These Things Come in Threes

Three things in two days. First, I loose contact with my phone. Second, my MacBook Pro dies. Then, in a third and final twist, traffic on the blog increased by 2000% (yes, two thousand) and I get locked out of WordPress. Coincidence? Of course. I got a free lesson in personal productivity in the process; How do you survive when your options are shut down?

Day One

On day one, I headed into London, having agreed to phone everyone I was meeting when I located a suitable coffee shop to gather in. I arrived and reached for my phone. No phone in my pocket. No phone in my bag. Generally, no phone anywhere. How did we survive before we had a phones in our pockets? Perhaps we were more organized, perhaps we just wondered around lost. We only had certain opportunities to communicate, so we planned a little more and were a little less spontaneous. We certainly weren’t sending a text when someone was trying to talk to us! When we got opportunities to communicate, we made the most of them.

There I was with one pound in my pocket. Now, the way the dollar is going, one pound may be worth about $5 at the moment, but it still only gets you one phone call from a UK phone box. As I stood in the pouring rain in central London, staring at the phone box, I didn’t know who to call to sort out the mess. Miraculously, it all worked out fine. I was still glad when I got my phone back later in the day.

Day Two

On day two, I flipped open the lid of my trusty MacBook Pro to do my semi-regular backup and… Nothing. Bright light on front, but black screen. 18 months old and it was dead. Cue raised blood pressure and a trip to the Apple store. Despite mouth-to-mouth from the man at the genius bar (note to self: they really don’t like it when you call it the geek bar), there was no getting any sense out of the thing. The result? A very productive day of phone calls and ticking off items on the to do list that had been left undone because I’d been caught up in email, slide creation and the wonders of the Internet. The MacBook story is to be continued… For now, my trusty G4 is helping me through, sans Microsoft Windows.

The Psychology of Happiness

So, a little bit of Psychology, to fuzz up your day, specifically the psychology of choice and of happiness. Two gentlemen, Barry Schwartz and Dan Gilbert, have made these topics more accessible via their TED talks last year. To summarize and synthesize the two: The more choice we have, the less happy we are. When we do get choices, we don’t use them well, and when we make mistakes, we rationalize them to ourselves, but still we worry that we didn’t do the right thing.

And Finally

We are at our most happy when we aren’t given too many choices, because choices cause stress. Despite that, we always want the ability to have lots of choice, we call it freedom. We want the freedom to keep our options open. Together that creates some interesting insight into why all of this technology causes us to procrastinate. Technology creates so many different possibilities, and with it a whole range of new decisions for us to worry about.

See also: 5 Ways to reduce stress, by reducing choices.

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I have been flattening the battery of my iPod listening to the title track from Stevie Wonder’s new album, A Time 2 Love. It is a wonderful song, featuring India.Arie, with potent lyrics about the things that we find time for, and the important things that we don’t. It started me thinking that making time for things is a key skill for success and happiness.

• Making time to rest.
• Making time to prepare.
• Making time to practice.
• Making time to learn.
• Making time to reflect.
• Making time to love.

I’ve been getting a little rest myself these last few days, as there has been lots going off It is a fun time for the blog, which recently made it on to the WordPress Growing Blogs list and was mentioned as Daily PlanIt’s Discovery of the day (thank you!).

I’m thinking about what next for the blog. It has been in action for over half a year, and I have learned many things. The blog has been a kind of journal, and that is a good thing.

I want to write much more about presenting with PowerPoint, one of my major passions, and I know that I have been writing less about productivity of late. That isn’t to say I have cracked the productivity problems of life, just that I am doing more doing. I am also about to start studying for the first time in a long time, as I formalize my Psychology learning. A long way of saying, expect more on those things, but I am not sure if it will be one blog or three just yet.

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As promised, here are 10 PowerPoint tips:

1. If you can put it on two slides, rather than one, then do.
   Most people put far to much information on a single slide.
2. If you need notes, put them in the notes section.
   That is what it is for. You can then print and use the notes. Don’t force your audience to look at your notes or prompts.
3. If you need lots of punctuation, something is wrong.
   Bulleted lists aren’t great, but comma separated lists are definitely hard to read, difficult to follow, tricky to parse, tough to digest, easily lost, fairly ugly, you get the idea…
4. Try to have no more than 5-7 lines of text per slide, if any.
5. Stick to one key idea per slide.
   This stops concepts becoming muddled and also makes the deck more ‘usable’ when it is printed.
6. Slides are there to focus the audience’s mind.
   Design them to do that, ensuring that they don’t accidentally distract from the message you are trying to get across.
7. Builds control the rate of information delivery.
   This is good, as makes it easier for people to follow, but excessive animation will just distract from the content. Too many builds indicates too much on the slide. Strike the balance, err on the conservative side.
8. Slide transitions are good.
   A nice slide transition beats a straight cut. We are the movie generation and our eyes and brains have expectations. A transition reminds the audience that you are moving on to the next idea, just as a cut does in a move. Consider using a different transition to mark key sections of a presentation. Once again, be conservative, if the transition is too noticeable, it will distract and detract.
9. Remember your point and ensure your audience does too.
   If you can’t remember it, how will your audience? Powerpoint was designed to make points. Make yours and make them clear and memorable.
10. There are no country laws or legal requirements for you to use Powerpoint slides.
    If you are better off without them, then don’t use them. Many of the best ‘presentations’ I have seen were done without slides.

Can someone add another 91 to make it 101! Happy presenting!

Other posts that you might enjoy: 3 Things Not to Forget in a Presentation, A Presentation Lesson from Al Gore.

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On Seth’s blog, an interesting link to Pecha Kucha (Seth’s post here). Really Bad Powerpoint, which almost sounds like a phrase that should be trademarked, continues to take over the world. What can be done?

Seth’s Really Bad Powerpoint is a great starting point. I wish it had been a full book! I was just looking back at my See it, hear it – not the death of powerpoint post today, and remembering 3 Things not to forget in a presentation. There is lots and lots of good Powerpoint advice out there, but presenters don’t seem to be reading. There are some good blogs around too, from Presentation Zen, through Power Presentations (I did Jerry’s course years ago and loved it) to Powerful Presentation Techniques, and I am sure there are others too.

