The Stand-up Philosopher

Personal MBA: Finding Time

Josh Kaufman at the Personal MBA has a post about finding time. Josh echoes my own thoughts on the issue. You don’t make time; you take it. Sometimes taking time is like hammering a square peg in a round hole, but it HAS to be forced. Have you ever been required to attend a pointless meeting? You know, the kind of meeting that is either for the glorification of self-important people? Or the kind of meeting that does nothing more than facilitate in-fighting among another group? Have you ever tried to fight to get out of that meeting to get real work done? Yeah, square peg.

Way back in 1996 when I read “10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management”, I learned that the statement “I don’t have time” is a lie. It really means “I value something else more than whatever you’re asking for during that time slot”. Because of that, I avoid telling people “I don’t have time”. I also avoid the feeling-hurting “I value something else more during that time slot.” I’ll sometimes say “I have to do x” or “I’m busy with x at that time”. Sometimes I’ll use the more general “I’m busy with other things”.

I try to be honest with people, without being a jerk and without using the clichéd “I don’t have time”. I also realize that my priorities can be fluid, and I will sometimes reprioritize accordingly.

I’m starting a blog post about silly things we say without really thinking about what they mean. I think “I don’t have time” is one of them.

Lifehacker: Do You Snooze?

Lifehacker has a survey posted with a blog entry yesterday. It asks the question: Do you Snooze?

Well, do you? Do you hit the snooze button?

I used to. I can remember in high school, I’d set highly ambitious goals to get out of bed early. Then I’d hit snooze every 9 minutes for the next hour.

That was 18+ years ago. I’ve since learned that no matter how tired I am when my alarm goes off, I’m better off just waking up and getting moving. I will be far worse off if I hit snooze.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’m so used to swiping my finger across my iPhone screen to turn the alarm off. By the time I think to hit snooze, it’s too late. I’d have to enter my passcode, open alarms, and reset the alarm for later. Then I’d have to set it back again later.

68% of respondents in Lifehacker’s poll admitted to hitting snooze every morning. Are you one of them?

I’m not.

How To Use A Daily Capture Mind Map

Way back in September, I wrote a post about using a concept called a Daily Capture Mind Map. It was to address a serious vulnerability in my own productivity system.

For the most part, it worked really well. I began using Mind Manger for iPhone. I kept this map on it. I treated this as a dashboard and used it to park information that I needed access to quickly. Prior to buying Mind Manager for iPhone, I was using Mind Meister, an online mind mapping service with a free plan. At the time I had two computers for work on two different networks, so I could access my dashboard at either, plus at home.

With Mind Manager for iPhone, if I was out and about, and came up with a new idea, or an action item, I would park it on this mind map until I could get to it later. If somebody committed to get something to me, it went on here. And, if I committed something to somebody else, it went on here. I referred to it several times a day.

It worked really well for a while. At least, it worked until I didn’t have a job anymore. For some reason, I’m a lot better at tracking lots of information than I am very little information. Once I was removed from my position in November, I didn’t have anything else to track. I haven’t really used this map much since then.

I’m going to dust this map back off as I go about my job search.

Congrats to Brad Isaac! 80% of Success is Just Showing Up

Congratulations to Brad Isaac, who had an essay make it into a Tom Peters book!

Brad wrote an essay a while back (I remember reading it) about how 80% of success is just showing up. You can download a .pdf of the relevant pages from Brad's post.

This came at a great time, as I'm about to face an enormous personal challenge. Showing up is going to be the hardest part.

What Exacly Is A Clear Vision?

UPDATE 15 MAR 19: I originally wrote this post on my iPhone. I'm sorry that it quadruple posted, and that it took me several days to discover and fix it. I had trouble with TypePad's iPhone client. I thought it was timing out. I tried to post, and the client crashed. Then I brought it back up, tried to post again, and the client crashed again. Then I tried to post with the mobile client in Safari. The same post went up 3 times, and was poorly formatted.

I got the idea for this post from a tweet by Dan Miller:

If you don't have a clear vision - strategy, tactics and hard work will just leave you exhausted and depleted. http://bit.ly/dkXXmG

If you haven't noticed, I'm currently in a position where comments like that create a different reaction in me. "That's nice, Dan. You got your success." Having come off the greatest failure of my career and being reduced to working for a micromanager, it discourages me.

It makes me wonder, just what the heck is a clear vision? I have visions. I have goals. I was writing my goals down every day. I have tons of MindManager and Freemind mindmaps about my visions, goals, roles, and horizons of focus. I read all the popular success literature. I listen to Dave Ramsey and David Allen and Stephen Covey and Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi and Michael Hyatt and many others. Where the heck is my success?

I hope someday I can write a book or host a TV show about how great it is to have a vision. Then mid career failures can tell me how easy it is to say it. But really, is my vision just unclear? Have I not defined my goals clearly enough? What's the problem? Why am I stuck in a cubicle next to the coffee pot working for a micromanager and wondering if I wasted my time and money getting a degree?

Free Tony Robbins "Awaken the Giant Within" eBook and Audiobook Download

I came across this recently. A former Tony Robbins trainer is offering both the eBook and Audiobook versions of "Awaken the Giant Within" for free.

I don't know much about Tony Robbins. I know people who are thrilled with him. If you're into Tony and don't have this book, here's your chance.

How To Achieve Your Goals: Write Them Every Day

Somewhere in the last two weeks, I came across a tip Brian Tracy put in his email about writing your goals down every day. I saved the email for later, and decided to follow the tip.

Somehow, my brain remembered it as “Write your top 10 goals down every morning”, so I began that day. I’ve had times in the past when I would read my goals out loud every morning, but I’ve never written them, with a pen, daily. I decided to give it a try.

So, every morning, I’d take out my Moleskine and write 10 goals. I somehow managed to get 10 goals out of my head and onto paper, and ran with them for now.

I discovered something interesting. As I wrote my goals out every morning, they began to refine themselves. I realized that 4 goals could be combined into 2 goals, making room for 2 more on my list of 10. I can’t say I’ve had that happen to me. At one point in the past, I set a goal, and after looking at it every day decided “nah, I don’t want to do that” and changed direction.

Then, yesterday, I reread the email from Brian Tracy. This is what the section ACTUALLY said:

Goal Setting
Every morning, take three to five minutes to write out your top goals in the present tense. Get a spiral notebook for this purpose. By writing out your ten goals at the beginning of each day, you will program them deep into your subconscious mind.

I’ve never been good with writing down a desired outcome in the present tense. It always felt kind of hokey to me. But, I have nothing to lose right now. I’d like to see a change of direction in at least one area of my life, specifically, the area of my life that brings in the money. I’m at a low point right now. It’s a long story, and if you’ve followed my last few weeks of entries, you realize that I need to erect some boundaries in what I share with other people. Go ahead and read my back entries through November, then keep going. These blog posts don’t read themselves.

OK, writing goals in the present tense. I decided to try it because I have nothing to lose. I wrote all 10 of my goals in the present tense, as if they already happened (i.e. “I own an iPad”). Just kidding on that one, but you should get the point.

Something strange happened: I looked at my goals in a different light. I reworded a couple of them, but I was forced to consider if more of my goals were really where I wanted to end up. I also realized that looking at my goals in the present tense, 3 of them end up in the same place, so they’re really just the means to the end of a single goal.

Consider this scenario. You set a goal “I want a big house.” Now, look at it in the present tense: “I have a big house”. Think about it. “Uh-oh! I have a big house. Man, this thing takes a lot of time to clean, and it costs a fortune to air condition. I live in New Jersey, and the property taxes are astronomical! Did I really want a house this big?”

It’s hard to describe, but I guess I can say, looking at my goals in the present tense also showed me the consequences of those goals. It made me wonder if that is really where I wanted to end up after all.

I’m going to keep up with this exercise and see where it ends up. Hopefully, it ends up with my goals met.

