I use Nozbe to stay on top of everything?
Project Labels
I’m thankful that Nozbe uses a “flat” project system when it comes to staying aware of all the different tasks I have floating around. Flat project management means there are no tasks hidden deep within sub-tasks, within tasks, within projects, within folders. You get the point. Everything is visible within a couple clicks. In many apps, it’s easy to lose tasks. Not so with Nozbe.
Here comes another guest post on our blog. This time a fantastic Nozbe user, Michele Wiedemer of Virtual Customer Learning shares her top methods for adding tasks to Nozbe. See whether you know all the options she describes :-)
My name is Michele Wiedemer. I’ve been freelancing for over 10 years (as a technical writer, tutorial video developer, instructional designer, and eLearning developer), and during that time, I’ve tried several different systems and methods of keeping track of tasks in multiple projects. I found Nozbe a little over a year ago, and I can barely remember the crazy hectic way I used to manage my projects. Though I had been incrementally implementing David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology since I first read the book in about 2006, it wasn’t until Nozbe came into my life that GTD really started clicking for me.
You have a choice: do you store your reference files and notes in dedicated apps or directly in Nozbe?
In Michael’s book “No Office Apps” he described exactly how we – the Nozbe team – store our files and notes. In today’s video, he shares his favorite way to handle reference materials.
The good news is, for current work and communication, you don’t need an additional service – you can store and share files with your team within Nozbe.
This month we have 3 project templates that will save you some time and energy. Check out these editable projects that are pre-populated with tasks and use them when you want to throw a party, do a weekly review or start applying Getting Things Done® methodology.
Use project templates. Don’t work more, work smarter!
GTD for beginners If you are just about to start your journey to productive and stress-free life this template is for you.
Don’t throw out any new ideas. When the time is right, some of them may grow up.
If you read Michael’s blog or listen to his podcast, you know that he is a huge fan of Greg McKeown’s “Essentialism.” It influences the way he manages the company, makes decisions, and chooses his next actions. It can be summarized in one sentence: do less, but better.
At the same time, his mind produces lots of ideas.
Join us next week on our free webinar and maximize your team productivity in 10 easy steps!
This month the Nozbe team and I are going to focus on 10 practical productivity tips for boosting your TEAM productivity. If you want to learn new ways to use Nozbe with your team that will help you get even more done, this webinar is for you!
Sign up for my FREE webinar When?
When your Priority list is bloated with tasks, it’s time to find a better way to organize your next actions.
Hardly anyone can manage more than 30-40 priorities in one day or one work session. Most of us can really handle fewer tasks than that. Why, then, does the Priority list get longer and longer?
As productive people, we tend to be too optimistic about our capacity to get things done.
This is a fantastic guest post by Fokke Kooistra – a Nozbe user, a Dutch productivity guru and a coach. See what functions projects play in his personal way of using our app.
You’re never alone. But even if you don’t want to share your tasks with anyone, you can still have a great productivity experience with Nozbe.
The very first releases of Nozbe weren’t intended to be used by teams. A spirit of individual work, focused on your very own stuff, is still at the core of Nozbe. Your projects are always private by default; Inbox and the Priority list are visible only to you.
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.
One of the basic productivity rules is to do less but do it better or, in other words, don’t work more, work smarter. Reinventing the wheel is counterproductive. 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 create recurrent, editable projects that are pre-populated with tasks. You can use them to show your friends and followers the way you plan, get organized and get things done.
Here are a few project templates that Nozbe community members have created lately.
Do you already use project templates for repeating actions? Even if your answer is “yes,” you might have overlooked this cool feature. You’ll be surprised how it can simplify your work!
After the last “Ask Michael” episode about Evernote, Michael presents an example for how to use relative dates as “start dates” for tasks in project templates. It’s a really nifty feature when you are planning or creating a recurring process for you or your team.
If so - we have a surprise for you! And if you took part in the live session but would like to watch it again - we’ve got something for you, too!
