Lately, I’ve found myself in a funk, really annoyed and frustrated when I’ve felt ignored or snubbed, sometimes by small things, things that wouldn’t normally bother me. I suppose there are a number of reasons, probably the main one being that I’m not getting a lot of rest these days due to the little bundle that arrived almost six months ago and has a way of taking over our lives. A lack of sleep can result in a short(er) fuse.

After talking to my wife about my frustrations, I came to the realization that I’ve never learned how to create distance between myself and the things people say and do and not take them personally. For me, that’s tough to do. I don’t know why, but I’ve tended to take a lot of things personally, facing life with a chip on my shoulder. Regardless of the reason why I do that, (that’s a whole ‘nother issue altogether) learning how to objectively approach everything is still something I need to learn. My wife tells me that when she worked at a retail store in the mall in high school and college, she learned to not let it bother her when a customer was grouchy toward her, since 99% of the time it wasn’t about her. Said customer was probably having a bad day and was engaging in some “retail therapy” to make things better.

So my question to you is this: how do you go about creating distance between your emotions and what goes on around you? How do you get yourself out of the way? Let me know in the forums.

I’ve been away for a while, re-organizing my professional life after the death of a colleague.  My new responsibilities dramatically reduced my free time, and had a less-than-perfect effect on my personal life as well.  But, in the midst of the chaos, I have (again) started thinking about how to keep my work out of my business (forgive the pun).

I have a saying I use a lot – ‘I refuse to get stressed over leisure activities.’  What it means is that, in general, work is stressful enough.  Life, kids, the house – those are stressful enough.  When we do finally manage to squeeze in a little leisure, it’s a minor miracle.  So, in those moments, I try hard to ensure that whatever I have planned isn’t planned too tightly.  I don’t worry about being late.  I don’t worry about my appearance (too much).  I definitely don’t worry about the cost.  I want to enjoy the whole activity – “The journey is half the experience”, or whatever trite saying you want to use.

When work gets crazy, as it has for me, it often spills out of the office.  The text messages, phone calls, email via iPhone/blackberry…  heck, even what is in your head.  It is all distracting.  It all can detract from your rare leisure time.  Worse yet, for me anyway, it can bring stress into my leisure activities.  And that’s one thing I won’t tolerate.

So, what do to about it?  My current strategy is to try to take myself off the grid a little, but to abort the leisure activity if it seems stressful.  It isn’t doing anyone any good, so I just pack it in and try again another time.  Unfortunately, that hasn’t worked out very well.  I need a new approach.  I need a way to periodically and briefly divorce my professional life from my leisure time.  And that way needs to not involve drinking until I can’t remember I have a job.

Suggestions?  Let’s discuss it in the forums!

One Saturday morning in March, I found myself in a hotel room in Birmingham, Alabama. I had an hour to kill while my wife was at a conference, so I brainstormed one-and-a-half dozen blog post ideas and did a lightning-quick but thorough mind-sweep to create a new projects list from scratch.

I did a lot in that one hour.

It made me consider two things: 1) the limited time I had forced me to work quickly. 2) The different environment forced me to focus.

I’d wager that my output was probably due to the time crunch since I had a lot to do and a short time to do it. I blocked out any distractions there were — especially once I turned off the remodeling show on HGTV. But the unique environment made me consider whether it was a factor in my increased productivity. It was a hotel room — a rather nice one at that, in a historic building in Birmingham — but it was free of familiar distraction I have at home or at work. The only things familiar were the clothes in my suitcase.

So I began to wonder how digital nomads to it — how do they stay productive when the environment constantly changes? I wonder if I’d be distracted by the ever-changing scenery, or if that constant change would force me to be disciplined. Chris Brogan likes working in coffee shops and bookstores. They inspire him.

If you’re a nomad, digital or not (in my case I was working entirely with paper, as I didn’t have a laptop), how do you do it? Does the ever-changing environment distract you? Or does it help you be productive? I’m curious to know.

“Down among the dancing quanta
Everything exists at once.”
~Transverse City, Warren Zevon

This post was supposed to be done yesterday, but my day sorta got away from me. This got me to thinking about where I am really going with this Empire I am building…

There are those times when life throws us a curve-ball, yet if we have a plan and a system we can get through it. Other times our personal productivity is limited by the way that we are thinking about our lives, our goals, and our future. And obviously, my plan is not as detailed or as flexible as it should be. So I will take some time, after I get back on track, to take a look at where I want to be going.

Take control of your perspective

When our view of the future gets obscured by the events of the day, it is time to pause in our travels and take stock of the situation. This is when my intellectual self needs to “take back the steering wheel” from my emotional self, who was definitely in charge yesterday. I was literally sitting at my desk shaking with excitement and anxiety about what was happening. Today I am thinking about the bigger picture:

• What do I have to do today to be prepared for tomorrow?
• What can I delegate? and when is it due back?
• Why was it so difficult/time-consuming to manage the tasks that derailed my day?
• How can I improve my processes to prevent this from happening again?

