David Seah - Productivity

The Air Prayer Hack

2009-01-08 03:07:28-05:00

Lately, I've been having a lot of conversations with my friends of a spiritual nature, and today experienced an epiphany that combines my two current preoccupations: improving focus and maintaining connections with people:

Angela, my music teacher, and I have been having some excellent discussions about Christianity and the nature of love with respect to the teachings of Jesus. We both agree that love is a vast and inclusive feeling. This is what "being connected" really is.
I have started making up rituals to get me focused in the morning, and this has led to an awareness of long-standing meditative practices. Breath control is at the root of many disciplines, I've realized.
Ashish had bought me that book I mentioned the other day, The Four Agreements, which has a prayer in the back of the book that equates the feeling of love with breathing:

Focus your attention on your lungs, as if only your lungs exist. Feel the pleasure when your lungs expand to fulfill the biggest need of the human body--to breathe.

Take a deep breath and feel the air as it fills your lungs. Feel how the air is nothing but love. Notice the connection between the air and the lungs, a connection of love. Expand your lungs with air until your body has the need to expel that air. And then exhale, and feel the pleasure again. Because when we fulfill any need of the human body, it gives us pleasure. To breath gives us much pleasure. Just to breath is enough for us to always be happy, to enjoy life. Just to be alive is enough. Feel the pleasure to be alive, the pleasure of the feeling of love...

I gave this a try, and found that mindful breathing is indeed pleasurable. As I reflected upon the feeling of being alive and healthy, I breathed deeply and felt thankful to the powers that be for that moment. I was actually in the moment, not thinking about lunch or work or whether I should ditch my old notebook for the shiny new MacBook Pro 17. To breath is the fundamental human need, primal and immediate. Not only is it a calming feeling, breathing is highly portable. I can bring this sense of peace with me wherever I grow, so long as I remember to be mindful.

When I was a kid, our family always said Grace over dinner. Our prayer was the old standard: God is great, God is good. Let us thank Him for this food. Amen. As I grew older, the saying of Grace turned toward the silent bowing of heads, excepting special holiday occasions when the most wizened / least starving of us would launch into a meandering monologue of thankfulness. So we haven't used the "God is great, God is good" prayer in quite some time, perhaps because it seems a little inappropriate to me as an adult. This is because I say it the same way I did when I was 9 years old, using a sing-song hop-scotch delivery that really tries to make the almost-rhyme between "good" and "food" work. I enjoy the playfulness, but as an adult I really can't get away with it anymore and be sincere.

But what if I prayed actively saying anything at all? It occurred to me that I could just pray with air. That is, through mindful breathing. I called it The Air Prayer, and it goes like this:

Take a normal breath, deliberately.
Take a longer, slower breath, savoring the sensation of the air entering your lungs.
Take a deep lazy breath, hold it for a pleasurably long while, and then exhale slowly.
Say "Amen".

It combines meditative breathing with the feeling of love and life that comes from it, presuming that you don't have lung problems. Call it love, call it life, call it a meditative mind trick: it was the most basic affirming prayer I've made in quite some time. When I was feeling stressed today, I found that I was always just a couple breaths away from completing the prayer; I just stretched the next breath out and uttered an Amen of thanks for being alive.

And so, I thought I would share. Enjoy!

Relaxation Management

2009-01-05 14:33:02-05:00

Sunday, on review, was a pretty productive day. It wasn't super intense, yet it was not slack. I got a bunch of things started, even finished a few. I didn't stress out over the projects yet to come or the tasks that I left unfinished for another day. This morning, I feel the anticipation of a new day, and with that some of the good feeling had started to slip away until I remembered the key principle from Getting Things Done: relax. This is the whole point of all those systems. David Allen's particular approach is to target that which causes the most stress in the lives of "busy people": the mountain of things that they're responsible for getting done.

I suspect that part of the appeal of GTD is that it has just enough insight presented in combination with a malleable set of working principles. They lend themselves to endless customization and adaptation, which appeals to self-empowered tinkerers and tool-builders. And why do we tinker? Because we believe that somewhere, somehow, there is the right tool that is shaped to fit me, the magic tool that converts the meager stores of ability I have into pure energy. So far, that ain't happened, and today I was starting to feel the old stress come back.

