Improve Productivity By Being Yourself

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The Top 3 Things You Can Do to Improve Productivity and Sanity at Work

Everyone seems to be writing list-based articles about the Top (insert number) things people can do to produce a single result. We humans must like to read them. So, with hypocrisy at its finest, I guess I’ll be like everyone else. The top 3 things you can do to improve productivity and sanity while you’re at work:

Tip #1 to Improve Productivity: Be yourself

Are you a Project Manager? Entrepreneur? Developer? Designer? CEO? Sorry, but these are titles—not identities. If you identify your title with who you are, then this article is for you, and we all can’t wait for you to get back to being Bob or Jane or whatever your name is. Your occupation is just that: something you do. Not who you are. There is a difference, you see.

How does being yourself improve productivity? Greatly. Think about musicians. Why is it that the first and second albums a band produces so often end up being the only good ones? Why is the earlier work of so many artists the only output worth whatever fame they have and are trying to hold onto? I would argue that these works were made when they were people, and the crap that followed was made by musicians. Initially, they were humans with thoughts, feelings and the talent to express them. After everyone (themselves included) realized how well they did what they did, they slowly morphed into musicians, artists, singers, rock stars, etc. Instead of people making music, they became musicians making music, and their creativity became inbred. There’s a funny process that happens when a person discovers that they’re good at something:

Stage 1. They attempt to grow in their gift. It’s a humble and true endeavor, and they get better at it.

Stage 2. They bliss themselves out with the euphoria of their skill in sharpening action and begin to identify with it.

Stage 3. The tragedy of triumph: they stop being who they are to become what they do.

What does it prosper to gain the world and lose your soul? Many would make the trade in a heartbeat, but what if it actually made you worse at what you do?

Tip #2 to Improve Productivity: Be yourself

Stop being Clark Kent. We’ve all heard the phrase, “Believe it or not, so and so is actually a pretty cool person. You just have to get to know him outside of work.” Who wants to hang with someone outside of work to find out that he’s a nice guy if he’s a jerk at work? If he actually is a nice guy, then who the hell is this impostor that you have to deal with everyday?

Study after study reveals a link between state of mind, motivation and productivity. You want to improve productivity for yourself? You want to improve productivity for the people who work for you? It all starts with a state of mind. If you really are a nice chap, then, for heaven’s sake, BE ONE AT WORK! If you really are a jerk, then be one at the company Christmas party too.

Tip #3 to Improve Productivity: Be yourself

Being yourself liberates others to do the same. It’s clear that our thought and speech excels when we’re with other people who make us feel comfortable. When I’m at Thanksgiving dinner with my family, I’m a smooth operator. I’m witty, funny, sharp and sometimes even pleasant. As soon as I’m around a person who doesn’t know me and I don’t know them—especially someone I want to impress—I can be like a nervous kid on a date, tongue-tied, inarticulate and unintellectual. Improving productivity is about getting all cylinders firing and that takes a warm current of comfort flowing from person to person.

So, whether it’s a man or a woman with your name laying your head down at night and waking up in the morning, or if it’s a CEO living in your body, think about it: Your productivity is pointless unless you are the one being productive. Keep it real, yo.

Is Your Productivity App Destroying Your Personal Life?

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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

When you’re lying on your deathbed, you’re probably not going to be thinking, “I’m so glad I had that social productivity app for my professional and personal life to constantly distract me when I went on my honeymoon, played with my kids and hiked up half dome.

It seems like everyone has a productivity app these days, but do they make our lives better? Let’s start with what is the “better” life. I would define it as actually having one. That would mean that when you leave work, you do just that; leave it for tomorrow because you’ve done your job for today with the help of a productivity app. Then you’d go enjoy your life with friends, family, a hot date or a good novel.

