A Meaningful Life

One of our Saasu customers optimises Web 2.0 in it’s original meaning. He uses 88miles.net for tracking time on projects against customers and uses Saasu.com for his accounting ledger, tax and so on. 88miles and Saasu’s API’s have a little chat during the day keeping all his stuff in line, like a couple of fax machines having a banter. bidi bidi bidi beeeeep bidi bidi bidi —– Don’t you love that, it’s not humans having to do it!

What the customer actually has is a virtual application. Two distinct applications developing and enhancing separately but operating as one. Very cool.

Portfolio managers use tools to optimise placement of investments. It’s all about rigour and hard maths. So to should we optimise how we spend our time. It’s all too easy to concentrate on money, it’s in your face day in and day out, but people forget to act on the well known truth that time is money. You cannot separate the two.

Myles Eftos of Madpilot Productions built the 88miles.net connector, so a hat tip to the mad pilot. Check out his blog he shoots from the hip which is just how I like it.

It was strange for me moving from a trading environment to the software as a service industry (SaaS). One of the biggest differences I noticed straight away was how sparse web pages were. Even the early web tools like online banking and broking portals were so inefficiently designed. They failed to optimise screen real estate and forced users to scroll, mouse, search, yada yada yada.

Traders Reuters/Bloomberg terminals and their spreadsheets were nearly always set to the smallest font size you could find (or read). You would use efficient fonts like Arial Narrow to try and squeeze a few more prices into the screens that surrounded you. You didn’t have the luxury of whitespace (actually it was blackspace). The vast majority of traders went for black background designs. This was interesting in itself.

In a way I miss that, it was extremely time and information efficient. It was also easier on the eyes and clearer for the mind. You had all your information laid out in front of you. It can be likened to ‘chess boarding’ your desk with all your paperwork so that you would know exactly where everything is and be able to grab it instantly.

You could see the markets and the world events unfold in realtime. You could be efficient, no transition costs, such as the need to navigate a clumsy mouse, tab through browsers, scroll down screens, drag and drop or refresh web content. Screen real estate was prime real estate. No cares for font-type, white space pixel counts and the finest navigation effects. Just jam it in was the approach so you don’t have to do a single thing except read it.

It dawned on me when I first came into the web applications space that financial markets traders had actually evolved their own designs. The result was quite different to web applications as we know them. Here’s some of my observations.

Traders designed and built their own screens

Traders designed their screen themselves, or ex-traders working for Bloomberg or Reuters helped them. Extremely user centric design, they got exactly what they wanted. There was no lost-in-translation, lost-in-budget or lost-in-design-ego issues to contend with.

Traders built their screens like engineers and not like designers would

Traders are generally left brain logical types which could be described as ‘engineering like’. So their screens were very matrix like. Information was given the best screen real estate if it was the most financially sensitive. Really important financials received the mega-font treatment.

Traders were bad designers, but did it matter?

Web designers and now usability designers tend to come from right-brain imaginative and creative backgrounds (in my experience). The traders didn’t care much for good looking screens. This wasn’t a male thing. There were plenty of female traders in the organisations I worked for and it made no difference. Design extended to font colour and that was it. A non-black background was an outlier in this crowd. Traders seemed to naturally design for screen real estate optimisation and minimal navigation choices (no navigation), so there was an element of design in usability.

I thought I’d write this post to highlight something which has influenced keeping features a click or two away in our Saasu application. It has been extended further in our next Saasu.com release with the new one-click menu.

Photo credit: Matt Seppings

How much of your time is spent in transition? Home to work. Desk to Water Cooler. Email to website to blog to blah.

Do we need to analyse this to work out what transition time is costing the human race? It’s a cost. I’m confident we would find a correlation between the quantity of stuff (material and mental) in our lives and transition time cost associated with it.

What transitions could you remove? What mental or physical stuff could you give up to give yourself more time and clarity on the important things in life?

I read some trivia that claimed termites eat through wood twice as fast when listening to rock music. My anecdotal experience tells me this is true. You work faster because you get in the groove. The music tempo seems to push you along at a cheerful allegro pace.

In my head I hear the new Apple theme by Fiest but with my lyrics. “1,2,3,4 I’m eating at your wooden floor”

Procrastination is easily my biggest weakness and I always delay working on it. Yes, that was humor. I even delayed writing this post for a year at least for fear it needed to be perfect. However I was inspired by a great read on the Pick The Brain blog.

This post is far from perfect so I’m actually using one of the weapons below that defeated Procrastination. That weapon had me hit the publish button. Read on to find out which weapon I used.

