magazine

Exclusive
Interview
Sponsored by
#7 (January/Feburary 2011) www.ProductiveFirm.com/Magazine
Michael
hyatt
4How to Deal with Procrastination
4Which Laws and Policies Help Achieve Goals
4How Breathing and Being Present
Impacts Productivity
on Responsiveness,
Leadership
and Social Media...
Michael Hyatt Pat Brans Chris Edgar Leo Babauta Howard Flomberg Mike Vardy Michael Sliwinski
Leadership
and Laws
of Productivity
From the Editor
By Michael Sliwinski, Editor
I
his is issue #7 of your trusty pro-
ductivity magazine. This is the Jan-
uary/Feburary issue and were aim-
ing to bring you a fresh new issue of
Productive! Magazine every two months
this year and well see how it goes.
Heres to great 2011!
Meet MichaeI yatt
Ive been following Michael for more than
5 years, back in the day when we were
both using Toshiba M200 TabletPCs and
he was already a recognized blogger
with his Working Smart blog. Reading
his blogs and accepting his guidance
the magazine. Last November on my
business trip to the USA we fnally met
in person over lunch and we had a great
time getting to know each other. I asked
him to do an interview later on and he
agreed. Its a great read as youll learn
from Mike a lot about leadership, pro-
ductivity, worklife balance and how it
all relates to personal health, too.
Laws and ruIes of Froductivity
This issues theme is around certain laws
of productivity that we need to obey to
be more productive. Pat Brans teaches
us the law of being present, Chris Ed-
and advice, he became my role model
a successful business person (CEO of
one of the biggest publishing compa-
nies in the world), a leader and blogger
(just check out his blog), a family man
and a father (with 5 daughters and lov-
ing wife), a productivity guru and tech-
nology geek (now you tell me we dont
have a lot in common) and a practicing
Christian (being Catholic Im a follower
of Christ myself).
You might know Michael for his con-
tributions to this magazine in the past.
This time around he is contributing di-
rectly as the interviewee for this issue of
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Productive!Firmwebsite|MichaelSliwinskisBlog:InternetBusinessProductivity
2
magazine
gar explains the 3 rules of breathing in
order to keep the body productive, Leo
Babauta breaks down for us the law of
procrastination and what to do about it,
Howard Flomberg analyzes Murphys
Law and other rules that impact our pro-
ductivity, Mike Vardy convinces us in his
humorous style that being a Yes Man
is a great choice if you dont want to get
anything done and fnally I show you my
way of looking at New Years Resolu-
tions.
The site ProductiveFirm.com home
of the Productive! Magazine and Pro-
ductive! Show is growing and in this is-
sue I share with you my recent short vid-
eo show episodes so that you can enjoy
some additional trips and tricks that work
for me. I encourage you to share this
magazine with as many people as you
can everyone needs some inspiration-
al pieces of advice for 2011 and beyond
in order to be able to make great things
happen.
Yours productively,
Michael Sliwinski
Editor in Chief
Productive! Magazine
3
magazine
Productive!Magazine
www.ProductiveFirm.com/Magazine
Sponsor:
www.Nozbe.com
Your Online tool for Getting Things Done
available in your computer browser,
mobile phone and on your iPhone.
Chief Editor:
Michael Sliwinski
Technical Editor:
Piotr Wozniak
Technical Advisor:
Maciej Budzich
Editorial Team:
Lori Anderson
Delfna Gerbert
Tribute:
Marc Orchant (19572007)
The Productive!Magazine
is dedicated to the memory
of a productivity guru, great
blogger and a very close friend,
Marc Orchant who passed away
on 9
th
December 2007.
All articles are copyright by their respective authors.
Productive!Magazine is copyright by Michael Sliwinski.
Getting Things Done

and GTD

are the registered

trademarks of the David Allen Company.
05
MichaelSliwinski
8eing a 8esponsive 8ociaI Leader
Interview with MichaeI yatt
10
PatBrans
8eing Fresent
12
ChrisEdgar
Ihree ways our 8reathing
0an eIp our Froductivity
14
LeoBabauta
Ihe LittIe 8ook of Frocrastination 8emedies
16
MichaelSliwinski
k hew FoIicy for 2011 is hetter than a 8esoIution
18
HowardFlomberg
Laws and other 0hservations
20
MichaelSliwinski
Froductive! 8how ideos
0Iutterfree ome 0fhce, 8martphones and 8kiing
21
MikeVardy
kfhrmative Inaction
Table
of contents
4
magazine
Being a Responsive
Social Leader
OnLeadership,GettingThingsDone,
Worklifebalance,HealthandSocialMedia.
Interview with Michael Hyatt,
CEO of Tomas Nelson.
Michael Sliwinski: You are a busy, busy CEO
of a big publishing company Thomas Nel-
son Publishers, the largest Christian publish-
ing company in the world and the seventh
largest trade book publishing company in
the States. How do you fnd time for blog-
ging and tweeting and everything?
Michael Hyatt: Well, I think social media
really represents the future. And one of
my primary jobs as CEO is to network
with other people that can help my com-
pany and that can help us get visibility
for our products and some for our mis-
sion. Ive also found out that social net-
working (in particular blogging) is a fan-
tastic way to do that. Plus it helps me
to sort through my own thinking and
make sure that I understand what it is
that I believe about various topics and
my point of view.
