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Bernie J Mitchell

Bernie J Mitchell

Engaging People in coworking since 2010

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Productivity

How To Slow Down To Speed Up Your Projects

July 19, 2020 by Bernie Mitchell


So where were we?


Last week I was crying onto the page that the world did not know where it was going. Mainly, what’s also going on with my projects and plans.

You can read or listen to it here.

This week we stopped and looked where we are and rebooted with more focus and energy.

We had to slow down to speed up with our plans.

Personally, I had to remind myself where I’m going in the long term to connect with what is important right now.

My ‘Me Too’ movement


Thank you to all the people who emailed me. 

Your common theme of replies was like ‘me too’ or ‘I’m wobbly too’ or ‘confused too’ – it was good to acknowledge the mental strain. 

I thought the strain was because we don’t know where we are going in the world or could not get a haircut. 

But another mate thought it was because as a nation, the ‘lock-down holiday’ is over and we have to go back to work. 

How To Slow Down To Speed Up


1. We stopped and looked at the way we work and time-boxed stuff again. Scroll down for more on this.

2. I went back to all the vision stuff, five, ten and twenty-year vision. Then the goals I needed popped out by magic, I reconnected with where I am going.

3. Some of you emailing and saying ‘me too’ – it is always good to know you are not the only one thinking something, it gives permission for your next move for your plans. 

Getting anchored again 


I checked my 12 Week Year plan, and I went back to these two resources:

  • Don Miller’s workshop about life and productivity where he talks about long term goals, a theme and projects. 

  • Dan Sullivans ‘My Plan for Living to 156: Imaginatively Extend Your Lifetime to Transform How You Live in The Present‘ – I know, sounds crazy, right? 

  • Read this post – Why Is The ’12 Week Year So Good? Here’s Why!

So Dan is living to 156, and I am happy to say out loud I’m living to 126. 

It means I have 80 something years left to: 

– Travel the world with my family. 

– To write books, blogs and tweets.

– Interview thousands of people for podcasts and articles.

– Eradicate racism. 

– Cook a lot of meals for people in our home. 

My son tells people his Dad is going to live to 126 – I am sure it scares them.

When I am 126, my son will be around 90 years old – I always picture us cooking a BBQ together in Tigre, Buenos Aires at that age – I love that image. 

I have a picture on my computer to remind me where I am going – you can see it here.

“I have a theme!”


Don’s course recommends having a life theme, I’d forgotten this part. 

I remembered I had one – it’s a bit like ‘your why’.

‘Find your voice and help others find theirs’ is my theme.

I got it from Stephen Covey’s 8th Habit book more than twelve years ago.

I remember talking to Julie Hall in a bar in Soho in late 2009, she’d recently watched a TED talk by a guy named Simon something. 

He was talking about ‘Start With Why‘ it had already got over FIFTY THOUSAND VIEWS – wow! 

Now it has 50 million – that is a lot of wow.

Don’t boil the ocean.


A bit of me wants to puke when people talk about their mission and meaning. 

There is only so much navel-gazing we can do before someone shows up and needs some work done. 

I’ve been part of workgroups over the years where I want to pull the pin on a hand grenade when people talk about values. 

And when I’m not in action, I get depressed, feel sorry for myself and start comparing myself to others. 

When I am in action, it is much more painful being in the moment, but stuff happens, even if it does not work, I still feel alive and learn. 

BTW – values are essential.


They are so essential we run ‘The Coworking Values podcast.’ 

It is the practical application of the coworking values in real life.

Simple little things like:

– Having a work culture where your staff want to stay and are not crying in the stairwell every day. 

– Where your business makes a profit but does not f@

– Don’t only show up when you want something.

– Are inclusive, accessible and anti-racist like >> this by Cobot.

– You are not the largest, biggest, longest or leading – you are helpful. 

– How to build a coworking space that serves the local community it is part of.

Simon says


To get back to Simon Sinek, but you have to know I am exhausted by Simon Sinek fanboys and girls these days. 

Everyone loves to rant about ‘the why’, but I’ve only met a small handful of people, like my mate Lena who put it into action for real. 

Simon made a point early on about people think they have to ‘screw people’ or ‘be tight’ to be good at business. 

He then gave examples of companies with a higher share value over thirty years. 

The higher share value companies had taken care of staff and kept them longer.

Everyone Always


What has become evident in COVID is a coworking or shared work-spaces that ONLY rents a desk are dead in the water. 

