Productivity In Other Countries

My wife and I lived in Mexico for awhile.  This post was a look at how people approach productivity differently in different countries.

I am currently living in Mexico for a year. It is amazing how much our productivity is based on being familiar with our culture.  It has taken a while to get into “the groove” of things here, but I’m finally getting to the point where I feel like I’m starting to be productive again.  Here are a few things that are different in Mexico:

1. Time - There is a different view of time here.  In the USA if a bus says it is leaving at 9pm, you plan to be there by 8:45pm. Here in Mexico if the bus leaves around 10:30pm or 11pm it is considered to be leaving pretty much on time. I was at a conference that was supposed to run from 2pm to 5pm–the main speaker didn’t get up and start speaking until 5:30.
2. Doing things ahead of time - people tend to do things as needed instead of ahead of time.  For example, there is no advantage to buy 1 gallon of milk over buying 1/2 gallon.  The price is exactly double.  This isn’t too much of a big deal because there are small grocery stores on every corner so it just takes a few minutes to get milk. It is just different because you spent a lot more time running to the store here.  Also, paying bills is different because it is common to wait until your phone or cable is cut off before paying the bill.  In this US, you wouldn’t do this because there would be a reconnect fee. Here it is just expected.
3. Late Nights - It is amazing how late everyone stays up.  It is common for a meeting to start at 8pm and go until 11 or later. I’m not exactly sure how people get by with so little sleep.  I suppose taking a siesta in the afternoon helps, but it seems like people get a whole lot less sleep here.
4. Labor is Cheaper - This shows up in interesting ways.  Taxis are fairly inexpensive and the starting rate to go a few blocks is $0.50 to $0.75.  Driving across town costs $3 to $5. Trash is picked up every day.  In some places trash is picked up twice each day. A lot of things we expect to use technology for in the US are done manually here, like watering the grass, etc.

It is quite a transition being here, but it is interesting to see how many of the things we depend on for productivity are based on the culture in which we live.  I’m starting to find a better balance in being here and my productivity is going up, but it is a very interesting learning experience.

I need to go now.  It is time run across the street to get today’s milk from the creamery.

(If you want to read more about adjusting to life in Mexico, checkout www.mexico501.com

Originally published on November 8, 2006.

10 Steps Toward Safely Relying on Technology

I know many people who have easily lost a week of their valuable time because of a technology glitch.  If you are willing to invest time and money on technology to make  you more productive, you need to make sure you don’t wipe out all of the productivity gains through an unexpected failure of your equipment.

The following list covers 10 things you can do to minimize the impact of of Murphy’s Law on your productivity:

1. Expect things to go wrong. This seems simple, but most people are far too optimistic about technology.  You need to assume that, at some point, your hard drive is going to crash, your cell phone will be stolen, your PDA will lose all of its information, etc.  Now, maybe not all of those things will happen, but over the period of a few years, it is fairly certain that some device will malfunction.
2. Back up Your Whole Computer. If you rely on your computer, you need to have a plan in place of exactly how you will deal with failure or theft.  If someone was to steal your computer right now, how long would it take for you to be back up and productive again? I personally use a bootable backup solution that lets me bring my entire computer up on another machine if necessary.  This means I can be up and running my latest backup within about 5 minutes.
3. Keep a Standby Computer. This might seem too expensive, but my standby computer is an old red iMac that I bought on eBay for $175.  It is slow, but I can have it up and running just like my laptop in about 5 minutes.
4. Back up Your Documents.  In addition to backing up your whole computer, you should have backups of your documents.  I generally try to burn all of my important files to a DVD once a month, label them with the date and store them off site in a lock box or other safe place.  This provides an option, if  you accidentally delete a file and months later (after it has been removed from your full computer backup) find that you need it again.
5. Back up Your Phone Address Book. Cell phones are becoming a very valuable database of information.  Over the course of a year, a busy person can easily accumulate hundreds of names and numbers.  Unless you plan ahead, that information can be lost with your phone.  An easy solution is to sync your phone with your computer address book.  Not only does this make sure you have a backup, but it makes it easy to enter new names and addresses from  your computer keyboard which may be much faster than typing on the number pad.
6. Write Down Your Phone Configuration. If you have an advanced phone, you may have had to do some configuration to get it up and running.  For example, setting up a Blackberry phone can require quite a few steps to get right.  If your phone is stolen or reset, do you know the steps to get it backup and running again.  Keeping simple notes of how you configured your phone can save you hours of hassle later on.
7. Keep Important Numbers. Right now, if your cell phone was stolen, would you know what number to call in order to have it switched off or located?  Most of us rely on dialing 611 to get a hold of our wireless provider, but of course that only works when you have the phone.  What if your laptop was stolen? would you be able to locate the serial number to give to the police?  If your laptop required repair while you were traveling, would you have the number of the company to call about getting it repaired?  A simple list of important numbers can save you a lot of time when something goes wrong.  Here are some of the things  you should be able to easily locate:
   • Serial numbers for all your devices.
   • Company numbers for all devices, including repair, warranty or service numbers.
   • Passwords and login information for on-line services.
   • Backup dial-up telephone numbers so you can get to the Internet if your cable modem or DSL line is down. These may come from your ISP, or your employer may have some dial-in modems for use during an outage.
8. Back up Your PDA. Like a phone, your PDA probably can be synchronized with your computer.  Make sure you know how to restore the data in case it gets reset and you need to reload the data.
9. Install Anti-virus. Since I use a Mac, I don’t have much problem dealing with mal-ware on my computer.  If you are using Windows, you need to make sure you spend the money on getting some good protection against virus and spy-ware.
10. Keep Extra Power Adapters. Power adapters are one of the more common parts to fail on a laptop because they get so much use being bent and moved around.  Keeping extra power adapters helps make sure you aren’t unable to get into your computer at an important time.  I find it works well to have one power adapter at my desk where I do most of my work and the other in my bag.  That way, I never leave without the adapter, and I don’t have to crawl under the desk every time I come back.

