The Four Hour Body, by Tim Ferriss

Hi there. Those of you who know me, or may have read my posts in the past, would know that I have dabbled with the Atkins diet. It worked well for me initially, but I found it hard to stick to, and to find the right balance. Yes, while you are in the "no carb" phase, the weight and inches do drop off, but it has always been hard for me to then maintain things at the target weight once I get there.

I also do enjoy my carbs from time to time, and it is too easy to say "I'll just enjoy some pizza just this once" one too many times and undo my previous efforts.

My own situation is also somewhat more complicated by travelling regularly, although that is not really a valid excuse. The simple fact of the matter is that if temptation is constantly put in front of me, it is hard to keep saying no.

During my last trip, I decided that I needed to do something different. People were commenting that I had put on some weight which is fair enough, but I also knew within myself that I was not as comfortable with my appearance, and didn't feel as "healthy" as before. At about the same time, I stumbled across the Four Hour Body blog by Tim Ferriss. Aside from reading through some of the concepts raised in the blog, I also became aware of his new book by the same title.

You may have heard of Tim before, and in another post I commented on his previous book "The Four Hour Work Week". I must admit that when I saw that Tim was working on a diet/lifestyle book, I was a little doubtful. The concepts he raised in the Four Hour Work Week were fascinating, but in my own case at least was a little outside of what was comfortable for me, and so I was having my doubts about his ability to give me advice on weight loss and health.

I read some of the posts though, and I could see that it started to make sense. I then later grabbed the book at an airport bookstore on the way home. I intended to do some work on the plane after that, but got hooked on "The Four Hour Body" and couldn't put it down. My focus so far has been on the diet and body definition sections, but there are interesting chapters on sex, sleeping and other body tweaks too. If you're into body hacks and the like, it is a fascinating read.

Up to now, I have concentrated on the diet/weight loss section and so far, so good.

I won't go into the detail of the diet because I think Tim deserves to be rewarded for his efforts by interested readers buying his book. In essence though, it is more of a "slow carb" diet rather than a no carb one. This means that it is quite feasible to feel content through including legumes, beans etc in your diet, which makes it easier than cutting carbs completely. It also allows one day off a week, where you are encouraged to go nuts and eat/drink anything you like. I have found that really works for me. If I get a craving for some chocolate say, I simply make a note of it and defer it to my day off and gorge myself. Same for ice cream or anything else for that matter. It is such a simple concept, but it is amazing how well it works.

Tim also makes use of a simple rule of avoiding any food (when it is not your day off) that is or can be white. By this he means flour products, bread, sugar, pasta etc. This makes classifying what is in and out easy to follow. I was pretty clear on this anyway from my days of being on Atkins, but it has proved to be helpful all the same.

So how has it gone so far? I've been on the diet for approximately 4 weeks and have lost approximately 3 kg without additional exercise. At no time have I felt that I am being starved. I have enjoyed beer, chocolate, cake, ice cream, breads, fries, pizza and pasta, but only on my days off. Whenever I have felt like something that is outside of the basic slow carb guidelines, I have simply made a note and make sure I enjoy it on my next "anything goes" day. They come around every 7 days, so it is not that arduous.

Let's see what happens over the next few months, but so far this is really working for me and I suspect it will for others too. I am not so clear as to what will happen when I get to my target weight, but if I understand the book correctly, the weight loss will tend to settle down once I get to a low to moderate body fat index in any event. 

If you've struggled with weight loss, or find the idea of body hacks fascinating, Tim's story of his own body experimentation, written in his own quirky style is a great read, and could give you just the results you are looking for. Anyone who has read "The Four Hour Work Week" for the quality of the writing alone, and enjoyed the mental challenges being proposed will enjoy this new book, and a healthier and happier you is a real bonus.

Later.

PS: I wish you and your friends/family a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. May your 2011 be better than your 2010. I am sure mine will be.

