Thoughts & Miscellany

My 9 Week Challenge and a Framework for Yours

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment
Balancing Act

Balancing Act (Photo credit: Digitalnative)

Every now and then the right article comes along at just the right time. Recently, the guys at Asian Efficiency (AE) put together ten insights from the The Power of Full Engagement, a book by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.

Why is this the right time?

Because a few things have conspired to generate a number of barriers for me in relation to my physical activity and overall lifestyle balance over the past month or so. The middle of winter, working to get this site up and running, and the ongoing and seemingly increasing demands of a regular job meant something had to give, that something largely being a combination of regular physical activity, sound nutrition, and sleep. Now it has to give again, this time towards the positive end of the spectrum.

None of these ‘barriers’ I would consider to be insurmountable obstacles, nor even valid excuses. I am simply making a conscious choice to redress the balance, using the framework outlined in the AE post for ideas on action steps to begin generating momentum towards positive change. Without thoughtful self assessment now, I can see things continuing to slide in a direction I do not wish to go.

Struggling Yourself or Looking to Make a Change?

Though not a recipe, these ten insights provide the perfect framework to review your current status in a way that provides an overview of key lifestyle areas for maximum productivity, balance and enjoyment of life. The focus is on your energy, rituals and purpose – not just time management, to optimise the quality of both your work and play.

An emphasis on energy management has long been the message of Tony Schwartz, for example in this article from the Harvard Business Review (free HBR login required for complete article). There is also much more to read and learn on his website, unsurprisingly called The Energy Project.

Why use this as a framework?

Because, as with any larger project, breaking it down into specific, manageable actions will significantly increase your likelihood of completing each, and generate enough momentum to push the entire project (or in this case life balance re-boot) along. It is considerably more realistic to check off a review of these ten items than simply “improve/rebalance my life”.

My plan is to ensure I am making positive change or progress in each of these ten key areas in turn over the next nine weeks, and assess the results after that period of time. Whoa right there – nine weeks? There are ten items here, would this not fit ten weeks? Of course it would, which is exactly my point, this is to be tailored for my circumstance – I have a week-long beach holiday booked in nine weeks time and this is the “hard out” at the end of this particular review. Plus, I can see one item (napping), that will not fit my corporate environment for the five days of the week I am in the office. So nine it is.

Where is the list?

For the specific ten item list, go and read the AE post. I plan to take actions on each of the items individually, however they fit the broad categories below.

  • Physical

Maximising your energy, optimising sleep, napping, attending to your diet and physical activity levels.

  • Engagement and Purpose

Be actively engaged in what you are doing. Work in short bursts with maximum energy. Take regular breaks to recharge both in the short and long term. Quality not quantity – that old adage is never more relevant.

  • Mental and Emotional

Here, we are looking at rituals, getting rid of negative thoughts and at times, listening to your body and where necessary ‘going with the flow’.

  • Spiritual

The final insight which in my opinion is the key that unlocks the rest – live with purpose.

Consider periodically what you are doing, relate this to why you are doing it (the end goal or what you set out to achieve), and undertake the most effective means to get there. Be deliberate in looking after yourself, considering your approach in each of these areas, and align these towards not only your goals, but also in achieving an appropriate balance in your life.

If you have not yet done so, your next action is to go and read the AE post, consider the ten items and the recommended actions for each. Hope you’ll be back…

Will I follow the recommended actions exactly as written by AE? No. Again, this is a framework. In my opinion you will never read a motivational or ‘self help’ article or book that will fit your particular circumstances exactly, and to think one will is to set yourself up for failure. This is about self-awareness and being flexible to your own needs. Be purposeful about it and you will likely succeed.

Another excellent article by Michael Schechter over at Workflowing hits the mark when discussing productivity and workflows in a post written for those struggling to improve:

I’m not suggesting you start reading every self-help book out there, I’m not really even suggesting you stop considering your options. I’m just suggesting that you spend as much of your energy improving your self-awareness as your workflow.

