Productivity and Work

David Pierce and the fine folks over at The Verge have a miniseries going on the Vergecast about productivity and work. This is a subject I think about a lot because I find it very interesting. Especially now in our current environment where there are so many ways to work.

I’m not sure if I’ll blog a follow up to each episode, but I definitely had a little thought blaster on the first one. A takeaway I have is about trying to get communication into your preferred communication channel. As an example, I very much prefer email communications for most things. However, I have plenty of work that goes through instant messages (Teams), and Asana. I know I can get email notifications through Asana. So if someone assigns a task or leaves a comment, I’ll see it in Outlook. Perfect! I think Teams can send like a…recap of “missed” messages but I’m not sure how useful that is. I’ll need to give that area a little more thought.

Another takeaway I had was how you organize your brain in relation to the apps. Another example, I very much prefer email, but my work machine is Windows, my personal machines are Mac OS. I use iOS as well. I don’t love mixing work and personal items as a practice. However, I don’t really have to. If I keep the Outlook app on my phone for work items and route everything else to the Mail app, then items remain separate but the mechanism for delivery is the same and that’s good enough for me. One thing I haven’t quite figured out is I wouldn’t mind my work calendar going to the iOS calendar app, but I don’t want my iOS calendar on my work Outlook calendar. When my favorite sports teams play, doesn’t help my work calendar but scheduling appointments is easier if I can see my work meetings. But for now, the remain separate.

Anyway, it’s a great episode and I think the series will be very interesting. If the topic interests you at all, I very much recommend it.