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Episode #18: The 20/80 Principle

Dean Soto — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:29:28 +0000

What is better, working on a lot of recurring tasks throughout the day that keep you busy for hours on end, or finishing a small task that makes a huge difference? Sounds like a stupid question, but I submit to you that most people choose to do the former every day. We tend to believe that feeling busy means that we are making a difference. However, being busy for business sake is really just being lazy – laziness in the form of not looking for what is really going to make a difference in your day, week, month, or year.

The 20/80 rule (Pareto’s law) helps us to find the little things that make big impacts in our lives. Rather than becoming inundated with a thousand different tasks, by focusing our effotrs on the big wins, you can be more productive and have better results.

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Post tags: 80/20, pareto's law, Productive, projects

Episode #13: Leadership and Productivity

Dean Soto — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:18:58 +0000

You and I need to be leaders! What else can I say? Leadership is the single attribute that will grow your career, help everyone around you, and save the world. Why do I say that? I say it because it’s true. Leadership and decision-making is a rare commodity among in the workforce and within the Church. If you don’t believe me, why the heck do you think companies pay thousands of dollars per employee to have them go on weekend retreats where they learn team building and fall back into the arms of someone they “trust”? Leadership is powerful, and the driving force behind any successful venture.

What does leadership have to do with productivity? Everything! A great leader knows all of his/her resources, knows the overall goal, and motivates others to reach those goals together. Learn leadership, and you will succeed in everything that you do.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I was going to put a couple of links that gave leadership tips, but after Googling for an hour and seeing that they were all full of crap (pardon my French), I decided to give you my three simple rules of leadership:

Know your weaknesses, and the strengths of others.
Build trust with others around you through authentic relationships.
Make a decision, because nobody else will.

Not very profound, I know, but it’s the truth. Those three rules will make you an effective leader.

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Post tags: effective leadership, leader, leadership, leading, Productive, Productivity

Getting It Done Like the Saints: St. Gianna Beretta Molla

Dean Soto — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:21:10 +0000

With the pro-life battle raging in the U.S. legislature, I thought that it be fitting to look at the life of the most popular pro-life saint (they are all pro-life, obviously) from the 20th century. I venture to say that just about everyone who is Catholic and actually practices their faith knows who St. Gianna is. In short, she was a physician that gave up her life in order for her child to come into the world. The great thing about her that I find most attractive – other than the fact that she was very cosmopolitan and a purveyor of the latest fashions of her day – is that she was a working professional.

She knew who she was

When most people think of saints, they think of women that give up all of their earthly desires to go and where long habits and lock themselves away in a convent somewhere. Not St. Gianna, she was a head strong woman that knew what God designed her to do. She was a physician, and proud of it. Before she met her husband, her practice was booming because she was damn good at what she did. She knew that God wanted her to practice medicine, and she never backed down from it – even when her fiancé suggested that she stop in order to stay at home with the children.

Passion is everything

So what does this all have to do with productivity and/or business? Everything! I don’t care what methods you use to motivate yourself, you will never be as happy, productive, or fulfilled unless you are doing what you are designed to do by God. That’s right, unless you love doing what you are doing you will always do it less effectively.

Now, I know what you are going to say, “but Dean, doesn’t all work glorify God if we offer it up – even if we hate it?” Of course it does, but we are not called to do work we hate just for the sake of it any less than we are called to rush off to martyrdom imprudently. If we are called to do work we loathe, then by all means we should be doing that because it’s God’s will. But if God is calling you to be an awesome web developer so that He could reach thousands of people through your talents, don’t go and be a musician because your Parish needs a cantor (we have all experienced what happens when people do that, *shudder*).

That being said, here are some resources on how to find your passion:

It’s the only way you can change the world

I truly feel that because St. Gianna followed her passion for medicine, not only will she be known as the pro-life saint, she will be the means of converting medical practitioners that conduct procedures that end life – rather than save it. Through her passion, she changed – and will continue to change – the world.

