Here's a slightly odd question for today: We've talked a lot about task-batching, how saving up similar tasks to do all at once can save time and preserve focus. So with the rise of the hybrid workweek, let's talk: Are you saving some tasks to do at the office, and focusing on others when you're WFH? (To what extent does face time or “looking busy” enter into this?)

For example, I could see someone being 100% devoted to internal company messaging while working from home in order to preserve the appearance that you're engaged and actively working. I've even seen TikToks where people rig a system to move their mouse around so they maintain their green “online” dot.

Obviously I would save printing or reviewing physical documents for the office… I hate phone calls in general so I could see benefits to saving that for the office, both for a “not in my space” perspective as well as “If I'm talking about work then I'm clearly being productive” perspective.

{related: how to make the most of face time at the office (CorporetteMoms)}

How about you guys? What tasks do you save for the office, and what tasks do you prefer to do at home?

Stock photo via Deposit Photos / AndrewLozovyi.

The post What Tasks Do You Do at the Office vs WFH? appeared first on Corporette.com.

I was hunting for a way to create an automated shortcut to an Apple Note (still hunting) and stumbled on a bunch of other shortcuts that seemed like they would be great to share here… so I've rounded up some of the best Apple shortcuts to help you at work!

(Hopefully not a shortcut for work, but did you know that if you're being pulled over you can say, “Siri, I'm getting pulled over,” and it triggers 18 separate actions, including a darkened screen but constant recording, sending a message with your location to a friend, and more? Business Insider and CNet both have more details.)

As Business Insider noted:

Shortcuts are one of the most underappreciated features for the iPhone and iPad. Using the Shortcuts app, you can automate common tasks and daisy chain apps to work together with a single command. Some shortcuts are immensely useful and can come in handy multiple times each week. Others can improve and simplify the experience of using your phone, making you wonder why you didn't start using the shortcut much sooner. 

You can run shortcuts directly from the Shortcuts app, but it's a lot more convenient to start them by voice with Siri or by adding your favorite shortcuts as widgets to the iPhone's Home page. A few shortcuts are special cases and are best run from the Share page within the app where the shortcut is designed to work.

You can also check out Apple's guide to shortcuts.

{related: how to get your iPhone alarm to play a playlist}

Note that you have to have the Shortcuts app installed; it's been preinstalled on a lot of the newer phones. Speaking of, if you take a lot of pictures (of kids, pets, whatever) and haven't upgraded to the 3-camera system like the ones in the stock photo above, you are missing out — it's so, so much better than the old one.

Two other important notes: Every source advises to beware untrusted shortcuts, as you won't be able to install them without installing something else. The other thing is that if you're creating an automation (like my morning wake-up playlist) I like to check it immediately after creating it by setting an initial time about 5 minutes from now.

Apple Shortcuts to Help You During Your Workday (Whether You're Remote or In the Office)

All links go to the shortcut, so this part might be easier to read on your iPhone, although there are more descriptions of what the shortcut does if you open it in Chrome. The links seem to be a little finicky — they all go to the correct place but you may get an error message at first; keep trying.

• Create a PDF out of anything: This is already super easy to do in the Notes app, but you can make it even easier by making it a shortcut.
• Create Meeting Note: This looks up the next meeting on your calendar and add a new note if you don't already have one so that you can write down any thoughts or tasks.
• Reflect on the Day: Keep a record of what you accomplished for the day and set goals for the next day.
• Start My Next Meeting: Instead of shuffling through your phone trying to figure out where you put the invite for your last meeting, this one automatically connects to the next virtual meeting in your calendar, creates a new nope in the Notes app, and turns on DND for the duration of the meeting.
• Check Spelling: This app improves on autocorrect by checking your spelling and then offering you your entire message with corrected spelling so you can just copy and paste it.

{related: the best Siri hacks to boost your productivity}

Apple Shortcuts for When You're In the Office…

• Remind Me at Work will allow you to remember something once you physically arrive at your workplace by displaying a note on your screen.
• DND Until I Leave automatically puts your phone on silent until you leave your current location. (You could also do this with an NFC tag, but I still have yet to explore that world!)
• Home ETA compares your current location with your home address and automatically texts the contact of your choosing what your Home ETA is.

