Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

I've talked previously about managing oneself, and that was about Peter Drucker and Knowledge Work. That podcast is very popular, and it probably resonated with you. It's one of my biggest downloads. There's another aspect to Managing Oneself. I get a lot of questions like this: You might say "I'm pretty good at my Work, when I can find time to do it." This can be particularly challenging if you work for yourself And we start worrying about work/life balance. We'll address that and specifically look at management outside of our work (for money). Drucker said: "if you want to find someone that is going to be good at managing in your organization, look for someone who manages their own affairs well". Managing oneself Hey, I'm pretty good at my work, when I can find time to do it what's keeping you from focusing on your work? Well, non work. We see this and we think "work-life balance" Your brain doesn't distinguish money-work from not-money-work – it's focused on urgent and incomplete TASKS let's think about that Money-work is about 1/3 of your available time; Sleep is another 1/3 – hard to manage productivity here; Therefore 1/3 of your life might not be well controlled Hard boundaries are not possible and not (actually) desirable. Therefore, We need to manage our attention in that 1/3 But, work and 'not-work' are too vague, we need more categories Management mindset. Simple – take ownership of your system and subcategorize your money-work within that system Special topics: I don't want to manage my "life" We seem to be comfortable with managing the things we do for money, less with the other stuff. Therefore, the "not-money-work" category is vague and mushy Recognize: we're doing tasks on the things that don't earn us money. But still, we don't want our people to feel 'managed'. So, let's divide that 1/3 into relationships and not-relationships Money roles There are money roles in your life, those are largely defined by other people. Special topics: Multitasking over roles We might try to multitask over roles. Bad idea: how wonderful of a parent are you when your child is dragging their feet getting ready to go to go to school, and you have to get to work? Relationships Relationships can usefully absorb all the attention that you can put towards them. Relationships People want to be known and understood - mere physical presence is not attention Shared experiences (i.e. things to do ~ tasks) Some of it is "heart-to-heart" talks The rest is "I'll help you meet your goals" (i.e. tasks) Relationship Task hierarchy Top level tasks – doing a task we "enjoy" and interacting while we do it Next level – one participant and one observer - tricky "bottom" level - occupying the same time and space while both people are being entertained together on the same subject - limited interaction. (TV?) Let me plan these, so I can give you my attention Special topics: hobbies and other growth roles Activities like cooking, golf, or fishing If there are one or two areas in which you want to be excellent, okay, that's probably a hobby If other people who are important to you share you're hobby, take advantage of that. Maintenance roles Make them easier, less attention intensive I may love the person that I'm doing them for, but I don't love the task, not a hobby. A well maintained car is a car that doesn't produce emergencies. Nobody is telling you how clean your car needs to be Who sets the standards in your life? You do! Special topics: Entertainment and "relaxation" We've adopted entertainment as a relaxation technique and we indulge our base curiosity. Let's not call it something that it's not. Let's apply management philosophy to those maintenance tasks in our lives. I think we can usefully focus on the maintenance roles and managing them very tightly, doing the work to minimize the amount of attention that they require. Manage = scope the amount of attention required based on meeting the standards Examples of managing maintenance tasks. Check point: What is your standard here and why? Example - Standards for visitors at my house I like to have my buddies over from time to time. I just want you to come over and spend time with you. But we invite our friends over, and we think our house needs to look like a Southern Living photo shoot. So, if I can't put forth that time and effort, then I just don't invite people over. Well, what's the what's the goal? The comparison trap: think about those standards, and where you get them. Example of a maintenance task and standards "premium gas is recommended for better performance". I experimented and am convinced that there is no performance improvement by running premium gas in my car. "this sticker subsidized by ExxonMobil" Back to Peter Drucker: If you want to find somebody that's a good manager in your organization, find somebody that's a good manager in their own stuff." Managing maintenance tasks Track them. Think about them. "What's the standard?" "Is that the right standard?" Then

Learning how to learn If we're going to be more productive, we have to learn new skills and get better at the skills we have. Knowledge is important, but we get paid for producing results. This requires skills. I see people with limited desire to learn. And when learning does happen, it is usually more about knowledge than skill. I decided to think about why and what to do about it. So I picked up a skill. While this happened, I learned some lessons about learning and want to share them here. "I know how to learn. I learned how to learn in school." Well, maybe not. I'll give evidence from my interaction with university students. Plus, I believe it's very different as an adult – motivation, resources, etc. I think most college and younger feel that they "have to". We typically don't feel that way. Regardless of where you are, you need to be learning Why? Career - What got you here won't get you there Productivity - As you gain experience, you should be spending less time on things you have lots of experience with Attention compass – most people already 'know', they still need to learn to 'do' Hobbies/activities – get on with new things, you won't be working forever Note most of these are more 'skills' vs. 'knowledge' I think we struggle with implementing this idea Are we 'bad students' – well, we got good grades Are we afraid of looking foolish Another issue: much of what we learn in college is knowledge-based. Learning skills is less common in many disciplines. More about this later Learning how to learn Learning 'textbook' material i.e. college learning Nobody is taught how to be a student. We just don't upskill people in how to learn. Maybe it's something of a mystical process. Maybe we don't thoroughly understand it. But when I'm talking to college students about productivity, they ask about studying and taking notes. I did some research in these areas, like how to take notes and whatever's going on there. And the findings I got were pretty inconclusive. Learning Knowledge/information vs. learning skills Both are important and there is not a very bright line Programming is a skill The 'skill' is problem solving with a specific set of tools How to teach problem solving? We learn skills as children – sports, etc. As we become adults, we are less likely to take on new skills Learning as an adult – I'll share four experiences and some of what I've learned MBA – no prep, I relied on my previous academics Ph.D. – lots of study about how to learn, not much result – I couldn't find much. Later, I found Cal Newport's books on the subject, which would have been great – highly recommended Bass and podcast – hired coaches The goal of both kinds of learning: change the way your brain operates How brains work (neuronal chains) Plasticity (chains connected in different configurations) Habitual (fire together, wire together) Any kind of learning, we're changing old and/or creating new patterns/chains Ideally, we set those chains by having them fire multiple times As a bass player, I want physical things to fire in chains Learning, then is to get a chain to fire multiple times, so it 'sets' Skills are a little different, they involve nerves and muscles, but it's still repetition I think we fear being bad at it the first time We feel like we look and sound stupid. It hurts our egos. our expectations are really high and it's frustrating to us to me, skills are more visible in the… bad at it the first time sense Case: developing this podcast and learning the bass Story of the bass No real background Good motivation, solid goal, but not money on the line Plenty of time to 'get ready' In retrospect, I feel I did some of the right things here, so I am trying to apply that to the podcast The podcast Learning to do a podcast is a practical exercise. The podcast is something that takes lots of different skills and lots of different techniques, and I've got to be patient with myself and willing to go through that learning. From the bass learning, I realized that "DIY" here is inefficient now, let's use those lessons to develop a template about learning a new skill Attention Compass It's a useful skillset building solid "work athleticism" demonstrated sound practices They help people put their attention where it needs to be, when it needs to So, let's use this skill to develop a template for learning How would we approach that? What to do about new learning? Figure out how to quit exploring whether to do it – Have a naïve approach, the "beginner's mind" Be prepared to be bad at whatever it is (reality) Figure out how to get feedback Get a coach Recap

Today, let's talk about confidence. In my season of life right now, my daughter is entering the career world. She's finished college and now has to find a job/career. She needs to enter conversations and situations that she's never experienced before. Naturally, her confidence is not very high. This plays out in two ways: she tries to avoid certain situations, and she fears "being nervous". So I'm thinking about (and trying to help her with) confidence. This is not the "do confidence right" podcast. This is the Do Busy Right podcast. And the question then becomes, "what does Do Busy Right have to do with confidence?" Glad you asked. Confidence attaches at a very significant point in productivity. You've heard me talk about delivering in previous episodes. Perhaps you've heard me talk about the fact that the work's not done until the result is shipped to the customer who needs it. You could argue that that no value has been created in the world until the result is in the customer's hands. Anything that interferes with delivery is, therefore, a productivity issue. Lack of confidence can delay delivery. So in order to Do Busy Right, we need to have solid confidence. Lack of confidence hurts us in two ways: one short term and one long term. The short term effect is: If we're not confident then we hesitate in shipping our results, in delivering. Whether that be in a product sense, in a "do I have the meeting" sense, or in a "selling" scenario. The long-term effect is: If we're not confident, we don't deal with feedback well. This means we avoid the primary tool for growth. We'll talk about the specific confidence we need and the specific feedback we need and how they work together. So Lack of confidence interferes with delivery The final arbiter of 'done' Inventory (undelivered results) have no value, but represent cost Same for knowledge work If we hesitate on the 'done' decision, we delay delivery and don't turn inventory into sold product. Fragile in the face of feedback Feedback should help us build our processes 1 – motivation to build process 2 – specific targets for improvement If we avoid feedback, we can't improve our process Real confidence Nate Zinsser – The Confident Mind Confidence is a mindset – a well-developed mental approach when facing certain kinds of situations. Confidence is built, constructed as a mindset. I doubt that we're "just born with it". Zinsser talks about how to build the mindset. Based on: Evidence Previous performance Tested process Solid preparation Counterfeit confidence(s) "shallow" confidence Confidence vs. Bravado – confidence is based in evidence and bravado is based in potential Bravado is a fragile sort of confidence Potential is a tricky thing – too easy to claim without evidence We know we need some sort of confidence and bravado is easy Confidence based on "how good you are" is tricky Imposter syndrome <> lack of confidence We have to pretend – what's our other choice? "try-hard" confidence is not, "oh, I got this". That's not confidence, that's bravado. Don't prepare an easy excuse for failure – go ahead and care Building confidence Our brains may discount our own evidence But we know how to measure experience, training, and preparation Taking training Praising the work/effort, not the trait ("you're so smart/artistic/talented") – previous work Getting feedback Keep a They Love Me file Confidence grows and feedback is the fertilizer How to handle feedback We're not very well trained at receiving feedback Seek feedback on quality (did I do it right) from people that are good at doing what you do. Seek feedback from users/customers (did it work? – was it useful?) Negative feedback – don't take it personally, it's not about YOU - Decide how you're going to change your process Once you're there – free throws Process 'nervous' properly, as an adrenaline reaction Instead, we try to downplay the importance of the situation – which is hard Confidence is about presenting who we are in a situation. Think about success and don't think about failure. "On this particular occasion, In this particular situation, they fouled the wrong guy" Think (as best you can): "I've performed under this circumstance before" Hit me up so we can have a dialog rather than a monologue: [email protected] or on LinkedIn (please mention the podcast in the connection invitation).

Ever feel like you didn't get much done? Like you were kind of stuck in the mud most of the day? Ever said: "The work just wouldn't get done"? I ran across Parkinson's Law on a podcast from Cal Newport and Adam Grant. You may not know it by that name, but you probably heard the Law. Parkinson's Law: the work expands to fill the time available. Cal actually turns it into a thought about his notion of obsessing over quality. While I love him generally, I think his advice there is not applicable to most of our environments. In fact, I think quality is the problem, not the solution. Here's my take on applying Parkinson's Law. That is, on fighting it. When I was in Ph.D. school we had to write papers. I used the tactics I had learned in my previous schooling, but I was spending WAY too much time. I decided to experiment and found out that I could get the same results in half the time or less. I'll tell you what I did in a little while. I think the Law is true. I think we tend to apply it to other people and dismiss it as a joke, but I think it also happens in our own work and in our own lives. I don't think it's trivial; I think it can be a pretty big waste and I don't think it's inevitable. Today we'll talk about what some of the mechanisms for that are. In attention compass, we talk about time boxing as the antidote to Parkinson's Law. Note: Time boxing is not hyper-precise and hyper-detailed scheduling. I'll get to it in a minute. What is Parkinson's Law - background Not just other people We can see ourselves do it too Corollaries – Stokes-Stanford "if you wait 'til the last minute, it'll only take a minute to do" Corollaries – Horstman's corollary "the work contracts to fit the time we give it" So we want the corollaries, not the law Quick aside: what do you think 'gives' when the corollaries kick in? – more later Our school environment encourages Parkinson's law I think the school environment is quite impactful on our work styles The nature of school tasks School tasks have vague requirements School – practice tests? Nope – so lack of feedback Making good grades doesn't appear to correlate closely with 'ability to learn' in other contexts So, we need to be very careful about assuming that we developed good work habits while we were in school That is: "good grades" = "good student" = "did the work well" <> "good at learning" Your school task environment during your school years, you don't have many, let's say, non work responsibilities typically So, its hard to justify anything other than studying – completely unlike the workplace these work habits lead us to Parkinson's Law – look busy Summary so far We get the law, not the corollaries. But we'd prefer to have the corollaries. Our primary learning environments teach us Parkison's law, not good work habits Back to Horstman's commentary – underlying for time boxing – can we meaningfully 'shrink the time available'? Yes That is, we can identify the things that 'expand' and see about not letting them do so Work 'expansion' Let's be clear about expansion – I'm not talking about interruption, multitasking and distraction here What are the mechanisms of work "expansion"? "quality" traces back to the school environment The work world is a "best effort" kind of place - usually This is "the only" way to judge the quality of our work - effort A "poor quality tax return" If you're a specialist, you're the local expert on quality Abstract example – the boss ONLY can say 'good enough' – 'Stop spending, I can defend that' 'double checking' - math vs. other skills Doing the same thing over again is a poor way to double check – well, pretty expensive and only if you have a clear process Back to "what is it about work that expands" What is the cost of a mistake (e.g. grammar)? Grammar Other areas – nicely formatted documents Bad "do it over" mechanisms waste time – proofreading your own stuff Quality reinforcement expands So, the point is that quality is one of the primary things that expand when we have available time. And a lot of that is is fear driven. In the modern world, you don't have extra minutes Diminishing returns on quality The mentality of time boxing Time boxing (in conjunction with work blocks) – don't "just move it along" A time box is a controlled 'sprint' The mentality of time boxing – finish the work Results of time boxing No writer's block You complete the whole task – writing proofing sending Advantage - Complex thing about time blocks – it is less likely to be "half-baked" If you timebox well, you can hand it to somebody in an ACTUAL draft form, instead Mechanics of time boxing Related to work blocks Work blocks come back in – if you try to complete something in an hour, you need to be pretty sure you're not interrupted/distracted for that hour. Always an experiment – gather data Be confident in your skills – Early on, pick things you're good at, comfortable with, and define well Challenge yourself – make the time 'too short' If your task won't fit in t

"Let me think about it" – Thought tools This episode is about the need for, nature of, and development of thought tools. I was having a conversation with my daughter. If you've listened to the podcast, you know my daughter is 23 and she's beginning her career, just having graduated college She's trying to figure some things out. She's confronted with some new issues that really have become very prominent. And I think most folks do this when they exit all that structure of modern education. We were talking about an idea, and she said, "Well, let me think about it." A couple of things struck me. One is when people say, "Let me think about it." I'll confess that I have used "let me think about it" as just a "get off my back", postponement kind of tool. I think I'm not totally unique on that front. So there's that category. But when we really want to think about something. We've got the sense that we don't have a clear path forward. We don't have a clear yes or no on a question. We don't have a clear decision. What exactly are we going to do when we say, "I'll think about it". What action do we envision taking? If it's not just a put off, then what are we envisioning that we're going to do to help us move forward with this situation? To make a decision? To make a commitment to some course of action? To choose some alternative out of the options that we have? This episode is going to be about that. It's an important topic. I certainly believe we should consider before we take any course of action. But what are we going to do to enact this "need to think about it". The last episode was about paper, and I talked about paper as this great mechanism for capture. I think many people believe that it's also a great thought tool. That's one hypothesis for the value of journaling and support for the people that love that. I talked about how when we get stuff out of our skulls, it provides some fairly light constraint, but some constraint nonetheless, that helps us formulate our thoughts. Let's spend some time considering thought tools. Drucker's question and thought tools Drucker asked us to improve the productivity of knowledge workers. Okay, how do we do that? Can we improve thought tools? Knowledge work is mushy, thought tools can make it more concrete I think that developing thought tools can answer Drucker's question Thought tools are useful in: "Is the work done?" – Financial model? The value of time invested? Decision making – what option to pursue Your profession may have thought tools: accounting, architecture, engineering Modeling tools, etc. I'm motivating the use and development of thought tools Even if we just need to "Percolate" on it Percolate is different from ruminating. We need to set the problem up clearly Thought tools probably apply to both: 'active' and 'passive' Framing the problem is a good use of thought tools A thought tool probably is associated with a process. Examples of generalized thought tools Journaling Journaling as a thought tool Maybe structure some journal questions – what would person X do? Reading as a thought tool Excel as a thought tool Annie Duke – numeric thought tools Thinking In Bets – betting to clarify one's thinking The Organized Mind – medical decision thought tool Financial modeling as a thought tool Decision making "Decisive" – decision making PROCESS Example of a thought tool Question: "Whether or not to do X" "Do it or don't" is not a great structure for decidability Emotional/psychological biases Instead, clearly frame the other side of the question - "Do A or do B" "Resulting" – what makes a good decision? A good process… Getting a clear result even if you disagree with the tool's recommendation Have a habitual process A process allows you to record and activate learning a decision making process is a subclass of thought tools. Takeaways Since we think for a living, we should become better thinkers - tennis players do it, why don't we? Structure your thinking with thought tools Attention compass includes a couple of thought tools – see episodes 22, 23, 24 I want to develop this aspect of AC more thoroughly – 'generic' thought tools for Knowledge Workers And look at AC from a thought tool perspective Books referenced in this episode: Decisive - Chip and Dan Heath Thinking In Bets - Annie Duke The Organized Mind - Daniel Levitin Links to podcast episodes: https://dobusyright.com/what-is-attention-compass-and-how-will-it-help-me-dbr-022/ https://dobusyright.com/what-is-attention-compass-workflows-1-2-dbr-023/ https://dobusyright.com/what-is-attention-compass-workflows-3-4-dbr-024/

