EPS 25: Best Productivity Hacks for Working from Anywhere

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BIG NEWS!
A LIVE STREAM conversation related to this episode starts at 8 PM EST this Tuesday (9/8/2015) (And hopefully EVERY Tuesday for each show).
Click this link to get your pass and it will also send a reminder to come tonight.

If you can’t make it?

• View the REPLAY here: http://katch.me/lisadelay

Today, I’m joined by Kyle Reed.

Kyle’s free resources like his “Hack Monday” resource and the “Task Sheet” caught my attention as I’ve tried to figure out how to make best use of my time amid all the distractions. If you’re pressed for time or just want more mental bandwidth to be at your best, you’ll love our conversation.

• You can squeeze so much more out of your day if you plan it right–See the bottom of the show notes to link to his page of free resources that will make it all much easier and faster.

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SHOWNOTES:

Task Sheet -sample view

Hack Monday- sample view

1:50

Many of us have lots of ideas. It’s the execution that’s the problem.

Productivity is the bigger issue.

How do we defeat ourselves as creatives and hard workers.

Creativity is mainly intangible.

4:10

Planning your day. Best tips and productive routines.

15 min that can save you hours.

Writing down tasks with time-tables and timers.

Minimizing distractions

Working at home challenges.

Respecting yourself as a person doing real work at home.

Making your home office feel legit

How to stop feeling like there is always more to do right now.

10:00

Pajama power?

Treating yourself as a professional.

13;30

The prevailing myth that working at the office is productive even in high tech companies.

17:00

Trust issues and ensuring accountability with a boss and an office.

19:00

What environments best help creativity and productivity.

19:30

Company culture and values.

20:40

Kyle’s Productivity tools.

Having 5 million Facebook fans to take care of (from music celebrity accounts) made him rethink everything!

21:30

The Task Sheet tool.

Hack Monday tool (a tool for the week, month, and year)

23:00

Social media calendar tool for promoting content and projects.

Marketing template download to help write a marketing plan.

Taking the time to organize first saves so much time.

25:30

When to outsource tasks and the tools can help.

Batching tasks.

27:00

Entrepreneurs know how to take a calculated risk for the benefits it will reap later.

28:00

The fear that stops us from finishing.

29:00

The self talk that helps us get the work get.

Doing the work when it stinks.

31:00

The importance of relationship and being in a community of “doers”.

32:00

Using what has helped him and sharing it to build a following and meeting needs.

32:30

The 20-something blogger mentoring project that turned into a 500 person community.

34:30

Giving people resources and sticking with young adults.

37:00

The paralysis of too much information.

37:20

What is meant by “Standing on (the shoulder’s of) Giants”

@kylereed follow him on TWITTER

40:00

The Spark challenge I gave Kyle.

Identifying what we need to get done and what needs to be handed-off.

Thanks for listening!

You can join me each Tuesday night (8 PM EST) for a LIVE STREAM of the podcast released that morning. Here we go deeper. You can ask questions, discuss the topics from the show, interact and share your ideas, and make connections with others.

• Get the LIVE STREAM link (pass to get in) HERE for the Tuesday 8 pm EST meetup and follow me at twitter: @lisadelay.

• You can get a reminder of new LIVE STREAM interactive metopes with the update letter I send out too.

• If you miss the LIVE STREAM just catch a REPLAY here: katch.me/lisadelay

Visit Kyle here to download yourself some resources that will save you hours per week! Make sure to share this. It’s golden.

The Berry on the Vine? (Wine Series)

I plan to take this series and broadcast it…as a podcast!

The Spark My Muse podcast is coming in May and a “wine for newbies” segment will be on every show.

Two shows are finished so far, and a few more will be completed before it launches officially.
Stay alert for updates!

If you want to make sure the podcast can happen as planned, you can help.

Be a patron!

See how on my new Patreon Page!

Each level has special rewards.

It only takes $1 to help.

Screen Shot 2015-04-19 at 10.18.27 PM — Be a patron! click here to see the page.

So, about those grapes!

Grapes are actually classified as a berry. They are berry cool.
(shout out to Strawberry Shortcake, yo!)

What’s so interesting about grapes is that only taste like grapes if they are eaten fresh or squeezed into (unfermented) grape juice at just the right time, with few exceptions.

• Fermented grapes seldom taste likes grapes (among those few exceptions are Muscat, Niagara, and Concord).

