What Do You Mean? I'm Not Doing Busy Wrong - DBR 051

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

Player FM - Internet Radio Done Right

הוסף לפני one שנה

תוכן מסופק על ידי Larry Tribble, Ph.D. and Larry Tribble. כל תוכן הפודקאסטים כולל פרקים, גרפיקה ותיאורי פודקאסטים מועלים ומסופקים ישירות על ידי Larry Tribble, Ph.D. and Larry Tribble או שותף פלטפורמת הפודקאסט שלהם. אם אתה מאמין שמישהו משתמש ביצירה שלך המוגנת בזכויות יוצרים ללא רשותך, אתה יכול לעקוב אחר התהליך המתואר כאן https://he.player.fm/legal.

Species Unite

1
Reuven Bank and Andrew Kim: When the Ocean Lost Its Stars 30:54

לפני 5 ימים30:54

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30:54

לפני שנה 50:27

MP3•בית הפרקים

What do you mean? I don't think I'm doing busy wrong. I don't really get this one directly, but it's a consistent subtext when I talk to folks, and it's not that I misunderstand. For years, I thought I wasn’t swinging a golf club wrong, but I think maybe people take it a little bit too personally, let’s think about why this might be so. The cultural idea: One's ability to use technology in the modern age is really unfortunately connected to efficacy as a human being, and the culture is such that we buy that notion. The thinking here is an outgrowth of the learning experiences that I've had as an adult We’ll talk about three interrelated areas: personal productivity, knowledge work, and work from home The tech (for various reasons) doesn’t support our learning.

Evidence: Software, the industry and the software marketing business
Evidence: usability is hard and the economics don't drive companies there
Financial motivations in the software industry

The whole software business is built around solving a problem that every human being has, and so you're going to be able to sell a billion copies of it. And that makes you rich, right?
if you sell it to two people, you lose – that’s not the business model

Two ways:

Build a piece of software that does everything right, solves a problem so big that everyone needs it. This is very, very hard.
Market to people and make them believe your software does everything, and you don't want to constrain them by telling them how to use your software
Software builders are trying to be everything to everybody.

Somebody has to teach you that's not what hammers are for, that's not what screws are for.
Back to "intuitive"

Marketing has managed to equate intuition with your intelligence. And more likely: intuition is related to your experience.
the new one better look a whole lot like the old in order for my intuition/experience to be employed.

“Intuitive” is a weird word. It moves the responsibility to the user.

There's nothing intuitive about it
"Intuitive" is really kind of a strange word.
It snuck in there and all these implications that are not, not really true.

Software Marketing

Spin it such that, if it wasn't intuitive for you, then it's not our fault, it’s yours.
People simply don't design things for usability – they simply claim that they do
So not only do we start off with bad metaphors, but those metaphors tend to persist.
The email metaphor is terrible
Evidence: The envelope metaphor for email Fascinating: the interfaces haven't changed.

DBR – basically information management

Password management as information management

I asked a cybersecurity class – overwhelming majority don’t use good password management
Do you understand what a password manager does? It's okay to say no, it does not make you stupid. Can you learn about this stuff? Yeah. Do you have time? Probably not.
The “password = key” metaphor is wrong
Imagine if you couldn’t keep a physical copy of your car key but that's a metaphor for passwords Password questions
Do you understand the challenge of managing passwords? Have you been taught?
Well, why not – it’s hard and our metaphors are wrong

Data (electronic information) storage

This is a hard problem that hasn’t been solved

Were you taught how to use email?

It’s complicated and we’ve not really figured it out
Have you been trained in the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Work from home?

We went to offices, because at an office, somebody else took care of many of the services for us,
How's your home ergonomics?
How's your networking? Are if it doesn't work, who has to fix it.
Data integrity in your home office? Have you been taught?
Have you been trained in how to backup software, maintain your data?

Knowledge work

We sort of knew how to do physical. In knowledge work, we really don't know how it's best done.
Do you know how to manage information assets, to collect and organize information in such a way that you can find it again?
If you can't remember being taught, you probably weren't. Are you self-taught?
You know, a lot of people say, Well, I was trained for knowledge work when I was in school. I've already done a podcast on that. No, you weren't.
I talked to college students about this stuff, and they're just flabbergasted that we know something about how to do these things. And they're like, why hasn't anybody ever taught me this before?
But were you trained to solve problems?

Finally

I don't think I'm doing busy, wrong. Well, what's the evidence that you're doing it right?
It is not very easy stuff.
The tech industry is not really helping us, yet we fixate on the latest innovations. “Maybe this will finally solve my problem.”
“It just works for me”. Compared to what and/or who?
Respectfully, I've spent 15 years trying to figure out what knowledge work is and how it's best done.

84 פרקים

#Business #Larry Tribble, Ph.D #Larry Tribble #Careers #Podcasting Education #Knowledge Work

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

What Do You Mean? I'm Not Doing Busy Wrong - DBR 051

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

published לפני שנה

שתפו

MP3•בית הפרקים

Evidence: Software, the industry and the software marketing business
Evidence: usability is hard and the economics don't drive companies there
Financial motivations in the software industry

The whole software business is built around solving a problem that every human being has, and so you're going to be able to sell a billion copies of it. And that makes you rich, right?
if you sell it to two people, you lose – that’s not the business model

Two ways:

Build a piece of software that does everything right, solves a problem so big that everyone needs it. This is very, very hard.
Market to people and make them believe your software does everything, and you don't want to constrain them by telling them how to use your software
Software builders are trying to be everything to everybody.

Somebody has to teach you that's not what hammers are for, that's not what screws are for.
Back to "intuitive"

Marketing has managed to equate intuition with your intelligence. And more likely: intuition is related to your experience.
the new one better look a whole lot like the old in order for my intuition/experience to be employed.