Here is the recording of the webinar that Michael ran on April 6. The CEO of Nozbe focused on 10 practical productivity tips inspired by his “10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity Course.” He presented some great new insights, new examples, and super-practical ways to use Nozbe to get even more done.
After a short break, Michael is pleased to introduce the second season of his YouTube Show! Today he talks about how to use Evernote on a daily basis.
We were so happy to have you here for the first season of “Ask Michael”. We hope it was a great productivity booster for you! As Michael got astonishing feedback, he’s very eager to go on answering your questions about productivity and life hacks.
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:
This is a guest post by Chad Garrett - our ambassador, power-user and a tremendous advocate for the GTD. See which Nozbe features he uses and how he deals with “loose tasks”.
My name is Chad Garrett and I am President of Productivity Grid, LLC and a Nozbe Ambassador. Nozbe is really the perfect productivity tool. I am a huge advocate for David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology and Nozbe fits perfectly into this workflow. So how do I use Nozbe? Let’s start with where I put my tasks.
Bucket Projects
Everything in Nozbe goes into a project (as defined in GTD, anything that takes two or more steps to complete). I currently have around 75 projects. This may seem like a lot, but in reality it isn’t - we are all this busy!
And here it is – the last episode of the first season of “Ask Michael!” Today Michael answers two questions we get all the time:
After the previous episode, you already know that we run Nozbe with Nozbe – and without an office. Why do we only work remotely? Who else follows that approach? And where, actually, can you visit us? Watch the new episode!
What now? We’re wrapping up the first season of “Ask Michael.
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. :)
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.
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.
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.
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.
Nozbe isn’t the only app we use to get things done. We also use Slack. The natural question is: is integration between these apps on the way?
Although we strongly prefer asynchronous communication because it doesn’t disrupt deep work, we need more “live” and less action-focused field too – to keep a healthy balance. Slack handles this very well.
Check out what Michael has to say about Slack, its role on our team and the future of integration between Nozbe and Slack:
After celebrating the 10th anniversary of Nozbe, Michael comes back with extra insight from our team! Watch to find out how he manages the whole company within the Nozbe app.
It’s actually an extremely common question: how do we use Nozbe on a daily basis? The truth is, we’re just one of our own customers, using exactly the same product that we offer to you.
Check out how a structure of shared projects and good habits can keep your team action oriented:
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”:
A new episode of the Ask Michael series is chock-full of facts and conclusions from 10 years of Nozbe. Michael speaks for himself about how he got started and what has changed since 2007.
Recently we’ve shared the history of the Nozbe app. Today Michael presents his own point of view. How did he meet David Allen? What was the first book about Nozbe? What’s next?
This video is a bit longer than usual, as the history of Nozbe can’t be told in a few minutes.
How easy would life be if every challenge was achievable in just a few steps! But that’s a dream. The reality, though, is that everybody has to cope with complex projects. So keep calm and watch our new episode!
In today’s episode (hopefully you’ve already watched the previous one?) Michael shares how to manage non-trivial projects within Nozbe. With these proven tips and real examples, you’ll know how to succeed (and impress your boss!
Michael Sliwinski, the Productivity Guy, is answering your questions. And here’s the first one: what are “loose tasks” and how to manage them? Watch the new episode!
“Ask Michael - the Productivity Guy” is a weekly series of short videos with Michael. We gathered dozens of questions from users, then we chose the best of them. Now Michael is answering them every Monday.
This week Michael presents a tip for people who are not sure what to do with these particular, unrelated tasks that don’t match to any project.
We’re starting this year off right: Michael’s new webinar on keeping resolutions and setting goals for 2017.
What is the webinar about? Hopefully, you’ve already set your yearly goals. They are, without any doubt, both ambitious and realistic. Now it’s time to make them happen. How not to join people whose zeal quickly declines because of the first failures and procrastination? How to [get disciplined][user] and consistent every single day? Michael has the answers!