Occasionally, just take the time to sit back and ask yourself, what’s going on here? Don’t kid yourself that you do not have time to do this, because simply being aware of where things stand in the balance of your professional and personal life, will lift a significant burden off your shoulders. The killer blow is then to take action, but you have to know where to start and what actions to take. In reality, when broken down, these are likely to be less complicated or difficult than you imagine.

Conclusion

The end of the nine weeks – what then? Well, put simply, I plan to enjoy a relaxing holiday with my family, and thereafter continue to build on the foundations of what I have found to be useful and relevant for me from the areas above. As we all now, a lifestyle is something that you lead with purpose, but a healthy and well-balanced one should not be a constant fight once things are in place. As the AE guys indicate, make things easier on yourself:

When you try to rely on willpower and discipline to get stuff done, you’re setting yourself up for failure. There will always be times when you let things slide. On the other hand, when you make it habitual you don’t have to use any brain power or willpower to get things done. Once it’s automatic and ingrained, you just do it.

My next actions? A new folder in Omnifocus called Nine Weeks with nine individual projects and their next actions. You don’t need specifics as you will go and create your own in whatever task manager or system you use right?

Good luck, there are real benefits to be gained from a review such as this, and these ten insights are a great place to start.

A note on Asian Efficiency.

For anyone looking to seek out some great advice on productivity and ways to achieve optimum overall function in both work and play, there is no better resource than this site. Some premium content is at cost, however what you will obtain for free is more then enough to see positive changes if you make the effort to apply it.

One of the real strengths of the writing on the AE site is their ability to take a large amount of information and disseminate it in a way that is easily consumable and relevant. I highly recommend a subscription to their newsletter, and while you are at it I would do the same over at Workflowing.

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Reflection

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment
Sunsetting in Rearview Mirror, South Dakota

(Photo credit: Arthur Chapman)

One of the earliest posts I wrote on this site was about my use of the app Day One for recording workout data. The ability to use tags, have weather and location data automatically added, along with the date and time of the workout allows the easy creation of an ongoing workout log. Despite a myriad of other uses, the app was originally designed for journalling.

In a time where information flies both at, and past us in the blink of an eye, a recent post by Federico Viticci on Macstories, led me to pause and consider the power of looking back. We spend so much time consuming and searching out information, planning and implementing our projects, reflection gets lost in the mire.

Though he has alluded to his cancer treatment before, there is a certain power in this statement by Federico:

Today, when I remembered that exactly one year ago I was hospitalized for 22 days for a series of treatments to save my life, I tweeted about it. And then I opened Day One.

And this:

A combination of old thoughts and visual memories that I still have, in some form, in my brain, but that here, in this app — right now — I can hold and directly look at. It is, indeed, far more powerful than memory alone.

One thing I have never been good at is regular journalling, though I acknowledge and have read about its many benefits. Although all of my entries in Day One aren’t tagged ‘workout’, those of a journalling nature are lower in number and regularity than I would like.

This is something I plan to change, as it is important to realise that in many ways, what you have done is often infinitely more important than what you are about to do.

Doing Your Best Work in the Shower

/ Pete Denison / 1 Comment
English: Shower

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your best creative work that is. Somewhere between soap and rinse you will often find a solution to the creative roadblock that has been in place all day, or perhaps even all week. I find this to be an extremely common occurrence.

Much has been written about the phenomenon of creative ideas occurring when we are undertaking anything but the actual work itself. There are both differing views and at times outright disagreement on the neurological mechanisms behind it, as seen in the comments below a post written by Leo Widrich on Buffer. Whatever the view on the mechanism behind this phenomenon – it exists, and is a powerful, if unintentional way of moving forward on solving a creative problem.

