How Do You Start Your Day?

So I'm running through Menu of the Day and am realizing how out-of-touch I am with some of my process. There are some interesting things I'm already noticing:

• Schedule Grid is a convenient note-taking area...needs to be bigger. And the damn grid dots need to be aligned better! Some useful emergent task notation happens here too.

• As an emergent PLANNING tool, though, this isn't working for me. I ran right back to TextPad and made my simplified ToDo list. What's interesting, though, is that the PROCESS was to list things I needed to do, group the related tasks together, then make a guess at how much time it would take to tackle is task group. The Schedule Grid, though, helps get a sense of the amount of time in ways I didn't expect...cool!

• The best way to execute this form, I'm increasingly thinking, is as a smart scheduler / outliner software tool, combining elements of a "thought processor" with tracking and reporting.

Out of curiosity, I'm wondering if anyone out there is willing to share what they're doing today in this post's comment area, describing the steps taken to get the ball moving. I think everyone will find it interesting, and it might give me some insight into why this form isn't working right. Thanks!

When Some Workspaces are More Equal than Others

A while ago I wrote about the distraction of blogging and personal email. Based on this insight, I separated my workspaces into "separate but equal" area on different floors of the house: my blogging / personal email / instant messaging machine (a laptop) is now upstairs, and the graphics / development / production machine is in the downstairs lair. The theoretical result I projected was increased productivity in the office, and this prediction has held so far.

The only problem is that I seem to be spending somewhat less time in the office in the first place. And this is an interesting insight in itself.

The Obvious Conclusion is Not So Obvious

Ok, let's get it out there: I'm being lazy and am doing fun things instead of being the disciplined worker I should be. However, these are the things I've been doing:

• Writing or researching articles for the blog
• Responding to people who write me with questions
• Meeting people who are interested in talking about similar interests
• Keeping tabs on how people are doing

I don't read many blogs or play games on a daily basis. My only regular read is actually a few online comic strips. Sometimes I daydream a bit, if I'm goofing off, it still feels an awful lot like work. It's just not what I thought I should be doing.

Generally, it seems I'm busy communicating with people, generating a steady stream of ideas and encouragement for whomever seems to want it. In some companies, this is an entire job in itself. And since I've decided that my path is one of independence, this suggests that I should rethink the balance of my activities.

Aligning with My Shifting Values

In the past, I've framed myself in context of what I can make with my two hands and a mouse, which is the reason why "being more productive" at my workstation is such a preoccupation. However, the separation of the communications part of the day from the production part has shown me just how much time I've been spending on what I regarded as "support work". Apparently it's far more compelling to me, at this time, than writing code or slinging pixels.

I keep coming back to a comment that Lauren Muney made on my earlier post on "Purpose": another post, about being in alignment with one's values. This phrase has been haunting me a lot lately, because I'm sensing that I'm on the cusp of yet another directional shift as my values become clearer.

RANDOM ASIDE: Check out this background page on Lauren: she does multimedia motivational presentations using fire, among other things. WOW THAT'S COOL.

The Flip-a-Roo

With the past year's emphasis on productivity, I thought I was just getting myself ready for a concerted push toward being a better designer / developer. Now I'm not so sure.

While I like code, graphics, and working with clients, I've tended to put the tangible production work first. That's the place from which I started, and so that's the way I've tended to understand "my value" with respect to others. I repeat this a lot when talking about products and services: it's what you can tangibly show to people, in a way that shows clear benefit, that matters in a transaction. It's a pretty well-developed personal philosophy toward creating things, and I stand by it. That is the philosophy that drives my desire to be a more productive and efficient worker, creating things that people can readily see. That is the philosophy that drove the separating my workspaces in the first place.

And yet I still spend all this time writing and communicating. Mark, Jeff, and I chatted about being an idea worker over lunch the other day, and I'm starting to think that there might be something to it. If I'm spending so much time communicating and ideating, that indicates that there's a second set of values that speaks more insistently to me. If I can figure out what they are, the flip-a-roo would be to alter the nature of my practice such that I harness that force and be more "naturally productive". I think this is what "being in alignment with my values" would mean to mean, and it may also be my way of following my bliss and doing what I love.

In practical terms, I need to make a living from being in alignment with my values for this all to end happily-ever-after. Here's a basic value proposition, from a market perspective:

• What differentiates me from other vendors?
• What are people willing to pay for, given the degree of my differentiation?

