Internet Business Productivity

Guy Kawasaki on Enchantment - Productive! Show #39

I got to talk to Guy Kawasaki a few years back the first time, when I was launching the Productive! Magazine - he supported my idea and tweeted about it several times. Then we did an interview for the Productive! Magazine #2 and it was a blast. Now that we're porting this old issue to our iPad app, I invited him to talk again and update us on what he's doing, here's our conversation:

(Watch it on Youtube)

Now Productive! Magazine #2 is not only available as PDF but also on our iPad app - get it for free from the App Store (each issue is free, as well)

Here's the cover of this issue:

And here's the link to Guy's new book, Enchantment on Amazon (affiliate).

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // video

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Posted (Thursday, 26 Jan 12)

Being mentored while mentoring

I just came back from Cracow (Kraków) where I participated in a great startup event called "Startup Weekend Kraków" (#SWKrakow). It was an amazing and humbling experience. I learned and taught. I was mentoring and was mentored. My head almost blew up. I loved it. Here's why it was such an important experience to me:

Being smart and knowing stuff

First of all, I think I know some stuff. I've been studying productivity for a long time now and I've been running Nozbe for close to 5 years now... and I've had my share of successes and failures along the way. Chances are, you are the same. You know stuff. It's good. It's great. But you hardly ever know enough.

Giving back

That's why I sometimes go to events like this - to give back to young wannapreneurs ("wannabe entrepreneurs") by engaging with them to help them succeed. It's a great experience and it's hugely important to my personal growth as a leader. That's why I decided to be a mentor in this event.

The more I know... the less I know...

That's the kicker - I know some stuff, but there is so much more I don't know. So much I haven't tried. There are simply so many mistakes I haven't made yet. That was the second reasoning for my going to this event - when I saw a line-up of mentors I knew I had to come - there were so many people smarter than me on the list I knew I had to give it a try and connect to at least some of them. The good things about our industry is that most of these guys are truly open and love to share. That's why there's no excuse not to try it.

When you mentor...

... you talk to young, energetic people and by connecting with them you get their freshness and spirit and give them what you consider "words of your wisdom" in return. You appreciate their ideas, try to get some sense into them and train your thoughts to re-evaluate the status quo. You give back what you've learned on one hand, and re-think your own ideas on the other. It's a fantastic and humbling experience.

When you are being mentored...

... you talk to guys who have been before to where you are now. They get your situation and share how they solved it in their case, they admit their mistakes and guide you to help you omit those. They are truly concerned about what you want to do and relate to it and want you to succeed.

It's important to constantly mentor and be mentored

This gives me both perspectives and helps me grow. Seriously, there's still so much stuff I don't know. In both cases I train my line of thought and learn new things. I don't say to the guys I mentor to "follow my advice blindly" and I'm not expected to do the same when I'm being mentored. The only real benefit is to challenge my thinking and to get me to think again. And then again. And then some more.

To grow and to help others grow.

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // business

Comments (3)

Posted (Monday, 23 Jan 12)

Why touch-typing is important - Productive! Show #38

Back on my Productive! Magazine web site I posted a new Productive! Show episode about... touch typing. The feedback has been amazing - I thought I was showing off a trivial thing and everyone would laugh at me, but it turns out only in the USA they actually make you learn touch-typing at school. In Europe they don't. I know in Poland they didn't.

Yet the benefits of touch-typing are amazing - more than 300% increase in speed of typing. The most amazing thing though is the fact that your brain no longer participates in typing - your fingers react to what your eyes want to see or your mind wants to type - your fingers type by themselves!

Here's the episode ~3 min:

Google "touch-typing course" or a similar phrase and you'll find apps and courses online - some are free, some are paid, but generally what you need is a lot of patience - if you practice every day, you'll learn it in a month or two. It's painful, but it's worth it - it's an investment.

For the record - I learned this when I was in college and I saw a friend of mine touch-typing away - I had to match his speed and now I do :-) So you can do it, too!

