Ray Sidney-Smith

MacBook Neo vs MacBook Air: Every difference between Apple’s 13-inch laptops

MacBook Neo vs MacBook Air: Every difference between Apple’s 13-inch laptops: https://posts.rsidneysmith.com/2026/03/04/macbook-neo-vs-macbook-air.html

Google Messages Finally Has Real-Time Location Sharing Android users are now able to share their live, real-time location in Google Messages, so you can easily see where your friends and family members are and are moving to over a period of time.

Google Messages Finally Has Real-Time Location Sharing lifehacker.com/tech/google-...

Privacy's Defender: My Thirty-Year Fight Against Digita… A personal chronicle of three key legal privacy battles…

The clock is ticking! Goodreads is doing a giveaway for Privacy's Defender, a novel from EFF's Cindy Cohn that gives insight into the most pivotal legal disputes that shaped the Internet. You have 8 days to enter and get the chance to win a free copy! www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Rest in peace to a legend.

Catherine O'Hara, 1954-2026

Ray Sidney-Smith

I had my first experience with “Auto browse” (agentic AI) in Google Chrome. I’m still very concerned about privacy and security (which I know Google is working on diligently), but I was impressed by my initial work with it. It needs to be faster, much faster. But the potential is exciting!

What is n8n?

What is n8n?: https://posts.rsidneysmith.com/2026/01/09/what-is-nn.html

Ray Sidney-Smith

Is it me, or is Google Gemini Live constantly trying to end the conversation with me? Ending every response with “Is there anything else…?” is giving I’m-done-with-you vibes.

Personal Productivity Club Build better systems, manage your time, and reach your goals—together with people who care about getting things done. Founded by a personal productivity enthusiast, podcaster, and technology coach, Pe...

All the event details are here once you've joined: www.personalproductivity.club/posts/935340...

Personal Productivity Club Build better systems, manage your time, and reach your goals—together with people who care about getting things done. Founded by a personal productivity enthusiast, podcaster, and technology coach, Pe...

For nearly a decade, I hosted #ProdChat on Twitter, a weekly #productivity conversation. I'm bringing it back in a new audio-focused format once or twice per month. If you're interested, join (for free): www.personalproductivity.club/share/NGSGig....

Ray Sidney-Smith

You may soon be able to change your Gmail address. This is going to move slowly and break things fast. Think long and hard before you change it! More here: techcrunch.com/2025/12/2…

We don’t always default to kindness, and sometimes that may reflect how we treat ourselves, especially amid old hurts or harsh self-talk. Reminder: be kind to yourself today.

Tomorrow’s the day! We launch our book, Podcasting for Small Business! To celebrate, join Steve Orr and me for a live recording of our first podcast episode, where we’ll explore the book’s ideas and more.
📘 Learn more: podcastingforsmallbusiness.com
🎙️ Join us live: lnkd.in/eQ7F5RQ4

There are no problems, only projects (per David Allen). Chasing fully automated solutions are how you get stuck (and downstream problems occur when automations inevitably break). Settle for 75-80%. That imperfect solution still saves huge time and can be iterated on over time. Action is the win.

Reject “hustle culture” for a better kind of growth. You can be a high performer without acting like a robot.

Stop seeing every action as a worthiness test.
Incremental progress equates often to better output.
Consistency is great, but don’t choose it over being human.

Posted too soon. Cloudflare is still down. 😐

Parasocial relationships are hardly a modern phenomenon. They have likely been occurring since humans could create mass media (since Gutenberg press, perhaps? cc: @jeffjarvis.bsky.social).

It seems like it has resolved on my end. 🤞🏻

A study of 1 million people reveals a key ingredient for happiness that most leaders ignore The researchers focused on two types of trust, interpersonal trust and institutional trust—the two types that can occur in workplaces.

The more employees can trust in you, your company, and one another, the happier and less burned out they’ll be. f-st.co/GPqzinL

@cloudflare.social seems to be down. Multiple of my sites are not working...which run DNS/CDN through Cloudflare.

In life and work, resist two traps:
⚠️ Don’t take one moment and make it a universal truth.
⚠️ Don’t treat universal truths like they apply without exception.
Wisdom lives between the general and the specific. That’s where agency begins.

#Productivity Chat, #productivity starts with great conversations

As some may remember, I ran #ProdChat for many years...and it's returning as an audio-only format (with live chat). For those interested in #productivity #timemanagement conversations, join Personal Productivity Club and RSVP 1/7/26: www.personalproductivity.club/events/produ...

The best leaders know how to appropriately celebrate wins with the right spheres of influence.: https://posts.rsidneysmith.com/2025/11/11/the-best-leaders-know-how.html

Bold statements about getting rid of stress sells well. Nuance is tougher even if it's the proper path. I really hope people give it thought. 😊

Misuse of the Pareto Principle: https://posts.rsidneysmith.com/2025/10/30/misuse-of-the-pareto-principle.html

Misunderstanding the Pareto Principle often leads to oversimplified time management strategies that falter once one becomes well-organized.

A single amorphous white dot (representing minimalism) sits next to a stacked stones form a balanced cairn (representing optimalism) against a blue background alongside the text From Minimalism to Optimalism: Rethinking the Pursuit of Less and the website URL www.productivityplustech.com. Substack logo in grey sits in the bottom right corner of the image.

From Minimalism to Optimalism: Rethinking the Pursuit of Less: https://posts.rsidneysmith.com/2025/10/30/from-minimalism-to-optimalism-rethinking.html

Hot take: You don’t need a digital detox. You have great control of your devices' settings. Limit notifications, manage screen time, delete distracting apps, and focus on creating over consuming. If it’s addiction, seek professional help; don’t fall for “detox” gimmicks from self-proclaimed experts.

We’re not meant to look at others to see how we measure up.

The real growth happens when we look in the mirror, when we compare who we are today with who we were yesterday.

Progress isn’t about others. It’s about being a little better than your present self, one day at a time.

This buries the lede; the main takeaway is that finding a balance between tidiness and creativity/messiness is key for a productive and healthy work life.

hbr.org/2019/03/the-...

Jane Goodall, a conservationist who broke barriers for women and revolutionized the study of primates, has died at 91. https://cnn.it/4o44cxf

Book cover for Podcasting for Small Business by Ray Sidney-Smith featuring a Main Street with a large retro microphone rising up from the foreground of the image.

My coauthor Steve Orr and I released "Podcasting for Small Business" for preorder - amzn.to/4q2SuVs - Release for hardcover and paperback are on December 2nd as well!