It's interesting to note that these perspectives are both cast in the context of providing what other people desire. It doesn't address what I desire. I think this insight is pretty critical; when you're dissatisfied with work, it probably comes down to this basic conflict. Sure it pays the bills, and the clients are pleased, but there's just something's missing.

To reframe the value proposition, I tried the following on for size:

1. What do I value MOST?
2. How am I making my values VISIBLE?
3. Who is responding to me?
4. What benefits can people derive from our interaction?
5. If I can identify the benefit, what can I charge for it?

Numbers 2 and 5. together form the fundamental reframing of the market perspective, so this list is a superset of my business development strategy.

Redux

I have already had the critical personal realization that I like "making sparks", and I like being around empowered, positive people. I have also already realized all the programming and design skills I have are NOT the source of my identity, but exist in service to my spark-making desires. The new realization is that it may be possible to derive income from just spark-making and communication, not from the creation of tangible things. Don't get me wrong: making tangible things still underpins my value system because I believe in showing over telling, but maybe my best contribution lies in facilitating the creation of sparks. This possibility is a bit clearer to me today thanks to that 9rules interview on Monday, and the lunch discussion on Tuesday.

I find these thoughts exciting---and somewhat unsettling.

Question: Adapting the PCEO for IT Departments?

Michael Ramm, of the great productivity blog Black Belt Productivity, tossed a question to me the other day about the challenge of creating an Information Technology Version of The Printable CEO. Right now, the standard "design business" version of The Printable CEO uses the following point list:

When Something Is Worth Doing (for my New Media Business)

10: It's life-sustaining billable work!
10: It's signing new business!

5: It's publishable code! Ship it!
5: It's sharp visual design! Show it!
5: It's concrete planning or accounting!

2: It's new self-promotion!
2: It's a new article for the blog!
2: It's social or business development!

1: It's maintaining an old relationship!
1: It's making a new relationship!

Now, this list was tailored specifically for my own design practice, and most importantly, for my philosophy of business. To adapt this for the IT Industry, we need to tailor a list that encourages best practices AND the philosophy behind the work itself. This is a pretty broad question, because it essentially asks the following:

1. What is the Goal of Information Technology?

2. To Whom is the Goal of IT Important, Not Counting IT Professionals?

3. What are the tangible signs that tell us that IT is actually fulfilling its goals?

The basic philosophy behind The Printable CEO, from the productivity perspective, has always been that (1) the things you do matter only if they can be expressed as a benefit to OTHER people and (2) You actually do those things and they are seen. That's the motivation behind the three questions I'm posing.

Instead of making something up, I thought I'd pass along Michael's question and see what people out there thought...an interesting discussion, I hope, will arise. IT is an interesting challenge because it is, oftentimes, invisible to the organization when it works.

I'll have to do some research on current IT practices to get a feel for what it really is these days; the last time I looked at this was probably in 1994, when IT was a sort of "slush major" that combining core programming courses with an interactive design component.

UPDATE:

Michael's made an announcement on his blog as well, so this should be a fun cooperative nut to crack!

» Read Part II of this series

Self-Conscious Amateurism

BMW has new television advertising, the first new spots from their new ad agency GSD&M. This article by Bob Garfield snipes it for being "terrible". Interesting quote:

Self-consciousness is not only a warning sign of amateurs at work, it's also a very good indicator of nothing much to say.

My first thought was uh-oh, since self-consciousness is totally me. But then I got a bit angry, because his ad review is tinged with a pointed negativism. You could also call it "constructive criticism" because he does make some good points, for example challenging if BMW is now the "company of ideas" as claimed, name three of them. But it's the tone of the article that gets me; for all the constructive qualities of his critique, Garfield's own article thinly echoes the very whininess he's decrying. I should know, because I often whine in the same way. But I don't try to hide it...perhaps one of the signs of an amateur?