MS: And people in your company? What do
they think about you being so open?
MH: I think they like it. I have been do-
ing it for several years now. Ive been
blogging for about a decade and in ear-
nest since Ive became the president and
a CEO back in 2003. So I really have
been doing it for a while and really been
encouraging people in my company to
do it. I showed it on twitter about two
and a half years ago and I really tried to
encourage my people, my employees,
to engage there as well as on Facebook.
And I think they like it they get direct
access to me.
MS: This magazine is about productivity
so please tell me how do you make time
for all this?
MH: I dont really think it takes that much
time. If you just take the Twitter, and Ive
run numbers on it, in fact at my blog Ive
got an article called how long does the
twittering actually take?. And basical-
ly I spend 20 or 30 minutes a day. Usu-
ally in the morning or later on in the af-
ternoon, as Im reading through RSS
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MS: I was counting on you to mention:
responsiveness. This is the advice you wrote
back in the day of your old working smart
blog. You said that it was your key. It got
stuck in my mind, so whenever I have a back-
log of emails I just schedule 23 hours to get
back to 0.
MH: Yeah, it is really hugely important
to do that. I get people all the time that
get back to me and write i cant believe
you got back to me so quickly. And
then I have a few people, that frankly are
friends of mine, that are still way better
than me. One of them is a board mem-
ber and he responds almost instantly
and its always impressive to me. I know
I can always count on him and it makes
me imputing him other qualities like man
you must be really smart, really sharp
and really on top of his business and
must really be organized. This kind of
summarizes someone being so respon-
sive.
MS: Tell me about Getting Things Done. You
have written about Getting Things Done,
you are using GTD apps. So tell me what are
the key characteristics or key features of GTD,
apart from the 2minute rule, that you use
everyday? And that you think are always
there?
MH: I think, and I have written about this
before, its really important to use a to
do list manager as your command cen-
ter. So to begin and end the day with
what it is you are setting out to accom-
plish. One of the things that I love about
Nozbe is that it is so seamless in my
work fow now. And, as I have told you,
Ive converted from another Mac pro-
gram primarily because it wasnt in
a cloud. The thing I like about Nozbe is
that wherever I am, if I have any kind of
a device with me... whether it is an
iPhone or an iPad or my Macbook Air,
Ive got my todo list. And this is how
I really have to work. I cannot be away
from my desktop and leave my todo
list behind. So I think thats is the big se-
cret. People have to fnd the right soft-
ware and something that is going to fol-
low them around everywhere, and that
is what is so great about the software
youve created, is that it does just that.
MS: Publishing. You are a big publisher and
you have published books about security in
the past. Now you have a new book in the
pipeline. How is it coming along?
MH: Yes. Im actually working on a book
about leadership right now, which has
really become the focus of my blog over
time. I do lead a team here at Thomas
Nelson of about 500 people, and I have
the opportunity everyday to make mis-
takes and to have a few occasional suc-
cesses along the way. So I try to share
what Im learning with people, but Im
doing a book on leadership. Its tenta-
tively titled Shift, because I think es-
sentially that is what the leaders job is
to shift people, peoples ideas, peo-
ples perceptions, its all about change
management. And so thats a project Im
working on, but I probably have about
10% of the book left to write. Its always
the l ast 10% that i s the hardest
though.
MS: Well keep our fngers crossed then! Now,
changing the subject to your personal life
How do you combine your personal life with
your busy, busy business life? You have 5
daughters, you have a wife and I know from
your blog that they are very important to you.
So how do you make these things connect?
feeds or other articles and I fnd some-
thing that I think will be helpful I tweet it
out, or I schedule it to be twittered out
later on during the day.
Blogging is a little bit more time inten-
sive, but I usually do that in the evenings
or more particularly on the weekends.
But again I dont think you can fnd the
time for it if you see it as additional task.
But if you see it as intergoal to what
you are supposed to be doing in your
job, like for me as a CEO getting visibil-
ity for my company and networking, then
it is easy to make time for it.
MS: Mike, it took you years to get the to the
position where you are right now (career
wise). Can you name at least 3 key factors
that helped you achieve your success as a blog-
ger and CEO of a big company?
MH: I would say a couple of things. One
is, I think, just being humble and trying
to learn from other people. Ive experi-
enced in addition to some early success
some stupendous failures which kept
me humble along the way. I tell people
I have basically failed my way forward,
but I think the willingness to continue to
learn helped me succeed. I think also
responsiveness is something that can
really separate you from everybody else
in todays culture. So many people are
overwhelmed with email and with other
inbox chores that it takes them forever
to respond. And just by responding
quickly, and I really believe in David Al-
lens 2 minute rule, if you can respond
quickly it can differentiate you and make
you stand out from the crowd. Other
then that, just the usual things and try-
ing to be diligent, work hard, surround
yourself with smart people, the usual
things that you hear.
Whenyoureresponsive,peoplethinkofyou:Man,hemustbereallysmart,
reallysharpandreallyontopofhisbusinessandmustreallybeorganized.
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magazine
MH: Well they are important. I think it is
very diffcult for people to create some
kind of worklife balance, but it is en-
tirely necessary, because if you give all
of your time to your work your family
eventually blows up and it has negative
impact on your work. If on the other
hand, you give all your time to your fam-
ily you dont work. Thats not so good
for your carrier either and eventually im-
pacts your family life. So somehow we
have to maintain these things in balance.
