Random Thoughts

More On Multitasking

2008-01-13T17:46:00.001-05:00

About two months ago I wrote an article on multitasking. I remembered it this morning when I ran across this quote from Pablo Picasso (in Andy Hunt's blog):

"You must always work not just within but below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery and you create a feeling of strength in reserve."

Is this another case of More (tasks) means Less (results)? I think it is. Barry Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less observed:

"We can't have it all, and worse yet the desire to have it all and the illusion that we can is one of the principal sources of torture of modern (...) free and autonomous thinkers."

The reason for the "torture" is simple. You think you can handle many tasks, you want to handle more tasks, therefore you suppress the obvious: each new task doubles your non-value added time spent on switching contexts (remembering the goals, the last actions, the next action, the players, etc.) A classic conflict between expectations and reality.

So relax, focus on what's important, and remember that it's better to do three tasks thoroughly than ten tasks poorly.

And to help you relax, here's an excellent podcasts from Barry Schwartz on why More is Less

Is our business ready for the next generation of employees?

2007-12-28T08:20:00.001-05:00

In his recent post on the IT Business Edge site Carl Weinschenk blogs about the kids coming to the office. We can call them Gen-Y, or post Gen-Y, or whatever, but those of us who either still remember or are blessed with teenage kids know what that means:

I want to communicate on demand with as many people as I please (simultaneous multiple IM session)
I multitask (above mentioned IM sessions, several open app windows, music in my ears)
I want the answers delivered now (information on demand, wikis, blogs, tagging, search engines, social networks, 2 seconds average site visit time)
I am part of a virtual community (Facebook-like applications, social networks, blogs)

And that's just for starters, this is an evolving situation and business leaders ought to pay attention. These kids are the future of our workforce.

Carl makes several excellent points. Quoting a recent Pew Internet Project study, he reminds us that some 64% of 12- to 17-year olds have published something on the Internet. And that something is not necessarily just plain text. They share pictures, create and upload videos and podcasts. They are not just consumers of information, they are active participants, creators and publishers of information. This is a major paradigm shift for the established business community.

In order to attract talented young future leaders companies need to do a better job preparing the new enterprise communication and collaboration infrastructure. Email and land line telephones are so last century. This trend cannot be stopped, we can either develop a company-wide strategy for it and put in place new IT and Knowledge Sharing systems, or we will see an explosion of under-the-desk, open source, often insecure Web 2.0 applications. Well, actually all we need to do is open our eyes, we're in the middle of such an explosion.

Carl points out, that the future generations of workers will assume that the Web 2.0 solutions are in place and they will shun companies that do not offer those solutions. I don't doubt that at all.

The kids are coming with their tools and work & study practices that may feel odd to most of us baby boomers. But we do have to accept the inevitable: there is no turning back. The companies that are quick to adapt and embrace them will profit, the ones that are not will pay the price...

Unbelievable

2007-12-12T05:05:00.001-05:00

Two CNN polls today.

1. Are there circumstances in which waterboarding of prisoners is acceptable?

Yes - 53%

No - 47%

2. Do you consider waterboarding to be torture?

Yes - 80%

No - 20%

I find this totally depressing to think that majority of people would feel torture could be acceptable.

A Bright Idea

2007-12-09T18:37:00.001-05:00

I was driving to work the other day when a bright idea occurred to me. It was important, really important. But there was no way I could've written it down or sent myself an email while driving a car. And if I didn't record it somewhere, I'm sure I would have forgotten it by the time I arrived at the office. So I reached for the phone (I live in a state where talking on the cell phone while driving is still legal). But I didn't call my voice mail or my secretary. I called Jott.

Jott is the brightest idea of them all. And it's free. It is a service that uses voice recognition to convert your spoken message to an email. Here's more details on how to use it.

I use it all the time now when I'm away from a computer, or if I just want to get some important stuff out of my head without interrupting whatever I'm working on. As David Allen said, if it's in your head, you're probably not working on it.