Tiny Tasks

Like a virus many tiny tasks can eat away at the enormity of a big task. Breaking big tasks into a multiplicity of small doable tasks to overcome that enormity you created with that little shoulder devil saying “that’s too big, do it later”. Recognise and admit it is the enormity of the task that is stopping you.

BANJO

It stands for “Bang A Nasty Job Out”. I love this one (thanks Pick The Brain). In a nut shell knowing you have nasty tasks ahead stops you working down your list. Getting the nasty one done solves this problem. Personally I think a more realistic approach for a procrastinator is to use the previous weapon in conjunction with this weapon for a more reliable way of taking out the enemy.

Endorphins

Wow these little guys kick some you know what. They arrive shortly after exercise and for me they always inspire me to take action, get stuff done and help me fell good about things that might in another mood send me into a spiral of procrastination.

Don’t do it, just strike it off the list

Do you have to do this thing you are procrastinating about. If you keep delaying it maybe you really aren’t committed to doing it. One example for me is painting (the artistic kind). Been procrastinating about it for years before I realised I’m obviously not that desperate to do it if I haven’t started. It’s probably just a mental desire. So now it’s on my maybe later list.

Road block removal

You find reasons, dependencies and blocks that allow your mind to justify not doing something. Interestingly this technique also counters the guilt associated with not getting something done. So the trick here is removing the excuses you come up with via a method outside your normal way of being. Get help from another person, delegate the thing that is stopping you, pay someone to do that part which will free you up to do the rest.

I first realised this was happening to me many years ago when I was doing up my house. I stopped at plastering, seemed to hard and nothing happened for months. Then I spent a pitiful $200 to get the few holes and section of a wall plastered and I was off and running again.

Deadlines

Here is a weapon that can be used lethally against procrastination. Tell lots of people about your commitment to do X and that you plan to have it complete by Y date. Then schedule it in your calender. Then ask your partner or close friends to call you on word to do it in the event of likely failure or post failure. Ask them to tell you you are procrastinating on this. Lastly as a bonus ‘hammer it home’ weapon, create a financial loss out of not having it done by your deadline. Just a token financial loss like a friendly bet or a forfeited deposit can work a treat.

This one isn’t for everyone but in many people the procrastinator in them is easily defeated by their desire to win a bet, to be right, to prove themselves to others. It is driven by trying to look good and be admired.

The setup

All through history people win games, battles, arguments and all kinds of competitive situations through “the setup”. Create a setup that has you win in this battle to achieve this task that you keep procrastinating about. Put some conditions, variables, resources to bear on the outcome so only one thing can eventuate - success. Thinking a few moves ahead like in a chess game can help.

Say you want to start going to the Gym. Having a friend go with you is a setup technique. It’s harder to pull out or say no on the day. Extend this by having them pick you up. Go further and pay for the session in advance. Yes its a setup but its enough to channel you into action.

Sleep

Of all the things that saps enthusiasm, lack of sleep is the one. Well slept, is well kept, in the game of life. How can you expect to play hard against ‘team procrastination’ if you go out partying the night before. All that will happen is that you will wake up hungover, unmotivated and feeling very sorry for yourself to the point where the only thing that will be crossed of your list that day is “make coffee”.

Reward

All intelligent species respond to rewards. If you don’t get something for doing something you are procrastinating about then I ask why do it? What is the reason? I’m not proposing a selfish way of being, I’m just being realistic on this. What’s in it for you? Survival, happiness, making others happy? Create a reward. If it is a job for someone else then concentrate on how it will help them, they will appreciate it and you can bask in your good Samaritan sun. Bask away and don’t be ashamed of it!

Martyrdom

Sometimes a task can be crappy, dangerous or boring. Worse still you get no reward at completion for doing it. I suggest creating a reward called Martyrdom. Take it on, bring it on and state your position to others who won’t (with your chest out). Be the Martyr, just do it. Be like the guy who volunteers to take “point” in the jungle war scene and gets the medal. Be the person who takes the dive for the team victory and gets lifted up on their shoulders. It sounds bizarre but I assure you when you come out the other side and the nastiness is over others and even yourself will say. I did the yards, I played the position no one wanted to play, I got the job done. You will feel very alive.

Anxiety reality check

Is this your root cause of procrastination? Historically procrastination and anxiety go hand in hand. You are anxious about something and accordingly find ways to avoid, delay and distract yourself from that something. In severe cases people avoid living life in a normal way. I get anxious and I try to remember to remind myself that anxiety only has a home is in my head. Anxiety isn’t a physical thing, it’s not made of atoms. It is mind created, possibly has genetic or medical reasons for being there but it doesn’t change the fact it isn’t real and can’t be touched. Remembering that helps me reduce its impact. It can feel very real and significant for many and if so get to the Doctor they are the professionals on this one.

