by Jared Goralnick
Applying concepts of productivity to simply work more is missing the point.
Tonight I delivered a presentation at Ignite Baltimore that addressed applying concepts in productivity to make for a happier life.
If you’re relatively new to this blog, this will be an overview of many of the concepts I hold dear. If you’ve been here for a while this will serve as a refresher. Either way, I’m very happy with the slides Keith (a co-worker at SET) helped to design for this—and I think you’ll enjoy looking through them. Without further ado, you can learn why I used that photo of me and Suzanne above…
6 Minute Video from the Talk (the core starts at 1 min in)
Special thank you to Mike Brenner for filming this, and for the amazing organizers at Ignite Baltimore who put on such an energizing event: Mike Subelsky, David Adewumi, and Patti Chan.
Slides from the Talk
Further Elaboration and Notes
- A lot of people asked about Fonolo. It lets you quickly choose a company you’d like to call (from their menu), select where in their phone menu you’d like to be, and then it calls your phone at exactly that point. Yeah, it rocks
- The other two products mentioned were mine, AwayFind, and Mike Subelsky’s OtherInbox
- You might want some videos for how to turn off notifications on the social networks
- This was my first experience only checking email twice in a day
- Why you should turn off auto check on your BlackBerry or iPhone
- The value of extreme friendships for extreme growth
- How the company you keep can force you to be accountable
- My riff on loneliness and solitude was inspired by last week’s “The End of Solitude,” by William Deresiewicz in the The Chronicle Review [via @superfem]. I intend to write a post about this sooner or later
- And lastly, go home
–
Each time I link back to old articles it amazes me how much content is up here, and how much I’ve gotten to grow by bouncing ideas off and learning from you all. Thank you for that.
PS I’m in NYC this weekend, so feel free to get in touch -– maybe we can get a cup of coffee.
You should really subscribe to Technotheory via 
email or rss.
Jared, just watched your presentation. Amazing and inspiring. Sorry I couldn’t make it out but thanks for taping!
Your six minutes reminded me of my two hours at a flea market with my 3 year old today. No tweets. No email. Just the two of us exploring and meeting people. Not too mention buying a foam airplane (cost at buck) and flying it at an open field. probably the biggest highlight of his day. Sometimes we get stuck in the zeros and ones too often. Nice post and presentation. Got to go turn off some notifications now. thanks for the links.
fyi(not selecting the “notify me of followup comments” box, i think i got your message)
Wow, the what a good speech, you have hit the nail on the head the more ways and social networks coming up everyday that we can communicate with the more we need to step back and focus on whats needs to get done. Well put Jared.
Zvi, thank you so much! When @ignitedc comes in May we’ll have a chance to see lots of great people in the area :-).
Stefan, glad you got to let the bits go and enjoy the time with your 3 year old. Thanks for stopping by.
Chaim, thank you! And thanks for stopping by.
This is great, Jared.
The concept of prioritizing the *real* people in your life above your social media “friends” is important.
Hi! Jared, many thanks for posting the blog and the video. The presentation was absolutely inspiring and productive. It just comes to show us, how we take the simple pleasures of life for granted and overlook what really matters to us the most. Looking forward to more inspiring blogs from you!