© 2009 stephan m spencer netconcepts sspencer@netconcepts.com productivity tips for the busy...

Productivity Tipsfor the Busy Search Marketer

presented by Stephan Spencer,Founder & President, Netconcepts

Productivity Optimization!

GTD VAs Mind mapping Shortcuts

– Quick key apps, mouse gestures Dictation, Transcription, and OCR

Multiple action lists running concurrently in your brain? Ideas buried w/in files, folders, emails, Post-Its, to-do lists? Bad, bad, bad!

GTD stands for Getting Things Done, the best-selling book by David Allen

Get stuff out of your head & into a trusted system that also tracks the “open loops” you’re waiting on

Reach a state of flow, i.e. “Mind like water”

Processing: For this project/idea, what is the “Next Action”? What is its context?

Contexts: @home, @office, @errand, @computer, @email, @blog, @tweet, @read/review, @agenda, ...

Review your Next Actions by context. Do in batches. In addition to Next Actions, you can also have Projects,

Someday/Maybes, Waiting For, Deferred, Agendas Project = anything requiring more than one action

Horizons of focus: runway (next actions), 10000 ft view (projects, this yr), 20000 ft view (areas of focus), 30000 ft (1-2 yrs), 40000 ft (3-5 yrs), 50000 ft view (life goals)

Weekly review: a weekly appt with yourself. The key to successful GTD, though most neglected. 1-2 hrs long.– “Process” your intray – Revisit Someday/Maybes, Projects, Waiting For, Next Actions

Two minute rule: if the item can be completed in < 2 minutes, do it right then, rather than process it for later

Calendar: Only what must be done on a certain date. Tickler file: 43 folders, labeled 1-31 and January-

December. Use it to park physical items like bills not yet due. Look at the current day’s file. On the new month, look at that month’s file and if necessary move those into the appropriate 1-31 folders.

With GTD, easy to fall off the wagon. Also easy to fall back on.

More from me on the topic of GTD– http://www.netconcepts.com/clearing-the-clutter/– http://www.stephanspencer.com/general/getting-organized-a-

progress-report Resources

– GTDconnect.com (paid subscription but well worth it)– GTDtimes.com– Davidco.com– 43folders.com

GTD Apps

Mac: Things, Journler, OmniFocus, iGTD PC: GTD Outlook Add-in, ClearContext for Outlook,

MyLifeOrganized, TimeTo, Easy Task Manager, ThinkingRock

Web-based: Tracks, GTD V2, Backpack, MonkeyGTD, ActiveCollab

Paper: “Hipster PDA”

Things

Journler

OmniFocus

Non-GTD Productivity Apps

ActionMethod.com RememberTheMilk.com Both of the above are web-based (SaaS)

Virtual Assistants

Read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss– fourhourworkweek.com

Your secret to success: Delegate everything! Let go!– Tim even outsourced his online dating – successfully!

Hire 1 or more “VAs” at < ½ what you earn per hour– Calculate your hourly rate. Annual income is a very deceptive

number that people use to justify unsustainable workloads. Repetitive task? Delegate it.

Virtual Assistants

What can you outsource?– Administration tasks like prospecting, research (compiling

spreadsheets of bloggers), analysis that doesn’t have a creative element, travel arrangements, product sourcing, manufacturing, quality assurance, shipping, customer service, regulatory/compliance tasks, etc.

What shouldn’t you outsource?– What you really enjoy doing– Tasks requiring a high proficiency in English that is hard to

replicate overseas

Virtual Assistants

Selecting a VA (Tim’s advice)– Make enough inquiries to receive 20-30 proposals.– Look to hire multiple VAs. Never hire a single individual. You

don't want your project to fail because someone quit, got sick.– Immediately delete any boilerplate form responses.– Assign an easy 20-30 minute task to the top 3-5 candidates to

test for reliability. This will eliminate around 50% of them.– If your project takes 20-30 hrs, assign it to all three & ask them

to stop after 3 hrs & send you what they’ve done. You’ll know who performs best.

Virtual Assistants

Find a VA– Bsetc.ca– Adayva.com– Getafreelancer.com– Getfriday.com? Um, no

More from me on VAs– http://www.netconcepts.com/outsourcing-and-delegating/– http://www.stephanspencer.com/email/i-just-fired-my-virtual-

assistant

Mind Mapping

A fast and efficient way to capture complex ideas (from brainstorming etc.) and interrelate those ideas

One of the best mind mapping tools out there is Mind Manager (by Mindjet). For PC and Mac.

Shortcuts

Make your mouse a more efficient tool with “mouse gestures”– e.g. Go “back” in your browser by pressing the right mouse

button, moving the mouse briefly to the left, then releasing the button

– In Opera by default. Firefox plugin Multi-touch (trackpad) “gestures” too

– e.g. on Mac laptops, you can scroll by running two fingers up and down the trackpad

Shortcuts

Shed your mouse altogether. Keystrokes are much faster.– Mac: QuickSilver. PC: Launchy– Both support plugins

• e.g. Abracadabra plugin for QuickSilver supports mouse gestures

– Launch apps with a few strokes. Without launching an app, append text to the end of a file, interact with your iTunes, etc.

– Think in terms of “sentences” with direct object, verb, subject• e.g. Wikipedia Go -> Search for -> SEO• e.g. buy nails at the hardware store -> Append to -> todos.txt

– Stick with it. It takes time to start a new habit, but it’s worth it.

QuickSilver

Dictation, Transcription, and OCR

Dictate into your phone and have Jott turn it into emails Use your iPod/iPhone as a recording device Train your computer - Dragon Naturally Speaking My personal favorite: employ an assistant who comes

on-site and takes notes shorthand Transcribe recordings, podcasts w/ CastingWords.com “OCR” business cards & other docs with your phone’s

camera and let Evernote digitize it

Thanks!

For my 45 minute audio interview of David Allen, drop me your business card or e-mail your request to seo@netconcepts.com

To contact me: stephan@netconcepts.com

© 2009 stephan m spencer netconcepts sspencer@netconcepts.com productivity tips for the busy...

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