So, if we know this exists, how to harness the power? Featured on 99u, a book review of Brian Eno: His Music and The Vertical Sound of Color, outlines some of the techniques Eno successfully used in overcoming blocks in the creative process. Whilst some of these techniques are deliberate ways to stimulate creativity, in my view, none is more important than this one:

The point about working is not to produce great stuff all the time, but to remain ready for when you can.

Simply applying the same techniques (though well worth a try) of someone as successful as musician and producer Eno (U2, Talking Heads), will most likely not provide you with the same creative rewards, which is why the sentiment above is so important.

A great idea is worthless unless it is remembered or recorded, something eloquently put in the tag line of Field Notes notebooks:

I’m not writing it down to remember it later, I’m writing it down to remember it now.

Whether or not your best ideas come in the shower, or even while running, get them down as quickly as you can and solve many a problem seemingly without “thinking” about it. Move your projects forward, around the barriers that seem so impenetrable, without having to brute force your way through, using up vital resources and time.

Granted, there are times when a deadline will be rapidly approaching and a solution will need to be finalised, with the time for relaxing in the shower waiting for the next breakthrough having come and gone. In times like these I have found it useful to consider past ideas, reviewing notes captured on similar problems or even unrelated ones for possible inspiration. Again, record the ideas, and in addition, keep the ideas!

Capture

Shower_Capture

So our brain has done its job, subconsciously exploring all possible options and avenues available, placing a great idea front and centre – what next?

Capture it by any means available to you. Pen and paper, whiteboard, digital device, Hipster PDA, tell Siri if you have to. Just get it down somehow. How do I capture these ideas? A few different ways:

  • Moleskine Cahier Notebook – this is the idea book, the spark file, with cross referenced pages indexed for future retrieval
  • Drafts app – can be used simply as a digital version of a piece of paper, or is capable of more complex functions. This app will quickly grab any idea or text entry, which can then be ‘sent to’ or ‘opened in’ just about any app you can imagine
  • 3×5 index cards – a stack of these are kept in the top drawer of my office desk. Once the idea is captured, the card is placed in the pocket at the back of the Moleskine notebook for processing at a later time. Any post it note or scrap of paper also substitutes well here, and I have also recently commenced using a Field Notes notebook in this particular area of my workflow.
  • Omnifocus – for any ideas that I know are part of a larger project, or will be one themselves, I use the Omnifocus inbox as the first port of call, as all of these will end up here eventually

I have never been a fan of the notebook on the bedside table, in the bathroom, or the whiteboard in the shower, as I find constantly looking at an empty page or board that is meant for “great ideas” has the opposite effect. The tools are simply required to be close at hand when you need them. Not for when you think you should use them.

Store

Shower_Store

To any of you familiar with David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD), I have obviously skipped the processing of the notes and ideas, however that aspect is beyond the scope of this post. As I have mentioned above, there are times when it is very useful to be able to go back and review previous ideas, even if unrelated to the problem at hand. Personally, I store these notes and ideas in:

  • Evernote – I use a free account which allows searching of both notes and tags
  • Moleskine Cahier Notebook – as mentioned above. The key in using this for both capture and storage is the index page, cross referenced to related pages; a copy of the index is also scanned and stored in Evernote, allowing a better overview across multiple books
  • Plain Text File – this is used also when at my office desk for ideas that will remain in the digital realm at the office, often stored in the project folder with any associated reference material

The most powerful form of capture and storage for me? Probably capturing in Drafts and utilising the ‘send to’ feature, where I can send the idea to Evernote, my work email account, or to another app to be fleshed out further should that be required.

Putting these ideas into a more cohesive project and action type framework occurs in Omnifocus, however again this is for a separate Processing post.

Conclusion

Irrespective of when or where they occur, these ideas will come to you. If you are at least somewhat prepared to capture and store them, they will not be lost to the ravages of time or distraction.

The faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory (Chinese Proverb)

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Riding the Upgrade Cycle

/ Pete Denison / Leave a comment
English: Apple iPad 2 launch.

