Less-Is-More Blog by Pierre Khawand

A couple of weeks ago, I made the transition from Vista to Windows 7, and reported on my initial positive experience with Windows 7. I also reflected on how technology can get in the way or be an enabler of productivity. Windows 7 falls in the enabler category.

I am happy to report that my excitement about Windows 7 wasn’t just temporary. I believe that this switch is saving me substantial time, maybe an hour or more per day, and here are 3 ways in which this is taking place:

First: It is much faster. It loads faster and performs faster. This anxiety of having to reboot the computer right before or during teaching a class (for one reason or another) is gone. Restarting Windows 7 takes only a couple of minutes as opposed to my old Vista which took a lot longer (10 to 15 minutes). Not only it loads faster, it operates faster. The same machine seems to have gotten a new life injected in it with Windows 7.

Second: The ability of pinning and unpinning applications to the Taskbar, and pinning and unpinning documents to applications, makes is easy to keep the applications you use most and the documents you use most at your fingertips, and in the same place so they become familiar and you don’t have to do unnecessary thinking—let technology do this kind of thinking while we focus on the core stuff.

Third: The way you can quickly preview the currently open applications and documents is quite intuitive and makes switching between applications easy and intuitive. This is greatly appreciated in a Web 2.0 and 3.0 world where information is abundant and tasks are increasingly complex and dependent on many people and services.

Remember to reflect on your technologies and on whether they are helping or hindering your productivity (operating systems related, applications related, or hardware and accessories related), and consider making some optimizing and starting 2010 with a boost in productivity!

Our tasks can take much more time than necessary. This tends to happen more so when we are dreading the task for one reason or another, our motivation is low, and we would rather be doing something else or not doing anything at all. We try to keep at it, and hope that miraculously we will get it done, and it keeps expanding and spiraling into this never-ending thing as our resistance grows and grows.

Now consider this. It is a similar task but on a different day or time. But this time, we happen to be in a good "mood". Life is good for whatever reason. We are motivated. We are moving faster (mentally and physically). We seem to stumble upon creative ways to address issues that once before were challenging or even overwhelming.

Wouldn't be nice to be able to somehow inject a doze of the latter "attitude" in the former situation and turn things around.

Here are some "attitude" changers to consider and act upon

1. Stop! There is no point in going when our wheels are spinning in place. We are not getting anywhere anyway. We are hitting the diminished return area on the Results Curve^TM. Stopping may involve resetting expectations, but whatever it takes, we need to stop!

2. Play! Go as far away from the task as you can, mentally and physically. Whether a 5 minute meditational exercise, a 10 minute walk, or a dance class, or whatever it takes to dissolve whatever it is that is getting a hold of our motivation. The Now Habit goes as far as suggesting scheduling play time first before getting to the task time.

3. Better Manage Stress! It is possible that there are some underlying issues that are causing us more stress and worry than usual and that are confiscating our energy and our motivation. No matter how hard we try to solve the surface issues, if not addressed, these underlying issues will continue to slow us down. The thing to do is to address them one way or another. Refer to chapter 10 in The Accomplishing More With Less Workbook for some practical techniques.

4. Divide & Conquer! Divide the task into smaller components. Make each component no longer than 30 or even better 40 minutes worth of effort. Reset your own expectation about how long this task will take based on your new plan.

5. Acknowledge "effort"! Instead of being only end-results driven in this case, it would help us to shift our mind to "effort" instead of "results." Maybe counter-intuitive, but this may be exactly what we need to get over the hump and get to the end results. Don't forget to reward yourself along the way as you make progress.

6. Reach out! Reach out and get support in whatever way, form, or shape is applicable. Never Eat Alone emphasizes that more often than not, people are willing to help and we just need to ask, and we need to help them help us.

Happy new "attitude"!

