Posts filed under 'Creativity'
For a long time now I’ve read all about the benefits of standing while working. I’ve wanted to get a standing desk for a long time, but when I priced out real honest-to-goodness standing desks…well I just don’t have that kind of money to try something I may end up hating.
So imagine my happiness when over Memorial Day weekend I happened into an Ikea store and found their Vika desk legs and tops which allowed me to build a small standing desk cheaply to test it out.
I purchased 4 Vika Byske legs for $30 each (adjustable from 27.5″ to 42.125″) and a Vika Amon tabletop for $19.99.
Here’s what it looks like (click to enlarge).
I’ve been standing at it for a little over an hour and a half now. Here are some of my observations:
1) My feet are starting to get sore, and I can feel a little tightness in my lower back. I’ve read online that there is an adjustment period when switching to a standing workspace, so hopefully this will be a temporary problem.
2) My hands and wrists feel pretty good. When I’m sitting I’m frequently guilty of resting my wrists on my desk and just being generally un-ergonomic. My hands and lower arms will get a little numb and tingly after a while when I’m sitting. So far I’ve noticed that the change in my posture seems to be making my hands feel much better.
3 I’ve gotten a lot of weird looks, and plenty of comments like, “What’s that?” and “Why would you want to stand?” Looks like I’m going to have to be prepared to be the office “kook” for awhile. On a positive note several people have come up and commented on how cool my idea is. I’ll slowly convert them all!
4) Being on my feet makes me feel more energetic! I’ve run back and forth a few times to the copy room this afternoon with nary a thought about it. Before I would plan out trips because I was comfortable - and lazy - sitting on my duff. Now I just grab papers and go - I very much like the freedom it gives.
5) Right now the desktop is 43.25″ high and it feels pretty good. The Ikea system looks like it’s actually designed to be attached to the wall on one edge with just two legs under it (not four) so it’s a little wobbly. It’s perfectly workable, but for a long, long term solution I would want a “real” standing desk.
I’ll post periodic updates on my experiment with standing while I work. I think that a good mix of standing and sitting will be best as it’s awful easy to flit from task to task while standing. I don’t feel like I can concentrate and focus as much as I’m just full of energy. So combining standing when I need a burst of productivity with sitting when I really need to roll up my sleeves and crunch numbers should prove to be a great system.
More to come!
May 29th, 2008
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of productivity, organization tools, life-hacks…those things really tickle me deep down. I get a kick out of hearing about a new tip or trick to make my life easier.
This one I stumbled on by accident, and it’s my favorite so far - one of the simplest too.
The idea? Put you important to-dos and memos where you’ll see them when it counts most; first-thing when you wake up and last-thing before bed.
Where? Your bathroom mirror.
How? Dry-erase markers! (a buck, or less)
Yep, you read that right. Write on your bathroom mirror with a dry-erase marker. It’s likely the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you see before bed.
Did you tell a co-worker you would bring a them book? Write it on the mirror before bed and you won’t forget in the morning. Were you supposed to pickup something on your way to work? Write it on the mirror and you won’t have to worry about remembering.
It helps you have - like David Allen advocates - “a mind like water.”
There are two caveats to be aware of with this tip - so take note:
1) Writing all over the bathroom mirror has a low WAF (wife acceptance factor). Some will yell; most will look at you like you’ve gone insane, roll their eyes, sigh heavily, and tell you to “clean that up.” It helps if you have your own bathroom.
2) The marker wipes off with a little bath tissue, but doing so will leave some streaks. You’ll have to clean your mirror more often than you otherwise would (I believe this contributes to the low WAF), but it’s worth it.
I have a nearly foolproof method to overcome the low WAF problem. Before you start note-taking, go into the bathroom, stand where they would, and look in the mirror. Now draw a big heart framing your head and shoulders and write something suitably sweet underneath (”I ‘wuv’ you” works well).
Most importantly, don’t say anything about it. Don’t say, “Honey come check this out!”. Leave it alone and let them find it. They will by the end of the day, and you’ll get major brownie points for being such a big sweetie. Now you can start to make notes out to the edge of the mirror and work your way to the middle. After that, your imagination is the limit.
I use an Expo marker. They don’t have fumes that make you feel stoned, and in a small bathroom that’s a good thing. You can probably liberate a spare marker from your office, I have 10 different colors in the tray of my white board - I’ve only ever used red, black, and blue. One bit of advice: get a black marker; the dark color will show up a lot better on the mirror.
So there’s my $1.00 idea. It makes me happy inside every time I erase a to-do I’ve added to my mirror, and I’ve been able to stop worrying about those loose tasks that need attention, but that I don’t always stop to add to a paper list!