Most of these items are commons sense, but there are probably a few items that you might be overlooking currently. A small amount of preparation can prevent a huge loss of productivity in the future.

Originally published on October 8, 2006.

Development: Make yourself smarter

In this interview we asked people:

What is the best way you have found to make yourself smarter and more valuable?

Below are the answers with the highest voted ones at the top.

Read, read and read. Then act and implement. Rinse and repeat.

Joel from Joel Falconer (rss)

There are few things that are as valuable as a regular plan for reading over your entire lifetime.

Listen, listen, and then listen some more.
Notice the patterns in everything.
Notice what is good before you try to fix what could be better.
Notice the way things work instead of wishing things were different.
Accept what is before you try to change it.
Surrender to what you cannot change.
Truly care about other people.
Seek to first understand before you judge any situation.
Be curious, avoid thinking you already know how people will react to things.

Ariane Benefit from Neat & Simple Living (rss)

It is amazing how much we don’t notice.  One of the ways humans deal with massive amounts of information is to ignore the things that don’t seem important.  By putting a little effort into noticing the things we’ve trained ourselves to ignore, we can see things that no one else does.

Easy: Work a little bit every day on something that you want to be skilled in or want to improve on. Here’s the secret though: It has to be every day. You have to make a conscious effort to work at least for a few minutes every day for your skill. But don’t worry… after a while it becomes a habit.

Glen Stansberry from LifeDev (rss)

It is the tortoise that wins. :)  15 minutes every day practicing a skill is better than spending a few hours over 2 weeks.  I think we tend to underestimate how much our skills develop when we aren’t working on them.  Working on something every day helps keep the skill active in our subconscious–even when we aren’t actively working on that skill.

I make sure I read every day, and not just blogs, but books, magazines, newsletters and newspapers. I also have the TV on in the background while I work and “watch” TIVOed shows from Discovery, TLC, History Channel, and the like.

I always like to find something that makes me say “I didn’t know that.” There is so much to learn in this world and so little time that I really make a concerted effort to keep learning and growing every day. If you don’t learn something new every day, no matter what it is, you’ll stagnate.

Charlene Anderson from Unravelings (rss)

Personally, I find it very difficult to watch something while doing something else, but Charlene makes a good point about how much information is available if we just take the time to consume it.  I have started trying to move most of my reading offline.  While I still take time to read blogs and some items on the web, I found that it was crowding out time that I would normally spend reading books.

I learned to teach myself. Any topic that has been written about, I can teach myself how to do it on a professional level. This has made me more valuable to my employers and to my clients. I also constantly expose myself to things that I either don’t want to do, haven’t tried, or wouldn’t normally do.

For example, I commonly read business books. I make sure to integrate strong literature in-between business books to open my thinking. I just finished reading “Personality Not Included” and am now reading “Notes from The Underground” before I begin the next business book.