Another paragraph that gets me is where he says the spot is "transparently inspired by the difficulty of getting a campaign sold", "the frustration of advertising creatives who feel their own genius stifled by craven, clueless clients." This may be the case, but it demonstrates the opposite of self-consciousness: a lack of awareness of how one's own experiences can create an interpretation of debatable relevance. His insight is delivered without an explicit point either; is it that the possibility of ad execs whining about their own creative challenges through high-profile advertising is bad? Immoral? Lazy? Maybe all of the above, but it doesn't strike me as particularly relevant, or even demonstrably true. Even if it's an ad inspired in part by the ad pitch experience, does that someone devalue the message? There are two messages: "BMW is a Company of Ideas" is the surface message that Garfield says is not being supported. The second message, as I interpret it, is that "BMW believes as you do, in ideas and of possibilities that can be made real." Every BMW becomes a manifestation of hope. Heck, advertising creatives probably ARE the target market for this ad...how many of them drive BMWs anyway? And for every up-and-coming executive climbing the corporate ladder, the message is just as relevant.

I don't really know why that article set me off...I guess it was the tonal thing, the narrow interpretation, and an underlying assumption that amateur self-consciousness means "bad". Evelyn Rodriguez illuminates the latter point in her inspiring post An Internet Fed Mostly by Amateurs is Fascinating.

[/rant]

Addition!

As I reflect on this, I'm doing some of the things I'm ranting about: not being clear in my point. I just realized that there isn't one...it's more of a reaction/opinion. It's rare that I have strong opinions on anything, so I am looking at this more closely now.

• I can't stand passive-aggressiveness. Probably because I used to be that way, and am hyper-sensitive to it now. Followup thought: LEARN TO RELAX :-) I'm not saying this article was passive-aggressive, but certainly I've conditioned myself to look more deeply. One recent insight is that for all the ability I have to look deeply at something, I don't have the discipline/process that makes it effective.

• I don't know what is the purpose of Garfield's column from the editorial perspective (unfortunately, the entire adage site is undergoing maintainance), but it does get people to think. A polarized opinion is far easier to react to than an evenly-balanced one, especially if you're looking for some kind of response...perhaps this was by design.

Ok, I'm feeling better now, if not very exciting :-)

Ask Your Friendly Neighborhood Ph.D.

One of my relatives IM'd me earlier today to chat about productivity tools. By coincidence, I was about to IM her about a bunch of questions I had regarding research in motivation and learning; she happens to have a Ph.D. in those areas.

So I asked, "If I wanted to get an overview of what the current theories / categories are in this field, who should I read?" In about 2 minutes she gave me the names of seminal researchers and some papers, no doubt saving me from weeks of floundering on the Internet. I should contact scholarly friends and relations to get the "101" on their fields, just for the hell of it.

Getting that high-level, guided introduction to a topic is invaluable. I am reminded of an old project to collect Tables of Contents and Curricula. The theory is that you can actually learn something abou the field from the way its education is structured:

• The Table of Contents is the first thing I scan when evaluating non-fiction books in the bookstore. While a casual flip through a book itself tells you something about the writing style, level of detail, and technical level, it's the Table of Contents that tells you how the author's mind is organized. You can think of it as a powerpoint presentation of the book, what the author considers important. I think of it as getting a good look at a roller coaster before you decide to get in line: even from a distance you can get a good idea of what you're in store for, like what parts will be tame and which will scare the living bejesus out of you. You'll know whether it's worth riding at all.

• There are a lot of fields of study that I wish I'd known about when I was in college: industrial design and cognitive science are two that I found out about only after I graduated. I've been thinking that by collecting curricula for the courses, I might get an idea of the "shape" of what they learn. The content of a course tends to follow certain patterns: there is foundation, theory, both quantitative and qualitiative components, hands-on, presentation, and some kind of crowning project. While you might not gain much practical knowledge from identifying these parts, you may learn enough to ask the right questions, or to frame the materials you are reading in the right mental context. When I was in college, I wasn't aware that mental context was the key to getting through a lot of what I thought was lame; I just couldn't make the connection with what we were studying with something tangible and useful in the real world, so my interest waned. Studying the curriculum, from the list of required courses to the course descriptions down to the reading lists and course outlines will tell you a lot about the meta-patterns around the field, without bogging your mind down with the little details. Understand the grand arc of the field, and maybe the busywork will make more sense. That's my theory, anyway.

If you can't tell, I've been in a mood to learn something new. It strikes every few years, but I am not in the mood for any more grad school at this time. Subjects I'm interested in:

• psychology
• education & learning
• cognitive science
• mathematics (never really clicked with me, but I am feeling lucky this year :-)
• industrial design
• music composition

Maybe continuing education is an option...no idea how it works, but there's LOTS of it all around. On the other hand, I want to avoid situations like this, despite how hiliarious it sounds when it's not my money being wasted.