“Intuitive” is a weird word. It moves the responsibility to the user.

There's nothing intuitive about it
"Intuitive" is really kind of a strange word.
It snuck in there and all these implications that are not, not really true.

Software Marketing

Spin it such that, if it wasn't intuitive for you, then it's not our fault, it’s yours.
People simply don't design things for usability – they simply claim that they do
So not only do we start off with bad metaphors, but those metaphors tend to persist.
The email metaphor is terrible
Evidence: The envelope metaphor for email Fascinating: the interfaces haven't changed.

DBR – basically information management

Password management as information management

I asked a cybersecurity class – overwhelming majority don’t use good password management
Do you understand what a password manager does? It's okay to say no, it does not make you stupid. Can you learn about this stuff? Yeah. Do you have time? Probably not.
The “password = key” metaphor is wrong
Imagine if you couldn’t keep a physical copy of your car key but that's a metaphor for passwords Password questions
Do you understand the challenge of managing passwords? Have you been taught?
Well, why not – it’s hard and our metaphors are wrong

Data (electronic information) storage

This is a hard problem that hasn’t been solved

Were you taught how to use email?

It’s complicated and we’ve not really figured it out
Have you been trained in the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication? Do you know what I'm talking about?

Work from home?

We went to offices, because at an office, somebody else took care of many of the services for us,
How's your home ergonomics?
How's your networking? Are if it doesn't work, who has to fix it.
Data integrity in your home office? Have you been taught?
Have you been trained in how to backup software, maintain your data?

Knowledge work

We sort of knew how to do physical. In knowledge work, we really don't know how it's best done.
Do you know how to manage information assets, to collect and organize information in such a way that you can find it again?
If you can't remember being taught, you probably weren't. Are you self-taught?
You know, a lot of people say, Well, I was trained for knowledge work when I was in school. I've already done a podcast on that. No, you weren't.
I talked to college students about this stuff, and they're just flabbergasted that we know something about how to do these things. And they're like, why hasn't anybody ever taught me this before?
But were you trained to solve problems?

Finally

I don't think I'm doing busy, wrong. Well, what's the evidence that you're doing it right?
It is not very easy stuff.
The tech industry is not really helping us, yet we fixate on the latest innovations. “Maybe this will finally solve my problem.”
“It just works for me”. Compared to what and/or who?
Respectfully, I've spent 15 years trying to figure out what knowledge work is and how it's best done.

84 פרקים

#Business #Larry Tribble, Ph.D #Larry Tribble #Careers #Podcasting Education #Knowledge Work

כל הפרקים

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Digital Moderation and How To Decline a Technology - DBR 084 48:35

לפני 3 ימים48:35

48:35

I’m going to dive into the logic of the debate around technology. Purpose: To earn a stronger hearing for honest critiques of technology: We’ll discuss a common pattern where critics are dismissed as "anti-technology" or "Luddites". What’s in it for you: To be encouraged and equipped to question the rhetoric that faces us from a technology-forward culture. And/or answer the question: “You don’t use social media X, what’s wrong with you?” And/or generate the courage to shut something down, like Cal Newport suggests in Digital Minimalism. And/or, if you’re a boss and are wondering how to improve your organization’s productivity, consider similar arguments in Cal’s A World Without Email. My claim for the next 45 minutes… I am a critic of certain kinds of technology. I and others who do this often face a particular kind of counter argument. This typical counter-argument pattern equates general use with harmlessness. I’ll show that this general use argument is not well-supported with evidence. By highlighting how past critiques, like those of television, have been "vindicated," I’ll establish the validity and necessity of such discussions. Introduction to critiquing technology and my position My background and motivation for critique Examples of technology I think are challenging The Common Pattern of Argument Against Technology Critics Stereotype of critics: Often labeled "anti-technology" or implying a lack of understanding The counter-argument pattern Premise: A new technology (X) is critiqued (e.g., Facebook is a problem). 2. Counter-claim: People previously critiqued a di erent new technology (Y), and those past critics "were demonstrated to be wrong" because Y is now in general use and "didn't kill us". Challenge to Critic: The critic is then asked to prove why technology X is "worse than" technology Y. * The speaker notes the di iculty of comparing disparate technologies like Facebook and television (e.g., weak comparison points like "looking at screens" or "consuming attention"). Dismissal: If the critic cannot prove X is "worse," they are dismissed as a "Chicken Little" or an "old curmudgeon" interfering with enjoyment. Historical example: "Go-to statement" in early programming languages Initially debated as "useful in the hands of a knowledgeable user". Now universally agreed to be bad programming practice because it produced buggy, hard to maintain, and clumsy code.. This pattern often appears in discussions where convenience is the primary perceived benefit of a technology. Flaws in the Counter-Critique's Logic Lack of Burden of Proof on the counter-critic False Equivalence: General use does not imply harmlessness Television as a Case Study: Vindication of Early Critiques Early critics of television have been vindicated, though this isn't widely recognized. Three primary critiques of television Critique 1: Content Quality Critique 2: Waste of Time/Attention Critique 3: Advertising as Brainwashing/Propaganda Recap…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
How to Process Incoming Information - DBR 083 54:40