What is the role of paper as a modern productivity tool? Is our use of paper just a habit we need to get rid of is it something more? Is it still a useful tool, or should we be trying to break some sort of addiction to it. This is inspired by a LinkedIn post by Chris Mullen. He's talking about the glories of paper with respect to it's limited ability to distract us. And I think that's absolutely on point. I think that any tool that allows us to get our thoughts out of our heads is good. We should have a habit of spending some time thinking. And by thinking, I don't mean feet up, pondering, daydreaming. That's not what I mean, although that does have value. I mean wrestling with what's going on inside of our skulls, and a very suitable way to do that is to realize your thoughts in some medium. I think many media can work here. For example, I've believed that I think well when I'm talking, when I'm trying to explain my thought to somebody else, and they're asking questions, and they're forcing me to be clearer about what it is I think. I believe paper does the exact same thing. I'll talk about why paper is good, where it is lacking, and what we can do to get the best of both worlds. Spoiler alert: I love paper, buy maybe not for the reasons you think. Paper is great Paper is never out to lunch, out of battery, or needing an update. It is amazingly hard to break and its very flexible. Lack of distractions? Sort of Environmental cues? Possibly, but they're somewhat weak Yes, paper could signal your brain that it's time to focus – parallel to sleeping environment Your brain knows what to do with a piece of paper – it has no idea what to do with a mobile computer – there are too many options A 'real piece of magic' - Paper provides useful Constraints Our brains are magical – few constraints Paper imposes constraints and gives structure. This is a good thing for realizing our thoughts. Any structure will do – it's better than no structure there are other things like paper that can provide structure e.g. Many realizations can provide this structure and constraint: whiteboard, talking, any external mechanism that involves some symbol set There are also "Pure" thought tools - a "mind palace" provides structure, but is hard It's outside our skulls Capture makes our thoughts better and removes clutter from our brains An idea that's stuck in your skull is useless – definition of information So, "realize" the thoughts – outside your skull Paper – love me some paper (perhaps you're surprised at that) Weaknesses of both paper (as a placeholder for analog) and digital Neither paper not digital do anything (really) to protect us from distraction, although paper is less active Chris's post is also about its lack of a means to distract us True but… people can be just as distracted with paper in their hands as with a keyboard in their hands it's not paper itself that helps, but our habitual use and the need for structure True, digital is worse, but paper ain't magic on this front. We still have to control the environment The advantages of electronic/digital media Paper is very flexible – diagrams, words, pictures, etc. – but you're almost definitely a faster typist than handwriter, even on mobile The fundamental problem with paper or any physical manifestation… what do I do with it? Everything has to be digital at some point, so we might as well get there as early as possible Paper has been out-evolved on storage, search, and transmittability we've got to get it into a computer, somehow, to take advantage of storage, search, and transmission I would argue that digital paper is not a great improvement and has some negatives The #1 challenge is to then bring these non-digital artifacts into a system where we can use the best organizational tools. Take a picture (or scan) of the piece of paper and throw the piece of paper away. Transcribe the audio. Get the analog to digital. Paper is great, but use it like a Kleenex - get done with it and throw it away, don't let it linger around can clutter But TANSTAAFL ("there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" - Heinlein) - we still have to control the digital environment The #2 challenge - any modern computer is an interruption machine – you've got to discipline it Paper (and other analog) disciplines you in certain ways But your computer doesn't – because you haven't set it up that way and It doesn't come that way; Your software and OS developers are not helping you here Most people wind up with a tool for maximum distraction and maximum interruption. You do not need to be instantly reachable by the whole world and trying is bad for you Stop letting your computer ding at you every time you get an email I get ads on a web app that I have paid to subscribe to – these businesses cannot resist The trend in tech is against your effort to discipline We have to do the hard work to discipline our devices. Just like we have to train a new VA. This is a big part of what we talk about in Attention C

I talk about the three big enemies of focus and productivity. They are interruption, multitasking, and distraction. They are in order from easiest to deal with to hardest. (But I'm faking that a little.) The biggest pushback I get is around multitasking – people defend their ability to do it. Let's deal with that here. What's our drive to attempt multitasking? What's the evidence that we can actually do it? I'll look at cases where people think they or someone else is multitasking. We'll look at each one to see if it actually fits a reasonable definition of multitasking as relates to our work. Brief aside – I asked on LinkedIn and no one suggested any other categories. P.S. You can connect with me on LI where I discuss these topics as I'm producing the podcast linkedin.com/in/larrytribble. Or you can comment on this episode. I'll show that these cases are not good evidence. Then, I'll discuss the motivations to multitask. I'll consider historical ideas of multitasking. Then we'll ask the question again: should we try to multitask? Spoiler alert: I will (of course) conclude that we can't. Computers appear to multitask and there's the legend of mind as computer The sociological construct of mind as computer So we say – the computer's multitasking so I should do it too. We're wrong on both counts. Our machines are very, very good task switchers – but they don't really multitask and we haven't developed that kind of human being We're not multithreaded, particularly with the unexpected We don't completely forget We can't effectively reload our previous state All of this takes lots of time and is error prone We don't value our own attention and the difficulty of our own work Historical tasks were not heavy on attention We fritter away our attention on entertainment There are certain environments where it seems we are doing it. Processes that we can ignore, but only for a short period of time (e.g. cooking) Tasks that are easily interrupted and restarted (e.g. eating) Active stakeholders that let us know there's a problem (e.g. pets) Mindless tasks – we have to be there, but we do them on 'autopilot' Walking is autonomous (until it's not) Challenges of doing something else when we're engaged in a 'mindless' task Autonomous tasks that we don't have to think about Autonomous tasks that don't need our attention – ie. delegation Tasks that we have learned to combine to become one task Juggling You can take the time to memorize the 1A, 2B exercise – to unify it into a single sequence in your head. But that doesn't make it multitasking Simultaneous chess – actually highly practiced task-switching in a very structured environment We think we see it, so we're tempted to do it. People seem to be doing it around us and we're people too. What we see doesn't mean that a) they're actually doing it, or b) that they're getting results that we would want. Other people ask us to do it So, we claim we can We collectively confuse each other – if your friends jumped off a bridge… So, I think this is why we believe that we can multitask (it's bad evidence) – but we shouldn't Multitasking wasn't even a concept before about 1960 N-gram on 'multitasking' All of the productivity literature before computing was very different – focus on focus Our desire to task switch may be a form of boredom, procrastination Focus is hard and so is our work There is no scientific evidence in favor of the ability to multitask Athletes – focus on what you're doing, not how you're doing it – anything else is multitasking and hurts performance Consider the evidence and question it – there's no real evidence that we can multitask, it only seems that way. This may help you clarify and decide to stop trying to do it Then we can move on to improving our focus and fighting interruption and distraction.

What to do if our primary tool is not really helping us? I argue that this is the case with our to-do lists. I'll talk about why and what you can do about it. To Do Busy Right, we are fighting three enemies: interruption, multitasking, and distraction. Distraction is the most difficult to defeat. To-do list is another tactic to deploy in that fight. Everybody knows about to-do lists; most everybody uses them. In my experience, they are by far the most common tool. But we don't do detail on them; we don't have a vetted process. You don't hear about doing them, right? But you don't hear about them in the same way you don't hear about toothbrushes, because it's taken for granted. I think that you need to have a list. It's good to get things out of your head. But there are better and worse ways. Somehow, there's got to be something where I have my tasks written out. I think implementation of this can vary a lot. The problem that a to-do list should solve… Cal – not a quote, but from A World Without Email - [We] try to pick this 'congealed mass' of expectations, tasks, and commitments apart. We do this because we want to figure out what to DO. General steps for creating a To-do list Generate the items (how do we 'know' what is on the list) Put it somewhere (generally calendar or paper) Part 1 What goes on the list Normal ways to generate the list: 1) make it up from scratch daily or 2) collect it from various places. Make it up from scratch From scratch – Q: what's the problem? A: it's a bad question for our brains The first part gives us brainstorming – "what COULD I do today?" The second part gives us urgency (only) Priority is always situational, contextual, and relative. Collect the things from multiple places This usually means a lack of a clear, repeatable process It's easy to forget the odd places – everything needs to go to one place. The challenge of multiple places – sub-prioritizing by source – pick and choose and leave everything else there then everything downstream is 'filtered' BTW, if you're not sure you have a good process, take a look at Attention Compass. Part 2 Where to put the resulting things Now, you've created your list; you need to record the result of that work Two general ways to do this – on calendar or on paper Either way, these 'lists" are fragile and unwieldy The first way - On paper Sorting the list (and re-sorting) is bad. Sorting is a hard exercise for your brain If you don't believe me, take the sorting challenge With the list, you're putting your brain into a sorting situation – minimize the number of times you have to do this. "On the same piece of paper" is a category – but it ignores context What do we do when we don't finish our paper list? Often we set that piece of paper aside for in the morning – another place to collect from But, are yesterday's priorities automatically today's? The second way - In your calendar The calendar is a bad place, no better (really) than paper It's: too fragile, 'must begin at', and has no sense of probability. If we either run short or run long, then the Calendar tool begins to show its weaknesses - fragility When I say 'fragile' I mean it 'shatters'… A list is a static, steady state tool - What to do with "pop-up" priorities? The assumption when we make the to do list is, well, if nothing else pops up, this is my plan – how's that working for you? Regardless of what you say, you have to deal with some people's emergencies Ideally, we would have less fragility Bottom line – with creating a to-do list, we set all kinds of brain challenges (the bad question, multiple collection areas) Our medium (paper or calendar) also presents challenges. We have a bad process. Instead of 'to-do list' think "backlog" What's a backlog? Definition It's in one place. It is continuously sorted It is never complete It is fluid, so less fragile Why a backlog cannot be on paper A proper backlog takes care of this for us. It's built into the AC backlog and processes What a backlog does for us Processing takes care of the sorting Deals with fragility The "next thing I need to do" is already in the backlog Daily review takes care of the overnights and the calendar If you want to solve these problems once and for all, let me know. My clients have pre-decided, recorded those decisions, and they follow that. They think "I'm going to flexibly pursue the highest priority items in my backlog while attending to my calendar and 'pop-up' priorities." They can do this calmly with minimum hassle. They use a backlog. What did we accomplish in this episode? So when we're fighting distraction, we're using a rusty sword (to-do list). If we fix it (move to a backlog) we're using an upgraded weapon in the fight to Do Busy Right

Today, I'm going to talk about a pretty common feeling around our work and productivity… Why do I feel like I didn't get anything done? I think we've all experienced this feeling. We get home (or whatever we do in the WFH culture) and our significant other asks some form of "How was your day?" Sometimes we just say "Fine" and move on. But once in a while, we get introspective and think "How WAS my day?" At this point, we try to think of something to report – something that seems interesting or meaningful about our last X hours – and struggle. We know we were working all day, but what did we actually DO? Did we produce some value, some tangible effect or progress? Or do we sigh and move along with a sense of "another day on the treadmill"? This is a horrible place to be motivation-wise. What's going on here? Is there something we can do about it? I think there is. First, let's deal with the most common idea I see… The 'pick one (or X) thing to do today' idea - fine What other option? A completion mindset – the subject of this episode When I talk to clients, I hear two kinds of complaints: 1 - I didn't do anything but email today – I didn't get to anything important Email has become a work assignment tool. But I agree with Cal that it is a bad one… Spend some time learning when and how to say No and/or ignoring emails It's not true that everybody is your customer base – teammates - let other people handle the problem Saying No – experiment with it rather than just saying "they'll get mad" – find ways to say it 2 - I didn't move the needle – no progress on the important stuff, despite working on it Intangible work and quantifiability Take a physical product – tangible, visible progress Make the intangible tangible – define your task well We're taught the wrong approach in school – "move it along" and "it has to get an A" – recipe for an incompletABLE task Create a better Definition of done. After all, we're all doing best effort Done is better than perfect – if Da Vinci took another look at the Mona Lisa… We're not great at defining what our task is, particularly around the notion of quality – we're taught this in school – no grading rubrics We "do the best we can" Salience of incomplete tasks Salience - tasks come to mind Mushy tasks – I'll 'move it along' – that doesn't change the salience of the larger task Accomplishment is more binary than that Or, if you can point to something tangible that is different in the world your brain is looking for tangible change in the world. Not a "I worked on it for two hours" What's going to be different about the marketing report after I've touched it Your brain is going to resist doing this planning work But, it's a good reason for planning - Framing the task for yourself Why don't we do this? Hustle culture 110% - "don't have time" to think about it Another is that we know we're not good at planning Completion mindset Definition of done – "This constitutes complete" Did you do what you planned? Then say "I did what I planned" – I did the process When I say do it – plan an amount of effort and do that effort – then don't go back to it A completion mindset That's the completion mindset – pick something completable and complete it within a time box The lack of structure leads to a limited sense of accomplishment Back to the "complete one thing" method. Completable in one day? Your most important tasks are not completable in one day Many of your most important tasks are not completable at all Relationships? Learning / getting better? So, build a habit of thinking in completionist terms Perfectionism is a big enemy here – avoid that trap - take feedback as the gift it is I'd appreciate the gift of your feedback. What's one thing I could do better with the podcast? Is there a question or situation you'd like for me to address? [email protected] Two pronged approach Define completable tasks Allocate the time and spend it on the task – push yourself to get it DONE in the time you've allocated Declare it done and submit it Other people are great at finding my mistakes, but it's hard to proof my own stuff Mistakes don't remove 100% of the value of the product Be willing to be judged – collect the data – improve the process Results You build a habit of completing work - this builds confidence in yourself Every day, you will have something to point to – "I did that"

I'm going to talk about remote work, and this is a topic that continues to be a source of significant debate among folks out there. It's fueled, in part, by people who are employees, who are arguing in favor of remote work. There are various arguments, and we'll dig into it. The point I want to make is to analyze the business model of the organization that you work with, and think about what the employment contract actually is and what it actually covers. I hope that we'll be able to develop a little bit better understanding from the employee side of things, and be a little less demanding, a little less whiny. What we all agree on Remote work is certainly a thing that is possible. Well, of course, some people say, you know, I miss the office. I miss the chitchat. I see that. I think we need community. Work from Home is more convenient, for you. Business model and owners Business model = how we are going to do this – it's very complex The owner owns the business model, not you The paint example But the painting is part of the business model, thus owned by the business owner The tacit agreement with employees – I'll make you valuable Of course, there are good and bad business owners In a knowledge work business, all the owner owns is the model – no longer the productive resources But the business owner always owns the business model Business model and contractors A contractor or business defines the value of their work and its hard Contrasting model – you like counting money and you're good at it Bank teller employee – the bank (business model) defines the value of the contribution Monopoly example Aside on the Lego business So, you have the option to go out and define your own value Or, you can let someone else define your value, i.e. be an employee in someone else's business model So, here's your freedom – accept the business model and the definition, or decline it Business model and employees As an employee, you don't define your own value As the EMPLOYEE, you don't own the business model – that's the agreement Employee - I'll contribute this effort, and you, Mr. Business Model owner, will put it together with other things such that it has a certain amount of value. That's the model, the agreement WFH and the business model What does this have to do with WFH? That's the business model You may have the privilege of discussing the business model with its owner We're arguing about our contribution, that's a hypothesis, but you don't get to assert it That's the trade-off you make to become an employee – accept someone else's definition of your value and the circumstances under which you deliver it But that's the trade-off, otherwise take your chances with the market Whether you're an employee or not, you have to provide value. The difference is who defines that value. It's easy for employees to lose sight of that fact – the business model serves us There's a limit to how much employees get to modify the business model So the boss (through the business model) gets to define the context of your work Trying to cast a different light on the problem Most arguments from employees wind up being about convenience But the question that needs asking is "does the business model fit this (WFH) idea" If you work from home as an employee, here are a couple of things to think about Congratulations, your boss trusts you to maintain your productivity There are other kinds of challenges to your attention – mostly distractions "the best get better, the bad get worse" under WFH If you want to be the best, two things: I have an episode you might want to listen to #17 on Managing Oneself Or, you might know that you want some help with all of this – send me an email [email protected]

This episode is about the productivity paradox. The Productivity paradox has been around for a while, and it's the economist's way of saying "we don't see the productivity value from our investment in IT". So the question is, companies and people have invested a ton of cash in, I'll say, desktop IT. Over the 40 years we've been doing this, we're not seeing a productivity increase. The background: Most analysts believe we saw a productivity increase when there was huge investment in industry. In other words, the productivity of manual labor, in Peter Drucker's terms, increased dramatically through the entire 20th century. And economists being economists, they're looking for the same kind of thing based on our IT investment, and we're simply not seeing it in the larger aggregate numbers. We're just not seeing it. And this is a real, real curious idea, because we want to think about your productivity, you being productive as a knowledge worker. Desktop IT – why no productivity increase The height of knowledge worker technology is the desktop stuff that we use. I don't mean desktop versus laptop. I mean Office Productivity stuff. I wonder if the problem is not how we're going about it. If we agree with the economists who say that we're not seeing a productivity increase, then the very next question for us is why? What I believe the "why" is In this episode I'll talk about what I believe the why is, and then we'll work on some actionable steps from that to help us be productive. If you're thinking the computer, by itself, makes you more productive, then I don't believe that. I believe that there's some secret sauce that we can add to our current technology that will make you disproportionately productive in the work world. The good news – we can gain an advantage The desktop doesn't seem to have changed the way we work Bigger picture – an office worker from 100 years ago – typing speed We haven't actually gotten rid of paper. Even if we did a document is still a document Email is just faster correspondence – the problem is not speed, but asynchronocity If the whole world gets faster, we don't get differentially better But, everything has changed, right? NO BPR (Business Process Reengineering) – we didn't really do it – paving cow paths Productivity still needs to be rethought and engineered Operating systems – no change since Win 3.11 (1993, Mac was earlier) And our metaphors are even older – see Episode 29 An idea for OS UI improvement – just dump to the computer Mobile technology – neither wireless or mobile has really changed anything We have the same apps and metaphors on mobile SMS Text is not better than voicemail Peripherals A keyboard is a keyboard – QWERTY since 1870s The mouse has been available since 1981 AI - different/better, or just faster for the same old stuff. There's a good argument here, but it's wait and see OK, Why? Radical is not the plural of incremental Advancement is not incremental Local optimum and the J-curve I don't think faster by itself, gives us more productivity It certainly doesn't give us differential productivity – everybody has it Faster is easy; better is hard Stop thinking that our primary input is time. But even then, we're not that much faster, where it counts. Bad habits we get from technology Newer is better. Fact: it may be faster, but that (by itself) is not better. Multitasking – it's bad, even though our devices are good at it Focusing on time as productivity But, it's FASTER… Nope - Moore's law and Gates's law I buy it, what do we do about it? We can't change our apps very much, so the answer is not there Switching apps is VERY COSTLY for much the same feature set, upgrades usually don't pay off If we want to be differentially productive, then we need to do different things I think there are opportunities in the following places: Manage your attention, not your time – stop thinking that faster is equal to more productive – the correlation is not great Apps are not written for improved productivity, but for improved speed just to do whatever they already d). Most are written for more usage. Just because a technology is new, doesn't mean it's better. But if you need to relearn it (i.e. an interface change), then think hard before updating. Learn the features of the apps you have – maybe find something you didn't know existed – but think BETTER, not simply FASTER If you're a knowledge worker, look to improve the processes that don't involve your computer – you probably don't have enough control over your computer environment to make meaningful change. File storage – is there some way to store files better? What I've learned from Attention Compass research Have a single app that you can 'dump' to, just record ideas. Think snippets, tweets, SMS… It should always be handy. The more steps to get to it, the better chance you forget. File system – Evernote (and perhaps other tools) allows the creation of a different kind of file system.