Tracking goals, regular fitness, setting up habits – that’s all possible if you’re motivated and disciplined. We already know this; however, when we read this post on Reddit, we were amazed by the outstanding progress made by the author, therealleotrotsky in a relatively short time!
Since he agreed to publish his achievements on our Blog, we’re proud to share his words. Read, get inspired and follow his determination :)
Longing for a short productivity tips to regularly feed your brain? There you go: we’re excited to introduce “Ask Michael - the Productivity Guy”!
“Ask Michael - the Productivity Guy” is a weekly video series with Michael Sliwinski, Nozbe founder and CEO. We gathered dozens of questions from emails, webinars, and personal meetings, then picked the best of them. Now Michael is going to answer them every Monday.
Today we published a first episode on Nozbe YouTube channel, where Michael explains what is the purpose of the new series, and what you can expect in the future.
We’d like to introduce you to Marc Woodland – the founder and CEO of Winbox, a specialist email marketing company for small and medium-sized businesses. As a team, Winbox uses a setup of apps to help them on daily basis. Read how Marc manages clients with Nozbe!
About Marc
Marc is one of those business founders who succeeded by responding to the need of a market they already know and belong to. As a marketing guy, he knew that small companies need a reliable, non-spamming and easy-to-use email sender. And that’s where Winbox comes in! For us, the best part of the story is that Nozbe has been one piece of the puzzle and helped the Winbox team to manage their projects.
As Nozbe users we like checking off boxes (and killing to-do lists) and we know you do, too. That’s why today we have something special for you. Our good friend (and Nozbe user!) Michael Hyatt just came out with a cool way to measure your productivity.
It’s a free test you can take online, in just a few minutes, and you’ll get a personalized productivity score. That’s right, you’ll get a concrete number and an explanation of your efficiency level. You’re already pretty savvy for using Nozbe. Take Michael’s free assessment to reach the next level!
Some people rely on their calendars completely: they work on reducing blank holes in their schedule, minimizing time spent in meetings and tasks and optimizing processes. But what if this isn’t enough to fully improve our workdays?
You have work to do, deadlines are looming. Then: a crash, theft, damage… We’ve all experienced this (or, at least, we know people who have). If you’re #iPadOnly and have a secondary device, lucky you. But if you’re not, you are forced to use a public or friend’s device.
Or, a more prosaic scenario: in some companies people work on restricted computers, and employees cannot install software from outside a whitelist.
Fortunately, the modern web is replete with full-featured tools ready to assist you through your browser, regardless of operating system. This means that any time you’re connected to the internet, you’re already armed with powerful productivity weapons! Here are my favorite tools. Some of them are always open in my browser, even on my own laptop.
After the amazing success of our previous productivity webinars, we decided to do another one next week and give you a chance to AMA - Ask Me Anything!
Leave a comment below or send us email (questions@nozbe.com) with your question! I’ll choose the best ones and answer them on the webinar as well as give you a chance to ask your questions live!
You are going on holiday soon? Or maybe you have just got back? You’re in the middle? Never mind! This issue of Productive! Magazine will inspire you and make you more productive anyway :-)
Please, note that this is the next to last edition of our free productivity magazine.
See what’s inside:
Interview with Laura McClellan
Laura McClellan — the host of The Productive Woman podcast — has been married over 37 years to the same man. She’s mom to five, grandmother to seven and an attorney in a large Dallas law firm. After hours she hosts The Productive Woman, a weekly podcast about productivity for busy women. During her “spare time” Laura is polishing her first novel, a winner in several fiction contests.
In the Productive! Magazine interview she talks about the secret behind long-lasting relationships, differences in women’s and men’s approach to productivity and her top productivity tactics.