לפני 10 ימים54:40

54:40

Most people don't know how to process incoming information. This is a core part of personal information management, which (particularly for knowledge workers) is absolutely critical for modern economic life. The ways in which we receive information are continuing to change. The amount of information and level of awareness that the business and general cultures expect of us are both increasing as well. In order to be successful with those, we need to have our information processing really working well. Here’s how to process incoming information well. Lots of people are trying this on their own, but it’s hard to be successful that way. If you want to talk to me about coaching, hit me on LinkedIn or larry@dobusyright.com Let’s get into it. Incoming information and Information Channels: Definitions Information channels thought experiment: do you have a process for dealing with information channels? General ideas about channels Basic approach: open it, empty it, close it – ‘processing’ Two basic types of information All channels are bad places to store both kinds of information All channels are bad places to do work Another storage location is REQUIRED A few differences between channels Synchronous versus asynchronous Discrete versus continuous Digital versus analog Two-way versus ‘read only’ or ‘write only’ Typical level of urgency Examples Processing an e-mail channel (asynchronous, discrete, digital, two way) Processing a phone channel (synchronous) Processing a chat channel (continuous) Processing a conversation/meeting (analog) Processing a blog channel (one-way) We’ve covered how to process email across several channels and we’ve covered the differences across the four properties of channels. You should be able to construct a basic process for each of your channels.…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Don't 'manage time'; time is the constraint - DBR 082 49:55

לפני 16 ימים49:55

49:55

I was answering a question: “how do I manage my time?” and I was thinking of it in terms of scheduling. Then it occurred to me that we don't manage time. (I've said that a lot.) But, what is it then that we do with time? And it occurred to me to think: time is the constraint. Now, this is hardcore knowledge worker stuff here. Time is the primary limiting factor on throughput in our productivity system. If our productive asset is attention then the limiting factor on attention that cannot be removed is time. Now, we're into the theory of constraints and its systems and bottlenecks, these kinds of ideas. We’ll talk about where we need to be headed if we want to become outstanding managers of our own productivity. We’ll delve into systems theory to figure it out. The Theory of Constraints Overview and the notion of bottlenecks In a desktop productivity system, many of the normal limiting factors that would be present in a factory are already absent If time is the limiting factor; it's not an input and it's not an asset We look at the bottlenecks second, after we’ve done the easier work of eliminating the wastes, which happen to everybody The wastes (3 of them) The first two wastes are pretty much mindset changes – interruption and multitasking The third takes more finesse – distraction. But we know how to deal with that. Systematizing our investigations Then we can move on in a systematic fashion to identify bottlenecks in our specific process. You can’t do systems analysis until you have a repeatable system in place- deal with interruptions and stop multitasking. And deal with distractions. Three generic, common bottlenecks The fact that it's a bottleneck does not mean that it's a useless behavior One: Planning Three kinds of planning (today, foreseeable future, and intentions) Two: Maintaining awareness of our environment Covey: the circle of control and the circle of concern Are we aware of the right things (scope) What is the useful intensity of our awareness. Three: efficiency of sub processes The first: Sub processes that take our attention that probably shouldn't The second: Would it be useful for us to be more efficient in some sub-processes? I think that we make a common error in that we start working on the second process before we get phase one straight. If you aren’t dealing with interruptions, there’s no real need for you to work on your typing speed. You don’t have the attentional space to deal with that and won’t get it done. So, the search for tools and the next app that will “save my productivity” – let me save you some time; it doesn’t exist (at least not yet). Recap www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble larry@dobusyright.com…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
WFH: Don't Fall For The Hidden Challenge - DBR 081 48:37

לפני 25 ימים48:37

48:37

WFH: Don't Fall For the Hidden Challenge Most everybody I hear wants to work from home. I’ve posted previously that most employees see WFH as a convenience and a perk. Is it possible that WFH is not all upside? What if WFH presents challenges to our thriving. I’m all about thriving, so I think you should know about this challenge that Gallup is reporting. And I think the challenge is one we can face with the proper ideas and techniques. So WFH can support our thriving rather than representing a challenge to it. For the record, I think WFH is generally good for people and good for companies. Situations vary, of course, but both sides save money, time, and stress, so why not? In addition, WFH forces managers to develop good managerial tactics (‘cause the bad ones don’t work as well) which is good for everyone. What’s the situation Gallup studies Engagement Definition of Engagement – similar to passion Definition of well-being Correlation between engagement and well-being Work styles (e.g. “remote capable”) History of remote work and WFH – WFH a perk? History of remote work and WFH Programming jobs were first in work from home But WFH was rare The impact of COVID - universal WFH Then leadership changed their minds (again) The debate on WFH continues, based on opinion not data Productivity Engaged = productive (most likely) The relationship between remote and knowledge work When engagement is up our work is energizing, promising, positive. Fun? Autonomy is generally considered useful to motivation Well-being should be a primary goal of productivity So why are well-being and engagement diverging The personal factor in WFH Anecdote “your best people…” About management The level of “external” management What is “external” management “Agency” and “Freedom” are good things, right? But are they the most productive for us? Hypothesis: to achieve our greatest levels of productivity we need management Why do we dislike management Intrinsic motivation as compared to extrinsic motivation. Public goals are one of several evidences of our need for external accountability the manager in the organization produces accountability It’s a good thing to have a boss To help us prioritize our work. Bad managers: poorly trained and poor promotion habits Lack of external management in WFH The challenge of self-management The well-being component is probably reflecting the challenge of self-Management. “Adulting is hard.” (Sigh) It's easier to complain about somebody else not managing you well than it is to manage yourself well. Self management similar to management of others I think the data point to this notion of self-management Good management is helpful Management is “support me as I do this work”, the “manager as coach models” Engaging life coaching is hiring a manager, hiring a coach Growth of coaching is co-incident with the increase in remote work and the increase in knowledge work That's what this podcast is about Exploring the idea of self-management A big component of that is mindset… recognizing that you do need to manage yourself The goal here is for both engagement and well-being to go up together Let's take a much closer look at our need for… management (in its most positive sense) larry@dobusyright.com www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Information Overload Is Simpler Than You Think - DBR 080 52:22

