Surviving a Job You Hate

Recently I was asked by a journalist about staying sane in a dead-end job. The context was of course our struggling economy, with few jobs and the feeling of few choices in leaving work. While for some of us jumping into self-employment is an option [1], most of us need to make our jobs work for as long as possible.

The problem is, what if you hate it?

I've been thinking about this from my "life as a scientific experiment" perspective [2], and came up with a few ideas. Tell me what you think!

• Cultivate your sense of humor. Actively look for the bizarre, the absurd, The Office-style nuttiness. It helps to record it in your personal journal. Have a daily routine: At the start: Prime yourself by asking "What funny things will I notice today." At the day's end ask, "Of today's events, what can I laugh at (if not now, then down the road)?"
  
• Plan your break. Start the personal introspection self-discovery to explore what you'd love to be doing in the future, and begin putting a little energy into it. Read, start a blog, talk about it with loved ones, and make yourself the expert in a 100 mile radius.
  
• Find more positive and fulfilling ways to contribute in the organization. Get creative - is the company cutting back? Offer to take on something you'd rather be doing, and make yourself indispensable. Or look for a lateral move - check out the company's job board.
  
• Be social. Lots of studies show the healthy benefits of being with others. Do it appropriately at work (during breaks, say) and in the evenings and weekends.
  
• Stay healthy. Stress hates exercise, so stay on top, and eat well.
  
• Know that this too will pass. While it may sound trivial, everything has a beginning, middle, and end, including your current job. Nothing lasts forever.
  
• Overall: BE CAREFUL what you say and record, though. You don't want to hurt feelings or risk your job. One of my TTL [3] catchphrases is "You never know." In this case, You never know... Who you might work with/for in the future. Or...?
  

I'm curious...

• Did you ever have a "can't stand it" job?
  
• How'd you stay sane?
  
• What'd you end up doing?
  

Related

• How To Stay Balanced And Productive During Uncertainty And Crisis
  
• Check out Chad Fowler's book My Job Went to India: And All I Got Was This Lousy Book. I wrote about it in here. A great read for anyone wanting to be more valuable to their organization.
  

References

• [1] I'll never regret taking the leap, though I will say that it's not for the faint of heart! :-) Just in case, you better check out Pam Slim's Escape from Cubicle Nation: From Corporate Prisoner to Thriving Entrepreneur. Great gal, great book.
  
• [2] See How Do You Treat Life As An Experiment?
  
• [3] Think, Try, Learn: A scientific method for discovering happiness (site in flux).
  

Reading Redux, plus a 501 Productivity Roundup

A while back Mark Shead over at his smashing Productivity501 asked a bunch of productivity/personal development bloggers our thoughts on some favorite topics. He's just published the reading-related replies in Personal Development: Reading Habits. There are some fine ideas there, so check it out. Thanks Mark!

I thought I'd use this as an excuse to share the other answers I gave him, plus an update on my current reading workflow.

TOC:

• Reading Workflow Update
  
• What is your biggest challenge to productivity and how do you overcome it?
  
• Have you been able to outsource any of your work?
  
• How do you decide if a new technology is worth investing in or whether it is a waste of time?
  
• Describe your paper filing system along with your advice for someone starting a filing system from scratch
  

I'm curious...

• What's your top tip for staying on top of reading?
  
• What's currently on your bookshelf?
  
• How does your candidates library look?
  
• How do you ensure learning via review?
  
• What's the last title that had impact, i.e., changed how you see the world or how you behave in it?
  

Reading Workflow Update

• For note-taking I've moved from handwritten notes -> using a voice recorder that I transcribe (see Notes On Using A Digital Voice Recorder For Taking Reading Notes) -> voice recorded notes that I outsourced (see The 4-hour Workweek Applied: How I Spent $100, Saved Hours, And Boosted My Reading Workflow) -> back again to handwritten notes. Advantages: Portable, durable, inexpensive, and require no electricity.
  