December 14th, 2007
Last month I wrote an article titled What’s coming in your future?. In it, I described how a quote from David Allen’s book Ready for Anything had really resonated with me.
I came into the office this morning and checked through my tickler file and sitting there in the folder labeled “29″ was the index card from last month.
Scrawled on the front in my chicken-scratch writing - “Something is coming - probably within a few days - that’s going to change your world. You don’t see it yet. You don’t know what it’s about. But it’s there, rolling inexorably forward, destined to throw you a curve that you do not expect. It could show up sooner or later - but it will show up. Trust me.”
A week and a half after putting that card back into my tickler file to re-check in a month I found myself on an operating room table with a surgeon poised to take my gallbladder out. It was 4 days from the time I found out I had a bad gallbladder to the time the surgeon was digging around in my innards. I certainly didn’t see that coming. I’m ordinarily in fairly good health, and had never otherwise had any problems with my gallbladder.
Today I was reflecting back on how timely and appropriate that quote is. But even more, it got me to thinking that it doesn’t really matter when you review that quote because something is always going to be coming. Life doesn’t stop sending curve balls and trying to generally mix things up for you.
I think what’s more important is knowing that you’ll always be in between these “surprises” and really appreciating the time that life is treating you well.
This isn’t to say that life is about luck; or that cosmic forces are scheming to “keep you down.” It’s to say that life’s obstacles come at you like waves in the ocean. You have to learn to appreciate the calm between the crashing swells, to anticipate when the next wave is coming, to become one with the waves. If you let every wave completely crash over you, you’ll eventually tire and wear out and you’ll just be consumed by all of the hard times in life.
In that situation it’s easy to play the victim to life’s hardships. You can cry, “I’m not in charge in more, life is just busy beating me down and there’s nothing I can do about it.” You’re no more than a piece of junk in the ocean, being pushed around and batted about by the waves.
But you have the choice. You can realize that life is always going to throw obstacles your way. You’re always going to be able to look back over a month or a quarter or a year and say to yourself, “Gosh, I really didn’t see that coming!”. If you can “swim” with the waves, and learn to navigate the bad times and the hard times, you can stay in control.
And while life will never quite throwing you curves, tossing wave after wave at you, you’ll be in much better shape to avoid the worst of it.
October 29th, 2007
A co-worker and I were recently talking movies. Specifically what we had coming from Netflix. I mentioned a few movies he wasn’t familiar with and he asked if I knew of any way to “share” my Netflix queue so he could see it too.
I said I didn’t, so we logged into my account to see what options were available. It was then when I noticed the “Community” button where I was able to invite my friend, and we could see each others’ queues. Very cool.
So if you’re curious what I’ve watched, or am getting ready to watch click over and become my Netflix friend.
I’m always into seeing new movies, and would love to see what you’re watching too. Sure, it’s not a tip that will boost your productivity into the stratosphere, but taking a break every now and then to watch a movie is sure good for your creativity. At least that’s what I keep telling myself!
October 25th, 2007
Back in June I was re-reading “Ready for Anything” by David Allen and on the first page of the first chapter he writes:
“Something is coming - probably within a few days - that’s going to change your world. You don’t see it yet. You don’t know what it’s about. But it’s there, rolling inexorably forward, destined to throw you a curve that you do not expect. It could show up sooner or later - but it will show up. Trust me.”
He goes on and encourages readers to write in their calendar: “David Allen said a month ago that something was coming I couldn’t foresee that would affect me significantly.”
That’s a pretty powerful statement - it really resonated with me. So on June 28th I wrote it down on a 3×5 index card and stuck it in a file to review on July 28th.
And I promptly lost the folder!
Today I found it. It’s ironic - and a bit spooky - that I found the lost folder exactly on the day I filed the note away three months ago. So what happened to me that I didn’t see coming, and that changed my life significantly?
I’ve been reflecting on that question all afternoon since I found the card. Honestly, nothing has completely blindsided me, but there have been significant positive changes in my life in the last three month.
I’ve settled some debt which has been great. My wife finally had a medical procedure which will greatly improve her quality of life - and she came through with flying colors and is doing great. Things are going great all around, I’ve not had any conflicts in my personal or professional life, my friends and family are all healthy and happy.
But at the same time I feel like there was a reason I misplaced that card for the last three months (to the day too!) and when I reflect back and see the positive changes I’ve experienced in the last 90 days it makes me feel that much better about how things are going. It really gave me a “psychic boost”.
So I made a quick note on the back of the card - the date and major changes -and I filed it back into my tickler file, where I won’t lose it, to check back in on it next month.
I think this is a powerful tool you can add to your arsenal to build and shape your life. How many of us spent scheduled time reflecting back on what’s happened in the last month? I know I don’t. I try to do it quarterly, and it always happens at the end of the year when every media outlet around is hammering you about New Year Resolutions. But how powerful would it be if you were setting a reminder for yourself each month and really looking back?