And I try to give a lot of latitude to my
employees but I try to give hard bound-
aries to myself.
I didnt often do this well, but for years
now Ive made a rule where I fnish my
work day at 6 oclock in the evening and
I leave. I leave cause I want to have
a dinner with my family, and I want to
spend the evening with my family. Now
I may get back on the computer later on
ItellpeopleIhave
basicallyfailedmyway
forward,butIthink
thewillingness
tocontinuetolearn
helpedmesucceed.
in the evening but I always make that
time for them, and then on the week-
ends as well.
You just have to have a sustainable
lifestyle. And it is not sustainable to be
working 120 hours a week, every week
and not give time to your own personal
health, which is very important. I think
your own personal intellectual state, you
know, feeding yourself intellectually and
spiritually and emotionally and then giv-
ing yourself to your family; I think all of
this is necessary in order to have sus-
tainability in all these different aspects
of our lives.
MS: And health. You have mentioned health.
You are a runner and you love running, so
how important was running and ftness to
this as well?
MH: Well it hasnt always been impor-
tant to me. I think that when I was young
I was under the mistaken notion that
I would live forever. You kind of feel im-
mortal. And then I started experiencing
some chest pains in my late forties. As
it turned out it was an indigestion issue
and I got some medication for it. But it
scared me to death and I said Ive got
to start taking care of myself I cant
take my health for granted and in fact,
I came to a realization, Michael, that the
! Links: Michaelse-Books:WritingaWinningBookProposal(FictionandNon-Fiction)
7
magazine
decisions I was making today were go-
ing to impact my quality of life later... to-
morrow... maybe years from now.
So I started running. Actually, I start-
ed walking. And as I began to walk
I thought, maybe I could start jogging
a little bit and I started reading some
books on running, which really motivat-
ed me... and then I got this crazy notion
that I was going to run a halfmarathon
and I made the mistake (which actually
turned out to be a good thing) of an-
nouncing on my blog that I was going
to run the halfmarathon and invited
people to run with me. Then I was pinned
into a corner, so to speak; I couldnt back
out. So I had to run it. I have now done
it for years and currently close to 160 of
my employees run with me, because we
have made bei ng heal thy a focus
throughout our whole company.
MS: Wow, thats impressive!
MH: You know I think there is a direct
correlation between health and produc-
tivity. People that are healthy are more
productive, because they have more
mental focus, they have more energy,
they have more stamina, they just get
things done more quickly and more pro-
ductively. So I do think there is a corre-
lation between these two.
The secret to running, like so many oth-
er things, is to take that frst step. My old-
est daughter says to me I dont really try
to focus on running. I just really want to
get my running shoes on. If I do that ev-
erything else takes care of itself. So just
a little babystep get my shoes on, ev-
erything else takes care of itself.
MS: I think the gadgets help. Ive bought my-
self new Nike sneakers, a new outft and I run
Youcanttake
healthforgranted
thedecisions
youremakingtoday
aregonnaimpact
yourqualityoflife
later...tomorrow...
maybeyears
fromnow.
WhenIannouncedonmyblogthatIwasgoing
torunthehalfmarathonandinvitedpeopletorun
withmeIwaspinnedintoacorner,sotospeak,
Icouldntbackout.
MichaelHyattisthe
PresidentandCEOof
ThomasNelson,the
largestChristianpub-
lishingcompanyinthe
worldandtheseventh
largesttradebookpublishingcompanyinthe
U.S.Michaelhaswrittenfourbooks,oneof
whichlandedontheNewYorkTimesbestsell-
erlist.HyattservesasChairmanoftheEvan-
gelicalChristianPublishersAssociation(ECPA).
Hehasbeenmarriedtohiswife,Gail,fortwen-
tyeightyears.Theyhavefvedaughtersand
twogranddaughtersandliveoutsideofNash-
ville,Tennessee.
MichaeI yatt !
with Nike+ system on my iPod and the whole
package is so appealing to me that I just need
to run.
MH: Im the same way. Its sad really,
but its true :-)
MS: OK, Mike. Thank you very much for this
great interview. It was great having you.
Im sure our readers will be happy to stop
by your blog and follow you on Twitter.
Thanks Mike! a
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|MichaelsBlog:IntentionalLeadership
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magazine
Nozbe web app syncs with native iPad and iPhone apps... and Evernote!
...just like your favorite
Productivity Application
Productive! Magazine like Wired Magazine
now also available as a native iPad app!
Being Present
Thereisaveryimportantpointinlifethatweoughtto
maximizeitisthismoment.Thismomentisnowgone.
ThatswhatFrankStewarttoldmewhenIaskedhim
foradviceontimemanagement.Heshouldknowafew
thingsaboutmaximizingthemoment.Afterallhegrewhis
company,StewartEnterprises,fromafamilybusinesswith
ffteenpeopleinthesuburbsofNewOrleanstoapublicly
tradedbusinesswithmorethansixthousandemployees,
andsubsidiariesasfarawayasNewZealand.
By Pat Brans
F
rank went on to explain. The busi-
ness Im in is quite unusual. Im in
the death care profession, where
we sell products and services for funer-
als, burials, and memorials. This means
Im in a business in which there is no
way you can ignore the fact that time
does run out. I see it all around me. Ev-
ery one of us will die one day. This is
without question.
