This is a good interview with Seth Godin on some of the concepts in his new book, Tribes, why you should be the best in the world at what you do, and why he is not on Twitter.
How to Stifle Innovation
According to ZDNet, the above video was “prepared by NASA engineers to demonstrate the problems in any large bureaucracy that values requirements over new ideas, and process over [initiative].” It’s about ten minutes long, but the point is well made within the first two minutes.
Interview with the Author of The Myth of Multitasking
Black Belt Productivity has an interview with Dave Crenshaw, author of The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done.
Of special note is Crenshaw’s answer to the first question, where he summarizes why multitasking is less efficient. In a nutshell, because it creates switching costs:
I like to use an economics and finance term to describe the waste of time; the term is switching cost. Switching cost usually refers to the cost and time and money of switching from one provider to another. In the case of multitasking, people feel that they are doing multiple things at the same time, but they are not. The brain is incapable of focusing on multiple tasks at the same time. When people attempt to multitask, what they are really doing is switching rapidly back and forth between tasks. Because of this, I prefer to refer to multitasking as switchtasking. It is because of these switches that people lose time in the switching cost. In this way, switchtasking causes us to be exponentially less productive.
Amazon to Announce the New Version of the Kindle Today
Here are some details from the Wall Street Journal on the new version of the Kindle.
Update: See Amazon’s homepage for more details.
What to Do at a 4-Way Stop
Yes, productivity extends to driving!
At some point in the last few years — which I am reluctant to admit! — I forgot the protocol on what to do if you arrive at a 4-way stop at the same time as another vehicle. The result was a few occasions of awkward confusion for all drivers at hand. So I finally decided to look this up in my MN Driver’s Manual.
Here’s the protocol:
- If each car arrived at a different time, then they leave in the order in which they arrived. To repeat: Leave in the order in which you got there.
- If two vehicles arrive at the same time, the driver on the left defers to the driver on the right. In other words: The driver on the right goes first.
- If two vehicles arrive at the same time and one of them is signaling a turn across the path of the other, then the one who is not turning has right of way.
- If you had to wait in a line at the intersection to get to the stop sign, this does not change anything. Each car stops and then follows the above rules as if no one else had been in line before him. (In other words, you can’t conclude that you were there before the person at the other intersection just because the car in front of you was there before him or her.)
- If you are at a T-intersection with a 3-way stop, the vehicle that does not have to turn has right of way.
Also of note: Stop lights that are blinking red or not working at all should be treated as 4-way stops.
Finally, here’s another summary at E-How, and then a humorous one which came up at the top of the results when I just now googled this.
Managing Your Finances on a Mac
For the last ten years, I’ve used Quicken to manage our finances. Last summer when I switched to a Mac, I discovered that the Mac version of Quicken is a much reduced version that is just not up to snuff. So rather than downgrading, I continued to run the Windows version of Quicken on my Mac via VMWare Fusion (which, in my opinion, is the best way to run Windows on your Mac).
This works well enough, but I still find myself wishing that I didn’t have to boot up Windows on my Mac just to manage my finances.
Here’s some possible good news: It looks like Quicken may soon be coming out with a much improved program for the Mac, called Quicken Financial Life for Mac. It’s due out this summer. The website states:
If you know your Mac, you know Quicken Financial Life. Designed from the ground up to unleash the power of the Mac, Quicken Financial Life for Mac brings you the clean graphics and intuitive functionality you expect from Apple software. Built for Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard and newer operating systems.
Hopefully this will be good. Although I don’t know why they didn’t just do it right the first time.
What financial management software do you recommend for the Mac?
Gmail Labels Have Been Made Easier
From the Gmail blog:
One of the features that makes Gmail different is its use of labels instead of folders. Sure, labels can serve pretty much the same purpose — they can help organize mail or flag messages for follow up. And unlike with folders, messages can have several labels, so if I get an email from a friend about a trip we’re taking together, I can add both a “Friends” and a “Travel” label to it.
But it’s not always obvious how to use labels, especially for people who are new to Gmail and used to using folders, and it hasn’t helped that some common tasks have been more complicated than they should be. For instance, to move an email out of your inbox and into a label you first had to apply the label using the “More actions” menu and then click “Archive.”
Starting today [Feb 3], the buttons and menus at the top of your inbox will look a bit different:
Instead of having to first apply the label and then archive, you can just use the “Move to” button to label and archive in a single step — just like you would with a folder. If you just want to add or remove a label, use the new “Labels” button. Auto-complete works, so for those of you with a lot of labels, you can select the one you want just by typing the first couple characters.
(HT: Glenn Brooke)
"7 Habits" Audio Book Free for Limited Time
Audible.com has the audiobook of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey available for free for a limited time.
(HT: JS)
How Many Times a Day Should You Check Email?
I talk about this in my post on how to get your email inbox to zero every day, but it is worth discussing again from time to time.
When it comes to checking your email, the main rule is: Do not check email continually. Most of us have lots of work to do other than email. If you are checking email continually, you are dividing your focus. As a result, your other work is going to take a lot longer. Plus, you will probably find yourself less satisfied with your day.
Therefore, I recommend checking your email at set times throughout the day. Your frequency on this will depend upon the nature of your job. It might need to be every hour, or even every half hour. Or it might be once in the morning, once before lunch, and once before going home. I usually recommend once per hour.
Each time that you check email, process it all the way to zero. Do not leave something in your inbox because you “don’t know what to do with it.” If you don’t process your email to zero each time you check it, the unprocessed emails will start to feel like loose ends that nag you throughout the day.
If an email contains a long action item, processing to zero doesn’t mean that you need to do that action right away. It means that you either need to park that email in a working folder (“answer,” “read,” or “hold”) for attention later on, or park the action on a list somewhere and the email itself in a support file (if you will need to refer to it). I give more details on how to process your email in my post on getting your email inbox to zero every day.
When you are done checking email, turn your attention back to your other work and focus on that. Make sure the bell that notifies you of new email is turned off. You won’t miss anything — when it’s time to check email again, turn your attention back to your email program and process all the new mail down to zero again. If you fear you won’t see an important email soon enough, then just increase the number of times you check email per day. But do not default back to the continual-checking-mode. Whatever you do, do not check your email continually.
Multitasking at 10,000 Feet: How to Keep Your Project List from Having 70 Things On It (And Ruining Your Life)
When you start practicing GTD, you usually end up rather quickly with about 70 projects on your list. That is fairly typical for most people, and it is a genuine reflection of the digital and dynamic environments that most of us find ourselves in.
Here’s the problem: Nobody can manage 70 projects at once. You shouldn’t even try. Just as multitasking in the day-to-day dilutes your effectiveness, so also improper multitasking at the project level (10,000 feet) dilutes your effectiveness.
This is actually a pretty serious problem, because it truly has significant potential to diminish your effectiveness. Listen to Peter Drucker on this:
The answer to the question “What needs to be done?” almost always contains more than one urgent task. But effective executives do not splinter themselves. They concentrate on one task if at all possible. If they are among those people — a sizable minority — who work best with a change of pace in their working day, they pick two tasks. I have never encountered an executive who remains effective while tackling more than two tasks at a time. (The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, page xii).
Wow — Drucker has never seen an executive [= knowledge worker, basically] remain effective while tackling two or more tasks at once. Yet most of us, myself included, have typically been trying to battle against 70. I long ago concluded that this was a battle I could not win. But it has taken me years to figure out the solution because the GTD approach itself can actually end up fighting against you.
To be sure, I think Drucker is primarily talking here about a horizon that is even higher than the 10,000 foot project level — probably the 30,000 foot level of major goals — while also touching on the day-to-day. Yet the principle remains valid at the project level: Trying to do too many projects at once will kill your effectiveness.
So in this post we are going to do three things:
- Look at this problem of 10,000 foot multitasking in more detail
- Outline the solution
- Answer a few questions on how this relates to the broader GTD approach
The Problem: Dilution of Your Efforts
The book Never Check E-Mail In the Morning tells the story of a woman who was very hard working, but never seemed to get anything done. It was to the point where they were going to have to consider letting her go.
Then someone took a look at how she did her work, and they realized that she was working on about 30 projects at once. Over the course of a week, she would do about 1-2 things on each of those 30 projects, instead of working on one to completion, moving on to the next and completing it, and so forth.
As a result, she was indeed accomplishing quite a few tasks. But her efforts were diffused over so many projects that it never seemed like she was ever getting anything done or making clear progress.
This is a form of multitasking run amok. It is overdone multitasking at the 10,000 foot level — instead of doing multiple things at once in the day-to-day, she was trying to keep so many projects moving at once that her ability to move each one forward slowed down to a crawl.
Far better to focus your efforts on a few things, get them done, then move on to the next thing.