However, I've gained some new insight since last week through old friend Senia and new friend Ashish, and what they told me dovetails nicely.

First, Senia had tweeted about 5 main contributors to happiness which had caught my eye--they are as follows:

sleep
exercise
nutrition
incremental actions
alone vs. social time balance

Senia is one of the smartest and most buoyantly awesome people I know, with degrees in Mathematics, Business, and Positive Psychology from all the right places, so I tend to take what she says at face value. I do, however, have the annoying habit of analyzing everything that piques my curiosity, so I ran the list through my personal experience filter anyway for about half a second until I remembered I had blogged about experiments in all these areas over the past few years and had found them to be true. Items #4 and #5, "incremental action" and "alone vs. social time balance", had been on my mind a lot in recent days, because I'm a bit stressed about all the things I want to get done versus having the human connections that inspire me. Knowing that these five things have been found to be top contributors to happiness puts me at ease. I relaxed, just a little bit.

A few days ago Ashish and I were having a good conversation about productivity and personal challenges. We were both have been looking at our lack of superhuman achievement as some kind of failing, even though we both know better. Ashish brought up a book he'd read called The Four Agreements that he said were things we already knew, but presented them in a way I might find interesting. We were in Barnes and Noble, so he hunted it down; The Four Agreements are as follows:

Be Impeccable with your Word
Don't Take Anything Personally
Don't Make Assumptions
Always Do Your Best

They are called agreements because they are made with yourself. The interesting spin that the book provides is to present the world as an illusion stemming from the set of beliefs ("agreements") we hold. The first agreement, "Be Impeccable with your Word", recognizes us that words have the power to shape belief, and when wielded poorly they have terrible consequences to ourselves and to others. The author, Don Miguel Ruiz, tells a story about a little girl with a beautiful voice who was bouncing up and down on her bed singing. Her mother, ordinarily a kind person but exhausted and stressed by a tough day at work, snapped harshly at her to stop her ugly singing. The little girl took this to heart, stricken, and from that day on believed her voice was horrible and ugly, and never sang again...I find this story incredibly sad. We constantly do this to ourselves too, by using negative language and subtly putting ourselves down...we call this "being realistic". I do this all the time, casting the same spell of limitation on myself over and over. I also liked Ruiz's take on "Always Do Your Best", which is such a tired old chestnut I couldn't possibly imagine what he could say on the subject, but he added an important qualifier: one should always do their best given the circumstances of the moment. If you are tired, your best is not going to be the same as it is when you are well-rested, so don't beat yourself up over it. But do do your best. This modification has subtle ramifications with regards to pursuing excellence, and I appreciated its subtlety as I relaxed a little more. The book reminded me a bit of The Alchemist and One Hundred Years of Solitude in its spiritual tone; curiously, both of these other books are by South American writers. Maybe I need to go there and see what's going on.

Between Western-researched approach to happiness and South American Toltec wisdom, I find that the net result is a sense of relaxation. I'm relaxed because I've gotten some outside affirmation that there's some things I can do to achieve a base level of happiness, and that there's a simple set of philosophical principles that are compatible with the way I prefer to see the world. And with relaxation comes a lowered threshold of energy-blocking inhibitions and doubt, which will allow (I am hoping) my productivity to flow. I'm thinking the combination of relaxation and expectation management might be the key to a kick-butt life.

Shaking Myself Out of Procrastination

2009-01-04 15:09:21-05:00

I woke up this Sunday morning feeling chock full of vim and vigor, but after checking email, showering, and feeding the cats I was struck by a wave of lethargy that robbed me of my initiative. Now, this wouldn't ordinarily be an issue, as I would heartily say that everyone is entitled to as many naps as they can squeeze in on a Sunday, but I also realized that this productivity stall was a recurring pattern during the rest of the week as well. Just as I start to formulate a plan of action, I'm struck by a kind of fuzzy-headed feeling and I lose my focus. Hours later, I regain mental focus while browsing some website on the Internet I've never seen before, dressed only in the bathrobe I had on in the morning.