In fact most presenters aren’t presenters at all. More and more workers have PowerPoint thrown on to their machines, and are then left to get on with it. No PowerPoint training, and even worse, no presentation training. Note that those are two different things. Organizations under-invest in both, and reap the rewards. When will people realize what a false economy this is?

While you think that over, I will have a think and post my top ten PowerPoint tips next – for those who want to try and improve their presenting! I know I do!

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A quiet week for me, I am enjoying some downtime. It is good to rest sometimes.

I have finally upgraded my Mac to a MacBrook Pro. The upgrade has given me a chance to clear out my machine and lock down on the apps that help and remove those that just take up space. My aim was to end up with a minimal setup with less ’stuff’ and fewer places for ’stuff’. Something generally better and more productive – I’ve got to get an ROI on the time and money somehow!

Critical Applications:

• Firefox – for browsing.
• Quicksilver – for quick keying/sorting/doing.
• Chicken of the VNC - for controlling the other machines about the place.
• iPod notes – For using my iPod productively.
• Plaxo - for keeping contacts up to date.
• Thinkingrock - for organising life.
• Freemind - Great Mindmapping tool.
• Microsoft messenger – still my default IM.
• Skype - love it!

Then a few bookmarks and sites to keep things going:

• Bookmarks into Firefox – easy because of delicious (installing the Firefox plugin of course).
• Gmail and Google reader
• netvibes (just because it is cool)
• bloglines (not used so much any more.. hm.. time to focus on one RSS reader?)
• eBay - thankful I’m not addicted anymore, really…
• Linkedin - ah… the joys of staying in touch with good people
• Amazon - got to read!
• Facebook - ah friends!!!
• Wordpress - of course!
• And a few Dashboard widgets

Few… Not quite as minimal as I would have liked. Did I miss anything off of there? Anything you would remove? I love hearing about the apps others have found useful.

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I can’t remember where I heard it, it was a long time ago, but someone talked to me about WINning – WIN – What’s Important right Now. Picking the most important thing to do right now, and focusing on it, 100%.

It is a little like Covey’s First Things First habit. The challenge, of course, is working out what is important right now! Prioritisation can be a tricky thing. Getting Things Done doesn’t really major on prioritisation, to me it is more focussed on getting everything that needs to be done, done. I probably need to look at that aspect of GTD again though, unless someone out there has a view! Covey has the four quadrants:

• Urgent, Important
• Urgent, Not Important
• Not Urgent, Important
• Not Urgent, Not Important

Some people use the ABC123 system to prioritize tasks, popularized by Alan Lakein. Which got me thinking: Perhaps there is a hierarchy of tasks, just like Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs? Are there tasks that trump any others? As it turns out, there seems to be some balance between a simple ‘do the most important thing right now’ and a ‘boxing’ or category-based approach.

Take business as an example. There are different needs that have to be met, think about concepts like revenue, costs, investment and efficiency. If one is tackled and the others are neglected, the business will fail. Take these same ideas and then apply them to general life:

• does this activity free up time? (efficiency)
• does this increase my earning potential? (investment – skills development/resource creation)
• does this activity generate income? (‘revenue’)
• does this reduce my outgoings? (‘costs’)

All of these needs should be served in a truly productive life. How about writing four lists this weekend, then picking the highest impact, winning item, off of each list and getting it done this week?

You might find some extra inspiration in the Zen Habit’s automate your income post and the Habitual Habits post.

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“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Peter F. Drucker

This is key to avoiding the ‘activity’ or the ‘productivity’ trap. I have met – in real life and virtually – many people who are focussed on getting more and more things done. They read books to help them do more. They have electronic gadgets to help them do more. They manage to cram more and more things in to their days, they even work out ways to sleep less. The challenge is that they are often cramming in the wrong things. I know, I was one of them. It is a tragedy, please don’t get caught in the ‘activity trap’, where you end up far to busy to stop and realise that you are wasting your time. You will be highly efficient, but completely ineffective in your life. You can save yourself from the productivity trap right now, by starting to work out what REALLY needs doing.

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”
John Lennon

Having said all that, don’t fall into the planning trap either! Life is full of paradoxes and contradictions isn’t it? I reached a point where I was spending most of my life planning. I had a 360 item to do list and it would take me an hour to work out what I was meant to be doing next. It was usually something that I then put off until the next day. Day after day. The list grew and I shrunk. It took me a lot of time and effort the extract myself from that pit. The reality is that ending up with a 360 item to do list was a sign the size of a small planet telling me that I didn’t have an effective way of working out what needs doing. I had only worked out a way of writing down what wanted doing and what I thought that I might want to do, which was more than enough for two people, if not a small army.

“I just don’t have enough time” people shout. Well, everyone gets 24 hours, they just use it differently. Time management books remind you that you can’t manage time, you can only manage you.

• Do the things that should be done, above the things that want to be done.
• You can make time to do the things that you most want to do.
• Live life on purpose, it is the one thing that will make the biggest difference – Be purposeful in all that you do!

Or, in a sentence, work out what needs doing, and do it. Now, how do you do that?

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The simple things are often the most powerful, take focus for example.

Pause and think about this for a few minutes:

If you could choose just one change you could make in your life,

what would it be?

What would the result of that change be?

What is stopping you making that change?

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It is the little things that are often the most provoking. Seth posted on his blog:

Creativity and the unexpected

Just because it’s on the menu, doesn’t mean you have to order it.

One sentence that triggers hundreds of thoughts. In the food context it jars at little, but take the concept to the work place and see what happens. How often do you order something just because it is on the menu? You took the promotion to a manager position, because “that’s what people do”. Is it? Why is it? Is that really what you want to do?

It is all too easy to follow a groove that has been worn by thousands of people who have gone before you. How about doing something different? Be creative and take a different path. Be you. Don’t something just because it is on the menu.