לפני 4 weeks52:22

52:22

Eradicating information overload. The goal of personal information management is to put processes and tools around our information so we can “manage” it – that means control it, tame it, have fewer emergencies around it. Our fear that we don’t have it well-managed causes us stress and anxiety – we call this ‘information overload’. So, a feeling of information overload is an indication that we don’t have our information managed well. After all, if you have a feeling of “bill overload”, you would look at your finances and budget, right? But is information overload a USEFUL term? Does it help us understand and deal with the problem? Or is it just a clickbait? Here, we’ll look into the definition of information - understanding the situation is a key to success. If Information Overload and/or the associated stress is a primary concern for you, this is your episode. Definition of information We don’t really have a good one – and that’s coming from an expert We think we can dimly grasp what information is… its related to some way of conveying 'something'. We even use information to convey 'something' to ourselves with notes, etc. For more, see James Gleick's book The Information But is information an independent thing? Information and attention are symbiotic. Example – regular radio pulses from astronomy. Is that information? How does this relate to overload? Information itself is not something that impinges on us. It can’t do that. But we do feel stress – meaning we feel like there's more than we can deal with - about 'something'. Is our problem really communication overload? Communication impinges on us. Communication means information used in a way that has a message (content) and usually has a signal. (we refer to both content and signal as information) We get shouted at - communicated AT Is our problem really content overload? There's no such thing as information overload in a library - content, in itself, has no means to impinge on us If books hollered at you and they weren't well organized, the library would be a horror show. So, this is Information that's well managed and has organizational schemes. In personal information management, one of the better metaphors is to have one's own personal library Is our problem really signal overload? The amount of incoming signal has never been so high The informational content of a signal itself is pretty low. Phones ring, computers beep, screens flash. We think this the right approach. But almost every signal is under our control It's signal overload. So, we've also got to think about the signals that we allow and those that we create for ourselves Conclusion/recap www.linkedin/in/larrytribble larry@doubsyright.com.…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Work-life Balance Is Nothing (... but an Attention Management Problem) - DBR 079 50:20

לפני 5 weeks50:20

50:20

This episode is about the outcomes you can achieve with the information and coaching I am able to give. This is important, because it's gonna be work. It's not hard work but it is work. You'll need to change a couple of thought patterns and build a new habit or two. And in order for you to do that work, you need to know what's in it for you: what's going to happen when you do it. I’ll talk about what other clients have experienced as they've adopted this attention management mindset. The goal is nothing short of making you a better worker and making your life easier. That's two things, not one that depends on the other. What I mean is not that your life's going to be easier because you're a better worker. It's two things. Work's going to be easier to deal with and life's going to be easier to deal with. Outcome: better work/life balance One of the primary pressures on productivity is the notion of work life balance We’re doers of many things in both work and life spheres So, we have two claims on our attention A third primary claim on our attention - entertainment. It's attention consuming. Attention is the primary constraint in modern life The bottleneck on on 'productivity' is our ability to pay attention to getting things done Our work is very much mental work What is it we get better at with attention management? Parallel to athleticism in sports General education - things that apply to all work Underlying even that are abilities that allow us to perform work well We need to develop skills to have our attention where it needs to be when we need for it to be there. There's simply not a word for it in the English language. Attention helps us with the "infinite number" of things that we've got to do If we don't handle that set of things very well they absorb too much of our attention We need a concept of wasted attention If we get better at both work and life (independently), then we’ve got more space to “balance” the two. We come to see that they are not automatically in competition all the time Other outcomes that we can expect You'll get better at your work, regardless of what you do. The important notion of "deliverables" and why attention is critical Better opportunities in your career Better at tasks that constitute 'life' Better at learning, the most basic knowledge work skill An aside on the stress related to competition Corporate world: competition for promotion Sales: competition with other products / solutions Our business schools are focused on models of industry competitiveness Economics teaches us scarcity and competition. If we know we're more skilled, we can face competition with less fear and stress Recap larry@dobusyright.com www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Watch Out For The Three 'Micro' Wastes of Productivity - DBR 078 51:09

לפני 6 weeks51:09

51:09

I want to describe calm productivity. And I want to contrast the results of attention management to the results of efforts to do time management. I’m going to take you over to a recording of a public talk I did at a conference at UA. It’s titled: "The Three Enemies of Productivity". The actual thing that we all want is productivity or efficiency (which are probably synonyms, for the most part). Productivity and efficiency both mean outputs per unit input. When we talk about productivity, we typically think of outputs per unit time. On the other hand, when we're talking about organizational productivity we may be talking about maximizing output per dollar cost or other things. But when we talk about individual productivity, personal productivity and knowledge work, then typically we're going to wind up talking about maximizing results per unit time. And that's fine. But maximization of that is not a “flow” state. It is not calm productivity. It’s “hurry culture”. The equations come from physical product studies Physical product is not variable Delivery mechanisms are critical in knowledge work because information must be comprehensible Part of the product is this comprehensibility Less so in the physical product world Implications of the physical-product-based efficiency equations How this plays in “time” management The first thing is to get rid of waste The notion of “wasting time” is challenging - many things LOOK like waste. So, we try to shrink time. But “speeding up” is bad for us, although “less time” is often good. Poor utilization of the asset (downtime) is the first waste. We've got to understand what the asset is What's being challenged for us is not exactly our time. It's our attention. And, there's lots of ways that our attention could be wasted. There is no real way to ‘overclock’ If I can make you go faster than you're comfortable going, then you're going to start making mistakes. Trying to make somebody go faster than they can is the result of a focus on time management. In the extreme, rushing to make time efficient is cutting corners Rushing does nothing to give us a sense of of calm, and peaceful. Macro waste of attention I don't Talk about macro waste. Use the Covey quadrants. We can't be Attention intensive for 8, 10, or 12 hours a day. “Losing” our attention We don't yet know what "leaves" when we lose our focus. An example of talking about attention in the wrong way Micro wastes of attention. Task switching has an enormous cost in attention. Two reasons for focus The three primary 'micro' wastes of attention (the Keynote) Interruption Multitasking Distraction ...and how to deal with them I enjoy giving this keynote. It helps me spread the message about the core of productivity. If you know someone who needs to hear it, share or get them in touch with me for a keynote. www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble larry@dobusyright.com…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Over-allocated Attention and the Associated Stress - DBR 077 54:26