I ticked off the usual suspects: eating bad, not working out, not drinking enough water, depression over lack of clear mission, etc. Yep, these are all possibilities, nothing that a bit of discipline and good habits can't fix. But since I've been over this ground before, I decided to consider alternative explanations and decided to self-monitor my stream of consciousness. When I am steeling myself to take action I listen to a monologue in my head that essentially tries to persuade me into action. These appear as fully-formed sentences, and my writing is essentially the process of writing it all down with a bit of on-the-fly restructuring. This is the means by which I focus my thoughts into a single line of reasoning, which then becomes the basis for a plan of action. The process of polishing up--when I have the patience--is to "listen" to what I wrote and correct words and phrases that are not in the spirit of my intent. But I digress...I wanted to find out where this foggy feeling is coming from, so I plopped myself into a convenient sunbeam and closed my eyes.

I found that I was feeling quite irritated with myself, and that there were several layers of irksomeness to deal with:

I felt physically restless. I can recognize this now as the "jittery energy" feeling that comes from not doing enough physical activity to tire out the muscles, one of the mysteries of the gym I had encountered when I started going a couple years ago. I've been a slacker for the last six months, though, being too pre-occupied with work and having fallen out of my daily routine.

The solution: I can go to sleep at a regular time every night. This is harder that it sounds, because my mind tends to race and seek new stimuli until it is exhausted.
A little more relaxed, I then started to formulate a plan for the day. I soon experienced the "fog of inaction" sensation that had so pissed me off this morning. I put a shape to the fog: I felt the need to write down my plan somewhere where I wouldn't forget it or lose it. Ah...my lack of trust in my memory is an anxiety that stems back to early childhood. I have come to believe that I can't remember any kind of arbitrary process, and subjects in school that required such memorization were much hated. This ruled out a lot of math, chemistry, history, and language courses. I'm not sure if I even have some kind of memory deficit, but at an early age I gave up on trying to remember arbitrary things and focus on learning principles. In fact, the way I look at the world is probably shaped by my anxiety about remembering things; I use principle as a knowledge compression scheme that allows me to re-synthesize from root concepts what I need to know. Freshman-level courses where reasoning is at the root of the process--Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Physics come to mind--worked well with my particular learning strategy. Anyway, I don't know if my lack of faith in my own memory is even justified, but I had told myself this story a long time ago and I have believed it. It is time to test that belief and replace it with a better one.

The solution: A simple list is enough to jog my memory, because my associative memory works just fine. Keeping the list handy, though, is the challenge that my anxiety about forgetting things keeps raising. I can try to create the optimal solution, but that is a form of procrastination in itself. It's probably easier to just accept forgetfulness as a part of the process, but that also bothers me because I'm a freelancer; forgetfulness is not a virtue. There are so many ways I can go with this that this problem deserves several blog posts, so for now I'm sticking with "use one list". I think I'll use the new bright green Moleskine Volant I bought yesterday.
The last issue was the desire for optimal execution. I almost didn't write this blog post because I didn't think I had the "optimal place to put it". I've been displeased with the organization of my website for some time, perceiving the need for several topical content streams, and this has prevented me from posting anything at all that didn't seem mandatory. I haven't even started because it is such a daunting endeavor technically. Additionally, the desire to have an optimal plan of attack becomes a preoccupation in itself, and it seems worthwhile because this theoretically will make things "easier". That may be true in very expensive and resource-intensive projects, but for personal projects at the scale I'm thinking? It's probably no more than a 10-20% penalty, and even that is probably wrong-thinking. I've already blown the time allotment anyway through excessive non-productive optimization-before-implementation, which is a fundamental sin. It's a lot easier to optimize once you have the complete process in place, when actual problems (as opposed to imagined "might be" problems) manifest.

There is probably some anxiety about not messing up somewhere in here too, which is another deep-seated childhood fear. The reluctance is just an instinctual reaction, like learning to shy away from something that hurts you. As an adult, however, I know "messing up" is quite recoverable, and it's even a sign of character if you're the entrepreneurial type.

The solution: MESS UP A LOT, and trust that the reassessment phase that follows swiftly will orient myself in the right direction. From experience, I know this is the case.

