Jocelyn Glei

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@candriopoulos I love this quote from the writer Sara Wheeler: "Let's face it, writing is hell, so an essay or feature curtails the agony. Producing a book, over the long haul, has a hostage-like feel. That said, I love the deep research a book demands. Everyday is a success when you research, everyone a failure when you write." I think this sentiment is applicable to most creative endeavors beyond writing. Typically I think the research is the "easy" part of a project while the execution, acting on that research, is the difficult, challenging, and often agonizing part of the process. In other words, I lump researching in with the idea generation part of the creative process, more than the idea execution part. So I think we have to be careful about lingering too long in the research/inspiration phase of our projects and make sure we're not just trying to avoid the hard work of execution. On a tactical level, it's all about laying out clear goals and accountability from the start. Or if we're talking about a writing project for instance, having a very clear outline in hand. So that you know when I have these things, I will be ready to execute. And you can't just spin your wheels researching, and researching, and researching. ; ) A broadstrokes answer but I hope it's helpful.

COSTAS ANDRIOPOULOS

@candriopoulos · https://medium.com/strictly-curious

@jkglei Thank you very much for the insightful answer.

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Ben Tossell

@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt

What tips for founders can you share on how to maintain work/life balance?

4 share tweet・7 months ago

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@bentossell It's about picking and choosing your values + your battles. I love the concept of the "four burners", which strangely I learned about from David Sedaris in this New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/magazin... Here's how he articulates the concept: “'One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.' The gist, she said, was that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two. In other words, balance isn't about having it all, it's about recognizing you have limited time and energy + then making hard choices about how you will spend that time, knowing that you have to prioritize some people/tasks/values over others. I think that this beautiful Tim Urban piece called "The Tail End" also offers a way to start to powerfully shift your perspective about what matters most to you: http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/th... Someone actually made a Life Calendar app to help people put things in perspective based on that Tim Urban article I just mentioned. Could be interesting to explore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/...

3 share tweet・7 months ago

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Ben Tossell

@bentossell · Community Lead, Product Hunt

Is it ever ok to ignore emails?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@bentossell Absolutely. One of the primary motivations for writing my new book, Unsubscribe, was to convince people that it's time to let go of the toxic idea of Inbox Zero. That concept was originally popularized by Merlin Mann back in 2006 I believe, so a decade ago! In the 10 years since, the email load that we all deal with has increased exponentially, not to mention the first iPhone dropped in 2007 and now our email (of course) follows us around. So the landscape has changed drastically since the idea of Inbox Zero was floated. We now live in a world where anyone who has access to the Internet probably has access to you. And we have digital inboxes that can receive an infinite amount of messages. And yet the time we have in the day has never increased, nor has the amount of bandwidth that we have to respond to email. So, depending on your email load, I think we all have to accept the idea of making hard choices about how much we can respond to. That said, if the idea of ignoring emails truly bothers you, I think there's much to be done in terms of getting strategic about how we process email. It's a great idea to do an "email audit" for a week and just make a few notes everyday about what types of messages you're seeing come through your inbox, and what types of messages are really dragging on your productivity. Once you observer those patterns, it's time to get strategic: What messages truly require a customized response? What messages can tolerate a templated reply (perhaps using Gmails Canned Responses, Text Expander, or Canned Text)? Are there instances where you might use an auto-responder or direct people to an FAQ for repeated common questions? The key to email productivity, as with any type or productivity, is constant optimization.

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Ayrton De Craene

@ayrton · Code @ Product Hunt

Do you have any favorite apps or products for helping reduce distractions when working?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@ayrton For me the killer app is self-control. (Not the actual app by that name, but merely the act of self-discipline and focus.) But I'm a rather analog individual. ; ) That said, if you want to take a digital approach, I think RescueTime (https://www.rescuetime.com/) is great for tracking how you're using your time so you can start to observe negative patterns and strategize about how to change them. In a similar vein, I'm extremely excited about the forthcoming time-tracking device ZEI, which looks like a killer idea for documenting focus time vs distraction time: https://www.kickstarter.com/proj... I like Noisli (https://www.noisli.com/) to create soothing background noise to help me get into the creative zone and/or ignore surrounding noises that I'm finding distracting. See my response to @Tomstocklein for my favorite email clutter-reducing app, and you can find more useful apps specifically related to killing the tyranny of email here: http://www.asianefficiency.com/e... I also wrote a piece for 99U quite awhile ago now that lists some of the stalwarts in this app space, which you can find here: http://99u.com/articles/6969/10-...

