Productivity expert Mike Williams joined us from Southern California to share the basics of his Doing to Done approach and how these simple yet impactful principles can be applied using OmniFocus.
Mike Williams is a speaker, author, executive, and coach who helps leaders obtain small wins with a big impact on their lives and businesses. He gives people the actionable tools to succeed on their terms with less effort AND be at the top of their game in all areas of life.
Drawing on his extensive experience in the corporate world, Mike has developed an approach called Doing to Done designed to “decrease overwhelm and turn your chaos into clarity” that has been described as “refreshingly simple”. He shared highlights of this approach, including strategies for establishing a common ground and guided us through an exercise centred around the “Role Clarify Map.”
Mike has years of experience using OmniFocus. He and Tim Stringer shared how Doing to Done principles can be put into practice using OmniFocus and complementary apps.
Resources
Role Clarity Map – During the session, Mike introduced us to the “Role Clarity Map.” A template is available as a Google Sheet and PDF.
Custom Perspectives – You’ll find details on the Custom Perspectives that Tim Stringer demoed in our Custom Perspectives for OmniFocus collection.
Templates for OmniFocus Plug-In – Tim also demoed the Templates for OmniFocus plug-in by Kaitlin Salzke. Kaitlen featured this and other OmniFocus plug-ins when she was a guest on Learn OmniFocus.
About Mike Williams
Through his leadership roles with General Electric, The David Allen Company, and Zappos, Mike kept noticing that people were desperate for a better path to productivity to help them fight digital distractions, mind clutter, and wasteful uses of their time. But the only resources available involved complex approaches, reading thick self-help books, or participating in boring seminars.
He knew a better way existed – one rooted in simplicity and realism. In his pursuit, he spent two decades working with thousands of people across different industries – from rocket scientists to business leaders to students to nonprofit organizations.
Today, Mike assists clients using an effective coaching methodology that’s far from complicated. He also used what works to create Doing to Done—Productivity Made Simple, Illustrated for Busy People Like Us, a visually engaging book about quick wins with significant impacts. Bringing a bit of Southern California energy to his work, he firmly believes that managing stress through better productivity shouldn’t be so stressful.
Four Truths and a Lie
Mike has had his share of interesting experiences, including four of the following five epic accomplishments:
- He’s seen Bruce Springsteen 30+ times.
- He swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco.
- He met Oprah Winfrey.
- He owned a funky thrift store with his wife.
- He lived in an airstream park for three years with a llama named Marley.
Any guesses about which four are true and which one is a lie? Watch the video and find out!