Viewing Category: Productivity
It's easy to be productive when I'm feeling happy and focused, but right now I ain't: I'm downright grouchy, thinking about bbq that I can't have and I can't feel my toes. In other words, it's the perfect time to think about motivation from a negative perspective.
I’ve been having a kind of blah week, which may be related to the strict diet low-carb diet I'm enduring. Then my file server crashed (needed a shiny new power supply, see pic). And the weather is, as my cousin Ben once succinctly put it, "stupidly cold." I’m feeling pretty damn unproductive and unmotivated.
Ordinarily I’d cook something yummy like my favorite curry or ribs dishes and pig out to cheer myself up, but I’m on a diet that, damn it, is actually working, so stuffing my face is not an option. Crap crap crap. Maybe I'll take a nap.
I was surprised to see a ghostly form hovering over my desk. I thought it might have been a smudge on my glasses, but then it SPOKE.
"I AM THE GHOST...OF SLOTHFULNESS!" the ghostly form said by, by way of introduction. "I'm here to tell you that you're a fat, lazy, unmotivated do-nothingnik! Through hard work and unwavering commitment, you could have achieved greatness! Actually, I don't mean you specifically...that's pretty obvious. You are not 1/10th of the man your father and grandfather was. Not even a shmidge."
"And you're a big dork!" the ghost added, dissolving languidly into a vortex of spite. Before I could react, another ghost appeared in its stead.
"AND I AM THE GHOST OF TALENTLESSNESS!" intoned the new ghost, dressed conservatively in a gray suit and expensive leather shoes. "It is obvious to me that you're not talented enough, not smart enough, and not accomplished enough to grab hold of the brass ring, let alone hold on to it." The ghost paused dramatically, smugly satisfied with its pronouncement.
"What!?" I exclaimed indignantly, "Surely there is some special talent or collection of skills that are exceptional in the right circumstances! Maybe personality + talents would---"
"No no no, that's not how it works." the ghost said impatiently. "If you'd had any real talent, it would have manifested itself---at the latest---by your 21st birthday. Too bad you didn't do more work in high school and college...that might have made up for your dearth of talent, and you could have gone to a really good grad school. Then you might have had a shot. But no...I want to find my passion..." The ghost minced around in a circle, hands waving in mock panic. "I need to know my purpose in life! I'm a maverick! I'm a lone wolf!"
The ghost stopped, suddenly serious, and looked around cautiously before whispering to me in a confidential manner. "Now, I don't usually give advice, but you should really consider joining a company that has very simple and repetitive task requirements. You know, something you could be good at without straining yourself and asking why? why? all the time. Be a good cog in some larger, more important machine, contributing to the bottom line for someone else under a stern manager that knows how to kick your ass. Then maybe you'd amount to something, earn that level 3 salary, have a nice bennies package and maybe a matching 401K. You'll have people to go bowling with. You like bowling! Wouldn't that be nice? No more sitting at home in your basement on Friday night. Alone. But that's not my area of expertise. My colleague will fill you in on that." With that the ghost glanced at his Seiko, muttered, and poofed away.
The third ghost didn't appear immediately, probably to give me time to reflect upon my wasted years. Thinking back on that, though, I can't really say that any of them were wasted. Maybe I didn't push everything through to their "optimal conclusion" as measured by other people's metrics, and I didn't cave in on my principles (though, admittedly, they have not always been correct). Really, the only thing that has me down is not being in as strong a financial position as I'd like, so I could worry a little less about the future and have the resources to do something cool. Less worry about money and...
"LONELINESS..." sighed the third Ghost, materializing in the form of a frail, tired man by my desk. "Loneliness, Isolation, Misunderstanding. Induced by your own hand. Thanks to this." He gestured at the computer monitor. Indeed, the computer had been my main outlet for frustration when I was a kid, looking Chinese in a Chinese society but unable to communicate or participate in it. At some point, I'd angrily said fuck you to that, and withdrew into computer graphics and computer programming. That was a world I could build myself and understand. I think a lot of kids seek that kind of control over something, and it becomes an anchor in an otherwise frustrating world. And when you grow up, that anchor sometimes holds you back.
"DON'T FORGET BEING MISUNDERSTOOD" interjected the Ghost testily, not wanting to lose my attention. "Really, does anyone ever really understood what it is you were looking for? Or why? Or even what you DO? You don't even understand it yourself. You've spent your life chasing interest after interest, looking for that one true passion. Tilting at windmills. Not that you've actually read Don Quixote, but you know what I mean. I should know. I'm you."
"WE'RE ALL YOU!" said the Ghosts in unison, manifesting together in an impressive display of synchronous materialization. But instead of being pleased with this observation, they looked pretty pissed-off.
"Being you sucks!" whined the Ghost of Slothfulness. "Why do I even get up in the morning? It's not worth it! I'm not even a real Ghost yet...I'm an intern! I'm not even supposed to be here today!"
"I would concur with your first statement..." replied the Ghost of Talentlessness, "if not the latter. Regarding your internship: you put in your dues, then if HR says you're a good match for our Organization, you can qualify for a position pending a two-year probationary evaluation period. It is the system, and it is good. Shut the hell up and get us some coffee and danish. We're stuck with this doofus"---he gestured curtly in my direction---"we might as well get comfortable."
