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.

 

Resurfacing after a deep dive

Sub_resurfaceI’ve been fairly quiet for the past couple of weeks, but that’s due to a couple of contributing factors:  connectivity (or lack thereof), and jam-packed scheduling at 3, back-to-back software industry conferences (self-inflicted, for the most part). 

Now, as I come up for air, I have a lot of pent up stuff to write about.  Let’s start with some quick updates:

  • A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was starting one of my periodic time audits (yes, I finally got it done after my epic fail).  Here are my key takeaways:
    • I was successful in carving out and sticking to one of my goals:  engaging in regular physical exercise.  For the past 5 consecutive weeks, I have kept to a 6-day per week exercise schedule (3 alternating days of weights, interspersed with 3 days of cardio, followed by 1 day of rest).  I even managed to keep to this during 3 weeks of travel.  This is a first for me, but something I intend
    • I spent too much time working on things that were not directly related to my top priorities. What’s my diagnosis of the problem?
      • I wasn’t consistent in writing down my top priorities and “must do” items at the beginning of the week.
      • I said “yes” to too many “urgent but not important” tasks (i.e. someone else’s priorities)
  • I read a great article by my friend Mike Kanazawa (author of “BIg Ideas to Big Results”).  The article is called “80% Of Companies Are Thinking More Strategically In The Downturn,” and it looks at some data on how companies are reacting to the economy’s chaos.  One of the key observations is one I really agree with: you need to take care of your existing customers and keep them happy.  I don’t know about you, but I find it much easier to stick by the suppliers that have done right by me no matter what, but during lean times I will not only support them – I’ll go out of my way to give them my business so they do OK.  And I’ll readily drop the vendors that have been lame to me.  There’s more to it in Mike’s article – go check it out.
  • I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the positive power of “TripIt” (which I wrote about a while ago).  As my travel has picked up, I’ve been reconnecting with quite a few people I haven’t seen in ages.  I was skeptical about how much I’d like TripIt but was intrigued enough to sign up anyway.  I’m glad I did.

I’ve got a few drafts going that I’ll be finishing up and posting soon – including a review of a forthcoming Keith Ferrazzi book that I have a pre-release copy of.  I think you’ll like it.

Thanks for hanging in there during my time under water.

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Do It Tomorrow

Ok, I gotta say, when I saw Mark Forster’s book, “Do It Tomorrow” on the shelf I was drawn to it.  I thought it might be some best practices guide for how to procrastinate more effectively.  Well, it wasn’t that…but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

do_it_tomorrow The full title is actually “Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management,” and it’s Forster’s straight-forward system to help you become more focused and productive (this is one of the GTD alternatives I mentioned a few weeks ago).

One of the core concepts in Forster’s approach is to plan what you must do tomorrow, and create an action list to drive what you do.  This allows you to enter the day knowing what your targets are for the day.  Furthermore, you up your chances of success by treating this list as a “closed list” so you don’t keep adding things to it.  That doesn’t mean you don’t write down new tasks – it just means you don’t act on them until some future day. (Don’t worry – you can still deal with true emergencies).

Principles of productivity

Forster’s methods are based on 7 principles.  If I gave you a list of the principles here, it wouldn’t do them justice as they sound like things you may be familiar with (for example, the first on is “Have a clear vision”) and you might discount the value of this book without giving it a chance.  On the contrary, I found that Forster doesn’t just refactor the things you read in so many books about productivity – he adds his unique spin and pragmatism to each principle.

The book takes you through each of the principles and provides some “what if” scenarios, techniques, affirmations, and exercises to help you adopt them effectively.

These exercises help you identify the most relevant or valuable use of your time based on “litmus tests” you can apply during planning, as well as in-the-moment.  There are also a lot of techniques to help you deal with other people’s faulty approaches to time management so they don’t undermine your effectiveness.  I’ve tried a couple of these techniques since I read this book, and seen them work – pretty cool.  I’m definitely not a Jedi master but Forster’s techniques are sound.

Simple can be good

While some of Forster’s approaches sounded familiar (his explanation of “To Do vs. Will Do" sounded a lot like “Someday Maybe” from David Allen’s Getting Things Done, aka GTD), I found he always biases toward simple approaches.  This means you can quickly understand and apply Forster’s principles so you’ll know whether they work for you within a very short time.

If you’re already familiar with GTD (but shying away for some reason), or you’re just looking to be more productive, this book would be a good addition to your library.  But if you want to order, Do it Tomorrow.

If you want to read a chapter before committing, Mark’s made Chapter One of “Do It Tomorrow” available on his site.

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Time for another audit

Well, it's that time again - I'm going to do another "time audit" starting next week. As I've written in the past, I get a lot of value from periodically analyzing how I spend my time. Time audits help you better adjust your prioritization, balance, and productivity and I'm feeling like I'm due for one.

Tools for tracking

As usual, I have been looking for tools to make this easier and I've found one that I think is going to be really effective: it's from David Seah's "Printable CEO" toolset, and he calls it the "Emergent Time Tracker."

At David's site, you can find several formats of this form that you can download for free, along with instruction on how to use the tracker and interpret / analyze your results. There is even an annotated example to get you going quickly (thumbnail at right), and a beta version of an online time tracking tool.

Bren told me about another web-based tracking tool called "SlimTimer" that looks interesting.

Give it time

If you're going to do a time audit of your own, I recommend doing it for two weeks. Not only does this give you plenty of data to work with, I also find that my 2nd week is more complete because I'm more diligent about logging my activities as the habit starts to settle in.

Taking another cue from David Seah, I've also just ordered a Kitchenaid timer. I think it'll help me be more conscious of how I use my time and help me with time boxing.

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Amazon's Kindle 2 Starts A Fire

I've had Amazon's Kindle 2 for the past couple of weeks, and I am really glad I bought one. I thought I'd take some time to share what I've found with you in case you're considering buying one.

First, I'd like to give you some context to better understand where I'm coming from.

  • Contrary to my gadget-loving nature I didn't buy the first Kindle (though I was chomping at the bit to pick up version 2).
  • This is my first time using an electronic reader, and I've never liked reading long documents (much less books) on a computer.
  • I read quite a few books -- typically 4 or more each month, and usually with more than one going at a time (one or more business / non-fiction, one fiction, etc.).
  • When I travel, I typically have 3 or 4 books with me which can be heavy and bulky.

The Device

I'll start with my impressions of the device itself. Amazon took a cue from Apple and really paid attention to the "unboxing experience" with the Kindle. The elegantly boxed arrived and I felt like I was opening a gift, rather than just some gadget I ordered. The fit & finish are impressive - this is a sturdy, light device - and it has a nice minimalist feel. The only items you need to carry around are the Kindle itself (about as big a footprint as a Moleskine notebook, but thinner than an iPhone), a USB cable that you use for charging and connecting to your PC, and a USB-to-AC adapter so you can charge via an electrical outlet).

I added Amazon's protective leather cover for the Kindle 2, which about doubles the thickness of the device but gives me peace of mind that it won't get dinged up as I carry the Kindle around. Click the image at right for a larger view of all the gear together.

Obtaining Stuff to Read

One of the things that's been a breeze is buying books for the Kindle. The device is integrated seamlessly with my Amazon account, so I can:

  • Buy Kindle books via the Amazon web site, and they show up seconds later on my Kindle 2
  • Browse or search for books on the Kindle, order (with automatic billing to my account)

These are the two most common actions, but there are other ways to get content to read, including:

  • You can email PDF's and Word docs to yourself and (for a cost of 10 cents) they will be converted and appear on your Kindle a few minutes later. If you are a GTD user, this could be an effective way to bring your "To Read" stack with you without adding bulk to your briefcase. You can also add others to your email "good list" so they can send you documents this way.
  • You can subscribe to newspapers (of which there are quite a few) or magazines (there aren't many) from Amazon's Kindle Store.
  • You can subscribe to a small number of leading blogs (more are purportedly coming) so you can read your RSS feeds on the go.
  • You can get free books via ManyBooks - they have Kindle format versions of many books from Project Gutenberg.
    • ManyBooks has over 20,000 free eBooks available, and a bunch of them are available in Kindle format (.awz files).
    • You can also browse to "mnybks.net" from your Kindle to download from ManyBooks directly on the device.
    • If you download the books to your PC, you have to manually copy them to your Kindle 2 via the USB cable but hey - they're free!

In addition to reading, you can listen to things on the Kindle in a couple of ways:

  • Have the Kindle read a book to you in its robot voice (I'm not wild about the voice, but it might be good in some situation I haven't yet encountered).
  • Copy MP3's to your Kindle (again, via USB) so you can listen to music or audiobooks on the device. Warning: MP3 files take a lot of space (but Kindle format books do not).

Book prices are reasonable. First, you can download samples of books to decide whether you want them or not. When you buy, most current / hardcover titles cost $10, while older / massmarket paperback books range from free to about $8 (most of the massmarket books I've bought run about $6 or $7).

The best thing? The Kindle weighs the same and takes up the same amount of space no matter how many books you put in it.

OK, So What About the Reading?

Now, let's get into the reason I bought this device: the reading. In short, "wow - this is cool, and better than I expected." You start with a home page that shows you all of the books currently on your Kindle, with a small, graphical indicator of how much you've read. When you find what you want to read, point to it using the joystick and press in on the joystick to select. Boom - the book comes up on the screen and you're ready to read.

The controls on the Kindle 2 are easy to use and you forget about them after a few minutes of reading (you'll mostly use the Previous and Next Page buttons). At any time, you can mark text, add annotations, add a bookmark, or look up a word using the built-in dictionary. You can also switch to another book, and the Kindle 2 will remember where you left off any time you return to a book already in progress. Very nice.

The on-screen reading experience is surprisingly good. I have read for up to 4 hours at a stretch with no eye fatigue, and find I can read faster on the Kindle than I can using a "real" book. I suspect it's because I can adjust the text to a size that's optimal and because the whitespace around the screen makes it easier to focus on the page that's before me.

The annotation tools are handy, too. Since I often review the books I read (or at least the ones I like), I find myself using the highlights a lot and they're a snap to use on the Kindle 2. In the screen shot at the right, you can get an idea of how easy it is to keep track of multiple highlights and annotations - click the pic for a larger view (and please excuse the wonky angle - I didn't get the camera straight).

Net-net on the Kindle 2

Once again, I'm really glad I bought the Kindle 2. If you read a lot, you'll love this device - and I think heavy readers will be able to justify the expensive price much more easily. There are so many things I haven't even mentioned in this review, but hopefully you've heard enough to get an idea whether this device is right for you or not. If you still want one, pick one up a Kindle 2 from Amazon - and happy reading!

And here are my top 5 pros and cons, to wrap things up.


Kindle 2: Top 5 Pros

Kindle 2: Bottom 5 Cons

Excellent, readable screen with adjustable font size

Expensive

Seamless integration with Amazon account

Joystick is a little stubby and harder to use than I'd like

Huge library of current (and older) books available on-demand

Battery and memory are not user-accessible

Very portable form factor, even with charging cable

No ability to password protect the device or its ability to order
(though you can disable it via Amazon.com if it's stolen)

Easy bookmarking, highlighting, and annotation

Not enough magazines available for subscription yet


"Outliers" really stands out

I've enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's books in the past (I thought "The Tipping Point" was excellent, but thought "Blink" was just Ok in comparison). I just finished reading "Outliers" and it is by far my favorite Gladwell book so far (on a side note, it's also the first book I read on the Kindle 2).

In Outliers, Gladwell seeks to understand why some people excel in life. Is it "natural talent and ability?" Is it hard work? Is it luck? Can it be replicated?

Fascinating case studies

The reason I enjoyed this book is that it presents intriguing findings woven into fascinating stories. Some of the topics include a discussion of lots of odd phenomena and stereotypes:

  • Is there a "best" time to have been born?
  • Are the most successful people those with the highest IQ's?
  • Why are so many successful professional hockey players born early in the year?
  • Are Asians really better at math? Why or why not?
  • Do lower income students tend to do worse, academically, than those from higher income families?
  • Why are there so many Jewish lawyers in New York?
  • Does ethnicity play into likelihood of plane crashes?
  • Why were the Beatles, Bill Gates, and Bill Joy so successful and influential?

The answers to all of these - and more - are covered in this book. Or at least Gladwell's convincing theories are covered!

Engaging reading

Gladwell has perfected the art of drawing you into an intriguing story, then presenting a research-based analysis of why things occurred the way they did, the interactions & influences that were involved, and giving some serious "think about" material.

The best thing about the stories is that they feature real people, including Gladwell's own family. Comparing the opinions, thoughts, and actions with how things turned out can be fascinating - you can see the flaws in some of the thinking, but can also see how you may have made the same flawed decisions if you were immersed in the same situation.

Still not convinced?

I searched this book for a short example I could share in this review to get you jazzed about the book, but they were hard to condense into a paragraph or two. So, here is something to chew on that might get you thinking:

  • Gladwell analyzed the 75 wealthiest people in history - starting with Cleopatra and the Pharaohs of ancient times (Bill Gates is #37 on that list, incidentally, when the wealth figures are normalized)
  • Fourteen of these 75 are Americans born within 9 years of each other in the mid-nineteenth century - that's almost 20% of the wealthiest people in thousands of years - all born in a historical blink of an eye

Curious how that happened? You'll find out in this book. And it relates to the answers to most of the questions I listed above.

If you haven't done so yet, I recommend you read Outliers - and I'd love to hear whether you enjoyed it as much as I did.

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