There are so many things I want to
do, he said. I easily fll the day. There
just isnt enough time to do it all. Its
because I have so much to do and

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details, but there is also the emotional
or relationshipbuilding element of all
human exchanges. If people dont feel
youre listening to them, you may lose
their interest and thereby miss out on
a potentially valuable relationship.
Frank said, When youre dealing with
people, you cant think of time manage-
ment in the same way. Give them your
full attention and dont look at your
watch.
What prevents us from being present?
Most people have dozens of goals at
any given time. Sometimes we think we
have to keep those in mind or well for-
get them. One way to overcome this is
to make it a habit to write down your
goals and consult your list at regular in-
tervals.
While its important to keep your goal
in mind, if you start thinking more about
the end state and less about what you
need to do to get there, youre sure to
spin your wheels. Frank advises, dont
celebrate success too early. The same
goes for lamenting failure: dont sit
around imagining youll fail in the end.
You should keep your eye on the goal,
but spend most of your time thinking
about what you need to do now in or-
der to get to where you want to be.
Another thing that prevents us from
focusing on the task at hand is we
sometimes waste mental energy ago-
nizing over something we didnt do. This
could be something we didnt fnish in
the way we wanted or it could be some-
thing we chose not to do. By learning
to make clean stopping points on a giv-
en activity and learning to detach your-
PatBransisfounderof
MasterTheMoment,
a new approach to
timemanagementand
personaleffectiveness.
MostofBranscorpo-
rateexperiencefocusedonapplyingtechnolo-
gytoenhanceworkforceeffectiveness.Nowhe
takesproductivitytoanotherlevelbyunveiling
thesecretsofhighachievers.Bransisauthorof
twobooks,visitingprofessorattheGrenoble
GraduateSchoolofBusinessandheconsults
andprovidesenterprisetrainingontimeman-
agementandproductivity.
because of my profession that I am
acutely aware of the limited nature of
time. I think about time management
constantly.
A key element of time management
is being present, Frank says. Always
focus on the task at hand. If youre with
somebody on the phone, do only that.
Be there in the conversation. If youre
in a meeting, be present. If youre do-
ing a task by yourself, focus on that.
If youre going to sleep, sleep soundly.
Dont think about all the things you did
during the day, or about what you are
going to do tomorrow. Dont try to solve
problems. Sleep.
It takes some discipline and self con-
fidence to focus just on the task at
hand, Frank told me. You have to
reach a point where you know you can
face challenges as they come, so you
dont have to think about them all at
once.
When youre dealing with other peo-
ple, being present is even more impor-
tant. Not only is there an exchange of
information with people that requires
your attention to catch all the important
Fat 8rans !
Alwaysfocuson
thetaskathand.
Ifyourewith
somebody
onthephone,
doonlythat.
! Links: PatBransWebsite:MastertheMoment|PatsBooks:MastertheMoment:FiftyCEOsTeachYoutheSecretsofTimeManagement
Ifpeopledontfeelyourelisteningtothem,
youmaylosetheirinterestandthereby
missoutonapotentiallyvaluablerelationship.
self emotionally after turning things
down, you can free your mind of some
of this clutter.
Finally, its hard to be present when
you are constantly interrupted. Some-
times this is beyond your control, but
often its not. Make it a habit to block
off time for focused effort. If you can
get used to thinking about just one thing
for an hour or so ever day, youll devel-
op your ability to concentrate, and this
new capacity will serve you at other
times. a
Itshardtobe
presentwhen
youareconstantly
interrupted.
Sometimesthisis
beyondyourcontrol,
butoftenitsnot.
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magazine
Tree Ways Your Breathing
Can Help Your Productivity
Whilewereworking,weoftengetsoabsorbedinourprojectsthatweforgetabout
ourbreathing.Whenthishappens,particularlywhenwereunderstress,wecanlapse
intorestrictedbreathinginhalinginshortgasps,orshallowlyintotheupperchest.

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working, for instance, breathe slowly
and deeply until the anxiety dissi-
pates.
When we keep breathing in the face
of discomfort, often the diffcult sen-
sations were feeling seem more man-
ageable and less threatening. As Dr.
Miriam Adahan puts it in Living With
Difficult People, Including Yourself,
when you keep breathing calmly or
moving purposefully, your muscles will
teach your brain that there is no real
danger.
2. Focus 0n our 8reathing
Zen meditators often concentrate on
their breathing to stay alert, and keep
their minds from drifting into memories
or concerns about the future. What Ive
found is that this technique isnt just
useful for meditation it also works
great whenever we fnd ourselves get-
ting distracted at work. We can focus
on our breathing to bring our attention
back to this moment, and to what were
doing.
Many meditation teachers explain
why this technique works by observing
that, whenever we focus our attention
on whats happening in our bodies, our
awareness naturally settles into the
present. If I ask you to pay attention to
your breathing, you probably wont start
daydreaming about the way you used
to breathe fve years ago youll focus
on the act and experience of breathing
right now.
When your attention returns to the
present, the memories and worries that
may have been bothering you fade into
the background.
3. hotice ow ou
8estrict our 8reathing
If youre feeling tense or uncomfortable
as youre working, take a moment and
By Chris Edgar
w
hat we dont often realize is that
how we breathe can deeply af-
fect our effciency and enjoy-
ment in what we do. In this post, Ill of-
fer three breathing techniques to help
you stay focused and peaceful as you
work.
