For the past week I've been trying to avoid checking email a bazillion times per day (because it derails me from important tasks at hand) and trying to defer my news/blog/Internet surfing habits until the end of the day when it won't fragment my attention and slow me down at work.
I've determined a couple of things...
1. It's probably not feasible for me to check email only twice per day (in my current employment status), because often I send requests to others and expect follow-up fairly promptly. In other words, my cycle time is greatly increased by a strict twice-per-day regimen, so much so that I'd risk failing to complete some important work objectives if I adhered to that.
HOWEVER, I can say that I am going to adopt a policy of not looking at my inbox first thing in the morning - I want to get settled into the office and at least begin working on my couple of "top priorities" for the day before I even allow myself a peek at what's lurking over there. I've found that this helps me preserve the freshest part of my day (mentally speaking) for the most important tasks.
2. A Low-Information Diet is tough to maintain when you're shackled to a desk, and when you have downtime/wait-time built into your work function. It's really tempting to jump over to personal email or check the news or blogs while you're waiting for a batch process to run in the accounting system, for instance. What else am I gonna do, stare at the wall? Unfortunately, what starts as a "I'll just check this thing real quick..." sometimes morphs into a "what was I doing again?" thirty minutes later.
I think the benefit of this exercise has been to raise my awareness of the little in-between slivers of time that I should be filling with productive activities instead of time-passers (time-wasters). I'm not sure that there are enough tasks I could queue up to fill in those little gaps, but the potential of getting two or three little things wedged in there could spell at least a few percentage points of increase in overall productivity.
I'd like to have a computer interface that would allow me to kind of "hang" a process or group of windows together when I have wait time like that. In my mind I envision it being on a plate, and I'd set some things in motion, then push the plate away for a while. I'd pay attention to another plate for a while, and then when I'm ready to return to the first plate, everything is kind of where I left it.
The problem is that spatially, everything is in overlapping windows on a 2D computer screen... I want some way to have everything laid out like it's on a desk, so I can file it or bring it up visually in one coherent task, thus aiding my mind in switching gears back into what I was doing.
I feel a computer OS project coming on...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Rules for Driving
If there is one area in my life where I'm a Jekyll and Hyde character, it's when I get behind the wheel of a car. I swear, I think there's a brain inhibitor built into everyone else's vehicle (but not mine, of course). If there's one time in life that I'm most likely to utter an expletive, it's while driving... in fact, that's probably one time I'm guaranteed to utter several expletives. May God have mercy on my soul.
In view of this morning's commute to work, I feel like I need to toss some general advice out into the ether that is "the blogosphere". I have no readers on this blog as yet, but maybe future generations will someday look back and learn from my wisdom. Or something.
Rule 1: Nobody dies. Wrecks are bad, and therefore behavior that is likely to be wreck-inducing should be avoided. No talking on your cell phone, texting, putting on makeup, making love, or eating breakfast while driving. Please.
Rule 2: Everyone's goal in traffic should be to move along while creating as little disruption of other drivers as possible. If you're driving so slowly that there's a stack of cars piled up behind you more than two deep, you're a dumbass and you either need to speed up or move over. If you're driving 20mph faster than everyone and weaving across two or three lanes at a time, you're a dumbass and you need to slow down or get some time management skills under your belt so you can leave the house earlier.
Rule 3: Use your mirrors. You are responsible for knowing what's going on. The dad of a friend of mine in High School used to quiz him when he was learning to drive. He'd reach up and tweak the rear view mirror so my friend couldn't see behind him anymore and ask him what kind of car was behind him, and sometimes what kind of car was behind and to the right or left. I like the spirit of that test - do you know what's going on around you, not just right in front of you?
Rule 4: When you see someone making a move in traffic, let them make it. This is partly a corollary of Rule 2. The assumption here is that anyone who's changing lanes too close to your bumper or speeding and weaving traffic is completely oblivious to Rule 1, and so your best bet at fulfilling Rule 1 is to chill out and help restore general stability and safety to the flow of traffic. You are free to utter expletives at said oblivious driver. Also, I frequently break this rule ("I saw you speeding and weaving way back there you bastard, so I'm gonna sit right next to this granny and drive niiiice and slow just to hold you up...").
Rule 5: Merge early. I'm convinced that half of the road rage on this planet could be avoided if those jerks who drive all the way to the orange cones and then wedge their way into the line would just quit that nonsense. I mean, really, where else in life is that behavior acceptable? Would these people try that at the bank? The grocery store? Again with the time management...
In view of this morning's commute to work, I feel like I need to toss some general advice out into the ether that is "the blogosphere". I have no readers on this blog as yet, but maybe future generations will someday look back and learn from my wisdom. Or something.
