File under Joy
I love Christmas. I love Christmas eve. I love Christmas morning. I love how peaceful, how quiet, and how joyous it is. I love seeing my niece and nephew, and talking to friends and family. I love the desire to be selfless and put others first. They are all feelings i wish i felt all year long, but by January 2nd the world and it's demands slowly win back the day. Work, kids, school, parents, building a legacy, having an impact, changing the world. All of those things muddle the picture of what is important.
Advocating procrastination and the lowering of expectations isn't the most common advice. In fact you'll typically hear just the opposite. I've been asked about the 'perfect' antidote theory before - "You don't really believe that do you?" Well the truth is that i couldn't be more serious or passionate about this philosophy, and it's value is most inherently evident around the holiday time. Somehow we take a break, somehow we make time, somehow we figure out what is truly important to us. We share, we spend time with family and friends, we give of ourselves. We look forward with eager anticipation to the season and then lament that it went too quickly.
Did it go too quickly, or did we too easily just revert back to our busy lives of worrying and focusing on things that aren't important?
As the holiday passes and the spirit fades, i have but one wish for this next year. Instead of trying to do too much, to be too perfect, or to change the whole world...i'm just going to try to change someone's world.
I hope you have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Song of the Day
In honor of not letting our lives pass by each other in absent indifference, the song of the day is 10,000 Maniacs' "Verdi Cries" performed by Natalie Merchant.
Showing posts with label Procrastinate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Procrastinate. Show all posts
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
The Chux
File under Procrastinate
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." – Business Coach Jon Hammond
In 1949, at the dawn of the Chemical Revolution, Johnson and Johnson introduced the Chux - the world’s first marketed disposable diaper. What? Never heard of them? Not surprising. They were relatively soon overshadowed and outsold by Proctor and Gamble’s Pampers. Were Pampers a better product? Maybe. Were they marketed better? Probably. Is Pampers a better name then Chux? Most certainly. Seriously, who was the marketing genius who came up with that?
In any case, Proctor and Gamble took an existing idea, its pros and cons, and improved upon it; and subsequently dominated the diaper market for many years. Why were they so successful? Why was being second to market better?
The idea that being second is better is explored in the book Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets by Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski. They describe numerous instances where the second iteration was more successful, such as the Palm Pilot following an Apple hand held device that no one remembers. I think Apple got their revenge, however. The book gets lost in business strategy but the lesson applies to our everyday lives.
These successful companies were able to clearly see the situation, the pitfalls, the benefits, and then make informed actions in their favor. Procrastinating, waiting, and allowing the picture to evolve benefits us in our decisions too. Waiting until the second year to buy a new car model; giving the last presentation in class after others have gone before you; or waiting for other’s to figure out the new work reporting requirement are all ways we reduce our effort and build on the successes of others.
The Daily Antidote
Find opportunities to exploit other people’s hard work instead of expending your own.
Song of the Day
In honor of a band that neither invented Rock music nor Rap music, yet brought them together 25 years ago to create one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 songs of all time, the song of the day is Run D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way”.
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese." – Business Coach Jon Hammond
In 1949, at the dawn of the Chemical Revolution, Johnson and Johnson introduced the Chux - the world’s first marketed disposable diaper. What? Never heard of them? Not surprising. They were relatively soon overshadowed and outsold by Proctor and Gamble’s Pampers. Were Pampers a better product? Maybe. Were they marketed better? Probably. Is Pampers a better name then Chux? Most certainly. Seriously, who was the marketing genius who came up with that?
In any case, Proctor and Gamble took an existing idea, its pros and cons, and improved upon it; and subsequently dominated the diaper market for many years. Why were they so successful? Why was being second to market better?
The idea that being second is better is explored in the book Fast Second: How Smart Companies Bypass Radical Innovation to Enter and Dominate New Markets by Constantinos Markides and Paul Geroski. They describe numerous instances where the second iteration was more successful, such as the Palm Pilot following an Apple hand held device that no one remembers. I think Apple got their revenge, however. The book gets lost in business strategy but the lesson applies to our everyday lives.
These successful companies were able to clearly see the situation, the pitfalls, the benefits, and then make informed actions in their favor. Procrastinating, waiting, and allowing the picture to evolve benefits us in our decisions too. Waiting until the second year to buy a new car model; giving the last presentation in class after others have gone before you; or waiting for other’s to figure out the new work reporting requirement are all ways we reduce our effort and build on the successes of others.
The Daily Antidote
Find opportunities to exploit other people’s hard work instead of expending your own.
