The First Time Manager by L. Belker, J McCormick and G Topchik is a great guide for anyone looking to step up in their career and take on the role of a manager. They cover different types of managers, different types of employees and discuss how to handle the transition from employee to manager. With plenty of tips and tricks on what to do and what to avoid this is a must-read!
Hayley and I made it to Sri Lanka. We're here for two more weeks before we head back to Bali for a final week in paradise before returning home to New Zealand.
TextExpander is one of my absolute favourite productivity tools and is an unsung hero in my arsenal of productivity tools. In this post, I’d like to share behind the scenes details on how I use TextExpander to save time, streamline and systemise my business.
One of the biggest areas of confusion when getting started with Asana is how to organise your projects. The great thing about Asana is that there are so many different options and methods you can use to organise your work. But because you start with a blank canvas it means finding the “best” way to organise you work can be tricky.
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt is a truly fascinating insight into numerous aspects of society. Levitt asks tough questions and investigates with a unique point of view. This summary isn't quite like the others I've done. Levitt's book is full of lengthy, detailed, interesting examples that cannot really be summarised. This ‘summary' is more a collection of interesting points he made in the book. If you enjoy what you read here, I highly recommend you purchase the book and read more of what Levitt has to say! Levitt tackles some pretty interesting topics varying from abortion law to death penalties, so it's worth reading more!
“Batching” is a common term used in the productivity space to describe how you can group tasks together and tackle them all at once to achieve efficiency benefits. For example, instead of responding to email as soon as it arrives and incurring a mental “switching cost” every time you stop what you’re doing to respond, you check email two or three times a day (dealing with multiple emails at once) in order to maximise efficiency.
One of the most common problems I see when people and companies get started with Asana is that they create a tonne of projects. It’s easy to get carried away in the beginning and I get why people do this; it’s a good idea to get everything out of your head and into a system like Asana.
In Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain, John Ratey examines how exercise contributes to better brain function. Ratey discusses how exercise is strongly related to better learning, reducing stress, combatting anxiety and addiction, improving hormones and reducing the impacts of the aging process. Backed up my numerous studies and scientific experiments, Ratey makes a strong argument emphasising that exercise is the most important tool in improving our brain function.
In The 5 Second Rule Mel Robbins shares a useful tool that will help you in all areas of life. The 5 second rule can help you in those everyday moments of difficulty, uncertainty and fear. It can help you improve your health, increase productivity and combat procrastination. Robbins helps you be courageous and step outside of your comfort zone. And most importantly, Robbins explains how easy it is to take control and make a change!
Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg explores 8 different concepts and how they can make a difference to your life. Outlining the ‘secrets' to being more productive by starting with motivation, focus, teamwork, goal setting, managing others, making decisions, innovation and finally, absorbing information. This book is a really good read for anyone looking to kickstart their productivity and improve their choices and actions in business and in life.