I think it would be pretty darn powerful. It’s easy to spent a lot of time looking forward and planning, but if we never look back to see how our plans are actually playing out in our lives what good is all the planning in the first place?
I know my priorities and concerns change over time. What is important to me today may not be in a month, or two, or three. But when I don’t look back to see the progress I’ve made I may keep going towards a goal or working to solve a pain that’s not important to me anymore.
So I’ve resolved to look back each month. I’ve added the card to my tickler file to remind me, and for added security I’ve set a calendar reminder to boot. I challenge you to do the same, and see if you don’t discover something interesting about yourself - even if that “something interesting” is that nothing particularly interesting happened!
September 28th, 2007
Does your wallet look like George Costanza owns it? Mine used to. One day I decided that I was sick of having a fat bulge in my back pocket, keeping me sitting slightly off-kilter, and generally hurting my posture.
I slimmed down my wallet - got rid of anything that wasn’t essential to my day-to-day activities - and moved it to my front pocket. Ahh, it was refreshing…invigorating…liberating!
There was one unintended side effect - I didn’t have room to carry the various “club cards” that were in my previous wallet. For a long time I simply didn’t care, usually the cashier at the local grocery would have a spare card at her register and swipe it for me.
But a few months ago all of the grocery stores around me stopped allowing the cashiers to use a “store” card. Customers who didn’t present a club card were out of luck (and out of saving some cash). I was not happy by this turn of events, and I wasn’t about to fatten my wallet back up with the various cards I would need to carry.
So I was extremely relieved to find JustOneClubCard.com. It’s a nifty little why-didn’t-I-think-of-that online application that creates a single, wallet-sized card with up to 8 club card barcodes on it.
No longer do I have to carry Marsh, Kroger, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Office Depot cards (or rather, not carry them). I just entered the numbers from my real cards, and created one handy card to use!
Just One Club Card currently has over 120 cards in their database, and if you’re card isn’t listed you can use their “advanced” feature to try to create your own barcode using one of the 12 different barcode symbol sets.
You might get a few bizarre looks from cashiers when you present your all-in-one club card to them. So far I’ve only used it at Marsh and Kroger and at both places I’ve received the odd look, but I’ve been able to successfully convince the cashier it’s really a legitimate club card code.
So give it a try, your wallet (and your back) will thank you!
June 19th, 2007
I enjoy motivational quotes and things which keep me mindful of staying on-track to improve myself and develop new skills.
At my office I had some dead space on a cork board since I use whiteboards pretty exclusively.
So I thought, “Why don’t I create some quick little motivational cards I can print out to pin up on my cork board?” I had a 4″ x 6″ photo printer and a little free time, so I whipped up a batch that looked reasonably good arrainged in a 3×3 grid.
Once the cards were up people around the office commented on them. Some asked where I bought them, some asked where the quotes came from. They became a little conversation piece. Hopefully they had a positive influence on others in the office.
So I decided to share them everyone.
(click to enlarge)
There are 9 cards in total and they’re sized to print and look pretty good on 4″ x 6″ photo paper.
I hope you enjoy them and I hope they have a positive influence on the people around you!
Click to download SuccessMinders-Motivation-Cards.zip for yourself.
May 24th, 2006
I’ve been experimenting with power naps for 100 days now and as such I’ve found I’ve settled into a bit of a pattern. I don’t necessarily need one every day, and I’ve found a good barometer is that the more I feel like I don’t have the time to take a power nap, the more I really need one.
The only real problems I’ve encountered have been external; the idea of napping isn’t widely accepted once you’re older than 5. People look at you like you’re slacking off and not being productive, and woe to anyone who isn’t always 100% “on” and “productive.”
So there is quite a lot of social stigma surrounding napping. Those that “get it” are far outnumbered by those that don’t. And being a napper almost feels - at times - like being a drug user. Sometimes you have to sneak off to get a power nap in. There seems to be a correlation between how much you need to take a break and how much you feel you have to sneak off to squeeze it in.
The major benefits I’ve found include:
- Increased energy
- Increased productivity
- Dramatically increased problem-solving - I have many more breakthrough and “ah ha!” moments after napping.
- Increased level of wellness (I’ve not been sick since I started power napping on a semi-regular basis).
I’ve also found that for me twenty minutes is just about perfect. Often my eyes pop open about 30 seconds before the timer goes off. If I try to power nap for less time I never seem to get the same benefit and if I go much longer than 20 minutes I get increasingly sleepier and groggier and I feel terrible when I finally do rouse myself.