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Post tags: finding your passion, medical, passion, Productive, Productivity, Professionals, saint gianna, saints

My Favorite Productivity Web Apps of 2009

Dean Soto — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:24:54 +0000

The web is full of tools out there that claim to help you to be more productive, and for the most part they are right. The problem is that with all of these applications, it is very easy for all of your tasks, events, and documents to become fragmented. It’s hard to resist the urge to try out the latest and greatest web app out there (yes guys, I am looking in your direction) just for the sake of trying it out. Therefore, I thought that I’d give my picks for the top productivity focused web applications of 2009. These are all apps that I use on a daily basis, and you would find me in a fetal position off in the corner if I were ever left without them. I assure you that these are not original or spectacular, but they’ve allowed me to get things done.

Photo by Bull3t

Dropbox

This amazing and very simple tool deserves to be on the top of this list without any competition even coming close. Dropbox is God’s gift to productivity. It’s free for up to 2 gigabytes of storage, and it essentially allows you to have a folder on multiple computers that syncs to dropbox and each respective folder. In other words, that picture of you with bumping fists with Pope Benedict can be available anywhere in the world and on any computer you own. Even if you aren’t on your computer, you can use their web interface to get your files. It’s that awesome!

Google Apps

If you have a small business and you aren’t using Google Apps Standard, please sell it. Yes, you heard me, sell your business now because you obviously like throwing your money away on things you can get for free. Google Apps Standard (and even the premium version) is a fantastic platform for email, calendar, and word processing. Think about it, you basically get the superior spam filtering of GMail, with 7 gb of storage, routing to your own domain name (i.e. yourbusiness.com) ,and everything else you need to communicate to customers and staff FOR FREE. Even if you don’t have a business, it’s a great way to brand your blog or website. Okay, I’m done.

Evernote

Never forgot that recipe that you found on the Mac & Cheese box at the grocery store, or your wife’s 20 honey-do list that she graciously left next to your car keys. With Evernote you can take a picture, type, or record audio of whatever you want to remember. Not only that, their text recognition software allows you to search the text of things that you took a picture of (i.e. your pool man’s business card).

Netvibes

You are probably thinking, why in the heck is Netvibes up here? It’s because Netvibes brings it all together, baby! Netvibes a one stop shop for all of your blog reading, email/calendar checking, and social media upkeeping. Seriously, I have 10 email accounts on my Netvibes homepage that would go unnoticed without it. Not only that, I am able to read all of my Catholic, tech, and news blogs – and then Tweet about them in the matter of a few minutes. It is seriously a huge time-saver.

That’s it!

Hopefully you aren’t disappointed that I only use 4 web apps to maintain optimum productivity, but why complicate things with a whole bunch of tools? If you stick with a few that work with your personality, you’ll find that it’s much easier to keep track of your life.

What tools do you use? Am I wrong in using only a few specific tools? Let me know what you think in the comments.

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Post tags: apps, google, Productive, Productivity, productivity applications, small business, web

Simple To-Do Lists Don’t Work (At Least for Men)

Dean Soto — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:33:07 +0000

Imagine this: You just finish with one of the busiest days that you’ve had all month. You studiously write all of your outstanding tasks neatly on lined paper so you won’t forget what you need to accomplish tomorrow, then you pack up and head out. The next morning you sit at your desk, pull out your list of action items and. . . instant paralysis.

It is great to write tasks down as soon as you get them, but what happens next? Without a method to determine when or how a task should be fulfilled, it is impossible to reach your full productivity potential.

Photo by Amir K.

Task Lists Only Tell You What Needs to be Done

When you break out a simple list of action items, all it tells you is that you need to finish them at some point in time. The list does not tell you how long it will take to complete the task, when you need to complete the task, or help you to determine the steps necessary to fulfill the action’s true requirements.

Having a framework (i.e. GTD, or Autofocus™) helps you to determine not just what needs to be done, but also how and when it needs to be finished. These factors remove a lot of stress that is often hidden in your subconscious that can profoundly affect your ability to work.

Task Lists Don’t Prioritize

“Complete cover sheet for my TPS reports” does not indicate when the task needs to be done, or how critical a task is to an active project. The ability to prioritize tasks is critical! The problem is, effectively prioritizing tasks on a simple to-do list is next to impossible to accomplish (See Autofocus™ for a good solution to this).