At the very least, I got a blog post out of this morning's crankiness. Now to fire up the new Moleskine! :-)

Networking and Sales Tracking 2009 Updates

2009-01-02 04:50:12-05:00

There are a couple of esoteric versions of the Concrete Goals Tracker that are specifically designed for sales people and networking efforts. I never really understood the point of cold networking, and I don't really like to push myself on people, but when I have to I do have a particular process in mind. These two forms are designed to enforce that process from both the top-down and the bottom-up.

Top-Down: Network Catch-o-Matic

The Network Catch-o-Matic (NCM) is the top-down tool for making connections and networking toward a lasting relationship. You start by making sure you are at least getting in front of as many people as you can in a week (here I am choosing 50 people, which is kind of arbitrary) for meaningful face time. The goal: some kind of collaboration. There are several steps one needs to go through to build up that relationship, and the NCM recognizes that there are fewer people passing through each subsequent stage. For more information about how it works, read the origin Makin' Rain post.

Bottom-Up: Sales Habits

The Sales edition of the Concrete Goals Tracker is something I don't think I released before, but it is based on the same principles of show people what you have and make impressions as a driving force. If people can't see what you're doing, and don't have a way to remember to have a conversation with you, then your chances of landing a sale are pretty dim. The additional wrinkle in sales, IMHO, is to be able to tell when a prospect becomes interested, what piqued that interest, and for what reason. If you don't keep these in mind, then your sales effort is scattered and essentially random.

The rationale behind this form design is more thoroughly explained in the original Concrete Goals Tracker articles.

DOWNLOAD THE 2009 FORMS

» Download The Network Catch-o-Matic
» filename: PCEO-NCM01-NetworkCatcher.pdf

» Download Concrete Goals Tracker: Sales Edition
» filename: PCEO-CGT01-Sales.pdf

Resource Time Tracking 2009 Updates

2009-01-02 04:49:09-05:00

Managing and Scheduling Multiple Projects

After a year break, I'm re-introducing the Resource Time Tracking (RTT) forms I first tried out in 2006. At the time, I was trying to figure out a better way of visualizing future time to a number of different simultaneous projects.

This is a two-part form, consisting of a task scheduler and a task quantizer. The Task Scheduler is basically a calendar that shows what deliverables are due on what days of the week in addition to when production time is allocated. The Task Quantizer is a kind of worksheet to allow you to determine what those deliverables are in the first place, and how long it will take to to them. The Quantizer forces you to measure in standardized blocks of time, which comes in handy when it comes to fitting them into the Scheduler's time grid.

The 2009 update is unchanged from the original 2006-2007 form, other than some updates to contact information and of course the year.

Download 2009 Resource Time Tracking Forms

For more information about the use of the Resource Time Tracking forms, check out the original post. Enjoy!

Emergent Task Planner (Free Version) 2009 Updates

2009-01-01 06:53:20-05:00

Plan your day as it happens

The Emergent Task Planner (or ETP) is a Daily Planning Sheet that provides several means for visualizing the time you have available so you can get some work done. Unlike other planning sheets which merely block out time and leaves you to hope for the best, the ETP borrows some of the task planning methodology from the Task Progress Tracker to reinforce one idea: it's hard to get anything done on purpose when there are so many distractions. The ETP provides space for noting down the unexpected.

The 2009 edition is available now in two versions: the old "free" version with the Time Scheduling on the right side, and as a special treat I'm providing a variation of the 2007-2008 Preprinted Edition design.

Download 2009 Emergent Task Planner Printable Forms

The Standard Emergent Task Planner 2008 for color printers
Black and White Version for monochrome printers and power users
The previously-exclusive Preprinted Design Version

For information about the Emergent Task Planner, the original post describes each design feature in greater detail.

Limited Availability!

If you'd like to order from the limited run of pre-printed pads on high-quality paper, I've still got 40 pads left. After I sell-through these pads, I'll consider doing another print run and opening some kind of persistent e-commerce storefront.

Emergent Task Timer 2009 Updates

2009-01-01 06:49:57-05:00

See where your time is going so you stay focused

The Emergent Task Timer (or ETT) is a Daily Task Focusing Sheet that works in conjunction with a simple 15-minute timer. Every time the timer goes off, you take a note of what you happen to be doing, and fill in a bubble marking the time. This simple action allows you to build a picture of how you spend your time during the day. The results are often shocking. Like all the Printable CEO™ forms, it's designed to provide maximum gain for minimum input.