Did you learn touch-typing? Do you want to? How big was the speed increase for you?

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // video

Comments (0)

Posted (Thursday, 19 Jan 12)

Focus like Steve Jobs

I read the biography of Steve Jobs when it came out. I was really impressed. Not only with the contents of the biography, but also with the fact that I read it so quickly, although it was such a big book (600+ pages in hardcover, 2500+ pages on my iPhone's iBooks) - and I normally don't read - I listen to audiobooks. But it was my tribute to Steve Jobs so I did it. And when I did, the most important lesson that stuck with me later was how much focused Steve Jobs was. (Note: I originally wrote this article for the Polish startup portal, MamStartup - this is an enhanced version in English)

The biography by Walter Isaacson is quite controversial. And I admit there were parts I didn't like. The author seems not to have understood very well our world of computer geeks (and Steve Jobs was one definitely) and in my opinion he didn't investigate many aspects of Steve's decisions deep enough, although he had resources (and access to everyone) to do that. I believe the author was a little in Steve's "reality distortion field", but who can blame him :-) Anyway, thanks to this book a larger audience could learn about Apple's practices, it's craze about privacy and secrecy and the "Steve Jobs way".

The ultimate message was Steve's ability to FOCUS - to concentrate on just few things... and saying NO a lot.

This is the recurring theme of the book. Steve Jobs has an amazing ability to just focus on what excites him the most and leave everything else behind as irrelevant. When he was starting Apple and needed parts from HP, he called their CEO and got them. When he needed to get anything done, he'd just shut the world out, focus like a shark and go for it. He had no issue saying NO to people. Also with his company's product designs he always highlighted that the ability to say NO was the most important in his career.

When he got back to Apple in 1997 he had to say NO to a lot of things. He was horrified to discover that his company was doing too many products was pursuing too many projects. He started having interviews with project leads and shutting them down one by one. He was frustrated that they produced so many things and none of them were "wow" or "extraordinary".

He got really frustrated (and we know from the book that he can get very angry) and drew a simple 2x2 table with four empty spots and announced they'd be producing 4 computers from now on. That's right: FOUR. 2 desktops and 2 laptops (one for a consumer and one for a professional market). That's right - he reduced a huge company to just focus on 4 things. "4 amazing things" as he'd put it. And these kinds of decisions are a reason why Apple is doing so well now.

The history might seem trivial but just think about it - a guy leading a multi-billion dollar company that, although on a verge of bankruptcy, still has resources to build a whole array of proudest, must focus on only four. And not more.

The idea of FOUCS in startups and entrepreneurship in general

We, entrepreneurs or startup owners, have a big problem - we have lots of great ideas. We are very interested in our industry, we read lots of blogs, news sites and get engaged in many conversations with fellows like us. We exchange ideas, motivate each other and the more we go the more ideas to make the world a better place we can find. We tend to brag how many projects we've got going on, how many things we got started, how much stuff we've got on our plate...

That's cool. That's amazing... but that's all too much.

Just think about it - a big company like Apple at the end of the '90s was still hiring thousands of employees, yet they just focused on four products. And a startup or a small company, sometimes being just a few people (2-3 guys in a "garage") can be still developing a handful of projects at the same time. Why?

Instead of focusing on our MVP - Minimum Viable Product (a concept from a "Lean Startup method" by Eric Ries) and testing our one-and-only product out in the market to see if what we're working on really makes sense and putting all out heart into it, we already tend to think about translating our not-yet-published product to 10 languages, doing a few other projects on the side and getting hired for consulting jobs to pay the rent...

I know, life is kinda hard all around but I encourage you to try to say NO to these temptations. We should all embrace it and learn this hard lesson from "uncle Steve" and just make sure what we do is amazing. Focus on one product and make it really great. And I'm not just saying it. This is what I learned the hard way last year.

