Maybe not directly related to your personal productivity but I do feel this article touches some points you can incorporate in your own thinking about productivity. If you present in public every now and then, I can recommend the article “Presentation Zen” by former Apple employee Gerry Reynolds. He discusses the presentation style, slides and gesture of both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and compares this with the some of the Zen aesthetic values
- Simplicity
- Subtlety
- Elegance
- Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious
- Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced),
- Empty space (or negative space)
- Stillness, Tranquility
- Eliminating the non-essential
This really resonates with me, not only because of my earlier post on GTD and Tai Chi, but also on other levels. If you think about the GTD-principles, they really do fit in the Zen values don’t they? Just let the five phases roll in you head (Collection, Process, Organize, Review, Do) while looking at this list and see the connections and feel the logic. Every single thing I do, even the simplest action as cleaning my Inbox (well it used to be not that simple…) really comes down to these values. Choosing the right software, hardware or online service let’s you review those with at least values like simplicity and elegance.
