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  • Aligning My Values with My Clothes

    June 11, 2008

    The other day I was sitting at one of the outside tables at Starbucks, sipping my hideously-overpriced iced tea lemonade as I mused on the crisis of the hour: my wardrobe. This had never been a problem before, but I had come to realize that clothes communicate quite a lot more than I’d originally thought. Prior to this epiphany, I’d figured that dressing well was largely an exercise in conforming to certain archetypes, thus allowing people to identify you as part of their tribe or not; by dressing to a certain standard, one thus cemented their status in the social hierarchy. I dislike hierarchy in general, and I find dressing to the so-called “standard” to be confusing. This is mostly because my knowledge of “the standard” is based on clothing dogma passed down as tradition. While I could use the intervention of an “expert” to impart a good set of style rules to memorize, this is not an effective learning style for me. I do much better with principles, and the overriding principle here is that I can communicate through the details of my personal grooming, which makes the idea of wearing “grown up clothes” less of an anxiety-ridden chore and more of an interesting design problem.

    As some of you may know, I go to Starbucks every morning to meet friends and get my freelance ass out of bed every day on time. And because the particular Starbucks I go to is a friendly one, it’s become a test-bed for some of my social experiments. So for the past few days, I’ve been dressing up to see if it made any difference at all in how people interacted with me.

    Instead of wearing my usual cat hair-covered black t-shirt and formless jeans, the clothes I chose were made from nice material, color-coordinated, and actually sized-right because I’d chucked everything that didn’t fit me well during the Great Closet Purge of June 9th, 2008. This leaves me with about 3.5 days of clothing before repetition becomes inevitable, which isn’t very much but makes for a clean start.

    Next, I took care of the personal details such as fingernails, which I have tended to be loose with regarding length and condition. It occurred to me that the personal grooming I was doing was very much like edgework in computer graphics design, which is my term for how well one pays attention to the pixel-level details in how they alter the entire composition. Crisply-placed pixels, as opposed to the usual blops that Photoshop generates when left to its own devices, creates a subtle impression of hand-crafted quality. I wanted no less to apply to my face; I spent more than the usual time scanning for the stray beard hairs that had escaped the hum of my razor, inspected my nasal cavities under a flashlight to seek out and destroy errant nose hairs, and even subtly leveled the edge of my haircut with the razor’s heretofore unused beard trimmer attachment.

    As a final step, I used the hair wax that my hair stylist, Kim, sold to me 3 years ago. Personally, I never could tell the difference with the wax on or off, so I tend not to use it since my hair is so short anyway. I was enormously surprised when my friend Erin, sitting outside at Starbucks, asked me what I’d been doing with my hair recently. I laughed and admitted that I’d combed it and used some wax; could she really tell the difference? She beamed with pride, and would have patted me on the head if that wouldn’t have destroyed the magical effect. I also received a few approving glances from the women barristas, who are used to seeing me in my slobwear, and that is enough to convince me that paying attention to how I look makes a difference. By paying attention to details, I am saying that I am a detail-oriented person and have things together. By selecting clothes based on quality of material, contrast, and cut, I’m also portraying what my standards and my tastes are because I am demonstrating that I’m paying attention, and not leaving my appearance to accident. That’s a principle I can get behind 100%.

    So I’m totally convinced that paying attention to clothes makes a difference, and I can actually apply the same graphic design skills to the selection of clothing and accessories, manipulating proportion, line, shape, contrast, and color against the backdrop of what everyone else is wearing. It’s a very very interesting design challenge. What’s next is even more interesting: what do I want to say about myself and how do I say it through clothes?

    In the interest of writing shorter posts, I’ll leave those questions for next time.

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    DSri Seah

  • Resolutions Checkpoint: Reevaluating the Year’s Goals

    June 6, 2008

    Time for yet another progress report on maintaining my new year’s self-improvement goals, what I call Groundhog Day Resolutions (GHDRs) because I make them on February 2nd after I’ve recovered from the holiday season. I just realized that I like the name also because there is an theme of procrastination subtly underscoring my approach: Groundhogs like to sleep (as do I), I’m kind of a “low energy” person when it comes to starting projects, but I want everything I do to be awesome. Low energy and high standards usually results in procrastination instead of excellence, but GHDR has the potential to work with me rather than change me.

