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In fact, it's probably one of the more simple things that we do each day.

We open up our smartphone or a tablet, we visit the app store or the play store, and we download something new, hoping that this might solve our existing problem.

Now, when it comes to productivity tools, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of great tools that are available.

But there's a problem.

By buying into one of these productivity tools and starting to use them to manage your tasks and your to-do's, you have now added an additional application to your base of productivity.

You see, your calendar is your core.

Your calendar shows where you need to be, when you need to be there, and what's coming up in the future.

And by using a productivity tool or a productivity app, you need to toggle between that app and your calendar back and forth or open up a new tab on your desktop to see, can I do that task tomorrow?

What else do I have going on?

Well, I would argue there's a much better way, and you're already using it—it's your calendar.

No matter what you use, whether it's Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook, you can use all-day events for your tasks, and they'll always appear at the top of your calendar and they'll always appear upfront and very, very visible.

So you don't have to switch to something else.

You don't have to open up something separately on your smartphone to see what you should be doing today.

No, it could be right there, visible in your calendar.

And if you need to defer a task, you can see how far you can defer that in relation to other meetings, other activities, or events that you have scheduled that week.

So, nothing against productivity tools.

It's not that they're buggy.

It's not that they're poorly designed or poorly developed.

However, I think that there's a more simple, more efficient solution for staying on top of your tasks, and it's your existing calendar.

It's very simple.

Have you ever got so focused and engaged in an activity that you lost track of time?

It's usually a good feeling that you're so immersed in a particular activity that you actually forget what time it is.

Well, sometimes that can be dangerous because depending on what you're working on, you may need to move on to something that's more important—something that actually adds more value to your organization or to your end goals.

That's why I suggest working with a timer.

Use a timer

smartphone or perhaps a desktop timer something that can tell you when you should move on or at least consider moving on to the next activity let me give you an example I never spend more than 25 minutes at a time with my email

Why I use a timer

It's because I use a timer.

I set it for 25 minutes and then I work exclusively with my email—working through my inbox, sending, and replying to emails.

When my timer goes off, I take a step back. I ask myself, should I spend a few more minutes in email? Should I send one or two more messages? Or do I need to move on to something more important, something that's going to help me better achieve my goals for that day or my goals for that company?

So I would suggest using a...

Advantages of using a timer

time we all have them on our smartphones the other advantage of using the timers

that you no longer have to glance at your time you don't have to glance at your watch or to see how many more minutes I have left you can fully immerse yourself in that activity and

Take a step back

Let the timer do the work for you.

When that chime or when that bell rings, then you can take a step back.

Should you continue with what you're doing, or should you move on to the next, possibly more important task?

So use the timer that you already have.

Maybe download a new timer or a new clock app from the Play Store or from the App Store.

See how using a timer can help you to be at your productive best.

It's very simple.

Recently Trello celebrated its ten millionth user.

Now if you don't know what Trello is, I encourage you to click the link below in the description. Trello is an amazing online application which helps you manage, well it helps you manage almost anything. It's based around the premise of an old cork board.

What is Trello

Where you can take things and tack up notes and move them around. Or think about post-it notes, where you can write down pieces of information and then stick them in different places on your wall. The great thing of course is that it's digital and you can collaborate with other individuals such as a team or such as other members of your organization. But what I love the most about Trello is that it's simple. It keep it extremely, extremely clean. You can put something very brief on the front of a Trello card and behind it, add a lot of further details such as attachments, such as links, such as comments and messages that you may communicate with other members of your team.

Conclusion

So I strongly encourage you to check out Trello. It's a free application and they've designed beautiful apps for both tablets and smartphones. Check it out and I'll be talking more about Trello and how you can use it to improve both your personal productivity and your teams productivity in the future. It's very simple.

Hey, what are your top 10 priorities right now?

Is that a question you've been asked recently, or perhaps you've asked someone else?

What are your top 10 priorities?

Well, I think we need to be very careful with that word—priorities—because by using it so often, we tend to water down our work, and as a result, we water down our output.

Priority—the word has a very interesting history.

Priority entered the English language roughly 500 years ago, but its definition was singular.

In fact, you couldn't have priorities.

In fact, even the definition of the word priority was your most significant task or where you were putting your most significant focus.

It wasn't until the beginning of the 20th century that we started to pluralize that word—priorities.

And now we've been throwing it around very, very loosely.

You hear it all the time: "Oh, here are my top seven priorities. These are my organization's top 12 priorities."

Well, I think it's starting to sound a little ridiculous.

Here's why.

As I work with individuals and organizations, I find that the more priorities they have, the less likely they are to achieve them.

And even those that they do achieve, they tend to achieve them rather poorly.

So, I think we need to go back to using priority in its truest sense—what is your most significant task? Where are you putting your most significant focus?

There's an old Russian proverb that states: "If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one."

And the same is true in our personal and our professional lives.

So, the next time someone asks you, "What are your top 10 priorities?" you can say proudly, "I don't have 10 priorities. I have one priority, and here's why."

It's very simple.

I'm just so busy you know I hate it when people say that I absolutely hate it when people say I'm too busy well today I want you to stop saying that phrase by sharing your busy story with the world I want you to share why you're so busy

Whats your busy story

what's the number one obstacle that gets in your way from all the things that you'd like to get done in the comments below or on Twitter I'd like you to share your busy story use the hashtag my

Share your busy story

busy story I want you to release whatever it is that it is holding you back what's the most common reason that you say that you're too busy is it email is it distractions at work is it just technology in general whatever it is be specific and share your busy story

Trello is one of my absolute favorite tools for staying productive. Today I want to show you a little bit about Trello—what Trello is and how you can use it either for your organization’s benefit or for the benefit of your own personal productivity.

Trello really has three key terms or three key concepts. There’s a Trello board—that’s what we’re looking at right here, a blank Trello board. There are lists, which live within the Trello board, and then there are cards, which live within the Trello lists.

We’ll get into some of those examples in just a moment, but you can have as many Trello boards as you like. We’re just going to work with one for today. You can think of a Trello board very similar to an Excel workbook—a place for you to create, manage projects, and create processes. Whatever you’d like to do all happens within a Trello board.

So within my board, we can add as many vertical lists as we like. I’m going to use an example today of maybe brainstorming some ideas and how that would look—moving it to an agenda, maybe moving it to a to-do list, and then maybe I want to keep track of the things that I’ve completed, so I’ve got a done list over here. Perhaps this is a board that I’m going to share with my team, so we can all create some ideas, brainstorm some issues here, and then we can move it through the process. We can add it to an agenda for an upcoming meeting. We can track what the to-dos are that have come out of that and who are assigned to that, and then finally we can move it to the done list when we’re complete.

So in Trello, you can have as many of these vertical columns, these vertical lists, as you like. You can see here to the right, I can just add as many as I like. But now that I’ve got a couple of lists that I want to work with, I can start adding cards. Again, very much like a column or perhaps a table in Excel, I can list different ideas. We’re going to review our sales pipeline, we’re going to change the support schedule, and maybe we’re going to revise our website feedback tool.

Okay, so just a couple of ideas that I’ve added here, and you can see how easy it was for me to add. When I hit add card, as soon as I hit enter, it opens up another one for me, so I can very quickly generate ideas and add cards to this list. Trello is a drag-and-drop application, so in this case where I do have a process, it’s so easy for me to just move this over to the agenda. Maybe these are the two things I want us to talk about in our next meeting, and I can keep moving them over if I like. I can revise the wording maybe when it gets to the to-do stage, but it’s very easy to drag and drop these cards back and forth. You can do the same thing with lists in terms of moving them around, but it’s effortless to really move your tasks or whatever you’ve captured here within your cards.

