Jul 16, 2008
Posted by arif in General | 2 comments
There were a whole lot of email forwards and blog posts on a speech that Steve Jobs gave at Stanford. But the speech that Bill Gates delivered at Harvard have done fewer rounds on the internet. Where Steve Jobs spoke about Passion and following your hearts desire, Bill Gates spoke about what his passion is, ie identifying the hunger and poverty in the world and then doing something about it. What makes his speech more impactful is that he actually does walk his talk.
I loved this speech. I had read the script of the speech a couple of times and then when I got access to the video watched the whole thing again. Below is a really brief Summary of what Bill spoke about, but do watch the speech on YouTube here (it’s in five small parts), or atleast read the script here. It may spur you to do something about the world’s biggest problems. It’s certainly moved me.
The Summary:
Bill Gates began by pulling punches on himself, by quoting the Harvard Crimson, where he was called, “Harvard’s most successful Dropout.” I loved the bit when He said that he’s a bad influence, that’s why he’s been asked to speak at the Graduation Ceremony and not their Induction Ceremony. After a light-hearted introduction he comes to the point that he has one regret. That is that he left Harvard without knowing about “the great inequities of the world.” He learnt about World Hunger and the Global Poverty ten years after leaving College.
Why there is Still World Hunger
He and Melinda have been asking themselves why do these problem still exists? And the answer was simple yet painful. It’s that the market did not reward adequately for the resolution of these. There is no profit in it. There is much more gain and excitement in launching a new version of a software than there is in finding meals for a few hungry people that you don’t even know. If innovative ways could be found where Company’s share value and Votes for Politicians are directly proportionate to the extent that they solve the World’s biggest problems, the resolution of the inequities in the world would be much faster.
Bill continues to say that However there are skeptics who say that these inequities have always existed and will continue to exist, because people just don’t care. But Bill Gates, disagreed. It’s not the lack of care that’s the problem. Infact there are more caring people in the world than we know what to do with. The issue is not that people don’t care enough, it’s that the “complexity” of the problem bewilders them that they don’t know what to do next. He gives the brilliant example that haven’t we all either personally come across problems either by reading it in the papers or in personal life, that hurts us and we certainly care to do something about, but the issue looks so complex that we don’t know what to do. And hence do nothing. “Complexity makes it hard to mark a path of action to those who care. And therefore makes the caring hard to matter.”
Five Step Process to break down complexity
Bill urges, don’t let complexity bog you down. And there are Five steps for one to deal with complexity:
- Determine a Goal
- Find the highest impact approach
- Deliver the technology ideal for that approach
- In the meantime use the best application of Technology you already have.
- Finally, measure the impact of the work and share that. Success or Failure. So that others can learn.
(As a side note, the Five step process is almost identical to GTD’s Natural Planning Model by David Allen, which I’ve explained in this blog post.)
An example of a complex issue being currently addressed in this manner by many is AIDS.
- Step 1: Goal – End the Disease
- Step 2: Highest Impact Approach – Prevention with a Vaccine that has life long immunity with a single dose
- Step 3: Deilvering the Technology- Vaccine research by Government and Foundations
- Step 4: Meanwhile – In the meantime we work with what we have in hand. i.e. getting people to prevent risky behaviour.
Conclusion:
Never stop thinking and working. Don’t do what we did with Malaria in the twentieth century. Which is to surrender to complexity. He concludes by saying that inequities in the world have indeed always existed. But the knowledge and awareness of these inequities, together with the technology to resolve them is at a level that has never existed in the past. The progress in Bio Techonology, wide-spread use and benefit of the Personal Computer and finally the internet has multiplied many fold the number of intellegent mind and innovation available. He urges the graduating students of Harvard University, to the best minds in the world, to work on the world’s biggest problems. Identify any one “inequity” break down the “complexity” by the steps identified and make lasting difference in the world.