I think we get confused about efficiency, and I think this leads us away from actually becoming efficient. There are two concepts that can confuse us. They disguise the challenge that we really actually face around efficiency. And I'll talk about what all those things are, but if we've got the wrong mindset, it leads us to wrong action. The notion of convenience and efficiency are real close cousins, when we think about it. But convenience and "hurry" both lead to a subtle trap, and I'll explain what that is. But the point is that if we have the right mindset about efficiency, then I think will take right action. Today, we'll talk about the engineering mindset and contrast it with pseudo-productivity in convenience and hurry. Setup I'm too busy vs. "Attention Compass saved me time" If you want to know more about Attention Compass, listen to Episode 22 here: https://dobusyright.com/what-is-attention-compass-and-how-will-it-help-me-dbr-022/ Or hit me at [email protected] But I'm too busy This leads to the idea of convenience Define efficiency: E=O/I (efficiency equals outputs divided by inputs) Either increase output or decrease input, but (normally) have to hold the other constant Convenience and hurry are close cousins. What's the problem? Convenience Convenience tends to minimize the inputs and ignore the outputs – this is dangerous as a sole focus Go to the drive through and risk an error in my order Convenience – watch out for less absolute output "Productivity?" (hurry) Hurry "production" at the other end of the spectrum In both cases we lose focus on one side of the equation "Premature" efficiency I see this all the time – people naturally want me to think they're productive So they double down on what they're already doing - "premature efficiency" I brush my teeth before I go to the dentist. Is that efficient? "Engineered efficiency" But engineered efficiency… An example (Henry Ford from Cal Newport's A World Without Email) At first, workers went to the car But, Ford brought the work to the workers That was really the innovation, and it led to other innovations, None of this was obvious at the time; Ford had to engineer it So there's no reason to believe that Ford just said, "Hey, everybody, go home over the weekend, I'm going to install this assembly line, and you can come back and get to work". It's the engineering that made the difference, but it wasn't cheap or easy There's a cost – the J Curve This is typical of the engineering process. There's a cost Things are going to get worse before they get better – the J Curve We face the J Curve all the time – it's the cost of change I think both of the extremes (convenience and hurry) avoid the J Curve The spectrum Efficiency is in the middle of the spectrum But convenience and hurry mindsets interfere with investment And so I think both these things are enemies in the long term The challenge is that they disguise themselves as productivity. For real engineered productivity, keep an eye on the math. So both can masquerade as efficiency. If we're not watching both sides of the equation we might move the wrong direction Negative connotations The negative connotation of convenient is complacent We still have to watch both sides In modern workplace, we're probably bi-polar at the extremes IDEA: just because its inconvenient in the short term doesn't mean it's bad in the long term IDEA: just because it takes time in the short term doesn't mean it's bad in the long term Reduce the inputs (convenience) but hold the outputs (engineering) Increase the outputs (busy) but hold the inputs (engineering) Argument for that efficiency in the middle ground. Waste Removing waste can be about the inputs (wasted effort) or about the output (e.g. bad quality) Identifying and removing waste is a core engineering process Waste in convenience is bad quality Waste in hurry is bad (frantic?) task switching Keeping the ratio the same in either convenience or hurry is an accident We're usually not thinking about the ratio and its easy to mess up Thinking about the J Curve is inconvenient And Thinking about the J Curve takes time If you want different results then you can't be complacent and focus only on the convenience, nor can you be hyper busy and focused only on the outputs. The most effective way But you might not have to do it yourself Has somebody else already engineered a solution to your problem? If so, you should experiment with their solution, do some research We all do this naturally – we Google a solution Now, we all recognize that Ford's way is a good solution –it's obvious (in hindsight) – so, of course we do it that way How to have space for engineering research Attention Compass will help with ~20% greater efficiency (mostly eliminating waste) I describe Attention Compass in Episode 22, if you're interested check it out here: https://dobusyright.com/what-is-attention-compass-and-how-will-it-help-me-dbr-022/ Or you can reach me directly [email protected]

This is the 'set up' meeting in a typical AC coaching engagement - the first of eight weekly meetings. As a coach, I'm still motivating the work that my client will have to do. I'm also explaining mindset kinds of things. There should be a lot of knowledge you can take away. Chris's approach - Chris is an accomplished coach. He works with people on mindset and new knowledge - trying to help people Fill In The Gaps. His book is The Principle Toolbox, part of his 100-page Toolbox Series. He KNOWS that he doesn't have the best handle on these ideas. He didn't turn his brain off, but he is trying to learn. Hear how interested and motivated he is to learn and get better at managing his attention. Listen for how much he wants to get better. I want you to think about three things as you listen to the coaching meeting: This is a live coaching meeting - it is not scripted. I want you to have an idea of what working with me is like. When I work with clients we explore ideas and different approaches and mindsets. Think: "Could I work with Larry? How does he communicate? Can I picture myself in Chris's seat?" I hope you find that my style is very approachable and conversational. Put yourself in Chris's shoes; pretend that you're my coaching client. How can you apply these ideas to your own situation? Does what I'm saying make sense to you, or do I need to explain more or differently. Think about any questions you might have that Chris didn't ask. Send those questions to me at [email protected]. There is plenty of actionable material here on managing interruption, multitasking, and distraction. Listen for action steps that you can take away and IMMEDIATELY implement against them. If you run into roadblocks, you can always reach out to me. My goal is for you to be more productive, starting tomorrow, and I want to help in any way I can. Closing I hope you were able to gather some significant, actionable information from this recording. I also hope that you walk away as motivated as Chris was. I expect you'll see a different perspective on coaching. I hope that you will take advantage of all of the effort and learning I went through as I "did it backwards" with Do, Learn, Define. Now I can share that learning with you so you can work the right (most productive) way - Define, Learn, Do. Go get Chris's book, The Principle Toolbox, here (not an affiliate link).

We all try to help our organization be flexible. We hear about the benefits of flexibility, responsiveness, and flat organizational structure. In addition, we all hear about the power and benefits of teams. We feel that fast communication is good (fast information exchange). So, we avoid structure in the belief that this benefits our organization and allows our people to have autonomy. We feel that structure, procedure, and management is slow and inflexible. We think that procedure limits our speed. We know that our employees need and want autonomy. But there are significant challenges to flexibility. In our individual management systems, we try to plan, which is another term for making things predictable. Constant flexibility forces task-switching and is stress-inducing, so we fight that with our individual task, time, and attention management systems. But a big part of what is happening is: our people are fighting to control something that our organizational systems may be creating or amplifying. So, we're gaining (possible?) benefits but putting the costs on the backs of our people. This lowers their productivity and increases their stress, leading to overwork, low engagement, and burnout for our "greatest asset". Can we, as bosses, do better? I think we have to try. Here are some ideas. The sources of problems here I focus a lot on the individual problem and tools elsewhere Sources of organizational stress Stress is an unpredictability problem – a lack of control In organizations, we meet other people's expectations – more loss of control Why it's the boss's problem Introduce the business model A) valuable product; B) is produced via a business process(es) Broken business model(s) That business model is in the hands of the organizational leader – the ownership An example So, it's the business leader's responsibility to fix it An organization needs structure Challenges to structure Our attempts at autonomy allow structure to be disrupted "autonomous" teams Multi-teaming We've adopted a model of "teams are more productive" – but there's overhead Because of all of this, as bosses, we need to be careful about how we allocate our people Multiteaming raises the stakes on good communication – it introduces more challenges and more risks Our tools amplify our ability to disrupt structure Our communication tools primarily focus on asynchronous communication – the primary deviation from face-to-face The hyperactive hive mind and work assignment - Cal Newport Our tools have a lot of influence on how we do work – our choices matter and should not be left to preference Do business owners understand it from that perspective? So, stress is an organizational problem So stress is an organizational problem – manage to the 'tolerances' of the people These factors tend to push our people into more challenging work and workflows We don't tend to train our people in communication Nor do we enforce standards So they do what's most convenient for them Sync is more challenging to set up; async is more challenging to execute Asynch is hard to do well Cal talks about the challenges of async Fred brooks talks about additional communication channels – addition is not linear Learning to communicate is a large part of team "chemistry" and effectiveness We need to keep this stuff in mind when we design the organization we need to be thoughtful about that design Our tendency is to not respect the 'teaming challenge' If you have good teams, consider 'bringing the work to the team' Ways org design increases and decreases stress on individuals Communications design – asynchronous is hard, synchronous is easier, but we tend toward asynchronous comms tools Team structure raises the stakes on good communications – makes it harder – 1-1 comms is easier than team comms Work assignment design These two come together when our best resources participate a little bit on several teams Team creep – we'll just pull in marketing for a consult "We see that she doesn't look too busy, she can lend us a hand " Ideas Don't believe that flexibility and autonomy are free Have a nuanced understanding of antonomy Develop work assignment procedures Make work visible Closely review your organization's communication structure Look for unintended consequences Managing an organization and its business model is not easy, but it is the boss's responsibility. In this episode, we talked about some of the things that we need to consider as we're doing that work. Unfortunately, we receive generic advice (or legend and lore?). We have to take on the challenge of understanding the nuances and applying the tools and advice wisely, according to the details of the situation we face. That's why I recorded this for you. I wanted to give you reasons to deepen your understanding of these ideas so that you can apply them well and thoughtfully. If you'd like to think about it some more with me, reach out via (ahem, asynchronous) email. [email protected].

In this episode, I'm going to refine our definition of productivity in knowledge work. If you think you know the definition, there's a good chance you'll be surprised. I have my customers tell me their definition of productivity; I believe that the typical definition is broken. I've seen it lead people to over-think, hesitate, or even procrastinate on tasks. If you want to think clearly about being productive in your work, I've got some ideas for you. Here's the problem… Before you can make a process efficient, you've got to understand the process very well. Efficiency is a specific definition, and you get there experimentally and incrementally. It's very difficult (risky?) to get there in the in the top-down sense, from planning and estimating. We'll talk about what that is and what you need to do about it here. When we think about productivity at some level, productivity always boils down to outputs divided by inputs. This covers the whole notion of factory efficiency and productivity, labor productivity, capital productivity. If you put X in, then you get Y out, sometimes. If so, then efficiency is maximize the amount of yYthat you get per unit X, and so that's fine, But, that's in a system. In a mechanical kind of world, in a physical kind of world we've learned a lot about how to measure this. But don't misunderstand; even there our measurements are imprecise because we know that there are inputs that we can't effectively measure. The simple view, if I may, the naive view is: it's raw materials, and then it's the value of output. That's certainly a huge component, and a fairly clear and precise component, but there are always things that go into a process that are difficult to measure. The point is that the notion of productivity is not clear – we move it to knowledge work from physical work and even in physical work, it's not perfectly defined. Chris Craft's model of our knowledge and thinking: 'education, experience, etc.' produces mindset produces options for action produces results Chris will be the guest on my podcast Episode 38, 7/12/2024 Is the factory definition of productivity a good one? The factory has a huge advantage on us – process and repetition allow experiments A factory has a design – a hypothesis - and it's embodied in the physical world So it's a 'fixed' process, repeatable, stable In physical, we've usually got repeatability Process is in place, so we can study the parts we don't understand And, usually, we've got a large number of attempts Things that are hard to measure in a factory - depreciation Other factory things are also hard to measure And factory Input measurement is still developing As we try to adapt this model to knowledge work productivity, we have to account for these things and these assumptions. Knowledge work productivity We move this concept to knowledge work – does it fit? Repeatability is an input to experimentation Knowledge work and repeatable process Knowledge inputs are hard to measure What about outputs – knowledge output vs. product output Two views of productivity – the spectrum Two general ideas of productivity – quality and planning/efficiency – 'artists' and 'engineers' Michelangelo's notion of the quality end of the spectrum The other end of the spectrum Aside on calendar time and PMI Planning and estimation – we're not good at them Can I plan my way into productivity? Toward Knowledge Work productivity measures Knowledge Worker - "I don't want to have a process; that interferes with my creativity." The things we need to create in knowledge work to study productivity What about repeatability Programmers and their estimating process In order to refine, you have to have a process Process for knowledge work – when you do something, store it (like a programmer) Knowledge worker – have a process that you can study and experiment with Takeaway 1 – don't expect what's unreasonable –don't just assume that you have a factory setting and can use factory measures. You probably don't and probably can't. Takeaway 2 - Develop a process – without one, there is no way to measure productivity, much less define it Attention Compass Attention Compass is intended to be the beginnings of your knowledge work process It also deals with task switching - a major source of waste And helps us avoid the problem of searching for inputs – we said 'reuse', but you can't reuse if you can't re-find

This will be a review of Cal Newport's book, Slow Productivity. By the way of introduction, if you've listened to much of my podcast, you know that I pay a fair amount of attention to Cal and what he's doing, because I think he's really bright, really focused on the idea of productivity. If you don't know who he is, you should take a look. He's written several books over his career. He did a Ph.D. in computer science at MIT and then got a tenure track job at Georgetown, where he researches computer science. Cal writes books on the subject of productivity, and he's very thoughtful about that sort of stuff. So just about anything he's written is thought provoking on this subject. In Slow Productivity, he thinks a lot about how to be very effective in his variety of knowledge work. And then he takes that and generalizes it and helps us all understand knowledge work productivity. He's written some fairly controversial ideas. He wrote a book titled A World Without Email, where he does case studies of companies that have gotten rid of email internally. He has some ideas about why, exactly, email might be bad for productivity. It has a lot to do with who assigns whom work, and how do we take this stuff on. Cool Grandpa (with Greg Payne) podcast guest episode https://cool-grandpa.us/2024/06/ep-187-doing-busy-right-with-larry-tribble/ (available now) What's slow productivity about? Cal takes on the notion of "pseudo productivity" He tries to bring in the notion of slowness to our productivity processes. Who is this book for? At the end of chapter 2, Cal mentions "[this book] targets in particular anyone who has a reasonable degree of autonomy in their job". He re-addresses this idea in the conclusion. Good for him. I think this note should be quite cautionary. I'm not sure that the prescriptive ideas should/could be applied in other areas. That said, Cal is always interesting and (given his acknowledged constraints and target audience) very insightful. What I'm looking for in this book Why and how would we slow down? It's counter-intuitive. The notion of productivity in the book Ideally, we would see an experiment, but that's not currently possible So we look for definitional / theoretical things Cal's Definition of knowledge work - "the economic activity in which knowledge is transformed into an artifact with market value through the application of cognitive effort" It has to have market value How do we measure knowledge worker productivity? Quality and value in knowledge work Definition of quality? Not yet. Cal's ideas about quality (as relates to value) Attention compass is the knowledge work tool for organizing knowledge work Overhead tax What is it? Overhead tax is related to task switching Computers can APPEAR to multitask Humans have nowhere to 'park' the previous state Since we (humans) can't multitask… ... we talk about focus and extending that period of time Overhead tax of ongoing projects – where's the stuff? Overhead tax of picking up and putting down (even on a solo project) Overhead tax is related to task status Understanding and maintaining a view of status is very hard Overhead tax is related to team communications Overhead tax is related to complexity of the project's situation Overhead tax is variable, but never zero (per project) A task is at it's most complex while it is in-progress Total overhead tax is related to the number of concurrent 'projects' Cal's tip on the challenge of managing time One for you and one for me Takeaway: Work on the overhead tax Overhead tax takes on two primary forms: Related to the number of projects underway Related to the 'complexity' of each project underway The book highlights components of the overhead tax: Task switching - Also starting and stopping Status reporting Team communication In progress = high complexity Attention Compass addresses overhead tax Idea to avoid: "obsess over quality" I worry when Cal talks about 'obsessing over quality' Does obsessing over quality lead to procrastinating on delivery Products really have no value until they're delivered Work in progress is bad Takeaways: If you want to explore Cal's work for the first time, I would go with Digital Minimalism or A World Without Email. If you're in early career, you could hardly do better than So Good They Can't Ignore You. If you're a long-time Cal reader (as I am) this is a great extension of his larger, stated purpose.