Rule 1: Nobody dies. Wrecks are bad, and therefore behavior that is likely to be wreck-inducing should be avoided. No talking on your cell phone, texting, putting on makeup, making love, or eating breakfast while driving. Please.
Rule 2: Everyone's goal in traffic should be to move along while creating as little disruption of other drivers as possible. If you're driving so slowly that there's a stack of cars piled up behind you more than two deep, you're a dumbass and you either need to speed up or move over. If you're driving 20mph faster than everyone and weaving across two or three lanes at a time, you're a dumbass and you need to slow down or get some time management skills under your belt so you can leave the house earlier.
Rule 3: Use your mirrors. You are responsible for knowing what's going on. The dad of a friend of mine in High School used to quiz him when he was learning to drive. He'd reach up and tweak the rear view mirror so my friend couldn't see behind him anymore and ask him what kind of car was behind him, and sometimes what kind of car was behind and to the right or left. I like the spirit of that test - do you know what's going on around you, not just right in front of you?
Rule 4: When you see someone making a move in traffic, let them make it. This is partly a corollary of Rule 2. The assumption here is that anyone who's changing lanes too close to your bumper or speeding and weaving traffic is completely oblivious to Rule 1, and so your best bet at fulfilling Rule 1 is to chill out and help restore general stability and safety to the flow of traffic. You are free to utter expletives at said oblivious driver. Also, I frequently break this rule ("I saw you speeding and weaving way back there you bastard, so I'm gonna sit right next to this granny and drive niiiice and slow just to hold you up...").
Rule 5: Merge early. I'm convinced that half of the road rage on this planet could be avoided if those jerks who drive all the way to the orange cones and then wedge their way into the line would just quit that nonsense. I mean, really, where else in life is that behavior acceptable? Would these people try that at the bank? The grocery store? Again with the time management...
On Blog Naming
Someone asked me why I chose the blog name that I did. Simply put:
Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina (Everything sounds better in Latin)
I don't speak Latin by any means (unless igpay atinlay counts), so my syntax is probably off from the Latin to English. But I don't care.
Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latina (Everything sounds better in Latin)
I don't speak Latin by any means (unless igpay atinlay counts), so my syntax is probably off from the Latin to English. But I don't care.
Are you Special or General?
The way to amass great wealth in the present day seems to be Specialization. Think about it: all the top people in their fields - movie stars, surgeons, athletes, politicians, accountants (just kidding, no one cares about accountants) - command the highest salaries or wield the greatest amount of power. If my goal, then, is to be rich or powerful, I think the formula is pretty simple: pick a field, and be the absolute best in that field. This is not to say that the journey toward becoming the best will not require sacrifice and discipline, or that it won't result in failure - I said the formula was simple, not the accomplishment of the formula.
But what if the goal is not wealth accumulation? What if the goal is survival? In that case, I propose that the key is not Specialization, but rather Generalization. If there are likely to be shifts in the environment that could endanger the stability of your Special field of expertise, rendering it obsolete, you may be better off having many fields to choose from. The "Jack of all trades, master of none" might manage to adapt and survive due to his moderate experience in many things when the specialist's niche dries up.
Think about it this way: if it takes ten thousand hours of dedication to achieve elite status, but only one thousand hours (that's about half a year's full-time dedication) to reach the top quartile of proficiency (or even the top half - who knows what's best?), then a "Jack of All Trades" could become moderately proficient in ten times the number of fields of a Specialist.
To take it a step further - and I hope I don't sprain your brain here - what if one were to Specialize in Generalizing? In other words, what if I make becoming moderately proficient in many things my goal? Say, invest one thousand hours in something and then put it on the shelf and start on something new.
I think the amount of time needed to reach top quartile proficiency would gradually decrease - as with any repeated action, the activity of learning and dissecting a brand new concept or vocation would get more efficient. There are probably a whole crap ton of assumptions that go into that thought (that the activities are similar enough to allow for that kind of efficiency gain, for instance), but if the payoff is increased survivability, why not give it a shot?
I have read (I'll be darned if I can find the link though) that some of the greatest innovations come when people change fields - a physicist who begins to study biology, for instance, may be able to draw insights that solve problems or increase understanding in both fields.
At any rate, I have learned a thing or two about myself in my third of a century's experience: I like novelty, and I like competition. Therefore, I think that if I can find a venue that provides consistently novel problems, ideas, facts, or challenges, coupled with an element of competition, I'll be in heaven.
