43 Things are WAY too many

The next test is a wonderful social networking todo list site called 43Things. I went there expecting a typical social networking site and got one. And I'm NOT a social networker. I like to complain and harass the people I know. However, I got quickly hooked. So I wandered around. Read the FAQ. Looked at one of the site owner/authors 43 things and became inspired to read more books. Easy enough. I get stuck in the rut of reading magazines and work stuff only. So, it was easy to add it to my list directly from his. Wow. Nice. At the bottom of the goal page is a place to report similar goals. One of the cool things about 43Things is that you see how many people are working on the same goal, read their blog entries, cheer them on, etc. Then I noticed that one could add a challenge to ones goal. So I did it. Easy enough. I've already finished my January book and I can't say I would have without 43Things.

I added a few more goals (note that they should be showing up in the column to your right) and then decided to look around more. There is a very nice summary page. Recent blog entries, list of things to do, at the bottom a summary of other stuff; 43places.com for places to go, 43people.com for meeting interesting people, allconsuming.net and listsofbests.com for lists of books, music, movies, etc. to complete.

One of my goals (and something I also put on JoesGoals, is to learn French. I added it to 43Things and I was amazed at how quickly I got a reply to my Learn French Fluently init blog post. I actually encouraged me to try another learning source and I am! So the rub is that anything that helps one get the important stuff done is GOOD. So far, all three sites do this and I refuse to make my choices yet.

Next I went to the other sites I mentioned that show up at the bottom of most pages. I added a list of books at listsofbests.com. That'll take forever. Allconsuming.com is NOT as logical as the others. Hard to find what one is looking for so I just left it alone. Enough for one day.

All in all I already can highly recommend this place. Only time will tell if it's one that I keep using.

Co-op America

I belong to this organization, and although I don't agree with everything they produce, this particular article about nuclear energy (or nucular if you are a big shot politician) peaked my interest. "Solar power, wind power, geothermal, hybrid and electric cars, and aggressive energy efficiency are climate solutions that are safer, cheaper, faster, more secure, and less wasteful than nuclear power. Our country needs a massive influx of investment in these solutions if we are to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, and we want you – our 60,000 e-activists – to help us lead the charge for green energy – a safe, prosperous energy future."

Habit Forming Part Deux - Joe's Goals

So here I am a few weeks later and I find myself thoroughly thrilled with "Don't Break The Chain." It's simplicity is the key. Don't underestimate this bit. You might notice I missed Qi Gong on 1/12/08. Well, as you can imagine, THAT lead to a lengthy discussion with myself, and even with Jeff at one point, about mitigation; how I might erase the miss to keep the chain going. The chain had already become so important I was willing to circumvent it's inherent simplicity just too keep it going. I could do a full 2 hour session to make up for it. How about 'enter your favorite penance here' to allow me to mark that day as not missed? What an idiot! One cannot change a missed day with anything. It's gone forever. From that I learned. DBTC is made for those tasks that one wants to make a habit. Yes, I knew that weeks ago, but now it's sunk in.

Summary: I LOVE this tool and will continue to use it while testing the others.

So, off to try the next on the list; Joes Goals. Another elegant and simple approach not so much for getting stuff done, but for creating change in one's life. It's so simple in fact that there is no documentation anywhere. You learn by using it. It took me about five minutes to see everything. He's got some really nice coding in there. Call it Web 2.0? It does what you expect, when you expect. The major differences between JG & DBTC are that with JG one can see more than one goal at one time and that Negative Goals can be set; e.g. "Don't eat fast food." The display one can post on a blog (look to the right) or iGoogle isn't quite as nice. You have to go to the website to make updates. This is one thing I like much better about DBTC. So, since I don't want to add more actual every day have to do things, I'm going to use it for two things I want to make sure to do several days per week. Neither tool does this well (maybe one of the next ones on the list?) Joe's Goals DOES allow one to set which days of the week the task must be done, but that isn't what any of the items on my "I wish I could really do all this stuff all the time" list. So we'll fake it. I study French. My goal is several times a week and I'll track my actual days. I'm also trying some eye exercise techniques from Deepak Chopra's Perfect Health. Wow. What a great book and CD that is.

Why do we have CFOs?

