I really like the notion behind this article. It focuses on small non-intimidating things that are problems of larger projects. Folks in the comments criticized it as not being analytical enough, but some things like weight or personal projects have to be taken day by day and cannot be measured or to time consuming to measure.
It’s a simply question, any answer will only inspire you to do more the next day.
People tend to generate their predictions by thinking about the particular, unique features of the task at hand, and constructing a scenario for how they intend to complete the task - which is just what we usually think of as planning. When you want to get something done, you have to plan out where, when, how; figure out how much time and how much resource is required; visualize the steps from beginning to successful conclusion. All this is the "inside view", and it doesn't take into account unexpected delays and unforeseen catastrophes. As we saw before, asking people to visualize the "worst case" still isn't enough to counteract their optimism - they don't visualize enough Murphyness.
But all is not lost:
So there is a fairly reliable way to fix the planning fallacy, if you’re doing something broadly similar to a reference class of previous projects. Just ask how long similar projects have taken in the past, without considering any of the special properties of this project. Better yet, ask an experienced outsider how long similar projects have taken.
Lately, I’ve been trying to take the outsider view and planning realistically, although I’m finding I may not doing well enough. For example I should be working on a website project that I’d like to finish by Friday. However, we’ve been struck with server problems most of the day, which pretty much kills any ideas of getting to bed early tonight if I want to even try to get this thing done.
Lucky for me there are plenty of other projects that have over estimated timelines that I can work on.
She then gave me what I came to call the 20-10 assignment. It goes like this: Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?
That assignment became a turning point in my life, and the "stop doing" list became an enduring cornerstone of my annual New Year resolutions — a mechanism for disciplined thought about how to allocate the most precious of all resources: time.
This sentiment is also echoed in The Dip by Seth Godin. Starting something is just as important if not more important than knowing when to stop.
What are you going to stop this year?
Posted on Tuesday, January 26, 2010 in
Solider on Partner: Halls ads
I actually like these ads. While not terribly original, everyone can relate to these ads especially in the light of cold season. However, here's the one thing I don't like. Shouldn't these people if they are that sick be at home in bed?
More images after the jump.
The newspaper industry is one of the favorite a whipping boy of a lot people and of course everyone one has the answer, even I've sounded off on it. The answers are not easy for the newspapers and magazines, but not many people are talking about book publishing. From my point of view some of the practices are archaic if not downright counter-intuitive. The one thing that book publishing still own are the lines of distribution, but the music industry thought the same thing and probably spend way more time fighting the future instead on embracing it, and learning new ways to make money.
Stephen R. Covey, author of one of my favorite, inspirational business books, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” maintains he owns the digital rights to his book and has released them on ebooks much to the chagrin of his publisher. One paragraph in the New York Times article really stuck out for me, Drew Herdener, an Amazon spokesman quote, in it he is referring Carolyn Reidy, the CEO of the publisher:
“Simon & Schuster is backward-leaning,” Mr. Herdener said. “Carolyn wants to corral readers, force them to buy what they wouldn’t buy if they had a choice. It won’t work. The better approach is to embrace the evolution of the book and give customers what they want. Forward-leaning publishers are going to clean up.”
I agree and I hope that people with this mindset find themselves in positions of influence at publishing houses or book publishers may find themselves in the same position as the music industry, in a losing battle with progress.
Posted on Monday, December 21, 2009 in
Pushing through.
Oft times in my profession it's hard getting started. This does not change no matter how extensive you project brief, how well your creative brief is done and no matter how many times you sit down with the client. There are times when jumping into a project is next to impossible. This can especially be true in a large project which can seem even more daunting.
I had an experience with this recently. Here's what I like to try to do in effort to push through:
1. Define the scope. This is usually handled by a project brief. Sometime it’s hard to start because you don’t know where to start. With a scope of work at least you have an idea of what you shouldn’t be thinking about.
2. Think small. Most projects can be broken down to small task. If a task seems to big, spend some time in breaking the job down. The only thing to be careful about here is becoming a task robot, keeping busy does not mean you are working.