• The note-taking system I'm using is "bookstrips" (my term).
  For each book in progress I tear off a long strip of narrow adding machine paper, which works as a combined bookmark and note index. The index is a variation of the method I described in How To Read A Lot Of Books In A Short Time: Put a pencil dot in the margin next to each sentence that strikes you, and keep an index of page numbers with dots on the paper strip. You can jot a short note next to the indexed page number, if necessary. For example, if a passage generates a blog idea I'll write just enough to remind me when I process the final notes.
  
• Queues: I use a loose adaptation of Leveen's workflow (see A Reading Workflow Based On Leveen's "Little Guide") with my Amazon wish list as my pre-candidates list, a large bookcase for my candidates library, with my currently reading stack in my briefcase and spread around the house.
  
• Lest you think having a large candidates library is bad, consider this passage from Taleb's The Black Swan: "Read books are far less valuable than unread ones." (He attributes the "anti-library" to Umberto Eco.)
  
• For Leveen's Après reading shelves I've substituted an opportunistic review method: I simply enter the bookstrips as text in my IdeaFile, tag them appropriately, and review/rediscover them when doing research for blog posts, products, or client work. This is the weakest link in my integrating the books' ideas; I could use a better review system.
  
• I have a queue of "Bookstrips-To-Enter," which I work on semi-daily. This is effectively a daily checklist, along with "Read 15 minutes" and "Process Bookmarks." I try to balance inputs with outputs (books reading vs. bookstrip backlog (see The Productivity I/O Sweet Spot) but my eyes are usually bigger than my stomach. Compounding the problem is that entering the notes is tedious.
  
• Scanning/skimming: Want to multiply your reading speed? Don't read the whole book! I talked about this in Reading Gone Wild! How To Read Five Books A Week (or Why Scott Ginsberg Is My Hero). Need ideas? Read the excellent comments on How To Read A Lot Of Books In A Short Time.
  
• In the how to treat life as an experiment category, I've found it's much less threatening to read a book (and therefore to make solid reading progress) if you let curiosity drive. Instead of "I've got to work through this entire book," think "What the hell - I'll just look for the interesting bits." Permission is hereby given to not completely read a work.
  
• For first-tier in-process articles, I put printed copies in my portable Action Support folder, and read them in my "between" moments.
  
• My system for tracking electronic articles is developing, with an unclear split between bookmarks and a simple To Read text file. This needs cleaning. (Sidebar: I have clients who rave over Instapaper, esp. for the iPhone. Anyone using it?)
  

Whew!

Productivity: What is your biggest challenge to productivity and how do you overcome it?

Good question! My current biggest roadblock is discipline (being able to maintain steady, productive behavior in spite of how I feel). The contributing factors? A bunch including unwillingness to defer gratification, succumbing to distractions (heading down the rabbit hole), working on comforting but low value tasks, and low energy/motivation.

How to fix it? Whew! The patented IdeaMatt Big Arse Text File shows over sixty resources on the topic, so I have no excuse not to make progress on this. The one that's helped so far is removing a major distraction by creating structure that makes it much harder to give in to (removing a program/account in this case).

Time-Management: Have you been able to outsource any of your work?

Yes, two things: Transcriptions of voice notes on books (see The 4-hour Workweek Applied: How I Spent $100, Saved Hours, And Boosted My Reading Workflow) and web site work (so far: design and transferring my blog).

Technology: How do you decide if a new technology is worth investing in or whether it is a waste of time?

This is a timely question as I've made some very large technology changes in the past few months. I switched from Windows to Macintosh (an excellent move overall), and I've switched from paper to digital tools for my self-management practice (see Tool Update: Matt Goes Digital! Plus A Few Mac Productivity Lessons). The biggest question to ask is whether the pay-off is worth the investment of your precious time and resources. Answer honestly, factor in the Gee Whiz factor (but don't weigh it too much), and go ahead only if there's a significant improvement. Any technology is guaranteed to involve headaches and unexpected problems, so tread lightly!