While the spaces with a close community are alive. 

One of the main challenges is keeping members connected, we don’t meet in the kitchen so much these days! 

Their members are willing to support the coworking space as it navigates COVID. 

Changes to our work


Last week we were launching our Cowork.tools business. 

BTW the work we are doing is everything in Marketing Made Simple, which is a lot of attention to detail – which does make my head hurt. 

Every day felt like we were charging down the pitch to see where we would end up.

Then like Toyota – we stopped the assembly line. 

We took a morning to work out where we were, and we made a simple change. 

We time-boxed everything and made a backlog. 

It was that simple

We spent Friday morning allocating projects to the same day every week and ONLY working on them then. 

I’m sharing this because:


1. I already knew to do this, and so did everyone else. No one had brought it up, because we ‘did not have time for anything else’. 

2. I felt 1000% lighter – right away! I’d been mentally overloaded and confused for a couple of weeks.

3. It cleared the path. One reason I’m a fanboy of the 12 Week Year is that it ‘gives you permission’ to not think about something until it comes up in the plan. 

4 We committed to running our Nifty project board in a ‘Scrum‘ way and reviewing together every Friday morning. 

Read – Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

Weekly plan:


Monday is writing email newsletters day.

Tuesday is my website.

Wednesday is writing blogs and working on podcasts.

Thursday is Cowork.tools

Friday is London Coworking Assembly 

Know where you are going


As crazy and uncertain as the world is right now, narrowing down a few things on your projects and when you are going to work on them is essential. 

It is essential for your well being and mental health and your business.

If you need help, ask one of your friends or me to talk it through, you will feel better for it. 

Stay safe and be excellent to each other.

 

*When I link to products and services I often get a commission at no extra cost to you. 
I only ever link to things I use, trust and 100% recommend.

Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 12-week plan

How To Be More Productive (And Not Lose £191,553.45 Like Me)

January 26, 2020 by Bernie Mitchell

Two Simple Productivity Tips.

In this post, I’ll share two things that have helped my productivity over the last few years, and they are NOT apps or gadgets.

Are you always wondering where your time goes?
Are you looking for an ‘edge’?

You can get helpful actionable direction like this in my ‘Sunday Scenario email‘ where I document my progress, triumphs and mistakes as a freelance consultant to the coworking industry.

It is super fun being a hands-on practitioner who is developing and working with everything I teach in workshops and uses with clients.

No theory here, the only action, which of course means a few cuts and bruises!

Back to our two productivity tips, they so are blazingly simple, so simple they might slip through your fingers and then you are back where you started.

If you have worked at either of these two below you will know the deep level of self-commitment you need to muster up to win, and when you start there is no stopping.

How To Be More Productive (And Not Lose £191,553.45 Like Me)

1. Stop That Shitty Self-Talk

First, stop beating yourself up. You must have read a pile of books where the topic of self-talk comes up.

The line is always something like, “would you talk to someone else the way you speak to yourself?“

Then there is the add on of, “what would you do if someone talked to your best friend the way you speak to yourself?”

For me, this falls into the ‘well, of course, I agree with that’, but it took me years to get it, and I am still working on it.

Back in my days of depression, most days had self-loathing on the agenda.

When I became aware of this, my self-talk and how it worked, I could see how I’d been operating in this way for years.

Talking crap to myself had become a habit; I was so skilled that it was on autopilot.

What a crappy skill to commit work on. All that time gone!

Now I did not start walking around saying beautiful things like ‘I’m a tiger’ to myself out loud.

But I did put a year’s worth of effort into nipping that crappy self-talk in the bud.

Own The Good Things You Do

Decide to own the good things you do.

Today two renowned industry experts gave me an in-person compliment.

Instead of downgrading myself with a joke, I said their acknowledgement means a lot.

They both are amazing people, and I’ve put a direct effort into the thing they complimented me on.

Jen Sincero’s book ‘You are a Badass‘ is a particularly entertaining way to get a grip on this aspect of life. I love her stuff!

This week check how many times you say a self-degrading throw-away comment.

Look out for things like ‘I’m so crap at that.’

Or ‘I don’t quite know what I am doing with this £2000 piece of equipment I brought to further my career.’

Yes, this is imposter syndrome.

We can go deeper into this another time; it is a favourite of mine in the Freelance Heroes group.

But I have zero time and energy for my imposter syndrome these days.

