I wouldn't write without (Today's list...)

Papyrus...
Bic pen...
Binder paper...
Moleskine...
G2 gel...
Mindmanager...
Microsoft Word...
Om Writer...



I've tried a lot of them, and to this day I still change what I use...hoping that THAT will make it easier! What I'd like to share here are the things that I wouldn't write without. The list is short...but, as you'll see, significant:

1: Freedom. I've got to turn down the inner critic. At times, it's easier than other times, though I have found he's always (and, yes, it is the voice of a he!) always pretty close.

2. "Something" to write with and on. Doesn't matter what, because I'm just in capture mode. I found pens the size of my wallet, and designed my own note-taking business-sized card that goes with me everywhere.

3. What I call a "three-or-more" focus. Is what I'm writing (like this post itself!) going to be able to be repurposed, reedited and reused 3 or more times? Generally what I'm writing shows up as a question via email or a social media discussion...I know I'm going to blog it...and, generally, I will find a way to spin it in to a coaching or/and seminar.

4. Non-attachment. Ok, this is gonna sound weird, after reading number 3, but I have found that life really is one giant paradox! I need to be willing to write, and write, and write, and have enough non-attachment to be willing to through it all away.

That last one is pretty significant, as it gives me complete license to write anything down. I got some coaching while reading a biography of Dr. Seuss a while back...there were times, he said, where he'd spend HOURS and PAGES, writing and re-writing, until he got ONE LINE the way he wanted it. To me, it was extremely empowering to realize that someone as famous as a writer as Ted Geisel didn't always get it right the first time!

So, what do you say...did I miss anything? What won't YOU write without?

Ingredients of a "pretty productive" day

What's the one thing - people ask me quite often - to improve the chances of today being a MORE productive day?


All right... Here's one diagram that shows up quite often in my own note book. In fact, it first showed up while facilitating a leadership workshop for the US Navy on location at Seal Beach, CA.

Take a look and see where you could experiment with a new idea this week.

Routines: What do you do, without even knowing you do it? From the moment you wake up, you're on track to do what is "normal."

Habits: More on the mental side of things, what have you practiced over and over again so that "that" is how you are?

Systems: I think of the applications I use, the services I count on, the "apps" that make it possible to do all of my work.

Tools: iPod, iPad, BlackBerry, computers, all those "things" that make it possible to get things done.

Ok, now that you've got 4 things to think about, how productive could you be?

FBR (Friday Book Review): Poke the Box by Seth Godin

Title: Poke the Box
Author: Seth Godin

Website / blog / Facebook

How I got the book: I ordered it from Amazon.com the "moment" I heard about it being available. It shipped a few weeks later.
How long it took to read: 45 minutes / 1 reading session
Read cover to cover: YES
Favorite quotes (Page # and line):
2: Imagine that the world had no middlemen, no publishers, no bosses, no HR folks, no one telling you what you couldn't do. If you lived in that world, what would you do?
7: Here's what's needed to make something happen: an idea, people to work on it, a place to build or organize it, raw materials, distribution, money, marketing.
9: "What do you do here?"
11: In fact, people within organizations are perfectly situated to start something.
19: Isaac Asimov wrote and published more than 400 (!) books by typing nonstop from 6am to noon, every day for forty years.
23: When in doubt...Look for the fear. That's almost always the source of your doubt.

My Take-Away:

My big thought reading this book was: How am I solving my own puzzles? Find a process I can use (and reuse) to engage with, test and ship a next product or share a next idea. While reading Poke the Box, I wrote down a few of the things I can do:
Identify
Start
Experiment
Assess
Debrief
Discuss
Prototype

I enjoyed reading this book, and feel confident in passing it on to a business colleague of mine that he will get an idea or two as well!

Thank you, Professor Pease. I found this book on a shelf of a local hotel while I was visiting Dartmouth, speaking for the MBA class at The Tuck School of Business. I didn't know much about "Dr. Seuss" before I read your book; and, boy am I happy you wrote it!



Growing up in the 70's, I know we had Dr. Seuss books around, though I don't think I would have been able to rattle off more titles than "The Cat in the Hat," and maybe "Green Eggs and Ham."

I am very glad I had the opportunity to read more about "the good doctor" (and, if you didn't know about HOW Ted Geisel took the name "Dr. Seuss" you've simply GOT to read this book!). With just 5 chapters and right about 150 pages, you'll find all kinds of surprises about Ted's academic, professional and personal life. But, more than all of that, you'll get a good, solid dose of the creative process.