Apple product launch. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Technology moves at a rapid pace these days, and reflection on the various ways we use it is often bypassed in the search for, or acquisition of, the next ‘big’ or ‘shiny new’ thing.

As far as Apple technology is concerned, we are all supposedly waiting on the retina iPad Mini 2; iPad 5, and iPhone 5s (or however Apple specifically choose to name them). Even greater hype surrounds the possibility of an iWatch (again, whether or not this would be the name of such a product or if it even exists).

Why should we reflect on what we have, rather than what we may want to get? Simply because it is well worth considering whether upgrading will, in reality, better serve your needs. In posing this question, you may genuinely believe a newer model will enhance your productivity or be more useful to you, over and above upgrading merely for the sake of it.

There is no doubting the amazing power and capability of the current products on the market, which will become more so with even further technological advancement in the future.

However, it is worth remembering, if you are not using what you currently have to its full potential, a newer tool will not automatically bridge that gap for you.

 

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Book Review – Act Accordingly by Colin Wright

/ Pete Denison / 1 Comment

Act Accordingly by Colin Wright
Asymmetrical Press (2013)
Available on Amazon

You have exactly one life in which to do everything you’ll ever do. Act accordingly.

As described on Amazon:

Act Accordingly is a philosophical framework written to help people become the best possible version of themselves. Rather than proposing a one-size-fits-all code of beliefs or behaviors, the ideas presented in this intentionally concise book encourage readers to question their long-held biases, their definition of confidence, their level of self-sustainability, and the degree to which they allow themselves to evolve their beliefs over time.

Upon reading this latest work from Colin Wright, a realisation comes a few pages in that the aim here is to raise more questions than provide answers (a positive in the context of this book). Providing a framework of reference for evaluating your personal beliefs and views on your place in society is the biggest strength of this concise, but thought-provoking work (at 80 pages, you will get through this in an hour).

In a market flooded with self-help and motivational “how to” guides, this provides the “why” in a way that allows you to determine for yourself how it all fits together and relates to your own situation. The biggest criticism I have of many books on these types of subjects is they apply one rigid framework to many a varied situation. There is generally little to be gained from trying to hang a rectangular artwork inside a square frame.

Personally, I have always held the view that most people set out to portray themselves, or act in a way that demonstrates, the best version of themselves. Too often this is somewhat dismissed by societal expectations, and as a result, we consider a persons best version of themselves as insufficient or even plain wrong, simply because the version is different to our own. I myself am guilty at times of having a lower threshold of acceptance for certain behaviours (behaviours which are not wrong, and may only be marginally different from my own), simply because they may not sit exactly where I would like them in my frame of reference.

One of the real strengths of Act Accordingly is not only in providing questions to guide your thinking in reviewing your own belief system, but also (and possibly of greater value) providing questions that will allow you to reconsider how you view and respond to others belief systems. For example, on others opinions:

After all, they’re basing their beliefs on the best information available to them, their personal history, and experiences. The same as you.

And again, in acknowledging these differences, and seeking to exert positive influence:

Exemplify the ‘right’ you want to see, and allow others to follow. Expecting others to live according to your own standards can be just as wrong as the ‘wrong’ things they do.

Other sections of the book look at confidence and applying yourself to the things that will make a difference to you, and how you are not a label, nor a logo, though people will try to identify you in this way.

The key thought here is that you can develop your own philosophy to live by, not ascribe to someone else’s. Where do the tenets of this philosophy come from? The answer is one that only you will know, even if you are not yet fully aware of it, and in the words of the author, consider the following:

Am I living this? Or just telling myself I am?
If the answer to the first question is ‘no’, develop a philosophy you can say ‘yes’ to. Then act accordingly.

In summary, Act Accordingly will stimulate you to assess your own standards, values and beliefs, and consider how they determine your path in life. This is not a cookbook – there no recipes to blindly follow, which is precisely why I would recommend this as definitely one to read.

Act Accordingly by Colin Wright
Asymmetrical Press (2013)
Available on Amazon