Pick a place to work

If you are in an office with a dedicated desk, your choice is already made for you.  If you are any where else you probably have quite a few places to choose from, whether you realize it or not.

If you are at home, you may be subjected to the whims of the people you live with.  Find a space that best meets these criteria.  Get as close as you can to finding a location that meets all of these.  If nothing does, don’t worry about it, just find a place that meets most of them.

• Television cannot be seen from where you sit
• There is a clear tabletop or desk with nothing for you to fiddle with.  Take the time to clear off your desk or table where you will be working, there should be nothing on it other than what you need to complete your work.  This includes lots of photos and mementos.   Pick out 1 or 2 things at most that are special and keep them there.  Everything else can be filed away and looked at when you have time and want to take a run down memory lane.
• There is minimal foot traffic in your field of view, people constantly running by will only pull you away from what you are trying to work on.
• You have a comfortable chair to sit on, maybe you need a pillow to put on the chair so your rear end doesn’t start to hurt after 20 minutes.
• You are close to an outlet  so you can charge your laptop if you are using one.

Once you have your space established, try and keep it in a clean and ready state for you to do focused work.  This means, do not clutter it back up with meaningless paper, and needless junk just because you have more open space.  The idea is to keep the distractions to a minimum.

If you are away from home, the criteria is largely the same.

• Stay away from televisions or blinking signs that will draw your attention.
• Find a spot that you will be able to stay out for the length of your focus session.  Conference rooms can be a bad location as people often times have these booked or may try to kick you out if they see you are the only person using them.  The same goes for coffee shops or other public places.   Make sure you understand what the policy is and what you need to do to keep your spot for as long as needed.  Often times you just need to buy a few coffees.
• Make sure you have enough battery power on any digital device you need, if not, make sure you are close to an outlet so you can charge up.
• Pick a spot that minimizes foot traffic.  People walking by in your field of view or constantly bumping into you will only provide more distractions for you to fight with.
• Pick a spot with minimal visual distractions.  A place with a bunch of great abstract art may be fun to hang out in, but if it keeps distracting you from what you are working on, whats the point of trying to work there.
• Make sure you are comfortable with what you are sitting on.  You won’t be able to get anything done if you can’t sit long enough to do it.

Dealing with noise

Our brains are programmed to tune into that noise and check for danger.  Unless you are trying to work in a danger filled space, not recommended, you will need to tune this noise out so you can focus on the tasks at hand.

You have a couple of options for dealing with noise.  The first is you can try and enlist the cooperation of everyone around you to be perfectly quiet.  Good luck!  People make noise, animals make noise, neighbors make noise, just about everything makes noise.  The world is filled with a wonderful cacophony of sound and you will be hard pressed to silence it.

The second, and much more recommended path is to block your ability to hear the sound.  A good set of earplugs can meet the goals or a set of headphones with some relaxing background noise.  If you go with headphones, I recommend noise canceling or noise isolation headphones as they do a good job of blocking outside sounds.  Lots of research has been done on what music to pick, the common recommendations are to try and pick music with out words so you don’t get distracted singing along.  Baroque classical music is a good option.  I have a classical station set up on Pandora that I use which works quite well.

Now that the work area is ready and you have a strategy for dealing with the noise go to it and start working on the focus session.  Try not to get up from your space unless you have to and just keep at what ever you are doing until the session is over.  Good luck and happy focusing.

I travel a lot for work which means I call my family a couple of times a day to try and keep up to speed on everything that is happening.  On a number of these calls, my wife and I will be talking and sharing our day, after a while the conversation seems to slow down with neither of us saying much if anything at all.  Every time this happens, one our both of us has stopped paying attention to the either.  For me, I’ve typically hopped on the computer and am reading an article or email.  I seem to think I have super powers and can read and listen at exactly the same time to completely different things.  As my wife will surely tell you, I cannot.  When I read and listen at the same time, I only get bits and pieces of the article and bits and pieces of the conversation.  The worst part about it is, 5 minutes later I don’t remember a good deal of what was discussed on the phone or on the computer.  This leads to repeated conversations, or having to go back and reread what I already read.  Instead of doing both things and saving time.  I’ve had to repeat both things and ended up taking a lot more time than if I had just single tasked in the first place.

I think everything you do can be broken down into 4 categories, planning, consuming, creating, and resting.

• Planning is coming up with ideas and thinking about how you are going to accomplish them.
• Consuming consists of reading, watching, and listening to material.  It is the act of taking information in and storing it so you can use it later when planning or creating.
• Creating is the act of making something happen.  Whether that is writing, talking, designing, or building.  When you are producing something that can be consumed by others, you are creating.
• Resting is giving yourself a break from planning, consuming, and creating.

You can only do one of these items at a time.  For example, if I am writing and someone comes in to talk with me, I either do not listen and try to continue writing, or I stop writing and listen to the person.  If I decide to multitask, all I am doing is switching between listening and writing and not doing either one very well.  You may think you are special and can do both at once but I challenge you to examine this self image of super human skill.  Ask a few people you trust if your level of attention and ability to process is the same when you multitask as when you focus on one thing.  Can you write an email and listen to a presentation at the same time as well as you could do one thing at a time.  For most of us, the answer is no, if you are being told that you can do these things well at the same time, let me know.  There are quite a few scientists that would be interested in studying you.

Our conscious brain works in a linear fashion.  You plan what you want to do, consume the information you need to go do it, create what you wanted, and then rest when you are done.  Any deviation from this path is simply that, a detour that delays you from reaching your end goal.

So what is the recommendation?   Ditch the multitasking.  If you are listening to someone, close the computer, put away your phone, and listen.  If you would rather be some where else than end the conversation and get back to what is more important to you.  Doing both things at once is simply putting forward a crap effort on your part towards multiple aspects of your life.  You can do better than that.

Dictionary.com defines distraction as:

• that which distracts,  divides the attention, or prevents concentration
• that which amuses, entertains, or diverts

Breaking the cycle of mediocre improvements is very simple and involves a process of honest self evaluation. At the beginning of each year, you should set goals on how you what you would like to achieve and what you need to do to achieve those goals. This is your roadmap for the year. Set a reminder each week to take 10 minutes and write down the things you did well and the things you did poorly. Once a month set aside 30 minutes and review the notes on your sheet and your annual goals sheet. Did you do any work that contributes to your goals. Is there anything working well? Is there anything preventing you from hitting your goals? How would you rate your performance? Pick one area to work on for the next month that will help you improve and write it down. At the end of the next month, ask yourself how you did on the item you were working on.

By performing these weekly and monthly evaluations it helps you to stay focused on your goals and actively taking steps towards accomplishing your goals.

For movies, I just don’t want to hold the iPad for the whole movie.  Having a stand that doesn’t require any action on my part turns my iPad into a portable movie theater.

For text, anyone who has tried to type more than a few sentences realizes that the onscreen keyboard just doesn’t cut it.

 


 
 
This is where the Logitech ultrathin keyboard comes into play.  The keyboard has a small magnetized slot that the iPad connects into and holds it up like a computer screen.  The two connect over bluetooth and when the keyboard is on, the onscreen keyboard turns off.  Battery life is great at well over 30 days between charges.  It’s comfortable to use and best of all, it functions as a screen cover that is thin and barely increases the profile.  After seeing me use the keyboard a number of my colleagues have bought this exact model and couldn’t be happier.  I highly recommend it.

Having dual screens works well for desktop users, but what about laptop workers, or people who don’t want to spend the money on a second monitor?  That is where your Ipad can come in.  There are a number of applications available for the Ipad that can turn it into a second monitor, I chose Diplaypad because it is inexpensive and very easy to use.  All you need is a wireless connection.

To set it up

1. Download display pad onto your Ipad.
2. Download the Displaypad app onto your mac or pc from the companies website.
3. Make sure the laptop and Ipad are on the same wireless network.
4. Launch Displaypad on the Ipad
5. Launch Displaypad on the laptop
6. Select your Ipad from the list of available devices on the Laptop

Thats it, simple.  Now all you have to do is drag things to the right of your main screen and they will appear on the Ipad.  For this to work really well, I put my Ipad standing up vertically in it’s case and set it to the right of my Macbook.

The resolution and screen refresh rate are not great, so this is not for watching video, but it really excels when it comes to setting up a second screen.

Best of all you can take this setup anywhere.  It also looks pretty cool to anyone passing by.

1. Invisible Shield – I am a big proponent of screen protectors, these devices cost $500-$1000 dollars.  Invest a little money in a screen protector.
2. Carrying case that doubles as a stand – many cases out there are just that, cases.  What you need is a case that doubles as a stand.  Make sure it can stand your Ipad up vertically and is stable.  Here is an example
3. Noise isolation headphones – pick up a pair of headphones that block out external sound.  Etymotic and Shure make good in ear versions similar to earplugs, Bose and Beats have good over the ear versions.  These are great for those times you need to block out external distractions and focus on what you are doing
4. Stylus – a Stylus you can use to write, draw, and navigate your Ipad with is great.  I am currently using one from Targus that my wife bought me as a Christmas present and love it.

Some people may recommend a keyboard, I’ve never used one and never felt the need.  It makes the Ipad to much like a computer and that is not what I am trying to achieve.  If you have a small business you make look into Intuit’s Gopayment credit card swiper for the Ipad and Iphone.  I think this is one of the next hot things that will be big over the next 3-5 years.  You could probably even use it to let your friends pay you those annoying IOUs by credit card(could be morally questionable but that is for you to decide)

1. Dropbox – simple way to share files between your computer and your Ipad.  The basic version is simple and just works.  I recommend getting this app whether you use an Ipad or not.  I an open and view documents and powerpoints in dropbox which is great.
2. Evernote – the ultimate cross platform note system.  Save your notes on any platform and access them anywhere.  I will take handwritten notes, email them to evernote and they are searchable through an optical recognition capability that evernote has.  Yes, evernote reads handwriting.
3. Dragon Diction – take voice notes and transcribe them into text notes.  Still needs work but is definitely usable
4. Note Taker HD – use your finger or a stylus to handwrite notes, draw diagrams, create mind maps, and mockup/sign pdfs.
5. Skype – make phone calls from your Ipad
6. PDFReader – quality pdf reader

These 6 apps can make up the core of what you need for your business suite.  In a future post I’ll talk through the workflow on how I use the apps.

To kick off the series I’ll discuss why I decided to get a Tablet and why I chose an IPad instead of an Android tablet.

Why I bought a tablet

Tablets are something I’ve been interested in for quite some time having written a post back in April 2011 discussing if you should buy a tablet.  The conclusion I came to is that tablets were a novelty and not really necessary.  Of course about 6 months later I changed my mind and bought one.  The big inspiration for me  centered around meetings.  I spend every day meeting with clients, taking notes, discussing ideas, and trying to engage with them.  I found that having a computer in the room clicking away formed a barrier between me and the other person in the meeting, it also proved to be a distraction.  I would easily lose focus and check an email, or look something up on the web.  My eyes would constantly go between my client and the computer sending a very clear message that they were did not have my 100 percent focus.  In short, I was being rude and I didn’t think I was going to do anyone any favors by continuing this behavior.

Instead of a computer, it is perfectly acceptable for someone to bring a pen and paper into a meeting to take notes.  I did this for years, but I tended not to reference my notebook later on and seldom took the time to transcribe my notes back into my computer.  It was tedious for me so I seldom did it.  I wanted to go purely digital where I wrote things down once and was able to file them right away for future use.

This is the perfect niche for a tablet.  A tablet is about the size of a notebook and you can easily lay it down on the table beside you.  This removes the wall that a laptop screen erects between you and the person you are speaking with.  If you use a stylus, you can actually handwrite notes on the tablet which is even better as this shows you are taking notes and not surfing the net or checking email.

With a tablet I could do all I wanted around meetings with none of the drawbacks I was currently experiencing.  This pushed me over the top and made me decide to make the purchase as I felt I had finally come up with a legitimate reason.

Why an IPad

I did a lot of research between IPads and Android Tablets, at the time nothing of value existed with a Windows OS on it.  There were quite a few really cool Android devices on the market with really compelling features and price points.  In the end it came down to the following factors that made me pick an Ipad.

• There is one size for the Ipad .  This makes it easy for a developer to optimize their applications for the IPad.  They can spend more time improving their application instead of working on compatibility across many devices of varying size.
• There is one company that controls the updates.   One of my biggest complaints about Android is all of the skinning and customization that an OEM does on the device.  Often times it is to such an extreme that Google updates are not released until the device customizations can be updated to work with the new functionality.  This can lag months behind Google releases, if the updates are ever released.
• Operating system fragmentation for Android.  With so many customizations and variations, there is no guarantee that the latest and greatest apps for Android would work on the device I selected.  Since it is the apps that make the device worth while, this was very important to me.

I personally like Google’s open model and think it has the potential to be superior to Apple in the future.  Unfortunately the “improvements” and customizations that companies and mobile carriers do on these devices fundamentally detract from the user experience and the faith that a device can stay up to date with the latest Google release and features.  Show me a base Google tablet with a standard 9.7in screen, no OS customizations, and will be compatible with Google upgrades for at least two years, I’ll show you a tablet that is really worth sinking your money into.

Otherwise, if you can afford one and you are not anti Apple I still believe the IPad is the way to go.

Each week I have at least some time spent either creating or reviewing presentations, usually around status updates.  Google Presentation allows me to quickly put together a clean and simple status page which I really like.  I can share with colleagues and everyone can work on their slide at the same time which minimizes admin overhead to combine everything together.  The problem is, Google has yet to get formatting right.  Adding bullets on one page can cause font issues on another page.  Italicizing a word may change the indent on a table.  There are a number of screwball formatting issues that occur on Google Presentation that can make things virtually unreadable.  With no rhyme or reason to the cause, you either spend a significant chunk of time fighting with format or just accept the oddball look and continue on.  Powerpoint is fraught with it’s own quirks but nothing as problematic with the core functionality as this.

Google Document and Spreadsheet work extremely well for me.  I also really like Google Calendar and Gmail.  The focus on simplicity is great.  Docs is also a great online repository with cool features.  I also really like Forms for survey purposes.

So with all this love (save Powerpoint) why do I think Office is better?  First it is the industry standard solution making it very easy and reliable to assume that I can create something in office and anyone can see it, edit it, or comment on it.  Second, the simplistic bugs that plague some of the Google apps just don’t occur in Office.  Third, Office has been around for coming up on 23 years.  They have taken all the feedback, built all the capabilities, and been able to refine the product for 9 years longer than Google has been a company.  Microsoft has Office in a great position filling a need that every organization has and filling it well.  For all the bells and whistles, it just works.

If Google could get their product to just work right all the time it would take a huge leap forward and be a true competitor.