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What Andy's Doing
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Recently Written
- Featured Blog: Patrick Rhone and His Journal
- Ask The Readers: Can You Disconnect And Still Be Productive?
- Why Working Long, Hard Hours Gets You Behind (?)
- How to Help Great Productivity Blogs Get Discovered
- My Scandelous Confession and A Royal Rant About GTD
- On New Beginnings (And More About Your Host)
- Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow
- How to Use Basecamp and Backback In Perfect Harmony
- How to Chill Out
- Productivity Tweet of the Week(ish): Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
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Categories
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Archives
Eliminating Distractions is Easy.
OK, maybe it’s not “easy”, but there’s certainly no magic to it. Books upon volumes have been penned about this fairly straightforward topic; books full of hacks, wisdom and tricks that will help you maintain your focus and not get sidetracked. But I’ve got some news for you, Jack…
It’s entirely up to you. Anything that you allow into your peripheral vision while you’re hammering away on that big proposal is, yep, your fault. That said, it’s time for a little thing the Russians call “tough love”.
When people in this day and age refer to distractions, most of the time they’re talking about computer-related things. Mind-yankers like instant messaging applications, Facebook, your fantasy underwater basketweaving team, etc. You need to relegate things like this to your discretionary time (obviously). And if you want to remove them as distractions, you have to get freaking guerrilla about it. Removing them from your bookmark toolbar in Firefox isn’t going to cut it (as you probably already know), because the temptation is too great and the satisfaction is too immediately had.
Productivity Systems Don’t Suck, But Sometimes I Do
Few would argue that Merlin Mann is the Godfather of GTD/productivity blogging. About a month ago he posted Four Years and followed it up with Time, Attention, and Creative Work. If you haven’t read these, please do so now… It’s good stuff.
What do you think?
I look at both of these posts in a positive light. They are sobering reminders of how our personal productivity systems are nothing more than a means to an end. Why we produce boils down to reasons that live deep inside of us. I focus on being productive because my personal goals and commitments require me to get a lot of things done in a short period of time. I am passionate about productivity systems because they allow my over-achieving, over-estimating self to get closer to achieving my goals faster and with minimal affects on my health and overall well-being.
Are you Ready?
If you were to ask me for the true marks of a really productive person (which I’m not, incidentally, so take this with a grain of salt), I wouldn’t say anything about their work area, notebook collection, or pocket contents. I wouldn’t even necessarily cite their ability to consistently meet deadlines (because that just means they may not have very many commitments). You know what I’d say?
They’re ready. Like, for just about anything.
No, I’m not referring to the type of superhero cool that some are able to maintain during times of extreme stress or duress (think Jack Bauer). I’m talking about the guy who, when you walk up to his desk unannounced, turns away from his computer, busts out a clean sheet of paper and a pen and gives you his full attention. Immediately.
This is one of those skills that takes a hell of a long time to cultivate, and can really only be mastered by those who have two things:
- A hell of a lot of responsibility
- A hell of a lot of time to practice changing their immediate focus
For the guy whose job it is to make sure that the equipment at the oil refinery doesn’t explode, this may not be something he gets to spend any time working on (or maybe it is, hell if I know). When your job requires you to be ready to switch to firefighter mode at a moments notice, you’ll be faced with a “sink or swim” type of situation. After an innumerable amount of “sinks”, one day you’ll finally start to clumsily swim. After a whole mess of that, then (I imagine) you’ll be “there”.
Just to reiterate, I don’t see myself as possessing this trait. I can change focus easily enough, but the cost of doing so is incredibly apparent when I try to return to the original, pre-interruption task. So I’m giving advice on a topic that I, frankly, have no business giving advice on. But that’s how I imagine this type of skill being manifest.
So, are you ready?
Ask the Readers: What happens to “Do it Now” Actions?
As we process our stuff and determine next actions, as good GTD practitioners we do any action we’ve just defined that will take less than two minutes to complete. After doing the action, how do you handle the piece of stuff and the action that was just processed & done?
Some things I’m thinking about while trying to answer this are:
- Would you figure out what project you just did the action for and file the item (and maybe action) as reference? (This would be useful if you reviewed completed actions as part of your review)
- Does the action just get crossed off and never visited again?
- Do you immediately determine a next action for that piece of stuff?
- Do you just junk the piece of stuff?
Please weigh in via comments with your responses. I appreciate your assistance in solving this strange, yet intruiging problem with me. 
Converting Coworkers to GTD
So you’ve read through GTD for the ump-teenth time and it looks like you used it to beat back a pack of wild boar. You’ve got your all of your inputs handled and your edges are so clean you could eat off of them. I hate to pee in anybody’s punch, but that was the easy part.
Your officemate and frequent collaborator, Bob, has an in-basket that looks like an open-faced filing cabinet. He might as well change the name of his Outlook inbox to “freaking everything”. In short, his personal productivity system makes your skin crawl. What recourse do you have? How can you show Bob the One True Way?