Make this week different from the last one, and the hundreds that have come before it. Make some different choices and see what happens. Take the lead.

Related Posts: The Power of a New Perspective, The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination, Make More Mistakes – More Quickly

Question: When have you chosen something that wasn’t “on the menu?”

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Questions can be very powerful. As a society, we talk more than we listen and we tell more than we ask. Five examples, just from today:

1. People trying to answer a question before it was fully asked
   (and yes, would you believe it, they did answer the wrong question).
2. People answering the question they wanted to hear, rather than the one that was asked
   (If you think you never do this, try recording a conversation and listening back to it)
3. People talking across each other
   (I even found myself doing this, much to my shame).
4. People making unvalidated assumptions, which a simple question could have verified
   (No need to guess when you can ask).
5. People trying to solve the problem, before they had found out what the problem actually was
   (Fun, but fruitless).

All of this reminded me of a simple technique to resolve conflict: Start by addressing the underlying concerns. This is not part of a traditional western education, at least not the one that I received. How do you approach a discussion or an argument? What techniques do you use?

Work to understand the underlying concern.

Once the underlying concern is understood, the roadblocks on the path to agreement can be removed or resolved. Covey’s Fifth Habit – seek first to understand, then to be understood – encapsulates the concept perfectly. The need for understanding includes the need for us to understand ourselves, as well as others. What’s my problem? What’s your problem?

Self-awareness is a key leadership skill, when it is applied to communication it creates a step change.

What’s my problem?

What’s your problem?

If we understand our issues and the other persons issues, then we can resolve most problems.

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I’ve written about learning before, but in musing about the ‘mastery’ of a skill or profession, something came back to me. It was something that I heard in the days when I was heavily into music production, desperately trying to get ‘that sound’. A wise old professional at the time said to me “there are three steps to mastery.”

1. Know the rules

In the first stage you learn the rules. You learn what works and what doesn’t. Discovering when to apply certain techniques and processes.

2. Know when to break the rules

In the second stage you learn when to break those sames rules. As a musician, you learn when to do something that shouldn’t work, but does. As a photographer, you know to ignore a certain general rule about lighting in a specific situation. And so it goes on. You reach a level of experience that means you don’t just know the rules, you know the exceptions to the rules.

3. Make the rules

In the final stage, you make the rules. You create exceptional new techniques that others then follow. This is when you have become a master.

Be a Master!

With dedication and determination you can be a master. Study the leaders, see how they do it – learn their tricks. Then apply your own individual character to create unique ways of doing things. Eventually you’ll be the one that others are studying.

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A good idea is just a thought, but thoughts grow. Be aware that new ideas turn into beliefs. Beliefs turn into behaviors. Over time, behaviors turn into habits, and habits define our character. Watch those ideas!

Our natural tendency
We willingly take on attractive ideas, often without questioning them. They just look good, don’t they? We also reject unattractive ideas too easily, and too often without questioning. They are ugly, we want to get them out of our sight. For attractive ideas, we look for any supporting evidence we can find. Then we stop there. For unattractive ideas, we look for an contradictory evidence and stop there. No balance. Those ideas turn into beliefs, and before we know it, we have a belief system which looks good to us, but may not be representative of reality at all.

The consequence
Reversing this trend is critical for success and sanity. The alternative is a head full of pretty ideas, where pretty does not always mean good. It is often said that the truth is beautiful, but a deception can seem just as pretty, until you see it for what it is. A deceptive idea is just that, by definition it misleads you. If we have been deceived about something, we are, by definition, unaware of the deception. Think about it.

The cure
Spotted any beautiful ideas recently? Everyone gets deceived by wrong ideas at some point. Once deceived, it is hard to reason our way out. Over time reality slips further and further away, buried under layers of wrong ideas. The best way to escape from a deception is not to be deceived in the first place. Easier said than done. Check out new ideas as they come in the door, even before you head out on the first date with them. Don’t judge them by how attractive they at first seem, judge them by how true they are. What is the consequence of that new idea? If it seems attractive, check for contradictory evidence to that idea. If it seems unattractive, is there any supporting evidence that has been missed? Has the idea been examined in a broad enough context – is it over- or under-generalizing. Is it taking something we found to be true and applying it in a new context where it is not longer valid?

In conclusion
Ideas are just ideas. In the end, action is what counts, but action is exactly what creates the consequences for a beautiful idea. Wrong ideas, wrong actions.

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This week the UK government announced changes to the school curriculum. A radical shake up to deal with the new knowledge economy? Not quite.

The coverage over at the BBC spins it well, spin being the appropriate term. The launch was at that great institute of learning, Lord’s Cricket ground. Spinning cricket balls and spun PR. How about a little less spin and a bit more substance, Adonis? It is mostly a change in presentation, rather than a change in curriculum. The government press release is here on the website of the Dfe, or whatever they are calling themselves these days (Department for Children, Schools and Families, as of 28th of June ‘07). Today, information and knowledge are no longer the keys to success.

In an age where you can find a gigabyte of information with a simple Google search, is it still relevant to teach children the same way we did in the last century? Given the fuss over Winston Churchill being shamefully dropped from history teaching you might think so. However, in the new economy, it is wisdom and understanding that deliver the competitive edge. There is a clear difference between what is currently being taught in schools and what is needed.

If the UK education system hasn’t tested children to death, it has certainly tested them to the point of being the most unhappy children in the developed world. So why don’t the government let schools focus on teaching children thinking and learning skills instead? Perhaps a well educated population would be far too dangerous for the average politician. What does the government have to say? It says this:

The new Secondary Curriculum, unveiled today, will free up around a quarter of the school day to enable teachers to give more help to pupils struggling to master the basics in English and Maths and raise standards higher across the board.

It sounds like something from an emerging country with a struggling education system, rather than one of the world’s largest economies. Don’t get me wrong, this is all a step in the right direction, but we don’t need a step – We need a giant leap.

The original national curriculum was a straight jacket on teaching that caused an exodus of great creative teachers. Does the government think that loosening it up a little, some 20 years later, is really going to move education in the UK to where in needs to be to equip the next generation to enable us to be a driving force in this century?

