Coaching my clients new levels of workplace performance is my favorite thing about what I do. Sometimes it's hard, but hearing what they say afterward makes it all worth it:

Clearly, I wasn't working as efficiently as I could have.  Now, I'm creating greater results, with less effort

I had no idea such basic shifts in the way that I think about my work and how I use my tools could have such a profound impact on my performance, and my life. Thank you!

The last time my inbox was this empty was 5 years ago -- on my first day of work as CTO

I feel so much better about my work.

Sometimes, though, I run into something puzzling. After coaching a busy executive and hearing them express (over several weeks) the immense relief it's brought them, I'll bring up the subject of training the rest of their team.

Sometimes, they'll hesitate, then say, "I'm not sure they need this as much as I do . . ."

This used to stump me. I've seen my client's teams, and usually they're just as overwhelmed as the executives they answer to. My clients have gotten clear, lasting relief, so bringing the same to their team seems like a no-brainer to me. Wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone were so effective? Why not train the rest of the team?

Building people instead of buying them
Here's my philosophy on coaching: when I hire someone, I want to get their full value. To do that, they have to grow; to grow, they have to be fed.

That's why it boggles my mind when companies invest in the latest systems and tools for their employees, then refuse to invest in training them. The team is left to flail about and figure it out for themselves, always struggling just to survive in their job: overwhelmed, over-stressed, overwrought, and overboard.

As an employer, I don't want my people working that way. I want them to be effective, confident, executive, and efficient. Of course, I could simply hire someone with all the skills I want, but those tend to be very rare and very expensive; besides, they may still be unfamiliar with my tools and processes.

Honestly, I'd rather build my people.

One employee, then and now
A few years ago, I hired an intern, a recent college graduate new to the workplace. When I hired him, he knew relatively little about effective self-management and knowledge work. Most of his experience had been with someone else telling him what to do and how. He wasn't a "knowledge worker."

Now, though, he is an executive: maybe not yet in title, but in what he's capable of achieving.

He didn't get there by osmosis. I've trained him myself over time.

I could have spent my time on other activities. I could have let him sit with his current skill set and simply answer emails and do clerk-work. I could have been content to not get the full value of his potential—but I wasn't.

I chose to unleash his potential, for his benefit and mine, by investing in and training him.

Has it been worth it? I'd certainly say so.

This isn't my first time, either: I've repeated this many times, with many people over the past 30 years, and gotten tremendous value as a result.

Get the value
Maybe that's an extreme example, but it illustrates the point. You hire someone to create value for you. Even if they come in with skills, at the minimum they need to learn how to work with you and your organization to create value.

"Value" can be measured in a number of ways:
- How quickly you get things done
- How much of your effort is directed towards the right things to do
- How confident and focused you are at work
- The speed and precision of your decisions
- Your ability to quickly process inputs and recalibrate

The job of you and your team, together, is to create value (all of the above and more) for the organization. So the question again is: what if you grew value in them?

But what if you lose them?
A senior manager once told Zig Ziglar that he didn't want to waste money training his people only to have them leave. Zig's response was, "The only thing worse than training someone and losing them, is not training them and keeping them."

I take the same view. You can train your people and make them more effective, confident, executive, and efficient . . . or, you can simply stay at your current accomplishment level. Think about it.

There's more to the story of the young intern I hired. I knew from the start that our time together was limited—a year or two, at best. So why would I invest so much in him?

Again, because I wanted to build value in him, for as long as I have him. I know it's been better for him and me.

The bottom line
The bottom line is that coaching and training work, and my clients and I have seen it work hundreds of times. This includes training I've given, received, and seen others give and receive. Some of my clients have even gone out of their way to measure how well it works (ask me for the impact report from PUMA).

I've seen people become more confident, relaxed, de-stressed, in-control, effective, and efficient after only a few hours of training. I've even come back to those people weeks or months later and found they're still working effectively. In most cases, they've even built on what they've learned and moved beyond it!

I've had the privilege of working with some forward-thinking managers and executives who've chosen to invest in their people. Because of that, they and their teams have gotten far more value out of their work. Most of them aren't using any more time or energy than they were before, but they're still getting much more done and much more effectively.

The client's decision . . .
To me, the decision to train people and build their value is unmistakably clear. It was clear for my client as well: once he saw the value, he decided to extend the training to other members of his team, and greatly appreciated the benefit of it.

. . . and yours
So will you be the manager that doesn't invest in training their people, leaving them to work with their current skills until they leave you?—Or, will you invest in them and get the value of their full potential for as long as they stay? The choice is yours.

When you're ready to invest in your people and get greater value in return, give me a call. I can help.

@EricMack

LI: Eric Mack

Most of the people who've asked us about the future of eProductivity with Verse have been from IBM.

In response to this, I decided to reach out to IBMers to find out three things:
1.        What's eProductivity done for you?
2.        What would happen if you lost eProductivity?
3.        What do you think about switching to Verse?

I gave people these questions as suggestions (not requirements) for what to write about:

- How did you learn about eProductivity?
- What problem/pain you were trying to solve by using eProductivity?
- How long have you used eProductivity and how did it work for you?
- What were your favorite features?
- What impact has eProductivity had for you?
- If you were to lose eProductivity, how would it affect you?

I've received many responses; below are a few I've selected to share (and I may add more).

Disclaimer:
The below-named persons wish to make it known that their opinions, endorsements, testimonials, judgments, words, and statements of fact and value reflect only their individual views and apply solely to eProductivity, and do not reflect any opinion or judgment on IBM Verse or any other product, whether on their part or IBM's. All comments below are shared by permission of their respective authors.

That said . . .

Not having eProductivity will be a disaster for me.

I learned about eProductivity through David Allen and GTD and tried it out on several iPhone apps. They all lacked the very tight integration between mail and GTD that eProductivity provides, and since corporate policy is that no data can reside outside the firewall, eProductivity is the only tool that can comply.  

My favorite features are: linking mails to projects; the Today view, and the Weekly Review Coach.

The impact on my job is simple: eProductivity keeps my mailbox at a manageable level and I'm in control of my todo's and forthcoming actions, which means I'm on top of my business.

I seriously hope you will consider making eProductivity for Verse!

Torben Linér
Project Executive
IBM Denmark

I have found eProductivity essential to clearing my head on my priorities for each week, especially when things are very pressured and all of us have more to do than we can in the time available.

. . . I think eProductivity does a good job, considering it is an add-on above the basic Notes layer. Having invested the time and money in getting my projects and tasks set up, I would be reluctant to sacrifice that, so I would hope (and expect) that you guys provide some roadmap with the introduction of Verse.

Doug Stapleton
Executive IT Architect
IBM Australia

I was trying for years to find a system that would help me work on the right thing at the right time. I have been using eProductivity for two years, and it works excellently for me. Every action is recorded immediately; nothings getting lost anymore. Emails can be easily put into actions with the right categorisation.