Pradeep Sharma

@pradeep_io · Chat with me at http://pradeepsharma.ga/

About a month ago I lost my smartphone and started using a feature phone. I have seen huge boost in productivity. I think I am not going to buy smartphone again. What were your aha moments, when you figured out this is how you can increase productivity?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@pradeep_io I *love* this! Good for you. To me the biggest productivity revelations are: 1) the best defense is a good offense. By which I specifically mean getting proactive about blocking off time on your personal or shared calendar to do the meaningful work that really matters to you. So you don't get caught up in an endless welter of meetings and calls. and 2) the idea that productivity is really about what you *don't* do in this Age of Distraction. Everyone makes a "to-do list" but I am finding it more and more useful to make a "stop-doing list" to keep me clear on what I need to ignore.

Haneesh Pherwani

@hanish_ · Blogger, Entrepreneur, Digital Echoist

Dear Joceylyn, Is meditation way to being more productive ?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@hanish_ I think meditation and mindfulness are THE KEY to being productive in the Age of Distraction. We're all dealing with so many incoming requests, updates, offers, and distractions on a daily basis, that you really have a competitive advantage if you have the skill of being calm and present in the eye of the storm. I think that urgency is the root of all idiocy. If you have the ability to take a deep breath and make proactive (rather than reactive) decisions on a daily, and even minute-to-minute basis, you're going to succeed. So yes yes yes to meditation.

Anthony Stylianou

@anthony_stylianou · Social Media Manager, CatchApp

I read somewhere that on average millennials check their mobile devices 140 times day. This is unlikely going to slow down given the growth of technology and it now becoming a habit/lifestyle. What do you do personally to unplug from everything or make yourself more productive? In simpler terms, how do you work smarter not harder?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@anthony_stylianou The numbers on how frequently people touch there phones on a daily basis are jaw-dropping. According to one study between 2500 to 5000+ times. I like to contemplate how very simple tweaks like using a bedside clock or just wearing a wristwatch can have an outsize impact on our behavior and productivity merely by changing how tethered (or not) we are to our phones. I wrote a more in-depth piece about this particular topic here. But in the big picture, I think we need to understand that in order to say yes to our priorities we have to say no to some opportunities—and distractions. But the only way to do that effectively is to make sure we are vigilant about understanding where we want to head in the big picture. So I sit down about every 3 months to identify my big-picture goals and the key actions I need to take to get there. I write them down and post them by my desk. Then, I have a separate daily calendar in which I track the "small wins" that keep me moving towards those goals—words written per day, key project milestones, etc. I think we need to spend less time blindly DOING, and more time DECIDING what we should be doing—especially now that we live in an age with so much opportunity for distraction and busywork

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Andrew Ettinger

@andrewett · Product Marketing, Twitter (ex-PH)

How do you start each morning to set yourself up for a productive day?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@andrewett Making your to-do list the night before is the key to a productive day for me. Then you wake up clear on your top priorities and ready to go. It a simple act, but it equips you to view any possible distractions—email, social media, co-workers—within the context of what you know you're trying to accomplish that day. Which makes it easier to understand what you can say yes to, and what you want to say no to. Beyond that, I try to go for a walk to get the blood pumping, not open my email before I've done at least 90 minutes of good work, and front load my schedule with all of my "deep attention" work. The natural circadian rhythms that most humans adhere to say that we're at peak energy and focus between about 9am-12pm, with declining returns as the day goes on. So for me, getting my key creative work done during that morning window is crucial.

4 share tweet・7 months ago

Emily Hodgins

@ems_hodge · Community and Marketing, Product Hunt

What are you favourite tips for prioritising ever demanding work loads?

@jkglei · Writer & Author

@ems_hodge Planning for imperfection is essential in today's chaotic and uncertain working world. I think we need to acknowledge that things are going to go wrong, that we are going to get interrupted and plan how we can be successful *even in the face of those distractions.* So that means blocking out time for deep attention work AND blocking out time for "slack", which can accommodate emergencies and interruptions without throwing you off course. You can find more details + tips in this piece: http://jkglei.com/a-new-approach... : )