Okay, yes... I am on a rant about the cream of the superfluos crop in top heavy organizations. What struck me after a meeting with one of my client CFOs was-- what does this guy do all day?!? Sure, in the beginning of the company you need a money guy but really-- once your bank accounts and GL are all set up and you've decided between the Marvel Comics and the CareBears check stock what is there left for this guy (or gal) to do? All the accounting rules are published, executed by software and if there is any question the auditors generally tell you what you have to do. I mean, in any other department, be it IT, Engineering, Sales, etc you can envision a problem needing to escalate to the senior expert in charge. Then, like a zen master they make the tough call based on years of experience what architecture, material, or distributor to use. But what kind of crisis happens in the accounting department? "Stan- what the hell are we going to do with the cost of importing the widget packaging?!?!". "I don't know Susan! We could put it in this GL account or maybe that one". "I know... it's like, it could go in this bucket OR that bucket, Stan but how do we tell? There is nothing on GAAP to guide us!" "Do you think we should take this to the big guy?!?" "Yeah, we had better... just think of the consequences if we put it in the WRONG bucket... I mean, we'd be there in the audit and some 24 year old auditor would say THIS COST SHOULDN'T BE HERE!!! and we'd be like "Oh no... what should we do?!?" and he would be like, "Put it over there!" and so then we would have to move all those amounts from the wrong bucket to the right bucket". "Oh my God Stan, has that ever happened?!?" "Yes, I've seen it-- it's called a Journal Entry...scary". "Yeah, scary... better go ask the big guy".

The bottom line here (like the way I toss about accounting phrases like a pro) is that Finance folks come in AFTER the stuff has happened. Even if there are money problems they aren't the ones that make or lose the money (Enron excepted). I'm not saying there aren't smart and dumb things to do with your money but with the software doing all the tracking, reporting, check printing and signing I suggest you dump your senior bean counter in favor of quarterly visits to your auditing firm. The exception to this is if you truly need someone to blame for your company's poor performance, lies to investors, etc then you should keep your CFO around as cannon fodder for the criminal phase of the trial. C'mon-- they're a tough bunch. Prison won't change them...even if Bubba has a completly different concept of what it's like to make a 'journal entry'. Just my 2 cents ;->

HR Managers-- the corporate game show hosts

Did the self-evident truth of the title come down on you like this ton-of-bricks revelation hit me today?!? After reading the zillionth canned email from an HR guy announcing new employees it finally struck me that no, HR managers aren't devoid of personalities as is generally agreed, they are instead infused with this plastic personna molded directly from the image of Wink Martindale. How could I not have seen this before?!? (perhaps it is the clarity that comes from NOT being in the office 8 hours a day and watching an occasional game show in my retirement from corporate whoredom). I think it was the cheery little bio-background section of the email that made it click; "Mr Manson comes to us from Southern California where he lives with his large family and enjoys many outdoor and indoor activities including carving and group camp outs". The game show people realized years ago that if the audience could identify with a contestant they would get more involved in the game and be less likely to miss the commericals for crap they didn't need. Why the heck do they feel the need to do this in business?!? Is it right for them to announce to the world if the new recruit is married? "Sheila is single, works late, and frequently walks to her car unaccompanied-- no one would probably miss her if one of you lunatics...." But I digress-- this entry isn't so much about the crap HR people write but the crappy personalities they seem to nurse along year after year. Check out the silver haired HR people-- the permanent smile on the faces no matter what the business situation. Smack one in the head (don't do this untill you are really in a position to retire AND have a good attorney OR really good dirt on them) and listen to the response. It's as if pulling a string on an in-action figure: "Jeff, I am uncomfortable with your taking physical action against me and request you stop immediately. If you continue I will be forced to arrange a meeting between myself, the HR Manager (my other self), and your next level of management to identify the corrective behavior required. Respectfully and in a non-gender-specific way, Yours". It's scary, but you really could just swap any HR person and any game show host at a moment's notice and NO ONE would notice the difference. Don't think so? Well look at the job descriptions and tell me what I am missing:

HR Guy: Announces new employees with quick bio
Wink Martindale: Announces new contestents with quick bio

HR Guy: Always the most over-dressed in the room
Wink Martindale: Always the most over-dressed in the room

Wink Martindale: Constantly restates the obvious game rules
(really, the one with MOST points wins?!?)
HR Guy: Constantly re-states the obvious policies
(really, we can't bring in firearms?!?!)