1. 8reathe Ihrough Ihe 0rge
Productivity writers often tell us to re-
sist the urge to put off our work, but
they usually dont offer much practical
advice on how to do that. In my expe-
rience working with people on produc-
tivity issues, we often procrastinate
when an uncomfortable thought or sen-
sation anxiety or anger, for instance
comes up as were working, and wed
rather not experience it. We need,
I think, some way to stay centered, even
when faced with those intense thoughts
and feelings.
Ive found that the best approach in
these moments is to breathe deeply. In-
stead of turning away from your task to
play FreeCell or instant message with
friends, hold your attention on what
youre doing, and take full breaths un-
til the diffcult sensation passes away.
If you start feeling anxious as youre
ChrisEdgarhelpspeo-
plefndfocus,motiva-
tionandpeaceintheir
workthroughhiswrit-
i ng, speaki ng and
workshops.Heisthe
authorofInnerProductivity:aMindfulPathto
EffciencyandEnjoymentinYourWork,which
GettingThingsDoneauthorDavidAllencalls
agreatreadandausefulguidebookforturn-
ingthedailygrindintosomethingmuchmore
interestingandengaging.
0hristopher dgar !
notice how youre breathing. Are you
breathing shallowly and rapidly, into
your throat or chest? Are you making
breathing difficult by clenching any
muscles? Some people I know check
in with their bodies periodically as
theyre working, and discover theyre
hardly breathing at all.
When we arent allowing ourselves
enough air, its no surprise that working
feels painful and worrisome. If you no-
tice that youre breathing in a shallow
or restricted way, see if you can slow
and deepen your breaths, and let go of
any tension thats cutting off the natu-
ral fow of your respiration. Working be-
comes easier and more fulflling, I think
youll fnd, when you breathe fully as
you do it. a
! Links: ChristopheronTwitter|ChristophersWebSite
InnerProductivity:aMindfulPathtoEffciencyandEnjoymentinYourWork
Holdyourattention
onwhatyouredoing,
andtakefullbreaths
untilthediffcult
sensationpassesaway.
Wecanfocusonour
breathingtobringour
attentionbacktothis
moment,andtowhat
weredoing.
13
magazine
Te Little Book
of Procrastination Remedies
Procrastinationisoneofthosetopicsthat,itseems,Icantwriteenoughabout.
Thereisntapersonamonguswhodoesntprocrastinate,andthatsafactoflife.
Itsdeepwithinus.Wethinkweregoingtodosomethinglater,orreadthatclassic
novellater,orlearnFrenchlater.Butwealwaysoverestimatehowmuchwecan
dolater,andweoverestimatetheabilityofourlaterselvestobeatprocrastination.
Weremostoftenafraidoftheunknown,whichhas
morepowerbecausewedontexaminethisfear.
By Leo Babauta
I
f our current self cant beat procras-
tination, why will our future self do it?
I thought I should cover some of the
best procrastinationbeating strategies,
in light of my recent book, focus Peo-
ple seem to want ways to beat procras-
tination, so they can actually get down
to focusing. Heres a quick guide.
why we Frocrastinate
Lets take a quick look at what makes us
procrastinate. There are several reasons,
which are related in various ways:
1. we want instant gratihcation. Resting
on the couch is thought of as nicer, right
now, than going on a run. Reading blogs
is easier, right now, than reading a clas-
sic novel. Checking email or Facebook
is easier, now, than doing that project
youve been putting off. Eating choco-
late cake is tastier, right now, than eat-
ing veggies.
2. we fearIdread something. We might not
write that chapter in our book because
there are problems with the writing that
we havent fgured out (often because
we havent thought it through). Or we
might be afraid were going to fail, or
look ignorant or stupid. Were most of-
ten afraid of the unknown, which has
more power because we dont examine
this fear it just lurks in the back of our
minds. Dreading or fearing something
makes us want to put it off, to postpone
even thinking about it, and to do some-
thing easy and safe instead.
3. Its easy no negative consequences
right now. When we were in school and
had a teacher looking over our shoul-
ders and scolding us if we didnt do our
work, we tended to do the work (until
some of us learned that we could tune
out the scolding, that is). But when we
got home, sometimes no one would be
looking over our shoulders so there
wasnt any immediate negative conse-
quence to watching TV or playing games
instead. Sure, wed get a bad grade to-
morrow, but thats not right now. The
same is true of using the Internet or do-
ing other kinds of procrastination tasks
well pay for it later, but right now, no
one is getting mad at us.
4. we overestimate our future seIf. We of-
ten have a long list of things we plan to
do, because we think we can do a lot in
the future. The reality is usually a little
worse than we expected, but that doesnt
stop us from thinking the future will be
different yet again. For the same reason,
we think its OK to procrastinate, be-
cause were going to do it later, for sure.
Our future self will be incredibly produc-
tive and focused! Except, our future self
is also lazy, and doesnt do it either.
Damn future self.
Four FowerfuI 8oIutions
Now that we know the problems, the so-
lutions arent that hard to fgure out. Just
dont put them off, OK?
1. 8top and think. When we allow the
above thoughts to go on without really
being conscious of them, we procrasti-
nate. When we actually pause and think
about those thoughts, we can rational-
ly see that theyre wrong. Instant grati-
fcation in the form of goofng off or eat-
ing junk food can lead to problems later.
Fears are overblown and shouldnt stand
in our way. Not having negative conse-
quences now doesnt mean there wont
be consequences later. Our future self
isnt as badass as we like to think. So
think about what youre doing, and start
14
magazine
to do the more rational thing. Use the
strategies below as well, but thinking is
the start.
2. njoy the process. When we dread
something, we put it off but instead,
if we can learn to enjoy it, it wont be
as hard or dreadful. Put yourself in the
moment, and enjoy every action. For
example, if you want to go out to run,
dont think about the hard run ahead,
but about putting on your shoes en-
joy the simplicity of that action. Then
focus on getting out the door thats
not hard. Then focus on warming up
with a fast walk or light jog that can
be nice and enjoyable. Then feel your
legs warm up as you start running a lit-
tle faster, and enjoy the beautiful out-
doors. This process can be done with
anything, from washing dishes to read-
ing to writing. Enjoy yourself in the mo-
ment, without thinking of future things
you dread, and the activity can be very
pleasant and even fun. And if it is, you
wont put it off.
3. 8et up accountahiIity. If no one is look-
ing over our shoulder, we tend to let our-
selves slack off. So set up a procrasti-
nationproof environment fnd people
to hold you accountable. I joined an on-
line ftness challenge this month, for ex-
ample, so that Id report my workouts to
the forum. Ive done the same thing for
running, quitting smoking, writing a nov-
el. You can even just use your friends
and family on Facebook or email.
4. 8Iock your future seIf. Your future self is
just as likely to put things off. So block
that sucker. Use a program like Freedom
to block your Internet access for a prede-
termined amount of time, so your future
self has to actually focus instead of read-
ing blogs. Turn off your cable TV, get rid
of the junk food in your house, cut up your
credit cards... do whatever it takes to make
it really hard for your future self to procras-
tinate or give in to temptation, or at least
force your future self to pause and think
before he does anything dumb.
k 0ifferent Mindset
Three other things that must be said
about procrastination:
1. 0o what excites you. If you do what
youre excited about most of the time,
youll be less likely to put it off. Focus on
why it excites you, rather than the dread-
ed aspects of the activity. I do this and
my procrastination is lower than ever.
2. FroductiveIy procrastinate. If youre go-
ing to procrastinate, do other produc-
tive things instead. So if you dont want
to do your project, at least get some
smaller tasks done. Read more.
3. 8ometimes, procrastination is 0k. Im
not antiprocrastination, at all. This guide
is for those who want to beat it, but in
my book, lazing around can be a beau-
tiful thing. Reading stuff on the Internet
that Im interested in isnt a bad thing.
Sometimes, give in to procrastination.
But other times, you might want to get
off that lazy butt and actually accom-
plish something. a
Nothavingnegative
consequences
nowdoesntmean
therewontbe
consequenceslater.
LeoBabautalivesin
SanFranciscoandis
marriedwithsixkids.
Hes a wri t er and
arunnerandavege-
tarianandheloves
writingZenHabitshisblogthat,inacouple
ofyears,becameoneofthetopblogsonthe
Internetwith100K+readerssubscribedand
counting.Hesapublishedauthorofabestsell-
ingbookPowerofLess.
Leo 8ahauta !
! Links: LeoonTwitter|LeosBlog:ZenHabits|LeosBlog:Minimalist
ThePowerofLess:The6EssentialProductivityPrinciplesThatWillChangeYourLife

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A New Policy
for 2011 is better
than a Resolution
Idontlikecorporatetalkandcorporateworld.
Iprefersmallbusinessworld.ButIdolikemocking
thewaycorporationsworkinmydailylife.Inourstruggle
toaZenandMinimalistlifemywifeandIdecidedto
introducetoourfamilylifesomethingnormallypracticed
inthebigcorporations:policies.
By Michael Sliwinski
what are poIicies?
ahits defined and agreed upon
Big corporations have these policies on
dealing with this and that... so we de-
cided to copy that and to make sure we
dont gain too many unnecessary ma-
terialistic fat this year we decided to in-
troduce some new policies in our home
to ensure both my wife and I know how
to deal with certain things.
Just a few short examples of our box
and packaging policy:
! We dont keep CD, DVD or BluRay disc
packages
! When we buy a DVD or BluRay disc,
we put the disc in the 100disc box
near our TV set and throw away the
packaging. Always.

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! When we buy a CD we immediately
rip it using iTunes to put the music to
our iPhones and iPods, throw away
the packaging and put the CD in the
big 100disc box.
! New policy for 2011: We dont buy
DVDs. BluRay players got cheaper and
we got a player for our bedroom and
have Playstation 3 in the living room.
No need for DVDs anymore. The HD
quality is a lot better.
! New policy for 2011: We only buy Blu-
Rays we want to watch more than
once. Otherwise we rent movies. Weve
had too many onetime movies in our
collection. Waste of money.
We dont keep the original packaging
of stuff we buy past 7 days:
! When we buy stuff (and we try to buy
less of it this year) we keep the origi-
nal packaging only a week. This pol-
icy makes us use the stuff we buy and
try it out and make sure it works. If it
doesnt we return it to store in origi-
nal packaging. If it does work, we keep
it and throw away the packaging.
! Although manufacturers claim they
wont respect warranty without origi-
nal packaging, its against the law and
its really not true. So why keep the
boxes?
