126: Decision Making at the Higher Horizons

A very special panel discussion for this episode of the GTD Virtual Study Group. In this episode we discuss the ability to make tough decisions with more clarity of focus and with strategic vision by leveraging GTD and the six Horizons of Focus. A very big thanks to Art Gelwicks, Jeremy Roberts, Raymond Sidney-Smith, and Mike Vardy, for joining co-hosts Daniel Gold and Michelle Gunn for this one!

We recorded this episode via Google Hangout. If you would like to see the video version, you can watch it here.

SPOILER ALERT: This was also a very special “Un-Farewell” episode, as Daniel announced that this is his last official episode as a co-host. I would like to sincerely thank Daniel for everything he has brought to the GTD Virtual Study Group! He will definitely be missed!! -MG

Download the podcast here!

122: The Art of the Capture with Mike Vardy, Productivityist

NEW! Watch the video interview!

In this pre-recorded GTD Virtual Study Group call, we welcomed into the virtual studio the Productivityist himself, Mike Vardy! Mike and I had a really great conversation about how critical the very first phase of Getting Things Done® methodology of is for everyone!

Resources:

Where to find Mike Vardy: http://bit.ly/1hZKHSc

Notebooks:

• Moleskine: http://bit.ly/1hZKtuq

• Rhodia: http://bit.ly/1hZKs9O

• Doane Paper: http://bit.ly/1hZKqyG

• Whitelines: http://bit.ly/1hZKvSU

• FieldNotes: http://bit.ly/1hZKkXO

• Word Notebooks: http://bit.ly/1hZKoH7

• AquaNotes: http://bit.ly/1hZKzCj

Apps:

• Evernote: http://bit.ly/1hZKyhq

• Springpad: http://bit.ly/1hZKEpk

Download the podcast here!

120: Getting To the Value of Simple

Inside the virtual studio today is my guest Joel Zaslofsky. Joel is also the self-titled Chief Simplifier, Curator, and Founder of Value of Simple. He hosts the popular Smart and Simple Matters podcast and most recently, the author of Experience Curating: How to Gain Focus, Increase Influence, and Simplify Your Life.

In this episode, we dig deep into understanding simplicity, minimalism, the art of capturing information, and how to be more mindful and curate your existence. What I learned was that curating is actually tied very closely to the tenants of capturing, processing, organizing, and reviewing in GTD. 

You'll be as fascinated as me as Joel talks about how his personal renaissance began led him to leaving a cushy six-figure corporate job to lead what many would consider to be an unconventional career path. He set out to help people simplify, organize, and be money wise. He says his goals are straightforward: to help you rock the unsexy and undervalued side of life.

Show Notes

• Courtney Carver - be more with less - life on purpose

• Joshua Becker - becoming minimalist

• Elizabeth Loftus - Why Your Memories Can't Be Trusted, TED Talks

• Robyn Scott - The 30 second habit with a lifelong impact

• Gordon Bell - Total Recall

Where to find Joel:

• Joel’s website

• Spreadsheets and You: How and Why to Put Your Life in Them

• Value of Simple podcast

• Joe’s upcoming conference Simple Rev

• Google+ | Twitter | Facebook

Download the podcast here!

118: Getting Things Done with Evernote Ambassador Bryan Lee: My Interview On His Podcast, LaunchByte

One of the best parts of what I do for an international community of folks who are looking to become more productive and successful in their lives is meeting and getting to know people from all corners of our globe. Yesterday was a great example! I was asked to be interviewed by Bryan Lee, the Evernote Ambassador for Fitness in Singapore, for his Google+ Hangout/podcast, LaunchByte!

Bryan is an entrepreneur, a writer and a self-taught software developer. He is the co-founder of Intraix, and a software company that helps commercial building to become more energy efficient. Particular to the productivity scene, Bryan speaks on how to increase productivity using Evernote to both schools and corporations.

Bryan wanted to interview me to talk about GTD®, Evernote, and overall principles about productivity. We covered a lot of topics in this 35 minute interview. For instance, do you need to strictly adhere to the tenants in GTD if you are getting things done with a modified system, can you implement the system in David Allen's book if you never actually read the book; and how I am teaching my productivity coaching clients how to implement both Todoist and Evernote together to lead a more productive and stress-free life. Oh, and then there was the question about what would I do if Evernote shut down tomorrow! You'll want to listen to all 35 minutes to know more!