What about you? What techniques do you use to set and meet your goals? Have you tried writing them every day in the present tense?

The Most Useless Career Advice

There’s a piece of career advice going around lately that I find useless. It’s comparable to frugality tips like “Just spend less than you make” or health tips like “Just burn more calories than you eat”.

It’s not that the advice isn’t sound in at least a few ways. It’s just that it’s what everybody says. To me, that makes it useless. It doesn’t add anything to the conversation. It sure as heck doesn’t add anything to my career.

The useless advice?

“If you have a job in this economy, just stay in it. You’re lucky to have it.”

Like I said, I hear it from everybody. I know it. Telling me (or anybody else) that piece of advice doesn’t help. I know that having a job, even a bad one, is a good thing in this economy.

Busy Is A Form Of Laziness?

I can't explain why, but the last week I've become obssessed with The Four Hour Work Week. If you haven't read the book, get it. I've listened to the audiobook 3 1/2 times in the last week. I guess I'm hoping something will click and I'll be on my way to not having to work in a cubicle and actually enjoying some time off.

This morning I was listening to the audiobook again while I was working on a requirements traceability matrix. Yeah, the audiobook was far more exciting than the work, but I did it to myself back in November.

While I was listening to the book, I heard something that made me jerk upright. I don't know if this was a qoute that Tim Ferriss wrote in the book himself or quoted somebody else. "Busy is a form of laziness."

We all know somebody who is always too busy to do something that should be important. I just ranted about a few such people last week, including one who's busyness got in the way of a job that should have been easy for me to get into.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree? Have you ever hidden behind being busy to avoid doing something important? Do you know someone who always seems to be busy but you can't figure out what they're actually doing?

Pareto Analysis

Have you ever heard of the Pareto Principle? Pareto was an Italian economist who came up with an analysis stating that 20% of the people held 80% of the wealth.

Since then, the Pareto Principle has been applied in a lot of ways. I commonly hear about it in books and on websites related to lifehacking.

Since being removed from a position in November, I’ve finally reached a point of having to take a long, hard look at my life. Also, last week, I listened to The Four Hour Workweek 2 1/2 times, where I was reminded of the 80/20 principle.

Lately, as I look at my life, I realize that I’ve committed a drastic error. I’ve structured my life so that I’ve been really busy. I’ve had a huge backlog of things to do. But I committed the error in that my quest to be busy has left me doing things that didn’t make me effective.

I’ve reached a point of consuming information for the sake of consuming information. I have to spend a great deal of time each day consuming information. But how much of it is valuable? Very little.

So, I’m going to look at several of my information streams from this way: which 20% gives me 80% of my value? I’ll probably do the same thing with the podcasts I listen to. I’ve already streamlined both of these fire hoses in the past, but not far enough.

I have a rack full of magazines and newsletters that I’m hard pressed to find time to read. Don’t get me started on the eBooks I’ve downloaded.

And so, as I start to streamline my life in 2010, I’m going to trim some fat. I’m going to have to stop following several blogs and information sources, and I’m going to have to stop listening to several podcasts. I also have to decide which aspects of where I spend my time mean the most to me.

What about you? Do you have any excesses in your life that need to be dealt with? Where can you start?

Background Noise “May” Increase Stress Levels

From Lifehacker, and following a link to Scientific American, a study indicates that background noise may increase stress levels in some employees.

Though not definitive, recent research also suggests that noise-induced stress may decrease dopamine availability in the prefrontal cortex, where the hormone controls the flow of information from other parts of the body. Stress resulting from background noise, then, may decrease higher brain function, impairing learning and memory.

I work in a cubicle farm. I hate it. Before I was fired, I worked in the corner cubicle right next to the hall and next to the conference room. There was so much traffic and noise it was a miracle that I got anything done at all. After being removed from that position in November, until today I was sitting in a cubicle with a printer. All day long, that printer would whir up, and people were standing behind me shuffling paper. I’m sure that some people don’t mind and would tell me to quit whining, but it put a lot of stress on me. On days when the printer was being used a lot, I was shaking by the time I went home. Sorry, those of you who love cubicles, I just can’t take having people standing behind me all day. It creeps me out and makes me really uncomfortable.

Finally, a computer came in so I got moved to a cubicle that doesn’t have a printer, but it’s still in a high traffic area, and people can still sneak up behind me. I’m going to have to get a mirror or something. And I’m going to have to start freelancing or get into an industry where professionals can have offices rather than work in noisy cubicle farms.

While I’m whining about cubicles, here’s a good one. Every office has that one butthole who likes to walk around, come up behind you while you’re deep in concentration on a task, and yell out “Hey, wake up over there!” Thanks, butthole, not only did you make me break my concentration, but now I have to worry about everybody thinking I’m sleeping at work. I hate you people. You know who you are.

Don’t Have Time, Eh?

I’ve had times in my life when I was really busy. I can’t say I’ve mastered dealing with being that busy, but I’ve learned a few things. I’ve learned enough about being “too busy” to have little patience with some people  who are “too busy” to do things that should be vital.

In about 2006, a friend of mine had a position open up that he thought I was more than qualified for. It was for a Systems Analyst. He worked for the government, and the position was with a contractor. I already worked for that company anyway, was qualified for the job, and it should have been very simple to get me down there.

Except for one thing…

The program manager in charge of the position was “too busy” to hire somebody, for an open position, that his customer was demanding be filled.  It seems like in that line of work, filling open positions should be a PRIMARY function of the job. I sent him a couple of emails introducing myself, indicating my interest in the position and my qualifications, and emphasizing that I ALREADY WORKED FOR THAT VERY COMPANY. He never replied. I attached a read receipt to one email. It apparently went unread. I wish I knew what this guy was doing.

Alas, Mr. “I have other things to do” did not fill the position with either me or anybody else, and it went to a subcontractor. That was during the one time in the last several years when I could have gotten out of New Jersey easily. Now, there’s no way. I’m stuck here for the time being. My friend told me later that program manager got fired for being a bonehead, but it was too late to get my resume to his replacement. I eventually left that company for my current one.

It’s one thing when you ask somebody to meet you for coffee, but they’re too busy. I can understand that. Too busy actually means “something else is more important to me to spend that period of time on.” But when it comes to work functions, then I get ticked.

“Hey, I sent you an email last week. I cannot move on this project until you answer it.”

“Oh, sorry, I’ve been too busy to check email.”

Right, if you’re too busy to check your work email, then obviously you don’t get notices for pointless meetings, so you should have time to check email. It’s a Catch-22.

Before I got fired, I needed to get an answer out of our vendor for something. I sent him email after email for more than a week, and left a bunch of phone messages, all of which went unanswered. I finally blocked out an entire morning and called him every 15 minutes until he answered the phone and I got my answer, which somebody else was breathing down the back of my neck for.

I’ve been listening to Tim Ferriss’ “The 4 Hour Work Week” over and over and over again on my iPhone. If only I could find a company that read that book and tried to follow its philosophy, rather than the “You’re not working unless you commute here and sit in a stuffy cubicle for 8 hours” philosophy. Think of how much time at work is just plain wasted on minutia and pointless bull that doesn’t even contribute to the bottom line. Much of the normal office workday is about working for the sake of working. You have to be there for 8 hours, so you might as well fill it.

I keep hearing about how Best Buy is testing a program to allow their corporate employees to work wherever and how long it takes to get their work done. If you can do your day’s work in 3 hours at 2 AM, then do it.

I wish I could find a way (without placing my family in financial jeopardy in the process) to get paid for results rather than time. Want more money, then produce more results. Make enough money to be comfortable in less time? Then enjoy the extra time you have.

Getting Things Done: Stuff You Don't Want To Deal With

I found a discussion on Linked-In about how to deal with the Getting Things Done productivity system when you can't do a Weekly Review. David Allen himself says that GTD doesn't work if you don't do the review. That's probably why it never worked for me. I've never been able to get myself to do the review.