So let’s assume (or at least hope) that you have a life. You killed it at work today, enjoyed a well-earned beer with your friends, and now you’re sitting down to read The Hunger Games trilogy before hitting the sack. But wait…you decided to get that new killer productivity app that you can use to manage your entire life, from checking off tasks at work to buying flowers for your honey, and getting social with it all. Obviously, you’re extremely important and everyone wants to see what you’re up to. With the help of your new social productivity app, you’ve shared your new project with fifteen friends on Facebook and now you have seven new comments awaiting your reply. And you need to get on that so you don’t look like a douche. You are one. Your productivity app owns you. So you reply and try to get back to your book. “Beep, beep…” you just got another reminder from your new swiss army life application: GET A LIFE!

Hey, who doesn’t love a good productivity app? We built one, and we do see the value in social collaboration at work…for work. Facebook rocks the social life already, so why do we feel the need to blur the lines between work and play? If you’re an American, it’s probably because you were bred to be a workaholic, and you may not even know it. Maybe now is a good time to reconsider mixing your professional and personal productivity so you don’t regret the few short years you have on this planet to enjoy yourself with your loved ones who want to enjoy you. One thing is for sure: when you are looking at your iPhone every 10 minutes, getting pinged with reminders and updates, no one is enjoying you or themselves.

Sure, task management is helpful with both our work and personal lives. But when a GTD or productivity app crosses over into both, is that really productive? You’re at work using your productivity app for task management and there, in your face all day long, is your personal to-do list waiting for you when you get off work. Distracted? Well maybe you’ll just surf the web in the middle of work to go look for that birthday present for you mom. If you can just take care of that, you’ll be right back to work…until you see the next thing on your list of endless things to do.

Now let’s add the social aspect on top of that, because Facebook is so productive. Hello, McFly, your shoe is untied. Think, McFly. Think! Facebook is a social network. What about that sounds like saving time and money at work? Facebook is supposed to be a social diversion; one of which people who have friends (i.e., a life) can enjoy to spend their free time to connect, catch up and post inappropriate pictures of their weekend debaucheries. Unless you’re trying to expand your market reach with social media optimization, then sharing project and task management on Facebook and Twitter is not what I would classify as a productive way to get things done.

So here’s some advice when looking for a productivity app: start with your pain points as an individual or team. Who cares about the mob and the latest innovation in universal connectivity? They’ll be onto the next big thing next week. Just find a productivity app that solves your problem and isn’t just out to use you to distribute their product through your personal social networks so they can get a series A investment. Think about what will actually help you to Rule your work so you can enjoy your life. “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” – Jack

Taking the Cus Out of Customer Service: Why Ask Why?

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Customers are always asking for something. When we first launched our project management & cloud collaboration web app, Rule, every time a customer would ask for something it did a couple things:

  1. It would shoot the requested feature to the top of our mental priorities, since here it was in realtime right before us: a real customer asking for a real feature.
  2. We would feel bummed that we didn’t yet have the feature.

Our immediate reaction dictated our response: Reaction: “Well competitor x and competitor y both have this feature. We need it too!” Response: “We hope to have this feature soon! Thanks for your feedback and patience.” Then one day, some customer was asking for some random feature, and we were going about our standard routine (adding it and haphazardly prioritizing it in our overwhelming list of features we needed to have) when one of our team members made the divine suggestion, “Why don’t you ask WHY they need this?” The results not only changed the way we develop our product roadmap, sharpening our knowledge of WHY we should add certain features and functionality and leave others out, but it completely changed the dynamic of our customer interactions. It engaged our customers to think rather than wait. So, now when a customer asks for something, this is our response: “WHY do you want this feature? WHAT does this look like within our software? HOW does this help you to become more productive?” It is always one of three results that occur:

  1. The customer does not respond to our questions. Hmmmm….. apparently they’re tongue-tied.
  2. Their response is a self-declaring answer arguing against the importance of their own request. They convince us (and themselves) that what they’re asking for is a want (at best) and definitely not a need. They actually talk themselves out of their own request and make it quite clear that this has no business being on our product roadmap.
  3. They articulate exactly WHY they need this feature, WHAT it would look like being implemented into Rule, and HOW it will truly make them more productive. Bingo! “Now, add that to our wish list too.”