How do you know you have zero time, Bernie? Because I have RescueTime.

Where Did That Time Go?

Last week I clicked the button in my RescueTime app that tells me where I’ve spent time over the previous six years.

I track my ‘work time’ from 8 am – 6 pm Monday to Friday.

So the good news was I’ve spent two-thirds of my time on productive apps on my phone and computer.

But I have spent ONE THIRD on crap or ‘Total Distracting Time‘ as Rescue Time calls it.

Consider this the time I committed to working in, and instead, it became a ‘Total Distracting Time of 2,253h 57m

That’s three months, zero weeks, two days, 21 hours, 57 minutes, and 29 seconds.

If I billed that at a modest £85 an hour that means I’ve spunked £191,553.45

Ouch!

Which is the price of a brand new Lamborghini 4×4 SUV, if that’s how you like to impress your mates.

Photo by Adrian Dorobantu from Pexels

The Compound Effect and £191,553.45

How would you feel if you worked out you spent £191,553.45 worth of time on fucking Facebook and not being productive at all?

Don’t worry kids I’m ok; I’m rereading the Compound Effect book.

Darren, the author, points out not to get upset when you discover the compound effect working against you.

This insight gives you a stable place to work from; you can stop this dead and reverse it.

2. Know What Work You Are Going To Do

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Henry Ford

The way most quotes get used on the internet makes me want to rip my knee caps off and use them as a blindfold.

In the ‘12 Week Year‘ book, every chapter starts with a quote.

I’ve listened to that book enough times the quotes are ingrained to my prefrontal cortex.

This one by Henry Ford hurts a lot. I do so love talking about what I’m going to do, and then not doing it.

So I stopped that.

Talking about what you are going to do is well-meaning hot air, fluff and no one cares, not even you. 

Most of the time, it is a time-sucking attempt to convince ourselves of something.

Your actions speak louder than words, especially for yourself.

Building A Solid Process.

This process you read about every week has got me to see how much I don’t know what I’m going to do.

Example, I know I’m going to write, but I don’t know what I’m going to write in a work session.

Last week when I emailed you I knew I was going to write this to you this week.

So it has taken me 25 minutes to write this. It will need some editing in Grammarly and Hemingway Editor App, and then I’m good to go.

In the Make Your Mark 90 Day Challenge we have a workbook, so I’m planning all my content ahead of time.

It is not easy, but it is 100% worth the effort and saves time.

Of course, you can do this on your own, but working with a group of people skyrockets your productivity.

Write More By Knowing What You Are Going To Write

If you are a writer and need to pay attention to this type of thing, read 2k – 10K by Rachel Aaron.

In her book, Rachel documents how she had to change her work pattern after becoming a mother.

Rachel had four hours a day to sit down and write.

The four hours was the ONLY time she had so she had to work out ahead what that writing would be when she got in the chair.

By working this way, she rebuilt her ability to reach ten thousand words a day.

The Pain Of Change

January has been painful for me, but don’t cry for me, Argentina.

Paying detailed attention to the gaps in my delivery and workflow is helpful.

But change is painful and inconvenient; I’m such a sucker for short term reward.

I can fix things ‘on the fly’ because of my constant ‘learn and do, learn and do’ over the last decade.

An important chapter for you in the 12 Week Year‘ book is the one about the ‘Pain of Change and the valley of despair when it comes to goals. 

It talks about ‘The Emotional Cycle of Change’ or said another way, it will go great, then go shit and you’ll want to give up.

But when you don’t give up you’ll get to the part where it all goes well and you get stronger and happier. 

Most people quit when it gets a bit shit. 

For example, as soon as I got to Lyon last week, I went for a 4.5-mile run before I even had a chance of not doing it.

It was cold, wet and in the end, exhilarating, and it was one more tiny compound effect act that kept me in the game.

Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity Tagged With: 12 Week Year, Productivity

CTL ALT DEL – My 12 Week Year Reset

February 3, 2019 by Bernie Mitchell

Where to begin?

2018 was the best year I have had for ages, but it was a year of reset, learning and working it out which was a new kind of pain for me.

This blog is my way of kicking off my commitment to writing and sharing what I am working on and what I am learning in 2019.

I was completely dithering around getting started so decided to eat my own dog food and ‘just do it’.

Maybe you don’t know that I am part of a podcast about writing and have organised a weekly writing group in London for over three years?

I know, shame on me. But no more procrastinating, licking my wounds and waiting for the planets to align to get going again!