"I told my manager I don't like working with other ghosts, and he still teamed me up with these guys." sighed the Ghost of Loneliness to no one in particular. He paused, brightening slightly. "Maybe if there were more women ghosts in the Organization...you know, cute ones wearing those wispy ethereal robes that cinch in just under the..." He startled from his reverie, fixing me with an accusing eye before coldly continuing. "You know what I mean, bachelor boy."
"YEAH...HE DOES." said the other Ghosts in unison. And they stood there, glowering at me. It was all my fault. All mine.
Why didn't I feel bad though? I started off feeling pretty crappy, but now I actually feel kind of good. The Ghosts looked markedly irritated at my good humor, which only added to it.
"It's because you already know what you need to do." said a tinkly voice, "You have always known it. It's not the specifics that necessarily matter, but the way you live and make your decisions and take care of yourself. You're already doing it."
I turned around, and beheld a female spirit, with smile crinkles tickling the corners of her eyes. The Ghost of Loneliness hid behind the Ghost of Talentlessness, who himself was clearly unsure how to handle this breach of protocol. The Ghost of Slothfulness just stared, mouth ajar.
"Who the hell are you?" I demanded. "Did the Organization send you? What do you want?"
"N/A, nope, and nothing!" she chirped. "I am an independent agent. Hope, optimism, believing in good stuff happening, etc. All the good stuff. Yeah!" She beamed.
"Awesome!" I said with growing excitement. "So are you going to melt these other Ghosts away with blasts of HAPPY POWER?" The male Ghosts turned a shade grayer at the suggestion, and huddled closer together.
"No no no, that's not how it works!" she laughed. "Those guys are part of you, and they're part of what makes you a motivated individual. You don't want to be them, so you learn how to face them, even integrate some of what they're saying. Maybe they're even necessary for a balanced life. Besides, all you really need to remember is One Thing." The spirit grinned wickedly, relishing the drama of the moment.
"One thing? Like in City Slickers? They never actually said what it was!"
"No, no, it's simple."
"Cool! What is it?"
"That's it. It's Simple."
"It's Simple?"
"It's Simple. Period!"
"I'm not sure I understand." I said after a long minute. "I'm a pretty complex person, very 'meta'. I like thinking of complexity and systems and stuff. Simplicity isn't my bag."
"Give it a try and see what happens." She smiled. "It's not always complicated." And with that, she winked away in a puff of positive energy.
I'm still trying to figure it out what "It's Simple" means, but I'm beginning to feel that there's something to it that makes sense. One intepretation is that "simple" refers to "taking a single step". It might also mean "making that one commitment". Or maybe it's "focus on your strengths". Or maybe it's just a philosophy of doing that underlies a productive mentality. Like Occam's Razor, applied to life choices? But if I analyze it too much, that sort of defeats the purpose of the "simple" approach.
Maybe it will come to me next time I dream.
I was in the shower and had a ton of ideas that just slipped away...the chill New England air blasted them right out of my head. Most irritating.
I was thinking maybe I could put a white board in my shower, but then I remembered seeing underwater writing tablets on a documentary. That would be perfect!
As it happens, other people have had this brainstorm before. Check out this Cool Tools entry. The device is called a dive slate. It has a "golf pencil" (whatever that is) attached to it via surgical tubing. I also saw that there are "quick erase" magnetic dive slates that use magnets to write---I'm guessing it's like one of those children's toys. I am curious whether the resolution of the slate allows for fine writing.
I mentioned this idea to my buddy Jeff, and he said, "You need a waterproof journal". It's a spiral-bound notebook for use "in the field" in all kinds of weather (by bird watchers, for example). Use your Fisher Space Pen to write in it; it's pressurized and writes upside down and in wet conditions. Outdoor Activity stores might carry the journal; you can get space pens at Staples. I like to touch stuff before I buy it, personally speaking.
For you DIYPlanner and PocketMod fans, do a search on waterproof paper to find the good stuff for your printer. You could make the ATW version of your productivity system! Booyah!
Shopping Links (via Amazon)
Reader Robert K. Brown sent me a version of The Printable CEO he had meticulously recreated in PowerPoint. It's uncannily faithful to the original layout. Robert notes that the colors don't print quite the same, so downloaders may want to tweak them...because it's editable!
This is not a slide presentation, nor is it interactive; it's just easy to edit the PowerPoint slide for printing. If you used the Excel version in the past and wished it looked more like the PDF, then give the PowerPoint version a try.
I'm particularly impressed by his clever use of PowerPoint. I don't ordinarily use it because I've got Macromedia Flash and make custom presentations as part of my work. However, PowerPoint has come a long way, and while it doesn't offer the advanced capabilities of Flash, it's probably safe to say that it's the standard graphics application for business. I didn't even think of it when making that original Excel editable version of the PCEO. An important lesson! I've thought that maybe I should learn how to make cool Word templates too; we designer types get caught up in using our fancy tools that require fancy technology to make everything just perfect and eschew "everyday" tools like Microsoft Office. This doesn't have to be the case. I should really look more into the Office Suite to see what it can do.
Thanks Robert! You rock!