It helped me (and still helps me) enormously to get everything done as quick as possible and keep my brain free. I know that every action that is coming into my mind is recorded and getting done soon. My productivity level has increased significantly. Over the last two years I completed 3000 actions. My Lotus Notes Mail In-box is always empty. eProductivity is a treasure for me!
                             
Franz Schroettner
IBM Austria

For me, losing eProductivity would be catastrophic. I haven't tested Verse yet, but the increase in productivity I've had with eProductivity has been exponential during the last months I've been using it.

My full support on you adapting to Verse.

Julio Sánchez Cubas
Executive Architect
IBM of Spain

*UPDATE* I've recently received this feedback as well:

I learned about eProductivity while searching for info on GTD suggestions and implementation.  I've just started using it, and I find it a useful tool to improve my inbox handling.  It's encouraged me to get my inbox much closer to zero than ever before, and I'm still working through it.

GTD [David Allen's Getting Things Done] can be done in Notes, but I like having projects and next actions more clearly integrated.

In Verse, I suspect I'll have to do more things manually than with eProductivity.

Jerry Quinn
Senior Software Engineer
IBM

(emphasis added)

*UDATE 5/28* I just received this today:

I think I heard about eProductivity from an internal group here in IBM.  At that time, I was already using David Allen's "Getting Things Done" and looking for ways to integrate that into my working tools.

I've been using eProductivity for about six years. It works pretty well. I have tweaked a couple of things, like adding a Next Actions view (you really need this!) to show Next Actions (and "orphan" actions that aren't attached to a project). The best thing is the ease of turning email into projects and actions.

eProductivity is how I manage my to-do list. To be honest, when I switch to Verse, I don't know what the impact will be. The ability to mark a mail as "Needs Action" is useful, but this feature clearly does not have the full action-management capability that eProductivity gives .

Dr. Keith Collyer
Rational Expert, Requirements
Medical Device and Electronic Design Solution Offering Lead
IBM Internet of Things Engineering Solutions

I'll just let those speak for themselves.

Based on all the marketing materials, Verse looks great -- but I've yet to see any user-generated content showing how someone uses it to get things done. I'm hoping we can help make Verse productive for people who use it.


More on Verse:
Will eProductivity work with IBM Verse?
IBM Verse: our challenge and opportunity
IBMers ask: Will I lose eProductivity to Verse?

More IBMer feedback:
This fantastic story from Michael Cheatham of IBM US. Over the last few weeks, I've been corresponding with Michael Cheatham of IBM Global Business Services, who's used eProductivity for the past three years. He seemed very satisfied with our product and service, so I gave him a few questions as prompts and asked whether he'd be willing to share his feedback, even if only a sentence or two.

I often ask for feedback from people who enjoy eProductivity. Sometimes I don't hear back, which I understand — our customers are usually very busy professionals. Other times, I'll get a nice, short comment.

But every once in a while, someone goes all out and blows me away. That's what Michael did the other day. He chose to answer the prompts I provided, so here's his complete eProductivity story, in his own words:

How did you learn about eProductivity?
Before joining IBM, I used MS Outlook as my email and calendaring system. I read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, and while searching for more information on the topic, I found a Getting Things Done (GTD) plugin for Outlook.

The GTD plugin helped me to manage my in-box and greatly increased my productivity . . . Once I joined IBM, I found out that the email and calendaring system used was Lotus Notes, so I did a web search for a GTD plugin for LN. Instead I found eProductivity, which offered much more functionality that the Outlook GTD plugin, and so I ordered the application.

I started with a trial of the stand-alone version, but by the end of the trial I was convinced that the tool would provide a lot of value, and I ordered the full integrated version of eProductivity.

What problem or pain you were trying to solve by using eProductivity?  
My problem was that I received 50 to 100 emails per day, some of them important and some of them not. Of those that are important, some I can act on immediately, some I need information from others, and for some, I have to schedule time to action them.

In regular Lotus Notes, the most I could do was set up rules to action certain emails as they came in, but that was not sufficient for me to stay on top of everything that needed to get done.

How long have you used eProductivity and how did it work for you?  
I have now been using eProductivity for almost three years. When I first installed eProductivity, I had approximately 700 emails in my in-box.

Through using eProductivity and setting up some rules in Lotus Notes, I was able to get this down to literally zero. I now rarely have more than 6-10 emails in my in-box, and I am almost always able to end the day with none

. . . this is not just a matter of deleting all my emails as the come in: I am also able to uncover what needs to be worked on immediately, and I am able to schedule (with reminders) work that is necessary but cannot be completed when the email comes in. I am also able to view, in a simple and intuitive way, all of the actions I need to take and the individuals that I waiting to provide me with information.

What were your favorite features?
My favorite feature is the ability to copy an email into an action and delete the email or move it to another folder. For emails that contain all of the information I need in the email itself, I delete them and copy them into an action with a reminder date. If I need more information, eProductivity allows me to format the action in a way that it organizes all of the information I am waiting for under the individual's name. I can also copy the email into a meeting invite or an appointment if I need to schedule it for a later time.

What impact did eProductivity have for you?
With eProductivity, I feel that I am always on top of my emails, actions, requests for information, and calendar. As mentioned above, my in-box is almost always at zero, while at the same time I know I have every required action covered that was initiated by an email.

It allows me to feel like I am in control of my time.

(The views and opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer).

Wow. This is the kind of experience eProductivity was designed for. Thanks, Michael, for sharing your story!

(Continuing from yesterday): Chris Blatnick, a professional business coach and long-time eProductivity user, shares why he loves eProductivity's Weekly Review Coach and how it helps him stay on track:

The Weekly Review Coach in eProductivity is basically an enhanced wizard, walking you through all of the steps necessary for a successful Weekly Review. It's an elegant approach because it allows you to focus on just one thing at a time. This is key, since maintaining this focus will drive you toward completion faster and allow you to be more thorough in your work. The coach kept me engaged, targeted and on track. I'll admit that in the past I got distracted chasing an idea or item down a rabbit hole. While this can still happen in any system, I felt more focused because I had the coach to guide me through the review in the correct order.

After launching it, the Weekly Review Coach takes you to the first step in the process: Collect Loose Papers. For each step of the Weekly Review, the coach tells you what you should be doing and gives you suggestions to improve your game. You can see a sample shot from the Weekly Review Coach below.

Continue Reading: "GTD, Lotus Notes & the eProductivity Challenge: The Weekly Review (part 2)" »

GTD, Lotus Notes & the eProductivity Challenge: The Weekly Review (part 1)

January 14, 2015 by Eric Mack

Speaking of the Weekly Review, here's a guest post from Chris Blatnick, a GTD fan and long-time eProductivity user who was blogging before it was cool. He draws on his experience as a business coach to discuss why the Weekly Review is so critical, as well as why he loves eProductivity's Weekly Review Coach:

Webster defines a coach as "one who instructs or trains."