Laying the Foundation for an epic 2019

In August 2017 I took my last antidepressant tablet and waited to see what would happen, by the time I took the last one the dose was so low my body probably did not even notice, but some part of my head did.

I’d been in a spin since 2010, and the crashed and burned in December 2012 and then spent five years struggling with depression, anxiety and self-loathing.

I never stopped reading and learning, I always knew I’d make it out even though some days I hated myself and everyone around me.

One evening I was so full of self-loathing I went into the kitchen and started to work out how to stick a knife in my wrist as my wife and son were in the room next door.

That was a real fucking low point, the best thing about that moment was realising I wanted to live and did not want my depression to hurt them even more than already was.

I’d have anxiety attacks and more than once my wife had to call an ambulance because I’d just passed out with something or other.

I’d go whole weekends watching Person of Interest non-stop on Netflix and not wash up for days.

My wife had to go to a friends house to give me space and because being around me was like going on holiday with a Dementors from the Harry Potter books.

When I made it out of August 2017 alive, I started to kick back into gear, and function on my own energy, Coworking Europe in Dublin and WCC in Edinburgh gave me the motivation to step up where I was, they probably gave me permission I thought I needed.

As I stopped taking medication in 2017 I joined Chris Marr’s Content Marketing Academy to see what it was like, I’d met him at the UK Podcasters event a few years before, and he seemed like an interesting town character, was hanging out with all my favourite authors and

I liked his no bullshit approach to business.

At Coworking Europe I got to have more in-depth conversations with people I’d met before and known online, we ended up gathering a fantastic crew that would become the new European Coworking Assembly, it was also the first time I’d been to Coworking Europe without my mate Matija.

I got to 2018 I was ready to make some serious changes, I did not know what would happen or really have any idea where I was going but I was surrounded by good people on and offline, and I could feel the energy happening.

I’ll spare you the blow by blow account of everything that happened in 2018, but the highlights were these:

I dove headfirst into the 12 Week Yearbook

I’ve read it 15 times now and got other people to do it with me, at the end of the year I stopped our meet up and instead started having a Monday morning “Weekly Accountability Meeting” (WAM) with my friend Karen by phone. This 30-minute phone call is how I start my week, and the gaps in my execution showed up big time.

Instead of crying I was able to get real and went back to the book to see what I was missing, then in November the Field Guide came out, and this helped me build out how I was going to do everything.

Life is ‘reps’ and repeating and repeating this 12 Week Year process has enabled me to wake up and smell the coffee, instead of ‘predicting the future and hoping it works’ I’m now able to get my shit done and adjust as I go along.

I’m still coming up short in some areas and always will.

But I know where I am now, also it has made me admit that I am spread too thin.

I have got real about hoping some things will work when they never will and most of all I am giving energy to people who are not even interested in getting it the first place.

@Workhubs closed

I’d been helping my mate Phil run his coworking space, and like the Sex Pistols greatest hits album we were flogging a dead horse, and it took us too long to realise.

But this was a good thing. We both wanted it to work, but that was not enough, we kept pulling it back into the Coworking ER room to resuscitate it, but each time it died a little bit more.

I had this fantasy coworking space in my head, and on some days it really was there, the Write Club meetups were great, but the building was tired and needed love it was starting to suck the life out of us.

After several ‘let’s give it one more shot’ conversations Phil came in one day and said that’s it, I’m closing and this is done.

I lost control of my bodily functions right then and there in the meeting room, where would I go? What would I do?

It was one of the best things that happened in 2018, I had to put my money where my mouth was and headed out into the big dangerous world without my safety blanket. 

If Phil and I looked at our hourly rate for working on that space, we would never have been able to look our families in the eye and have a conversation about income, so when it shut, we both went on to have more time and more money. And it was great hanging out with Phil and not talking about how we were going to save the coworking space.

But being inside that painful environment was a great lesson in what signs to look for, it was not the most horrid situation I’d ever been in, but I learnt a lot about myself and my ability to lie about the reality and how I use my time.

The ‘Fuck it’ moment

Somewhere in all of this, I had what my podcasting partner in crime Trevor calls the “freelancer fuck it moment” – he runs a workshop called Freelance foundations and sees this a lot.

It is the point when something like “fuck it, I can’t carry on living as this” happens.

I’d been dying for this moment for five years as I waded through Person Of Interest on Netflix, but I’d only had a regular fuck everything moments.