לפני 7 weeks54:26

54:26

Our attention is over-allocated by a nexus of events. This episode is what to do about that. I'm gonna acknowledge something that I'm not a big fan of. Apparently April is stress awareness month. So, if you weren't aware of stress, stress is a thing. I think most of us are aware of it. I don't want to be a curmudgeon but oh my word. Yes, I'm already aware of all of the different months that have some awareness attached to that. About stress… My promise to you is: if you practice good attention management, that will lead to a new level of productivity for you. That productivity will interact with your level of stress around 1) your to-do list and 2) the information that you need to manage such that your level of stress will go down. In this episode, I'm going to try and do a couple of different things. One is I'm going to tell you a little bit about stress. I’ll give you a great resource around stress. Two is we're going to talk about a really strange notion in our modern world; it's called contentment. If you've never heard that word before I get it, and we'll talk about what that is. Stress versus contentment and achieving some sense of peace, calmness, and clarity. And dare I say it, happiness? This is all based on our attention and the fact that we're at a nexus of events. These events are colliding such that the world is putting us, more precisely our attention, under intense pressure. The intensity of pressure is something that we have not dealt with before, as a culture, as a society. There’s an attention-based stress challenge. Society and culture are placing huge demands on us. It's not a published demand; nobody notified you that this would be happening. That set of forces is the third thing that we'll talk about today. What is stress? Stress is the difference between our expectation and what we experience in reality In this sense, it is closely related to frustration. The feeling is like frustration The Myth of Stress – Andrew Bernstein The only way to deal with it is to learn new expectations (not easy) Our stated expectation – this is just a busy time (month, quarter) – is not reality Also, there seems to be an unstated assumption that we’ll just get better at this as a culture or society. Another false expectation Contentment Example of escalating expectations: the notion of a 'prom-posal' The only term I can come up with at present is: child inflation. Contentment is counter-cultural The present culture has associated contentment with inability - inability to achieve - or poverty, inability to pay for it. We don't want to be seen as incapable of living up to this cultural Norm The factors around our attention Fact 1: the level of attention getting is higher than ever. We’re all trying to get each other’s attention. The level is rising Fact 2: our levels of information and communication are continuing to rise Fact 3: more of us are using our attention as our productive asset Fact 3.5 we are the most entertained society in history And entertainment is a pleasant deployment of our attention. We feel trapped in our frustration over attention My hypothesis is that we wandered into this situation and, therefore, we don't have good tactics to deal with it. That's what I do: give you good tactics to deal with the information- and task-based claims on your attention. That will lower your stress and help you perform better in work. Email me with comments or questions: larry@dobusyright.com And connect with me on LinkedIn to see occasional announcements on episodes and other stuff: www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble (please mention the podcast).…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Yes! You CAN Be Happy At Work - DBR 076 41:43

לפני 8 weeks41:43

41:43

The happiness at work episode. Yay. I’m happy to be at work. Last time we talked about pessimism versus optimism. A closely related subject is happiness versus misery. I do think that optimism is critical. I've heard it said that your number one goal as an entrepreneur is to protect your optimism. I think it's that important. If you’re in the knowledge Work World and think you're not an entrepreneur and then you probably need to reconsider the definition of Entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is somebody that makes their own deal, that makes their own job. And you should probably be a lot closer to doing that than maybe you think you should be. Standing around getting told what to do all the time. Is not. Fulfilling satisfying, or really very enriching. You got to bring something to the party. So figure out what your thing is and bring it because we need it. And then protect your optimism that you can make a difference in the world. As I'm recording this, it's Easter week and I'm a Christian, I'm very happy. Today is Thursday of Easter week. Which is Maundy Thursday. For those of you who aren't familiar with Christian tradition, Maundy is m-a-u-n-d-y. Traditionally, it's where we celebrate Jesus serving his disciples at the Last Supper and Loving on them in that way. Tomorrow, of course, will be Good Friday, which you may be even more familiar with. If not, Good Friday is traditionally the day that Jesus was crucified. We say good to make the point. A lot of people are particularly happy at Christmas. I like Christmas too, but Easter is nore theologically sound. So I hope you're happy this week too while we talk about happiness at work. Happiness and optimism go hand in hand. If you're optimistic about an outcome, then generally speaking that's going to correlate with some degree of happiness about where you are in the world. It's a confusing topic to some degree. I don't think it's necessary that we get into the controversy, but let's talk about what we all agree on. I think a lot of people don't like work. I think a lot of people have made up their minds that they're not gonna like work. In the minority of cases we don't like work because we work in some nasty environment, really dangerous, those kinds of things. Of interest, of course, is the fact that many of the people who do that sort of thing are really, really passionate about what they do and their unhappiness about it seems at least to be limited if not totally subsumed. People in the military, people in the medical profession, a lot of these areas. That said, if you're listening to this podcast you probably work in a nice comfy office - comfortable chair, air conditioning, you’ve got the tools that you need. You’re pretty comfortable and well-treated. Maybe there's bits and pieces around the edges that you'd prefer were different, fine. I just think we've got to recognize that as part of this happiness equation. Optimism is more productive - last podcast Happiness and optimism go hand in hand Charley Gilkey: happy = 31% greater productivity Attitude is important, particularly in service businesses – “my pleasure” Challenges to happiness at work Last podcast… the meme that realism is a sophisticated approach Desire and "wanting it." Flow state is NOT hard, grunting work I do think that the desire piece is overstated in the culture. Avoid this part of the hustle culture I don't think it has to be hard to be morally good work. Negativity and pessimism around work have two primary components Ways to be happier at work Human beings have a great capacity to enjoy the things that we do. A definition of discipline(s) Strong relationships require disciplines. We call this discipline and learn as small humans to dislike it. I’m disciplined in some areas and not in others. You're likely the same Work-life balance vs. chore-craft balance - from Cal Newport and Scott Young. Craft – doing “the thing” Chore – peripheral to “the thing” Craft transcends the work life conflict Happiness at work is certainly possible. Believing that is half the battle. How we do our work with happiness. Engage the disciplines Understand the indirect relationships Happiness is a big part of Doing Busy Right. Part of it is stress reduction. Part of it is greater throughput. Part of it is greater confidence. In addition, consider some of these other ways to be happy at work. larry@dobusyright.com www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Pessimism Cloaked as Realism Considered Harmful - DBR 075 53:32