I'm a big fan of coaching. Whether talking about a presentation coach to help hone your skills on the stage, a performance coach to help you better your 5k time, or a life coach to get you to focus on your overall goals and objectives, coaching is a fantastic way to help you achieve your potential and then reach for loftier heights. In fact, I'm writing this post right now while waiting for my son to get out of his teen life coaching session. I occasionally work as a technology coach, helping people map out what they want to get out of using technology, then putting a plan together to meet that goal in the most efficient way possible. So right off the bat, I figured I would like the Weekly Review Coach functionality of eProductivity. I was wrong, though...I actually love it!

Ask any Getting Things Done fan, new to the system or grizzled veteran, what the biggest obstacle to complete mastery of the GTD concepts is, and they'll likely tell you it is the Weekly Review. The Weekly Review is the part of GTD that brings everything into focus, helping you to close open loops, determine what is needed to move your projects forward and keeps you on track toward your higher level life goals. David Allen calls the Weekly Review the "secret sauce," and in my experience that is very true. I've posted before about my GTD journey to this point, and the times when I was most on my game and feeling that I was living the vision that Mr. Allen maps out in his book was when I was diligently doing my Weekly Review.

But let's be honest...it takes some serious focus to plan out the time to sit down every week to look over what you need to be working on. In fact, in some ways, the Weekly Review exerts a certain force of opposition if you are afraid of what you'll uncover. You need to do this, however, to get full clarity of what you should and shouldn't be working on. Thus, the concept of having a "coach" for helping you get through this process is outstanding.

Tomorrow, I'll post the rest of Chris's thoughts on how well the Weekly Review Coach works.

How much is saving your time worth?

January 9, 2015 by Nathan Paul

Time is the one thing you can't beg, borrow, or buy. That's why I so appreciate JT's story -- he recognizes time as "the most valuable resource of all" and credits eProductivity with saving it.

In his own words, here's how he started getting things done in IBM Lotus Notes with eProductivity:

My company uses IBM Lotus Notes for email and calendaring. Lotus Notes v9 has evolved a lot compared to prior versions of Lotus Notes, however, it still provides what I would say are rudimentary To-Do list management and bare bones email processing. The volume of email hitting my inbox made it impossible to stay on top of my incoming email, which meant I was missing important To-Do's or actions that I needed to take on some emails because they were lost in the volume of emails where I was only cc'd and didn't need to take any specific action. I found myself constantly re-reading emails to remember what they were for, whether or not I had already actioned them or not. All-in-all, I was not very productive managing my incoming email.

The volume of email hitting my inbox made it impossible to stay on top...Now, my email inbox is emptied by the end of each day.

I knew I had to do something different to keep up with the ever growing number of emails passing through my inbox. I knew there had to be a better way and that surely someone had written software to address these pain points. This quest led me to find the excellent book "Getting Things Done" by David Allen. The GTD system made a lot of sense to me, but I struggled how to implement these GTD concepts using Lotus Notes.

After googling around a bit, I found the eProductivity for IBM Notes Mail product, which has forever changed how I manage my email. Today, my email inbox is emptied by the end of each day by utilizing the GTD system in eProductivity. I drag emails to the left to create actions for future To-Do's and drag items to the right that I want to keep for future reference. Finally, I delete any email which I don't need to perform any action and do not need to keep for future reference. Using the Today view, I get an overview of my meetings scheduled for the day and/or any actions that I have due that day.

One of the best features of eProductivity IMHO, is the "Waiting for" action. I send a lot of emails where I need someone else to respond or take some action on my behalf. Before eProductivity, I relied on my memory to remember what I had asked for and whether or not I had received a response within the expected time frame. With eProductivity, I click one button that says "Waiting for" when I send the email and a future action is automatically created as a reminder that I'm waiting for something to be responded to.

Getting all of these actions and To-Do's out of my head and into the eProductivity system has allowed me to manage my email my more productively. I hope one day that my company adopts eProductivity company wide, but until then, I'm happy to pay out of pocket for eProductivity because it saves me the most valuable resource of all, my time!

JT

Thanks for sharing your story, JT!

If you'd like to share how eProductivity has helped you, select "Send feedback" from the eProductivity menu:

Happy New Year!

-Nathan

Overworked with a demanding boss? Someone like you was rescued by eProductivity, and here’s his story

May 28, 2014 by Nathan Paul

Hey everyone! We've got some new eProductivity stories from our customers, but we especially wanted to share one that we just got today. Terry Ash, a member of the IT team for the Surrey City Council in the UK, tells us how he was so impressed by eProductivity, even though he couldn't use it at the time, that he remembered it for 10 years(!!) until he was finally able to get it. He also relates how eProductivity helped him gain and maintain control over his enormous workload:

I came across David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology way back in 2003 and immediately became hooked. I avidly read his book and then looked about for a software solution with a view to automating the process as much as possible. Like everyone else, most of my work commitments arrived via email. I came across eProductivity which looked like it would fulfil all of my needs, with one exception. I wasn’t using IBM Notes as my email client. What followed was a number of years trying to get by using GTD with an alternate product. I could only look on enviously at all of eProductivity’s features not implemented in my solution.

Fast forward 10 years and I found myself as General Manager for a company providing IT services for Virgin Atlantic Airways. With a heavy workload and a very demanding boss I found myself sinking without a trace.  Fortunately for me, the company I worked for used IBM Notes and I remembered eProductivity and immediately sought it out. To see that eProductivity was still around after all this time spoke volumes and I immediately purchased a license. At last, I would be able put the GTD methodology to full use.

I spent a whole day pulling in all of my loose notes and reviewing my emails, ostensibly doing 3 months’ worth of weekly reviews all in one go. I immediately felt back in control.  The ability to look across my work commitments in one fell swoop was empowering. I gained confidence and was able to respond to requests for status updates and accurately agree deliverable dates for new work simply because I could see what my workload was as well as what it was going to be.

My Inbox was at zero for the first time in many years.

I’ve now used eProductivity for just over a year now and only wish I used it straight from the start back in 2003. Yes there are alternative solutions out there but eProductivity remains the only product to be truthful to the whole GTD methodology.

For me the guided weekly review is an absolute lifesaver and ensures that I don’t miss a thing. Once completed I feel ready to hit the ground running at the start of the following week. Being able to see what requires my attention according to my “Today” view is essential. Creating items with an agenda context and associating that item with a person meant I could easily remember to raise matters with that person when I next conversed with them. No more putting down the telephone and remembering I’d missed something.

There are so many more productive features I could mention, but don’t take my word for it: take a look at the eProductivity website for a full list.

