Showing up

I hear all the time that we live in a "service economy." But that doesn't necessarily mean the service you get is very good.

I was hanging out with several co-workers the other day, and they started comparing horror stories about dealing with general contractors. One guy's contractor lied about having permits for some work he did on their house (litigation ensued). Another had a contractor take his deposit and then file bankruptcy.

Another story kind of summed it up for me, though. My friend wanted to have a room added on to his house, but he had heard about problems with contractors so he decided he'd be really careful. He spent a lot of time interviewing and checking references on contractors. Eventually, he narrowed the list down to two different guys:

One who cited his experience, the quality of his work, his attention to detail, and his ability to create a distinctive room for them.

The second, who basically said, "I'll show up and I'll do a good job."

My friend went with the experienced guy who promised to create a distinctive room for them. Things got off to a good start, but a couple of days into the job, the contractor didn't turn up. Over the course of the next few weeks, he came by a few times for a few hours but didn't make much progress. My friend hounded and hounded the guy. No luck.

Finally, he terminated the contract with the first guy, and called the second guy. Guy #2 came to his house every day until he finished the room, and did a good job.

Promises can sound really cool, but at the end of the day there's a lot of value in just showing up and doing a good job.

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Being unavailable in a high availability world

This past weekend I went undercover. Well, sort of.

You see, I've been looking at how I spend my time - time diaries, workflow analysis, that sort of thing. (If you want to do a time audit on yourself, I highly recommend Steve Pavlina's article on "How To Triple Your Personal Productivity")

I've been traveling around 80% of the time for the past couple of months, and decided that this past weekend I would do home chores and things with the family for a change. So, I left my laptop in my bag, I left my Treo 600 on the cabinet connected to the charger, and I disconnected.

It was kind of odd, but I think it helped me recharge, as well. It was good in a lot of different ways. For example, I spent some relaxing, fun time with my kids. And my wife's van fits in the garage again for the first time in ages (that was an enduring fixture on my Someday/Maybe list).

I think I'll plan on "no tech weekends" more often.

P.S. The email didn't miss me, as far as I can tell.

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Want to go home early?

As promised (OK, so I decided to spend the weekend with the family without my computer, so this is later than expected) here is my take on Laura Stack's book "Leave The Office Earlier." The premise of this book is very similar to lots of others you may have read: organize and prioritize your life, and you'll get more done and have more time for fun.

What set this one apart for me was that it reads like a "best practice" collection from a bunch of other sources. I recognized tips and tricks that were similar to those found in David Allen's Getting Things Done, Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and various other books I've read. It also has some of the self-assessment and energy level awareness aspects found in online tools like ThinkTQ.

If you are like me, you like to have various perspectives on things like productivity, and end up "rolling your own" by mixing and matching the parts that work for you.

Whether Laura Stack meant to or not, her book happens to bring together a lot of the aspects I really liked from the various sources I've read. And she's added a lot of practical exercises and different, insightful twists on those things. That's why I classify this work as a best practice collection.

Why don't you give it a try? Let me know how it goes.

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Not alone...

Good perspective on "falling off the wagon" with GTD over on "Open Loops", particularly with regard to assessing where you are. I find that you're never as far off as you think, but that doesn't always make it easy to get back on the path.

The advantage of following these methodologies is that there are a lot of kindred souls to learn from.

I'm reading yet another couple of books that I think can add to the "community of practice" on this. Will be finishing them up on a cross-county trek tomorrow, so look for a summary by the weekend.

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Cleaner, brighter...and fresher smelling.

Check out this post on Slacker Manager that talks about how to use Febreze to increase your productivity in the office - who knew that's what the "sweet smell of success" was all about?

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What if there was a Sarbanes-Oxley Act for how you manage your life?

I work with a lot of companies who are changing how they operate because of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. These companies are being asked to do a lot of things to hold them accountabe for how they use company resources to maintain and increase the value of shareholders, then report accurately on the results.

On my latest cross-country flight, I was wondering what it'd be like if I were suddenly forced to be scrutinized by an independent auditor. If I were held accountable for attesting to how I've been using my time and energy, then report accurately on the results of those efforts, how would I fare?.

OK, so maybe that's kind of an odd way to look at it, but it sure helped me take a different view on life management.

I think, like the companies I work with, that I'd really struggle to get there. And, like those companies, I might be tempted to look for a quick fix to the problem.

How about you?

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