Other Cool Apple Shortcuts to Make Your Life Easier

• Create a GIF with your camera: In addition to being super fun with friends, I could see this being useful for quick tutorials (especially of the “how to get to the right screen/setting” variety) for friends or coworkers.
• This SOS “Express DoorDash” one looks really cool and gives you an easy and discreet way to message a trusted contact info like your location, what you're wearing, and more. (The app is now on iCloud!) (Here are some of our other favorite personal safety apps…)
• Shazam++ gives you a bevy of options after you Shazam a song, including sharing it or opening it in Spotify.
• Search GIPHY and share supposedly helps you find the perfect GIF in seconds to share with friends… we'll see about that.

Where to Find More Shortcuts and Automations

If you click on the Shortcuts app, then “Gallery” (lower right hand corner), there are a ton of different suggestions. I also had a ton of Automation Suggestions just for me, one or two of which I adopted. (This is how I eventually set up an automation to open a specific note at a certain time repeatedly!)

I'll post a screenshot from my Gallery page below. Some other good sources include these articles from Mashable, CNet, Business Insider — and of course there is an entire Reddit subforum for shortcuts. (Keep an eye on Lifehacker also — as of this writing they only had a list of the best widgets you can put on your home screen, one of the other big updates with iOS 14.)

Stock photo via Stencil.

The post Great Apple Shortcuts to Help You at Work appeared first on Corporette.com.

For most of us, being productive — whether in our personal lives, professional lives, or both — is harder than ever these days (make that “this year”), so we figured this would be the perfect time to share some great books on productivity. We've rounded up six books to check out: three classic titles and three newer books that seem to be turning into classics in their own right. What are your favorite books on being more productive and better organized? How about other resources for improving your productivity, such as planners, TED Talks, podcasts, and others? 

In the past, we've talked about productivity hacks, scheduling breaks to increase productivity, and how to make the most of your productive times. Feel free to share your own general productivity tips in the comments! 

Some of our latest favorite books on productivity, below:

Great Books on Productivity 

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen (Amazon, Bookshop)

Getting Things Done — “GTD,” for short — is one of the best-known books on productivity. (We included it in our post on must-read business books a few years ago.) Since it was published almost 20 years ago, it has spawned a website, a podcast and a blog, coaching services and events, a GTD workbook, and more.

Of course, you don't really need anything besides Allen's basic strategies, which strongly emphasize staying organized, effectively classifying to-dos, and breaking up projects into clear, logical steps. When I finished reading GTD (which was several years ago), my copy of the book ended up full of little flags marking particularly useful tips — it really made sense as a system. 

Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy (Amazon, Bookshop)

This is another classic productivity book — and another that we've recommended in the past, in our post on five ways to improve your focus. I picked it up on a whim at an airport years ago, and when I read it, I thought the author had some really helpful, basic strategies.

While some people like to accomplish the smaller tasks on their to-do list first to easily get momentum and an energy boost, the main advice from Eat That Frog is, yes, “eat the frog” first: Instead of starting with something easy, tackle that big, important, intimidating project (that you may have been putting off). This book is a quick read, and the philosophy is simpler than, say, GTD's detailed techniques. 

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business 

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg (Amazon, Bookshop)

Here's one more classic productivity book: The Power of Habit, written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author. My husband recently read this book as part of his EMBA program, and he found it interesting and worth the read. The book highlights the value of getting certain things accomplished without having to apply conscious thought. When you've conditioned yourself to do them automatically, you'll free up your brain to concentrate on higher-order tasks.

This book takes a higher-level view than the two above by analyzing the practices and successes of well-known individuals and companies, such as Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and Procter & Gamble, and using them to illustrate the concepts. 

{related: how to build good habits}

I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time

I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam (Amazon, Bookshop) 

We recommended this title in our post from a couple of years ago about six books to help you achieve your New Year's resolutions. It's different from the other books on our list, not only because of its focus on working mothers, but because it uses a ton of specific data from women's lives to create its recommendations for better productivity and work-life balance. Vanderkam collected 1,001 days' worth of time logs from working moms who make at least $100,000 a year.