Simple Lists Can’t Determine Next Actions

The big secret to getting something done is to list the steps that are needed to fulfill the project. Simple lists merely hold tasks, and the framework of a simple list typically breaks down as soon as you try and create too many subtasks. In other words, unless you have a separate task list for every project that you need to complete (projects are typically tasks that require two-or-more steps to complete) you are going to have a heck of a time keeping track of what needs to be done next. (See GTD for a good solution to this)

Tasks Lists, for the Most Part, Suck (At Least for Guys)

The only people that are able to utilize simple task lists with relative success are women. I am not sure why that is. I guess they are just wired in a way that they can prioritize and relate tasks without needing a framework. It shouldn’t be surprising though, the majority of productivity literature that is popular today were written by men, and seem to be targeted at men. In other words, men have a harder time managing tasks than women do. Women, for the most part, have a natural inclination toward organization that men seem to lack.

Conclusion

Don’t just rely on a task list in order to get things done. Find a framework that works for you, or develop your own. If you have a framework that can determine the next action that needs to be taken, its prioty, and how important it is, you will be well on your way to being more productive.

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Post tags: catholic, Focus, prioritizing tasks, Productive, Productivity, task list

Ultimate Singletasking: Unplug to Increase Your Focus

Dean Soto — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:09:31 +0000

As most of you probably know, singletasking is the new multitasking. But sometimes it’s difficult to remain focused on a single task when you have so many outlets in which others can easily demand your time. Cell phones, Internet access, and even person-to-person contact can distract you from an important project. Darrell Etherington suggests that you can get a whole lot more done on the web by disconnecting yourself from it and other distractions.

Photo by basictheory

Being unplugged, for me, was the closest I’ve come to achieving true singletasking. The reason being, there’s far less to distract you from the task at hand once you don’t have Twitter trying to steal focus every two minutes (or however often your client happens to refresh), or the omnipresent temptation of Facebook, YouTube and countless other sites, lurking just a new tab away.

The most interesting thing about the article is that, although Darrell’s primary source of income comes from working on the web, he found that he was able to get significantly more done while disconnected

Check out the full article: Singletasking Tip: Go Off the Grid

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Post tags: Darrell Etherington, distractions, Focus, Money, multi tasking, multitasking, Productive, Productivity, Singletasking

Getting it Done Like the Saints: Thomas More

Dean Soto — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:06:30 +0000

Out of all of the saints in the Church, Thomas More is probably the most notable and relate-able saint when it comes to lay people who work. He was a lawyer, philosopher, husband, and father of such astounding character and habit that many are confounded as to how he managed to juggle everything. During his life he was married twice, spent years in a monastery, and reached the highest level of office in England other than the king himself. So how did Sir Thomas More find the time to do and be all of these things?

Photo by Monica Arellano-Ongpin

Optimizing Sleep in Order to Get More Done

According to his biographer Thomas Stapleton, Saint Thomas More would regularly only sleep anywhere from 4 to 5 hours per night. To us, that seems crazy, especially since most doctors recommend at least 8 hours of sleep per night. But Sir Thomas was perfectly content with his sleeping habits. So, how did he sleep so little and get so much done? Well – although we may not be able to keep his schedule – you can do things to help you sleep less and with better quality. Here are a few links to help you out:

The Importance of Presentation

Although he was a philosopher, Saint Thomas knew that he needed more than good arguments to persuade his peers. Therefore, he spent many of his years practicing the art of rhetoric. Nowadays, most people cringe at the thought of speaking in public. But public speaking in the professional world is a necessity if you want your career to soar. More often than not, professionals that speak well in public are seen more as subject matter experts than who have vastly more experience but never present their thoughts.

Here are 3 resources that drastically improved my presentation and public speaking skills:

Merlin Mann’s article on how he made his presentations better.
Presentation Zen
Ted Talks (I detest the majority of the speakers’ social views. But they present very well, which is scary)

Harness the power of presentation and persuasion and you will be on your way to success.

The Power of Prayer

Of course, the real power behind Saint Thomas’ ability to get things done was who he conversed with on a daily basis. Aside from spending a few years with the Carthusians (Trappist monks to the extreme), he regularly would spend hours in his private chapel praying to God in silence. Silence leads to contemplation, and contemplation to action. It was through the silence that God was able to clear Thomas’ mind of all the things that didn’t matter so that he could better focus on the things that were of value that day. Remember, productivity is not doing as many things as you can, but doing the things that are significant.

Don’t know how to pray? Here is one resource that really helped me. It’s an mp3 from Peter Kreeft called Prayer for Beginners.