I needed to dive into this task that I reserved time for on my calendar which was to prepare for a Lotus Notes training session. I scheduled this on my calendar because it is important and I would like to get it done soon. To tell you the truth, lotus notes is not my favorite. I know my IBM friends may be a bit disappointed, but I think deep down, they know that too. So my mind came up with several interesting excuses, giving me great reasons and alibis for not doing what I know is the "right" thing for now.

Excuse #1 (my mind talking to me): "You need to post the blog entry that you promised your SharePoint participants earlier this week."

Excuse #2: "How about catching up on e-mail, making sure you're up-to-date, and no important issues outstanding before you dive into your focused Lotus Notes session."

Excuse #3: "And there is this preparation for this other presentation tomorrow, don't you want to at least capture your initial ideas in a rough draft?"

Well, I decided to fall for Excuse #4 (i.e. my mind came up with a new one that was very plausible and very difficult for me to resist) and that is to share these thoughts with you as they are happening. And then no more excuses after that. There is one and only one thing to do after this blog entry is posted. This would be facing the task. Facing Lotus Notes head to head!

Your to-do?

Check-in with yourself right now, as you read this blog entry, what is it that you are avoiding or postponing? What is your "Lotus Notes". Finish what you're doing, and tackle this important task head it to head.  Dedicate the next 40 minutes (not 30, but 40) to be fully focused on this task!

Write to me afterwards any reflections you might have had and the results were.

It seems that many of the people we talk to fall in one of these two categories. Either they spend too much time on organizing (these are the persistent few) or they have largely given up on organization (the more common scenario) and they feel out of control most of the time. Is there however an optimum amount of organization that would be feasible for most of us and yet give us the best return?

This graph, which resembles to some degree the Results Curve(tm) graph that I have been teaching in our Accomplishing More With Less workshop and workbook, describes the returns that we get from the time spent on organization, and below are some related note:

• There is a minimum amount of organization that we all need, and without it, our lives are likely to be chaotic, stressful, and unfulfilled. 
   
• The minimum amount of organization is a lot less than what you might think, and if done strategically, it is likely to bring big returns. 
   
• There is an optimum amount of organization that if we go beyond it, we would be doing so at the expense of more important activities and therefore incur a very high opportunity cost.
   
• Both lack of organization as well as organizing beyond the optimum point are equally disadvantageous. While Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman, authors of A Perfect Mess, suggest that disorder is far more advantageous than order (and that most organizational systems are a waste of time), I wouldn't go that far. I promote an optimum level or organization which I also believe is different for each person.

Your to-do's

1. Reflect on where you are on the organizational curve above and find out where you are on this scale. 
    
2. If you think you are under-organized, identify an area where some additional organization would give you high returns and act on it. 
    
3. If you think you are over-organized at the expense of more important initiative and activities, identify an area where you can reduce your effort and make room for more strategic things. 
    
4. Keep an eye on organizational tips and see what might work for you. Subscribe to this blog and to similar ones and contribute your comments and get engaged!
   

When technology gets in the way, work life can become inefficient, things can take longer, and most importantly the opportunity cost rises. Instead of focusing on the next marketing campaign, or strategizing on the next customer win, we find ourselves waiting for the computer to recover from a sudden crash, or being significantly slowed down by the computer poor performance-and resorting to restarting it all together which on my Windows Vista machine would take 10 to 15 minutes.

Will Windows 7 be the answer?

Apple users would say Apple is the answer, but if you don't to go that far and many of us can't go that far, I am pleasantly surprised by Windows 7, and so far it is demonstrating that it may be the answer. 

The upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 was seamless and it seems as if a new life has been injected into the computer. While I still need more time to confirm these findings, but I have to say that many of the performance issues and some of the awkward behaviors that Windows Vista displayed are no longer an issue.

Technology & productivity go hand in hand

In my work with business professionals, I emphasize that accomplishments are mostly the results of strategic thinking and channeling our resources in the areas that are most promising--among other things. In addition however, I emphasize that the way we use technology has a significant impact on how much we accomplish. My belief is that technology alone doesn't necessarily lead to accomplishments, however, technology is a key enabler when it is working well, and when it is not working well, it can be an obstacle. So yes, technology and productivity go hand in hand.

What could the takeaways be?

1. Reflect on your technologies and your tools and see if they are serving as key enablers or if they are becoming obstacles. 
    
2. Identify the areas where you can apply new technologies or tools and get the biggest returns. 
    
3. To help you identify the returns, take into account the opportunity cost. What would you be able to do if you weren't spending or wasting time in these technologies or tools. 
    
4. Put a plan for addressing one of these technologies or tools issues soon. This could be one of your holiday gift to yourself!
   

In the past, it used to be e-mail and meetings that consumed everyone's time, and now it is e-mail, meetings, and social media, and not necessarily in this order. For years, in our workshops, we talked about the e-mail overload, and taught ways to overcome the e-mail overload, and now we are broadening the scope to include social media.

So how do you reduce the social media overload?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Be Strategic: Don't just be there, but be there with a clear purpose.
   
• Follow the relevant people: Those that add value and not just chatter. 
   
• Stay on brand: One of Jason Alba's advice that I keep re-iterating. 
   
• Reuse: Create high value content and reuse it in all platforms, you know they now all link to each other, so you can more easily leverage your content in multiple platforms. 
   
• Time yourself: Don't just be there indefinitely, make it 5, 15, or 40 minutes (again with a clear purpose) 
   
• Don't treat it like a homework (especially twitter): You don't have to keep up with what happened when you were gone. What happened before is mostly old news by now. 
   
• Remember that the time you spend on it needs to be proportional to the number of people you have in your network (otherwise, it is better investing time to growing your network).

Say "yes" to social media, "but" keep it well under control following the time management tips described above!

If we are unsure what to do, or hesitant to take on the next important and challenging task, consciously or subconsciously, what do we end up slipping into?

Into our e-mail inbox!

E-mail is "great" (or not so great) that way! It gives us this immediate satisfaction of getting something done and feeling good.  Does it sound like an addition? It is. And like any addition, the feeling good doesn't last too long, and we seek more of it to bring back that feeling, but what happens is that we get increasingly and chronically "e-mail fatigued."

So what can we do about it?

• How about becoming more purposeful and more intentional, and instead of resorting to e-mail (or Twitter-which is e-mail on steroid one might say), resorting to a few minutes of stopping and strategic thinking to really identify something meaningful to do. 
   
• How about we take on the challenging task first instead of e-mail first. Let e-mail be the reward (if it can be called a reward) instead of being the pre-requisite. When we take on the challenging task first, we learn and develop. We also prompt the issues and bring ourselves to face the issues. As a result we feel more accomplished and we contribute more significantly to our team and organization! 
   
• How about we disconnect for a bit (from e-mail, and even the web if applicable) and just focus on moving forward this important and strategic program or initiative. Adam. S. Christensen (our guest speaker, at the Gen X in Action webinar recently--recording available) said "I get the best work done when I am disconnected". Try it out and see for yourself!

Whatever it is for you (E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, or whatever else)  what are you going to do about it? Put it on the side for a bit, maybe even "disconnect", and get engaged into something more purposeful!

Environmentally aware consumers are producing less waste by practicing the "3 Rs": Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. When it comes to productivity and accomplishments, we can use these same guidelines and reap some enormous benefits:

Reduce = Reduce the scope

Follow the 80/20 rule which says "80% of our results come from 20% of our effort". Reduce the scope of most tasks by focusing on the core parts that produce the highest returns, and reduce or even eliminate the parts that are less impactful.

Reuse = Reuse what you do

Work on items that have multiple "applications" and that can be leveraged in many ways. If you are creating a marketing collateral for instance, could it be used on the website and on the blog. But don't stop here! Why not include an excerpt and a link to the blog entry in your newsletter. 

Recycle = Recycle the useful parts

Reflect on the projects and activities that you do, and see if you can identify components that can be repurposed. It maybe the actual content, the logic, or the process that can be adapted or re-engineered and then redeployed.

Try them out and report back

With applying the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle principles to managing your priorities and tasks, you are likely to discover valuable time management tips, streamline your getting organized effort, and even succeed at better managing stress!

Something unique happens when we dive into and fully commit our energy to one task while letting everything else fade in the background. This forces us to go deeper and prompt us into moving the issues forward, into finding solutions, or even making breakthroughs. This is likely to unleash new levels of creativity, resourcefulness, and capabilities we may not even know we have.

"But why don't we do this more often (working on one thing at a time)?" one might ask. Maybe because, while committing to one task is liberating, it is also frightening at the same time. It is frightening because we would have to face the challenges and fears that come with this task--or project, or issue. This includes the fear of not knowing, the fear of failure, and the fear of success. This also means facing procrastination and acting against our strong tendency of taking the path of least resistance.

So what would happen if we commit to this "one thing at a time" and face the challenges and fear that come with it? This is what is likely to happen:

a) We learn more, develop more, and gain more experience. As a result, not only we feel accomplished--something we are largely deprived of in today's everything-overload era, but we are also likely to achieve greater results over time and reap the benefits.

b) We accelerate the progress and make things happen faster-probably much faster than what multi-tasking can ever buy us. We are likely to get to the core issues and get there much sooner. We are likely to prompt decisions and actions which we would otherwise avoid or delay. This means we shorten the time to market and capture the windows of opportunities. In other words, we gain time--the next best thing to discovering the "fountain of youth".

c) We set precedence. This task, project, or issues that we face will be now on the "I can do it" list. Our subconscious has witnessed it which is very disarming for any related doubts and negative self-talk. The world has witnessed it which means it is now on our track record. Next time, not only we are ready to do it again, but probably take it a step further. The process continues to feed on itself.

These are important ingredients for feeling good, feeling accomplished, and being happy. So happiness is "working at one thing at a time" and is a choice!

So how do you turn the above into action? Let me know by adding your comment below!

You have this report to write, or presentation to prepare, or project plan to put into place. It is daunting. Too many parts to it. Too many issues to think about. You find yourself deferring it and feeling a little anxious when you think about it. It is just too big of an undertaking, and/or a sign of procrastination, and/or a sign of wanting it to be nothing less than perfect . You end up delaying it until there is no room for delaying any further. Then it becomes a high pressure situation. In addition, work quality suffers. If other urgent demands come up at the same time, and they will, then you've got one of these "situations" on hand.

The power of working in iterations and helping better manage such a project or task could involve the following:

Iteration #1

Give yourself permission to spend, let us say 40 minutes, to do a brain dump relating to the project or task (let us call it project for now). Remind yourself that this is just a brain dump and not go into analysis or conclusions yet. Capture related issues, ideas, worries, whatever else comes to your mind. Don't worry about organizing or ordering yet. Include a list of potential resources that you may have access to or would like to have access to. Be creative! Be bold! Dare to put down freely what comes to your mind!

Iteration #2

Leave the above alone for a bit. This may be an hour or two, or a day or two, depending on the magnitude of this project. This will allow the mind to absorb the information and do its own background work on it. It may be quite beneficial to engage in some creative work or physical exercise type activities during this time.

Iteration #3

Take another stab at it. This can also be yet another 40 minute session. In this iteration, you may add additional thoughts, and your mind may have already come up with new and interesting ideas on how to approach the project. Capture them and then move into organizing your thoughts and get them ready to take action. This probably means breaking down what needs to get done into manageable components that you can then schedule on your calendar, and/or delegate to others.

Iteration #4

Now that you have a plan, start execution according to plan. If possible and applicable, involve others. Setup a dry run or a review session with the people who could provide meaningful input, and who might have some stake in the success of this project. Create a deadline that can help you focus your energy and motivate you to get things moving.

Iteration #5

Give yourself time to refine, gather more input, and go for the final victory.

Of course customize the above as you see fit. Don't forget to stop and celebrate victory against procrastination and perfectionism, before you start the next project or task!