Until now, of course, I knew that life did not have to be like this and that if I got up of the sofa, I’d be inches away from changing everything for the better.

But I was so far gone I had imposter syndrome about making a cup of tea, let alone being a freelancer.

When the ‘fuck it moment arrived, I was doing ok, but that was it I was doing ok.

I was not depressed but my comfort zone, identity and habit were ‘I’m depressed’.

The only time harder to get stuff done than when you are depressed is when you are not depressed and are acting as if you are, because that is lazy, whining, excuse making sad-sack-of-shit land.

So anyway I cried down the phone to Trevor that I’d had a revelation and this was my fuck it moment and charged off into the sunset.

Falling Flat on my face again

Now Trevor has twenty years of freelance experience under his belt, I mean he was a freelancer before it was cool to be a freelancer. He was one of the ‘emerging group of people’ Dan Pink talked about in FreeAgent Nation back at the turn of the century.

So he knew my ‘fuck it’ moment would hit a few walls before it came into being, I am sure he mentioned something, but I was too fired up to listen.

I steamed off and dove into everything I could lay my hands on, I made more of Fizzle.com, more of CMA and took Jessica Abels course.

At the end of 2018, my head was like Neo in the Matrix after he knows Kungfu and before he can stop bullets.

I had steady money coming in and was sure I’d make more money in November than Tony Montana at the end of Scarface.

None of that happened, I’d done all the work and all the planning but had not ‘done the work’.

I had not connected with what I was trying to sell people, I was smelling a little-entitled thought if I repackage everything I knew people would buy it.

I was trying to be someone and something else and had more than one robust conversation with people close to me about what the fuck was I thinking?

It’s not that tough

I need to put this in context when I have tough conversations these days, they are about getting to the best stuff I can do, about getting shit out of the way and being focused like a Navy SEAL skydiving and opening their parachute at the last possible moment.

I’m at the point of fine tuning and listening hard for what needs to be done, not what I or they ‘think needs to be done’.

And this is hard work, delightfully hard work as if I am not awake I slip into autopilot and let myself and other people get away with things.

A good punch in the face from my coworking crew, CMA squad and on Monday mornings in the12 Week Year WAM with Karen stops me thinking the sun shines out of my arse and flags up where I’m coming up short.

No One Wants To Blog

At the end of 2018, I knew I did not want to go back to working on UpWork, and my ‘Blogging for coworking spaces’ concept was dead in the water.

While at a workshop with Marcus Sheridan and Chris Marr in Edinburgh I was doing my speaking bit and being coached on stage by Marcus,

I was blocked and fudging my words, but I was ok with that.

It was life, and I’d signed up to get my head out of my arse in a trusted environment.

When I mumbled something about blogging Marcus said no one ever asks to hire him to teach them blogging, they hire him for storytelling.

No one wants to learn how to write blogs for their website, even though it is one of the best things you can do.

Which explained why everyone I talked to about blogging, even smart people glazed over.

The Emotional Cycle Of Change

I went into a little tailspin, wondered what I would put on my website now?

I seized up, I’d got to the end of 2018, and it was all meant to be working now.

It was working it was working better than ever, I remembered that all that was happening was that I was going through the emotional cycle of change.

This is a crucial concept into the 12 Week Year Book.

Devised by Kelly and Conners in 1979 it outlines the dip you get after the excitement of starting and how we get stopped.

I was stopped, but I knew how to handle it, I kept writing, reading and meditating,

Then without me really doing anything new projects started to roll in for January 2019, I chilled out a little bit more.  

Slowing down to speed up.

I looked back over my shoulder and the pitiful amount of articles I’d posted on my website, my amazingly well-built site (thanks Hector) and all the work I’d done on myself.

I’d also joined the ‘Make Your Mark Online’ group to learn how to use my WordPress website once and for all.

I started to understand that I was playing well within my comfort zone, and while my head hurt from everything I’d done in 2018 it was a brilliant and thriving hurt.

At no point had I learnt something I did not think I could do, it all built on stuff I’d read about or worked in before.

It occurred to me what I could do if I really put my mind to it and did something.

So I went to Argentina for three weeks knowing I had work when I got back and did absolutely nothing for three weeks.

It was the first time I had stopped, unplugged and woken up with nothing to do for years.

I was going to let everything settle and be ready to rumble in 2019.