Song of the Day
In honor of a band that neither invented Rock music nor Rap music, yet brought them together 25 years ago to create one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 songs of all time, the song of the day is Run D.M.C.’s “Walk This Way”.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Mid-Term
File under Procrastinate
I’m a bit of a procrastinator. Shocking to those who know me, I know. However, early in my grad school career I tried to change that fact. When assigned a mid-term exam, I decided to knock it out immediately, but Parkinson’s Law was in full effect. I had two weeks for the take home test and I started right away. I spent two weeks working on, taking a break from, and coming back to the test. In the end, on the last day I was still finalizing my thoughts and answers. I realized as I submitted the exam how inefficient I had been. I had read over and over my answers and thought over and over about how I could improve them; all without any appreciable improvement in my product.
I decided to change my approach for the final exam. This time I immediately opened up the exam, read the questions, and thought about how long it would take me to finish it. I decided on 5 hours. I then waited until the last day, 6 hours before it was due (everyone needs a little buffer!) and I started. Complete focus for that entire time. Clock ticking. Pressure’s on. At the 4 hour mark I realized I was reading over my answers trying to improve them and I decided to pack it in.
I realized that in a deliberate approach to procrastinate on my task until the last minute, I freed up available time for other things. The mid-term took me 2 weeks, the final took me 4 hours.
How often do we attack something immediately and spend more time on it than what is needed?
By the way, I got a better grade on the final.
The Daily Antidote
Identify the time needed to accomplish a task, and then regardless if you do it right away, or at the last minute, take no more than that amount of time.
Song of the Day
In honor of creating more time for yourself, the song of the day is Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I’m a bit of a procrastinator. Shocking to those who know me, I know. However, early in my grad school career I tried to change that fact. When assigned a mid-term exam, I decided to knock it out immediately, but Parkinson’s Law was in full effect. I had two weeks for the take home test and I started right away. I spent two weeks working on, taking a break from, and coming back to the test. In the end, on the last day I was still finalizing my thoughts and answers. I realized as I submitted the exam how inefficient I had been. I had read over and over my answers and thought over and over about how I could improve them; all without any appreciable improvement in my product.
I decided to change my approach for the final exam. This time I immediately opened up the exam, read the questions, and thought about how long it would take me to finish it. I decided on 5 hours. I then waited until the last day, 6 hours before it was due (everyone needs a little buffer!) and I started. Complete focus for that entire time. Clock ticking. Pressure’s on. At the 4 hour mark I realized I was reading over my answers trying to improve them and I decided to pack it in.
I realized that in a deliberate approach to procrastinate on my task until the last minute, I freed up available time for other things. The mid-term took me 2 weeks, the final took me 4 hours.
How often do we attack something immediately and spend more time on it than what is needed?
By the way, I got a better grade on the final.
The Daily Antidote
Identify the time needed to accomplish a task, and then regardless if you do it right away, or at the last minute, take no more than that amount of time.
Song of the Day
In honor of creating more time for yourself, the song of the day is Time Warp from the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
The Law
File under Procrastinate
In 1955, a British Military officer and Naval Historian at the University of Malaya in colonial Singapore wrote an article that appeared in The Economist. The article, which was later developed into a book, detailed a phenomenon that despite the reduction in colonial governments to administer, the number of government staff employed for that administration continued to increase.
That officer was Cyril Northcote Parkinson, and the phenomenon became Parkinson’s Law.
In his book he attributed the fact that the bureaucracy grew 5-7% per year “irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done,” to two factors:
1) An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals
2) Officials make work for each other
Although we have probably all seen this happen in some capacity, what is more interesting to our daily lives is the corollary to Parkinson’s Law that states:
The amount of time it takes to perform a task is equivalent to the time available to do the task.
And next post I’ll talk more about that and about why procrastination is actually a good thing.
Song of the Day
I saw Subaru Outback commercial today and the song in the ad caught my attention because it sounded like it was sung by the singer/actress Zooey Deschanel. I was going to feature a cover song she sung as a part of her two-person band She and Him. It turns out the commercial song was sung by Miss Erika Davies who is pretty amazing in her own right. I’ll try to add her in one of these days, but today I wanted to feature the She and Him cover song and I was all set to do it until my father-in-law mentioned he rarely knew the groups I posted. So today I’ll throw one his way and feature the original artist of this song. Long explanation, I know. In honor of WLA, the song of the day is Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “You really got a hold on me”.
I also encourage you to check out the She and Him version
In 1955, a British Military officer and Naval Historian at the University of Malaya in colonial Singapore wrote an article that appeared in The Economist. The article, which was later developed into a book, detailed a phenomenon that despite the reduction in colonial governments to administer, the number of government staff employed for that administration continued to increase.
That officer was Cyril Northcote Parkinson, and the phenomenon became Parkinson’s Law.
In his book he attributed the fact that the bureaucracy grew 5-7% per year “irrespective of any variation in the amount of work (if any) to be done,” to two factors:
1) An official wants to multiply subordinates, not rivals
2) Officials make work for each other
Although we have probably all seen this happen in some capacity, what is more interesting to our daily lives is the corollary to Parkinson’s Law that states:
The amount of time it takes to perform a task is equivalent to the time available to do the task.
