Do Our Projects Define Us?

October 20, 2024Leave a comment

What projects do you prioritize with your free time?

Whether we spend the time on entertainment, home maintenance, or personal development, the choice of our personal projects impacts our lives. But do these projects end up shaping the nature of who we are?

Tiago Forte believes that our projects shape our identity. In a recent article on his website, Tiago looks at recent research into the topic, first by explaining exactly what a personal project is according to the researchers.

“Personal projects” by his definition include not just formal ones you might focus on at work, but informal ones as well. Toddlers are pursuing a project as they learn to walk. Lovers are pursuing a project as they fall in love. All the way to the highest reaches of human achievement, like landing on the moon.

The key factors in making them “personal” are that they are personally meaningful and that they are freely chosen, not imposed from the outside. Little’s research has shown that such “intrinsically regulated” projects tend to be more successful and lead to greater well-being than “externally regulated” projects.

In fact, Tiago believes that our choice of projects demonstrates who we are at our core.

This is a fundamentally different view of “personality”: We are not limited to a collection of traits fixed at birth, or shaped in childhood. We evolve over time through personally meaningful pursuits we decide to take on. This opens up the possibility that we can purposefully choose the ways we want to change, by choosing projects that give us new skills, perspectives, and ways of thinking.

In other words, by changing what you do, you can change who you are.

To learn more, please visit the Forte Labs website to read the rest of the article.

Tips for Staying Focused While Stressed

October 13, 2024Leave a comment

Are you stressed?

It is common to hear people say that we live in anxious times. Whether this stress comes from politics, relationships, or simply making ends meet, it is easy to lose focus while worrying about life. Yet if we are unable to purposely bring our attention to the important things we need to do the stress will only build. The catch then is to figure out how to focus when stressed.

Scott Young has looked into the problem and recently published an article titled 5 Tips for Staying Focused (When You’re Stressed). If you are looking for ways to help yourself move forward when things seem tough, then you will enjoy his insights. The first one is a bit philosophical. Scott suggested applying Socratic questioning to our reflexive thoughts.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (which I review in-depth here) is the gold standard for psychotherapy for anxiety disorders. A basic tenet of this therapeutic approach is that a combination of situational factors and our background beliefs triggers automatic thoughts. If you’re stressed, those thoughts often fixate on potential dangers that are out of proportion to the actual risks.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

So how do we change our thought patterns?

One way to break this cycle of anxiety spurred by reflexive thoughts is to question the content of those thoughts. Notice a thought you’re having, and give yourself some reasons it might be true and some reasons it may not be. Ask yourself if you think it’s 100% true, 0% true, or somewhere in-between.

Questioning our reflexive thoughts can help stop irrational behaviors we often fail to interrogate.

Learn the other four ways to stay focused while stressed by reading the rest of Scott’s article.

What Does “Organized” Mean?

September 29, 2024Leave a comment

Have you ever said to yourself that you need to get organized?

It is common for people after looking at the mess covering their desks to want better organization in their spaces. However, very few stop to ask an important question: what does it mean to be organized?

Does it require fancy software? Do you need high priced planners and office supplies? Does it mean throwing everything out and keeping almost nothing? Or none of the above?

Not surprisingly, David Allen of Getting Things Done fame has thought deeply about what it means to be organized. He even has a simple definition which he shared in a recent article on the GTD website.

You are disorganized if you need something somewhere that you don’t have or have something somewhere that you don’t need.

David then shares a fun challenge that he does with audiences.

An exercise I’ve done in my seminars is to have everyone reach into their purses or wallets and get something that doesn’t belong there permanently, and which has been there longer than a few hours (besides money). Almost all have at least one thing in that category—a receipt, a business card, a scrap of paper with scribbled notes, an old parking ticket. These are things whose location does not map to their meaning to the person who has them. If the item has no further usefulness, it is trash, but it’s not in the trash. Often it is something they need to store somewhere else—it is reference, but it’s not appropriately accessible as such. Sometimes it’s something that they need to do something about, but it is not in a place to remind them to do it. There is lack of coherence between what the thing is and where it is.

So how does one decide what items should go where? David created a cheat list to decide what to do with any item. Here are a few examples.

I don’t need or want it = trash
I still need to decide what this means to me = in-tray item
I might need to know this information = reference
I use it = equipment and supplies

To see the rest of the list, please read the entire article on the Getting Things Done website.

Possibilities are Not Probabilities – Comprehending Chance

September 22, 2024Leave a comment

The most popular article on my Efficient Librarian website is Deal or No Deal Mr. Hall – How We Misunderstand Probability. That article was framed with a real story from the game show Deal or No Deal. This week I published a follow up article to dive deeper into the Deal or No Deal problem to demonstrate the fact that possibilities are not probabilities.