For me the product continues to evolve and the support provided is second to none.  With a host of tutorials and community input, I strongly recommend eProductivity for IBM Notes as the GTD methodology tool of choice.

-        Terry Ash, UK eProductivity User, May 2014

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to recommend your product. Wishing you every success for the future.

We get stories like this all the time, but what really stood out to me personally was the fact that he remembered eProductivity for 10 years without even using it!

I think Terry's story also shows that, no matter how deep you're buried, the methods of Getting Things Done, which are built in to eProductivity, can help you get calm, clear, and in control. Finally, I'm touched by the fact that he thanked us for the opportunity to recommend our product. I can't remember when I've ever done that for anything!

For more about eProductivity's features, as Terry mentioned, see here.

Thank you, Terry, for allowing us to share your story here to inspire our readers!

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Brandon Starr - "My inbox is almost always empty"

March 3, 2014 by Eric Mack

Here's another powerful customer story from the customer service inbox. It's from a passionate and productive customer: Brandon Starr. It's longer than many posts we feature but it's rich with details and worth a read if you want to learn how other smart and productive people are getting things done with less effort with eProductivity for IBM Notes. Brandon also mention's a product that he uses called ActiveWords. We use this ourselves and, as Brandon mentions in his letter, eProductivity integrates with ActiveWords. In fact, it's one of our recommended resources. Thank you, Brandon, for sharing your story and for allowing us to share it here to inspire others.

I became interested in the GTD methodology around 2009, when my former boss introduced me (and the rest of his staff) to GTD. After some additional research I found the GTD website. I was looking for a way to maximize my production (and also admittedly to impress my boss). While browsing the GTD website, I stumbled across a link to a program that David Allen recommends called ActiveWords (if you don't have ActiveWords you're working much harder than you should be). For the next two years, I gained a better understanding of the fundamentals of GTD, and also refined they way I used ActiveWords at work and on my home PC. During this time, I was also using Outlook at work.

In July 2011, I transferred inter company to a department that uses Lotus Notes. At first, I was lost. Lotus Notes felt overwhelming with so many options and a much more complicated interface than Outlook. I felt like I needed to learn programming in order to effectively set up and use Lotus Notes. It took me 6 months before I found the To-Do's section of Lotus Notes. My calendar wasn't set up properly and I wasn't receiving notices for meetings, appointments,...or even for REMINDERS. Eventually our tech department found out my Lotus Notes was looking towards the wrong server and corrected it. Once they fixed my Calendar, I thought I might as well see if there were any ways to improve my Lotus Notes experience. After searching for ways to improve Lotus Notes, I wound up on the GTD site again. That's when I noticed eProductivity. At first I was a little tentative about downloading and altering my Lotus Notes. So I tried the free stand-alone version. I started manually migrating my emails into the eProductivity folder, and I set up a few projects and actions. I started to realize that eProductivity was basically using my Lotus Notes in a more efficient way. It was setting up To-Do's with contexts and due dates of my choosing.

After I became more comfortable with eProductivity, I decided to try the Integrated monthly pay option. I successfully downloaded and installed it, and then I no longer had to import my emails into eProductivity...it became my mail template and main interface (BUT you can quickly and easily get to your normal Lotus Notes inbox). Then I really started to use it. I could drag an email and create a new task, project, tickler,...basically anything you might be familiar with if you've tried the GTD method. Even better, I could adjust the names of contexts and categories as I saw fit ("At Computer", "At Home", "Action Support", etc...). I could link new emails to existing projects so they would be together when I opened the project, and I could even link and open these projects and actions from my Lotus Notes Calendar. That's when I realized the power of eProductivity. It lets you shape and turn Lotus Notes into a simple GTD type system, or a full fledged granular interface. Lotus Notes only has To-Do's, and they are almost an oversight in Lotus Notes. Most people in my office have an inbox full of unread or even read emails that may or may not require action and the emails just sit in their inboxes (some people have thousands of emails in their inbox). My inbox is almost always empty, and the emails are assigned to relative tasks and projects, with due dates and assigned reminders.

It's great to have an empty inbox! But you can't get that way by just deleting emails and trying to remember them. You have to put those emails somewhere outside of your mind and into a system that will remind you that something needs to be done with a particular context, place, and/or time. eProductivity does exactly that, and in a very easy to use and bug free interface.

Also, eProductivity interfaces with ActiveWords!...the program I mentioned earlier that I found on the GTD website. I found no other Lotus Notes solutions that will help you keep your inbox empty and your mind clear.

As for customer service, anytime I've had a question about how to do something in particular, they've always been quick to reply...no longer than a day and sometimes faster. I found the how to guides and videos as well, and they've done a great job creating easily to understand tutorials that are readily accessible. I recommend eProductivity without hesitation, and it's great to know you can try it for free as a stand alone add in for Lotus Notes, without changing your Lotus Notes template, or you can integrate it and make it your Lotus Notes template. It's up to you, and they even have instructions for how to remove eProductivity if you want. They even thought of that! But my guess is that you want need to look at that tutorial, because you'll be happy with it.

Brandon K Starr SENIOR SPECIALIST • INSURANCE GROUP New York Life Insurance Company

You can learn more about integrating ActiveWords and eProductivity here.

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

How to tell your story in a compelling way to get management support for eProductivity

February 1, 2014 by Eric Mack

I often receive emails from happy users of the Stand-alone edition of eProductivity that want to use the Integrated edition but need management approval to do so. Many of these folks made the mistake of asking IT first. You have to understand that many IT organizations operate with a "break fix" mentality, meaning that if something breaks they will fix it. If you ask to add a new tool they will often see it first as something else that could break and that they would have to fix rather than exploring the potential benefits to you or the organization.

The solution is to start with leadership, not IT. Then, when leadership sees the value, they can request IT approval. I know this approach works as I have helped countless people around the world do just this.

So, where to start?

I recommend having a conversation (or sending an email to start one) with either to your manager or to the individual in your organization that you think cares most about workplace performance. That could be a manager that is in touch with how his people use their tools to get work done or it could be someone higher up the chain focused on value creation. In any case, it's not IT you want to start with but the people who "get" the value of working smarter.

Then. in a simple format, share your story.

Continue Reading: "How to tell your story in a compelling way to get management support for eProductivity" »

"Your software has helped me not hate Notes!"

May 21, 2013 by Eric Mack

A customer recently wrote: "Your software has helped me not hate Notes!"  I hear this a lot from our customers. In fact, it's one of the two main reasons people buy eProductivity.

As the creator of eProductivity, I am always looking for stories from passionate users about how they have benefitted from eProductivity so that I can share them with others. So I reached out to Kiara and asked if she would be willing to share her story of eProductivity - to tell me how she uses it and what impact it had made personally/professionally? Most customers do share their story and my team and I read every one.

