As we get to about thigh deep, all of the sudden the waves started getting bigger and coming at us non-stop. With the weight of our gear and the pounding of the waves, the effort to keep moving out beyond the break-point became exhausting. As soon as we would come up for air, another wave would hit us, which gave us little time to catch our breath. At one point, someone in the group started panicking and froze. I saw her going under water. Immediately, I swim over, grab her inflation hose and air shoots into her BCD. She is now safely floating on her back just beyond the break point, but suffering from shock and exhaustion. I grab the back of her tank and begin the dead mans tow further out to sea, safe from the surf.

A Passionate Struggle

This was my first beach dive. I was getting PADI certified for open water diving. My instructor was named Justin. Justin loves diving. He’s is an amazing instructor and it was obvious to me that his passion for diving consumed every fiber of his being. I knew what to do at that instant because he taught it to me in a way that made me excited to learn about it. I’m a terrible student, but I respected his passion for what he does and it got me through my first trial as a diver my first time out without much thought.

Justin had a thing for a friend that took the class with me so I got to know him a bit more than the others in the group. Among other things, I learned that drives a beat up old truck, lives in a so-so part of town and has to work as a waiter during the night just to pay his bills. At one point he admitted he was barely getting by and doesn’t dive nearly as much as he would like to due to expense. He told me teaching more would allow him to dive more often, but it didn’t pay well enough to cover the bills.

In career theory passionate people are generally fall into a category known as specialists. Specialists want to do nothing more than what they specialize in. Great artists don’t become great artists by getting bored and becoming gardeners, they keep building on their greatness. Generally these passionate people are stuck behind a desk doing something they’re not so passionate about. Sometimes that gives them the funds they need to do what they love whenever they like, but more often they’ll earn barely enough to finance their passion.

It has always bothered me that good, passionate people are so deserving of a comfortable life, yet many are barely getting by. I know talented musicians, artists, wood workers and teachers who all fit into this category. It doesn’t seem right to work so hard to obtain a respectable skill in one area of life only to struggle to find the means to spend time doing that skill.

There is Hope… If You’re Willing to be a Career Renegade

When Jonathan Fields offered me an advance copy of his new book, Career Renegade: How to make a Living Doing What you Love, I jumped at the chance to receive it. I had learned about Jonathan’s blog a few months ago and became a fan of his writing, and attitude towards life, almost instantly.

Career Renegade starts off by telling us about Jonathan’s history. He is an ex-attorney who worked himself sick — literally. After putting in 72 hours straight to close a large deal for one of his clients, he collapsed and had to be taken to the emergency room for abdominal surgery due to stress caused by his work schedule. This was a wake-up call for him and put him on a new path to find his passions, work with people who shared them and help others whenever possible. This book is a guide for how others can find the same path.

What I like about Career Renegade is that it is far more practical than other career books I’ve read. It doesn’t preach that you should simply find your passion and do it until others around you notice it and reward you for it. It doesn’t say you should live as a pauper because your passion is what really will make you happy. He recognizes that you have to feed your family and deserve to live well doing what you love.

Career Renegade: How to make a Living Doing What you Love is an easy read from beginning to end. Jonathan’s writing is both practical and inspirational. I particularly like the use of case studies to illustrate points keeps the content fresh and easily digestible.  Often chapters will end with a practical call to action or exercises designed to get you going. It also offers a plethora of resources throughout the book, which are extremely relevant, cost-effective and stand to save hours of research.

Career Renegade: How to make a Living Doing What you Love offers the inspiration and information you need to embark on your own renegade path. I highly recommend Career Renegade: How to make a Living Doing What you Love to those or you who are searching for, and often deserving, greater meaning and reward from the work you do.

Patrick Rhone is by no means new to the blogging world. He has been doing it for a few years now and has been mentioned in some pretty big blogs, such as 37Signals’ Signals v Noise as well as Merlin Mann’s 43folders. I was fortunate enough to have been exposed to his work when I started writing for Cranking Widgets a few months ago. 

About Patrick Rhone

When I asked Patrick why he started blogging, and why he still does it today, here’s what he had to say:

My first job in the tech industry was writing customer service correspondence, technical documents and copy for a computer company. Even as a kid I wanted to grow up to be a writer. I started out in my career as a writer and, though blogging, I continue to do so now. The main reason I enjoy doing so is to share my ideas, clear my head and, hopefully, pass along a useful lesson or two.

Patrick exemplifies the essence of why blogging originally rose to popularity. Blogging started as a place for real people to express themselves and maybe help others in the process. His writing offers a nice balance of soul and useful information. He doesn’t do it for money, there are no ads to be found anywhere on his blog. It is clear that he’s gone to great lengths to make his blog all about communicating the content and nothing else.

