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Articles about Productivity
The Accidental Creative
Getting Things Done (with David Allen)
Getting Things Done (with David Allen)

Getting Things Done (with David Allen)

If you do complex creative work for a living, you probably have some kind of system you use to help you organize your work and ensure that nothing is slipping through the cracks. But how reliable is that system? If you can't rely on it completely, then it's not really working for you. On this episode, David Allen is back to share some additional insights about Getting Things Done, and to discuss his new book (along with Mike Williams and Mark Wallace) Getting Things Done For Teens. 

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The Accidental Creative
The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)
The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)

The One Thing (with Geoff Woods)

If your organization is like most others, expectations are rising and resources are probably dwindling. We're trying to cram more activity into our days, but often feel like we're only falling further behind. On this episode, Geoff Woods is here with practical advice for making sure the most important things get done each day and that you don't go through your days in reactive mode. Geoff is the host of The One Thing Podcast, which is based on the best-selling book The One Thing. 

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The Accidental Creative
Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)
Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)

Off The Clock (with Laura Vanderkam)

Annie Dillard once wrote "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing." However, many of us struggle to find a good balance with our time. We always feel like we're running behind, and that we lay our head down each night a bit behind where we awoke that morning. On this episode, time expert Laura Vanderkam is here to help us understand how people with a healthy perspective on time allocate their hours effectively. Her new book is called Off The Clock.

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The Accidental Creative
Great At Work (with Morten T. Hansen)
Great At Work (with Morten T. Hansen)

Great At Work (with Morten T. Hansen)

What separates top performers from everyone else? Is it really just a matter of hustle and multi-tasking, or is there something else going on? Today's guest Morten T. Hansen has spent several years studying top performers and he's discovered that there are seven key differentiators between average and remarkable performers. On this episode, he shares why working more hours can be counter-productive, how to prune priorities to create maximum value, and how to say "no" to your boss.

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The Accidental Creative
Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race
Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race

Why Slow and Steady Does NOT Win The Race

It’s not enough to make daily, measured progress on your work if it’s not deliberate progress. If you’re not moving in a meaningful direction, then failure is a likely outcome. While most professionals know this, it often doesn’t affect how we approach our work. Instead of defining our work effectively, we are instead carried along by the flow of it from day to day. Instead of determining the problems we are trying to solve, we tackle big, conceptual challenges and thus set ourselves up for failure from the start.

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The Accidental Creative
Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)
Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)

Get Momentum (with Jason and Jodi Womack)

Have you ever had a goal or an ambition, but you simply couldn't figure out how to get moving on it? Or, have you ever encountered a hurdle that you simply couldn't jump over or go around? Today's guests, Jason and Jodi Womack, help people gain momentum in their life and career, and on this episode they'll share how to deal with the expectation escalation that comes with technology, how to determine the direction of your life and work, and why relationships are critical to effective productivity. 

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The Accidental Creative
How To Deal With A Crushing Workload
How To Deal With A Crushing Workload

How To Deal With A Crushing Workload

Workloads and expectations are increasing. It’s not a cliché, it’s a fact. It’s the single biggest (confidential) complaint that I hear when spending time with companies. I was speaking at a conference in Florida, and in the short Q&A at the end of my talk a man stood and said “We are doing more with less. We have fewer people than ever, but our project load continues to increase. However, the quality of our work is not allowed to suffer. What should I do?” On this episode, we share some principles for dealing with a crushing workload. What do you do when you're overwhelmed?

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The Accidental Creative
6 Rules For Chunking Your Time
6 Rules For Chunking Your Time

6 Rules For Chunking Your Time

A time chunk is simply a dedicated amount of time, an hour or two if possible, to immerse yourself in the important, but not urgent work on your plate. Rather than relying on the non-time-committal nature of a task list, time chunks ensure that you will spend a certain amount of focused effort making progress each week. You know that interruptions or other distractions won’t get in the way, because you’ve built a bulwark against them.

On this episode, we share 6 simple rules for establishing (and keeping) time chunks on your calendar so that you make progress on your critical creative work.

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The Accidental Creative
Podcast: 5 Ways To Get Out Of Your Own Way (And Do Your Work)
Podcast: 5 Ways To Get Out Of Your Own Way (And Do Your Work)

Podcast: 5 Ways To Get Out Of Your Own Way (And Do Your Work)

No matter how experienced you are or how much great work you’ve produced in your career, there inevitably comes a time when you’ll find yourself “stuck”. This usually has less to do with a lack of ability to do the work and more to do with some kind of psychological or habitual barrier that is preventing you from diving into the heart of the work in front of you. I’ve encountered many of these in my day, both personally and with those I’ve worked with. Here are a few questions to help identify productivity-zapping roadblocks.

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The Accidental Creative
Podcast: Get Your Inbox Under Control (with Jocelyn Glei)
Podcast: Get Your Inbox Under Control (with Jocelyn Glei)

Podcast: Get Your Inbox Under Control (with Jocelyn Glei)

If you're like many creative pros, email is the bane of your existence. You have to deal with it, because it's the tool of choice for communicating with clients and co-workers, but it's also easy to get sucked into the swamp and spend a lot of your days just swatting the ping pong ball back over the net. Today's guest, Jocelyn Glei, has just written a book on how to get your email under control. She's here to help you kill email anxiety, avoid distractions, and get real work done with insights from Unsubscribe.

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Process
Three Tactics From Getting Things Done That Transformed My Productivity
Three Tactics From Getting Things Done That Transformed My Productivity

Three Tactics From Getting Things Done That Transformed My Productivity

GTD is a system for organizing and acting on the work that matters most. There are a lot of nuances to the system, and as a result many people get lost in the weeds and intricate details and get off track and stop utilizing it altogether. That's unfortunate, because there are many principles that can be borrowed from GTD and acted upon, even if you don't use the entire system.

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