What are your thoughts on this? Share in the forum.

An important part of my productivity system is taking a little time at the end of each day to do a quick review of my tasks, brain dump whatever is on my mind, and plan the next day. I’ve found that best time for me to do this is about 10:30pm, right before I hit the sack at 11. The problem is, I’ve found that when the last thing I do right before I go to bed is stare at a computer screen for half an hour, I’m usually not very relaxed, my mind is often racing, and I have a little trouble getting to sleep.

In contrast, I’ve noticed that when I take some time to “unplug” before bed, I tend feel less stressed and quite a bit more calm when I go to sleep. So I’ve decided to take my task list completely offline for a while, and do my daily review/planning not in my office at my computer, but in the living room while resting in a nice, comfy chair.

I’ve already started implementing my daily “lo-fi ritual” and I’m already seeing some key benefits:

• It’s more social. I usually plan while my wife reads. While we’re not having a fully interactive discussion, it’s nice to just sit in the same room, listening to the same music together as we wind down our day.
• I’m learning how to better use paper tools. I recently invested in a whole slew of Circa stuff from Levenger, along with a Shirt Pocket Briefcase, and I’m enjoying learning how to best use these new tools. I’m rediscovering a love for hand-writing things that I thought was long gone. Paper may or may not be the most efficient process for me (I’m still learning) but for some reason I’m finding it satisfying and stress relieving to physically write down my tasks and thoughts.
• It’s more focused. Even when using my to do list & note applications full-screen, there’s always this temptation to check Twitter or my email. With just a pen and paper, I can really zero in on what I’m intending to think about.
• It’s easier on my eyes. I do most of my work each day at the computer. I do a lot of my “for-fun” activities (StarCraft, ftw) staring at a screen as well. By the end of the day, my eyes are tired, so taking a break is a welcome relief.

I’m sure I’ll discover even more advantages to making lo-fi notetaking and tasking part of regular routine and productivity system. Do you have a lo-fi ritual? Why not share in the forums?

For a while now, I have been toying with the idea of having a machine with nothing but what I have dubbed “simple apps” on it. A simple app, in my mind, is an application that provides a bare minimum of features for the task at hand. I’m on a Mac so for me some of these would include:

• TextEdit – The built in text editor for Mac OS X. This has just about everything one really needs to commit words onto the page and share it with others.
• Notational Velocity – A great application for small notes and “snippets”. I have mentioned this a few times before.
• Fluid – Fluid creates site specific browser instances. This is crucial for me because a lot of apps I use are web based. Instead of having a full browser open with tabs for these applications, I can create a single instance for each and switch between them as if they are a desktop application.
• TaskPaper – A very clean and simple list manager that saves it’s files in plain text.

I am sure there are many more simple apps out there. I am also sure I am not the only one who prefers a good non-cluttered app. Let’s start a list in the forums.

I know it’s absurd, but I think there are times when a long list of todos might motivate more than a short one. Why? Well, if you have a long list, you have more motivation to get everything finished on that list. If it’s short, you might say, “Eh, that won’t take long. I’ll do it later.”

Maybe it’s a form of procrastination, since I don’t think it’ll work in the long run to let your list build up till you have enough stress to go and do it all at once.

On the other hand, as anecdotal evidence, I offer you the friends I had in high school who made their best grades during basketball season. I think the increased workload and limited amount of time to study forced them to be more disciplined.

So what’s the best way to do it? Have a short list with a few things to do, or a long list with a lot of things on it?

Of course, I think the ideal way to handle your list is to keep a short, effective list, with things appropriately delegated or deleted, plus high motivation and discipline to accomplish what needs to be done. Be conscious of your own energy level and tolerance for the right list length. I think it requires a bit of experimentation as only you can know what the right “workload” is for you.

If your list is too short, you’ll get bored. Or you’ll get lazy and not do anything. If it is too long, you’ll get discouraged and give up.

Just remember, if you have to put “shave” on your todo list, you’re probably taking it way too seriously.

So what do you think? Discuss amongst yourselves over in the forum.

The Storylines module on Ubuntu Linux

I’ve recently started brainstorming for my Master’s thesis, and turns out I’m actually going to have to do some story writing and plot outlining for the project. Seeing as I know pretty much nothing about constructing a story or developing a plot, I started doing some research on software that might come in handy for such a project, and I found this: Writer’s Café.

From the website:

Writer’s Café is a set of power tools for all fiction writers, whether experienced or just starting out. The heart of Writer’s Café is StoryLines, a powerful but simple to use story development tool that dramatically accelerates the creation and structuring of your novel or screenplay.