So here's how I use it. When I call Jott, she knows who I am based on my cell phone's number. I say I want to jott myself, she knows my Gmail address. Then I say the message and hang up. Done. I speak English with an accent, but no matter, she understands me. The only time I get (...) is when I say names of my Polish friends, like Niedzwiecki. Oh well...

I programmed names and email addresses of my relatives and several friends, I can jott them too.

I have a filter set up in Gmail that stars a new message, applies necessary labels and forwards it to my work email. I could have forwarded it directly to my work inbox, but we're using Outlook, need I say more?

If my Jott message is a reminder, I can quickly send it from Gmail to Todoist with a handy toolbar link. From Todoist front page click on Show Info Page (upper right corner), then Gmail Integration. That is another way of keeping vital information organized, documented and easily retrievable but not in my mind.

Now I am truly part of the network, even if I'm not at the keyboard. And I don't need to worry about forgetting my bright ideas.

Time Management

2007-11-26T21:12:00.001-05:00

If you are like me, you're probably struggling to do everything you planned to do in a day. I finally reached a breaking point when I said enough is enough, I just can't do everything that I think should be done.

And that was the first step in the process of getting help for my disorganized Time Management ways: acknowledging that I do have a problem.

The second step was to research and identify the solution.

The third and final step was to implement the solution.

Sounds simple? It actually was!

There is a whole bunch of resources available for dealing with Time Management issues, I list some of them at the bottom of this page. By far my most favored methodology is David Allen's Getting This Done (GTD). However, my needs are quite unique, so I adapted what I thought were the best parts from several methods and put them together into a simple system that works for me. Here is the gist of that system:

I write things down in an organized way to keep them out of my mind and to allow me to concentrate on performing the tasks that need to get done. As David Allen says, if it's on your mind, it's probably not getting done!
I identify and schedule my priorities based on the importance, instead of prioritizing my schedules

I realized it is a physical impossibility to do everything that is (or seems to be) on my plate. I needed a system to prioritize my tasks, and such a system is based on Importance rather than Urgency of the tasks.

Here's an idea from Time Management Presentation. Consider a two dimensional space, one axis being Clock (time) and the other being Compass (importance). On such a plane we can visualize four Quadrants:

Quadrant 1: Clock: Urgent and Compass: Important
Quadrant 2: Clock: Not Urgent and Compass: Important
Quadrant 3: Clock: Urgent and Compass: Not Important
Quadrant 4: Clock: Not Urgent and Compass: Not Important

Items in Quadrant 1 need to be actively managed, this is the necessity, they need to be scheduled, the What's The Next Action question needs to be answered and acted upon.

Items in Quadrant 2 represent the actions we need to be focusing on, thinking about, and scheduling for the future action, because if they are truly important, then sometimes in the future they will become urgent.

Items in Quadrant 3 represent deception: why are they urgent if they are not important? Either reassess them in terms of importance or move them to Quadrant 4

Items in Quadrant 4 should be avoided, they are not urgent and not important. At best, they belong to the Maybe Later... category.

I realize that not everybody thinks in terms of a two-dimensional space, so here is a simpler, linear version of the quadrants:

The concept is simple:

When a new task is created, you place it in one of the four Quadrants, based on it's Importance and Urgency.
Every morning, review the items in Quadrant 2 (Short List). They are all important, so select the few that are the most urgent and move them to the Quadrant 1 (your Next Actions). These are the tasks you'll be working on today!
Every week (it's Friday afternoon for me) reassess items in all categories, but especially in Quadrant 3 (the deceptively urgent tasks). Will you have time to work on any of them next week? Did any of them become less urgent or more important? Move them around accordingly.

The concept is simple and once you get a hang of it, it really works great. The last question, however, is, how exactly do you do that?

Well, you can start with simple 3x5 index cards. Write a task on a card, then place it in one of the four envelopes or manila folders. Reprioritization is as simple as moving index cards from one envelope or folder to another. Once a task is completed, you throw away the card. There is really no excuse not to try it.