» Download PowerPoint Version
» PCEO-CGT01-RPK-PowerPoint.zip
scanned with Norton Anti-Virus 2005
Why Not Release Source?
I'm sometimes asked why I don't release the original Illustrator CS2 files to the public. Here's my reasoning:
- It goes against my instinct about releasing source files from being in the design business, though this might not apply here. The print designers I know are pretty careful about what they release, and if source files are involved they charge a hefty premium. Since I'm not making any money off of this, maybe it's a moot point.
- However, there may come a time that I do want to make something out of this, and therefore I want to maintain control over the appearance of the forms. So holding on to source is like a promise to myself that I'll do something cool with them later.
- In the meantime, it's kind of fun to think of other ways to distribute the PCEO concept using other media, the way Robert has. My thinking is to make a Flash version, but no one has really cried out for this so it remains on the back burner.
- For those of you out there thinking, "Hey, I have Illustrator CS2! I could use the source files!", did you know you can import PDF files directly into the program? Well, you can. It won't be as easy as editing the actual source since the graphics get broken down into vectors, but hey...you have Illustrator CS2...you already know how to deal with that!
- Or you can always hire me to make some quick modifications. I have reasonable rates ;-)
I'm really curious about how people choose their own priorities, so if you feel like sharing, please feel free to contact me or leave a comment. C'mon, it'll be fun! It will help guide future development too!
I did my laundry on Sunday afternoon, the conclusion of an absurdly-long process. It started two weeks ago with the collection of loose items of clothing. Then I found my hamper and put them in. Today, wearing the Hawaiian-style World of Warcraft shirt that signals a critical shortage of clean clothing, I moved the hamper halfway to the laundry room before being distracted by the sheer inefficiency of my process. I ended up in my office writing this post. Ironic I know, but my slothfulness has triggered an interesting chain of insights regarding how individual uniqueness plays a big role in defining a systematic approach to productivity.
Systems Aren't Just For Work
I was talking to a new acquaintance last week, Don, about freelancing. He's a very imaginative systems-oriented thinker, and was making a lot of suggestions about how one could systemize their process so that you spend less time doing the clerical stuff and more time doing the good stuff. I hadn't quite thought of it that way before, though I'm a fairly systems-oriented thinker myself when it comes to project work. I realized in my own work, the urge to systemize goes out the window.
Why is that? Probably because I am still making an assumption that "work==boring and structured" and "personal==impulsive and fun". As a result, I'm unintentionally throwing out an entire range of helpful tools by assocation. Enough of that!
Personal Productivity is Subjective
The first step is to define what "being productive" really means, in a personal (not job) sense. I think that it's actually feeling that's important, not measurement.
Being productive can be split in two: producing things (which is measurable), and feeling that sense of accomplishment (which isn't easily measured). Ultimately both are important to feel that sense of accomplishment, but the feeling part tends to get overlooked. Feeling isn't a metric like "lines of code" or "number of widgets created" or "time to write a proposal" or "number of items I checked off my To Do list". Those are examples of metrics and they're useful when you're doing quota-based work, but what really matters is feedback. Feedback is measurement with meaning. You do not get a sense of accomplishment without that; this is particularly true in video game design.
This has ramifications for the design of personal productivity tools, which tend to be metrics-oriented; it's that old qualitative versus quantitative duality popping up again! Even workplace productivity is dependent on feedback; in my management experience, learning how to give meaningful feedback was one of the toughest things to learn, let alone realize.
Fulfillment is Human
Feeling productive leads to a sense of fulfillment; we're really talking about what people need in general. Let's start with the following assumptions:
- The urge to create is fundamental to everyone. I heard Neil Gershenfeld say this on Talk of the Nation, and I think it's totally true. We're all creative in some way...it's an itch that must be scratched!
- The act of creation, however, is specific to the individual. When the act is something particularly cool in the eyes of the individual, that's an achievement.
- The desire for recognition for our achievements is, I believe, also fundamental. While we're capable of recognizing achievements ourselves, it's far more interesting to get positive feedback from someone else.
- The value of recognition depends on who it comes from. Some recognition is bound to be regarded as more meaningful than others, for any number of reasons.
- The accrual of recognition leads to a sense of accomplishment.
- Accomplishment has a shelf-life. It's expected to lead to improved life, whatever that may be. Otherwise, repetition of the accomplishment loses value. In some cases, the creation itself is the reward for no rational reason at all (this is probably a true passion), but in other cases we really do expect some kind of payoff.
- If we do get that payoff, then we do it again. Otherwise, the act of creation is not self-sustaining.
We need to design a system that addresses all the elements of this list. To put the premise another way, I'm postulating that:
Productivity exists only as a function of feedback in a social context. In a non-work/personal fun context, productivity takes place largely in the mind.
High productivity is the result of tuning the production cycle to take the "personal fulfillment cycle" into account.
Feeling productive leads to being productive, if the above two conditions are met.
Again, I'm talking about the qualitative aspect of Productivity. And for imaginative/creative people like me...that's what I think really matters. Otherwise, I wouldn't spend so much time worrying and trying to come up with a better system.