But what if the goal is not wealth accumulation? What if the goal is survival? In that case, I propose that the key is not Specialization, but rather Generalization. If there are likely to be shifts in the environment that could endanger the stability of your Special field of expertise, rendering it obsolete, you may be better off having many fields to choose from. The "Jack of all trades, master of none" might manage to adapt and survive due to his moderate experience in many things when the specialist's niche dries up.
Think about it this way: if it takes ten thousand hours of dedication to achieve elite status, but only one thousand hours (that's about half a year's full-time dedication) to reach the top quartile of proficiency (or even the top half - who knows what's best?), then a "Jack of All Trades" could become moderately proficient in ten times the number of fields of a Specialist.
To take it a step further - and I hope I don't sprain your brain here - what if one were to Specialize in Generalizing? In other words, what if I make becoming moderately proficient in many things my goal? Say, invest one thousand hours in something and then put it on the shelf and start on something new.
I think the amount of time needed to reach top quartile proficiency would gradually decrease - as with any repeated action, the activity of learning and dissecting a brand new concept or vocation would get more efficient. There are probably a whole crap ton of assumptions that go into that thought (that the activities are similar enough to allow for that kind of efficiency gain, for instance), but if the payoff is increased survivability, why not give it a shot?
I have read (I'll be darned if I can find the link though) that some of the greatest innovations come when people change fields - a physicist who begins to study biology, for instance, may be able to draw insights that solve problems or increase understanding in both fields.
At any rate, I have learned a thing or two about myself in my third of a century's experience: I like novelty, and I like competition. Therefore, I think that if I can find a venue that provides consistently novel problems, ideas, facts, or challenges, coupled with an element of competition, I'll be in heaven.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Polyphasic Sleep Schedule - Shifting Gears
During the week of Thanksgiving I took a few vacation days so that I could have nine straight days off of work. I observed, as I've noted before, that a Polyphasic Sleep Schedule is a kind of unstable equilibrium - you can stay on it, but it takes some attention and a little effort.
During my vacation I pretty much let both go completely. As a result, by the end of the week I was pretty much back to a Monophasic schedule, and didn't really feel much urge to nap during the day.
I was of course curious to see if there would be any challenge to switching back. The real question, once Monday rolled around and I was back to reality: to Polyphase, or not to Polyphase?
I chose to Polyphase, if for no other reason than to test whether the transition would be easy or hard.
Thankfully, I found it quite easy. In fact, my Noon and 5pm naps on Monday were two of the most superb 20-minute naps I think I've had in a long while... perhaps the best since the beginning of the experiment.
I do wonder whether it would have been a tougher transition had I been Monophasic for, say, a month before trying to switch back. I seem to recall that Steve Pavlina wanted to try switching back to a Polyphasic schedule, but I don't know if he ever tried.
During my vacation I pretty much let both go completely. As a result, by the end of the week I was pretty much back to a Monophasic schedule, and didn't really feel much urge to nap during the day.
I was of course curious to see if there would be any challenge to switching back. The real question, once Monday rolled around and I was back to reality: to Polyphase, or not to Polyphase?
I chose to Polyphase, if for no other reason than to test whether the transition would be easy or hard.
Thankfully, I found it quite easy. In fact, my Noon and 5pm naps on Monday were two of the most superb 20-minute naps I think I've had in a long while... perhaps the best since the beginning of the experiment.
I do wonder whether it would have been a tougher transition had I been Monophasic for, say, a month before trying to switch back. I seem to recall that Steve Pavlina wanted to try switching back to a Polyphasic schedule, but I don't know if he ever tried.
I Feel Like a New Man
Every now and then I end up folding laundry. (I have a kick ass wife who usually does it for me - stay at home Mom's are the shiz, fo sho.) But when I find myself folding laundry, particularly socks, I'm confronted with an unfortunate state of nature.
Very seldom do all my socks wear out at once. There's the one pair that's been tucked away at the bottom of my drawer, so it never leaves the queue... it's pristine, like it's just from the package. Then there's the others in varying states of wear. When I find one with a hole or an irreparable stain, I throw it out. Eventually, I start running low on socks, so I have to go buy some.
But I'm kinda cheap when it comes to my socks, so I usually just get whatever's on sale at Wal-Mart. The end result, then, is that I have a drawer full of similar-but-not-quite-identical athletic socks. Pretty much all white, low-cut types. This isn't really a problem, except that it's a pain in the arse to find a matching pair when you're folding the laundry. Who wants to spend 10 minutes rifling through the hamper trying to play mix-and-match?
So this week I made an executive decision: I threw out every pair of athletic and black dress socks I owned, and replaced them en masse with new ones.