Continuing last week’s tradition of sending you fitness advice, here’s mine. A little over 2 years ago I decided to really get back in shape. I was already running 10-15km per week but after a knee injury I decided to lose weight and start doing other sports than just jogging. Thanks to the “Slow carb diet” I lost 8kg / 16lbs and thanks to a friend who convinced me to give it a shot, in 2014 I completed 2 sprint-distance triathlons and 1 Olympic-distance triathlon. The last one became my perfect distance: 1,5km swim, 40km (24.9 miles) bike ride and 10km (6.2 miles) run. A little under 3 hours of fun. Last year I did two of those and this year I already did one in April, I’ll do next one this coming Sunday and the third one in September. Now, the key to getting it right, besides being in shape, is a great packing list, because these are three different sports you have to do with only a minute to change between them, so you better have everything in place. That’s why while preparing to my last triathlon I decided to create this handy packing list for both me and you:
As you probably know we have some very active members on the Nozbe team. Some of us just run for fun or play football, while some train for triathlons… they’re very ambitious. That’s why we want to share our athletic knowledge with you.
Today we’re starting with training plans for a 10k run. These aren’t random numbers and distances to train with. These plans were prepared based on the experience of a runner with a 10k PR (personal record) below 29 minutes and his marathon PR is below 2 hours and 12 minutes.
Do you ever wonder how celebrities manage their lives? Can an application like Nozbe help them stay organized? We have an answer: of course it can! We have a special guest today to tell you more about it. Piotr Rubik, a composer and musician, explains why he loves Nozbe and how he uses it when working with his creative team.
Please, mind that the video is in Polish but you can easily turn the subtitles on.
Tomorrow all Dutch people will celebrate Koningsdag - King’s Day. Their streets, clothes, and faces will turn orange. We want to show how much we love our users from Netherlands, so we’re sending our best orange wishes!
For those who start writing, for the most part the act itself is not a problem at all. I started several blogs in the past and writing was never an issue.
What was then? Well, attracting the audience and keeping it.
And that is closely related to the way you write, the titles you formulate, the topics you choose, the regularity you post you articles with and of course - with a promo strategy you pursue.
The new issue of Productive! Magazine is here. This edition features remarkable articles that will help you change the way you see and do thing. Your efficiency is about to rocket!
Inside No.32: interview with Sean Platt, probably the most prolific author in the world :-) and articles on focus ritual, anti-procrastination habits, broken windows, “just this once” syndrome and increasing your writing productivity.
People have different hobbies. One like to knit, another to paint and yet someone else, like me, loves mechanics and his/her car. Last year, I made my huge car dream come true - Mazda Rx-8. 12 years since the premier they are still not what you would call cheap.
But once you decide for a car like that costs are unavoidable. It is iconic not only because it is one of very few run by a Wankle engine but also for the timeless design of the body and it’s fascinating driving properties.
Should you look for a car that offers pure fun of driving curvy roads… that’s the one you should consider.
I started out my QA (Quality Assurance) career working full-time. After 2 years, I tried a freelance remote job. A constantly changing client base and the lack of financial security was rough and difficult compared to a stable full-time contract.
But I did it - I went freelance and was testing software for many clients. Along with a high volume of work, a need of uber-productivity and perfect time management kicked in. I started to look for the best solutions, and soon I found Nozbe… First, as my top productivity tool and then also as an employer who hired me as a full-time QA person.
Traveling alone, traveling with kids, traveling on a budget, around the world, with friends… No matter which way you choose, it guarantees precious experience, unforgettable lessons and a new way of looking at certain things.
A good deal of planning
I’ve always tried to travel a lot. Alone or with friends when at the uni, then - with my partner and now - with an extra luggage (our 6-year old son and a daughter on the way.) One of the things I’ve learned so far is that planning is important providing you don’t exaggerate. There is a couple of things about it:
“I ultimately knew I wanted to have conversations with people” - Erik Fisher
After talking to Erik Fisher on his Beyond the To-Do List podcast, Michael (our CEO) thought it would be great to present the BTTDL host to the whole Nozbe community.
Here is the outcome: a great interview on productivity essentials and Erik’s methods for planning and staying on top of things.
Spare less than 15 minutes of your time and learn:
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.
Valentine’s Day. Or Feast of Saint Valentine… It began as a liturgical celebration of a Christian saint named Valentinus. About 300 years ago in England, it evolved into an occasion on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards.