Wireless working

Hi there. You'll already know from my previous posts that I've started using Dragon Naturally Speaking 11 for my meeting notes, and for dictating the odd email reply. So far, it has worked well and I am enjoying the break from the keyboard. I've recently even been having fun with using DNS to issue commands, like saying "send" and the email I've just composed gets sent, for example. I have now taken it a step further. I recently scored a Logitech Clearchat headset, which allows me to walk around the room rather than being connected to the PC when dictating. After charging the headset and plugging in the USB receiver, I just stuck them on and was immediately getting all the system sounds through the headphones. I then lowered the mike boom, told Dragon I was now using a USB mike, and away I went. DNS asked me to read a couple of passages to check levels and quality, but that only took a couple of minutes and accuracy since has been excellent. I haven't extensively tested the claimed 10 metre range but I have walked around various hotel rooms, and into the bathroom etc without any problems. Aside from the freedom when working, I've also really enjoyed piping music through them when just hanging around in the room or working. The headphones probably aren't audiophile quality, but they more than enough for my needs and being digital, there is no radio hiss or anything like that. Whether you need a full headset or even just cordless headphones for your PC, these are a good option. They are also great for Skype. ...And now that I have a taste for working wirelessly, I don't plan to go back.

Later,

Den. Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

The power of checklists - revisited

I'm now overseas again, visiting customers and getting most of our 2011 contracts negotiated and in place before wrapping up 2010.

 

I have previously posted how having a checklist is handy, almost essential for some tasks that need to be done regularly without you needing to think about what you are doing. They are also useful if you need to do something quickly, and haven't got time to fully assess the situation.

 

I had one of those moments the evening I was due to fly out for this trip. I had left the office early, and was home about to pack my suitcase, when I suddenly realised that some of the documents I required, including print outs of my tickets were missing. I could have probably remembered most of the items, and print them out again at home, but I know I had a lot of stuff together in one file, and could not remember every single item that was included. I was bound to miss something.

 

Despite having not yet started packing properly, I made the snap decision to jump back in my car, go to the office, retrieve the file and then return home to pack and catch a cab to the airport. This unplanned visit to the office cost me approximately 80 minutes which I had previously planned to use to pack for my trip at home.

 

After having been to the office and back, I was now walking into my house with approx one hour before I had to be leaving for the airport, and I hadn't even really started packing for this two and half week trip overseas, apart from getting out my suitcase, and checking that I had sufficient clothes ready to pack in my wardrobe.

 

So did I make it?

 

Well I'm typing this from my hotel, so yes I did. I grabbed my trusty business travel checklist, opened up my suitcase, and just went for it! At first I felt stressed, but as I ran through the list, I could see it coming together, and by about half way through I could relax a little, but without slowing down. I simply grabbed every last item on my list, ignoring anything that I knew would not be necessary due to the expected weather where I was visiting, throw everything in my suitcase and carry on, without having to think about what else I might need. I closed the suit case and then had a quick shower with a few minutes to spare.

 

When I first started travelling, I used to take a full day the weekend before I was due to leave in order to pack. As long my clothes are freshly washed etc, I know I can now do it in well under an hour if pushed.

 

I hope I don't have to rush like that again, I normally like to have a little more time to dawdle when I pack, but now I know I can if I need to.

 

It wouldn't have been possible without my checklist, and I probably would have arrived only to find I was missing something really important.

 

Are there any regular tasks that you need to do, that could benefit with a checklist?

 

Later.

Fsync - welcome back old friend

Several years ago, I became really frustrated with Windows' off line drive function. You know the one where if you have network drives and you want access to the data when off line, you can ask Windows to make them available and it would sync them with local copies kept on your laptop hard drive. That way, when you are connected on the office network, you are working on the network version, and when on the road, you are working on the off line local copy, and any changes in either direction would be synchronised the next time you were back on the office network.

If it really worked like that, it would be perfect. The problem was though that in Windows 2000 and then later Windows XP, it never did really work. Sometimes it was just as promised, but more often than not I would be in another location and find that my local copy was somehow not available, or there would be large chunks of data missing, or the version available off line would be a least a few weeks out of date, even if I had been in the office recently.