Over the years, this form seems to be popular with people working in reactionary jobs (tech support, for example) and students who are trying to stay focused. The use of the 15-minute timer is useful for "pacing" the day; when it goes off, you'll know if you've been on task or off task. Even if you don't note a bubble for every single 15-minute interval, you can often infer how your day has been going from the overall pattern that has built. Some people use it as a simple daily time tracker for billable work. Others have used it to show their bosses that their time gets frittered away by useless meetings.

The 2009 edition is pretty much the same as last year's. If you're using the form to track time, be sure to use the Power User's version; there's a space at the right side of the form to enter in the total amount of time you've spent.

Download 2009 Emergent Task Timing Printable Forms

The Standard Emergent Task Timer Form (portrait mode)
The Wide Version (landscape mode)
The Wide Version w/ 5 minute Intervals (landscape, divider lines in each bubble)
The Power User Version (landscape, no instructions, total time field on right)

If you are looking for a 15-minute timer, you might try using the ancient online prototype of the Emergent Task Timer. It is not completely functional, but you can certainly use it to try the concept out. Sean Johnson has also created a web app based on the ETT design which is pretty slick. Check it out!

For more information about Emergent Task Timing, the original post describes each design feature in greater detail. Enjoy!

Task Progress Tracker 2009 Updates

2009-01-01 06:47:48-05:00

Project-level to-do list tracking

The Task Progress Tracker (or TPT) is a Project Task Manager, where "project" is loosely defined as a "set of related tasks". The idea behind the TPT is to provide a methodology to break down a project into shorter-duration subtasks that take under 4 hours. The design of the form encourages estimate then track use of the same piece of paper; first you write down all the tasks, then you make your estimates, then you follow through. It's like a To-Do list, except the forms also track effort made against each item, 15 minutes at a time.

The 2009 edition is just a yearly update, with a modification of the footer to remove my "custom design" service offering. It ended up being very difficult to offer this at the price point most people were willing to pay, so I think a software solution will have to be found.

Download 2009 Task Progress Tracker Printable Forms

The Standard Form for color printers
Black and White Version for monochrome printers and power users
Destruct-o-Matic Variation for imaginative project trackers

For more information about the Task Progress Tracker, the original post has plenty to read. Enjoy!

Task Order Up 2009 Updates

2009-01-01 06:47:43-05:00

A few years ago I was in a McDonald's during the lunch rush, and after placing my order I observed the cashier arranging my order slip on a rail with the rest of them. Food preparers were already assembling orders, but fries were held up and a few special orders took longer to assemble. The check rail was the continual point of reference, allowing everyone not only to see what was in each order, but also providing a visual sense of just how backed up they were. There was an electronic version, glowing greenly in the corner, but it was positioned just a bit too far away from the actual bagging area to be convenient. The paper order slips were more permanent, and upon fulfillment they were taped to the side of the bag to tag its contents. I thought this was very cool, so I designed the Task Order Up to play with the concept at home. It was designed to collate the two important questions about one's work:

What I am supposed to do?
When is it due?

As originally envisioned, the Task Order Up implements a priority queue in a production environment. As tasks come in, Task Order Up slips are filled out and handed off to a worker who will handle it. The worker can then array the tasks over his workstation, knowing exactly what needs to be done. Each slip is like a mini job contract, a prop for discussion. The worker can arrange them by the order he is going to do them, and what's cool is that everyone else can see what's on his plate just by glancing at his desk: work queue becomes more transparent. I think this helps avoid those micromanagement situations, but I must admit the main reason for making these slips is because I just like check rails. However, I've heard of people using this in production environments...check out their photos on Flickr.

Download The 2009 Printable Task Order Up Forms

Standard Format

Download Task Order Up 3UP on 8.5x11 paper, 3 per page

3x5 Index Card Format

Download Task Order Up Index Card, single 3"x5" document
Download Task Order Up Index Card, AVERY-compatible (3 per page)
Download Task Order Up Index Card, 4 per page (for custom cutting)

4x6 Recipe Card Format

Download Task Order Up Recipe Card, single 4"x6" document

For more background information about the Task Order Up, see the original article or the 2007 Updates. Enjoy!