Wink Martindale: Master of fake sympathy when you lose
HR Guy: Master of fake sympathy when firing you

I could go on but I'm sure I've made my point. So then, the next time you are called into HR for surfing blogs instead of doing your job you are left with just one decision: jump up and down and act hysterically for being chosen out of the crowd OR whack the HR Guy on the head and see if I'm not right on this one. Go ahead there's nothing else on...

Habit Forming

Dr Xie used to say it takes, "100 days to develop the habit." Many productivity experts say its 21 days to ingrain new ways and some of us say it can take as long to reinforce a good habit as it took to develop the bad one being replaced!

Given that we are all creatures of habit and it takes tremendous effort to change, I thought I'd see what 2008 provides to help build, track, motivate and trick us into doing what we say is best.

This all started with a Lifehacker article about Jerry Seinfeld and how he manages to keep writing his comedy EVERY DAY. It's called myriad variations of "Don't break the chain" which is a simple method to keep one going. He said that he uses a big year wall calendar.

"...for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

"Don't break the chain," he said again for emphasis.

Actually, a lot of people have read about that and created a number of apps to help. Don't Break the Chain, Joe's Goals, 43 Things, Loopdo, Making the Chain, Tools to Life, and others are in my sandbox right now and I'll be posting them here for all to view as I go through the process of choosing the very best for us to use.

Let's start the premise.

1. Pick a goal.
2. Mark off the days (with an X) on which you work toward that goal on a calendar.
3. Use your chain (XXXXXX) of marked off days as a motivator.

Jerry uses a big wall calendar showing a full year. Can you imagine the power of those little X's all linked. The more you have the less likely you are to skip one. We like things all neat and tidy and it should be a good motivator to do something to 'allow' you to X off today. I think really the overall best choice is that manual big wall calendar and just using it for ONE thing. But given my world, having it work on Google Desktop sidebar is key. It's with me no matter where I am and gives me encouragement to not break that chain.

Don't Break the Chain is my first implementation. You should be able to see it off to the right here in the blog with two goals displaying. Guitar & Qi Gong. Every morning I wake up and do my Qi Gong and every evening I play guitar. Now in the past I've been quite erratic with these two even though I SAY they are very important. Using DBTC I've not missed a day and it's easy. I can also say that the pressure to make the X is working, so far. I travel a lot for work (more on that silliness another day) and DBTC made me think hard about the Guitar playing. How can I do this on the road? I'll just have to setup chains that are for at home only. NO. WRONG. STUPID. What good is a broken chain? Is this important or not? My son Ché loaned me his 3/4 Strat and I checked luggage. Yuck, but worth it. My chain is unbroken and I had something to do while waiting an extra hour to board the jet.

I LOVE this tool. It is single function elegance which integrates into iGoogle (and Google Desktop with a trick shown at the end of this post), blogs, etc. It allows multiple chains to be tracked making each a different color and you can view the last 4 weeks, 1 month, 4 months or a year at a time.

So here comes the first problem; I have a little success and I want to add another chain. Let's get the workout in there. How about Deepak Chopra's Perfect Health eye exercises? Don't let me do it! It's time to focus and as CORE requires (another soon to come post) one can't add another project to a shaky CORE. The rule, for now, is to only allow items onto DBTC every 100 days... a salute to Dr. Xie.

It wasn't written to support Google Desktop so it doesn't resize nicely but you can do it. Go to Add Gadgets and add the following to the search box http://dontbreakthechain.com/goods/xml/google-gadget.xml
You'll need to login and accept the cookies and you might get some script debugging to cancel, but it works for me!

Off and Running

Yes... time to start helping folks go from Dilbert to 4hr work week. While having a LOT more fun bangin around the corporate hallways.

Jeff

You may leave early today.

Unbelieveable!

So it's been about ten years we've been talking about this and here we are. LUE, CORE, the SHOW, the M-Factor; it's all coming. Are you as fit as you should be? Why not? Are you spending money you don't have? Why? Do you PLAY with your kids when asked? Why not? Is art or music part of your life? OK, maybe you can't do it all. Maybe you can. Got questions? We've got opinions and we love to share them on our weekly video blog entries. Watch here for what's to come.