At the time I tracked down fsync, by Vico Biscotti, which is a small command line utility for synchronising two folders from left to right, no more and no less. I then wrote a bunch of simple batch files using notepad to sync my network folders onto local directories on my hard drive, and then another set to sync them back. This worked very well, and never missed a beat. I would run one fsync batch file every time I left the network, and another one every time I rejoined.

It worked so well in fact that I had forgotten about it actually, and when I received my last laptop with Windows 7, I decided to try off line folders within Windows again, seeing as the rest of Windows 7 works so much better than most previous versions of Windows.

The first few months went well. Each time I needed them, the off line folders appeared to work as expected. Then one day, as luck would have it, just when I needed something really important, it wasn't there. I had experienced some syncing issues which I somehow didn't notice, until it was too late. Then there was another time, where I was on the network, checking out some of our customer profile files, and they appeared to be out of date. I was about to chastise some of our staff for not keeping the details current, when suddenly I noticed that my computer was using the offline copies rather than the live ones, even though I was connected to the network. That was the final straw.

I was stupid though. I started googling through various sync applications and tried several of them. They all seemed ok, but I kept coming across various issues, the main one being that they were often overly complicated. It was not always clear how directories missing on one side were going to affect directories on the other, and while it was possible to have version control etc, this was way more than I needed.

Thankfully it suddenly hit me, and I tracked down fsync again. It has had a couple of minor revisions since I had last downloaded it, but it is still just as simple and effective as it ever was. It still has all the same options to run in silent mode without prompting, and determining what overwrites and what doesn't etc. Most importantly though, it just gets the job done.

It is a command line utility so it is best suited for those like me who want to run a basic batch file or script unattended. If you need a GUI showing the source and destination folders etc, fsync is not for you. Also, I suggest you test your batch file first to make sure you are copying just what you want, and it is handling the deleting of missing directories on your target side as per your requirements. You don't want to accidentally wipe out any data you want to keep. Once you have the script doing just what you want though, you can save it and then just run it every time you need to, knowing it will work as expected every time.

I now have my off line folder system working just how I want it again with my work laptop, and I am now making full use of fsync at home to maintain backups of our media library from our media NAS onto our general backup NAS. Yes, I have two NAS's on our home network, geeky I know, but well worthwhile.

http://www.vicobiscotti.it/en/fsync.htm

Later.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 - a follow up

Now that I have been using this software for about a month, it is probably time for a follow up.

Voice dictation is certainly a great way to quickly get text into your computer. On my last trip, I had something like 26 customer meetings in three days during a conference, so it became a reasonably easy task to take my scribbled bullet point notes, and dictate them as more complete sentences to form my "typed" meeting notes. I did find that trying to dictate unusual company names did not work so smoothly unless I spelled them out them letter by letter every time, but I soon learnt to get around this by saying "the customer" and then doing a search and replace in Word later to insert their name.

For this particular application, Dragon NaturallySpeaking worked as or better than expected. The accuracy for my voice is remarkable, and the few times it does get something wrong, it is easily corrected. I have found that correcting the mistakes properly is a little fiddly, but is well worth the effort as the accuracy improves further for future dictations.

I have also now started to try using it for replying to emails and composing documents. So far it has not worked quite as well for me although the problem is with me, not the software. For example, I recently had to prepare a basic market status report for a new product, and so I sat down, donned the headset, and attempted to compose it from scratch using voice dictation. I failed miserably. As I sat there and tried to speak sentences as they came to my mind, they came out very haphazardly, and not only did DNS struggle to understand what I was saying, but even when it got things right, the quality of my writing was poor. It came across like someone who was just making up an answer to a question as they went along.

The problem seems to be with me and the way I write. I seem to be better at writing when I compose with a keyboard or even use a basic mind mapping tool like Freemind to get the main ideas ready. If I have to do the same by voice, I pause, say "um" a lot and generally come away not terribly convinced about what I have put together.

