The Power of Less

I am a big fan of StumbleUpon. It is a bit of a guilty pleasure to pass a little time in the evening. For those that have not used it, you set up a profile with your interests and hobbies and then by clicking stumble the site recommends sites that you may have an interest in. You can indicate which type of sites you like and the application better "learns" your interests.



While stumbling, I would frequently get referred to ZenHabits.net, a site by Leo Babauta. I found that I really enjoyed reading the posts on the site, and later found out that Leo had written the book The Power of Less.



I was drawn to Leo's posts and book as much for his thoughts on simplification, doing less while getting more done, etc. as I was his story. He himself is a father, husband, employee and he felt constrained by commitments, a poor diet, lack of exercise and ability to focus. By using the system that he developed he has transformed his life and now has two successful careers (one as a writer, which would be a dream of mine), has more time to spend with his family and runs on a regular basis.



I have set goals / resolutions to be more organized in 2010. Three months into the year, I am happy with the progress that I have made and the small successes have motivated me to do even more. I started a new job in Sept '09 and am proud to say that I have been able to manage my workload (including lots of travel), go to the gym (not as often as I like or should) and have begun to tackle some of the projects at the house including a major de-cluttering effort (we can park both cars in the garage for the first time in two years!)



Some thoughts from Leo's book.



12 habits to start with:



1) Set your 3 MITs (Most Important Tasks) each morning.

2) Single-task. When you work on a task, don't switch to other tasks.

3) Process your in-box to empty.

4) Check e-mail just twice a day.

5) Exercise 5 to 10 minutes a day.

6) Work while disconnected, with no distractions.

7) Follow a morning routine.

8) Eat more fruits and veggies every day.

9) Keep your desk decluttered.

10) Say no to commitments and requests that aren't on your short list.

11) Decluter your house for fifteen minutes a day.

12) Stick to a five sentence limit for e-mails.



Pick three projects and work on them until completion. (when you complete one, do not add another, complete all three)



Focus on completion:

Have an outcome in mind.

Move from projects to tasks

Each day, choose a task to move you to completion

Reassess your progress

Track your internet usage:
Toggl, yatimer, tick

All in all, I enjoyed this book. Some of the points were very obvious and simple, but I guess that is the point, right?

Laws of Simplicity

Welcome 2010.

As I look back on 2009 it certainly was a year of ups and downs (mostly ups). We got a lot of projects off of the list in the past year, I switched jobs and I continue to be a proud father and fortunate husband.

Not going to get into a list of resolutions here but needless to say there is always room for improvement and adventure. I did start off the year diving into Lake Michigan in 17 degree weather. After not feeling my feet for a few minutes, everything returned to normal and I would consider doing it again.

The single biggest area that I would like to improve upon is organization. The house, my workspace, my digital life (e-mail, songs, photos, files, etc.).

I got the jump on 2010 by organizing all of my contact information in one place(Google Contacts) and sent out an e-mail to everyone in the list giving them the vitals (e-mail, mobile, facebook, twitter, etc.). Something I have wanted to do for a long time and a great feeling to have accomplished. A nice by-product is that I was able to reconnect with some people that I have lost touch with.

In late December I finished reading the Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda. Maeda is a professor at the MIT Media Lab. As such, I will share some of the "golden nuggets" in the book.

Central to the book - 10 Laws

1) REDUCE - The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.
2) ORGANIZE - Organization makes a system of many appear fewer.
3) TIME - Savings in time feel like simplicity.
4) LEARN - Knowledge makes everything simpler.
5) DIFFERENCES - Simplicity and complexity need each other.
6) CONTEXT - What lies in the periphery of simplicity is definitely not peripheral.
7) EMOTION - More emotions are better than less.
8) TRUST - In simplicity we trust.
9) FAILURE - Some things can never be made simple.
10) THE ONE - Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.

3 Keys

1) Away - More appears like less by simply moving it far, far away.
2) Open - Openness simplifies complexity.
3) Power - Use less, gain more.

Use the SLIP method for organizing - Sort, Label, Integrate, Prioritize
Tools for using can be found on lawsofsimplicity.com

Use your BRAIN

Basics are the beginning
Repeat yourself often
Avoid creating desperation
Inspire with examples
Never forget to repeat yourself

Always be learning (example):

In Karate, it is a symbol of pride to wear your black belt long enough so that it turns white again.

Focus:

Become a light bulb vs. a laser beam. You can either brighten a single point with laser precision or use the same light to illuminate everything around you.

Swimming:

A swimming teacher kept having his students lean back in the water. The students kept wanting to swim. After numerous times leaning back in the water, the teacher instructed the students to roll over in the water and flap their arms and legs. A formative moment occurred when the students learned that they could always swim they just needed to trust the water.

And BTW, a book about simplicity was 100 pages long. Easy enough to finish on a shorter flight.

2010 is going to be a great year.

Career Renegade -

Recently finished Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields. A very good book with a ton of useful information for anyone looking to make a change in their career and focus on doing what they love and actually make some money at it.

