Bad Language

The enduring mysteries of productivity

Matthew Stibbe — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:12:00 +0000

Why is it that when I am busy, I am also more productive? I mean that I get more done in an hour when I am busy than I do otherwise.

How come you get more efficient at doing something the more you do it? Even creative tasks?

Why does work always take longer than you planned, even if you allow for the fact that it will take longer?

Or to put it another way, why does the first 90% of a project take 90% of the time and the last 10% take the other 90% of the time?

Explain to me why washing up, hoovering, alphabetising my books seem really dull when I have nothing to do but when I have a deadline, they seem like the most exciting activities available.

How do I get back the hundreds of hours I’ve lost playing Civilisation?

Why does Jakob Neilsen say big screens improve productivity but Jeff Atwood says that, paradoxically, they don’t. (I like my big screen and Windows 7’s Start + arrow key system helps me use it really well.)

Coffee makes me sleepy. WTF?

I have a keyboard that requires two hands and a mouse that requires another hand. That’s three. But last time I checked, I only came equipped with two. Why?

Why do Mac users do creative stuff and Windows users do logical stuff? Don’t believe me? Go into any ad agency, web agency, sound studio, edit suite, photography department, graphic design company or brand agency and ask what computers they use. (I have a PC. Microsoft is a client. But it’s still true.) What is it about Macs that clicks with that type of user? Does it make any difference?

Why, when I love silence and personal space, do I get more work done in half an hour on a crowded tube train with my Sony Vaio P11 than I do in half an hour in the office?

How do you know which kind of music will make your more productive and which less? Is there any data?

Why do clients only telephone me when I’m really up against a deadline and I’m actually making some progress on my work. When I’m waiting for the phone to ring, it doesn’t.

If I can type at about 40-50 words per minute (3,000 words an hour), why does it take me all day to do 1,000-2,000 words?

Why do clocks move slower when you watch them?

How did I manage to write 598 posts for this blog in three years when I’ve been flat out busy the whole time. Epic win. There’s always time to share.

Silence is golden: how to sound-proof your writing room

Matthew Stibbe — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:09:37 +0000

Interruptions kill productivity. But background noise can slow you down in less obvious ways:

Fatigue. Noise makes you tired. Just as shouting over loud music in a bar strains your voice, your brain has to work harder to filter out unwanted information.
Poor concentration. It’s more likely that your brain will latch onto some background noise, speech or music and interrupt your flow of thoughts. While this isn’t the same as the phone ringing, it takes to refocus after each micro-interruption.
Uncreativity. Background music taps into your creative brain leaving it with less bandwidth to come up with cool new ways to express yourself.

For more on this, check out Peopleware. It goes into great detail about the effects of noise and interruption on productivity (among other things).

Writers need to concentrate for extended periods, they need to be imaginative to come up with one good word after another and they need to keep a mental map of the document they are writing so that each word and sentence makes a coherent whole.

Here’s how I try to reduce the noise level in my writing room.

