Top Resources: Business and Productivity
by Vicki Wrona, PMP
This is part 1 of a multi-part series sharing some favorite resources. Part 1 will explore business and productivity resources. Other posts will explore learning, inspirational, and leadership resources. I hope you find these useful. Note: I am not sponsored by these sites and all views are my personal opinion.
Business Resources
Smart Brief
SmartBrief– Smart Brief offers many different briefs delivered daily or weekly. This is a great way to stay current in specific areas or industries quickly. There are various version of this, so you can subscribe to the one that suits you best. In addition to stories by industry, versions include Smart Brief on Leadership, Entrepeneurs, Social Media, Small Business, Independent Businesses, Workforce (for HR professionals), Business Traveler, Business and Politics and more.
PDU Of The Day (PDUOTD)
https://www.pduotd.com/ – This site provides a one-stop shop for free webinars on a variety of topics for project managers, business analysts, and agile professionals. Their calendar lists multiple webinars every day plus selected presentations are highlighted daily and at various times of the year. They choose their highlighted speakers carefully. Check it out!
The Great IT Professional
The Great IT Professional Live Webinars – Great Pro offers one live webinar per day plus over a thousand recorded sessions available to paying members. (A small annual membership fee applies. Watch for discounts on the annual fee.) Sessions cover a variety of technical, productivity, and management / leadership topics sorted by topic or by speaker. I have recorded over a dozen sessions for them.
Project Management Training Alliance
PMTA Webinars – PMTA is a non-profit organization comprised of PM training companies and individuals. They offer a free live webinar plus access to all recorded webinars for free, including from me.
Fast Forward MBA
Fast Forward MBA in Project Management by Eric Verzuh – I recommend this book as a terrific reference guide to the proven techniques in project management. The book is succinct and full of practical tips, examples, case studies and templates.
Productivity Resources
Little Things Matter
Little Things Matter – Effective business and life tips. In addition to being helpful, they remind us of simple and effective (common sense) lessons.
Audible
Audible and SleepPhones – Audible provides audio books, podcasts, full-cast performances, speeches, newspapers and periodicals available for download. I have subscribed to audible.com since 2000 and am hooked. I download books and performances to my phone using the app and listen while I make tea, fly/drive, get ready, clean, relax before bed, etc. Because I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, I appreciate resting my eyes and having books read to me. A companion product that I love are SleepPhones, which have flat speakers embedded in a soft headband. These are a terrific way to listen to Audible while exercising or laying down. Use the Audible app timer to turn off a book when listening to fall asleep. (Have a book read to you just like when you were a kid!)
Trello
Trello – Whether you use this to track your professional work with a team or personal to-dos by yourself, these visual task boards or kanban boards make it easy to see what you have going on. You can see everything planned (or hoped) to do and what progress has been done.
Quick and Dirty Tips: Do Things Better
Get it Done Guy – Stever Robbins explores a variety of simple yet effective tips to help you work better, including his book 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More. This site is now part of Modern Mentor, with helpful posts and tips on tech, relationships, house and home, health and fitness, money and finance, and more. Podcasts are available from grammar girl, get-fit guy, money girl, nutrition diva, ask science, savvy psychologist, and more.
Two Awesome Hours Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done by Josh Davis, Ph.D. This is based on neuroscience, discussing practical ways to get two hours of peak productivity per day rather than trying to get more done faster. Efficiency is a metric used on machines, not people. This book addresses how to increase effectiveness.
Your Brain at Work Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long by David Rock. This book describes how to maximize our mental resources, manage distractions, solve problems, make decisions, and work with others from both a personal and a business perspective. This book follows a couple who have two small children. One spouse is a senior executive at a large corporation and the other is an independent consultant working from home or at client’s offices. The book provides realistic scenarios and solutions.
Dragon Naturally Speaking
Dragon Naturally Speaking by Nuance – Dragon accurately and quickly captures what you say, typing faster than you probably can, while saving your arms and wrists from injury and carpal tunnel syndrome if you type a lot. As a time and productivity saver, it will also read to you with its text-to-speech capability, allowing you to either catch mistakes in your writing (like small missing words) or to have email or documents read to you while you clean your desk or do other background tasks.
Click here for Part 2 of our series.
These are some of our top resource picks, but what are yours? Please share below, because we’d love to check them out!
