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Archive for June 29, 2009

How the Internet Sabotages Your Work Day, and What to Do About It

June 29, 2009 / Luke / One comment

Even the most productive workers are vulnerable to time sucks when certain triggers interrupt their day. One of the most popular of these triggers is the Internet, and social media sites, e-mail and blogs become addicting fast. But the key to maximizing the time you spend at work is to learn how to defend yourself against those traps and use the Internet in a more constructive way. First you’ll need to identify the websites that tempt you the most every day. By becoming more disciplined, you’ll be able to balance out the distractions along with your list of things you need to finish up before heading home. Keep reading for some popular ways that the Internet sabotages your workday, and what you can do to defend yourself.
•   Social media sites: Now that social media sites are for business networking as well as connecting with friends, they’re not always blocked on work computers and may even be encouraged. But logging on can also result in hours of procrastination as you click through pictures and update your own profile. To strike a balance, limit yourself to visiting only one social media site while you’re at work, and make sure it’s an account that you use for professional networking only. Set a timer or only log on during lunch to keep your Internet use to a minimum.
•   E-mail: Set up a separate work account than your personal account for organization’s sake and to keep yourself focused on work. Don’t subscribe to any shopping alerts or RSS feeds on your work account, either. If you’re still addicted to checking for new messages every few minutes, close your e-mail and only check it every hour or half hour. Many e-mail servers allow you to set up alerts whenever you receive an e-mail from a specified person, so you can still stick to your schedule and not have to worry about missing something important.
•   Blogs and websites: We all have our list of daily must-reads, from celebrity gossip sites to techie blogs. If you can, check these sites from your BlackBerry or iPhone on your way to work or during lunch. Consider them extra reading material. You wouldn’t open up your copy of your favorite John Grisham instead of prepping for a meeting, would you? Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t mean it’s not separating you from what you should be doing.

*This post was contributed by Megan Jones, who writes about the online college degree. She welcomes your feedback at Meg.Jones0310 at gmail.com

Category: life problems, strategy /

Intentions… more than a ‘design’

June 28, 2009 / Luke / No comments

This is a short note about something I read in the dictionary (of all places). I have been fascinated for a while about intentions. In particular the motives we have that drive us to take actions. I looked it up in the dictionary just before and it said a intention was something ‘designed’ or made for a certain purpose:

something that someone plans or intends to do; an aim or purpose

I think the core meaning in the word here is lost in Chambers dictionary. The main thing that bothers me about ‘intent’ is that it sounds like a ‘design’ or something that was made as a fit to a purpose. To me, an intent is more fluid and therefore inherently more complex. That is, when I intend to do something I am not completely sure of my purpose. I may understand an element of it, and have clues as to my intent, but until I take action I am not sure or cannot know what my intent was. My intentions often become obvious to me after I act. I will often say nasty things to people, then my intent was clear, I wanted to hurt that person (don’t get me wrong I am not Gordon Ramsey!).

Other times you act and the very actions you take reveal what your intention is… it’s not always a matter of pre-defined purpose or action. So what does this actually mean? I think, it means we won’t always know what we think, until the stuff of life finds you out. Ok, so this is me ranting… I write obscure fringe papers for a living… what can I say!

Category: creativity, personal development /

Do you nest?

June 22, 2009 / Luke / 2 comments

This past semester I added a new reading to a course I designed called information policy and governance about how policy makers have problems with ‘nesting’. In short the idea of nesting refers to how we make a big decision then allows every decision from that point forward to made using the same way of thinking. An example is thinking about a major change in your life. Do you take the plunge or stay on track? If you nested… you would make the change look like a change but in reality you would be keeping the same old pattern moving along. That’s nesting.

There are times when we nest, that we are doing so for many (no doubt) mental reasons: security, comfort, shelter and whatever else you can think of that makes you nest. Often you will hear sports stars talking of how the ‘knew’ it was time to go. I think sometimes they actually mean they realise the signs of change and they acknowledge the time to move on, mind you if they have money to do it, it does make the decision somewhat easier doesn’t it?

What happens to nesters?

I have a theory about that. Nesters may be the people that die with the music still in them. The grumpy old people you see who complain all the time, or the middle aged who whinge and complain about the state of the life or the young who know somehow that something is wrong and can’t work out what. I don’t know. What I know is that when I nest, I get grumpy, I stall, my personal development becomes endless reasoning to think through a problem that isn’t properly structured or designed for me to solve. In essence, whether in our policy-making or personal lives when we nest – our growth comes to a grinding halt.

How do we break from a nesting cycle?

I would think that when we ‘nest’ our development cycle is stuck on repeat. However, it may not always be the case. You may need a few years of no growth in order to recover from a long period of sustained growth or alternatively it may be a lifestyle choice. In that sense, nesting isn’t always bad. It can be dangerous in some cases though to remain stagnate. Especially when the pressure and the drive to grow is showing itself.

