Less is more

Google Apps Day #4--Feeling "naked" in the Web 2.0 World

Last week, my iPhone stopped working for no reason, and I had to make a trip from San Francisco to San Jose without my iPhone. This seemingly minor inconvenience brought some awkward feelings. Strange enough, I felt quite disconnected, and quite exposed to the risk of not being able to reach the outside world easily in case of emergency or "perceived" emergency (such as a last minute update), and not being easily reached by the outside world (we seem to become quite dependent on our technologies).

This week, I had some severe connectivity issues, and was without Web access for a few hours. This brief time without Internet was another feeling of being exposed and isolated from the Web world.

One thing to note here is that with Google Apps, when there is no Web access, there is no access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, etc. So you cannot continue to work on your e-mails offline, check your calendar and schedule meetings, and lookup contacts. This isn't a problem for me yet, because I still haven't imported my calendar and my contacts to Google Apps. This is the next item on my list.

The good news for now is that Web access was restored, and My iPhone got replaced by a new iPhone and activated within minutes at the Apple Store in San Francisco, and the world came back to the way it is supposed to be. And now, I am ready to continue the Google Apps experiment.

Right brain and left brain, as explained by Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain scientist with a powerful story!

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/229

Thanks to our reader Tamsen Salvador for the info on the above video!

The power of working in iterations! Give yourself the freedom to do so, and celebrate victory against procrastination and perfectionism

You have this report to write, or presentation to prepare, or project plan to put into place. It is daunting. Too many parts to it. Too many issues to think about. You find yourself deferring it and feeling a little anxious when you think about it. It is just too big of an undertaking, and/or a sign of procrastination, and/or a sign of wanting it to be nothing less than perfect . You end up delaying it until there is no room for delaying any further. Then it becomes a high pressure situation. In addition, work quality suffers. If other urgent demands come up at the same time, and they will, then you've got one of these "situations" on hand.

The power of working in iterations and helping better manage such a project or task could involve the following:

Iteration #1

Give yourself permission to spend, let us say 40 minutes, to do a brain dump relating to the project or task (let us call it project for now). Remind yourself that this is just a brain dump and not go into analysis or conclusions yet. Capture related issues, ideas, worries, whatever else comes to your mind. Don't worry about organizing or ordering yet. Include a list of potential resources that you may have access to or would like to have access to. Be creative! Be bold! Dare to put down freely what comes to your mind!

Iteration #2

Leave the above alone for a bit. This may be an hour or two, or a day or two, depending on the magnitude of this project. This will allow the mind to absorb the information and do its own background work on it. It may be quite beneficial to engage in some creative work or physical exercise type activities during this time.

Iteration #3

Take another stab at it. This can also be yet another 40 minute session. In this iteration, you may add additional thoughts, and your mind may have already come up with new and interesting ideas on how to approach the project. Capture them and then move into organizing your thoughts and get them ready to take action. This probably means breaking down what needs to get done into manageable components that you can then schedule on your calendar, and/or delegate to others.

Iteration #4

Now that you have a plan, start execution according to plan. If possible and applicable, involve others. Setup a dry run or a review session with the people who could provide meaningful input, and who might have some stake in the success of this project. Create a deadline that can help you focus your energy and motivate you to get things moving.

Iteration #5

Give yourself time to refine, gather more input, and go for the final victory.

Of course customize the above as you see fit. Don't forget to stop and celebrate victory against procrastination and perfectionism, before you start the next project or task!

15 days down and 66 days to go—and the holiday season started already

We can tell that the holiday shopping season started already in San Francisco when supposedly average citizens, who normally follow the traffic laws, start going the wrong way in a parking structure to grab a parking space before anyone else does (picture on the left).

My cold is persisting and so am I. This is day 15 of the 81-day-exercie program, and I am keeping up with my exercise but keeping it pretty light until I fully recover. Knowing that no gym was open in San Francisco today, and that the weather was beautiful, I went for my outdoor exercise routine.

Meanwhile, I continue to notice the efficient means of transportation around the city. I did post picture of some small cars and some hybrid cars recently, but the 2-wheel one-person vehicle in the picture on the left, is definitely the most efficient one I have seen so far.

9 days down and 72 days to go—exercise to create energy

Today was the first day of the “Lunch & Learn On The Air” Webinar series that we started. I was determined to make it to the gym (for the 9^th day in a row) before the lunch & learn session because I knew that I will be energized and ready to project this energy to my audience. It worked!

“A bigger economy doesn’t alywas buy happiness”, see Eric Weiner’s article

The topic of “happiness” come up yesterday in Kathleen’s contributed tip about incorporating the things that one enjoys into one’s work. Today, I came across yet another set of “happiness” related insights provide by Eric Weiner, the author of the book “The Geography of Bliss”, to be published by TWELVE in 2008. The title of the article is “A bigger economy doesn’t always buy happiness”. Enjoy and be happy!

Too much noise at work? Headset! Internet Radio! More!

Is the noise distracting you? Are you in an open space and find it difficult to focus on your tasks, to maintain your train of thoughts, and be productive? Having your own office would be an idea, but an easier one might be getting headsets, an MP3 player, or Internet radio. If you’re looking for a nice selection of music on Internet radio, my friend Mitch recommends http://www.di.fm/ (Digitally Imported)!

Okay, but what do headsets tell the world? It could be interpreted as “uninviting” and may discourage others from approaching you? The answer to that is “alternating” between focused chunks of time (with headsets), and then taking the time to check e-mail, return voice mail, connect with colleagues. Whatever works for you.

What caught my attention today!

Today I came across this bumper sticker: “Guns don’t kill people. Drivers with cell phones do” which is an interesting view on the danger of driving and using cell phones, and which reminded me of the recent article titled “Danger: Drivers who type” by Kimra McPherson, from the Mercury News, which was posted on October 11, 2006 at: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15729444.htm

Another thing that caught my attention today, while I was at the business school  in Berkeley waiting for a meeting to start, were these monitors (picture on the right) which displayed the front covers of newspapers from around the world. Every 5 or 10 seconds they switched to different papers from different cities. Above these monitors, the caption read “How the World Views the World”.  After a few minutes watching them, the world felt smaller and more connected. Here are some of the pictures I captured.