It seems appropriate then that your post is here in a community that encourages and enables long form response and detailed discussion. The quick hits are here, but they take a back seat to the intelligent and thoughtful response.

Technology, whether it is the delivery of content or the device itself, can be addictive if you follow the informal definition of the word…

I’m not sure I would dismiss the addictive qualities of technology so easily. Yes, the physical mediums are typically no more than delivery tools, but it cannot be denied we have all seen people who “lose it” when they can’t locate their phone.

Technology, whether it is the delivery of content or the device itself, can be addictive if you follow the informal definition of the word, “addict”:

an enthusiastic devotee of a specified thing or activity

Yes, the term was attached to technology to create a negative connotation for the use of said technology on a too-frequent basis. Technology can create the same endorphin responses that drugs can, whether we’re talking about mobile, gaming, or content consumption. It’s not unfair to use the term “technology addiction” but it is critical to use it in the proper context with respect to it’s gravitas.

I have to wonder as more things become “assistant driven” are we growing to a point of inability to do things on our own. So many things are done for us now that the skills our parents and their parents counted on are disappearing into time.

No matter how cool the newest features are you should always buy for how you plan to use the device most. Big screens are great unless you’re primarily a one handed user. Bright displays and fast processors deliver power but shorten battery life. Take all the usage factors into consideration before buying your flagship phone.

While it’s fun to customize your device always be cautious to not overdo things. Each app you add takes memory and processor power to implement. Don’t hesitate to try things but read the reviews first and make sure you uninstall apps when they don’t fit the bill.

Tip #1 — Get a jump start on the day

Tip #1 — Get a jump start on the day

If you’re like me it’s tough to fight the instinct to check your email as soon as you log onto your computer in the morning. Rather than going through your emails to determine what you should do first for the day, be proactive and send yourself an email as the last message of the day with three short, easy to complete tasks for the next morning. By doing this you can open your email client, open that email, and immediately jump on some easy wins first thing before digging through the rest of your email.

Tip #2 — Use hashtags and rules to automatically organize

If you are using an email client such as Lotus Notes, Outlook, or Google Mail you can use rules and hashtags to automatically organize your emails. Just include a hashtag on your subject line such as #followup and send the email to yourself. If you have set up the rules correctly your emails route to the folders you have designated and your notes are now nicely organized. Folders such as #followup, #needto, and #research can be a great way to leverage productivity techniques without special tools.

Tip #3 — Use Draft emails more heavily

When people write emails they often feel like they need to start and finish the email all in the same action. Write, edit, review, and send before they consider it complete is the common understanding of how an email works. Why wouldn’t you treat an email more like the way a writer works on longer documents? Start your email as soon as the thought comes to you and save it as a draft as soon as you lose the momentum on your writing. Circle back to it as you are able to add valuable content and edits. One of two things will happen. A — you will craft a much higher quality email or B — you won’t have to send the email at all. A win in either case.

Three Tips for Better Email Productivity Tomorrow
Tip #1 – Get a jump start on the dayIf you’re like me it’s tough to fight the instinct to check your email as soon as…www.linkedin.com

As a parent I constantly struggle with the dichotomy of setting expectations for my children vs. letting them be who they are without…

It’s so common to measure others based on our expectations of behavior, taste, preference, and desires. The challenge is are we willing to give up the expectations we have placed on ourselves first before we start to release them in others? Are there times where it is reasonable to set expectations to be met with ramifications for failure?

As a parent I constantly struggle with the dichotomy of setting expectations for my children vs. letting them be who they are without expectation. There must be a balance in all things especially when it comes to the measure of ourselves and others. I hope one of the few things my children learn from me as they mature is there is no shame in the statement, “it is what it is.”

For the past 10 years I have had the honor and privilege of being asked to act as the master of ceremonies for my children’s school’s…

For the past 10 years I have had the honor and privilege of being asked to act as the master of ceremonies for my children’s school’s annual PTO charity auction. This is the biggest fund raising event of the year for the PTO and it takes the combined effort of a large team of people to pull it together and execute each time. I’ve always said I have the easiest job of the auction: show up, do my thing for five hours, and then go home. Well, maybe I’m understating it a little bit. Here’s some of the things I do to make the evening as successful as I can and I hope they can help you in your next “ringmaster” role.

Many little steps

One of the first things I do is get a hold of the schedule for the evening as soon as possible. Published time schedules are targeted for the audience so for my purposes I need to provide some more detail to keep things on track. Here’s an example:

7:00 Silent Auction 7:30 Very Special Verbal Auction Now what you see as a simple sequence of events, something that should naturally run smoothly by the nature of it’s simplicity, translates into a different reality: 6:58 Reminder about the Very Special Verbal (VSV) auction after the Silent Auction 7:00 Dismiss for Silent Auction 7:20 Announcement about VSV beginning in 10 minutes 7:25 Announcement about VSV beginning in 5 minutes (strongly encourage people to sit) 7:28 Another announcement 7:29 Another announcement 7:30 Final announcement When running an event like this, over communication is key to keeping things on schedule. These are social events; people love to visit and talk; and getting them back on track is similar to the effort needed with their children in many cases. A MC needs to watch the clock and know what the ripple effect of delays will cause and how to compensate for those delays.

The contortionist

Things change. That is the rule of life and certainly the rule of large social events. No matter how tight of a rein you keep on activities, things will crop up requiring you to think on your feet. There are some tricks you can use to handle changes without disrupting the entire event:

1. Consolidate announcements into groups rather than handling each one as a one-off as it comes in.

2. If you have to change the schedule, do it in a way that will require the least communication possible.

3. NEVER ask your audience if they would prefer one option over another. You are just setting yourself up to have a group not happy with you no matter what you do.

4. ALWAYS have one point of contact supplying you with changes to the schedule or event. The last thing you need is multiple people telling you conflicting changes.

The clown

It is easy to fall into the stress of the evening, especially if the train looks to be headed off the rails. At that point, and earlier to be honest, it is key for the ringmaster to remember and remind everyone about the purpose of the event and their attendance. Take their minds off their concerns and help them enjoy the show. Don’t feel the need to break into your untested monologue or use this as your chance to break into stand-up. A funny anecdote, a shared story, or even a heartwarming tale related to the event can be enough to get things back in order.

The role of the ringmaster is not to be the center of attention. The job is simple. Keep the audience engaged and excited, keep the performers on schedule, and keep the lions from eating anyone. 🙂

Originally published at www.theideapump.com on April 11, 2014.

I do enjoy blogging. Really I do. The problem seems to arise with having to blog on a schedule. As much as I would like to just write when…

I do enjoy blogging. Really I do. The problem seems to arise with having to blog on a schedule. As much as I would like to just write when the mood strikes me, to paraphrase Gurney Halleck from Dune, “Mood? What has mood to do with it? You blog when the necessity arises — no matter the mood! Mood’s a thing for cattle or making love or playing the baliset. It’s not for blogging.”

In order to keep my newly invigorated writing on task, I’m applying my considerable business process background to the challenge and configuring a system to assist with the tracking and execution of blog articles on a consistent schedule. Since I’m a “reformed project manager” (as I care to identify myself often) I turned to a style of tool with which I am quite familiar…the Kanban board. One of the best implementations of a Kanban board I have found to date is the web application, Trello.

To begin, I created a board in Trello specifically for tracking my article ideas and acting upon them. This requires five lists for the cards on the board:

The five lists I use for publishing

The five lists cover article ideas, drafts, editing, publishing, and metrics tracking for follow up. Any new idea is first created as a card on the New Ideas list. When the new idea is captured, a label is applied to indicate where the article will be released. Note this isn’t for social media sharing but rather the actual home of the article. (I write for LinkedIn as well as The Idea Pump so it is important to put the right content in the right places.)

Assign a tag for tracking

When work begins on the draft of an article, I just drag the article card from the New Ideas list to the Drafts list.

Drag from New Ideas to Draft

Since one of the important parts of consistent content production is the adherence to an editorial calendar, I assign the due date for the next list to the article card for tracking purposes.

Adding a due date to a card

By following this process I should be able to move articles through on a timely manner and keep my content production schedule moving smoothly. Only time will tell…

Originally published at www.theideapump.com on August 20, 2014.

My current notebook

My current notebook

My job has placed some interesting technological limitations on my traditional productivity methods, so in response I have made the transition back to pen and paper for keeping my activity records of my daily work. You would think that for someone as digitally focused as I this would be a significant step backwards but surprisingly, especially to me, this has not been the case. There are a few habits I have engaged that I will pass along in the hopes they may assist you as well.

The Daily Log Page

Each day of my journal begins with a daily log page. This page includes:

– Date — Arrival time at work — Page number

From this point, each major topic or project I work on during the day is logged as a single line item. By the end of the day I have a list of the major accomplishments for the day as well as my start and end times (these are critical when billing for time.)

The Journaling Process

As I move through the day all my notes and observations about my projects are logged in the journal. Each page receives a page number and the date for easy reference later on. This is where the first major change in my process happened and it has made all the difference in the world for me.

Permission to be verbose

I grew up in the workplace taking short, succinct notes. Brevity and accuracy were next to perfection in my mind. What I discovered though is there was an exceptional amount of effort I was having to put out trimming down my notes. For what purpose? They’re my notes. No one else is going to be reading them. That’s when the lightbulb went on and I stopped writing notes FOR myself and started writing them TO myself. You see, since they are for reference then assumption is I would not have complete recall of the topic at hand and would be looking for more detailed information. Rather than “summing up” a topic I started writing to explain it to myself as if it were something new.

Losing the self consciousness of writing a narrative to myself freed my mind to capture all the detail I might need and not feel bad about it. Where before if the notes on a topic went on for more than a page I would be quick to edit and trim back, now I am writing 10–20 pages of notes a day. It may seem excessive but in every instance where I have needed to know something I can now go back and find exactly what I need without consternation or doubt.

Permission for white space

I’m the first to admit I have a problem when it comes to notebooks and pens. I love them. The look, the feel, sometimes even the smell of the paper can put a silly grin on my face. But with that came a dilemma. I purchase these wonderful notebooks but then would hesitate to write in them for fear what I was writing “wasn’t good enough” for the notebook. I know, right? Sounds ridiculous, but it’s true (and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way.)

The other major change was to give myself “permission” to write in these wonderful notebooks. Now I don’t hesitate to turn the page when a page is half full if that will help me keep my thoughts in order. I sketch, I doodle, I diagram, but all with the objective in mind. When I finally accepted these journals were for me and not for public consumption, a significant weight was lifted.

The question comes in when we start thinking about collaboration. Turning analog to digital raises the specter of “aren’t you doing double work? Can’t you just capture it digitally first?” Sure I could, but I don’t want to. My notebook has become my rough draft for digital; the starting place of the ideas and words before they are polished and sterilized by Ariel and Calibri fonts.

Not for everyone

The analog world is not for everyone. If you have poor handwriting (as far too many people do) you may be best served typing. If you have challenges focusing or other issues, digital may be your bastion of sanity. But give analog note taking a try. No one says you have to stick with it, but who knows, you might just like it.

Posted via Blogaway Pro

Originally published at www.theideapump.com on December 10, 2014.