Laws Rules Norms and Habits
We are governed by many things in our lives: laws (both natural and those created by man and religion), rules (those things that we abide by to maintain a certain level of order), norms (the way most of society acts, including courtesy and manners), and habits (those things that we’ve ingrained in ourselves for one reason or another. Understanding these things more deeply benefits you more than you can imagine, and I’m not talking about social media today. I’m talking about social norms, the way people act, the way YOU act, and what you can do with this knowledge.
Understanding Which Is Which
First, accept and understand that we follow and break human laws all the time. There are several hundred laws written by many hands, for matters of state as well as those of religious leadership. Do you believe that these laws are all there to protect you? Do you believe that they are in your best interest? The answer is often “yes,” or “most of the time.” That’s how we have a functioning society, and in case you’re wondering if I’m pointing you towards anarchy, I’ll save you some reading. No.
We also have rules and norms, which are less formal than laws, but that also guide our actions. For instance, we don’t yell at other people in a grocery store or an office on balance, because it’s not especially appropriate behavior. But there’s no real “law” against it. And sure, some people yell, but it’s the norm that people do not. Follow?
Habits are a little more tricky. Habits come from repeated practice, and some sense of reward (negative or positive) for the actions we take. Self-esteem (the low kind) is partially a system of habits designed to attempt to protect yourself against negative feelings. It’s a faulty system, but it’s the one lots of people install through establishing a series of habits, because it helps us manage our hurt.
The Only Laws That Can’t Be Broken Are Natural
Most of us, and I’ll presume about 99% of the folks who will read this post, live within a very specific paradigm that goes something like this: try to be polite, nice, healthy, do good work, loving, and earn your rewards. Right? That last part is a lot of where the trick comes in, by the way, so watch for it.
I was once told that police don’t exist to protect people: they exist to protect property and the general order of things. (Pause while I say that I greatly admire our law enforcement professionals, and am grateful for their services.) Most of what we do on an airplane is often called “security theater,” because truly, the act of us removing our shoes will not likely save us from anything. The reason we turn our cell phones off is a lot less likely to be because of a potential signal interference, and much more likely because it’s really annoying to have that many loud conversations in an enclosed space.
There are oh so many times in your life where, if you observe it, you’ll note that “the rules” and the laws and the norms and your habits are skewed towards keeping things in a fairly decent order, without a whole deal of racket, and usually without a lot of potential emotional damage.
Once You Realize You Can Impact a System
When was the last time you broke a law? You don’t have to answer, but I bet the answer is much more likely “yesterday” than it is not. What about the rules? Have you broken those lately? Did you text while driving, or fail to wear your seatbelt for a mile or two? When did you skip out on a norm, like not sending thank-you notes? What happened? What REALLY happened?
I’m not recommending that you go out and become lawless anarchists. I said that earlier. And yet, I am suggesting that you look around yourself at the systems by which you’re allowing your life to be governed. Choose how you will obey the laws you obey. Decide how you will interpret the rules and norms of the society where you live and function. And most of all, explore and evaluate all your existing habits, good and bad, and determine whether they are serving you.
And if you do start making changes to how you’re living, if you do re-evaluate WHY you’re doing the things you do, I wonder where it will take you?
Thoughts ?
–
Photo credit, Jerine
Five Things You Could Learn From Bob LeDrew
Bob LeDrew sang tonight on a boat ride that was part of the festivities here at Podcasters Across Borders 2008. There was an open mic with quite a mix of amateur and not-so-amateur performers. I wanted to go up, and was looking for my chance, when Jay Moonah got up and did his bit (musician amongst musicians), and that kind of made me feel a lot less capable, so I didn’t go up. But Bob LeDrew did. I learned a lot from Bob, and got my courage up to go up and sing a song (with Jay playing guitar) after Bob did a small set. Here’s what Bob taught me:
Get Up and Take Your Turn
Bob and his wife play music at house parties (I forget what they called them, but the name would make more sense than “house party”), and he had quite a repertoire to choose from. Having had lots of shots at the microphone over the last several months, Bob felt confident to get up and do his thing.
As a media maker, getting up and taking your turn (to blog, podcast, etc) is easier if you find lots of opportunities to try yourself out along the way to the main gig.
Complete the Motion
At a few points, Bob didn’t remember the words to certain songs. We were an encouraging audience, and what got me was that Bob didn’t blush and crumble under the pressure. He paused, said a few words, and then went on to the next song.
As bloggers, if you mess up or forget something, just keep going. There’s always another post and another chance to do a decent job.
Be Charming, Not Depressing
When Bob had his forgetful moments, he didn’t collapse in upon himself. He knew that he could just move on to the next bit. This doesn’t come easy to everyone. Lots of people get hung up on self-analysis and can’t quite make the next move because they’re stuck analyzing where things crumbled.
Make your mistakes, accept them, and be outwardly charming about matters while you pick up the pieces.
A Friendly Audience Helps
Bob played for us on a boat of peers and friends. We were out on the water, having food and beers, and the mood was very light and cordial. When he forgot a line, it didn’t matter to us, because everything he’d done until that point was great, and after the first time he missed a line, we were on board with laughter and applause and encouragement. He knew we were his friends and wouldn’t laugh AT him.
Build a community that cares about you, and you can experiment and try new things without fear of ridicule.
Finish Strong
Despite a few forgotten lines, Bob finished with a really great song about a motorboat, that was funny, engaging, and had lots of clever use of words. The music that accompanied it was great, too, and we all got into the song quickly and deeply. Bob had us right where he wanted us by the end of his very small set of songs, and he made an impression on me and lots of others on the boat.
When you’ve taken your shot, make sure you finish strong in your work.
Lessons Learned
At the end of it all, Bob’s performance was a great metaphor for how we all struggle with understanding social media tools, business communication, collaboration, marketing, and all the other things we’re facing in our day. I learned from Bob’s charm, poise, and commitment, as well as his ability to stay confident and positive throughout the experience.
Do you follow Bob’s advice, such as I’ve written it out here? Would you be just as confident and charming as Bob in those situations? How do you conduct yourself in moments where you’re trying a few things out, and everything might not be 100% perfect?
And by the way, Bob writes an interesting blog about the world of Canadian PR that’s worth checking out, as well.
100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media
You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else. - Tyler Durden, Fight Club.
Branding one’s self in an online environment built on entropy and go-baby-go is difficult at best, and impossible if you forget to take your happy pills. To that end, I’ve come up with a quick list of 100 things you might do to help with these efforts. Feel free to add your ideas to the comments section.
If you like this one, please don’t hesitate to stumble, blog, digg, bookmark, and otherwise promote the hell out of this. That’s another tactic, by the way. : )
Listening
- Build ego searches using Technorati and Google Blogsearch
- Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts
- Don’t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed. Be sure to stay aware of those.
- If you can afford it, buy professional listening tools, like Radian6 or others in that category.
- Use Google Reader to store your ego searches.
- Use Yahoo! Site Explorer to see who’s linking to your site.
- Use heat map tools like CrazyEgg to see how people relate to your site.
- Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them.
- Listen to thought leaders in other areas, and see how their ideas apply to you.
- Don’t forget podcasts. Check out iTunes and see who’s talking about your area of interest.
- Track things like audience/community sentiment (positive/negative) if you want to map effort to results.
Home Base
- Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do.
- Buy an easy-to-remember, easy-to-spell, content-appropriate domain name if you can. Don’t be TOO clever.
- A really nice layout doesn’t have to cost a lot, but shows you’re more than a social media dabbler.
- Your “About” page should be about you AND your business, should the blog be professional in nature. At least, it should be about you.
- Make sure it’s easy to comment on your site.
- Make sure it’s easy for people to subscribe to your site’s content.
- Use easy to read fonts and colors.
- A site laden with ads is a site that doesn’t cherish its audience. Be thoughtful.
- Pay attention to which widgets you use in your sidebar. Don’t be frivolous.
- Load time is key. Test your blog when you make changes, and ensure your load times are reasonable.
- Register your site with all the top search engines.
- Claim your site on Technorati.com
- Use WebsiteGrader.com to make sure your site is well built in Google’s eyes.
Passports
- Passports are accounts on other social networks and social media platforms. It’s a good idea to build an account on some of these sites to further extend your personal branding.
- Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to other practitioners.
- Facebook and/or MySpace are useful social networks where you can build outposts (see next list).
- Get a Flickr account for photo sharing.
- Get a YouTube account for video uploading.
- Get a StumbleUpon.com account for voting.
- Get a Digg.com account for voting, as well.
- Get an Upcoming.org account to promote events.
- Get a del.icio.us account for social bookmarking.
- Get a Wordpress.com account for its OpenID benefits.
- Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network.
- Take a second look at Plaxo. It’s changed for the better.
- Get a Gmail.com account for use with reader, calendar, docs, and more.
Outposts
- Build RSS outposts on Facebook. Add Flog Blog, and several other RSS tools.
- Build a similar outpost on MySpace, if your audience might be there.
- Make sure your social media is listed in your LinkedIn profile.
- Add a link to your blog to your email signature file (this is still an outpost).
- Be sure your social network profiles on all sites has your blog listed, no matter where you have to put it to list it.
- Make sure your passport accounts (above) point to your blog and sites.
- Use social networks respectfully to share the best of your content, in a community-appropriate setting.
- Don’t forget places like YahooGroups, Craigslist, and online forums.
- Email newsletters with some links to your blog makes for an effective outpost, especially if your audience isn’t especially blog savvy.
- Podcast content can have links to your URL and might draw awareness back to your content, too.
Content
- Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week.
- The more others can use your content, the better they will adopt it.
- Write brief pieces with lots of visual breaks for people to absorb.
- Images draw people’s attention. Try to add a graphic per post. (Not sure why this works, but it seems to add some level of attention.)
- Mix up the kinds of pieces you put on your site. Interviews, how-to, newsish information, and more can help mix and draw more attention.
- Limit the number of “me too” posts you do in any given month to no more than three. Be original, in other words.
- The occasional ‘list’ post is usually very good for drawing attention.
- Write passionately, but be brief (unless you’re writing a list of 100 tips).
- Consider adding audio and video to the mix. The occasional YouTube video with you as the star adds to your personal branding immensely, especially if you can manage to look comfortable.
- Brevity rules.
Conversation
- Commenting on other people’s blogs builds awareness fast.
- The more valuable your comments, the more it reflects on your ability and your character.
- Use your listening tools to stay active in pertinent discussions.
- Try not to brag, ever. Be humble. Not falsely so, but truly, because a lot of what we do isn’t as important as saving lives.
- Ask questions with your blog posts. Defer to experts. Learn from the conversation.
- Be confident. Asking for external validation often is a sign of weakness.
- Good conversations can be across many blogs with links to show the way.
- Try never to be too defensive. Don’t be a pushover, but be aware of how you present yourself when defending.
- Disclose anything that might be questionable. Anything, and quickly!
- Don’t delete critical blog comments. Delete only spam, abrasive language posts, and offensive material. (Have a blog comments policy handy, if you get into the deleting mode.
Community
- Remember that community and marketplace are two different things.
- Make your site and your efforts heavily about other people. It comes back.
- Make it easy for your community to reach you.
- Contribute to your community’s blogs and projects.
- Thank people often for their time and attention.
- Celebrate important information in your community (like birthdays).
- Be human. Always.
- Your community knows more than you. Ask them questions often.
- Apologize when you mess up. Be very sincere.
- Treat your community like gold. Never subject them to a third party of any kind without their consent.
- Knowing more about your competitors’ communities is a useful thing, too. Learn who visits, why they visit, and how they interact.
- Measuring your efforts in building community grows out your brand as a natural extension.
Face to Face
- Have simple, useful, crisp business cards to share. Always.
- Be confident in person.
- Clothes and appearance DO matter. WIsh they didn’t, but they do.
- Have a very brief introduction / elevator pitch and practice it often.
- Ask questions of people you meet. Get to know them.
- Don’t seek business relationships right off. Instead, seek areas of shared interest.
- Know when to walk away politely.
- Don’t try to meet everyone in a room. Meet a half dozen or more great new people.
- Never doubt that you are worth it.
- If you’re terribly shy, consider finding a “wing man” for events.
- Doing homework ahead of time (finding people’s most recent blog posts, googling them, etc) helps one feel “in the know.”
- Make eye contact. It’s MUCH more powerful than you know.
Promotion
- Use Digg, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us and Google Reader to drive awareness.
- Promote others even more than you promote yourself
- Bragging isn’t useful to anyone besides your own ego
- Linking and promoting others is a nice way to show you care about people
- Don’t digg/stumble/link every single post. Save it for your very best
- Another promotional tool: guest blog on other sites
- Another promotion tool: make videos on YouTube with URL links
- Another promotion tool: use the status section of LinkedIn and Facebook
- Try hard not to send too many self-promotional emails. Wrap your self-promotion in something of value to others, instead.
- Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it.
You probably have some great ideas to add to this. I’d love to hear what you want to add, or feel free to blog your own list and add value to the project that way. In any case, I hope this was helpful, and I wish you great success in your efforts to brand yourself and show the world what a rockstar you are.
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Conquering Fear of Blogging
Three different friends over the last two days have told me about their fear of creating, a fear of blogging. They each had their own demons to wrestle: perfectionism, failure, self-consciousness. These are difficult to overcome, and I’m not going to pretend that you just have to follow a few steps and you’ll overcome your fear, but I can tell you a few things I know about it all, and see if it’s helpful. Here are a few ideas to help you look past some of your fears.
Keep a Scratch Blog
Whether you’re just starting out, or even just sometimes not sure if something you’re thinking about is right for your blog, consider writing it to some place else. Consider using a Tumblr blog as a “scratch” blog, a place to write stuff that’s not fully formed, or that you’re concerned might be taken wrong. You might not even brand the site, maybe not even make it publicly visible.
Say it Out Loud
One way that you can get a little more confident in your writing is by reading it out loud to yourself. Go over what you’ve typed and read it as if talking to a friend. Does it make sense? Are there parts you want to change? Try a few times.
Read and Read and Read
Not just blogs, but read lots of things. Read magazines. Read books. Read things that make you think, and then understand more than what you read. Understand how they CONVEYED what you read.
Lots of times, we talk about how we’re unsure how to do something, but we don’t do the two parts of the puzzle: figure it out, and then practice.
Start by Commenting Elsewhere
There’s nothing wrong with developing your voice for blogging by commenting on other people’s blogs for a while. Go into blogs that you find interesting, and expand on what someone said in the comments, or disagree, or add your own spin.
But Start Eventually
There’s a lot of ways you can procrastinate and throat clear. One is to use Twitter instead of your blog. Another is to comment and think, and support others instead of doing your own thing. Another still is to read blogs and consume podcasts and tell people what they’re doing right and wrong, but not add something new to the pot. You might worry that you’re going to say something wrong, or offend, or whatever.
Set a real date. Set some time in the next few weeks (or a month at most?) to post something loud and proud and made by you to your blog, and then do it. See what happens. First off, with millions and millions of blogs out there competing for eyeballs, it’ll be a lot less climactic than you think.
And Then, Do More
Once you get rolling, get into the habit, and just start producing, it doesn’t stop. If I were writing full time for a living, I could keep going for quite some time before I hit a wall, but that wasn’t always the case. I used to get blocks all the time. What changed? I practiced more, and more, and more, and more. I wrote ALL the time. I got into the habit of writing no matter what.
Made all the difference in the world.
Your Thoughts?
What do you think? How have you approached your worries or hurdles to blogging or making media? I’d love your thoughts if you’re someone feeling blocked or a bit afraid. You can even comment anonymously, if that helps.
Photo credit Tom@HK
Reaching Inbox Zero
Several times, I’ve tried to get my inbox down to zero. It’s a tricky thing with between 200-400 emails hitting my box daily. But today, I hit zero, and I’ve held the line all day. And with my system in place, I feel comfortable that I can sustain this, barring any tragedies. My recent inspiration? Julien Smith. But neither Julien nor I invented Inbox Zero as a concept. I believe credit goes to Merlin Mann.
To learn more, here’s a video:
Or, if you prefer reading, Merlin released a best of GTD post with LOTS of links to useful self-improvement stuff.
I recommend this methodology. VERY useful.
Trenches and Ponds
Working at the speed of the Internet has one strong disadvantage: we can very easily get caught up in things that seem new, shiny, and interesting, and lose sight of our goals. Similarly, we can run amuck chasing Internet popularity and slip off the path to what we’re really trying to accomplish. And finally, we can get so caught up in the churn that we think “information” of any kind is what we need to keep on top of, not “information that’s pertinent.” Here are a few common traps one might fall into on the way to something bigger.
Trench Work
There are some basic things we have to do to get through a day, be that at our job, or in life in general, but these tasks aren’t the “good stuff.” They’re just things that need doing. Sometimes, we get stuck in this loop where we think, “Well, I’m doing my job” when we’re actually just doing the “trench work” part of the job. We’re digging in the ditch because that’s part of what it takes, and we’re confusing “doing things that need doing” with “progress.”
To rise above the trench and look around, post a little sticky note somewhere in your field of vision that hints at the larger purpose work that you need to do to REALLY get the job done.
At my day job, one big goal is to create content that helps businesses understand the larger, more impactful trends in technology. That means researching and synthesizing and producing materials to help with that work. If I do things that aren’t that, and mistake that for doing a good day’s work, I’m fooling myself.
Check Your Ponds
It’s really easy to think we’re on the right path to success, when actually, we’re only doing “big fish in small pond” work. Inside companies, if we’re doing the best out of our team, we wear that with a badge of pride. If our group inside the walls is the best group, we take that as our measure. This is deadly dangerous when considering what we could REALLY accomplish.
Look at your personal “ponds” all the time. If you’re doing exceptionally well, change the game and find a new pond. In his seminal business book, WINNING, Jack Welch said this was a strategy he used at GE all the time to get phenomenal growth out of an organization that was used to thinking of itself as #1 in its field for years and years. He’d find them different fields to measure themselves against, where they were #5 or 6, and then give them the goal of getting back to #1.
Look closely at your ponds. Oh, and another thing? (If you’ll allow me to mix a metaphor here). Make sure your ponds aren’t fishbowls.
Some Ways to Check Yourself
Here are a few diagnostic questions. When you answer “yes” to any of these, remind yourself what your larger goals are to get out of the trenches, and shift from comparing yourself to your direct peers and compare yourself on a larger stage instead.
- Is this work BIG, or is it a task? (Email is a task)?
- Is this work MEANINGFUL, or is it time consuming?
- Is this work POWERFUL, or is it what we’ve always done?
- Am I GROWING, or am I at the top?
- Am I STRIVING, or am I coasting?
- Am I REACHING for more, or am I checking off a box?
Squint at the capitalized words and I think they might be a good measuring stick.
What do you think? How does this apply to you?
The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.
Photo Credit, bls num1 fan
Scaling Yourself
Probably the most difficult challenge I’ve had to deal with since last autumn until now is learning how to do everything that needs doing in a day as demands on my time and my roles have changed. It’s been difficult, and along the way, I let down a few people, friends who wanted my best effort, and who got a really pale rendition of what I can do and offer instead. That was hard to swallow, as no one ever likes to overpromise and underdeliver. Since that time (probably starting this last September), I’ve been working towards learning how to scale my skillsets up to this next level, trying to rapidly prototype what I have to know how to do to get everything on my plate done. I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned with you, because at some levels, I think this is useful “how to” information for anyone working in the Creative class. Here’s what I’ve learned.
Cut Relentlessly
Gandhi was fond of saying that we all have the same 24 hours in our day; it’s all in how we use them. All of these things that I’ve cut are my choice. If YOU do them, that’s great. This is where I found some time.
- I don’t watch commercial TV (haven’t for years).
- I don’t play casual games online more than once in a blue moon. (Last night, I played Line Runner to test out MySpace’s recently launched games portal.)
- I cut several projects that I was doing that were fun, but weren’t meaningful to my larger goals.
- I cut participation in several online groups where I was only going through the motion.
- I cut how much time I spend on any particular social network. I spend time with people, but I don’t consume every scrap of content.
- I’ve chopped out real time social events that felt more like obligations, and limit my social media ones to 2x/week.
Through these efforts, I find back some of the time I need to work on projects that matter more to me, and to spend with my family, who are my supporters and the people I want to please most after myself.
Say No With Kindness MUCH More Often
This one is hard for me. I love participating. I love being part of things. But I have found that I have to say no to things a lot more often, so that I don’t accidentally set myself up to let others down. This still happens, because sometimes, I misjudge the project’s impact. But more often than not, I’m sending people polite no’s, and redirecting them to people who might be just as good at fulfilling a request. The more I can say no to projects that I can’t possibly keep up with, the more likely I am to do well at the ones I’ve already taken on.
Learn Triage and Loop Closing
Triage is the art of quickly looking at everything that needs doing and knowing what will either make the most impact or relieve the most stress. Often times, in business, we’re faced with relieving the stress (pressure of deadlines, complaints, squeaky wheels, low hanging fruit) before we can actually take on the parts that have the most impact. I try hard to balance those two targets, even though I often find myself more on the tactical side of the stick than I’d like.
Loop closing becomes important in communication. When it comes to the back and forth of business communication, I strive for closing the loop as fast as I can. Let me explain with an example:
- You email me asking me for a phone call to run something by me.
- I respond with my cell number, the days I’m best able to take a call, times that are best, and ask for some sense of the agenda of the call. (Note that I’ve given as much to close the back and forth as I can on that first pass.)
- You email back with a few dates and times. I pick whichever is first that matches my needs (no thinking, just doing), and if you’ve given me a summary, I try to offer my advice in email (which works faster than phone calls, and permits asynchronous conversation).
- I close the entire thread with no more than 1 or 2 more emails TOPS, and only then if I think I can resolve this without that meeting.
I do the same with all communication, as best as I can. When the boss points out a problem, I give him recommended next actions to take, and/or describe which ones I can handle without any input. Even if I have to have follow-up and re-positioning conversations, I’ve given my best shot at settling this on the first pass.
Decisiveness
I had a great conversation the other day where the key point that seemed to be missing from someone else’s action was decisiveness. I recognized at once that there are points in my day when I’m not just deciding on a path and taking action, that I’m shopping my idea around for advice before execution, even when it’s my task to solve. I’ve learned through this that however much I can fold into a decision, that’s more that won’t be a loose thread blowing in the wind for me later.