Below is the start of the article:

When are airplane comes in for a landing there are two possible outcomes: a safe landing or a crash landing. Therefore, what is the probability that the plane will crash?

Recently during a presentation of my seminar, Why Did I Make that Dumb Decision? Understanding Common Fallacies of Decision Making and How to Avoid Them, I asked this question to the audience. Immediately, someone answered 50%.

Of course this was not accurate. Commercial airplanes rarely crash. The website, FlyFright, shares government statistics that show odds of a plane crashing are 0.000001%. Also, there is a 1 in 816,545,929 chance of dying in a plane crash.

In fact, the most dangerous part of air travel is driving to and from the airport! Data from the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles department shows 3,454 fatal motor vehicle crashes in 2021. That is only one state out of 50! Given the higher frequency of car crashes, why are more people afraid of flying than driving? One reason is that we are primed to hear about plane crashes since these rare incidents are covered widely in the national media. Car crashes by contrast only get brief mention on the local news.

This example highlights the simple fact that possibilities are not probabilities. In the majority of cases where there are multiple possible outcomes, they are not equally likely to happen. Yet, our minds often default to thinking all possibilities are equally likely. This can lead to poor decision making.

Read the rest of the article on the Efficient Librarian website.

Shola Richards Webinar – Mon. September 16!

September 14, 2024Leave a comment

Please review this wonderful opportunity to watch one of my favorite authors, Shola Richards, be interviewed about his latest book, Civil Unity. This event is hosted by the Florida Library Association.

Shola Richards – In Conversation with Kris McGuigan

Monday, September 16, 2024, 12 PM – 1 PM EDT
Free for FLA members; $25 for non-members

REGISTER HERE!

Join us for a thought-provoking and inspiring webinar, featuring best-selling author Shola Richards as he discusses his latest book, Civil Unity: The Radical Path to Transform Our Discourse, Our Lives, and Our World. In a society where division and discord seem to be at an all-time high, Richards is leading the movement to reverse these destructive trends and bring more connectedness, respect and civility to our world.

During this one-hour session, Richards will be interviewed by FLA 2024 Annual Conference keynote presenter, Kris McGuigan. The discussion will delve into the key themes of the book, exploring how we can unite behind a new kind of civility to create safer communities, reduce toxicity in our political discourse, and build supportive environments in our workplaces and schools. Moreover, Richards will share a behind-the-scenes look at his writing process, points of inspiration, and favorite chapters.

The webinar will feature a live Q&A session, where attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions. This is a unique chance to engage directly with two authors who are passionate about transforming how we engage with one another and the world around us.

Whether you are looking to deepen your understanding of civil discourse, seeking practical tactics to implement in your library, or simply want to be inspired by a conversation that matters, this webinar is not to be missed.

Avoid Enormous Emails

September 8, 2024Leave a comment

Have you ever opened an email and found it to be the size of a short novel? Did it make you want to close it up and not read a word? Now have you ever sent one of those emails?

Sending enormous emails is not ideal. Email works best when it is brief and to the point. Earlier this year I wrote on an article on my website about email etiquette. In that piece, I shared several tips on how to craft your messages to avoid the enormous emails problem. Below is that section from the article.

Well, there is no hard and fast rule on the maximum length of an email, there are general guidelines based on purpose, content, and preferences of your audience.

Brevity is Key: Aim to be clear and concise in your communication. Most people appreciate emails that get to the point without unnecessary details. If you have multiple topics to discuss, consider breaking them into separate emails. This helps the recipient to absorb information more easily.
Use Paragraphs and Bullets: Organize your content into short paragraphs and use bullet points to make the text easy to scan for recipients to grasp the key points quickly.
Avoid Information Overload: Too much information in a single email can be overwhelming. Focus on the most important details and provide additional information or attachments if needed.
Effective Use of Hyperlinks: Instead of including lengthy information within the email, use hyperlinks to direct recipients to additional resources or details.
Closing and Call to Action: Clearly state your closing remarks and any necessary calls to action. Be specific about what you expect from the recipient if any action is required.
Proofread and Edit: Before sending, review your email for unnecessary information or repetitive content. Edit for clarity and brevity.

One final point. If you need to share large amounts of information through email, consider sending it as an attachment. Whether as a Word of PDF document, it is easier for the recipient to open the information in a more readable application and print out cleanly if needed.

To learn more about effective email etiquette, please read the rest of the article on the Efficient Librarian website.

