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Shifting into Surge Mode

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I agree entirely with the following section from Time Tactics of Very Successful People:

High achievers from many different fields speak of being able to regulate their intensity — of being able to phase in and out of an intense state. Some people call this intense state the “surge mode.”

Using the surge mode is a bit like using a passing gear in a car. Normally, when you’re driving, you don’t give a lot of conscious thought to putting your foot on the accelerator or on the brake. But sometimes you require an extra burst of power to get out of one lane and into another Then you need extra power, and you floor it. That’s what surge mode is.

There are may illustrations of high achievers using the surge mode. Mozart preferred to write music for an hour or so every morning when he got up. But when a piece was demanded, he would work day and night without sleep, sometimes seemingly mesmerized by the task.

Isaac Newton made three of his greatest discoveries during two years of virtually uninterrupted thought, study, and experimentation. Mark Twain wrote six of his best books — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Rough It, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Life on the Mississippi, and The Prince and the Pauper — during only two summers. He would write an entire day at a time, day after day. His daughter, Claire, remembers that he would come out in a white linen suit, with a pile of pads of paper under his arm. He would joke with his family and then head off toward the study. There he would spend the entire day, sometimes eating only one meal.

The surge mode is especially important among creative people, such as scientists, writers musicians, and designers. They will gather all the parts of the project together — the notes, the rough ideas, the books the research, the sketches — and spread it all before them on a desk or table. Then they dive in and don’t stop until a major part or sometimes all of the project is done.

It is really much more efficient to do huge chunks of work at a time than it is to start and stop a hundred times. The quality of the finished product is better too because it is more cohesive and has fewer seems.

This is spot on, in my view. I have found that shifting into a period of surge mode has been critical to every large endeavor I’ve sought to accomplish. I recognize that this concept may not be for everyone. But if you are among those who incline to this approach when you have high-impact, large, and important initiatives, you have a very powerful tool at your disposal. Use it.

Notes on Workspace Organization

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These are my notes from a few years ago on organizing your workspace. They reflect a combination of points from Organizing for Dummies, Getting Things Done, and my own thoughts.

More detail could be given, but in the meantime they outline the big picture. I especially find helpful the observation that all of the permanent stuff you might have at your desk falls into four categories: supplies, equipment, reference, and decoration.

After that, the concept of centers is especially  useful (although I currently do things a bit differently than what is represented in these notes).

Stuff At Your Desk

Permanent Stuff:

  • Supplies: In drawers. Small stocks (only what need). Extras in supply room.
  • Reference: File cabinets, bookshelves.
  • Decoration: On desk, walls; keep limited.
  • Equipment: On desk if used more than once per day; else, drawers.

Transient Stuff:

  • Input to be processed: In box
  • Current work items
  • [If not electronic] Action reminders: Calendar, next action lists, project lists
  • [If desired; I think these go best in a file drawer at your desk] Project support materials: Active projects file; planner.

Work Centers At Your Desk

Desktop centers:

  • Phone center
  • Computer center
  • Capture tool center or planner center [if you use a paper tool for either]
  • Work center

Drawer centers:

  • Pen/pencil/related supplies center
  • Mailing/finance center (if needed)
  • Stapler/filing center

File Centers [in file drawers]:

  • Pending
  • Projects
  • Operations
  • Reference
  • Archive

Basic Principles

  1. Like with like. One spot for all books. All filing cabinets together. Create centers for different tasks by grouping everything necessary for them together.
  2. Purge. All things that are unused or ill-suited should be tossed.
  3. Access. Goal is fingertip management. Use an L, U, or parallel shape for your desk. U is best, as it allows easiest access to the most desk space and equipment. Move infrequently used equipment, reference materials, and supplies to another room.
  4. Contain: Keep files in cabinets, books on shelves, and supplies in drawers.
  5. Evaluate: How do you feel? Does the work flow?
  6. The desk is a place to do work. Use REMOVE to reduce clutter and arrange desk properly.
    1. Reduce distractions.
    2. Everyday use (if not, drawers).
    3. Preferred side (all things go on right side if you are right handed; phone is one exception–it goes on opposite side).
    4. Organize together: Create work centers for phone, computer, time, etc. Phone center should include phone, message pad, pen nearby. Good for capturing thoughts and tossing into in-box as well.
    5. Empty the center (so you can work).
  7. Supplies are for the drawers. Group like things together. Turn each drawer into a work center: Central is pen/pencil; others are mailing/finance and stapler/filing.

The Paradox of Choice and the Meaning of Freedom

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My wife has been enjoying the book The Paradox of Choice and I’m looking forward to reading it as well. The concept is simple: having more choices doesn’t always lead to more happiness. Often, it leads to paralyzed decision-making and discontent.

Here is the author’s presentation recently at TED, which gives a great summary of his key concepts:

I have one disagreement with Barry Schwartz in the video. He states at the beginning that maximizing individual freedom is a central tenet of western civilization, and that “the way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice. The more choice that they have, the more freedom they have, and the more freedom they have, the more welfare they have.”

I agree that maximizing individual freedom is a central tenet of Western civilization, but I think he has slightly misstated things thing when he says that this entails the idea that “the way to maximize freedom is to maximize choice.”

Many people believe that, probably. But that kind of freedom is not at the heart of Western civilization.

For example, the founders of this nation serve as a good representation, I would contend, of what the tenet of freedom means when it comes to the guiding principles of Western thought. And I don’t think that they saw the essence of freedom as maximizing choice.

The essence of freedom that was captured in the American Revolution and which, I would argue, is at the heart of Western society is rather the right to make your own decisions. The number of choices that you have is not ultimately relevant here. The main idea is that you get to choose, not the government or someone else.

You don’t need someone to provide you with a lot of options in order to be “free” in this sense. It’s about choosing your own path and making your own decision — and, if you think you don’t have enough options, finding a way and possibly creating more options yourself.

That’s the view of freedom that is at the heart of Western society. Schwartz is taking aim at another view of freedom — a very common one, and perhaps one that is pervasive and dominant at this current juncture in history and going back a generation or two, but not one that should be characterized as central to Western civilization per se.

The view of freedom that Schwartz is taking aim at here, which so values maximizing options, is in part behind a recent mutation of the original Western view of freedom. This mutation holds that if you don’t have health care, you aren’t free, or that if you don’t earn a “living wage,” you aren’t free, because both things limit your options. It is then implied that the government ought to provide these things for people, “in the name of freedom.”

Schwartz of course isn’t discussing that mutation on the concept of freedom. But I think it goes to show the importance of getting this term correct.

To conclude: I’m not against having lots of options; I just want to point out that the value of maximizing individual freedom does not depend upon the number of options you have. And it certain does not entail that we have a duty to maximize people’s options. Rather, it simply entails that we let people make their own decisions. This includes, of course, the decision to generate more options — as well as the decision, which Schwartz does a good job contending for, not to always seek out a wide range of options.

Doubling Your Time

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A few years ago I heard someone say: “Every hour of sleep before midnight is worth two, and every hour of work before noon is worth two.”

That’s a pretty good principle in general. It would need to be nuanced, of course, when it comes to those who are naturally most productive late at night. But as a general statement, it points to the high productive value of making the most of the morning.

Although maybe you could have the best of both worlds. If you went to bed at 9 pm, you’d have six hours of sleep by midnight and could then get up, ready to attack the day…