When I talk about task and attention management, I usually talk about wastes of attention. And there are three primary wastes of attention that I've been able to identify with my clients. They are, in order of easiest to deal with to hardest to deal with: The first is interruption - external things in the world that attempt to catch our attention. The second one is multitasking. Multitasking, for me, is not intending to focus on just one thing at a time. The third one is distraction, and distraction is internal claims on our attention. And it's this one that I want to drill down on in this podcast a little bit, because it's the hardest one to deal with. You have distractions if your mind is busy reminding you of other tasks while you're trying to focus. You're writing a report and "Ding – did you remember to feed the dog." Or "Ding – maybe you should check email." Eventually, you'll give up and switch to one of those other tasks. We'll talk about what it takes to get distraction solved. Warning, this is the hardest one of the three to deal with. Dealing with interruption – use the social structures Dealing with multitasking – just a habit You're doing it intentionally because you don't know (or believe) that it's bad. I said that distraction is really the hardest one to deal with, because it's a function of the way our brains work. And there, there are easy (but not so simple) ways to deal with distraction, and we'll get into those: the first is procedural, and the second is to train to tighten up your focus. We'll talk about those solutions in a minute. What is distraction? Defining distraction – internal stimulus The mental part – your brain is trained to hold on to tasks Urgent vs important Your brain works on urgency (roughly) We've got to be careful about urgency (vs. importance). Important is more of a conscious thought than an unconscious thought. So we don't necessarily want to respond to everything that our brain serves up. Not instantly responding to a stimulus Modern culture trains us to respond instantly we can decide - marshmallow experiment Covey – "response-ability" I have this notion about the brain just being another organ in my body or a muscle that sometimes cramps – there is no reason to believe that everything my brain serves up is useful or meaningful. Procedural approach to distraction Eject things from your brain How to eject things – pretty simple, you're probably already doing it, at least sometimes Problem is: it's a lot of stuff There is so much that your system is probably not adequate for it Train your brain to trust a system Keeping track of things we don't need to be thinking about right now is a big part of Attention Compass That kind of system is pretty well known – tickler file: get instructions here dobusyright.com/tickler-file The philosophical, training piece Define focus Put and keep your attention where you want it I don't think we're born with it, but anyone can learn to do it better Focus and mindfulness Mindfulness – learn to notice when your attention has wandered and bring it back Suggestion – read some, or read more, or read differently When you're consuming information, you're (usually) focusing But, the goal is to learn to notice when our attention has wandered (which is a little hard to detect) So, we need some duration, some time You need a means to notice that your attention has drifted What about movies and/or TV? The problem with audiobooks vs. "printed" books So, it's got to be e-books or paper books and probably start with fiction Practical concerns on reading Remember, You're training yourself to focus Start small (10 minutes, set a timer) and work up Maybe start with 'straightforward' fiction – 'entertainment' Get rid of your association with textbooks (which, as books, are terrible) Get reading down and then go as far as you want Recap This is a deep-dive into how to manage distraction. I've given you a procedural tool-based idea and a more philosophical training-oriented idea. If you can learn to manage distraction, your productivity will go up, because your task switching will go down. And, if you take on the reading challenge, you'll be more entertained and more mindful. Don't forget the tickler file to manage postponement decisions and get them out of your brain. Find it here: dobusyright.com/tickler-file.

Let's talk about email, and communication metaphors. You're not going to be shocked when I tell you that we don't handle email well. It's not that we don't know how to use the app that produces email; that's pretty straightforward. And I'm not arguing that we don't know how to deal with emails as items of information, although I believe that's often true. We know this is important because Cal Newport wrote a whole book "A World Without Email" – his point is different but we clearly struggle with these communication channels. My concern is whether or not we deliver our information, our message, well on our communication channels. I think we don't do a good job here. Email is representative of many channels. I think our metaphors contribute to our challenge. So changing the metaphor will probably help. I'll address some reasons for that which apply to many modern communication channels. And I'll have some thoughts on what we can do about it. If we understand the properties of the tool better, we become better users of the tool. If you can see this, send me an email – [email protected] Why email? It's new, so we've got to learn how to do it well – define the social contract Cal talks about email as a back channel means of assigning work Email is not something that anybody was asking for Doesn't mean it wasn't welcome, just that we have to learn the use cases and create the social contract(s) Example of a social contract with the government around snail mail "Mail' is correspondence Email is a mash up of two things – a letter and instantaneous delivery Two metaphors based on historical communications – letters and face-to-face – we have longstanding social contracts around these Think about this in terms of synchronous and asynchronous communication Define synchronous and asynchronous Synchronous vs. asynchronous communication Examples of synchronous Conversation is synchronous So is a phone conversation and a zoom meeting, but both are less so Of course, there's a spectrum Examples of asynchronous Correspondence (a letter) is not This podcast is asynchronous communication A key feature of (previous) synchronous communication is I know whether or not I have your attention Another feature of synchronous – I can check for understanding in real time So, correspondence tended to be more thought out or complete vs. a conversation where I can ad lib Challenges of not understanding the 'mode' The two metaphors collide in email (particularly), because of our experience and social contracts Confused metaphors and uncertainty about use cases and social contract We fall into thinking that since email is 'instant' it is also synchronous Note, email is not mutually instantaneous – like conversation is People will pretend to be in synchronous comms, but not be Understanding synchronous vs. asynchronous The impact of high-speed communications (it's actually pretty new) Instantaneous delivery does not guarantee synchronicity. Speed is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of synchronicity. Texting has a similar issue; it is instantaneous, but asynchronous Voice mail as another example We need to choose a model / a metaphor for how to use these channels – understand the social contract Specific illustration of the challenge - voicemail Voicemail as another example With voicemail, we're thrown into an asynchronous communication -now, I'm in voicemail and I've got to think about what and how to communicate Do I replan and move to an asynchronous channel? More detail in Episode One – your phone is mobile, should your call be? Another specific illustration of the challenge – people pretend to be synchronous I believe this is one of the fundamental issues of remote, synchronous communications It happens mostly on phone and zoom, but also happens in face-toface However, in face-to-face, we can more easily recognize it and we can 'call it out' Takeaways 'better' email – more complete and thorough transmission of information Think it through – you initiated the communication, so it's your responsibility to start it well Choose the right communication mechanism We fall into habit around our default communication channel Effective communication means recognizing the pros and cons of the channel we choose – our own convenience is only one of those things Choose the channel / media carefully and think about it's 'rules' Most of our channels are actually asynchronous, IN USE. So, if it's not clearly synchronous, think asynchronous On an asynchronous channel, be more careful, more planned OR clearly move to a synchronous channel Poor communication is a waste of everyone's attention and, thus, time. Don't get trapped in habit or misunderstand the properties of each communication channel when you choose it. If you intend synchronous communication, use the correct channel(s) that allow you to keep an eye on people falling into asynchronous styles.

I try to help you think about how you're using your attention and, thus, how to manage yourself. What you need to manage is your attention. So, when I see systemic waste of attention or weak self management practices, I try to call them out for you so you can begin to think "do I really need to do this?" If you're spending a lot of attention and time on setting and tuning goals, and if that raises your stress level, this episode is for you. I don't think of goal setting as the 'one treatment to rule them all'. And that there's no other way for you to motivate and manage yourself. We'll talk about some nuances of goals. Hopefully, at the end of our talk, you have some more knowledge to understand how to use goals well, as compared to blindly. Because the hype is there; there are a lot of people whose whole deal is you got to set goals, and here's how you got to do it. That the goals have to be this, that, and the other thing. I think it tends to be just a lot of overhead. The question is "does it help?" The science behind goal setting Background science 'Tuning' your goals SMART goals So, the tenor of the discussion is around motivation Critique of the science Behaviorist thinking Stimulus and response – humans, Covey, and Victor Frankl Brain as machine But, humans have an ego, a 'soul' So, I think the reporting on the science on goals is overblown The Tickler file instruction video is at dobusyright.com/tickler-file Challenges of management via goals The psychology of goals seems weak to me, contradictory It's not a lack of desire or motivation that causes us to miss goals. To visualize or not? There's no real science around how many goals are reasonable – does the total number of goals in our heads change how likely we are to succeed? Goals become a binary thing – we either make them or we don't – what does this do to our motivation or to our performance? Challenges of doing the goal-setting and tracking goals Goals and estimation - humans are bad at estimation But that's not the way goals are typically proposed. My own experience My own weight loss example With that experience (and only with that experience) I am now capable of estimating to a point where the SMART-goal stuff could be accurate. The Tickler file instruction video is at dobusyright.com/tickler-file Intent Thinking about Intent Example of intent (kids getting driver license) What would have been a good goal? My concern is with goals as some panacea In organizations we use management by objectives – good or bad? Summary Surely there are better and worse ways to manage ourselves. I think that over-reliance on formal goal-setting (i.e. SMART goals) poses too many challenges, both procedural and scientific, to be the best way. But goal-setting is generally considered to be just that. If you find it stressful and unproductive in your own self-management process, you're not broken. And it's probably not that you need to learn more and do it in a more sophisticated way. I have significant doubts about the science and the practice around the idea. Instead, think about your Intent, commit to a next task to move you toward that state of the world, and manage yourself at the task level. Manage yourself and your attention with the Attention Compass process. Implementing a Tickler file is a good way to start. Or reach out to me [email protected] to talk about the Attention Compass.

In the podcast, we study knowledge work and how to get better at it. This touches on a lot of different disciplines, notably management. Typically, I discuss management as how we should manage ourselves. So, when I talk about managing knowledge work, I usually mean how do we manage ourselves as knowledge workers. I believe that we are increasingly called on to manage ourselves but covered that in Episode 11. Managing means many things, but it at least means watching out for a worker's productivity - helping, coaching, teaching how to be a more productive (and thus valuable) knowledge work employee. This is also quite important as we look to manage ourselves. In this episode, I'll talk about six components of knowledge worker productivity, as defined by Peter Drucker. I'd suggest that you look at each one of them to incorporate into your self-management, or look for in how you are managed. In this episode, I'll unpack those and describe how to think about them. Knowledge worker productivity (at the level of the economy) Increasing knowledge worker productivity Peter Drucker asked the question 50 years ago Attention compass is a knowledge worker operating system Knowledge worker productivity (at the level of the individual) The simplest way - eliminate waste. Defining productivity for knowledge workers so we can measure productivity for ourselves Drucker's six things – barriers to productivity 1 – Define the task Example – what task am I accomplishing here on this episode Hire people that are smarter than you and let them define the task 2 – Responsibility for productivity lies with the knowledge worker The expert alone can say what constitutes reasonable productivity 3 - Innovation is part of the knowledge worker's job; nobody else can do it Example from programming – productivity is lines of code? Get out of their knowledge worker's way while encouraging them to innovate on process Scrum as a knowledge worker management practice: kaizen in scrum 4 – Continuous learning (and teaching) Continuous learning and teaching – Continuing Education credits in the professions Continuous teaching to both 'students' and customers 5 – Balance productivity and quality – through the notion of waste Code as knowledge work – quality is hard to define and easy to overdo "Maximizing" quality vs. efficient quality But knowledge workers can't do quality alone – we need input from the customer/user (Aside, you're my customer and I'm a knowledge worker, let me hear from you so I can understand the quality you desire from my work - [email protected].) 6 – Knowledge workers want to work for the organization Knowledge workers' work suits the purposes of the organization – they're productive in the environment and feel valued Knowledge workers want to do their specific work - it's hard to coerce knowledge workers; they'll game the system I discussed these things so you can consider them in your own environment. If you work for yourself (and lots of knowledge workers do), look to adopt these ideas and flesh them out in your own process. Think about your notion of quality. Spend time refining your production process. These (and the other things) are natural work for knowledge workers because of the nature of knowledge work. Not because you're a solo worker. If you have a boss, consider these things. Look for them in your environment. Even though you don't work solo or for yourself, you still need these things to some degree. Look into your work culture. And, if you feel able, discuss them with your boss.

David Allen on Information Overload - if it were real, then when you walked into a library, your head would explode. Let's consider that idea in the context of Attention Overload. When we feel overloaded and overwhelmed, we can't just blame that on the increasing amount of information. It's true that the amount of information has been increasing for about 500 years, maybe even longer. It's not really a problem of the increasing amount of information, as much as it is the fact that we have not built the appropriate filters for all of our information channels. And when we look at information, my mind immediately goes to our attention. Information channels An information channel is any source of information I'll not try to define information – for now, we know it when we see it. Some channels are better, some are worse. The social media contract – recent innovation? Information and attention Information needs our attention to be useful. Information itself doesn't actually usually call out to us Some alerts carry (very) limited information - more on that later. Information and our attention are pretty tightly linked. Information channels and filters Defining information channels What is an information channel? Where did our filters come from? How to use filters - Clay Shirky Information channels and alerts We've had alerts from the beginning of computing. Alerts have limited bandwidth, so don't deliver much information (although a little might be really important). We integrated alerts into our technology Modern devices – "you've got mail'. Without alerts, we had to be intentional about gathering new information and attending to information. We signed up for this 'self-alerting' information – social contract part 2. Confusing filters and alerts Curiosity results in proactive search of information channels. There are nuanced ways to manage alerts in information channels. Forces driving our use of alerts Some different forces toward "alerting information" – curiosity, FOMO, social agreements. Debates around who owns the phone / unlisted numbers. Alerting information channels. we perhaps sacrifice the use of filters for our own 'convenience'. Our responsibility to utilize the tools – our attention is valuable. Is your attention 'wide-open'? Too many alerts, too many channels You may be leaving your attention wide open This has a cost, or at least a risk. We are willing victims in some ways – at a minimum, we open ourselves up to attention we don't want. But we have tools to deflect that. The decision is a statistics problem – how valuable and how often is that channel? Maintain your filters We need to be ruthless about filtering. Our attention filters need maintenance – be proactive. Human communication is pretty fault tolerant. Using the idea of filters for our information channels can help us fight against the overwhelming notion of information (and, thus, attention) overload. Filters are a technology we can use to manage the amount of information that needs our attention. But we have to be proactive and remember to maintain our filter systems.

I talk about how information storage and access is changing. Note that it is changing in ways that mean our old metaphors (and their associated 'affordances') are now inaccurate in a couple of meaningful ways. We don't want our metaphors to constrain our organizational thinking, particularly if they're inaccurate or push us toward the wrong affordances. Send me an email - [email protected]. Let me know your first name, where you're listening from, and any thoughts you might have. Information - ideas, thoughts, etc from self or other "Possessing" - creating ready/easy/'permanent' access to a (relatively) specific presentation of information - this is being called into question "why do I need to possess when I can just search" - more on this later Metaphors - definitions of 'information' are murky, so we rely on metaphors to understand affordances Media-less-ness - examples from the changing methods of distribution of music Metaphors in computing Files, folders, 'documents' are common metaphors However, these metaphors are based on the physical world, so they carry the notion of physical 'constraints' in our organizational thinking A PAPER document can only be in one place at the same time - however, most electronic information artifacts (computer files, etc.) are 'free' to copy File cabinet 'space' is limited by physicality - however, nothing is cheaper than storage (example: SQL) PIM - personal information management Finding (becoming aware and possessing) and refinding (accessing for use) - a useful distinction We 'possess' information in order to make re-finding easier - the local search space is smaller - therefore, possessing is the first step of organizing (Google syntax vs. 'the website I read last Tuesday') Organizing principles Organizing - the act of putting something where you will easily/quickly 're-find' it when you need it, but can ignore it until then 'Possessing' is useful as long as search can't find "the one I saw last Tuesday" Multiple copies as an organization tool - Why we have multiple pairs of reading glasses Pointers and tags as organizational tools - Build a card catalog for your information Summary: our management of information (PIM, refinding, and Organizing) may be hindered by dated metaphors that are no longer precisely applicable. Our most common interfaces certainly are (e.g. Windows and Apple operating systems). In particular, media-less-ness has altered the means of electronic storage. We need to shed old metaphors that constrain our thinking and habits. Send me an email - [email protected]. Let me know your first name, where you're listening from, and any thoughts you might have.

I was talking to a prospect about Attention Compass. Her primary objection seemed to be a misunderstanding of the role of formal planning in our work management system needs. She had tried to implement bits and pieces of legend and lore. Nothing had worked. She felt that work wasted and had given up to some degree. I think that we've seen and heard so much about productivity that we're jaded, tired, and no longer know what to believe. When I investigate people's current methods, they seem to be relying on (the echoes of) Project Management thinking: rigorous planning and precise estimating. We have seen this movie play out in larger, heavily researched work in the engineering and programming fields. There is a newer kind of thinking about work management. It is called Agile, or more often, Scrum. Lots of people have heard about it, but may not know exactly why it's important. I want to lay out the differences in those two work management mindsets and argue that the more recent one is more applicable to our personal knowledge work management task. Along the way, I'll claim/justify the theoretical foundations of Attention Compass and discuss how it is: 1) a more complete, thought-out, 'engineered' work management system and not simply a collection of 'tips and tricks'. 2) Much more applicable to the kind of work most of us are tying to do I want to bring this somewhat different perspective and this will put additional tools in your hands if you want to research this stuff.Another way to consider your own work management practices, as we work to continue to try to get better about managing our attention. Send me an email. I'm at [email protected]. Ask me a question or make a suggestion. If you don't have anything, just send me an email with your first name, where you are, and how long you've been listening. I'd like to know more about you since you're a listener. A brief history of work management systems Two schools of thought as represented by PMI and Scrum/Agile PMI ('formal' project management as currently shepherded by the Project Management Institute, thus the PMI methodology) was developed in the engineering space – NASA and military. But struggled in the programming space. PMI has different constraints, not necessarily compatible with constraints of the business world Difference: the 'physical' nature of engineering problems. Software doesn't have a physical reality in that same way. Software is malleable. Scrum takes advantage of that malleability – iteration (testing and change are easy and safe) Team Scrum can be confusing as it involves lots of teamwork practices in its process. Personal work management - What is your work? Do you have physical product constraints? Mostly probably not and certainly not in the most important things (relationships, self-growth, etc.) Personal PMI / Personal scrum is the notion that these principles (minus the teamwork aspects) represent a good approach to a personal work management system. Other scrum principles that apply - Iteration - Cook a steak – uses scrum-like testing and iteration. Baking is more like PMI - Iteration maximizes the work not done - Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Work rhythm and visibility - Process improvement Recap/review

Systems and creativity – managing the Operational Aspects of your life I talk about Attention Compass as a system and a set of workflows. A lot of people say, hey, look, I want to be creative, I want to be spontaneous. I don't want to be rigorously structured. I don't want to, you know, feel regimented, right, all these kinds of ideas come up. So we'll talk about that, in this episode, I'll help you take away a mindset that really is going to put those fears to rest for you. I'll open up a concept called the "operational aspects of your life". And we'll explore that, and what it means. What happens if you begin to handle this stuff very well? My experience shows that managing the operations stuff well increases opportunities for playfulness, spontaneity, and creativity. The problem: creativity and spontaneity - conflict with structure? It's not really a problem after all That's a bold statement; I'll back it up for you In my experience, you probably spend more attention on identifying your own tasks than you think you do Operational aspects of our lives I'm sure got it from David Allen, but I can only find one instance of him using it Parallel: business operations The old economy – product operations More and more, operations is about running the whole business These things are not 'trivia', but they don't produce high levels of value or satisfaction Operations is about making running the business as routine as it can be Lencioni's contribution – balancing operations and strategy Lencioni The 'weekly tactical meeting' The Lencioni template – operations and strategy How's your car running? Operations should be green lights The strategic things require more attention, usually The strategic things are also a better ROI for our attention Our lives have similar operational aspects - examples Our lives… Our work also… If we can manage our own operational things well, we'll have more time for creative or strategic things Call to action – send me an email - [email protected] What question do you have? What topic would you like to cover? What's one thing I could do to improve? If nothing else, tell me your first name and where you're listening from The environment is forcing us to manage more of our own things Examples of things we need to manage that we didn't used to Operationalize your task list – it is more of a burden than you might realize Routine-ize the operational aspects of your life Focus on them only when they need it Problems here can be costly – fix them David Allen's workweek Make the routine not take up any more time than it needs to The routine gets acknowledged, but the time is on the strategic 'strategic' may be creative, play, spontaneity The point: the appropriate structure maximizes time for the strategic, creative, fun stuff When the operational aspects are well-handled (including emergencies)… So, the more things you can move in to the category of operational tasks, the more smoothly your life is going to run This is true in a business as well The way to do this is through process and delegation, which go hand in hand I'll say it again – you probably don't realize how much attention you're spending on your own operational aspects My clients and I find it very easy to be spontaneous Takeaways Have the weekly tactical meeting with yourself Clarify your standard for red, yellow, green Operationalize and process-ize Example: Operating standards for social media Send me an email - [email protected] What question do you have? What topic would you like to cover? What's one thing I could do to improve? If nothing else, tell me your first name and where you're listening from I'm interested in your take. I'm not too busy to hear from you. Let me know who you are and where you are. If you have a question, I'd love to hear it. A suggestion. Let me know how I can serve you better.