A Few Notable Posts

Below are some of my favorites from Patrick’s archives.

• In Defense of Fiddling: I’ve been known to bash the concept of fiddling. Patrick offers a good argument for why fiddling may not be so bad.
• Getting Real With Your Lists: A great wake up call that deserves a re-read periodically. Sometimes we get caught up in the moment with our ideas. For example, once upon a time I thought I wanted to learn how to kite surf. I live near the beach so I thought it would be a fun thing to do. It was on my someday list for a while, then I realized I never saw others kite surfing at my local beach, which made me realize I probably wouldn’t do it since I’d have to travel. I got real. It got scratched. 
• AwayFind: A great review of a new service that deserves mentioning. He goes beyond the product features and talks about the real benefits. Well done.

Conclusion

Patrick is not one to post for the sake of posting – He generally writes when he has something useful to say. A solid focus on value is never a bad thing. This makes Patrick Rhone’s Journal is a perfect candidate for subscribing to his RSS feed, or alternatively you can get notified of new posts by following him on Twitter.

Coming back from a (mostly) online-free 4 days made me realize how much time is wasted every day checking and rechecking stuff for no good reason. It made me wonder if it was possible, or productive, to have more days where I greatly reduce my usage of the Internet… Or maybe even cut it out entirely!

What do you think? Is there any additional productivity to be gained from unplugging the modem for a day or two a week and forcing yourself to focus on only the important stuff in your life? Has anyone tried it? If so, what are the results? If not, would you? Please discuss

Cheryl is enjoying her wine and poking away at her Blackberry when she notices her acquantance Jude had just arrived. Cheryl gets up and walks over to Jude. They greet eachother with a hug’s and hello’s. Jude asks, “Hey! How have you been?”

Cheryl proudly replies, “I’m stressed out! I’ve been putting in 10 hour days to finish a very important project at work and I can barely sleep at night. Its all I can think about.”

Jude, appearing to feel inferior, retorts, “That sounds great! But, I wish I had your schedule. I’ve been working 10 hour days and most weekends recently!”

Cheryl gets a bit defensive and quickly shoots back with, “Well, I’d trade my weekends to get rid of these headaches. At least you don’t get migranes twice a week! But it’s worth it. I bought a new boat, its a beautiful 40 footer. I’m just not sure when I’ll be able to find the time to use it!”

At that point I had lost interest and stopped listening. I’m pretty sure the pissing match continued for a while longer…

High Stress = Success!

I’d wager many of you have observed, or even participated in, an exchange simlar to this one. While stress is an inescapable part of life, I find it sad that there are people like Jude and Cheryl who brag about it like its a badge of honor. Stress has become another measuring stick for how successful they’ve become.

Convential wisdom says that in this fast-paced, digital world, we cannot disconnect from work… Especially in this economy! We must sacrifice our lives, our relationships, our hobbies and everything else that bears any real importance in life so we can sell more widgets for the company, get a promotion, get a bigger house, buy more cars, a bigger TV, etc.

For the majority of working adults, the biggest source of stress comes from the inability to disconnect from work… We all seem to struggle to find the elusive beast we call “work/life balance.” Of course at the end of a long, hard week we know its worth it because working those long, hard hours is how we get ahead, right?

Gotcha!

A recent Freakonomic-esque study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology suggests this conventional wisdom is quite wrong. I don’t actually follow such prestigous publications, but I’m fortunate that my good friend and business partner, Dr. Ken Nowack, does. In a recent post on our blog for talent development professionals, Results vs Activities, he shares:

In a new study using self-ratings, manager and peer ratings of 9,627 leaders in 33 countries found that managers who were rated higher in work-life balance were rated higher in career advancement potential than were workaholics.

I highly recommend you check out the entire post.

It’s important to acknowledge that the study did not tell us whethor or not those who had higher potential to advance actually did. I do know from other studies we’ve done that your managers and peers are generally looking through different lenses when they are rating others. Often peers are looking at leadership potential (and often they are pretty darn accurate). Managers generally rate on how well someone delivers bottom-line results. Both of these factors contribute greatly to your career advancement potential, which makes this study all the more important.

In addition to workaholics being less likely to advance, it is commonly known that they will experience more of the standard stress-related health effects, such as increased blood pressure, stomach issues, gray hairs, skin issues and sexual disfunction.

Manage Your Time, Work Less & Get Ahead?