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing, Podcasts, Productivity

Simon Sinek, Your Phone And Deep Work

November 13, 2016 by Bernie Mitchell

You would be right if you were thinking I leapt into the 12 Week Year with HUGE success goals, money goals and I-need-a-new-iPad-Pro goals.

 

I ended up with less money than I started, but I carved a solid path out as a freelance writer and know what I need to do daily.

Time spent on courses in Fizzle, Creative Class, Collaboration Superpowers and Rainmaker deeply helped define this.

 

Where To Start?

 

Have you ever thought about something so much that when the time comes you are paralysed?

It’s called decision fatigue and I think it’s happening right now so I will write like this.

If you have ever been a bit worried, anxious or depressed you will know that deciding between tea and coffee can knock you out for the day, seriously!

While I was engaged being depressed a couple of years ago I wouldn’t wash up for three days because I couldn’t decide where to begin, of course, the pile of washing up only added to the torture of being on my own at home, #Supercoolwife and #Babybernie sought sanctuary at friend’s house for a few days because I was like a Dementor from Harry Potter, actually, I am sure they are more chirpy than a depressed Bernie.

 

This sounds a bit of a ramble Mitchell….

 

Ah, sorry.

You will have noticed it’s November and Christmas is coming fast.

Given the chance, we like to flee to Poland or Argentina at this time of year.

I hate Christmas in the UK I hate Christmas full stop. But this year my mood is stable, I am almost uncomfortable with how ‘un-pissed-off’ I am at this moment in time.

 

Mitchell, the title of this post had Simon Sinek in, I don’t see much Simon….

 

Ok mood vs focus is where I am going with this.

You will have heard our tribe ranting about Deep Work and 12 Week Year (s) and this is where we have ended up.

We sit down and focus support each other as we do, most of this year I have spent doing a daily meeting with Emily, Phil or Nils to keep going and this week started a Working Out Loud group here @WorkHubs so all get to follow a 12 step program, sorry 12-week programs.

 

I had to stop some things to make room for all the other good bits. 

 

Being a victim

Like a monk I read 12 Week Year daily, one of the lines is ‘stop being the victim’ as you can imagine this isn’t the first time I have heard this.

I am ashamed at how much of my life is other people’s fault, particularly Kenneth Baker who was the Secretary of Education in the UK when I was a child, my Grandmother for not letting me watch Rent-a-ghost because she thought the guy with the beard was Kenny Everett. Both these people affect my ability to function 30 years later, even if they were here now I wouldn’t let them apologise.

So no more victim. Ever.

Podcasts.

Yes, Yes I gave up podcasts, and inserted courses.

I have to learn a few skills at a deep level. I listened to podcasts by people I know personally because I enjoyed them, not because they were helping me hone a skill.

I couldn’t decide what to listen to so I cut them all out, yes even yours.

My Phone – this is the Simon Sinek bit…

Bernie, you gave up your phone?

No, I have gone cold turkey on pressing the buttons on it every 10 minutes. I took off ALL the social media apps, restricted email and now use it to track my progress and listen to books.

In Simon Sinek’s RSA talk from last week and the presentation talk that you can watch below, there’s a theme of connectedness and dropping your phone, this theme is also strong in both the ‘Deep Work‘ and ‘12 Week Year‘ books.

 

What Is Easier Than Quitting Your Phone?

 

I found it easier quitting smoking, drinking and cocaine than I have leaving my phone alone. You would ask me a question and I’d look in my phone instead of thinking or asking you a clarification question.

#Babybernie would look out the window on the bus and I’d check my phone or type something in – that I’d never look at again.

I leave it off most of the day now, a small amount of people who would need to call me know how to get to me or an SMS comes to my computer, I am actually a bit dejected at how unessential I am.

Result? I am doing less work, in less time and it’s much better.

This week is 12 Week Year number two AND we have a Working Out Loud group in our coworking space, and I am looking forward to my new found career.

So that is the link between Simon Sinek, Your Phone And Deep Work – but you knew that.

 

  This Weeks Links  
To Work Better, Work Less
 

 

To Work Better, Work Less

 

Between 1853 and 1870, Baron Haussmann ordered much of Paris to be destroyed. Slums were razed and converted to bourgeois neighbourhoods, and the formerly labyrinthine city became a place of order, full of wide boulevards (think Saint-Germain) and angular avenues (the Champs-Élysées). 