Jul 12, 2008
Posted by arif in Spirituality | 12 comments
I was returning from my weekly site visits from our projects. I had a long hot day and on my return I was in the mood to listen to something light and relaxing. I had earlier downloaded “The Madman. His Fables and Poems” by Kahlil Gibran from Learn Out Loud. It sounded more heavy than relaxing, but I gave it a try. Wow! If you have even a little background of Sufic literature you’ll greatly enjoy listening to The Madman. The production quality is excellent and the narration by Anotina Bath is highly captivating. Just as probably Kahlil would have preferred it.
Best part is that this download of Kahlil Gibran is free once you register (again for free) with Learn Out Loud. Though I think that this is only valid till end July. (Later edit: Oops, it seems that it’s no longer free on Learn Out Loud, but I found it still available for free on Itunes here). If you prefer reading the text, the entire script of The Madman is available here as part of the Gutenberg project. But I wouldn’t recommend reading it. It’ll severely spoil the effect of listening to the audio. Rather register yourself at Learn Out Loud, download it here (it’s free in iTunes here. You’ll need itunes installed in your computer for this link to work.)and then drop in a comment below and let me know how you found it to be.
Keep smiling :-)
Jul 8, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 5 comments
It’s because of Rules. We had them as School kids, there are Rules at office, then then there are traffic Rules. Rules Rules Rules everywhere. Who needs ‘em, Wouldn’t it be better if we just got rid of them? No, you know that it wouldn’t be. And that’s because, it’s these Rules that are in place to provide us with the freedom to do what we can, within limits.
One of the great things about GTD is that it believes in making and following rules. GTD has a great set of Rules. These rules if one can adopt them as “Commandments” in one’s life that are never to be broken, it would save you from a lot of one of the most stressful and anxiety-ridden activities i.e. Decision-making. Having these rules in place, spares you from thinking through many things each time they crop up. You don’t need to make decisions any more, just follow the rules that have been set.
(Side note: There are many great GTD rules, (expressed as Best-Practices of the 5 Phases of Gaining Control), but in this post, I’ll be discussing the rules which are not strictly GTD Rules by the book. But have nonetheless helped me greatly in simply getting things done.)
2 minute rule
Okay, this is an official GTD Rule that all GTD practitioners know and love. If anything takes you two minutes or less to do the moment it has your attention, you do right then and there. Because it’s much more bothersome to defer it, track it, review it and do the next time round you think of it. Don’t think about it, Just do it. So if an email takes less than two minute to respond, do it then and there. If that call you going to make, can be done in two minutes or less, finish it right away. So, whenever there’s something that you need to do, and you feel like postponing it, first ask yourself will it take two minutes or less to do it. If the answer is yes, then simply just do it.
10 minute exercise rule
This is a great Rule that has immensely helped me. If there’s something really painful to do, like cleaning a cupboard, or making the first draft of a very difficult report, or plain exercising, have a rule that you would start doing it and spend just 10 minutes at it. When you break it down to that small a size, just 10 teeny weeny measly minutes, it gets much easier to handle. And after those 10 minutes up, you have three options:
i You can give yourself the option to stop doing the difficult task. If you really want to stop there, great, no problem.
ii However, 9 times out of 10, you would get so involved in the first 10 minutes that it would give you a greater sense of relief to complete the task or make significant progress on it.
iii Finally, if you’re not in the mood to continue on, but still dont’ want to give it up, treat yourself to a 2 minute break (it could be checking emails, web-surfing, or just a nice luxurious stretch) and can get back to the task for another 10 minutes and 10 minutes only.
6 month get-rid-of-it rule.
If you’re like me, you may have the habit of continously taking on more stuff to read than you can possibly complete. Web-pages that you’ve bookmarked to get back to, email forwards from friends that you said you’d read later, books lying around your bedside which you told yourself that you said you’re gonna complete someday. The 6 month get-rid-of-it rule, applies just not to reading material, but if there’s anything lying around that you said that you’d get back to, but haven’t been able to do so for 6 months or more, you’re better off just getting rid of it.