    Motion Generates Energy

    I’m really not a go-getter by nature, so the GHDR “system” is really designed to address that: it’s a lazy approach, not a high-energy one. That’s why a lot of New Year’s Resolutions fail for people: the investment of initial energy is exciting and very high, but maintaining that sustained burn rate is all but impossible for all but the most energetic and focused of us. Those are the people who become natural coaches and productivity gurus, but sadly that is not me. I would go so far to say that the demographic I fall in is that of the low energy, passionate creative. I love the feeling of getting something done, but it’s easy for me to get derailed by distractions. I am also very good at estimating the amount of work required to get anything done to completion, which tends to diminish my enthusiasm to start because I am also very impatient. It doesn’t help that I’m good at seeing holes in tools, workflow, and knowledge; while this is a great skill to have when optimizing existing processes, it’s a huge bummer when it’s time to create a new system from scratch all by yourself. The massive weight of the endeavor is tangible, and my energy slumps in response. Result: nothing gets done.

    My process for overcoming my low energy state pretty simple: I just try to start moving and not think too much about the consequences. I just did it with this blog post, which I’ve been putting off for a day because I wasn’t sure what to write. I started by looking at what I wrote last time (always a useful crutch) and just started riffing off of that. Everything I’ve written so far has been pure “stream of consciousness”, which I find pretty easy. Now that I’m moving, I have a sense of where this post is going and can start filling in the gaps. This is where that ability to see holes in various things becomes an appropriate supporting skill as opposed to using it as a creative one. Being creative is an entirely different skill altogether, and it has just hit me that creativity and productivity go hand-in-hand. Add motion to the mix, and you have a recipe for kicking ass. Then add focus or direction, and you have the means to really get things done.

    But I am starting to digress. What I’m trying to say is that I’m passionate yet low-energy, and therefore need to focus just on motion. Any motion at all, like just spending 10 seconds writing a sentence. That’s what the Groundhog Day Resolutions system, which was born out of the recognition that I’m just too damn tired on January 1st to make any goals, is more suitable to me. The GHDR System is designed to maintain momentum via natural levels of desire, whereas other systems seem to be designed to use either pressure (nagging) or structure (idealize process) to create the necessary motion. I happen to know that what works for me is just focusing on moving, and I will build structure as necessary, so it’s no surprise that GHDR has evolved the way it has. I suspect what I’m describing is a subtle-enough difference that a lot of people might not “get it”; even I am wondering if I’m just imagining that it’s there. However, this insight fits general principles I use when analyzing workflow:

    • determine the valued result or benefit from each process…in this case, I want to be making progress toward some personal goals that will leave me more fulfilled as a person with more financial resources for minimum effort.
    • determine what resources are used by each process…which for me is time, energy, and to some extent knowledge.
    • determine sources of drag or suckiness…which not surprisingly is low-energy due to the procrastination factors I mentioned above.
    • identify natural reservoirs of strength that can be repurposed…which for me is knowing that once I’m moving,
    • make sure to optimize for root causal forces, not symptoms…and in this context the root causal force is just to maintain motion, which means to generate energy or make better use of what is available. Nagging and idealized processes are examples of treating symptoms, which brings limited or short-lived success.

    Goals Reviewed

    One difference between Groundhog Day Resolutions 2008 and the original trial run has been the addition of a summer break that runs from June 6 through July 7, when a goal reassessment is scheduled. I know I’m probably going to hit a slump around now due to the nice weather, and there’s no sense in beating myself up about it. As important as these goals are to me, they are also longer-term goals that compete with important short-term ones. I can’t make everything a high priority goal, so I focus on work, people, and health right now and assign whatever energy remains to GHDRs. Summer is that time here in New England where you get outside in what we call “sun” and play with other people. I’m taking that into account and reducing the pressure. After this mini break, it makes sense to look at one’s goals and see if they still make sense. Time away brings new perspectives.

    This is on my mind right now, actually, so I’m going to compare the goals from February 2nd…

    • Commit to Deriving Income from Writing and Making Stuff
    • Build Sustainable Social Networks
    • Sell a Product

    …to the goals of May 5th:

    • Figuring out how to be a full-time writer and content creator, because I like it.
    • Reduce my needs. If I can live cheaper, then I need less money, and can work less.
    • Work based on my vocation, so it’s work that sustains me in spirit, mind and body.

