Joining me this week is Zeb Evans, founder and CEO of ClickUp.
Being an entrepreneur from an early age, Zeb taught himself how to code, dropped out of college and created a social media firm. A lot of frustration from productivity software at the time was what inspired Zeb to create ClickUp.
If you haven’t heard of it, ClickUp is a project management & productivity app I’ve been using for the past 6 months that has tons of integrations and lots of features built into it that aim to reduce the number of apps you need to use.
I asked Zeb about his personal routine and the first thing he does right after waking up at 4:30 AM surprised me a lot: Taking a bath (if you wanna know his reason, listen to the episode ).
One of the things that makes ClickUp and its team stand out are their core values, one of them being “Urgency and consistency.” Having had 4 near-death experiences, Zeb puts a lot of emphasys into doing the most you can do now and not leaving things for later.
We discussed a lot of topics, one of them was leadership. Zeb’s principles involve encouraging growth, sharing knowledge, and reducing red tape.
Listen to this episode and learn:
How being transparent with people from the very beginning will help you get the best additions to your team
Why hiring the right people at the right time matters
How ClickUp is quickly improving, every day – and how you can do the same
Joining me this week is Dr. Frank Buck, productivity speaker, author, and time management coach.
His efforts towards being an organized person began back in his high school years and went on through his college years and his almost 30 years in the public education system, and now beyond.
Even though Frank has been going mostly paperless and managing his organization digitally since 2001, he still uses a paper journal that’s always with him for note-taking.
Of note, Frank’s days actually start the evening before when he reviews his goals for the day, checks what was done, what wasn’t done, what needs to be rescheduled, and then what’s in store for the next day.
One thing that prevents people from being organized is not having a system – I’m in complete agreement with Frank here. You don’t need to have a overly complicated system, just by having a place to write your to-do’s instead of relying on your memory you’ll be way ahead of the majority of people.
It’s a “stepping stone” to systems that people like Frank and I put to use and adapt over time.
But, if you want to go even further, Frank shared with me the system he uses and has helped people go from an email inbox with 52,000 emails in it (this is not an exaggeration) to only 2.
Joining me this week is Randy Clark, leadership trainer and Amazon best-selling leadership author.
Over the last 30 years, Randy has helped a lot of companies and managers improve their leadership with his training; much of it based on mistakes he made in management.
He shared a lot of valuable content during our talk that can help just about anyone…not everyone in a managerial position knows how to be a leader – sometimes we’re put there and need to perform.
Randy showed how to hold people accountable without coming in with a hostile approach. On the contrary, showing first that you care for your teammates and you’re coming from a helpful place will yield better results – and how you can actually do this.
Another helpful piece that we often forget is that you need to find what it is that drives your employees.
Is it money?
Is it recognition?
Finding out and acting based on that will help them perform better.
We talked about a lot more topics but you’ll have to listen to the podcast to know more!
Here’s a little sneak-peak of what you’ll learn:
Why treating others how you want to be treated is not the way to go
How to delegate
Why you shouldn’t multitask and definitely do not pass that on to your team
AirDoro is a new kid on the block that combines the power of pomodoro timers with advanced functions while keeping it all together in a simple package that gets the job done well.
It’s been my companion on my desk taking some prime real estate next to my second monitor:
Effectiveness: 9/10
Price: TBD
Ease of Use: 7/10
Support: 9/10
So what could you do with this handy little productivity tool if it was next to you on your desk? Let’s get into that!
What Is AirDoro?
AirDoro is a compact pomodoro timer with advanced features to help you make the most of your time and your environment.
If you checked out the pictures above you might have noticed several numbers…what are they exactly?
Well, front and center you get a CO2 reading – which to be honest I wasn’t super interested in at the beginning (more on that later).
You also temperature and humidity readouts just above the CO2 screen.
Now, the best part, for me, is having a physical pomodoro timer. I wasn’t sure how much I’d like having it, but it beats opening up a tab and typing or finding my shortcut to one of the many timers available online.
With the AirDoro I just held down one of the 3 buttons for the desired length of time I wanted and off it went.
The arm you see in the picture counts down the time for you along with some nice lights to show progress.
All of this in a small footprint that looks nice next to my monitor and the plant my wife gave me
Before we go to far, I should note that this unit was an early demonstration model that they very nicely sent to me and even put my name on the front.
As this is being written, the next generation is being developed and looks more like this:
Who Is AirDoro For?
Being an early tester I can say that it’s for me! All joking aside, I think this would be helpful for anyone that knows the power of using focused time and wants the physical reminder of having it on their desk to help them spend more time productively.
I don’t think it matters exactly what you do, but obviously it will work better for those who are at or near their desk for work.
I wasn’t sure if a physical pomodoro timer would be something that I’d stick with before using the AirDoro and I can say that it’s become a regular use for me.
What’s Next For AirDoro?
In addition to having an updated design as shown above, they’re at work putting together the companion smart phone mobile app to really take this up a notch.
How so?
Well, having a pomodoro timer and seeing CO2 levels, etc, is great – but what if you could keep a record?