 

Poor Parisians tried to put up a fight but were eventually forced to flee, their homes knocked down with minimal notice and little or no recompense. The city underwent a full transformation—from working-class and medieval to bourgeois and modern—in less than two decades’ time. Read The Full Article Here  
 
Simon Sinek | Together is Better | RSA Replay
 

Simon Sinek | Together is Better | RSA Replay

Together is Better with Simon Sinek. Best-selling author and TED talk sensation Simon Sinek is fascinated by the people that make the greatest impact in their organisations, and in the… Watch The Talk Here  
 
Content Curation With Trello And Publicate #LLBS 92 -...
 

Content Curation With Trello And Publicate #LLBS 92

In this episode, a VERY excited Chris (founder of Publicate) shares how people are using the new Trello / Publicate Power Up.

 

How to use Trello, Publicate and Mailchimp in the same workflow to make resource hubs and plan content.  Find Out Here
 
A focused weekly club for writers to engage in

A focused weekly club for writers to engage in “deep work”

Our weekly Write Club ‘Deep Work’ is ideal for anyone who writes and needs a block of time to write and gain the inspiration from being around other writers.

 

Join authors, students, comedians, Doctors, freelancers, developers, musicians and people like you for a deep session on writing. RSVP Here    
created in Publicate
 

 

Filed Under: BLOG, Freelancing, Productivity, Uncategorized Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2016, Blog, Freelancer Writer, Pilar, Productivity, Rainmaker 2015, sent from my mobile device, Simon Sinek, trello, Working Out Loud

Trello repeating tasks: How to remove them

November 8, 2016 by Nils

A few week’s ago, Trello announced a new card repeater power-up. The power-up allows you to set repeating tasks up so that they automatically appear in Trello when you need them. The Card Repeater function turns out to be pretty difficult to turn off. I’ve found a small trick that makes it much easier – read on to find out more.

Trello’s Card Repeater is a life changer

We got very excited when the Card Repeater power-up was released – and we even wrote about it on this very blog!

I’ve since found that when left unchecked, you end up with a mass of repeating cards in your Trello list, something a bit like this:

Trello Repeating Cards Gone Crazy
Trello Repeating Cards Gone Crazy

I did honestly write all those blog posts – I just didn’t keep the Trello board updated.

A quick aside: The two reasons why I didn’t need Trello to remind me to write those blog posts were: I used timeboxing to make sure I had time allocated to this particular task – and I used a version of the Tiny Habits system to make it automatic.

Anyway, back to Trello. Left with a mess of repeating cards, I found it incredibly difficult to find the original, parent card that was set to repeat! How did I turn this thing off?

Trello comments to the rescue

Eventually, I found a simple trick to get hold of the Card Repeater’s parent card and turn the whole thing off. I was saved by the fact that I had a comment on the parent card. When the card is repeated, the comment is copied across as well. This action leaves an activity entry on the new card:

Trello Card Repeater Activity Log
Clicking this link goes to the parent card

Clicking the link took me straight through to the parent repeater card, and I could use the Card Repeater power-up button to remove the repeat:

Remove card repeater in trello
Access Card Repeater Settings On The Parent Card

So the moral of the story is:

When you create a repeating card in Trello, add a comment to it, so that you can easily link back to the original card and change settings or remove the repeat altogether!

Of course, the next question is what to write in those comments! So I leave you with a list of inspirational, lovely quotes to give you an endless supply. Not only will you become more productive but you will brighten up your day each time you work on a repeating task in Trello!

Here’s a quote I particularly enjoy:

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius

Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity, Trello Tagged With: Blog, Pilar

The End Of My First 12 Week Year

November 6, 2016 by Bernie Mitchell

On Tuesday we start our Working Out Loud (WOL) group at our coworking space, it’s also the end of my first 12 Week Year.

Oddly, I feel an imposter when I write about “productivity” part of me wants to tell you ‘I did the 12 Week Year now have a million dollar start-up and run a marathon daily.’

Those of you who run marathons or become parents know things don’t happen in the flick of a switch, so I don’t know why I think you might expect me to turn life around in 12 Weeks.

It’s tempting to joke my goal for the WOL is to stop dicking around.

Becoming a Dad in 2011 and being depressed made me stop dicking around.

The horror of not being able to get off the couch and feeling suicidal followed by the gift of wanting to wash up and meet other human beings showed revealed to me the difference between depression, learned helplessness and being a spoilt brat

I Blame The Parents

Turns out I have more spoilt brat than I’d like, not Veruca Salt type spoilt – more of an inner subconscious compass with a warped take on responsibility.