Some of us prefer the electronic tools. Here is a choice of free internet based tools that are great for organizing and prioritizing your tasks:

Remember The Milk - Forget the stupid name, this is actually a full featured, easy to use electronic system for managing tasks and appointments. I was using it for several months, until I found Todoist
Todoist - This is my current system, check it out, if it goes away my life will just crumble away.
Nozbe - Full featured, powerful, yet easy to use GTD system. If I wasn't already using Todoist, it would be difficult to decide between Nozbe and RTM.

So how do I use Todoist?

Look at the screen shot above. I have several projects, such as Work, Garden, Home, etc.

Each project is divided into Categories providing context for the tasks, such as Wiki, Chapter 2, Black Belt Mentoring, etc.

Within each Category there are color coded Tasks. Red is Quadrant 1 (my Next Actions), Blue is Quadrant 2 (Short List), Green is quadrant 3 (Long List) and Black is Quadrant 4 (Someday, maybe...)

Every morning I select my Next Actions for the day and change their color to Red.

Every week I re-evaluate the entire list and change the colors accordingly.

As the new tasks arrive, I quickly assess where they belong and file them away. However, if there is anything that could be done in 2 minutes or less, I just do it.

Finally, here is a list of additional resources containing tons of good Time Management hints and information:

The Rule of 24 an informative PowerPoint presentation
Time Management another good PowerPoint presentation
David Allen's GTD site - the best of the best, at least in terms of the quality of information, not necessarily the ease of finding it
43 Folders - GTD inspired site and blog, lots of great tips, worth getting the RSS feed from this one.
Tips for getting organized and get things done - as the name suggests...
GTD Blog - a portal to hundreds of GTD links, I haven't explored them all yet...
What's the Next Action blog - another GTD inspired blog, also worth getting the RSS feed
YouTube GTD search results - surprise, surprise, YouTube has great GTD videos, including Dave Allen's presentations.

Do You Multitask?

2007-11-20T16:27:00.000-05:00

Last night I read an interesting, albeit older article from International Herald Tribune "A Warning On The Limits Of Multitasking"

Some of us, one could say most of us, think that juggling several tasks at the same time makes us more productive. After all, teenagers do that all the time, like my youngest son, he does his homework, IMs several friends and listens to the music, all at the same time. That makes him very productive, right?

Not quite. Recent studies indicate unequivocally that cramming too many tasks into a short time frame not only increases the total task duration, but also compromises the quality of the results. The clear recommendation is to turn off that tv, change radio station from songs with lyrics to soothing background sounds, forget IM and don't answer email.

"Multitasking is going to slow you down, increasing the chances of mistakes," said David Mayer, a cognitive scientist and director of the Brain, Cognition and Action Laboratory at the University of Michigan. "Disruptions and interruptions are a bad deal from the standpoint of our ability to process information."

Rene Marois, a neuroscientist and director of the Human Information Processing Laboratory at Vanderbilt University says that a core limitation of our brain is its inability to concentrate on two things or more at once.

It does, therefore, make sense to do several simple things to increase your productivity:

Turn off the sound that your computer makes when a new email arrives, turn off that visual clue in the lower right corner announcing new email message. Here's how to do it:
1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. On the Preferences tab, click E-mail Options, and then click Advanced E-mail Options.
3. Under When new items arrive in my Inbox, clear the Display a New Mail Desktop Alert (default Inbox only) check box.
4. If you want to, you can suppress other notifications such as playing sounds, changing the mouse pointer, or displaying an envelope icon in the notification area. To do this clear the Play a sound, Briefly change the mouse cursor, or Show an envelope icon in the notification area check box, respectively.
Check emails only infrequently, say at the top of each hour. Then either act on them right away, delete them, delegate them to somebody else, or mark them as Deferred or Archived.
Make your status as Do Not Disturbed on the Office Communicator for most of the day, make yourself available only, say, in the mornings and in the afternoons.
Focus all of your energies on the task before you. Define what that task is (your Next Action), then stay focused until the task is done.
Keep a journal of your tasks and activities, organize it so that it makes sense to you. You can do it either on paper or on the wiki.
If you don't know how to start a journal, get a stack of 3 x 5 index cards and write down what's on your mind. The purpose is to get things out of your mind and on the paper, so you can focus your thoughts on what needs to be done now. In the meantime, start organizing your index cards. They will reveal the structure of your journal when you're ready to start it.