When it comes to developing software, it’s not about the kitchen sink—it’s about value. Which leads us to the customer’s dilemma: a desire for a solution with only a vague understanding of the problem. “I have to manage my team which includes customer relationships and project management. I have this software that we use to manage customers and projects, and we also depend on email, but our team is still not on the same page. We have work activity for projects with discussions all over the place—from email to the software. We have the same thing for customers and I can’t see how everything relates.” This is the reason why Rule exists and why we do what we do. Customers are helping to identify the problem that cloud collaboration & project management software is trying to solve. Like a rock laced with gold, raw feedback needs to be refined. We don’t want to appease demanding customers…we want to figure them out. There’s pain in work. We all have some symptoms. We all have some points. True customer service is a two-way road: discovering the problem together and working on a solution together. We’ll never be in the business of telling customers what they need without listening to what they want. Nor will we return to the mindless nod of, “Yeah we’ll have that…eventually.” We ask WHY.

A Thing is Born. Phase 2

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Now, here’s a project that actually manages itself. Artist Matty Davis is doodleifying and coolifying the west wall of the Rule warehouse. When he’s done we’ll be converting it into an office where dozy designers and crazy coders can look at something a little more in tune with their palate than a motivational poster of a mountain climber. We’ve had the pleasure of beholding the unfolding of this…thing.

Everyday around noon, the team has been resorting here to have sandwiches and beverages (along with a jar of pickled chilis that make certain people scream), let the sun shine in and the wind roll in, and watch Matty do his…thing. Even when he’s not here painting, you can look at something that was a random doodle a day earlier, and is now connected and interacting with the other once-random doodles.

There’s a large, long-legged slave with a baby fisherman sitting on his bald head while getting his wheel cranked by an impostor from the sky as good ol’ Longbeard looks to be finding his zen in a blissful swirl while TV’s are shipwrecked from a living, wrinkling trimene and a squid rises up from the spinning whirpool of tiny bat-infested water being blown into a tsunami from a little boy in the corner (who’s looking pretty sharp). What does it all mean? It’s obvious, but we like to hear you say it. Pray tell.

Check out the evolution of our favorite mural ever!

Three Cool Rule Tools!

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productivity |ˌprōˌdəkˈtivətē
noun
the effectiveness of productive effort

Here are three really cool features to help you save time, stay focused and get things done. We use these everyday here at Rule, and we hope they’re as helpful for you as they are for us!

Also check out the new Rule Projects video!

With all the great updates we’ve recently made, it was time to make a new video to show you how fun and easy it is to collaborate around projects with your team.

Fast Lane Project Management: The 3 Day Sprint

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Project Management in the Fast Lane

When it comes to project management, especially with a small team, producing results that pack a punch in a short period of time is non-negotiable. The stakes and stress levels are higher, and team morale plays a vital role in crossing the finish line. In our world, there is no difference between running a good race and running a good project— warmup, sprint, cool down.

I’m not talking about the revolutionary 4 hour work week, 8 minute abs or 8 minute buns (unless you’ve figured out how to do it in 7). If you’ve tried those by now, you’ve probably figured out that you still have 36 more hours left of work, abs that you hide behind your oversize shirt and a butt that says, “You sit on me for at least 40 hours a week.”There is no getting away from having to do the necessary work to get what you want. We’ve been experimenting with project management techniques, and the process we’re stumbling upon seems to be keeping the team motivated, our customers happy and our production output in the 90th percentile. I have to ask myself, “What’s with this 3 day sprint thing?” and “Can this help other teams as well?”

5 things we’ve learned about project management:

  1. Better project management planning leads to more creative solutions, packing a punch and delivering on time.
  2. Working with the finish line in sight keeps the team pumped and focused as we run towards a common goal with a lower margin of error.
  3. Testing and/or reviewing work when it’s still fresh is actually fun, so we stay in love with what we do and make our customers happy.
  4. Marking a project and/or milestone as complete is gratifying. The more we mark things off, the better the team feels.
  5. Taking 5 to debrief, celebrate, discuss the project highlights and pin a medal on a team member provides some closure and helps reset the team for the next event.