Thank you again to Bryan for a very awesome interview. I feel quite grateful for the generous invitation and for making feel like I was sitting next to him in Singapore!

Here's the links you need for the show!

• Watch the interview on YouTube

• LaunchByte Audio Version

Here's where to find Bryan Lee:

• Website

• Subscribe to the podcast

• Bryan on Twitter: @leetucksing

• LaunchByte on Twitter: @LaunchByte

• Bryan Lee on Google+

• LaunchByte on Google+

• LaunchByte YouTube

• Evernote Fitness Ambassador

• Evernote Forums

116: Better To Rise Early Or Be a Night Owl? An Exclusive GTD Virtual Study Group Panel Discussion!

In an incredibly exclusive event, I had heavy hitters Hal Elrod, Craig Jarrow, Laura Vankerkam, and Mike Vardy join me in a virtual roundtable to talk about whether it is better to start your day before the sun rises, or wait until after the sun goes down to really ramp up your productivity. This topic has become increasingly more and more popular as so many people are looking to squeeze in as many hours as they can to get things done. In this episode, we talk about the basics of rising early, what the research tells us, what the blogosphere is saying, and most importantly, how to create a successful plan to help you become more productive, more successful, and more passionate about life!

Plus, you may be surprised to know that Hal wakes up at 3:30AM -- just and hour and a half after Mike has gone to sleep! There were so many marvelous nuggets of wisdom shared by these very well known folks in the productivity and motivational space. You absolutely need to listen to every minute of this recording to soak in all of the fabulous pieces of advice.

Read their incredible bios and at the bottom of this post, you can hit play in the viewer to listen right here!

Hal Elrod

Hal Elrod is the bestselling author of two books: Taking Life Head On! and his new #1 bestseller, The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed To Transform Your Life... (Before 8AM); and Taking Life Head On! (The Hal Elrod Story): How To Love the Life You Have While You Create the Life of Your Dreams. He's been known as "Yo Pal Hal" since hosting his first radio show at age 15, and he became record breaking sales rep at 19. However, his greatest triumph came in the face of tragedy at age 20 when his car was hit head on by a drunk driver at 70 miles per hour, Hal died for six minutes, spent six days in a coma, and woke to the devastating news that he'd suffered permanent brain damage and would never walk again.

Hal defied the odds to not only walk, he ran a 52-mile "ultra" marathon, became a hall of fame business achiever, international Success Coach, Keynote Speaker, and grateful husband & father of two. He was featured in the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series and has shared his story and strategies for success on dozens of TV shows across the country. Hal can be found at http://www.halelrod.com.

Craig Jarrow

Craig is the author of the extremely popular website, The Time Management Ninja. He was featured in Biz 3.0 as the number 3 most influential productivity guru in the country, just behind Tim Ferris and David Allen. That's pretty damn impressive. He's authored hundreds of articles on time management, productivity tools, and goal setting. He's also the author of three eBooks: 31 Days, 31 Ways: Daily Tips for Time Management Mastery; Crush Your Procrastination and You are Stronger Than You Think - both of those are the best of motivation and productivity tips from his blog. I know that we wakes up way earlier than I can commit to. As Craig puts it, his goal is to help us "win the battle against wasted time, disorganization, and all other things evil…” You can find him at http://www.timemanagementninja.com.

Laura Vanderkam

Laura is the author of What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast which is a compilation of her three popular mini e-books into one comprehensive guide: What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast—to jump-start the day productively; What the Most Successful People Do at Work—to accomplish more in less time; and What the Most Successful People Do On the Weekend—to recharge and prepare for a great week. She also authored 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think; and All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know About Getting and Spending. She's been interviewed by Matt Lauer on The Today Show, featured on Fox News, Forbes Magazine, FastCompany, CNBC, The Economist, Inc., Time, US News, Fortune ... should I keep going? She can be found at www.lauravanderkam.com.

Mike Vardy

Mike is a writer, speaker, and Productivityist. He is the author of The Front Nine: How To Start The Year You Want Anytime You Want, The Now Year: A Practical Guide to Calendar Management; and The Productivityist Workbook. Mike also co-hosts Mikes on Mics on the 5by5 network. You can find him on Twitter as @mikevardy.

