Some thoughts from attending Time/Design's trainer certification

I had the privilege of attending Time/Design's certification last month, and I wanted to share some good "take aways."

First, their program is very well organized, and I really enjoyed the training by veteran trainer and entrepreneur Valerie Young (lots of good self-employed and job-change tips from her newsletter - see www.changingcourse.com). As I continue to learn how much work it is to be a good teacher (see The crucible of teaching: Want to learn in a hurry? Teach!), I really appreciate when someone does it well. It goes against my personality to admit it takes time and experience to get good at it...

There was a lot to like, and some things I didn't care for (not surprising given I eat productivity systems for lunch), but a few you might find useful:

Time/Design content

They have a bunch of good ideas, as you can tell from their tips section. The common heritage with Getting Things Done shows (David Allen worked with them for quite a while). Familiar to readers will be the two minute rule, the mind scan, projects vs. actions, etc. What may be new: Time Blocking (though I like Julie Morgenstern's explanation better), "Do On" or "Due By?" (for explaining the calendar), and Pareto Principle.

(Interesting tidbit: The Urgent vs. Important matrix (of Covey fame - see The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) dates back to - at least - Eisenhower!)

The best "chunking" time block - 96 Minutes?

Peter Drucker talks about 90 minutes being the minimum chunk of time to do meaningful "knowledge work," and the training brought out a nice tie-in: The 80/20 rule applied to an eight hour day suggests blocking out 96 minutes for the "heavy lifting." Creating time to work daily on important projects is a common theme:

• Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy:

  19. Create large chunks of time: Organize your days around large blocks of time where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.

  (More at Some thoughts on "Eat that frog!" by Brian Tracy.)
• 96 Minutes a Day That Will CHANGE YOUR LIFE
• More on Chunking as an Alternative to Multitasking
• Revolving workflow strategies
• Organized at Last

Time/Design's forms

Time/Design has some great paper planner forms. Their binders are wonderful, but if you already have one, many GTD-ers recommend buying their refill forms directly. I've been trying a number of them for the past month, including the nifty folding "action sheet." However, I think because I use only weekly pages (not daily), the flipping won't work for me. I do love their approach to managing repeating tasks with a paper system. There's detail in their Quick Start Guide, but basically you carry two fold-out annual planning pages (very, very cool) in which you mark all repeating events (use a single letter or color). You also have a "perpetual" calendar for annual events (e.g., birthdays, maintenance). To use them, every new month you insert another month's worth of weekly or daily pages, then copy over events from the current year and perpetual pages. Doh!

I also like their matrix diagram (they have a tip on using it here), which I like esp. because it has 31 rows and 12 columns - a cell for each day! You can get creative with this for tracking exercise, goals, habits, etc. I'm still playing with it...

Highlight completed actions

One of my first clients turned me onto the idea of highlighting completed actions (rather than crossing them out). I wrote about it Four Planner Hacks for Paper-Based Productivity, but Time/Design have apparently been recommending it for years (they call it the "Personal Motivation Device").

I now carry one in my planner, along with...

Use a mechanical pencil for your calendar

Another in the "Doh!" category, using pencil for calendar entries instead of pen makes tremendous sense: I regularly need to erase appointments that get canceled or rescheduled, and I'm now pretty much weaned from my White Out habit. (I guess it's the geek in me, but I used to love mechanical pencils, and I've rediscovered the joy and precision of using one. While there are some gorgeous ones out there, it's very hard to beat the Pentel Forte.)

60 day horizon for actions

Finally, I really like their focus on a maximum of 60 days for actions. If you're not ready to act in two months, put it on the Someday/Maybe, or capture start/end dates in the annual planning pages. This can lead to having a smaller list of next actions, something I appreciate.

I'd love to hear from anyone using the Time/Design planner (or method).

US national priorities are really screwed up

(I apologize for the rant, but I'm disgusted with my country. The problems continue to mount, with no leadership in sight. These issues have come to a head locally and personally, and I want to say something about it. I understand you may disagree. I'll return to the usual productivity writing next week. Note: I care about this country; that's why I'm pissed.)

Mark Forster, in his book Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management, talks about the reactive vs. the rational mind. The reactive is the lower-level animal one with shorter-term priorities. The rational is the thinking part that plans and makes us do what's best, even when it means sacrificing immediate gratification. The trouble is, when we're stressed or afraid, guess which gets priority? This arrangement makes sense in the wild, but it doesn't build civilizations. With apologies to Mark, I think we can use this analogy for countries as well. Sadly, the United States - apparently with the blessing of many of my countrymen - is solidly in the reactive camp, as evidenced by our national priorities. A few examples.