    I also had scheduled two reflection days, to help maintain motion. Rather than assign a task, I thought it would be just as good to just think about what I’m doing and why it’s important. It sounds like a cop-out, I know, but I ended up itemizing my priorities into several lists. Looking back at them now, I can see that I was just feeling a certain ennui with the way life was going. Getting some of those lingering burdens out of the way, one-by-one, seemed to unstick things. It didn’t take as much dramatic action as I thought. I didn’t even take the second reflection day, because I am actually feeling on-track.

    As for actual review:

    Figuring out a living as a full-time content creator is going to be on the backburner for the next several months as I finish some long-term projects, but in the meantime I am pondering what I can offer in terms of content creation. And I’ve come to realize that content creation can go beyond media and extend into consulting and relationship making. For example, part of my design process is to interview people for about an hour about their project context and motivations. I have heard over and over that this often a powerful experience, to sit with someone who listens well and can synthesize insight seemingly at will. If I frame this in the right context, it becomes an interesting service offering, one that I would actually really enjoy. This would then fulfill the work based on my vocation goal. As for reducing my needs, I at least have declared Wednesday from 10AM to 11AM as my Financial Review Hour. Knowing what I’m spending for what is the first step. A larger contextual goal is to get my shit together and clean up my house, put some more domestic processes in place, and make living pleasantly low-maintenance.

    Looking back on the earlier goals:

    I’ve actually reached a point where my local social networks are self-sustaining. Or rather I should say that I’m starting to know enough people with similar age and interest that I’m not feeling socially isolated anymore. Likewise selling a product is ongoing; I’m selling the remaining stock of pre-printed Emergent Task Planning Pads (still have quite a few to sell, so I’ll probably post the direct store link soon). The intent behind selling a product is to support my real goal of making money by being a content creator.

    I find it slightly surprising that progress was made without deliberately scheduled anything. You’d think that without planning and scheduling, nothing would have happened. Perhaps it works because I’ve aligned two forces together: my real desires and periodic reflection. This was enough to get me to do something when I had a moment or I when I was talking with friends. By knowing my real desires and reflecting on them, I may have structured my mental outlook in such a way that progress became more opportunistic and spontaneous. This is an interesting idea, more artistic than by design.

    Wrapping Up

    Thus begins the month-long holiday from goals. We’ll resume our goal trekking on Tanabata, the Japanese “Star Festival” when you write down your wishes on streamers and hang them on trees so they might be granted by gods that live in the sky.

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    DSri Seah

  • Community Building for Introverts

    May 28, 2008

    As an independent freelancer, I’ve found it challenging to meet new people. In the past I had a workplace and a flock of friends to help drive social interaction, but as my friends have gotten married and moved away, the easy source of new people is now gone. A lot of single people face this, I think, once they’ve left school or have settled into a routine at a company job. Some of us find communities on the Internet, but I’ve found that there is no substitution for being in a room with real, live people all laughing their asses off. We become lonely, isolated, and despondent.

    I initially attributed the problem to where I live: a bedroom community without a strong design or cultural community. We get our cultural fix piped in by The History Channel and NPR, supplemented by periodical trips to Best Buy for material fulfillment. There is not a lot of obvious opportunity for “meaningful” or “fun” interaction, because the population density is lower here than, say, Cambridge or downtown San Francisco. I’ve thought of moving, but at this time I can’t afford to buy a place there. And besides: there’s no guarantee that moving would take care of the social problem because I still have to get over the real problem: it is now my responsibility to make new friends. In the past, being forced to live in the same dorm or work in the same office took care of this. As an independent, it is completely up to me. And then there is the challenge of meeting people, because I tend toward introversion and find it difficult to just walk up to someone and talk.

    Over the past few years I’ve figured out how to get beyond some of these challenges. I still find it hard to meet people, but at least now I have a process for doing so. I’ve just had to adjust my expectations with regards to how many people it takes to improve one’s sense of community (answer: just one to start) and how to create attractions that help like-minded people find each other.

    Confidence First!

    My greatest challenge is just introducing myself to someone I don’t know. It feels awkward, because I don’t know very much about the other person, and there is probably some anxiety about whether I will somehow appear foolish. This is an old childhood pattern, I realize. I’ve been able to overcome it by applying a couple of observations:

    • Not everyone will like me, but that’s to be expected. I can probably expect a 1-2% return rate on “great friends” and up to 20% on “pretty friendly”. These are numbers I’ve pulled right out of thin air: the 1-2% is the common wisdom with regards to receiving responses to unsolicited direct marketing, and the 20% is kind of a gut feeling. Keeping this numbers in mind keeps the pressure off me when I meet new people. I no longer worry about making a good impression; I just focus on trying to have a meaningful conversation.