In my company we started many projects at the same time last year and we couldn't deliver them on time. We're just a company of 9 and we still had this idea that we can do many things at once and deliver them quickly. Well, finally we are shipping them but the backlog was killing us. I would like to say I learned my lesson... but I haven't. Just this month I had this roadmap of a new product I wanted to build and I was really excited about it. But I wanted to build it along building major releases of Nozbe (one of them is really a breakthrough - you'll see in a few months). Fortunately a conversation with one of my mentors reminded me of the power of FOCUS and I've downplayed the new project to our "internal project" and I'll be focusing on making sure we get the big Nozbe features done on time. You'll love them.

We changed our thinking in my company to "weekly reviews"

Now we do "Weekly Reviews" with each other in my company (I do them with my CTO and my Chief of Customer Support) to make sure we are focused, we do what's to be done and we deliver new features and ship new products as quickly as possible. We think big but make sure we stay on track and focus and police one another to keep our minds sharp and "on target". Our users keep on saying they want this, that or the other feature, but what they really want is a great product that helps them get things done - and we can't deliver this promise if we are not focused.

Are you focused like Steve? Are you going to be focused this year?

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // productivity

Comments (0)

Posted (Tuesday, 17 Jan 12)

I still prefer to have goals

I'm a big fan of Leo Babauta and I like reading about minimalism, simplifying life, de-cluttering homes and heck, I try to do the same with my life and I'm happy with my first results. But there is one thing these guys are preaching which I'm not comfortable with, which is the idea of a goal-less life - meaning to live without goals and just to do every day what you're most excited about.

Goals vs Habits

The no-goals proponents argue that it's more sustainable to build good habits instead of pursuing goals. That it's better to create a habit of daily exercise instead of pursuing a goal of "losing 10 kg this year".

I'm all for good habits. There are good habits and bad ones and I'm all for the building up the good ones. I like Leo's one-habit-a-month thing. Good habits are... good. But I disagree with the notion that when you focus on building habits you should disregard goals entirely.

Goal-less means aim-less

The problem I'm seeing with many entrepreneurs, startup owners/builders, students beginning their career or just people trying to get a job is the fact of how aimless many of them are. Sure thing, a goal of "I will be a partner in a major law firm by the time I'm 40" is a stretch and is a very lofty goal, but on the other hand "I will find a job that pays me big bucks now even if it's not something I'd put in my CV" is not a good idea either.

I see lots of people who have no career planning skills whatsoever and to plan your career you need goals. You can't just wake up in the morning and do what excites you the most... because if it's video-game-playing than it won't pay your bills... and if it's a shitty job but pays quite well (but in no way it's aligned with your career and personal development) you will lose your focus and will only have a short-term gain.

It reminds me of these dreadful articles of young student prostitutes who are paying for college by selling their body and say it's OK for now, and it pays better than other jobs... but they don't think about the long term effects such jobs will have on them.

Goal-less means short-term thinking, no big picture

That's what I'm getting at. Habits are long-term changes but going goal-less is short-term thinking. I prefer to have long term thinking. Sometimes you have to pay your dues to arrive at a better life. Going goal-less means you don't pay any dues.

I was always dreaming of running a successful startup company and now I do... but to get there I failed several times, had to work quite a few years doing consulting gigs to many customers (and some of them I didn't like) in the morning and working on my startup ideas at night, but it paid off.

My goal was clear and was long term. So I stuck to it, persevered and achieved it... and now I have new, bigger goals. Wasn't easy, but hey, it was worth it.

Another example - a person I know had a goal to be a lawyer in a top-law firm. To get there she went through internships in many law firms, but always made sure the new one was better than the current one. Sometimes the pay was good, sometimes it was lousy. The pay (short-term gain) didn't matter, her goal was to make sure each new job was better in terms of her personal development than the past one and she did get to the top eventually. Short-term gains didn't stop her from the long-term goal.

Goals help you think big and steer your decisions

When you have goals you align your thinking to them. You make decisions according to your goals. You're on a path of personal development. You plan your career the way you want it to be. Even if your goals change or you miss some of them, you can re-calibrate them later. The goals simply help you stay on your long term course. Even though the course can change, it's better to go with one than without it.