Organization: Describe your paper filing system along with your advice for someone starting a filing system from scratch

I recommend a basic alphabetical system, with a set of A-Z pressboard file guides to separate each letter. I've researched many more complex systems (including grouping, sub-categorization, and color coding), but simplest is best for starters. I'd avoid digital indexing systems (e.g., Paper tiger) until you have a compelling need. Other tips: Get a desktop labeler (I like the Dymo QX50), use 3-cut (or 3-tab) file folders, don't worry about tabs lining up (i.e., random is fine), and put files that start with numbers under the number's *letter*, not at the front (e.g., "6 thinking hats" would go under "S" for six). Read more tips at Five Secret Filing Hacks From The Masters (Note: All tools are listed in my Amazon Basic Processing Tools for Personal Productivity/Workflow list.)

Spotlight + Data Detectors + AdSense: Champagne PIM on an OS Budget

As I continue working with Mac OS X I'm continually impressed by Spotlight, Apple's included text indexing feature. It is seamless, fast, effective, and has significantly changed and improved how I find information, as compared to my Windows XP days.

Having a solid idea file [1] is crucial to Knowledge Work [2], an on-going interest of mine (see Where's The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) For Personal Information?)

Given that, I was struck by an idea to integrate Spotlight with all apps to support an 80-20-level information support system. I suppose this is essentially a work-around to connect all data in the OS, i.e., to remove data islands [3]. Lest you think I know what I'm talking about, see my disclaimer below [4].

Tell me what you think!

Elements

As I see it the elements are:

• Spotlight, Data Detectors [5]: Text -> Objects (converts text to OS data)
• Google AdSense (retrieval of hits plus display)
• Firefox's Smart Location Bar (learns hit priority)

In other words, Spotlight on steroids.

I envision these interconnecting thus [6]: Pull the text from the front most app (option: just selected text), look up all the phrases in Spotlight's database, pull out most relevant ones, order by learned patterns, then display summaries and links to the side. Suuuure.

Applications

How would this work in practice? In a word, PKM (Personal knowledge management) [7]. Suppose you're reading an email from a prospective client (or anyone of interest, really) and you want to remind yourself of who she is and your history of interactions with/notes about her. Boom! As if by magic (and I may not be exaggerating :-) a selection of relevant hits show to the right, perhaps categorized ala Spotlight's results bar.

What would show up?

• Contact information
• Times, Dates, Names, Addresses/Places
• Calendar evens
• Email messages
• Projects
• Tasks
• Files

Another application: A visual indicator of which information sources are most valuable (see Information Provenance - The Missing Link Between Attention, RSS Feeds, And Value-based Filtering). As you're browsing your news feeds, an icon (?) shows on the right how many idea file entries the current feed has. Use this when it's time for your regular purge to make an informed decision.

I'm really curious...

• Whaddya' think?
• Reality check: What's are the major arguments against this? They center, no doubt, around reasonable retrieval given all text in an app, and possible hits.
• How would you use such a beast?
• What tools do you use to accomplish PKM?

References

• [1] Mine's a Big-Arse Text File, but alternatives abound including (ick) paper-based systems. (I have nothing against paper - it has compelling affordances (see The Myth of the Paperless Office).
• [2] I'm not fond of the term, but it's the defacto standard (buzzword alert!) describing modern white-collar work. By far the best source for information on the topic is the wonderfully-named Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performances And Results from Knowledge Workers, mentioned in Custom Workflows For Knowledge Workers.
• [3] Developers: check out Soup (Apple Newton)
• [4] I'm not a researcher in this field, so please be forgiving. I'm shooting for an idea that's "good enough to criticize" (supposedly Alan Kay's comment about the Dynabook). I'm positive this approach has been outlined before, but I wanted to capture it Matt-style.
• [5] Mac OS X Leopard - Features - Mail, Apple Data Detectors Are So Useful.
• [6] I know, pompous as hell :-)
• [7] AKA PKM (Personal knowledge management). Gotta' good ref? I found:
  