Designated writing room. I write in a study. I know that this is a great luxury but you can turn any room into a writing room by setting out your writing equipment in a conscious, deliberate way and telling yourself ‘this is where I work’. The decision itself makes it happen. It’s best to work alone in a room with a door.
Keep outsiders out. I keep my door shut when I’m working and I have a funny sign (see picture) on the outside that makes it clear that I don’t want to be interrupted when I’m working. It’s a good deterrent to stray actors or whoever else may be wandering around. My wife runs a theatre company and sometimes people rehearse at home.
Stop PC interruptions. I switch off Outlook new mail pings, Twitter alerts, Skype on ‘busy’
Phone on silent. My iPhone pings, chirps and beeps constantly. Putting it on silent stops that until I’m ready to deal with it.
Noise-cancelling headphones. I use Bose headphones which cancel out a lot of outside noise. In the winter they also keep my ears warm. I’m a big fan of Bose and I use their aviation headphones when I’m flying too. For travel, I have some Shure in-ear headphones which are pretty good.
Silent PC. I have a custom-built Chillblast silent PC which is really good. It’s actually silent in operation. You’d be surprised how much noise a regular PC makes. My wife’s PC squeaks and the fan purrs away. I also use a Hush MediaPC which is very, very quiet but that’s in the TV room. I recommend them too.
Double-glazing. It helps a lot but it’s expensive but even a heavy curtain can cut out noise from outside. I also try to stop people chatting in the garden outside my window when I’m working.
Soundproofing. A friend built a sound studio in his house and sound-proofing foam etc. Isn’t horrendously expensive but I don’t use it. Instead, I lined the two interior walls of my study with shelves and books to deaden the incoming noise. A carpet or rug can help; also in the room above your writing room.
Switch stuff off. Do you need the central heating or A/C on? I have mine on a timer so it’s off during the day. That stops a lot of plumbing noises. I also use a central power control to switch off electrical items in my study. It’s surprising how much noise some power adaptors and chargers make. Ideally, I like to make sure that radios and stereos around the house are switched off too but since other people have their own lives it isn’t always possible.
Silent brain. Increasingly, I find a short period of zazen (sitting meditation) helpful in stopping the bubbling noise of my own mind. It doesn’t have to have any religious connotations; it’s just about letting your mind focus on the present moment and relax a little.
Earplugs. I use Quies ear plugs. They’re a little more expensive than the usual ones but cancel more noise. Mainly I use them when travelling but if there are builders outside or something they work well inside my headphones to create a zone of silence.

If this is helpful, please check out another article: 22 ways to stay focused on writing.

Writing tools: your personal data dashboard from Daytum

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:48:01 +0000

I’ve just discovered Daytum. It’s mission is to let you “collect, categorize and communicate your everyday data.” What this means in practice is a configurable dashboard that lets you add numerical information and display it using a range of graphs.

Here are some possible uses for writers:

Tracking word count output day by day
Monitoring time spent on different kinds of tasks: interviewing, researching, writing, editing
Communicating progress to clients via a shared page
Tracking healthy habits such as exercise, meditation, sleep or food intake
Monitoring expenditure

Here’s my first dashboard. I’m still playing around with it but it could prove to be a very useful tool.

Fast, good or cheap. Choose two.

Matthew Stibbe — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 08:15:41 +0000

I used to make computer games and back then we had a saying about project management: ‘you can have any two of fast, cheap or good.’ It’s a choice that most people don’t want to make.

Fast

Most clients have a schedule: a campaign deadline, a business plan commitment, a product launch. Usually this is immovable. They also have a start date for copy which is very movable. Consequently, many writing projects start very late. This leaves little time for planning or research.

I remember one project where I had to interview more than twenty people and write about 14,000 words of copy for a magazine in less than ten days because my client wouldn’t let me talk to anyone until the whole editorial plan was approved. Okay, I can work fast but there’s a cost; either I have to give up other work or give up my personal time.

The best way to do copy fast is to plan it out very carefully in advance. For example, if a client has a narrow window between getting approval and going to press, I can schedule my time during that gap and do all the preliminary research beforehand. However, in most cases bad planning is the cause of rush jobs.

I’d love to be able to say that “lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part” but it sort of does if they pay for it! See my previous articles on how to budget, plan and measure writing output and how to work with writers.

Cheap

Recently, a few prospective clients have chosen other suppliers or written copy themselves because they thought I was too expensive. Actually, this is fine. Working with this type of client means more stress for less money. My experience is that clients who want everything at a discount don’t see copywriting (or in some cases marketing itself) as an important business activity. For them, it’s more like insurance or buying office stationery. I believe that if something’s important, it’s worth paying for it to be done properly. Nobody asks for the cheapest brain surgeon.

Ironically, in many cases they want copy for lavishly-constructed websites or glossy brochures that cost a fortune to produce. This is like buying an expensive shop on Bond Street but not buying any stock to sell there. It ain’t what you spend, it’s how you spend it that matters. Sometimes I can save people money by telling them that they don’t need a copywriter (sometimes copywriting is NOT the answer).