I just don't like the extremes. I like building habits and I like doing what excites me today. But I don't like going the extreme and can't imagine my life without goals and I will not encourage people to drop their goals. I see too many people aimlessly going through life, thinking short-term about their paychecks and next day rewards. Without clear goals it's hard for them to get anywhere in the long run.

I still prefer to have goals. And what do you think?

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Comments (7)

Posted (Monday, 9 Jan 12)

My 3 Words for 2012: Build, Ship, Disrupt

Just before the end of 2011 Chris Brogan sent a message to readers of his blog (and I'm one of them :-) to ask about our three words for 2012. Three words that will guide us this year. Later he posted his words on his blog. Before he did, I sent him this answer:

My three words for 2012: Build, Ship, Disrupt

Build

I'm about to build fantastic new features for my Nozbe as well as great native apps for it. And I'm going to focus on building a new product as well. So I'll be building two products at a time. I'll be also building a team behind them to make sure we can... build the products in the first place. I started as a one-man shop and for too-many years held on to having a very small team and not building a bigger team. I've grown now. In 2012 I'm going to build a team to help me keep building my Nozbe product and the new product. Lot's of building ahead of us.

Ship

This last year we've been trying to build as many things as possible with a very small team and without a good coordination. It was my fault for not managing it correctly. This way we didn't ship many things we promised we would. It's going to change in 2012. We're going to focus on shipping. On building one block of product at a time and shipping it to the customers. Quicker release cycles. 2012 for me will be all about shipping. Not just talking about shipping. We can't build great things if we don't ship.

Disrupt

With the things we want to build and ship I'm hoping to disrupt two markets - the productivity market (Nozbe's case) and digital publishing industry (the other, new product) - both products have a chance of making a dent in the universe and I'll try to make it happen. I believe we can really disrupt these industries even if we would do it in a small way. A change, or disruption, is likely to happen when people will be doing things a different way they've been doing it before. I believe we'll have a fighting chance to do that.

And what are your three words for 2012? Post them up in the comments and let me know why! Let's inspire each other for 2012!

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // business

Comments (2)

Posted (Monday, 2 Jan 12)

Why you should reconcile with old friends

It's after Christmas and we're all in a happy mood right now (hopefully) and we're even more hopeful for the upcoming new year. It's time for New Year's Resolutions (I call them "policies" and I wrote how to get them done earlier) and connecting with people we know and love... and reconciling with old friends. Yes, let's talk about that as it's really, truly important.

I got into nasty fights with very good friends several times in my life

Yes, I'm not proud of that. I'm a very optimistic and happy person but I'm also sometimes quite explosive and if I feel someone is doing something wrong against me, things can get messy. Usually the fights were about girls (when I was at school and in college) and money or ego (when I started my business). Usually I lost these friends and we never talked to each other again... until we did.

How did we talk again? Well, I had to go through these three steps:

1. Admit you were wrong as well

Even though that at the moment of the fight I was sure I was right... over time when analyzing the situation from a third perspective I realized the mistake was on both sides and I was also to blame. Yes, I realized I was with fault, too. If a major fight with your friend happens to you, too - you will realize this as well - it's virtually impossible that the fault lies only on one side. It never does... and move on to the step 2:

2. Be humble and apologize to yourself first

Next step is to apologize to yourself you were wrong. I realized I was stupid to throw away a valuable friendship because of thinking a person I trusted was a jerk and I wasn't... and the truth is we both were jerks and we both should've known better. Apologize to yourself for your pride and thinking you were right and the other side was wrong. Realize your mistake and move on to the final step:

3. Reach out and do it soon. Don't wait years...

Call the other person as soon as you've completed the step 2. Unfortunately for me I waited quite a while for some of my friends. In one case it took me about 4 years to call my ex friend. He didn't pick it up. I swallowed my pride again and recorded on his voicemail and said I was sorry, I respected him and I was hoping he'd forgive me for our fight. He called me back happy that I reached out. We laughed over our fight years back and met for a beer soon. Now we're great friends and we hang out on a regular basis. We trust each other again and hopefully we will fight again, but not with such consequences. Now we know better.