A few days later, Kiara wrote back...

Eric,

The bottom line is that you've given me a way to incorporate my GTD process back into my email and calendar client - in a way that really follows the GTD process.

I actually did the research to find out if I could move to a Notes client personally so that I could use eProductivity to manage my personal GTD process as well. Sadly, that's not a option, as far as I can tell, and I don't want my personal life merged into my corporate email/etc.

How I use it - the weekly review coach is a major win. I love being able to use it to hold myself accountable for staying on top of the floods of inbound information that otherwise get out of control. My personal adaptation of GTD involves a mini-daily review - dealing with loose paper and email box clearing daily is the only way I can keep my head above water, and I'd love the option to be able to have a customizable version of the weekly review that I could use daily (so I didn't feel like I was skipping things by not completing the weekly version every day.)

It's provided a robust way to manage my contexts, projects, and actions. I had been trying to figure out how to adapt my previously working GTD process to Notes for a year and a half, and had been failing. Notes, by itself, just didn't have the depth of functionality needed to do that.

So, ultimately, your product has given me a way to get back to using a system that just flat out works for me. Using the tools you've provided, I don't have to try to manage the process in a spreadsheet or on paper or in a standalone product. Given how much of my work life is lived in email, an integrated system is key to succeeding.

Thank you for creating a product that gave me back the ability to work with GTD effectively!

Best,

Kiara Rodemaker
Manager, IT Accounting Services
Czarnowski

Kiara, thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad that you find value in eProductivity and that it has given you a new appreciation for the power of Notes.

P.S. We get many requests from people that want to run eProductivity at home. That is easily done. You can install Notes on your home computer and use it as a POP3/SMTP client. (Sorry, Note IMAP does not work at this time). If you use the same Notes ID you do not need to purchase a separate license; your current key will work just fine.

User Story: Mat Corman - "The perfect integration in Notes, was the winning factor"

April 15, 2013 by Customer Service

From the customer service inbox comes yet another customer story from a long time eProductivity user...

I've been using eProductivity for several years since learning about it during a "Getting Things Done" (GTD) seminar presented by Eric Mack and David Allen.

I had tried several other GTD systems, including some Notes databases, but was never satisfied that I was achieving my desired level of organization and focus on day to day tasks.  Since switching to eProductivity I am much more confident in my awareness of current tasks and efforts.  The recently added mobility features in eProductivity allow me to continue to clear my in-box and track work efforts while on the go.

The perfect integration of the tool in Lotus Notes, was the winning factor that pushed me to the immediate acquisition of the tool. I immediately started using full eProductivity, filling the project database and associating these actions and relations with all the information (contacts, notes) combined. Actually I have more than 50 active projects with related actions and notes.

eProductivity is a great product and one that I have recommended and demonstrated to several co-workers.

Regards,

Matt Corman Services Solutions Executive Industrial Sector IBM Global Technology Services

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Gianluca Morbidelli - How eProductivity works in my "GTD life"

April 4, 2013 by Customer Service

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

I read the book, "Getting Things Done" in 2006, and was literally "struck" by the method proposed by David Allen and I started the implementation of the method immediately after the reading of the book. The implementation of the GTD approach has affected my entire life, both private and professional.

Three years ago I discovered eProductivity during a search on the internet relating to tools to support the implementation of the GTD method. At the time, I was looking for a tool that would allow me to integrate my project management and actions associated with them to the working environment. Until then I had to use, with much difficulty, all the relationships between projects, actions and e-mail.

The perfect integration of the tool in Lotus Notes, was the winning factor that pushed me to the immediate acquisition of the tool. I immediately started using full eProductivity, filling the project database and associating these actions and relations with all the information (contacts, notes) combined. Actually I have more than 50 active projects with related actions and notes.

Among all the features, the ones that have given me more support are:

• The Weekly Review Coach: For years, the implementation of the GTD method, I did not implemented this key stage. With eProductivity, that provides a perfect tool to support this critical phase of the process, I have started to implement this phase, and it was the very big change and improvement in my "GTD life".
• The management of connections between emails sent and ongoing projects: In this way they are able to control and have the history of "relationships" with colleagues.

In summary, eProductivity has allowed me to have precise control under all my work activities. It allowed me to have a tool that focuses on a single point control and organized management of everything that has to do with my work. My productivity in the work environment has increased and for this reason. I have recommended it to colleagues, to use this great tool.

Cordiali saluti/Best regards

Gianluca Morbidelli Project Executive SO Certified Project Executive Global Technology Services, IBM

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Carl Novit - Why I switched from eProductivity to paper and back to eProductivity

January 21, 2013 by Customer Service

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

"Having been a long time IBM Lotus Notes, I was looking for a task management template/program. I was determined to find a Notes based software package as we are a Domino/Notes/IBM shop and was not interested in other packages. I stumbled on eProductivity via Google, which led me to the GTD methodology. I immediately ordered David Allen's book, which I spent the weekend reading.

The methodology made so much sense, that the next weekend I scoured my office top to bottom, making lists, disposing of non-essential items, making folders, etc. I downloaded the GTD/Notes set up guide and decided that wasn't as good as I wanted.

Now it was time to investigate eProductivity (which happens to be the software used and recommended by GTD creator, David Allen). I checked out the web site, downloaded the program and applied it to my mail file. I started making my Project and Action Item lists, then populating the various lists. All seemed good for awhile. I even took some coaching sessions from Julie Ireland, one of the David Allen coaches. By the way, this is very worthwhile.

After a year or so, I found myself overwhelmed with GTD/eProductivity. I decided to take a step back and try and figure out why I was resisting my lists. I still believed in the GTD methodology. I just didn't want to look at my lists in eProductivity. After some thought and reflection and a call with Julie, I decided to switch to paper.

Going to paper is another topic. What notebook to use, how to organize it etc. My biggest challenge was dealing with the meeting notices I receive and create. These needed to be in Notes. Then I was creating written calendar notes as reminders of things needing to be completed on a specific day.

The one thing I liked about paper lists, is there seems to be something about writing the item on a list that made me slow down and think about what I was writing.

Then there was carrying around a notebook. Since I carry an iPhone that is connected to my Notes through IBM Lotus Traveler, and I am so email bound, I came to the conclusion I was wasting time and effort.

Time to review eProductivity again.

A few weeks ago I downloaded the latest version of eProductivity, and applied it to my mail file. I spent some time reviewing the default Projects and Actions lists, while reviewing my paper lists.

In the end I set up my new eProductivity not as granular as the first time. As an example, I have one Project list, not a Projects-Work and Projects-Home. I didn't categorize my work list so it appears so detailed.

Today I use a Moleskin notebook for note taking at my desk. It lets me refer back to items until I get them in my system. While out of the office I use the note taker wallet or send myself an email.