Overall I’m completely sold on power napping. Several times in the last three months it’s been an invaluable tool to finding solutions to vexing problems. It’s made me generally feel better and it’s increased my energy and productivity levels.
If you can get over the social stigma or you’re fortunate enough to work in a nap-friendly workplace then it really can’t be beat.
I encourage you to go and try out power napping for yourself!
May 16th, 2006
How do you know when you really understand a subject? I always find that when I can explain a subject to a relative newcomer, and make them understand the material, I have a mastery of the subject.
Train to learn is a motto of mine, because if you have holes in your knowledge it will come to light when you have to stand in front of a group and train them. The “why’s” and “how’s” and “what-for’s” will come flying at you fast and furiously from the people you’re training.
We’ve grown the IT department at the company I work for and with a new addition to the team I thought it would be a good idea to do some system training on the ERP software package our company runs.
Normally it takes about a week to go through the “official” training on how to install the system from the software vendor, so there is a lot of material to cover. Sitting in front of the department, notes in hand, was a major test of what I understood and more importantly how well I could communicate it back.
The first day I spend training made me realize where my weaknesses in understanding the system were and where I needed to brush up myself. It also meant a week of going home and doing my own homework to get ready for each new training session.
Train to learn - in this case where you’re weaknesses are.
I’ve found that throughout my life this works. If I really need to understand some new material, when I sit down and explain it to someone else it really helps cement it in my own head.
Have you ever been working through a problem - maybe you couldn’t get something to work the way you expected - you called someone over to ask for their help and as soon as you started explaining what you were hung up on you had an “Oh Duh!” moment where you instantly realized what the problem was?
When these “Oh Duh!” moments happen many people feel silly for not catching on sooner, but you really shouldn’t feel this way. In the process of organizing your thoughts to explain the issue to someone else your brain managed to drop everything into place. That one funky variable that was eluding you became instantly obvious.
There is a technique that programmers use - and I’ve heard a ton of different names for it - where they describe a complex and confusing programming problem - in excruciating detail - to an inanimate object. It helps them achieve these “Oh Duh!” moments and solve their problems.
Why an inanimate object? Would you really want to have a programmer explain - in exacting detail - the problems they’re having connecting a database to a piece of middleware to talk to the shipping software via TCP/IP? If they talk to a stuffed animal, at least they’ll have a captive audience!
But it really does work - when you’re stuck try explaining your problem. Train to learn, and experience an “Oh Duh!” moment. It works even better if you can train a person, because then you’ll get immediate feedback on whether or not they understand what you’re training them.
Give it a try the next time you’re stuck, or the next time you want to see if you really understand some new material. When you train someone else you’ll immediately find your weak areas and you may even have a breakthrough and solve a problem that’s been bothering you!
March 8th, 2006
I slept very badly last night. I don’t understand why, I even went to bed earlier than usual, but when the alarm clock rang I was dead to the world. And as a result I drug through most of the day.
I wasn’t planning on stopping to fit a power nap into my schedule because my time today was rather pressed with some issues I needed to resolve on projects that are almost finished. So I decided early today I would put off my power nap today in favor of trying to wrap up some lose ends.
This afternoon I hit a wall like I haven’t hit in a long time. I was pooped and could barely keep my eyes open. Not only did I have the afternoon in front of me, I also had a 3.5 hour long night class with which to contend when the “working” day was done!
After struggling this afternoon with some problems I couldn’t find the solution to, a pending night class and running into the wall and being unable to keep my eyes open, I opted to take my power nap after all.
During my nap, I found that I almost immediately started dreaming. I must have been seriously tired to actually fall all the way asleep - that hasn’t happened before. In the dream I remember sitting down and writing on a piece of paper. I was watching from behind myself - so I didn’t see what I was writing. It was an odd perspective - to watch myself write as I tried to look over my own shoulder.
After some time passed - I don’t have any idea how long but only likely a few minutes - I got up and walked away. Once “I” was gone, I zoomed in to try to get a look at the paper. The words and drawing on the page swam and changed as I tried to look at what it said, but I noticed what appeared to be a few key words that remained steady.
Almost with a jolt I awoke. I looked at my PC and the timer said I officially had 2 minutes and 3 seconds left on my nap. What I remembered though were the key words from my dream. They gave me an idea about one of the problems I had been trying to solve before my nap - so I started fresh trying to solve my problem and within 10 minutes I had taken a new approach that I was so very close to before my nap and I had solved the issue.
I think if I hadn’t taken the time to squeeze my nap in I would still be fighting with that problem and I would be having a hard time keeping my eyes open to boot. It also provided the added benefit of allowing my brain the time it needed to digest the problems I’d been facing and provide me with a solution. Hooray for power napping!
March 1st, 2006
Previous Posts