On the other hand, if I already have some notes, or even some basic bullet points for me to refer to, I can then do a reasonable job turning it into something useful by voice dictation.

There is certainly something to this Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, and I do not regret the purchase. The ease of use for my customer meeting notes alone has been worth the price of admission. I am learning however that I need to have a framework in place before I dictate. It is not a perfect solution for composing an opus from scratch.

This may be different for others, although when most people have to work through an awkward impromptu speech if they are put on the spot, there tends to be lots of "ahs" and "ums", so I am probably not alone.

Based on my experience so far, I still strongly recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 for someone who is looking for a quick way to get text into a computer, would like a break from the keyboard from time to time or needs an alternative text entry option due to physical difficulties etc. The accuracy is certainly more than acceptable for my requirements.

I just need to have a reasonable idea of what I am going to say, before I say it!

Later.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 11 Premium Edition - initial thoughts

Hi there,

Just for a change I thought I would write about some new gadget or technology that I've been using lately. In my line of work it is necessary to regularly write notes about meetings I've had with customers and our business partners, plus general sales reports. I certainly have no real problem with generating typed notes, as I can type quite quickly, probably quicker than I can type. I do find however that sometimes it is easier to keep putting off sitting down and typing these reports, especially when I need to think through the words that I want to use first. It is one thing to quickly make bullet point notes in my notebook with my pen during a meeting, but it is then another to take these turn them into a cohesive and easy to read report.

In the past I've tried different ways to get around this problem. I tried using a small recorder to record the meetings I attended and then turn them into notes later. I found however that I would never get around to listening to the recordings and then typing them into a final report. A few years ago I also tried some voice recognition software but found at the time that my laptop was barely capable of running the progam and the accuracy was woeful. Then I tried using a LiveScribe digital pen. This worked in the sense that it gave me my notes in a digital form and I could even record the meetings and then later hear the audio that matched the text that I wrote down in the notepad. Also later, LiveScribe released software that enabled my hand written notes to be turned into typed notes. Again however unless I really wrote slowly and took care with what I was writing, the accuracy was pathetic. Anyone who has been in a meeting and needs to capture information that is being said very quickly knows that your writing tends to suffer as you quickly scribble it down.

Two weeks ago however, I decided to try voice recognition software again. My laptop now is much more powerful than when I used it last time, and also I had heard that the more recent versions were better with their accuracy when it came to interpreting non-United States accents. While I would not describe my accent as a broad Australian accent, I clearly say some words in an Australian way and I imagine this would be difficult for software that is not expecting it.

So I went out and bought Dragon Naturally Speaking version 11, Premium edition. Apart from the software CD and a quick install and user guide card, it also came with a basic wired headset. For the last two weeks I have been using the software to dictate my meeting notes, and also in some cases to reply to e-mails.

How well has it worked? Well so far, so good. Does it interpret my speech 100% accurately all of the time? No, of course not. It does however get what I'm saying correct remarkably most of the time. Yes, it gets caught on unusual company names, and it also does not get right the first time some of the product names that I deal with with my job. For general sentences however, it gets it right almost all the time. When I am not using industry related words or unusual business partner company names, it seems to get the sentences completely correct. I've also found that if I take the time to correct mistakes when I do use more unusual words or industry related jargon, it then gets it right most of the time when I next use those same terms.

Have I found the perfect way to record my meeting notes? I'm not sure yet, but this is certainly easier than sitting down and typing up my meetings after the event. I now find I can simply open my notebook, look through my bullet points and make up a sentence for each one and then read it out aloud. I then simply tidy up a few things and send out the meeting report. I am certainly now turning around my meeting reports much more quickly, and I also find using the headset and voice dictation a nice break sometimes when I'm travelling overseas. It's one thing to sit in front of a laptop for several hours and reply to e-mails, but clearly it is not as good ergonomically as sitting in your office with a proper screen and keyboard, so being able to sit back with the headset, think through my reply and then dictate it using my voices is a nice break from hunching over the laptop and its small keyboard and a mouse.