David Allen weighed in on the discussion on Linked-In about how to handle things you don't want to deal with in a way that keeps them from cluttering your mind.

The WR is so necessary for most of us because our commitments don't go away - they just hide from the conscious mind; and if you don't create the windows to re-view them, they'll take more of your energy than they deserve. If you have a bunch of crap you don't want to decide about or deal with, just create a box with the label "Crap I Don't Want to Deal With", put all that stuff in there, and walk free (play with the baby, go to sleep, take Ma Jong lessons). You can avoid your life and still have Mind Like Water! You'd just better make sure you relook at what's in there as often you think you should, so you don't feel bad about not dealing with it.

That's a brilliant idea. I think I might have to do that for a few things. What about you? Do you have anything you could throw in a "Stuff I don't want to deal with" box?

Get Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek Audiobook Free

Audible.com is giving away a free copy of Tim Ferriss’ “The 4 Hour Work Week”. I checked the book out from the library. I’ve been meaning to buy my own copy, but Tim is apparently revising it so I’m waiting for the revised version to come out. I might buy the Kindle version if available, now that Kindle for iPhone allows notes and highlighting and Kindle for Windows is right around the corner.

If you want the audiobook version of “The 4 Hour Work Week”, check here and follow the instructions. Make note of that site, as it occasionally has some interesting links to free content. Sometimes it links to new age fluff, but other times it links to really good stuff.

Alternately, if you’d like to purchase a physical copy of “The 4 Hour Work Week”, you’re welcome to do so through my Amazon affiliation. It would help both of us out.

Price and Value

I’ve done some reading on self-improvement and productivity. I’ve read quite a few books and blogs on the subjects. I’ve also signed up for email newsletters from people like Dan Miller and Brian Tracy. I also downloaded a bunch of samples of Nightingale-Conant books.

I routinely get emails from these companies, as well a The David Allen Company, Dr. Steven Covey, and plenty of others for products, seminars, GTD Connect, etc. I’d love to have each of them, but there’s always that one glaring issue: money. Dan Miller announced a new product in May. You can buy it for $4, but the total cost is $197. A GTD Connect membership is $48 a month. I’m afraid to spend that much money on products like this. I also routinely get emails from Brian Tracy about new products that are available from his store and his affiliates. All of them are advertised to help me to achieve my goals and succeed.

When it comes to products like this, however, I’m not only afraid to spend the money, I’m almost afraid not to spend the money. What if the $48/mo GTD connect membership helped me to bring in $50 or more a month? What if Dan Miller’s $197 product really did help me to achieve a 6 figure income?

Ramit Sethi has a post in his archive that addresses this to a point. He says that if a $200 dinner lands him a $50,000 project, then it was worth it.

There’s a difference between Ramit and me though. Ramit has an entrepreneurial mindset. I don’t (yet). I’m trying to learn, but how do you learn an entire new way of thinking? For one thing, I’m trying to listen to entrepreneurs lately. I read their blogs. I buy their books. I listen to their podcasts.

That of course brings out the problem of separating the wheat from the chaff. In the field of success literature, there are plenty of snakes. In some fields, there is more money to be made in selling books to people about being successful than there is in actually being successful in those fields. Watch some of the paid advertising on the Discovery Channel or TruTV early in the morning. “Make millions in Real Estate with no money down, no experience, and no actual work!”

John T. Reed has a “Real Estate BS Artist Detection Checklist” that can help. It’s applicable to just about any area where beginners are an easy target for “gurus”. If you're a novice in certain areas, it makes you an easy target for the snakes. It's much harder to discern the snakes from the real experts who can teach you something useful for your money.

Have you ever bought a product hoping it would help you to be successful, only to find yourself ripped off with a bunch of "rah-rah" motivational platitudes and no constructive help?

or

Have you ever spent money on one of these product to find that it delivered to you a value much greater than the cost of the product?

Productivity Hack: Using A Daily Capture Mind Map

Chuck Frey at the Mind Mapping Software Blog has an interesting post about using a Daily Capture Mind Map. I found this to be a fascinating idea, and I think it will address a serious weakness I have in my own productivity. I've extensively studied Franklin Covey and David Allen's Getting Things Done, but there's one thing I've just never been good at, and it's causing me a lot of problems.

It has to do with how I track things that other people owe me. I'm not so bad with tracking things that I have to get done for other people, but I haven't found a system that works with my brain for tracking when I have to depend on other people for action items to complete my own work.

I've tried bcc'ing myself on emails to other people, then putting it in an "@Waiting For" email folder. I've tried tracking these items under an "@Waiting For" list in Remember The Milk or a similarly named Outlook category. Somehow, a lot of these things still manage to slip through the cracks.

Reader's Digest Is Filing Bankrutcy? I'm Happy

My title might be a little bit attention grabbing. I came across an article stating that Reader's Digest is filing bankruptcy. Please keep in mind that bankruptcy does not mean "going out of business". It simply gives the company some court protection to rearrange finances and try to come out from under financial problems. Some bankrupt companies actually do survive. Remember when K-mart filed bankruptcy almost 8 or 9  years ago? They came out of it stronger and bought Sears. All they had to do was get rid of the idiot criminals who were running the company into the ground.

So why does Reader's Digest filing bankruptcy sort of make me happy? It's a fine magazine, but when I did business with the company, I came away from it with a horrible taste in my mouth and a vow to never again let my money fall into their hands.

I was a sailor once. I think it was about the time when I was 23 (around 1997). My poor ability to handle money left me with more month left at the end of my paycheck. I paid all my bills and blew plenty of money, but I never got ahead. I was feeling the pinch one particular month. I used to buy Reader's Digest, and I enjoyed reading it. I normally had a copy on the ship to read. Sometimes people would send them to me, and some of my shipmates read it so I never lacked a copy.

One Degree Makes All The Difference

This is an interesting and inspirational film. Go ahead and take 3 minutes out of your day to watch it. It makes a great point based around the difference in one degree of water and how you can apply it to your own pursuit of greatness.

At 211 degrees, water is just hot water. At 212 degrees, it boils and begins to turn to steam. Steam can power machinery. It’s very impressive. It also covers how small the margin of victory is in some sports. It’s usually off by something that could be considered one degree.

What will it take for you to achieve one more degree?

Book Review: Put Your Dream to the Test by John Maxwell

It’s taken me about 2 months to read this book and write this book review. I hate to think how many good books have gone through Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Bloggers program while I’ve been working on this one. Shortly after receiving the hardcover from Thomas Nelson, I found the Kindle version was available for free for a limited time, so I downloaded that in the hopes that I could read the book faster. Sadly, I’ve been through a busy period of life, and even having the Kindle version of this book on my iPhone hasn’t gotten me through it any faster than I’d hoped.

I finally finished today, and therefore, here is my review. Thomas Nelson’s product page for the book is here.

To date, I haven’t paid much attention to John Maxwell. I’m sure that I’ve been missing out because of it. My church did a class once on his workbook for “The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork” and I took his “Developing The Leader Within You” book from the church library to read once. I have begun following John Maxwell’s blog and his Twitter feed. In a very short time, I’ve come to wonder if I somehow handicapped my future by not acquiring more of John Maxwell’s books earlier in life.

Random: Tim Ferriss and Kevin Rose Discuss Their Top 5 Must-Read Books

I finally got time to watch this. Tim Ferriss of The 4 Hour Work Week and Kevin Rose of Digg (and many other ventures) discussed their top 5 Must-Read Books on an episode of their Random video podcast.

I’m a total book geek, which annoys my wife to no end, and I always enjoy hearing about the books that other people have been influenced by. Books are a great way to capture and spread ideas. I love ideas and information. There are many media for spreading these, but books are the best for larger ideas especially over long periods of time.