Nathan Snell from The Technopian (rss)

From what I’ve read about how the brain develops, doing something new is about the best way to expand your ability to think.

I like using the car to learn. Because of spending a lot of hours in the car each week, I have found that it is easy to learn by using podcasts and ebooks to enhance your knowledge. It is so easy to learn something in your commute to work. In addition, being willing to attend classes, conferences, seminars, if your employer provides these opportunities, is also valuable to becoming more valuable to yourself and your employer.

Rolando from macNwinblog (rss)

I’ve been amazed at how many people don’t take advantage of their employer-sponsored educational opportunities.  I have left higher paying jobs to take a position that was willing to support more continued education.

I’m a planner and out of the box thinker and am not afraid to try new things.  I’m also pretty good at evaluating processes for efficiency and effective.  On the personal level, planning and trying new things ensures that I’m continually learning and growing.  On the social (valuable level), being able to plan and evaluate allows me to help others achieve their goals.

Charlie Gilkey from Productive Flourishing (rss)

Another vote for trying new things.

Audio books… have revolutionized my life. I try to listen to a new one each week. Business and self development titles rule. And the cool thing is I listen while I’m driving or doing other unproductive stuff.

I’ve learned more in the last year than in many a college lecture. Highly recommended!

John Richardson from Success Begins Today (rss)

I make use of podcasts and audiobooks from iTunes.

In 5 years, I will be the exact same person I am today except for three things:

1. The books I read.

2. The people I meet.

3. The websites I visit.

These three things have helped me become a much more smart individual, but they go deeper than just “smart.” These three things have helped me to become more “wise.” Being smart means that you know facts, being wise means that you know how to use those facts in a beneficial way.

Ron Haynes from The Wisdom Journal (rss)

Good point.  Having the knowledge isn’t of much use if you can’t apply it.  Someone who knows less, but is better at applying information is going to be much smarter in terms of actual results.

To break down and understand how and why I do the things I do; by which I mean that if I have achieved something I know others would like to achieve, breaking down how I did this into a process and logical steps that others can follow is one of the most effective ways of improving your own value and worth to others.

Not only are you then an example and case study of having achieved something, you can also show others how to do it too.

Lea Woodward from Location Independent Living (rss)

Being reflective and asking “why” is extremely valuable and something we don’t usually spend enough time doing.  As Lea points out this is particularly true in the areas where we are successful.  If something works well for you figure out what you are doing that works.

I’ve found that the best way to manage my time (and my stress) has been to focus on things that really matter. It’s about knowing what I absolutely have to do and what can either be postponed, delegated, or done away with altogether. It’s about knowing what to take seriously and what to let slide. It’s about taking care of the big things so the little ones take care of themselves and the really little ones don’t bother me at all.

Why do anything else? Why be one of those people who knows more about Hollywood’s hottest couple than they do about their own family and friends? Why be one of those people who spends hours and hours watching the latest reality show but never has time to take a walk or read a book? Those things aren’t important, so why not spend time focusing on the things that are?

Eugene from Varsity Blah (rss)

Defining your priorities is a very important part of knowing where to invest your time in yourself.

The best way to make yourself smarter is to always step back and look at the big picture and make a wise decision before you start down the wrong path.

Something only has value when it is demanded by another person. The way to make yourself more valuable has everything to do with how much others demand your time or skill. Becoming more skillful brings you much less benefit if you are not perceived as being skillful, regardless of what the reality is. Perception isn’t everything, but perception certainly is powerful.

Jason from World Fitness Network (rss)

Some good advice.  I particularly like Jason’s take on doing things deliberately.

Reading, of all sorts, and paying attention, so that I can to think up good questions and work out possible answers.

Michael Leddy from Orange Crate Art (rss)

Good point.  Just reading isn’t very helpful.  You have to actually pay attention to what you are reading.

I’ve been practicing Transcendental Meditation for 40 years. It has done miracles for me. It has increased my intelligence and made me more creative, healthier, happier, more insightful, more loving, and richer. If interested specifically in TM, you must learn how to do it properly. For that I would recommend visiting www.tm.org to find a trained teacher.

Fred Gratzon from The Lazy Way to SUccess

Interesting point of view.  I’m a bit suspicious of TM, but I do think most people don’t spend enough time reflecting.

I constantly consume podcasts and audiobooks while driving. As an added bonus, I mind the traffic far less!