What is "Calm Productivity"? I've spent a few episodes letting you know how to implement Attention Compass, but why would you WANT TO do that? I'm constantly talking to people about this idea of calm productivity, because that's the payoff for Attention Compass. But, in lots of episodes I find myself getting into the technical details of how Attention Compass works and how you should go about implementing it. And that's great; I want you all to understand that you can do this. The rest of the story is: WHY would you want to do this? This episode explains that. The heaviness of gravity and the stress of managing our attention poorly. It's a good feeling to reduce that stress, but it's pretty hard to describe the feeling (trust me: I've tried). So I'll use some customer (and other) examples to describe different facets of calmness and lower stress. You might see something that is a part of your productivity practice. If so, please recognize that I'm not trying to beat you up. I'm talking about some common practices, mindsets, and habits and how they affect our level of stress. Client stories (a.k.a. What my clients DON"T do) They DON"T: wake up at 3AM in a panic Sam's story fall into multitasking Randy forgets because he tries to multitask spend lots of time looking for the things they need to do their work Rob's ½ to full day saved generate an on-the-fly to-do list every morning (which is not a great list, anyway) Wagner's bad to-do list have lots of partially complete tasks and work-in progress artifacts to track Rob (again) about the clarity of a good backlog About the Tickler File - the trusted tool to manage the things we're not doing. As a free gift, I'll show you how to implement a Tickler File for yourself. It's pretty simple and cheap. It will help you manage your postponement decisions and is the first step for getting rid of 1) your pile(s) of work-in-progress and 2) your daily to-do list (which is a pretty bad list). Get it here: https://dobusyright.com/tickler-file/ Back to client stories... My clients DON'T: say, I'd better do it before I forget about it Myhriah's story about distraction engage in huge efforts at self-discipline Kellie's already quite productive sacrifice lots of fun "life-stuff" in order to be productive Dustin and his family worry much about "work/life balance" Andrew's question: what is work? need to use stress-based productivity tactics on themselves or others Talking to the students about deadlines and working with less panic feel exhausted, but instead they feel effective Greg's need for results These are real stories from real people. I wanted you to hear them because these are facets of what I usually refer to as "calm productivity". I've relayed stories from clients and others about the things they DON'T do and the habits and mindsets they no longer have. I have tried to present a clearer picture of specific results that people have achieved as they implemented Attention Compass. I hope one of these stories resonates with you. If you see yourself in one or more of them, I invite you to take action to fix it. A good start is to download and implement your own Tickler File.

Today I'm going to talk about our need for more reminders and fewer alarms in our lives. This is critical for two reasons: one – we use the wrong tool for the wrong job, with predictable results; two – once you understand, you'll see the value of the tool that I'll offer to you. I'll start by talking about two types of tasks. Then we'll look at reminders and alarms as task signals. Finally, we'll match the tool to the task type. Near the end, I'll give you a way to create the correct tool and start taking advantage of reminders in your world – this will reduce your distractions and interruptions and improve your ability to focus and deliver. First, a story… Tornado sirens and other alarm-style task reminders Kinds of tasks 'Started by' and 'Finished by' vs. Alarm style and Reminder style Started by examples Finished by examples So we can see that most of our need is for Reminder style Task signals Important to our peace of mind and clarity Postponing tasks Defining task signals So in Attention Compass, task signals are important Unfortunately, we (and our tools) are not very good at reminder-style task signals. This causes problems in our systems – creating unnecessary interruptions Two kinds of task signals – high urgency and low urgency High urgency = Alarm High urgency = Interruption Low urgency = Reminder Low urgency = systems and planning Look at your environment and the tools available Most of the task signals in our system are designed as alarm style When what we actually need are more Reminder style task signals The problem is our environment and tools are alarms-style, so we tend to use them exclusively and (probably) incorrectly Here's the problem that creates. Think about reminder style task signals Think about how few of your tasks must begin at a precise time Tickler file as a reminder-style task signal system The correct tool for reminders is a 100-year old technology called a "tickler" (or "suspense") file I've got a resource for you You can get instructions on how to create this filing system at dobusyright.com/tickler-file. This is my free gift to you. Pause this and go do that. Now you can create your tickler-file-based reminder system. Our tools tend to force us away from using the right kind of task signal for the right kind of task. We're forced to use alarm-style, because that's what is mostly available to us. I offer the tickler file as a reminder-style alternative for task signals. Using it well requires that we review it on a regular basks. But using it properly will reduce the number of interruptions/distractions in our lives. This allows us to maintain our focus when we need to put it on a task. Better focus allows better and faster task completion and deliverables. A tickler-style reminder system is built in to Attention Compass. The stand-alone tickler will help you handle 20%-25% of your information. So when you implement it, you'll still have some gaps in your overall attention and task management system; but, it's a start. When you're ready for the full toolset, I'll be here. Implement a tickler file in your own workflows. Go here: dobusyright.com/tickler-file.

This finishes the series on Attention Compass nuts and bolts. This is my coaching in a three-part, three-hour presentation. I want you to have this so you can start implementing. Why should you implement Attention Compass? I think the modern work-style, the modern technology, and modern communications all work together to make us anxious/stressed about our work, our tasks, and where we're putting our attention. Attention Compass directly attacks that stress. If you are uncertain about your productivity. If you feel like stress is what drives you. I'm telling you that your work doesn't have to be this way. You can have productivity and progress, AND you can have peace and clarity. The goal is for you to be able to implement, so I'm sharing so you'll understand what what attention compass is and how it works, and you can implement and actually do it. So, you know, my goal is that you get this learning that you get this ability, so that you can develop a system. If you want to rely on me to do it for you, then I'm happy to do that. And certainly, there's training available in this stuff. But you can begin to experiment on your own. Two posts that are already up, those posts talk about the tool and two of the workflows. And now we need to talk about the other two workflows. Recap of the first two episodes in the series The tool – ep 1 – a tool that can hold the backlog The first two workflows – ep 2 – about tending the backlog The next two workflows – this episode – about using the backlog Daily review workflow Candidate to-do list The most common way is to create a new to-do list each day, but wait…. Why the daily to-do is bad First part – what to do – invites creativity, which is bad Second part – limit to today – invites urgency, which is also bad The rolling backlog avoids these two problems AC doesn't rely on the daily to-do list The candidate to-do list is always there (in a well-tended backlog) – bring it up to the minute in daily review Compare the candidate to-do list to the calendar Is today a good day to do the things that I reminded myself of In daily review, pull things 'off' of the backlog Do it early so we have time to let people know This gives us a STRUCTURE for the day Recording that structure What is a work block Three things are true now that the structure is recorded A daily work routine – blocks and meetings – now look at transitions What to do in transition times The flow The deep-shallow rhythm The submarine Recap the daily review Weekly review Maximum clarity and control When to do the weekly review Consider the perils of compartmentalization Friday, Monday, and Sunday are probably bad Try midweek weekly reviews – and think seven days rather than A WEEK Steps in the daily review Tidy up Mind sweep Last week's calendar It's not as specific as 'planning the week' Check on the broader scope of actionable tasks – review the lists for priority changes Process check Is the system working for us? Weekly review summary Finalizing the workflows Honor the sense of clarity and control What about the bigger picture – review the three episodes How the tool works with the workflows Each of the four workflows Capture and processing allow us to garden well Daily and weekly review Attention Compass is a system Across these three episodes, I've given you an understanding of how Attention Compass works, how to set up the tool, and how to do the workflows. You can do this. Why not start realizing the benefits: lower stress, greater focus, and more results? If you need help, connect with me on LinkedIn here: www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble. Send me a message and we'll consider how to get you unstuck.

What is Attention Compass - Workflows 1 & 2 I want you to have information that will allow you to implement your own Attention Compass, if you want to do that. Attention compass needs some support and some explanation. Episode 22 discusses the big picture and how the tool works. I want you to have some guidance towards doing an implementation so you can understand what's going on. So you can implement Attention Compass for yourself, if you'd like. In the previous episode, we talked about the properties of a data storage tool for Attention Compass and briefly mentioned some the reasoning behind the workflows and some description of what the workloads are. In the previous episode I talked about the best way to manage information of the kind that we're dealing with here is to use a backlog metaphor. Here I'll discuss the first two workflows that maintain the backlog and keep it from turning back into a pile of information (that may be pretty useless). Three mindsets that support the workflows What's a backlog Processes turn a list into a backlog The workflows are intended to maintain the backlog Farming the backlog Submarine analogy Exposed is dangerous, but necessary So with our attention – exposed is dangerous Communication channels expose our attention Hijacking and curiosity But channels can absorb more attention than warranted Quiet-chatty balance Be on guard, your attention can escape you Constant capture In order to reduce the most difficult form of wasted attention, distraction, we need to capture everything that we become seriously aware of How capture keeps us away from distraction The Capture workflow You're already doing capture – we're just formalizing it Aware of new or changed information Capture = Throw the info toward the backlog Quick and easy and back to work So capture is semi-continuous Capture can happen during other work And during exposure to communication channels 'capture during other work' is distraction and is expected to go away So we eject stuff from our skulls Good capture keeps stuff from lodging in our brains The monkey brain slows down Capture needs to be extra fast Good capture does two related things: One: give us confidence that we're aware of the stuff Two: give us confidence that we don't need to store things in our brain Brain = workbench, so keep it clean Capture is a fundamental act and core workflow There are times when we intentionally capture, as well The Processing workflow The backlog has an intake Processing deals with the captured stuƯ from the intake and can help capture work better Processing on a routine, rhythmic basis Ideal workflow rhythm Aside on work blocks (a dedicated time period for focus) Back to the work rhythm First rule: process to empty 'mechanics' of processing: turn it into what it is and put it where it belongs Actionable vs. reference information Turn it into what it is We don't know where it belongs until we know what it is Then we put it where it belongs In general, it belongs where you are confident you'll see it again at the right time Processing to empty (or current) Recap: three things about processing Process in two layers We process the intake of our backlog The same mindset of processing applies to any information channel. Then we process our 'master' input channel – intake to the backlog The tool has to create new places where things may belong The tool must have certain properties One is support for an 'emergent' storage schema You have to create your own schema The tool has to have a few organizational schemas Actionable information requires a 'Reminder' schema = tickler system But it also has a reference information schema And a priority schema Data storage must support multiple different schemas for proper organization Recap This represents a description and definition of the first two of the four workflows that Attention Compass uses. In an upcoming episode, I'll talk about the other two: daily review and weekly review.

What is Attention Compass and How will it help me? This is one of a series of posts that are going to discuss Attention Compass in detail. Attention Compass is my proprietary tool and workflow to put you in control of your information and attention - making you a better more confident knowledge worker and reducing your stress over your productivity. My goal is to equip any listener with the tools needed to implement Attention Compass. I think many people are struggling with the problem(s) that AC solves – overwhelm, associated stress, and fear that things are falling through the cracks. If that's you, I want to serve you as best I can. So, I'll tell you how to implement your own Attention Compass. If you try to do it and struggle, give me a call and I'll help you get it fixed. We'll start with some assumptions that explain why Attention Compass is built the way it is. This will help you make decisions about how you want to use your Attention Compass. It should also help you figure out more about why you want to have an Attention Compass. Underlying assumptions There are more than we could ever… There are more things to do than we could ever get done There are more things to know than we could ever look at Sounds like bad news, but… this makes us fear forgetting/losing/missing something This fear is low-level, continually stressful for us Our memories are unreliable as to time, particularly in the future We know this so we create artifacts and systems, but our brains don't trust them Misusing the 'workbench', the productive asset, our mind/brain That means we need to get things off our mind Implications More than we can look at and more than we can get done = a ton of stuff More information than will fit in our brain Not actually two types, so one kind of storage will work It's going to be a huge number of things (double huge) This means that we have to store it in a system There are only two choices If we try to use people We're left with some kind of system Task management We get paid on delivering artifacts and we call the work to do so 'tasks' Most of us don't get paid to deliver random bits of information, but we still need to store reference info So, tasks need to be first-class citizens in our information management system A task is just a specific kind of information Aside on managing time vs. attention The system is a tool for storing stuff in the right ways (as defined by our analysis earlier) It's an electronic tool In addition to the tool, Attention Compass has four workflows Properties of the system Electronic is best "Intangible" = not quite a physical reality Oddly, this is one place where people tend to hang on to analog, maybe because it's something like a book? More portable Updates are easier Distributes (automatically) more places More searchable More ways to organize it (a physical store can only have one (direct) index) And we need to use a backlog (metaphor) to store it We've tried other storage metaphors (catalog, schedule), but they didn't work – good and bad places to park What a backlog is More definition of backlog More backlog justification (vs. PMI 'calendar' and WBS) And we have to make and track postponement decisions Example postponing a task (grass cutting) When we say we're 'not doing' something, we're usually postponing Postponement decision needs to be tracked Some recap of logic to date About Attention Compass So, these things mean that you need a personal Info Mgt System Attention compass is a personal information management system The four workflows (most frequent to least) Capture Observing the internal world Observing the external world Capture is semi-continuous, event-driven Processing Turn it in to want it is Put it where it belongs Daily review Don't have to make a to-do list Pull from the backlog Validate against other commitments Weekly Review – the bigger picture Maximum clarity and control So what? Now you understand some of the ideas of Attention Compass. Pick one and work to implement it in your life - tracking your postponement decisions is a good example. You can go to my website for instructions on how to make a physical system (called a "tickler file") that will put you in complete control of your postponements. As you create this habit, you will begin to see a new clarity and confidence about your tasks and attention management. This should encourage you to continue your efforts to improve in this critical area of your knowledge work life.

Is more education the only way to get better? The thing I want to get to is this notion of getting better and improving what you do and, and really drill down on that because I think most of my listeners are interested in that right. I mean, it's not just a question of being able to handle your stuff. It's a question of getting better at work. It's a question of getting better at our tasks. It's about making more money and being more effective in the world. And creating more value and all these exciting things. And I also want to motivate some inquiry into how how do I go about motivate some, you know, hey, I need to be constantly improving on this front. And if I want to get better results, I got to be a better worker. And how do I do that? So I think there's two primary choices. So we'll assume that we've already asked the boss. Two (or three) paths to improvement One is MBA (I think this is the 'big business'/'promotion' path) Two is producing more value or use less time/attention (I think this is the entrepreneurial path) This is work ON your job, rather than AT your job So, work to use less time/attention on what you're already doing How does having 'free' time help me be successful – three possibilities Using the 'extra' time - spending spare time in client acquisition Using the 'extra' time – more value per customer Using the 'extra' time - raise your prices How do you decide – it starts with awareness of options The new mindset Evaluating options – what do we actually mean by 'getting better' The new mindset – four ways to improve More knowledge, more specialization – MBA path First flavor – technical specialization Second flavor – tightening your niche Look at a model that makes sense for you. What do specialists actually do in your field? I'm not sure specialization - like medical, CPAs, lawyers - works everywhere Creating more widgets Raising prices Looking at the numbers when raising prices – we've got 10 customers producing $1,000 a month in revenue. So that's 10,000 a month. We asked for a 10% price increase, and we get it from nine of our 10 customers and the 10th customer goes away. So now we've got nine customers and we're making $1,100 off of each one - that's $9900 per month - we've lost $100 a month rather than having lost $1,000 a month. So that's that's how the math works. If you can get a high conversion rate, you don't lose the whole $1,000 because you do get your price increase on some of your other customers. Don't sleep on simply saving time - that's a good reason Summary of this section (ways to get 'better') Recap so far #1 – promotion/certification Recap so far #2 – niche / raise value per customer Recap so far #3 – more throughput Recap so far #4 – harvesting time for other pursuits Make sure you know your path from the above options Results Work 'athletics' How can you be more athletic? Twofold result – 1) more balls and 2) more practice Knowledge work athletics – task and attention management (first among others) Think about how you produce Example – this podcast: Could I shorten it Look at your own workflow results, visibility, more instances of production Outgrowth of getting better = more confidence about doing it The result is more done in less time Tools What are some tools A few low hanging fruit – keyboard, operating system and other software, communication & public speaking Tool #1 – categorization of 'what does getting better mean' Tool #2 – think about 'specialization' vs 'niche' Tool #3 – think about collecting more value per instance of delivery (raise your prices) Tool #4 – look at your process to produce more deliveries Taking less attention per instance of production Analyze the 'mystical' process Create a process and begin to understand Don't overlook the simple stuff (software, automation) Attention compass Spend time thinking through your definition of better, using the examples above. Consider what your own approach might be, don't just default to getting more certification/education. That may not work well in your business and it's an expensive experiment. Think about getting better in process-oriented ways. Ways that save you time, increase your output, or improve your value proposition. If you need help understanding why to postpone work and how to do it well, hit us up at dobusyright.com/tickler-file for a free download about the best way to manage reminders and postponed work.

I wanted to talk about procrastination... I think that we have a fair amount of confusion about procrastination. One of the clear points I want to make is that procrastination is not some moral failing. It's not some example of 'lack of discipline'. I believe, in almost all cases, it's actually a problem with our systems and I'll talk about what I mean by that. And then we'll talk directly about things that you feel get procrastinated in your world. We'll talk about a couple of potential causes and also solutions. But I realized that procrastination is merely one way that things get 'hung up' in our system or lives. Perfectionism is another. Finally, we think about forgetting that we postponed something. We'll deal with all of this, get it in its proper order and make you more productive as you overcome the challenges and take advantage of the benefits. So how do we move things through our list in the grander scheme of things? And how do we avoid things getting hung up in our 'to-do list' cycle? How do we keep things from getting plugged up and get lost, so that things move on through it, as compared to this one thing that just sits there and sits there and never manages to move through the system. So that's what we'll talk about today. Perfectionism is also a problem for things moving through our system. Under perfectionism, we delay the delivery of work. We'll talk about that and how to deal with it. One primary problem: We're typically ignoring the lion's share of what we need to be tracking in our system(s) . The problem – more to do than can get done Human beings have a large number of things they want to do But we can only do one thing at a time And each thing takes time, so it's a while until we can get to the next thing we want to do Therefore, there is always stuff we want to do that we're not doing now (infinite minus finite equals infinite) Implications – the majority of our stuff is 'not to do (now)' but we don't track that well People tell you to focus on X things, big rocks, etc. That's not unusual or earth-shattering, but something else is - the vast majority of to-dos are currently being postponed Not recognizing this fact is where our systems fail us How do we deal with the things we're not going to do today? These represent the overwhelming majority of our stuff Procrastination vs. postponement What does this have to do with procrastination – define procrastination as 'unintentional postponement' Contrast postponement – 'a ton minus one' things have to be postponed Postponement is intentional and absolutely required In fact, almost everything gets postponed at some point Postponement is always a reasonable approach Postponement What drives the choice not to do it now #1 - priority #2 - context Only two choices if context doesn't appear Good postponement includes planning Most people don't engage in that planning because they don't have the right tool/system The tool/system needs to track that we postponed it – otherwise, we'll forget about it It's not surprising that we're making postponement decisions Postponing is not equal to procrastination. Procrastination Define procrastination Why do we procrastinate #1 – thinking about our feelings Back to feelings Why do we procrastinate #2 – we don't know what we're doing Combat this by making tasks smaller Why do we procrastinate #3 – we can't or don't want to create the correct context Combat this by postponing or recognizing that it might just be an excuse What to do about it (good postponing) Things that you're not doing have a way of lodging themselves in your brain – it needs to trust your system So those three things above really mean that your tool has to be better Attention compass is designed this way – to prompt you to postpone well System = tool to store personal Information Describing one of the tools The single purpose tool is the tickler file Define tickler (or suspension) based on 43 folders How it works and how it's used We use it to say "I'm not going to think about this task today" but I'm also not going to lose it Tracking the postponement helps keep us from procrastination and from forgetting It's a great planning tool Takeaways Get comfortable postponing and set up systems to do it well Recognize when you're procrastinating and break down those tasks – find something in there that fits your current context and do it Challenge your perfectionism Implement a tool to track the 99+% of your tasks that get postponed This will help you understand what postponement is and the fact that it is necessary by the situation(s) we find ourselves in. Postponing and procrastinating are two very different ideas and shouldn't ever be confused. We need to fight any procrastination (and perfectionism) that creep into our workflow. Attention Compass is designed to help us manage postponement decisions very well. I suggest you get started with your implementation. Failing that, you need to implement a tickler file. Here's the link (I mentioned in

How Do We Avoid Perfectionism and still Manage Quality? I did an episode on perfectionism recently. I argued that it is wasteful and thus should be eliminated. But, in some cases, it seems to be our only way to control quality. That is, our only quality target is perfection. If we eliminate it as a goal, then are we simply left with accepting sloppy work from our Knowledge workers? In this episode, I'll talk about some of the challenges of quality in knowledge work. We should arrive at some actionable ideas of how to manage quality in knowledge work. Can we have quality targets as knowledge workers? And so we, we definitely want to avoid perfectionism. And we also want to support timeboxing, we want to support the idea that we can say, this should take me four hours, and then schedule four hours, and then get the work done in four hours. versus some perfectionistic approach where we work on it, work on it, and continue to work on and work on it until we run out of time. And then we declare it done. And that's not a thoughtful way to proceed. And definitely not managing quality. Our productivity demands that we manage quality. And we need to manage quality because we need to manage cost. Otherwise, we go out of business. But how? How to define quality in Knowledge work Only you, as the knowledge worker, can know what you are trying to say or deliver Example: delivering truth when it's bad news What is quality? An outcome Quality is like school exams (at least some of the time) If we have an objective external standard Where does production quality fit in? 'production quality' above a certain threshold is not a measure of quality Unless it is. Entertainment seems to have this property. Kinds of flaws in knowledge work (expand here) Non-exhaustive categories of knowledge work and the associated deliverables Factual Knowledge – what are the facts, what do we know? E.g. diagnosis Process Knowledge – next action that should be taken, E.g. treatment regiments and delivery Understanding Knowledge – what is our strategy, changes to standard procedure e.g. when treatment doesn't work Knowledge Creation – new knowledge/processes/workflows – Insight e.g. new treatments Problem solving – practical application of kinds of knowledge, experiments to try, "this should work" e.g. confounding symptoms Defining quality per type of Knowledge Work In KW, we don't have an objective external standard – usually one-off work products Value in use KWs produce results that are necessarily incomplete and probably incorrect in one or more details Factual Knowledge – high quality = correct ("true", "accurate") to the appropriate level of detail The customer 'doesn't like it' does not count against quality Process knowledge – high quality = 'doability'/ease of use/regulatory compliance Again, 'doesn't like it' doesn't count Understanding knowledge – high quality = reasonability, experience, convincing, case study Knowledge creation – high quality = science Problem Solving – high quality = results (vs. cost) In these areas, production quality has a lower bound of comprehensibility, but improving it beyond that is probably a waste Thinking in Bets – "resulting" If our results have flaws, then our work was bad work? What is 'resulting' and why is it bad Redefine what a 'good' decision is The key is that the problem of resulting divorces our outcomes from the quality of our effort Why is resulting bad – it causes us to doubt, to change good processes for bad ones Avoid resulting in decision making – follow the decision process How to avoid resulting in Knowledge Work results – how do we know we've done good work Athletes and results (three point shooting) Knowledge work results have 1) hidden information (e.g. user needs, uncertainty about facts), and 2) risk So, knowledge workers have done good work when we've followed our process Knowledge workers have to avoid 'resulting' Helps avoid the perfection trap (overinvesting in quality) Avoiding resulting in our work It leads to perfectionism, which is wasteful Without other standards, we default to production quality, which is probably wasteful Avoid making our delivery processes weak (no 'change resistance' or consistency) Avoid resulting's sapping of our confidence What to do about quality? As knowledge workers, we need to get comfortable with 'best effort' Develop a process to adopt changes to our processes, don't change our work processes at the drop of a hat Scrum/Agile project management can help, but the user has to be highly involved Use lots of MVPs What else to do Develop confidence Focused work for our target amount of time is 'good' work An experiment is good to the degree that it produces usable data Not to the degree that it supports a specific hypothesis So do good experiments Apply this to MVPs

The lie: Perfection should be the underlying goal of your work Or (rephrased) you should pursue 'excellence' in everything you do. The truth is that technical perfection is both unrealistic and unnecessary. Excellent is an undefined word. Intro to perfectionism: I've seen a lot lately on perfectionism. Kevin Miller, on his Self Helpful podcast, did a series on it. That's been recent as of this recording time. But if you want to look him up in the archives, it would be January 2024. I became aware of a book by Ruth Soukup, "Do It Scared". She covers seven archetypal fears that she discovered in surveying a segment of her clientele. She walks us through ways to address each archetype. And she has a tool to tell us, which is our primary archetype. One of her archetypes is the perfectionist. I even had a conversation on LinkedIn with a couple of a couple of buddies about this, where we're posting back and forth and kind of walking through some things on perfectionism. Let's see what we can know and figure out. The problem Definition of perfectionism - 'nominal search for perfection'. Nominal because we know good and well that we can't produce a perfect product But then we call ourselves 'perfectionists' – Trojan Horse Excuse or 'humble brag' Companies that build things have a different view of 'perfect' quality – additional areas of quality Lower cost, less work-in-progress, less inventory, cycle or turn time, etc. Imposter syndrome 'Best effort' is more correct, but its hard to say out loud How people actually judge our work and look for defects So people are going to have something to say about your work - this is good feedback The three aspects of perfectionism (Hat tip: Kevin Miller) Self-oriented - me being a perfectionist with my own work Outward-directed - me being a perfectionist when I'm their customer Directed at me - others being perfectionist when they're my customer But human beings are satisficers, so we don't require perfect solutions nor are we (usually) willing to pay for them. Oftentimes, our feedback is more a statement of (temporary) preference than a judgment of quality. Our feelings get hurt pretty easily – the source of the perfectionism trap. Symptoms Imposter syndrome - Kevin Miller and 'avoid getting found out' – idealized self-image Overwork – over delivering on quality as a defensive mechanism or fear response Inflexibility of standards - 'superstition' Late delivery of work Don't even start – no credit for a good try New mindset Good try Minimum Viable Product (MVP) from Agile Project Management Tailored suit and MVP – a good tailor makes just enough suit to see if it fits MVP can work into a bespoke solution Quality and efficiency are outcomes – no system is designed to produce less than 100% quality. Approach each task with humility, then confidence, then more humility. Results Less stress – perfectionism just transfers stress to worry in early production More experiments -> more learning -> getting better Deliver the work consistently with less turmoil Tools Agile = MVP and backlog management Communication with stakeholders Finish early enough for another go Good try – take credit for having had a shot The takeaway We can and should work to eliminate perfectionism in our work lives, and be careful with associated terms like 'imposter syndrome' and 'excellence'. In fact, imposter syndrome is a precise description of what we're doing when we're learning and getting better, we're behaving like imposters (but the good kind). We need to approach our work with humility ("I'm not perfect at this work"), then confidence ("But I've got strong skills and/or experience that will be useful as I do the work"), and, after delivery, more humility ("How can I get better?").

Managing Oneself - Peter Drucker and the second quarter of the 21st century This episode covers the "smartest person you've probably never read". Drucker foresaw the rise of Knowledge Work 60+ years ago. Not only did he define it for us, but he let us know that it would be the primary challenge of the 21st Century manager. He also told us how and why to improve it. I discuss his six factors of Knowledge Worker productivity. If you're a Knowledge Worker and/or a manager, you need to understand the six factors so you can start working on them in your organization. And you'll need to understand them because you have to manage yourself and your own productivity. Who is Peter Drucker Introduction Background on Drucker Drucker's core thinking – management and firm performance A student of his times ('40s – '80s) Drucker - Manual worker productivity Knowledge worker productivity parallel to manual worker productivity Drucker - Deming, Taylor and scientific management Drucker - knowledge work and service work The rise of Knowledge Workers in the economy Knowledge Worker productivity drives overall economic success and growth in the 21st century Managers' critical responsibility for Knowledge Worker productivity Drucker defined six factors that influence Knowledge Worker productivity: Intro Recognize that these are largely things that Knowledge Workers are responsible for Many of them help contrast manual work and its management to knowledge work and its management #1 Defining the task can be a challenge for Knowledge Work Models, blueprints, etc. are a primary way to define physical product work Information products can't be modeled Multiple instances of physical product are useful Duplicating information has low cost so the work is usually one-off #2 Knowledge Workers themselves have to be responsible for their productivity Knowledge Work is unobservable A good Knowledge Worker knows more than both the boss and the customer Manager can't do it for them #3 Continuing innovation must be in Knowledge Workers' hands #4 Knowledge Workers must have time for continuous learning and teaching Continuous learning – must be self-determined for each Knowledge Worker Continuous teaching – others in the organization about the Knowledge Work result #5 Quality is critical, but hard to determine and manage in Knowledge Work Only the Knowledge Worker can determine what level of quality is possible Overproducing quality is a waste Quality vs quantity Define quality in physical product Specification = quality in physical products The challenge of quality #6 Knowledge Workers have to WANT to work for the organization The productive asset is portable Further, they must desire to give effort, not just time (engagement) Improving Knowledge Worker productivity How does this apply to improving Knowledge Worker productivity? If we look at the six factors, we see that they are all aspects of management as it relates to manual workers - we are probably still managing as if we were in a manual work setting. People aren't taught to manage – either self- or other Absent over-emphasis on motivation, managing self and others is not too different Knowledge Workers need to understand self-management Conclusion Mindset for managers Mindset for Knowledge Workers Access to tools and training Learn to manage, if only to manage one's self Now you know how to proceed with making yourself more productive and, thus, more valuable in the modern economy. The Attention Compass is the foremost tool for self-management for Knowledge Workers. Check on dobusyright.com. Note: the podcast relies heavily on the following article: Knowledge-Worker Productivity: The Biggest Challenge. Peter F. Drucker. California Management Review, Vol. 41, No. 2. 1999.

How did the Attention Compass come about? Why is it a thing now? Larry's background through 2006 My career has been in IT management, so I understand something about tools, software, next generation technology. Throughout my career, I was always a productivity geek – Stephen Covey, David Allen, new tech, phone, etc During this time we noticed that email, (Windows) mobile phone, Ipod, and Outlook have replaced the paper Daytimer. Also, I'm still trying to make GTD work in Outlook I had already completed an MBA, so now I'm definitely a corporate business guy Then three things happened The Iphone released, signaling the entrenchment of mobile computing devices. Dropbox happened, meaning device to device information synchronization was readily available. Facebook grew (passed mySpace), making social applications/media 'normal' and mainstream. We're in the social, mobile, and cloud world at the same time (and the great recession). Things began to change I started my Ph.D. I took a huge pay cut, so I had to take on lots of IT project work; I had multiple 'jobs' to track. I also had lots of Class work. Again, this meant a lot of work that was disjointed. Add in the PhD (dissertation) work, another kind of disjointed work. But the primary effect was recognition that I needed to get really good at PhD-level information management. The physical environment handed me lots of places to work, so I not only needed mobile computer(s), but I needed mobile data. Now I have two big questions: Where's my stuff? And what's my task? And I'm overwhelmed, so is my GTD implementation. The Ph.D. work and environment, along with the project work, delivered some constraints (or lack thereof). I don't have a boss telling me what to do; with autonomy came responsibility. I needed to deal with the regular information (task, project level stuff, etc.) along with this complex unstructured academic information. Psychology, neurology, how our brains work – gotta externalize and it's lots of stuff. At the same time, I've got to get rid of the paper - it's too inflexible and cumbersome to be as fluid as I need it to be. Some light dawns on my own attention/task/time management system. David Allen's great, but GTD = paper = bad. Evernote goes mainstream enough for me have an account in 2010. I had been investigating 'note taking' apps and had been using OneNote. I knew scheduling, Gantt charts, etc. based on my project management background from previous jobs. I was continuing to learn about information management through my Ph.D. work in Information Systems. All of this came together into what is now known as the Attention Compass. Since I was involved with so many different kinds of work, lots of people who knew me well began to ask about how I managed. I told them and taught them. People clearly needed it, so I launched a business. I had to learn how to explain all this to people; nobody was talking about this stuff (that's pretty much still true. I needed clients to build habits, not just collect 'tips', so I adopted coaching as my delivery mechanism. The name, Attention Compass, is based on the system's focus on managing attention rather than time Corporate guy turned entrepreneur Delivering value through helping people I think people are in two camps – head in the sand or jumping around with tips and applications. Attention Compass delivers a tool, along with a complete set of workflows, for people who are ready to finally solve this problem in their lives. Now, its all put together. But, what does it mean? Where does Attention Compass fit in? Here's the big picture - what you'll hear me talk about on the podcast. Attention Compass is a foundational tool in managing knowledge work. So, it addresses the challenges of knowledge work management and productivity articulated by Peter Drucker. Attention Compass is a highly refined Personal information Management tool. So, it addresses our increasing need for the ability to manage our own information articulated by William Jones. Attention Compass tool and training solidifies Personal Information Management, which changes the nature and need for Group Information Management. So, it can disrupt the space currently occupied by Microsoft's Sharepoint and Google's G-suite. Finally, the WHY of Attention Compass and my coaching practice. Please connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble/.

Think about attention management. About how we deal with our own ability to focus. That attention is primarily directed at the work we have to do. We need our full attention on our work, at least to the degree that our work is difficult and challenging. One of my clients asked me to organize from the big picture perspective, what we're trying to do with our attention. What are the big rocks of dealing with our attention effectively. Attention = ability to focus There are four pieces, more detail below The first piece – Defend your atteniton The second piece - Manage your attention The third piece – Grow your attention The fourth piece – Audit your attention Four parts in place mean that we're really good at this Attention thing First rock - Defend our attention The field is not level The three enemies to defense – the three attackers – waste, interruption, and distraction The first enemy - Waste is those things that have crept into our lives as, now, habits Nobody is doing this to us, we're doing it to ourselves (lack of focus?) We can easily lose ourselves Rabbit trails Waste from apps The second enemy – Theft of our attention through interruption We lose our train of thought, our place We actually handle this pretty well in most circumstances The third enemy – Distraction = self-interruption Ideas and reminders pop up at the wrong time We combat this one by getting stuff out of our heads Defending against three primary things Attention Compass covers all three areas Get started now – save your attention Second rock – Manage our attention There's a positive, offensive, "put your attention here" and a negative, defensive, "take things out of your awareness" Don't want it to bother you? You're on defense. Capture it. We empty our brains to avoid this kind of distraction Eject it from your mind into the outside world and convince your brain that its OK We're not just throwing it off our desk, that's when we get to offense Don't want to lose it or hunt for it? You're on offense. Put it where you'll trip over it The Attention Compass as a 'room of requirement' or 'magic bag of holding' The positive – it's where you would naturally look for it Might have to get inventive on this stuff – laundry basket Reminders, used properly Two sides of the same coin Both of these things are core work and they work together These two rest on the first one – not worth it if you're just frittering attention away Also, these two are where the toolset is critical Summary – get it out and put it where you'll trip over it Attention Compass was developed specifically with this use case in mind Third rock - Extending our attention Define extending our attention First metaphor – physical strength – duration of strength and intensity of strength Second metaphor – source of light – length is battery or bulb life Source of light – second is intensity – tight beam Extending our attention involves both kinds of extension How – discipline – stick for longer How – practice – learn quick intensity Mindfulness - definition Mindfulness in practice – stretch yourself and use the brain dump Work on both intensity and duration Tactics for extending Three enemies of extension – reactivity, perfectionism, procrastination The first enemy - reactivity Tactic for reactivity – work block Start small Blocks work for extending, as well Ending a work block The second enemy - perfectionism Tactic for perfectionism – time boxing Set an amount of time Must deliver at the end A time box makes you aware of time passing Solicit the feedback and adjust The third enemy - procrastination Procrastination – tactic – clear definitions Smaller tasks really help (example) Recap – three enemies, three tactics Interactions – work blocks=extending, time boxing=intensity Here is where AC's daily and weekly review shine – there's a clear, defined process to change, if needed Fourth rock – audit Challenges Collecting good data as an input to the audit Can I do anything about it, or is my attention controlled by others The other three support having good data Perform the Audit Step one – have an intent or expectation Step two – collect data Step three - analyze Step four - plan for corrections One of the primary points of an audit is to make changes to your system You have to have a system before an audit makes sense Attention Compass's process is most valuable here Recap – four rocks and you need them all Defend – the foundation Manage – apply your attention well, offense and defense, the tool is important Extend – avoid reactivity, perfectionism, and procrastination Audit – how can you get better? How can you target attention toward your roles?