    • If I have a role to play, I don’t have the luxury of being self-conscious. If I know I am the host, the introversion drops away because it’s important for me to do a good job and put others at ease. I personally hate feeling uncomfortable at a social event, so I try to do what I can to ensure that people feel included and clued-in if I can. This is one of my own personality quirks, but I imagine that the idea of having a “role” will help others as well. Especially if it’s a role that one believes in and can fulfill with competence.

    Once I became comfortable with living these observations, I started to find the following ideas more palatable:

    • Be the Mayor. I had an insight a few years ago that once I defined what was important to me, it was pretty cool to be the mayor of your own self. I am much more aware now of what I can offer to people authentically, which makes all the difference. For example, I like figuring out how things work, I have considerable expertise in computer graphics, and I have a pretty good intuitive feel for how people perceive the world around them. These are resources. The trick of “being the mayor” is to turn those resources into community-oriented action and establishing a vision that people get get excited about.

    • If it doesn’t kill you, then do it. There isn’t very much that will actually kill you, and this becomes more obvious as we grow into adulthood and take control of our own lives. We can choose who we associate with, where we live, and what we do to make a living now. However, I think we’re also imprinted with the natural desire to avoid humiliation and pain once we’ve created out comfortable adult nests. I would rather try and be humiliated–yet exhilarated because I tried something difficult–than to live in empty contentment. If you follow this path, know this is where leaders often must tread.

    • The first step makes you a volunteer leader. It’s funny, but there is a tendency for the person who “started something” to be perceived as “the leader”. People will bend over backwards to not “step on your toes”, concerned about “messing up plans” and so forth. You can use this to your advantage is you are more concerned about control, or you will need to get other people join you so you can delegate power to them.

    Create Your Own Fun. Others Will Follow.

    A few years ago, I was rather irked at the lack of interactive designers to converse with, because I like to bounce ideas off of other people to build momentum. I otherwise would find design work quite boring. Seeking the company of my peers, I attended a few user group meetings, but none of them quite fit what I was looking for, and they were too far away to drive to. “There’s got to be some people nearby who are doing what I’m doing,” I thought. “Knowing just one or two more people would be a tremendous improvement”. Thus reassured, I sent out an email to a couple of email lists I was following on the subject, and got a few nibbles. That’s how the New Media User Group was born. Over the next year I developed a pretty good idea of what was important in the group to ensure a certain level of activity. Although the group has been in hiatus for a couple of years, the lesson I learned is that it just takes a couple of interested and willing people to get an organization off the ground. The second challenge is to make sure that people are enjoying themselves and telling others about their experience. So what do I mean by “create your own fun?” Instead of looking for something that looks fun, try doing something that you find interesting that can literally be seen or experienced through other media (writing, video, photography). It’s not enough to just say, “I’m doing this!” unless it is a pretty simple activity with broadly-understood rules. By creating a publicly viewable event, you are essentially advertising; people are much more likely to join in if they can assess, from a safe distance, what is involved and whether they find it interesting or not. It may take several impressions (more on that later), but by creating a public activity (say, playing frisbee or volleyball in the park and inviting people to play) you can draw new people in. My friend Brandy does something similar when she goes dancing. Instead of standing around and waiting for someone to ask her to dance, she just gets out on the floor and has a good time dancing with herself. This invariably attracts other people. Someone’s got to break the ice. If you’ve been able to create that public event, keep an eye out for people who are watching you with interest. This is your opportunity to be a generous host: invite them to join you. You are providing a public service of fun. Tell them who you are and what you’re doing, and perhaps provide a way for them to contact you again through some kind of public email address.

    Advertise Your Interests.

