Acting on brilliant ideas

I was recently asked on Twitter, “Using a Product Backlog helps stay focused on current sprints, but how do you strike the balance between logging spontaneous ideas and acting on genuinely brilliant ones immediately?” It’s a great question which many people can relate to. Let’s dive in. Test for brilliancy There are several times a …

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How to stick to your goals: The Boogeyman Technique

You set a goal. Plan out desired actions. But when it’s time to do the work, you don’t want to do it. You feel resistance. And you start talking yourself out of it. Sounds familiar? Meet The Boogeyman Technique that will help you stick with the desired behavior and ultimately achieve your goals. Traditional advice …

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sturgeon's law

Step off the hamster wheel with Agile and Sturgeon’s Law

Sturgeon’s Law states that 90% of everything is crap.  It applies to books, restaurants, TV shows, movies, tweets, YouTube videos, and everything else humans produce. I spent some time thinking if it was true in my life. And… I tend to agree. When was the last time you encountered something outstanding? Something that was so …

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agile sprint

The Secret to Beating the February Slump: An Agile Approach to Personal Productivity

How is your February going? Let me guess. When you go to a gym, it’s less busy. There is less activity on productivity subreddits. Your YouTube feed stopped recommending goal-setting content. Atomic Habits is gone from Amazon’s recommendations list.  It’s a clear sign that New Year’s resolutions are dead.  Why do New Year’s resolutions die?  …

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lever theory

Anxieties and fears

Saurabh, a subscriber to my mailing list, asked if I can share my thoughts on facing our anxieties and fears.  The Lever Theory I have a theory that we all have that mental lever that we get to use multiple times a day.  We can either look at something from a long-term or a short-term …

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Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 3

Welcome to the final Part 3 of the New Year’s Resolutions series. Today we’ll discuss finalizing your New Year’s goals and resolutions using the remaining Scrum principles. Recap of our progress so far Let’s recap where we are. We’ve gone through Part 1 and Part 2 of this series. So far, we’ve done the review …

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Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions! Let’s discuss how you can apply agile concepts of sprints, sprint capacity, and backlog review to setting up your goals. Problem #1: A year is too long. You don’t feel a sense of urgency when you set a goal for the year. And without …

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new year resolutions

Applying Agile to New Year’s Resolutions – Part 1

It’s that time of year when a lot of us are thinking about new year’s resolutions. I think it’s a wonderful opportunity to think about next year. But there are some common problems that I see with the traditional way of setting new year’s goals. I decided to dedicate the rest of December to addressing …

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creative ideas

How to come up with creative ideas consistently

A lot of my clients are working on launching a creative side project. I had clients launch podcasts, YouTube channels, blogs, etc. And they often ask me for advice on how to consistently come up with creative ideas. Creative ideas require you to stop consuming. Creativity is when you create something. This is the opposite of consuming. …

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deadline

The magic power of external accountability

Let’s talk about external accountability and how it can help in achieving your goals. External accountability is the secret sauce behind so many services. Personal trainer and coaches When you hire a personal trainer, it’s not necessarily their knowledge that gives your results. The main reason why personal trainers can be so effectives is that they …

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prioritize goals

How to prioritize goals

One of the clients in our October Sprint mentioned that he’s struggling with prioritization. He doesn’t know which goals he should focus on. This is a common problem. Let’s address it. How to prioritize goals? Why can’t we prioritize goals? The story we tell ourselves We think we don’t know the how. We think we …

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agile home renovations

Agile Home Renovation

When I was just first learning about Agile and Scrum, I was trying to read as many books as I could on the topic. And one of the books talked about a guy applying Agile to his home renovation project. That was the first time I learned that you can do agile home renovation. As a …

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happy path

The Happy Path Concept

Happy Path in Software Development As a product manager, I learned about the Happy Path concept from my manager. This is how it works in product management. The Happy Path When building a new product, you first focus on the happy path. The happy path is a journey a user of a product is taking, …

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learned about scrum

What I’ve learned about Scrum from being a Product Manager

The agile/scrum methodology is now widely gaining momentum not only in tech industries but also in other fields. Over the past 6 months of using it every day in my full-time job as a product manager, I have learned a thing or two about Scrum. Like most endeavors, our inputs will define how successful this method …