Let's see how it goes over the next one or two months and perhaps I will come back and comment further on this voice dictation software. Up to this point however I'm very happy with how well Dragon NaturallySpeaking is working. Just to prove the point this entire post has been voice dictated and across all of the text that you see here I think had to correct something like five words.

Not too bad really.

Later.

Den

Embrace Surprise

I was recently reminded why we shouldn't be afraid of surprises, and we should in fact embrace them.

During the tail end of a recent business trip, I had to arrange a hire car for my last leg in California, so I could go drive to visit my customer, stay overnight, and then drive back to LAX and leave to return to Australia. Rather than book before I left, I decided to keep an eye out for web specials and book a few days before.

While I was in Europe, I visited the Hertz website, and they were promoting their convertibles, so I thought, "why not." I went ahead and placed my reservation, and was under the impression I would be getting a Chrysler Sebring or something along those lines. In Australia we drive on the other side of the road compared to the US, but I figured that I had driven in the US enough times now to be confident to drive a slightly larger car than a small hatch back.

When I arrived, and went to collect my car, they apologised, because they had no Sebrings left. They instead offered me the choice of a Ford Mustang, or a Corvette at the same cost.

To be honest, I was very anxious at first, as driving such a high powered car on the wrong side of the road was certainly outside of my comfort zone. I really didn't want to give up on the convertible though, so I picked the Corvette after confirming it was at least an automatic. There was no way I was going to be able to use a stick shift yet...

I nearly chickened out when I saw the car for the first time. Apart from the hot yellow paint job, the boot barely held my suitcase and when I sat behind the wheel, I found it very unnerving to have to rely on my mirrors to see behind me. The rear view over either shoulder was virtually non existent due to the small rear window and lack of a back seat. I then after some stuffing around worked out how to start the engine, and that large US V8 roared into life and set there burbling in a slow, lazy idle.

After a few minutes though, I set up my GPS and slowly crawled out to the gate, and into LA traffic. The accelerator was quite light, and the smallest touch was enough to make the Corvette want to pick up her skirts and take off. The brakes and steering wheel were quite heavy, but responded when needed, and the brakes were more than able to pull up the car quickly. The steering was also responsive once you became used to the mild power assistance. Last but not least, on either the Racing or Touring suspension modes, the ride was quite stiff and very sports car like, so you felt every bump.

Geez it was beautiful though, and once I got used to it, you couldn't wipe the smile off my face. With the roof down and the loud tuned V8 exhaust burbling away, there was no need to turn on the radio. That large chunk of US V8 was all the sound track I needed.

There was only one real bummer. I had the entire next day free before flying out so I went for a lengthy drive down the coast to San Diego and back, but then I had to give it back. It was great fun parking the car somewhere and getting out for a walk, only to return finding people crowding around the car taking photos.

The moral of the story is that while the initial surprise took me out of my comfort zone and I wanted to almost give it up, I went with the surprise and had the time of my life. My confidence in driving on the wrong side of the road has also increased immensely now. Hmmm, maybe I'll try the Mustang next time.

Later.

Den.

Sorry for the hold ups between posts

I knew I hadn't posted for a while but was rather surprised to see it had been close to two full months! I have been pretty busy with a few trips back to back, but all the same, I need to make sure I don't let it slip for so long.

 

One of my regular web reads revisited Posterous the other day, which is the rather cool looking blogging site where you can send posts by email. I've decided to give this a go to see if easier posting increases the chance of me writing more regularly.

 

Let's see what happens...

 

Hopefully you'll see something else from me soon.

 

Later,

 

Den

Facebook: a follow up

I thought I had better add some comments on things I've found about Facebook since my previous post.

Firstly, it can be easy to get swamped with posts that don't necessarily add much to the experience. Thankfully you can tweak your options so that some posts don't appear. I'm not trying to put any particular type of user down here, but there are some who seem to put up stuff almost for the sake of it, which is not so interesting to me.