Whenever I come across somebody who has met with some success in life, I’m always interested in what books influenced them. What ideas inspired them to achieve? What ideas can carry me further in life?

Dan Miller said that everybody he knows who has been successful has two books in common: Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” and Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends and Influence People”. Interesting combination. Dan said that he’s never met a successful person who hasn’t read those two books (among many, many others). I have no idea why this is, but I’ve recently dug my copies out and started reading them again. I dismissed them years ago as brainwashing tools of Multi-Level Marketing/Motivating groups, but perhaps they have some utility away from the” big A” MLM group.

What would you consider to be your top 5 books? I might have to start a post on mine.

 

Water: A Simple Energy Pick-up

I'm currently on travel. When I got back to my hotel room this afternoon, I was wiped out. All I wanted to do was turn the air conditioning on and flop on the bed and just lay there. But that could not be the course of my night. I still needed to get dinner, I had some work to do, and I had tons of email and RSS feeds to catch up on. Since I'm starting vacation tomorrow, I know if I don't get these caught up now, I'll be buried when we get back. Yes, I'm taking my iPhone and netbook with me, but I am trying to keep my expectations realistic.

I had to get myself off that hotel bed and get moving again. I had an idea. I keep forgetting that being dehydrated can often affect my energy level. I also figured an extra dose of vitamins couldn't hurt at this point. I took my vitamins this morning, but OTC (Over the counter) vitamins can be taken at increased doses.

Turns out, that gave me enough energy to get m oving. Not enough to run a marathon or anything, but enough to get my laptop out of my bag and hooked up to the hotel's network. It also gave me enough motivation to call Applebee's for dinner, and walk over there to pick it up.

When your energy is too low, try water. Seriously, it does help in a lot of cases.

Merlin Mann on Priorities

Merlin Mann has an interesting post on priorities. I see a lot of myself in this post. Consider the following excerpt:

Example. When my daughter falls down and screams, I don’t ask her to wait while I grab a list to determine which of seven notional levels of “priority” I should assign to her need for instantaneous care and affection. Everything stops, and she gets taken care of. Conversely — and this is really the important part — everything else in the universe can wait.

I’ve gotten caught up in “prioritizing” tasks. I’d be embarrassed to show you how many “high-priority” tasks in my own list remain undone after a pretty long amount of time.

I'm Going to Become a Windows Mobile "Hater"

I’ve decided that I”m going to become a Windows Mobile “Hater”. That will probably seem unreasonable and illogical to many, but so be it.

That does not mean I am going to become a Microsoft “Hater”. I won’t become a mobile device “hater". I won’t become a Windows “Hater”. My “hating” is going to be specifically directed at Windows Mobile. That includes Microsoft’s Windows Mobile team, their “partners”, and the telcos, at least in regards to Windows Mobile.

I am going to become overly critical of the platform to the point where I do NOT recommend it. If you’re considering a Windows Mobile device, please, to preserve your sanity, don’t get one. Get a BlackBerry or an iPhone instead, or just get a plain old dumbphone.

I’ve had several Windows Mobile devices over the years. I’m tired of the same annoyances and performance issues that are common to every device I’ve had. Here is my device history:

This Is An Interesting Email Tip

I might have to try this. Change your email signature (doesn't matter which client) to "Sent from my iPhone" and write 1 sentence emails. I'm tempted to change my work signature to "Sent from my Verizon BlackBerry".

To be honest, thanks to years of instant messaging, I've already reached the point where most of my emails contain just what I need to convey or ask for. There was a time when I would spend a great deal of time composing an email just like the days when we all wrote letters (honest, you kids weren't missing anything). After using IM, text messaging, and Twitter, I just can't spend any more time on an email than necessary. I try not to be too short or to appear rude, but I say what needs to be said, double check to make sure it's acceptable, then hit send.

Technorati Tags: Email

Some Interesting Developments in eBooks Today

Today brought some very interesting developments in the world of eBooks. The information also came to me in interesting ways. My wife was sick, so I stayed home from work to take care of the boys. I was using my mobile devices heavily. First, because the iPhone and iPod Touch have Exchange server support, I was able to keep up with a few things at work because of my Touch, which is set up for my company's Exchange server. I have a work issued BlackBerry, but I was carrying my Touch around with me anyway to listen to my podcasts rather than let a bunch build up. I was also using my Samsung Epix heavily today. I'd let a bunch of email pile up lately, so I was bouncing back and forth between the two devices to get through my personal account. I like the larger screen on the iPod Touch, but some of my html mail reads better in FlexMail 4 on the Epix. Also, the Epix's keyboard is slightly easier to use than the touch keypad on the iPod Touch.

I was catching up on some Twitter traffic on my Epix in Twobile when I saw that Michael Hyatt had downloaded something called "Kindle for iPhone". I switched over to my Touch, brought up the App Store, and searched for Kindle. I found it and downloaded it. From what I've read so far, using this application, I can purchase Kindle formatted books WITHOUT having to buy the $359 Kindle, but if I buy the Kindle, my books will sync between the devices.

Robert Scoble on 6 Tools to Help Tackle Overflowing Email

Robert Scoble recently wrote a column for Fast Company Magazine with 6 tools he uses and teaches others to use to help simplify email. Let’s face it, email is necessary these days. You might say it’s a necessary evil, but I don’t consider it evil. I consider email a tool, as I consider many other things tools. (Considering a person a tool is a different matter ). As a tool, email can be used properly or misused. I have my personal email to a decent level of filtering, although I’m starting to build up a lot of Facebook and Twitter notifications, so I’m going to have to create a filter for those. I used to use Outlook rules, but I’ve found it’s much easier to filter my email on Gmail’s end.

I’ve posted entries on my blog about how to manage email before. I’ve been through several tools and systems over the years. One service that Robert Scoble mentions is Xobni. I’ve used Xobni in the past (It’s Inbox spelled backwards). When I first used it, Xobni was in closed beta, but it’s now in open beta. You can download and use it by giving your email address. One of the most useful features of Xobni is the ability to get a phone number from a contact if that person has ever included a number in an email to you. I also like the capability to get the address of another person that has been emailed by a contact. At one point, I needed a current email address for somebody at my church. I only had to click on one of the daily church emails and search in Xobni, and I got the current address. It was faster than emailing the church for the address.

I have dealt with ways to reduce your email frustration in the following posts. I’ve touched on email in others, but these specifically deal with the subject:

• How I Deal with Spam
• How I Deal With Corporate Spam
• Email Etiquette

Two other services that Robert Scoble mentions are Clear Context and Gist. I’m currently configuring Clear Context, and I’m waiting for my download link for Gist. If either stands out to me as a useful tool, I’ll write a post about it.

Check out Scoble’s post if you find yourself drowning in email with no Coast Guard boat in sight.

Technorati Tags: Xobni,Clear Context,Gist,Email,Email madness,Robert Scoble,Fast Company,manage email

2009 Goal Update: Books

I figure I’ll be transparent about this one. I set a goal to read 100 books this year. I haven’t picked them out yet. So far, according to my records in Evernote, I’ve read 8.

Why 100? No particular reason, except that it sounds ambitious. I’m hoping over the course of achieving this goal, I learn how to read faster, and I learn how to absorb more. I’m not sure if I’m going to post reviews of a certain percentage or not. I’ll of course post them for the Thomas Nelson books I review, and if anything really stands out to me, I’ll post it as well. I’ll also add books I’m reading or that have influenced my life to my Amazon A-store. Check it from time to time, and feel free to buy anything that interests you from my affiliate.

What books am I going to read? I have no idea. No doubt I’ll read some from the bookcase full of books that I haven’t read yet. I’ll probably read some public domain books that I download online. I’ll also probably buy some new books and check other books out from the library.