For more information follow these links:

43 Folders - Blog and a family of web sites by a productivity guru Merlin Mann.
The Bumble Bee - Ken Thompson's blog about team productivity and our innate connections with the biological world.
What's The Next Action - A weblog about Getting Things Done
Zen Habits - A blog about simple productivity
David Allen's Company Podcasts - The official David Allen Company podcast designed to help you win at the game of work and business of life.

Travel Sites

2007-04-08T08:03:00.000-04:00

While surfing for the upcoming summer trip I ran into three sites worth noting here.

First, an incredibly rich place of a Polish globe trotter Wojtek Dabrowski, I spent no less than four hours yesterday reading his 2005 Across Africa trip diary, it was fascinating. Day by day account of a trip lasting some four months, over land, from Gibraltar, across the straight to Morocco, through the Sahel, central African countries to the East African coast and then to South Africa. And he has more journals like that from his other trips to Asia, the Americas, Pacific Islands, and more. Sorry, those pages are mostly in Polish, but hey must learn those languages, right?. If anything, enjoy the pictures.

Second, the Lonely Planet. I'm sure this is not a new discovery for most, but it is new to me, so it counts. I like their traveling checklists contributed to by users.

Third, the World 66 site. I like the visited countries maps tool, here's my European map.

And here are the US States I visited, at least those I remember:

Do:

Keep a journal when traveling, even if this is a short, one day trip. This not only enriches your live by forcing you to reflect on the events, places, and people that just went by, but also gives you a treasure chest of useful facts and hints that may make your next trip easier.

Do not:

Put onion skins in large quantities through the garbage disposer. Ok, this may not be a frequent occurrence for most, but yesterday I was coloring Easter Eggs by hard boiling them in onion skins (skins from maybe 5 onions, cook for 30 mins). Afterwards I dumped the skins to the sink and ran the disposer. Most skins just slid past the disposer without being shredded and plugged the pipes under the sink. My wife wasn't very pleased with that.

The Others

2007-04-04T08:51:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading short lectures given by Polish glob trotting journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski at the Vienna Institute For Human Sciences. The topic: The Others. It is a fascinating look at how we relate to people who are different from us, racially, culturally, nationally.

It strikes me, that the Europeans especially, have looked at other people and other cultures paternistically at best, as a resource to fuel their thirst for wealth and power at worst. Throughout centuries the French, the Spanish, the British, and others, sent the worst element from their societies overseas to spread the Christian values with the sword and the fire. We will live with the consequences of these brutal actions forever, just to mention the genocide of the indigenous people in the Americas and Australia or the African slave trade. These people were not looked at by the Europeans as Humans, they deserved to die simply because they were The Others.

But we don't need to look back in time to be appalled by how some groups of people treat other groups of people, simply because they are different. In the age of instantaneous electronic communication that literally shrank the globe and created huge network of interconnections between people, we see attempts to build walls to separate people from each other. One example is the wall between Israel and the West Bank, another example is the southern border of the US. These are pathetic attempts to keep The Others away from us, because we are obviously better, better looking, more intelligent, wealthier, our religion is better, in all possible respects The Others are not worthy of living among us, they would take our money, they would pollute our gene pool, they would desecrate our religion. Not to mention that they speak this strange language that nobody can understand (as Kapuscinski noted, the word 'barbarian" comes from Greek "barbaros", which means somebody who just mumbles incoherently). So we build walls around our domains, we capture and expel those that came to live among us illegally.

Kapuscinski cites three types of group behaviors towards The Others: you either subjugate them (the colonial powers, or like the US and UK are trying to do in Iraq), or you separate from them (the Great Wall of China, southern US border, Israel), or you try to live with them in harmony (what would be a good example of that?).

One would think that Humanity reached the maturity level needed for harmonious living of The Others among us, but then maybe we still need more time...