    For more solitary special interests, I like using props. Just about any activity that involves specialized gear (e.g. photography, target shooting, fishing, shortwave radio, etc) is likely to catch the eye of informed and intrigued bystanders who are now potential friends. For passionate, introverted people, the prop is much easier to talk about than you. Use the prop to establish the connection, and then if opportunity presents itself go ahead and introduce yourself personally. If you catch someone looking your way with interest, wander toward them or wave them over to say hi: “Are you a photographer?” “Have you ever shot the Casull .454?” Shared interest is a catalyst that can help establish a conversation and perhaps activity-based friendship. For example, when I got my digital SLR and started carrying it around with me, I’ve noticed that people with an interest in photography would come up to me and ask a question. Some people find it a lot easier to talk about a thing than to talk about you; the prop (the camera in this case) becomes the gateway to further conversation. It helps of course if you have a nice smile; if you’re frowning or look too busy, people will leave you alone. It works even better if you are hanging out with people who are just getting to know. Just this morning, I was at Starbucks with my camera out, and one of the barristas I’ve gotten to know by name commented that she didn’t know I was into photography. It so happens that she is in a hip-hop band and needed some photos shot this weekend. Cool! I told her that I was still figuring the camera out, but she was cool with that. One more link in the community chain is forged! So the moral is: if you can be brave enough to show some interesting props in a public place such as a coffee shop or public park, you just might meet your next buddy. Just remember to give them your card.

    Badges? We Like Badges!

    Another form of prop is the badge, like having a novelty license plate that says RAMONES or sticking the ubiquitous Apple Computer sticker on back window of your Mini Cooper, or showcasing the latest t-shirt from Threadless on your own back. The badge helps define your individuality, somewhat ironically, by publicly declaring your allegiance to a particular cultural symbol. My personal feeling about badges is that unless they are rare/unique in the environment they are in, people are unlikely to find it compelling enough to approach you. For example, if you’re walking around with an Apple sticker on your backpack, they are common enough that people will just note you as a likely Apple user and pass you by. It is much more interesting, however, if you are walking around with that Apple sticker in a PC-centric company. That makes you more of a rebel, and like-minded insurgents will surreptitiously follow you to the water cooler to ask you about it. Every demographic has their own set of rare/unique badges. If you can figure out what yours are, prominently displaying them can help you draw a tribe to you. Alternatively, you plan badge-wearing expeditions to places where everyone is out of context. Locations like the airport, any kind of trade show or conference, hotel lobby taxi stands, and train stations are prime examples of this; everyone is “in between places”, and more likely to feel isolated. And when people are feeling isolated, they are much more likely to be attuned to symbols that they identify strongly with. If you happen to be wearing one, that can help create the connection if you appear open to conversation. Again, it’s more comfortable to talk about the symbol (“dude, is that the new album from…”) than inquire about one’s personal life from scratch. Breaks the ice!

    Become a Regular; Build Up Impressions Over Time.

    Unless you live in a small town, you are probably used to tuning out people unless they somehow stand out from the norm. And most of us, I’d guess, are pretty normal looking on any given day. However people are pretty good at noticing patterns over time given enough impressions over time. This can work for you when you’re trying to make your town feel like home—not just the place where you crash. To do this, you need to become part of the group context: if you keep showing up at the same place at the same time and are not perceived as a threat by the people around you, that helps set the stage for acceptance. Then bring in your props and your badges and see what happens. In my experience, I’ve noticed 4 stages of impression building:
    • The first stage is recognition, when people notice that they’ve seen you before. For example, every morning I go to Starbucks to have coffee with my friend Erin, and we’ve been doing this long enough that people have accepted us as “those people who sit outside all the time.” I’d estimate it took a month or so before I was in the “regular” category from the staff’s perspective, and it probably longer for the other “regulars” to start noticing that I seemed to be there all the time.

    • The second stage is classification, where people have formed some kind of opinion about who you are and what you do, drawing superficial conclusions from superficial observations and deciding what level of comfort they have with you. What can accelerate this process is observed interaction with a third party; watching someone talk with someone else can tell you a lot about them. If you seem like an interesting person to them, that sets you up for the next stage.

    • The third stage is interaction, which is when you invariably make eye contact or make some comment about the weather with someone you happen to be standing in line with. You’ve been recognized and classified already as a probably OK human being, and perhaps you’ve already generated some curiosity. It’s completely natural to just say something. When people hear your voice and experience your mannerisms up close, this provides them with a lot more information to judge your personality. If your personalities seem compatible, the foundation is laid for future conversation.

    • The final stage I’ve noticed is continuity. That’s when you start remembering things about the other person from a previous conversation, which gives you something to talk. You start to learn about each other’s lives, and this evolving conversation helps form the basis of a new community relationship. Congratulations! You’re now part of the community.