A key skill is recognising the time to change is when you know it and don’t do it. A strange feeling of cognitive dissonance waves over you (well it does for me)… you can sense it intuitively. For me your inward emotions are saying, ‘it’s time’ but your head is full of fear and worry. Here’s where courage and common sense meet. A hard place, but one that you have to move on if you are committed to personal development. So the answer? You have to commit to change. The pain of not changing versus the pain of changing? Which pain do you choose… because doing nothing is still a choice. In short, you need to follow it through when you can and rely of serendipity and faith to provide the rest. Plans are a great place to start… but random categories of action is even better!

In closing the Sunday afternoon post, I would like to you to examine yourself. Are you nested or nesting? If you are then is it productive to do so? Is it the right thing for you right now?

Category: personal development /

25 Scientifically Proven Ways to Make Yourself Smarter – from Psychologists

June 18, 2009 / Luke / 4 comments

Here is an interesting post on how you can improve you life scientifically:

25 Scientifically Proven Ways to Make Yourself Smarter

Worth a look… hey at least for me… I need this!

Category: personal development /

Welcome to Tent City, Redcliffe.

June 16, 2009 / Luke / No comments

Every now and again something catches your eye in the news and you are left with something to think about. Here is one such article:

Redcliffe’s tent city.

If you are unsure where Redcliffe is in Australia (no not in Victoria) then check this website out:

Redcliffe near the beach

In this article we see people who are homeless living in tents near the beach. What caught my attention was the sheer irony of this. Here we have beaches and a seaside community with a collection of homeless people living by the beach. Incredible isn’t it? Now for once I am not inclined to rant (or ramble) but I will say as much as this: Where do we go when hard times fall on us? I remember when I was studying the generosity of my relatives who cared for and looked after me. It certainly makes you think.

Category: life problems /

Sometimes politics hinders true creativity

June 8, 2009 / Luke / 3 comments

Edward De Bono noted in Serious Creativity, that often we pay lip service to creativity but don’t actually do it. What I have learned should come as no surprise to most, yet it’s what I have found to hinder most creative and liberating efforts to produce organisational learning and innovation, is politics.

Why Politics hinders creativity

Often solutions that should happen aren’t the ones that are implemented. This is sometimes for reasons beyond our control. However, it’s been my experience that some solutions that are creative challenge political arrangements. I have heard it said this way, what is politically attainable and culturally feasible (nod to Checkland) doesn’t necessarily mean the best solution. Often we dream up the best answers to problems and even in some cases we completely redesign things giving fantastic ideas. These ideas are wonderful but workplace arrangements and politics hinder there uptake. In essence an idea can be the ‘best’ answered in theory but through the reality of politics, it will not ever get off the ground.

Creativity isn’t unbounded

The lesson here is the creativity should be nurtured, I cite Google and 3M as examples (see also Semco, Virgin and other such places). Often though, it isn’t nurtured, it’s squandered and crushed into Dilbert sized cubes. In the rawest most artistic sense creativity is unbounded but only by itself. When we apply it to a situation where other people are there to interpret it, it’s subject to their opinions and judgements. Yet, if the artist is faced with a canvas or a page, they are truly unbounded. Yet, when the art is released, it’s turn over to the political realities of social structures. People engage with it, they interpret and reinterpret it and make their own judgements about it.

In essence you can’t predict how creativity will be received even if it seems it really obvious that it’s the best thing to do. The fact is, there are a lot of areas in our society where we don’t do what is best. For instance, in abandonded petrol station about a one kilometre from my house were 17 homeless children. In this country, with our abundant welfare and support it shouldn’t happen but it does. It’s very sad.

What’s creatively best may not be politically feasible and it may not be accepted socially… even if it’s a great concept. These realities are not minor hindrances to creativity, they are the foundation of it. Truly creative solutions must pay attention to things like culture and politics. If they don’t they run the risk of not being redunant.

In saying all of this, sometimes there is a solution that should be taken up, but often isn’t because of politics. People protect themselves from change sometimes because of the political structures they build around themselves. They select the right deputy, a certain person for a certain task and a cavelcade of yes men and women. This is an enemy of creativity because it stands in it’s way and hinders it, to no positive end. Yes, if you have read this far, I have contradicted myself and said that creative solutions need to consider politics and then how political structures hinder it. Yet, as so often happens in real life, it is contradictory. We want real change, we seek it because we know we need it, yet we fear it and build structures around ourselves to make sure we don’t change. What ensues is usually disaster, and we need look no further than recent world events like global warming, financial crises and epidemics.

What can we do to be truly creative?

While we need to be sensitive to politics, social and cultural concerns and we should not ignore them, on the other hand to be innovative and clever in our practices we need to question our assumptions and learning. Doing so, offers us the unique opportunity to change. I have to be cynical at this point and say most people I meet talk of change, but in reality return back to a revised version of the same thing over and over again. True reframing, political restructure and redesign is rare because it means a complete shift of assumptions, a change in the frame of reference we used to assess things. Why is this case? Ask a psychologist, I have no idea!

It is clear to me that people what to be capable of change. Yet, I am not certain of it. I hope for it… but I doubt I will see real change in my life time. There are times when I have seen changes, real creativity at work… yet 95% of the time we fail to change. I have not given up hope to see real creativity in my life time and as a matter of fact I am committed to see it, wherever I may find it. However, I suspect that real change and creativity escapes us time and time again. I would welcome comments with your thoughts.

Category: creativity /