There is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency something that should not be done at all.
Peter Drucker, Educator and Author (via forbes)
Tag: gtd
Being Smarter by Not Thinking
Thereās a popular
myth that says we only use 10% of our brains.
Itās simply not true. Studies (including the source of all scientific truth: an episode of
MythBusters) have proven that all areas of the brain have a function, and while
the percentage that weāre āusingā at any given time varies by task it can
certainly exceed 10%.
One thing that seems very obvious to me without needing to
cite a study about it, however, is that I certainly have unused brain capacity,
and it can do amazing things when you leave it to its own devices.
As an example of what Iām talking about, I refer you to a
link I posted on this very blog some time ago: Why
Great Ideas Always Come in the Shower (and How to Harness Them).
In the brief commentary I added, I mentioned that never in
my life have I had a good idea in a meeting. Great ideas come to me while Iām
doing other things. Specifically, other things that do not take much in the way
of thought and offer little in the way of distraction: things where my brain
gets left to itās own devices and has an opportunity to wander ā showering,
certainly, but also commuting, trying to get to sleep at the very end of the
day (infuriatingly), and when Iām at the gym.
Talking of the latter one, I havenāt been to the gym for
quite some time.
When we lived in our apartment there was a gym in the
building, and that was great. I could easily fit in a solid 45 minutes there at
lunch. Any spare 30 minute window in my schedule could be turned into 20
minutes on the stationary bike.
I want to go back, but now that weāve bought the house there
is obviously not an on-site gym. Thereās a gym at the office (20 minutes away)
and a Goodlife Fitness close by (10 minutes away) where Iād get a discounted
rate, but small though it is even that travel time is putting me off. I will
most likely join Goodlife, since I rarely go to the office these days and
installing a home gym just isnāt in the budget right now, but Iāve been missing
the ability to easily take 30 minutes and get some exercise, and Iām sad that
none of the solutions will offer me that. In the absence of a perfect solution,
I havenāt done anything at allā¦ until yesterday.
Since the weather here in Calgary is distinctly spring-like
these days, I went for a walk before I started my work day. I didnāt go far ā a
little less than 2km, according to the Google Fit data from my phone and watch
ā just down the road a bit and then back along the pathways that run through
our neighbourhood.
I liked it so much I did it again at lunch time, and then
for a third time this morning.
The physical benefits of this, though Iām sure not huge by any
means, are probably much needed at this point. Really though what I like about
it so much are the mental benefits. Iāve never been much of a morning person
and I would never consider going to the gym before work, but rolling out of bed
and attempting to be productive more or less immediately is not a recipe for
success either. Feeling like my day has already started by the time I sit down
to get some work done definitely gives me a mental boost that Iāve been able to
capitalize on. More significantly though, thereās a lot to be said for the kind
of problem solving that can only come from not thinking about something too
much and letting my subconscious guide me in ways that Iād never have come up
with if I were sitting at my desk consciously trying to focus on something.
Itās amazing what you can do when youāre not trying to do
anything.
13 bad habits you should break in 2016 to be more productive
I wouldnāt say Iām guilty of all of these, but… yāknow… 75%.
13 bad habits you should break in 2016 to be more productive
The Curse and the Blessing of Arbitrary Deadlines
The organization that I work for has a fiscal year. I dare
say the organization that you work for has one too. For us, it runs from April
1st to March 31st.
Each year around March thereās a mad rush to get work items
completed, closed out and signed off before March 31. Everyone is running
around like chickens with their heads cut off, and this bothers me hugely. Why
is this largely arbitrary line in the sand so important? Are our accounting practices
so deficient that we canāt deal with a body of work that crosses this boundary?
(Hint: no, theyāre not). Nobody has ever been able to adequately explain it to
me because, I suspect, there is no adequate answer.
To add to my frustration with this situation, I have in the
past experienced a distinct and noticeable lull in my workload in April. The
nature of what I do is such that thereās often definition and even planning
required of others before work lands on my plate, and if this effort doesnāt
start until April 1st then I will have nothing to do until at least
the middle of the month. So tell me again why I tore all my hair out trying to
get everything I was working on complete by the end of March?
In fairness, Iām exaggerating the picture Iām painting here
and in recent years my team especially and my organization generally have
become much better at this. Nevertheless, it illustrates my point: arbitrary
deadlines are very much a pet peeve of mine and you donāt just find them at year
end, theyāre everywhere ā from the project completion date that was estimated
before anybody understood the effort required but somehow became set in stone,
to the two hour meeting that somehow fills exactly two hours even though, upon
reflection, there was only 50 minutes of valuable content (thatās the opposite issue
to the chicken-with-its-head-cut-off scenario, but the same root cause).
Thinking back over the past couple of days, however, it
occurs to me that I may be a massive hypocrite.
Iāll be away from the office next week. Actually, Iāll be
away beginning at about lunchtime tomorrow, but the specifics are unimportant
and I digress.
