The race for increased productivity

I have found myself really thinking about my productivity recently. I feel I need to get more done. A lot more. You may have picked up on this from my posts about Google Mail and Calendars which I have started using. They are really useful to me. Google Mail has cut down the amount of time I need to spend on email as well as letting me access all my inboxes from one central webmail account. Calendars has allowed me to plan and keep myself organised in a way I had never managed before.

For those looking to take their organisation to the next level I suggest checking out Remember the Milk. This was recommended to me by Maki of DoshDosh. It is essentially a to do list which integrates with a whole host of other technologies such as Google Calendar, Mail, Twitter, various instant messaging services and even your phone!

Why are we obsessed with productivity?

I guess we all feel it is the answer to our woes. It has become almost cool to do everything last minute. At college when there were deadlines, how many of the cool kids did any work before the last minute? I know I never did anything until the pressure was on big time. Unless you look totally stressed at work, you are not working hard enough. Some of us thrive when under pressure, others break down.

Clearly it is a topic a great number of people are interested in. Look how popular blogs such as LifeHacker and Zen Habits which deal with this sort of topic area are. Thousands of people read them every day looking for tips and tricks on organising their lives, prioritising, saving time, and reducing stress. Self help books fly off the shelves. The evidence is plentiful.

Tired and stressed should not be the norm

It has become part of popular culture to be tired and stressed. Whenever you ask anyone how they are you will almost always get the answer that they are tired, stressed, busy, overworked and underpaid. I myself have been guilty of this but I do not want to be any longer. I have been following Gary Vaynerchuk on Twitter, and watched a few of his shows. I like wine, but I am not a total wino by any stretch of the imagination. Wine Library TV for me is not about the wine. I just love this guys energy and enthusiasm. Every day on Twitter he is happy, energetic and offers nothing but encouragement and good vibes to everyone, then in his videos he is just the same.

It is a bit late for new years resolutions, but I challenge everyone to be more enthusiastic, offer more encouragement, be more positive and break the mould. Lets make getting up early and having a productive day cool. It will not be easy to start, but remember the harder you work the luckier you get. If you need more encouragement, go find some videos of Gary. His enthusiasm is contagious.

Ubuntu – Is it viable for a home worker or small business?

We often hear about what tools people use for blogging and it is nearly always Mac and Windows based. In January I began an experiment. Could I live, work and be not just ok, but happy using Linux? There was no dual booting, no second computer or any cyber cafe. I was on my own.

I opted for Ubuntu. It seemed to have a decent level of user friendliness, plenty of documentation, and an active community should I need any help. Without further thought, I ordered a new hard drive, popped it in the machine, and installed Ubuntu 7.10 – Gutsy Gibbon.

Installation was not without hiccups, but then it never is. My major mistake was to not have my computer connected to the internet during installation. When Ubuntu installs it automatically connects to the internet to download the latest versions of everything. Without these it did not work, and without it working I could not connect to the internet to get it working. Quite a dilemma. I figured it out with the help of my house mates’ PC and some quick Google searches. The Ubuntu community is very helpful.

My only other problem was configuring my two sound cards. I like this set up so I can have speakers running through one and then headphones and microphone through another for Skype. Again, some tinkering and all done.

First impressions
Ubuntu is very pretty. It is quite intuitive to use. You have to accept that it will take time to become used to a Linux environment, and will at times test your patience. Things are just in different places and have slightly different names. We are working against over 10 years of using Windows, so things will take time. I do not beleive I would have had any more or less problems than if I was moving onto a Mac.

The add and remove applications system is very simple. There are no end of pieces of software available to do all kinds of things. Remember the internet is mostly powered off linux so there are tonnes of applications and names we have heard of before such as Apache and MySql.

I used Firefox and OpenOffice on Windows too, so very little has changed there. I started off using Thunderbird on Ubuntu, which I used on Windows and it all transferred no problem. Now I am using Google Mail which is webmail based and do not feel the need for a stand alone application.

I will reveal more details as the test goes on.

Preparation, testing and contingency planning

After following the massive screw up that has been the opening of the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, I asked myself a few questions. For those who do not know about the Terminal 5 debacle, all you really need to know is that this new terminal received a lot of hype, media attention, cost a bomb and caused a lot of controversy. This is all before even being opened. Once it did open, the baggage sorting software failed and nine days of chaos ensued. It is estimated this failure will cost £16m in lost revenue and caused thousands of disgruntled customers. Lets just say it is bad PR.

In my eyes it is a wasted opportunity. A new launch should be a big deal. It should be exciting and very positive. In this case, the opportunity for a lot of great brand building has been wasted. The damage done will take years to repair. The sheer amount of media attention revolving around this launch makes it hard to go unnoticed when a problem arises. This begs the question, how can something so central to the operation of one of the world’s largest airports go so wrong?

Software failures happen. Technical difficulties hit at the least convenient time, every time. The reality is that things are always going to go wrong that is why we prepare for events, we test our software or equipment and we create contingency plans for when things go wrong. Let me explain these parts.

Preparation

We have all heard phrases such as “prior preparation prevents poor performance” aka “the 5 P’s” or “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Planning and preparation come hand in hand. For the sake of the argument lets say they are they same thing. This involves deciding exactly what you want to happen, what you will do to make it happen, how you will do it, and doing anything that needs doing beforehand. We all know about this stuff. The problems arise when planning is insufficient and lacking in detail. Lack of information, lack of experience, and poor timing often get in the way of preparation. For these very reasons it is advisable to do this long in advance.

Testing

In a world dominated by IT and dependent on so many variables, testing is ever so important. Make sure everything is not only in place, but that is is also working perfectly. If you are launching new software, test is thoroughly. If you are using a new machine of some sort, test it. New product/website/whatever, test it!

I had a nightmare situation once whereby I had produced some T shirts, and I put them on sale immediately wanting to get stuff out of the door and everything going forward. I sold a few the first day and posted them off. Two days later I washed my own and the print ran. I phoned the printer and they realised they hadforgotten to run them through the dryer hot enough to fix the prints. No surprise I started getting emails regarding prints running. I had to recall everything and deal with customers. Luckily the printer accepted the mistake and resolved it in a matter of days. No big problem except I was wasting money paying for postage twice and refunding people for the charge of returning their garments. A simple test delaying the launch 24 hours would have prevented the whole situation. Lesson learnt!

Contingency Planning

No matter how much we plan, prepare, test etc, things will go wrong. It is a part of life. Contingency planning is a true sign of being serious about your business. A contingency plan covers what you will do and how you will do it should the worst happen. It is where you detail how you will troubleshoot. This prior preparation can seriously minimise your losses when something happens. All major businesses have contingency plans, but very few small and medium sizes businesses do, and it is the smaller businesses who suffer the most!

As we work online, we are more used to preparation and testing. Do you test everything thoroughly? Any lessons learnt? Have you planned for the worst? Do you have a contingency plan?

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