לפני 9 weeks53:32

53:32

This one's about optimism and pessimism, and what that has to do with productivity. I and the whole thing is a productivity concern for me. We talk about confidence around these parts. That’s because I think confidence ties to productivity. The tie there is imposter syndrome. We struggle to understand what confidence is. But confidence is fundamental to what we're trying to do, particularly as knowledge workers. By the same token, optimism is fundamental to productivity. A lot of this has to do with long term career growth rather than just simple productivity. We'll leave that career growth potential aside, and just talk about productivity now. The problem The problem is that many people are pessimists If you are not confident in your ability to do something, then your ability to do that thing is going to be quite limited The invisible work that we do leads to negative mental gymnastics like writer's block and imposter syndrome. Our feelings about a thing do have a lot to do with our ability to do and thus I think we should cultivate optimism I’ll give you some tools and motivation to embrace optimism, if you’re an optimist and work to become an optimist, if you’re not Realistic positivity - optimism vs “Toxic positivity” Definition of discipline Mental landscape and productivity The science Learned helplessness Growth mindset is pretty close to a good definition of optimism Grit Counter arguments I'm not a pessimist about me. I'm a pessimist about the world. Optimism as naivete, realism is rational Limiting disappointment by managing expectations Engineering mindset Definition of work Problem solving Tenacity Recap I hope I've convinced you that optimism is the most productive, practical mindset. You should now have some tools to help you cultivate optimism in your life and work. Remember, you've solved many problems and (to date) have survived the worst news you've received. You can do it. larry@dobusyright.com www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
How We Got Here and Where We're Going - History of Knowledge Work Productivity - DBR 074 50:36

לפני 10 weeks50:36

50:36

I want to talk about the history of knowledge work productivity. And it's going to involve a lot of different names. It's going to involve the triumvirate, well, the quadrumvirate (that’s the real word), the Mount Rushmore. Only through understanding what they were thinking about can we extend that thinking. Then we can work on knowledge work productivity. We'll go all the way back to the start of the 20th century. We have Frederick Taylor studying “Scientific Management”, which is a study of work, not ‘management’ per se. Then we've got Peter Drucker, and he's important because he was doing all the thinking around knowledge work and how that came about. Stephen Covey taught us that we have to get our mindset right in order to be effective people. David Allen taught us how to use tools and stop using our brains for task and attention management. I might bring in Cal Newport and Thomas Davenport and these different kinds of names, just because of the curiosity factor there. But anyway, Drucker, Covey, Taylor, David Allen, This episode is about: What problem do businesspeople and managers (in particular) have to deal with Why is it an important problem What ways have we tried to deal with this previously What tools are at our disposal to try to solve it now Who is currently presenting solutions and what are they The issue is that our economy, particularly our economic productivity, is changing. We have yet to fully understand how to react to that change. Some history to give us perspective and hints on what to do. 20th century productivity growth Organizational structures - sociology (business structures were not theorized/engineered) Original organizational structures (government/church/military) were monarchy/hierarchy The notion of trade, business, and getting wealthy (via the “business” way) Apprentice -> employee -> growing organization -> modern business problems (management) Used to be everybody worked for the king, who distributed wealth and work It needed to scale and be ‘optimized’, but was never engineered We don't know exactly how it works You got three blacksmiths. All of a sudden it's a managerial problem Most things cultural or sociological there isn't hard science - like business Atom bomb derived from theory and we ‘engineered’ a way to construct one. Same thing with NASA and the space program. Business really was not that way Railroad/telegraph as a management problem (distributed locations). If you need to tell somebody the train's coming, there's no faster way for that information to travel than the train itself. The history of information really correlates to the history of business and culture We can’t communicate quickly enough between different locations for ‘real-time’ management These business/communication structures grew organically, business is perhaps more Darwinian than Darwin Well, all of this was command and control. So what about leadership/governance/control of the organization Now, we have to explain leadership, and this notion of who gets to tell who what to do The ‘great man’ theory Mid 20th century, there was a cult of personality Huge corporations, like General Motors, and they're selling stock, and nobody really understands how that works Government: we've got to understand how this business thing works and explain it to people and regulate it How we began to understand and explain Frederick Taylor "scientific management" and notions of the efficiency of individual workers Peter Drucker In "The Concept of the Corporation" is trying to explain the notion of governance structures, some way to get people to work together We've got big organizations and factories. Got to produce a lot, and so we need to break this down, because nobody, no one person, can produce it all Drucker developed technique for management and the ideas of knowledge work Stephen Covey comes along. He's exploring this idea of technique for ‘effectiveness’. Covey talks effective people in terms of psychological, psychosocial properties of behavior and modes of thought. This is different from previous thought. Now, Knowledge Work improvement (and management) Drucker’s hypothesis: improve the productivity of knowledge work. How do we manage versus how do we strategize? Now, we’ve moved to KW (and management) So, how do we manage ourselves and others The goal of such management is to improve the productivity of knowledge work. David Allen started to use Taylorist thinking in improving knowledge work. My offering on how to manage Knowledge Work is the Attention Compass - a successor to Allen's methodology. Focus: What are the components of knowledge work and how can we improve them? What is the system that needs to be put in place? Our community is working on this and needs your insights and voice. Get in touch. larry@dobusyright.com or find me on LinkedIn.…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
Fable: Productivity Rain Dances - Watch Out - DBR 073 47:37