The logic is that each time you’ve passed by that pile (for eg. Reading material) you have subconsciously made the decision that what you are currently doing is of more importance that what is piled there. And you’ve been doing that for 6 whole months. Therefore, it could be that what’s in that pile is not really that important at all. And after all if there’s some information in there that you may need after some time, there’s always the internet. So for now you really can trash it. You don’t have to follow this rule religiously, but for the most part it does help get rid a lot of clutter and helps you focus on what really needs your attention.
3 minute email rule
Ever confused should you be sending an email to someone or if you’re better-off speaking to that person personally or over the phone. Well here’s where we introduce the 3 minute email rule. If it’s going to take you 3 minutes to draft and send the email then you might as well just send an email and do it then & there. However, if you’ve really got to think this through and the matter is not as simple as it sounds, then it most likely that an email would not resolve the matter and it’s something that needs to be discussed face to face.
Still Confused, have a rule to follow your intuition.
Not sure whether to buy this Printer or that one? Or if you should be taking part in some activity at all? Of there still something that you’re not able to decide over, don’t analyse too much, you’ve researched enough data on the internet already. Now, just close your eyes, breathe deeply, and follow your instinct. After that, put a reminder 3 or 6 months down the line to checkup on yourself. I put a note for myself in my Calendar or Tickler file reminding myself on the decision I had taken based on my gut-feel. So 6 months later it gives me a chance to relfect back and see whether the decision taken was a hit or a miss and if so then by how much.
Do you feel any of these would help you? Are there any rules that you have adopted that help you get more work done by the end of the day? Drop a note in the comments.
Jul 2, 2008
Posted by arif in GTD and Productivity | 11 comments
photo credit: gideonstrauss
Me and Ali have written a lot about GTD in earlier blog posts. We’ve covered a bit of what GTD is all about, How GTD is made my traveling easier thanks to a Travel Checklist, How a Tickler file is used in GTD and also about a spiritual aspect of GTD. In this post I’ll cover how you can start learning about GTD and then eventually in a phase like manner begin implementing it. You will not know all about GTD by the end, but you can use this post to guide you to the various resources that would cover the basics of GTD enough to get you up and running.
So how does GTD Work?
The whole concept of GTD, revolves around the fact that we are most productive, most efficient, when we are relaxed. Similarly we are least productive, least efficient, when we are stressed. Look back at your life. When were you able to conduct a successful negotiation of a purchase of vegetables, your salary, or the buying of piece of property. Was it when you were frustrated and bothered or was it when you were Mr. Cool. It’s the same for every thing that we attempt to do. We get the most done, when we are calm, relaxed and focussed. Athletes call it ‘the zone’ and time disappears when in the zone. Being relaxed doesn’t being in-attentive, infact you’re super alert, in total control, and simultaneously not-stressed about a single thing. The question is how to get back to that state once you’ve fallen off? Well, that’s where GTD comes in.
1. Tell me where does it hurt
Well first of all identify a pain area in your life. What is it that’s not working for you at work and/or personal life. And then see if GTD has a remedy for that. For eg. I had a pain area of filing. I would get totally stressed when it came to filing. Your pain area could be that you’re just not able to handle all the emails that you get. They bother you too much. Or it could be that you may be super organised at Work, but it’s stuff at home you could use help with for eg. You might be missing to pay the bills, or your personal health is not getting enough attention etc. GTD is the ultimate time-management and stress-management system. If you have issues on focussing your work, procrastination, organising home/work space, identifying priorities and helping you find what’s your purpose on this planet, GTD can help you with it. It’s the true swiss-army knife set of skills that will have you the most prepared no matter what situation you are in.
But if the pain is not that great it’s kinda bearable, then it just may be that you would not be motivated enough to implement GTD to it’s fullest. So identify the pain area, picture it with complete clarity, feel it in all it’s agony and then go looking for a solution in GTD.
2. Various GTD resources for Beginners
I have been critiqued of having too many links in my Blog posts and I truly do wish I could run through all the basics here, but as easy as it is, GTD is just not that simple. However I’ve scoured the internet and the below would be top resources which would give you a good working knowledge of GTD.
1.Ofcourse, nothing beats the Book. Want to learn about GTD, learn it from the master himself by getting the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. Having that said, I had implemented GTD to quite an extent by learning from the various material available on the internet, before picking up the book. So if you’re trip to the bookstore will not happen till next month, the below links has more than enough info to get you going.
2. Chapter-wise Summary of the GTD Book: This is probably the next best thing to the book. The nice folks at Black Belt Productivity have beautifully summarised the essence of each of the 10 chapters of the book as individual blog posts. It’s bit of reading and once again it would not compare to the book, but would still give you a good overall idea.
3. Wired Magazine: This is a good one page summary of GTD.
4. This is a REALLY good one page summary of the various GTD Models. It would be more useful to visit this page once you’ve begun implementations and would like to go back for reference.
5. Finally, here an official GTD instructor from David Allen Co lists 10 habits of that beginners take-on to adopt GTD, which would quite useful reading when first learning GTD.
3. Set up your GTD System
Once you learnt all there is about GTD, before you actually go about emptying your head and making lists, you first need to set up your GTD system. Below are some general guidelines to help you:
i Carry a Pocket Notepad and pen with you always.
ii Set up your A-Z Filing System. If you’re dealing with lot of Paper, it will feel very rewarding to do this first before continuing the the implementation of GTD. Also it immensely helps having a filing system at home too.
iii Have an intray, at office as well as at home.
iv You’ll need a system for lists, it can be paper, digital or a combination of both. I use my Blackberry and Microsoft Outlook running on a Mac. This is the Engine of your system. Your success of implementing GTD is directly proportional to how motivated you are to enter stuff into your lists and refer to it multiple times a day. So although you don’t need to spend too much time, but do give it some thought what system you would like. Just take care that whatever system you adopt that it’s fast and it’s portable. So if you need to enter something in there, then to whip it out, look at it, put it back should take no more than 10 to 30 seconds.
Here are some links that can help you set up your list GTD system:
- Paper Based GTD system:
David Allen’s recommendation on how to set up a Paper Based System. (Note: This site requires you to register before downloading).
The Hipster PDA. A Paper Based System using 3”x5” Index Cards
Another Paper Based GTD system using Index Cards
- GTD System Using Outlook:
Official David Allen WhitePaper on setting up a GTD system using Outlook, (this costs $10.00 and it’s so Worth it!)
I’ve googled quite a bit and can’t find a free-version of really detailed note on how to setup your Outlook for GTD. But to put it simply, you put all your Next Actions and Projects in your Tasks, while having separate categories For each Next Action and Project.
- Online Systems for GTD:
If you are online most of the time during the day. You may consider an online GTD system. The few popular ones are:
Remember The Milk
Vitalist
Nozbe
So which GTD System should you go for?
Well only if you can type say 40 to 50 words per minute, it’s then that I would recommend to go for a Tech GTD System like Outlook or any of the Online Systems listed above. If you write faster then you type, start with a paper based system. If the above Paper based systems sound a little difficult to setup, then all you need is a notebook with Dividers, some post it flags and you’re ready!
4. Ready, Steady, Go!
Okey dokey. You know your pain area, you’ve learnt about GTD, you’ve got your system all set up, now you can finally start cracking. That would mean you can begin on the first stage of the Five Stage process of Getting Control which is Collect. You would have already learnt about the “Collect” Stage when learning about GTD in the above links, but if you want a referesher, below are certain links that cover the Five Stage Process of Getting Control:
- You can refer to the David Allen Article on this here.
Another one page summary of the 5 stages here.
5. Keep on Learning
It took me two years of studying & implementing of GTD till I feel I got a really good hang of it. So if this is the first time you would be studying GTD, give it time. The good news is that not only is it really easy, the results are very immediate and tangible. You actually can feel and quantify the difference in the quantity and quality of your work and life. It’s this immediate gratification that I got every time which propelled me to continue learning more and more tips & tricks of GTD, till I got to a stage where I believe I’ve got a pretty darn good GTD system.
Wish you all the best folks. Do feel free to post any questions you have in the comments and I’d more than happy to answer them.