    <

    p>I’m sure a more extroverted person could cut through all these stages, creating the semblance of community in mere minutes compared to the MONTHS it’s taken me. However, I would argue that for an introvert, the long chain of impressions I’ve described is probably accurate; I’d be curious to hear about other people’s experiences. I used to be self-conscious about joining groups or moving to new cities before, wondering how the heck I was going to make new friends. Now I know: just show up and the process will start to take place.

    Dare to be Unique.

    I find the most interesting relationships come from noticing the differences from my expectations. For example, the demure young lady who daintily eloquates a string of prime cuss words, or the burly biker waitress at Denny’s who is an accomplished sculptor or poet. I find this unexpected and delightful, and these are the kind of friendships I’d like to have. A corollary observation is that everyone breaks your expectation, if you dig deeply enough. I remember having fascinating philosophical conversations on America Online, back when it was just a single chat room, with what turned out to be a school bus driver. I was surprised, and I had to adjust my world view that day with regards to how relevant formal education was with regards to native intelligence. More recently, I was being talked up by a mild-mannered Costco employee about joining their price warehouse, and it turned out that he was a retired special forces operative who’d reported directly to General Schwarzopf during Desert Storm. After he talked about this for a while, I realized that his observations about Costco as an organization were to be taken a lot more seriously than I originally had expected. You just never know.

    Lately I’ve been participating in more group activities coordinated through Meetup, the social networking internet portal that’s been around since 2002. I decided to start a Nerdy Fun Activity Planning Commission meeting that combined my own interest in personal histories, interesting gear, and creating my own fun. By being very specific and purposefully “nerdy”, I know that this event will appeal to fewer people, but I am hoping to attract people with unique interests. Some people probably don’t like the idea of being labeled a nerd, or even being around nerds. Other people don’t really care about personal stories or learning about the lives of other people. A conservative marketing person would probably say that I’m doing myself a disservice by not picking some that’s more general interest, equating success by the number of people who attend. The approach I’m taking, however, is to establish a niche that captures the imagination of a variety of creative kooky people. You can read the writeup and judge for yourself; I figure that if just one person shows up, that will be fantastic. The more that show, the better, but I’d rather have one excited person than ten “slightly-interested, slightly-bored” people. The latter case is a lot more work.

    BTW, if you are near Nashua, New Hampshire and are interested in brainstorming, the first meeting is Tuesday June 4th at 6:00PM. Details are on the meetup site.

    Concluding Thoughts.

    I may not be as introverted as I have been before, and I suppose that the very idea of building a community is not very introverted to begin with. However, I think that a lot of us have the same desire for social interaction. By building your own community and understanding some of the processes that make it work, you will have a semblance of control. That reduces the anxiety that comes from comparing yourself to the extroverted approach of thrusting out a hand and bellowing “HI!” As I’ve learned in client meetings, the person who speaks most quickly is not necessarily the person in control. You can take you time, so long as you are able to convey your message and intention in a way that steers the entire situation toward a resolution that benefits everyone. In the context of community building, that is providing alternative entry points for conversation (props, badges, familiarity) and learning to recognize interest so you can be confident that you will get a positive reaction (inviting people to join you, try out your camera, etc.) Even if people choose not to join you, you were in control of the situation, and you do not have to take it personally. There is a certain percentage of the population that shares your interests; you just need to help them find you.

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    DSri Seah

  • The Last 110 Pre-Printed Emergent Task Planner Pads

    May 22, 2008

    PLEASE NOTE: You can now buy this pad at AMAZON.COM. The information below is not current

    I’m finally getting off my butt and making the remaindered Pre-printed Emergent Task Planner Pads available. I had been putting off researching the fifteen-kabillion e-commerce solutions that are out there to find a replacement for PayPal’s clumsy ordering system, but I realized yesterday that I should just move on and give Amazon’s fulfillment service a try for Phase 2. But first…sell the inventory on hand.

    I have 110 95 pads available as of May 23, 2:45PM.

    First come first serve! Ordering instructions are at the very bottom of this post.

    About The Pre-Printed Pads

    0001-etp-title.jpg The Emergent Task Planner (ETP) is a form that helps you focus on those things that you want to get done, while taking into account all the other stuff that just seems to happen. With task itemization, time tracking, time estimation, scheduling, and note taking combined in a single sheet of paper, you can see in a glance how the day is going, and what’s left to get done. Most importantly, the design of the form acknowledges that getting anything done at all during the day is an accomplishment.

