The Asia Pacific Headhunter

How Doing Good Work Hurts You

Most of us wouldn't think of doing "good" work as hurting us. But in a recent conversation between Michael Bungay Stanier and David Allen on GTD Connect (subscription only) Michael made this point loud and clear. Based on a previous description by Designer Milton Glaser, Michael asserts that in our lives we are only ever doing three kinds of work:

• Bad work
• Good work
• Great work

Michael believes that you will only ever do more "great" work if you can endeavor to remove some "good" work from your life. This idea resonated with me as I believe that the characteristics of great work are fundamentally different from good, in particular I believe great work requires either a challenge or learning in order to give you a feeling of achievement and satisfaction. And I also believe that great work requires imagination and creativity. Good work can benefit from it as well, but for great work it's a necessity.

In our careers we often get caught up in the mundane or the routine, in work that is neither challenging or a learning experience. But I believe that the key to turning this around is to taking some of the good work you do and focus on using your creativity to make it great. Challenge yourself, stretch yourself to make your work into a creative environment. It will make all the difference for yourself in your career, as well as in your enjoyment of your life.

In particular I have found that the more creative I was at work the more I enjoyed myself. Quite often it led to success, but not always! But despite any failures it has always created indirect benefits that I never considered beforehand. I think it is tough to be creative in our everyday work. And unfortunately many companies seem to pay lip service to wanting people who "think outside the box" (See Kathy Sierra for more). I also think that a lack of tools to really evaluate someone's creativity is a set back for companies in the hiring process.

Have you have had an opportunity to be creative at work and have had that backfire on you? Or had it be wildly successful? Would you like to share that story? I would be more than interested in hearing about stories of creativity at work as it seems to be a topic that many readers are really interested in.

Checkout accounting jobs, UK at AccountantCareers.co.uk.

Getting Real From 37 Signals

Yesterday I downloaded the PDF book Getting Real from 37 Signals. I have been using their web application Backpack for a year and while it hasn't been the most useful tool for me, I do love the idea and philosophy behind the software and the company. The idea of less is more is one that hasn't occurred to most software companies. But 37 Signals has made it their mantra with some great success.

So I was expecting their first book to be interesting but not necessarily groundbreaking. However, there are some fantastic ideas in this book and it is such a quick and exciting read that it was well worth the investment. I highly recommend it for anyone, although it would probably help to have an interest in the software industry. Without that some parts will be a little bland.

BTW, I can tell you the exact part in their pitch of the book that sold me on buying it:

"37signals used the Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp,  Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source web application framework, in just two years with no outside funding, no debt, and only 7 people (distributed across 7 time zones). Over 400,000 people around the world use these applications to get things done."

I love the idea that a small company can work across time zones and achieve so much with their major resource being creativity. And that is really the theme throughout the book itself. Using size restraints to actually achieve more. Staying small and using that to your advantage rather than considering it a negative. I do a lot of recruiting for the software industry. Often software companies will say that their only barrier to growth is the number of good developers they can hire. Getting Real throws that claim right into the trash with some really interesting arguments.

Nintendo to Release Brain Game in English

Nintendo have announced they will be releasing their brain-training game, "Brain Age" in English in a few weeks from now. The game has been really popular in Japan with the elderly. But I know that some of the studies behind the game itself were developed by a Japanese Neuroscientist, Ryuta Kawashima, and involve using Kanji (Chinese Characters) as brain training exercises. I am really curious as to whether the game will keep the chinese characters in the English version or will move to English words.

I looked really seriously at using a DS for my GTD lists but there still isn't a Personal Information Manager available for it. Since my GTD system is pretty tight I don't need too much. So it is disappointing to see that Sony with the PSP and Nintendo with their DS haven't thought about providing a PIM for their portable game systems.

Zen, Mindfulness and GTD

My top goal this year is to really get on top of GTD and my own personal efficiency levels in my entire life. I really feel that I have made some really big strides in the last year, thanks to GTD and the blogosphere around the system. My top resource by far is Merlin Mann and 43 Folders. Merlin has a post this morning about why it all seems so simple when you talk about it but why it is also important to remind ourselves. I know that often when I speak with people about the system, they aren't as convinced that they should spend so much time doing it, and it's difficult to be convincing when talking about the results.

But one of the concepts I like to parallel it with (although it is no easier to understand) is Zen and mindfulness. One of the keys to Zen is editing away complexity to simplicity. GTD is very similar when you get down to it. Having the discipline to focus on the moment and make decisions about things immediately is what cuts out the complexity and allows you the comfort of focusing on whatever you are doing right now.

As Merlin talks about in his post, we don't really need teaching to do that, we just need reminding. Are you reminding yourself about what you want to achieve?