He has appeared in SUCCESS Magazine, The Huffington Post, Lifehacker, 99u, was the managing Editor of Lifehack, an editor for The Next Web, and WorkAwesome.  Mike has spoken at nearly two dozen different productivity and time management focused conferences, including speaking at TEDx twice, and a creativeLIVE speaker. You can find Mike at http://www.productivityist.com.

Download the podcast here!

114: Timo Kiander, The Productive Superdad Teaches Us How To Live Life To The Fullest

I had the pleasure of having Timo Kiander, the Productive Superdad in our virtual studio.

You're really going to enjoy this interview! Timo is a full-time blogger at ProductiveSuperdad.com, runs the Productive Superdad podcast, has written for Lifehack.org, Dumb Little Man, WorkAwesome.com, ProBlogger, IQTell, Think Traffic, he's been on other podcasts such as Entrepreneur Idea Dads, been interviewed by Time Management Magazine, and so many more.

Most recently, he wrote a book called Online Business Productivity: How to Start a Productive Online Business and Get Sh*t Done - Even When you are Working from 9-5. On top of all that he spends his fee time running marathons and triathlons!

What a great interview and I can't wait for you to listen to this latest exclusive podcast!

Check out this episode!

111: The GTD VSG welcomes Michelle Gunn as the new co-host and an amazing group conversation on how to overcome overwhelm!

In this episode of the GTD Virtual Study Group, we covered to big topics! The first is my big announcement regarding the format of the study group, and the second is our topic for our group discussion today on overwhelm.

First, my big announcement! On the fourth Thursday of each month, I’ll be releasing an exclusive interview with another expert in the productivity space. I will have recorded that program over the weekend. And, on the second Thursday of each month, we will have the live call. Who else better to have as a co-host then a GTD Virtual Study Group listener since 2009, an avid GTD follower, and someone who has spent her professional life in management, project management, and people management across multiple industries. Someone who is adept at listening to people and organizational needs to help build solutions. That person is Michelle Gunn.

You're going to love this show! Michelle is an amazing moderator and in this first program with her co-hosting, she helped moderate an incredibly amazing and inspiring conversation on how to overcome that feeling of overwhelm. Please welcome Michelle as the new co-host of the program!!

Check out this episode

110: Mike Vardy, The Productivityist, Teaches Us How to Practice Mindful Productivity

You don't want to miss this incredibly engaging conversation with Mike Vardy, "The Productivityist" in this week's GTD Virtual Study Group. There are tons of wonderfully magnificent nuggets in this podcast. You'll learn about:

• the importance of every stage of GTD - from collection, to processing, to organizing, to reviewing, to the actual doing!

• what it takes to really understand how your body works to maximize your productivity. Night owl or early bird?

• how to become more self-aware so you execute successfully on every project

• how to determine which app is really right for you - or is it a notebook and pen?

• whether productivity principles change as technology changes? How do you define expectations?

And, so, so, so much more ... like a great conversation, once again, about really great beers! Here's some really great resources on Mike so you can continue learning even after the podcast ends!

• The Productivityist official website

• The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want

• The Productivityist Workbook

• New eBook! The NOW Year: A Practical Guide to Calendar Management.

• Mikes On Mics podcast

• And, if you really want to go down the Mike Vardy productivity rabbit hole, check out his TEDx Talk on Life Hacks!

Enjoy!

Check out this episode

109: Erik Fisher Teaches Us How To Go Beyond the Todo List!

Erik Fisher, podcaster, blogger, and author, joins us in the latest episode of the GTD Virtual Study Group. Erik wears many hats! In addition to being a husband and dad, he has a day job, runs a successful podcast called, "Beyond the Todo List", and recently co-authored a book called, "Beyond the Todo List: Goals - a step-by-step process to making and meeting the goals that matter".

Erik and I had a great conversation about how he got into productivity, balancing both life and work, and why he continues to learn something new from reading Getting Things Done by David Allen during different periods in his life. Plus, you'll find really great tidbits such as why he believes his superhero name would be, "The Optimizer" and why he believes the perfect system is really about "self-management". There's so much more I really believe you'll learn from listening to this podcast.

Here's some great resources mentioned during the podcast:

• Erik's interview of David Allen on his podcast

• Erik's website

• LIfe balance wheel

• Airmail Mac desktop mail app

• Mailbox iOS mail app

...and of course, the list wouldn't be complete unless we added this!

• Pisgah Brewery's Bacon Beer!

To explain that last link, you'll need to listen to the show!

• Pisgah Brewery's Bacon Beer!

Check out this episode