I'm walking away from reading this book with a renewed sense of the process of creativity. Of course, we often talk about the "stroke of insight" or the "sudden" epiphany...what I realized in reading this book by Professor Pease was that the process Dr. Seuss went through was just as tedious, labor intensive and stressful as any management position in a major corporation. And, as a writer, Ted wasn't as Self Employed as one might think...he was writing for a public who was voting with their dollars.

There are some important things to note while reading through this biography...things that are very general to the process many people go through as they create, mature and live up to their own self-identify:

1. Words create.
Throughout his life, Ted said things out loud. He asked for help, he told people what he was working on, and wrote...every day. In fact, when he moved to California, he had a special room where he would go to just to write; sometimes for hours a day (even overnight) as he continued creating with the words he used to tell a story. He said he'd write dozens, or even hundreds of line, looking for the perfect one that would make the story.

2. The past is present.
Like many of us, Ted had a childhood full of hardship, negative experiences and "change moments." With a German background, and a family who was prominent in the local business community, Ted had to deal with the pre-judgments that people made as he was growing up. He shared specific incidences where the way he was treated proFOUNDly affected who and how he was.

The past is always right here with us. What we do, how we act and who we are is inextricably tied to what has happened over time. Want things to be different a year or 10 from now? So, do something different today!

3. Change is constant.

Is it too cliche to add that to a blog post about someone famous? His life changed, over and over again. From selling "dozens" of royalty-dollars' worth of books a year to selling well over a million books a year by the time he passed away, Mr. Geisel definitely saw things change. For the good, for the bad...it just happened that way.

Looking at your own next 1 or 3 or 10 years, what do YOU anticipate coming your way? Or, perhaps it's easier to look backward...1, 3 or even 10 years ago, what were you doing that has an ever-present effect on how you are, what you do, and where you're going today?

A thought-provoking book, I highly recommend this impactful and engaging history about someone who I now know was much more complex than a story about a cat...in a hat.

Are you willing to think bigger?

Knowing what you have to work on - the inventory of options - helps you work smarter, think bigger and make more good things happen.



(That's a view from the lounge chair in my front yard, where I'm going to be sitting later this afternoon watching the sun go down...)

For today - no matter what day you're reading this - how are you planning to work smarter? Or, where are planning to think bigger? These are the topics dominating my writing, thinking and speaking as I'm writing the final three chapters of the book (due to the publisher on August 22nd!)

Working Smarter: Watch you working. Really. The easiest way I know of to work smarter is to bring a very clear awareness to not just WHAT I am doing doing during the day, but how I'm doing it. I can work faster. I can work better. I can get more of the right things done...if I study my own methods.

For example, I've turned to writing blog posts and article drafts on my iPad. I travel "just about everywhere" with it, and even got the extra Bluetooth wireless keyboard. I find that I stay "in it" longer when I'm working off the iPad. That is, I stay focused and don't leave the screen to go to some other website or document. (Was this an accident or by design: It just takes a long time to leave the window I'm in, go to the home screen, and open up another window, wait for a page to load, and then surf on over to it. Instead, I stay here...writing.)

Thinking Bigger: I challenge you (just as I do when I'm working with you in your office, or with your team in the boardroom) to follow thought trails more...for longer periods of time. Two ways I know of to do this (and, I'm old-school, still advocating pen and paper; why? Easy, it takes longer, and slows you down a little bit. A way to work faster? Slow down more...)

1. Pen, Paper, Timer...GO! Set a timer for 12 minutes, and write. Anything. Everything. Twice (if it comes to mind). There are people I've worked for who have said, "Jason, I don't even have time to think." When I ask them to take 12 minutes and do just that, the results are amazing (and, oftentimes, surprising).

2. Pen, Paper, Timer, ONE project...GO! Ok, this one's cool. This time, you'll do the same process with a wildly different result. On the top of this page, write the name or code-name for one project/event/trip you're working on. THEN, set the timer for 12 minutes and write as much as you possibly can ABOUT THAT PROJECT! (Sorry for yelling.)

Either way, think about this: You could probably write down one thought every 10 seconds, right? So, in 12 minutes you could potentially capture ... yes, that's right 70 or more things!

By the way, after write those 70 things, pick a few to work on today. You just may find you move some things, along the way, further...faster!