As most readers know from first hand experience, practicing some sort of productivity system, (GTD, ZTD, 7 Habits, etc.) tends to very quickly result in increased productivity, which allows your to get more done in less time, which of course allows you to increase your work/life balance — provided you can downplay your competence just enough so that your boss doesn’t “reward’ you with extra work.

My interpretation of other stress & health info that I’ve been exposed to suggests that combining time management techniques like GTD with other work/life balance management techniques (to be discussed in later posts) create magical & multiplicative increases to your overall productivity.

So for those of you who practice productivity, keep it up… And Keep ignoring the dirty looks from your co-workers as you leave the office every day at 5:00 sharp. After all, they’ll probably be working for you one day.

This post represents the first of many in a new Stress & Health category here at The Cranking Widgets Blog. There is just too much data available linking stress & health management to productivity to ignore it as a very important factor in getting things done, living a better life and reaching your goals.

It is my observation that writers of niche blogs have a fairly predictable shelf life.  Most non-news-telling bloggers that see some early successes last a good 2-3 years before they stop posting. Most of the time the value posts are made within the first 12 months and it goes downhill from there. (Side tip: whenever you discover a new blog on a topic of interest that boasts a solid readership today, find the archives and start from the beginning. You’ll rarely be disappointed.)

There are only so many tips one person can have for how to make widgets, shave your body hair, make money online, collect monkeys, or whatever else may get a bloggers goat for a while. The symptoms are the same: deceleration of posting, the authors posts seem forced and/or repetitive, more guest posters, etc. My gut tells me we’re coming to an end of a cycle of higher-profile bloggers in the productivity world. I think its a shame because many were an invaluable source of inspiration and great ideas.

Here’s to New Blogs With Great Content in Need of Readers

A few weeks ago a fellow named Chuck Westbrook started a movement designed to give up-and-coming bloggers a chance to gain some exposure. Chris Brogan caught wind of the concept and tweeted about it to his ~20k followers on Twitter. Later Darren from Problogger and Guy Kawasaki tossed in some links and really gave the idea some legs.

Chuck is on to something, but my definition of an interesting blogger is slightly different that what has been selected so far. I like reading what helpful and/or inspirational productivity or personal development-oriented bloggers have to say. Since joining The Cranking Widgets Blog I’ve already been introduced to some new authors that I’ve found very valuable and are still loving their blogs. I’m confident there are plenty more out there that I’ve yet to discover.

I want to be introduced to other success-minded bloggers who are still excited about how to help others get more stuff done and reach their goals.  I want to share the ones that are particularly valuable with you by giving a more in depth review or interview… Maybe even put something about them in the sidebar for a week or two. (If I get too many submissions, I’ll share my favorites on Twitter — follow me here.)

My Criteria

This one will be a moving target, but generally I’d say:

1. I’m not interested in GTD calendars, notebooks or other productivity pr0n. I’ve seen some newer bloggers that appear to be all about trying to make a buck instead of helping others. I can’t blame them, but it adds too much noise.
2. Insight and passion are key. That’s the beauty of blogs. “Ordinary” people can write about their passions and it actually shows! I’d like to give exposure to people who are passionate about helping people get more done and reach their goals.
3. 5k RSS readers or less. I’m happy to promote the Zen Habits’ and Lifehacker’s of the world since they are definitely high-value, but I’m looking for smaller-scale. I realize 5k RSS readers is pretty significant already. The main objective is finding high-value blogs that aren’t already a “household name.”

How You Can Help

I would be grateful if you could help shine some more light on the quality bloggers that are out there. A couple options:

1. Please share your favorite productivity or personal development oriented blog with our fellow readers via comments. Give us a link and tell us why you like it.
2. If you have a blog and you feel like it fits the bill, writing up a detailed post that summarizes what you’re all about would be helpful. How do you like to preach productivity/reaching goals? Do you post tips? General concepts? Inspiration? What is your mission (following your passion is a perfectly good mission btw)?  Highlighting your favorite articles that you’ve written so far would be value-added (I’m sure your readers wouldn’t mind either.) Include a link to your post as a comment below.

I have already selected the first blogger that I’ll be highlighting. He’s someone that Brett introduced me to a couple months ago and I’m grateful to be able to read what he has to say. I’ll be sharing his blog with you next week.

For now, please submit away! I’m really looking forward to discovering and sharing new blogs!

Most of Us…

Most of us have read Getting Things Done by The David and most of us loved it immediately. Most of us injected the principles into our work flow as quickly as possible. Most of us felt a sense of peace and control as a result.

