Have you broken any New Years Resolutions yet? Go on be honest…

Well I’m pleased to say that I haven’t.  Why? Because I haven’t set any.

For 99.99999% of people NYRs are pointless and don’t work; they know this already!  This is because they expect a big change to occur at a preset date and time which is such a shock that the mind cannot manage and so the NYR is broken.  Also people love to put something off until later; it means they don’t have to do it now.

Instead of NYRs I set objectives for the year, some of which I know (or hope) I’ll complete before the end of the year.  Although I don’t like new years resolutions I always get the natural urge to look at the year ahead with a sense of “new year, new start, and a hope for better”; and I think that’s fine.

Like most people I find change hard (unlike most people I’m not afraid to admit it).  Lifestyle changes are hard, we do things the way we do them because over time it suits what we naturally want (whether that’s good or bad), our energy, mindset and outlook on life. 

The trouble with NYRs is that once you break it you’re back to your old self.  With Objectives it doesn’t matter if you break the rule because you’ve got time to recover.

So, if you’ve broken your NYR(s) already convert them into objectives and then work out what you need to do to achieve those objectives and get on with step 1 (or what we in the GTD world call the Next Action).

Until the next post…

I’ve been a Blackberry user for over two years now and love the ability to email and browse the web with a querty keyboard wherever I can get a signal. I know there are lots of phones that have similar capabilities but Blackberry’s seem to do it for me and although I’m happy to concede that there are probably better phones/PDAs I’m happy with the blackberry I have; the model before it was like a brick but the one I have now is more slim line.

Email management is a big thing in the productivity world and having an inbox that follows you around can be a distraction and in my case certainly has been.

I have a lot of email addresses and I’ve always had a policy of never getting rid of any just in case someone wants to use it to contact me. Up until recently I’ve had most of those email addresses configured on my blackberry which quickly became a pain. I was getting email and hence an interruption that I didn’t really need there and then. Job site emails, social networking alerts, etc… , which I don’t need now, I can read later in the day or tomorrow.

So I’ve done two things that should alleviate the interruptions;

1) Email address re-org. There are two email addresses which real people can contact me on and whenever an automated email from the many sites I subscribe to uses either of these two email addresses I’ll create a next action to reconfigure the offending site.
2) Set the phone to ‘ring only’; if your communication is urgent then call me. I will probably revert back to configuring my blackberry to ‘buzz when a mail comes in’ when I’ve sorted out the rogue email senders ?

That should reduce the interruptions and hopefully will help me stay productive.

Do you have a Blackberry or other mobile email inbox?  How do you manage this whilst staying productive?  Leave me a comment.

Until the next post…

Are you happy in your current job? Do you enjoy your work? Are you doing what you’re good at? Does your work make you feel proud? For many people the answers are No. If this is you then this book is for you…

A couple of weeks ago I caught a tweet and learned of a new book entitled And What Do You Do? 10 Steps to creating a Portfolio Career by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger. I bought the book and consumed it in under a week. I liked the contents of the book so much I’ve already started implementing my plan to create my portfolio career and feel this is worthy of a book review.

Finding one job that can pay the bills, give you the lifestyle you want, and make you happy is difficult but what if you had multiple jobs that allowed you to do the many things you enjoy, what you’re good at and make you feel proud; working those kind of jobs would mean work isn’t work.

The book starts out by describing the career situation that most people find themselves in, then discusses the relative pros and cons, presents the concept of a Portfolio Career, and then briefly covers the ten steps to arrive at your tailored portfolio career.

The first two steps prompt you to confirm whether or not a portfolio career is really for you, asks if you can afford to pursue one, and suggests ways to transition into a portfolio career.

The book then takes you though the next steps of identifying what you’re naturally good at, what you enjoy, and what makes you proud (your Motivated Skills), your values (what makes you want to work), and the many types of people that you are.

The rest of the book deals with how you get started with your portfolio career, networking, choosing the careers, marketing, brand, and follow on activities to make your careers thrive. The book has lots of exercises that help you realise the shape of your portfolio career.

I’ve always avoided doing something I love as a job as I’ve often heard people say that it could turn something you love into a chore and therefore something you hate. I believe that there is a risk that this can happen but I feel it’s all down to how you handle the job. There is always going to be ‘grunge work’ as the book describes it but so long as this is minimised there shouldn’t be a problem.

You can get a copy of And What Do You Do? from Amazon.

I hope to blog more about my transition into my Portfolio Career, why not subscribe to my blog to ensure you get future posts.

Do you have a Portfolio Career? Have you read And What Do You Do? Do you agree with my comments? – Please take a few moments to leave me a comment.

Until the next post…

We all know that to complete a project we have to complete tasks; essentially it’s about getting things done. I have seen the Getting Things Done methodology and principles banded around for a while and decided to buy the book to see for myself. I actually bought it in time to take with me on holiday; might sound a little boring (certainly the reaction I got from my wife) but having read it, it seems the best time to read it cover to cover and absorb the whole book. I often think that holidays are the best time to not only relax and party, but to take stock of your life, career, etc… when you are away from it all, things seem much clearer. Anyway, back to the Getting Things Done review.

First of all the book is written by a guy called David Allen; never heard of him before I saw his name on the book, but after a little Googling it appears he has written other self help style books. As the title of the book implies, the Getting Things Done, or GTD as we in the GTD-world like to call it, is all about having a system of managing tasks. Essentially it is about taking some incoming thought, letter, email, voicemail etc… and recording it in a system so that your mind can forget about it. And that is the real point that David Allen makes early on in this book; when your mind is empty of things you have to do, you can get on with what you have to do, you can get on with the task at hand in the comfort that you know what you have to do (its all in your GTD system) and you’ve not forgotten something.

Notice I said, Your GTD system. Although there is little need for deviation from the GTD methodology, the tools you use to implement the methodology means that different people’s implementation will be quite varied. I actually found that the way I used to manage my tasks was very similar to the GTD system; I’ll be describing “my life before GTD” in a later post.

Being a freelance consultant I hone in on the way people manage their work; and quite often I am amazed by the poor work-management systems people have in place for themselves and their team; I wonder how they ever get anything done. And that is the point, they don’t get much done and certainly not in an effective way. These are the people that scratch their head when giving updates to actions and say “err.. ongoing”, or when you ask them if they’ve done something yet they put their hands on their heads and say “sorry I forgot.” If you are one of these people then this book is for you.

As I write this post I am managing 8 projects and have about 70 other things to do. I have been using my GTD system for about two months now and I really do think I am getting things done at a faster rate. I also find that I have less on my mind, because when a thought comes into my mind I write it down and it goes through my GTD system.

I could hammer the keyboard for days expressing my thoughts on this book, it really is worth reading, but I think it’s best for you to discover GTD for yourself; you can get a copy from most book shops and on-line stores; I got mine from Amazon

Any questions, leave me a comment…

Until the next post.