3. Make some good habits. If you have problems getting started on a job, dedicated time to it in your calendar every day or every other day. Like in the previous step it’s really easy staying busy, but if you schedule time to work on a particular project, you’ll start to make a habit of it. During your dedicated time stay focused. Here’s a tip: don’t allotted an unreasonable time to a project if you don’t have to. Make your dedicated time something you know you will complete. If it’s twenty minutes then it’s twenty minutes.
4. Don’t worry about being right just get started. After all it is part of the creative process. Also if you start at the very least you and your client or co-workers are both starting from the same starting point.
Posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 in
One problem really
Love this graphic. I think it's clever and relevant but really there is one problem, not everyone knows 99 Problems by Jay-Z.
As a professional communicator it’s my job to make sure info-graphics can connect to it’s audience. Does this do it? It’s arguable, but it is still a very smart graphic. Graphic created by this guy
Posted on Saturday, December 12, 2009 in
Wall-e
Finally saw Wall-e this week. The best part in my opinion is the closing credits. It basically showed the (re) evolution of man through art. Great piece.
Posted on Friday, December 11, 2009 in
Bad ideas
What do we do with bad ideas?
The bad ideas that I am refering to here are the small ones. The ones not worth fighting against. Those bad ideas that are easier to get them done and over with.
In times like this I go back to what professor said once upon a time. He said that as creative people out job is to make even the smallest job and make it beautiful.
This is a little had to do with a bad idea.
However, I’ve found that even with bad ideas, at the very least I can make the execution beautiful. Shallow, I know, but when execluded from the conception process with these small bad ideas, sometimes you have to just get in there and do the work and make it beauticful.
Posted on Wednesday, November 18, 2009 in
Some links I find intresting
I've set myself the task of cleaning out my delicious bookmarks. Since I've had the account for a bout 4 years, there are a lot of dead links, sites I really don't need bookmark and some rediscovering some wonderful sources of inspiration. Here are a few:
Embrace your bottom - This article is about spending time designing the footer of your webpage
Greatest internet moments - This site is a lot of fun. It’s amazing what held our attention when the web is young
The Art of Kadir Nelson - I love some of this guy genre paintings. It reminds me when I was a painter once upon a time
One can never draw too many penguins in one day, as one can never take too many breaths of air
Posted on Monday, November 09, 2009 in
Your business card sucks
I don't want to buy business cards.
Not one primarily for contact information anyway. I think it's a waste of paper and a waste of time. The business card concept might be a dead one, but like email, what else is there? It's the currency of business contact information when meeting someone face to face. Electronic exchanges is the future, once there is a way to make the exchange easily or everyone gets hip enough for an iPhone so they can do that bump thing.
There seems to me that this transaction is superficial at best. My name is unique enough that a quick google search would yield not only contact information but so much more so much faster. Much more than having to dig out a business card. The business cards I receive go right into my contact database, along with any information that I remember about them that actually makes person on the business card not just a name, a number and a title. To me that is much more robust than a business card in a roledex.
I'm trying something new. It's called the 2 and 2. I believe that no project should last for more than 2 weeks, and a task that takes more than 2 hours is probably a project that can be broken down into smaller steps.
The 2 weeks thing I lifted from 37signals. They state that projects start to wane after two weeks and enthusiasm starts to fall. Anything longer than two weeks need to be re-thought. It’s made me think of very large projects into smaller discreet projects with an eye on the whole.
Conversely, any task that takes more than two hours is too long for one task and can probably be parceled out into smaller task, and that larger ‘task’ is actually a project. Especially if it’s not getting done.
This has cause me to have a lot more projects on my plate, but I actually find that I am getting a lot more completed.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
Posted on Thursday, August 20, 2009 in Productivity
Meeting notes: Opportunities
This is a business card meeting. We were going over some mockups of some of our more ambitious ideas. While none of them were chosen, it always good in a company to get away with as much as possible. They may not choose the design this time, but with enough priming they may be ready for it next time.
This is a written exchange between myself: ever pragmatic, and my co-worker: ever optimistic
This is a great article: The Big Question: Are You Better Than Yesterday?
” maintains he owns the digital rights to his book and has released them on ebooks much to the chagrin of his publisher. One paragraph in the 