Each morning I do a mini review if you will, and flag items to show on the "Today" view. Once these are complete, if I have time I then work my list.

Just yesterday I set up the mobile folders in eProductivity so that I can now process my email into projects and actions when I am away from the computer.

I am much happier now that I am back on eProductivity, but I had to go through the process to realize the full potential."

-Carl Novit

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Jun Zhou - eProductivity Meetup in China

August 21, 2012 by Amy Mack

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

We recently sent out an invitation to our customers inviting  them to join us in Boston for an in person eProductivity meetup with Eric Mack (the founder of eProductivity).  These meetups are great ways for people to come together and share tips and best practices for getting things done with Lotus Notes and eProductivity.

In one of the responses, we heard back from a customer in China who has been hosting her own productivity meetups:

I am now also hosting Time management in-person meetup in Shenzhen (a city in south China near Hong Kong) regularly. The frequency is once every two months. In coming September, we will have our 7th meeting. We share tips and best practices on time management, GTD, email efficiency, meet efficiency etc. People attending have increased from 10 people of 1st meeting to more than 50 people of the 6th meeting. On the 4th meeting in March 2012, I delivered a presentation about my experience of using eProductivity.  Here is a happy photo of the attendees.  

Jun Zhou

Someday, we hope to return to Asia to meet the growing number of eProductivity users. For now, we are delighted to  receive and share this story from Jun Zhou.

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: André J. de Wit - eProductivity improving workflow and email management

July 30, 2012 by Customer Service

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

Some years ago I was enrolled to an internal Management/Young Talent Course with IBM in The Netherlands. During this course a small bit of GTD was covered, which struck my interest.

During my daily work I am working as an Storage Specialist serving multiple customers. This can be a challenging and demanding job and I was overwhelmed by a flood of emails on a daily bases. I had 'developed' my own system with comprised a multitude of folders and sub folders, which worked but had no clear overview. I had keep track of everything in my head still.

Having heard about GTD, I bought the book and started reading to find out what I could learn and apply to my work. While reading the book, I downloaded the eProductivity template and had applied to my Lotus Notes Mail DB at work. I had an instant workflow for my email, clearing several hundreds of email from my inbox while now having the confidence that I would not forget about any of them. This had happened to me frequently in the past using my own system, cause everything had to be tracked in my mind. Something I was not always very good at. :)

Continue Reading: "User Story: André J. de Wit - eProductivity improving workflow and email management" »

User Story: Toni Ribeiro - Using eProductivity for Personal Management

June 7, 2012 by Customer Service

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

eProductivity allows me to have full control over my day to day activities. Ever since I started using eProductivity, I've never missed a due date and I am on top of all communications. I can easily maintain track of activities, from a single email response (using "Waiting for") to a complex projects, they are all taken care of!! This has really made a difference on my personal management system.

Toni Ribeiro

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Peter Inness - Getting Things Done with eProductivity

May 14, 2012 by Customer Service

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

I have now been using eProductivity for almost 2.5 years and since I discovered the product accidentally, it has really changed my life. Not a day goes by that I do not use eProductivity in my daily work, it has now become completely integrated in the way I work. I usually receive between 200 and 300 emails a day and it was an impossible task keeping up with follow up, actions, projects. I had not found any products, let alone Lotus Notes products that helped productivity and trust me, I have tied dozens of tools and products all claiming to improve productivity.

The ease of use and integrated nature of eProductivity really saves hours a day in being able to easily link emails to projects and assign actions in context. The views make it very simple to then track all outstanding tasks in the context of the work and who I need to follow up with. I am also delighted with the support I get from the support team. On the occasions I have needed help, I have had great response. I would say this is such an undiscovered , wonderful product and with out doubt, saves me hours of wasted time that I otherwise would spend delving into folders, searching for emails and trying to figure across a dozen tools how to track and manage. All this happens simply with one product!! This really makes up for so many deficiencies that simple mail products like Lotus Notes or Outlook have. Well done team, I look forward to the continued development of the product.

Peter Inness
Director, UBS Service Delivery Executive
CSC

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Fran K. Getting Things Done with eProductivity

March 23, 2012 by Eric Mack

Another customer story from the customer service inbox:

Working with eProductivity for me has increased the right  focus, handling and overview ojepüf my tasks and projects tremendously! A big advantage of the full integration with Lotus Notes is that I work within one platform and I don't need to go outside of my email system to process my to do's. I just love that! I'm using eProductivity now 2 years and it's integrated into my daily life. It's a must for me to have, to keep on top of all those things I have to do business wise but also privately.

Having such overview and knowing you have all of your work in a trusted system creates peace of mind.  It personally helped me to show more responsibility and accountability. If it was for me everybody and every company should use eProductivity as it really shifts your mind set and can change company culture in a positive way.

On top of this all the eProductivity team does a fantastic job in supporting me. If I have a question or a more difficult query, they always respond within a day and their response is always helpful. I work in a Customer Care environment myself, so I know how important it is to support the customer along the way, so I appreciate their approach a lot!

Fran K.,
Munich, Germany

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Mirko Vollmer Getting Things Done with eProductivity

January 13, 2012 by Eric Mack

Here's another eProductivity user story from our mailbox...

Dear eProductivity team, dear Eric,

I would like to thank you for the work you are investing on eProductivity. It really helped to organize my life and work.  I would like to share my experiences. As I am not a native english speaker, please forgive some mistakes in the text ;-))

The reason I started looking for a solution like eProductivity is the desire to be better organized. I am an outside sales engineer, serving a big territory and taking care of a good amount of bigger and smaller projects. I also have a good number of customers which all have their own individual needs. And I am travelling a lot. In addition to my job, I am a husband and will be a father very soon. I am also a friend to my buddies etc. As you see, I am in different roles, but all are blurring into one another.

Discovering David Allen's GTD, I was in need to find my tool to integrate his way of getting things done into my life. The most advanced solution I could find is eProductivity. Your software helped me to keep the overview over my job life and my private one without having to choose different solutions. It really improved my way of living. I hardly missed deadlines anymore, became more organized in projects and a more reliable person in all my different roles. This was recognized by my wife, friends and business partners.

I could go on writing an essay about me and your software. Instead, I would just like to recommend to try eProductivity if he/she is already using Lotus Notes. It will have a huge, positive impact without adding more efforts to your everyday life.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards

i.A. Mirko Vollmer
Outside Sales Engineer
Flowserve - Flow Solutions Group - OEM
Germany / Austria

Thanks, Mirko, for sharing your story!

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to share it on our blog/web site, please include that in your email.

User Story: Ben Erickson getting things done with eProductivity

January 7, 2012 by Eric Mack

Here's another eProductivity user story from our mailbox...