It is as though the number of projects you try to keep moving at once is inversely proportional to the speed at which you can move them forward. The less projects you have going on at once, the more quickly you will be able to move them forward. The more projects you have going on at once, the more slowly you will be able to move each forward.
Now, in the example above that person would eventually finish all 30 projects, just as the person who works largely one by one will. But the difference will be this: The person whose efforts are diffused will generally be finishing his or her projects a long ways out and “in bulk,” with little sense of accomplishment and momentum carrying her along. But the person who goes about those same projects largely one by one will have a continual record of progress all along the way — plus growing momentum and the satisfaction of actually getting somewhere.
Here’s the thing: GTD unintentionally can lead you to work like the person whose efforts are diffused over too many things. Because GTD so heavily emphasizes capturing what you should be doing without asking the question of whether you should be doing those things at all, your list of current outcomes (projects) can quickly rise to a level of 50, 70, or more. Such a structure naturally leads you — without even trying — to do some of everything, and thus little with concentrated focus.
Your system, in other words, subtly but significant directs the way you approach your work. Having 70 projects on your list naturally inclines you to diffuse your efforts over far too many things rather than focus on a few, most important things.
The Solution: Create an “Upcoming” Category in Your Project List
What’s the solution? It’s actually pretty simple. Divide your projects list into two categories:
- Current Projects
- Upcoming Projects
Keep your “current projects” category well-pruned and very short. Put the stuff that you need to do, but don’t have to be working on at the present time, in your upcoming category. As you complete items on the current projects list, transfer things up from the upcoming list.
You can let the upcoming list get up to 70 or 100 or more. It doesn’t matter there, because you aren’t giving your efforts to that list. And when you do move items up from it onto the current list, you can see the big picture and make sure you are picking what is truly most important to do next.
If you like, you can even turn your upcoming projects list into a schedule. You can give start dates and due dates in there so that you start the projects at the right times and keep things moving at the pace you need — although if you do that, also make sure to keep some projects “free” and without due dates so that you don’t become overly driven by that schedule.
Now, make note of this: Whenever it is time to activate more upcoming projects, you should re-evaluate your whole list to see if your priorities remain the same. Then activate the 1-2 items on that upcoming list which now most reflect what your priorities are. This is a fundamental for the effective knowledge worker. As Peter Drucker notes:
After completing the original top-priority task, the executive resets priorities rather than moving on to number two from the original list. He asks, ‘What must be done now?’ This generally results in new and different priorities.” (The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done, xiii.)
Questions
Can You Still Have Multiple Projects Active at Once?
Now, don’t we have to be able to do some projects simultaneously? Yes, we do. I’m not saying that you should only have one project on your current list. You might have 5 or even 10.
In your actual day-to-day execution of tasks, literally do one thing at a time when it comes to things that require focus. At the 10,000 foot level concerning what larger outcomes you are keeping in play, there is room for some legitimate multitasking — that is, keeping more than one project in play at once.
But, what I’m saying is that there is a limit to how many projects you can do simultaneously. Abide by that limit — and, in order to do this, you need to make your project list reflect it. And if you ever have any free time, you can always work ahead on that “upcoming” list.
How Does This Relate to the Someday/Maybe List?
Last of all, someone might say: But isn’t that “upcoming” category really what the someday/maybe list is for? I’ve found that not to be sufficient. I have, I think, about 2,000 things on my someday maybe lists. I actually had to create about 75 different someday maybe lists to keep this from getting unwieldy (books to read, household projects to do, movies to see, things to see and do, blog posts to write, things to grill, etc.).
I know I’ve probably overdone that a bit, but I think the principle is valid that we need something in between “someday maybe” and “current projects.” Hence, “upcoming projects.”
The difference between upcoming projects and someday/maybe is that upcoming projects are things that you really have to do — just not yet. Someday/maybe items are things that you don’t have to do, but might want to do at some point. I don’t want projects that I have to do in the future (just not now) getting lost in the mix of things I might want to do in the future but don’t have to.
Here is a quick example: Our digital camera is on the fritz. We need a new one. But I don’t have time to do that yet. So, I put that on my “upcoming projects” list. I’ll move it up to current when I have the time to deal with that. This is not someday/maybe — I really need to do it. But I don’t need to be doing it now, either.
There are a whole bunch of interesting tricks you can implement with an upcoming list. As I mentioned above, you can even create a schedule of upcoming projects if you so desire — sort of a 10,000 foot tickler file. You also need to become adept at utilizing your higher-level goals and priorities (20,000 foot level and above) to help you decide which projects are most important right now. But I will leave those things for another time.