Time to start blogging/podcasting again…

David Allen (@GTDGuy) recently invited me to join him for two podcasts. We covered a variety of topics around two themes.

Eric in his office on a podcast

The first is my 5 Principles for Productivity Software Design and offers a glimpse of what I went through to design eProductivity. I also share what you should look for as a designer or user of productivity tools.

The second theme is how not to let your tools shape the way you work — a topic I am passionate about. The workplace is broken, and I have ideas on how to fix it. Good stuff to come.

If you were one of the many who completed my team’s Work Styles and Key Frustrations survey, thank you! You’ll be interested to follow the reactions and recommendations which I plan to share. I initially intended to respond personally to everyone, but this has proven impractical due to the hundreds of responses received. Therefore, I decided instead to share my survey observations in blog posts (and hopefully future podcasts with David Allen and others).

There you have it. I hope you’ll find this upcoming series extraordinarily helpful.

If you completed the Work Styles and Key Frustrations survey or want to keep up with the latest Intentionally Productive news, be sure to sign up to be notified.

Here’s to your calm and clarity!

Eric

Microsoft MyAnalytics: It’s like a Fitbit to measure the way you work

Not too long ago, one of my colleagues started using a screentime-tracking app on her iPhone. She was astonished to discover how much time she really spent on social media and messaging apps.

If you had similar insights on how your time at work is spent, what do you think you’d see?

This quick post is about a recent addition of the Office 365 suite: MyAnalytics.

This new app from Microsoft is like a Fitbit™ that measures the way you work. It gives you personalized private feedback on where you’re spending your time along with helpful tips and recommendations. For example:

This kind of information – on how much time you spend in meetings vs. focused work vs. unplugged and relaxed – plays a valuable part in developing an Intentionally Productive mindset.

I place a lot of emphasis on “It’s not about the tool” and “Tools can’t replace thinking,” and that’s all true – but this is a really cool tool because of the information it provides.

Like any tool, MyAnalytics won’t automatically make your work easier. That depends on what you do with what it tells you.

MyAnalytics will provide some semi-personalized recommendations; however, to get the most value from its information about your work habits, you need to think intentionally about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it.

Go to MyAnalytics.Microsoft.com to get started.

Think intentionally about how you can turn these insights into action. I’m always available to help.

Are you using MyAnalytics? Do you find it useful or not? How do you think you can use this kind of information to become more Intentionally Productive?