Now, you might say, "That’s not a lot of detail." Right? I’ve just added some three- or four-word descriptions here for my ideas. What if I want to add more detail? Well, the great thing about Trello is that it really keeps your workspace nice and clean, so I can keep the front of my card or the top level of my card nice and clean, but when I click on it, it opens up what Trello often refers to as the back of the card or the guts of the card. So within that, I can now add a much more detailed description if I want. I can add a comment, and it’ll keep track of when I made that comment, and if I have other members of my team who are commenting, it’ll keep track of that discussion here.

I can add some color-coded labels if I like, and you can add text to those labels. So here’s an example: this is my "go-ahead" label, as in we want to go ahead with this project, so I can add that to this task. I can add a due date—I want to make sure we do this by the end of the week. A lot more options can be found within the cards, so you can provide a lot more details within the card, yet it keeps the front of my card nice and clean.

I love that aspect of Trello, that you can have your project, your to-do lists, your agenda—whatever you want to use your Trello board for—you can keep the front of the cards nice and clean, but all of that juicy content, all that further description, comments, and so forth can be held within the card. You can even easily add images to your cards as well. I can just hit paste on this particular card, and you can add an image to that card, which will also, by default, become the front of your card. So if you like a more visual format, you can add that to your Trello cards as well. I can remove the cover if I only want that image within the back of the card, but it’s very easy to do. That was just a copy and paste that I used to attach that to the card.

You can add further attachments, whether those are PDFs, documents, or links, to the back of your card—very functional, very fully featured within the cards themselves.

A couple of other examples of how I’ve used a Trello board in the past: great for managing projects; it can also be used as your own personal to-do list. When it comes to your personal life, I’ve used this for home renovations; I’ve used this for planning a vacation. An example is my first two lists when we’re planning a vacation. Once we’ve selected our destination, we’ll often have an activities or a things-to-do list, and then we’ll have a places-to-eat or restaurants list. Then the remaining ones can be the days that we’re actually there—maybe this is Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, etc.—and then we can just sort of drag and drop the things, like yeah, we want to go see that on Tuesday, and maybe we’ll go eat there on Tuesday since it’s near that location. So, home renovations—really anything that you can think of—you can do within a Trello board.

So that’s just a real quick overview of what Trello is. I’d encourage you to try Trello out if you haven’t yet. Trello.com is the website address. It’s free to use, you can have as many boards as you like, and once you start playing with the application, I’m sure you’ll find out some really interesting ways to incorporate it into your work.

It’s very simple.

Today I want to talk to you about... Is that your phone? Are you sure? I really hope that wasn't your phone. Not because I'm offended that you'd have your phone on while you're watching this video. I really hope that wasn't your phone because that sound is the default iPhone ringtone. And as a result, millions of other people have that exact same ringtone.

Have you ever been in a public setting, heard that sound, and then frantically gone searching for your device only to realize that that call wasn't for you? No, it was someone else in the vicinity who has the exact same ringtone as you.

Well, you don't have to suffer like this any further. Change your ringtone! I don't care if you're an iPhone user or an Android user, whenever you get a new device, change the default ringtone. Please, don't use...that one.

Good morning! I know it may not be morning when you're watching this video, but I hope you had a good morning this morning. And I hope to set you up for a great morning tomorrow. Here's how: Number 1: Ignore your email for the very first

Ignore Your Email

Hour. You have so much time in the day to deal with email. Don't mess up your morning by diving into your inbox. Now I know it can be tempting. So many of us use our smartphones as our morning alarm. It can only feel natural to want to click on the mail icon. But don't do it! Your email inbox is not your to-do list. Your email inbox is does not dictate where you put your focus today. So put email on hold for the very first hour.

Exercise

Number 2: Exercise. Too many of us complain that we can't fit in a workout. Too many of us complain that we haven't gone to the gym in weeks. So schedule it first thing. Fit in that run. Fit in that workout in the first hour of your day. It'll set you up for a fantastic morning. It will get those endorphin's going to give you the energy you need to have a great day. Number 3: Plan your very first task the night before.

