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The 38 Best Productivity Software Tools of 2019

November 26, 2019 by Sasha Rezvina 41 Comments

productivity-software

Productivity apps continue to pop up right, left, and center. If you’re trying to stay up-to-date, it can quickly begin to feel like you’re wasting time looking for the perfect software rather than actually working efficiently. At I Done This, we continue to improve our done lists and integrations to eliminate the need for meetings — but we realize that there are many more ways that you and your team can get more done in less time.

To spare you hours of Internet sifting, we’ve updated our collection of the 35 best productivity software tools for the New Year.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: Goals, Habit Change, Productivity, productivity software, Psychology of Productivity, Self-Improvement

Quiz: What Productivity Personality Are You? How to Maximize Your Productivity in 2019

November 15, 2019 by Kathryn Vandervalk 1 Comment

A habit is something you’ve learned, through repetition, to do without thinking. You know your personal habits—whether you do the dishes right away, or if you throw your clothes on the floor—but you aren’t always the same person at home and at work.

productivity quiz

We put together this Productivity Quiz to help you identify what your work habits are. At the end of the quiz, you’ll see your Productivity Personality, which gives you personalized tips on how to be more productive by capitalizing on your good habits and eliminating your bad ones. Simply tally up the number of As, Bs, Cs, and Ds you answer and we’ll decipher your productivity paragon.

Whether you schedule every minute or go with the flow, you’ll leave with actionable feedback on how to make the most of your workday.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: Goals, Habit Change, Productivity, productivity quiz, Psychology of Productivity, Self-Improvement

Why Work Loneliness Isn’t Just a Personal Problem, and What to Do About It

November 8, 2019 by Janet Choi 1 Comment

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Work is a social thing. It’s done with people, and at the very least, for people. At the same time, you are one person with a job to do. When those personal and social gears are out of alignment, when you’re not connecting with the people you spend so many hours a day with, you get lonely.

Loneliness seems like such an intensely personal, private problem, but it’s much more than that. Loneliness and isolation is a collective issue. And at work, loneliness is yet another effect of the inadequate attention paid to the human side of getting stuff done together.

Whether it’s the inertia of interacting with the same people every day in a way that’s unique from all your other relationships, there’s a prevailing sense that work is this realm where you just deal, that it’s not something that you can improve. While we understand the prioritization of personal friends and loved ones, we often miss out on meaningful interaction with the person down the hall, focus on growing our supposed professional network more than we look next to us to grow higher quality connections.

That kind of thinking is unhealthy, unhelpful, and unproductive.

The quality of your social connections impact your physical and emotional well-being, and so impact the physical and emotional well-being of the people who run a business. Cultivating higher quality relationships with your co-workers, then, requires something of a 360-degree approach, taking responsibility for how you interact with others and how you treat yourself.

The Cheese Who Stands Alone Gets Less Done

When you start feeling isolated at work, you also get demoralized and detached, perhaps even depressed.

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In the first study to empirically analyze the effect of loneliness on work performance, Sigal Barsade and Hakan Ozcelik examined the experiences of 672 employees in 143 teams. They found that indeed loneliness led to withdrawal from work, weaker productivity, motivation, and performance. Importantly, the study also showed that this doesn’t happen in a vacuum, that “co-workers can recognize this loneliness and see it hindering team member effectiveness.”

Loneliness is a personal emotion, but it’s not a private concern. The effect of loneliness reverberates, becoming a concern for the group, the organization, the community.

In The Progress Principle, Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer write about one of the vital ingredients of what makes us fulfilled and flourish in our work — the nourishment factor of human connection. Recognition and gratitude, encouragement, emotional support, and camaraderie are all elements of the nourishment factor — aspects of work that so often are treated as mere window dressing, as spiritless exercises or tired, meaningless buzzwords, and as far as you can get from true priorities.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity,” French philosopher Simone Weil once wrote, and in what seems to be an ever-head-down, busily streaming life, that seems a harder truth than ever. Your wholehearted attention is how you connect to others, to the world around you, while our pragmatic attitudes about work have little room to even consider generosity.

The nourishment factor — these acts of generosity, of giving and receiving our full attention, expressing gratitude and providing support — feeds our cores, makes us more resilient and enduring, helps us to strive.

Start By Getting Better Control Over Your Feelings

How you pay attention, be present in the moment, and not let feelings like loneliness and stress dominate your thought processes — especially when you’re dealing with that disconnection all by yourself — is the practice of mindfulness.

You may have heard this term before, but if you haven’t embraced it yet, it’s time to check out “mindfulness.”

Patricia Karpas, host of not only the mindfulness podcast “Untangle” but also part founder of the “Meditation Studio” app, explained to Forbes that “Integrating mindfulness is about taking a moment to pause, so you’re not always on autopilot.”

