Cohort 10 is underway!

Applied APP Cohort 11 has not been announced yet.

Join the FREE Action-Powered Productivity community (or APP Pro for $9/mo) to stay informed about the next cohort!

Are you overwhelmed by work?

Are there too many commitments to keep up with? Are you buried in half-finished—or barely started—projects?

Does your email get so desperately backlogged that you miss important info? Do your scheduled tasks get pushed from one day to the next, to the next, to the next...? Do your plans blow up practically as soon as you've made them?

Have you tried GTD or other productivity systems in the past?

Were you encouraged with the first week of GTD (Getting Things Done), but by week three everything started piling up again? Are you convinced that no approach will really work for you, because you're a lost cause?

When you're overwhelmed with work, the solution lies in the Aggregation of Marginal Gains

Or, to translate that: Solve little problems, one at a time, and we quickly solve big problems. Surprisingly quickly.

But where do we start? And what tools do we use?

That's what we'll answer in Applied APP Cohort Ten, and it all starts with a simple unifying concept called a Productivity Bridge.

What is a Productivity Bridge?

Bridging is an action taken now to increase the speed, accuracy, or quality of future work.

A template is a Bridge. An automation is a Bridge.

Procedures are Bridges. Recurring tasks are Bridges. Links to resources and materials are Bridges.

A Bridge can be as simple as learning a keyboard shortcut that saves you 3 seconds every time you use it, or as robust as a multi-pronged strategy that guides you from goals to action.

Cohort Ten will help you identify the work and workflows that are slowing you down and build the Bridges to fix that.

And we'll address not just tasks and projects but also the notes and knowledge our work (and our lives!) require.

Here are some examples of Productivity Bridges that speed up my work:

What is Action-Powered Productivity?

Action-Powered Productivity (APP) is a method comprising tools, skills, strategies, and mindsets to help you work effectively and lead a fulfilling life.

The tools, skills, strategies, and mindsets fall into four core components:

1. Tools and Strategies for building Productivity Bridges. Every APP component I share, and everything you build on top of those components, is designed to increase the work you accomplish while also reducing the time and effort required.
2. Workflows for Taking Action Right Now. Your Agenda, Log, Bins, and Projects are the structure you need to jumpstart your decisions and focus moment-to-moment. Templates, checklists, and simple auxiliary tools will supercharge your execution.
3. An interface between your Second Brain and Main Brain. This ensures tasks, projects, notes, etc., are captured efficiently and surfaced appropriately.
4. A design philosophy for aspects of your Second Brain. You don't need elaborate structure in advance. A few best practices will ensure your "system storage" is safe and effective, and the structure you need will emerge.

Applied Action-Powered Productivity is a six-week cohort to develop your productivity tools, skills, strategies, and mindsets

In Applied APP, we do not build you a system that only works "in theory."

By the end of the cohort, you'll have a reliable productivity system that is tailored to accomplish the work that's important to you, and customized to bridge over your specific productivity hurdles.

🚨 In Cohort Ten, I strongly recommend using a Mac and the tools Keyboard Maestro and Hookmark. I also suggest Tana as a productivity hub. 🚨

While APP is tool agnostic, I have to choose tools to use in course demos. My tools are Tana for my tasks, projects, and notes hub; Mac for my software environment; Keyboard Maestro for automation; and Hookmark for linking to practically anything.

You are more than welcome to use any tools you like, and I will help you to the best of my abilities. But you'll be doing some "translation" from the demos when using different tools—perfectly acceptable, but it will require additional work.

💡Outcome

At the end of the six-week, live cohort course, you'll be:

✅ Confident building, adapting, running, and maintaining productivity processes with Tana as the hub

✅ Comfortable integrating Tana with other apps or processes as needed for your work, especially Keyboard Maestro and Hookmark (if you use Mac)

✅ Confident building, adapting, running, and maintaining automation processes using Keyboard Maestro

✅ Equipped with tools and apps—including AI—to help you work efficiently, effectively, and accurately

✅ In control of your time

✅ Clear on your priorities

✅ Equipped with valuable routines & habits, as well as templates for your recurring processes and projects

✅ Equipped to further develop your system to adapt to future changes in your life and work

✅ More efficient and effective than you've ever been with systems you've used in the past—because this system is tailormade for you

❓How does the cohort work?

In Applied Action-Powered Productivity, we are focused on Action. Everything that's included is to support your ability to Take Action Now.

Here's what's included:

🆓 My Tana for Tasks 2 (T4T2) template and tutorials is included so you can learn the mechanics of task management in Tana (a $97 value, available as soon as you enroll!)