Do:

Every day take a minute or two to reflect on how things worked out, what went well, what would you have done differently.

Arizona Trip

2007-03-17T04:52:00.000-04:00

Back from Arizona, it was a tiring but at the same time interesting and rewarding trip.

I made a few new friends. We met for dinner in a quiet Greek restaurant (directions, map), food was great, proprietors friendly and attentive, but that's another story.

While waiting for Kartik, Dave and I talked about this and that, until one of us made a passing remark about the futility and senselessness of the Iraq war. At that time we started to carefully probe the territory, is it safe to say what you really think?

I'm happy to report that both Dave and I are staunch Liberals and we wouldn't mind seeing the imperial troika of George W., Cheney and Rumsfeld being tried for treason, at least in the court of public opinion, for waging a personal war.

But what gets both of us, is how the social and political landscape has changed in this country over the last several decades, how uncivil, polarized and often hateful the public discourse has become. I recalled a podcast in which John Edwards interviews Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter remarked that in his presidential campaign in 1976 both he and Gerald Ford would refer to each other as nothing less than my distinguished opponent. So what has happened over the last 30+ years that caused our language and our perceptions of each other to roll into the gutter?

I don't really want to start a dissertation here, but let's consider at least one thought: electronic communication channels, like email or this blog, allow people to say things without looking straight into anybody's eyes. On one hand, this is liberating, I can say what I really think and have it published for free. On the other hand, I don't get the instant feedback from my conversers' facial expressions and body language. That instant feedback, this ability of people engaged in informal debates to be close to each other provides moderating effect on how we express our thoughts and how we treat each other.

Some of us live and communicate in a virtual world now, but we are not virtual creatures. We are social beings whose very survival depends on our ability to reach out and touch somebody close. Yet in the virtual world the social norms of behavior are still evolving.

This may be outside of any one individual's or even a group of people influencing ability, but the challenge we're facing is to make sure the virtual norms of social behavior do not stray too far from the ones we have lived by for eons.

This challenge goes two ways: we need to preserve the elements of accepted norms of face-to-face discussions in virtual communication and at the same time we must protect the norms of the face-to-face discussions from being strongly influenced by the I-can-say-whatever-I-want-however-I-want reality of the virtual world.

The issue is not the content of virtual and real communications, it is the format, which must remain polite and respectful in either case. This has been the norm for as long as I can remember and as far as our historical records go.

All right, enough of that, let's get back to Arizona. To the left is a picture I took from the Mormon Loop trail in the South Mountain Park, trail map is here. I started the hike from the 24th Street trail head, climbed up, followed the Mormon trail, then switched to National trail and descended back to the parking lot on the Mormon trail. All in all it took almost three hours, largely because of frequent stops to admire the scenery, listen to the birds, look at the rocks, breath the air.

The weather was breathtakingly beautiful, high eighties, light wind, no smog. The "no smog" part was especially captivating, I'm not used to seeing clear air over Phoenix. But last week you could see for miles and miles around.

Do:

While typing email, blog or wiki entry, imagine you are talking to an actual person, picture his/her face while you type. This will make your message more personal (that's a good thing), more relevant to the intended audience, but also more polite.

Take a minimum of one 0.5L bottle of pure water (not sweetened or flavored) per hour while hiking in the desert in moderately high temperatures, say high eighties. Definitely more in the Summer!

Do not:

Insult specific or unspecified groups of people by making sweeping judgements in email, blog, wiki, or other electronic media. Virtual communication shapes our morals as much as direct communication.

Sunday Morning

2007-03-11T09:22:00.000-04:00

Rode my bike in the morning, 45 mins, new record! Beautiful morning it is, sunny, windless and quiet, all you can hear is the freeway several miles away.

The Irish Breakfast tea is a hit, add a spoonful of honey and a slice of lemon and you're set to start a day.

Do:

Put a folded towel on the bike to sit on. It doesn't get wet, yet it cushions the hard wooden board pretending to be the bike's seat.
Have a cup of Irish Breakfast tea with honey and lemon in the morning. It does lift your spirit.