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What is Mindfulness?

The goal of mindfulness is to live in your body, to control your negative thoughts or negative self-image by mastering the idea that none of those thoughts are real. These stressors, which tend to crop up especially when you have no one else to talk to, are really just a story your mind is telling yourself.

This is done primarily through taking note of the regular and normal processes of your body. Noticing small aches or pains in your body, taking awareness of your breaths, even slowing them down and practicing “deep belly breathing.”

From a physiological standpoint, the idea is take control of your vagus nerve, which among many things, helps calm a stressed, scared, or anxious racing heart and attunes your ear to human voices. The strength of this friendly nerve is measured by vagal tone, the relationship between heart rate and breathing rate. The higher the vagal tone, the better your physical and emotional health — from your cardiovascular system and glucose levels to superior regulation of emotion, cognitive flexibility, and social connection with others.

Take a few moments throughout the day to take some deep breaths. Deep diaphragmatic breathing — that’s from the belly, not your chest — can stimulate the vagus nerve and allow you to take a step back in times of feeling solitary or unsupported.

Even when a day is not markedly stressful, spending a lot of time in front of the computer, I find my breathing rather shallow and my shoulders beginning to hunch up by my ears. Moments of deep breathing are check-ins, a way I can get some air into cobwebby brainspace, relax my shoulders and back, and unfurl my attention to the people around me.

Embracing Meditation

Meditation is another important way to strengthen yourself to better communicate with others, especially co-workers in an isolated environment. “Meditation enables you to be more skillful in listening to others, to see new, fresh ideas from all levels in an organization,” said Patricia Karpas, in an interview with Thrive. Even just five minutes of motivation can help relieve stress and put you more in sync with your own body.

Quick meditation apps like the Mindfulness App, Meditation Studio, and Stop Breathe & Think can be downloaded onto your iPhone or Android with little fuss and opened up whenever you need a moment to center yourself. Guided meditation podcasts are also great for meditation newbies, or those seeking a little more structure for their mental exercises. Check out My Meditation Station, Daily Meditation Podcast, or the Meditation Minis podcast if you’re looking for a guided experience.

Taking the time to connect with and tune into yourself and others has resounding effects, improving a whole spectrum of health — physical, emotional, and social. And doing that creates a positive feedback loop, all starting from within.

4 Ways to Nourish Yourself and Your Team at Work

Learn how to tune into yourself and each other to be both particle and wave, to not feel so alone while working together. You are part of a team, and in turn, that team is greater than the sum of its parts, creating and resonating with a cohesive, buzzy energy.

Here are some ways you can build more meaningful, nourishing connections as a member of your working world as well as examples of how some companies are attaining that group resonance. And remember, even asynchronous communication at work can still provide many of the same benefits.

1. Start with yourself, and learn how to share.

If you’re feeling continual isolation or dissonance anywhere — whether at work, at home, and anywhere in between — your emotions are telling you to take another look at your circumstances. These poorer quality connections can be corrosive, eroding energy and ramping up stress, anxiety, and fear — feelings that we shouldn’t merely tune out and, it turns out, that the vagus nerve helps to soothe.

So be kind and attentive to yourself first. Often we put our heads down to get work done or to get through the day, and don’t allow the chance to listen to ourselves.

Also reach out and share with each other. Workplace collaboration is vital for feeling less anxiety and greater connection. Companies are making use of apps like Slack and Lattice to not only share their work accomplishments but also their self-improvement goals, from sticking with fitness regimes to learning to code. These points provide fodder for rich conversations and opportunities to show incredible support, helping to create a close, nourishing work life that permits people to be vulnerable yet supported and always aiming higher.

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2. Show, don’t tell, your attention.

Being present, being available, and paying attention — even in a short interaction — can really only be demonstrated, not conjured up by saying that’s what you’re doing. Managers can’t say that they care about their team members, and then never be around to listen to them.

As a distributed company, the team at Zapier is particularly alert to the dangers of loneliness and extremely mindful of how its members are connecting. They make sure to constantly and visibly reach out, going on team trips, creating processes of daily feedback, and using connecting tools like Slack, which allows them to see each other over a continually refreshing image feed and chat with the click of a button.

3. Nourish your peers with recognition and gratitude.

The way many companies handle employee recognition is broken and counterproductive, dismissing and disrespecting the hard work that people do everyday. Not only do most recognition approaches treat feedback like a formal event, administered by managers from on high, they also fail to acknowledge how that hard work often involves helping someone else.

One solution that innovative teams have implemented are crowdsourcing and peer recognition, from the good folks at EverTrue, who use the employee recognition platform Kazoo in conjunction with iDoneThis to give each other rewards to the human relations-oriented employees at Shopify, who use an internal system to crowdsource bonuses. Those who deserve acknowledgment for their efforts and support are bubbled up and made visible, all by people who have actual knowledge and appreciation and want to say “thanks” to boot.