The other time my other friend reached out first. I swallowed my pride again and was happy he did. We're good friends again. So great.

That's it. Follow the 3-step formula. Don't hold your grudge and reconcile with your friends.

Think again. They were your friends before for a reason. Now it's the perfect time for a New Year's Resolution: reconcile with old friends and start 2012 with a great happiness boost of having old friends back as new ones again. Good luck!

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // life

Comments (2)

Posted (Tuesday, 27 Dec 11)

The Power of the Positive No by William Ury - book of the week

I'm a very positive guy and that's why I have issues being assertive. I have problems saying NO to people as I don't want to hurt their feelings and eventually I am the guy hurting. That's why I started learning how to be more assertive and I started with this book by William Ury.

A three step formula: Yes - No - Yes

The author explains that saying No ultimately boils down to saying Yes... and then saying No to say Yes once again. Here's how it works:

Step 1. Yes

When you want to say No - you want to do that because of your values and your beliefs. You want to firstly say Yes to yourself, to what you believe in and that's why you don't want to agree to what the other person is saying. So you start by saying Yes to your values.

Step 2. No

Deliver the bad news in a positive way. Because you want to stay true to your values, you simply cannot oblige and say yes to the proposal. It's that simple. You don't say No because of your contempt to the other party - you say No because of your inner Yes.

Step 3. Yes

This is they last key. You said Yes to yourself and because of that you had to say No to the request and now you're saying Yes to the relationship here and want to see if there is another, alternative option of reaching a mutual accord. Here you can directly suggest a new positive outcome that may satisfy both parties.

The trap of three A

The idea of Yes-No-Yes helps design a new, positive outcome, that will make sure you don't fall intro a trap of Accommodation (saying yes when you actually mean No), Attack (responding angrily and forcefully) or Avoidance (you simply don't do anything at all). This trap used to be my problem in many cases, usually in family situations.

The power of respect

There is a bonus lesson I learned from this book - the power of respect. If you show the other party you respect them, you can get through a positive No to a very powerful Yes together. This Yes-No-Yes system helps establish respect but you should always reaffirm the other party with your gestures and tone that you respect them. After all, we are all humans and have our story to tell. We all need and deserve respect. When I read this chapter I thought about our politicians and how they don't respect one another - how they show "in your face" that they think the other party is worth nothing. No wonder they can't reach any meaningful resolution nowadays...

Are you assertive? How do you handle saying No? Did you try a Yes-No-Yes formula in your life?

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // books

Comment (1)

Posted (Wednesday, 21 Dec 11)

Leading a startup should be like driving a modern car

I started my business as a one-man-shop. After a year, we were three - Tomasz, my current CTO and Delfina, my current head of Customer support department. Now we're 9. It's still a small team, but it grew from 3 to 9 in one year and that's already a big step for me. (I wrote this article originally in Polish, for the startup magazine Proseed)

When you're like me, starting a one-man-shop startup, it's really hard to change the mindset of me as a "do-it-all" or "know-it-all" to a guy who has to grow a company and delegate tasks to his peers. I still caught myself believing that this or that can be done better, if only my myself. It's a tough one, but finally I've found a great analogy that can beautifully describe this change and how this should be perceived by a startup leader.

Driving a car is just steering

Recently, when driving with my family, I realized that although I'm the guy behind the wheel, the driver if you will, it's not like I'm doing a whole lot. Well, I'm still the crucial part of the equation - as a driver I'm steering the car to the direction we're going and setting up the driving tempo. That's about it. The car does the rest of the stuff for me.

Modern cars take care of the rest

The cars nowadays have so many systems that do the work for you that it's totally amazing. I don't need to change gears, the automatic transmission knows exactly which gear it should be using at each moment in time. I don't need to turn on or off the headlights, the car does that for me. When it rains, the screen wipers take care of the incoming water themselves. When I'm on the highway, the cruise control is busy maintaining the speed I'm at so that my legs can rest. Oh, and there is always the navigation system that is optimizing my route to the destination.