Templating and Shortcuts
Perhaps the most important thing I learned from Thomas L. Friedman’s THE WORLD IS FLAT is the notion of “value chain disaggregation.” Big words, but what they mostly mean is that if you look at some work process, there is almost always some way to break it down into a chain of processes, and that SOME of the processes need real thought and consideration, while other processes are more repetitive and/or simpler to replicate. Your goal (the goal of Creatives) is to focus on the part that adds value, and find ways to automate or outsource the parts that take the least creative effort.
I’m doing this with work, insofar as I’m working to build processes that others can execute, where my ideas are most useful up front and in the final execution, but not in the operational details. I call this templating.
On the side of shortcuts, I’m doing lots of things. On my computer, I’ve started using TextExpander and iClip extensively to speed up my use of repetitive text. Whenever I find a word or phrase or piece of information I use all the time, it goes into either of those applications (both Mac applications) for use.
I’ve also learned keyboard shortcuts for Firefox, Gmail, and Google Reader, such that my primary tool for communication and my tool for information processing is all keyboard-level fast for me. This cuts down the amount of time it takes to process things.
Finally, people ask how I’m always posting stuff daily and without much break in consistency of quality. WordPress has a simple, DIVINE tool that I use quite frequently: Edit Time Stamp. I can set a post to launch whenever I wish, so for the possibility of me having too much to do and not enough time to manage my blogging (which I consider to be an important part of my life’s work right now), I schedule a few posts to launch on days or times when I’m worried I might miss getting something out to you. This has proven very valuable on days when I’m too busy with other projects to get a post out, but when I know I’d rather you have something new to consider.
Tidbits
- I make use of two tools for my task and project management right now: Things (a project software for Macs loosely based on Getting Things Done), and Google Calendar. Between these two, I’ve found a flow that helps me move through my processes faster and with fewer drops.
- I don’t use instant messenger much because I find that the majority of people who contact me there are “bored” or “hanging out” and I am almost always neither bored nor hanging out. Though I do use Jabber IM to see Twitter.
- I think in multiple threads. Instead of fighting this habit of doing more than one thing at a time, I have a few things I try to do to keep focus: I open a notepad file with huge font and put the top most important things to do in a given day. I keep a ’scratch pad’ or two running with strange sidebar thoughts or tasks.
- I allow lots of things to fall right out of my head after their impact has lessened. #1 on this list: directions. I have no idea where I’m going most of the time. I’ve surrendered to wanting to know. I use Google Maps. Some day, Garmin will take pity on me and just send me a GPS, but then, I haven’t launched that project.
- I have a little gate in my head that separates: “this would be cool” from “this relates to things I’m doing,” and I pass lots of things through it. Often, they fall into the “cool, but I can’t do it right now” category.
Where I Scale the Least
My biggest challenge continues to be in person, and/or in real time. This is where I fear being considered a snob or rude the most, too. They relate.
At events, it’s really difficult to give everyone the time they deserve. In some cases, someone I don’t know will vacuum up a lot of time telling me a vast biography when they’ve approached me to ask me a “quick question.” In other cases, I find that there are lots of great people and not enough time. For example, at any dinner, it’s almost immediately tricky to see everyone at a table without some level of shifting around. It gets tricky, and people feel left out. (I’m sensitive to that).
Further, I find that events are where I go to meet up with old friends and reconnect, but also where I go to meet new people with new challenges and inspirations. So I’m always trying to balance both, because I love my friends, and some of these folks I don’t see in person more than once a year. And yet, that makes it tough to meet new folks.
The phone is tricky that way. It’s a 1:1 relationship between my attention and my ability to do things, because I focus on the back and forth of the experience. It’s great when I want to reach out to people, but it’s tricky when I’ve got too much to do and people want to have long, drawn out meetings. (I’m learning some tricks from my boss on this one).
What About You?
Where are you learning how to scale? What areas do you need to improve? How much of this resonates with your busy life, and have you found ways over the hump where you might notice I’m still struggling? We can share, right? : )
Photo credit, Kevin Dooley