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People are increasingly overwhelmed by their work

I confess it happens to me sometimes. So, how do you avoid it and what do you do about it when it happens? There are a set of practical steps that you can take to get back on track. Follow this list and get back on top of things, and stay on top of things.

The first step

Talk to someone about it. Talking to someone else will bring some objectivity and balance. At the very least it will give a different perspective. Perhaps be bold enough to discuss it with your boss. Employers have a duty of care, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Trust me when I say that it is generally not in your employer’s financial interests to kill you off! At the very least, they would have the costs of training a replacement.

Being overwhelmed leads to high levels of stress, resulting in the fight or flight response. That is a useful if you are a soldier in a war zone, but not in the modern office environment, however war-like the politics may get at times. So, if you are feeling stressed, it can be useful to get out and run! At least take a walk or have a swim to burn off that extra adrenalin.

Get some rest, start with an early night. If you can, take a few days break. It might seem counter intuitive, but having a break means you will have more energy to tackle work when you get back. Even just that decent night’s sleep will help you regain a healthy perspective. Longer term, you may want to think about increasing your level of fitness by planning some regular exercise. If you are generally not sleeping, you might want to seek medical help. The source of stress must be dealt with, or the fight or flight response gives way to the general adaptation syndrome, and eventually burnout.

Invest an evening or a half day in catching up. The harsh reality is that it is going need an additional push from you to get back on top of things, but it is an investment of time that will be returned to you. Procrastination certainly isn’t the answer, even though your brain might want it to be.

If you are already working every weekend and evening, some serious intervention is required. If your employer views this as a mandatory part of the job, I would say book some holiday and use it to find a new job. Unless you love your job more than anything or anyone else, it isn’t worth it, life is just too short. If you are self-employed and have to work at this level, then pick an end date, write it in your diary and determine that you will step back the time requirements by that date. For the majority of people that sort of work regime is not sustainable in the long term – it will do you harm.

Modern work has no natural bounds

In the days of ploughing fields, you knew when you had completed the job and could head home. With today’s knowledge-based working there is a lack of clear endings, and inappropriate use of devices like BlackBerrys isn’t helping in defining limits. You must create bounds and agree them with those that define your work. These have been some of the best conversations I have had with managers and leaders. You will be surprised at the results – if you are not, tell me about it. When you need additional resources, ask for them. If you can’t have them, renegotiate the work load. Remember, you are not bonded labor. Slavery is illegal in most countries around the world.

Most employment contracts will have working hours written into them. Yes, I know that most companies delight in ignoring these. It is very short sighted of them. At least use these hours as a reasonable target. For the self employed, I suggest you make a contract with yourself and have your partner or friends hold you to it. Be reasonable with yourself and others. In the long term, a productive person working less hours is significantly better than an unproductive person working excessive hours. This is true for the company and the individual.

Get to a work rate that you can sustain

The only long term fix is to balance work inputs and outputs, a sustainable work rate. Without this, even after you catch up, you will find yourself behind again. With a fix in place, you won’t get behind, other than for brief periods of time. The final piece is to clear that backlog. Start by writing a quick inventory of what it is overwhelming you. It may not be as bad as you think. Look at the list:

• Can you renegotiate some of your commitments, to create some freedom.
• Look at the largest and most important. Can you enlist help or reduce the scope of the work?
• Are there any that feel like ‘impossible tasks‘? Break them down into smaller chunks.
• Would some of them benefit from some planned abandonment.

Once you have rested, through that early night or short break, book that block of time to catch up. This might mean getting into the office very early for one or two days, a trick which can be amazingly effective. You might choose to stay very late one day instead. Just don’t burn the candle both ends at once! Use this additional work time exclusively for that backlog list. With some focused effort, you will churn through it quickly. As you feel the load lightening, your daily productivity will pick up and you’ll soon be permanently back on track. Now you can focus on staying there, and enjoying life!

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I’ve said it before, but it bears saying again: If you are stuck or struggling, find a new perspective. Take a look at things from a different angle, in a different context, create a new perspective for yourself. It loosens up the mind, creating new thoughts and a different set of emotions. Taking a different perspective will surface new facts and create a fresh set of opinions. It surfaces hidden beliefs, so that they can be verified and adjusted, and disrupts old habits.

How do you get a new perspective? Read some history, read the news from a different country, read a biography of someone you’ve never heard of. Find out about the poor where you in your area, or somewhere elsewhere in the world. Visit a prisoner in prison, or do something that haven’t done before because you were afraid to. I’ve had a few friends take time out to travel the world recently, it is amazing to see how their new perspective has changed them. You can change your situation.

It is all too easy to get stuck into a rut, trapped into a narrow view of the world that drags you down. Understanding your position in the broader context of humanity, with a fresh perspective, makes a world of difference.

Just read a powerful story on the Avanoo team’s blog, which says all this well.

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It has been a long while since I wrote my original Watch out for the frogs post (you might want to read that first if you missed it), which was picked up on lifehack.org. It has been fun to see the post translated into more than half a dozen languages, referenced in seminars, and read by thousands of people. Thank you all for some thought provoking comments and emails!

The key point of my frogs/gnats/butterflies/gems model was to assess the next task with two questions:

1. Do you want to do it? The desirability of the task.
2. Do you need to do it? The necessity of the task.

This is not so much about prioritising tasks, it is more about tackling the right things at any given moment. There is a subtle difference between prioritising tasks and tackling them. All too often people have a well prioritised task list, but still use their time to tackle the wrong things. Thinking of a given activity as a gnat, frog, butterfly or gem can help create personal accountability for whats gets tackled.

