I just finished reading Run with the Bulls (Without Getting Trampled), by Tim Irwin. 
In short, I loved reading this book. If you're like me, you like when authors illustrate points using stories from their own experience. This book is loaded with lots of techniques, philosophies, and other powerful advice - all punctuated with great stories from Tim Irwin's life.
This book is a great match for anyone who feels stuck in their job (particuarly if that "stuckness" is related to your role as a manager), or if you feel like you're locked in, your personal development has stalled, or you feel like your just not stretching yourself any more.
This isn't just a book about someone else's stories, though - it's about techniques to help you live a better life, and work a better work. Among other things, you'll learn about several critical success factors, including:
- Critical Success Factor 1: Self Management
- Critical Success Factor 2: Relationship Management
- Critical Success Factor 3: Forethought
- Critical Success Factor 4: Dependability
- Critical Success Factor 5: Resourcefulness
- Critical Success Factor 6: Ability to Learn
- Critical Success Factor 7: Ability to Change
Awesome stuff, well presented. Irwin's style makes this an easy read and his teachings will make it memorable. Whether you want to get unstuck, or get better at what you do, this book's a winner.
Oh - and like a lot of books these days, there is a companion site with additional material and tools - of particular interest: check out the "change graphic" PDF
, and the Run With The Bulls online assessment.
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Read MoreLast night, I had a discussion about time boxing with my wife, who's trying to keep all of her volunteer activities from consuming too much time. It's easy to perpetually do "just one more thing" and spend way more time than you intended on an activity, and I thought she could use time boxing to help her contain her time investment.
I pointed her at Dave Cheong's article on the subject, but she was looking for something shorter and more prescriptive so I thought I'd take a stab at a "Cliff's notes" overview of the basics of time boxing.
What is time boxing?
At its simplest, time boxing is the technique of declaring a finite time period to work on a task or project, then getting as much focused work done toward the task or project during that finite period of time. In essence, "I'm going to do as much work as I can on project x during the next 30 minutes," then stopping work when that 30 minutes is up.
Essentially, time boxing is about "I'll work until the appointed time is up," and not "I'll work til I get this done."
Why time boxing?
Time boxing creates artificial "sprints" of focus and intensity, and helps limit the amount of time you spend on any single activity. It can help with any activity - the ones you love (to keep you from going overboard), as well as the ones you dread (to help you see the light at the end of the tunnel).
How do you time box?
- Start with your goals and big projects
- Create a list of sub-goals or sub projects
- Identify "next actions" you need or want to complete
- Pick out a significant next action
Note: I find it helpful to start with a critical path item (a "constraint") or an item I would rather avoid.
- Estimate and schedule an appropriate block of time that you will block out everything and do nothing but work on that task or segment of the project. (make a note of your estimate and progress you expect to make - you'll need it in step 8).
- When that block of time comes, set a timer and work diligently on that task for the entire block of time - don't dawdle and don't stop until a) the time is up, or b) the task is complete.
- When the time is up, record your progress and make a note of what's left to do.
- Compare what you got done to what you expected to get done - how well did you estimate?
That's it in a nutshell. By doing this, you'll be amazed at how much you can get done through these "sprints" of focus. And the lightweight analysis (steps 5 and 8) will help you get better at estimating over time.
Does time boxing work for you? Any tips to share? I'd love to hear them.
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Read MoreWhen it's ajaxWindows, of course. OK, maybe that doesn't make sense to you yet - but it will when you check out ajaxWindows.
This is an interesting concept - using AJAX and your browser (IE or Firefox), ajaxWindows allows you to use a very impressive desktop, complete with web-based office apps. The data you create (documents, sketches, presentations, etc.) are stored in an interesting way - inside a Google GMail account.
You can also browse and use files from your local file system, such as when you want to paste graphics, text, etc. into ajaxWindows. There is also a sync tool to keep music, docs, etc. synchronized between your virtual desktop and your physical computer, should you desire to keep them synchronized. Of course, you can also use Google Docs to share things across multiple locations but that's certainly not unique to ajaxWindows.
Why would you use ajaxWindows? Well, it's free, functional, and it allows you to have the same desktop (complete with all your documents) from any high-speed internet connection in the world. This is an interesting take on remote desktop access, and I bet it will be a significant game-changer in the future.
You can sign up for a free account, or try it out in a non-persistent trial mode. I'd describe it as "not yet ready for prime time" -- for example, I could never successfully add an image to the presentation you see in the screenshot above -- but it's still worth a visit just to see how cool it is.
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Read MoreOK, I recently got added to Priscilla Palmer's expansive "Personal Development List," thanks to Ariane Benefit, who is also on the list. The list is kinda like a chain letter or something, where once you get added, you're supposed to re-post the list, add 5 more sites to the list, and do a trackback back to the original list.
I'm going to do it a little differently, just because the list is so long and I think Priscilla is doing a great job of maintaining the list.
So here are my 5 additions to the list (at this writing, they are not currently on the list, though they will be when it's updated):
- Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft
- Lori Grant and Debbie of Smart Lemming
- Stacy Brice of Virtualosophy
- Matt Cornell of Matt's Idea Blog
- Steve Grossman of Why I Failed
Start with these five treasures. Then, if you want to see the current version of the list in its entirety, please visit Priscilla's site. And if you're one of my 5 additions, feel free to add to the list, as well - my way or the "official" way. (If you don't, I don't think this is one of those "a bad thing will happen to you" sorts of things - don't sweat it, it's only karma 
).
After the fold, you can see the list as it was when I posted this.
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