I’ve actually been pretty impressed with the application. The Journal and Notebook modules are fairly simple, but the Scrapbook seems like it would really useful for any creative writing project, and I have to say I am very impressed with the Storylines component. The way it allows you to manipulate virtual notecards on multiple timelines is just plain cool, not mention really handy for organizing your non-linear thoughts into a more cohesive whole.

How do you organize your thoughts when it comes to writing long-form projects? Notecards, a personal wiki, mindmap? Let’s discuss at the forum.

Lately there seems to be a shift taking place in the blogosphere.

The more you read some of the mainstream blogs, the more you see the word “simplicity”.

I like the word “simplicity”.  Just typing it makes me fell less stressed.  Simple is of course the opposite of complicated.  Complication, naturally, increases stress.

The mantra we have started to march to of late is to simplify our lives.

I like the whole simplification push.  It is necessary. However, I do see some on the bandwagon to stop productivity in its tracks in the process.  I, for one, think that is not such a good idea.

Those that know me closely know that my thinking tends to gravitate toward the hybrid.  I am always piecing things together with ideas from several different places to make something work for me. Some of you will shreak when I say this, but my organizational philosophy is pieced together from several different schools of thought.  I personally believe that Stephen Covey speaks well to areas that David Allen does not spend a lot of focus time on, and vica versa.

For me, it is the same with simplicity and productivity.

There are some of us that no matter how well we organize and make our processes better, we still have way too much on our plate.  Then it becomes necessary to simplify our lives…eliminate some things…cut out unnecessary noise.

Simple processes are also desirable. Especially since simple processes breed effectiveness and efficiency.

But should we throw out the baby with the bath water on productivity?

Let’s look at these two terms and think on that.

In your dictionary, you will find this definition of the word simple…

1. easy to understand, deal with, use, etc.
2. not elaborate or artificial; plain
3. not complicated

On the other hand, the definition of produce is…

1. to bring into existence; give rise to; cause
2. to bring into existence by intellectual or creative ability

So, simple, an adjective is descriptive of a process or a task. Produce, however, is a verb. It requires action.

What does this mean for the people who are looking to not only get things done, but get the right things done when they matter?

It means that we should focus on simplifying the things we do as much as possible.  Why? Because we want to spend our time doing the right things with as little drag on the process as possible. Thus we focus on simple processes.  We also want to simplify in terms of our lifestyle. What do we need in life? What makes us happy? If something we do is not helping us achieve happiness and peace…should we be doing it?

The point is this…

Simplifying a process speaks to disciplining a process or procedure by which we do things.  Productivity is about disciplining ourselves to not just simplify that process or task, but to take action and be a doer.

Productivity and simplicity go hand in hand. Simplifying things makes us more productive.

Just remember, it is all about being done.

What are your thoughts?

I have spent a long time being more than a little envious of people who could add drawings to their notes. One of the masters of this craft, Mike Rohde, has coined the term “sketchnotes” to describe this art. The main source of this envy was that I assumed that some people were simply born to be able to think visually, had a natural artistic talent, or somehow were blessed with the right genetic combination to express this skill. In other words, I never thought I would be able to do so well even if I was to try to learn.

Furthermore, I had built up such high expectations for the quality of my work, my skill level, and how others would view it. I set a high enough barrier to entry to ensure that I never would. This did not stop me from always being on the search for ways to improve my notetaking. As a matter of fact, the initial seed idea for work.life.creativity was generated by my looking for a good forum to ask people such questions.

About a month ago, Mike Rohde announced his involvement with a company called VizThink and their Visual Note-taking 101 webinar. I was immediately interested and signed up as soon as I could. Boy am I glad I did. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had. Here is what I learned:

• I learned that everyone can draw, myself included – “I’m not a visual person” is what I, and a lot of people say, when approached with such things. There is a great quote from the book The Back of The Napkin by Dan Roam. “If you were able to walk into this room without falling down…” you are enough of a visual person to get this stuff.
• I learned a lot about the false barriers we (perhaps intentionally) put up for ourselves. – By setting the bar so high (“I want to be able to draw just like Mike Rohde.”), I ensured I would never even try to start. The fact is, I’m not that good and it is just fine, because I like and understand it. The sketchnotes are for me to draw greater recall from the meeting or presentation. Who cares if they are any good.
• I learned about the freedom we give up as we grow older. – There was a great quote by Pablo Picasso early on in the webinar: “All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” If you think back to your childhood, you drew stuff all the time. Crayons on coloring books way outside the lines. You didn’t care about how it looked, the selection of colors, or what other people thought. You just drew.

Most importantly, I learned the single most exiting thing I have in a long time: Look at the picture above. I can draw! I just had to learn how to give myself the permission to do so.