Many people criticize this kind of approach. They say the driver cannot depend on all these systems because should they fail, he'd be in jeopardy. Well, yes, but these system do make my job so much easier.

The same applies to a startup and its leader

My job is to take care of the direction we're going and setting the tempo at which we're getting there. That's it. The rest of the stuff should depend on the "systems" meaning my team, people around me, and of course computer programs. Sure, things may go wrong (and they do!) and in many cases there are issues I'd deal with differently, but the ability to rely on my "systems" (i.e. team) helps me focus on what's important and on actually doing my job of running a startup company. Just like a driver typing in the destination in the navigation system, thanks to the people in my team, I can focus on finding our "next destination" and making sure we get there. Without the driver, the car would just stand still.

The modern driver is not afraid of the modern systems in his modern car. That's why a modern entrepreneur shouldn't be afraid of these in his company.

And what do you think? Do you tend to do-everything-yourself or rely on your support systems?

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // business

Comments (2)

Posted (Tuesday, 20 Dec 11)

21 must-have gadgets of a road-warrior

Christmas is coming along very quickly and many partners of us geeks have hard time finding new gadgets and toys for us as gifts this Christmas so I wrote this column for the Imagazine (in Polish) this month and here's the English version of it. In case your loved one is asking you what to get you this holidays, send them over this link :-)

These are the 21 things essential for me when I travel with my Macbook Air and iPhone:

1. Portable 2.5" Hard Disk Drive (WD 1TB)

My Macbook Air has "only" 256GB of SSD space, so when I need to work in iMovie on my Productive! Show or want to backup my Air when on a longer business trip, this drive does the job perfectly.

2. VGA Adapter

I'm traveling and giving presentations on conferences and I'm always prepared when something goes wrong. Sometimes they don't have a dongle (Mini-Display Port - VGA) for my Air but I have it on me.

3. Audio Cable (retractable)

Whenever I'm renting a car, chances are it doesn't have a direct iPod/iPhone dock but it does have and AUX in jack input. That's why I'm using this handy retractable audio cable to connect my iPhone to the car radio system and listen to my audiobooks when driving a rented car.

Most of the cables I have in my set are retractable. I hate it when a cable does not retract. In my opinion they shouldn't be making non-retractable cables at all. But I guess that's just me.

4. Audio splitter

Whenever I'm traveling with my wife, we tend to watch the same movie or listen to the same music or audiobook, so this audio-splitter comes in handy to share audio experiences together :-)

5. LAN cable (retractable)

Many hotel rooms offer LAN cable Internet connection and either a very poor Wi-fi or hardly any Wi-fi at all. That's why I need this cable to connect to my laptop directly or to my Airport Express router (#10).

6. LAN USB Ethernet card

Macbook Air doesn't have a LAN network adapter built in and that's OK, but when I need to connect to the LAN directly, Apple's USB dongle comes in and does the job.

7. Logitech Nano VX mouse

Although I've been praising the Magic Mouse before, I finally settled with the Logitech Nano VX mouse. It's just better. The laser precision is more accurate and it's not a bluetooth mouse, so there is no lagging. My friend, Tomasz convinced me to get it years ago. I later forgot about it and now my CTO, Tomasz reminded me how cool it was and I got it back. Use it every day.

8. Universal USB Adapter

Many gadgets and devices (including the Android phones) use different variations of the USB plug. I have no clue why so many variations exist (mini-USB, micro-USB, ...) but they do. This adapter helps me connect to most of these.

9. USB Cable (retractable)

To make use of the above mentioned adapter (#8) I'm using this cable to connect standard USB port of my Macbook Air to the non-standard usb ports of the adapter.