Her analysis of these women's lives, and how they each used their 168 hours per week, led her to suggest several strategies, such as rethinking the meaning of quality family time and leaving behind the 9–5 (or 8–6, and so on) work schedule. Check out her TED Talk for an introduction.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (Amazon, Bookshop) 

Greg McKeown wrote Essentialism for people who feel overworked and busy, and not in control of their schedules — and unproductive. The book gives advice on how to evaluate how essential certain things are, and then eliminate the ones that aren't — only aiming to get “the right things done,” not everything. (This kind of reminds me of Marie Kondo's philosophy.)

The ultimate goal is to stop feeling overwhelmed and instead feel in control while managing to find “joy in the journey.” If this sounds intriguing, you can get the first chapter of the book for free by signing up for McKeown's newsletter. (McKeown recently announced his new podcast, also called Essentialism, which might be worth a listen, too.) 

Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits — To Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life

Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits — To Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life by Gretchen Rubin (Amazon, Bookshop)

You may know of Gretchen Rubin from her bestseller The Happiness Project, which grew from a blog and book into a whole movement. (Fun fact: Rubin clerked for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor for a year back in the ’90s.) She wrote Better Than Before to explore the ways that we can build good habits, get rid of bad ones, and achieve our goals.

Rubin explains her 21 strategies (tested by her and her family and friends) that can help readers improve their lives, and she proposes the four “Rubin Tendencies,” which sort people into Upholders, Questioners, Rebels, and Obligers, according to how they respond to expectations. (Now I want to find out which type I am…) 

Atomic Habits

(You can buy Atomic Habits at Amazon, Target, and Bookshop, or find it at your local library.) 

I've done a big review of Atomic Habits here — it's an absolutely fabulous book for being more productive and improving your habits.

One of his big suggestions in the book is that you shouldn't focus on goals (e.g., lose 20 pounds, run a marathon) but instead focus on systems, because systems are key to building a habit and maintaining it for a long time. Plus, you're more likely to see success and early wins with systems, whereas with a goal you have to wait until it's complete.

And, once the systems are in place, the third level of habits kicks in — your identity starts to shift into someone who does the habit (or does not do the habit). Goal: quit smoking. System: Give yourself a checkmark for every day you don't smoke; try to chain as many days together as possible. Identity change: “I used to be a smoker” (versus “I'm someone who is trying to quit smoking.”

Like I said, he's got a ton of actionable takeaways for how to build systems, such as 

• Stacking a habit you want to start doing with one you already do — I think the 10-15 squats I do each morning between applications of my Vitamin C serum, moisturizer, and sunblock count (three sets, whee!).

• Committing to 2 minutes of a habit — similar to the idea of “the run is a success if you put your shoes on and close the door behind you.” Starting really, really small helps you get used to doing the habit, and then you can start to level up.

• Training yourself to do a habit every day at a certain time — for example, if you commit to going for a walk after dinner for 8 weeks, after the time period is up you will probably crave going for a walk after dinner.

• Bundling a habit you want to do with something you really enjoy, i.e., only watching Netflix when you're working out. (I do this a bit with Fitbod!)

What are your favorite books on productivity? Are there any that you've read that were especially helpful — or unhelpful? What are your favorite hacks and strategies for better productivity? 

Our Latest Favorite Productivity Tools

Psst… stay tuned for some of our favorite tools to help us manage our time, focus, and otherwise stay productive!

Other Books for Corporate Women

The Best Books for Businesswomen

Some must-read business books for women — update coming soon!

{related: the best resources for new managers}

The Best Books on Work-Life Balance

Striving for more work-life balance? These are some of our favorite books on work-life balance for corporate women — also check out our roundup of books on happiness, and the best books for working mothers!

{related: the best TED talks for working women}

More Recommended Reading

• The Best Personal Finance Books for Beginners
• How to Be Happy: The Best Books on Happiness
• The Best Books for Working Mothers
• Great Books with Networking Tips for Women
• The Best Resources for Becoming a Better Manager
• Great Books to Help You Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions
• The Best Books on Changing Your Career

The post Great Books on Productivity appeared first on Corporette.com.