Click: The Ultimate Lifeplanning Flick

When I was in high school, my friend Pat and I saw the Jim Belushi movie “Mr.. Destiny”. We both decided it was our favorite movie. It’s main character, Larry Burrows, blew a baseball game when he was a teen. That baseball game became the pivotal moment of his life, which set the stage for everything that followed. A car breakdown landed him in a bar where he is given the chance to see what his life would have been like if he’d hit that baseball and won the game. He marries the boss’s daughter and has children, but realizes that he liked his old life better.

I finally saw Click last night. I saw it at the library when I went to pick up “The 4 Hour Work Week” and decided it had been out long enough without me watching it. I wonder if there’s any coincidence that Jim Belushi and Adam Sandler are two of my favorite actors. I really enjoy their work. I see Adam Sandler is going to be in a Disney movie coming out soon. That’s about as big a shock as when Eddie Murphy starred in Dr. Doolittle and didn’t cuss the entire time. I heard Adam Sandler wants to be in a movie that his children can watch. I always wondered how he would explain Happy Gilmore to little children. Better than that, what’s he going to say when they find his “They’re All Gonna Laugh At You!” CD? I still have that somewhere, by the way. I like the “Buffoon” clips for some reason.

Have You Made Any Progress on your 2009 Goals Yet?

I’m not sure if I could say that I have, but I’ve tried to make a few changes. I haven’t set many hard goals yet. One goal that I have is to get my blog up to 1000 posts. I’m currently at 480, and this post will make 481, so I have 519 to go. I’m also hoping to start attracting more traffic and comments.

I decided to start doing something about my health. My wife and I reorganized our house recently, and put the treadmill in a better spot where we can actually use it. I’ve run on it for 5 out of the last 7 nights, and I’m about to run tonight. I decided this time I’m not going to set specific weight goals, but I’m going to set a goal to up my output and fine tune my intake and let my body adjust itself.

How Do You Take and Keep Notes and Journals?

I was reading through Tim Ferriss' blog and came across a post on how Tim keeps notes. I was hoping for constructive comments on Tim's post, but right at the end he threw in a brief comment asking people what their dream dates are. The majority of comments were about dream dates, with a sprinkle of useful note comments.

I've tried for years to find a good way to take and keep my notes on a variety of subjects. When I read David Allen's "Getting Things Done", I went through a brief period of trying to capture ideas on anything I could get my hands on. I'd write on business cards, receipts, toilet paper, or anything handy. Due to my inability to maintain a weekly review, this process fell through.

Harvard Business: Schedule Meetings With Yourself

I have somehow become convinced that I want to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. I have no idea if this is possible or practical. OK, it's possible with a lot of sweat and sacrifice, and patience, but it may not be practical at this point in time unless somebody would like to pay for it. I figure I can do the next best thing: start reading material put out by HBS.

This morning I came across a blog post (I added the HBS blog network to my Google Reader feeds) by a lifecoach named Gill Corkendale about scheduling meetings with yourself. This is hardly a new concept for me. As long as I've read books on productivity, I've come across this idea. Hyrum Smith, and "The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management" says to block out 15 minutes every day to plan. David Allen in "Getting Things Done" says to schedule at least an hour every week for a Weekly Review. Brian Tracy in "Eat That Frog" also advocates a similar concept.

As great an idea as this is, I have to admit, I don't do it. I might take a few minutes to get my bearings and enter my tasks into Outlook or Pocket Informant or MyLifeOrganized, but I can't say I've every been successful at a regular, planned session.

One thing I started doing occasionally in the last couple of years is journaling. Sometimes I'll journal just to get something off of my chest so I don't have to burden other people with it. Other times I'll use the journaling process to work through a problem. Other times I'll use it to flesh out an idea I'm working on, or to explore an irrational dislike of mine. The few times I do journal, I find it helpful. I've been using Evernote to keep my journals lately, as it's multi-client and easy to use and sync across my devices.

Do You Have Any Goals For 2009?

I used to set New Year’s Resolutions. I did about as much with them as many of you. My resolutions usually had to do with losing weight, paying off bills, or finishing college. One year, I decided to only set one resolution each year, and that resolution is more facetious than anything. Each year I set the following resolution:

• I resolve to continue doing everything the exact same way I did it last year.

That resolution is facetious because I realized the first time I did it, and each year after, that it’s impossible to live up to. Each year we learn and grow and expand our horizons. Our lives and the lives of those around us change each and every year, to the point where after another 365 days, there are many things we’re not doing anymore, or we’re not doing the same anymore.

GTD, "Never Check Email..." and 4 Hour Work Week Compared

Time management is something that all of us could do better. Freelancer Chris Hardwick took on three popular time management/productivity books for an article on Wired: David Allen's "Getting Things Done", Julie Morgensterns' "Never Check Email In The Morning" and Tim Ferriss' "The 4 Hour Work Week".  Of the three, I have read Getting Things Done. It's a very useful book, and the system is very hackable. I've been critical in the past of other time management systems that seem especially tailored to salesforce and executive level people, but leave tech workers, freelancers, stay at home moms, or anybody else in the dark unless those are possessed of a large enough imagination to adapt the system to his or her particular situation.

This is Interesting: Navy Reading

I came across Navy Reading yesterday. I’ve been trying to compile a booklist of books that I need to read, but lately it’s getting out of hand. It includes classics, business, theology, philosophy, productivity, history, IT, and other subjects like foreign languages. It’s seriously getting out of hand, and is growing faster than I can ever hope to keep up. My list contains little fiction at this point, other than some classics. I always discover when I stop to read fiction that I’m missing part of my soul. There is something about well-written fiction that truly inspires the imagination. I always enjoy fiction that is written in a historical setting. A good author can use the fictional characters to show the history to readers. Also enjoyable are other possible outcomes if done right. Lately I’m working through Theodore Beale’s Summa Elvetica, a Lord of the Rings type fantasy book set in a Roman style Holy Roman Empire ruled by a church that is very similar to the Catholic one.

There is a banner on the wall at Joshua’s Karate studio that says “A Warrior is also a scholar.” I’ve also heard a cliché that says “Leaders are readers”. I believe it. There are many ways to learn and absorb knowledge, but among them reading is unique. Though I also partake heavily from educational type channels on the TV, and listen to podcasts, reading is an important part of my intellectual development.

I think that anyone compiling a personal or professional development reading list would do well to borrow from the Navy Reading list, whether you’re in the Navy or not.

What Am I Missing II: Silence

I ran across a post by Mark Driscoll about Silence. I should know as much as anybody what it’s like to have a steady stream of information coming in, yet for some reason I don’t feel it as a crushing weight. I read a lot of bloggers complaining about a lack of silence. For some reason, I tend to feel comfortable with a lot of information coming in at once. I subscribe to 113 blogs at present in Google Reader. Some of them are like Lifehacker and put up a lot of posts a day. A few of them haven’t put up a new post in months. I also subscribe to several podcasts through iTunes, which I sync to my iPod Touch. I find a lot of websites on the internet that I want to read and look into more. On top of it all, I seem to have new books and magazines flowing into my house faster than I can read the old ones.

How do I do it without going crazy? Good question. Perhaps it’s because I don’t have many friends and therefore have more time, but that’s not true. I have a family and a job.

Let me tell you my trick, which really doesn’t seem like it’s that tricky. I don’t let the flow of information coming in become my master. If a blog that I follow starts to get out of hand or starts to become a waste of my time, I delete the feed from Google Reader. I periodically reevaluate the podcasts I subscribe to. At one point, I had more podcasts than any human being could keep up with and I had to reevaluate which ones my time was best spent listening to. I used to love Leo LaPorte’s TWIT network, but I finally got tired of listening to them complaining about Windows Vista, plus their podcasts got longer and became more like listening to friends ramble than a panel of experts discussing pertinent tech topics. I deleted those subscriptions as they weren’t a good use of my time anymore. Other podcasts became more important to the limited time I have. I’ve had plenty of other podcasts that I stopped subscribing to.