4. Take time to do small things.

Even small gestures that are considerate and supportive can make a fortifying difference to cut through feelings of isolation and the emotional paper cuts we accumulate as the day goes by. It’s quality, not quantity, and small moments of true attention, support, encouragement, and fun can charge people up with a much-needed spark.

Take, for example, the team at Wistia, who exude an attitude of openness and conviviality that’s reflected in their work. They take time to shake up their routines as a creative exercise, where they’re allowed to try to learn new skills like coding, build props or costumes to make a presentation more fun, or even make a video their fellow team members might enjoy.

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They have a ton of fun together, spending “extracurricular” time together outside work to play on a company softball league, change desks every few months to switch up desk neighbors, and share a bite at their own Hogwarts-style table.

* * * * *

These days, the most interesting companies are hacking their culture, and culture at its heart is about people and togetherness despite being so often talked about as if it is about things. Dig deeper beneath the ping-pong games and the free food and that’s where you start to unearth what goes into building a culture of meaningful nourishment factors that battle loneliness at work.

Whether it’s as small and strong as the twelve-person team at Buffer or the thousands-strong at Zappos, whose internal connectedness has resonated from within its offices, out to the happiness of its customers, and even to the streets of downtown Vegas, the heart-to-brain and person-to-person links create a meaningful community, the kind that builds itself from the inside and radiates out.

What do you do at work to meaningfully connect? Share with us in the comments.

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Images: [1] Sippanont Samchai; [2] zerega; [3] Caro Wallis; [4] Jeremy Hockin; [5] Wistia.

Filed Under: The Progress Principle Tagged With: Management, Psychology of Productivity, Work Happiness

How to slow down time: The science behind stopping life from passing you by

August 30, 2019 by Janet Choi 4 Comments

sand moving slowly through hourglass

One unnerving aspect of getting older is that life seems to speed up. Feeling that whoosh as time rushes past can be disheartening and may leave you wondering how to slow down time.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: how to slow down time, Progress, Psychology of Productivity, Time Management

95% of Managers Follow an Outdated Theory of Motivation

April 24, 2019 by I Done This Support 52 Comments

This post was originally published in 2014. It has been revamped with additional research and advice for managers in 2019.

Motivation at work

Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash

What, by a long shot, is the most important motivator for employees at work? Is it money, pressure, or praise?

Typically, managers believe the idea that pressure makes diamonds. The thinking is that if you want exceptional performance, you align employee objectives with end-of-year bonuses for hitting certain milestones and then employees will turn up their work ethic to reach them.

Long-held conventional wisdom on management dies hard. That’s because it’s based on gut instinct and superstition — and managerial understanding of motivation is no different. A massive 95% of managers are wrong about what the most powerful motivator is for employees at work.

Not only that, they’re thinking about employee motivation fundamentally wrong.

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Filed Under: The Progress Principle Tagged With: Intrinsic Motivation, Psychology of Productivity

Why Jeff Bezos’ Two-Pizza Team Rule Still Holds True in 2018

December 4, 2018 by Janet Choi 21 Comments

[Source: Amazon]

Jeff Bezos is prolific. In 21 letters to his investors over the years, he has delivered dozens of nuggets of wisdom ranging from prioritizing long-term outcomes over short-term results to embedding R&D in every single department.

He also has a unique take on company communication.

Bezos believes that no matter how large your company gets, individual teams shouldn’t be larger than what two pizzas can feed.

Think of it this way: at a large party, it’s hard to connect with people. You’re overwhelmed by the number of guests you could possibly meet and converse with. You end up with more — yet more shallow — interactions. If the host is trying to project a message to the crowd, he or she might have trouble shouting over the din. In contrast, at a small party, you might talk to the people sitting next to you for hours. You can develop more meaningful relationships and maybe come away with new ideas and inspiration.

Although Bezos first declared the “two-pizza” rule in Amazon’s early days, it continues to resonate in 2018. As the pace of venture capital accelerates, and more and more companies enter hypergrowth, figuring out how and when to design teams for effective communication becomes critical.

Not convinced? Here’s the hard evidence behind why the two-pizza team rule holds true.

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Filed Under: People Management Tagged With: Communication at Work, Psychology of Productivity, Small Teams

What Michael Jordan Can Teach You About Productivity

November 30, 2016 by Willa Rubin 1 Comment

Who are your productivity heroes? If Michael Jordan isn’t up there, he should be.

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Most people know Michael Jordan for his phenomenal scoring ability, superhuman dunks, or his starring role in Space Jam. Over a 20-year span, he scored more than 32,000 points, won six NBA titles and was named the league’s most valuable player five times. But to his teammates and coaches, he was notorious for his diligent work ethic.

