Nicholas Bate

Blog round-up

Returning from a business trip normally entails a bit of admin: sorting out the washing, clearing some of those deferred e-mails and managing jet-lag. A pleasant side, though, is catching-up on some of your favourite blogs:

Jonathan Freedland in The Guardian has a very thoughtful, balanced article on The Blackberry: ....no matter what emotional depths were plumbed on stage, these two could not be reached. The gadget was a barrier to their hearts..... And on The Zune, we all knew it, but there it is in B +W: The Zune is a Failure. Remember The Famous Five?: they are coming back; as adults. Good news here for coffee drinkers. Feeling low: this wil help! Rowan Manahan becomes even more famous. As always, thoughtful post from Michael Wade, here.

Great thinking, great inspiration. Thanks to them all.

Back to Business

I enjoyed a final walk down the beach from Fisherman's Wharf to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco yesterday morning before flying home. The waitress in the diner reminded me that the weather is changing and certainly-already-the evenings there were getting cooler. On campuses-I visited Berkeley for example-school has started and lecture theatres-for a few days at least-are bursting. The barista at Starbucks warned me that summerime opening hours (0445 to 1230) will soon be curtailed.

Back in the UK there is a slight lull at the end of a Bank Holiday week before it's seriously Back to Business.

Here's your Back to Business check-list:

Pencils sharpened? What do you really need to be productive?
New school uniform? How can you dress as you wish to be percieved?
Syllabus checked? What are you trying to achieve?
New classes? Team need a re-fresh?
Meal card? Are you eating for energy?
Clubs joined? Rest and recuperation organised?

What are you reading?

I have mentioned Eric Maisel a few times on this blog and the more I read him, the more I believe he is one of the best writers and contributors to helping us with our personal creativity. One book of his is Ten Zen Seconds. This contains twelve incantations for purpose, power and calm. What on Earth does that mean, you ask? Let Eric explain:

"The basis of Ten Zen Seconds is using a single deep breath as a container for a specific thought. I am adapting a word from the world of magic-incantation-to describe these breathe-and-thought bundles. An incantation is a ritual recitation of a verbal charm meant to produce a magical effect."

Sound interesting? It is. If you are serious about your creativity, you may want to explore it a little more.

Personal Reinvention: August: 31 of 31

You did well. In the New World of Work, where the challenges grow daily, we survive and thrive by steady, easy re-invention. A productivity boost here, a little more exercise here. A shift in reading there. Nothing manic-that's no fun-just steady, easy kaizen.

How might you keep this process going? Perhaps take a retreat once a month? Or have a kaizen day where you spend 15 minutes on re-invention? Or a session with your team? The main thing is to to do it.

Look back on your Personal Re-invention, here.

Somethings To Think About

"It is a plea for originality, passion, guts and daring. You can't be remarkable by following someone who's remarkable"
Seth Godin

"If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less"
Eric Shinseki

"Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it"
Marcus Buckingham.

On Being Productive

The story so far (see here): Productivity= What? X When?

Know your what? by keeping a Master List; this is a complete record of everything you want-to-do or have-to-do in 1 place which is portable and with you at all times. Whenever you get a have-to -do or want-to-do; capture it on your Master List.

At the end of each working day, review your Master List and those tasks you wish to action, schedule them in your diary or wall planner or anything which attaches the task to a date.

Because your when? is your diary/schedule/planner.

Your daily review connects the two. It's remarkably simple and very powerful. Start a Master List now and get that diary working for you.

On being productive

To be productive requires that we connect the WHAT with the WHEN.

The WHAT is the stuff to which we want to give attention. It's a mixture probably of have-to-do's (pay the utility bill) and want-to-do's (visit Florence). Short-term and long-term. Work and home.

The WHEN is the committement: when's it going to happen?

There are 100's of systems out there for increasing your productivity, but in essence all you need is something which holds your WHATs and connects them to a WHEN.

If you want a bit of guidance with this I'll run through a simple principle tomorrow.

Remember: Productivity=What x When.

What are you reading?

If you are a Bob Dylan fan you may well enjoy Like a Rolling Stone by Greil Marcus; this is an in-depth study of Dylan's creation of one of his most important works. I know: I did say if you were a fan.

Chapter 1

Everyone remembers where they were when Kennedy was shot. I wonder how many people remember where they were when they first heard Bob Dylan's voice. It's so unexpected.....

TTD (Things To Do): to beat jet-lag

1.Start before you fly: get decent sleep before you go.
2.Decide to stay as close to your normal time zone as work and/or holiday will allow, even if that means staying up very late or getting up very early.
3.Drink water.
4.Avoid naps at wrong time of day for either your new time zone or your old zone.
5.Use a good book to read at bed-time to help you feel drowsy.
6.If you do a lot of international travel, learn how to meditate and use this on long flights.
7.Do eat even though you may well lose your appetite.
8.Be careful with driving and/or crossing the road. The greater the time difference, the more your perception will probably be slowed.
9.Take exercise: walking is simplest.
10. Of course: minimise alcohol.

Personal Reinvention: August 2007: 29 of 31

Time to re-visit the good work you have done on Personal Re-invention during August. As you review your work-and you may find the original list useful, here-congratulate yourself on progress. Notice how much you have done in such a short time. And now ask yourself, of all of that list what's the one thing that would really make a difference if it were well and truly accomplished? And how can you do that?