Near enough IS good enough

This is tough but quite often procrastinators are actually perfectionists in disguise who won’t start or finish something for fear of the result being less than perfect. If this is you then dwell on this. Doing nothing about ‘X’ is so far away from perfection that you would be a fool not to do something about it.

So suit up, get your weapons together and kick procrastinations butt!

At Deutsche Bank we had a saying for idea testing. “Can you monetise it?” Systems can be like a salesperson. If you are going to buy into the value add argument would you employ Facebook to distract hundreds of employees? Facebook and it’s fans claim it brings many advantages to business. What is the opportunity cost of those employee Facebook hours? Could you spend them on something else?

I’ll be controversial on this one and say it should be disallowed. The ratio of distraction to value-add is heavily skewed against giving staff access in the workplace. The coal face reality is that this thing isn’t getting stuff done. It’s not creating massive networking opportunities that the same time spent working on other social media could. It’s not high quality content with high IP value. It’s not producing widgets. It’s not paying you any money. It sucks time. Time is money.

I can’t see an easy way to monetise it from a business perspective. Sure you can pick up some networking value but it’s limited relative to those Facebook Hours better spent on hard core CRM systems such as Salesforce.com that drive workflow, lead generation and networking. These systems create business opportunity. Alternately, I’d put those Facebook hours into using a system like a Wiki to collect employee ideas on business improvement, planning and sales strategy.

I tried not keeping a list for a couple of weeks. This was a bit weird for me. I’ve always run lists even though I often get distracted from them. Still it is there in the back of my head like a personal assistant ready to remind you of the tasks at hand.

Lists in investment banking were essential. Lists helped mitigate monetary and legal risks by ensuring important things weren’t forgotten. Such as booking all the components of structured transaction. Missing one component could be fatal. You could also use them to waterfall trading priorities based on risk mitigation and/or monetary return.

I was going to do no-lists for a month but stopped today. I felt I had enough to know I want to operate with them. However, there were a couple of interesting things that showed up for me. Here’s what I found out.

1. Prioritisation Weakens

I didn’t prioritise as well without my list. Lists definitely help me with this. You need a cracking memory to keep a mental note on what order things should be done and by when.

2. Memory Lets You Down

You do forget the odd thing you need to do. I remembered most things but I slipped on some and one was quite important. So to keep in integrity with people the list is a good structure that helps.

3. List Free Isn’t Liberated

I wasn’t any happier, liberated or spontaneous than normal without a list. It felt the same in fact, only with a little more anxiety in the form of “Have I missed something?”.

4. I Still Got a Lot Done

Well this one was predictable. List don’t change the quantity of work you can get done. Good prioritisation probably has some efficiency payoffs but it wasn’t noticeable for me. It’s in my nature to work full days anyway. The list can’t do the labour, I have to, so it makes sense.

5. Old Jobs Completed At Last

This was the best outcome of not having a list. I did a few things that had been at the back of my mind that never made the important list. It felt good to clear them, a lot like fixing a very old software bug that doesn’t really impact anyone but annoys the crap out of you.

6. Not Adding Any New Things Shortened My List

This is probably my favourite outcome. I added some things today but not as many as would have been there if I were adding things every day over the last two weeks. So the take away is being more ruthless about what goes on the list. I liken it to only permissioning important email - it can only help.

7. You Adapt To Not Having A List

I found myself relying more on Trac (our internal ticketing system) and also on Email search. Email started to become a surrogate todo list.

What is it in humans that causes the massive disconnect between knowledge acquired and knowledge executed? There are obviously a bunch of blockers at work. Here’s some of them but feel free to add to the list via comments and I’ll republish the full list down the track:

1. Knowledge overwhelm. Leads to decision confusion.
2. Not enough resources to execute. Namely time, money and people.
3. Procrastination.
4. Knowledge gaps.
5. Fear and greed blocks. Human survival strategy.

What is it in one individual that has them execute on knowledge better than another? Arguably two humans equal in knowledge and physical capability wouldn’t differ. Still you get different outcomes.

The difference is tools.

Do you hunt with and axe or a spear? How primitive are the tools you use? Do you regard emotions as tools? Do you adopt technology or hang out with Luddites? Do you create a complex life for yourself and ignore one of the best performance tools of all, simplicity.

Start thinking about character traits as tools. It’s not just about physical tools. The solution is simple but like all things you need to do something about it. I can’t say I have practiced all that I preach, but I definitely feel like I’m along the road a little.

Regularly assess your tools, learn new skills (tools), try new SaaS products (blatant plug for our web finance engine - an automation and connectivity tool), hire new or better people (time and resource tools), reallocate tasks to better skill sets. People are just as much a tool applied to a problem. Don’t use the wrong tool (person) for the job.