As for my books, I just let them pile up. When I finish one, I pick another one. Sometimes I pick one up and just can’t get into it, so I put it aside and get another one. I have plenty to choose from. I dream one day of having a huge personal library like blue-blood rich people in movies have, with bookshelves all the way up the wall that require ladders to get to the top. That would be so cool.

I’ve written before that for those rare times that I don’t want to talk on the phone, I ignore calls or just shut the phone off. I don’t do that often. It’s very rare.

There are some things I just can’t do anything about. The location of my cubicle at work is an example. I have the corner cube outside the conference room and next to the door, so people walk by looking in at me all day, plus people are in the conference room and other people walk by, stop, and talk loud. I can’t do anything about that and it does drive me nuts. I also can’t do anything about traffic, and I can’t do anything about crowds. But for those “inputs” that I have control over, I keep the relationship just like that: I keep them under control,.

If you feel like the information streaming into your life is totally out of control, then get it under control. Draw some boundaries. I don’t mean push your family out of the picture, but draw some boundaries. Take some charge and responsibility for yourself. I recommend the book “Boundaries” by Cloud and Townsend if you need help in this area. The link is below, and I have also added the book to my Amazon aStore if you find that more convenient.

What Am I Missing?

Last week, Merlin Mann posted about “email sabbaticals”. I have a decent sized volume of incoming information, but very little of it is personal in nature, so I have a lot of trouble understanding the “email sabbatical” of which he writes. I have trouble imagining somebody getting so much email that it can’t be dealt with in one way or another. I especially have trouble imagining somebody with a livelihood that somehow or other depends on getting personal email from people who suddenly decides to ignore it all and delete it.

I’m wondering if I should share this, but I am hoping to set a goal for the coming year to somehow form relationships with real people. I’m talking the kind of relationships where people call me and invite me over for more than “my computer doesn’t work. Can you look at it?” (I don’t mind those, and will continue to respond to them) and I will feel comfortable calling them to get together without fear of the usual “I’m busy. Maybe another non-specific or non-committed time”. Occasionally my wife and I get invited to a birthday party by a family with children roughly the ages of ours, but for the most part we’re left alone. Our invitations to other people are usually ignored or responded to with a polite decline. I admit I am slightly introverted, and so is my wife, but we really don’t have many friends. I know a lot of people that I enjoy talking to at work and church, but that’s about it. I don’t know if it’s because we worship at a “freeway church” and everyone is more spread out so getting together isn’t very efficient and consumes a lot of time in travel. We’ve considered finding a more local church in the hopes that we might make friends and church events will be more convenient to attend. I also can’t help but wonder if it’s just because we live in New Jersey and I really don’t feel like I fit in here. I’ve had a very hard time making friends since I moved here, and I don’t remember that challenge anywhere else I’ve lived (I’ve lived in a lot of places). I’m not like the other people here. After almost 10 years, I have to wonder if it’s more of a fit in issue than maybe I’m just socially defective.

Anyway, even though I have a lot of information coming in, very little of it is personal. I subscribe to several email newsletters, and I somehow got on the list of others and it’s easier to just delete them all at once than to individually try to cancel them. I can safely ignore or mass-delete most of my email without missing anything if I so choose. I also feel free to ignore incoming calls. If I don’t want to take calls, I shut my phones off. (I have a BlackBerry from work).

Can somebody explain to me what it’s like to get so much email that you have to auto-reply to everyone that “I’m sick of all this email, so I’m taking time off. If you took the time out of your life to email me, that’s just tough and I’m going to ignore it because I get too much email.” Services like gmail come with very powerful labeling and filtering capabilities, so it’s very easy to route email into labels accordingly so it can be dealt with later. I currently get by with my Inbox and 2 labels: Read-Review and Updates-Sales. My newsletters and such are shuffled into Read-Review and email updates for various reasons go into Updates-Sales. It’s very easy to do. When I notice that I get email notifications for too much random BS, I add to my filters again. It takes very little time at all and I read it when I’m able to set aside time.

Service and Support: Evernote Resolution

I wrote last week about service and support, and I used Evernote as an example, though I was not trying to cast them in a negative light; I only wanted to point out using their webpage how companies attempt to deflect wasting time on stupid questions versus people with real problems trying to get through.

I contacted Evernote’s customer support. It took most of the week, but exchanging email back and forth with Evernote lead to a resolution of my problem. I can now sync Evernote from my work laptop to the web client, which will increase my efficiency and my ability to record, file, and retrieve information. I highly recommend Evernote if you’re looking for a way to keep track of your electronic notes.

Google Introduces Tasks

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-in-labs-tasks.html

This is very cool. I’ve been having problems lately with the Outlook tasks that I’ve somehow convinced myself are so integral to my productivity. For some reason I’ve had some drop on me lately, and Outlook notes just won’t sync to my Epix at all. I have no idea why. Depending on what Google does with Gmail tasks, this might be a good way for me to move my task tracking into “the cloud”, or the internet.

Eat That Frog! Review

To date, I’ve reviewed 3 books for Thomas Nelson, and I’ve really come to enjoy reviewing books. I’ve always enjoyed reading them, so trying to communicate about them is a skill that I believe I would do well to cultivate. I recently came across a chance to read “Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” by Brian Tracy. That’s quite a promise. A while back I spent a lot of time reading productivity blogs, and I can remember Eat That Frog! being specifically mentioned on many of them. This book is copyrighted in 2007. It seems like I heard about it before that, but I’m at a phase in life where time has lost all meaning.

I’m assuming that I am not the only person in the marketplace who suffers from problems with procrastination and not “being all that I can be.” I base my assumption on the fact that books like this sell very well. As consumers, we spend a lot of money year after year on books and tapes and seminars on how to become more productive. To be honest, I’ve sort of soured on productivity books. Some are little more than motivational fluff designed more to pad the pockets of the author and publisher. Some provide systems that are so convoluted that following them is impractical for just about everybody. Others seem especially designed for only two kinds of people: salespeople and executives. The case studies and all the examples seem centered around those types of people, and some of us just don’t have the imagination to be able to apply the studies to our jobs as engineers, or teachers, or stay-at-home parents, or whatever we happen to do that isn’t in sales or executive level positions.

Is This the End of the Road (for me) on Windows Mobile?

I think I’ve laid out my qualifications and experience with Windows Mobile extensively on my blog. I could use some better reader statistics, so if you don’t believe me, go back through my archives.

I’ve been meaning to post for a while about my new phone. My wife has had trouble with AT&T since we jumped from the old AT&T Wireless to Cingular in 2005 to be bought back to AT&T a few months later. She’s been through 5 phones and still kept having problems. Since we reached a point of both being eligible for an upgrade, and I was near the breaking point with my iPaq 6945 and the total instability of Windows Mobile 5 and HP’s and HTC’s implementation of WM5, I gave my wife an idea. I told her that her problems *could* have been caused by always going with the cheapest phone possible. My Pocket PC phone had enough problems, but those weren’t AT&T network; they had to do with being a Windows Mobile product that was implemented by HTC for HP branding. I find the faults to lie with all three companies. In any case, I told her we could spend the money to get halfway decent phones, and if her problems persist, we can return the phones, sit out our contract, and jump to Verizon or T-mobile. I never really saw the point to Sprint.

While I did drool over the iPhone 3G, my wife picked out the Samsung BlackJack II, which impressed me also so we went with it. I found out a Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade was available for both phones, so I upgraded them the first day. All along, I was impressed with the BlackJack II. After all of the Windows Mobile devices I’ve had over the years, this was the most stable, powerful, and easy to use I’ve ever had. Sure, it had an issue or two, like for some reason I can’t sync it with my work laptop, but I was able to overlook that.