In this episode, I answer a question from my buddy and listener, Joel. He feels like he has "Squirrel Brain" and wonders how to get rid of it. So, I define "Squirrel Brain" and talk about tactics for Taming the Squirrel. I love your questions. Reach me at [email protected] or connect on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/larrytribble. I'll try to answer and let you know when I publish 'your' episode. Joel's question – what about taming the 'squirrel brain' What is the squirrel brain – uncertainty about what to do There is no ABSOLUTE priority list Backlog management is the key to managing the squirrel Back to the priority list – one, three, or more things in a day If you typically don't get through your list, that's a different problem What about this squirrel? A big list is from the squirrel What gets on my task list today? Let's tame that squirrel The to-do list invites the squirrel First thing, it engages our brain's creativity, brainstorming Second – it engages our brain's sense of urgency Be careful about asking your brain this question It leads to acting like Scrat from Ice Age OK, what's the suggestion – no to-do list, but a running backlog Emphasis on 'running' backlog Backlog – organized list of Everything – it's a big list Organized list – organization is a key, cause it's a lot of stuff Organization is the difference between a backlog and a pile Pile – you can only deal with individual units or the whole set Organize so that there are intermediate levels/groups Emergent – emergence and refinement Backlog is the state of the art for managing large lists Reasons for a backlog Reason one for a backlog - You have more to do than anybody could get done Reason two - track the things you don't want to do now Decision to postpone Backlog stores information that you don't want to deal with now – parking lot Reason three – you can't trust your brain Properties of a backlog One – easy to get things on it Two – highly visible and accessible from everywhere Three – no ability to capture your attention Four – it hides things you don't want to see now Five – easy, powerful search Six – categorization, 'durable' areas of similarity - contexts Seven – items can Live in more than one context at the same time Eight - Velcro holds everything Nine - Needs an inbox Ten - Backlog cannot be publicly accessible – your email client is right out Bonus properties Bonus property – a way to link items to each other Bonus property – holding or pointing to work items Bonus property – reminders Using a backlog – Workflows A backlog is fluid, adaptable A backlog is defined by interactions and organizational mechanisms I live in my backlog My backlog is front and center in my work Multiple Contexts – some about 'Now' Constantly Updating with new information - capture Refining the backlog Why refine – capture more information Primary purpose of a backlog is for items to evolve Refine thoughtfully, on a schedule, capture what you're learning Workflow – refinement is a regular procedure Don't refine too much too early Refine things that are near, not on the horizon Review of the three things Backlog – other issues Backlog Holds tasks – a task is never completely defined until its done A backlog must have multiple contexts Multiple ways to organize things – not a static list (so probably not inyour CRM) What about collaborative stuff? It has to be personal – your thinking and your organization – emergent organization Impersonal is the fundamental challenge of group information management systems Recap: I think we are all victims of the squirrel from time to time. The best way to tame it is to be careful about how we build our task list. The typical To-do list question "What do I need to do today?" is heavy-duty Squirrel fodder. Instead, develop your daily task list from your well-managed backlog. I cover properties of a backlog and it's toolset, along with workflows that help you keep it under control. It'll help harness the Squirrel.

This is one of a set of posts on common misconceptions about productivity and work. I call them Lies About Productivity. I'll address some 'lie' and suggest a new mindset that is helpful toward being effective, not exhausted - Do Busy Right. The Lie: You should equate working hard to being productive. Or that work should be hard in order to be valuable. At a minimum, we need to redefine the word 'hard' in this context. 'Hard' is too vague to be useful and to negative to be helpful. The problem of not thinking beyond 'hard': I don't think 'hard' is necessary and it's clearly not good for us Value proposition to the world (no source, sorry) Value proposition to the world General value proposition Adding, believing, or relying on: I'm a hard worker Cultural norms around hard work (legend: both forward and backward) Historical notion of 'hard work' – based on physical labor Even religious notions of 'hard work' – protestant work ethic Self-talk and 'hard' – why pick 'hard' it's too vague to be helpful and too negative to be encouraging Taking aim at the legend and the lore around 'hard' work Think about things that 'hard' is not – we can pull them out of our definition 'Hard' <> ('many hours', thinking thoroughly, facing frustrations, etc.) <> 'lots to do' (Attention Compass) 'Hard' <> more valuable - flow state is effortless 'Hard' <> probability of failure (Made shot vs. missed shot) 'Hard' <> 'expert level' - Experts don't find their work 'hard' My bass example of expertise - chunking In fact, some things get so well-ingrained that I do them too often Excel example – more blocks, chunks Symptoms Symptom: the trap of increasing hours Trap Corollary – harvest part of the value of your own growth MBA example of value sharing Symptom: we don't define our availability and response levels Symptom: over-producing quality Symptom: vague value proposition Symptom: mediocre performance Symptom: imposter syndrome Symptom: everything becomes hard New mindset The new mindset – work should be a joy – creating beauty or good The new mindset – we develop greater patience with ourselves Bass example – creating beauty or good The Gap and the Gain Focus on the gap during PRACTICE and the gain during PERFORMANCE Hard work is not a moral imperative We're not doing physical labor – we're not doing brain surgery Results Result one – redefine the value proposition Result two – sense of craftsmanship, of expertise Crawford and craftsmanship – physicality vs. visibility Craftsmanship gets lost if it's hard Tools Tool one – value proposition is a tool, make sure it includes some things that you enjoy Tool two – practice your skills, so you see yourself getting better (or easier) Tool three – grow your confidence Not the weak, abstract confidence, but specific and concrete Tool four – use your words more precisely We hear over and over again that hard work is the key to success. I just don't think that is useful advice. It's not nearly precise enough, thoughtful enough. I'm not saying that the key to success is sitting, doing nothing; I believe in diligence and engagement. Nor am I saying that work is easy (although it can and should normally be calm, meaningful, and joyful); that's no more helpful or precise than 'hard'. I'm saying to understand what is challenging about your specific work task: too routine/boring, frustrating, many things to consider, needs deep focus, etc. Name that thing and acknowledge it. This will lead to effectively dealing with the specific challenge. It will also help avoid the trap of 'hard' work as our value proposition to the world.

The lie here is that outputs divided by inputs is the right way to measure our productivity. I believe that we're thinking about productivity in the wrong ways. Particularly when it comes to knowledge workers, we use similar thoughts and equations for knowledge worker productivity that we use for factory productivity or efficiency. I want to dive into some of the differences that may indicate that we're thinking about this whole thing the wrong way. A clear problem statement is, we seem to be attacking the productivity problem the same way we attacked, and frankly, solved the efficiency problem in factories. We see productivity equations for knowledge workers that are the same as productivity equations for factories: productivity or efficiency is defined as outputs divided by inputs. Well, there are a few problems with that, based on differences between knowledge work, and the product of knowledge work, versus factory production, and the product of factories. So the argument is, efficiency, which is some ratio of output to input, is not the right way to think of knowledge worker productivity. Factory models probably don't apply to knowledge work repetition process design and engineering in factories process is an outgrowth of multiple iterations of solving the same problem - medicine knowledge workers really don't do repetition (more later) measurability factory inputs are measurable because they're physical quality is directly measurable A clue: knowledge work is the hardest input to measure in factories Factories don't really use time anyway time is an outcome, not an input factories can buy more 'time' – its expandable Fundamental differences in work, but we use the same productivity equations Compare knowledge work knowledge work inputs are less tangible – experience, learning, creativity knowledge work is not 'manufactured'; problem solving as exemplary knowledge work we don't know much about the problem-solving process any solution is potentially a good result medicine as an example of problem solving medical diagnosis as applied experience – reasoning by analogy primary knowledge work difference - Never solve the same problem twice portability of knowledge work solutions Challenges to using time as the input knowledge work outputs are not manufactured ideas and solutions are the result of trial-and-error billing for time as a knowledge worker – an accommodation formerly knowledge workers got paid by controlling the medium of delivery of information writers don't bill for their time modern erosion of media as transmission information consumption is largely free Billing for results the Henry Ford story/legend knowledge workers should be able to bill for results more often lawyers bill for solutions, but people get upset authors do it this way Productivity has a lot to do with avoiding waste waste one – task switching waste two – over-producing quality, knowledge workers need to control quality waste three - Re-finding previous solutions Symptoms of not having good productivity measures, of not understanding productivity Multitasking Working too many hours moving tasks along Symptom: no clear priority deadline-driven The other mindset - focus is the number one input result one – break habits associated with symptoms result two of other mindset – protect our focus result three – grow our focus Wrap up results Tools to support the new mindset timer more mindfulness (reading is a good start) more thinking -> greater mindfulness -> greater focus backlog of tasks psychological tool - confidence A primary takeaway is to be careful to not overuse time as an input in measuring your productivity. Time is only useful as a container for focused effort. Work on your focus and your time might just take care of itself.

In this episode, I answer a question from a listener named Adrian. She's got a great new job with a somewhat smaller company and feeling some symptoms of a less-structured position. So, I'll be talking primarily to folks that are in the same position as Adrienne or folks who want to be in that position. What do we do about promotions? What do we do when we grow into better knowledge workers? What happens when we embrace the gig economy? I love your questions. Reach me at [email protected] or connect on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/larrytribble. I'll try to answer and let you know when I publish 'your' episode. Back to Adrian's question... Anyone who's growing will have Adrian's problem. Adrian is more self-directed in the new role. Promotions require growth – Marshall Goldsmith's "What got you here Won't Get You There. " Career growth naturally causes this situation - bosses cannot manage you in the same detailed ways. Thus, you probably feel a management 'vacuum'. The three forces that typically cause a vacuum: A promotion often causes a management vacuum. Knowledge work: Over-management makes knowledge workers dumber. So knowledge work is changing 'traditional management practice'. "Enlightened" management is trying to recover here, leaving a vacuum. The gig economy: The office used to provide services and assets that we couldn't (or didn't want to) replicate for ourselves. Now those constraints don't apply any more. So, the gig economy has people 'firing' their companies and going out on their own. This causes a management vacuum. These forces push us into self-management Problem: we're not taught how to manage self or others (normally). This results in some of the 'symptoms' Adrian mentions: - … that balance of giving myself grace and feeling accomplished for the day - … depend[ing] on positive feedback or praise from superiors - … how to retrain my brain… to find… healthy and productive work days What Adrian is actually talking about is her growing need for self-management. Learn self-management Bosses help employees with task management, defining the employee's role, and career management. But the three forces limit bosses' ability to help employees in these areas. So these things form the notion of self-management. Self-management's two questions First question: What is a management mindset? The 'vacuum' decreases our bosses' ability to help us here. Self-management practices help us create the feedback, praise, and confidence that we had been getting from our boss. Second question: How do I do task management? The 'vacuum' decreases our bosses' ability to help us here, as well. Self-management practices include the development of good task and attention management practices. Task management system. Here are features that our task management system needs: Need to capture everything – emails, links, documents - everything One online space Organize multiple lists Track both the decision to do something and the decision to postpone something. Use lots of reminders Don't use your calendar, its too limiting Attention compass is designed for this exact situation Recap: Due to the three forces of career growth, the rise of knowledge work, and the gig economy, we're losing our bosses and the help they give us. So we need more self-management mindset and more task and attention management tools to replace that help.

The lie: if you get busier, you have to work more hours There are options when more work suddenly hits your desk, overtime is just one of them. Sometimes, it's the best response. But maybe not as often as we think. In this episode, I define the problem clearly and suggests strategies for clarifying priority and tactics for those times when 'it just needs to get done'. Work habits and time management. Just working more hours without a thoughtful plan is a bad, but perhaps typical, default response to busyness. Concerns about automatically expanding work time to accommodate additional tasks. Work habits and expectations. Saying yes to everything can be problematic and leads to burnout, suggesting alternative strategies for managing work and personal expectations. The importance of mental shifts and scripts to help individuals say no more effectively and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life. Self-management and setting boundaries as a self-employed individual. Self-management is key to evaluating commensurate rewards for effort in a business context. The importance of self-management in workplace expectations. Setting boundaries and saying no to avoid burnout. Work-life balance and employment contracts. Setting expectations and reevaluating work-life balance contracts regularly. Employees are pushing back against unclear employment contracts, seeking better work-life balance. Prioritizing work tasks and managing new assignments. Prioritize tasks on a list to manage new work requests. Prioritizing tasks based on absolute values is unhelpful and leads to chaos. Replanning work, using a prioritized list. Prioritizing tasks with a boss. A structured list to prioritize tasks and understand the impact of new priorities on the entire list. Comparing the new priority to the existing list to determine its placement on the list. New work items always show up, despite the existing list of tasks to complete. Estimate how long the new task will take and decide which tasks to remove from the list to make room for it. Prioritizing tasks and managing workload. A conversation with a 'boss' about priorities and workload, showing a willingness to communicate and problem-solve. The importance of the list in prioritizing tasks and managing competing demands to have productive conversations. Examining rewards and sacrifices to achieve work-life balance. Managing workload and quality in a fast-paced work environment. Speaker 1 advises reassessing expectations for work items and managing time effectively to avoid burnout. Speaker argues that quality is an illusion in knowledge work and must be strategically managed during crunch time. Managing workload and prioritizing tasks. Reassess assumptions and renegotiating commitments to stakeholders when facing overtime work. Avoid defaulting to sacrificing personal relationships to prioritize work, instead broaden options and negotiate with stakeholders to find solutions. Consider all work and time commitments when negotiating, including skipping staff meetings, working from home, or reassigning tasks to others. Managing trade-offs and time horizon in problem-solving. Timeboxing as a productivity tool. Attitude is important Timeboxing for challenging yourself to focus tightly and deliver work. A primary takeaway is the value of an ongoing prioritized list of commitments and tasks. After listening, you may be more interested in how to develop and maintain such a list. Attention Compass is a process that will help you create and maintain a useful list through sound backlog management.

What? I have four areas of work? Four areas of work knowledge. There's two that everybody knows about. There's the one Cal Newport talks about. And then there's the one I talk about. That makes four areas in which you want to be as good as you can. This will put you in a position to have a better career, have better workdays, have better work weeks. The first - work skills The first is what are best called basic skills of work. How to use a computer; how to use a phone; you know how to talk to people; you're not lazy, you're willing to be where you need to be when you need to be there. This kind of thing that you probably practiced in school. The knowledge you need is pretty easily identified. And any lack of knowledge is reasonably easy to correct. You might want to expand some of these skills, but many fall into the 'good enough' category. The second – career skills The second is technical knowledge about your specialty - career skill. This is depth in your specialty, your career. This knowledge is usually identified in college. Again, any lack of knowledge is reasonably easy to correct with professional associations and peers in your specialty. You might want to expand some of these skills, but there are benefits and risks. The third – Cal Newport and career management The third is knowledge about how to advance in your career - career Management. Cal Newport has a program called 'Top Performer' in which he coaches these skills. This is understanding your field more deeply from a management perspective. This is figuring out how successful people in your field got successful. Cal makes the point that it is easy to assume you understand how to do this, but many people fool themselves by chasing additional technical specialization. You'll want to gain at least a basic knowledge of what he's talking about. The fourth – work management (what I talk about) The fourth is how to structure and maintain your work - work management. This is my specialty and I have a program called Attention Compass in which I coach these skills. This is understanding your work processes more deeply. We used to allow our bosses to deal with this, but we need to take in on for ourselves. I share some ideas about what kinds of questions we try to answer with work management. Similarities, differences, and interactions in the four areas Career management governs career skills – what skills are most valuable and how to we go about identifying and acquiring them Work management governs work skills – how do we utilize work skills to get our work done Work skills and career skills overlap in learning how to use tools. Your career tools are probably more specialized than typical work tools. However, work tools are necessary to communicate and be generally proficient at work. Work management and career management overlap in managing the tasks that involve acquiring career management skills. All four knowledge areas are systematized. Work skills are developed (more or less) in our earlier years at home and in school. College and professional certification are typical career skill development systems. Cal teaches a career management system. I teach a work management system, along with a tool for task and attention management. The case for work management knowledge Previously we relied on our company or boss to manage both our work and our career. The rise of knowledge work and the gig economy are undermining others' ability to manage any of the four areas of our work for us, but particularly work management and career management. The field of Project Management represents a fairly well-known work management system and its history shows how work management systems are developed. So, it is not strange to investigate a personal work management system. I suggest my Attention Compass program. I make an argument that work management is the most important of the four, by a little. Work management is how we manage our time and attention so we can do the work to identify and acquire needed skills in all four areas. That's pretty fundamental.