לפני 11 weeks47:37

47:37

I started out talking about the lies of productivity, but I’m going to change to fables because it's just things we collectively believe without much evidence. Plus, I don't think anybody's intentionally trying to mislead us. We just move without much actual data. A couple of those fables collided with a post by Cal Newport with the evocative title of “productivity rain dances”, which is a pretty humorous mental picture. Apparently, rain dances are those habits of work that we believe make us productive but actually don’t. We don’t develop evidence, so we are engaging in superstition. So, fables and rain dances probably have some overlap. Let’s explore Cal’s post and investigate some of our own practices to make sure we’re not wasting our time and energy doing things that don’t improve our productivity. What is the discussion? Cal’s post about Chris Williamson’s podcast It’s not that nothing is useful in productivity, it’s just that the field is not scientifically organized. Experiment means think, gather data, analyze situations. It does not mean “I feel like…”. Technique is a real thing and it exists – there is a better way to manage your tasks and attention. Is a new tool really that helpful? Or is AI another ‘rain dance’ Cal’s post: https://calnewport.com/productivity-rain-dances/ Examples of rain dances (or Fables) Williamson gave a few examples: Why do I sit at my desk when I'm not working? Why do I thrash around about emails? Why do I take phone calls that have no goal? My fables are more habits of thought around specific tasks “I'd better do it before I forget about it” Usually means “… forget about it again” Sometimes we do it just because its late I feel guilty because I'm not any better at my stuff In order to resolve that guilt, we pop up and go do it now Overlap with “not finished” syndrome Avoiding the knee jerk reaction Our systems don't dictate our priority; they reflect our priority. If we often say, "I better do it before I forget about it", then your system is broken. Instead, say to yourself, I'd better capture it before I forget about it. We create tasks that implicitly have the Title of "Make progress on X" “Thrashing is a rain dance.” Rapid task switching, multitasking is a rain dance When we measure time, we switch from measuring outputs to measuring inputs Faster, in and of itself, is not more efficient. Efficiency is a property of a system and only makes sense when the goal is clear. Don't maximize inputs to try to maximize outputs. Only time saved at the bottleneck step of your process improves your productivity. every process has a bottleneck, and the bottleneck governs the overall throughput of the system, Some commentary on the comments Inbox zero: rain dance, or not? Inbox Zero is not efficient behavior in and of itself “Tweaking” your system is a rain dance We spend a lot of time and a lot of stress buying tools to speed up parts of the process that are not the bottleneck, and then we don't get better productivity because of it. You don't need a system to help you handle email faster. You need a system to reduce the amount of email you have to deal with. It's an input. Increasing the inputs for the same number of outputs is the opposite of productivity - the opposite of efficiency, Where have we gotten today? Define your outputs; identify them very cleanly, and then focus on those and work backwards Identifying a bottleneck is not a trivial challenge Faster is not more productive. Faster is simply faster. Many of these things are signs that your system is broken or incomplete We do our rain dance and it doesn't rain so the process is broken Understanding which part of a process is broken is not trivial or simple. Don't deal with a system in a piecemeal fashion (See the previous episode about optimizing sub processes is not a reliable way to optimize the overall process.) larry@dobusyright.com; www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
The Modern Productivity Paradox, What Should Knowledge Workers Do? - DBR 072 49:53

לפני 12 weeks49:53

49:53

Most everybody involved in knowledge work is involved with technology. It's what we do. We deal in information, so we deal with information technology. We believe that it makes us more productive – “better” at our jobs. But what is the evidence that information technology is helping us be more productive? After all, that is its purpose in the modern workplace. I’d suggest that many people believe that the tech companies are dealing with that on our behalf. And the software companies would agree. They want to tell you that, yes, they're improving your productivity. But there's a ton of contrary evidence to that. Also, both solopreneurs and companies are just hurling themselves into AI. The argument is, as the argument has always been with IT, that AI will make us more efficient, more productive. There are good reasons to doubt that. We’ll get into them. What is the productivity paradox? The mismatch between the belief that IT spend on improved productivity and flat economic productivity The Y2K Bug and the aftermath of the Dot Com Bust The productivity paradox is making a return You need to know as you plan your own IT spending, for yourself or your team look for two problems: 1) you’re wasting money, and 2) you may not have another plan for improving productivity What is the ‘modern’ productivity paradox? process “accretion” We struggle to learn from each other Vendors are a little unreliable on this point, for obvious reasons an accumulation of point solutions doesn't make a system Challenges of managing technology 2003 Nicholas Carr , "IT Doesn't Matter" Carr’s point: technology wants to be a commodity Carr’s conclusion: you can’t gain a strategic advantage with a commodity resource Systems theory efficiency is in automating processes, not in automating tasks. the difference between automating tasks and automating processes optimize a sub process then you sub optimize the whole process Systems engineering example – The Goal, Eli Goldratt Modern productivity paradox What to do? Be aware that there is an ongoing argument about how to do this. It’s not trivial. Think about optimizing and automating Processes rather than Tasks Measure at the process level and experiment Recap I guess the primary takeaway is a reminder to not let the IT hype be a distraction from what you're trying to do. Some tools will help you and others won't. Just understand that convenience and 'time-savings' are actually pretty low on the list of useful targets for IT interventions. Stay focused on what you produce that creates the value you deliver to the world. Things that help you produce more are productive, everything else is not really. www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble larry@dobusyright.com…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
"Attention Crisis"? What is the Argument and the Evidence - DBR 071 45:36