Concrete Goals Tracker 2009 Updates

2009-01-01 06:10:39-05:00

Pursue Tangible Results to Achieve Greater Goals

The Concrete Goals Tracker (CGT) is the original Printable CEO™ form, created one evening in 2005 to alleviate my desire to have a "trusted personal CEO" that would tell me what to do. I figured since I couldn't hire anyone to do the job, I might be able to go the cheap route and print one up on paper :-)

Designed for Minimal Tracking Effort

The idea is pretty simple: every time you complete something on the "worth doing" task list, you award yourself points. ONLY things you've done that produce tangible benefits are worth points, and the point scale is weighted so the most goal-directed criteria earn the most. Goal-supporting achievements, which tend to happen more frequently, are weighted less. It's up to you whether a task "counts" or not toward your goal. You can even award multiple points for a single task if it makes sense to you...try your best to optimize!

The list shown here is designed to create a successful freelance practice, based on the idea that "showing and talking about your work leads to more work". It lists categories of tasks that can be framed as being productive relative to your overall goal. For a freelancer, that's making stuff and showing it to people, and also talking to people constantly so you are on their mind. It all pays off when you get that check. There's a small business version too in the downloads section.

As you accomplish various goal-related items throughout the day, fill in the appropriate bubble to log the points. At the end of the day, you will see how well you did (or didn't). Each CGT form tracks an entire week, so you will see how you did every day, and week-by-week...and most importantly, what you did to move yourself along your path. Since the items on the task list award points only for tangible results, you will have made actual progress.

The theory behind the form itself is described more in the original 2005 post on the Printable CEO and the followup Making of the Printable CEO; there is a good bit of video game design psychology embedded in this paper form.

Overall Application

The CGT has evolved into a bunch of other forms that help visualize different aspects of my workday, and I no longer use it daily because it actually did its job: it got me focused on some processes that actually deliver meaningful result; all I had to do was focus not on what they were, but how I could tell if I was on the right path or not, and whether my daily output was really helping me forward. The idea is pretty simple: by focusing on making things that people can see and counting what you've done in a simple daily manner, you plant the seeds for daily progress. This is a high level guidance tool, much like the way a good manager will tell you what she needs and you pick your own way of making that happen without a lot of micromanagement. With luck, this is a form you use to get started in a new direction, and then you will pretty much know what you need to be doing. I haven't heard much feedback about it lately, but the general impression I have is that people use it for 2 weeks to six months, then move on.

The concept is translatable to different fields too. For example, there was also some interest from a magazine, so I created a small business edition based on that.

Make New Year's Resolutions Printable Lists with the Editable Versions

There are "write-your-own" PDFs with suggested methodology for how I put together a good "worth doing" list, which is an art in itself. I've written instructions on how to create new year's resolutions using these forms. By using the make-your-own printable versions of the CGT, you can put together a pretty decent goal tracking kit using either 8.5x11 paper, index cards for you Hipster users, or mini-book formats (pocketmod compatible, even). There is also an editable Excel version.

Note: You'll need to use Acrobat Reader to modify the text fields in the editable PDF versions.

Download 2009 Concrete Goals Tracker Printable Forms

Download The Standard Editable Form for making your own lists
Download The Standard Form for freelancers
Download The Small Business Edition for service businesses

3x5" Index Card Printable Formats

Download Standard 4-Up version for freelancers, with cutting marks
Download Editable 4-Up version for making your own lists
Download Editable 3-Up for making your own lists on Avery® index card stock
Download Single Card Editable version for making your own list, for people with card printers
Download Single Card Tracker for tracking daily points (use with Single Card Editable above)

PocketMod / MiniBook Format

Download MiniBook Editable version, 8 pages.
Download MiniBook Freelance version, 8 pages
Download MiniBook pages 1-2 or 5-6, for use with mixed PocketMod printouts
Download MiniBook pages 3-4, for used with mixed PocketMod printouts

Editable Excel Goals Tracker

Download Editable Excel version. It isn't pretty, but it gets the job done. Use to create your own variations in points. Note that this is not an interactive calculator or tracker spreadsheet as is.

For an overview of all the forms available, visit The Printable CEO™ Series Page. Enjoy!