As a productivity and effectiveness junkie, I found this clever little bit from my chums at Moleskine a gentle little reminder about the importance of planners and planning. And a nice nudge to grab a new paper planner. More on that soon, though.
Category: Productivity & Effectiveness
As a long-time executive assistant and project coordinator, I continually search for ways to eek the most out of my time. This is my collection of tips and tools to master your time.
Facing challenges
Random observation: people seem to land in one of two camps regarding their responses to recognizing challenges. Either we over-dramatize (see the mountain instead if the molehill), or under-estimate (see a molehill instead of the mountain). Perhaps the later deception is more productive, as you avoid paralysis. However, neither is truly effective. Either one is paralyzed needlessly, or starry-eyed unaware of truly harmful danger.
Best response: when we’ve trained ourselves to see challenge, understand our ability to respond, then choose clearly amongst the clear and obvious choices.
I train my mind continuously, hoping that I’ll someday achieve that state.
Some thoughts on platforms and stuff
Had an interesting chat with some Twitter chums about whether I should port my iPhone number to Google Voice. The responses got me thinking about dependence upon one company or platform. Having all one’s proverbial eggs in one basket opens up serious risk should a) the company go under, b) reconfigure their offerings or, c) simply decide on a focus change. Any of those scenarios open you up to data loss, productivity gains, and other delights.
Oddly, through my love of things techy, I find myself well diversified. Should, say Google, decide to ax a key component, I can easily shift over to MSFT or Yahoo or Apple or… Puts me on a safe place.
I think I’ll stay that way, thank you.
Perfection’s Obsessive Pursuit Destroys Effectiveness
The obsessive pursuit of perfection can destroy effectiveness. How easy would it be, continuously review, rewrite, redo a project. Keep revolving within this loop until its perfect, or we die. I would expect that giving into this loop, perfection would only be achieved well after the project’s usefulness was long past.
Now, we need to keep mind for quality. Try to make whatever we’re creating as effective as possible. Yet, something is better than nothing.
Deliver the best you can. Fix, with diligence and haste any material mistakes, smile about the non-material. Be proud of your work, and the problems it solves.
Action vs. Cynicism
There’s greater risk from action than from cynical critique. And greater reward. Go and DO great things. Don’t simply sit and pick apart those actually doing the hard work of enacting change; driving to make the world better.
Thought of the day
Often, we get so absorbed in things we can’t affect that we neglect those areas we can.
Time
Just a thought: if you regularly give up planning and review time to deal with “now”, you have a future problem. We must make time to compare our progress against our goals. Otherwise, we get lost.
Don’t let this slip! And I’ll try to do the same.
Overactive Mind
I’m getting a lot done, but accomplishing very little. I don’t find it satisfying. I enjoy checking off to-dos, but without direction it’s, ultimately, empty. Way too many directions in my life. I need focus.
Examples: the hundreds of email news sources I subscribe to. And the dozen, or more, tasks I load into a day. That’s a weakness in the electronic-tools age. Keeping those emails to read “later” is so easy. Or just shuffle those tasks to another day. Then I get to a point where I have several hundred emails waiting to be read. Or I’m spending 15 minutes moving my collection of overdue tasks to today. It all creates a sensation of “spinning my wheels”.
I’m tacking this, slowly, carefully. First, I’m now aggressively deleting email. And also unsubscribing. For things I’ve been subscribed to for years, I feel discomfort. But with so many I haven’t even opened in years, it’s just time. Time to accept that, though I see the value, I don’t feel the value. And give myself permission to feel that. Also, I’m culling tasks. Some have lingered for months, even years. My mind is telling me something here. Time to listen.
The next step for me requires stepping back, reprioritizing and focusing. I know it will be painful. Selecting that which I won’t do; ugh. I want to do everything. I see, though, I can’t do even half of everything well. Quality is important. Much more so than quantity. Time to embrace it, and live it.
Perhaps I’ll embrace an agile approach. Re-evaluate every few weeks/months. Ensuring I’m meeting my needs; watching for those needs to change. I like that idea. Allowing my life to flow, fluid-like. Accepting my needs will change, and seeking to be ahead. Rather than waiting until I swirl into misery. There’s zen.
Early Morning Thoughts While I Should Be Asleep
Reading email (or most anything) late at night doesn’t tend to return me to sleep quickly. Rather, my mind awakens, engages, then wants to learn more. Knowledge is a vibrant engagement for me.