Revolutionary Action is Required

Revolution is a word I like to use instead of change. Change is small, it’s a maybe, it’s weak. Revolution brings on immediate, sudden change. It’s a shock and awe tactic to break old habits.

You need revolutionary attitude to take advantage of new tools. Don’t engage in change. Change means slow evolution that may not happen. You may not get around to it or you may leave it till later (i.e. never do it in many cases).

Static is the worst position of all. Static means zero evolution, zero improvement and zero execution on knowledge.

Revolution is sudden and brutal. It gives immediate results for analysis. Revolution can’t be maintained though. You need to create a method to sustain it. Have others keep you accountable, create reminders, take away the old tools and use you imagination to think up anything that will hold the revolution in place until the everyone is following you.

Real Life Example - A Motivation Tool

Attitude. Yes it’s a tool for motivation. If you have a positive attitude we all know it will rub of on people. Everyone knows it. Everyone has the knowledge of what a positive attitude does. Wake up in the morning and be a positive person. Live it and you watch the difference it makes.

I think it is revolutionary to witness a negative person switch to positive. I love to see it happen. Something in your human spirit has you start liking that person.

I once worked with a guy who was very successful at selling Term Deposits to government authorities for a Bank (Mick you’re an inspiration) and I put it down to his daily attitude which was abundant in the all powerful tool called ‘optimism’. Every sales call was a step closer to a ‘yes’, every ‘no’ from a customer created an opportunity for an upswing, a ‘yes’. Every person I met who new this guy loved this guy. He oozed optimism and this tool he wielded like a sword caused revolutions in money making.

A tool I was thinking about today that prompted this post is the ‘filter’. I decided I needed a tool to cut down on my notes and email writing. My filter was weak, I needed a better one. When I looked at my pipeline of email, RSS, meeting notes and brainwave scribbles it was scary. So I got rid of my notepad (a method to hold this revolutionary action in place). I’ve decided to test my memory out as my new filter. If it’s really important, really necessary then I’ll remember it and put it into Trac (support/bug system), my calender, or send of an email immediately to the relevant person for fear of forgetting. So this cuts out my note taking, which otherwise would need re-keying and accordingly would clog up my to do list. It would mean more and more B-list to do’s that in many cases shouldn’t make it. A-list only, just like Paris

Anyway I’ll let you know how it goes. I will drop this new filter if it doesn’t work. At least I will have explored the option for long term advantage. A ‘free 30 day trial on an efficiency tool’ if you like

I find that when a list is used for planning my day I get a lot more done. The most unproductive days in my life are random unplanned ones. However at the same time they create expectation about how much I should have done once the day was over versus the actual outcome. This can lead to disappointment and the worst emotion of all, guilt.

The To Do List Hot Tip

I was taught a great tip that when I heard it it was like an epiphany. Mark the items on you list that you plan NOT to do in the immediate future. Yes it works, it takes all that expectation and guilt away leaving only those items on your list that you will honestly have a chance of attending to in the immediate future. It’s so simple and perfect.

My derivative version of this tip

I just have a short list on my desktop of the things I’d like to get done today. I’m into simplicity and order. I guess it is one of the reasons I like Japanese gardens. The rest of my to do’s are in our Trac system for work related ones or in a Google Docs spreadsheet for all my home and family things.

It doesn’t have to be on paper

I like mental lists. On weekends a paper list feels like a list of chores, something that has power over me. Mental lists are better in my opinion. I’ll go over it several times a day. “Ok, what’s next, if i do ‘x’ now then ‘y’ will take half as long” etc.

Saturday night I got a call from a friend. “Let’s go fishing”, he said. I knew I had a lot to do around home on Sunday so this invite compelled me to get a mental list together of how I could make that day a success. I was going to have to pack a lot into 16 hours. So I did my mental list. Go fishing, clean the house, do some hard landscaping and swim with the kids. It might not sound like much but the landscaping was a lot of work. I got it all done but best of all I did extra things like putting the washing away and going for another swim/spa before bed. I bet if they were on my list I wouldn’t have got to it or if I didn’t quite get to do them I would have been disappointed.

Side Note: There’s nothing more satisfying than packing a lot into a day. I liken it to the difference between being in the stands at a football game versus being on the field playing in the game. The difference is participating fully in life.

You MUST have fun things on your lists

If your list is about stuff you have to do and don’t really want to do your doomed to fail completing things on your list when planned. Fun things on your list bring balance to the list. After all, it is your life you are doing!

I posted my thoughts on interruptions in business life today on our Saasu Blog. If you feel the barrage of interruptions like I often do then take refuge in my post called Business Interruptus. Better still get the RSS into your reader or homepage of choice and you won’t miss my posts there.