I discuss the concept of 'Monk Mode' and whether it is useful for enhancing productivity, especially for knowledge workers. Monk Mode: Increasing Productivity "Monk Mode" sets the stage for a period of intense focus on work by shutting down incoming communications and interruptions. Understanding and implementing Monk Mode could increase individual and organizational productivity. However, there are challenges to adopting Monk Mode, including biological, cultural, and organizational factors that can disrupt this mode of work. Still, Monk Mode should become a default mode, rather than an effortful weekly occurrence. I talk about the historical context of Monk Mode, where knowledge workers were isolated to perform their tasks. You know, actual monasteries and such. Interruptions vs Distractions: Managing Focus Note that there is a difference between interruptions and distractions in terms of focus and work. Interruptions are external factors that disrupt concentration, while distractions are internal. Typically, interruptions are easier to handle as they can be dealt with through physical measures like isolation and communication, whereas distractions are more complex because they come from the way we try to operate our brains. My clients find that the most effective way to manage distractions is to externalize reminders and tasks into a system that will remind us at specific times, rather than relying on memory-based 'mental' alerts. Monk Mode and Focused Work Challenges The meme around 'Monk Mode' emphasizes its role in highlighting the need for a different work environment, particularly in knowledge work. Interruption and distraction are challenging, and advertising and economic forces foster consistent distraction. The ways our brains work make focused work difficult, such as the brain's tendency towards laziness and its high energy consumption. Procrastination and Brain Processing Discussed Procrastination is a challenge due to how our brains work; it is not a moral or discipline failure. Larger, more complex tasks are likely to be procrastinated, as they require more mental effort. Break these tasks down into smaller, actionable steps to make them more manageable and less daunting. Our brains respond to novelty, because they are wired to detect the unexpected, which can lead to distractions. I talk about 'The Experience Machine' (book) for further understanding of how our brains process visual stimuli. Challenges of Maintaining Focus: Externalizing Tasks Larry discussed the challenges of maintaining focus due to biological factors. They highlighted that our physiology is attuned to external interruptions, making it difficult to sustain attention for longer periods. Our brains are not very good at remembering relative to timed events, which can lead to missed appointments or tasks. We can solve this issue by externalizing tasks and time-dependent things rather than relying on our brains. Communication Overload and Cognitive Effects Cheap communication and the overabundance of information are a fact of modern culture. Cheap communication leads to a constant need to process a large amount of information, which could cause distractions and reduce focus. The constant availability of communication tools could affect cognitive abilities and patience. FOMO and Information Overload in Knowledge Work FOMO, or fear of missing out, is an example of the challenge of information availability and communication channels. It represents one cultural challenge to focus and productivity, especially in knowledge work. Organizational factors can contribute to this problem, such as the expectation of immediate response and the proliferation of communication channels. It is critical to establish a system to manage these distractions and allow for deeper focus. Monk Mode: Focus on Work, Avoid Distractions So Monk Mode, as a state of extreme concentration, is important in our work management systems, under any name. The current default is multitasking but Monk Mode should be the norm instead. However, we need to deal with both external and internal distractions.

My task list just keeps getting longer and longer; what do I do? There are a couple of things. #1 If you're constantly having to ask yourself "what do I need to do now or today", you can count on your brain to come up with some things. Whether or not they're the right things is pretty questionable. More on this in other episodes. #2 recognize that things can come off of your list. Let's go into detail on this now. Most people default to the following statement, whether they are aware of it or not: If I decided to try to do it yesterday, and didn't get it done, then it is AUTOMATICALLY a priority for today. This statement is not AUTOMATICALLY true. It may be, but it may not be. We have to think about it. Consider the situation: If you're facing an imminent deadline, the task retains its high priority overnight. Brew some coffee and call your spouse. Focus on the minimum viable product. Use this later as a sign that you need to get your productivity system straight. If you are not facing an imminent deadline, you're working on the 'important but not urgent' tasks in your life recognize that you don't have high deadline pressure - you can choose when to do the task find the right context for the task PROPERLY postpone the task identify the next day/time that 1) the correct context will be available, OR 2) you'll be able to create the correct context postpone the task until that time (that means REMOVE IT from your list and otherwise forget about it) get on with today's work If you automatically move tasks in the second category, then you have an old habit that is holding you back. The Habit: almost all of us grew up with a deadline-driven productivity process, so we automatically move yesterday's unfinished work to today. Here's what I mean In school, we deal with things in a deadline-driven manner. all deadlines are "hard" deadlines - there is NO grace period - in addition, a partial result is not at all useful tasks are poorly defined there are few mechanisms to 'bank' work in-progress feedback is seldom available These things teach us that: setting early deadlines doesn't work work naturally and AUTOMATICALLY expands to fill the available time we need to "put in as much work as you can between now and the deadline" Therefore - if we didn't put time in yesterday (as we planned), then we're automatically behind and need to force the work into our schedule today. But, in the workplace... many deadlines are 'soft' or at least negotiable and often a well-done 'partial' product is quite useful often our 'best effort' is what's expected we are able to 'bank work', but may need to learn how to do it well we can often request in-progress feedback Together, these things mean that our habits from school are not always applicable to our work in our jobs. It is our habits of thought that make us believe we AUTOMATICALLY need to finish yesterday's work today. I want to be careful on this recommendation. It hinges on two challenging ideas: we know the difference between postponing and procrastinating. we have a system that keeps track of our decision to postpone The best way to figure these two things out is to implement your Attention Compass. It helps handle postponement decisions well and to keep track of your backlog of tasks. In the meantime... Start developing ways to keep your task list from growing. Develop the means and tools to effectively postpone tasks until the proper context. I hope I've answered the question to your satisfaction. If not, keep asking. As I said, I love having questions to answer so reach out and let me know what I can talk about that is most valuable to you, where you are now. Email me at [email protected] or hit me on LinkedIn

This is one of a set of posts on common misconceptions about productivity and work. I call them Lies About Productivity. I'll address some 'lie' and suggest a new mindset that is helpful toward being effective, not exhausted - Do Busy Right. The Lie: It's human nature to understand how to be productive, select your most important work, and do it. This one is not a lie of commission, but a lie of omission. Very few people actually talk about the nuts and bolts of managing our own work. Therefore, you're left to your own devices, lacking sound guidance. The problem of not actually knowing how to 'be productive' Knowledge work is a relatively new phenomenon, so the vast majority of people don't know how to manage knowledge work; schools haven't learned to teach it You have a human brain and it's behavior, habits and biases support or defeat your ability to make it do what you want it to do 'Every system is ideally constructed to produce the results you observe' There are clear principles about how human brains work Symptoms of believing that we just know how You're constantly feeling a nagging sense that "there's gotta be a better way" and "does it have to be this confusing and stressful" You spend a ton of time and mental energy trying to understand various 'systems'. You're actually researching solutions to the problem. But you have a full time job already Each new system feels like "it doesn't fit you", so you try to pick and choose components to cobble together. Actually, you have never been given a good definition of what a system should be able to do for you. The tactics that other people are using ('daily to-do list' and managing from your email inbox) are a constant temptation. "If you do what you see other people doing, you'll be just as broke as they are". You may even be slightly embarrassed to bring these topics up. You haven't been able to stick in a system long enough for habits to build and take hold The new mindset about productivity training Move away from tips and tricks to a single unified system that incorporates actual knowledge and experience on how our brains really work Stop focusing on managing you time and start focusing on deploying your attention (there's another whole episode on this) Results of the new mindset Your toolset works for you, rather than against you You stop wasting time looking for things and planning poorly You feel calm and confident about your work because you are actually managing it, rather than letting it manage you You are able to stick with it long enough to build habits Once you've built habits (and not until then), you're in a position to add tweaks and incorporate other areas of your life Tools you'll need A place to keep your backlog of tasks and ideas Features to help you manage and maintain that backlog Knowledge about how to be productive is not taught in schools or on the first day on the job. But it is available. The solutions are quite general and don't have to be exquisitely refined for each individuals mode of thinking, career specialties, or other distinctive characteristics. Since we are not taught these things, we need to think like a student, not like a productivity systems engineer. The Do Busy Right podcast is one of my attempts to make productivity knowledge more widespread.

This is one of a set of posts on common misconceptions about productivity and work. I call them Lies About Productivity. I'll address some 'lie' and suggest a new mindset that is helpful toward being effective, not exhausted - Do Busy Right. Productivity and managing tasks for employees and self-employed individuals. Employees may falsely believe their productivity is their boss's responsibility, neglecting personal growth. Bosses don't always prioritize employee productivity, and knowledge work has changed the way we think about productivity. Some differences between knowledge work and physical work (see Episode 2) Evolution of work and organizations. Adam Smith's ideas on specialization of labor (250 years ago) continue to shape modern organizational thought. Adam Smith observed that dividing tasks into smaller parts can increase productivity. Work became more efficient with division of labor and introduction of machinery, but also constrained the work itself. Factory efficiency and worker productivity. Henry Ford's factory used specialization and machines to increase efficiency and reduce reliance on human labor. How factory work became highly defined and standardized, with specific tasks and output targets for workers. Management focused on motivation as a factor in productivity, as workers were expected to perform repetitive tasks for long periods of time. Management thought evolution and skill vs. motivation. Early management focus was on motivation, with a distinction between motivational and skill problems. Organizations must distinguish between motivation and skill issues when addressing underperformance. How my kids cut grass. The current state of managerial and employee thought Bosses tend to think they need to tell employees what to do. Employees tend to think that bosses will tell them what to do. This 'cultural contract' is challenged by the nature of knowledge work, specifically: Quality of knowledge work is hard to judge Knowledge work processes are not observable. The boss can't watch employees work. The challenges of measuring progress and quality in knowledge work, where outputs are unobservable. Knowledge work challenges that state of thought and who needs to manage productivity. the nature of knowledge work, the bosses mindset around motivation, the desire to 'hire someone smarter than me' and the challenges. Managers struggle to manage knowledge workers due to: So, knowledge workers must at least participate in managing their own productivity in modern organizations. This requires a very close relationship with the boss. Symptoms of not managing your own productivity Frustration over your ability to produce the right results. Consistent frustration about quality leads to acceptance of stress as natural. Stress has a high cost in the productivity of knowledge work. Develop a productivity mindset by leading and managing yourself well, using tools to track work, and recognizing the limitations of stress as a motivator. Your new mindset about your productivity Believe that you need to lead and manage yourself well - nobody else knows how. You'll need a system to manage yourself. Understand that stress and associated deadlines are not good motivators, particularly in knowledge work. Results of your new mindset Increasing levels of calmness and control Leading to better focus and greater productivity. Tools you'll need Developing productivity conversations with boss to maintain trust and achieve results. Tools for backlog creation and backlog management Tools for capturing ideas and tasks Reduce your reliance on traditional to-do list Regardless of your status as an employee, contractor, or solopreneur, you need to take control of your own productivity. It matters more to you than to anyone else, including your boss.

If you want to be a pro, get a coach. In this episode, I'll discuss how you can get better at what you do by describing what I do and why you might be interested. Just like everyone else, when I meet people they ask me what I do. Because it's pretty unique, I'm still working on how to explain it in 20 seconds rather than 20 minutes. I'm a work coach. I help white collar workers, people in professions, and knowledge workers get better at their work I don't teach lawyers about the law. I don't teach accountants about the IRS or about Quickbooks. So, how do I help professionals get better. All professionals need an underlying skill set, similar to professional athletes who need an underlying athleticism - fitness, cardio, speed, etc. The underlying skill set for professionals is work management. This consists of identifying, defining, and organizing your work. It also involves managing information and communications. Schools don't teach these skills. We don't teach them to entry level employees when they get their first job. It's unfortunate. I'm not a life coach. I'm not going to ask you about your five-year goals. I'm not going to help you figure out your 'passion'. These are valuable ideas, I just don't do that. I can recommend some really great people if that's what you feel you need. I'm a 'player's coach'. I'm going to help you work on your technique around managing your work. If you're like most people, you have a technique. But it's not a carefully engineered PROCESS for managing work. Most likely, it's some sort of system that you've cobbled together from hints and tips. You've tried to copy what you see your peers doing. But, as Dave Ramsey says, "If you do what you see everyone else doing, you'll be just as broke as they are." In the same way, if you do what you see your peers doing, you'll be just as stressed, confused, and uncertain as they are. If your work management technique is poor, you will have certain symptoms: stress, uncertainty, wasted time, lack of balance. You'll try to work 'harder', usually meaning more hours. You'll feel more pressure to multitask. You'll push tasks along rather than completing and delivering them. You'll be buried in email and paper. You'll worry about burnout and work-life balance. Once we fix your technique (it takes about eight weeks - just eight hours), those symptoms will decrease. You'll feel more calm and confident about your work. You'll be better able to deliver on your tasks, with greater speed. You'll find time for your most important relationships. You'll feel less time is wasted. That's what I teach... Attention Compass is an engineered process for managing tasks, information, and attention. It's a tune up for your work and management technique. That makes me a coach. If you're tired of struggling with poor technique, let's talk.

Does it matter how we feel about tasks? This episode is heavily influenced by a book called The Experience Machine by Andy Clark Our brains' predictions about things powerfully affect our experiences. I'm going to argue that our thoughts about doing tasks powerfully affects both: our willingness/tendency to actually do them (vs. procrastinating) our experience while we are doing them We'll look at some practical consequences of those conclusions actionable steps toward greater productivity and peace Background thought from me: I've published this elsewhere, but I believe that: I experiment a lot on my own productivity Productivity is as least as important "at home" as "at work" I need to know in order to coach "work" should bring us joy All of this means that I think a lot about how to actually produce work through performing tasks. This thinking is based on my reading of "The Experience Machine" by Andy Clark Former view of perception: top down, constructed from tiny bits into a whole experience Newer view of perception: our brain predicts what we will perceive and then edits in the differences between that perception and reality. How does this influence our willingness to engage with and complete a task? Psychological components of procrastination How prediction influences task engagement. Is there a benefit to 'practical' positive thinking At 17:20, yes, the book is The Confident Mind by Dr. Nate Zinsser. Great read. What does Christianity have to do with any of this? Framing is about how we perceive the actions of others. When we tell ourselves "I like this" or "I dislike this", we're framing our experience. That framing probably has a powerful influence on our perception of whether we actually dislike the task. Example of self-talk in doing exercises that will help me get better at playing bass. Takeaways - ideas for framing that should help us perform tasks Avoid thinking about whether you "like" the task "Get to" vs. "have to" Work doesn't have to be "painful" to be productive Think about these ideas as you learn to think differently about your work and tasks. Hit subscribe to be informed of new episodes. Happy to help you think about Attention Compass for your own knowledge work. Need more info? Go to dobusyright.com. Connect with me on Linked In linkedin.com/larrytribble. Or, shoot me a thought at [email protected].

I discuss a definition of Knowledge Work and illustrate it with four (plus one) categories of Knowledge Work. I also talk about the implications of AI on each category. Knowledge Work is using your brain/attention to produce new or altered information Four categories Factual knowledge is stored facts that can be recalled and used. Google is doing a pretty good job of making this kind of knowledge ubiquitous and thus irrelevant. Process knowledge is stored processes of transforming or organizing information that can be recalled and reused. An example is how to create a routine report. To the degree that a process is truly repetitive, we employ computer programs to replicate this category of knowledge work. Understanding knowledge is closest to experience and considers which tool, process, or system should be used to address a specific kind of knowledge work problem. Knowledge creation is the generation and description of new knowledge. This is the realm of academics, science, and engineering. Plus one category Problem solving is different. It encompasses the other four categories (to the degree that they are available to the problem solver) and produces outputs that are novel, at least in the problem solver's experience. In another sense, it also underlies the other four. Example: if factual knowledge is lacking, we can use problem solving to find the fact. Knowledge worker productivity Peter Drucker posed the notion that the primary challenge of 21st century management is to improve the productivity of knowledge workers. His example is the 20th century's vast improvement of the productivity of manual labor. This is not yet a clearly solved problem, although he posed it about 60 years ago. What about AI? Is it evil, or is it helping us be "more productive" in some categories of knowledge work? Google has come a long way in giving everyone factual knowledge. Computer programs are helping us with process knowledge. Chat GPT can help us with the understanding category, but only insofar as the needed output is currently known and already exists in the interwebs. Knowledge creation doesn't seem to be addressed by current technology. Further, it is difficult to see how new knowledge can be created just from summing up all existing knowledge. Problem solving is similarly situated. There is a semi-random, creative component of problem solving that, at present, seems to not be cleanly mimicked by technology. Examples from the notion of 'affordances' in existing technology and/or tools. Problem solving is sometimes subject to the human notion of 'satisficing'. Depending on the severity and cost of the problem, we may use less-than-the-perfect-tool to solve it. Sometimes, the best thing to do is to pull the screw with a hammer. Do we, as knowledge workers, need to embrace AI or fight it? Will AI replace my knowledge work job? How does Attention Compass act as the 'Knowledge Worker Operating System'? Think about these ideas as you learn to apply (or avoid applying) AI in your own work. Hit subscribe to be informed of new episodes. Happy to help you think about Attention Compass for your own knowledge work. Need more info? Go to dobusyright.com. Connect with me on Linked In linkedin.com/larrytribble. Or, shoot me a thought at [email protected]. Do Busy Right, Larry Tribble, Ph.D.

Just because your phone is mobile doesn't mean your calls should be. The challenges of mobile calls: Distinguish between using a cell phone and having a mobile call. The specific challenge of using a mobile phone. We are tempted to try to gather information when we're not prepared to do so Back in the day, at my house we had a pad and pencil (it was something my granddad made) Notice what this means - we expected to get information and knew we needed to record it, so we were prepared The purpose of a business phone call is to exchange important information, so you need to capture that information. By answering the call, you are committing to receive information. Are you really prepared to do that? My client is a realtor - complex information Be sure you're ready, because the worst is to have to call back and say "Tell me the information again" well the actual worst is to have to guess and get it wrong either way, it means you weren't listening to your customer the first time. So, what happens if you don't answer? Most likely your caller will leave voice mail, or call you again later Both are good results, so make this easy for them work on your voicemail system do reassure them that they've reached you (say your name) don't have a long prompt don't make them press any buttons try to get rid of the 'mechanical voice' - I hate having to wait to start leaving my message And make it easy for you Try to get a transcript of the recording delivered to you, normally via email Make it a habit to wait to check voicemail when you're ready to capture the information People will not call me back Yeah, they will - if its important to them And, if they don't? Then their purpose for getting your attention was quite weak. Do you really want to spend a bunch of time talking to someone who doesn't have an important purpose for calling you? If you have inbound prospect calls People you don't know who are calling you to find something out Deal with that well, and separately You need a specific process (and probably a specific number). Make a great impression on people. Give them your full attention and deal with their information professionally.