Overcoming the Forgetting Curve

September 1, 2024Leave a comment

Take a moment to remember the last time you attended a seminar or training class. Whether it was last week or a month ago, I am guessing that unless you took extensive notes most of the information from the class is now forgotten. Does that mean you are a bad student or have a faulty memory? No, it just means you are on the downward slope of the Forgetting Curve.

Lindsey Ellefson, editor for the website Lifehacker, wrote an article that shared ways to overcome the Forgetting Curve. First, she described what is meant by this phenomenon.

It seems like common sense that the longer you go without retrieving a memory, the harder it is to retrieve—but it wasn’t always one of those things we simply knew to be true. In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus studied the phenomenon and published his findings, giving the world the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. The curve is a simple graphic demonstrating how information is lost over time, but it proved that time-related forgetting is real (and has been reaffirmed by further study since).

Is it inevitable to forget? Not entirely. There are specific practices that can be done to overcome the Forgetting Curve. The first is a simple approach called Spaced Repetition.

Basically, you need to study the material multiple times, giving yourself space between each review. The amount of time you go without studying the material depends largely on how well you’re already remembering it, which means the longer you review, the longer the periods between each review should be. Reviewing your class notes for a difficult class should be done more frequently than reviewing the notes for a class where you really get the concepts, for instance.

To learn more about ways to overcome the Forgetting Curve, please read the rest of the article on the Lifehacker website.

Is AI Overrated?

August 25, 2024November 16, 2024Leave a comment

Are you concerned about AI taking over the world?

Once ChatGPT hit the scene, along with hyper-realistic image generators, it seemed to the world that there was no limit to AI. Does this mean computers will take over most jobs or render thinking itself obsolete?

In a fascinating counter-point exercise, Greg Rosalsky from Planet Money on NPR listed several reasons why AI may be overrated. He starts off with a number of quick hits:

There are just so many reasons to believe AI is overrated. I could talk about the fact that productivity growth remains super disappointing. If AI were revolutionizing the economy, we would see it in the data. We’re not seeing it. I could talk about the fact that AI companies have yet to find a killer app and that perhaps the biggest application of AI could be, like, scams, misinformation and threatening democracy. I could talk about the ungodly amount of electricity it takes to power AI and how it’s raising serious concerns about its contribution to climate change.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels.com

Rosalsky goes on to flush out three specific reasons to doubt that AI is all it’s cracked up to be. One reason is that despite its name artificial intelligence is not really that intelligent.

When you first use something like ChatGPT, it might seem like magic. Wow, a thinking machine able to answer questions or write or generate anything in an instant. But when you look under the hood, it’s more like a magic trick. These chatbots are a fancy way of aggregating the internet and then spitting out a mishmash of what it finds.

Later, Rosalsky points out a serious legal issue with AI that needs to be resolved before it can grow further.

It’s a copycat. And perhaps the worst part of it is a good chunk of the stuff AI is copying is copyrighted, which is why there are at least 15 high-profile lawsuits against AI companies asserting copyright infringement.

To learn the other reasons by AI may be overrated, please read the rest of the article on the Planet Money website.

The Doing Dance

August 18, 2024Leave a comment

Do you ever have days where it seems impossible to get things done?

Most knowledge workers become frustrated at various points with an inability to focus on their work. Sometimes it is due to a heavy workload, other times from too many unexpected interruptions, or on occasion emergency situations. However, it can often come down to a matter of getting out of one’s head and bringing the work under control.

In a recent article on his website, David Allen reminded his readers of the three-fold nature of work. This is a concept that he outlined in his original book. David views it as a way to think about this nebulous thing known as knowledge work. The first aspect to focus on is doing pre-defined work.

This is what you would be doing all day if you got no input or interruptions of any sort. You would probably be working off the inventory of actions and projects that you came in with—work that you have already determined needs doing. The phone calls you need to make, the documents you need to draft, the ideas you need to outline on the project, etc.

The second aspect is dealing with work as it appears, much like a conveyor belt bringing more items down the line.

The phone rings, you take the call, and spend twenty minutes talking to a customer or a business colleague. Your boss calls a half-hour meeting to update you on a new development and get your input on it. You are doing the work as it shows up to be done. You are actually defining your work rapidly in this case, and choosing to do the new stuff instead of any of the pre-determined activity.

The third aspect is defining the work that needs to be done. In a way it involves taking control of the immediate environment.

This is processing your in-tray, your email, your meeting notes, etc.—taking in input and making decisions about what needs to be done about it. You may do some quick actions as you define them, and you will probably be adding some more to your inventory of defined work.

Want to learn more about how to best deal with each of the three types of work? Click through to read the entire posting to discover David’s advice.