Over the last couple of days I have been extraordinarily productive. Seriously,
itās been amazing. I have amazed myself. Things are getting completed, closed
off and delivered all over the place. Why? Because thereās going to be a few
days where Iām not around and I donāt want any of these little outstanding
items to still be on my plate when I return or, worse, on my mind while Iām
away? Iām pretty confident in saying that in the normal course of things, if I
werenāt taking some time off, some of the smaller tasks would have sat
languishing at the bottom of my to-do list until well beyond the date when I
get back to the office. One or two of them, I suspect, I would quite literally never have been done
ā Iād have just sat on
them until everyone else forgot that they were ever asked of me. So why,
really, has the arbitrary deadline of tomorrow at noon become so critical to me?
Donāt know. I canāt adequately explain it to you because, I suspect, there is
no adequate answer.
Iāll leave you with two thoughts:
- Why am I apparently not capable of this weekās
extraordinary levels of productivity in a more typical week, where I donāt have
a looming arbitrary deadline to contend with? I actually have a theory. Iāll
post about it soon (but not by any particular arbitrary date. I only commit to
those in my professional life).
Ā - Iāve sucked those around me into my arbitrary
deadline world too. I donāt work alone, I have teams that I work with. If set
myself an arbitrary deadline for a task, letās call it a, then that means I need othersā input and contribution by a-2, or end of day a-1 at the absolute latest, please. And low, the circle of arbitrary
deadlines becomes self-sustaining and spreads across the land.
I hope those affected by #2 are also congratulating
themselves on this weekās extraordinary productivity, and I hope they enjoy the
distinct and noticeable lull in activity while Iām away without questioning it
too much. I hope they donāt take to the internet to bitch about it on their
blog, but if they do choose that path then thatās OK. Thereāll be no hypocrisy
from me.
At work weāre making a collective effort to get better at responding to messages in a more prompt manner.
Iām sure my boss Matt appreciates the helpful countdown timer I attached to my most recent email to him, then.
Or maybe Iām doing it wrong?
At work weāre making a collective effort to get better at responding to messages in a more prompt manner.
Iām sure my boss Matt appreciates the helpful countdown timer I attached to my most recent email to him, then.
Or maybe Iām doing it wrong?
I posted this to shrapnel last weekend as part of my recurring late night links series, but itās worthy of inclusion here too.
Happy Friday, everyone!
(Source)
I posted this to shrapnel last weekend as part of my recurring late night links series, but itās worthy of inclusion here too.
Happy Friday, everyone!
(Source)
How email became the most reviled communication experience ever
This is an interesting read.
At Google I/O in 2009 Google introduced Google Wave, a re-imagining of email. I still maintain this was a much better tool for business communication than email is. The product was killed off only about a year later. Wave had some great technology, but Google failed to even try to sell it to the enterprise. Ultimately the problems Wave solved werenāt technical ones, they were business ones.
That all being said, is the way to solve the current problems with email overload really to replace it with a different tool? I donāt know the solution, but I certainly agree thereās a problem.
How email became the most reviled communication experience ever
How to Recover From an Unproductive Day Like It Never Happened
There was one day last week where I accomplished more in the last hour of my day than I did in the previous 6ish. This happens to everyone from time to time: despite our best intentions, there are all sorts of things that can cause a workday to go sideways on us.
We all have unproductive days. Maybe an unexpected event throws your schedule for a loop. Maybe youāre not feeling well. Whatever the reason, it can be tough to get back on track. Hereās how to get past the dip in productivity and back into gear.
For me, key to recovering when a day turns unproductive is to find a way to reset and tackle the remainder of the day with a renewed focus. I spend 15 or 20 minutes at the start of every day composing a to-do list and defining my action plan for the day, and when I find myself unable to execute on that plan for whatever reason I repeat that exercise and re-define my action plan based on my new reality. I also find it helps a lot to have a change of scenery: if Iām in the office and my day isnāt going the way I wanted it to then Iāll go home and work the rest of the day from there. If Iām already home then I might head to my favourite coffee place and spend an hour or two working in that environment.
I also find that as part of redefining my to-do list itās important to be fully inclusive. My day consists of both big and small tasks, and itās tempting when putting a list together to omit the small ones and just do them immediately, but of course this only leaves the big tasks where Iām more reliant on others and unforeseen things are more likely to occur. When things donāt go to plan itās entirely possible to end up with a to-do list that has nothing checked off at the end of the day, and itās important to me not to finish my day that way ā Iād much rather spend my evening relaxing with at least a small sense of accomplishment than worrying about a perceived lack of achievement. If Iām only able to achieve smaller things that day then so be it, but thatās better than nothing and cause for correspondingly small celebration, but celebration nonetheless.
If youāre not able to recover your productivity within the working day? Well, that happens to the best of us and isnāt cause for panic. The article Iāve linked to above has some tips and tricks to help us get back on the metaphorical horse the following day.
How to Recover From an Unproductive Day Like It Never Happened