Now we’re talking!
Check out some of these screenshots of the app in development:
From those we can see that there’s going to be some great advancements that allow you to more easily track time that you spent focused along with environmental conditions – I’m really looking forward to testing this out when it’s ready!
Summary
The AirDoro is a great desktop addition that would work great at home or on the road.
The small size makes it easy to move but big enough to have that nice “presence” – you know it’s there and for me at least, it helps to spend more time using it as a pomodoro timer when I can see it on my desk instead of using an online timer.
How can you get one of these?Head to Airdoro and sign up for the pre-order or just to find out more about what they’re working on.
via https://productivity.academy/news/airdoro-early-stages-review-track-your-time-environment/ at The Productivity Academy
Do you want a fast way to identify important emails and quickly sort into easy to use folders all the other stuff so you can free up your time to focus on what matters?
If the answer is yes (like it is with me), SaneBox might be the tool that you’ve been looking for.
It’s insanely simple.
Sound crazy? It’s not – that’s the strong point.
SaneBox setup takes minutes, doesn’t create a confusing array of folders and labels, and let’s you reach that promised “inbox zero” in less time than ever.
Effectiveness: 10/10
Price: 8/10
Ease Of Use: 9/10
Support: 9/10
Look, I’ve reached inbox zero on my own before. It wasn’t easy…
I ended up with tons of folders and rules setup in my Gmail settings in my attempt at email management.
When I was contacted by SaneBox, I was ready to give it a try to see if it could improve on my system. I wasn’t sure but figured someone had to have found a better way to deal with email sorting.
Now, let’s get one thing clear up front. I LIKE email. I subscribe to newsletters I enjoy, I look forward to hearing from certain brands, and find it useful…but it can be overwhelming nonetheless.
Within minutes of setting up SaneBox I had an “aha moment” as my inbox was cleaned up and I only had a few folders that I could check when I felt like it.
Sounds good, right?
What Is SaneBox?
It’s an incredibly simple to use AI for your inbox. It’s your inbox hero.
You recall above where I said that getting setup was easy? Well, I wasn’t joking, it’s deceptively simple.
Head to SaneBox.com, sign in with your email account, and get going. They have a trial available if you want to dip your toes in the water before jumping in and aren’t sure if you’re going to get a ton of value right away.
Once you’re signed up they have a simple walkthrough of steps to follow and then SaneBox goes through your inbox and let it do its thing. That can take a few minutes or longer depending on your account.
You get to choose some of the folders you want set up, but for me I wanted it simple right from the start.
I went with “@SaneLater”, “@SaneNews”, and “@SaneBlackHole”.
Now this is where the magic happens.
SaneLater is a folder with non urgent messages that you can go through – I recommend setting a time each day so that you spend less and less time in your email…and with a lot of this stuff out of your inbox you will be able to do just that!
SaneNews is more of the newsletters and updates – all in one place.
SaneBlackHole is where you can send messages from senders you don’t want to hear from again. You could use this with senders that you have tried to unsubscribe from but just won’t let you go…it’s rarer these days but it does happen. Otherwise I suggest you just unsubscribe from emails you don’t want.
These 3 areas are setup as folders in your email account and you simply click to view the contents like any other folder.
The Power Of SaneBox
The power of SaneBox comes from its algorithm. I have tried setting up folders for my email service (Gmail) to sort everything out, but I’ve never come even close to the accuracy of SaneBox.
It. Just. Works.
And you can train it in the event that an email goes somewhere you’d rather it not.
For example, maybe you really want that newsletter in your inbox every morning (I’m looking at you Morning Brew!). If it goes to SaneNews, just change the label (remove it) and SaneBox learns. You can also just drag emails into the correct folder. Good stuff!
Who Should Use Sanebox?
If you only get a handful of emails, this might not be for you.
That said…I don’t know anyone that doesn’t get a LOT of emails every day.
So, with that in mind, I think it’s worth at least checking out if you ever feel stressed or overwhelmed with email – which isn’t going anywhere and is a necessity for work and personal communication. Business owner? Consultant? Freelancer? Just about anyone that has an email address these days? Check!
I think that the true value lies with anyone that gets 100+ emails per day and wants a simple solution.
It takes minutes to set up and starts saving you time right away, so that’s the big win in my book.
What platforms does Sanebox support?
SaneBox works with any IMAP account (including Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, and Exchange), on any device or client.
This means that it works on your desktop with Gmail, on the go with Android or iOS, for Outlook, Yahoo, really just about any email client. I love having it running and don’t have to do a thing while checking email on my Google Pixel.
What Was My “Aha” Moment?
Pretty quickly after getting my inbox shaped up by SaneBox, I realized the “big win” that was going to happen for me.
By taking all of the remaining non-urgent emails out of my inbox, I would be spending less time in my inbox…which means less distractions, less getting sucked into email rabbit holes, or ending up reading another article when I was supposed to be writing an article or doing something important.
Now I would have my emails in a couple of folders which I could easily go check out when I wasn’t supposed to be focused on something else.