Most of us found Merlin Mann (how couldn’t we?) Most of us bought 3×5 index cards to capture thoughts and created Hipster-PDAs to hold the cards. Most of us bought Moleskine notebooks to manage our lists because that was the cool thing to do and that’s what Merlin Mann liked best.

Then most of us went digital and bounced between Omnifocus and Remember the Milk and Things and Backpack for a while because this software was supposed to help make managing our lives digitally a lot easier. Most of us realized that bouncing between each of these pieces of software was a huge time investment just to trade one problem for another, yet most of us ignored it and kept switching anyway.

Most of us have tried our best to regularly process our inbox, maintain our project lists, maintain our to-do lists by context. Most of us saw the GTD honeymoon period come to an end and became frustrated by the overhead it took to keep our GTD system happy. Most of us got annoyed that the stuff had to go from our different inbaskets, like paper, Gmail, rss or Evernote, to Google Calendar and Remember The Milk or Things or Omnifocus or Backpack for doing. Most of us got fed up with needing to use 4-5 different systems to in order to follow GTD.

And then at some point most of us found ourselves procrastinating. Most of us stopped being diligent about promptly processing every last piece of stuff in our inbox. Most of us stopped doing the weekly review because it was really just too hard to find the time to sit down for an hour without distraction to evaluate our lists and our lives every week. Most of us know we should be processing and reviewing regularly. Most of us replaced the forgotten feelings of stress and being overwhelmed with guilt.

Most of us sung the praises of GTD to anyone who will listen, then secretly found it to be a pain in the ass in practice. Most of us want an easier GTD and/or a better way to productively manage what life throws at us.

My Confession…

I am like most of us. Yes, I just took the wheel of what had historically been a GTD oriented blog. And yes, I’m openly admitting I’m not very good at staying at the top of my GTD game.

The fact is that my life makes it damn near impossible to do so with the set of tools currently at my disposal. I have 3 email in-boxes (2 different Exchange accounts and 1 Gmail account), 3 calendars, scanned PDF files at home, scanned PDF files at the office, documents that sit on my HD at the office, documents that sit on my HD at home, useful articles that I read in Google Reader, then there are documents or CDs that I can’t scan so they are still in my filing cabinet at home… Or maybe they are in my cabinet at the office? I’ve tried or evaluating most everything available to try to put the pieces together, yet boundaries still become blurry and my system ultimately breaks down.

Brett Kelly also had a similar confession, but he was holding it in for fear of losing Cranking Widgets readers (more on that later). Call me a heretic, but I’m happy to lose readers that I cannot help. If you are 100% happy with how you are currently Getting Things Done then you probably should just go get things done. Cranking Widgets, or any other productivity blog, can’t really do much to help you.

I’m betting most of us are wishing for something better. The productivity echo chamber has been filled with a lot of negativity recently. Productivity systems get beat up by one blogger, then another defends them, then a few more beat them up. Opinions are fine, but they don’t solve anything.

Where Does This Leave The Cranking Widgets Blog?

My interest lies in us working together to find a solution. That means we acknowledge what isn’t working, along with what is, and we work together to figure out the best alternatives. It is my opinion that my problems stem from my inability to stay on top of all the moving parts. (some will be thinking “That’s why I just use a simple list and plain old paper!” All paper can do is simplify list management, productivity is about how you manage all of the stuff in your life. It’s bigger than lists, and today most of your life’s stuff is digital.)

Believe it or not, as of right now, I still think GTD is the best productivity theory out there. However, the best available is rarely the ideal. Its practical implementations need to be improved.

The Mission…

For a while, some of the the focus of The Cranking Widgets Blog will shift towards finding the better way to get things done, and I’ll need your input. My goal is for us to take a step back, break down what works well and what needs to be reconsidered so we can understand if there is anything that can be done to find the better solution.

I hope this will be the last time in a long time that I offer a rant without starting a dialog to find a solution. If we’re lucky, maybe, just maybe, we’ll come out the other end of this with a better implementation or derivative of GTD that works for us in the long-run… One that can’t fall victim to productivity pr0n because there is no excuse for doing so. That is what I need and I know I’m not alone. (You can follow along by subscribing to the feed or following me on twitter.)

For now, I’ll leave you with some more food for thought. Brett posted the following on his personal blog and he has given me permission to re-post it here. Each paragraph highlights a potential point of exploration and discussion. Enjoy and I encourage you to chime in on this one… That is if you haven’t just ragequit The Cranking Widgets Blog :).

Bitching About GTD, By Brett Kelly

The following was written by Brett Kelly, the former host of The Cranking Widgets Blog.