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The one-way to-do list

This is the method that I use when I’m in a dark time of my life. When there is burnout. When the mood is simply not there. When a regular to-do list doesn’t work me. This tool is great for when you don’t have any motivation. You’re so tired even to be thinking about complicated …

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motivation

On Motivation

I’ve received a question from one of my podcast listeners, “What is your opinion about motivation? Is it helpful or is it just temporary?” I think it’s definitely helpful. It is temporary but my overall opinion is that the importance of motivation is highly overrated. I think motivation is a trend that is popular right …

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time blocking Q&A

Time blocking Q&A

A few weeks ago I talked about the power of time blocking. Today I want to answer the most common questions I receive about time blocking. I am excited to share the tips and tricks I have from doing time blocking on a daily basis for the past 4 years. What’s my ideal unit of …

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productivity tips reddit

Unconventional Productivity Tips from Reddit [June 2021 edition]

Welcome to the new edition of the Productivity Tips found on Reddit series. If you want to see more Reddit productivity tips, check out these three posts: February collection March collection April collection Favourite Productivity Tips from Reddit This Month Tip #1: Value your attention as much as Facebook values it. Link to the original post. …

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dream big go small

Dream big. Go small.

I decided to start sharing the main lessons I have learned from working with over a dozen first clients. These people adopted the Monthly Method for at least a month and I’ve learned some major lessons from their experience. One of the main ones is “Dream big but go small.” Three types of goal setters …

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productivity tips reddit

Unconventional Productivity Tips from Reddit [April 2021 edition]

Welcome to the new edition of the Productivity Tips found on Reddit series. If you want to see more Reddit productivity tips, check out these two posts: February collection March collection Favourite Productivity Tips from Reddit This Month Tip #1: 5 truths about our desires. Link to the original post. We’re never satisfied with what we …

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accountability buddy

The What, Why, and How of an Accountability Buddy

I’ve always followed the productivity space closely. I enjoy trying new productivity methodologies and frameworks to explore how I can get more done in less time. I was surprised recently when I came across a concept that I had never encountered before: an accountability buddy. I discovered accountability buddies through the Productivity Reddit Discord group. …

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Lake Baikal

What will people think?

You’ve probably been in a situation where you want to do something, say something, or even post something online, yet the question of “What will people think?” stops you. We are afraid people would judge us. They would laugh at us.  This is the question that worried me for the longest time. I think it …

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productivity tips reddit

Unconventional Productivity Tips from Reddit [March 2021 edition]

Welcome to the new edition of the Productivity Tips found on Reddit series. If you want to see my favourite tips from February, you can find them here. Let’s jump straight into it. Favourite Productivity Tips from Reddit This Month Tip #1: The price of creativity is the judgment of others. Link to the original …

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definition of done

How to Use Definition of Done for Personal Productivity

I wanted to share one other concept I’ve adapted from Agile/Scrum product development that can increase the chances of achieving your goals. Let’s talk about the definition of done and how you can use it in your own life.  How the Definition of Done is used in agile product development First, let’s see how the definition …

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productivity tips reddit

Unconventional Productivity Tips from Reddit [February 2021 edition]

Welcome to the new series we are planning on doing every single month. We will be collecting our favourite productivity tips we have discovered that month. This month we wanted to focus on the productivity tips we had found on Reddit. Favourite Productivity Tips from Reddit This Month Tip #1: Logarithmic Goal Setting. Link to …

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stop procrastinating

How to Stop Procrastinating

One of my podcast listeners asked how to stop procrastinating. This question has been addressed from many angles by many people. Today I want to offer my opinion, even though it looks slightly unpopular. The solution is simple but very effective.   My history with procrastination.  Listen, procrastination is not new to me. I definitely …

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productivity app

Why You Don’t Need Another Productivity App

Let’s talk about productivity apps and tools. What is the underlying promise of these products? Why don’t they work for most people? And why downloading another productivity app is not the answer.  What’s wrong with productivity apps and tools? If you look at all the productivity tools and apps out there, you will quickly find …

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How to Use Product Backlog for Personal Productivity

Today I want to talk about a product backlog. This is a concept I’ve adopted from Agile methodology. It is used in the SCRUM framework by the most innovative companies of our times. An idea of backlog is, perhaps, the most undervalued concept in personal productivity.  I will tell you what a backlog is, how …

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