I’ve been helping small business owners and their teams maintain a work-life balance since 2007. I work from home, I don’t email my team, we have few meetings and I don’t work on Fridays!
My projects: ✅Nozbe to-do app and 📖#NoOffice book
Side projects: 🖋Journal, 🎲Dice, ▶️YouTube watcher and 🇺🇦FCKPTN
⭐️ Featured article:
🖋 🔗 ⭐️ Journal 4 Shortcut - evening practice, morning gratitude and daily planning - upgraded!
It’s been almost a decade since I started journaling regularly and I’ve been tweaking my way of doing it almost every year. Today I’m happy to walk you through my latest version of Journaling Shortcut which has been years in the making. If you ever thought about starting journaling, today is the day. Get the free iOS/Mac Shortcut below and start your daily journaling practice like me. You’ll feel better, you’ll be more productive and you’ll act with more clarity every single day.
Topics on my blog:
Latest articles and posts:
⌚️ Apple Watch face for traveling in the USA
Recently I was traveling in the USA and to make sure I know what time is in my time zone, back in Europe and in the state I’m going to visit next (Utah…), I created a new watch face combining the World Clock and Summer Face which resulted in my “USA Watch face”:
Time zones are complicated…
I normally live in Europe with “Central European Time” which is 9 hours before the PST or “Pacific Standard Time”. The problem is that I was also traveling through Utah as I was visiting the Bryce Canyon which is in MST or “Mountain Standard Time”. Luckily on the Apple Watch Ultra 2 we have the “Modular Ultra” watch face which you can customize like this:
Top row of my “USA” watch face
- Current temperature (in Celsius, I’m not using Fahrenheit)
- Remote for photos (so I can easily take pictures with my iPhone and be on these picutres)
- Activity rings (for sports and easy access to step count)
Clock and day/night
Later I have the current time in the place I’m at. Then I have the “world clock” complication that shows the time back at home in Europe (WAR stands for Warsaw, capital of Poland) and visually I can see if they’re sleeping there or not.
Bottom row with LA time and sunset
- Current date
- Time in Los Angeles (I’m flying back from LA)
- Sunset/Sunrise (to know how much light we still have)
The last two complications were particularly important as I was sometimes on the border of Arizona and Utah and wanted to really know what time it was. Also as I was hiking in Bryce Canyon (pictured above) I wanted to make sure I can finish my hike before the sunset.
🎙 🎬 No Office FM #74: Stressed before your vacation? Don’t panic — do this first!
Panicking before your vacation? This episode is your go-to checklist to disconnect with peace of mind. From planning ahead to setting your out-of-office, we’ll guide you through the steps to truly relax and return stress-free. Check out how to prep smart, delegate with confidence, and actually unplug — so your time off feels like a break, not a breakdown.
📝 On May 5 `25 I am…
…back from a trip to the west coast USA, which went really well.
🎙 🎬 No Office FM #73: Solopreneur - You Are Wasting Time on the Wrong Things! Ft. Jeff Sanders
My favorite podcaster Jeff Sanders joins me after many years to discuss parenting, entrepreneurship, and podcasting and productivity. Him being a Nozbe fan, we even launched a cool web site.
💌 Why less is more in productivity?
What is the greatest obstacle for any product, system or task? How to avoid overworking and sabotaging your efforts? Get the best tips to cutting the clutter and simply getting things done:
🎙 🎬 No Office FM #72: The Shocking Truth: Simplicity Beats All the Fancy Features
This time on the podcast we’re discussing one of our CORE values: Simplicity and how it affects our work, the way we design the app and how hard it really is to pull it off!
🗓 ⭐️ 2024 review - downsizing and regrouping
Last year was my most difficult year as an entrepreneur. I feel like I’ve hit rock bottom but… luckily managed to bounce back. Hopefully now the only way is up and to the right! But yeah, 2024 was something else… that’s why I procrastinated writing this summary, my 11th one and published it only now, at the end of March, when we’re already 3 months in 2025… This will be my most candid yearly summary yet… hopefully this much transparency will serve other struggling entrepreneurs:
🎧 The Podcast 217 - Immature business decisions in 18 years of Nozbe
AI co-hosts have a great discussion about my essay celebrating 18 years of Nozbe - immature business decisions. They manage to catch the essence of what I was trying to convey - enjoy!
🕹️ ✈️ 3 BIG problems of Peak Design’s Roller Pro - weight, size and price
I’m a big fan of Peak Design and I have ordered their Everyday Zip Backpack 15L (Amazon link) as my go-to backpack for travel. And before that I ordered their Outdoor Backpack 25L as my new default backpack (Amazon link). What I didn’t order is their latest invention - the carry-on luggage Roller Pro despite looking very cool:
💌 Remote Work Hacks: Fighting the ‘Dark Side’ of #NoOffice
Remote work offers many benefits BUT it comes with some challenges that can make it difficult to stay productive and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Problems like:
🏠 💻 Perfect Recording Studio in my Home Office 2025
Now that I’ve finished setting up My new Home Office for 2025 I’m starting to appreciate the tweaks and improvements that lead to making it my best “recording studio” ever. It’s an improvement to the Streaming setup from 2021 and most gear stayed the same, but with the new things that came in and much better light management this makes the overall result amazing:
🎙 🎬 No Office FM #71: Remote Work Hacks
We discuss a series of hacks that you can use to make your #NoOffice experience better. How you can work from home and finally get the lifestyle you want while still benefiting from a focused and productive environment.
🔗 Photo Info - quickly manipulate photos on iOS and Mac
On my #iPadOnly journey I keep making lots of Shortcuts to improve my work on the iPad. Sometimes I need to manipulate images or photos. Here’s a handy Shortcut for it:
🕹️ ✈️ Is Peak Design Everyday Zip 15L an ideal small backpack for airplanes?
In Europe, most airlines, especially Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizzair, let you have a free small bag which you can put under a seat. The dimensions are more-less 40cm of height (16 inches), 25-30cm of width (10-12 inches) and 20cm of bulk (8 inches). Most of my backpacks are between 20-26L and they are just too big. Normally I’d get away with it, but recently the airlines started paying more attention to these bags’ sizes. So I checked if my favorite bag/pouches company Peak Design had anything that would work and I think I found it. It’s Everyday Backpack Zip 15L (Amazon link).
🏠 ⭐️ Home Office 2025 upgraded with Mac Mini, Prompter and more!
After a longer stint with my home office (only with minor changes since 2022) it was time for some major re-modeling. I started with moving furniture around but then I upgraded basically everything: cables, Mac, teleprompter and much more. So stay tuned for my best home office yet!
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Hi, I’m Michael Sliwinski, the host of this site. Are you a fellow small business owner? Make sure to give Nozbe a try - my app will help you and your team get your professional and private life organized in a simple way. It’s FREE and you’ll get a bonus of $15 for Premium version by signing up below:
