Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Are you wired for clutter?

Gretchen Rubin at the Happiness Project has a great quiz/commentary on the subject of clutter, packrat tendencies, etc. I definitely learned a lot from her article - both about myself and about ways to declutter my house. Click over and take the quiz.

In addition to her comments and topic areas, I find that lack of good storage space is often a big factor in whether my "stuff" becomes clutter or not. If I don't have a place to put something, or if that place is inconvenient to get to, then that increases the likelihood that I'll create more clutter.

One of the "project candidates" I'm considering for this summer is to pick some key problem areas in my house and figure out how to resolve the "inadequate storage" problems they present. Of course, there is also an element of procrastination here, as well. I've bought a couple of storage racks to hang from my garage ceiling, but have been putting off installing them, and I have a couple of cabinets I still need to assemble for additional storage. The Projects portion of my list is something I've skipped in my last 3 weekly reviews - time to get back on the wagon, I suppose.

What about you - any major epiphanies for dealing with clutter?

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[Review] Ignited!

I've been reading Vince Thompson's awesome book "Ignited!" and I want to share my findings with you. For me, one of the measures of a book is how likely I am to give someone else a copy (at the end of this post, you'll find my list of my "most often given" books). For the first time I can recall, I gave a copy of this book to a friend of mine before I even finished it -- Chapter 2 had my head buzzing.

This book is geared toward middle managers, and Vince spends a lot of time on how to improve your ability to "lead in a limited space" (I love that phrase). However, I think anyone working in an organization can learn from it, whether they're managers or not (or in the middle or not).

The book is divided into three parts, each with a distinct focus.

Figure out where the "You are here" dot is on your map

Section 1 focuses on you at a personal level -- figuring out what your opportunities, challenges, and key relationships are. This section does a great job of getting you to analyze where you are in your world, how you interact with others, and how your emotional responses can help or hinder your progress.

In the aforementioned Chapter 2, there's a technique which helps you map out your "universe" of relationships. In this chapter, Vince guides you through mapping your manager's universe, and assessing the quality of your relationships with key stakeholders to help you determine where you can contribute to make a big difference in your manager's success. The idea is that you will make your own life better if you're seen as a contributor to your manager's success. The simple tools and techniques here make this a piece of cake to do, and I think it's extremely powerful. This chapter alone was worth the price of the book for me (and you can apply the same process to your spouse, or other key relationships in your life).

Create value and light up the network

Section 2 is all about creating value for your organization by engaging others and honing your story, strategy, and interpersonal engagements to build your network of influence. In this section you focus on creating value in your organization by improving processes, becoming a better "connector" of people and ideas, figuring out what your market reality looks like, and more. There are also techniques to refine your story and clarify your strategy for driving success. Finally, you "Ignite" others in your organization to help support your activities, goals, etc. and take it to the streets.

My favorite chapter in this section deals with mapping out your landscape and tapping into the expertise of your customers to improve the quality of your "product." This also provides some good ideas for recruiting customers and partners as part of your team as evangelists.

Growing, accelerating, and sustaining

Section 3 discusses how (and why) to sell your story so you dramatically increase your impact and leverage beyond your immediate sphere of influence. This is a short, but meaty, section that discusses how to sell your ideas up the chain (both inside and outside your company), and how to effectively tackle and resolve the inevitable challenges that come up along the way. The discussion of the "right" and "wrong" ways to sell is very good.

My favorite chapter in this section is one on "Your Own Sense of Balance," which helps you understand how personal clarity, focus, and commitment are necessary but not sufficient for success. There is some advice here about leveraging your "personal board of directors," establishing a meaningful set of metrics to track your progress, and keeping yourself sane, safe, and sound so you don't burn yourself out once you've got the fire going.

In summary, I definitely recommend this book - spend a few minutes with it and you'll figure out why it's made its way on to my "most often given" list. Oh - and to find out more about Vince and his book, check out the companion site, BeIgnited (there is also an animated intro from Vince there - I thought it was very cool).