    While the ETP is still available as a free PDF download, the sweet pre-printed version offer several advantages:

    • They come in pads of 75 sheets each. The pads are glued at the top for easy tearoff, cardboard backed for extra sturdiness. Each pad is also individually shrinkwrapped to protect them during shipping and storage.
    • They’re professionally offset printed on premium Cougar Opaque 80LB Text White Smooth paper. This is nicer, thicker and more durable then your typical inkjet paper, so it will better stand up to daily use.
    • New design features: cleaner layout, space for hole punching on the left, and write-in year so you don’t have to throw these pads away when next year rolls around.
    • Cost per page is comparable to high-quality inkjet printing, in a form factor that is easy to keep handy.
    • US 8.5″ x 11″ Letter

    Sheet Design

    Current DesignInstruction Sheet LEFT The Emergent Task Planner sheet . There are 75 sheets in a single pad. Click the thumbnail to see it larger.

    RIGHT The instruction sheet is a quick introduction to the use of the sheet. There is one instruction sheet included per order.


    Ordering Information

    The unit cost per pad is US$12.50, shipped in quantities of 1, 3, 5 or 10. I’m shipping within the domestic United States only at this time using USPS Priority Flat Rate Envelope and Box. The following table will help you estimate approximately how many pads you need. There is a separate order page which I will send you once I receive your email via my contact form. First come, first serve, until all pads are gone.

    # Pads # Days Subtotal Shipping Total  
    1 75 days $12.50 $4.80 $17.30
    3 225 days $37.50 $9.80 $47.30
    5 375 days $62.50 $9.80 $72.30
    10 750 days $125.00 $9.80 $134.80

    Instructions

    So if you’re interested in picking up a few of these pads to try, and you live in the United States:

    • Use the contact form and say how many you’d like to order. If the contact form isn’t working, email me at [dscontact]-@-[davidseah.com].
    • I will then email you the real product order page URL.
    • You can choose you quantities there and pay through PayPal.

    You do not need to have a PayPal account…you just need a credit card.

    The reason I’m not posting the actual order form is because PayPal has no notion of inventory management, and I can not specify how many units I have available to sell. So to avoid overselling and having to refund money and incur transaction fees, I am asking for people to email me their orders first. Sigh. You can see why I want to get away from PayPal.

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    DSri Seah

  • Reflecting on Goals, Part I

    May 19, 2008

    In the last Ground Hog Day Resolution Review, I realized that one of the best things about having them was the reflection that went into them. I did my reflection a few days later than planned, sitting outside this past Saturday at Starbucks with my reporter-style Moleskine for about 45 minutes. I let whatever tickled my mind drive the creation of lists, ultimately filling six pages.

    List 1. Random Reflection

    Foremost on my mind was a recent post I caught on Senia’s Blog, the biggest lesson she’s learned at a career coach struck home. In part1, she writes about two archtypical creative doers: one who does things because it’s the right thing to do, and another who does things because it’s what he feels like doing. In part 2, Senia writes how she’s struck that there are so many people not doing what they want to do, and how sad this makes her feel. Senia is a very good friend of mine, so I could easily imagine her face falling just a little bit, savoring the sad feeling to get a good grip on it, then exploding into a flurry of energy-creating exercises and actions to chase those blues away from people that she knows can be happier and more fulfilled in life. She’s very good at this, and reflecting upon her approach to life I realized that I’d swung waaaay too far toward the “doing things because I feel like it” approach. I don’t think that this was a mistake, mind you—it was a necessary step to take to really get in touch with what is important to me—but now that I have more answers it’s time to do things because they are the right thing to do. This trumps the forces that have been working against me:

    • laziness, blahness…
    • lack of motivation; a strong feeling of ennui…
    • feelings of personal suckiness…
    • feeling disconnected from the world and people…

    What I like about “doing something because it is the right thing to do” is that it’s a moral principle, not an process optimization. Before, I had given myself too many choices, and picking the best path seemed impossible even when I knew that any of them would do. I lacked conviction because the choices lay in the domain of process and self-interest. For me, those are not very strong motivators; while I like process, I need the context of real live people to make it interesting and relevant. Also, Wally Krapf once told me that the secret to having a good life was to get outside of yourself. I have been trying to figure out what he meant for the past two years, and I’m thinking that if one does something “because it’s the right thing to do” has something to do with it. It subtly shifts attention away from “what I want, what I feel” toward something larger. And maybe this is the sense of mission I need to self-motivate. To summarize, there are many paths, but perhaps the trick is not to obsess about which path to take. The clarity of purpose comes from taking a path, and by doing so for the “right” moral reason will ensure that the results will be shaped accordingly. This may seem very obvious to anyone with children, but it is rather new to me.