I've been using eProductivity for about 2 1/2 years now. My boss turned me on to GTD a couple of years before that, and I have tried over those years to implement GTD in various ways. The best way I have found that works for me is eProductivity. It integrates into my Lotus Notes client where I get all my work done. As emails and requests for service come in, I can quickly decide if I want to do it, delegated it, or defer it. Anything coming into the inbox can be quickly dragged into a next action (which can be then easily linked into a project), filed into a folder for reference, or forwarded to a responsible party for follow-up. After sending the email, there's an option to automatically create a "waiting for" action so someone ELSE doesn't drop the ball and come back to haunt me. I seldom leave the office with anything else but an empty inbox anymore and it's a very freeing feeling!

One of my favorite features of eProductivity is the Weekly Review Coach. It enables me to efficiently flow through all the different stages of the weekly review to- prompting and enabling me at each step to clear my head and get all my ideas and nagging concerns into my trusted system.

eProductivity has helped me tremendously in my personal life, my business, my education, and in my ministry. So many of us wear so many hats nowadays, and it's hard to keep all of the balls we're juggling up in the air. eProductivity is my GTD trusted system that allows me to have a relaxed disposition and be focused where I am when I'm there, knowing I have everything I need to do in there and not in my head. Thanks, eProductivity!

Ben Erickson
Dependable Computer Guys

Thanks, Ben, for sharing your story!

If YOU have a story about your experience getting things done with eProductivity, we'd like to hear from you. If you're willing to allow us to post it on the blog, please include that in your email.

We love reading feedback from our customers

September 27, 2011 by Eric Mack

One of the things I enjoy doing is reading  the product feedback that our customers send us. This one made my day:

What is it?: Feedback
Subject: Just completed initial tutorial - very impressed!

User's Comments:
A colleague here at IBM recommended the eProductivity suite to me.  I had read GTD some years back and had partially applied it in previous roles, integrating it with the Mind Manager mind mapping tool, but still struggled with inbox organisation.  Recently moved back to Lotus Notes from being stuck with Outlook which is not remotely helpful for personal productivity, and this was a breath of fresh air.

Continue Reading: "We love reading feedback from our customers" »

My attempt to stop using eProductivity #Fail

January 3, 2011 by Ryan Heathers

Guest post by Vaughan Rivett. Originally posted here.

For over 12 months I had been using eProductivity for Lotus Notes to assist me with my productivity.  I thought that I would move to another GTD (Getting Things Done system) which runs on an Apple iPad.  I made the move and while I found a few things to be a bit different, I was determined to give it a go.  I really wanted something which was more portable.

Anyway, I tried several new iPad GTD applications for a few weeks, however, today I reinstalled eProductivity as I realized that my attempt to use something else was a big fat FAIL!

Continue Reading: "My attempt to stop using eProductivity #Fail" »

One great way to use eProductivity Reference

December 3, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Ken, an eProductivity user, sent us a tip in response to this week's Tip article. The article discuss the kinds of information that are great to store inside eProductivity Reference.

He wrote:

The single most useful item in my eProductivity Reference is called "model numbers" and has a list of toner cartridge numbers, car VIN's, vacuum cleaner bag sizes, lawn mower model number, furnace filter sizes, battery sizes for gadgets, etc. I refer to it often when out and about. If motor oil is on sale, I can look up what rating my snowblower needs, if I have an @errand to look for tires, I can look up my tire sizes, and on and on. I built this list over the course of years by entering info I used to look up and carry on a piece of paper and then throw away.

I think this is a great example of what eProductivity Reference can be used for and definitely worth sharing. Thanks, Ken!

Painless Return from Holidays with GTD

August 18, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Jens Bruntt is an eProductivity guest blogger. He blogs regularly over at the eponymous Jens Bruntts blog

This week I started working after four great weeks of holidays in Provence, France. I had a lot of open projects and email threads when I left, so coming back is always interesting. It has been truly marvelous how easy it was to get back on track, and a lot of the credit goes to eProductivity - the Getting Things Done add-on for Lotus Notes.

When I came back from my long holiday I needed to do almost no work to get the overview of what was in progress and what needed to be followed up on. Because when I left everything had already been organized into Projects and Actions and especially the "Waiting for" Actions. The Actions that I knew I needed to do when I came back had already been linked to Calendar entries.

An example:
When I came back I had an email in my inbox. It was from the helpdesk at a company that is developing a set of web services that we are integrating with. This is work in progress in both their and our end. The email asked me to please let them know if we had any still open issues with them; they were afraid that they had missed something because they are in the early stages of establishing their production environment and the helpdesk is also new.

It was so easy to answer that. I went to my "Waiting for" folder in my eP-enabled mail and looked for any lines that had to do with that project. There were no open issues. Had there been any they would have been there as I always create "Waiting for" Actions when I open issues with external helpdesks. 

Easy.

The next "Mastercard" commercial?

August 16, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

The other day we got an email from Mathias, a long-time eProductivity user. His email reads like one of those Mastercard commercials.

He wrote:

I can't resist to share some numbers with you...

• 4 Weeks of Vacation
• 932 new eMails afterwards
• 2.5 Days to "Organize"
• 86 actions defined
• 0 eMails in Inbox left

Thanks to eProductivity. ;-)

Thanks, Mathias! It's always great to hear how eProductivity benefiting our users.

For our readers: if you've got an eProductivity story to tell, let us know by using the Send Feedback feature inside eProductivity.

Other customer stories:
Videos
Written

No Post-Vacation Email Woes

June 10, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Editor note: This is a guest post from Amanda Bauman that was originally posted on the Lotus Technical Information and Education Community Blog. She regularly blogs there. Amanda first learned about eProductivity and GTD from the "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes" webinar in April 2010. She is now a passionate fan and is working on sharing her story with others.

As you may know by now from my previous blog posts, I've been trying out David Allen's GTD methodology, and have also taken a keen interest in eProductivity, created by Eric Mack.

Lucky girl that I am, I got to take a much needed vacation with my family in Mexico for almost 2 weeks. In the past when I took any sizable chunks of time off, It was always with the dread knowledge that I would come back to hundreds of emails to wade through, many of which require me to do something, and many of which would fall through the cracks until somebody reminded me that I missed something. Not what you want to face when you're coming down from a sun-soaked, fun filled, stress-free couple of weeks with the family, right?

So it was with a little bit of pessimism that I started my day on Tuesday  -- my first day back at work.  I felt myself kind of wince a little bit as I launched Lotus Notes and synchronized my local replica mailbox. I had visions of a slot machine in Vegas with prize going up up up, finally stopping at the number displayed in my inbox, but without the euphoria. Let's just say that had my number of  unread emails equaled a Vegas jackpot, I might consider taking another (shorter) vacation ;).