Some "nuggets" from the book:

bubbl.us - a brainstorming on-line mind mapping tool
freemind - www.freemind.sourceforge.net another free mindmapping tool
popurls.com - a website that aggregates what is hot all of the major social media hubs

Create a blog and sign up as a publisher with Google adsense, google will serve up ads on your blog, you collect revenue

Book: Problogger: Secrets for blogging your way to a six figure income

Place a hire me page on your blog. look at remarkablogger.com and chrisbrogan.com

Website: copyblogger.com

Teach an online course, check out teachingsells.com, teach-nology.com

If you want to franchise your business, check out franchise.com, franchisetimes.com, franchise.org, franchiseperfection.com/blog, the franchise king blog

If you want to produce a video look at metacafe's producer rewards program

Entrepreneurs-jorney.com, cnx.org - hub for people looking to collaborate in creating education materials

Attend the SOBCon conference in Chicago

How to create a business plan: 10 questions with Tim Berry, on Guy Kawasaki's blog

Search engine optimization: http://tools.seobook.com

Use google trends, seobook.com, clusty.com

Use clickbank.com to promote your product

find out what is hot on ebay http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/catalog.html

book: ultimate guide to google adwords - Perry Marshall

use facebook polls

use itunes for free podcasts look at podcasts, then education

other video education sites:
wonderhowto.com
videojug.com
expertvillage.com
graspr.com

use opencoursewear

wordpress for blogging

brazen careerist.com

use blogfuse to publish your blog posts to your facebook page

use linkedin answers

yahoo buzz

podcasts about poscasting on itunes

career renegade.com

Chicagoland Junto

In the spirit of getting around to doing things that I have wanted to do for a while and embracing social media, I have created a site on Bing in the hopes of creating a group to network, discuss business opportunities, have book discussions and guest speakers, etc.

The site is located at chicagolandjunto.ning.com

Take a look, if you are interested, post a thread on the bing site and hopefully soon we can host a face-to-face.

I just finished TRIBES by Seth Godin and was again impresed with Seth's writing style and simple but straight forward message.

Some highlights....

Tribes are not about stuff, they are about connections.

The anatomy of a movement (3 elements) by Senator Bill Bradley

1) A narrative tells a story about who we are and the future we are trying to build.
2) A connection between and among the leader and the tribe.
3) Something to do - the fewer limits, the better.

Too often organizations fail to do anything but the third.

Start a newsletter People will want to be part of the journey.

Kevin Kelly (of Wired fame) speaks of the power of 1000 true fans.


The Technium: 1,000 True Fans

The Principle Revisited:

People get promoted to their highest level of incompetence should be everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed by fear. Very true of my last organization.

Seth mentions Keith Ferrazzi (Never Eat Alone) and how he is a master networker and is able to lead an unleadable group. He introduces people, he invites them to dinner, finds areas of common interest and then gets out of the way.

Leadership is scarce because few people are willing to go through the discomfort required to lead. If everyone could do it, they would, and it would not be worth much.

It's uncomfortable to stand up in front of strangers.
It's uncomfortable to propose an idea that might fail.
It's uncomfortable to challenge the status quo.
It's uncomfortable to resist the urge to settle.
When you identify the discomfort, you've found the place where a leader is needed.


Curious people count. They're the ones who lead the masses in the middle who are stuck. Once recognized, the quiet persistent voice of curiousity does not go away. Ever.

Your micromovement:

1) Publish a manifesto.
2) Make it easy for your followers to follow you.
3) Make it easy for your followers to connect with one another.
4) Realize that money is not the point of a movement.
5) Track your progress.

Principles.
1) Transparency really is your only option
2) Your movement needs to be bigger than you.
3) Movements that grow, thrive.
4) Movements are made most clear when compared to the status quo or to movements that work to push in the other direction.
5) Exclude outsiders
6) Tearing others down is never as helpful to a movement as building your followers up.



What leaders do....

challenge the status quo
create a culture around their goal and involve others in their culture
have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they're trying to change
use charisima to attract and motivate followers
communicate their vision of the future
commit to a vision and make decisions based on that commitment
connect their followers to one another


It's a simple process.

Find leaders, amplify their work, give them a platform, help them find followers and things will get better, they always get better.

You cannot manage without knowledge, you cannot lead without imagination.

Belief:

People do not believe what you tell them.
They rarely believe what you show them.
They often believe what their friends tell them.
They always believe what they tell themselves.

Leaders give people stories that they can tell themselves.

I seem to go in spurts, I get really excited about an author and then read everything that they have written. Currently I am reading everything that Seth Godin has written. I must say that the past month has been most interesting (I quit my job in July). I have never been more scared, excited, inspired, depressed in my life. Seth's writing has inspired me to achieve more in whatever my next step will be and validated many of the reasons that I needed to leave. I recently read THE DIP and am nearly finished with TRIBES.

I am also reading Keith Farrazzi's WHO'S GOT YOUR BACK. I have read NEVER EAT ALONE and must say that I plan to re-read it again soon. Many valuable concepts that I have used in my job search.

One thing that is true is that there are jobs out there, even in this economy, but they are not going to come to you. It was only when I did a bit of self evaluation that I realized that if I turned this thing around and used my network to help me position myself as a person who can add value to an organization, the doors started to open.

I was always very critical of myself, that I did not spend enough time cultivating my network. I realize now that I was doing it part-time. I look at the generosity that has been given to me in my time of need and think to myself that if I spend more time building relationships, I will have a much happier life (both personally and professionally).

I am interested if anyone has had a similar experience and if so what networking tools seemed to work well for you....