Whether they are internal or external, interruptions crush focus. That’s a major takeaway from the interview with Dave Buck. In this interview, Dave and discuss: Beginning of “time-optimized strategies” Internal focus v. external focus Procrastination Defined goals Interruptions Teaching others “how to do it” Examples for the school principal Focus Interruptions continued Interruptions and distractions When did you realize things had to change? The beginnings of my own time management system Visit Infinity Lifestyle Design The shorter way to do many things is to only do one thing at a t ..read more

TaskClone harvests the tasks and calendar events from your digital notes. It automatically puts them in your digital task manager and calendar. It’s magic! Let’s start with the principle and move to the tool. Our lives involve taking notes: During a phone call During meetings During one-on-one conference During workshop sessions While reading book The notetaking tool could be paper. The notetaking tool could be digital. The concept is the same. In either case, new to-dos are likely to arise. New calendar events may be created. The principle is simple Write the to-dos and appointments in t ..read more

Go behind the scenes with Troy Christmas as he shares the story of TaskClone and its creation. Explore entrepreneurship and innovation. In this interview, Troy and I talk about… The problem TaskClone solves The original principle upon which TaskClone is built How TaskClone works The difference between TaskClone and TaskClone 2.0 TaskClone and the calendar What makes TaskClone unique Using TaskClone with a team The cost How much is your time worth? Get started with TaskClone Life is too short and time too precious to waste one more day. If you are someone who stumbled upon this site for t ..read more

The theme of each episode I’m bringing you this month has to do with the tools I use. Today, we talk about how to get started with digital notes. This month, we’re talking about the tools that help us Get Organized. Today, the topic is digital notes. Here’s a question posed on a Facebook group dedicated to school administrators: “I see a need to have a good system of note-taking as an aspiring administrator. I’m leaning towards digital rather than paper note-taking. What device would you recommend, or can you convince me that paper is better?” So here’s my response: The word “system” jumps ..read more

What are the tools I use and how can they really make a difference? That’s the theme of the posts for this month. A school administrator taking an online course with me wrote: “I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve been learning so far in the book study and applying some of the things I’ve learned. The information you’ve shared with us about using a digital task list definitely increases productivity. I am a person that has a strong dependency on putting my tasks on paper but I want to transition to using the digital task list more. Do you have any advice or tips you can share with me to transi ..read more

We’re continuing a theme of the “tools I use” and how they make a difference. Today, we’re talking about how to conquer email dribble with a good notetaking system. Information used to come to us in the form of a handbook printed annually. It was our A-Z resource. Everything was in one place. Everything was organized. When you had a question, there was one place to go. Now, information dribbles in. As little changes are made, they come to us in emails. Sometimes, it’s new information. Sometimes it’s a reminder of old information that you may already have stored somewhere. The information is ..read more

Watch the Video Evernote AI Edit is rolling out and I got mine a few days ago. I’m going to show you how I am using AI Edit to help me with the content you are experiencing right now. You will know if you have AI Edit if you see a small button just under “Share.” Click it, and you will see the options Evernote AI Edit gives you. First, it’s going to make you select some text. There may be parts of the note that just aren’t appropriate for editing. For example, I am composing this while I am saying to you in an Evernote note. I am using a template that includes a checklist of things I need t ..read more

Click the image to view the video What are the tools I use and how can they really make a difference? That’s the theme for February. I am an Evernote Certified Expert and Evernote posed this question to that community of people: What tools/apps do you use in conjunction with Evernote to enhance your productivity, organization, etc.?  I believe in repurposing content, because I don’t care what you write. In this noisy world of ours, only a small fraction of people are going to hear you, no matter how the message. But when you’ve crafted the message, you’ve done the hard part. Instead of ..read more

View the Video Evernote is bringing 14 features to the free plan. What are they and why are they are important? In December 2023, the Evernote free plan underwent a dramatic change. Users are now limited to 50 notes and one notebook. This plan can best be described as a trial, although there is no deadline on the trial. Try it for 14 days, 6 months, or however long you like. The hope is that you will find Evernote (and the notes you take as a result) to be valuable enough to subscribe. Some look at the pricetag as an expense. Others see it as an investment in themselves. To help users make ..read more

Do you have Google Calendar items that repeat each year but not on the same date? You can export from a Google Sheet into Google Calendar. Are you in charge of preparing a yearly calendar for your organization? Do you notice that many events happen about the same time every year? If so, you can make the job easier by listing the events in a spreadsheet, downloading it as CSV, and importing that file into Google Calendar. Marisa Donovan, principal at Clarks Creek Elementary in Indiana wrote to me saying: “I love your tips on productivity, so I’m reaching out to you for an idea, if you have ..read more