Category Archives: Productivity

4-Stage System for Learning Anything New

09/25/2025 Mark J Leave a comment

Check out this article: My 4-Stage System for Learning Anything New

Stage 1: Immersion
* Subscribe to newsletters
* Follow (and read/view) thought leaders
* Reallocate time away from other/older interests

Stage 2: Building – Make Something Real
* Set a short deadline (one day to one week maximum)
* Choose a simple, concrete project
* Accept that it will be messy and imperfect
* Focus on completing something, not making it perfect

Stage 3: Structured Learning – Find Your Mentors
* Instead of trying to learn from everyone, pick just 1-3 people max to treat as your mentors.
* Choose teachers based on results, not popularity

Stage 4: Connection – Build Real Relationships
* Learning becomes exponentially more powerful when you’re part of a community of practitioners. And when you become a leader who brings others together, you accelerate not just your own learning but everyone else’s, too.

Secret Ingredient: Cultivating Play in Learning
* The beautiful paradox is that when we stop taking learning so seriously, we often learn more effectively

The Hidden Truth
* Most interests are meant to be explored for a season, not turned into lifelong pursuits
* The real test of any skill isn’t how you feel about it—it’s whether you can produce externally verifiable results in the real world
* Give yourself permission to stop at any stage
* If something doesn’t spark continued interest after Stage 1 or 2, let it go without shame. That’s not failure—that’s efficient filtering

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself.

Productivity

25 Productivity Tips and Hacks That Actually Work

06/04/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Listen to/watch the video for details on all the below items, but this is a great list!

Be proactive about being productive
Outsource the Small Stuff
Batch Similar Small Tasks
Don’t Watch Too Much TV
Focus on the 80/20 Rule
Never Sit Down Without Knowing What You’re Going to Work on
Time-Block Activities
Wake Up Earlier
Don’t Multitask
Stop Paying Attention to the News
Have a Dedicated Work Space Free of Distractions
Focus on Being Effective, Not Just Efficient
Sharpen You Ax
Say No a Lot More – “Every yes is a no to your wife and kids”
Reduce Social Media Usage
Shorten Your Deadlines
Review Your Goals Regularly
Don’t Anwer Your Phone
Do What You Love
Find More Ways to Get into Flow
Moderate Your Screen Time
Hire a Coach
Join a Mastermind Group
Track the Things that Matter
Get Really Good at What You Do

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Disclaimer: Thoughts and opinions are my own, and do not reflect the views of any employer, family member, friend, or anyone else. Some links may be affiliate links, but I don't link to anything I don't use myself.

Productivity

Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Advice

03/05/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

It may seem ridged but I like the concept of how this guidance would help instill discipline while also establishing a routine with good intentions. Note also that it doesn’t say there is no possibility of deviation, but that changes should be highly considered before hand – perhaps by talking it through with someone more experienced and wise.

Alexander Hamilton’s Deep Advice – Study Hacks – Cal NewportPlease remember to subscribe to the newsletter or feed to stay up to date!

Productivity

Email Bookmarklets

01/26/2018 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Ever want an easy way to email a webpage to yourself? Maybe it’s to send it to your task list, or just to share with a co-worker? Of course there are extensions for most browsers to do this, but if you would prefer a bookmarklet that doesn’t require any installation, here’s how to do it. This is the basic link structure…

javascript:document.location='mailto:?subject='+document.title+'&body='+escape(document.location);

Or, for simplicity sake, just drag and drop this link into your bookmarks bar… Email

Of course you can go wild and start customizing the URL to your hearts content. Set a value after the “mailto:”, or maybe even a CC. For example…

javascript:document.location='mailto:me@here.com?subject='+document.title+'&cc=you@there.com&body='+escape(document.location);

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Productivity

The ONE Thing – Ep. 50 – Work-Life Balance: It Starts With Your Mindset – with Gene Rivers

11/05/2017 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

The ONE Thing – Ep. 50 – Work-Life Balance: It Starts With Your Mindset – with Gene Rivers

You can find all my shares on my Facebook PagePlease remember to subscribe to the newsletter or feed to stay up to date!

Productivity

The ONE Thing | Ep 83 – Why Accountability Starts By Looking in the Mirror

10/20/2017 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

The ONE Thing (Ep 83 – Why Accountability Starts By Looking in the Mirror | Geoff Woods):
The ONE Thing | Powered by Produktive: Ep 83 – Why Accountability Starts By Looking in the Mirror | Geoff Woods

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Productivity

15 Productivity Tips That Are Weird But Work (TPS165) – Asian Efficiency

10/16/2017 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

The Productivity Show | 15 Productivity Tips That Are Weird But Work (TPS165):
15 Productivity Tips That Are Weird But Work (TPS165) – Asian Efficiency

You can find all my shares on my Facebook PagePlease remember to subscribe to the newsletter or feed to stay up to date!

Apps, Productivity

Toodledo: Rekindling an old flame

08/01/2017 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

Many moons ago there weren’t a lot of options for good web based task management systems. Being the nerd I am I tried a few and fell fast for Toodledo. Not because of it’s pretty face, or exotic sounding name, but because it does just about everything and more.

But, time moved on and I couldn’t get my wife to understand and appreciate this fling (that, and the collaboration functionality is a paid feature). So, to make peace we decided to use Wunderlist (i.e. it was the only one I could get her to use) which was great for a time, but then it was bought out by Microsoft, the site started getting slow, and the announcement was made that they would pull the plug and force everyone over to their new todo app (which to date doesn’t have a fraction of the features of Wunderlist).

So, lost in the woods and dragging my tail between my legs I logged back into my Toodledo account after being gone for too long. There was the fast, no-nonsense, easy to use task system I loved from the beginning. And new features had been added since I ran off in the night like lists and habit tracking.

Now, I’m back in love with the features that are sorely lacking or overly burdensome in most of the task management systems available. Things like start dates, start and due times (yes, imagine that – things need to be started or completed at specific times), duration planning, timers, priorities, status, and so much more! Add in the ability to create custom saved searches and it’s the engineers dream.

In addition, with the new habit tracking feature there’s one less app that I need on my phone, and because Toodledo “gets it”, the functionality is also available on the web and in the app.

In the end, if you’re tired of feeling like a sad sack with your trailer trash task management system that only lets you track tasks, and due date, and maybe a description I would strongly suggest you check out Toodledo and start up a new flame!Please remember to subscribe to the newsletter or feed to stay up to date!

Productivity

Outlook Email Snooze

03/13/2015 Mark Jacobsen Leave a comment

If you’ve gotten used to apps that allow you to snooze your email (have it disappear from your inbox until the date you specify and then reappear) I just found this page which appears to be the perfect solution for implementing in Outlook.

Basically it consists of creating a custom view of your inbox w/ 2 filters set. One for Due Date not existing and the other where Due Date is on or before “Today”.

Hit up the full post for step by step instructions and screen shots.
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Misc, Productivity

The Single Easiest Habit Change to Improve Your Life Forever #1aDay

06/26/2014 Mark Jacobsen 1 Comment

This one thing has made a huge difference in my life. Find out about it by reading the full article herePlease remember to subscribe to the newsletter or feed to stay up to date!