1) Culture of violence. We're a gun-worshipping, violence-glorifying country. Just look at the TV, cable, and films that we produce and watch [1]. Then notice how much more violence we have than civilized countries with gun control laws. The recent shootings should convince anybody operating with a full deck that we have a problem. And no, arming everyone to the teeth ("Welcome to third grade. Here's your class schedule, books, and .38. Enjoy.") is not a solution. And if we limited guns, would these nuts just kill anyway? Sure - I can see the news now: "Maniac kills 38 people using salt shaker." Right. We've prioritized the right to own a gun over the right to be safe.

2) Military vs. schools. Around the country you'll see local school systems in real trouble. Crumbling buildings, teachers being laid off, programs being cut, etc. This results in increasing class sizes and more poorly educated kids. Even where I live - a relatively wealthy community - the schools have been hit hard. Why? Mostly it's because the federal contribution to educating our children has dried up. This while we're spending $10B a month just in Iraq [2]. We've prioritized occupation and military adventures over our future citizens.

3) Health insurance. I recently quit a job that provided great benefits at a really good price. Now that I'm self employed, I've really come to understand how screwed up this country's priorities are. We've got tens of millions of people without insurance (including lots of kids), and the choices for people who work on their own are pathetic. Group insurance is invasive, expensive, and the coverage is fair to poor, in some cases non-existent. On top of that, if you've got any medical concerns whatsoever (and isn't addressing them the whole point?) you're really in trouble. We've prioritized commercialized health insurance over being having access to health care.

4) Energy policy. Guess what - Peak oil is real, and the planet's supply is on the decline. Oil is very special stuff, and we've a) pretty much squandered our terrestrial allotment, and b) we refuse to believe it or work on solving it. Picture James Kunstler's image of a fully-loaded SUV, with one driver, accelerating into the bricked-up dead end road of suburbia. That's us. No trains worth mentioning, and third-world bus options. We've prioritized a car-based, high-consumption culture over a pragmatic preparation for the decline.

5) Environmental policy. Finally, hand-in-hand with our transportation choices, we've really messed up our climate. Even if all the leading scientists are wrong, is it worth taking a chance? We've prioritized sticking our heads in the sand over addressing a real - and difficult - problem.


These priorities are not sane, and are not mine, and they're just a few of the choices we've made as a country. Sadly, in making them we've squandered an amount of wealth that has been unheard of in the ~10,000 years of human civilization. But that's not the worst news. The worst thing is that we're doing nothing to correct these priorities; in fact, we're doing the opposite. If it was just me, I'd be upset. But as a parent whose child's health, education, and overall welfare are all threatened, it really stinks.


References

• [1] Don't believe our culture worships guns? Try this simple check, what I call the "Gun Test" - Go to your neighborhood video store (if you still have one - I'll leave corporate take-overs of small towns for another time) and look at the video covers. Try to find any that have no guns on the front or back. It turns out it's really hard to find any. I use this test when I rent, because I don't want to pollute my head with filmmakers who glamorize violence. There's no question it's unhealthy for adults, and especially children. (We limit our 6 YO to 30 minutes of controlled viewing per day, and no cable.)
  
• [2] See for example Estimated Costs of an Iraq War According to CBO or Iraq War, Inflation and War Finance.
  

Deep thoughts on personal growth from designer Bruce Mau

Ever since reading Daniel Pink's book A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future I've been working to appreciate the relevance and impact design has on my life. The book talks about six essential abilities that Pink claims we all need to succeed in the coming world - design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. All of these are important, and I love that Pink has tied them together. It's a stimulating read; recommended.

I'll write more about the book another time (including tips like keeping a design journal, and increasing your "MQ" - metaphor quotient), but I today I just wanted to point you an article by designer Bruce Mau that I came across a while ago: An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth. I think it's a terrific list.

1. Allow events to change you.
   
2. Forget about good.
   
3. Process is more important than outcome.
   
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child).
   
5. Go deep.
   
6. Capture accidents.
   
7. Study.
   
8. Drift.
   
9. Begin anywhere.
   
10. Everyone is a leader.
    
11. Harvest ideas. Edit applications.
    
12. Keep moving.
    
13. Slow down.
    
14. Don't be cool.
    
15. Ask stupid questions.
    
16. Collaborate.
    
17. ____________________.
    
18. Stay up late.
    
19. Work the metaphor.
    
20. Be careful to take risks.
    
21. Repeat yourself.
    
22. Make your own tools.
    
23. Stand on someone's shoulders.
    
24. Avoid software.
    
25. Don't clean your desk.
    
26. Don't enter awards competitions.
    
27. Read only left-hand pages.
    
28. Make new words. Expand the lexicon.
    
29. Think with your mind. Forget technology.
    
30. Organization = Liberty.
    
31. Don't borrow money.
    
32. Listen carefully.
    
33. Take field trips.
    
34. Make mistakes faster.
    
35. Imitate.
    
36. Scat.
    
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it.
    