Ladies, what are your favorite apps for working women? I rounded up some of my favorite Android apps  a few years ago, but now that I've switched over to iPhone (in December 2014), I've been collecting an ever growing list…

{Update: here are our favorite apps in 2019!}

My Favorite Apps for Working Women

Pocket. After our post on information overload, I did such a good job of getting my Pocket cleaned up, primarily thanks to dumping stuff that was “for later” in Evernote. (At one point I went from something like 1250 articles to read later, down to 200 articles.) Then I got pregnant and had another baby, and it's out of control again. The app has stopped counting, though, so I'm not sure how bad it is — I just opened the app on my phone and it said it was downloading a 158 new ones. Sigh. At least I'm never short on reading materials…

CalenMob. I love my Google Calendars, and have several — a personal one, one to schedule Corporette stuff, one for my sons' stuff, etc. — and it never seemed like iPhone's native calendar did a good job of syncing them. CalenMob bridges the gap for me. There is a free version and a “pro” version for $6.99 — I just bought the pro version.

Sheets. Excel seems to be my default program of choice these days, so I like being able to edit everything in Sheets.

If This Then That. I'm still playing around with this one, but Lifehacker is perpetually in love with it. What recipes are you guys using?

Key Ring.  Handy for when you have a bunch of store cards/loyalty cards and don't want to carry them all with you, so you can scan the bar codes and so forth into the app.

Pinterest. I love this for collecting visual ideas — decor things I want to try, outfits I like, etc. You can follow us at http://pinterest.com/corporette.

Evernote. I use this like Pinterest, but for articles. I'm still figuring out how to make the most of it, to be honest, but it was a great way to unload my Pocket reading list when I first started.

Dropbox. As I mentioned at CorporetteMoms in our post on organizing family photos, I love Dropbox — we first started using it back when I was on Android and my husband was on iPhone (and I'm also just generally suspicious of Apple's iCloud stuff), and the love continues.

Sleep Cycle.  I'm still searching for the best “hack your sleep” app; at the moment I like Sleep Cycle.

Seven. This app is great if you want a really focused workout — it's a seven minute HIIT workout, inspired by a NYT article. Do multiple cycles to get the most effect, of course, but even one cycle can help. I also just downloaded the app Seconds to try to find a way to put HIIT intervals on top of music (but haven't had a chance to try it out yet).

DarkSky.  Wondering what the weather will be like in the next HOUR? Dark Sky is great for that — it was designed by two people who were driving cross country, and happened to get stuck inside the rest stop without umbrellas when one of those out-of-nowhere storms hit. Would it last ten minutes or an hour? They didn't know, so they created an app for it.

Other basic must-haves: Seamless. Fresh Direct. Open Table. Shazam. I don't read a ton on Kindle (see my out-of-control Pocket list, ha) but I have that on there too.

I'll also mention Omnifocus for all you GTDers out there — my brother loves it, but I haven't tried it yet.

I will also give a “hugely helpful” shout out to my bluetooth keyboard — I use it all the time for focused writing on my iPad (my focus is sooo much better if the mouse is out of the picture and I don't have 10,000 tabs open), but I also discovered during some flights last week that it's also hugely helpful for writing on my iPhone. (I went back to Northwestern University  for a conference/group meeting for a women's alumni group I'm part of, Council of 100.)  The tray space on the plane was so limited I found I actually preferred writing on the Notes function on my iPhone, and managed to crank out about 10 posts between the two flights.

What are your favorite apps, ladies? Which apps add to your productivity and/or help you manage information? Which ones make your life easier?

(L-#)

The post Apps for Working Women: What Are Your Favorites? appeared first on Corporette.com.

I've written before about how I love to get up early because that's my most productive time of the day — but I don't think we've ever talked about how to optimize those productive hours to get the most stuff done.

I have my own tricks; I'd love to hear what you guys use as well. (I usually can be focused enough without time management techniques during this time — but they can be super helpful during other times of the day.

Pictured: Pomodoro Kitchen Timer for Action Logging, originally uploaded by AndyRobertsPhotos. )

How to Make the Most of Your Productive Times

1) Know what you want to do. I always find this time is best to focus on ONE THING, not a whole to-do list. I don't even WRITE my to-do list until later in the day, to be honest. When I get up early, I do the one thing that I need/want to do, and nothing else.

2) Leave some work unfinished so you can start in the middle. Writers are often advised to finish their day in the middle of a sentence, instead of at the end, so the next day you can just pick up where you left off.

3) Know your direction: forward or backward? I usually want to use the time to push “forward” — write new words, organize my research or my thoughts in new ways — but sometimes I prefer to go “backwards” and review work I've already done, such as when I want to edit something closely.