FoIicies are nonnegotiahIe
The cool thing about policies is that they
are more than guidelines they are the
law. At least in our house. So if Im
tempted to keep a BluRay box of a mov-
ie I like, my wife asks me: Michael,
whats our policy on the boxes? and
the box goes away. The same applies
to the boxes of the ITgear I buy. The
geek in me wants to keep these new
shiny packages of the latest Apple gear
but my wife frmly reminds me of our
policy on the boxes... and of the fact
that I was the one to actually suggest it
in the frst place.
FoIicies couId he a cooI way
of introducing hahits
The problem with habits is that it takes
a lot of time to set a habit in motion.
It takes days, weeks or even months.
When you set up a policy and its your
governing law, you dont need that time.
The policy is there and it keeps you from
going sideways... and if you set it up
with your loved one, they help you keep
them in power and refrain you from go-
ing against the law :-)
FoIicies heIp you set up automatic
ruIes for stuff that doesnt matter
Thanks to our new policies Im not think-
ing about a lot of stuff Id normally be
tempted to think and analyze. I know what
the policy is so I act accordingly. I build
a habit with a policy and focus on the larg-
er goal I have in front of me. The policy
thinks for me. It is the law after all :-)
FoIicies are hetter than
hew ears resoIutions
Resolutions are... wishful thinking with
a new name. You dont measure them,
you dont track them, you just say them
to yourself and hope for the best. So in-
stead of thinking about resolutions, in-
troduce some good policies for 2011 and
make sure they align with your goals.
The policies will help you not to think
about small stuff and focus on your goals
this year and maybe youll even get a lit-
tle more done than last year. Who
knows?
Bonus some other useful policies for
2011 I just introduced at my homeoffce:
! No checking of email or social net-
works before 11 am to make sure
I dont start the day in reaction mode
replying to email from other folks... but
I get something useful done before Im
open to communication.
! Twitter client for Mac or Facebook
page only open when I intend to use
it. After being used, quit.
! 6 pm ends my work day. At the latest.
Then I spend time with my family no
matter what.
what are your poIicies for 2011?
MichaelSliwinskiis
yourchiefeditorofthe
Productive!Magazine
andahostofthenew
Productive!Show.Ev-
erydayhestryingto
helppeoplegetmoredonewithhiswebappli-
cationNozbenowalsoavailableasanative
iPhoneoriPadapp.
MichaeI 8Iiwinski !
! Links: MichaelonTwitter|Productive!Magazine|Productive!Show
NozbeSimplyGetItDone!|MichaelSliwinskisBlog:InternetBusinessProductivity
Insteadofthinkingaboutresolutions,
introducesomegoodpoliciesfor2011
andmakesuretheyalignwithyourgoals.
Thecoolthingabout
policiesisthattheyare
morethanguidelines
theyarethelaw.
17
magazine
Laws
and other
Observations
Overtheyearspeople
havenoticedsituations
happeningrepeatedly.
Theseobservations
havebecomeLaws.
Someoftheselaws
aretongueincheek;
someofthemarequite
serious.Herearethree:
MurphysLaw,Occams
RazorandNewtonslaw.
By Howard Flomberg
Murphys Law
This is the one we all know. If anything
can go wrong, it will. One of the most
popular corollaries is and at the worst
possible time. Murphy reportedly was
Air Force Captain Edward A. Murphy.
Murphy was an engineer and he deduced
the law while working on a project. There
are, obviously, many other versions of the
laws origin. My favorite is a legend on
Captain Murphys demise:
One dark evening (in the U.S.), Mur-
phys car ran out of gas. As he hitch-
hiked to a gas station, while facing traf-
fc and wearing white, he was struck
from behind by a British tourist who was
driving on the wrong side of the road.
Here you have Murphys Law in a nut-
shell.
When I was a technician in the Air
Force, it was universally agreed that Mur-
phy was an optimist.

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might say that this is an addendum to Oc-
cams razor, or perhaps the punishment
for ignoring Occam?
Prohibition is an excellent example of
this law. In 1917 the eighteenth amend-
ment was added to the Constitution. This
amendment outlawed the sale, manu-
facture and transportation of alcoholic
products in the United States. It was
generally accepted that this law was ef-
fective. There were many indications that
society had weaned itself off of demon
rum. However, as anyone who has
heard the name Elliot Ness can tell you,
there was an unanticipated conse-
quence. Many people still wanted an oc-
casional drink. As nature abhors a vac-
uum, an enterprising subset of society
sprang into action to satisfy this crav-
ing. Of course there was an untended
consequence to this action the peo-
ple who came to the rescue of the thirsty
were some of the most dangerous crim-
inals that we had ever seen.
Might I say that these three Iaws
are totaIIy interreIated?
0ccams 8azor
I frst came across Occams razor while
watching the TV show CSI. Simply stat-
ed: the simplest explanation is more
likely the correct one a more accurate,
and needlessly complex, defnition might
be: select the competing hypothesis that
makes the fewest new assumptions
when the hypotheses be equal in other
respects.
Occam was Wi l l i am of Ockham
(c. 1288 c. 1348) was an English Fran-
ciscan friar and philosopher. It is be-
lieved that he was born in Ockham,
a small village in Surrey. He is consid-
ered to be one of the major fgures of
medieval thought and was at the cen-
ter of the major intellectual and political
controversies of the fourteenth centu-
ry. Occams razor is frequently used to
shave away superstitious explanations
for events.