Having been a fairly vocal proponent of GTD for some time, this is one of those things that I’m happy to write after having removed myself from the throngs (and I mean *throngs*) of productivity/GTD bloggers. Ever since I launched The Cranking Widgets Blog, I’ve been singing the praises of this productivity methodology to any jackass who would listen.  Now, after developing a little bit of discontent with the whole thing, I can bring it to you folks without having to fear a decline in readership.  Here goes.

First of all (and probably most importantly), I’m starting to feel like GTD is really effing hard.  The amount of time and effort it takes to (according to the book) manage a list of tasks, a calendar and some filing shit has become prohibitively long for me.  I look at a scrap of paper in my in-basket, and I’m positively put off by the effort it will require to add it to the project list, choose the next action, pull out a blank folder, label it and file it away.  Perhaps I’m just being lazy, but that’s the freaking honest truth.

Built-in anxiety is almost a guarantee.  Unless you’re a poster child for GTD, you’re going to have shit slip past the defenses of your system.  Hell, David Allen himself has confessed to “falling off of the wagon, repeatedly” on several different occasions.  And if you’ve become such a loyal adherent, the very act of *not* doing the GTD thing will create stress.  This might just be my own dumb brain thinking about this stuff the wrong way, but I’d bet the contents of your wallet that this type of mental spasm is more common than you think.

Call me stupid or thoughtless or a sheep or whatever, but I like direction for certain things.  If somebody tells me they have the recipe for the best Snickerdoodle I’ve ever had, I expect some pretty explicit instructions.  GTD gives you the list of ingredients, a vague idea how to combine the ingredients, then says “and just cook ‘em however you feel would be best!”.  This annoys me.  Execution is unequivocally the most important step in any productivity system/methodology/thing, yet it gets almost zero play from the David (other than the 2 minute rule).  While I can understand his wanting to keep the whole thing flexible (so as to make it useful to a substantially larger audience), there needs to be a little more time spent on “doing” than just “pick your context and trust your intuition.”  Assigning priorities to tasks, etc. is a completely natural extension of the “think now so you can act quickly and efficiently later” idea.  If I have a list of shit that I can do at a computer - a list that I should have made no more than seven days before, mind you - I should have already decided what the important things are, too.

The whole airplane analogy is nice, but in all the time I’ve done GTD, I’ve almost never even though about the shit that’s “higher” than the project level.  Frankly, I think a great deal of the stuff beyond that (long-term goals, purpose on the planet) is kinda dumb.  Personally, I don’t have many long term goals that don’t already play a pretty up-front role in my decision-making already.  I want to own a house, which means I need to get out of debt, which means I can’t go spending money on new computers all the time.  Do I need a list that says “buy a house” on it to keep that in an influential spot in my brain?  Nope.

The calendar philosophy is archaic and is not even close to universally applicable.  My daily calendar almost never has more than 2 things on it, so why shouldn’t I add things to it that I’d *like* to do on that day?  Seems perfectly reasonable that I can use this suitable tool to have ideas forcibly percolate right to the front of my mind on a day when I will very likely have time to do something about it (and when it would be a good idea to do so).  This may not be the kind of thing that the CEOs could reasonably do when they have a half-dozen meetings on a given day, but for the rank-and-file jerkoffs who fill the world’s cubicles, this sounds like something that might actually work.

Having said (or, “spewed”, if you like) all that, I’m in the midst of a serious reevaluation of my personal productivity stuff.  GTD (or, at least, some of the major tenets) could very well go the way of the dodo when all is said and done.  But in the spirit of reducing my responsibilities and commitments where possible, GTD is starting to look like a very viable candidate for Antoinette’ing.  We’ll see.

Be sure to also check out the full post at Brett’s personal blog “Bullcrap” to read the discussions that followed there (And other entertaining Bullcrap ).

What a blogger blogs about and the spin they put on topics will always be driven by their own experiences, interests and values. For Brett, this often led us outside of the realm of productivity, as evidenced by his insightful and entertaining posts about parenting, posts about tattos and posts about drinking games.

The range of topics that I discuss will most likely morph a bit while I find what feels most comfortable. So far all you’ve really learned about me is that I love productivity. If my interests and values will play into what I write about, then the only fair thing to do at this juncture is share more about who I really am and what makes me tick.  After much reflection, I’ve come up with a list of 8 things that will have the greatest impact:

1. I am an Entrepreneur

Always have been. I was the annoying kid always trying to sell lemonade, a car wash, newspapers or lawn mowing services to the neighbors. My only real job was doing office admin work when I was 15. I needed to save up $1600 so I could buy a computer and start a web development business (it didn’t really bother me that I had no idea how to program, I’d learn that later.)