🆓 Pre-built Keyboard Maestro macros that we'll adapt to your Mac tools and workflows

🆓 An invite to Tana is included, if you need one

🆓 Free enrollment to the Action-Powered Productivity community, including access to the Intro to APP course. The community also has a forum, as well as spaces for discussion and learning from each other

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Once weekly Live Group Coaching sessions via Zoom

❓ Twice weekly live Zoom Office Hours for demos, discussion, and Q&A

📼 All live Zooms are recorded and available to watch later

📆 See the calendar of live events: Google Calendar | iCal link

📺 Easy-to-understand video demos

🎓 Curriculum

Because this is a live cohort coaching course, the curriculum listed below is subject to adjust a bit as we recognize what specific issues you face. But this will help you understand the structure of the framework you'll learn.

Prior to Week 1 (before Sep 22)

• Install Tana for Tasks 2 (T4T2) to have your task management ready to go in Tana
• Recommended: Purchase and install Keyboard Maestro and Hookmark on your Mac
• Watch Intro to Action-Powered Productivity videos to learn the APP vocabulary
• Get your calendar set with the live cohort sessions you can attend

Week 1: Productivity Bridges (Sep 22)

• Receive and adapt a few core Keyboard Maestro macros
  • Capture tasks and notes from email effortlessly
• Learn what Productivity Bridges are, and how they can change your life
• Identify areas of your work and workflows that need improvement

Week 2: Now Bridges (Sep 29)

• Learn the basics of task management
  • What's an Agenda?
  • What's a Log?
  • What are Bins?
  • What are Projects?
• Learn to leverage your Agenda, Log, Bins, and Projects to make better decisions in the moment, and to focus on the right work at the right time
• Learn to Bridge from day to day with an Agenda, and from Action to Action by Capturing future ideas and work in the right Bins & Projects

Week 3: Recurrence Bridges (Oct 6)

• Learn the "next level" of task management
  • What are Recurring Tasks?
  • What are Procedures?
  • Why develop Templates?
• Learn to leverage these recurring structures to work more efficiently, effectively, and accurately
• Learn to Bridge hours of unnecessary work every week by harnessing recurrence and never starting from scratch again

Week 4: Action Bridges (Oct 13)

• It's one thing to focus on the right work at the right time. It's another thing to do the work, and do it efficiently, effectively, and accurately
• Bridge workflows and develop proficiency with them, even within apps and tools you already use
  • This includes demoing apps and workflows for each other, which we'll continue from Week 4 through the end of the cohort
• Learn to Bridge the "blinking cursor on the blank white screen" block with tools like AI, text expanders, macros, internal links, and more

Week 5: Feedback Bridges (Oct 20)

• Nothing can improve without feedback, but if gathering feedback is difficult or time-consuming, we won't do it
• Learn to improve your productivity skills and maintain your productivity tools without unnecessary hassle
• Design reviews at the day, week, and month levels—and within projects as needed—that won't take forever or waste precious energy
• Learn to Bridge from one week to the next, or one month to the next, and how effective reviews Bridge into the Middle of future work by providing clarity

Week 6: Vision & Strategy Bridges (Oct 27)

• Goals don't work unless they're tied to Action Now—which is why we often set big goals but fail to work toward them
  • But once we have our Bridges for Now, Recurrence, Action, and Feedback firing, seeing the big picture is critical
• Learn to set your course for bigger picture goals, and recalibrate as needed based on regular feedback
• Learn to set boundaries based on your core values, so you don't take all the bandwidth your new productivity skills have freed up and fill it with work that doesn't matter to you
• Learn to Bridge from Goals to Action by applying effective Strategy

• Learn to troubleshoot your productivity tools, skills, strategies, and mindsets
• Learn to keep building and adapting in the future
• Learn that the system you've built is, itself, a Bridge to simplify your future work

Course Guide: R.J. Nestor

R.J. Nestor is a productivity coach, musician, and writer. He is a communication and productivity expert with 20+ years of experience helping people say what they mean to say and do what they mean to do.

As a coach, R.J. helps you get important work done. He coaches entrepreneurs, executives, and freelancers from diverse industries: technology, finance, architecture & design, real estate, insurance, fitness, law, and more.

You have great ideas and boundless potential. R.J. provides the tools and guidance to execute your ideas and realize your potential.

FAQ

When does the course start and finish?

Cohort Ten will be September 22 through November 3. See the calendar of live events: Google Calendar | iCal link

How long do I have access to the course?

All lessons will be available to you in the APP Productivity community, and for APP Pro members will be regularly updated as future cohorts are completed.

What if I am unhappy with the course?

The refund policy is simple: If you can demonstrate you completed the Week One content, and at that point you decide the cohort isn't for you, DM me in the Circle community to request a full refund. Once the video content for Week Two is available (sometime September 29), no further refunds will be processed.

How do I access the private course community?

The sign-up link will be available when you enroll. If you have trouble joining the community, contact me.

Are there scholarships available for cohorts?

There are! Use this Scholarship Application Google Form to apply!