Notes on Productivity Home Page

Consulting
My consulting career has always centered on understanding my clients' needs and doing whatever's necessary to meet them, whether that involves working independently, with a team, or both.

I started in 1981 with a contract to design flight-planning software for a LearJet charter company. Since then, I've consulted for over 400 corporate and government clients, most often in the areas of knowledge management, personal productivity, and technology for messaging, collaboration, and self-management.

While I've often traveled to work with clients, present at conferences, and provide on-site training in technology and productivity, I've also worked remotely many times; I've even assembled a fully-equipped home office for this purpose.

Entrepreneurial
Apart from my consulting career, I've also founded three companies over the years for the purpose of marketing and selling software products of my own design (which I created to solve problems that I encountered in my consulting work). My current software product is eProductivity, a solution for IBM Lotus Notes that I designed with David Allen, creator of the "Getting Things Done" methodology. David and I use eProductivity as the centerpiece of our personal productivity systems.

I've learned a great deal about business and leadership through my entrepreneurial endeavors, as much from my disappointments as successes.

Director of Technology
David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and founder of the David Allen Company, has been my friend and collaborator since 1992, and it's been an extraordinary privilege for me. For 14 years, I served his company in various technology-oriented roles, ensuring that the ever-expanding corporation stayed up-to-date with the latest and best solutions for collaboration, messaging, and personal productivity.

I worked closely with David while he was developing the "Getting Things Done" methodology that would make him world-famous.

Academic
As a student, I hold a a Master of Knowledge and Information Management degree from California State University, Northridge, as well as a B.A. in Organizational Management from The Master's College.

As an educator, I've taught at The Master's College for seven years. The courses I currently teach are Management 430: Technology for Business Decision-Making and Computer and Information Sciences 328: Introduction to Robotics.

My Robotics students (not all of whom are Computer Science majors) learn how to solve problems creatively as they build and program robots to accomplish complex tasks. It's wonderful to see them work out complicated problems on their own after struggling to learn and implement the material.

My management students (most of whom already have professional careers) learn the great importance and diverse uses of technology in the workplace, particularly how it can be used to enable smarter collaboration, knowledge and information management, and decision-making for teams and individuals.

Family
I've been married for 25 years to Kathy Mack, my princess bride, who has worked tirelessly to raise and homeschool our four daughters, who are all accomplished in their own right.

Personal
On the personal side, I enjoy studying and solving problems in technology and fabrication. My projects have included building my own robots, computers, 3D printers, CNC machines, and a treadmill desk, working independently and with others. All of these help me keep up and sharpen my creativity and skills in problem-solving, project management, collaboration, and many different kinds of technology. I also coach children's robotics teams and sing with my wife in our church choir.