Articles

Why You Need to Be Ahead of Yourself

When it comes to personal productivity, we don’t necessarily approach things with a clear mind. That’s because our mind is full of so much that we have to do that we can’t possibly be at our best. We rush in, like a driver behind the wheel who is only looking to get to where they […]

The Plight of Molly Campbell

This is the first post I’ve written here since the transition from Vardy.me to Productivityist.com that is fairly removed from the topic of productivity in some form or another. But it’s one I wanted to write anyway…because it was an important one to write. This piece is about Molly Campbell, a little girl from my

Pre-Playing

Today as we walked home from school together, my daughter and her friend — who was coming over for a play-date — were a few steps behind me and my son, speaking quietly to each other. As I gave a closer listen, I discovered that they were talking about the roles they were going to

Pause and Affect

The pause is one of the most valuable buttons on a remote control. It’s also one of the most valuable actions you can take when trying to be more productive. Sure, by pausing you are suspending one type of action…but you are doing so in favour of another: thinking. When you pause, you are taking

Getting Better in 2013: ThisLife

I joined ThisLife when it first was available thinking it would be the ideal place for my wife and I to share photos, no matter what device they were taken with (her iPhone 3GS or my 4S) and no matter when they were taken. I started to populate ThisLife with a lot of my photos

Except…

One of the best things you can do when you are trying to improve your productivity, is to accept less. This is very hard to do, because the more you have on your plate the more productive you appear — both to yourself and to others. But appearances can be deceiving — especially in this

Review: The iSlider

I spend a lot of time these days writing on my iPad. I made it my only writing machine while at Macworld, and I’m writing this piece on it right now. I’ve made a point of using my ZAGGmate case in the past to write on my iPad regularly (as it contains a keyboard), but

How I Use Sketchnotes for Task Management

Last night we recorded an upcoming episode of Mikes on Mics with Mike Rohde, author of Sketchnotes. I’m not going to spoil all of what we talked about – the episode will be available for you to listen to soon enough – but I am going to share with you how I use a form

Get the Most Out of Evernote with Evernote Essentials 3

Brett Kelly’s book Evernote Essentials didn’t just help him land a job at Evernote, but it has helped many others wrap their heads around how to make the most out of their Evernote experience. Today he’s taking the popular e-book to the next level with the release of Evernote Essentials 3, which brings all things