Why four types of task, two questions? Very simply to embed a reality check at the start of each activity. The necessity of the task is a key filter to apply before carrying it out, but the apparent necessity is always going to be biased by our motivation. Our motivation is driven by the desirability of the task, which is why we need to be aware of it. Have you ever found yourself justifying how important something is, in order to pick on that task and push off another? It is in our nature to justify our preferred choices, almost regardless of the actual logical reasons. Questioning our motivation disarms this habit. At the transition point between activities, as you end one activity and start the next activity is a key moment. Pause to understand the nature of the next task, to ensure it is the right next step. Use the two questions or four types of task:

• GNATS – Things you don’t want to do and don’t need to do.
• FROGS – Things you don’t want to do, but do need to do.
• BUTTERFLIES – Things you do want to do, but don’t need to.
• GEMS – Things you do want to do and do need to do.

Asking the want question helps us to understand our motivation towards the task. If you want to do the task, you need to ask yourself questions:

• But is this the best thing for me to do right now?
• Is there something that I don’t want to do, that I should be doing?

Jumping to an attractive task can actually be a form of procrastination, you just happen to be procrastinating by doing something. Picking up a butterfly instead of eating a frog is not a productive thing to do. Chasing a butterfly does feel fun and is easy. Unfortunately, it leaves that ugly frog sitting there croaking “guilty! guilty!” at you.

By default, people tend to view tasks as Gnats or Gems, in reality they are usually frogs and butterflies. Understanding the nature of tasks in this way clarifies how to approach them and stops the wrong things sneaking through:

Gnats: Is it a gnat or is it a frog in disguise? If it is a gnat, go ahead and brush it off, it is low priority. If it is a frog, then do it, now.

Frogs: Frogs either hide themselves as gnats, or puff themselves up into the ugliest toad you ever did see. The ‘frog’ tasks are never as bad as they seem, after they are done. The longer they are left, the uglier they get. This is procrastination at its worst. Dive in there and at least tackle a piece of the task, if not all of it, as soon as you can.

Butterflies: Butterflies flutter and flap and do their best to look like gems. They aren’t, they are just flights of fancy, and another form of procrastination. Avoid them, other than as a special treat when all the frogs and gems are done.

Gems: Is this a gem or is it a butterfly in disguise? Gems are rare, enjoy them when you find them, they are the core of a well motivated and productive life. By getting rid of the frogs first, gems become more enjoyable. No croaking noises in the background means that you can be free to truly enjoy doing the gem. We are always motivated to push through to the gems, which is why it is so important to put the frogs ahead of them.

Go ahead, subvert the best attempts of your brain to procrastinate. Instead, focus on using your time well, to reduce the frog-induced stress in your life and enjoy a new found productivity.

Name checks to some of those who wrote about the original article, who’s blogs I now read:

• The Simple Productivity blog – it is simple and is about productivity, very neat.
• Daily Plan It – I have been enjoying reading this blog. The Hop to It post has a link to a ‘frog eating form’ from Marcia, which looks like a great way to call out your frogs and ensure that they get eaten.

Related posts:
Watch out for the Frogs, How to Deal with Being Overwhelmed at Work

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I’ve just realised that I am a recovered addict! Over the last year I have managed to cure myself of my addiction to new gadgets. When I started my quest for productivity, I saw gadgets and tools as the answer, so it feels ironic that I have been lead away from them, I am a technologist after all!

Gadgets can and do help, but not if they are over done. People who know me from my former years will remember that I definitely over did them! The problem with taking on new gadgets every month is that you never get productive with them; it also means that they never become a comfortable part of your routine.

A new found focus on ‘a few good things’ has changed all of that. Using fewer tools means that you get to know the tools you have well and get good at using them. The interesting thing is that I have also settled on far simpler tools. Picking a few good things means that you focus on gadgets that endure, rather than gadgets that impress.

My favourite productivity gadget these days is both an unusual and a common one. It is highly popular, but not for the reasons I use it. It is my trusty Apple iPod nano 4GB, recently acquired via ebay. Mine is very unfashionably green as you can see!

How does it help my productivity? Well, it is:

• My readable, long-term diary (via iCal syncing)
• My address book and contacts list (via Apple Address Book)
• My digital reference (via Notes)
• My teacher (via PodCasts)
• And my to do list (via trusty iCal again)

These are all lesser known, less used, functions of the iPod, but ones it is very functional for. I keep it on me at all times, as it is exceptionally small and light, at about a tenth of the size and weight of the smallest PDA I have ever owned. In fact, it is so small that I hardly know it is there and I don’t need to carry as charger for it as the battery life is incredible. It doesn’t let me down on long trips, unlike my Windows Mobile PDA, and doesn’t clutter my bags with leads and chargers.

In addition to all of that, with additional effort, it can store text notes, you can even fit the whole Bible on it! It also lets me keep up with the world and learn when I am on the move, as I use iTunes to sync the latest podcasts onto it.

Thank you Apple for my best ever PDA. Apparently you can listen to music on it too, that sounds good!

Related Articles: Moving Mac, The iPod as a GTD capture device

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Wow! A head full of ideas this week. Lots to consolidate, and the only way to do that is to write… I was listening to a presentation by Zig Ziglar (I think the guy is amazing by the way! I hope I am that energetic at his age – check him out in action if you ever get the chance). He said a really interesting thing; it is worth writing a book, even if that book is never published. Why? Because writing clarifies your thinking, it solidifies your ideas. That reminded me of the very reason that I started this blog: to write to clarify my thinking and as a step to writing a book. I am greatly encouraged by the feedback and follow up I have received, and by those that take the time to read. Thank you! Now, for me, back to the task!

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Still reading through Pushing to the Front… Chapter 3 is another feast of inspiring quotes. Key take aways and thoughts for me:

“when a firm decisive spirit is recognized, it is curious to see how the space clears around a man and leaves him room and freedom” John Foster

Strong will power will take you to superhuman undertakings. In life there are the wills, the won’ts and the can’ts – it is the wills that get things done. Will power is the underpinning of success. Without dermination, little can be achieved. Will power over comes hurdles and presses on to the goal. Will power overcomes challenges of ill-health or physical incapacity and even presses the mind on to the purpose.

How about this for will, my favourite quote, from a US anti-slavery campaigner:

“I am aware that many object to the severity of my language; but is there not cause for severity? I will be as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. On this subject, I do not wish to think, or to speak, or write, with moderation. No! no! Tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it has fallen; – but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate – I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – AND I WILL BE HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resurrection of the dead.”