It's amazing how such a little thing could bring so much joy... but it's got me thinking - are there other hidden areas of life where I apply the same logic? Do I spin my wheels on things of little or no significance in the name of saving a couple of dollars?
For instance, do I spend an extra ten minutes and five miles of driving to get to the "cheap" gas station? Is it really worth it for the net $0.50 savings? Not remotely... I think a future experiment could be brewing somewhere in all of this, but I need to percolate on it a while first.
Very seldom do all my socks wear out at once. There's the one pair that's been tucked away at the bottom of my drawer, so it never leaves the queue... it's pristine, like it's just from the package. Then there's the others in varying states of wear. When I find one with a hole or an irreparable stain, I throw it out. Eventually, I start running low on socks, so I have to go buy some.
But I'm kinda cheap when it comes to my socks, so I usually just get whatever's on sale at Wal-Mart. The end result, then, is that I have a drawer full of similar-but-not-quite-identical athletic socks. Pretty much all white, low-cut types. This isn't really a problem, except that it's a pain in the arse to find a matching pair when you're folding the laundry. Who wants to spend 10 minutes rifling through the hamper trying to play mix-and-match?
So this week I made an executive decision: I threw out every pair of athletic and black dress socks I owned, and replaced them en masse with new ones.
It's amazing how such a little thing could bring so much joy... but it's got me thinking - are there other hidden areas of life where I apply the same logic? Do I spin my wheels on things of little or no significance in the name of saving a couple of dollars?
For instance, do I spend an extra ten minutes and five miles of driving to get to the "cheap" gas station? Is it really worth it for the net $0.50 savings? Not remotely... I think a future experiment could be brewing somewhere in all of this, but I need to percolate on it a while first.
4-Hour Workweek?
Over the past week or so I've been reading Tim Ferriss' "The 4-Hour Workweek". Though I'm not completely sold on everything Timmy has to say, I will admit that there are many thought-provoking tidbits in there...
So as I travel down the path of continuous improvement in my personal and career lives, I'm implementing the following activities as this week's experiment:
1. I've shut off my email auto send/receive function - the goal here is to check email only twice per day, thus eliminating the endless gear-changing that fragments my attention and keeps me unproductive.
2. I'm going on the low-information diet - all the blogs and B.S. that I normally fill in between major tasks during the day are put on hold until the evening, hopefully helping me get in the habit of working on my one or two "big goals" for the day until completion.
I will say that the no-email-checking thing is really hard. The upside is that I'm realizing how frequently I have been alt-tabbing over to gmail or work email just to see if there's anything there.
Additionally, at least once per day I confess I tab over to email with a specific purpose, "Gotta send these numbers to Bob..." - and when I see my inbox, there's about 5-10 emails sitting there. Of course I quickly scan them and end up seeing a couple of responses on things I've been waiting for, so I read those. Then the responses generate more questions or to-dos, so I handle that. And then... what the hell was I doing checking email again? Oh well. Must be getting senile. So I tab back over to Excel and "D'oh! Gotta send these numbers to Bob..."
If this scenario seems familiar to you, I suggest turning off your auto-receive for emails and take back one small piece of your sanity.
So as I travel down the path of continuous improvement in my personal and career lives, I'm implementing the following activities as this week's experiment:
1. I've shut off my email auto send/receive function - the goal here is to check email only twice per day, thus eliminating the endless gear-changing that fragments my attention and keeps me unproductive.
2. I'm going on the low-information diet - all the blogs and B.S. that I normally fill in between major tasks during the day are put on hold until the evening, hopefully helping me get in the habit of working on my one or two "big goals" for the day until completion.
I will say that the no-email-checking thing is really hard. The upside is that I'm realizing how frequently I have been alt-tabbing over to gmail or work email just to see if there's anything there.
Additionally, at least once per day I confess I tab over to email with a specific purpose, "Gotta send these numbers to Bob..." - and when I see my inbox, there's about 5-10 emails sitting there. Of course I quickly scan them and end up seeing a couple of responses on things I've been waiting for, so I read those. Then the responses generate more questions or to-dos, so I handle that. And then... what the hell was I doing checking email again? Oh well. Must be getting senile. So I tab back over to Excel and "D'oh! Gotta send these numbers to Bob..."
If this scenario seems familiar to you, I suggest turning off your auto-receive for emails and take back one small piece of your sanity.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Welcome
Welcome!
As the name implies, this blog is aimed at chronicling the progress and outcomes of various personal experiments - both mine and others'. I hope that over time these experiments will cover a wide variety of life's facets... which is to say that I try a lot of weird crap.
Above all I just hope that someone out there in teh Internets will learn a thing or two from these experiences.
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