{related: how to deal when “family time” interrupts your naturally productive times}

4) Avoid time sucks. I don't look at email until 9 AM, for example, and I save other things that easily expand into longer projects for later in the day, when my focus is already not at its best.

For example, in my law days, I saved research until the afternoon when I could, preferring to use the mornings for organizing the research or writing — now I save things like RSS feeds, Twitter, and Pinterest for the afternoons or evenings when I can.

{related: our best executive functioning tips and tricks}

On days when I really need to focus, I avoid turning on my computer when I can, and work with pen and paper instead.

5) Protect your productive time. If you're super productive in the morning, don't let friends or colleagues schedule breakfast meetings. If your best time is the afternoon, keep chatty coworkers out of your office.

Readers, what are some of your top productive times? How do you make the most out of them?

Some of our latest favorite books on productivity, below:

This post was originally written in 2012, but substantially updated in 2020, except where otherwise noted.

The post How to Make the Most of Your Productive Times appeared first on Corporette.com.

I've posted before of my love for Remember the Milk, but it's come up in two separate conversations I had recently, so I thought I'd post on it again.

As a reminder, this is a free, web-based application, and it e-mails you when your “due date” is up. (You can also check items off it before the due date, and e-mail it “to dos” from your Blackberry — it's also available as a free “app” on the iPhone and Android, I believe). I head there at least 4-5 times a week for the following kinds of things:

a) Online purchases – If, say, you've done a lot of online buying recently (cough, cough — great sales, I swear!) — then this can be handy to remember what you think is arriving in the mail, as well as by when. (Or am I the only one who returns home sometimes to be surprised by a delivery of clothes I hadn't remembered ordering?)  If I remember, I'll also add “return by” dates as separate to-dos… and if I actually do return something I try to generally ballpark a date (yet another task) by when I should have received the refund on my credit card.

b) Group Coupons – If you're a fan of the group-buying sites, it can be a total pain to remember what restaurants / spa treatments / etc. you've got discounts for, and by when those coupons/vouchers/discounts expire. Enter Remember the Milk… I just throw everything in the bucket and it reminds me what deals are about to expire, by when. (If you're curious what group-buying sites I'm a member of (and want invite codes), click here — there are so, so many! And really good deals. (In fact, the deals are SO good that Business Insider recently(ish) opined that “there are now so many daily deals for these services that anyone who lives in a major city and pays full price for a massage is being lazy and financially irresponsible.”))

c) Expirations – I blogged about this before, but I really do use it to remind myself of expirations — just in the past few months I've been reminded that some prescription eye drops went bad, and that I should really use that quinoa I bought a zillion years ago. (I made a ton of “pork-fried rice” with it, using healthier ingredients, and froze it for later eating.)

d) Paperless Bills –  If, like me, you've switched a lot of your bills away from the paper statements (and, like me, you get a zillion emails a day and those reminders tend to get lost in the shuffle), this program can be really helpful. For some, it's because we forget to pay them without the reminder (like, say, my husband's student loans); for others it's because we want to make sure we have enough money in the account for an automatic payment (like, say, the mortgage).

e) Blogging –  For blogging purposes, I also use it to remind myself of great things I've seen while shopping/researching something on line and might want to post about it later. (I've found that for this blog, most of the posts are difficult to write far in advance because a lot of the products sell out or have drastically reduced quantities by the time I see something, and I do make best efforts to blog about things with lots of sizes in stock.) (It's also a good “test” — I liked it then, do I like it now also?)

In terms of HOW I use it — I tend to type one sentence reminders in the text box, trying to remind myself of two dates: the date the item ACTUALLY expires, and the date I want to be reminded of it. So I'll type something like this:  “use Scoop Street 50% off coupon at B. Smith's near W.46 – expires 10/30/2011 – due 9.1.2011”  — it reminds me of the important things (which site I have to go to for the voucher, where the restaurant is, when the coupon expires, and when I want to be reminded of it. RTM will automatically convert that “due 9/1/2011” phrase to a deadline. (You can also say things like “due tuesday” or “due four tuesdays from now,” and the program will figure it out.)

Here's a screencap of my main page:

Readers, do you have a handy to-do program? How do you remember some of the dates/tasks I've outlined above?

The post How I Use Remember The Milk appeared first on Corporette.com.