Today, it’s celebrated in many countries all around the world, although, probably, it is not a public holiday in any of them.
Whether you prefer Valentines or Anti-Valentines we have something for you!
Did you know that with Nozbe you can save a project as a template for later? Like a packing list, recipe or a longer checklist. Once you’ve saved a template, you can go to “Templates” in your Nozbe account and create a new project from it. But there’s more!
Now you can share your templates - with just one person or with the whole world!
Just go to the settings of your template and choose to “Share your template” and you’ll be given a unique Nozbe.
Another day, another freebie for You!
Hopefully you remember our video course called „10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity.” Many people (not only Nozbe users) successfully used this huge dollop of knowledge to improve their lives. Because of that we prepared an audio version of this course so that you can access it even more easily.
Today, as we are still celebrating Nozbe’s 9th birthday, we’d like to give it to you for free - „10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity Audiobook” - download it as MP3 files.
Productive! Magazine is a regular dose of inspiring, practical and timeless articles written by the best productivity experts on the Internet. Over the years, it has given Nozbe users much inspriation and aid in their day-to-day work.
It seems that none of the material found therein has depreciated over time. Therefore, we have concluded to create a compilation of 5 really interesting articles along with accompanying Nozbe.how templates to let you implement the advice they offer right away :-)
A few days of the year 2016 have already gone by. For most of us holidays are over and we´re back again to our daily work and home routine. Some of us have also started to put into practice their New Year´s resolutions. One of mine is to keep an eye on all the small things I cannot forget about.
Annual routine template. What is this? To get all these things done earlier this year (instead of just thinking about them and waiting until the very last minute again), I´ve created an ‘Annual routine‘ template.
2015 was the year that brought some new possibilities for automation on mobile platforms, especially on iOS. The beginning of 2016 is a good moment to tweak our workflows and make them even more effective.
In this blogpost, I will show you a few examples of how these automation tools can work with Nozbe. Thanks to our email integration, hashtags and Markdown support we can do some really cool stuff. Here goes:
We regularly introduce Nozbe users from all over the world. Today, we visit Spain to meet Pedro Rodinger and learn his way of dealing with his professional objectives in Nozbe.
Who is Pedro? My name is Pedro Rodinger, I’m a manager with more than 20 years of experience in the field of finance and accounting on the one hand and industrial property on the other hand. I work in an international environment with particular emphasis on organization, implementation of IT systems and managing staff.
If you are looking for a new source of inspiration and trustful productivity tips for 2016, Mike St. Pierre and his blog are your solution.
Mike St. Pierre is a blogger, host of “The Emergent Leader Podcast”, the Executive Director of the Catholic Campus Ministry Association and a father of 4 children. As you might guess, he uses Nozbe to get organized with all his projects. As an active user, Mike wrote a comprehensive Nozbe 2.
The best part of Nozbe.how templates is that users share them with other users. Regardless of a passion or profession, there always is something you can share.
Giving is better than getting Nothing more obvious, right? We love sharing good feelings, preparing Christmas gifts, spending time with people we care. And that is a real nature of the Internet: someone shares (bloggers, photographers, developers etc.) and someone consumes.
Now it’s even simpler than ever.
Some time ago, we introduced you one of Nozbe power-users: Jeff Sanders. Today, we would like you to meet another fantastic member of Nozbe community: Robby Miles.
About Robby - a busy guy from North Idaho :-)
Robby is a husband, a dad of four, a college prep teacher, a freelance writer, and an Officer in the Army National Guard. After hours, he runs a Mission Mindset project to help people like himself stay on top of things.
He says:
I’m from North Idaho. Up here productivity means getting the right things accomplished. And this can only be done through simplicity and focus.
Robby’s goals
Robby is convinced that only by using practical systems you can create focus for the missions that matter (putting your priorites first)… And he helps you with that by providing you the exact templates and systems busy parents and students may use to create focus, overcome distraction, and get back hours of quality time each day.