Well, the short answer is - you can’t. Think of it as a marriage. For years and years, you’ve been arranging your toiletries a certain way, then along comes your brand new spouse. You’re equally excited about joining your separate existences into a unified organism of love or something. But the jerk can’t seem to understand why the toothpaste cap needs to be replaced once the paste has been dispensed. And it makes you want to go over the table on him (and not in the newlywed sort of way).
You can browbeat your coworkers until you’re blue in the face about how if only they would read this delightful book, then all of their problems will be solved - but it really won’t solve anything. The key to winning the hearts and notebooks of your unenlightened coworkers is to lead by example. You have to be a freaking ninja at this stuff before you can go around proselytising. Because, if your credibility in such matters is even a little shaky, you’ll be dismissed quicker than the class clown in third period french.
If you consistenly out-perform those around you (and still leave the office on time), your superiors will start to notice. And once they do, they’ll start poking around, watching you work. Before you know it, they’ll be asking you to lead seminars and lunchtime meetings for your coworkers and colleagues because the brass want the rest of the rank and file to crank on their work the same way that you do.
So, unless Bob asks, save your GTD speech for the ears of those who really want to hear it. It’ll go eons farther, I promise you.
Get a Job Interview: 5 Tactics for Drastically Increasing Your Odds
The recent financial turmoil has created a situation where unemployment could be a problem for quite some time. The good news for the unemployed is that there are tangible things that you can do to increase your chances of getting noticed for the jobs that are available.
Sure, jobs are going away, but jobs are also always being created. Increasing unemployment numbers just mean there are more of the former. Hires are still happening everyday. Plus, jobs are being recycled at companies all over the country. For example:
- People move for a variety of reasons and have to resign,
- People screw up and get terminated,
- People get pregnant and quit to raise their children, etc. etc.
Oftentimes these are all people who (should) have been providing a vital function to the organization they worked for and that organization will look to fill the void that they left behind.
I recently ran a job ad for a “recycled” position and received hundreds of resumes, literally. I’ve never seen anything like it. Some applicants were so over-qualified it bordered on ridiculousness, yet when we called they were grateful just to hear back from someone.
This post is not about how to write a great resume, there are plenty of resources out there for that. What I hope to do today is to give you insights into the mind of someone who has been responsible for making hiring decisions in this job market. My goal is to help you get you in front of as many potential employers as possible. Here goes:
How to Reclaim 15 Hours of Your Life Back - Every Week!
A guest poster over at Get Rich Slowly recently shared an incredible tip for how to use a recording device to get control of your TV watching habits so you can redirect your attention to far more productive endeavors.
Erica Douglass writes:
750 hours a year is 14.42 hours a week, or just over two hours a day. Besides housework, “market work” (the term the book uses to denote paid-for jobs), and sleeping, what activity consumes the most time?
The answer shocked me: It’s watching television.
She goes on to suggest using a DVR to strategically record shows you are interested in and only actually watch what is necessary. I actually have been using this technique for about a year now. It’s been very good to me. Here are a couple thoughts / suggestions not discussed in Erica’s post:
I am Productivity (And So Can You!)
Hello, My name is Andy and I’m the new guy here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. While I hope to share far more valuable information in the months and years to come, I’d like to kick things off by getting some answers to the obligatory “who the heck is this guy?” out of the way.
I’ve been interested in getting as much done as possible with the least amount of effort for as long as I can remember. I guess thats the definition of productivity… Work smarter, not harder! However I’m embarrassed to say that I’m a GTD late bloomer. In fact, we only need to travel back in time about a year to discover my roots…
As the Saying Goes, “Many Hands Make Light Work”
Well, as you’ve probably noticed, posting around here has slowed practically to a crawl. There are several reasons for this, many of them good ones, many of them attributable directly to the laziness of yours truly. I’m not happy about it, but this little blog has been the victim of what a database administrator would call a “process deadlock” - when having to choose between various responsibilities and obligations that I have, the old CW has been passed over on several occasions. For that, I apologize.
But, this here cloud has a silver lining. I’m happy to announce the addition of a contributing author here on Cranking Widgets. My good buddy Andy is a serious GTD practitioner, not to mention a hell of a smart and savvy guy in general. He brings many areas of expertise to the table (most of which I, frankly, lack the brain cells to handle), so I think he’ll be a refreshing change from my usual dry-witted drivel. I’m excited that he’s going to be helping me out, and I’d appreciate it if you would all treat him as kindly as you’ve treated me these past years.
Having said all that, keep your eyes out for new content and other goodies as Andy and I start getting this blog back to being the productivity powerhouse that it once was - or something like that
Thanks a ton, everybody, for understanding and for sticking with me as I slack. You all are awesome and I’m privileged and humbled to have you as an audience for my little backyard puppet show.
Here’s to the future!