Eva Holtz from College Admissions Secrets (rss)

This is something I do as well.  It is amazing how many great resources are available for free now days.

CodeWeavers Giveaway

This is coming a bit late, but if you use OS X or Linux and need a way to occasionally run Windows programs, CodeWeavers is doing a one day giveaway of software that will let you do just that.  The giveaway looks like it ends on the end of Tuesday.

Protecting People From Themselves

With credit markets freezing up, I thought it might be a good time to put some money into Prosper.com–a site that lets you loan money to individuals.  It seemed reasonable that if people couldn’t get loans elsewhere you might be able to make a reasonable return filling the role that banks have filled in the past.  Unfortunately they aren’t allowing you to lend money to people.  The best I can tell the SEC has decided that they need to be more tightly regulated and wants them to apply for some type of license or certification.  

I’m concerned that in trying to fix things the government is going to put too many regulations in place to try to protect people from themselves and in the end make things even worse.

Worry vs. Problem-solving

There are some circumstances that you have no power to change.  Worrying about these types of circumstances is pointless.  On the other hand, you shouldn’t give up looking for a solution just because you don’t see an immediate solution.

It is important to be able to differentiate between worry and productive problem-solving. Worry usually has the following characteristics:

• It involves repeating the same thoughts over and over.
• Any “solutions” deal with things that you don’t have the power to change.
• It focuses on changing things that have already happened.

Problem-solving on the other hand has the following characteristics:

• It doesn’t involve thinking about the same thing over and over again.
• It produces different solutions, many of which are within your power to execute.
• It feels positive and like you are accomplishing something, even before a solution is reached.

Originally published on December 20, 2005.

Dealing with Clutter

Everyone seems to have some degree of clutter in their lives.  The paperless office is still a dream, so we still have to deal with many pieces of “stuff” all around us.  This stuff can be paper, equipment, books, printouts, electronics, or any number of things.

A certian amount of clutter may be productive.  Some people just function better when things are in site.  However when clutter gets to the point that it slows you down, you need to do something about it.  If you find yourself spending time looking for things, that is a good indication that clutter is controlling you.

Here are several tips for reducing clutter in your life:

1. Open your mail over the trash can. This will help make it easy to throw out things that aren’t necessary.  Any item that you can keep off your desk will save you time later.
2. Create a filing system for things you need to keep. If you know you’ll need to keep your bank statements, create a file folder to keep them in.  Same thing with reciepts, insurance information and all the other paper that you’ll get in the mail.
3. Organize electronics and gadgets by type or purpose. Most people accumulate a collection of tools, memory cards, special purpose cables, and electronics.  Try to keep these organized by their purpose.  For example, you might keep everything related to your cell phone (special cables, extra batteries, etc) in one area, while keeping all your computer related items in another.  Clear storage containers are great for this.  If you can see through the clear sides, it makes it easy to find what you are looking for.  If the items are organized by type, you can find the right container easily even if the item you are looking for isn’t in clear view, you just have to look for other items associated with it.
4. Don’t use hanging files. You need to be able to create files quickly as they are needed.  Usually hanging files take much longer to setup than simple manila file folders.  Hanging files are great if the “cost” of creating them doesn’t keep you from putting off making one.  Regardless of what type of files you use, make sure they are easily accessible.  One compromise would be to use hanging files for all the letters of the alphabet, but put regular files in them with actual names on them.  This may give you the best of both worlds.  The hanging files help keep things organized and neat, but you can quickly create a new file in a matter of seconds.
5. Get a CD case. CD’s can start to clutter things very quickly.  Loose CD’s can easily be damaged. A little money invested in a CD case can reduce your clutter very quickly.  Be sure to keep any software keys needed to install software with the CD’s as well.  You don’t want to discover a year later that you have the CD, but not the code to install it.
6. Zippered file folders. Zippered file folders are a great way to organize information that you need to carry with you.  These organizational tools have 13 to 26 individual plastic compartments, but take up no more space than a spiral notebook.  This is a great way to file things that you want to deal with away from your desk. Just make sure you have a way to get the files into your main filing system when they no longer need to be mobile.
7. Cut out the junk mail. Anything that you have to deal with takes up time–even if you simply throw it into the trash.  By contacting the people sending you junk mail, you may be able to get them to stop sending it.  If a 2-minute call can keep you from needing to deal with 12 items of mail over the next year, it is probably worth the investment in time.