The 3 Day Sprint: How it all breaks down

The Warmup (Monday)- Just like needing a good stretch before a race, there has to be a good plan before taking on a project. We dedicate Monday (the entire team for the entire day) to coming up with a sprint that will produce the best results. As a team there are usually a few constants that every project will include and those things should always be in focus when deciding on what the sprint will entail. As a startup project management and team collaboration software company, those constants may include the product, our customers, sales. The goal: solve customer pain points with the product, positively impact our current and/or future customers, maintain/increase sales. Once there is a plan, the tasking begins. We task out the team and gather all related work items needed to execute the plan. When it comes to big projects we use the old-school milestone method to prep for sprints, which really just means that the overall project is a container for weekly milestone discussions and activity (tasks, documents, wiki to-do lists, notes, people etc.). After that, it’s time to run.

The Sprint (Tuesday – Thursday): – Get ready for some Gilly moments (check out SNL if you don’t get it). Longer timelines can make it easier to get sidetracked, but just because the timeline is shorter, it doesn’t mean that mayhem won’t come knocking. The trick is maintaining focus on the finish line. It’s difficult, but no matter what, we try not to deviate from the plan for 3 days straight. To keep the focus, we use project management software in order to organize our discussions that go together with the work activity that goes together. We make sure that everything needed to accomplish a task, a milestone or a project is directly connected to those items so everyone has what they need to do their job along the way. While we do most of our project management collaboration in the cloud, we keep things human with morning check-ins (about 15 min) and also on breaks throughout each day. We rarely use email. It’s distracting. Even with all of the wonderful technology available for managing a sprint, there is no substitute for the occasional, impulsive outburst when we feel like screaming across the office.

The Cool Down (Friday): Assuming we survive Gilly’s antics, the team is usually gasping for breath after 3 days of picking up speed, but we don’t quit there. Sometimes we  actually see a trail of fire behind us, kind of like the DeLorean in “Back to the Future” (OK, now I’m really dating myself). Equal to the warmup (project planning) is the cool down (testing, reviewing and refining of work) after a good project management sprint. We take the time to go over everything while it’s fresh, which just makes sense. We debrief, talk about how we kicked Gilly in the teeth and learned from our mistakes. What’s really gratifying is when we step back from an intense time of collaboration and mayhem, maybe have some pizza and beer, and celebrate the wins that happened. Giving credit where credit is due is key (we give the office shake weight to whoever’s killing it—don’t ask), then we clear the slate, rest and get ready for the next event.

Excessively long project management timelines tend to result in plans lacking details, due dates getting pushed back and the team losing their drive. 3 day sprints may provide the focus your team needs to keep the wins rolling back to back each week. Hey, it’s worth a shot. And If you think your team has what it takes to go for a 3 day sprint, give a shout out and tell us know how it goes.

Leave a comment and let us know what project management methods work best for you. We’re all in this boat together, and the faster we share together, the faster we Rule work together.

A Little Something to Help You Get Things Done

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We just made it easier to get things done, so you can Rule work. Whether you are focused on project management, CRM deals, sharing documents or collaborating in the stream, just click “My Tasks” from wherever you are Rule to stay focused on what matters.

When you click the “My Tasks” icon in the bottom right from wherever you are in Rule, this handy little gadget makes it easy to scroll through your task timeline to see what’s due today, this week, overdue etc.  Add, edit and check off personal, project and CRM tasks as you go.

Tasks with a priority (high, medium, low) are conveniently color coded so you know what’s important. Edit a task and change the status to let others involved know what stage you’re at in the process of getting things done in Rule. Clicking a task or the related project from “My Tasks” redirects you to the details where you can share it, connect it and collaborate on it.

So stay on top of your game and go Rule your tasks today.