Change Things Up To Get Better

A lot of the fitness articles I read talk about the importance of varying your routine to accelerate your improvements in workouts.  The premise is that if you do the same exercises all the time and use the same amounts of weight, your body gets used to the routine and becomes more efficient.  What that means is that you get less benefit out of the same amount of effort.

I think that concept can apply to other parts of life, to some degree.  If you keep doing the same thing week in & week out, the routine can get  a bit dull, and you don't improve your skills as much as when things were new and challenging.

So, what kinds of things can you do to change up your routine and make it challenging again?  Here are some ideas (a mix of personal and professional kinds of things):

• Read a different kind of book to make your mind think about new things.
  If you usually read fiction, read some non-fiction.  If you usually read management books, read some fantasy.  If you usually read self-help books, try reading a few biographies instead. 
• Take on a new project in an unfamiliar area.
  Sometimes, nothing helps get your juices going like working on something unfamiliar.  Ask to be involved in (or even lead) a project in a new area.
• Swap the cerebral for the physical.
  If you normally spend most of your time in front of your computer, how about starting a project or activity that requires you to get out and do something physical? It could be sports-related, or it could be carpentry, or even just cleaning out your garage.  Get moving!
• Put yourself out there.
  Volunteer to teach something - even holding a brown bag lunch on a topic you know can be challenging fun.  Start presenting - either at work or in a group like Toastmasters.  Or, do a video blog or something you've never done before online.

And there are, of course, lots of other possibilities. 

So, what do you think?  Does this ring true for you?  What have you done to mix things up in your life that you'd recommend to others?

More Useful Tools for Travelers

I've been using a few new travel tools lately that I think are worth sharing with you.  These have all been "field tested" and have not been discarded (that's a good sign for someone like me).

MetrO Worldwide Most smartphones Free	MetrO is a very easy-to-use application to help you plan routes from one place to another using public transit.  It is a single app that can deal with multiple cities through downloadable "modules" for a huge list of cities around the world. I first used MetrO a couple of weeks ago in Berlin and it was extremely helpful - it helped me plan my route for the day, helped me figure out my options when I deviated from my plans, etc.  On the MetrO site, you will find links to download the app for your specific phone type, then you can download the appropriate maps from within the application.
HelloFlight.com US only Browser-based Free	This informational site is very useful for finding out what delays might impact your travel - whether from weather, congestion, or some other reason.  It currently works in the US only but, since I fly most of my miles in the US, I find it helpful. In addition to the delay information, you can find out lots of interesting things such as flight history for specific planes, specific flight numbers, as more.  There are also a number of cool tools, such as one tool where you can tell it which ZIP code you live in, and it will tell you what flights are scheduled to fly over (and when, and at what altitude). Find out more at HelloFlight.com, and see a list of features on HelloFlight's tools page.
TripIt  & TripIt Pro Worldwide iPhone app, plus browsers and mobile browsers Free plus fee-based Pro features	TripIt is an interesting application.  It lets you aggregate all your itineraries and travel plans into one spot, making it easy to track your upcoming trips.  Adding an itinerary is a piece of cake - after you've registered, simply forward your confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com and it will automagically process the details and add it to your account (it knows who you are because you tell it which email addresses you'll be sending from).  I haven't had an itinerary rejection yet, regardless of format - text, HTML, and PDF.  You can also add or edit trips manually, should you so desire. Once the itineraries are up there, you can share and compare them with anyone you like.  For example, I have around 60 people "connected" to me on TripIt and it tells me who'll be near me on future trips so we can plan to get together for drinks or dinner.  I've used this quite a bit, and this alone is great. For more features, you can upgrade to the Pro version for a reasonable annual fee (more details on the TripIt Pro page).  My favorite Pro feature is the real-time flight status feature.  This does things for me like: Tells me exactly 24 hours before my flight that I can check in online, if I wish Alerts me if there are any changes to my flight - delays, gate changes, cancellations, etc. If my flight is delayed, it will suggest alternate flights Sends "connection reports" to my phone to tell me my arrival gate, my next departure gate & terminal, and how many minutes I have to make the connection.  This feature has already made the difference between me making a flight and missing a flight. Obviously, the Pro features are most useful to those of us who travel a lot.  If you're not sure, you can take a 30-day free trial and try it on for size. Regardless of whether you use TripIt or TripIt Pro, I highly recommend this application.

Hopefully you'll find something useful here to make your travel a bit easier in the coming weeks and months.  And, as always, if you have any must-have travel tools I'd love to hear about them.

Related items

• Prevent outrageous AT&T data roaming charges on your  iPhone while traveling internationally
• Augment your reality with Layar to help explore cities you're visiting
• Seatguru: Know whether you've got good airline seats before you fly
• More travel tools before you fly

Job Seekers: Are you Defiant?

A couple of months ago, my friend Rajesh Setty sent me a copy of his latest (free!) eBook, "defiant! Practical Tips to Thrive in Tough Times."  I've been a little sloppy in my GTD habits lately, so I just got around to reading it on a flight this morning.  Now, I regret not having read it sooner!

This book is a compilation of wisdom, insights, best practices, and more from Rajesh and 51 other people to help you deal with the economic conditions we're facing, and is particularly relevant if you are out of work, looking for different work, or think you might be out of work soon.

The core question

The core of this book is shifting your mindset and attitude to change how you approach getting the results you desire.  In Rajesh's words, the secret is this:

• Stop asking, "How can I find the next opportunity?"
• Start asking, "“How can I become an OPPORTUNITY for someone else?”

Here's his color on the importance of that shift:

If you want to create a REAL opportunity, you need to create a compelling offer for
your prospective employer.

