I’ve mentioned this before, but I still have conversations with people all the time where I mention Evernote, and they say, “Huh?” And that just blows my mind.

And the latest reason why I love them? Because not only have they produced the most awesome, flexible, useful piece of organizational software around, they also have a great sense of humor. That’s rare, people.

If you aren\'t seeing the embedded video, click here to view.

What I use Evernote for, just to give you a heads-up:

• managing all my client projects
• storing any and all info I find while out searching the interwebs
• recording all my recipes
• brainstorm-rain collection
• notes about places we’re thinking of moving to or visiting
• read the second one again, and let it sink in. Seriously.
• essentially everything I want to remember/record/store for the future, on subjects like WordPress, web design, CrossFit, nutrition, spirituality, personal development, family stuff, marketing, copywriting, and more.

Seriously, if you haven’t checked out Evernote, you’re bonkers. It’s awesome. It’s life-transforming. And—hello?—it’s free! Come on, now, people! Go get you some.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments

Do you have a goal? Professional, personal, or otherwise? I bet you do, whether it’s to get a certain number of clients per month, to stop eating grains, or to learn to juggle.

Now, let me guess: You’ve got a system worked out to get you there, don’t you? You’re going to attend networking meetings, write blog posts, and update your LinkedIn profile. You’re going to only eat at home so you can control your meals, and throw all your old grains into the compost heap. You’re going to watch that Juggling For Fools video, and practice your juggling fifteen minutes every night after dinner.

No matter what the goal is, you’ve got a system, I’m sure. How am I so sure? Because systems are said to be the key to achieving everything these days. Just think about productivity… there’s GTD , ZTD , and Hipster PDA’s; Blackberries, Franklin Planners, and 37 Signals. What’s best? That’s like asking, “What’s the best kind of music?” It all depends on you, what you’re doing, and what works for you.

The point, in any instance, is not what system you use… it’s that you stick with it.

If you’ve dabbled in productivity systems for any length of time, you know what I’m saying is true, because everyone has discovered, researched, and spent time on setting up some kind of system, only to have the thing gather dust and fall by the wayside.

It’s your ability to remain disciplined, regardless of what life throws at you, that determines your success. Or, as Vince Lombardi said, “Inches make champions.” When life gives you lemons, do you see the lemonade-creation process through? Or do you say, “Oh, it wasn’t convenient for me,” or, “I lost my passion for it,” or, “Evidently, that was the Universe’s way of telling me I shouldn’t be doing that.” ?

Forget the Common Approach

What’s the common approach to discipline? “Okay, let me set this up so everything’s perfect and ideal, and I’ll control all the variables and get. this. done!” You think that if you make your day run like clockwork, you’ll achieve your goals. But sadly, this isn’t practical, feasible, or even advisable.

Tanya Wagner, winner of the 2009 CrossFit Games, and 2nd place finisher in 2008, wrote about her training philosophy recently:

I think varying training days, times, and physical conditions really works for me and really seemed to help me for the Games. I can be mental at times, and always used to be very methodical with soccer in high school and in college. My training had to be precise and my warm up was identical before every game or I’d mentally be out of it. When I think about it now, that approach used to hurt me to a degree. I like how CrossFit has helped me to not have any excuses and has made me more disciplined mentally.

If you need stability and normalcy to experience discipline, are you really disciplined? Or just good at control? What I love about Tanya’s experience is that even when circumstances weren’t what she wanted them to be, she still achieved her goal by giving it everything she had – not to control it, but to show up fully in any and every situation.

The point is not to control your environment, it’s to control your attitude. Mix things up from time to time, and see how you do. If you’re used to planning your days to the minute, then make one day a week completely unstructured, and see if you can still get a priority task done. If you tend to fly by the seat of your pants all the time, then see what happens if you hold yourself to a schedule at least once a week. Can you still hold yourself to your goals, even when outside circumstances aren’t absolutely agreeable?