Then yesterday hit. Suddenly, I couldn’t send email through my gmail account. I couldn’t tell at the time if the problem resided with Windows Mobile, AT&T, Google, or some combination of the three and their associated applications and services. Since the cat woke me up early this morning, I decided to search on Google before I left for work, and found out that Windows Mobile 6 (including 6.1) has a KNOWN but dealing with SMTP. For those not educated, smtp stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Exactly, it’s very simple and should be the staple service of any device calling itself a “smart-phone.” Not being able to send email through an smtp service is not very smart.

I tried a few hacks that I found around, but none worked. I deleted and recreated my account several times. I was able to send two or three emails at the most before my email sends started to error out. I installed Windows Live Mobile in and effort to use my MSN email account for sending, but that developed a problem.

At this point, I’m giving serious consideration to taking the BlackJack II back to AT&T and getting an iPhone. Sure, the iPhone doesn't natively handle Outlook tasks, which is going to suck because I use them heavily. I'll have to buy yet another licence for Pocket Informant (had to buy a cross-grade license when I switched from WM Pro to Standard). On the other hand, even though an iPhone won't do as much, at least I won't have to spend endless hours hacking on it to get it to perform a basic function like sending email.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile 6.1,Windows Mobile,iPhone,iPhone 3G,AT&T,Samsung BlackJack II,Windows Mobile smtp bug

Journaling: What Is The Best Platform?

I have long since some to the conclusion that journaling can be a useful process. If nothing else, it allows me the ability to rant so that I don't have to do it publicly on my blog. Sometimes I find it helpful to journal my way through a problem or to sort out my thoughts. I don't always follow this, but it does help at times.

The biggest problem I've had is: which client makes the best journal? Some people say that it's better to keep a written notebook and write everything in pen. This has never worked very well for me. For one thing, my handwriting is bad. To this day, as a 34 year old man, when people ask me "can't you do anything about your handwriting?" I reply with either "why do you think I took a job as an engineer?" or the more blunt "If I couldn't improve my handwriting for my 3rd grade teacher, what makes you think I can do it for you?" I do hope that my journals will be useful to my children or grandchildren when I am eventually gone, and the last thing I want to be remembered for is my poor handwriting.

So, what options do I have?

David Allen’s GTD Connect Featuring Free 14 Day Membership

David Allen’s company, Davidco, rolled out GTD connect somewhere in the last year or two. I could probably look up the exact date, but if it matters to you, you can look it up. I always thought it sounded like a great idea, but $45 a month is a little out of my price range and tax bracket. Maybe that statement is a little subjective, but I wouldn’t be able to convince my wife to let me join.

Now, GTD Connect has a free 14 day trial. I went looking for the catch; there is none. Most trials require a credit card, this one doesn’t. Many trials will automatically start charging your credit card when the trial runs out. This one lets the trial run out. It’s a simple “fire and forget” trial membership.

The only thing I’m afraid of, and all that is holding me back from joining, is that I’ll sign up for the trial, then not have time to take advantage of it. That always seems to happen to me.

Technorati Tags: GTD,GTD Connect,David Allen,Getting Things Done,Free trial,GTD free trial

Yale University Study From 1953, Often Cited By Consultants, Is Probably Not True

I thought this was interesting, yet not surprising. A study often cited by consultants and motivational speakers turns out to not have happened. This is why documentation and references are very important. My last post was about MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing) organizations. I have been involved with an MLM in the past. I can remember statements in "The Plan," or the Sales and Marketing Plan, such as "The Wall Street Journal says that this is the business of the future." I even made that statement myself on occasion when I was giving "The Plan" to people. Looking back, I am more than a little embarrassed by my naivete in regard to believing and passing on undocumented statements. If I could sit through that original "Plan" today, I would likely ask if the article or author could be produced to document the reference. I can also remember being told that "The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that this business is not a pyramid!" Again, no documentation was offered. Of course, I can also remember being told that "If you work this business only 8-10 hours a week, which is spare time, you can retire in 2-5 years!" I didn't have the Internet back then (1993), but from what I read now, most testimonials reflect mine- giving up lots of time prospecting, showing "The Plan", going to functions and meetings a lot more than 10 hours a week, and getting nowhere. I'm not aware of anybody who can claim to have "succeeded" on only 8-10 hours a week.

Goal setting is a wonderful thing, and motivational authors and speakers certainly have a place in the world, but always pay attention and listen for undocumented references or stories when dealing with them. The same thing goes if you find yourself invited to a "business meeting." Look for documented references. Any salesman can make fanciful claims about a product or system and people who have been successful, but can the salesman substantiate them?

Shift Happens: Will You Be Ready?

I came across this video at GTD Times. It’s yet another video that I starred in Google Reader and finally got around to watching. It really does get you thinking, although like many other similar projects, it starts to fork at the end into some strange conclusions, like a computer more powerful than the human brain will cost less than $1000 somewhere in the 2020’s. I have no doubt that computers will grow more powerful, and will even reach the point of being able to learn and to make decisions, but I’m not so sure technology will ever duplicate the human “soul.”

Still, for you Luddite IT people who still insist on deploying Windows 2000 and want to hang onto XP forever, this should be your wakeup call. Technology is here, and you can’t fight it and live in the past. It will steamroll you.

Time Management: What To Cut

Last week, when my wife got home from her Weight Watchers meeting, in an attempt to be supportive I asked her how it went. She said she didn't get much from that meeting. The speaker talked about ways to cook meals faster, but my wife says she has it all backwards. The woman said to buy the brown rice that can be microwaved. My wife's response (to me, not in the group) is that rice has most of what makes it healthy processed out. The woman also said to buy the pre-cut chicken strips. My wife prefers to buy a much less expensive pack of chicken and cut it herself.

That may be part of the weight problem for many people. We have so much going on that we cut the wrong corners. I know people who have kids involved in every sport and school activity under the sun, plus both parents work. The corners they have to cut to make it all work out somehow (I can't use the word "balance" here for good reason) are apparently all the wrong ones. They cut out rest and nutrition.

We have to cut corners the other way to make things work out. My wife stays home with the kids so we only have my income. We have to buy our cars used and get our furniture for free on Craig's List. We buy a lot from Sam's Club and Produce Junction. I'd love to say we don't eat out as much, but it sure seems like we eat out too much some weeks.

Life is full of choices. It's important to make the right ones. It often seems that we spend most of life reacting to events around us. I can remember reading Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising", a great novel about a fictional war with the Soviet Union circa 1987, when the staff of our military realized that as long as (we- the fictional US) were reacting to (them- the fictional Soviets), we were losing. It is only by causing the enemy to react that you start to win.

Let me leave you with this question: what good are you cutting out of your life in reaction to other forces, which are not necessarily good. Are you cutting out the time to prepare a nice meal in exchange for other events that may be just as fleeting as the meal?

Technorati Tags: Time Management,Weight loss,choices

Ugh, Another Microsoft Email for new Office Users

I just finished taking a survey from Microsoft Office. I registered for these things a while ago. Some of them are very useful, but this one really sucked the life out of me and destroyed my hope for the future. Apparently, Microsoft is going to develop (or is considering) using emails to teach newly registered Microsoft Office users about how to use Office. On the surface, this may be useful, IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED AN OFFICE SUITE IN YOUR LIFE AND JUST BOUGHT YOUR FIRST COPY OF OFFICE 2007.

Considering my experience with Microsoft emails, I really don't have any hope and I never want to get on this one. I've mentioned before that I've been using Windows Mobile devices since 2003. I know a lot of tips and tricks, useful software (especially freeware), and I have a good suite of applications I've been using for years. I know how to get what I need out of my Pocket PC. When I upgraded to Windows Vista, and had to switch from Microsoft ActiveSuck to the Windows Mobile Device Center, I was offered the chance to register for an email newsletter to "help you get the most out of Windows Mobile, full of insider tips and tricks" (I'm paraphrasing.) I jumped at the chance, hoping for something useful. Do you know what the first article link in each and every one of those "Insider Windows Mobile" newsletters is? "Reasons to choose Windows Mobile." Seriously, this for people who already bought a Windows Mobile device. I have other subscriptions to Microsoft newsletters, and they are written on the same level. The Windows Insider newsletter covers such expert-level topics as "How to change your screensaver."