• Do they see you as another person scrambling for  a seat? If so, then you’ve been defined as someone  who wants to take something scarce (employment)  from them.
• Do they see you as someone who offers them opportunities? Will your presence in the job create new opportunities, expand possibilities, or solve a current headache that keeps them up at night? If so, you’re giving more value than you’re asking for.

Very good advice.

A roadmap for finding your next gig

This is more than mental Jedi mind tricks, though.  This book takes you through a step-by-step process to get through the process of finding creating your next opportunity.  Everything from getting your mind "right," to dealing with uncertainty, to getting help (the right way), tapping into your network, finding a mentor, and more.

More importantly, there are a bunch of proven tips from a bunch of folks with experience we can all learn from. Perhaps most important is that this book will help you create a plan.  And not just any plan - your plan.

As I mentioned, if you're looking for a new job or expect to find yourself doing so, you owe it to yourself to really study a copy of Rajesh Setty's free eBook, defiant!

Personal Development, the Peter Drucker way

Thanks to an introduction by Lisa Haneberg, I had the pleasure of discovering Bruce Rosenstein and his book , "Living In More Than One World: How Peter Drucker's Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life."

I've been a long-time fan of Peter Drucker ("The Daily Drucker" is always on my bedside table) for his philosophy on business and management.  However, I have a whole new appreciation for Drucker's insights after reading Rosenstein's book.

Core, guiding principles

One thing that really stuck with me was the clarity Drucker developed about principles, purpose, and focus in his life.  Drucker is typically recognized for his thoughts on business efficiency and process, but in this book I discovered how much emphasis he place on the purpose of his life - and the time he set aside for thinking.

In fact, Drucker considered thinking and reflection to be a critical success factor:

"The effective people I know simply discipline themselves to have enough time for thinking."

I found this to be a very engaging book. Rosenstein brings you through a very thought-provoking process by sharing examples of Drucker's thoughts and guidance.  You're brought into the content with questions and assignments to help you put some of the thoughts into action.  For example, you are asked to think about what your unique abilities and core competencies are, develop a "Total Life list" to expand your perspective, develop your teaching and learning skills, and create a plan for yourself so you can put that plan in motion.

One exercise that I found particularly useful was one in which you create a presentation to teach a topic to someone else.  I've found that I learn far more about any topic when I'm "forced" to teach it to others, and that kind of process encourages much deeper analysis of the topic at hand.

Beyond the business

While Peter Drucker is best known for his contributions to business, he felt it was important to make contributions to the world, as summed up in this quote:

"So, if your goal is to make money, I rather pity you," Drucker said.  "The people I have seen who were happy even after being successful are the people who want to leave something behind.  A hospital that's working, a company that's working, whatever, or who are not money-focused but achievement-focused, because that you're never finished with."

It's safe to say that Rosenstein can be proud of the fantastic book he's created to share Drucker with the world.  I highly recommend you read, "Living In More Than One World."  I also believe this book is ideally structured for a "reading group" approach, which would help you really discover the nuances and depth of Drucker's ideas.  If you conduct a book club around this book, I'd love to hear your take-aways.

Gliider: a handy travel planning gadget

I've been experimenting with a new 'travel helper' gadget called gliider, which is a free add-on for Firefox 3.x (alas, it doesn't currently support my default browser, IE 8).  gliider claims to help you "plan funner trips" and, I must say, I think it can deliver on that promise.

Gliider provides an easy-to-use means of organizing trip details and "clippings" of things you need to remember (or simply want to do) for your upcoming trips.

End-to-end Trip Organization

gliider includes a number of elements that will help you when you're planning a trip, all the way from thinking about it, through to booking, then finally deciding what you'll do when you get there.  There are 3 tabs you work with:

• My Trips:  This is a well-organized filing cabinet for each trip.  I'll give you a few more details in a bit…
• Ask Around:  This tab gives you an easy way to ask other people for advice about your destination.  gliider can connect to FaceBook to allow you to ask your FB friends, ask through Twitter, etc.  Pretty cool idea - of course, you can ask using those tools already, but if you ask through gliider, it will capture and associate any responses into the appropriate trip.
• Deals / Alerts:  This tab within the gliider interface will help you find good deals.  Currently, it only looks for hotel deals, but they are planning on adding flights and other stuff.

It's all about the trips

Now, back to the "My Trips" tab.  This tab is a mini organizer for data about your trip.  You can drag sample fares, confirmed itineraries, and related info into the "Flights" folder, drop sightseeing ideas into the "See" folder (as I've done in the screenshot above for my upcoming trip to Berlin), and much more.

Adding the information is pretty simple. Simply highlight the text and images you want to save in your browser, then drag and drop the info onto the appropriate folder icon in gliider.  As you research things you might want to do, this approach makes it very easy to build a list of candidates to choose from.

Some other odds & ends:

• gliider makes it easy to share information about your trips with others (caveat: they'll need to install gliider to see what you've shared)
• there is a function that allows you to print a hard copy "dossier" with all the information you've collected about your trip - this looks awesome as a paper backup with all your reservation details, confirmation numbers, etc.

Try gliider for free

If you find anything you don't like or want them to add, share it with them since this is still in its formative stages (there is a Feedback button right there in the app's window).

My gripes and wishes so far?  Not many, but here is the list:

• I want IE8 support
• The gliider UI has a problem with long passwords (so don't use a password any longer than 9 characters for now)
• I wish Deals/Alerts provided more deal types
• An iPhone app would be nice (you can forward details and access them via the iPhone browser, but hey…)
• I wish I could share info without requiring the recipient to install gliider
• Integration with TripIt would be awesome

Nonetheless, I like gliider so far.  gliider is free to use, and very easy to install.  If you're doing any traveling, it's a good gadget to check out.