After a longish break resulting from changing our publishing schedule from monthly to quarterly, here is the latest issue of Productive! Magazine :-)
Inside No.31: interview with Grace Marshall on work-life rhythm-not-balance and being really productive and articles on workflow optimization, making working as a team, work as well as transparency and exercises as a productivity booster.
This interview can’t be missed
No.31 comes with a great interview with Grace Marshall - a naturally disorganised productivity coach, chief encourager at grace-marshall.com and a productivity ninja with the team at Think Productive :-)
She speaks with Michael about the work-life rhythm that should replace the work-life balance. She also gives some tips on how to be really productive not just busy and how to deal with the guilt that distracts and holds you back.
“Guilt has you thinking that every time you move forward, you’re moving backwards somewhere else. And so, when you’re dealing with guilt (…) one of the first things to do is to actually take a step back and go, “Okay, let’s start with… Let’s start with enough."
Nozbe is used by hundreds of thousands of people all over the world. For all of them efficiency and smart time-planning are the principles that let them enjoy their lives and stay on top of the things.
Who is Jeff Sanders?
Jeff Sanders, the host of “The 5 A.M. Miracle Podcast” is one of Nozbe power users and productivity gurus. He is also a public speaker, author, a 10-time marathon runner, passionate raw vegan and a big fan of taking bold action. And don’t worry - he doesn’t keep his knowledge and experiences to himself.
See how the 5 A.M. miracle works in real life
As Jeff’s new book: The 5 A.M. Miracle: Dominate Your Day Before Breakfast has just been published, he spoke to Michael about what he wrote about and how waking up early will actually help you use your time wisely and get a lot more done.
Jeff convinces that if you read his book you will get a list of think you could do to change your life!
Only last week, we introduced the first Nozbe.HOW templates and showed you how you can create yours. Today, as a thank you for being a fantastic member of our productive Nozbe community, our team has prepared a special Thanksgiving template:
Open Nozbe’s Perfect Thanksgiving Template
Just follow the steps in the template to get your perfect Thanksgiving done… or in other words, to spend a fantastic weekend full of joy and thankfullness.
Next month, we want to revolutionize the world of productivity and we need your help!
Preview of Nozbe.how - public Nozbe project templates
Today, on our Nozbe test blog we published the Release Candidate of Nozbe 2.6 which lets you share your project templates with the world! And we want to invite you to create your best how-to lists and share them with others.
Why I’m so excited about this? Watch my short video explaining Nozbe.
Did you know that Nozbe can help you build a new habit? Let’s take learning a foreign language as an example. Who wouldn’t like to speak an extra one, huh? Say… French…
Before you start
Scientific researches have found certain mechanisms that rule the process of creating a habit. Based on that, we can formulate a couple of tips that will help you take off.
Set a big goal - have your vision of what you want to achieve and why. Talk to yourself for a while and make sure that learning a new language is something you really want and need.
Make it so easy you can’t say no. — Leo Babauta - start approaching your big goal with tiny steps. Try setting the tasks easy enough so that you can get it done without motivation (that is kind of moody and differs depending on a day, weather and other circumstances.)
Building sticky habits is a lot easier if you make use of the routines you already have rather than try to fight or modify them. It’s good to build your plan around triggers that will let you know that it’s time to work on your habit, e.g.: after I get up and have a glass of water I learn French.
When you fail, get back on track as quickly as possible. Don’t worry! Missing your habit once or twice, no matter at what stage it occurs, has no serious impact on your long-term progress. Instead of trying to be perfect, be good and compassionate to yourself. You’re doing a great job!
As we’re ramping up our Affiliate program and we want to give you an even better product, I’m conducting interviews with our top affiliates, users and fans. One of them is Jeff Sanders, host of The 5 AM Miracle Podcast - and with Jeff we talked about a few things:
how he discovered Nozbe how he uses Nozbe for his content creation how he tricks Siri into adding tasks to Nozbe via email he asks me what’s in the future for Nozbe what does “Nozbe” actually mean (hint - it’s not a Polish word) how I use Pomodoro and Unschedule with Nozbe and many more behind-the-scenes details about Nozbe It’s a longer chat (~ 20 minutes) but I’m sure you’ll find it useful.