Disambiguating Creativity
People who are concerned about productivity, I suspect, are those who have imagination in excess of creativity. After a long hard look at myself, I realized that I also fall in this category. I have tons of ideas, but the desire to actually create tangible things is not as greatly-expressed in my personality. Recognizing this, I created the Printable CEO to emphasize getting more concrete things done. Without concrete, tangible items, you just end up talking a lot and nothing ever changes. But even then I didn't think I had a problem with creativity until now.
There are two meanings of the word "creative" in my mind, each with different associations. It's this ambiguity that gives rise to a fallacious argument in my head. The fallacy is that of Equivocation, and it goes something like this:
I'm a skilled, creative individual. To be productive, one must create. Because I am creative, I therefore am (or should be) productive.
Because I'm not feeling particularly productive, I feel I'm wasting my potential. However, the term creative means a lot of different things: in kindergarten, it means that you are a busy kid. In graphic design, it means you come up with good ideas and then make them, but "coming up with ideas" is actually imagination. That's different.
The definition that counts in productivity is creating things, and this is at the root of my fallacious reasoning. I have the skills. I have the imagination. I don't necessarily have "creativity". I know it's true when I look at all the things that I could do that I haven't. The impulse, the drive, the motivation...it isn't there, at least for a certain class of activities.
Fortunately, this is not a major bummer because all that means is that I'm not pursuing the right things; they probably aren't my passions.
Those things we do automatically without external motivastion I'll call primary passions. For me, one of them is finding the patterns in things and writing them down. Another is problem solving within a contextual framework (e.g. Design). Yet another is acquiring the know-how behind expressive, creative mediums---I've always thought it odd that I like to know how to do things but not necessarily do them beyond what it takes to understand the medium, but there ya go.
I also have secondary passions. These are things I want to do but haven't, despite having the opportunity to do so. I've got a huge pile of these: music composition, motion graphics, game development projects, making movies, languages, etc. These are all things I like that I think will contribute to my sense of accomplishment, but I haven't figured out quite how to make them happen. There's nothing stopping me, otherwise, from starting the process.
From this, two productivity strategies come to mind:
For secondary passions, I think the list of "7 assumptions about fulfillment" will play an important role. I know that I'm lacking the human feedback element to kick things off. I may be more susceptable to the desire to create with other people than most; I can be tremendously productive when I feel the immediate need for it from someone else, but in the absence of that pressure I tend to just follow through with my primary passions: solving problems for people I know rather than creating my own resources, and gathering the resources and knowledge that makes it easier. I probably would enjoy Extreme Programming, now that I think of it.
I also know that my definition of creativity needs to be split into "imagination" and "creation". The funny thing is that when I'm working, I make a clear distinction between "ideas" and "execution". It's very similar. In the work context, I personally believe that Ideas are cheap; execution is everything. Sometimes you do get that rare idea that flips everything upside down and revolutionizes the way something is done, but I am not particularly impressed by people who feel it absolves them of the responsibility of doing any heavy lifting. Thus, it's rather ironic that I find myself being lazy with respect to being productive with respect to my personal projects. Doh!
Creating a New Productivity System
So now I have some new guidelines:
Chose projects for which I can successfully build the full 7-step personal fulfillment cycle. Otherwise, the project will stall, and I will not feel productive.
By making the distinction between being imaginative and being creative, I won't feel like I'm wasting my potential. Imagination is one thing, and creating things is another.
I'm not sure about this, but I suspect that achieving any feeling of fulfillment, assuming it is authentic and sustainable, solves a lot of problems. Assuming you've got your other needs taken care of: once you're plugged into that feedback cycle, there's not a lot to complain about.
Step #2---the specific act of creation---is dependent on what talents are unique to the individual. And I'm NOT thinking just about skills...I'm thinking of the proclivities that reinforce certain skills over others. Identifying what those are will be important in determining the path of least resistance and maximum gain; It's what they call "playing to your strengths".
But more on that later.
When I'm writing on a topic I'm not yet familiar with, I have a tendency to pepper my writing with wussy phrases like I have a tendency to and not yet familiar with. The passive voice...bleah!
I don't know [where this comes from]... [it might] be [some] charming artifact of my upbringing, as I was raised by genuine missionaries in a [somewhat] academic household. [Sometimes I wish that] my writing sounded more deliberate and less cover-my-ass. I'm better now, [but] [it still] creeps in [from time to time]. There's a fine line between being humble and sounding like a homesick puppy.
I was discussing this with another friend of mine, pointing out the I hopes and maybes that "swept the legs" out from under his otherwise fine prose. The solution: make use of a much-hated feature in Microsoft Word to retrain our writing reflexes!
How? Use AutoCorrect to replace wishy-washy expressions in your writing! Go to the AutoCorrect Options (under Tools) and enter phrase pairs like these:
I HOPE becomes As the Lord is my witness, you can bet your SWEET ASS...
MAYBE becomes if I had a nickel for every FREAKING TIME this happened I'd be a FREAKING MILLIONAIRE...
A TENDENCY TO becomes abso-freaking-lutely kiss-my-ass and hope-to-die WILL...
The shock and horror of seeing these phrases sprout unbidden in your Word document---in that letter to your sweet old grandmother, for example---will quickly train you against using those wimpy phrases ever again. You'll find new ways to avoid them, because the probability of remembering how to turn off AutoCorrect is really low given the sheer number of "features" clogging up Microsoft Office these days.