In A Brief History of Time, Stephen
Hawkins wrote:
We could still imagine that there is
a set of laws that determines events
completely for some supernatural being,
who could observe the present state of
the universe without disturbing it. How-
ever, such models of the universe are
not of much interest to us mortals. It
seems better to employ the principle
known as Occams razor and cut out all
the features of the theory that cannot be
observed.
I found an elegant example of Occams
razor on the web:
A real life example of Occams Razor
in practice goes as follows: Crop circles
began to be reported in the 1970s. Two
interpretations were made of the circles
of matted grass. One was that fying sau-
cers made the imprints. The other was
that someone (human) had used some
sort of instruments to push down the
grass. Occams Razor would say that giv-
en the lack of evidence for fying sau-
cers and the complexity involved in get-
ting UFOs from distant galaxies to arrive
on earth (unseen and traveling faster than
the speed of light I suppose) the second
interpretation is simplest. The second
explanation could be wrong, but until
further facts present themselves it re-
mains the preferable theory. As it turns
out, Occams Razor was right as two
people admitted to making the original
crop fgures in the 1990s (and the rest
have apparently been created by copy
cats). Despite this fact, some people still
ignore Occams Razor and instead con-
tinue to believe that crop circles are be-
ing created by fying saucers.
In practice, this might be called the
familiar KISS principle: Keep it Simple,
Stupid.
This law hit me like the proverbial ton
of bricks. It is so obvious and elegant, yet
it had never occurred to me. Its sort of
an extension of one of Newtons laws:
Every action has an equal and opposite
reaction, to which I add: and an addition-
al reaction that is totally unexpected. One
WhenIwasatechnician
intheAirForce,itwas
universallyagreedthat
Murphywasanoptimist.
HowardisaRetired
SystemsAnalyst,Ad-
junctProfessorand
Author. He lives in
Denver,Colorado.
oward FIomherg !
! Links: HowardonTwitter
Everyactionhasanequalandoppositereaction,
towhichIadd:andanadditionalreaction
thatistotallyunexpected.
19
magazine
Clutterfree Home Ofce,
Smartphones and Skiing
My 0Iutterfree
ome 0ffice 0ptimized
for 6etting Ihings 0one
{pisode #30)
Irecentlybuiltmynewhomeoffce
fromscratch(wemovedagain)and
Ivetriedtooptimizeitforproduc-
tivity.Ihopeitinspiresyoutoopti-
mizeyourworkplacetoo.
8eading kudiohooks
whiIe 8kiing {pisode #21)
Youcanbeproductiveandread
stuffevenwhenyouredoingsports!
Heresmywayofreadingbooks
whileskiing.
By Michael Sliwinski
8martphone vs Laptop
on weekend Irips
{pisode #28)
Imalwaystakingmylaptopwith
meoneverytripIgo...evenshort
weekendtrips...afterallitsalight
laptopandyouneverknowwhen
youneedit.Aftermyrecentweek-
endtriptoLondon(England)Ireal-
izedIhaveallthenecessarytools
inmyiPhone...anditsalotsmall-
ertocarry.
Asineveryissue
ofthemagazine
theressomeshort
videotimeforyou
toenjoy.Hereare
therecentthree
Productive!Show
videos(eachof
around2minutes).
Ihopethetipsand
tricksImsharing
willserveasan
inspirationtoyou
andwillmakeyou
moreproductivetoo.
Productive! Show Videos
! Links: Hopeyouenjoyedtheseshortproductivityvideos.Clickheretobrowseallepisodearchive.
20
magazine
Eventually,allofyour
agreementswillmean
little,whichmeansyou
wontberequiredto
makeasmanyifany.
Afrmative Inaction
ImaYesMan.Notliketheoneswhofxtheworldorthekind
thatplayedalongsidetheeventuallyfamousRhysDarby
inthefeatureflmTheYesMan.Imnotbeholdentoanyone
tosayyes.Ijustliketo.
By Mike Vardy
I
f youre going to enhance your Even-
tualism skills in the year ahead, you
need to say yes a lot more as well.
8aying yes is aIways
a positive answer
With a new year in front of you, theres
a lot of encouragement to have a posi-
tive outlook. This one word will give you
that outlook right away. The word can be
positive in terms of providing a favour-
able response at frst. Eventually the
Eventuallyselfpro-
fessedproductivityex-
pert,founderofthe
newproductivityide-
ology:Eventualism.
Mike ardy !
word will be attached to so many things
that it will become positively negative. And
thats a positive thing for you and your
quest to improve as an Eventualist.
You see, youll say yes to so much that
you cant possibly please everyone.
Youll have to pick and choose. Youll
have so much on your plate that it will
be impossible to fulfll everything. Even-
tually, all of your agreements will mean
little, which means you wont be required
to make as many if any. That means
less responsibility. That means less
work.
Less is more more or less.
By taking affrmative action at frst on
an ongoing basis, you will soon find
yourself being able to have affrmative
inaction. The eventual results of that can
only be positive.
Im positive about that, yes.
Yes, I sure am. a
! Links: MikeonTwitter|MikesBlog:Eventualism

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Want to write a book?
Learn Michael Hyatts insider secrets
of writing a book proposal that works: