You may remember reading some months back about the Autofocus task management system created by Mark Forster.  Since February I’ve been using this system exclusively, and have found it exceptionally good at managing both business and personal tasks.  Mark has made some slight updates to the system based on feedback received on the Autofocus community forum.  This new system, Autofocus2 or AF2, is even better than the original Autofocus and is highly recommended.

You should consider using Autofocus 2 if…

• You are a project manager, or
• You attend many meetings and/or have many tasks coming at you throughout the day, or
• You have specific activities you need to do on a particular day, or
• You struggle at times with procrastination, or
• You worry that you are forgetting things or otherwise “dropping tasks”.

Advantages

• Free
• Low overhead – your time is spent doing the work rather than maintaining the system.
• Requires only a dedicated notebook, pen and highlighter.
• Electronic implementation possible (though paper system is more flexible and fun).

Why I like it

• Single place for all your tasks (business and personal).
• It’s a “trusted system”.  Things will not get lost.
• Compatible with the principles of Getting Things Done (GTD).

Little and Often

Mark is a firm believer in the “little and often” approach.  This means that you work only as long as you care to on any particular item.

Dismissal

Autofocus and Autofocus 2 have a wonderful concept called dismissal.  Dismissal is a concept I’ve not found in other time management or organizational systems.  Dismissed items are highlighted and removed from your active list.  This keeps things moving, encourages work on older items and eliminates “dead” items from your list.  You can read more about dismissal here.

Learn how to do Autofocus2 Time Management System

Mark Forster’s Original Autofocus Time Management System

Autofocus 2 Can Help You Manage Your Tasks like a Master

Are you enjoying your BlackBerry smartphone? I’ve had mine for a few weeks now, and find it a real pleasure to use. It’s elegant, works well as a phone and provides 24/7 online access. Here are two add-ons and one built-in feature that can save you time and increase your enjoyment of this excellent tool.

1.  Install the Opera Mini Browser

According to the Opera website, more than 20 million people use the Opera Mini browser on their mobile phones.  You’ll like it because it is faster than the default BlackBerry browser.  (Opera compresses data before downloading.)  It’s also better organized, easier and more fun to use.

To install:

From the built in BlackBerry browser on your phone, visit mini.opera.com and follow the instructions to download.  In a few moments the new version of Opera will be installed and you’ll be ready to go.

2.  Keep your calendar and contacts synced with Google

Even if you don’t normally use these products, Google Sync for BlackBerry is worth installing.  It will keep a complete and automatic backup of all your contacts and calendar entries.  In case you lose your BlackBerry or have to turn it back to your company on short notice, your contacts will be preserved.

To install:

From your BlackBerry visit m.google.com/sync and follow the instructions.  You’ll need your google or gmail userid and password.  The first sync takes about 10 minutes.  After that, your BlackBerry calendar and/or contacts will be kept in sync with your Google calendar and contacts automatically.

3.  Use SMS Autotext

The autotext feature in your BlackBerry can save you a great deal of time, even if you only send occassional text messages.  The built-in autotext shortcuts fix some common transposition errors.  It can also be used to make it easy to type contractions.  For example, try the following from your SMS compose message screen (SMS and MMS -> Compose SMS Text -> Choose recipient)

• Type il(space) – You’ll see I’ll
• Type shel(space) – You’ll see she’ll
• Type hel(space) – You’ll see he’ll
• Type wel(space) – You’ll see we’ll
• Type wer(space) – You’ll see we’re

You can easily add the current date and time

• Type ld(space) – You’ll see the current date
• Type lt(space) – You’ll see the current time

Add Custom Autotext

If you find yourself typing the same words or phrases in multiple text messages, it makes sense to add custom autotext entries.  You may want to adopt a naming scheme to more easily keep track of your custom entries.  I tend to start all of my custom entries with 0.  This places them in a group at the top of the list.  The 0 key also does not require the ALT key.

For example:
0in(space) -> In a meeting, get back to you later.
0tt(space) -> Talk to you later.

To add a new autotext entry, from your SMS compose message screen (SMS and MMS -> Compose SMS text -> Choose recipient), open autotext (menu button ->  Edit Autotext -> menu button -> new).  In the replace field enter the autotext shortcut (e.g. 0tt).  In the with field enter the full text (e.g. Talk to you later.)  Save and you are ready to go.

Enjoy!
Alec
(Photo credit: ifatma)

3 Blackberry Smartphone Tweaks

Soma Bhattacharya of Stepping into Project Management – Newbie’s Diary has published a quick interview with tips for project managers and other technology people who are looking for jobs.

If you’re not yet familiar with Soma’s blog, why not head over and take a look?

Getting a Job in the New Economy

Here’s how Soma describes herself and her blog:

I am an aspiring Project Manager and a Business Analyst who works as part of the Project Management team. I love to read, travel and explore life. If I’m not at work I can be mostly found reading up on PM or a novel with a cup of green tea.

This blog, is my commitment to become a PM- to talk about my mistakes, my learning process and blog my journey with dollops of honest writings, scouting for some advises for me and everyone else who would like to be a PM.

Interview: Getting a Job in the New Economy

Barbara Mauro and a few others have had questions about getting PDUs for articles and other documents published online.  These questions have shown up on LinkedIn Project Management discussion groups and the #pmot (project managers on twitter) group.

This morning I spoke with a PMI representative, who confirmed that project management articles published online can be submitted for PMP Professional Development Units (PDUs). The same applies to templates and white papers.

If you happened to be audited, you would need to be able to verify where and when the item was published.

The guidelines talk about “scholarly articles”. It’s up to you to determine whether you would consider your submission “scholarly”. If PMI has any issues or questions with a particular PDU submission, they said they will contact you directly.

While not as definitive and clear as we might like, this does provide more guidance than we had before. Hope it’s helpful.

Alec

P.S. An excerpt from our conversation is below.

Quote——-
“…It doesn’t matter if it is published online or in print. If it is a scholarly article you can submit it as category 2B.”

PMPs would claim credit for the category 2B option if he or she has authored or co-authored an article pertaining to project management in a non-refereed journal.

A non-refereed journal would be a journal in which scholarly articles have been written by specialists in a particular field. Unlike refereed journals, the described articles are not evaluated by a panel of experts before acceptance for publication.

Sole authors can claim 15 PDUs per article
Co-authors would claims 10 PDUs per article
End Quote ———-

Image via Wikipedia

PMI: Project Management Articles Published Online Can Be Submitted for PDUs

Are you out of work now?  Working but concerned about the security of your job?  If so, you’re not alone.

Social Media Networking has been the key to my current job search.  I believe it can help you, too.

You may be thinking:

• I have no time to learn one more thing.
• I’m already on LinkedIn
• I can always use Dice, Monster or CareerBuilder.
• Recruiters want my skills.
• I’ve never had trouble finding a job before.

Times have changed.

I’ve written up the very minimum you need do to position yourself well using social media.  It appears today as a guest post on Bas de Baar’s Project Shrink site.

Take a look: Need work?  How to find your next IT Job with Social Media

Need work? How to find your next IT Job with Social Media

UPDATE: You can read a summary of the segment on the CNBC On the Money blog. The excerpt from the CNBC website is below. It will begin after a short commercial.

Full MP4 Version On the Money with Carmen Wong Ulrich Video Podct!

If you’re up at 10pm on Friday, you may be interested in watching CNBC’s On The Money.  One segment will focus on Social Media Networking and how it has helped my job search.

This is a follow up to the advice Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com, and the rest of the CNBC panel gave on the March 6th show.

Should be fun!  If you decide to watch, would love to hear what you think.

Watch me on CNBC On The Money – Fri 3 Apr 09 10PM EDT

Sometimes we are presented with opportunities which cost us little, yet provide great help to others.

Today, April 1, 2009, along with other bloggers, I’d like to ask you to consider sending $1 or more to help replenish local US foodbanks.  You can give money directly to your local foodbank, or you can send it to Feeding America.  Below is a short description.

Thanks for your help with this effort.
With kind regards,
Alec

Everyday, the news is filled with the dire news about the current economic climate and a lot of us use the blogging community to take a break from the constant drumbeat. However, we can not ignore the fact that friends and family members, and even some blogger friends have lost their jobs because of the recession. People who never had a worry in the world now have to think about where their next meal is coming from. People who never would have dreamt that they would need help are now showing up at the local food banks. But when they get there, the shelves are bare.

There is not enough food being donated to meet the sudden rise in demand. There is not enough money to buy the food for the food banks. There is not a general understanding that food banks need help to help fill their shelves.

Bloggers and their readers across our country are joining together to contributions to either their local food banks, or Feeding America, a group of more than 200 foodbanks in the US. Every dollar contributed provides seven meals or 10 pounds of food. A gift of $25 provides 75 meals. If everyone makes a donation on April 1, April Food Day, we will be able to make an impact on hunger in America.

April Food Day

“Stakeholder Management” is one of those terms that could easily be removed from our project management vocabulary.  The next time you hear it in conversation imagine that what was really said was “stakeholder manipulation”.  Would the sentence still make sense?

People are smart.  Manipulation seldom works in the long run, and especially in complicated group endeavors like most technology projects.

Stakeholder as Enemy

When did it become acceptable to have an US versus THEM attitude in regard to our stakeholders?  I remember counseling a fellow project manager about a web content project he was managing.  The gist of the conversation was how bad the stakeholder was because (a) she would never sign off on a deliverable and (b) she would constantly insist upon changing details of screens, organization of data (taxonomy) and even file naming conventions well after the requirements had been finalized.

Sound familiar?

While most of us have had similar experiences on one or more of our projects, there is a difference between normal project friction and toxic level project disorder.  Part of being a good project manager is knowing how to bring together people with varying personalities, roles and ideas such that they can create a joint outcome much better than it would be otherwise.

On a normal project there are times when business needs will shift before the project has been completed.  The tendency will be for the business owner to want the project to change to meet the new business reality.  It is up to the project manager to work with the stakeholder to understand the impact of such changes.  In a bad project situation, no agreement can be reached.  In a worse situation, no such communication takes place.

Some stakeholders will always be difficult to deal with.  Nevertheless, to do a competent job as a PM, you will need to find a way to present your best face and make the communication you have with him or her as best as you can make it.

Og Mandino to the Rescue

Og Mandino (1923-1996) is best known for his book, Greatest Salesman in the World.  His books focus on helping people develop the skills needed to lead.  Constant themes throughout are the essential values of patience, kindness and compassion.  These qualities are as important to project managers as subject knowledge, tools and detail focus.

Og wrote a short book later in his life called, A Better Way to Live.  One of the 17 sections of the book provides a method which might help to create and maintain these attitudes in us when dealing with those stakeholders who are particularly hard to deal with.

Dead at Midnight

For the rest of the day today, treat everyone you interact with as if you knew without a doubt that they would be dead at midnight tonight.

This is your whole assignment.

It will work.
(Photo credit: lsirtosky)

Manage Your Least Favorite Stakeholder

Twitter Tweets – Week 12 (March 2009)

Do you twitter?

Twitter, a microblogging platform,  allows you to send and receive free short messages of up to 140 characters.

Tweets can be private (called direct messages) or public.  Twitter is 21st century CB Radio.

Here are selected project management and career twitter tweets from the last few weeks.

How can you use these?

• Look for project managers to follow @ravenyoung @sreejith_gce
• Scan the topics (Project Management Tools, Efficiency and Productivity, etc.) for subjects of interest to you
  
• Read some or all of the twitter tweets!
  

Take a look – you might find something that could help you on your project, with your career, or in your life. Have a great week. -Alec

Project Management Tools

1. Agile and Scrum? Brief review of Pivotal Tracker Project Management Tool by Andy Volk http://is.gd/opzqabout 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
2. @wefrahm have you looked at deskaway project management software? Looks promising http://www.deskaway.com/8:18 AM Mar 18th from web
3. New guest post by Paul O’Brien – Free Project Management Tool – Delivery Status Grid http://is.gd/neBA Clients and executives love it.10:17 AM Mar 13th from web
4. Free Project Management Tool – Paul O’Brien’s Promise Keeper. Dare you to use it and not improve your project metrics! http://bit.ly/Vd6N36:10 AM Mar 9th from web.

Efficiency and Productivity

1. Are you losing 28% of your productivity every day in “switching cost”? Myth of multitasking on cranky middle manager http://is.gd/o0CW4:53 AM Mar 19th from TweetDeck
2. Reading How to increase the value of your mind maps by up to 80 percent by @chuckfrey Refactor! http://is.gd/n5VN4:47 AM Mar 18th from TweetDeck
3. How Bill Gates is said to take notes http://is.gd/ntHn3:51 PM Mar 15th from TweetDeck
4. Five best (paper) note taking tools from Lifehacker http://is.gd/1N7a12:57 PM Mar 15th from TweetDeck
5. Reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The social life of Paper http://is.gd/nszv Do you take paper notes?11:57 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck
6. Reading How to Take Notes Like an Alpha-Geek by Tim Ferris – http://is.gd/vTz – How do you organize your notes and information?11:45 AM Mar 15th from TweetDeck
7. reading: 8 ways to use twitter more effectively @mintblogger http://is.gd/mHBx9:11 AM Mar 11th from TweetDeck

Career

1. Seth Godin – what to do when you have slack time? http://is.gd/mvtv12:25 PM Mar 20th from TweetDeck
2. get help for your project – 6 Free Project Management Forums http://is.gd/nBdJ by @alecsatin5:26 AM Mar 17th from web
3. Shawn just added Making Project Management Better PM blog to the ICPM. http://tinyurl.com/ckjlll Thanks @TheICPM9:44 AM Mar 13th from web
4. reading: How to use twitter to job hunt http://is.gd/kUAi Thanks @ravenyoung Happy Friday the 13th everyone – Alec5:23 AM Mar 13th from TweetDeck
5. @ravenyoung @sreejith_gce It is good to see sreejith here. PM Karma is good stuff http://pmkarma.blogspot.com/8:57 AM Mar 10th from TweetDeck in reply to ravenyoung
6. Will Monster.com help your Job Search? I ask Jeff Taylor on CNBC On The Money tonight @ 10pm ET http://tinyurl.com/8s8lan2:50 PM Mar 6th from web

Quips and Quotations

1. For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple and wrong! Jurgen Appelo on @projectshrink http://is.gd/oeSY11:53 AM Mar 20th from TweetDeck
2. RT @LimConsulting People don’t want a business opportunity; they want someone to lead them to success! So true.9:33 AM Mar 16th from web
3. @sreejith_gce: You’re in good company. Most of us are learning twitter as we go. Maybe twitter is learning itself as it goes along.8:55 AM Mar 10th from TweetDeck

News and Views

1. RT @RobertLGoodman @Hakicoma Google forced to black out Street View photos http://tinyurl.com/ce64ca6:22 AM Mar 20th from web

Blogging

1. Iris blog improvement program (now in beta) gives excellent advice. http://www.visionarybloggin… THX @easton10:59 AM Mar 7th from web
2. @SHurleyHall the wordpress Thesis theme and support are excellent. You won’t be disappointed. http://diythemes.com/thesis/4:10 AM Mar 18th from TweetDeck in reply to SHurleyHall

Video Podcasts

1. If you ever liked Jacques Cousteau – take a quick break and watch Sylvia Earle’s short video podcast on TED http://is.gd/k6AHabout 21 hours ago from TweetDeck
2. RT: @ptcraven @alecsatin this is Dean Kamen o TED, incredible http://tinyurl.com/5a8oy2 truly so. Thanks again Paul.12:32 PM Mar 16th from web
3. RT: @ptcraven and then there is this remarkable woman http://tinyurl.com/b8krtj – Fantastic!9:33 AM Mar 16th from web
4. @ptcraven BTW I am so grateful for TED. Did you see this one by Larry Brilliant on pandemics http://is.gd/nyal6:35 AM Mar 16th from TweetDeck

(Photo credit: Shovelling Son)

PM Twitter Tweets?

Help is on the way!

Imagine the scene:  It’s late.  You’ve been struggling all day to figure out the best way to handle an issue on your project.

• It could be that your organization has standardized on Microsoft Project 2007, and you need to update all your resource allocations.
• Perhaps you are looking for the best way to make sense of the incomplete requirements you just inherited from a business analyst who was laid off.
• Maybe you have been tasked with implementing Earned Value Management (EVM) on all your projects by the end of the year.

These are all situations which could happen to you in the course of your work as a project manager.  Assuming your colleagues at work are tied up, where are you going to go for help?  Your favorite free project management forum.

Why Project Management Forums

PM forums are generally frequented by experienced project managers, novices, and everyone in between.  Excellent advice can be had for the asking.  Of course it’s better if you’ve been in the habit of giving help to others along the way – though this is by no means necessary. You can learn even more by following one or two forums on a regular basis.

Here are some of the best to get you started.  Most require you to sign up for free membership.  Don’t let this requirement stop you.

Each is included in this list by unsolicited recommendation.

1. allPM.com

Note:  Links to forums below require you to sign up for free membership. allPM.com refers to itself as The Project Manager’s Homepage™.  Active forum areas include:

• Project Management – Career and Job Talk
• PM Help!
• Project Management Software and Tools
• Microsoft Project – Discussion and Assistance
• PM Certification
• Project Management Methodologies
• Best Practices
• Project Management Office
• Students of Project Management

allPM.com also offers a PMs for hire section in which you can post your resume by country, continent or region.   Very nice site.

2. gantthead.com

gantthead.com is a fantastic resource for project managers.  Even if you already have a linkedin profile, you can benefit from creating a gantthead one.  Gantthead profiles are listed on google search, so it may help your online branding when it comes time for your next career move.

An hour or two spent looking around gantthead is an excellent use of your time.  Here are the gantthead discussion areas:

• Project Management Central
• Process Improvement

3. Project Management Knowledge Base

PMKB bills itself as a community of project planners and managers sharing experiences and knowledge.  A somewhat less active forum, though still a good source of information.

• Project Management Forum

4. Professional Project Managers Networking Group

PPMNG, the social network for project managers,  seems to be focused largely on helping project managers find positions.  This forum can help you be aware of what project management skills are in the most demand, and identify gaps in your own knowledge areas.

• PPMNG Discussion Forum

5. Tek-Tips Project Management Forum

Tek-Tips has IT forums in various areas.  The Project Management forum is low volume and good quality

• Project Management General Discussion Forum

6. The ICPM

The ICPM is a project management site with a good reputation and great potential.

• ICPM Project Manager’s Forum

Your Next Step

I challenge you right now to visit and join one of these forums.  See if you can check in at least weekly.  When the time comes for you to get assistance, you’ll know exactly who to ask.

(Photo credit: greg.turner)

6 Free Project Management Forums

Delivery Status Grid

The Delivery Status Grid is provided here to help you in your project communication and reporting.  It was designed by Paul O’Brien, an experienced project manager and the creator of the Promise Keeper.

The following post has been written by Paul O’Brien

What is it?

The Delivery Matrix for each project lists all the key work products (documents, contracts, test-plans, computer code etc) and has a set of columns showing progress through the life of the object. It covers the initial design meetings, doing the work, reviewing and sign off phases. I put the rough % completion status in for every object. Again its all brightly colour coded by conditional formatting to give an at-a-glance overview of everything. I add colourful speach-bubble notes and big red circles etc to highlight problems.

I used to drive things with this tool but it’s too crude. Now I just keep it as a communication tool and rely exclusively on AutoFocus and the Promise Keeper.

Why use it?

The clients love it for 3 reasons.
1. It looks official and shows we have a cunning plan
2. It motivates people to push for completion and show progress
3. It makes it easy for senior execs to tell what’s happening (they can’t read gantt charts)

How to use it?

I update it using a projector during my weekly project meetings – so everyone can see and debate what progress we are recording (or lack thereof).

These are quirky little tools I have created just for myself. I only explain them here because several people asked.

Respectfully,
Paul

Next Steps

The Delivery Status Grid may be easily duplicated using any spreadsheet program.  If you decide to create one to use on one or more of your projects (highly recommended), please consider offering your version as a template for others to use.  If you send it to me, I’ll post it here for others, and will give you credit as well.  Thanks! -Alec

Free Project Management Tool – Delivery Status Grid

It’s been a pleasure to create this blog for you

Over the past year of writing Making Project Management Better, my goal has been to provide at least one solid post every week.  The focus is to help you as a project manager become better at what you do – more effective, more skillful, and of more value to your employer.

It’s a soft skills blog

…because I believe project management is really about developing great relationships with people. Too little of our formal training helps us excel in this area. I want you to feel that by reading this blog, you are encouraged to better yourself little and often.  A wise person said that teaching others is the best way to learn.  By writing for you I continue to find areas for me to improve.  It’s an exciting and energizing process.

It’s about colleagues

My hidden purpose in creating this blog has been to develop lasting friendships with other project managers throughout the world.  Have you and I communicated through email, IM or twitter?  I truly look forward to continuing our conversation in future.

It’s non-commercial

If you read something here, it’s because I believe it to be worth your consideration – not because I’m getting a kickback of some sort. This blog is my way to serve.

Usually I don’t ask for your help.  This post is a rare and necessary exception.

Why this post

I’m getting ready to put up a separate hire me subdomain to help generate new work.   Work has been off for me as well as others in 2009.  I’m currently looking for a full-time project.  I can work 1099, corp-to-corp, contract or FTE¹ with or without health benefits.

How you can help

Have you had a positive experience with me?

If you have anything nice to say about working with me, or about something you’ve gotten out of a post you’ve read, or from this blog in general,
please add it as a comment to this post.

You don’t have to write much.  It can be unpolished.  Specific is good.
Real is best.

Your comments will be helpful for prospective employers in identifying why they might want to hire me.

Job leads

I’ve been focusing my search in the New York City area, and would particularly appreciate any leads you might have for people who have the ability to hire project managers, or know those who do.

I can easily travel up to 4 days per week, and would be happy to work anywhere in the US and/or eastern Canada.

My rates are market competitive – neither cheap nor expensive.

Please tweet this post

Spreading this message may provide a lead neither you nor I can envision.  Vive le social network!

Thank you

Your help will allow me to provide you with great content for many years to come.

(Photo credit: sidnid)

Favor Request – I need your help

1. Full Time Employee

Paul O'Brien's Promise Keeper

Does PMP certification make a better project manager? When Raven Young asked this question, opinions varied.

Does Microsoft Project, the de facto project management software standard, improve IT project performance? I challenge anyone to show me proof of a strong correlation between how good you are as a project manager, and the cost of the tools that you use.

Some of the best project managers use the simplest tools. Many of us who are efficiency software and tool junkies have come full circle and selectively reincorporated paper-based task systems into our personal workflows.

As part of the primary mission of this blog, I seek to provide you with tools and techniques which can increase your real skill as a project manager.  This post is about Paul O’Brien’s Promise Keeper, a simple tool which can:

1. Improve team communications
2. Facilitate efficient meetings
3. Save you time

You can start using your own Promise Keeper today.   Best of all, it’s free.  The author and creator, Paul O’Brien, has given permission for you to use or modify it as you see fit.¹  If you decide to try it, please leave a quick comment below.  Paul will be monitoring the list, and would be glad to hear your thoughts.

What is the Promise Keeper (by Paul O’Brien)

Several people asked about the Promise Keeper and the Delivery Matrix²   These are quirky little tools I have created just for myself. I only explain them here because several people asked.  They are not part of any methodology – I just made them up myself to help me do my job.

Project management (or all management now I think of it) is all about setting up an environment where busy people can make good promises and then keep them. A good promise is one where they are motivated to do the task, have not under-estimated it and the promise is made and recorded in ‘public’. If they can’t keep the promise I need to know in time to deal with it. I find the most important thing here is to eliminate all fear and anxiety from the environment – otherwise you get bad promises and poor promise-keeping.

I have a simple spreadsheet list with persons name, date of next review, what the promise is and the final deadline. I sort this by persons name so I can batch by person and remind them of all their promises. I use conditional formatting to highlight the ones that are due for review or completion.

How to Start

The best way to start using your own version of the Promise Keeper to to start a spreadsheet like the example at the top of this post.  Include columns for:

1. Person who made the promise
2. Status (In Progress, To Do, Done)
3. Due Date
4. Next Review Date
5. (Calculated Field) Days to Due Date.  Negative if due date has been missed.

Start with the current items you are tracking.  If this seems onerous to you, an alternative way to begin is to bring an empty sheet to your next team meeting.  You can then fill it in with your team.

In future team meetings or status updates, this promise keeper can be one of the main exhibits updated and used as a basis for the agenda.

I have started using a promise keeper myself, and am impressed with its elegance and clarity.

Thanks Paul, for your generosity in sharing.  Paul’s delivery matrix will be presented for you use in a future post.

Free Project Management Tool – The Promise Keeper

1. Please do not publish it elsewhere without his express written permission.  Thanks!
2. Will be presented later this week in a follow up post.

UPDATE: Watch excerpt from the show. May take a minute or two to download.

If you’re up tonight at 10pm (or have time to program your Tivo) you might enjoy watching CNBC On The Money.  Jeff Taylor, the founder of Monster.com will be answering questions from people who are in the job market now, or think they may be in the near future.  The information may be useful for you or someone you care about.

I’ll be one of the people asking questions!

The program is CNBC On The Money.  Broadcast is March 6th, 2009 at 10pm ET.

Would be great to have you watch.

Jeff Taylor on Job Search and Monster.com

If you are deep in a job search, or contemplating one, you might be interested in this free offer from FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos). On Tuesday, March 10th, bring in your resume in hard copy or electronic form. FedEx Office will print 25 free copies on nice paper for no charge.  This may be U.S. only – check with your local store if you are elsewhere in the world.

If you are working, this could save you from the potential embarrassment of being seen copying your resume on the office printer.

No word on how popular this offer may be.  You might want to go early.  Still, a kind offer.  Thanks FedEx Office!

(Photo credit: Oliver Charavel)

25 Free Resume Copies at Kinkos on Tuesday March 10th

Here’s Hope: 5 Antidotes to Gloom.

Last week while enjoying a relaxing dinner with some friends at GustOrganics (worth visiting),  the conversation shifted to the subject of fear and negativity.

One normally upbeat person spoke of being overwhelmed with the amount of negativity she was hearing from the news.  Another said that he had gotten so fed up with CNN that he turned it off a few weeks ago and hasn’t looked back.

As project managers we don’t always have the luxury of disengaging ourselves from what’s going on in the world around us.  We are responsible for leading and inspiring our teams.  How then do we stay involved, engaged and aware, while maintaining hope and realistic optimism?

It’s an interesting question.

The dinner conversation soon moved on to other subjects.  Yet ever since I’ve continued to think about antidotes to gloom.  Here are five concrete actions you can take today which will add a bounce to your step, a sparkle to your eye, new ideas to think about and best of all, a little more hope into your routine.

Get an iPod

If you already have an iPod, please skip this section.  If you’ve never had an iPod, I want to encourage you to think about getting one, and specifically about getting a 2nd Generation iPod Touch.

Until I got my first iPod a few weeks ago, I never understood the appeal.  How wrong I was! The iPod Touch is a fantastic tool for personal growth and productivity and a masterful implementation of technology.  It’s easy to use, convenient, has wonderful sound and a clear picture in a small object that’s a pleasure to hold and operate.  I’m sure the other iPod models are also very good.

If you can afford it, pick up a new iPod Touch 2nd Generation 8GB or 16GB.   It will last you a long time.  You’ll appreciate its beauty and elegance.

An extremely low cost alternative is to search eBay or Craigslist for a used iPod under $25.  You can purchase inexpensive replacement earphones for under $5.  Download and install iTunes 8 for free, and you’ll be good to go.  This will enable you to try it for yourself with a minimum of financial outlay.  If you find you like it, you can always get one of the new 32Gig iPod Touches when they come out later this year.  And, you can make someone’s day by giving them a gift of your starter iPod.

1.  Start Watching TED

What is TED?

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference which seeks to, “…bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).”¹  Each week, new talks are added for free viewing, sharing or reposting under a Creative Commons license.

Why TED is an antidote to gloom

Our world encourages high specialization on almost every level.  As individuals we can easily become narrowly focused on our our business, industry or vocation.  The term for this myopia.

Watching TED can open up your perspective.  The presentations are varied, often surprising and uniformly excellent.  You may be amazed at how the few minutes you spend viewing TED will enrich your ability to offer new strategies and efficiencies on your projects.

What to do

• (Best Choice) If you have a video iPod, add this TED video podcast feed.  Then you’ll have something ready anytime you notice yourself feeling dragged down or otherwise discouraged.  For me, having new TED podcasts on my iPod is one of the non-guilty pleasures of my week.
• You can also bookmark TED.  If you do, I’d recommend adding a recurring event to your tickler calendar to remind you to take the time to check.  If you use AutoFocus, you know just what to do.

Some recent TED talks you might like

• Juan Enriquez on Mind Boggling Science (If you watch only one, make it this one.)
• Bill Gates on Education, Malaria and Changing the World
• Barry Schwartz on Practical Wisdom as Cure for a Society Gone Mad with Bureaucracy
• David Merrill on Siftables: Toy Blocks that Think
• And 200 more!!!

2.  Put Mozart on Your iPod

When was the last time music lifted you?  As I write this I’m being whisked away by “Jupiter”, a.k.a Symphony number 41 in C. Lest you think I’m some sort of high-brow classical music fanatic and use this judgment as a reason to disregard Mozart as irrelevant to you, consider this true story.  It’s 8 pm at the Metropolitan Opera.  The curtain is about to rise on Ponchielli’s 4 act La Gioconda.  The theatre’s warm.  The seats plush.  My eyes close and open again at the first intermission…  at the second intermission… at the third intermission… and again at midnight when we’re finally released.  Lori still laughs whenever she remembers me trying unsuccessfully to keep awake.

Mozart’s Different

Happily for you, you need know nothing about classical music to enjoy Mozart.²  There’s a good reason why Mozart is considered by some to be the greatest composer who ever lived.  Whether this is true or not, his music is accessible.  I challenge you to be able to remain gloomy and discouraged while listening to 10 minutes of Mozart.

Interesting Fact

Here’s something I just learned when looking up information on Symphony No. 34 in C.  Allegro means quick, lively or cheerful.  That’s how I feel whenever I hear it.  Perhaps you’ll find a dose of Mozart the same way.

The Best Mozart Option

Philips in 1991 put together a collection of 45 boxed sets encompassing some of the best recorded Mozart performances.  Most of these are readily available new or used.  Take a look at the list of sets, pick one from sets 1 – 25, and put it on your MP3 player.  Let it run whenever you need a little burst of something good.  Some examples:

• Mozart Vol 1: Early Symphonies [Box Set]
• Mozart Vol 10: Quartets, Quintets, Etc [Box Set]
• Any from the Philips Complete Mozart Edition

Free Mozart Option

Download no-cost recordings from the Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart MP3 Page.  The performances are good, and they are free.  You’ll have to do a little work to find the ones you want.

3.  Start a Gratitude Log

This may be one of the most significant things you can do.  Very little effort is required – yet the benefits for many who try this are profound.  Some suggestions:

• Keep it private.
• Add something “more days than not”.
• Add at least one thing.  If many things come to mind, write them all.
• You don’t need a fancy book.  Format is less important than just doing it.
• There is a benefit for writing it on paper or keeping an electronic log.  Just thinking about it is not likely to provide the same benefits.

You can read more about gratitude logs at the simple abundance site.  But rather than read, I’d recommend you just start one, right now, today.  If you have questions, leave a comment below or contact me.

4.  Get Up Out of Your Chair

In the 1970s, there was a slang expression, Keep on Truckin’,which was perhaps inspired by an R. Crumb comic.  In the cartoon image, a person is viewed from a low perspective, giving the impression of a very long leg walking forward.

It turns out that this is just what the doctor ordered.  Recent research is showing that people who walk are healthier than those who don’t.  The application: start walking a little more every day.  Take the stairs.  Park a little further away.  Walk an extra block or two.

10,000 Steps

If you would like to try an experiment, purchase an inexpensive pedometer like this Omron Pedometer HJ 112 or this Omron Pedometer HJ 150 and wear it for the next week without making any changes to your daily routine.  Many people walk only 3-4000 steps per day.  If you can slowly increase your daily step count to 10,000 or more, you will be surprised at how much better you will likely feel.

You can read more about 10,000 steps at the PBS 20% Boost Page, the Walking Site 10,000 steps Page and Shape Up America.

(Happy photo credit: x86×86)

5.  Find Something That Makes You Laugh

Laughing feels good, and is good for you.  Have you laughed at anything yet today?

When was the last time you laughed so hard you couldn’t stand up? Has it been a year?  Two?  Longer?

Even small chuckles are good.  While forced laughter may not be your cup of tea (or mine), it may be better than no laughter at all.

Start building in opportunities to laugh.

Think about starting with one or more of these:

• Dilbert: Daily Dilbert Strip.  Daily Dilbert by RSS.
• Onion News Network: Video Podcast – Onion News Network.   Onion Website (Explicit. These may be blocked at some offices.)

(Smiling Larry photo credit: spamily)

5 Antidotes to Gloom

1. Source TED website.
2. Though once you start listening, you might find The Compleat Mozart of interest.

I’m in awe of Mark Forster’s Get Everything Done Autofocus System.  As a longtime user of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I have encouraged project managers to read and adopt GTD.  Until now, I believed that this was the most effective system around to manage the hundreds of active tasks and projects on most of our plates.

While I still would encourage you to purchase and read either Getting Things Done or Making It All Work, Autofocus may be an effective alternative.  I’ll be testing it over the next weeks, and will let you know how the experiment goes.

So far, here are some wonderful advantages I see of Mark Forster’s Autofocus time management system:

• Only 8 steps to follow.  You can do this!
• Everything stays in front of you.
• The system itself gets out of the way very quickly.
• Your intuitive part gets a say in what you do.
• Your logical part gets a say in what you do.
• It’s a trusted system.  Things will not get lost.
• Recurring items are handled elegantly in the system.
• More rapid review of open items.  With my personal implementation of GTD, some actions items can sit for days without review or progress.

Take a look at Lifehacker’s Review of Autofocus for other comments.  Better yet, go directly to Mark’s website and take a look at the active forum.

How are you doing with getting everything done?

(Photo credit: aheram)

Get Everything Done – Mark Forster’s Autofocus System

(This is a guest post by Stefano Paolinelli, PMP.)

These are tough times, the toughest since the great depression, according to many experts. Often you need to hit the bottom before great things start to happen. Michael Jordan used to say that you can be great only after failing and learning from those failures.

I have seen political changes and demands for government transparency, at a national and local level, as never before. It also seems unprecedented the way people are questioning boards and executives of major corporations. These organizations must change and adapt to the needs of the new market to survive crises like these. Answering to the demands of Wall Street alone, may not be enough to survive, anymore.

The question now is what next? How do we get out of this mess? Who is going to lead us to a better place?We need a new class of leaders, in the private and public sectors. We need honest and reputable leaders that can help us get out of the deep holes we are in.

Peter Senge, American scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management, believes that the era of individualism and self-interest needs to come to an end and that the future is in a holistic vision where organizations grow and collaborate and we all see ourselves as part of a whole. Bangladeshi Economist and Nobel prize Muhammad Yunus, believes that we can have strong economies and win the war on poverty at the same time. Is this too utopist? Dr.Yunus with his book “Banker to the Poor” explains how he has done it.

Many third-world countries are at a crossroad: they could head toward democracy or back to chaos, poverty and civil wars. They need our help, our leadership and encouragement to move toward an era of growth and stability.I see opportunities as never before around the World. Africa is headed toward an unprecedented stability, China established itself as a new economic power, Brazil is showing that a Country can grow its economy even without ignoring its poor, hospitals and medical researchers from around the world are sharing information, programs and protocols via online conferences and International seminars. We live in a planet that is more global than ever. Ignorance, prejudice, diseases, and bad governments tend to spread and become everyone’s problems. AIDS, terrorism, religious bigotries have shown us how everyone can be impacted.

We need leaders who believe in creativity, honesty and who empower the creative souls and change-enablers inside their organizations.

Our government and private corporations need to reinvent themselves to be competitive and admired once again. Steve Jobs (with the Apple iPod/iPhone), Google and Pixar showed us that America can still create products that everybody from India to Canada, knows and wants.The opportunity of a next “Renaissance” is within reach.

I recently created a new blog-azine called “Champions”. With this blog-azine I want to capture the essence of great leadership, great people and great organizations that can take us “there” and win the upcoming battles against our past, our failures, interests and roadblocks that want to block us from moving forward. Winning is not necessarily about taking down our competitors. Winning is about meeting our goals, proving ourselves, getting better.

I would like YOU to be part of the “Champions” community and provide your advice, comments on what is needed to mold and grow a new era of mature organizations and better leaders.  Please join my blog at: http://stefano-vincere1.blogspot.com/.

Stefano Paolinelli, PMP
(Photo credit: Stephen Norman)

Who and Where? New Leaders and Directions

Andres Vivas is an a technical leader with business focus.  He helps his clients keep their IT operations relevant and cost effective through the use of strategy.

I was honored when Andres asked me to write a guest post on the marks of a great project management office (PMO).

Seven Marks of a Best PMO.

(Image by ideologie)

7 Marks of a Best PMO on IT Strategy Planning Blog

Elizabeth Garone has written an article loaded with practical advice in today’s Wall Street Journal.

If you have any concerns about the health of your employer, you may want to take a look.

You can access it online: When your employer is about to hit rough seas.

(Image by slopjop)

What to do when your employer is about to hit rough seas