Ah, the power of negative reinforcement! I love the smell of Microsoft in the morning! And there are other applications, like for the harried men on Match.com who must send out hundreds of "special" form emails every day:
- U R HOT becomes not only are you beautiful and intelligent, but in all my travels throughout this world I have NEVER come across a profile more delightful than yours. Come! FLY WITH ME!
Have fun! As the Lord is my witness, you can bet your SWEET ASS this is useful :-)
ASIDE: Maybe the hate is unwarranted on my part, but I can't stand AutoCorrect fiddling with my sentences and bulleted list items. It wreaks havoc when you're writing technical documentation with mixed-case capitalization. I'm also not a fan of automatic misspelling correction...how will you learn that you're spelling things wrong if it's doing it behind the scene? That's just the way I feel, so I usually turn it off after the irritation builds to the boiling point.
I'm having one of those days where I'm feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of cool project ideas floating around in my head, and the mental thrashing is causing a drop in productivity. I could haul out the old Pickle Jar, but that's a device more useful for long-term idea storage, not projects that I would like to do in the next couple of weeks.
I started to unstick myself by borrowing a ritual from Iron Chef Rokusaburo Michiba.
For those not familiar with Iron Chef, it's a cooking show in which world-class chefs compete against each other in a 60-minute battle in a "kitchen arena". The skill and experience of the participants is astonishing, with roving cameras capturing the action up-close. Michiba is regarded as perhaps the best of all the original Iron Chefs, a hardened veteran of the professional kitchen with the soul of a true artisan. At the beginning of every battle he would take the time to compose a menu with brush calligraphy while everyone else was running around scrambling for ingredients. And then, after he'd finished writing, he'd slam it home, always in control, never hurried, producing absolutely beautiful dishes. It's that menu that came to mind today---I didn't have the time to make it beautiful, but the focus might work.
Borrowing some additional inspiration from Phil's Progress Blog, I drew a quick form with the "Big Things To Do Today" on the top. However, I also left space at the bottom for writing in other things that occured to me throughout the day. It's a start...faster than pickling ideas in the jar, and no screwing around with Illustrator before I end up with a usable form.
As I looked over the menu, I made a few interesting observations:
My "Big Things To Do" list described complete projects that I needed to work on. They were indeed like prepared dishes, chosen to serve up a well-balanced day of productive work and reward.
I also realized that I wouldn't be able to actually finish them (as in done forever), but it was still important to just work on them so I could make some progress. That would relieve the pressure to a more tolerable level.
Next to each menu item, I also added a small line based on an insight from the Destruct-o-Matic: Pick a tiny task to initiate the project work; it's the fuse or the primer for the task.
I needed to add a few reminders for the day's chores (something I'm really bad at) so I scribbled those in on the side. These were more like regular To-Do list items.
I felt that there was a kinship between the menu approach and the other things I've been trying lately, and I think it's this:
The Task Progress Tracker was really a first draft of a Working On List. These are complete projects that are defined by the end result. This is what a regular To Do List doesn't cope with well.
However, a regular To Do List is essential for achieving clarity in what specifically you need to do.
From this, I can conjecture that there are three parts of my personal productivity system: High Level Goals, Tangible Objectives, and Execution. These roles are fulfilled by the Printable CEO, the "Working On" list, and a regular To Do list respectively.
For the system to work, it needs to be incredibly convenient and free-standing. Paper alone will not do it for the Working On list, because paper management becomes a problem once you have more than one sheet. A Print-and-Archive approach might work a lot better, augmenting a software-based methodology.
It's important to recognize that each list has a different scale of satisfaction, and that it's pretty unique to each individual. By scale, I mean that amount of work and reward that feels "meaningful" to the person performing a particular task. So an important prerequisite for crafting a useful productivity tool is to find out what that is, and then craft tools that help compensate for imbalances between "required scale of achievement to feel good" and "the ability to self-actuate to completion". This is the broader context of what I'm trying to figure out for myself.
Ok, now I can get back to work.
This has been a great week. It kicked off with surprise tickets to a real basketball game in Boston (Celtics versus Sonics), which was super fun and enlightening. Watching a game at court-level is a completely different experience from TV; you really get a sense of the speed, precision and adaptability of the players. A little of that energy rubbed off on me for the rest of the week, as I humped it through project work, had great client meetings, and fulfilled some long-standing personal engagements. I got an extra boost on Tuesday, when I got my every-six-week haircut at what is now my favorite place in Danvers; afterwards I went to the mall and got great service from the female store staffers. I realized that they were admiring my haircut as I followed their eyes. And if that wasn't enough, I lost five pounds this week without even thinking about it. It's been a very productive week on many levels.
Today, however, I realized that there's possibly another level of productivity I could attain, after talking with a friend about personal identity.
Buddy S. was cheerfully filling me in on the positive psychology reading she's been doing. One neat tidbit was how people see themselves as having a job, a career, or a calling: people with jobs do it for the money, people with careers do it to climb the ladder to higher levels, and people with callings do it for the love of it despite money. I commented that I thought I was somewhere between career and calling. I was silent as I reflected on how I seem to be searching for personal meaning in the work that I do, and that perhaps this was a source of inefficiency.