This works in all kinds of areas, by the way…

• Nutrition: If you plan your meals out religiously, then give yourself a week of whipping together what you can, when you can. I’m not saying eat junk, obviously, just see if you can still eat well without the control. Perhaps have your spouse/friends make a few meals, and see how you do. Can you stick to your plan, even when presented with less than optimal choices?
• Exercise: In a rut? Doing the same thing over and over? Get thee to a CrossFit gym, and see what they can do for you (trust me). Can you stick with it, even when it’s uncomfortable? (And if you’re a CrossFitter already, then experiment with MEBB, CFSB, or check out Catalyst Athletics’ workouts.)
• Leisure: Do you tend to pick the same activities week in, week out? Movies, television, walks in the park, etc.? Mix it up, then! Go to a funky live music venue you’ve never been to before, check out neighborhoods near you you’ve never been in, read books in genres you’ve ignored. Talk to strangers at coffee houses, volunteer at a soup kitchen, or go out and get your hands in the earth by planting a tree or tending a garden. Can you still relax and have a good time?

Discipline isn’t about regimens, controlling your environment, or being anal about having things your way. It’s about following through, no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. It’s about keeping your eyes on the prize, and toughing it out. It’s about digging deep in yourself to remain committed to your goal, no matter what life throws at you. (And yeah, few people like hard work. That’s why success isn’t as commonplace as it should be.)

Not eating the french fries is easy when you’re at home, but can you leave them on your plate at the restaurant? Not watching TV is easy when the cable’s out. And not wasting your day on Twitter is easy when the Fail Whale is running the show.

It’s inconveniencing yourself when life’s making everything convenient that shows you what you’re made of. That’s how you make your systems work. That’s how you achieve goals. That’s how you win championships.

Image by Susanica.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | No comment

I’ve been meaning to write a post about it, just so you all know I haven’t fallen off the wagon completely… But then Fabeku beat me to it. Brilliantly.

Of course, our histories are different. And each of us has our preferences, and brings to it what we do. But all the reasons Fabeku speaks about as to why he chants… how it rejuvenates him, how it cleans him out and fills him up… he could’ve been channeling me, there.

Why it matters

So I chant. Fabeku chants. Big whoop, right? Well, as I’ve been a fan of saying for some time now, when it comes to spiritual practices,

It doesn’t matter so much what you do… but it matters a ton why you do it.

I stopped working as a healer a over year ago now. I was talking about this with my wife the other night, and I told her that one of the big reasons why was because I felt dry. I didn’t feel I had anything left to give… I just couldn’t be there for my clients the way I could before. And to be honest, I was never completely satisfied with my answer as to why that was.

I chalked it up to the thought that I had been doing it for too long. Or that I was having doubts about my spiritual path, and that was the reason. Or that I had this, or that, or whatever. But now I see pretty clearly that the reason I burned out was because I wasn’t replenishing my reserves. I was running on fumes, and didn’t have anything left in the tank to give, because I had lost my connection to the divine flow that all my juice was coming from.

But, I know my story. What’s yours? And will you know before you burn out?

The point is this: You had better have a way to tap into whatever gives you juice, long before you give it all away. No matter what your line of work is, you expend energy when you do it. When you give to others, it’s gotta be coming from somewhere. I’m not saying that the work itself can’t be partially rejuvenating; it often is (I hope it is, otherwise you probably aren’t having much fun doing it…). And I’m not taking a “scarcity mindset” here, either, and saying that you’re automatically in trouble. There’s more than enough for everyone to drink, all the time.

What I am saying is that everyone who gives is tapped into a source, whether it’s conscious or not.

My advice is to get to know what fills up your tank. Really well. Really consciously. And not just what you do to take a break—taking a break isn’t filling you up, it’s just slowing down the rate at which you’re emptying the tank.

Chant seems to do it for me. What does it for you?

Image by metal-armz

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments

Now, you’ve no doubt seen this question circulating amongst the well-intentioned, self-help best-seller bookshelves’ residents for years. It’s pulled out time and again as the ultimate refiner of focus, the samurai sword of the cut-through-the-fluff-ers’ arsenal, the go-to tool of the productivity heroes’ utility belts. Ready?

If you only had six months to live, what would you do right now?

Ta da! Answer that question, and all your troubles will be solved, right?

Well…

Answer that question, yes.

Like Leo says—and I agree with him completely—it can be a great reminder when the minutiae of life starts sucking you down like quicksand. It’s a great question for the moments when you get so fixated on busy-work that you’ve lost sight of what matters to you. It’s also a great question to keep in mind as you’re establishing your life’s priorities and goals, and writing New Year’s Resolutions (assuming anyone still does that anymore), and vacation planning (New Jersey, or Bali? Hmm…).

But, don’t use it when you should be asking something else.

When it comes to planning the vision of your company, this is perhaps the last question you should be asking. Unfortunately, it’s often pulled out in circumstances like this, because it’s seen as the end-all, be-all question. But it’s no Leatherman question, believe me. Why not?