I spent every Saturday and Sunday at this crappy admin job for six months. I saved everything I earned, bought my computer, then I quit. The web development business turned out to be fairly successful. I’ve since morphed it into a product-based business, and it is still my primary source of income. I also own or co-own 3 other companies.

2. I Love Personal Finance

I’ve been tracking my finances in Quicken since I was 15. Call it sick, but to this day I have a record of every single financial transaction I’ve made since then. I’ve always had a deep-seeded interest in personal finance. I’ve read dozens of books on the subject over the years. Frugality and leaving beneath your means is extremely important, but once you have the habits you just do it. I now realize my time and energy is limited so my interests and attitudes lean heavily towards increasing my income. The least you can spend is $0, the most you can earn is virtually infinite.

3. I am a Programmer and Geek at Heart

I began my “professional life” as a programmer at the age of 16 when I started my own web development company. I haven’t programmed much beyond hobby stuff in the last 5 years, but I do find the occasional coding session to be very therapeutic. Now I build businesses. I find there are a lot of parallels between building a business and building a piece of software. At the end of the day you’re trying to create something that solves a problem for many people.

4. I Don’t Work For Money

I don’t work for free either. I just find money to be a terrible source of motivation. My level of motivation and excitement around a project/business/venture is generally driven by two things: 1) Is what I’m creating going to positively impact people’s lives, or is it just fluff? and 2) What can I stand to learn from working on this project/business/product that will bring me closer to my long-term goals?

Fortunately capitalism seems to favor those who aim to help solve real problems others are experiencing and those who never stop learning… Otherwise I’d be screwed, I’m pretty much unemployable.

5. I Love Music

I am an audiophile. I have loved music as long as I can remember. I find few things in life to be more rewarding to sit in a dark room with the home audio system cranked up, immersed in what I’m listening to. It’s a huge stress reliever.

I also took up the Guitar about a year ago and find it to be immensely fulfilling. A nice side effect is it is teaching me the true definition of patience!

6. Defining and Chasing Goals/Dreams is What Keeps Me Going

High-level goals are what make my world spin but I’m not fanatical about it. I don’t need to write them down and see them every day. I decide on 1-3 long-terms ones at a time and stick to them. I don’t believe you should empty your brain of your goals. Everything else, sure… But a small number of big goals should always take up a little psychic RAM.

I set my first real goals when I was 18. They were very materialistic. I wanted to 1) Buy a Rolex Submariner, 2) Drive a BMW and 3) Live by the ocean. I bought a BMW when I was 23 and I bought a condo that is in a highrise about a block from the Pacific Ocean when I was 25. I stopped caring about watches so I saw the Rolex as a waste of money and eventually scratched that off the list. Looking back, every decision I made between 18 and 25 played into ultimately reaching these goals. The weird thing is that instead of feeling invigorated when I bought my condo I felt pretty empty. I enjoy where I live, but I guess that’s materialism for ya.

My new goals are less materialistic. I want to travel the world for a year and live in 11 different countries, about a month in each one. A sub-goal is to spend 2-3 of those months in Latin countries and take lessons 1-3 hours per day on Latin style guitar (inspired by these guys, street performers in Santa Monica, CA… Amazing to watch). A lot of what I’ve done and continue to do is setting my life up to make these new goals a reality.

7. Mindset is as Important as Tactics and Tips

Why I’m cranking widgets every day is as important as tools I can use to crank widgets. Some might be thinking that your goals and mindset are the same thing. I view them as enitrely different concepts. Mindset dictates what I accept as truth and what I allow to motivate me, goals dictate what choices I make and what I actually do. I find reading things that alter my mindset is just as important as reading about things that alter how I work. I can’t accept new tactics if my mindset doesn’t allow me to accept the outcome.

8. Productivity Pr0n Has Never Made Much Sense to Me

I’ve been quite happy to see some of the focus of the productivity world being shifted away from the discussion of notebooks, graph paper, GTD logo calendars and other productivity pr0n. These things are a waste of time and only give you a reason to avoid actually getting stuff done. I don’t care much about notebooks, index cards or binder clips and my attitude is generally “If something ain’t broke, please don’t fix it!” Thats not to say I think productivity systems or software is perfect, I just find most of them to be equally deficient, so why bother.

In Conclusion…

I hope you’ll continue to find The Cranking Widgets Blog a useful place to go for ideas for bringing you closer to increasing your productivity, reaching your goals and finding success. Brett has done an incredible job with CW over the last couple years and I have so much respect for everything that he has contributed to the productivity community. Like many of you, I’ve learned a lot from him over the months and years. Brett’s wit and wisdom will be missed.