It is possible to do things efficiently. This is not the same as cheap but it can save money. For example, resetting a client’s expectations about how much copy they need helps. I have several clients who think a case study should be 1,000-1,500 words. I think anything more than 500 words is unlikely to add value for the reader (especially since most case studies are so badly written). Bingo, I just doubled or trebled the number of case studies they can afford. It’s the same with websites. Do you really need all those pages and all those words when most visitors spend a minute or two on your site and read one or two pages? It’s often better to focus on four or five high-traffic pages and leave the ‘long tail’ to itself.

Good

This is the big opportunity for companies. Good writing leverages the investment made in collateral, websites and ad campaigns. It creates brand differentiation. But if you want these good results, you have to prioritise content. Good copy is not a bolt-on, go-faster extra. It’s an integral part of the process. It’s the payload on the missile, the jam in the doughnut, the finish line of the marathon. Don’t you agree?

How to write faster – learn Teeline shorthand

Matthew Stibbe — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Ambitious journalism student, Alex Cooper, introduces us to Teeline Shorthand with his debut guest post for Bad Language.

In this article I will go through the basic structure of Teeline Shorthand, a brief history and some tips for learning it along the way.

Teeline was invented by James Hill in 1970. It is aimed at a self-taught approach and a light learning load. Perfect for people with a busy lifestyle, like myself.

What exactly is Teeline? Teeline is a system of speed writing (shorthand) that uses the letters of the English alphabet already familiar to us and stream lines it.

Simply think of how teenagers write text messages, commonly called "text langauge" where I’m from. They remove the letters that are silent when sounding out a word, which are commonly vowels, for example hello is abbreviated to "hlo" and bye is shortened to "bi". Depending on how the word sounds when spoken dictates what letters are written. Teeline works on a similar principal.

Here is a shorthand quote from the book Teeline Fast, written by Ann Dix.

"Tln is vry esy to lrn.

We shl go to Lndn nxt wk to do sm shpng.

It hs bn a brt and sny da tda.

Pls pt yr mny fr th tcts in th bx."

If you are experienced in text messaging, this will be second nature to you already.

By now you’re probably thinking, what’s so special about Teeline? It’s just removing letters and writing words as they sound. This is just the start, Teeline uses the basic shapes of the English alphabet letters, but they are written with more flow and curves, which makes them easier to write when taken notes at high speed.

The basics of the Teeline alphabet are simple. The shorthand version of the letter is written in the same position as its longhand counterpart when beginning a word, but as the word gets more complex following letters have to move with the flow of the previous letters.

When it comes to vowels, they are written smaller than constants and have two forms. The full vowel and the indicator. Vowels are eliminated unless they are the first letter of the word or the last letter. Commonly used words such as: like, the, we, be, me etc., can be abbreviated by one letter or one stroke. These are called "Special Outlines".

When I first started researching shorthand I came across Pitman, a different flavour of shorthand. These are the two main reasons I opted for Teeline and not Pitman:

Pitman was not advertised as a self-study approach unlike Teeline.
Pitman uses different stroke sizes and shades. Originally designed to be written with a fountain pen. I don’t use a fountain pen.

Tips for learning shorthand:

Don’t try to write fast at first. Speed will come with experience.
Practise every day. Its more productive to spend 30 minutes a day practising rather than 2 hours a week.
Use a comfortable pen that flows freely on the page and won’t leak ink everywhere. A sharp pencil can be used as well.

Dutch writers and journalists

Matthew Stibbe — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 11:08:51 +0000

I met René van der Meer last year when I was in Amsterdam. He writes Aanhetwoord.com, a website about journalists, the working methods and ambitions. It’s a great resource for Dutch writers and I was very pleased when he published the interview he did with me. Of course, we mostly spoke in English during the interview. Although we spoke a little Dutch I would love to speak it as well as he speaks (and translates) English! It would be great if there were a similar site full of interviews with English-speaking journalists.