One of most popular blog posts on my personal blog is the one I did on “Pomodoro Technique and Unschedule Calendar”, where I explain how both: Pomodoro Technique and “Unschedule Calendar” from Neil Fiore’s book “The Now Habit” can work together. But since I’ve done that I’ve improved the concept and moved from a paper-based calendar to a template in Nozbe which serves me even better. This technique is really powerful. I’ve used it for many days now and you practically can’t have a bad, non-productive day if you implement this, so be warned - this will make you more productive :-)
What is “Pomodoro” and “Unschedule”?
But before we start, let’s explain briefly the concepts of “Pomodoro” and “Unschedule”:
Pomodoro is a productivity technique that asks of you to set a timer for 25 minutes and work on something until the timer is done. Then take a 5 minute break. Then repeat. The premise is that knowing the timer is ticking and having the time-constraint of 25 minutes, you’ll work better, faster and with more focus.
Unschedule is a type of calendar where you don’t plan your work, you only put meetings on calendar and “fun things” somewhere in between. You plan only for those. Then you’re left with blank chunks of time that you can now fill with work. The premise is similar - time constraint of knowing you have only X more hours of work, and later a meeting, makes you more focused… and knowing that in a few hours you have your “jogging time”, motivates you to work harder and “deserve” your reward.
It’s been just over two months since we’ve released Nozbe for Apple Watch. (I’ve written more about it in a previous blog post.) At the time, Apple Watch hasn’t yet hit the market, so we couldn’t test it directly on the device. Since then, we got a few watches for ourselves. We learned a lot about this device, its strengths and weaknesses. And after using our own app extensively, we saw a huge area for improvement. Today, I’m happy to announce that the latest version of Nozbe includes a lot of improvements for the Watch.
And if you’re curious about what’s new, keep reading!
(at the end of this post there’s a cool video we recorded that showcases everything in this post, make sure not to miss it!)
Supercharged notifications
As I explained in the previous post, we started our development with notifications, because they’re the most common and most immediate interaction with the Apple Watch. You don’t really have to do anything, they simply show up when appropriate, and they allow you to respond instantly.
In that spirit, and with what we’ve learned, we redesigned notifications to make them look beautiful and much more useful. Take a look:
Before, when you were mentioned in a comment, the notification would only tell you who mentioned you, and in what task. But to actually see the comment, you would have to tap “Show task” and wait for the app to load. Now, we simply show you the comment right in the notification. And if you want to reply immediately, we added a new action under the notification: Comment.
Grouping projects is one of the most vital and tricky aspects of day-to-day project and time management. Properly arranged groups can boost your productivity while a mess in the list can defeat the purpose of use of any system at all.
Labels
I guess everyone can imagine the most basic use thereof… simply create some, add them to projects and later on, filter by them. Yet, a second use that not so many are familiar with is… sub-projects.
Yes, you read it right… sub-projects. True, Nozbe does not have sub-projects. However, none said that you can’t turn your goal into a label; a complex task into a project and sub-tasks you had in mind - into actual tasks.
Two things to remember:
You can filter by a label narrowing your list of projects only to those with that given one.
You can have more than one label attached to a project (so it can indeed be grouped by a goal + something else)
I for instance, have some fixed and unchangeable labels such as work, home, study, private. All my projects are grouped initially into those areas. Then, I have other sort of labels. Those are actual goals such as: affiliate, support and other - all for work; home related tend to be shopping, improvements; private - craft, travel.
29th edition of Productive! Magazine is here. This issue is a powerful one, so make sure you read it as soon as you’ve got a minute or two :) You will learn how to deal with difficult people, gain up to 40% of your workday and claim back your life. We also welcome you to read the interview with Simon Grabowski from GetResponse (leading email marketing tool) about the journey from a one-man shop to managing a great international company and running a marathon… at the North Pole.
