A presentation of some of the best, easy to implement tools going around to help you improve your productivity, achieve a zero inbox, and improve your effectiveness.

1. Time Management Hacks
To Improve Your
Productivity

2. A bit about focus…
WOULD E EVER HAVE
EQUALED MC2?

3. Economic, technological and
cultural progress leads to time
savings... right?
“Our grandchildren”, reckoned John
Maynard Keynes in 1930, would work
around “three hours a day”—and
probably only by choice.
The Economist, 2014.
NEVER BEEN BUSIER?

4. Use your brain for thinking &
decision making. Not for storage.
• Appointments, events, emails,
notes, ToDo’s, ideas
• Looping thoughts create a busy
brain.
• Breaking the pattern, through a
system you can trust.
SHORT TERM MEMORY CAN
ONLY STORE AROUND 7 THINGS

5. Why?
• Better quality thinking.
• Make better decisions.
• Feel less overwhelmed.
• Be more present & reliable.
• Get more done with less time.
A CLEARER HEAD

6. The challenge.
Pick 3 things you’ll
implement.

7. Questions

8. INPUT
IDEA, APPT,
EVENT, NOTE,
TASK, EMAIL,
BROWSER TAB.
DELETE IT.
DO IT.
DELEGATE IT.
SCHEDULE IT.
SAVE IT.
OUTPUT
THINKING
Comes in randomly.
Unpredictable timing.
Varying importance.
Put it in the system.
1. You forget about entirely. You lose it.
2. It loops through your short term memory until it is actioned.

9. What is this ‘system’ you speak of…
• You can have the best tools in the
world, but…
• Move things that can be stored, into the
system.
• You have to be able to trust the system,
or your brain won’t let go.
• Do what you can. Improve YOUR system
over time.
ITS NOT ALL ABOUT THE
TOOLS

10. YOUR INBOX IS NOT YOUR
SYSTEM
• Inputs are random. The system needs to
be able to deal with inputs beyond
emails.
• Emails often blur into tasks.
• An email comes in, you read it, do some
amount of thinking, but don’t action it.
• Unless you action it when you read it,
you’re wasting time.
• You don’t have a system you can trust.
Achieving a zero inbox.

11. INPUT
EMAIL
OUTPUT
Comes in randomly.
Unpredictable timing.
Varying importance.
Put it in the system.
DELETE IT.
DO IT.
DELEGATE
SCHEDULE
- Email forward (Boomerang)
- Create a task (Asana)
- Delegate to future self
(Followupthen/Boomerang/In App)
- Create a task (Asana)

12. BOOMERANG
Problem: You send an email to someone and want to
know you received a reply, but don’t want to have to
create a task to ‘follow up with X on Y’.
www.boomerangapp.com

13. FOLLOWUPTHEN
Problem: You want an email to come back to you at a
certain day/time. Works for personal reminders too.
www.followupthen.com

14. ASANA
Problem: Convert emails into tasks to get them out of
your inbox.
www.asana.com

15. IN APP | QUICK KEYS
Get things done faster.

16. OTHER TOOLS
The tools depend on context…
• Home
• Work
• Out And About
That’s emails… but what about
all other ‘inputs’.

17. • Email
• Followupthen
• Boomerang
• Asana
• Tasks
• Asana
• Ideas
• Evernote
• ToDoist
• Passwords
• Safe In Cloud
• Last Pass
• Internet (Chrome)
• Opening tabs (settings)
• Session Buddy
• Screen Capture
• Down Album
• Loom
• Grammarly
At Work

18. • Voice Assistant
• Todoist
Out And About

19. • Google Home /Alexa etc.
• IFTTT
• For Connecting Tools
• Other Functions e.g.
Screenshots
At Home

20. Beyond ‘the system’.
• Product Hunt
• Free Images
http://allthefreestock.com
• Google Search
• Using the right tool for the job (e.g.
image editing)
• Buzz Sumo (e.g. blog article
headings)
DON’T TRY TO REINVENT
THE WHEEL

21. FINAL WORD
"The journey of a thousand miles
begins with one step." - Lao Tzu