38. Explore the other edge.
    
39. Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms.
    
40. Avoid fields. Jump fences.
    
41. Laugh.
    
42. Remember.
    
43. Power to the people.
    

A key to continuous learning: Keep a decision log

A while back I shared my experience recording observations on events I'd like to have done differently (Some thoughts from tracking "lessons learned" for a year). Here I want to tell you about a corresponding idea, tracking the decisions you make. The connection? Writing what you decide, including the reasons and expected outcome, strengthens the process of learning, and should ultimately teach you something about yourself.

This idea is expressed elegantly in a terrific 1997 Inc.com article by Peter Drucker: My Life as a Knowledge Worker. In it he shares seven major experiences he'd learned from his teachers:

1. Strive for perfection throughout life (even though it would surely elude)...
   
2. ... and do it "even if only the gods notice."
   
3. Study deeply one new subject every three or four years.
   
4. Set aside two weeks every summer to review the preceding year's work (things done well, poorly, or not at all).
   
5. With new work ask "What do I need to do, now that I have a new assignment, to be effective?"
   
6. Keep a decision log and after nine months trace the results back.
   
7. Ask yourself what you want to be remembered for, allow that to change, and value making a difference in the lives of people.

From #6 (THE SIXTH EXPERIENCE - Taught by the Jesuits and the Calvinists):

Whenever a Jesuit priest or a Calvinist pastor does anything of significance--making a key decision, for instance--he is expected to write down what results he anticipates. Nine months later he traces back from the actual results to those anticipations. That very soon shows him what he did well and what his strengths are. It also shows him what he has to learn and what habits he has to change. Finally, it shows him what he has no gift for and cannot do well.

Drucker used this method for most of his life, and said it 1) exposed his strengths, 2) indicated areas for improvement, 3) suggested which improvements to make, and 4) highlighted what is not possible to do.

He summarizes:

To know one's strengths, to know how to improve them, and to know what one cannot do--they are the keys to continuous learning.

Wow.

I've been tracking them for the last month or so, and I think it'll be valuable. Like the lessons learned, it helps to defuse difficult or emotional decisions, and changes my attitude about them from fear to curiosity. In other words, makes living more of a lab for experimentation and growth, rather than a dangerous jungle.

I also love the continuous improvement angle. I'm reading a great little book on Kaizen: One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. I'm especially excited about the implications for my clients adopting the work I do - for some, the "big push" approach either isn't feasible, or doesn't sustain.

I'd like to hear from anyone who's tried this. What did you learn about yourself?

What a difference a framework can make

I admit it: I love a good mental framework. While partly due to genetic anomalies that drove me toward engineering, computers, and personal productivity, having a good framework is also fundamental to being human. By "framework" I mean what Answers.com calls "A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality." To that I'd add the framework needs to be applied by providing processes, practices, and/or tools to adopt it.

This comes up because I'm creating version 2.0 of my full-day workshop in preparation for summer seminars (including one for NASA employees at the Kennedy Space Center - woo hoo!) and as usual I was having a terrible time facing the task. I've committed to moving to PowerPoint for many good reasons (especially better connection with the audience and more effective adoption of the ideas), but I think putting together a good one is hard. This leads to my procrastinating on the preparation, avoiding it until the last few weeks and making the process extremely unpleasant. This is not an example of "enjoying the ride" [1].

Thankfully, Ricky Spears recommended Cliff Atkinson's book Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. Wow. I've heard mixed opinions about the book from people I greatly admire, but I found that so far Atkinson's framework (based on presentation = story) really resonates. It's also given me a whack on the head by realizing that my prior lack of a framework (including a process) has been a major problem.

And that's one huge benefit of a framework: Without one, I felt lost. Yes, structure brings constraint, but it can also provide freedom to give your creativity an outlet. In the case of my workshop, it's also making me face the hard questions around goals, clarifying the essential ideas, and coming up with a compelling story and theme. (All the while developing my own brand and identity.) As a result, the process is feeling more fun, and is giving me some solid anti-procrastination direction.

Some of the other frameworks I've found helpful:

• Programming: Extreme Programming. See chromatic's Extreme Programming Pocket Guide and Productivity for Programmers, #2: Efficient vs. Effective
  
• Self-management: Getting Things Done
  
• Establishing rapport: See How to Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less and A review of "How to make people like you in 90 seconds or less"
  
• Reading: See Steve Leveen's book The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life and A reading workflow based on Leveen's "Little Guide"

We'll see how it works out for my presentation, but what about you? What frameworks gave you an "aha!" and how did they help? How'd you find out about them? And did they turn you into a saint, prophet, or evangelist?

References

• [1] A maxim from Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up (see Great time management ideas from the world of improv wisdom for more).