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Post tags: catholic, hours of sleep, Productive, Productive Catholic, Productivity, professional world, Professionals, public speaking skills, saint thomas, saint thomas more, saints, sir thomas more, sleeping, sleeping habits, success, thomas more

Make a Beautiful Church Website on the Cheap

Dean Soto — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:49:25 +0000

It amazes me how an institution like the Catholic Church, which dominated art in the west for over 1500 years, seems to be content with websites that look as though they were created for a third grade science project. I apologize for any hurt feelings, but it’s the truth. That being the case, I have taken the liberty of giving some ideas on how to remedy the situation in the most cost-effective way possible. Get ready for the tools to help your parish have an extreme website makeover.

Photo by Paul Soucy

Find a Host for $150 (or Less) Every 2 Years

It is not expensive to have a website hosted. There a ton of hosting companies out there that have plans that literally cost around $3.95 – $5.95 a month. That is nothing when you consider how much exposure a good website can bring to your parish, and how it can create solid communities that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Here are three web hosts that offer low prices, and great service. I am not getting a dime from them for this:

Bluehost – These are the guys that I use. They offer unlimited space and bandwidth for a very low price. They’ve been good to me and I definitely recommend them.
Hostgator – I’ve heard good things about these guys. They are generally the same as Bluehost as far as pricing.
Dreamhost – Another well-like web host service.

Install a Content Management System (CMS)

Once you’ve picked a host, it’s time to choose a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS allows you to quickly add content to a site in an orderly manner. Two CMSs that I really like are Drupal, and even more so, Joomla.

I’ve used Joomla on a number of sites and I really feel that it is one of the easiest tools to create and manage a website that demands a lot of content. You can write articles, make communities and groups, and create scalable ecommerce sites. It is a very powerful product, and it is absolutely FREE! Yes, I said free.

So pick a CMS that you like, and move on.

Download a Free Template and Add a Personal Touch

You don’t have to be a professional web developer to have a clean-looking website for your parish. There are tons of free templates out there that only require you to change a header logo or two in order to make it unique. A really good place to look is Joomla24, which has thousands of FREE (there’s that word again) Joomla templates.

If there are no free templates out there, you can always join a template club like Joomlart for approximately $75 a year. Not bad for some really cool looking templates.

Conclusion

Websites don’t need to be expensive and they don’t require you to hire a software engineer in order to maintain it. With a little time and research, you can have a professional looking website for your church that will cost less than a cup of coffee a day.

Update: For more tips, check out this article on the Catholic Tech Tips blog: “Can I get some ‘good’ Catholic artwork, Please?”

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Post tags: Business, catholic, catholic church, cheap design, cms, content management system, extreme website, Money, Productive, web, web host service, web hosts, wed design

3 Linux Apps to Make You More Productive

Dean Soto — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:40:41 +0000

I originally planned on sharing a boat load of Linux applications that were designed to make you more productive. However, there are so many, and they are all tailored to specific purposes that I thought it better to spread them out into multiple posts. I have used every application in this post – and in subsequent posts – in one way or another. Hopefully you will use them too. If you don’t use Linux, find an old computer and hop on the bandwagon. It’s free, so there really isn’t an excuse not to.

Freemind

Before embarking on a big project, it needs to be brainstormed. Freemind is a mind-mapping application that helps to bring all of the ideas that are trapped in the far corners of you mind up to the surface. It’s a little clunky and hard to use at first, but once you get the hang of it you will see why it is so helpful.

Installation: sudo apt-get install freemind

Gnome Do

Mac users aren’t the only ones that get to enjoy the advantages of a dock. With Gnome Do you get a dock, and the ability to call applications using your keyboard. It has several plugins that allow you to do anything from enter an event in your Google Calendar, or make a Skype call. This application is definitely a must have for anyone that likes to get things done quickly, without having to click all over the screen.

Installation instructions can be found here.

Tasque

Tasque is a Linux application that does what the name implies, it keeps track of tasks. The good thing about Tasque is that it can be used as a standalone application, or it can sync up with Remember the Milk, an online task management system. The application is still in its infancy, but so far it looks promising.

How to install: sudo apt-get install tasque

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Post tags: apps, freemind, gnome, linux, linux application, linux applications, mind mapping application, Productive, Productivity, skype, task management system