On the other hand, I’m really excited about the future of the blog. I truly appreciate your ongoing support and interest. Here’s to new beginnings!

There have definitely been ups and downs. I went from posting like a madman to hardly posting at all, in completely inconsistent spurts. While I tried my best to keep you kind people entertained and satiated, I definitely missed the mark on more than one occasion.

So, it is with more than a little sadness that I tell you this - I’m no longer going to be writing for The Cranking Widgets Blog. The site will live on in the very capable hands of my esteemed colleague, Andy Parkinson (who has been handling a good chunk of the writing duties around here lately), but the time has come for me to pass the baton and move on to greener pastures.

“But, but, WHY!?” you might find yourself asking. Well, there are several reasons. First and foremost, I feel like I’ve said all I need to say on this topic. While there are plenty of productivity/lifehack blogs out there who have existed far longer than this one, I feel like I’ve dried up my personal well of wisdom. And it’s not as though GTD, etc. has become less a part of my life - quite the opposite, actually. From the get-go, I’ve always thought that for somebody to have truly “gotten” this productivity junk, it should function silently in the background. And though I drop the ball almost daily, I’m to the point where my life sorta operates this way. In other words, I just don’t spend much time these days thinking about index cards or notebooks.

What’s next? Well, I’ve got a few things in the hopper, actually. As I’ve said many (many) times, software development is my job, as well as my passion. It’s something that I used to do in my free time (as well as at work) simply for the love of it. That is largely where my focus will shift, as I write this. I don’t plan on stopping this writing stuff altogether, and I do have a couple of ideas incubating right now that may pan out down the road.

Anyway, thanks for putting up with my crap for the past couple years. Hopefully you all took something away from this thing (and if you haven’t, get ready because Andy is going to drop some serious knowledge on your asses in the coming weeks - stay tuned because you can bet your ass that I’m going to).

If any of you would like to keep in touch with me, the best way to do that would be to visit my personal website, http://brettkelly.org where you’ll find all sorts of ways to reach me and keep up with what I’m doing. If you don’t want to bother with all of that, you can just email me at brett@brettkelly.org or hit me up on twitter. I really would love to hear from you.

Thanks again, friends - I’ll see you around.

What is Backpack:

Taken from the Backpack website: “Backpack is a web-based service that makes organizing your information incredibly easy. Backpack lets you make pages which can contain any combination of notes, to-dos, images, files, etc. You can keep these pages to yourself or share them with colleagues, co-workers, friends, or family.” (You can also see how Brett uses Backpack as a general GTD system here)

What is Basecamp:

Taken from the Basecamp website: “Basecamp takes a fresh, novel approach to project collaboration. Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, stats, or reports, they fail from a lack of clear communication. Basecamp solves this problem by providing tools tailored to improve the communication between people working together on a project.”

First, I Had Backpack.

I started out trying to manage the details of my projects with Backpack to save some money ($7 / mo vs $24 /mo for Basecamp.) I would create a new page for each project then start uploading, noting and listing stuff for that project. When I was ready to work on it, I’d open up the page and start working on things that were similar in context. It worked out OK for a bit, especially during the early stages of projects, but things would quickly get out of hand as projects increased in detail and complexity. The main issues I had were:

1. To-Do List Assignment: While it is possible to have separate to-do lists for each person involved in a project, I found that was less than ideal. I find it more effective to categorize lists into project area and then assign from there. For example, if you’re working on a website, you may have a designer and a programmer on the team. They each have things to do one the home page, products page and contact page. I find it easier to keep all the home page work on a home page list.
2. File Management: One of the coolest things about Backpack is its gallery view for images. You can add am image gallery to your project’s page, then upload any image you like. Thumbnails are generated for you and your images are presented in rows of 3 columns. The issue I had is sometimes there would be new versions of images that had been previously uploaded. I began to lose faith that each image being displayed was actually the most current version. The same goes for files. You can upload the same file to a page multiple times and give it a version number with each upload, but that is not very tidy.
3. Auditing/Logging: I often shared pages with other people for comments or help with research/brainstorming. If other people change thigns, it is very helpful to see who has done what and when. (I think Backpack has recently added something to do this, but it wasn’t available when I switched over to Basecamp and I’m not quite sure it meets my needs now.)
4. Page Length: When pages are short, everything is super fast and easy to do. You can move notes around, to-do list items, images. Its all free-form and drag and drop, which is cool… Until the page gets long, then it takes a long time to drag something from the bottom of the page to the top of the page, and sometimes the browser chokes so it doesn’t complete the move the first time. This got super frustrating.