Continue Reading: "No Post-Vacation Email Woes" »

The challenge of a new productivity system

May 14, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

IBMer Amanda Bauman recently reduced her inbox from 5000 emails to zero after learning GTD techniques. She attended the April 8 "Getting Things Done with Lotus Notes" web event and learned the best practices of GTD straight from the experts, David Allen and Eric Mack. Inspired by what she learned, Amanda made some dramatic improvements to her productivity system. I had linked to her story previously.

Today - a little over 1 month later - Amanda posted an update. She writes:

It's been over a month since I started my quest to clean out my in-box and adopt the GTD methodology. I've purposefully restricted this quest to just my work life, because quite frankly, my personal life works  just fine as is :-), and I'm a big fan of only tackling one major change at a time, otherwise I start to feel out of control. And be assured, GTD is a big change.

But over a month later, my in box remains empty, my to do list remains full, and things that may have been on the edge of my radar and in danger of falling off... well, they are still on the edge, but now there is a nice, tidy wall around everything to prevent things from slipping off the edge.

She goes on to describe some of the challenges and successes she's experienced on her journey with GTD & eProductivity. Read the full post

Her story is well-worth the few minutes it takes to read. It echoes some of the other stories that we've heard from eProductivity users. Implementing a new productivity system can be a challenge - we all know how hard it is to change habits! But when you have great tools that attract you to use them, frequently the pain of change can be tempered and the adoption of new habits can be accelerated.

What are challenges you've faced on your way to working smarter, not harder?

Vaughan Rivett - The Power of GTD and eProductivity

April 14, 2010 by Eric Mack

Vaughan Rivette is a passionate GTD and eProductivity user and he recently shared this video in which he talks about the benefits he's experienced since implementing GTD with eProductivity.

"This is a video I put together which gives me the chance to explain the value I have found in using David Allen’s methodology called GTD (Getting things done). To use this methodology and to gain the stress free results, you don’t have to use Lotus Notes, or anything electronic for that matter. However, I find that Lotus Notes combined with eProductivity works really well for me. Anyway, this video is a bit of a ramble and some of the sound quality is not the best, but it may give you some insight into what I have been doing."

Source: Vaughan Rivett

A Conversation with David Allen: What eProductivity has done for me

February 9, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Interested to learn why David Allen personally uses eProductivity? Here's some of his reasons why...

A Conversation with David Allen - Transforming a Senior Executive’s productivity

January 17, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

David discusses a senior executive client's story of a productivity transformation. By tapping into the power of GTD and eProductivity-enabled Lotus Notes, this transformation has greatly benefited the people under him and ultimately, the organization.

[YouTube Link]

Bringing out the best in Lotus Foundations

January 16, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Following up his video about improving the Lotus Foundations customer experience, Dave Lawrence also had this to say about bringing out the best in Foundations.

[YouTube Link]

Improving the Lotus Foundations customer experience

January 14, 2010 by Ryan Heathers

Dave Lawrence is the president of Smart Technology Enablers, Inc. His company resells the fantastic Lotus Foundations product that gives a host of Lotus capabilities in one server box.

Now, even the best products can use some tweaking here and there, and Dave's company has found that eProductivity provides a missing ingredient for Foundations.

See what he has to say about improving the Lotus Foundations customer experience:

[YouTube Link]

Footage taken from an interview with Dave on January 10, 2010.

I get suprised everyday I use eProductivity

December 15, 2009 by Ryan Heathers

"I get surprised everyday as I use Lotus Notes with eProductivity," writes Vaughan Rivett in a new blog post.  

He starts his post by saying,

You cannot imagine how long it took me to give this post a title. How do I really get the attention of people who I would like to tell all about my exciting adventures with eProductivity for Lotus Notes.

I have been working with GTD (David Allen’s “Getting things done” methodology) for a few months now. However, I have recently changed job and I am having to really put GTD to the test.

Read the full post on Vaughan's blog.

A case for eProductivity & Lotus Foundations

September 16, 2009 by Eric Mack

We routinely receive emails from satisfied customers. Lately, we've been receiving emails from IBM/Lotus Business partners sharing how eProductivity is helping them win and keep satisfied customers. Here's one example from a Lotus Foundations Business Partner:

Because it offers value to individual mail and PIM users, eProductivity really demonstrates the power of the Lotus Foundations Start (LFS) environment in an approachable manner for all LFS users as individuals.  eProductivity changes the playing field in the competitive landscape with Outlook and Exchange because it offers something better.  Even if I can only get adoption of eProductivity among a few high level people in the organization, it is enough to pull LFS into that organization along with a Lotus Foundations Appliance.  When I initially presented Lotus Foundations Start to my client, it was eProductivity she was talking about when the Executive Director said "I want that!"

I see the value of the rest of Lotus Foundations Start (idb, Dynamic DNS, single sign-in, autonomics and the like), but the face of the product to these organizations and what sells it is the e-mail agent and PIM it provides.  To steal an old advertising adage, eProductivity is the sizzle (and it may be the steak for end-users, too).

- David G. Lawrence, President, Smart Technology Enablers, Inc.

We love getting testimonials like this and we're particularly excited about the Lotus Foundations Start appliance and the opportunity it represents for small businesses and the Lotus Business partners that serve them.

We believe the Foundations platform has the potential to do for the SMB market what the IBM PC did for the personal computer market. Solutions like eProductivity that increase the personal productivity of end users will increase the value proposition for SMBs and lead to increased sales for resellers. Already, we are hearing from LFS resellers that are using eProductivity to 1) win new customers to LFS, 2) make the transition to LFS easier and more productive, or 3) keep customers from switching to Outlook.  

We are in the process of working on a version of eProductivity for Foundations, built on Notes/Domino 8.5x, that will further leverage the strengths of this platform.  If you believe that GTD enabling LFS would create additional compelling value for your customers, we'd like to hear from you.

eProductivity Users in the Blogosphere

June 13, 2009 by Ryan Heathers

We enjoy reading the blogs of enthusiastic eProductivity users. Here are some eProductivity blog posts. If you know of a blog that is not included this list, please let us know and we will add it.

Update: Page has been moved here.

Jens Bruntt Gets Things Done with Lotus Notes

May 12, 2009 by Eric Mack

Several bloggers have recently shared how they are using Lotus Notes as their system for Getting Things Done using David Allen's GTD Methodology. This weekend, Jens Bruntts wrote up an extensive blog post with screen shots detailing how he's using Lotus Notes and eProductivity as his GTD Solution. Not much I can add to this except that it was really neat to see eProductivity running under Linux (thanks to Lotus Notes cross-platform support). I'm aware that many people are using eProductivity on Mac and Linux but I have only seen a few screen shots.*

Read Jens post: eProductivity review part two: What is it?

* Yes, I'm a Mack and yes, I'm Mac challenged. But I did make sure that eProductivity would run cross-platform so that I can switch at any time. The hard part will be finding equivalents for GyroQ and ActiveWords.

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