Steve was know for his extreme focus that could at times come off as being harsh. But being a business owner myself, I know that focus. You are there in your head. It is so present with you, that ANYTHING else seems trivial and almost irritating. So there I was standing there as the doors were opening, terrified and exhilarated when I saw his face for the first time in person. And what did I receive? A smile, it was a kind smile. Not the tyrant that I had heard people speak of. And in that moment, it was as if I had met a kindred spirit. Someone who wasn't willing to sacrifice or make themselves subservient to anyone or anything else. A person with DRIVE. 

My favorite quote of his is, "I'd rather be a pirate than join the Navy."

I've lived my life by that non-conformist viewpoint. I've been out there on the bleeding edge of technology ever since 1984 when I first saw the famous ad for Apple played at the Super Bowl. After seeing that advertisment, I told my mother that we HAD to have a Mac and my mother, being one of the most supportive people I have ever known, said, "OK, let's get a Mac."

I find it interesting that when Steve left Apple the first time, my heart left Apple. And it didn't come back until Steve came back. I took 7 years off and helped my husband build his network marketing business and then later my own. When the Apple stores started to open and things became rocky with my husband I, returned to Apple. So do I feel like I am leaving Apple again? No, I'll use Apple's products for the rest of my life, provided they stay true to his ideals and continue to break the rules of convention.

If you are wondering about those ideals, this is a great video to watch. So appropo for this moment. 

And so I leave you with this picture from a fellow techy @Scobleizer. The last known photo of Steve. A moment when he leans after standing tall and alone for so long. A moment to say, help me, comfort me, be with me. He deserves that comfort, if he were a warrior, we would have said he was valient. Forever, he has changed so many of us. Most people don't know that he was a Buddhist. I look forward to his reincarnation...

We're starting to see some good content develop and students are starting to share their comments and reviews. This really encourages us and drives us to bring you more great content. 

I just wanted to take a moment and say, "Thanks"

Marni "The MacAngel" Melrose

 "People think that we’re just being altruistic. No. If all you wanted to do was to make as much money as possible, as rapidly as possible, I would submit to you that this methodology is the best way to get there.” CEO Kip Tindell of The Container Store. 

Oddly enough being good does actually pay off. And isn't that what the great religions have been trying to tell us all along? I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did. 

 Source: Big Think

I've been attending the "Waking Up the Workplace" webinar series over the past few weeks. It has confirmed what I know to be true. If you allow a space for your staff to be fully who they are, they will be more dynamic, whole, and healthy. Oddly enough companies that allow their employees to be authentic dramatically outperform their competitors. *Source:  Firms of Endearment: The Pursuit of Purpose and Profit by Wolfe,  Sisodia & Sheth, 2007

Globally the world is becoming a much smaller place and so it is time that we evolve into global citizens. Tony Schwartz, who wrote, “The way we are working isn’t working” calls it an inflection point. Consumers are demanding it of companies now. Just take a look at Whole Foods, Patagonia, and the Container store, their rise is meteoric. People who work at these companies are fulfilled. They enjoy their environment and they feel like they are making a difference in the world. They are on fire. And to top it all off, they make great profits for their shareholders. It’s a win-win-win. 

I remember the days when Apple was such an uproar. It’s the only company I ever wanted to work for my entire life. Why? Because they were on the bleeding edge of this movement. I find it funny and yet perfectly logical now that they are one of the most highest valued companies in the world.

So how does Daylite fit into all of this? Most of our corporate business systems are rigid and don’t allow room for anything “personal”. That is the old guard. Old organizational patterns that aren’t in our best interest anymore. It’s not business as usual these days that moves the world, but business with soul that does. So why can’t our business systems match that? They can. By using some of the methods that I teach you can allow consciousness into your company at a fundamental level. Give it a space to live. Give your stakeholders a place in your business. Let your employees thrive. 

Now you really know the meaning of our motto, “Make your day shine.” 

I want to hear from you. What small changes are you making in your business to make it more conscious? What would help you in that effort? Has Daylite helped you already? 

Author, Tony Schwartz, who wrote, “The Way We Are Working Isn’t Working” said it best in a webinar I attended last week, “Technology is ahead of our ability to manage it.” Herbert Simon said  “a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” I could not agree with them more. There are so many things that fractionate our attention these days: instant messages, social media, SMS messages, and email. We are living in a world of urgency and it is stressing us out and overloading us. Now let me tell you why that is. 

I learned from Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D that your prefrontal cortex which holds your conscious mind is much smaller than the subconscious and is best suited for single tasks. Our subconscious minds are driving when we multitask. 95% of our actions are done completely unconsciously and the busier we get the more unconscious we become. When you multiply that into a corporate structure you get a company with literally “no one at the wheel.”

Over the last 8 years I’ve designed a system that brings people back to a point of presence. While helping them become calm and clear it also directs them into doing the best possible action both for the company and themselves at any given moment depending on the time they have and the context in which they are in. 

You might recognize some of those words from David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” or GTD for short. That is because the MacAngel Method is built on the foundations of collaborative GTD. It is an organization-wide task monitoring and direction system. While other applications advocate GTD, they fall short because most only handle tasks and some handle projects. David Allen said “A” trusted system. He did not say 3 different systems. 