– William Lloyd Garrison, “To the Public,” from the Inaugural Editorial in the 1 January 1831 The Liberator

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My notes from Chapter 2 of Orison Swett Marden’s brilliant “Pushing to the front” – “The Boys with no chance”.

It is not every calamity that is a curse, and early adversity is often a blessing. Surmounted difficulties not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles – SHARPE

A poor start can lead to future success. If there seems like there is no chance, then be assured that there is always some, don’t be disheartened. History shows that adversity, when faced, breeds determination and determination breeds success. If you face adversity boldly, it places you on a level playing field with some of the greatest and most succesful people in all of our history. Thomas Edison started out as a newsboy and went on to become one of the greatest scientists and inventors that the world has know. If you don’t have the money or resources to start what you want to do, the start by studying – read and learn. The chances are, you will find your purpose, then be single minded, and the rest will follow. Diligence and perseverence, as they meet with opportunity, will offset whatever kind of start you have had in life.

Many of the world’s most powerful and successful people started with some major disadvantage before they came to their success. There is no such thing as ‘no chance’, it is just a question of being ready to take the one’s that present themselves.

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The first chapter of Orison Swett Marden’s “Pushing to the front” challenges the reader to spot, and to take, opportunity. It is packed with inspirational quotes and stories…

“If we succeed, what will the world say?” asked Captain Berry in delight, when Nelson had explained his carefully formed plan before the battle of the Nile.

“There is no if in the case,” replied Nelson. “That we shall succeed is certain. Who may live to tell the tale is a very different question.” Then, as his captains rose from the council to go to their respective ships, he added: “Before this time tomorrow I shall have gained a peerage or Westminster Abbey.” His quick eye and daring spirit saw an opportunity of glorious victory where others saw only probable defeat.

Life is full of challenges, but the successful leader frames them as opportunities and seizes them. You don’t have to wait for something extraordinary to come along, everyday presents enough opportunity for the person with open eyes. Opportunity is everywhere, if you can’t see it, then make it. In today’s society people, focus on making money rather than opportunity. People work for money and expect it to bring opportunity, or to be an end. That is an error of reversal. Seek opportunity first and make the most of what you are given. Marden says:

Wealth is not an end to strive for, but an opportunity; not the climax of a man’s career, but an incident.

Be prepared for opportunity, and take it!

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

"'Tis never offered twice; seize, then, the hour
When fortune smiles, and duty points the way;
Nor shrink aside to 'scape the specter fear,
Nor pause, though pleasure beckon from her bower;
But bravely bear thee onward to the goal."

- From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

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I’m back to an accelerated learning program again – reading and studying. Lots of good books read through, but I have found one very interesting gem and have been trying to work out the best way to share the discoveries from it. It is a book called “Pushing to the front” by Orison Swett Marden. You can find it on the Project Gutenberg pages. This was the authors first book, but is just a couple of hundred short of 1,000 pages long! Even though it was published back in 1894, it has stood the test of time very well. Over a century after it was written, it still covers the essentials for successful living, despite the monumental changes that have taken place in society during the intervening time.

Orison Swett Marden may well be the founder of the American success movement, although he himself credits his start to a book by Samuel Smiles. Mardens’ personal story is one of success despite tremendous disadvantages. He was born in 1850 to poor parents, on a farm in New England, but was orphaned at an early age. Despite difficult circumstances, he achieved both business and academic success, even in the face of various set backs.

Over the next month or two I’ll post thoughts, most likely a chapter at a time…

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Are you OWP? Operating Without a Plan. Time and time again I find people, myself included, doing this on a daily basis. It is very easy to end up diving into the action and activity, looseing sight of the desired outcome.

Having a plan is an easy way to ensure that you know what the desired outcome is. It helps to keep it in mind, so that if the required activity changes, rather than being focused on trying to achieve that activity, you can switch back to the desired outcome. The activity itself may have become problematic. Rather than try and resolve the activity, we can step back and look for an alternative to achieve the desired outcome. That outcome may now require a different activity because the circumstances have changed. Activities and outcomes are different things. A focus on getting the activity done rather than trying to achieve the outcome can often result in wasted time and resources. Flexibility is required to keep stepping back and saying “OK, what is required now?”

As well as documenting what your desired outcome is and figuring out the activities that will lead to that, the plan also helps to surface the dependencies. What are the show stoppers along the way? A plan helps to ensure these are identified ahead of time, rather than when you are driving towards the wall at 100 miles per hour. Step back, take a different route and make sure that you have the resources and the means in place to over come the hurdles in the way.

Another great thing about plans is that they spread things across time. This means you can reduce all the stress of these things that need to get done down to just one thing. Now all I need to do is this one thing, then this next thing, and so on. We can tackle the problem, however large it is, just one step at a time. We reduce the stress, increase focus and increase our productivity on the way.

Often times I hear people say “I just haven’t got time to build a plan”. Well that’s clearly a false economy. Two to three minutes spent in creating a plan will often save hours, if not days in wasted activity. It is a basic responsibility to plan. For sure, if something is going to take less than two or three minutes, then you obviously don’t want to spend two or three minutes planning it! However, the bulk of activities that people like you and I are engaged in are actually pretty serious and will require hours and hours of work. In that case you really need to make having a plan mandatory. One of the many things that having a plan does is to help you size the problem and work out if you really want to take it on. That 5-30 minutes task may actually mean days of work when you look at all of the dependencies.

A plan doesn’t have to be heavy weight. probably the minimum sensible contents of a plan are:

• A statement of the desired outcome, what is the goal you are looking to achieve.
• A quick list of the things that need to happen on the way.
• Identify any dependencies and put in place actions to deal with those issues or shortcomings.
• Sequencing all of this across time, making sure that you can reach the target end date.

It may be that some of those activities you are doing to delegate to other people or get others to help you with. Now, with that minimal content of a plan, you can set to. You know who to contact, what to do and what needs to get done. You will get a result, you just need to work your way through that list!

