Productivity Hacking: What Snake-oil Looks Like

This is the sixteenth post in a series on productivity1. This article adds to content from a workshop I led at The Makers Summit.

I took a few minutes this week to cull through a backlog of blog post ideas and found a few screenshots of what I call ‘productivity snake-oil.’

I’ve written at length about the fact that finding new productivity to use is counter to productivity2, but recognizing snake-oil ‘in the wild’ is helpful because, well, companies are spending lots of money to convince you their product is a balm for your to-do-list pains.

Continue reading Productivity Hacking: What Snake-oil Looks Like


1. You can read the story behind this blog series and find links to all of the resources here.2. You can read my post called “Myths of Productivity: Finding the Right Tools,” here.

A Few Photos of Clouds

It’s been quite a while since I picked up my camera. I used to be an avid photographer, but the backlog of photos to process became so oppressive that I lost motivation to shoot when faced with the idea of adding more to the pile. Leading up to a recent addition to our family, though, I spent a few months chipping away at thousands and thousands of photos, knowing that there was a huge amount of pending demand from mothers-in-law for cute baby pictures.

It’s been fun to take pictures again. Just the other night I went out onto our porch and the clouds were a stunning contrast of color. I grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots, then tinkered around with a few different edits in Lightroom (a program I’m still learning). If, for some reason, you’d like the full-res versions (for a desktop background, etc.), you can download the full-res photos in a .zip file.

2016-08-27 Clouds and colors 01.jpg Continue reading A Few Photos of Clouds

Productivity Hacking: Notifications as Distraction-by-Default

This is the fifteenth post in a series on productivity3. This article adds to content from a workshop I led at The Makers Summit.

In college I had a professor who, for many years, held an executive position at one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. Everyone loved his class because theory collided with decades of experience and practical advice.

Several lessons he taught us probably skimmed the surface initially because of our lack of age and experience, but, looking back, were they were extremely valuable bits of wisdom that I wish I’d paid more attention to. One story I’ll never forget. As he rose in the ranks at the agency, my professor had made a promise to his family: “no matter when or where or what meeting I’m in, if you call and ask for me, I’ll be available to you.” The man walked out of the most important meetings with the most important clients to take calls from his family.

I’m not such a luddite that I would exchange the powers of modern communication and technology for an age of landlines and secretaries, but part of me envies a clear way to separate signal from noise (if these three people contact me, answer, always).

Continue reading Productivity Hacking: Notifications as Distraction-by-Default


1. You can read the story behind this blog series and find links to all of the resources here.

Facebook, Photos, Privacy and Parenthood

This upcoming week is a big one for me and my wife: we will welcome our first child into the world. As you might know (or would expect), there are a myriad of ways becoming a parent challenges the way you think about the world you live in. When we first found out we were pregnant, one thing that surprised me was how uncomfortable I felt about photos of our child being posted on social networks.

Continue reading Facebook, Photos, Privacy and Parenthood

Quick Takes: Humans Beat Robots at Mercedes

Headlines about big data and algorithms as the infrastructure for modern companies seem commonplace in a world being eaten by software. I was surprised, then, to run across an article titled Pink slip for robots4. Here’s a brief summary:

Continue reading Quick Takes: Humans Beat Robots at Mercedes


1. You can read the entire article, Pink slip for robots, on World Magazine’s website.

Quotes from the Team at The Iron Yard

Over the last few weeks I’ve been culling through a gigantic pile of links, articles and ideas that I’ve saved up for this blog. One of the files contained quotes from team members at The Iron Yard (the company I help lead). I’m not exactly sure who said what or when, but I do know that I copied them from Slack or other internal tools.

Continue reading Quotes from the Team at The Iron Yard

Quick Takes: Do Stores Benefit from Offering Cash Back?

Being asked if you want cash back at a grocery store or convenience store is one of those experiences you don’t really question—it’s just part of the normal shopping experience at many places. I couldn’t help but think, though, that there had to be more to the story than only convenience for the customer. There’s no fee collected by the store and it’s likely most of the competition offers the same service, so what’s in it for the store? I had a few theories, but decided to figure out what was happening behind the scenes.

Continue reading Quick Takes: Do Stores Benefit from Offering Cash Back?

Context for Quantity in Online Reading

In 2014 I wrote about the problem of ‘quantity perception’ that many online reading interfaces present. Here’s an excerpt:

Many formats (or interfaces) through which online copy is delivered make judging the amount of content difficult. Simply put, indicators of quantity (or length) are vague and inconsistent. In many cases, the scroll bar is our most commonly available point of reference…

Continue reading Context for Quantity in Online Reading