On a whim I asked S. if she had a strong sense of identity, as she's a very productive person. "Yes!" she said immediately, and proceeded to rattle off half-a-dozen things. "Wow!" I exclaimed, impressed by the speed and surety of her answer, "I'm not even sure I could do that."
"Sure you could! Maybe it's not voice that works for you, but I know if you sat for 3 minutes you could bang something out."
And certainly I could, but the ability to just say who you are on a moment's notice was really intriguing. So I tried it, muttering something like:
I'm David Seah, and I like cats (note: Kat was sitting right there, looking at me expectantly). I like nutty quirky people, and people who are inspiring and like to make things. I like things that have artisan or craftsmanship like quality. I like to find the essence of things.
Ok, we knew that already, but the interesting part is this: the exercise made me realize that I had a huge desire to collect and organize the statements I was in the process of saying, and this caused a delay in speaking. Ordinarily, I would have taken the time to do some internal organization before saying what was on my mind, but since time was a factor, I consciously overrode that desire so I could speak more immediately. I think being able to speak extemporaneously like this is a valuable skill, so I'm going to practice it more to get used to the idea.
Later on, I began to wonder if this "processing delay" is introduced by some kind of computational overhead in my thinking process. If that's the case, then I should be able to turn it off for faster reaction time.
The thought-to-action model might be something like this:
- Brain conceives of high-level Goal to pursue
- Brain partially converts goal into series of steps to be done
- Brain analyzes steps for completeness to create optimal execution plan
- Brain executes optimal execution plan by dispatching commands to the Body
- Cool shit happens
A cognitive scientist might help me out here :-)
Anyway, I'm thinking that Step 3 is the culprit: it creates a transactional model for action that requires optimal planning---and by extension, all necessary assets ready and available---before any execution will occur. Planning itself is not a bad thing, because it saves later headaches and ensure that energy is used in the most productive and optimal fashion. And isn't being optimal in our use of resources productive? Efficiency is awesome, yes?
Up until 10 minutes ago I would have agreed, but I now believe this is a case of premature optimization. Optimization itself is always desirable in an end product, but performing it before you fully understand where the bottlenecks are is a recipe for wasting time and energy. In the real world, it's like arguing what the best way to do something is before anyone on the team has really done it; at some point, you have to try something and see what happens. Trying to be efficient before you have real experience just slows you down for no reason. In real-life work, it makes sense to just learn by doing, and make incremental improvements in the process as you gain experience with it. Make your best guesses based on what you do know, but don't encumber the process with "it will be more efficient if we do it this way" conditions. Instead, focus only on the "it will work" conditions.
As programmers, we're taught to value efficiency, and oftentimes that includes productive laziness: how to get the maximum benefit from minimum effort. A lifetime of programming experience teaches us where the high-payoff situations are likely to be, and this makes us seem like magicians when we pull off something particularly elegant. Experienced programmers know that these moments are relatively rare in the day-to-day work of building software: you either know a trick right off-the-bat or you see the opportunity in the course of experiencing the system as it's coming together. But what makes steady progress possible is the commitment to building the system brick-by-brick, knowing that each piece will function in a reliable manner. After you get the system built, then you can do some productive optimization work.
Tying this back to procrastination:
The processing delay I noted in the "who am I" statement was an echo of a "work optimally" desire, before I knew what I was going to say. If I was building a software system, I would just build something and find the answers in the process of building, not worry if it was "optimal" or "efficient". It just has to work first! And perhaps this attitude is what I need to cultivate in my approach to all my projects. In other words, Do It Now, Optimize Later and Learn By Doing.
This may not help for chores like doing laundry or taking out the trash, but it might help get some of my other projects moving.
I've come across some neat uses of the Printable CEO from around the Web.
Bar Charts and Means
On But She's a Girl, the author graphed her past few weeks of data to see if she could spot any trends. She noticed with some surprise that the days she thought were productive were actually not compared to other days, as measured by her custom list of goals.
One of the commenters on BSAG noted that he'd hate to have the PCEO applied to him; indeed, that's a scary thought. On the other hand, it might be the basis of an interesting work contract: management would be forced to come up with a clear, succinct list of what work is considered productive, and it would be written down. A MadLibs approach might be useful for establishing such a list:
- Choose a NOUN that represents something valuable to your department!
- Choose an ADJECTIVE that emphasizes that valuable NOUN!
- Choose an ACTION that can be productively applied with the NOUN! If you can't think of one, start over!
- Does is GROW, or merely SUSTAIN your department? If neither, then start again!
- Does it require a lot of EFFORT, or does it happen NATURALLY? If it takes more than 3 days to do, start over!
- Is it worth CELEBRATING with at most one bottle of good beer? If it is worth more, start over with something smaller!
The Desktop CEO
Reader Nick got back to me with some field-reports on his use of the PCEO. He actually stopped using the form after about two weeks, but created desktop wallpaper with the point values on them. He says that it's led directly toward landing three new jobs...very cool, and awesome use of desktop wallpaper for productivity.