In short, the critical success factor for people that make a difference is that, implicitly or explicitly, written down or in their head, they have a plan for what they are doing at any given moment in time. Sometimes it is written down on a sheet of paper, sometimes kept in a notebook, sometimes just stored in their memory bank because that’s the way their brain is wired. Either way, if you stop them in an activity and ask them what they are doing, they don’t just describe the activity, they describe the outcome they are looking to achieve. They can give an account of the steps that need to happen on the way. It is a key characteristic of people who are successful at home, and successful in the workplace.

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I’ve seen an interesting pattern in recent weeks, by changing my behaviour and watching the behaviour of those around me. Those who things go well for, and those who things don’t go so well for.  Seeing when things go well for me and when they don’t. The pattern? When people try to defend themselves, and when people don’t.  To be clear, the context here is verbal defence, rather than physical defence! Life hasn’t got that crazy, not yet at least.

Some interesting things about the nature of defending, or justifying, oneself. Firstly, defending yourself often causes others to attack you more. However, when you turn the other cheek, not defending yourself leaves people nothing to punch against and often stops the attack and swiftens the move towards resolving the situation. That is much more productive that the escalating verbal spiral of each person just defending their position. People usually attack out of their own insecurity. Start by understanding that and arguments will become less frequent, successful resolutions more common.

The next time you are tempted to (verbally) defend yourself in a situation, don’t and see the difference. It is a great leadership skill.

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Slightly later than advertised, here is the end of April review. The half year mark looms large, time to review annual goals and assess progress. This has been a great month of learning, which I am keen to document over the next few weeks. A new environment has put me on a steep, but great, learning curve. This has slowed down my writing and blogging in the process, but has created a few new neural pathways!

I have managed to get back into book reading again, especially the more diverse reading I have longed to do. My favourite book at the moment is Twelve Days on the Somme: A Memoir of the Trenches, 1916, documenting Sidney Rogerson’s time on the front line during the First World War. It seems to be fairly unknown and unmentioned, apart from a little press attention a while ago. It is brilliantly written and it has broadened my perspective on humanity and what is good and bad in today’s world. It brings life into sharp focus; Highly recommended reading.

The top 10 posts for April, but number of views, were an utterly different spin to last month. “Watch out for the frogs!” became a top favourite out there, followed by the post on ThinkRock 2, which I am still enjoying using:

1. Watch out for the frogs
2. ThinkRock is 2 good!
3. Overwhelmed by the to do list? Get back on track and stay on track
4. A good tool is hard to find!
5. Get Laddered with ThinkingRock
6. The Now Habit – Dealing with Procrastination
7. Being organised – the wiki way
8. You Live, You Learn – Learn to Learn, Learn to Live
9. See it, hear it – not the death of PowerPoint
10. What does success look like? Start with the end

My favourite from last month, just outside the top 10 posts was “Drucker’s Life as a Knowledge Worker” which I’ve found helpful to read back over. I have also added a ‘contact’ form to the About tab on the blog and would love to hear from you, either there (or via comments is great too!). Big follow up to the Frogs post soon… I’m also amazed that this blog seems to be in the 10% of blogs on Technorati, which both pleases and perplexes me. I’ve not really viewed it as a technical or a news blog, although I do work in both of those areas.

Have a brilliant weekend!

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Every so often someone says something that makes me go “Hmmm…” I mull it over, I digest it, I internally debate it, I ask others about it; Eventually, it changes my behaviour. This time it was part of a conversation about making decisions in business, and the key phrase, itself passed on from someone else, went something like this: “You can always make a decision, even if you don’t have all of the data yet.”

Decision making is a tricky thing. It is one of the easiest things to procrastinate over, with the standard fallback excuse:- I need to think on it some more, I don’t have enough information yet. It is a fact of life that we rarely have all the information that we might want before we have to make a decision. The Internet age means that there is always one more page that we could check out, just one more avenue of research to pursue. I’ve listened to many business discussions where the difference between two options was less than the margin of error in the figures presented. There may be millions of dollars difference between them, but if the figures (and assumptions) are only accurate to tens of millions, then you are in the business of straining out gnats while swallowing camels. At that point you may as well decide it on the toss of a coin. Even in personal decisions, it can be that way. Many times there is an unknowable thing that completely shifts the balance, so you may as well go with your gut and get on with it.

Making decisions early delivers a myriad of advantages:

• You discover your mistakes sooner. That provides more time to correct them.
• Less time lost in bouncing the decision all the time.
• You, and others, can get used to any changes, and get on with it.
• Making the decision surfaces hidden issues that you need to know about.

The hard decisions wait the longest to be made, but are usually the ones that need making the fastest. If you start down the wrong path sooner, you can correct sooner and be back on the right track sooner. If you don’t make the decision, that time is lost and an unexpected dead-line may remove any chance of rectifying a wrong decision. As new information surfaces, there is usually the option to correct as you go. Decide early to correct early.

Unmade decisions can start to flock. Dave Allen’s Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity talks about open loops. The thought keeps flashing back in our heads, unresolved. Gradually other decisions pile up, and eventually we become paralysed by the hundreds of decisions that have to be made. Unable to think clearly, we make more mistakes. Making decisions early stops them piling up, leaving a clearer, freer mind. Decide early to decide well.

If the decision creates change, acting early gives others and yourself more time to adjust to the change. It also buys time over which to make the change more gradual, if that is needed. Decide early to have more time.

In Po Bronson’s excellent book “What Should I Do with My Life?” He tells the story of person who wanted to be a doctor. They did all of their research and found that the job was a great match for their skills. It wasn’t until started doing the doctoring that they discovered they didn’t like hanging around sick people all day. Making a decision and acting on it surfaces the hidden assumptions. Many things can only be seen where you get there, you can’t predict or second guess them. Discovering these things sooner, rather than later, gives time to overcome these hidden obstacles. Decide early to discover more.

