ProdPod, a Productivity Podcast

Partly because I'm a tech geek and partly because of my professional responsibilities, I get to see a dizzying array of new technologies every day. And, I try to keep most of them swimming around in my head to differentiate the potential winners and likely losers in the market. FastCustomer is a productivity tool that I believe is one of those potential winners. According to its website, it is trying to "make customer service better for both companies and consumers." I think the concept (as I'll explain momentarily) is amazing and I hope it continues to be adopted by the broader consumer market and corporate customer service departments. Here's the problem it solves, how it works and what it means for your personal productivity. As you know, trying to get customer service on the line can sometimes be a major headache. FastCustomer steps in as a free Web, mobile SMS and smartphone app technology that waits for you, then connects you to customer service so you don't have any wait time. You can access the service via FastCustomer.com, install their Firefox or Chrome Web browser extensions, text 936-CALL-PLS, or use their Apple iOS or Android-based smartphone applications. You let them know what company you need a customer service call from and they do the rest for you. Once a representative is brought on the line, FastCustomer calls you and puts the representative on the phone. Poof! Think of the hours you'll save waiting from on hold! A few important details: the service is available in the United States and Canada presently and not all businesses' phone systems support FastCustomer; there's a human element to FastCustomer, meaning that the customer service rep needs to listen to FastCustomer's directions when they get on the line so that they don't disconnect your call before you pick up the line; and, if a company is not listed, you can request them to get listed but that doesn't mean they have to listen. So, don't wait on hold ever again! Use FastCustomer, tell everyone you know about the service, make sure your company or organization is listed and spread the customer service love

I'm rather comfortable with conflict resolution, but I see an abundance of poor conflict handling in the media today (especially coming from our politicians), I thought it might help to give an explanation of two foundational principles, Think Win-Win and Principled Negotiation, that have served me well in my business and personal life. If you've ever read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, you probably remember Habit #4, Think Win-Win. If you're not familiar, Dr. Covey basically espouses that you should strive for three win's in any long-term solution or agreement: mine, yours and ours. Therefore, if any of those three parties should lose, it's "no deal." The reasoning is that it's a loss for everyone in an interdependent group when one person loses. It was several years later while studying Conflict Resolution and Mediation that I learned about the book, Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, [great summary here] by Fisher, Ury and Patton (a book that was born out of the Harvard Negotiation Project). This seminal work primarily focuses on teaching us Principled Negotiation, which is to: "separate people from the problems" (so that you can be compassionate with people, remove ego from the scenario as best as you can, and clearly see your other party's perspective); "focus on interests, not positions" (which brings the parties to discussing what they want and not their superficial stance when conflict arises); "mutual gains" (as the source of Covey's Habit #4 encouraging brainstorming and viewing the issues broadly); and "insist on using objective criteria" (by using fair standards decided upon upfront). The genuine success in Covey's Think Win-Win and Getting to Yes' Principled Negotiation is that you educate your other party about the concepts so that you're working toward the same interdependent reality. The more we work on mutual gains negotiation the more we can work through conflict to truly get positive things done

What do MRIs, Buddhist monks and meditation have to do with each other? It turns out, your productivity. There are many studies past and ongoing [here's a recent article of one such study] that reveal that meditation has innumerable benefits for helping the mind focus, which is one of the key ways in which we can take advantage of our productive hours of the day. However you express yourself secularly or spiritually, calling it meditation, prayer, quiet time, introspection or otherwise, as long as you focus your attention calmly and steadily, you can gain the mental benefits. By the act of teaching your brain to focus, the rest of the collateral benefits in your productive life follow naturally. I've meditated for many years and here's a quick exercise that I still practice to this day when I find it difficult to let go of my day ahead, or the day's events. With eyes closed, sit in a relaxed, quiet space. You may need ear plugs. And, you should turn your electronic devices off and put them somewhere outside of the room. Start at a small number, say, 20. Breathe deeply through your nose into your stomach (otherwise known as "diaphragmatic breathing" or "yogic breathing"), hold for a moment, and then slowly exhale to the count of three. As you do this, keep your hands rested supine on your legs to combat restlessness and raise your chest slightly as you inhale on occasion to fix your posture. Count silently, "Twenty." Take another deep breath into your diaphragm and repeat as you count down to one. Increase the number of your breaths as you find more time to meditate or reduce the number and tuck several sessions throughout the day. There are many meditative practices, so while this exercise may not fit you forever, use it while you find one that does. Your productivity will be glad you did

