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Hello, I’m Michael Sliwinski, founder of Nozbe - to-do app for business owners and their teams. I write essays, books, work on projects and I podcast for you using #iPadOnly in #NoOffice as I believe that work is not a place you go to, it’s a thing you do. More…

BOOK: No Office Apps

How the Nozbe team uses modern technologies to communicate better and get more done.

By me (Michael Sliwinski). Published December 1, 2016.

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BOOK: No Office Apps

In this book I discuss the concept of “Pyramid of Communication” - which helps me and my team communicate effectively to get everything done. See Table of Contents

This book is based on my company’s concept of pyramid of communication, which I also discussed on the 18th episode of The Podcast. I later revisited the concept here and on the 65th episode of The Podcast. Based on all this, as well as frequent questions from readers about apps I use and recommend and apps I use at my company I decided to write this book.

Promo video - “Where are you based?”

Update in 2018: I was on stage at Mobiconf 2018 showing how I use iPad Only apps to work like this:

“No Office Apps” - Table of Contents

Below is the table of contents with quotes from my book. This way you’ll have a better “feel” of the book and its contents. You’ll quickly see why a simple article on the pyramid of communication wasn’t enough and I had to convert it to an entire book:

Introduction: Where are you based?

“Q: Where are you based? A: We don’t have an office. We all work from home…”

“Our mission is to help people get more done - we tweak anything we can to work better…”

Traditional Office: I can just walk to you!

“Talk is not cheap. Interrupting somebody costs time. Face-to-face talking is expensive…”

“Email is so last century… so at @Nozbe we try to avoid it for internal communication…”

Pyramid of Communication

“There are actually 5 levels of communication: between highest and lowest bandwidth.”

“Pyramid of communication: spend time on Level 1, less on Level 2, much less on Level 3, 4 & 5.”

Level 1: Deep Work

“Pyramid level 1: Communicate through work, it’s all about focus and apps.”

“Pyramid of Communication level 1: At this level we communicate through our work.”

“Level 1 - work asynchronously and get your own work done in uninterrupted chunks of time…”

Level 2: Feedback

“Level 2 of team communication is all about getting feedback without interrupting others…”

“Pyramid of Communication level 1: Ask for feedback in the most asynchronous way possible…”

“Level 2 - get feedback, define responsibility, DON’T communicate with everyone!”

Level 3: Back And Forth

“Level 2 of team communication - let’s chat about it using text…”

“Pyramid of Communication level 3: It’s all about quick feedback.”

“Level 3 is great for quick feedback as you’re finishing off your project or task.”

Level 4: Talk To Me

“Level 4 of team communication - it’s all about getting answers quickly with voice…”

“Pyramid of Communication Level 4: It’s all about convenience.”

“Level 4 is to iron out the details, but be respectful and schedule your voice calls…”

Level 5: Meetings

“Level 5 of team communication - let’s meet face to face now…”

“Pyramid of Communication Level 5: It’s all about having a good reason for each meeting…”

“Level 5 (#Meetings) is all about being prepared, getting feedback and NOT brainstorming…”

Level 5+: Reunion

“Reunions in an all-remote company: Twice a year, our entire team meets up for a week…”

“At @Nozbe reunions it’s all about connecting with each other and spending quality time together…”

Example: A Life of a Project at All Levels with Nozbe

“Simple @nozbe use case: how the marketing team organizes a small event for some of the users…”

A Different Example: Better code in Github

“Github: You work on code, you commit it, you review other commits. You add comments. At your own pace.”

Examples of Meetings done right and wrong

“Examples of #meetings: Spontaneous - when instant feedback and decisions are needed…”

“Examples of #meetings: Design Fight - a regular meeting dedicated to Nozbe design, UI and UX”

“Examples of #meetings: Stand up / Scrum meetings where our developers share every day…”

“Examples of #meetings done wrong: a company-wide all-hands meeting…”

Bonus: 5 Rules of effective communication

“Bonus chapter: Effective communication on a dispersed team — 5 general rules”

More Tips And Tricks: 7 Ways to improve interpersonal relations

“Bonus chapter: communication in a dispersed team: 7 rules for improving interpersonal relations”

Summary: Getting communication done

“How to get team communication done? Clearly define your levels of communication!”

Please let me know what you think! I wrote this book for you:

Get the Book! It’s FREE!

“No Office Apps” - version history