This is cool also because the PCEO originally was a poster; I just wanted to fill up the page with something else, and thought bubbles might be neat. The combination of the succinct list AND the tracking appears to be the real draw, which may be why the new Task Tracker sheet isn't really lighting my fire yet, even with the additional explosions.
Maybe I should re-think that whole mug idea!
The Drawable CEO
On Sodaware, Phil Newton writes about his incorporation of the PCEO into his progress log. What's especially cool is that he draws out the form every week! Now, that's hardcore! Awesome!
I like the format he uses, as it combines not only goals but also provides a place for assessment, like "What Went Wrong" and "What Went Right". That kind of reflection is important. He also mentions something about a "b-tracker", from a book called The Power of Focus. I'm looking forward to reading more about that on his blog. Update: Part II just posted today!
Yesterday I was musing about the unsatisfying quality of the Task Progress Tracker. My good friend Brad took the time to post some helpful comments. Among them was this gem:
[...] the “done” check box isn’t quite satisfying enough when a task is complete so I put a big fat Sharpie line right through the whole item. Makes me feel like I killed & conquered the task rather than just wounding it with a check mark as it runs away into the woods with it’s tail between it’s legs. :)
The hours and hours of Veteran's Day programming on the History Channel made me particularly receptive to Brad's tale, which led to an idea...
I give you The Task Destruct-o-Matic!
It's a refined version of the Task Progress Tracker, dressed up a bit to make it like you're really attacking the items on your to-do list. Booyah!
Here's how you play:
It's still the same 4 groups of 4 progress bubbles, except this time they're not marked with a "15-minute" label. You can still use them to represent 15-minute chunks of time, but now you have the option of having them mean whatever you want. Fill in the inside of the bubble whenever you make some significant progress. Fill in the whole graphic if you encounter more resistance than you expected; this replaces the challenge level in the old form. Don't forget to make an extra-cool noise when this happens!
There is a new initiate bubble. I found in the old sheet that I actually had to sit and focus for a bit to figure out just what I'd do first, then I could start filling out those 15-minute bubbles. It didn't feel right to fill in a bubble before I knew what the hell I was going to do, but I still wanted to. Think of it as a "Ok, I'm Really Ready to Start Now" bubble. I fill it out when I know exactly what my first action will be, and am ready-to-go.
When you finish a task, you can fill in the explosion at the end of the sheet. Use a red marker or something! Brad also uses a thick marker to cross-out the task, to kill it extra-dead.
If the task is incomplete by the time you run out of progress bubbles, use the fleeing guy icon to note that the task has been extended. Don't let it get away! Fill in another line and resume your assault! You can also draw the fleeing guy on fire if you want, to show what a good job you're doing.
Brad has been using different colored markers for each day of the week. With that in mind, I left this form black and white so the colors would jump out more.
I'm wondering if there's a good non-violent way of representing task completion? And in case you are wondering: yeah, this is silly :-)
Still, I'll be trying it out in the coming weeks---I'm going to be busy with billable work, so I'm stuck with this form until after Thanksgiving.
» Download 2008 Destruct-o-Matic PDF
» PCEO-TPT01-Destructo.pdf
For more background about the Task Progress Tracker, visit Much ToDo about Task Tracking.
And for more form madness, check out The Printable CEO™ Series page!
The Printable CEO™ (PCEO) was born from a desire to focus my time more productively. For me, that means things that make my freelance practice sustainable and fun. The Printable CEO name comes from the idea that a good CEO should focus primarily on those things that move the company forward; since I can't afford to hire my own CEO, being able to print one out seemed like the next best thing! :-)
In general, I use only one form at a time depending on what my needs are at the moment:
More detailed information about The Printable CEO™ series can be found below.
The Concrete Goals Tracker (PCEO Part I)
First released on September 23, 2005.
Part I is about identifying what tangible things you can do that move you toward your goals. It's not enough to just "be busy"; you have to be creating tangible assets and lasting impressions on people to make headway. The Concrete Goals Tracker is a form that, in the context of freelancing, helps you focus and track your progress on a week-by-week basis. Many have adapted the form to their own goals; there are editable versions available for your customization.
The Task Progress Tracker (PCEO Part II)
First released on November 11, 2005.
Part I: Concrete Goals Tracking helps identify what is worth working on. But what about when you just need to put your nose to the grindstone and keep focused on getting longer projects done? Well, you don't need your CEO yelling at you; you need a project manager. That's sort of what the Task Progress Tracker does: task tracking.
The Emergent Task Timer (PCEO Part III)
First released on April 18, 2006.
The Task Progress Tracker (Part II) is great when you're measuring progress on specific projects. But what about when you don't have something specific to work on? Where does all the time go? The Emergent Task Timer is task tracking flipped around; use the form to find out what you're doing, and take corrective action. If you need a little extra push to get working on the things you should be doing, try this form with an egg timer to set the pace. Grad students: this one is for you :-)
The Task Order Up! (PCEO Part IV)
First released on May 4, 2006.
So now you've figured out what you need to do and why it's important. You've got all your projects lined up and sorted, and you're ready to rock! The problem is that you're juggling multiple projects simultaneously. How do you maintain a clear picture of what's on deck and what need to be done? Borrowing from the restaurant industry, the Task Order Up is a task ticket that puts all the information you need on one slip of paper. Manage multiple tasks with multiple tickets like a short-order cook.