Great example of writing as advertising from VW

Matthew Stibbe — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:58:00 +0000

I saw this at Hammersmith Station today and I thought it was really cool. As a writer, I like the way they have used plain text and typographic conventions to convey a really subtle message about efficiency. It also works on different levels of detail: the gag, the key message and then the whole text which gives you more information about what VW are trying to say. It’s like an advert that has a power-user setting.

Apple iPad: can you have too much hype?

Matthew Stibbe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0000

As Apple’s new slate nears its launch date finally appears, the level of hype is rising almost exponentially. I think there is a real risk that no matter how good the iSlate is, it will not be good enough to live up to the speculation. Mark Morford captures the risks of over-expectation and techno-lust perfectly in his Open letter to the new Apple iTablet.

One thing we now know for sure: You will appear in a burst of dazzle in just a few short days at another special Apple media event, revealed in all your iWonderglory, ogled and cheered and turned over in the hand like an electric gemstone unearthed by trembling archaeologists who do not dress very well and seldom have sex.

How to combat the natural tendency to procrastinate

Matthew Stibbe — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:59:00 +0000

Procrastination is a big problem for writers. The Economist takes a view, based on research and economic theory: New-year irresolution.

What seems to work is pre-commitment. Homer tells the story of Ulysses. He wanted to hear the sirens’ song but wanted to avoid being lured to his death by it, so he tied himself to the mast of his ship. (The other sailors had wax in their ears.)

How can we do this in our everyday life?

Be accountable. The Economist talks about ‘commitment contracts’. RunKeeper, a neat iPhone app and website, gives you a ‘street team’ of buddies to monitor progress.
Put something at risk. The Economist mentions bank accounts where you lose your savings if you fall off the wagon or restart smoking. This is often why sponsored attempts to run the marathon succeed – your charity loses out if you fail.
Be mindful. Think about the attitudes that cause you to procrastinate: the feeling of ‘I can do it later’, the lure of easier tasks, a sense that the put-off job is difficult etc. Think about how you can counter these attitudes. Admiral Nelson said “never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.” It’s a helpful reminder and you might find other catchphrases or ways to change your thinking.
Block access to distractions. Distraction-free editors can help. Working in a different place can be good too. I wrote a nice list of alternative locations for HP’s Business Answers website.
Monitor progress. I like Joe’s Goals. I’m just experimenting with RescueTime now. It monitors what you do with your PC and gives you lots of metrics and reports on a minute-by-minute basis.
Learn to concentrate. I wrote a list of 22 ways to stay focused on writing which has some good tips. Increasingly, I find meditation a useful way to improve concentration because it lets my brain relax a bit before I start work.
Change time. There are good times to write and bad times. When you’re procrastinating, time feels like your enemy. When you’re productive, time is your friend. Change the way you think about it. Change when you work, not how.

Lessons in customer service: email vs. phone response times

Matthew Stibbe — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:09:00 +0000

Isn’t it the most annoying thing. You go to a shop to buy something and when you get there, the assistant is on the phone. With someone who was too lazy to leave the house. You’re left kicking your heels. From the shop’s perspective, it’s a perverse incentive for uneconomic behaviour.

It’s the same with customer support. I just emailed an iPhone question to O2. On the website it says they’ll get back to me within 24 hours. But a confirmation email says it’ll be within 72 hours.

If I telephone them, I’ll speak to someone immediately and, I hope, resolve my question before I hang up.

It has to be easier for O2 to deal with email queries than phone queries, so why don’t they make it easier and quicker to answer questions by phone? For example, they could make everyone leave a message on the phone and call them back later but answer emails within 10 minutes.

I would prefer a good email service to an excellent telephone service because it’s more efficient for me too. And why not SMS, Twitter, IM and all the other channels we have now?

Here’s an opportunity for companies to really offer a more efficient service and differentiate themselves from their competition. Small businesses, in particular, can do this and offer really strong guarantees of immediate personal attention by email as an alternative to phone calls.