Inside No.29
Interview with Simon Grabowski, the founder and the CEO of GetResponse.
“Optimization would probably be my second name :) Because I love doing that, and, you know, sometimes it can be a little bit frustrating for those around me…"
Do you want to get new versions of Nozbe earlier? Do you want to contribute and help us develop your favorite time and project management app? If you’re up for the task (pun intended), we need your feedback! Consider joining our beta testing program.
Beta Nozbe 2.0
Back in July 2014 we introduced beta testing program for Nozbe 2.0 It helped us a lot to develop the final product that was introduced 3 months later. Our fantastic Nozbe users provided us with a lot of feedback (bug reports and feature requests). It would be impossible to release Nozbe 2.0 without all your help. We are very lucky to have such great customers who care about Nozbe and want to help make it even better.
Nozbe Team growth
Thanks to Nozbe 2.0 success, this year we started hiring more people to our team. It is indispensable if we want to implement new features faster and with better quality. So our team is growing, we are hiring developers, testers and customer support people. Our processes are getting more mature. The future looks very bright for Nozbe and we all are very excited about this.
Test blog
Beside team growth, our community of Nozbe users is also growing. More people all over the world are getting their stuff done with Nozbe. And we are sure that a lot of them would like to contribute and help us getting our stuff done - increasing quality of your favourite productivity app. ;)
written by Michael Sliwinski, Nozbe CEO and founder
Only last week, I told you we celebrated 8th anniversary of Nozbe and today I’m celebrating one of my own. I was born on May 20, 1979, so today is my birthday. I can’t be happier: as the CEO of Nozbe I have a job which I love and which is more of a calling to me. And I have to thank you for that!
Today, April 24 2015, a very exciting new product hit the market — the Apple Watch. We’ve already announced that we were working on a version of Nozbe for the Watch, but we’ve never really said when we were going to release it. The answer is: we already have.
That’s right. If you have your Apple Watch tethered with your iPhone, all you have to do is update the Nozbe app to 2.
What if I tell you it’s still not too late to make this year your best yet? We’re approaching the end of January. According to research, most of us have already forgotten about our New Year’s resolutions… but I believe we can still get them done!
Nozbe is here to help! Watch this short 1-minute video:
[10 steps to getting your goals done:][goals]
Learn how to achieve your goals…
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.
We use labels in Nozbe to organize projects by tying together the ones that are similar or have something in common. This way projects can be grouped together. What’s really useful, every project can be tagged with more than one Label.
Labels allow you not only to separate your private projects from business ones but also to tag the projects with customer names, the names of your family members, countries in which your company operates, etc.
We’re excited to announce the release of Nozbe 2.0 - this is still Nozbe but redesigned from scratch, improved, mobile-first… all new. It’s been an incredibly busy time here at Nozbe and we have done everything to make Nozbe 2.0 working smoothly and let you boost your productivity. Your satisfaction and efficiency are always on our “Priority tasks” list.
New features It’s the 4th major version of Nozbe since our first launch back in 2007 but it’s the most important one, that’s why we call it 2.
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.
This is an amazing testimonial we have received from Mr. Juan Antonio Dominion - a fantastic Nozbe user. He wrote it to let us know he appreciates our work and support. Thanks to moments like these, we love what we do even more!
Here goes the story:
Dinosaurs and Franklin Planners I have been around since the dinosaur ages of Project and Task Management, since before people “got things done” and muddled along with paper planners and things called “pens” and “pencils”.
- written by Michael Sliwinski, Nozbe CEO & Editor of Productive! Magazine
We recently released 19. edition of Productive! Magazine. As you know, we do it regularly and our purpose is to share knowledge, practical advice and inspirations with our readers to keep you all going and help you get things done.
In this issue you’ll find an interview I did with Chris Brogan, best selling author and Publisher/CEO of Owner Magazine, where we talk about freaks taking over the world, Chris' love for business, not for tools and his professional plans:
