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.

 

Power now grows on trees?

In the Newark airport a few days ago, I found a place where power grows on trees. It seems Samsung is beginning to install free charging stations in various places, including the Newark airport (this one is near gates 132 & 133 in Terminal C).

I like this idea because it seems it is often hard to find the power oasis in the midst of the airport power desert. I often see travellers wandering the concourses, looking for a place to plug in - frustrated that they are all taken. This approach provides a number of convenient outlets to help travelers (and keep people from unplugging ATM's and other councourse appliances - yes, I have seen that).

Hopefully, this kind of power tree will become more popular - there is an advertisement and a sample of a cool new Samsung phone in the "trunk" of the tree, so they are getting some good branding from this effort.

Oh - and another thing - if you find this (or any outlet) in an airport, it's highly likely there won't be any available sockets. My solution? I travel with a handy travel powerstrip (click here to see my review). This approach makes it easy - I just ask someone if they are willing to share using my powerstrip. I generally find someone who's willing to do that.

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Productivity, like crime, requires motive and opportunity

Lately, I've had a non-standard routine going - more time in meetings than I'm used to, more attention-demanding things at both work and home, etc. The interesting side effect is that my days have been much more focused on "must do" than "wanna do" items and tasks. As a result, I'm not doing as many of the fun things as I'd like to - like reading and blogging.

Right now, I'm on a long layover en route to Spain and decided to carve out some time to actually write something. Whew - what a relief it is to be sitting at the keyboard blogging instead of doing emails and working on urgent items.

Diamonds form under pressure

In the past, I've commented quite a few times that one part of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system I don't use is "Contexts." The idea behind GTD's Contexts is to group next actions according to the context in which they can be performed. I found that so much of my tasks could be performed in so many contexts that this wasn't working very well for me so I quit using Contexts.

Well, the "pressure" of these past few weeks has caused me to re-think Contexts. Now, I really do have a lot of tasks that have clear contextual boundaries and I find I need to really maximize the time I spend in each context - much more deliberately than in the past.

Need begets function

As I started to try to use Contexts again, I quickly remembered one of the other reasons I was so anxious to get away from Contexts: the Blackberry does a lousy job with categories, making it hard for me to look at a context-based list.

Therefore, I've come up with a hybrid (read "bastardized") approach to help me get the right things done.

  1. I still maintain my lists using Outlook (using ClearContext, of course).
  2. Every morning, I do a daily review of my possible tasks, and look at the contexts I expect to be in that day. If there is a "must do" that doesn't have an appropriate context coming up that day, it's time to juggle what's on my calendar to create the opportunity to get the "must do" done.
  3. I use one index card (note card) for each of my major contexts, and add the items I must get done that day to the appropriate card.
  4. I carry those cards in my shirt pocket and refer to them regularly as I decide what to do next. I also carry around a blank note card that I use to capture new commitments I make during the day and to jot down ideas for other things I want to do later.
  5. At the end of the day, I check off (on the card and on Outlook) the things I've gotten done, and add any new items to Outlook.
  6. The process repeats the next day.

This takes little pieces of lots of systems - GTD, Managing Your Now, Hipster PDA, etc. but it is working for me right now. I'll probably change it up again when things calm down, but for now, this is my system.

What's my point?

I realized I had lots of motive in my life, but was lacking in the right opportunity (context) to act on my motive. By changing how I assert control over my day, things are getting better. Yes, I'm still crazy busy, but I don't feel quite as reactive.

What about you - any of this resonate? How do you deal with life when you are in these situations?

Related items:

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What's your type?

The other day, I was having a discussion with some friends about personality tendencies and how they affect team dynamics. Many of us are "wired" a certain way, which determines how we engage with the world - some think through things out loud, while others need quiet time to process new information; some of us make intuitive leaps, while others need to see it to believe it... and so on.

One of the most interesting tools I've been exposed to for determining your personality "type" is the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This is a tool that helps you identify your preferences for processing information, interacting with others, and making decisions.

A bit about the model

There are 4 pairs of traits that define the spectrum of personality in this model :

  • Extraversion vs. Introversion: Broadly speaking, these deal with how you process information and where you gain energy.
    • Extraverts tend to gain energy from action and interaction. They talk through ideas to develop them, and feel energized in social situations involving lots of people and mingling, for example.
    • Introverts tend to gain energy during their quieter, thinking times. They tend to be deep thinkers, and often prefer intimate groups over large groups.
  • Sensing vs. iNtuition. This pair deals with how you perceive the world - how you gather information and process it.
    • Sensors are the "show me" types. They trust facts they can see, feel, touch, taste, and hear and tend to be very grounded in their thinking and are very pragmatic and data-driven. Sensors are skeptical of "gut feel" and hunches.
    • Intuitives are more comfortable dealing with abstract data, patterns, and theories. They often have "epiphanies" based on combinations of things they've been exposed to, and trust those flashes of insight.
  • Thinking vs. Feeling. These deal with how you make and rationalize your decisions.
    • Thinkers are more logical and detached in how they come to a decision. They are comfortable interpreting and using rules, frameworks, and other structured models for processing data.
    • Feelers are more apt to consider the human aspects of decisions - they are driven toward consensus, balance, and harmony in the decisions they make and tend to be influenced by compassion.
  • Judging vs. Perceiving. The final pair of traits define how you relate and present yourself to the outside world.
    • Judgers like to "have things settled" and push toward definitive decisions. They are most comfortable with clear answers and declarations.
    • Perceivers like flexibility. While they will make decisions, they prefer the option to change their mind later and tend to keep their options open.

You'll notice that each pair has one capitalized letter. The capitalized letter is used in a kind of shorthand to describe your "whole type." For example, my MBTI type is "INTJ" for Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging. There are 16 different combinations of MBTI types, and you're one of them.

You can read one description of the INTJ type on Wikipedia - it's not 100% accurate for me, but it's pretty darned close. Why isn't it 100% accurate? Two reasons:

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Updated: Productivity Telesummit begins today

Pardon the short notice, but if you're looking for an easy way to hear from a lot of different expert speakers, there is an interesting productivity telesummit from Bill Baren Coaching beginning today that might be right up your alley. You can sign up for free if you do it quickly (click the link above) - they say it will convert to a paid program later today, so act quickly.

The first seminar (this afternoon - noon Pacific time) is "Manage Your Email Before It Manages You," Featuring Mike Song. Mike is co-author of "The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You". He is one of America's leading experts on email efficiency and etiquette.

Update: You have till Midnight on October 14 to register for the program for free. I heard the first seminar today, and the interview with Mike Song was filled with good information - when you register, you'll get to see the upcoming seminar sessions, as well.

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Learning from mistakes

I had the honor of kicking of the new month at Joyful Jubilant Learning. This month's theme is "BLUNDERIFFIX!" which focuses on the good things you can learn when bad things happen to you (or because of you).

When you're in the heat of the moment, it can be tough to see your way out of a difficult situation, but I find that I get a lot of value out of reflecting on what went wrong to extract the learning. I encourage you to write - not just think - about a situation in your life that was a failure, near-failure, debacle, etc. and try to find a positive thing you learned from it. There is something focusing and cathartic about writing these kinds of things down. If you blog, please share you learnings with the world. If not, at least consider keeping a journal so you can codify some of your learning.

Coincidentally, I saw a fitting quote from @HowardBienstock on Twitter yesterday:

"When you're going through Hell, don't stop."

It promises to be a good month of sharing - and my story is about what I learned about relying on others when I realized I couldn't be a "savior" of a tough situation. Click on over today to hear my story, and keep clicking in all month long at JJL.

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