    So what is the right thing to do for me? As I was saying to my friend Erin this morning as we talked of the upcoming X-Files movie, what I really believe in is that everyone has magical abilities waiting to be unlocked, and that I love discovering what they could be. This childlike glee is what underlies just about everything I do, and I have an insane desire to see it happen. It’s the basis for my interest in design, process, productivity, empowerment, and inspiration.

    List 2. Project 2010

    For the past year I’ve been plotting to figure out how to escape my dreary existence and become more of a citizen of the world. This is quite a jump for me because I am inherently a homebody, but interesting and unique stories are out there and I want to find them first-hand. The arbitrary goal I’ve set for myself is by the year 2010, I want to be able to have the means to GO. I jotted down a prep list to keep the outstanding issues fresh in my mind. The highlights:

    • Debt elimination / household stabilization, so I can live leaner and require less money.
    • Updating my Couchsurfing account, so I can meet more people between now and 2010 and therefore be part of a more international community.
    • Looking into TEFL certification
    • Getting the design and product businesses in shape so they can travel with me to any country.
    • Figuring out whether this is an escapist fantasy or not. Maybe I won’t actually like it.
    • Gaining more solo travel experience.

    List 3. The Social Scene

    Also on my mind is maintaining a connection with my local community. The situation is vastly better than it was last year thanks to establishing myself as a “regular” at the coffee shop, and finding the right local Meetup groups. And then there are the friends I have nearby who are popping out new babies and forming new relationships; they’re farther away, but it’s good to know that things are going well. I wrote down a few things that were important to me:

    • Meetup activities.
    • Visits from people I’ve met through SXSW and this blog.
    • Family visits.
    • Personal health: Dental, Exercise in particular.
    • WebNOB, the Web Developers North of Boston group that formed recently.
    • Getting more creative retreats going this year.
    • Setting up a Quake 4 dedicated server

    List 4. Process Challenges

    I mentioned earlier that I have been stuck in a “doing things because I feel like it” mode, and the companion mindset has been to not follow a process-oriented methodology. It has been a good vacation, more artistic than engineering, but I have gotten soft and need to get back into some good habits if Project 2010 is going to go anywhere. Here’s what I jotted down:

    • Maintaining the strategic picture, so day-to-day tactical operations are effective and accumulate results over the long term.
    • Not being overwhelmed.
    • Not overlooking details.
    • Not overscheduling or overworking.
    • Making predictable progress.
    • Blueprinting my time use to find the “natural” amount of time it takes to do something.
    • Developing a regimen that works.
    • Developing new process methodologies and documenting them for public use.
    • Working through process discomfort, accepting that it takes a while to develop those mental muscles.

    List 5. Next Steps

    I needed a big push to get things rolling, so I wrote down a few things that I wanted to focus on to kickstart the week:

    • Clean the house. I threw out 15 years worth of once-sexy computer equipment that I was never going to use again. It felt awful, and it felt good.
    • Sort the house. I am going through each room and figuring out what “piles” exist. As the piles accumulate, I am figuring out where “their place” will be. I’m also borrowing a technique of tagging piles for “transfer” from the world of airline luggage handling, creating piles with a “purpose destination”. I don’t know where that is going to be yet, but all I need to know is that it’s NOT THIS ROOM.
    • Trust my instincts and don’t overthink the consequences. I tend to worry about whether I’m missing something or am about to screw something up, but experience has shown that “things just tend to work out anyway.”
    • Start writing PCEO descriptions and assemble the book. It is going to be long and arduous, but ultimately it probably won’t be as bad as I think.
    • Sell out the remaining ETP pads and don’t worry about the awful e-commerce system I’m using. Just get it done. Then I can move on to stage 2.
    • Visualize, then Do to gain practical experience. It’s very easy for me to visualize how much a pain in the ass a task will be, but it never is as bad as I think it will be.

    In Conclusion

    Not bad for 45 minutes of thinking. It actually took twice as long to write it all down in this post, but this was (I think) a good way to consolidate the notes into a stream of consciousness. My day of reflection ended up providing me with some useful working principles. My next reflection day is May 27th, so we’ll see by then what aspects of my notes I end up taking to heart.

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    DSri Seah