Dwayne's "most often given" books:

  • "Mastery," by George Leonard - a great gift for graduates and people going through big transitions
  • "Managing with Aloha," by Rosa Say - a tremendous book on management philosophy, told in a powerful way
  • "Two Weeks to a Breakthrough," by Lisa Haneberg - the most effective, repeatable process I've found for making blowout progress toward any goal
  • "Is Your Genius At Work?," by Dick Richards - an excellent "workshop style" book to help anyone trying to find their passion / raison d'etre
  • "High Impact Middle Management," by Lisa Haneberg - a very practical (but still very insightful) set of techniques, particularly good for new managers
  • "Ignited!," by Vince Thompson - see review above

By the way - I also give away (or refer people to) quite a few other books including all the ones you see in the left-hand column on my site, but these 6 seem to be the most "prescribed" books in my library.

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Jott a note to yourself

In my last post, I talked about using "notes to yourself" as a means to build fodder for status reports, track completed activities, etc.

Another tool in the arsenal for this is "Jott" - a free service I found out about a couple of months ago through Big Wes when he commented about it in response to one of my posts.

Jott is a service that allows you to call a phone number and leave a voice message to yourself or any number of predefined recipients (or groups of recipients via a Jottcast). After you leave your "Jott," the service converts it to text and sends it to you or your chosen recipient via email. Very cool. They even provide a link to listen to the original audio recording in case you suspect something's gone awry in the translation.

As with the method of sending an email to yourself, this just becomes a part of your inbox processing workflow (a la GTD) and you can act on or file the email as appropriate.

I have a speed dial key on my Blackberry to make it easier to use this - I just hold down J, and it connects me to Jott. Simple as can be, and easy to incorporate into my habits.

By the way - Jott continues to improve the service and make it even more user-friendly. They've already done a "version 2" upgrade since I've been using it.

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Keeping a running tab of what you’ve done

Some people are "score keepers" and others are not. I'm not. What I mean by this is that I am not very good at keeping track of all the specific things I've done, helped with, written, etc. - it's something about the way I'm wired (I also don't easily hold grudges, either, so there is an upside to not being a "score keeper").

However, this tendency can make it difficult when it's time to write a monthly status report / recap - I often find myself having a difficult time retracing my steps and creating a list of the things I've done for the past month, quarter, etc.

Archaeology is not easy

In the past when I sat down to hammer out a status report, I relied on my "Sent Items" in Outlook, a scan of completed items on my Task list, and other artifacts of my work. However, I often engage in things that aren't on my Task list, or don't involve email.

Recently, I've adopted a new technique (and am on my way to developing a new habit) that makes the bookkeeping a bit easier.

Note to self...

Now, when I do something significant (a phone conversation, a meeting, completing a project, making a significant contribution to a project, etc.) I send myself an email to create an artifact of that activity or milestone. I almost always have the means to send myself a note, either via my Blackberry or through Outlook.

When I process my Inbox, I file them in a time-labeled Status subfolder. For example, I do monthly status reports so I have folders under status called Apr07, May07, etc.

As I process my inbox, I can use ClearContext to file it by assigning "Status/Apr07" as the message's topic, or simply hit [Ctrl]+[Shift]+V, and typing "Apr07" and letting Speedfiler drop it into the appropriate folder.

Then, when I sit down to write my status report, I simply go to that folder and use the data there to complete my status report.

I can imagine variations on this theme that would be helpful, as well - you could create subfolders under Status for Projects, Clients, or other target audiences to help create an easy recap.

A nuance when dealing with support material

One subtelty about this is you sometimes have "support material" in your email inbox - do you file the support material in your Status folder, or do you just send a note?

As a die-hard GTD'er I favor leaving the support material in a Topic-based reference folder (Articles/Change Management), and sending yourself a note that you've completed something ("Completed article on Change Management for IT Auditor Magazine").

The hardest part

The hardest part of this (as with any system-based trick) is to develop the habit of sending these status notes. You can remind yourself by putting a calendar entry or a reminder into your system to say "Hey - did you do anything worthy of a status note today?"

Got any tricks that work for you? Let me know.

Related items:

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GTD and ClearContext guidance

In the past, I've posted quite a bit on how I use ClearContext as a lever to become more effective with Getting Things Done.


If you'd like to benefit from some best practice documentation for using ClearContext with GTD, check out this awesome resource provided by Brad and the team at ClearContext. I was privileged to have the chance to review this before it went live, and I am very impressed with this clear, concise guide they've created.


The guide applies to both new (Outlook 2007) and older versions of Outlook (I use Outlook 2003) and is a must-have for any GTD'er that is using or considering ClearContext.