Category Archives: Coaching

Coaching

Hack for adding tasks to Notion

If you’re using Notion as a task manager, here’s a quick tip for entering new tasks. First, create views in your task list database that filters for things such as today’s date, tomorrow’s date, and specific categories. Next make sure you apply the relevant filter BEFORE you create the new task. This way, when you add the new task to the list, Notion will automatically apply the filtered properties to the new task.

For example, if I’m adding a task for today, I go to my Today’s Tasks view first. This is filtered for any task that has a due date of today. Now when I click on the new button from this view, any new tasks created will get today’s date assigned to them. I have a similar view for Tomorrow’s Tasks that makes short work of adding new tasks for tomorrow.

The added benefit of handing task creation this way? If I’m adding tasks to tomorrow, I can already see everything that is on my list for tomorrow to know if I’m overwhelming myself with work and should move something to another day.

Coaching

Four tips for better Zoom interviews

Over the past several days I’ve been doing several first-round interviews for potential development candidates. There are five tips I suggest when it comes to putting your best foot (or in this case, face) forward when participating in a video interview.

Avoid backlighting

Sometimes it’s difficult to get good lighting for a video call but it’s worth the effort. An overhead or strong backlight can make it difficult for you to be seen as well as reduce the quality of your image.

Choose audio quality over appearance

If you’re not sure about the quality of your audio when it comes to the microphone on your device, I recommend deferring and using a headset rather than risking not being heard. You may look a little like an air traffic controller, but clarity of the conversation is the most important consideration. To paraphrase, “it’s better to sound good than to look good.”

Avoid portrait phone camera angles

This may be just a pet peeve of mine but avoid using your phone in a portrait position if you’re calling into an interview. If the interviewer is using a laptop or other device, your video will come through looking like something off Tik Tok rather than providing the polish you’re hoping for on a video call.

Avoid clutter

If possible, avoid cluttered, busy backgrounds. Stick with something simple and clean; even a bare wall will suffice. The last thing you want to do is have visual distractions behind you taking away the interviewer’s focus. Also, while it may be attractive to stage your books and awards behind you, don’t think for a second people don’t recognize they are staged. We’ve all seen these types of “Room Rater” layouts and they aren’t necessary as part of the interviewing process.

Bonus – Practice

Interviewing over video call is not the easiest thing to do, but it is manageable and can be successful with a little time, practice and effort. Take advantage of the test call feature of most video calling applications to get comfortable with not only the tool, but how you present on the medium as well.

Coaching

Using OneNote as an Offline Reader

One of the things I use OneNote most frequently for is to gather articles for reading and reference.  Reading content on the web has been tackled by apps like Pocket and Instapaper, but I wanted to the ability to keep everything in one place integrated with my other notes. Most applications don’t allow this dual-functionality. However my primary note taking tool does, and here’s how I put it to use.

Web Clipping is Key

For this solution to work, you’ll need the OneNote Web Clipper. Once it’s installed in your browser (this is for desktop…on mobile the steps are different) you can then log into your OneNote instance and enable the extension. From here it’s a simple enough matter to start capturing web content into OneNote.

Go Browsing

When you find a web article you want to keep and read offline, click on the Web Clipper and select the Article option from the choices. You could use the full page, bookmark, or region options, but only the Article option captures the text in an easier to read format.  You then designate in what notebook and which section you want to save the article and click on Clip.

One of the features I frequently take advantage of is the option to add notes when capturing rather than having to wait until after you capture the content. At the top of the web clipper you can enter text that is saved when you save the article.  It’s a great way to annotate your information especially when you’re capturing multiple articles in a row.

Another of my favorite features is highlighting when clipping.  In the Web Clipper after selecting the Article option, go to the top of the clipper and click on the highlighter icon.  You can now highlight text in the clipped article before it is saved and the highlighting will be passed along when the article is saved.  I use this frequently because it gives me a chance to identify why I saved an article as well as key points of interest.

This isn’t a perfect tool by any stretch.  Some pages are a struggle for the clipper to simplify, even to the degree there are certain pages it won’t even touch with the Article option. If you’re able to find a page to save (normally text articles work best) you can then use all the features of OneNote to extend your experience: creating hyperlinks, highlighting, searching, comments, handwritten notes, etc.

Is this better than other apps?

There are definitely nice features in the dedicated apps, but if you’re looking to cut down the number of apps you’re using and keep your content centrally accessible, I’d recommend looking into the OneNote Web Clipper as an excellent way to streamline your platform.

Coaching, Strategy

Sometimes it’s better to just quit.

I headed out to my workshop this evening to continue my ongoing project of purging, rearranging, and getting it into a general working condition after quite a period of neglect. Standing amid the mid-purge chaos I tried to jump in and get things going. Notice I said “tried”. Success eluded me.

Earlier in the week I made significant progress in the effort with cabinets moved and bags of trash and unnecessary items drug out of the way. I finished an evening of work with satisfaction things were headed in the right direction and I returned tonight to pick up where I left off. Alas, the hyper focus was long gone and I ran face first into productive paralysis.

I tried getting going, really, I did. I’d pick up something and move it, only to sit it down again somewhere else with no real resolution when I saw three more things needed to happen first. There’s a point where the effort became a lost cause for the night, and I did something I normally don’t do. I quit before I got frustrated.

Up until recently I would have plugged away at the work, pushing myself to show some progress, only creating frustration instead of success. Tonight, I recognized exactly what I was doing to myself, or what my brain was doing to me, and I took off my gloves, turned off the lights, and packed it in for the evening. Now I know you may be saying, “but that doesn’t seem very productive to me” and normally you’d be right if I was measuring things with my old lens of productivity equaling things done. In this case though, I was going to be less productive by doing things than if I stopped.

I changed my focus and started perusing my Pinterest boards (yes, I use Pinterest heavily for ideas for the shop and projects) and found an idea to fix a problem with my workbench that makes it easier to move. This gives me a specific objective to target when I return to the shop. Making this fix I’ll get the little kick of dopamine I need to get rolling again. Without recognizing my “productive paralysis” I’d still be out there, frustrated, angry, and not accomplishing a thing.

Taking the time to be aware of ourselves and working with our brains and how they want to work rather than pushing the “common wisdom” can go miles towards improving your productivity and reducing your stress. Give yourself permission to walk away when you and your brain are working at cross purposes.

Coaching

Seven tips for success using OneNote as a project knowledge repository

If you’ve ever worked on a project (and if you’re reading this article I’d say it’s safe to say you have) then it’s likely you’ve encountered the challenge of sharing information among your team members. Keeping everyone on the same page and informed with what is going on frequently turns into hours spent creating and sharing meeting minutes, summaries, and then in the worst cases having meetings to discuss the meetings. Makes me shiver just thinking about it.

Enter OneNote. If you’re using Microsoft Office 365 then OneNote is already available to you. The trick is to put it to use. Let’s go over the key challenges and steps you need to take to use OneNote as a project knowledge repository.

Step 1 – Get your team on OneNote

No matter how much effort you put into building your knowledge repository in OneNote unless your team is already using the tool, you will have limited success. Make sure they have the application installed (I recommend using the Desktop version whenever possible due to the depth of features but you can use other versions as well) and are comfortable with the basic navigation of the tool.

Step 2 – Create a Knowledge Index

When it comes to managing information for a project in OneNote I recommend creating a separate notebook for each project at a minimum. This setup helps you organize and segment the project information making communication and management more efficient. Unfortunately without an index, the information within the notebook can become difficult to locate and use. By adding an index page to your notebook and creating links to the relevant content areas in your notebook as you create them, your team has a starting place for locating their information.

Step 3 – Create templates

One of the most important aspects of a knowledge repository is the consistency of the answers. If you go looking for a piece of information and then need a similar piece on a different topic, you’re wasting time interpreting inconsistent structures for the information.

Page templates provide not only a faster way to create uniform content in OneNote and prevent information from being forgotten during capture. The best example of a built-in template is when you use the Meeting Details function to set up a page to capture meeting minutes. The structure includes all the basic information you need for your meeting minutes with a single click.

Step 4 – Use sync for distribution

OneNote can sync content changes across notebooks for users. Rather than sending email after email, you can use this to make sure everyone has the most recent updates in hand. Sync can be a little temperamental at times so you need to train your team on troubleshooting and version tracking. If you absolutely have to send an email (I’m looking at you entitled executives) you can use the Email Page function to send a copy of a OneNote page to an email recipient.

Step 5 – Use section groups and sections to manage processes

Often we’ll have project information that needs to go through several stage gates before being considered complete. You can use the section groups in OneNote with sections inside to create these stage gates for moving content through to completion. Let’s take the example of creating content for a website. If you have a section group for “Content Creation” and then add sections inside for each step in the creation process you can move items between sections as they progress through your stage gates. The idea is somewhat similar to what you do with a Kanban board for managing processes.

Step 6 – Consistent updates

I have seen the majority of failures when using OneNote as a project repository when it is not used consistently. People have to develop trust in the tool as their system of record. If updates are not happening on a regular and reliable basis that trust will languish and die. The fact that OneNote takes over the work needed for distribution should free up cycles for providing more timely content.

An excellent example comes from our old friend, meeting minutes. So often these are captured, crafted, emails created, and distributed only to result in people “not getting the emails” or not reading them once they’ve arrived. If you’re using a shared notebook in OneNote, as you capture the minutes they can be available in real-time with no extra distribution work needed. Some project managers like to keep draft copies and “cleanse” the notes before sending them out and that’s easily done in OneNote as well. Capture your notes in a “draft” notebook and when you’re ready to distribute them copy the page to the correct section in your team notebook. As soon as the page sync is finished your team receives the meeting minutes. Even if they can’t get emails, they can still access the shared notebook at any time for reference.

Step 7 – Teach your team how to search

“I can’t find that information.” How often have we heard that? OneNote can be the panacea for your team especially if they struggle with locating information. On large or information-heavy projects, the search function of OneNote has saved my proverbial bacon any number of times. Whether you need to search in notes, meeting minutes, printout attachments, or screenshots, the information in the notebooks is at your fingertips.

Let’s take the example of a statement of work for a project. We all know these tend to be difficult to find specifically what you’re looking for when called on the spot during a client meeting. But what if you could have a copy of your statement of work, including your annotations about details around the requirements stored within OneNote just a search box away. Now you can find the “RACI Breakdown” or “Payment Schedule” on-demand rather than digging through cloud storage. Even more important, if it’s sensitive information for your project you can password protect a section while still keeping everything in one place.

The tip of the iceberg

There are dozens of more things to take into consideration when it comes to using OneNote as a project tool, but these seven steps will at least get you started down the right path. If you’re looking to get started down this path and have questions or want to learn more, you can find additional resources at some of these great locations:

OneNote for Professionals on Facebook

The Idea Pump on Facebook

Personal Productivity Club

If you found this article helpful, please click the Like button below!

Coaching

Are subtasks useful?

Many of the task management applications available today offer the feature of subtasks: tasks that are embedded or tracked under a parent task.  For example, if you have a task called “grocery shopping” the subtasks may be all the items you need to pick up at the store.  In this case, the subtasks are functional and useful, but is this always the case?

One of the challenges I’ve run into is in many applications the subtasks are hidden within a task and are difficult to access from the master list of tasks.  This creates a couple of problems.  First, things can be easily missed because they are not visible.  Second,  and this is my larger issue with them, is they can create a false sense of the amount of work ahead.  If you have a task that has two subtasks, a task with 20 subtasks, and a task with no subtasks, at the task level they all look equal.  It’s that misleading sizing that causes the issue. A good tool will show you not only the task, the presence of subtasks, but also the number of subtasks.

Let’s have a look at how you can handle subtasks in some popular productivity tools.  Some of these are not dedicated to task management but are popular enough to be used for it frequently.

Todoist

Todoist is an example of an application that does subtasks right.  Not only can you create subtasks on any task, but when  you view the task itself the application tells you that you have subtasks, how many, and how many are incomplete.  Can’t ask for much more than that.

Any.Do

The Any.Do mobile application tells you a task has subtasks but not how many.  The Windows application shows the number of subtasks as well as the number remaining completion.  This is where I struggle with platforms…this inconsistency between their mobile and desktop applications.

Workflowy

While not a dedicated task management application, tasks can be tracked to completion through the interface.  This doesn’t support subtasks in the same manner as the other applications as they are indented tasks in an outline format with no roll up to their parent task.  This accomplishes the same goals for the most part, but there is no tracking of subtask quantity or degree of completion.

OneNote

OneNote works in a similar manner to Workflowy with no real subtask functionality available.  It can be challenging to manage tasks within OneNote but it’s flexibility in an outline structure can mitigate the difficulties.

While there is no way to avoid having subtasks within task lists in some form, keeping them visible and under control makes all the difference working them into a task management solution. If you are going to introduce subtasks into your lists I recommend trying them on just a couple of tasks first before diving into the deep end with them.

Coaching

Becoming a better diagnostician in task management

My friend Francis Wade from ProductivityCast has a new article out: Why should an ambitious person care about becoming a better diagnostician in task management?

I think Francis may really be on to something here with his MyTimeDesign Rapid Assessment. Why don’t you have a look and let me know what you think in the comments?

Listen to Ray, Augusto, Francis, and Art on the ProductivityCast Podcast

Coaching, Full Length Articles, News, Strategy, Techniques

Can’t take a nap? Try S2R instead.

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nap
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

“Awww, do you need a nap?” We’ve all heard this said to a grumpy toddler at some point and time. Partially it comes from knowing that rest for them is good but also because it gives us some peace and quiet from their most recent tirade. What I wonder though is why “growing up” means that naps no longer carry their core benefits? Perhaps it’s the fact the name itself has such a juvenile and demeaning connotation of weakness. It’s time this changed.

When researching the definition of “nap” this misconception continues. Synonyms include doze, catnap, drowse, drop off, nod off, and snooze, all of which also carry the negative connotations of unproductivity and weakness. For some reason we have, as a society, decided that if a person is not powering through all needs for rest and rejuvenation they are lazy therefore unreliable. This, using the old term brought new, is malarkey.

Further research brings to the fore the concept of the “power nap” or Stage 2 nap which lasts 20 minutes or less and ends before the sleeper enters slow wave sleep. The concept and execution have demonstrated improvements in alertness, motor skills, and awareness after completing the shortened rest period. It is important to recognize the value diminishes significantly when the person at rest extends the period past 20 minutes as then they enter a deeper sleep cycle and encounter sleep inertia when they wake. There is a supplementary concept to the Stage 2 approach with the addition of caffeine prior to the rest period. Caffeine takes approximately 30 minutes to kick into full effect and when coupled with a time limited 20 minutes Stage 2 rest the benefits can and have proven to be substantial. While this is not something I personally do on a regular occurrence, I have experienced the combined effect myself when I have combined these two.

Back to the nap-shaming though. Here becomes the core question. If you indicate you’re going to take a “coffee break” or just “clear your head” why wouldn’t you do it in the most effective manner possible? How would you react if a colleague said, “I’m going to take a break” then went over to the corner, grabbed a chair, put their feet up, and dozed off for 20 minutes? On job sites where physical labor is common you’ll see this happen far more frequently than ever in an office space, and yet I’ll argue the mental exhaustion and stress from many information based environments is equally as taxing.

Is it all in the name? If “napping” had a fancier, more “click-baity” name such as “Stage 2 Rest Cycling” or “Short Duration Mental Refresh” would it be more palatable? I’m thinking it’s something far more basic than that. No matter what you call a nap, it comes down to accepting the fact that for a human to work at their optimal state regardless of what they are doing they need to be well-rested. The body when exhausted draws in it’s reserves and prevents us from overextending ourselves if possible. Why would we not want people to be at their best whenever possible, especially if the solution could be as simple as 20 minutes rest.

I know many people who say, “I can’t nap…I can’t fall asleep in 20 minutes.” Let’s clarify that myth now. For effective S2R (Stage 2 Rest…yes I just made up a new name) you only need about 10 minutes of actual rest time. If you allocate 20 minutes of time, close your eyes, and doze off for 10 minutes, it may take you 10 minutes just to get to that state. Even then the period of inactivity reaps its benefits. The lack of external stimulus can be calming, giving yourself an opportunity to clear your mind and provide a new perspective on problems and challenges. “But what if I can’t fall asleep?” Remember you’re not trying to “fall asleep” as per say. You’re giving your mind and body a chance to downshift to neutral for lack of a better analogy. You can’t force yourself to enter this state…you can only provide yourself the opportunity and environment to do so.

My S2R process has evolved over a number of years but in a nutshell here’s how it works: when I find myself losing focus, overstressed, or basically needing a break I tell the Amazon Echo sitting on my desk to set a timer for 20 minutes. I lean back, put my feet up, and close my eyes. That’s it. No fancy prep, no special teas or concoctions (though I do love a good tea), no mantras or background white noise needed. It’s taken quite a while to teach my body and mind that when I take these simple steps it’s time for everybody to take a break. Sometimes I slip quickly into S2R, other times I spend the entire 20 minutes awake and aware with my mind wandering. In either case, the worst thing that has happened is I’ve spent 20 minutes giving myself some time for me. The best case the alarm sounds, my eyes open, and I feel refreshed and ready to go back to work.

There is no disputing the factual evidence that S2R (napping) has benefits. There is also no doubt we don’t provide ourselves the opportunities to reap these benefits because of the perceptual stigma around the name itself. So next time you feel like you need a nap and are afraid you’re going to get some grief, just tell them your’re testing a new productivity strategy called S2R. I know it means nothing different than taking a nap, but does that really matter? Now go and get some rest so you can be productive.

Coaching, Strategy

Organizing using Spheres of Access

In survival circles there is a concept of evaluating what you have available to you for your survival situation.  It’s what’s on your person, what’s in your immediate area, and what’s in the surrounding area. I refer to this as  Spheres of Access for lack of a better term.

in organizing information I like to think about it in the same type of definition. Look at the information you need readily available all the time; the kinds of things that you need instant recall for and those are the things that fall within this first sphere.

Things that you need to be able to get access to but don’t necessarily have to have at the tip of your tongue those fall within the second sphere. These are typically things that I identify as being on your mobile device or in your pocket notebook.

The third sphere focuses on those things that you can get access to if you have an internet connection or you’re using some sort of offline storage, you can look up the information by using search terms.

By using these kinds of definitions it makes it easy to help you identify what information you need to be most concerned about and we’re within the three spheres a piece of information would fall.

Look over the information you deal with on a daily basis and evaluate each item based on which sphere it would fall into. Is it something you only occasionally need and can take some time to access? Is it something you need right away but is complex enough it would be hard to remember? Is it something you need to know, even if you have no connectivity, notebooks, or other reference sources available?

Breaking you information down into these spheres allows you to put it where it needs to be, focus on the most important items, and best of all know there is a place for everything. You don’t have to try and remember everything…only the important things.

Coaching, Strategy

Impossible is a naughty word

This is one of those minor rant posts I’m using to get something off my chest. When someone says something is “impossible” it immediately raises the hair on the back of my neck. Not because I’m a Pollyanna that things anything is possible with enough sunshine and rainbows, but that in most cases when working the word impossible is a way of avoiding answering the question “Well, what can we do?”

I’m not naive enough to think that everything can be done. There are many, many things that lie outside the scope, ability, budget, where-with-all, and willpower of people to be accomplished. When that term is used to avoid having the discussion around what the alternatives are and what could be accomplished with some revisions, resources, and level setting it is detrimental not only to the work at hand but also to the well being of the persons involved.

If you know something can’t be done, especially when it has been promised (by yourself or others), it’s important to review what can be done to get you as close to what had been committed. Once you have that information craft your communication around what was expected, what can be delivered, the difference between the two, and any negative and positive impacts.

The maintenance of a positive mindset, especially when it comes to dealing with clients is a key way of establishing and maintaining “good-will capital” with that client. When you need to spend that capital to mitigate issues that arise to keep projects and initiatives moving forward it is far easier to do from a positive position than a negative one.

So the next time you’re ready to unleash “That’s impossible” in a conversation or an email, ask yourself this question: Have I looked at all the options and what can I do to get as close as you can to turning the impossible into the possible.