Happy and humbled to see this in print
Automate Your Busywork has just hit the shelves
Let me know what you think – and thank you so much for your support 🙏
2/ We’ve been sold the mantra of “early bird gets the worm” but everyone has different peak hours.
As managers, we need to be cognizant of the fact that people work differently.
And, more specifically, that people work differently at different times.
3/ If you want to enhance your productivity, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, or if you go for a run at 6 am or 6 pm.
Instead, it’s up to you to make the most of your day, and to learn when you work and feel your best.
7/ Managing people is ultimately about helping them do whatever they do best. And, that requires remembering that they’re human.
And, knowing that all humans weren’t meant to work from 9-5.
What do you think?
4/ Brian Tracy calls this your prime time:
“Your internal prime time is the time of day, according to your body clock, when you are the most alert and productive.”
The 10 traits of great leaders
(from The Centre for Creative Leadership)
- Honesty
- Ability to delegate
- Communication
- Sense of humor
- Confidence
- Commitment
- Positive attitude
- Creativity
- Ability to inspire
- Intuition
Which do you think is most important?
6 ways to become a better listener:
1. Look people in the eye
2. Wait until the other person is truly done speaking before you respond
3. Watch for nonverbal cues
4. Ask open-ended & follow-up questions
5. Make space for reflection
6. Notice your listening/speaking ratio
Myth: Success comes to those who hustle the hardest.
Truth: Being excited about what you’re doing isn’t a bad thing.
Being too burned out to enjoy your life and the people you love isn’t worth it.
And having a full life will make you infinitely better at everything you do.
6/ At
@JotForm
, I’ve done my best to build this idea into our work culture.
Our flex time policy gives our people the freedom to work when they work best –– whether that means coming in earlier or starting later.
Two simple things that boost productivity more than reading a dozen self-help books:
1. Find your internal prime time (the time of day, according to your body clock, when you are the most productive & alert)
2. Tackle the most important & strategic work during those prime hours
According to author & psychiatrist Stuart Brown, play is an apparently purposeless activity that’s pleasurable and fun.
• It forges belonging & community.
• It boosts productivity & happiness.
• It’s the brain’s best exercise.
When was the last time you played?
I don’t believe in deadlines.
Our cultural obsession with productivity often creates unnecessary panic & stress.
We worry that if we don’t set a firm date, nothing will happen.
In my experience, that's just not true.
↓
Just be yourself. Sounds easy, right?
But even the most genuine people can struggle to be authentic.
Don't fret if you stumble.
Try to build self-awareness.
When you shift yourself for others, notice how it feels – in your body and mind.
Learn from the moment and move on.
Productivity ≠ Worthiness
Productivity ≠ Happiness
Productivity ≠ Peace
Many of us have a codependent relationship with productivity
But fulfillment doesn't come from checking off all the boxes
Put your life first, not your to-do list
Fixate on people, not prospects
Listen to your current users & customers:
- Ask questions
- Do UX tests
- Run surveys
- Gather timely feedback
- Find problems & creative ways to fix them
- Keep asking and improving
If you love writing things out, don't force yourself to use a notes app
If you work best after 6 pm, don't set your alarm for 5 am (unless you have to)
If you don't love social media (and it's not your job), delete your accounts... and don't join new ones
Do it your way
A few simple lifestyle changes we should be focusing more of our attention on than fighting tooth & nail over whether or not sitting is going to kill us:
- Walk for 30 minutes a day
- Drink 8 glasses of water daily
- Cut back on processed foods
- Develop a daily workout routine
Every time a new technology moves beyond the fringes, you have an opportunity to improve your product – and if you don’t seize the moment, someone else will.
I'll tell you a secret...
I'm lazy – and proud of it
As a developer, I hated making custom web forms. They were tedious and repetitive
So I built Jotform to make it easy
Laziness can lead you to automate low-value tasks – and free you to focus on what matters
Time is elastic. It:
> Drags on when you're bored
> Stretches if you're not over-scheduled
> Zips by when you're happy
> Drops away when you're in flow
> Refills each morning, but is slowly draining
How will you shape your time today?
Your brain is not a machine
Like the rest of your body, it needs fuel, stimulation, rest
Hustle culture urges us to ignore our limits, but the brain will always fight back
It gets slower, more sluggish, and less creative – to protect itself
Treat it well and you'll do well
4/ ✅ Has hobbies that strictly include work, talking about work with friends, talking about work with family and thinking about work while not at work. 🤐
It’s normal to feel stuck from time to time. But you don’t have to set up camp there.
When you remember who you are, you can keep becoming the person you want to be.
My latest for
@Entrepreneur
🚀 If you're building a startup...
... sooner or later a deep-pocket investor will come knocking with a big bag of gold 💰 and you’ll have a tough choice to make:
💵 MONEY or 🏄♂️ FREEDOM?
Before you decide, all I ask is that you read this first:
Don’t send an email when you’re stressed.
Or angry. Or confused & emotional.
You can write an email that expresses all those feelings, but save it as a draft until your head clears.
We're so conditioned to push & achieve that most of us have become human *doings*, not human beings
Our inability to just "be" is causing burnout
If you feel:
• Negative
• Emotionally exhausted
• Like you can't be effective
There's a good chance you're burned out