And next post I’ll talk more about that and about why procrastination is actually a good thing.
Song of the Day
I saw Subaru Outback commercial today and the song in the ad caught my attention because it sounded like it was sung by the singer/actress Zooey Deschanel. I was going to feature a cover song she sung as a part of her two-person band She and Him. It turns out the commercial song was sung by Miss Erika Davies who is pretty amazing in her own right. I’ll try to add her in one of these days, but today I wanted to feature the She and Him cover song and I was all set to do it until my father-in-law mentioned he rarely knew the groups I posted. So today I’ll throw one his way and feature the original artist of this song. Long explanation, I know. In honor of WLA, the song of the day is Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ “You really got a hold on me”.
I also encourage you to check out the She and Him version
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The Round File
File under Procrastinate
In 1997 I was a new lieutenant in the Army at my first post in Korea. I was learning how to survive in the military, how to be an officer, and how not to be a college student all at the same time. The funny thing about being a staff officer in Korea in the Army was how much people worked there, primarily because it was difficult to do anything else. Wake up in the morning, go to PT, go to work, go to dinner, go back to work, go home around 9 or 10 p.m., go to bed, then wake up and do it again. There were few distractions, and few other ways to pass the time. Now what was only evident several years after leaving Korea was not that there were a whole lot of things to do, but rather there was just a lot of time to do things.
And this created workloads that seemed astronomical. People had time to create tasks, write emails, and make busy work for themselves and others because that was the expectation. Dealing with the mountains of requests, emails, and papers became a difficult task (fortunately we had the time!). But my boss, now a Brigadier General, had a novel idea that has stuck with me. He would assess each email or paper quickly and hold for action certain items, then put the rest of the items and printed emails in the bottom drawer of his desk. About 95% of all incoming items ended up in the drawer. If at any time he needed to go through the pile in the drawer to find a specific email or document, it was important enough to address. At the end of the month he threw the rest of the drawer out (in the round file) as it never again reached any level of importance.
His idea, borne out of necessity by the sheer number of “action items”, sifts through the piles of useless activities, using time as the filter. He could have easily spent time addressing each item carefully without any specific benefit to the endstate of his job or office, but instead he procrastinated on many items in order to more clearly understand their importance. He used his initial analysis to determine the critical items, then he relied on a simple statement to determine what else is important – “If I think about it, or someone asks me about it again, it has importance.” It was that black and white.
There’s obviously risk in that approach and in the next post we’ll talk about what the initial analysis looks like and how we characterize that risk.
Song of the Day
Not having been blessed with the MP3 revolution yet in 1997 I listened to the same CDs and tapes over and over again. In honor of Korea, the 1/506th Infantry Battalion, the Sony Walkman, and playing a tape until it breaks, the song of the day is Portishead’s “Roads”.
In 1997 I was a new lieutenant in the Army at my first post in Korea. I was learning how to survive in the military, how to be an officer, and how not to be a college student all at the same time. The funny thing about being a staff officer in Korea in the Army was how much people worked there, primarily because it was difficult to do anything else. Wake up in the morning, go to PT, go to work, go to dinner, go back to work, go home around 9 or 10 p.m., go to bed, then wake up and do it again. There were few distractions, and few other ways to pass the time. Now what was only evident several years after leaving Korea was not that there were a whole lot of things to do, but rather there was just a lot of time to do things.
And this created workloads that seemed astronomical. People had time to create tasks, write emails, and make busy work for themselves and others because that was the expectation. Dealing with the mountains of requests, emails, and papers became a difficult task (fortunately we had the time!). But my boss, now a Brigadier General, had a novel idea that has stuck with me. He would assess each email or paper quickly and hold for action certain items, then put the rest of the items and printed emails in the bottom drawer of his desk. About 95% of all incoming items ended up in the drawer. If at any time he needed to go through the pile in the drawer to find a specific email or document, it was important enough to address. At the end of the month he threw the rest of the drawer out (in the round file) as it never again reached any level of importance.
His idea, borne out of necessity by the sheer number of “action items”, sifts through the piles of useless activities, using time as the filter. He could have easily spent time addressing each item carefully without any specific benefit to the endstate of his job or office, but instead he procrastinated on many items in order to more clearly understand their importance. He used his initial analysis to determine the critical items, then he relied on a simple statement to determine what else is important – “If I think about it, or someone asks me about it again, it has importance.” It was that black and white.
There’s obviously risk in that approach and in the next post we’ll talk about what the initial analysis looks like and how we characterize that risk.
Song of the Day
Not having been blessed with the MP3 revolution yet in 1997 I listened to the same CDs and tapes over and over again. In honor of Korea, the 1/506th Infantry Battalion, the Sony Walkman, and playing a tape until it breaks, the song of the day is Portishead’s “Roads”.
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