• Instead, once grapes are wine they taste like a whole variety of fruits and other things.

The chemical compounds in fermented grapes are even more complex than blood serum and taste far better (unless you’re a vampire). 2854238804_a8b92961e9_z

Wine takes on characteristics of many different sorts of fruits, depending on the variety and where they have been cultivated. Additional taste notes happen during fermenting, refining, filtering, aging, and so on, done by the vintner (wine-maker).

Here’s a very short list of the many fruit notes (subtle tastes) that fermented grapes can offer in both sweet and dry (non sweet) types of wine.

Citrus Fruits:

lemon, lime, grapefruit, orange, etc…

Pome Fruits:

Apple, pear, quince, etc….

Stone Fruits:

Peach, plum, apricot, etc….

Tropical Fruits:

Mango, pineapple, star fruit, passion fuit, papaya, etc….

Seed Fruits:

Pomegranate, persimmons, etc….

Berries:

Strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, cranberry, blueberry, etc…

Wine takes on other qualities too, such as vegetal notes, herbal notes, mineral notes, and many more.

Never underestimate the grape!

Do you have a question about wine?

Ask me!

Almost Announcing a Podcast

UPDATE:

3/1/15

This project is on hold because of the current projects I’m working on. I will update again when we move toward this happening.

3 Things today!

1. A lot is going on behind the scenes to produce a podcast.

I’ve done a bunch of reading, learning, and research.

The logo is ready (this will be revealed later…exciting stuff, stay tuned).
The intro is done, the mixing and recording software is getting figured out…kinda… sorta…

It’ll be a half a dozen weeks, probably, until so much gets figured out…recorded, edited, produced, and uploaded.

Here are some upcoming topics if you’d like to be on the show (you can phone in or we can pre-record).

I’d like to hear from you if one of these is close to your heart.

• Best ways to rest and retreat
• Suffering that produced courage (story-based)
• Finding purpose–accidentally (story-based)
• Life-giving or growth-producing rituals
• Embarrassing Moments and Vulnerability

If you want to be a sponsor of the show and feature with a product, service, ministry, book, project, or website, use the contact page to send me a message!

2. If you like what you’ve read and what happens here, consider getting my in-depth but consice weekly correspondence coming in February.
Learn about it here.

3. There are only a few more days for you to get in on the children’s book we’ve done. It’s a fantastic project and I’m excited to share it with you. Check it out here.

Surprise Has a Payoff

: (Yes. There’s a surprise message inside)

I’m hand-crafting a Superb Snail Mail Package for Chris Guillebeau the best-selling author of $100 Startup and The Art of Non-Conformity.

It’s a tribute of gratitude really to some of the things I learned from Chris, especially from his guest post at Tim Ferriss’s blog: Chris advises,

Put happiness in a box…and make people feel special.

That’s infused into the premise of Superb Snail Mail.

Though Chris is aware of the upcoming delivery, he won’t know what he’s getting until it arrives. I’m shooting for memorable, personalized delight and wonder.

My Startup that has it’s challenges…
to really know how good Superb Snail Mail is one should experience it. But a pre-customer hasn’t experienced it.

I say pre-customers optimistically…
because I have this gut feeling that with some diligence the value and “preciousness” of Superb Snail Mail will gain bona fide traction, and not merely among postal enthusiasts. In many ways this can be possible because of the power of surprise.

It’s sobering: Surprising someone runs the risk of misunderstanding…failure.

While most people like good surprises what a good surprise is varies from person to person. So, it takes some work ahead of time to do well.

What I love is that when we offer a surprise that brings delight there’s a positive payoff: A relationship is built.

TRY THIS:

Figure out how you can offer a good surprise for your team, your customer, a new friend, or someone you care about. Remember that good surprises build relationship. That means something and it builds your legacy.

How will you build relationships this week through good surprises?

psst.
Ready for my Surprise?

6 Notes on Creativity: A Dispatch from Sparky Pronto

I’m writing as “Sparky Pronto” (my alter ego) who has the wisdom of the Muses to spark your creative muse and give you encouragement.

A few thoughts…

• Ignore insinuations that creating isn’t part of your reason for being here.

• When you make good art consistently, eventually you will be rewarded.

• Only a few people will “get you” and what you’re doing, if any do at all. That is no reason to stop creating.

• If you feel alive when you create, it’s crazy to stop or let it lag. Don’t.

• Creativity is like water. Jumping into a creative flow will be messy. Know that going in.