And Then There Was Basecamp…

Backpack is a great tool, but I felt like I was just trying to use a hatchet when I needed a hammer. I signed up for a Basecamp subscription after managing the complexities of my projects became too much hassle. I quickly realized that Basecamp solved all of the problems I had with Backpack:

• An entire page was dedicated to-do lists so I could move stuff around much easier. I could also create lists based on context and then assign each item to myself and others.
• Files had version-control. I could upload an image, then if there is an updated version, I could upload the one and Basecamp will keep a copy of the previous version(s). I could also search and sort my files variety of ways, which made it easier to find what I need.
• Everything is logged and its super easy to see what has been done on each project since I last took a look.

Other things that Basecamp offered and made life easier were:

1. Messages: Messages are stored by project, so I can see all communication between me and other people associated with each of my projects
2. Milestones: I can keep track of when stuff is due and see a “big picture” perspective accross all of my projects.
3. Comments: Recently they added a comments feature that allows for comments on to-dos and milestones. It makes it real easy to track questions and answers around a specific issue.
4. Its dead simple. People I collaborated with who haven’t used it before don’t require much training, if any at all. Training is a huge hidden cost that doesn’t get enough consideration. Not having to spend time teaching people how to use a complex project management system has saved me a ton of time.

As you can see, Basecamp does a ton more than Backpack. For a while I tried to use exclusively Basecamp, but…

Now, There is Both - In Perfect Harmony!

I use Backpack in the early stages of a project. I start by creating a new page, as I did before. Then I go into a brainstorming phase and add notes to the page to capture them. This allows me to empty my brain of all thoughts I have around a new project.

Next I start looking around the Internet to research things that helps me further understand the options and tactics that are available. I find websites and add the URLs to a “Websites” note. I find things that are more visual, so I save images or do screen captures and upload those to galleries. Maybe I think of things that eventually need to be done so I start some to-do lists.

I use Backpack to brainstorm, research and organize my thoughts on a project. Random bits of information are kept in a nice package for that project, all laid out on a single page so I can browse through what I have and see if there is anything missing before I’m ready to start doing real work.

Once I’m done with the research then my VA transfers Backpack to-dos into Basecamp to-dos. Some are assigned to me, some are assigned to others. My notes go into Writeboards (sort of like a wiki, organized alongside the other project stuff). Files that directly affect the project are uploaded now and categorized as “reference” for later, but I am generally picky about what I upload initially.

The items that were transferred from Backpack are deleted as they are moved to Basecamp. I usually keep the Backpack page active to store things that weren’t transferred and often I refer back to it when a project hits a snag and needs additional brainstorming or research. I prefer to keep my Basecamp projects clean with only essential reference materials. For the free-form thinking and storage of “stuff”, I’ll go back and add to the project’s Backpack page, then transfer the essential information to Basecamp when I am satisfied with what I’ve gathered. Rinse and Repeat.

Conclusion

Backpack and Basecamp are both outstanding tools, but they also have different strengths. I’ve read accounts of people going from Basecamp to Backpack for their project management and I just can’t see it happening for anything but the simplest of projects. I also tried to do brainstorming in Basecamp projects, but found it just added clutter to my projects. This is how Basecamp and Backpack can work together to keep my projects in perfect harmony!

I’d like to know what The Cranking Widgets Blog readers have to say about these two productivity tools. Have you used both and switched between the two? Have you tried them and quit all together? Please weigh in with your thoughts!

(Full Discloser: Yes, the links to Basecamp and Backpack and Andy’s affiliate links.)

One way to curb this nasty habit is to pull the braindead move of putting your lists away. Whatever your data vault of choice happens to be, put it somewhere where it won’t be calling your name.

The second (and, if you ask me, best) way to enjoy your time off is to focus on what you’re doing. This may sound dumb, but you’ve gotten so good at focusing on the task at hand while building a web app or digging a ditch - why can’t you apply that skill to playing catch with your kids or having a nice stiff drink with your spouse?

To put it another way, imagine some professional baseball player who is tossing the ball around with his toddler son in the backyard. He doesn’t put all of his pro arm behind each throw, does he? No, because he’s aware of the context! Knowing which parts of your robotic productive self is a skill in itself.

So, next time your mind wanders off while you’re sipping coffee with your parents or whatever, think these words to yourself (or, hell, say them out loud if it gets the job done):

I’ll never have this moment/time/occasion back. Am I experiencing it and enjoying it as much as I can?

Now, stop reading this blog and go hug your kids, call your parents, suggestively grab your spouse, whatever - remember that life is about those with whom you share it, not the freaking P&L.