I was tempted to blame my parents, after all, they brought me up.

My Dad wasn’t Nelson Mandela, George Orwell or David Bowie those guys were off doing other work.

My Dad worked with what he had, right where he was and he certainly wasn’t out to fuck me up or create a spoilt brat.

My Mother, died before she was scheduled to, I miss her but her timing was inconvenient for me emotionally.

Stopping blaming my parents – easy.

Admitting I was blaming them – hard.

I can’t even tell you what they did wrong.

I know other people blame their parents, but this isn’t something I’d stoop to doing.

12 Week Grit

As I beat depression over the last two years I realised we don’t wake up one day and immediately become free from debt and depression.  

In the last 12 weeks I have developed a level of grit and determination I’ve craved all my life. Building a tiny little bit daily is where the real pay-off is happening.

Ten years ago my friend Mike would joke about how I’d jump between extremes in my life.  

I’d start the month as a T-total juicing marathon runner and end it eating fish and chips while hoovering up a lethal cocktail of class A drugs at a music festival, the weeks in the middle were a void.

I am interested in a better use of the time I have now. I guess I attempted to speed up space and time and instead discover slowing down and being myself is a better way to live.

Make Permission 

At the peak of my break down my mate Daniel would feed me Argentine food and encourage me to ‘give myself permission to relax’.

At the time being married, being a parent and having a mortgage seemed less of a commitment than ‘giving myself permission to relax’.

The horror lay in stopping to look around, even more fucking scary was working it all out  a way forward. These days I rage about coworking and food because these two things combined made the solid foundation to getting my life back.

You Don’t Have To

Just to be clear, you don’t have to eat avocados and coworking space to prevent a shit life, this is what worked for me.

My faith in the next 12 weeks is high, I mean my faith, not my expectation is high.

I have faith I’ll be in an even better place on 26th January 2017 when the next 12 weeks ends, even with all the changes that will happen on the way.  

Next Sunday I’ll share a few simple things that worked for me on this first 12 week journey, below are a few things I have been using.


1. This Worked The Best

My Miracle Morning

 

My Miracle Morning
I have been working on this ‘Miracle Morning’ thing for ages and now I have it down to a fine art. I know the title sucks and sounds like a coked up TGI Friday’s waitress called Polly Anna, but it works.
Read The Full Post Here

2. This Also Worked Best

Productive - Habit tracker - Daily Routine

 

Productive – Habit tracker – Daily Routine
This app  is SUPER simple to build daily routine & reminders for goals & resolutions. You can see how you are doing and be honest with yourself about what is really working and where you are kidding yourself.  Beware come near me and I’ll MAKE you download it 😉
Download It Here

3. Reading This Worked Too
The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks

 

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks

You will NOT pick this up, read it and have everything work.

I read A LOT and chose to commit to this book with blind faith, so watch out for my evangelical tone on this.
I have to stress that it is not the first ‘system’ I have ever encountered, also I am sure that everything else I have learnt makes this work for me.
It is worth pointing out that there is no cult to join, $100k cruise to go on or other wanky upsell’s to endure for following this books program.
Get Yours Here

4. I Liked This. Not Everyone Did.

The Full-Time Job Is Dead

 

The Full-Time Job Is Dead

The full-time job, used to it as we are, is not some natural state of human existence.

Before the 1800s, few people worked a structured “work week.” That conceit was dreamed up by early industrialists, who needed to bring workers together in a factory at the same time to efficiently make products. For the past 100 years, the 40-hour job has been the centerpiece of work life because there was no better way for people to gather in one place at the same time to connect, collaborate and produce.
Read The Full Post Here

5. Work Alone. Together.

A focused weekly club for to engage in "deep work"

 

A focused weekly club for to engage in “deep work”

When Philip from @WorkHubs put this on Meet Up the whole dynamic changed, every week a mixed group of people who need to write something come together for a couple of hours and write.

I have ‘grown up’ about making time to write at every session I have taken part in.
“Our weekly Write Club ‘Deep Work’ is ideal for anyone who writes and needs a block of time to write without being distracted.”
Join Here

created in Publicate

Filed Under: BLOG, Productivity, Uncategorized Tagged With: 12 Week Year, 2016, Blog, Bowie, coworking, Marathon, Pilar, Productivity, sent from my mobile device, Working Out Loud

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