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.

 

It ain't like brushing your teeth

Well, I've fallen off the wagon again with my Getting Things Done routine. My inbox is up to around 400 messages, I feel a bit "stuck" on a few projects, and that's not good.

Rituals

I love David's GTD methods and philosophy, but I have a recurring issue with drifting away from my good habits. A few months back, I went to one of David's GTD|The Roadmap seminars, and he talked about how we needed to develop new habits for GTD so they'd become automatic, like brushing your teeth. His story went something like this:

When you're born, you don't know anything about brushing your teeth - you didn't even have teeth. Then, when you had teeth, your parents made you go brush them every day. You may have complained, but they reminded you and you did it every day. Then one day, without realizing it, you did it without being told or asked. You'd developed a new habit!

How often do you need to be reminded to brush your teeth? Probably not very often. As an adult, if you go too long without brushing your teeth, the "scuzz factor" kicks in and the sense of urgency to go brush your teeth increases. And then you brush your teeth and the scuzz factor is gone.

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Updated: Don't be the crumply traveler

Mrcrumplyman Do you look rumply and crumply when you travel? You don't have to any more. I am happy to say I was invited to be a guest author on Lifehack.org this week, writing about wrinkle-free packing.

As I mention in the article, I've tried every cool method for packing that I could find, but I've finally found one that works. So go over there and read it and, when you are ready to pick up the supplies, here is your shopping list:

  • Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders (I recommend 15" or 18" size for men's clothing - check the recommendations on the product page)

  • Eagle Creek Pack-It Cubes (I use these for Zone Bars, socks, underwear - which I roll and put in a Pack-It Cube, etc.)

  • Lands' End Wrinkle-Free clothing for men or women

  • If you're still worried about wrinkles (for example, suit coats that stay in any folded configuration for a long time can develop creases, or you may make mistakes in folding) I recommend my trusty friend - Wrinkle Free Spray. Simply spray it on, smooth out the wrinkles and it's dry and ready to wear in a couple of minutes. Also works to remove "hanger shoulders" from knit shirts.

I swear by these things, and get comments all the time from my fellow travelers on how unrumpled I look. In fact, this week at the meet-up in London, both Adrian Trenholm and the (blogless) Christopher Morgan commented about how tidy my shirt looked for having traveled from the US the day before (and that was in the evening after a full day).

Why not give it a shot? I started with one, and now I have two for longer trips.

Oh - and wouldn't they make a great gift for that traveler in your life this holiday season?

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*Beyond* Beyond Bullet Points

Recently, I shared my enthusiasm for the book Beyond Bullet Points, and the presentation method it's helped me learn. Since then, I found out about a Beyond Bullet Points PowerPoint add-in that's made it even easier for me to create high-impact presentations. This add-in was co-developed by Cliff Atkinson, the author of the book, and NetCentrics. I've been a loyal customer of NetCentrics' Getting Things Done Add-In for Outlook for a couple of years now, and they've done a phenomenal job on this add-in, as well.

This product adds a number of toolbar options into PowerPoint, providing easy-to-use guidance that helps you achieve the results described in Cliff's book. One of these options is a "Create New Story" button, which brings up a story creation toolkit that guides you through establishing the main elements of the story you'll be presenting. Following the various screens in the Create New Story process made it very easy to work with. The process felt a bit like creating a screenplay (or so I imagine - I'm not a screenwriter, but I watch a lot of TV). Click the screenshot to get an idea what this new toolkit looks like.

The add-in also puts in some tools to help you manage different color palettes, fills, and other actions that help you create a uniform color scheme throughout your presentation without having to constantly use PowerPoint's (somewhat clunky) color selection dialogs.

One of the key activities in creating a Beyond Bullet Points presentation is use of the slide sorter to create the storyboard, and use of lots of graphics to tell your story. This add-in provides tools to help there, as well. You'll find shortcuts on the button bar to change views, add speaker notes, turn the slide thumbnail view on and off, and a number of other things. Yes, you can do most of that within PowerPoint, but having them right there within easy reach saves some time and hunting.

The bottom line? I am still an enthusiastic advocate of the Beyond Bullet Points method and I urge you to read the book and give this technique a whirl. I also recommend you download the trial version of this add-in to help you create your first Beyond Bullet Points presentation. Once you do, I'm confident you'll find it as impressive as I have.

Succeed or die

Are you facing a daunting task, a difficult challenge, or a project where you really want to (or have to) achieve wild success? If so, here's a technique that may help you achieve the kind of breakthough thinking you'll need to succeed.

In the past, I've written about the technique of "trying on beliefs" (see related posts below). With this technique, you pretend that something is true and act as though it is true. If you go with the spirit of the technique, you'll find you'll make different decisions, interact with people in different ways, etc. This approach can have a powerful influence on the outcomes you achieve.

With that in mind, try on the following belief about your project:

You will die if your project is not successful in 6 months.

  • What will you do to ensure your don't die?

  • What things are you doing that put your project at risk? What are you going to do to stop those things?

  • What actions will you take to increase the odds that you'll be around in 6 months?

  • Who will you ask for help to increase the chance you'll make it?

Adjust the time frame above to fit your needs, but the concept holds no matter what. Basically, this approach is a good way to help you think about what you'd do if your life depended on it.

Try it on - you might like it. It works for me.

Tired of talking to yourself? Come talk to us.

In case you haven't found it yet, why not drop by and check out the Never Work Alone blog?  As I mentioned before, this is a joint project started by me, Bren, and Skip.  However, we're just renting the hall - it you that makes it a party worth coming to.

The short story is that we've got a discussion group on Google where you can post about management and work-related issues that are bugging you.  Periodically, we summarize the group's discussions on the Never Work Alone blog.  The latest summary just hit the blog, dealing with  how IT people and non-IT people can get along better.

You'll then find that there is a very smart, caring group of people ready and willing to help out and, of course, we'd love to have you hang around and help other people with their issues. 

Grab a name tag, hang your coat over there in the hall, and come on in!

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