Jordan’s longtime coach Phil Jackson once wrote that Michael “takes nothing about his game for granted.” He spent so much time preparing for competition that when it was game-time, he didn’t have to think about what to do next. He relied on instinct and muscle memory to dominate his opponents.

Professional athletes have to squeeze as much as they can out of their prime years, making them perfect productivity case studies. Here’s what some of our most famous athletes have to say about getting stuff done.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: Career Growth, Entrepreneurship, Goals, Intrinsic Motivation, Productivity, Psychology of Productivity, Self-Reflection

Why You Should Scrap Your Analog To-Do List

November 15, 2016 by Georgina Parfitt 1 Comment

Bullet Journaling is the new trend piquing the interest of stationary lovers, productivity seekers, and the wanna-be-organized. Faced with an often overwhelming selection of digital tools in their workplaces, people are turning back to the traditional to-do list: a list of tasks on a piece of paper.

to-do list

The fascination is in its simplicity. Visit the original Bullet Journal website and you’ll find instructions for how to use a system of dots, arrows, and crosses to organize to-do items.

People are now used to downloading apps for work and learning to use them, synching them with a collection of other tools. To see a tool that simply tells you to “go buy a notebook” is such a blast from the past, it’s grabbing people’s attention.

It’s like the rise of vintage clothing and traditional teaching methods. In the quest for perfect productivity, people are tempted by the idea of a simpler time. Could going back to pen and paper really make us more productive than ever?

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: Goals, Habit Change, Prioritize, Productivity, Psychology of Productivity, To-Do List

The Hawthorne Effect is the Simplest Productivity Hack You Never Heard of

November 8, 2016 by Nadya Agrawal Leave a Comment

Instead of worrying about what’s left to do and busying yourself with more and more tasks, spend your time wisely on what’s important, with the motivation and insight gained from your done list. Download our Busy Person’s Guide to the Done List eBook now and start your done list today.

Something as simple as asking your team how their day’s going can deliver a huge lift to productivity in the workplace. Sound too good to be true? Science backs it up.

productivity hack light bulb

This is something psychologist Elton Mayo, pioneer of organizational theory, discovered by studying American factory workers in the ’30s.

The experiment was initially set up to see which factory conditions make workers most productive. The researchers began by brightening the factory light, which increased productivity. But once they dimmed the light, productivity rose again. They soon realized that it didn’t matter what the change was—productivity would rise when any change would be made to the work environment. Employees felt like the managers cared about them and their work environments, so they worked harder.

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Filed Under: The Science of Productivity Tagged With: Case Study, Habit Change, Management Tools, Productivity, productivity hack, Psychology of Productivity

5 Ways Using Daily Goals Helps You Level Up Your Productivity

October 22, 2015 by Blake Thorne 3 Comments

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This is a guest post from James Sowers.

The MBA programs at Harvard and Yale are widely known as some of the most competitive in the country, if not the world. Acceptance rates have hovered between 10-15% since the 1970’s. Those who complete their program can expect to receive salary offers starting at $100,000 or more with generous signing bonuses to help them make the transition from academia to the workforce. But, despite having a pool of the country’s best and brightest young business minds, a small selection of these graduates have made anywhere from two to ten times as much money as all of their classmates combined! What’s the difference? According to a series of studies done from 1950 – 1980, having “clear, written goals for the future and plans to achieve them.” At least that’s what the internet would have you believe.

As it turns out, despite being cited in hundreds of books, those studies never actually happened. They have since been refuted by social scientists, investigative journalists, and representatives of the universities involved. Turns out, the whole thing is just one long-lived urban myth. However, that doesn’t negate the fact that regular goal setting is still one of the most effective ways to level up your productivity.

Dr. Gail Matthews, a researcher at Dominican University, received over 149 responses to her study that attempted to arrive at a result similar to the previously mentioned ivy league interviews. Participants were divided into five groups, ranging from those who simply thought about their goals to those who not only wrote them down, but also shared them with others and engaged in weekly progress reports. After four weeks, participants were asked to rate their progress. Here are some of the results:

  • Those who wrote down their goals and were responsible for submitting progress reports to someone else where the most accomplished.
  • Every group that wrote down their goals (Groups 2-5) significantly outperformed those who simply thought about their goals (Group 1).
  • When writing down your goals, there was no statistical advantage to sharing your goals with someone else.

In the end, there was enough scientific evidence to support that writing down goals, committing to those goals over time, and having some method of holding yourself accountable all lead to improved performance and greater achievement. So, we can agree that writing down goals is a good way to be more productive, by why?

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Filed Under: Company Culture Tagged With: Psychology of Productivity, Work Happiness

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