My bigger concern though is how you can end up getting info on people you don't necessarily know, because one of your "friends" has commented on something. This can be good and bad. I surprised a work colleague recently when I got to see photos of his new baby. His partner had posted them on her wall, and one of my friends had commented on them, so I got to see the photos as well. The good was that I got to see the photos. The bad was that he was obviously surprised I could see them without being made officially his friend in Facebook.

Clearly it is a little too easy to have stuff you think only your friends will see on your wall, but it can inadvertently become visible to others if someone you know posts a comment, or even marks it as liked.

I have also been caught by surprise when others tag me in their photos. Thankfully they have only been daggy old school photos so far. Another reason to keep those awkward drunken party photos to yourself.

I'm glad I've seen what Facebook has to offer, and I'll be keeping my account open, but you certainly need to take the time to understand how it works, and what can end up out there...

Later.

Keeping your $^&# together when going through a tough patch.

I've posted bits and pieces around this topic before, particularly earlier this year when the issues around my mother's care became rather complicated, and then later when she passed away.

During my daily browse through my Google Reader subscriptions this morning, I came across this post on the often excellent Stepcase Lifehack web site.

I can't see much point in adding to this, I believe this covers the best approach for working through one of life's tough patches perfectly.

I'd like to say that I implemented this to perfection myself earlier this year, but that wouldn't be completely true. If I look back I can think of a couple of things I could have done a little better, but my family and I survived, and we can now get on with enjoying ourselves again.

I hope this can help you get through a difficult period, should you need to. Of course, it will be even better if you never need to think about this at all!

Later.

Facebook: what's the fuss all about?

I have finally sucked it up and joined Facebook. As a reasonably avid surfer and someone who has been active online since dial up modems were all the rage, I became aware of Facebook when it first came out, but decided at the time that it wasn't for me.

Why?

Well, I was already maintaining a blog of my own albeit intermittently, and was wondering what Facebook could really offer me.

I was (and still am) receiving hundreds of emails a day from both work and my personal contacts.

I was (and still am) kept busy with my work commitments, family life and existing hobbies.

How was I possibly going to have time to keep up with all my existing correspondence, plus keep my profile/status/whatever up to date? I was hearing horror stories of Facebook junkies who felt the need to update their status every hour of the day, even resorting to using their mobile phones to update their status while stuck in traffic, waiting for the bus, or even sitting on the toilet.

Please...

As you can imagine, despite my best efforts to ignore Facebook, I kept hearing about it. If I had a dollar for every person who asked me why I wasn't on Facebook yet...well let's just say I wouldn't need to work. Some of my friends know I'm a bit of a geek and so it was often assumed that I must have been on Facebook.

I've managed to resist, up to the end of last week. What changed?

When I was travelling in China and Taiwan earlier this month, I was with one of my business partners, who is also a geek. I realised through our discussion that he was on Facebook, yet I knew that he was also incredibly busy, and didn't have the spare time to do everything else he wanted to do, let alone keep his profile or status up to date. I remembered how he used to be an IM junkie and kicked the habit because it was simply taking up too much of his time.

He explained that he didn't use it to regularly tell the world how he was feeling. It simply served as a place where people could find him. I assumed he meant the often quoted example of long lost school friends. When asked, he said it did provide that, but for him it was more around customers. Clients who you may have had some business with a long time ago, but for whatever reason the business falls over and you lose touch. Facebook served as another place where someone trying to track him down could do a search and find his basic contact details and get in touch again.

I thought about this some more, and so I decided to join Facebook.

The verdict so far is that I can see the benefit. While most of my incoming inquiries until now have been long lost school friends, I have had a couple of old clients come through, so it has made itself worthwhile already.

I still can't help but think it is a little overhyped, and I would encourage anyone who wants to get somewhere in business not to get too personal on Facebook, because posting photos of you partying hard on weekends semi naked is probably not going to help you land that senior position somewhere one day.