The important comparison is not “good decision” versus “bad decision”, but more often “decision” versus “no decision”. “No decision” can have serious negative consequences in terms of time lost, stress and constant mental re-processing. Even deciding not to decide until point A is a decision. Sometimes that is all it takes to free things up, but there are many benefits to starting sooner rather than later. What has your experience been with early versus late decisions?

In short, decide earlier. You might make more mistakes, but you’ll make them more quickly with more chance to learn and more chance to correct. It isn’t foolproof, but an early decision is the right decision more often than you might expect and it is a great way to knock procrastination on the head.

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Worry seems to be an everyday part of life in the western world. When I was in Africa I was stunned by the happiness and the lack of worry that I saw in people. Many would seem to be on the very edge of survival, by a western definition, and yet they were more alive than many of the people you might meet in an industrialised town. Less seemed to be more. Barry Schwartz has written an excellent book about the subject, The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, and he gave a compelling overview in his talk at TED last year, which can be viewed here: “Paradox of Choice”.

In the western world of abundance, we may just have too much choice. Excessive choices create more space for regret, that is coupled with the rate of change that we live with daily to create worry and uncertainty; we end up wriddled with doubt. Almost everyone I meet is worried about something. What can we do? We can not undo the possibilities that commerce has created, we have openned Pandora’s box, but we can manage our reactions.

The secret to dealing with worry seems to rest in removing uncertainty. Work out the worst that can happen and accept that it could be so. Worry lives in the ‘What ifs?’ – be in the position to say ’so what?’. Worry can almost always be eliminated by positive action, it is inaction that feeds worry. A worry is usually trying to prompt us to do something, so the best response is to act, rather than to procrastinate. Be specific: What are you worried about? Then seek answers and resolution, rather than just more questions.
The challenge is that today’s world constantly leads us to inaction. Through the Internet, through TV, we are simultaneously presented with more choices, that paralyse us, and pressed into less action, by the time that we loose. We must break the cycle, for the sake of ourselves, and the sake of our world. Why worry?

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Very good article over on Presentation Zen: Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?

The actionable take aways and triggered thoughts for me:

• The research referenced is a good confirmation that it makes sense to draw a diagram (or create something visual) when talking with people. It helps to create focus. It also assists people who work visually rather than verbally, and speeds knowledge transfer.
• PowerPoint slides full of words are counter productive. I so often see PowerPoint used instead of a real document, when people are too lazy or scared to produce one. Text heavy slides take people’s attention away from what is being said…
• Never loose your audience to the slide, by putting up a screenful of text! I see this happen over and over. Huge slide of text. Audience lost READING, no longer LISTENING.
• Don’t read a word heavy slide to you audience. It can come across as insulting. Remember…
• The slides are there to support the speaker. The speaker is not there to support the slides!

I love the picture of a slide at a conference half way down the page. It is used as an example of poor PowerPoint use – I think might have I sat in on that presentation! Much of what is written there applies to communicating even when you are not the kind of person who uses PowerPoint.

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I just stumbled upon this great article in inc.com by Peter Drucker:

My Life as a Knowledge Worker

I’m a huge Drucker fan, and this was a great read. Drucker summarises the seven experiences and his seven learnings from them:

1. “I would strive for perfection, even though, as I well knew, it would surely always elude me.”
2. “…one has to strive for perfection even if only the gods notice.”
3. “I decided I had to know something about many subjects…”
4. “…set aside two weeks every summer in which to review my work during the preceding year”
5. “What do I need to do, now that I have a new assignment, to be effective?”
6. “[when doing] anything of significance–making a key decision, for instance–he is expected to write down what results he anticipates. Nine months later he traces back from the actual results to those anticipations.”
7. “First, one has to ask oneself what one wants to be remembered for. Second, that should change… …Finally, one thing worth being remembered for is the difference one makes in the lives of people.”

Thought provoking… The full article is well worth the read.

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I’m absolutely buzzing today; I’ve started using ThinkingRock Version 2 on my mac. Having an effective tool to track what needs doing is critical to living successfully; ThinkingRock is that tool for me – see: a good tool is hard to find and get laddered with ThinkingRock.

For those new to ThinkingRock, you might want to wait a little bit, until the full release, so that you have the help files and full functionality. Windows users will also have to wait a little bit longer for the 2.0 release; I do love the fact that ThinkingRock works on both Mac and PC, I use it on my mac at home and PC for work.

Version 2 is at the ‘gamma’ stage right now, which the ThinkingRock folks describe as still having some bugs and some functionality to be polished, but otherwise stable and safe to use. Version 2 is a quantum leap forwards, now you can:

• Attach files to items
  • I use this to add scanned documents or diagrams – enabling me to be much more paperless and location independent in my working.
• Create recurrent tasks
  • This was a bit of a hole in the Getting Things Done system for me; This new functionality completely closes that hole for me. I’ll have no excuse for forgetting to put the rubbish out, or book that haircut!
• Sort by ‘created’ time
  • For me, taking into account the age of a task is a key part of monitoring productivity and ensuring that items and projects don’t hang around forever (see: dealing with the do its that just don’t get done). While I would have liked something based on last modified time, being able to sort by creation date works just as well, if you spawn a new task whenever you refactor something.
• Add more detailed task attributes
  • For the hardcore to do list geeks, this is a great one: you can now record the energy and time required for a task, as well as setting a priority. If you are feeling bright, you can quickly find a high energy task to do; If you are feeling a bit low you can jump to an easy win. Very neat and unique piece of functionality.
• Speed up actions review with a radically improved actions review screen
  • I had been hoping for some improvements here, but not expected any. I’m blown away by this one, it will save me a great deal of time during my weekly reviews. You can now effectively create custom review screens, so that you can pull up the relevant set of tasks in a single click. Settings are now remembered when the application next runs.

There are also some good work flow improvements, both for processing thoughts and for the automatic sequencing of task lists in projects and subprojects. Also some new house keeping, including a decent archiving facility – just in time, as my file was getting huge.

It has been well worth the wait for Version 2 – solid job Avente!!!

Related Posts: Get Laddered with ThinkingRock, A good tool is hard to find!

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