Less is more

Your Productivity Gifts Wish List, and what to add to it!

If you are done with gifts for 2009, this may be a good list to start for 2010. If not, here are some ideas to add to this newly created list:

	A new smartphone such as the iPhone or Motorola Droid that will help you be productive on the go
	An eReader such as the Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook that will help you renew your interest and commitment to reading and exploring
	A countdown timer that will get you to focus and achieve breakthrough productivity gains
	A journal (Moleskine or Levenger) that will help you capture important notes and insights
	The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook (Paperback, or Kindle) that will help you use all of the above and change the way you think about stuff.

Start this Productivity Gifts Wish List now and tell your Santa now!

Upcoming Google Apps Lunch & Learn Webinar

Anyone looking to increase their company's or their own productivity will benefit from People-OnTheGo's Thursday, October 2nd lunch & learn session: Google Apps--working and collaborating from anywhere with productivity evangelist Gus Elliott.

Google Apps, in addition to e-mail and calendar, provide you the ability to create and manage documents and sites. In this session Gus will demonstrate the Google Apps functionality and discuss how it can help remote workshops and virtual teams to better collaborate.

Join us for lunch and to learn more about the topic!

Google Apps—working and collaborating from anywhere (Thursday October 2, 2008 from 12:00 noon to 12:45 pm Pacific Time)

Register for Google Apps lunch & learn webinar

Our lunch & learn program description and registration

Get your brown bag lunch (or snack) ready, and join us online every Thursday at 12:00 noon Pacific Time for 45 minutes to learn the latest and most innovative tips and techniques for individual and team productivity, and get the latest updates about important workplace and productivity issues.

Review program and register for our lunch & learn webinars

A different kind of journal, from Doug and Tracy

Participants were starting to gather around the conference room table. We were about to start the "Accomplishing more in less time, less effort, and less stress" workshop. The beginning of the workshop is always exciting time. Everyone is eager to hear about the techniques we will be covering in the workshop, while I am eager to get the special warm up exercise going, and see what new creative walking styles will be uncovered on that day. However in that specific workshop, my mind was somewhere else. I couldn't help but notice Tracy's journal as she pulled it out of her bag and placed it gently and carefully on the table with pride.

I knew that there must be a bigger story behind this journal, and when I asked her, there was indeed a bigger story and I had the pleasure to hear it and then share it with many people. The story is that her husband Doug, with her help, made this journal and many journals like it. The cover is from old books that the library has given up on. And the paper is collected from print shops after they have discarded it.

Doug writes on his "Recover Your Thoughts" website, where he actually makes these journals available to anyone who would like to treat themselves to something unique and different, "I take a lot of pride in the fact that I'm able to make a usable product from stuff headed toward the landfill".

Way to go Doug and Tracy! Hope our "Accomplishing more in less time, less effort, and less stress" participants will get to enjoy Doug and Tracy's unique journals as they try to put the journal into use!

Visit http://recoveryourthoughts.com/ for more details:

   

The business journal—less-is-more

One of the tools we recommend in our Time Management workshop is the business journal. Over the years, I have experimented with different types and sizes of business journals. The one I have been using recently is an 8.5”x11” hard cover executive notebook (see picture on the left).

This week though I decided to go to the other extreme. I am trying a new journal  that is much smaller which is the 3.5” x 5.5” Moleskine by Modo & Modo (picture on the right). The point is exactly this: Less-is-more. It is an attempt to write less and "mean" more. Instead of being busy with writing all the details, I would like to be reminded to keep my focus on what is happening now, the people I engaged with, and jot down important concepts, reminders, and only critical details.