The Network Catch-o-Matic (PCEO Part V)
All the PCEO tools so far have been about tracking those tasks that are important to you. However, tasks and time are only one aspect of a productivity system. You need people to affirm your actions in most cases; doing a great job is that much sweeter when other people are there to slap you on the back and help you celebrate.
I'm not particularly good at going out and meeting people, so I created the Network Catch-o-Matic to help train the habit. It's a simple counting form that lists a number of steps you need to do to actually get to know someone. Some of you already know how to do this; this form is not for you. But if you're shy like me, this form might help provide a game-like structure within which we can hone our people-meeting skills.
The Menu of the Day (PCEO Part VI)
Just in time for the 1-year anniversary of the first Printable CEO™ form, the new Menu of the Day form expands on the original point list to include process. Menu of the Day could probably be described as a CGT with the additional dimension of "operations".
- The Menu of the Day daily worksheet pulls schedule grids together with tasks.
The Emergent Task Planner (PCEO Part VI.1)
The Menu of the Day was too complicated, so the Emergent Task Planner rose from its ashes!
The Resource Task Quantizer and Resource Scheduler (PCEO Part VII)
Allocating time for projects in the future, especially when you're juggling several deadlines at once, is a pain in the butt because it's difficult to visualize what time you have available and what will fit. The RTQ and RSS are forms to manage the tasks in a project and allocate time to them on a week-by-week basis.
The Day Grid Balancer (PCEO Part VIII, In Progress)
I've been interested in figuring out whether a good work-life balance leads to a feeling of happiness, so I created a form that will ostensibly help me do that. It's very much a work in progress, but I'm also releasing the source files under a Creative Commons license so people can adapt it to their own needs.
- The Original Article describes the rationale and methodology behind the design, and provides links to earlier articles that lead up to it.
PCEO Inspired: Blue Flavor's Awesome Time sheets
- These paper timesheets from Blue Flavor incorporate a PCEO-style Action Item list into a really clever time-tracking worksheet. It's a really well-designed time tracking worksheet that is actually useful for day-to-day hour or task tracking in the studio environment. Very cool!
PCEO Hack: The Printable CEO Integration with 37Signals' Backpack
I have not tried these myself, but they look cool!
Time Tracking with Excel
Not part of the PCEO series, but of possible interest to Excel mavericks who haven't switched to QuickBooks.
Doing Time in Excel describes the Excel worksheet system I use for tracking billable time and maintaining project focus. It also has a bit of To Do List methodology built-in. You can download a sample worksheet and customize it; my favorite part is the formula that calculates time in 0.25 hour increments from a single line entry.
My Compact Calendar is a printable calendar I use for estimating realistic schedules. It presents calendar time as one continuous block, more compactly than a Gantt chart. It's also an Excel spreadsheet, but mostly it's in this format because I can automatically calculate the dates for a given year by changing just one number.
The Pickle Jar
Not part of the PCEO series, but useful for people with too many cool projects that clamor for attention, when you should be working on something else. I came up with this when I was writing my thesis and not very excited about it.
- Hold that Thought! --- a description of the Pickle Jar: an actual jar with ideas stored in it. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.
Articles on Productivity and Procrastination
I occasionally write about what I think is behind my motivation to do things. You can find these posts generally in the introspection or productivity categories; here's some posts that you might find interesting:
- Taking a Look at GTD --- I finally read Getting Things Done, and my general observations.
- Clarifying the Meaning of Productivity --- In the context of business, we're trained to think of metrics like how many per hour. But when it comes to your personal productivity, it's more about how you feel. It's quantatative versus qualitative thinking again.
- Optimizing and Procrastination --- How the desire to optimize kills the impulse to act.
- Building a Niche of One --- Really, your competitive advantage should be you, and it's not as hard to start building yourself up.
- Separating Work from Passion --- The difference between just "liking something" and "living for it" is action. Are you sure that your "passion" really is one, if you've been putting it off all the time?
- Menu of the Day --- When the To Do list items become too plentiful, it's time to think in terms of dishes. This is the original MotD article that eventually led to the full form.
- The productivity category will fish up more blog posts that have not yet been moved to this list.
- Or subscribe to my Productivity RSS feed.
I want to make sure that the DIYers out there can make use of the forms and ideas here, without giving up commercialization rights. The Printable CEO™ is also copyrighted; I want to protect what I'm doing from being ripped-off and commercialized by some third party. Public use of the ™ symbol is the first step to establish protectable commercial use---at least I think it is...IANAL.
I'm considering Open Source-style licensing, or maybe Creative Commons, but I haven't yet looked into the ramifications of either system. Like which one is more applicable, if at all?
It's my goal to create a DIY-friendly system that is accessible to anyone with a printer. I chose the name "Printable CEO" because it sounds accessible; there's nothing stopping anyone from tapping into the ideas behind effective execution. Right now, I'd say it's a combination of insight, inside-information, and the ability to invent ways of measuring progress. This is the basic premise behind countless self-help and business books on the market. Creating a universal toolkit to help the process along would be super cool.
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