tonygoodson

My Productivity for 2010

My productivity for 2009 has been shocking!

Partly because I have some very big issues to sort out, which can be kinda distracting, and it makes it very difficult for me to concentrate at times.  Consequently, most of my good productivity systems collapsed in 2009.  My MindManager mindmaps, my Weekly Review, my capture tools and filing (not that my filing was ever any good!).

What I’m most struck by is the difficulty in planning and setting aside time for the thing I most want to do, Podcast.  Why is it, we have our dreams and we don’t fulfil them, even when we are able to.  I had a good crack at my dreams in 2009, but just couldn’t seem to keep them going.  Also, there are some things which happened, including work, which just needed complete narrow focus, to the exclusion of everything else, and sometimes, no time or energy for anything else.  And in the latter part of 2009, I really enjoyed my work.

And so to 2010, loaded with my iPhone, my Sansa Clip+ mp3 player, and my Dell Netbook.  I’ve stopped using my thin leather pocket Filofax for note capture and diary/calendar.  I’m currently using a cheapo spiral A4 book for capture, and no diary system, because my time has been in blocks of months.

Given that I’m on Gmail and iPhone, I think Google calendar and some kind of iPhone note capture would be nice.  Today, I’ve just created a simple shopping list on a Google Docs spreadsheet, and my Actions in columns, on another Google Docs spreadsheet, so that I can view them easily from my iPhone.  I’m having a play with a few iPhone productivity Apps but nothing has hooked me yet.  Dan Bricklin’s Note Taker to finger write notes on the iPhone, Evernote, iThought mindmaps, and gCalWall which produces a photo of your Google calendar and puts it up as the wallpaper.  Not long before that will be automatic.

My main obsession right now is listening to podcasts and audio books rather than producing podcasts and audio books! One may lead to the other.

Every decade for me has been significant in terms of moving onto the next decade, but this time, 2009 feels like it’s dribbling into 2010!!  Is it just me or did decade ends used to me more exciting!  And so, my productivity is dribbling into 2010!!

Cognitive Bias

Someone asked me recently “Hey Tony, what’s the best entry on Wikipedia?”  though he was probably joking, without hesitation I said “Cognitive Bias”.  He had a look and agreed with me.

So as a reminder to self, and a treat to anyone who reads this, go look at the list of Cognitive Bias on Wikipedia.  It has all the failings of human nature gathered together in one Wiki entry.

A cognitive bias is a pattern of deviation in judgment that occurs in particular situations (see also cognitive distortion and the lists of thinking-related topics). Implicit in the concept of a "pattern of deviation" is a standard of comparison; this may be the judgment of people outside those particular situations, or may be a set of independently verifiable facts. The existence of some of these cognitive biases has been verified empirically in the field of psychology.

Cognitive biases are instances of evolved mental behaviour. Some are presumably adaptive, for example, because they lead to more effective actions or enable faster decisions. Others presumably result from a lack of appropriate mental mechanisms, or from the misapplication of a mechanism that is adaptive under different circumstances.

Thanks Johnnie Moore

Cluetrain and Dreams Coming True

The one thing I forgot to ask Chris Locke about was Bricolage.  He wrote about it in his follow up book to Cluetrain, Gonzo Marketing.  I was reminded of that, because I bust a gut all day to get the interview I’d done with Chris, out.  Which meant adding some music.  And I’d been sitting on some music for over 2 years, Stereophile’s “That’s The Shit” I thought it was called Bass, oh well!

It’s great to collect something, and then use it 2 years later.  And I’ve had a dream to interview Chris Locke since podcasting started, so great to get it together and do it.  Who’s next?  I have a few on the list, and I added another person over the weekend, Neil Young (Man Citeh footballer).  Are you out there Neil Young?

What I’ve done over the last few months, is bring my big dreams forward.  Oh yeah, we’ve all learnt about goal setting and all that.  Have a dream and then put actions to achieve that dream.  Well it doesn’t quite work out, does it.  I’ll tell you why.  We keep doing all the short term stuff before we allow ourselves to do the big stuff we’d love to do.  Except there’s always small stuff that keeps on coming in.  So I switched things around.  I looked at what my big long term things are and made sure they’re the first on my list every day and every week.

In fact, I’ve not been very productive recently, but the big ones are happening. Someone told me recently that they can see a lot of the colour orange in my life.  So I used Orange as the main them for The 3 Moments website, and blow me down if the main colour for Cluetrain isn’t orange, and the RSS Feed logo is orange.

What are the big things you want to do in life?  That doesn’t necessarily mean a big house, Ferrari, and lots of money!! 

When you’ve cracked a big dream, it’s a bit like that time after the wedding, and all the guests have gone.  What now!  I dunno!!  Next guest to interview for a podcast.  Next project! Actually, come to think of it, there’s a few other shows I’ve been wanting to do, and now I have the platform. 

All Time Teams, I talk with people who name their all time sport teams based on how long they’ve followed their team.  I ran a pilot show in 2005 for an All Time Manchester United Team, so it’s a bit out of date now, but just have a listen, and if you’re a keen Man Yoo football fan it sounds great! Click here to download The All Time Manchester United Team 1968 to 2005.

Madman Across The Street, interview the people who are on our city streets.  Instead of stepping over them, find out what their story is, how they got there…3 Moments! 

Sustainability and Green stuff, still a subject we all know we should contribute to, but we can’t be bothered!  I have two pilot shows from the last 18 months that I must upload.

Thanks Cluetrain.

A Mind Like Water

Listening to Dave Allen of Getting Things Done fame, on Leo Laporte's TWIT Net at Night show, I was reminded of a Mind Like Water.  It's a concept in Getting Things Done, of emptying and capturing everything from your mind, so that you're in the Zen like state of having a "Mind Like Water" so calm you can deal with anything, and a system that captures and deals with anything that comes your way, keeping you in the Mind Like Water state.

Once you've captured everything, you put the Projects/Actions into the context of when you can do the action; @Home @Laptop @Airport.  As Dave Allen points out, you wake up in the middle of the night worrying about something, which is the place you can least do something about what you're worrying about.  He reckons if you capture the thing that's worrying you, into your Getting Things Done system, and put it into a context and time when you can do something, your mind will let go and let you sleep!

I'd forgotten that a Mind Like Water is really the aim of Getting Things Done.  So on Monday, I gave it a go.  Instead of re-setting the Getting Things Done system from the bottom upwards, I kept asking myself all day, if I have a Mind Like Water.  I created a gap for where I was and getting to a Mind Like Water.  Even when I thought I'd filed everything, captured everything, I checked if my mind was like water.  It wasn't.  So I kept on working out why not, until I got to a point, maybe temporarily, of A Mind Like Water.  Yippee.

It's funny, but you get there, it may be temporary and brittle, but what now?  Do I actually have to do some of these actions!!  What I found, is once my mind was totally clear, I was doing actions that I've been putting off for weeks and months.  So whilst not perfect, the system and Mind Like Water is re-generating long term projects which you could say are Non-Urgent but Important.

Let's see how I go, and how my state and system handles something urgent or hassling.  I'll Handle It and What is the next action!

The Secret of Sporting Success

I've followed and played sport all my life, and I'm fascinated by what makes individual and team success in sport, and can that translate to other walks of life.  An amazing article today on the BBC website, may hold the key. How GB Cycling Went from Tragic to Magic

So when BC's new performance director Peter Keen stood up at the sport's annual conference a year later and said he wanted to make Britain the world's top Olympic cycling nation, many in the room wondered where they had found this guy. Such ambition and enthusiasm. It was all so, well, un-British.

Fast forward a decade, the sport is the jewel in our Olympic crown and the envy of the cycling world. It's very, very good and it knows it. Such confidence and success. It was all so, well, un-British.

Ever wondered why Britain has had no Grand Slam success in tennis.  Why England is now the worst performing major football team now that Spain has won something?  Now we know.  It's a combination of investment and attitude, picking the right players and coaches.  Group success even if it's individual performances, feeding off each other.

I always go to Borg, Edberg, Wilander.  Ovett, Coe, Cram.  One freak comes along, and starts a dynasty.  Not by direct copying but by being in the presence of these guys and training with them, and believing you can do it.  It's not about setting up centres of excellence, if you fill them with the wrong people.  It's about being in the presence of greatness and some of it rubbing off.  So what's going on in Spain!!  What a year they've had, football, cycling, tennis.  Where has that magic come from, and can it be reproduced?  Is it luck, a chance happening, or is there something in the Spanish air, a self-belief?

Teenager Scoots to Shop

Yippee!  Scott Adams (Dilbert) recently asked What's Your Permanent Age? What age do you think of yourself as, or like to be?  Without hesitation, my age is 15!!  All my musical references are about that time, my strong football (Man United) memories are based at that time.  My greatest sporting achievement was at that age, and of course my girl obsessions were at that age.

So it's gratifying to explain to the guy on checkout at Dick Smith today, why I'm walking around with a scooter in my hand.  "Are you riding that?"  Yep!!  I bought it for the kids (ME!) to keep up with them when they're cycling.  So I thought I'd give it a real go and scooter to Dick Smith in Carnegie, which is about a 3km round trip.

Fun Fun Fun!

SnogFrog Blog

As I promised myself, my new blog is up and running.
SnogFrog Blog.  My wife hates the name.  My friend hates the name.  My mother hates the name.
I love it. Gut feel.
It's about Kissing Frogs.  Selling with Passion.  Networking.  Getting Organised.

Snog is a an English term for kissing.  Kissing with passion.  Pashing.

I've set up the blog and soon the podcast (SnogFrog Pod!) to talk about selling.  Interview people.  See what happens.  See what works.
I'm going to try my hardest to not make it like most other things about selling, which fall into this dull  world of sales talk.  Actually the language isn't dull, just that it sounds like a war.  Territory, Plan, Close, Win, etc etc.  That's fine for 80% of you.  This if for the other 20% who don't feel satisfied with what's out there, and feel there's a different way to sell.
Maybe it's not even selling.

Anyway, let's not define it too much, let's just see what happens.

"All People are Idiots" - Proof!

To quote Scott Adams, and the byline for my weblog, "All People are Idiots."
Now I have the proof (via Johnnie Moore).
Cognitive Biases!
We as humans have varying degrees of cognitive bias, which explains a lot, when dealing with fellow humans and my own cognitive biases.

- We base our views on limited proof
- We justify our biases with limited proof
- We act like sheep
- We predict based on over focus of one event
- We want short term gain and satisfaction
- We tend to disregard probability
- We bias towards what is memorable rather than what is best (and make the memorable the best!)
etc etc.

We've come a long way, just a few more thousand years of evolution my sort it out.
But if we took our cognitive biases away, then we wouldn't have humour would we, and we'd by like Spock (well half of Spock anyway).

Flow not Fun!

Hey I just realised something the other day.
It's not Fun that I'm seeking but Flow.
Flow being the thing that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi talks about in his book Flow.

It's the "In the Zone" "Mind like water" kind of thing.

Hell, I'm an introvert, I don't do "Fun" I get an inner satisfaction with "Flow".

No wonder I hate golf.  I always thought it's supposed to be fun, but it ain't! At best, it's Flow.

All my things are about Flow, I now realise that.  Tennis, Cycling, Chess, Reading on the Internet. Go Karting, what a buzz that is, but it's Flow for me, not fun, I drive round the track muttering to myself and telling myself I'm Alain Prost "The Professor of the Track".  That says it all, nice and steady, wait for the person in front of you to make a mistake.  The same with tennis.  I hate doubles, unless I'm playing with a partner where we can really get to the net in unison.  That's rare.  I'll stick to the self muttering singles game.  All my sports are solitary things.  Flow.

It's the Flow I'm aiming for and not the Fun that I thought was missing.  Fun is about saying, "Whoopee I enjoyed that."  No way!  I'll stick to "Mmmmmm that was nice!"

So, more Flow in my life.

 

Oh my gawd it's back to the juggling drawing board for me.

I can juggle a bit.  3 balls, columns the usual stuff, you know the 90s equivalent of handing round the guitar at the party in the 70s!!!
So get this, Chris Bliss.

But get this, Dissing Chris Bliss (via Boing Boing)!!
What the hell do you do?  Give up, or be inspired?
5 bloody balls, and 5 ball juggling and showering in one hand.
I gave up juggling 'cos I couldn't throw the ball from behind my back accurately.
What hope when watching both these guys.

And what I love, is that no matter how good you are, someone is always better!!
New balls please.
Oh, and throw the ball higher Tony.