Imagine this: you buy a copy of Office 2007 (or 2008 for Mac.) During your installation, you're asked to provide your email address to get "exclusive access to insider tips for getting the most out of Microsoft Office." You subscribe, hoping to unlock some expert level features. What do you get? "Thank you for choosing Microsoft Office. In this edition of 'Office Exclusive Advanced Expert Insider Power Tips, we cover 'The Top Reasons to Choose Microsoft Office.' ' "

Now do you see why that survey makes me weep for the future?

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office,Insider Newsletters,survey

Do You Live For The Moment, or Plan for the Outcome?

When I bought my condo in 2000, I can remember my realtor telling me something: "Whenever buying a house, you should always ask yourself 'How can I get out of this if I need to?'" It was wise advice that we should have better followed during our last refinance.

My wife and I often repeat the same argument when we go to the store. When she parks the car, like many people, she wants to park as close to the entrance as possible. When I park the car, I'm thinking about the other end; how the heck am I going to get back out of this parking lot? This isn't an issue everywhere, but in New Jersey, roads and parking lots seem to be built in very bad places. Everything seems to be made harder than it has to be, just like our taxes and regulations. Most drivers in New Jersey seem to think that wherever they have to get is more important than your life, and they seem to think nothing of running over a new dad and his 1 year old just to get that parking spot close to Wal-mart so they don't have to walk. God forbid you should have to walk, people! I apologize, but I've been wanting to say that to those people for years, and this is the only real platform I have.

When I pull up at the Voorhees, NJ Target, I like to park on the side so I can get out the back. I know that if I can find a spot right in front of the store, I'm going to have to sit there forever, boxed in by people who want a close parking spot. I also have to cross in front of the store, where I have to dodge cars driven by people who have no intention of stopping. At least if I park on the side, I don't think it's that far of a walk, but I can drive out the back where I don't have to deal with a lot of traffic. I do a lot of things that way. I'm always trying to figure out, before I go in, how I can get back out.

(Also, when I was growing up, my dad would deliberately park as far as he could from a store, weather permitting of course, and we would enjoy the walk. That stayed with me, but doesn't fly with my wife.)

I obviously don't live my entire life by this philosophy; nobody could. In general, however, do you think this way? Do you make decisions based on what's easier going in, or coming out?

I'm not even saying this is the best way to look at things; it's just the way I tend to do them. Sometimes I won't agree or willingly follow along based on my assessment of the outcome. This is silly, but I don't like hotel pools. It's not that I don't like swimming, but when I'm done, I'm done and I want to get out. When I go to a pool with my wife, I have to wait for her to be done. Now that we have kids, I can't even enjoy the swimming. I can't splash Joshua because it gets him upset. Caleb can't swim yet, and if I ask my wife to watch the kids while I swim to the end of the pool and back, I'll be accused of not helping with the kids "enough." I have no idea what that means and I have been asking for years to have it quantified in a way that I can understand. The nearest definition I can come up with for "you're not helping me with the kids enough", from other dads, blogs, and James Dobson books (OK, not Dobson in particular, but books in general) is that when a woman says "You're not helping me with the kids enough", it is an arbitrary and capricious definition that men can sort of understand by thinking of it in the context of "you're not having sex with me enough." In other words, dads, no matter what you do, it will never be enough. Of course, this could add in to Proverbs 30. As Agur wrote, (Pro 30:15ff-16) "There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say "Enough!": The grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire never says "Enough!" (NKJV). Perhaps we could add husbands and wives to that verse.

In any case, because I know I won't have fun, and we'll have to stay in the pool long after I'm done, often when we travel, I will resist the suggestion to go to the hotel pool. I try to fight trips to the grocery store for the same reasons, plus we have to go through the darn parking argument again. I don't understand why it's considered quality time for me to take her to the grocery store, but it's a waste of time for her to go to Best Buy with me. (It's actually a waste of time to go to Best Buy for any reason unless our router breaks according to my wife.)

This blog entry just keeps on growing. I'm very tired, which explains the rambling. We're traveling. I'm on a business trip, but my wife and kids came with me. I haven't slept much in the last two nights. I'm really enjoying the meetings though, and I'm finding this trip to be enjoyable and productive, work-wise. Today after work, we rented one of those car-bikes, with two seats side by side with pedals, and a bench in front for the kids. It turned out that the seat was too low for me, too high for my wife, and I had to do all the work pedaling. It wore me out. Then we walked up the boardwalk a while, then back down the beach. I'm worn out, so I'm babbling. I may want to delete this later, but nobody reads my blog anyway.

Technorati Tags: Planning,Outcome,live for the moment

I Thought I had a GTD Connect Membership For A Minute

Yesterday, I received an email from the David Allen Company saying that I had an account on GTD Connect, the premium subscription service offered by the company (at $45 a month, slightly out of my income range.) At first I wondered if the system had been opened up with a free level, then if it was a glitch, then if maybe it was some marketing promotion. I didn't have time to look into it. Perhaps I should read the Getting Things Done book again...

I got my answer tonight. It was a glitch in the system. The system sent an email to me as a previous customer. I received a personalized response from the company explaining the situation. Cool. I appreciate a company making an effort to make things right, even small things that don't add up to any real frustration.

Technorati Tags: GTD,David Allen,GTD Connect,Customer Service

I Want Sandy Doesn't Work For Me

About a month or two ago, several of the lifehacking/productivity blogs I follow started to review the online virtual assistant I Want Sandy. The service sounded interesting so I thought I would check it out.

Sandy is a virtual personal assistant. The concept is simple: you email "Sandy" or cc her on an email to somebody else, and she adds items to your calendar and shoots you email reminders at the appropriate time. "She" understands an easy shorthand. You can send emails to Sandy of items that you want to be reminded of or actions that you need to do. "Sandy, remind me to buy beer for the party on June 6", or "Sandy, remind me about my doctor's appointment on Feb 18 at 3:30 PM".

When I originally wrote this entry, I could not get the service to work. Like many web services, Sandy sends an email with an activation procedure. In "her" case, Sandy wants you to send an email to a special address. This is supposed to activate your account. That did not originally work for me. Neither did emailing tech support. I sent three emails over several weeks asking for help and as far as I know my emails disappeared into the ether. While I was playing around with Sandy to write this entry, I found a link to reset my password. Somehow that activated my account, so I can use Sandy.

So far, none of my emails seem to be showing up on my account. I'll write more later if I can find a way to use this service effectively. Until then, I'm just letting you know Sandy is out there.

Technorati tags: I want Sandy, web services, virtual personal assistant

Labels: Internet, Time Management

I Just Completed The Biggest Challenge of My Life

This morning I was able to check off one of the longest running tasks on my task list. It was listed in Microsoft Outlook and Pocket Informant as "Complete BSIT from UOP." I actually finished my final class on October 11, but I had been waiting for two credits from the "Here's To Your Health DANTES" test to register. They finally did, and I filled out my diploma application. I decided that I can now check the task off of my list even though it could be a few weeks before my degree actually comes in the mail. Over the two years that I have been working on my degree, that task has served as an anchor. For a while when I was using My Life Organized heavily, it was the top of a project tree involving several classes and sub-projects for those classes. At other times, I sat alone in my Outlook task list as a reminder of an open project. Now it is finally finished.

Technorati tags: Univeristy of Phoenix, Degree Completion, Goals, Achievement

Labels: Goals, U of Phoenix