Because this question gives you a view of your life that’s illusionary.

What, are you saying we’re going to live forever? No, silly… at least not physically.

But chances are pretty good that you’re going to be here longer than that… and you’d better plan for it.

If you were only going to live another six months, and knew it ahead of time, do you think you’d be solely concerned with the actions of your business? Hardly. You’d be looking at ways to get in as much family time, quality time, and personal time as possible. You’d be spending your time connecting with the people in your life that matter to you, getting your affairs in order, and maybe slipping in a few once-in-a-lifetime activities. I know I would.

What I wouldn’t be doing is revising my Facebook profile, blogging, twittering (much ), and I darn sure wouldn’t be redesigning my dream website.

Assuming, though, that you are going to be around longer, your questions change considerably. Ask yourself, instead, “If I was going to live another 40, 50, or 60 years, what would I be doing?”

Your answers change, don’t they. They probably change a lot.

Instead of thinking, “Skysurfing over Cozumel,” now you’re thinking, “Change the so-and-so industry,” or, “Expand my business internationally,” or, “Make a difference in the lives of every child in Ghana.” Not that it has to be ultra-grandiose, either… you could be thinking, “Grow my business to where I can sell it/retire in enough time to enjoy my grandkids.” Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what you come up with.

What matters is that you’re thinking about your life, not your endgame.

The problem I have with the six-months-to-live question is that it tends to obliterate the more common reality that you’re going to be here a while. You’ve got a chance to make an impact, in whatever way that matters to you. You’ve got a chance to make something of your self, your life, and your contribution to others.

The balance, of course, is to live for the moment at the same time you’re living for seven generations. Both perspectives are vital, and they aren’t mutually exclusive. You can do amazing things in the time you have, and have amazing times in the things you do. It takes focus, of course… and it also takes a realist’s eye to see where and how to apply it.

So…

If you only have forty years to live, what would you do right now?

Maybe you’d start taking your business more seriously. Maybe you’d take your health more seriously, or think a bit more about the person you share a bed with — or want to. Maybe you’d think of better ways to invest in your relationship with your kids.

Maybe you’d start reaching out and connecting with people more. Maybe you’d revise your Facebook profile, blog about something you love, start twittering (a lot ), and for darn sure, it’d be a good idea to start redesigning your dream website.

Is the ‘six month’ question useless?

Heavens, no. Overused? Probably. But still useful, in the right context, along with the other questions that take into account the much more likely scenario.

The question is, what would you do? Think about both questions, “six months” and “forty years”, and post your first thoughts to the comments, would you? I think it would be really helpful to see what others come up with.

Image by Rickydavid.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments

This post is just another form of procrastination. Ignore it.

No, don’t ignore it. Learn from it.

What do you do in order to not do what you need to be doing?

Not what you should be doing, because we all know what happens when you ‘should’ on yourself… but what you need to be doing. There’s a difference.

What’s the difference?

The difference is that ‘shoulds’ are tasks that are often being dictated by a plan. A plan you’ve agreed to at one point or another, but a plan nonetheless.

The ‘needs’ are that which have to be done, or else you don’t make it. What ‘it’ is will be different for us all; for some, it’s survival, for others it’s success, and others, signficance.

I’m not saying that just because ‘shoulds’ come from a plan, you shouldn’t do them. Or that needs always trump them. I’m not saying that at all.

I’m just saying that it’s good to notice where your motivation is coming from before leaving one task to move on to another, so don’t end up wasting time, your most precious resource.

That said, I won’t take up any more of yours… or mine. Back to it, now!

Image by dirtyfeet.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments

Why, in seemingly every tradition, are there ritual practices?

Because rituals work, that’s why. They work through repetition; through continual practice, the attentive mind learns the steps until they are memorized. Once the mind’s focus is no longer needed to complete the ritual, it goes on “auto-pilot”, and the adept can repeat the ritual and focus the mind deeper, awakening the heart/soul/whatever (depends on the ritual, of course). This allows for a much deeper level of presence to be had, transforming the result of the ritual, and the mind of the practitioner.

Or, as my martial arts teacher would say, “First, the mind teaches the body what to do. Then, the body refines the movement, teaching the mind how it wants to move. Finally, body and mind are united as one.” He also said that once you performed an action 10,000 times, you had it mastered.

Clearly, rituals rock. In disciplines such as spirituality, or martial arts, that’s a no-duh statement. But what about in your work day? Do you have rituals?

If you answered no, allow me to differ. Uh, email? Twitter? Checking your voice mail?

And those are just the ubiquitous ones… depending on what line of work you’re in, you’ve probably got a bunch more. Here are some of mine:

• Health: CrossFit, 4-5 days a week. And if you think CrossFit doesn’t count as a ritual, you don’t know CrossFitters! We check the Workout of the Day (WOD) religiously, the star-performers of CrossFit are like heroes, and we read the CrossFit Journal like it’s a holy text. Trust me; don’t get in between a CrossFitter and his/her workout.
• Personal Growth: I have a set of practices I do regularly designed to enhance my sense of connection, develop my focus, and keep me moving towards the future I envision. These include gratitude, visualization, self-healing, and more (I’ll be sharing more about this as time goes on, in case anyone’s curious…).
• Business: I write, tweet, and email, like many do. I also regularly search for web design and development knowledge, reading feeds of favorite designers and design compendiums, investigating WordPress plugins and theme developments, etc.

There are more, of course, but you get the idea.

In my mind, these all qualify as rituals, because the more I do them, the more aware I am of the effects of the practice themselves, and the more I transform as a person through doing them (yes, even through Twitter). They make me better at what I do, of course… but it would be easy to do any of these and not get the same benefits.

What makes the difference? Intention. Have the intention to carry your focus and presence deeper as you do your daily rituals, and see what happens. If you’ve never thought of your work as potential for ritual before, take a moment and reflect on your day… where does this idea of ritual make perfect sense?

Some days are just meh.

Of course, some days you’re on, and some days you aren’t. Some days, email is just email. Meditation is just sitting there. Chanting is just mindless blather. After all, I’m no Master Oogway, either.

But that’s not a deficiency in the ritual, it’s a lack of intention and presence. Any regular activity can be transformed into ritual with the proper mindset.

So, if you notice yourself out of the groove one day, you’ve got a choice: Hop back up into the saddle, or let it go, and just be where you’re at (that’s called ‘acceptance’). There’s always another day.

What rituals do you use?

Image by moriza.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments

So, I did what anyone would do. I backed up everything I thought I’d need, made lists of the stuff I’d want to reinstall, and went ahead with the erase job.

Two things happened:

• I erased everything and reinstalled just the OS, only to find my problems remained. It turned out to be faulty RAM that I had installed six months before. Yes, I ran hardware tests, but they didn’t show any problems. Major thanks go out to Mariam, the angel on the Mac forum who saved my bacon. Ever since getting my new RAM, everything has run perfectly, like a Mac does when you don’t put junk in the engine.
• I realized that the way I had been working, managing information, and handling my digital life was way outta whack. I had backups, I’d worked efficiently, I’d streamlined my processes… yet until I had to start completely over from scratch, I had no idea how much fat there was still was left to trim.

Welcome to the butcher shop.

Now, I’m pretty sure—without Googling—that there are umpteen posts similar to this one out there in the world. I mean, productivity “hacks” are a dime a dozen, I realize. And, it’s not my intention to just air my laundry, so to speak.

But along with that little observation, my internal censor tells me I should just stop writing now. But to that censor—and yours, if you got one—I say two things:

1. I don’t care. I mean, I think it’s great that other posts are out there, but since this is my virtual soapbox and my life, and this was a meaningful event that has shaped every day since, I’m going to write about it.
2. I’m not a “productivity guru” writing about getting things done faster, easier, etc., as means to their own end. Gawd knows, everyone who has tried to implement increased-productivity measures in their lives has hit the point where they were tweaking their system more than actually doing things with said system.

But that’s not my intent here.

I don’t write about this to help you shave 0.4 seconds off your email time; I write about this because if you can walk away from your desk/laptop/iPhone with a few less knots in your shoulders and a clearer mind, then I’ve done my part. It’s about peace of mind, clarity of thought, and ease of being. Not to mention creating less waste and saving resources, both external (paper, space, time) and internal (thought, stress, and your creative potential).

That said…

I honestly don’t know if I could track every change that has come into my life since my self-induced electronic colonic, but I’ll share with you the biggies: the ones that I notice many times a day have improved my workflow and left me feeling much more peaceful about how I flow from from one task to another.

The big mind-shift happened as I went to download the software I had been using before the crash. I had taken screenshots of my Applications folder, so I could get everything back to the way it was. As I looked over the list, I realized that:

1. there was a bunch of stuff I had downloaded that I just didn’t use any more (surprise, surprise),
2. there were a few programs that were redundant, because other, better solutions existed… and now was the perfect time to take advantage of them.

Case in point…

Email.

I had been an avid—and satisfied—Thunderbird user for some time, after leaving Eudora years before. But I had also been hearing good things about just using Apple’s Mail, because of Address Book integration.

So, I Googled “mail vs thunderbird”, and I found this post by Dave Moyer, about using Gmail instead. Brilliant.

Why Gmail? Because:

• you can receive, and send from, other email accounts through Gmail. So, you’re not limited to just youraccount@gmail.com.
• all of your mail is automatically archived, just in case. Never lose an email again. And, because it’s all online, it takes up zero space on your own computer.
• there are plenty of helpful features (and extensions, via Google Labs) to manage your mail effectively, from labels to stars to filters and more.
• it runs out of your browser, so you don’t have to have yet another program running, taking up screen real estate, system memory, or time to download new messages. Translation: it’s faster.
• thinking of getting a new computer, ever? No more migration hassles; just log on from you new machine—or any machine, for that matter—and all your stuff is right where you left it. Translation: no fear of ever losing your stuff.

In Dave’s article, he said that everyone he talks to who actually gives it a shot ends up loving it within a week. It only took me a day.

Once I had embraced the “computing in the cloud” concept with GMail, I was curious to see what else was out there that would supplant my previous on-my-machine solutions. Next up…

Task Management.

Here is one place I’d been trying out all kinds of solutions for years, with never a clear winner emerging. I’ll spare you the exhaustive rundown, but the last program I was using to manage my projects and to-do’s was Things. Things rocks. I’m not a GTD’er, and Things is flexible enough to let me keep my projects managed how I wanted.

But again, I wanted something that was stored/synced automatically online, so I wouldn’t ever lose data. And, at the same time, I was examining how I stored the information related to my projects, and tangential snippets of stuff that invariably surface while working on a project. Saving everything to files, folders, and browser bookmarks just didn’t seem like the way to go, not when so much savvier solutions are out there.

And then I found a program that could handle my task management AND my incessant exploration of the web, all synced online, and all free. I danced my everloving jig, bowed in gratitude to the universe, and promptly fell in love with Evernote.

Evernote allows you to capture notes, screenshots and images, and URLs of anything, anywhere, anytime. It works on Macs and Windows, it works on iPhones and mobile devices, and it automatically syncs with a web-based version. It’s simple and intuitive to use, allows you to tag entries, create multiple “notebooks”, and search easily.

And, get this: it even scans the images you put in, and any words that are in the images will also be searched. Daaaay-ang, that’s sweet.

Here’s how I use Evernote:

• I have a Design notebook that’s my default, and as I browse the web and learn new tricks related to my webdesign business, I grab screenshots and the address of the page for later. No more saving webpages in overstuffed folders on my hard drive, no more endless browser bookmarks, no more “I know I saw a solution for that once… where was that/what did I do with it?” This alone saves me hours. Hours.
• Each note that I make from something online contains a screenshot, for easier visual browsing and memory-jogging. I also make sure to take advantage of Evernote’s tagging and url-linking feature, so I can easily find notes later, and jump to the site I got it from when I need more info (I sometimes save big chunks of code, but typically just save a snippet of the original to save time and stay in the flow of what I’m doing).
• I make a new notebook for each of my design clients, and while I often create individual notes within it to store various chunks of info, there’s one “master” note in each one where I keep lists of what needs to be done. I use sections to keep everything organized, and label them @Next, @Questions, @Waiting, and @Launch. Once glance and I know exactly what’s next for each client.

I can’t imagine working without Evernote, it’s that universal for me. And, sometimes I lose track of how all my projects need to be managed and what’s next. Rather than go through each notebook one at a time, I rely on Remember the Milk.

Remember the Milk (RTM) is another online, free-to-use service that excels at to-do list management. It can be used via the web and/or mobile devices, but my two favs are the Mac Dashboard Widget and the Google Mail add-on. My RTM list, made up of the top “@ Next” items from my projects, shows up in the right sidebar of my Gmail page, so not only do I see it every time I’m in Gmail, but I can also easily add tasks that come up as a result of communicating with people.

Update: As cool as RTM is, I found that I was still waffling a little when it came to knowing exactly what task to do next. It’s that tendency to re-evaluate every time you look at your list that does you in, I believe… so when I heard about Now Do This, I said, “Hallelujah!” It’s a to-do list at its simplest, and finest.

Oh, and appointments? I ditched iCal, too, in favor of Google Calendar. No more Address Book, either; Gcal stores contact information, too. It’ll even pull data straight from those that email me… I rarely even have to enter anyone’s information in manually.

See the theme emerging, here?

Online, backed-up, accessible from anywhere, one less program running… all these simplifications mean less “mental overhead” for me, faster computer performance, and the peace of mind that I’m not going to lose my data if my machine breaks. I breathe regular sighs of relief, believe me.

Now, it’s possible, I suppose, to lose my data if Google’s/RTM’s/Evernote’s servers were to somehow all crash. But which is more likely… that I’ll mess something up, or they will? Besides, if I was ever really concerned about it, I could always sync their machines with mine, and keep local copies. Ultimately, that’s a great idea, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet (pray that those aren’t famous last words!).

I do, by the way, use an automatic data backup service, too: Mozy. Pre-crash, I used to backup all kinds of stuff. Now, post-crash, I’ve realized that most things I can put on cd’s or dvd’s and back them up myself; it ties up less internet bandwidth that way. But I do backup my applications settings, passwords, keychains, and such through Mozy, because those are the essential bits of information that will allow me to reconstruct my system easily, should a problem arise. And because I’m constantly using, revising, and changing that information, an auto-backup setup is ideal for keeping my backups up-to-date, whereas I can backup photos once a month and still be pretty well-protected.

Your Mileage May Vary

I realize, of course, that these solutions aren’t for everyone. And, I may never have made some of these changes if I weren’t forced to by my crash. In that way, the crash was one of the better things that happened to me this summer.

I’d whole-heartedly recommend that you examine the way you work, and see if any of the kinds of solutions I’ve come up with here could help you be more productive or more at peace. Who knows, moving webward may be one of the better moves of your life.

Image by CaptPiper.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2008. | Permalink | 12 comments

There is a saying in business: “If you are unhappy with someone’s service, ‘talk with your feet.’” Meaning, leave. They say that the window to please a customer these days is getting shorter and shorter.

But that’s a completely ridiculous course of action. (Not to mention, childish.)

The problem with this strategy is that a) you, as a patron, don’t get what you want, and b) the business doesn’t get what it wants. The business obviously wants happy customers, people to have a long-term relationship with and, ultimately, success.

But you want the same thing, right? You want whatever amazing benefit or solution you went to the company for in the first place. Say, for example, you went with a company because you liked the way they did things, i.e. you liked their service or you like their product, and while you were getting it, you were happy.

But then, they changed something. They changed the way they delivered the product, or they changed their logo or their colors (hey, I’ve known people who’ve jumped ship for smaller reasons!). Who knows what it was, but they made some change and you don’t like it.

And what is the typical response? Talk with your feet, right? You unsubscribe, leave, or just stop buying their product. Now, if you’re one of the rare few, maybe you give the company feedback before you leave, saying, “I don’t like this new change; I think you were better before.” But then, you’re gone.

But who suffers most?

You’ve left, feeling upset (but justified)… but now, you’re no longer getting the juicy stuff. You’re without the service that you went there for originally. And, unless you’re one of the rare few, the company has no idea why you’ve left. Either way, you lose, and they lose.

And here’s the long-term view: what if the company changes back? You don’t even know about it, because you’re not paying attention anymore. Big mistake.

In order to get what you want, you need to help the company to improve by giving them the feedback you have for them… and then, stick around. Be there when they change. And if they don’t, tell them again. Ask why they’re doing it the way they are. Get in their face, if you need to. It’s how relationships get worked out, and not just abandoned.

A personal example…

I had a student once in one of my classes who used to complain about just about everything (seriously). In the beginning, this drove me crazy (I figured she hated how I taught) and, of course, it brought up all my insecurities about my abilities. But then I realized it’s not that she didn’t like me… she actually loved me. She just wanted the best that I could give her, and she knew I was capable of it.

Luckily (claiming no genius on my part), I was able to put down my ego and make the changes that she asked for. And not only did it improve her experience, but it also made the class much better for everyone (they told me so after the fact). It was a win-win situation all the way around.

So, the next time a company or business that you like—be it Apple Computer, the plumber down the street, or a Thai restaurant you visit—changes anything they do for the worse, or if you just have a bad experience, tell them about it. Speak up, but then stick around and see how they make their changes.

You’ll be much happier in the end.

Image by Basak.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments

Bob and Susan are desk shopping at IKEA (where else?). Susan sees a desk with four drawers, a built in cabinet, and a keyboard tray, and starts swooning. Bob sees a minimalistic desktop and calls off his search for office-furniture nirvana. Two flat-packs, a boatload of twine, and two soft-serve vanilla cones later, and the happy couple speed home.

On the way, Susan thinks about all the ways she can organize her stuff in all her cute little drawers, and Bob waxes poetically about the wide-open expanse of nothing that will be his new desktop environment.

Question: Who’s happier? Who will be more productive? Who will have an easier time managing their workload?
Answer: Who knows?

To Each Their Own

That’s the funny thing with productivity; what’s good for one person isn’t necessarily the end-all, be-all solution for another. So, how do you know what to do?

• You have to experiment.
• You have to be willing to try, fail, and learn from the experience.
• You have to know yourself (which comes, of course, from doing #1 and #2 over and over).

Because structure is a funny thing. Bob would go nutso trying to work at Susan’s desk, because (in his mind) there’s way too many places for things to get put and forgotten, way too much visual clutter, and he’d feel cramped. Susan would loathe Bob’s new desk, because (in her mind) there’s no place to put anything. She’d end up piling everything on top of the desk, and feel swamped every minute, unable to focus.

Are You A Susan, or a Bob?

Susan is someone who revels in having external structure. It’s easiest for her to be organized when she has many places to put things, because in her mind, thoughts tend to swim around like fish. Without the help of external structure, Susan’s unbounded creative impulses get scattered and lost. Once she has the help of those external boundaries, though, she’s free to let ‘er rip.

Bob, however, brings a lot of structure with him. It’s not that Bob’s not creative; he’s tremendously creative. But the way Bob’s wired, he brings a lot of structure to his thoughts. He needs a wide open space that he can impose his sense of structure upon in order to be productive; too many restrictions, and his flow slows to a trickle.

Knowing Thyself Saves Thee Many Headaches

Knowing which way you lean can save you so much time and energy, it’s flabbergasting. Take, for example, desk shopping (just kidding). Or evaluating software…

Say you need to organize your thoughts, or brainstorm ideas for a project. If you’re more internally structured (like Bob), you’d reach for a program like Curio (or Keynote) that gives you a wide open space to create in. If you’re more externally structured (like Susan), you might reach for a spreadsheet likeNumbers orExcel, or an outlining app like Process or Omni Outliner, or a mindmapping solution like iMindMap, Curio (again), or PersonalBrain (thanks to Kathy for mentioning this one).

The question, essentially, is: do you need structure, or will you bring your sense of structure to it? And you can ask yourself that in any situation, whether you’re organizing your computer, your personal information, your belongings, or a vacation.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments

When we last saw our hero (that’s you), information was coming into your life at an alarming rate. And now, you have to figure out what to do with it until you’re ready to use it. In essence, we need to look at how you store your information.

Of course, there are lots of systems out there, and you have to find what works for you. What you’re about to learn here, though, is a system of organization that can be used on any standard computer—or, "in the cloud" systems like Google Docs—and it works because it’s built around two fundamental principles:

• how you think, not how someone else thinks for you.
• a usage mindset, not a storage mindset.

Looking at those two points, it sounds completely obvious. But you’d be surprised.

How You Think

Before you even take your computer out of the box, there’s a lot of stuff already on it, such as applications, pictures, fonts, etc. For most people, that’s pretty transparent stuff; whether you use it or don’t, you take it for granted. However, there’s another out-of-the-box component that most people don’t ever mess around with, and it’s the cause of hours of wasted time, multiple headaches, and the all-too-common facial expression of blankness mixed with confusion that graces most people faces as they search umpteen buried folders on their hard drives, looking for that one file that they know they saved somewhere, but just can’t seem to find… the default folder structure.

Take a look at a standard Finder window, and (if you’re using a mac, as I do) you’ll most likely see something like this snapshot from Apple:

Mac’s Finder window, via Apple

Take a look in the sidebar, and you’ll see the basic rundown: Desktop, Home, Applications, Documents… and sometimes Movies, Pictures, and such (I know Windows has a similar setup, and I tried to find a screenshot somewhere, but Windows user will just have to extrapolate for themselves on this one; it has been years since I was a Windows user, and like someone who got food poisoning at a B-grade greasy spoon, I can’t bring myself to go back and try again…).