  
  
  • Personal Knowledge Management : Who, What, Why, When, Where, How?
  • Wikipedia entry
  • PKM - Personally Managing Your Knowledge

The World's Simplest Productivity Method, with Bonus Mini-Processing Examples

When I get media inquiries for expert opinion, I'm often asked for easy-to-understand descriptions and examples. As you know from posts like Extreme GTD: How Low Can You Go (or: Can We 80-20 GTD?), I like simplifying. Following is the simplest description I can come up with of how methods like GTD work.

I'd Love To Know...

• What do you think of my description? How would you improve it?
• Do you have a method for managing yourself?
• How would you describe it?
• How well is it working for you?

The World's Simplest Productivity Method

1. Capture all incoming items into a small number of inboxes [1]: email, paper, and voice.
2. Empty those every day.
3. To empty an inbox, apply the 5Ds [2] one by one to each item: DELETE, DEPOSIT (file), DELEGATE, DO, and DEFER.
4. The last three Ds take action and need tracking in a system:
5. DELEGATE: Hand off to someone else, and track in a Waiting For [3] list.
6. DO: If the action can be done in a couple of minutes, do it right then.
7. Otherwise, DEFER doing it for later, and track in either the Calendar or an Actions list:
   • If the action is date-related, put it on the Calendar.
   • Track all other actions on an Actions list.
8. During the day work the Actions list as your Calendar permits, and review the Waiting For for needed follow-ups.

What's neat is you can see there are four actionable categories in this approach: A Calendar and three lists (Projects, Actions, and Waiting For).

Additional concepts

I sometimes include a few other ideas:

• Use chunking to break larger tasks into small, doable actions.
• Call the large tasks "projects," and list them all on a master Projects list.
• Every project must have at least one "active" action on the Actions list.

The Method Applied: Mini-cases

To see it in action, following are a few email messages, and how I'd handle each one. (Sidebar: This is a simplified version of the "Stuff Practice" exercise I do in my workshops. I do it at the end of the workshop to pull together all the day's concepts. It's a popular group exercise that gets uniformly high marks. Best yet, it's fun!)

• Message from boss asking for quick status.
  • Can reply in a minute, so reply then move message to email project folder.
• Message from partner asking me to order equipment.
  • Can order in two minutes (1-Click), so order it, track order on Waiting For, and move to email project folder.
• Message asking for quarterly report.
  • Will take longer than two minutes, but can be done in one sitting.
  • Not date-related (should be done ASAP), so put on Actions list.
• Message setting up a meeting for next week.
  • Date-related, so put appointment on Calendar then delete message.
• Message asking to arrange a conference on a specific date.
  • Complex multi-step task, so add entry to Projects list.
  • Pull out starting action (e.g., "research venues") and add to Actions list.
  • Put date on Calendar.
  • Move message into new email project folder specific to the conference.

References

• [1] An attempt at serendipity and synchronicity: Arbitrarily-selected posts mentioning "inboxes":
  • Use These 5W/1H Questions To Test Your Productivity Chops
  • A Dozen Small Ways To Get Productivity Improvements To Stick In An Organization
  • Reader Question: Getting Personal Productivity Changes To Stick?
  • The Productivity I/O Sweet Spot, Or Why Balance Is A Bad Thing
  • Dealing With Meeting Notes - GTD To The Rescue!
  • Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide: Productivity Lessons From Basic Math
  • Small Steps To Big Results: Do One High Value Task A Day
  • Some Answers To "Should I Keep It?" When Filing
• [2] See How To Process Stuff - A Comparison Of TRAF, The "Four Ds", And GTD's Workflow Diagram.
• [3] I'm using David Allen's terminology because 1) GTD is so popular that maintaining consistency taps into shared language, 2) it diverges from more traditional terms (e.g., "to-dos" and "tasks" for actions), and 3) they are damn good names! :-)