Originally published on January 22, 2006.

Jamming Paper Shredders

After a large batch of scanning items into my paperless office, my shredder seemed to be jamming more than normal for my assistant. After helping her clear the stuck paper I got to wondering if there is a way to minimize the jams.  Fellowes claims they have created a jam proof shredder.  It look like it basically just stops before the paper gets packed in so tight that you can’t remove it.  Has anyone used one of these?  Do they work very well?

How Good do you Look

In the perfect world, our opportunities would be directly tied to our skills.  Luck wouldn’t play any part in our successes and our looks would most certainly not be a factor.  We don’t live in a perfect world and no matter what we do, there isn’t a single thing we can do about it.  In the real world, luck plays a big part in success and good looking people are picked for promotion over their more skilled peers.  You can fight the system, but it won’t make a difference.  What people think of you is at least partially dependent on how you look.

In some ways this isn’t so unfair.  If you are looking to hire someone, would you be more likely to hire the person who hasn’t cut his hair in 6 months, has holes in his shoes, and hasn’t washed his face in several weeks or would you tend to want to hire the person who looks like he keeps himself well groomed and wears neatly pressed clothes?  When you first meet someone, you start making guesses about their skills and ability to interact with people.  If they look like they don’t care about the way they look, it seems reasonable to assume they may not care much about developing their mental skills.  Obviously, this is not always a correct assumption, but it is a method of profiling–reaching initial assumptions about people based on experience with similar people in the past.

By recognizing this, you can set yourself up for success by paying attention to how you look and dress.  It doesn’t have to be obsessive and you don’t have to go out and buy $1000 suits or designer clothes, but a little intentional effort can help make you stand out from your competition.

Here are several things to consider trying:

• Polish Your Shoes - A little time spent polishing to remove scuff marks can go a long ways.  If you do it right, no one will even notice your shoes, but they may notice someone else’s who are tattered or scratched up badly.
• Style Check - Make sure that your overall style is consistent and appropriate.  A tight biking shirt doesn’t look good with dress slacks.  Tennis shoes don’t look good with a suit.  Your goal is to not stand out. You don’t want to be remember as the person who dressed “funny”.
• Get a decent haircut - The cheap barber may not be the best place to go.  It may cost a little more, but the results should be well worth it.
• Make sure your clothes are pressed - Wrinkled clothing makes it look like you don’t care.  If you select your clothes carefully, you should be able to minimize the amount of ironing necessary.  Also, consider getting shirts pressed and starched.
• Make sure your pockets don’t bulge - If your pockets are full of stuff, you may need to lighten your load.  If you have to have more “storage” space consider wearing a sports jacket or carrying a bag.
• Watch for worn clothes - Clothes do wear out eventually and it is easy not to notice when your collar is frayed or your slacks are starting to wear through the pockets.  However, it is very difficult for other people not to notice.
• Put a Mirror by the Door - You don’t have to get vain about it, but getting into the habit of looking yourself over before heading out the door can go a long ways toward avoiding any bad impressions.

Originally published on February 1, 2006.

Investment allocation

Usually when people talk about properly allocating investments, they refer to money.  Even more important is how you allocate your time.  With money you usually want to have some investments in areas that will pay off over time, some investments in areas that will pay off quickly, some risky, and some safe.  This strategy is to protect you from future events that are outside of your control.

Your time needs to be allocated with the same type of care.  For example, if you put all of your time into earning money at a high paying job, that does nothing to develop your skills or talents as a person and you could be wiped out by a lawsuit and be left with nothing.  On the other hand, if you spend all of your time going to school or doing interesting work for little pay, your “investment” is at risk if you were to suffer a disability or injury to your head.

Someone who spends all of their time with their family instead of working runs the risk of losing their family through financial stress.  On the other hand, someone who works all the time and rarely spends any time at all with their family runs a risk of losing their family as well.

You should also balance the time you spend on intellectual growth with taking care of your physical body.  The genius who invests only in his mind and dies at 35 from poor health isn’t using his time wisely. But then again, neither is the body building health nut who is in perfect physical shape but has no interest in being intelligent and dies using a match to see if his gasoline tank is empty.

A well balanced investment of time should include time invested in a variety of areas.  This isn’t something people usually do naturally, but it is important because you’ll get greater returns with a varied “portfolio” than with all your eggs in one basket.

Originally published on February 9, 2006.

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