10. Portable Wifi Router - Apple Airport Express

I'm always carrying it with me. As mentioned with the LAN cable, this thing helps me create my own, secure hot-spot in my hotel room. My Macbook Air, my iPhone, my wife's iPhone, our iPad... all of the devices we use are already configured to work with it, so the moment I plug it in to the LAN cable, all my i-Devices work beautifully... wirelessly. The router is small and is my perfect trip-companion.

On top of that, I'm traveling with two "plugs" for this router - the European one and the American/Japanese one. This way I just exchange the plugs without any adapter in between.

11. iPhone Cable (retractable)

I still need it to charge my iPhone and to transfer data quickly between the iPhone and the Mac. I can't understand why Apple didn't do a retractable cable and I had to buy a third-party replacement but I did and it works great.

12. The Glif

Great small invention that enables me to read news comfortably on the iPhone and works perfectly with a tripod to take pictures with the iPhone.

13. Tripod

This small portable tripod helps me take beautiful pictures with my iPhone and record video podcasts of my Productive! Show when I'm on the go.

14. World-traveller adapter and USB charger

I'm traveling a few times a year to Japan, USA and the UK. That's why I need this adapter. This way I can charge my devices anywhere in the world. As a bonus there is a USB plug there to directly charge my iPhone or iPad. The funny part is that I found this great adapter when browsing the MoMa museum store.

15. Macbook Air Charger

My new Macbook Air works more than 7 hours on a single charge. I get an impression that the previous Core2Duo model (now I have the i5 one) could last even longer. Up to 10 hours. Anyway, I can get a one-day charge on this thing but at night I still have to charge it and again I carry two adapters for it - one for Europe and one for USA/Japan.

16. HDMI Cable

That's my newest discovery. In the modern hotel rooms usually there are new flat-screens with HDMI input. With this short, 3-meter HDMI cable I can hook up my Macbook Air and watch the newest episodes of the TV shows and movies I rented through iTunes.

17. HDMI adapter

To actually connect my Macbook Air to the hotel-room flat TV screen I need this Mini-display-port-HDMI adapter from Hama. Works great and transfers both audio and video to the screen. Cool.

18. iPhone headphones

I listen to stuff all the time. Especially audiobooks. I need to have these with me at all times. My only complaint is that I still couldn't find retractable ones - does anyone make these? I'd buy them right away.

19. USB Car charger

On my iPhone I have two very cool apps - Navigon for the entire Europe and CoPilot Live for the entire USA. That's why when I'm renting a car I'm never lost. I hook up my iPhone to the car charger and put on the navigation app and I'm on my way! This is the smallest USB car charger I could find.

20. USB Hub + iPhone charger

Sometimes I need to hook up more USB devices to my Air and I have only 2 USB ports. This USB hub comes in handy and as a bonus it has an iPhone dock, so I don't have to use the iPhone cable here. Cool.

21. Card reader

Macbook Air has SD card slot which is good, but still many cameras support other standards like CF. When I want to transfer photos from friends who have these cameras, this adapter comes in and saves the day.

That's about it. I carry all of these 21 devices in a small pouch and carry them with me on every business trip. I've been trying to minimize the set as much as I could over the years and refine what goes in and I ended up with the list above. Hope it's helpful to anyone reading my blog :-)

Do you have any suggestions? Any devices I should/could know about to replace what I have here? Let me know in the comments :-) Merry Christmas and hope you'll find your iDevice under a Christmas tree!

I'm Michael Sliwinski and I'm an entrepreneur who's also the...
.. Founder of Nozbe.com - a time and project management web application
.. Editor of Productive! Magazine - a global PDF publication on productivity
.. and a blogger as well as a producer of a weekly 2-minute Productive! show.

Filed under // productivity

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Posted (Sunday, 18 Dec 11)

This Month:	All Time:
100 things challenge - achieve zen... My fav quotes from Steve Jobs bio... GTD Notetaker Wallet - why pen... 21 must-have gadgets for travel... Seth Godin in P.Magazine #10...	How I set up secure backups on Mac... Why Minimalism Feels Fantastic... Zen in my clutter-free home office... 7 ways iPad improves productivity... Why Macbook Air simply rocks...

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