New Year’s Resolution #1: Get KGTD and Stick to It

It’s that time of the year again when we all think about how we’d like to change for the better… and to get it done the upcoming year.  For most of us, time has become a highly valued commodity that needs to be used the most efficiently so that you can accomplish things that you value, that are necessary, and that you enjoy. But in order to do that, you need to be extremely organized and nimble to handle whatever comes your way.

I’m a recently converted and big fan of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD).  I can’t say enough how much this approach and system to organizing things has affected my productivity – both at work and at home.  It’s helped me to clearly visualize a system to getting things organized in all aspects of my life, and to keep ahead of any build-up and clutter. I’ve been working hard at making it work, but I’ve unfortunately run into a few problems in finding the best TOOL/record keeper for my GTD system. Having converted to Mac a few months ago (which I wish I had done years earlier!), my Palm Desktop OS doesn’t work as well as it did with Windows.

So here’s my dilemma – I love my Mac. I love GTD. What’s the best tool to use for my GTD system on my iBookG4??

Here’s where KGTD comes in. This is the creation of another avid GTD follower, Ethan Schoonover, who created this file in OmniOutliner Pro 3.5, a really versatile organizing program for Mac OS. I came across his website (www.kinkless.com) by reading another blog of GTD evangelist Merlin Mann’s 43 Folders. After reading positive comment after another, I decided to check this out for myself! So last night, I bought the OmniOutliner Pro (a very small monetary investment of US$70 for a huge personal/business ROI), and then downloaded the (free) Beta KGTD. I am in the process of working it all out and writing in all my projects and tasks – but I can tell already that this is a great tool that’s adapted GTD well.

Basically you can keep an outline form of all those things that clutter your brain: brainstorming ideas, errands, personal and business projects, with all the sub-projects, tasks and next actions neatly interlinked and accessible. Extracting all your Next Actions from your Project Plans has never been so easy!  It’s a great tool to keep EVERYTHING TOGETHER, yet easy to find, and all interlinked. It syncs with iCal which can then sync with any Palm device you have.

If you're new to GTD, I suggest you take a look at the website or even get a copy of the book. If you're already onto it, and want to use a great tool on your Mac, I highly recommend downloading KGTD.

So this year’s resolution, which I’ve already started, is to stick to KGTD and have the best year of Getting Things Done.

Falling Off the GTD Wagon

Despite my best intentions I went away for 4 weeks and promptly fell completely off the GTD wagon. You would not believe how much it hurt. I haven't felt this overwhelmed and stressed in a couple of months while I work through all the stuff that has piled up. I guess I am still a long way from Zen Master status.

However, I do have one good story relating to GTD and how it helped with our trip. My wife and I are serial last minute packers. But our last trip was the first time we have been on top of everything the day BEFORE we left. Lucky we did because on the morning of our trip our eldest son woke up with swollen tonsils and a sore stomach. Our cautious doctor decided to send him to our national Children's Hospital for suspected appendicitis. My wife spent all the time with him and wasn't able to check any of the final tasks we had to do before we left. But thanks to GTD I was able to get everything done for both my wife and myself (and all the kids) and we eventually got to the airport and on the plane with very little stress despite the circumstances.

Now if only I can get all my open job orders and call lists back in synch......

GTD is Fantastic

I finished David Allen's "Getting Things Done - The Art of Stress-Free Productivity" about 3 weeks ago now. Some people think it is creepy. But you can put me in the group that thinks it is actually un!@#$ing believable. Quite honestly, I have never found a time management system so flexible yet so simple that it can encompass your entire life. I finished the book three weeks ago and since then I have managed to keep my email inbox clear for two straight weeks and have banished every stack of "stuff" in my office. But the best result is honestly how much less stressed I am getting on a day to day basis.

In the past I used email as my modus operandi for handling projects and actions. But it was truly a stupid system that caused nothing but stress. Basically keeping everything in my inbox until I had dealt with it meant I would have acres of email that required me to look back through it on a regular basis. Sorting it into folders wasn't much better because there was an infinite number of them and once something was placed in a folder I rarely went back into it. Once I read GTD I could totally see why my system wasn't working but also why it was causing me SO MUCH STRESS.

If you live in New Zealand (like I do at the moment) it will be a hassle to get this book at a local bookstore. Don't ask me why but I called 10 different bookstores in Auckland in an attempt to avoid the wait from buying through Amazon. Eventually I just bit the bullet and used Amazon, which was (as usual) excellent and delivered BEFORE the expected due date. It isn't an easy read but it is worth it. BTW, if you are currently a client of mine and you read this. I am buying copies for the first 10 who take me up on it. Email me to let me know.