If you’ve never given a presentation in the Ignite format: 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds each (read more about the Ignite format on O’Reilly’s website), I strongly urge you to – it will challenge you as a presenter and force you to be very succinct and practice quite a bit to stay with the timing. I’ve presented several Ignites in Italian this year, but this was the first one in English.

Here’s the video of my presentation:

Here are the slides of my presentation:

I used to be a die-hard Remember the Milk fan. Then I discovered Wunderlist.

What do I love about it?

• It’s everywhere I want to be. Check it out below: for your Desktop, iPad, iPhone, Android…there’s even a web version if I’m not near one of my devices.
• A neat and clean interface keeps me calm. I haven’t even changed the default wood background because it reminds me of a clean desk.
• Did you see I said desktop app? My browsers are such RAM hogs, I love not having to use my browser when I’m working from home and also keeping my lists available for those offline productivity sprints, too.
• It syncs, syncs, syncs. No matter what device I pick up (Android phone, iPad, computer) my lists are in sync.
• Some great drag & drop organization and quick views for upcoming deadlines.

What I hope to see in a future release:

Not too many criticisms here – I like the clean interface, the search capability, the print tasks, and unlimited lists and syncing. But one thing I’d really like to see is smart recognition of dates in the text (instead of manually selecting deadlines) and being able to set recurring events – pretty much my only gripe, and not that big of one!

Check out Wunderlist.

Disclosure: I’m not being compensated in any way for the thoughts and opinions in this post.

All the applications suggested are linked to their Android Market pages so you can check them out immediately – click on them! Here’s a direct link to Productivity on your Android Mobile – 10 Tips & 40+ Apps on Slideshare.

Did I leave one out? Let me know in the comments.

The way TextExpander works:
You insert a snippet, phrase, or entire text and then insert it into any program on your Mac (email, document, anywhere there’s text insertion) with a special character sequence shortcut that you decide on. My shortcuts are usually 2-6 characters long.

Here’s a peek into some of my snippets:

mysig = my work signature (how many times have you written yours?)
tx = Thanks
cmp = your company name

In addition, I have shortcuts for my email addresses (how about every time you log in somewhere or leave a comment on a site?), frequently-referenced URLs, and other email sign-offs like:

plm = Please let me know if you have any other questions.

But TextExpander is not just for short phrases. I have entire emails / predefined responses that can be called up with a short letter sequence (I think my longest one is somewhere around 500 words).

I used to keep a bunch of predefined emails in Google Canned Responses, but the interface is clunky and can get unwieldy if you have more than 15 or so. I often mistakenly overwrote them by clicking “Save” instead of “Insert.” And the truth is I’m not always in Gmail when I need those snippets.

How much time has TextExpander saved me? Luckily, I don’t need to wonder as they tell you directly in the app how much time you’ve saved. 10 hours of typing? Yes, please!

I definitely recommend checking TextExpander out (note: for Mac OS only). They have a free trial but I think it’s a wisely invested $34.95. If you don’t have a Mac, but have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get their TextExpander Touch app instead.

At the bottom are both the complete Italian and English slide decks in Slideshare in case you feel the need to share or embed them. There’s also a video of my presentation in Italian available.

The first few slides were information about me (in a nod to Italian national identity card design) and the company I work for, Automattic, which is obviously a huge inspiration for the presentation. I tried to extract the three main points and describe them independently of our company, and how they could be applied to any “new digital company.”

The first point is “Be distributed.” The subtext of this slide is that the definition of a company is changing: it is no longer an office, a set of desks, and meeting rooms. The company is how and where you make it, and having a distributed company is more appealing than ever.

Automattic is a distributed company, with 75 employees in 25 countries and 65 cities. The highest concentrations of employees is in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we have a Lounge that is not an office but an occasional event and meetup location. The second-highest concentration of Automatticians is in Sofia, Bulgaria (4).

Why should a company be distributed? As our CEO Toni Schneider said, “You can hire great people, wherever you find them,” allowing your company to grow organically where talent is to be found. The company receives applications from people all around the world, who would never have dreamed of applying if it weren’t a distributed company. Employees are not forced to move to a specific city with the company’s office and uproot their whole life in order to work for a great company.

Further still is the freedom a distributed company allows the employee to construct his/her work environment, from the location to the timing. The concept of: being in the office = productiveness is no longer applicable, and the flexibility allows the employee to work when they feel more productive, to take breaks when they aren’t, and experience other environments if desired. Of course, this has to be balanced with the demands of clients if the worker is client-facing, and also if the employee prefers to be around when the bulk of the company is online and tranascting business (many do, and adjust their schedules accordingly no matter what time zone they live in).

A subtext of working from anywhere and not working in an office is that proactiveness and managing one’s time becomes of utmost importance. (the photo is actually one of my colleagues’ photo – he often posts his interesting desks from wherever he is).

The second main point is “Be online.” Many companies feel that they are online because they have a website where they communicate about or sell their products and they’re present on a few social networks.

Be Online is about shifting the entire inner workings of the company to online – from discussions to decisions to documentation. Note: I don’t consider email online as it’s generally not consultable by others.

This is one of my favorite graphs which illustrates how a digital company can communicate internally – most of our communication happens on internal blogs, followed by IRC (a private company chat), Skype for personal, 1-on-1 communication, and a small percentage for email, which is mainly outgoing with clients.

Interviews, trial projects, and training all happen online, which reduces the need for in-person events, and it can mobilize a greater part of the company to participate since the geographic restriction is removed.

Here’s a picture of a traditional meeting – 6 people sitting around a table with computers open, dazed looks on their faces, and surely they’ve been in this meeting much longer than necessary.

Our meetings, when we actually have them, look more like this – different parts of the world connected by Skype for brief moments. Thanks to Skype video we see each other, too, but our team meeting is once a week and more about talking about things we didn’t discuss online and generally hearing how everyone is doing, outside of work, too. It’s more of a human meeting than one with action items, and we try to keep it short, just 30 minutes. Everything else is a non-meeting.

The third point is “Be Transparent.” Transparency plays a big role in a distributed company because physical distance between employees becomes less important than the distance between the employee and the information they need to get their job done, including the discussions and decisions I mentioned before.

Our internal blogs are broken down into teams, cross-functional projects, and also watercooler blogs which are outlets for us to chat and have fun, too. They serve not only as an intranet & knowledge, but they are our primary communication tools.

This works because as I mentioned before, discussions and decisions all happen ON these tools, and if a decision is made on IRC or in email, the decision is brought back to the blogs so there’s a record and further discussion can happen – the blogs remain the de facto place where decisions happen. If you have all these tools available but people revert to email for a decision, email will be the functioning tool.

All of these blogs can be accessed by any of the employees, no matter what their current projects, team or interest. If a systems team member wants to follow the design blog because they are interested and/or have something to contribute, they can.

The nature of these blogs means that all the content is searchable, available real-time, documented, and basically all those things I mention on the slide.

I think the results are obviously more important – it creates a collaborative environment where discussions can happen in real-time, from any part of the company, and results in a lot of distributed ideas, instant diffusion of information, and the ability to contribute at any level. The downside of having all this information is that it can be too much noise but there are a lot of ways to combat this including limiting one’s subscriptions to only the most applicable blogs, filtering messages and content based on keywords, and receiving alerts any time your name or a keyword you follow (like your product or team name) is mentioned on any of the blogs.

Of course, I couldn’t help but pimp the fact that we use WordPress to power these blogs, and not only WP but a specific theme that enables frontend posting and comments are immediately expanded and visible (comparable to a Facebook or Twitter environment – the backend is of no importance to most contributors) – read more about the P2 theme here (hint: it’s free!) and how P2 changed Automattic.

A final way we keep up to date with what’s going on in the company are monthly Town Halls with the President of Automattic, Matt Mullenweg. Often special guests (other employees) are available and any employee has the power to ask a question and hear the answer during the transmission.

The last point in the New Digital Company is “Work Hard, Play Hard.” A distributed company means that individuals don’t often see each other, so when they do get together, it’s important to remember to enjoy being with each other as well as all the hard work you do when you’re not together. Many meetups are spent doing fun activities and working on short projects that are outside the normal work scope.

A few days after I gave my presentation at the Digital Communication Forum in Milan, Automattic posted on the WordPress.com more information about How WordPress.com is made, which includes information about how our distributed company works. You might want to check that out as well.

A video about how the P2 theme works that’s worth a watch:

Below, the files on Slideshare – in English:

The New Digital Company

and in Italian:
La Nuova Azienda Digitale

I won’t replicate the article here (here’s Google Translate for an entertaining English translation) but one thing I will share:

Is there a reason not to buy it?

In my opinion, I don’t think it’s a perfect solution, today. But you need to think of the iPad (and the iPhone OS in general) as an organism that is continually developing and improving and therefore is becoming more interesting every day.

WhenI bought my iPad, it didn’t take long for me to get up to speed with it. If you’ve ever used an iPhone or iPod Touch you’ll be instantly familiar with its interface and special functions.

I wanted to add some quick thoughts and feedback after having an iPad in Italy for more than a month. Note that the iPad has been released in Italy only on May 28th.

• I’m still not comfortable using it on public transportation.

As a woman using public transportation every day in a city where safety is not a guarantee (a woman was raped a few hundred yards from my house), I’m hesitant to pull out the iPad on the metro unless I’m pretty much alone. Sometimes when I’m reading out in public I disguise it behind one of those free newspapers. I suspect this will ease after the iPad comes out in Italy (May 28th), and I can get a case that will make it less conspicuous.

• It’s the most interactive gadget I’ve owned, including my computer.

When I say interactive, I mean it morphs into what I need depending on where I am and especially who I’m with. It manages to involve the other person in a way no other gadget I’ve owned has done, which in part is due to the screen size, but also to the variety of features and applications available. I have yet to find a person whom I can’t excite by showing some fun things or how I’m productive using it.

• The speakers

I was expecting to have to use the device exclusively with headphones like I do with my iPod, but the speakers are pretty powerful. I watched a movie at home on it – we don’t have a television. I also listened to music in the office. It’s not a stereo system, but sharing music and giving a quick listen with friends becomes much more enjoyable.

• The screen

Yes, it gets filled with fingerprints easily, but I carry a microfiber cloth with me (to protect the screen in my purse) and in a few swipes, it’s clean once again. Summer is just now getting into full swing, so I’m curious to see how it will be at the beach. I often read with my iPod Touch at the beach by shading it. I don’t expect it to work in full sun, which is a negative, just like I don’t expect to read a paper book in the dark (whereas I can read on the iPad in the dark).

Some side effects

• I stopped pulling out my Moleskine for quick notes.

A lot of times I wrote in my Moleskine for ideas and designs, and then transferred a more organized or final version into a presentation or email. I find that I’m using the iPad more and more an enhanced note-taking device.

• I’m reading fewer books.

Since the introduction of the iPad, things have gotten worse for the ebook market. Prices have gone up, availability has been reduced across the popular ebook sites and many apps available on the iphone are still not available on the iPad which means those books I bought can’t be read on the iPad. Most iPhone apps can be enlarged for use on the iPad but text is one of the things that suffers the most. The only two apps ready for the iPad in this moment are iBooks and the Kindle app. Stanza, a popular app used to read ebooks and is owned by amazon is still only available for the iPhone. Update: Stanza was released for the iPad on June 3.

• I play more games in dead times.

I’ve never considered myself a gamer but with the iPad I am definitely gaming more – I play a quick game of air hockey with a colleague or 10-pin bowling by myself when I just want to let off steam. This point is a direct consequence of the above point. In the past when I might have opened up the latest book I was reading, now I might play a quick game.

• I make more playlists on the go.

One of the things I didn’t like was the On-the-Go function that small screen, and searching for a particular artist or song took forever. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Now the iPod function is almost exactly like the iTunes experience – I can do a quick search in my library to find an artist, keyword or song title, and make an instant playlist. I can edit playlists very easily with just a few taps.

• The iPod Touch screen seems really, really small.

After using the iPad for a few weeks, I sometimes go back to my iPod Touch to read some books with apps that aren’t available for the iPad yet, and it feels very small, something I never noticed before.

The List.

Also known as The “Stuff I Want to Do Before I Die” List. A Life List. Some may call it a Bucket List, but my List has been around since before the movie.  I never thought it was such a strange thing to have a Life List until I realized most of my acquaintances don’t have one. I started writing my list in 1999.

We are never too young or too old to be constantly thinking about our goals and what we could be pushing ourselves to do. There are times when you should power down, relax, and enjoy the moment. But between those times, you should be moving yourself forward. Feel free to change directions, turn around, or even sit down and rest, but your actions should be focused on movement.

I’ve never understood people that are ok with “seeing what happens tomorrow.” It is true that eventually life will change you and your circumstances whether you want it to or not, but often if you’re ready with your own plans, you can influence or direct the change yourself.

So back to The List.

What’s in the list?

The short answer is: whatever you want.

Want to…be trilingual? Published in a magazine? Jump from an airplane? Shake the President’s hand? Visit every continent on the planet? Visit the moon? Eat local for 6 months? Own your own business? Sing jazz in a club? Graduate from law school? Adopt a child? Be debt-free?

It’s completely up to you.

How to Start:

I used to keep my Life List in a document on my computer, but now I keep it in a Google Doc online, so I can access wherever creativity strikes me.

So get out that clean sheet of paper, crease open that brand new Moleskine, load up that pearly white Google Doc.

Go on, I’ll wait.

Ready?

Some tips for The List:

• Think big, think tall, write it all. Brainstorm. Who’s to judge what is a good goal and a bad goal? Here’s a hint: not even you. Before you hesitate to write something down because “it’s unattainable” “it will never happen” “it’s a stupid idea” – write it down. There are two sides of you: the rational you, which we’ll engage later to accomplish some of these goals, and there’s the dreamer you. Let your dreamer enjoy themselves a little with your List. After all, it’s your life. Write it all down. Don’t judge your ideas right now.
• If you can do it any afternoon, it doesn’t belong here. Unless it’s a small effort that constitutes a lifestyle change, like taking the stairs everywhere for a year, or drinking a glass of water every day for a month, or writing 2 pages longhand every morning for 6 months, etc., it probably doesn’t belong on your list. This is not a grocery list or the day’s to-do list. It’s goals, it’s dreams, it’s accomplishments, it’s pride.
• It needs to be measurable. You should be able to recognize when you’ve actually accomplished the item on your list. “Read more” or “be kinder” or “lose weight” are not specific enough, and are definitely not measurable. Give yourself a specific goal so that you can make it easy to identify the goal when you get there.
• Number them, order them…who cares? Don’t feel the need to order, group or prioritize your List – that’s not what the List is about. That comes later, when you face your fears and start to really attack an item on your list. For now, just let your imagination run wild. I put the date that I added them to my List – I like to look back and see when my bursts of creativity hit me, and also know how long something stays on my List before I accomplish it.
• Make growing your list a priority. Perhaps not as obvious as accomplishing your goals is making sure you have some! The List needs to constantly grow. When you’re first starting, I suggest adding “Add 2 things per month to The List” as a goal, and that will force you to think about it and make it grow.
• Talk to your friends and family about The List. While I am definitely not recommending you make your List public, talk to your friends and family about the fact you have The List. Perhaps share 1-2 goals with them that are not too personal. Engage in talking about your dreams and about having goals with everyone! You’ll see that new inspiration as well as encouragement will come out of it. Dreaming is contagious.
• When you accomplish something, don’t remove it. Date it. The List is not only about your future goals, but it should also be a reminder of what you’ve done and to motivate you to keep accomplishing. Once you achieve a goal, don’t just regale it to your memory – put a date on it, so later you can review some of your accomplishments when you need to.

Want to see some examples of some Lists?

I think peeking into someone’s Life List is a little like giving someone a sponge bath before you even shake their hand – you get a very intimate look into what some of their goals, desires and fantasies are in an instant. Luckily, a few have shared their life lists with you, so you can get that intimate look, and some inspiration for your own Life List.

• John Goddard’s Life List

Calling himself the “World’s Greatest Goal Achiever,” he definitely has some interesting things on his List he created when he was only 15…and he’s crossed a lot of them off!

• Mighty Girl’s Life List

Living in public? Why not share your entire List, blog about what you accomplish…and even get sponsored to fulfill your Life List? That’s Mighty Girl’s job.

• Nicole is Better’s Life List

Nicole wants you to know how she’s progressing with her Life List and hopes you’ll give a small donation to help her on her adventures. She’s got some really fun items on her List.

Need some inspiration for populating your Llistist?

• The New York Times’ explores Life Lists
• MSNBC talks about Life Lists
• Life Lists of Cool People I know (no, I don’t know them)
• Smithsonian’s 28 Places to See Before You Die—the Taj Mahal, Grand Canyon and More
• Travel & Leisure Travel Life List
• A very comprehensive guide to creating a Life List
• 1000 Places to See Before you Die – the book
• 50 Things to do before you die – Matador Network
• Forbes 10 Things to Do before you Die

Do you have a Life List? Tell me how you fill it up and check it off!

Image by koalazymonkey / CC BY 2.0

Here’s some of the articles I’ve written in January – I hope you enjoy them. Let me know!

• The Stats of Life – What is it about statistics that makes a geek jump for joy? I talk about some great sites to start collecting, organizing and analyzing your life’s statistics

• The New Age of Patronage – Centuries ago, patronage referred to the act of kings or important figures like the Pope sponsoring artists or musicians for the creation of their art. Now, we all can be patrons, with small money but without inauguration. A great site that puts patrons close to the arts is Kickstarter.com.

• Google Wave - Google Wave has introduced a ripple in the way we collaborate. Six months ago, when it was previewed, it seemed like a very intimidating service with the promise “to communicate and collaborate in real time.” I talk about the differences between Wave, email and wikis, and some suggestions to get you started using Wave.
  

• The Internet in Times of Tragedy – The Internet has changed us profoundly, from how we seek information to how we react in times of tragedy. Especially in the wake of the Haiti earthquake, we have more options and ways to react. Here are some of them.

• Apple, our modern-day oracle? – When Apple makes a move, it sends shock waves in every direction. Why do we feel the need to speculate on what Apple’s doing? How Apple’s moves affect our hope and imagination about the future.

• Ebook Format War: There Will Be Blood - There is a war going on. A war for a format. And until there is a universal format for ebooks, the consumer will be the first to lose. But many companies will lose, too. An update on the war for a universal ebook format.

• Solving the Babel Problem – Translation services are trying to make the citizens of the world just a little bit closer – If we can’t have a universal language, Google Translate wants to make communicating as seamless as possible.

• Tackling Indecision: Automate Destiny – Sometimes the most difficult thing about making a decision is not the result, but the process of making it. These decision and recommendation websites like Hunch.com, Yahoo! Answers, Let Simon Decide and Vark.com want to take the place of your best friend in the decision-making process.

Image by thetrial / CC BY-ND 2.0

These are the pillars of how I organize my day:

• GTD Inbox
• Task Lists
• Info Dump/Tickler

If you haven’t heard of the “Getting Things Done” method by David Allen, or GTD by those that know and love it, it’s definitely worth checking out. It bills itself as a “The Art of Stress-free Productivity.” The book goes into a lot of detail about the method and how to apply it to your life. A lot of detail.

I don’t follow the GTD method to the letter, but I do employ several of the fundamentals of the method. The GTD Inbox is one of them.

GTD Inbox

It’s inevitable that you’ll have multiple email addresses, or use filters to redirect or route important emails so that they get the attention they deserve. I actually use one address for all my online signups / accounts and newsletters so that I can separate notifications and newsletter/promotional mails more effectively from personal correspondence, and I use some other addresses for other specific reasons.

I prefer to have a “Zero Inbox” when dealing with email. That doesn’t mean that I won’t have unanswered emails, but I use a filtering method to check all my incoming mail and decide what’s best to do with it and move it immediately out of my Inbox (or various incoming mailboxes).

The GTD method tells you to immediately answer anything that will take less than 2 minutes to respond to, and to not put it off. Emails that don’t need an answer get archived immediately, and any emails that require a response or further action on my part before I can respond get filed into my “ACTION” tag/folder.

Thus my Inbox looks like this:

• 1-ACTION - emails that require a response on my part or require me to do something so that I can remove the email and archive it. I added the “1″ so that the folder will always be at the top).
• 2-HOLD – the GTD method can also call it WAITING – emails that I need an answer to, or information from that person that is keeping me from completing another task (i.e., task: pay invoice. I sent an email asking for the invoice (ACTION) but I’m still waiting for a reply (HOLD)). It’s important that you don’t put every email you’ve replied to here, but only ones that are necessary or blocking you from completing another task, AND you’ve already done your part in providing info/responding.
• Archive: Thanks to advanced email search, you really don’t need to tag, star or put your emails into multiple folders, in my opinion – a full-text search is sure to find the information you’re looking for in a few seconds. All my answered emails get archived. Emails I don’t need to reply to get archived. Emails that have been too long in my ACTION folder get archived.

Task Lists

One of my favorite things growing up was making to-do lists on these 1/2 size yellow pads. I think my family bought them at Costco so it seemed that there was always one around but I’m sure we had to refill them multiple times.

Making lists for me is crucial because it’s a key component for visual brainstorming – you can break down a task into approachable bytes and bits that can be accomplished quickly, delegated or investigated as necessary. I can write everything down before I have to filter, judge or prioritize ideas and items.

There are so many choices to manage lists it can get confusing. There are any number of list management tools online and offline. I prefer to do my task-list management online now, because I find it’s easier to re-organize, move and add/change additional information and metadata like due dates, relative URLs (when’s the last time you wrote down a long URL in a notebook?) and typing it out is usually quicker than writing it.

I use Remember the Milk online and offline (“offline” with my Apple iPod Touch and the RTM application – requires a Pro account). It has many features and can interact with Twitter as well as your Google calendar and receiving tasks via email.

I have my lists broken down into sub-lists/groups per website, organization, event, etc., plus “MIT” – Most Important Tasks and “Up Next” – upcoming tasks lists as a way to focus my most important activities of the day and near future. GTD is a big proponent of having a Most Important Task to get done that day, so it should be accomplished within that day or in a time frame that you decide. It’s a good way to get re-focused after a break or if you feel a bit overwhelmed with all you need to do. If you complete your MITs for the day, at least you’ll have accomplished something!

My “Up Next” are things that I think will become MITs soon, just in case I finish my MIT list and have some time to do some more tasks or want to get a headstart on something.

Info Dump – Tickler

One of the things I like most about GTD is the emphasis on the brain/info dump – get it out of your head, so you’re not thinking about it, and therefore you can get back to attacking your projects and tasks.

I consider my info dump “Tickler” the most important part of my organization system. While it’s technologically basic, and requires no special software or skill to enact, it is a practice that needs to become ritual.

The crux of the info dump-tickler is to get ideas out of your head to a holding or evaluation place, and then return back to the most important tasks of the day. I can’t stress how much this practice of consistently writing down ideas in a safe place when they come to you can free up some of those critical brain cycles.

I keep something close at hand at all times so that I can get things out of my head as soon as possible – into my online list management (RTM), into my iTouch Notes or into my Moleskine. I always add these offline ideas to my online lists later or at the end of the day.

If an idea comes to me that is related to a specific project, it goes into that task list. But often I find the most disruptive ideas I get are orphan, spontaneous new ideas that are just plainly that: ideas or glimpses into the future. Buy this domain, start that project, email this person, invent this, improve that this way…These are the types of ideas that can really occupy your brain for fear of losing it.

I put these “orphan” ideas into what I call my “Tickler” list – a list of things I haven’t started yet (or perhaps will never start) but they are worth noting and returning to later when I have a little extra time or I am searching for inspiration. The existence of my Tickler list also allows me to stretch my imagination a bit, knowing that whatever I come up with won’t be lost but will be addressed later.

Working the Components Together

The key to the task lists, info dump and processing your emails is of course systematically checking your lists and email systems so that you can regularly modify, accomplish and change your priorities.

GTD suggests a weekly review of all of your projects and priorities to see what’s going to be a future priority, further define tasks that seem vague and/or stuck, and of course, delve into the Tickler to find some new inspiration and projects.

Resources

• Remember the Milk
• Gmail’s Task List feature
• Moleskine notebooks
• Todoist.com online list management

So there you have it! My Holy Trinity of Organization. How do you stay organized?

image by Uwe Hermann