Plan

A great day begins the night before. So take just a few minutes and select what's the most important thing, what's the very first thing you can start on when you begin your work the next day. When you first get into your office, you don't want to be thinking about doing stuff. You want to be doing stuff. You want to be executing.

So take just a few minutes the day before and plan out what is your first task and then execute on it the next morning. So, ignore your email for the first hour, fit in that workout, get that exercise, and plan your most important task the night before. 3 ways to have a great morning. It's very simple.

Stop, stop, stop pulling out at the last second!

What am I talking about?

Stop cancelling meetings at the very last minute!

Too many organizations come to me and complain about the lack of productivity within their company.

And cancelling meetings at the last minute or having 'no-shows' is one of the worst things you can do for your organization's productivity.

Here's the problem as I see it.

Too many of us accept every single invitation that arrives in our inbox.

We don't even bother to look at our schedule to see if there might be a conflict.

And a few of us use auto-responders, meaning that we automatically accept everything that comes into our inbox.

We don't even look at it.

The system automatically tells the organizer that, "Yes, we will be there."

And then we're surprised why we're double, triple, or even quadruple booked.

Well now you're not just damaging your own productivity, you're damaging the productivity of several or maybe several dozen others.

So I'm pleading with you, be honest with yourself and be honest with others.

When you receive your next calendar invite, take a good hard look at it.

Will you be able to attend?

Will you be able to commit to that date?

If you can't or if you're unsure, select tentative.

They give us that option for a reason.

And if you're the organizer and you cancel a meeting at the last minute, please don't say something cheeky like, "Well, I guess I gave you an hour back in your day."

Wrong!

You didn't give anyone an hour back in their day.

They've already adjusted their day's schedule.

They've adjusted meetings, phone calls, other conversations with clients, all around this meeting.

So don't think that you've given anyone a bonus or additional time.

No, because chances are we just have to reschedule this meeting into the future and Friday already looked pretty busy, now it's extra busy thanks to your cancellation.

Now I understand once in a while you may have a genuinely good reason for cancelling a meeting last minute.

There may be a genuine emergency or crisis that comes up.

But I'll tell you this:

There are a lot fewer emergencies than you think there are.

Too often and too quickly we make things more urgent than they actually are.

So be honest with yourself, be honest with your colleagues.

Take a good hard look at that invitation before you hit accept or before you hit decline.

It's very simple.

What do you bring to work

What are some essential items that you always pack with you in your work bag? Whether it's a briefcase, a backpack, a purse. What are the key things that you always bring with you to work? I'm going to assume that you start with your devices. You probably have a laptop, maybe a tablet, your smartphone. And in addition

Charging cables

to those devices you probably have charging cables. No one likes to get halfway through their day and have a dead smartphone. Well just like you don't want your devices to conk out at you half way during the day, I want to make sure that you have the energy

Why an energy bar

you need to fulfill your most productive day. No matter where I go, no matter where I travel, I always make sure I pack an energy bar. Why an energy bar? Our schedules change quite

Our schedules change

rapidly. Although I may intend to eat healthy today, make sure that I make some time to

Sneak out and grab a salad

sneak out and grab a healthy salad, I know that's not always the case. I may be pulled into an emergency meeting, there may be some other crisis that pops up and I can't pull

I cant pull myself away from my office

myself away from my office or the location that I'm visiting. With an energy bar, I can be sure that I've got 200 to 250 calories that will power me

I dont need to worry about my surroundings

through to the next meal. Especially when I'm on the road. Especially when I'm in a place that I may not know my surroundings. I don't need to worry about how many blocks away the nearest restaurant is or if there's a deli downstairs. If I've got an energy bar

If Ive got an energy bar

I know that I can power through the rest of your day. So regardless if you're travelling abroad or even if it's your own local office, always

Outro

pack an energy bar. Make sure that you have the fuel to have your most productive day. It's very simple.