To put it in a productivity analogy – if you want to create a good habit, set up your environment so that it’s the default option (among other things). If you take all the distracting emails out of your inbox, you won’t be distracted.
The Additional Features (That I Haven’t Tested)
I could tell by the powerful simplicity at work that I hadn’t really “pushed” SaneBox very far.
But I was, and still am, very happy with it. That said, I feel like I should let you know about the other great features in this amazing inbox cleaner.
1. SaneCC : If I was working in a more traditional role this might be more important, but for me I tend to use more 1 to 1 emails. Could be super helpful in an office or large team environment.
2. SaneDIY : Make up your own training folders! Love this idea…
3. Snooze: Put emails here to “snooze” them for a period of time and then pop back into the folder they came from. Great idea, but I prefer to triage quickly and either deal with it or elevate it out of my inbox into ClickUp.
Based on these 3 features alone I know that there is lots more to find out about SaneBox, but I love the simplicity and will add to it slowly over time.
For those of you that like to get a summary, you’ll get the SaneDigest that lets you know how many emails you should review in your folders – optional but helpful.
AI For Your Email
That’s their tagline and I like it. It’s one of the few programs that I’ve used where I really feel like there’s something powerful at work here and not just a couple of rules band-aided together
The ability to deal effectively with incoming messages and keep my inbox clear of unread messages is great. It’s like my own personal spam filter genie that actually knows what I want to read.
See How SaneBox works
What Do Others Say About SaneBox?
I had a look around since I hadn’t talked to anyone else who was currently using SaneBox and came across some pretty glowing recommendations. Check this out:
“…if you are a really heavy email user and you do find the amount of email you get to be distracting, I would recommend SaneBox” – Salvador Rodriguez, LA Times
Alternatives To SaneBox
If you recall, I mentioned that I had set up lots of folders and whatnot to try and deal with all of the email content I was getting on a daily basis. Heck, I even reached inbox zero on my own.
But it wasn’t simple and took some upkeep on my part.
With that said, I’ll leave that here as an alternative – if you’re serious about eliminating email then you could really unsubscribe from a ton of emails and limit yourself to one or two checks per day. It’s tough, but for some people might be what’s needed.
Another alternative that I’ve used in the past was Unroll.me. This service lets you “roll up” emails and move them out of your inbox and send you a daily digest (adjustable) email with what you missed. You can add email senders to this list from inside your client.
This worked well for some time, but I found myself wanting to see some of the emails that I had rolled up and didn’t want to have to hunt them down or take them out of Unroll.me and deal with all of them.
If you’re getting a smaller amount of email, Unroll.me might be a decent alternative.
SaneBox Summary
I’ll reiterate what my big “aha moment” was – SaneBox was going to save me time. If it can save me even a few minutes per day, that adds up big time.
If all this service did was save you 10 minutes per day…that would be about 61 HOURS A YEAR. So, yeah, about a business week and a half.
If you value your time and want to stop killing yourself over that cluttered inbox, I highly suggest checking SaneBox out.
They’ve got the free trial available here and it’s available for a low subscription billing payment – you can pay monthly or yearly.
Did I mention it’s simple?
via https://productivity.academy/tools/sanebox-review-the-simple-inbox-ai-hero/ at The Productivity Academy
Joining me this week is Joseph DiRoma, head of The Successful Male North America and someone with almost two decades of experience in the hospitality industry and helping developing others.
A good and productive day can be achieved with routines, and Joseph shared with me what he calls the CAMPV routine:
C = Contemplation
A = Affirmations
M = Meditation
P = Perspiration
V = Visualization
He made special emphasis on meditation and what you can achieve just by doing it 10 minutes a day – something that I’ve tried in the past off and on but will be working on creating a routine that incorporates this more regularly to get some of the benefits we talked about.
Just like me, Joseph is a fan of processes, and spending time developing processes for recurring tasks so they take less time after you’ve mastered them or just getting rid of tasks that you don’t want to do anymore (by automating or delegating them) can let you gain a ton of time back.
With every guest to the podcast, I ask them what their current book they recommend is – here’s the pick for this episode:
Joining me on this podcast episode is Corey Carter, who has been managing people for more than 20 years and recently has been helping entrepreneurs simultaneously increase sales, traffic, and visibility through JV partnerships and more.
Sometimes, while helping others grow, improve and develop, we neglect those that are next to us.
With Cory frequently travelling for work and having kids at home, he missed a lot of moments that you don’t want to miss…
After discovering Clickfunnels and a partner that was on the same wavelength, they started doing what they loved the most: developing people, but from home with the balance that he wanted.
Not only that, Cory started helping create JV partnerships with the right people and follow what he and his partner called the “Dream 22” (listen to the whole episode to find out more).
JV relationships are super powerful and great for any business if done the right way, and the best thing is that you don’t have to be an experienced industry veteran to make them work.
Cory likes to plan everything, from the days he will work late night to his own training because “If we’re not learning (growing), we’re dying.”
With every guest to the podcast, I ask them what their current book they recommend is – here’s the pick for this episode:
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