Have you ever been at the bank and the power goes out? They can't do anything! It's quite frustrating and you basically need to step out of line and come back later. Period. Now, let's jump over to your personal productivity system. You've set up the perfect system using your desktop or Web-based tools. You're on top of the world. And, then, the power goes out, or you're on the road and your smartphone runs out of battery life. What now? Of course, the power going out isn't the only frustration with digital productivity systems. If you have to work somewhere (like a satellite office location or a client's office) that lacks Internet access to outsiders, proper cellular signal or (as in the US Department of Defense) permission to bring in electronic devices, how will you manage? What happens when you fall off the wagon? Projects and tasks pile up or stagnate on your digital lists, right? Are you going to trust your inboxes and lists to manage yourself at that point? Probably not. These are just a few reasons I advocate that everyone who spends the effort developing a robust digital productivity system do themselves the favor of establishing a redundant framework in good old-fashioned paper. Some basic questions to ask yourself about a paper-based redundancy: Where will I put tasks and projects on paper should my computer or smartphone not be available? Can my digital system print to a paper list format? I happen to think this is a critical determinant for deciding to use any desktop or Web-based tool. How often will you test your paper system? Once a year, once a quarter or more often? I think that how often you test is a result of this next question: what aspects of my system do I need if my paper system needs to be around (a) just for today, (b) for the next week or next few weeks, or (c) for the near long-term? And, finally, how can I reduce transition cost (time, energy and other resources) between digital and paper?

One of my favorite productivity reads of 2011 was 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done by Peter Bregman. Mr. Bregman assembled his book from his highly popular Harvard Business Review blog, and he endeavors to give insights and highly practical tips for just what the title states...and he delivers. In this episode, a summary of his concept of the 18-minute day, a powerful concept anyone can use for a more highly-productive and fulfilled life

I recently re-read a book I picked up a few years ago by Clare Harris called Conquer Stress, Achieve Success, and it describes something I advocate highly: doing a personal stress audit.

Getting to know yourself, your current productivity tools and how to use them correctly is a definitive step in creating flow in your productive life.

In 1955, a British naval historian and prolific author, Cyril Northcote Parkinson, wrote an essay for The Economist, in which he wrote what now has become the renowned Parkinson's Law, that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion."

For those of you who suffer from carrying too much with you on a regular basis, or feeling the clutter of technology accumulate on your desk or around the house over time, think about these three questions to see if you can simplify your technology infrastructure.

Is your system too complex? Well, it is if you spend more time managing your system than your system helps you manage getting things done.

Every Thanksgiving, I'm reminded about all the wonderful people in my life as my greatest blessing. In our modern, global society, though, it's easy to take many of these important people for granted the rest of the year.

Perseverance is a definite key to success. And, there are opportunities to persevere in everyday life. "Become a 'possibilitarian.' No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities-- Always see them, for they are always there." ~Norman Vincent Peale I'd like to invite everyone listening to the podcast to my new live, monthly Twitter conversation, Productivity Chat or prodchat. Please visit productivity.podbean.com to learn more, and see how easy it is to join the conversation!

Sometimes, it's all in how you define an unproductive behavior that starts to build new, productive behaviors. I'd like to invite everyone listening to the podcast to my new live, monthly Twitter conversation, Productivity Chat or prodchat. Please visit productivity.podbean.com to learn more, and see how easy it is to join the conversation!

Worry isn't and wasn't always unproductive; it started as a means of human survival. If there wasn't worrying, our ancestors wouldn't have eaten, foraged for food or fled when hungry predators appeared! Today, though, worry is much less needed in our day-to-day lives but it still persists as a chronic, systemic problem for many trying to have a fulfilled, productive life. In this episode, and having been a worrywart myself, I'm going to give you a formula that has worked for me to worry less. I'd like to invite everyone listening to the podcast to my new live, monthly Twitter conversation, Productivity Chat or prodchat. Please visitproductivity.podbean.com to learn more, and see how easy it is to join the conversation!

In this episode, I describe my unfortunate relationship with the definition of the word "savings" for many years and what it taught me about productivity.