לפני 13 weeks45:36

45:36

There's an article in The New Yorker "What If The Attention Crisis Is All A Distraction" by Daniel Immerwahr. I think the attention problem (if there is one) is important for us to understand and resolve and, frankly, to have a debate about. I thought I'd report out on this article, and the state of play. Where are we? What's the evidence? How do we form an opinion on what's going on with society on this front? My foundation for engaging in the debate: I think attention is the fundamental productive commodity in our current economy. I think as knowledge workers, our attention is what we use to make our economic productive way through life. It's how we create value and and the means by which we we earn our food. Drucker's hypothesis: American economic growth that we experienced in the 20th century was based on huge increases in in labor productivity. Therefore if we're going to maintain our economic growth level, then we've got to do the same thing with knowledge work. We have to increase the productivity of knowledge workers So our ability to deploy and manage our attention is important, both for us as individuals and also for the economic society at large. Do we have a problem with increasingly short attention spans? Our question Work, particularly knowledge work, requires that we pay attention to it for periods of time. I'm mostly interested in the impact of attention on on work and economic productivity. I think that things that that interfere with our ability to focus for extended periods of time, hurts us. Humans have always been distractible and have needed to be taught to have an attention span of any duration What does attention span mean? (Based on: The Distracted Mind, 2016, Gazzaley & Rosen) Attention is fundamentally selective - it has an object. The persistence of this selectivity is what we mean by attention span Therefore, logically it includes the ability to to block out other things So-called “compelled attention" interferes with our ability to block out Attention Crisis? Really? There have been attention crises prior to the modern version. Plato didn't like the technology of writing "Amusing Ourselves To Death", Neil Postman, 1985. The threat of TV "The Shallows", Nicholas Carr, 2010. The threat of the internet "The Sirens Call", Chris Hayes, 2024. The threat of active technology Hayes Attention is a commodity – it gets captured and sold to people who want us to buy something We have a thing called “compelled attention” (involuntary attention) “Attention engineering” is not a new thing, but its intensity is increasing as the value of attention increases We’re “Penned into a way of paying attention that we don’t like” Immerwahr The data are equivocal and “distracted from one thing is to attend to another” Increasing length of movies, television, and video games as evidence that our attention spans are not shrinking The hand wringing comes from elite “attentionistas” who are in the old-school attention business My thoughts Sometimes we must pay attention to that which is not attention grabbing, like work Advertising is monetized attention and is growing When it comes to utilizing our brains and our attention in functional ways, I think a decrease in the ability to sustain attention is bad. My concern is whether or not we control our own attention If we're gonna think well, then we have to think in long sequences. That's challenging to us So attention span is important. The good news is that we can work on maintaining our attention and focus in the face of "Compelled Attention" and any shortening attention span. I offer coaching, Attention Compass implementation training, and this podcast as ways for you to combat the theft of your attention and the negative consequences for knowledge workers.…

Do Busy Right - The Task and Attention Management Podcast

1
The Wrong Mindset May Be Causing Bad Results - DBR 070 51:53

לפני 14 weeks51:53

51:53

It's time to update on philosophy of work; I've got some more info for you. A lot of this is going to be review, but I think it's absolutely critical that we put ourselves in the right mindset towards work. It's important because work is what actually produces the things that we then associate with productivity. Unfortunately, there's a lot of a lot of weird stuff going on in our heads about work. Our perspective on work has significant impact on our lives and our productivity: We’re more likely to procrastinate things we “don’t like” We have more stress around them, quality of life We tend to rush at them without thinking about how we could get better at them Your brain gives you what you expect - if you expect "miserable" that's what you get So, can we change our mindset? We just want to get these things out and inspect them get our mindsets right about work, and get rid of some of the weird stuff. We’ll cover: A historical perspective on work Cultural ideas about work What might work mean for humans More recent ideas Historical view of work Hunter/gatherer to agriculture and herding – reduction of risk The rise of business (work for money) The era of slavery in the West and America Modern employment is sometimes compared to these other kinds of work Model of work as slavery, drudgery, serfdom Cultural issues with work Only ‘hard’ work is virtuous; sweating is virtuous, and not sweating is not virtuous. Things that are easy (for us?) are not accorded much virtue. We glorify the hustle culture in America. Artifacts of a consumerist culture - The ’cash problem’ We're working critters We enjoy working as 'making the world and ourselves into what we want them to be' Most of us despise the idea of doing nothing. We call it boredom. We can't avoid goal seeking based on imagination and problem solving Currently common ideas Start With Why? We can “choose our own adventure” to some degree Your standard (of quality) is your own; think about your standard. Minimum effective dosage (Matt Reynolds via the AOM podcast) there's such a thing as as doing it the easy way Think through these mindsets and determine where yours has come from. Check it against reality to see if it matches up. If not, try to learn to think in different ways. If we consider our work to be joy, then we'll get joy from it. larry@dobusyright.com www.linkedin.com/in/larrytribble…

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What Do You Mean? I'm Not Doing Busy Wrong - DBR 051