New Year, New Focus

Happy new year, everyone!  After an enjoyable break the week and a half or so, I’m jumping into the new year which, for me, means lots of reflecting and planning for the future.

I’ve read a couple of awesome books in the past couple of weeks and will be posting reviews here in the next week.  Meanwhile, if you’re prone to setting goals at this time of year, here are a few randomly selected resources to get your juices flowing:

1. If you’ve written your resolutions but are concerned about keeping them, you owe it to yourself to read the (always insightful) Gretchen Rubin’s post on the magic formula for keeping your New Year’s resolutions.
2. If becoming more physically fit is on your list, you can get a free (and equipment-free) regimen that is just excellent at the “hundred pushups” site.
3. In the only post I wrote during my absence, I have an idea for how to make two lists to increase your productive focus in 2009.  It’s over on Joyful Jubilant Learning.
4. Finally, you’ve procrastinated this long (or are just prolonging the experience) there are some “best practices” for setting resolutions at Persistence Unlimited that may help.

Here’s to an awesome 2009!

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Link sharing (December 22, 2008)

Here are some links of interest I’ve gathered in the past 24 hours, as shared on Twitter (you can follow me, if you like).

• Mahalo Follow: A fantastic way to share links (like this one) on Twitter.: http://tinyurl.com/2by5mt
• iPhone Applications for Increased Productivity: http://tinyurl.com/455lp3
• Excellent tips for Navigating Through Volatile Times from Andrew Sherman on Phil Gerbyshak’s blog: http://tinyurl.com/8zg8fv
• Horrible layoff "code words" - an analysis by David Zinger: http://tinyurl.com/7gh42z
• Liz Strauss has an awesome list of "Twitter best practices" and people that use them.: http://tinyurl.com/9f85ut
• Nice analysis of Intranet tools that are like Twitter.: http://tinyurl.com/66tewa
• John Richardson gives away free Word templates to drive your success.  Check it out: http://tinyurl.com/8swrgh

I’m just getting more active in sharing links via Twitter – what do you think?  Leave a comment with your feedback.

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Work the System

I’ve been reading “Work the System – The Simple Mechanics of Working Less and Making More," by Sam Carpenter.  Sam is now a successful entrepreneur, but was once a struggling entrepreneur.  In this book, he shares some of the war stories, revelations, and techniques he’s used to go from a frustrated, overworked business owner to one that works a lot less but still gets more done.

The book is interesting in its style, in that Sam takes you through his learning process and thoughts by reliving key moments in his business and personal life.  I can definitely identify with some of the painful experiences he relates – and his description of the business equivalent of the game “Whack-a-Mole.”

Along the way, he presents some common sense techniques that will help small business owners build foundational capabilities that will keep their businesses on the rails and enable a continuous improvement approach.  If you’re already successful in your business, you probably have some of this nailed already.  Even so, it’s interesting to “try on” Sam’s perspective of dealing with the business as a set of “black boxes” that can be managed and improved in a compartmentalized fashion.  Though this notion is presented as a profound shift in thinking, I believe it is an accepted, proven model (of course, that may be because I already see the world through a “systems thinking” lens).

This book will be useful for new entrepreneurs and business owners who feel they are stuck on the “work harder, work faster” treadmill and who feel like they just can’t get ahead in spite of a solid business idea.

Bonus:  There is a free Work The System quiz you can take after reading the book to ensure that you grok the critical concepts.

Additional resources to add more value

Beyond the book, I discovered a number of complementary – and very useful - blog posts on  on Sam Carpenter's section of the "Startup Nation" blog.  There are also some free teleseminar replays that will give you more information on Sam’s views of working the system.

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Life by remote control

This week in the Portland, Oregon area we’ve had some crummy weather and it’s been difficult to get out and about due to snow and ice.  As a result, I’ve developed a new appreciation for things I can do remotely.  Some examples:

• Get my bills:  Most of my bills can be viewed or received online now.  With mail delays, this is very good (and I don’t have to walk down the street to the mailbox when it’s crummy outside).
• Pay my bills:  Through my bank’s online bill pay service, I can pay my bills without leaving the house.  I also have a number of them set up for “autopay,” which is a big help.
• Work from home:  The nature of my job is such that I can handle phone calls, web-based meetings, project collaboration, and so forth anyplace I can get a high-speed internet connection.  Very useful (in fact, I think I’m sometimes *more* productive when I work from home).
• Do my Christmas shopping:  Thanks to Amazon Prime, I have been able to do almost all of my Christmas gift shopping from the comfort of my own home – and I get free, 2-day shipping on most items.  They’ll even gift wrap for you.  Talk about a stress reliever.

Most of this wasn’t possible until relatively recently, and I’m sure glad we can do them now.

There are still some things that you can’t do remotely, of course, but these things have been amazingly helpful this week.  The other things I’ve learned from my weather constraints this week include:

• Weather forecasting is an inexact science, even with all our cool technology.
• I really appreciate regular garbage pickup.
• I really enjoy having heat and high-speed internet.
• My newspaper carrier is awesome – hasn’t missed a day!
• Even though I can work from home, I enjoy seeing people face to face at the office.

What about you – any things you do remotely to make your life easier?

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Related items

• Outsourcing my drudgery
• Amazon Prime is awesome

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Hey- look over there!

Yesterday, I posted an article on the JJL site called “Where’s the fire?” and it is starting to gather some excellent advice in the form of comments.  Go check it out – and stay tuned for a review later this week of an awesome book I’m finishing up – I’ll be posting it here on this blog.

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New Year’s Resolution: No more mystery chargers

OK, so sometimes I’m slow.  I’ve had an excellent Brother label make(the linked one at home, and an older one at work) for a looong time now.  I started using one in 2002 when I first drank the Getting Things Done elixir, I believe.  And I’ve had a ridiculous number of chargers and power adapters for even longer.

But it just dawned on me that I can actually use my label maker to mark my power adapters so I don’t:

• throw one away because I don’t know what it’s for (yes, I’ve done that);
• unplug the wrong one while crawling around under the desk (yes, I’ve done that);
• accidentally bring the wrong charger with me on a trip (and I’ve done that once, as well).

So from this point forward, one of my resolutions is to label my power adapters when I first acquire them. 

Learning the hard way is still learning…

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