The general idea, quite simply, is that applications get stored in Applications, your documents get stored in Documents, and on and on. Tthis is such a ubiquitous structure, that many people replicate it if they start storing information online, even. The currency? Stuff.

But does this describe how you think about your work? Doubtful.

Chances are, you don’t think in terms of "documents", you think in terms of projects and people. Rather than stuff,, you think in contexts.

So should you create a Projects folder?

Heavens, no! When you sit down to work, do you think, "I have to get to work on my projects?" Or do you think, "I have to write that article," or, "I have to create that presentation," or, "I’m working with x client this morning at 9:30."? My guess is, the latter.

The idea, again, is to make it easy for you to get what you need while maintaining (or improving) your mental state. The more intuitive your file structure, the less ruffled your mind’s feathers will get while you get to your stuff. So rather than swim through layer upon layer of folders ( Documents -> Projects -> Presentations -> ABC Corp. -> presentation.file ) to get what you need, organize your file structure by how you think. If you think "clients", have a Clients folder, with individual folders for each client. As an example, the structure I use to organize my client files is "Clients -> Last Name, First Name -> 08 (or whatever year) -> 031308.rtf" (for a session on March 13, 2008) … see example below:

My "Clients" folder structure

When you file by context rather than content, and you’re willing to reorganize a few folders, you’ll find that your file structures become much more intuitive to manage. Here’s how you can do the same:

My Sidebar, sorted contextually (click for expanded image)

• Have a folder for each of your contexts. This could be "Writing/Web/Graphics", or "Clients/Finances/Groups", or "Workshops/Speeches/Books", etc.
• Within each of those folders, have sub-contextual folders that make sense to you. As an example, within "Writing" could be "Posts/Guest Posts/Books/Handouts", and within "Web" could be "Pages/Graphics/Audio", etc.
• Drag your most commonly used Contexts into your sidebar, put them on your start menu, dock, or whatever gives you instant access to them.

Usage, Not Storage

We’ve already begun talking about having a usage mindset rather than a storage mindset; thinking in terms of context rather than content helps tremendously when you’re creating documents and folders. But where this will really save your bacon is when it comes to storing files, photos, and PDFs that you download, are emailed, or find online.

Think about your mindset when you’re in research mode. You browse and search the ‘net, looking for specific information. Then, like a hawk-eyed granny in the "blue-light special" isle at K-mart, you come across the treasure of a lifetime. You grab/click/download the thing, but now, where do you put it? You put it in your Documents folder, of course.

Noooooooo! Don’t do it!

Storing information by content type is silly. And yet so many of us do it out of habit. Why? Because when you’re in search mode, you’re looking for stuff. So, when you find it, you’re thinking, "stuff." You’re so in "stuff" mode that you can’t see past your little squirrel nose, packing away those nuts for a snowy day. But when you actually need to use it, you won’t be in search mode, you’ll be in do mode.

Do mode is the mode of action, of implementation, of productive forward motion. And when you’re in that mode, you’re thinking about stuff differently than when you’re in search-and-store mode. In fact, you’ll be thinking in the same mode you were in when you figured out all your contexts just a minute ago.

Storing information effectively means you need to shift your mental gears from search mode into do mode. Before you save that file, think about when you’ll need to use it, and what context you’ll most likely be in (in some cases, it may be hard to predict, so go with the most obvious one).

For example, let’s say you’ve just Googled "computer organization", and found a blog that linked you to this article. You enjoy my slightly bizarre sense of humor and keen organizational acumen, and you want to save this for later. Scrolling up to the top of the page, you see the "PrintThis" link at the top of the post, and print it as a PDF to your desktop.

• If you were still in search-and-storage mode, you’d probably put this into a folder about "organization" or something (thank god you’re reading this, though…).
• Once you shift into Do mode, you realize that this would best serve you in a "maintenance", or "do this!", or "read me" folder, or some place you use to store information that you want to stay current with, so you would see it again and again until all your habits became good ones, and you now revel in the simplicity of your folder structure, and sing my praises from rooftops (hey, I can dream!).

Get the idea?

Good. Now get in there and think for yourself.

© Adam for Adam Kayce, 2008. | Permalink | 15 comments