I see a lot of people using GTD applications and wondering why their thoughts aren’t any clearer business wise. It’s because they can’t see everything in relation to each other. Therein lies the beauty of Daylite. I can see a task, the project it’s linked to AND the contact and the company and every interaction I have ever had with them, including the opportunity that lead us to this project. Now that’s real business knowledge that’s useful. 

For instance, I can sit down at my desk and I don’t have to even think about the thing I have to do next. I simply work through my lists until my day is done. So much of a person’s time is wasted on vacillation of what to do next or paralysis from being overwhelmed. With the MacAngel Method, you simply collect, process & organize, review and do; just like you do on in any GTD system. The difference is, you do it collectively and are guided by corporate goals. Imagine all of your staff moving at maximum speed towards your intended goals. That’s what we aim to deliver. 

So how would a day using the MacAngel Method look like? First thing in the morning all staff would collect items into Daylite from Apple Mail and other locations. They would process and organize it using categories and projects inside of Daylite. Review using groups in Daylite. And finally they would do the tasks on their lists. 

Let’s break that down a little more. 

Collect

Quickly go through each email and decide if it is an actionable item or if it is just for reference. You can do this easily with Mail Act-On by Indev Software. As actionable thoughts come to your mind throughout the day, quickly put them into the Inbox in Daylite. You can also do this with Social Media. 

Process and Organize

As you go through your email or your Inbox in Daylite, create tasks and categorize them appropriately. Put them in the timeline or hold them as someday tasks. Link the emails and tasks up to opportunities or projects if needed. Opportunities and projects can be created right inside of Apple Mail using Daylite Mail Integration. Defer or delegate tasks as necessary. 

Review 

Review your Upcoming, Due Today, In Progress, Deferred, Next Actions and Someday lists to get a sense of control of your day. If it is a weekly review day, check on your horizons of focus and business objectives groups. 

Do

Simply start at the top of your Due Today list and work your way down. Move on to your In Progress list, work your way down. Check on your deferred to see if anything has changed and can now be moved forward, if so put it into the schedule. Start working your way down your Next Actions list and if you get complete move on to your Someday list. At the end of the Day review your Done Today list and make any follow up tasks. 

Here’s a tip that helps me: In the middle and at the end of the day, I also collect and process my items again as invariably new information is coming in. Brian Robertson of Holacracy One calls this dynamic steering. Sensing and responding to changes dynamically. In between those times I am just doing, doing doing. I am serial tasking, not multitasking. All my attention is directly focused on the task at hand. I also split up my day into different times where I focus only on certain categories of tasks at the exclusion of all others. 

I really like the mental space this system gives me. Our clients like the increased productivity and performance of their staff also. You can see what they think at http://www.macangel.com/reviews

If you would like to start your journey with the MacAngel Method visit 

http://www.macangel.com/lesson/SetupMethod

WHERE:

1248 Third Street Promenade

Santa Monica, CA 90401

WHEN: 7PM-8PM

SUBJECT: I will be speaking about Daylite's role in business management. We will also be demonstrating Box.net cloud integration with Daylite.

WHERE 
2500 Hollywood Way
Burbank, California, 91505
1-818-843-6000

WHEN: 11am March 30th 2011

SUBJECT: I will be speaking about Daylite's role in business management. We will also be demonstrating Box.net cloud integration with Daylite. 

As a business owner, that is terrifying for me. But I can imagine for my client's who are law offices that it would be even more of a train wreck if they had important documentation in there. So this is yet another reason that maintaining control of your Daylite database or any data for that matter is a great idea.

Once I have processed my emails in Daylite, I remove them from Apple mail and clear it out, keeping the mail database small. My Daylite database is backed up every night and sent offsite. And multiple days of backups are offsite as well as on the internal server.

I use Box.net as my corporate file server and I am so happy that I was able to get into the beta of the Mac sync for box. Now I am not sweating so much myself. My point is that even though a cloud service has several redundancies themselves, don't be lulled into believing you don't have to be responsible for your own data. At the end of the day. It all comes down to you and if you experience data loss, it is no one else's fault but your own. I know that is a hard pill to swallow, but I think it is important to understand.  

A hybrid type solution like Daylite is going to prove far superior to counting on someone else. Also you will have a lot more relevancy because emails are linked to people, organizations, projects & opportunities. I can't tell you how many times I have come into a client and sat there for minutes while a client was hunting for information about a project inside of his email inbox. I break bad habits like that and Daylite helps them be more productive with their time. It's a good partnership. Those are my thoughts for the day. Now go back up that cloud data...

I will put a lesson in the academy on how I process email in Apple Mail and link it to Daylite later. When it is available, I will put a link to it here. 

In that article we talk about making sure your data is in the right place in Daylite so that you can pull it out where and when you need it. 

I shared how to make a quick business procedures manual in Daylite. So that your staff can look up business procedures without leaving Daylite. Every time someone leaves the database, it costs productivity time and a break in flow. 

I also talked about having your corporate minutes in the database for easy access and reporting later. I hope you enjoy the article. Leave your comments below if you want to chat about it.