But if you need to ensure people who you haven't seen for a while can track you down for work or for pleasure, you could do a lot worse than a minimalist Facebook membership.

It appears to be working for me.

Later.

Making the best use of what is in front of you

After a pretty ordinary start to the year, with my mother becoming ill and then passing away, I finally managed to get away on my first business trip for the year. I cancelled this trip twice before, and then delayed it again, but at last, I was on my way.

I had an excellent first week in Europe. I was actually travelling on a round the world fare (which is the cheapest way to visit the US from here) spending my first week in Europe, and the second in the US. There were several stops involved along the way, far more than was allowed for in my RTW fare, so for the first week, I tranversed Europe by train, which was a first for me. Normally in the past, I would have flown, but found the train a refreshing change. In the past, I've often thought the train would be too slow, but to the contrary, I actually found it worked better for me time wise. Rather than spend two hours before and after every transfer with dead time in airports and getting from the airport to the central business district of each city, taking the train allows you to only get the station just before it is due to leave. They also tend to depart and arrive in central city locations, so you don't have the lost time heading out to the airport when you leave, or transferring in from the airport when you arrive. Highly recommended.

With the first trip of this year I was however still to be caught out. Something was to again get in my way, and make me wonder if this trip after two cancellations and one postponement was ever meant to happen...

...and its name was Eyjafjallajokull.

Yep, I took the "Chunnel" Eurostar from Paris to London, popped up in London, only to find I was stuck, thanks to the volcanic ash in Iceland.

Don't feel too sorry for me. I've been stranded in far worse places than London, and while my heart goes out to the holiday makers that are travelling on their own funds, being caught there during business travel was not a massive hardship, just a little frustrating when I realised I was not going to be able to get to the US for my meetings.

For the first couple of days (which was a weekend) I just kept extending my stay at the hotel on a day by day basis and monitored the situation. When I then rang our corporate travel agent on the Monday, she rightly recommended that I grab a seat on the following weekend flight (which was the first available seat in any case) and wait and see if the flights recommence. After the second day of being stranded, the hotel rates were starting to increase which annoyed me a bit, but I spent the time catching up with reports in my room, and phoning/emailing clients in the US apologising for my no show.

By the Tuesday of the following week though, I was starting to think that it was all a bit pointless, and then it struck me. I should be using this time better. I started going through my emails and address book, and made a few phone calls. Before I knew it, I had a day trip planned up into Northern England to visit a potential customer by train. I had a lunch date with an existing customer. I had meetings and lunch another day with one of our shipping brokers. Last, but not least, I used the fact that I was nearly in the same time zone as mainland Europe to phone customers who I didn't see in the first week and conducted a number of meetings by phone.

In the end, the second week was actually quite fruitful. I managed to conclude some new business in the week itself, and one of the companies I visited came back with orders only a couple of weeks after I returned to Oz with minimal follow up. Well worth it!

The trip home was a long one. The airports ended up opening up fully on the Friday at the end of the first week, and I took that flight that my agent had booked. It went from London to Los Angeles direct, followed by an 11 hour gap and then I could catch my original flight home from Los Angeles via Brisbane. So yes, I took two long haul flights back to back. As horrible as that sounds though, I chose to exit the airport at LA, went to a nearby hotel (Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles, basic but comfortable), showered and rested, and then returned to the airport and flew home.

...and the amazing thing was I didn't get any significant jet lag after getting back! I think my body clock was just so far out of whack it gave up and reset itself.

So, if you are ever stuck somewhere, or left in a situation that was not what you had planned, don't despair. It doesn't get you anywhere stressing over lost opportunities. What are the new opportunities in front of you now? How can you use the time and situation to get something else useful done? You'll surprise yourself.

Later.

Q1 2010 - Hasn't been my best quarter...

This year has been moving along very quickly, after all it is nearly the end of March, so the year is effectively 25 % gone already.

For once though, I am grateful, because quite honestly, the first three months of this year have probably been the worst period of my life in recent memory. This might seem extreme, but alas it is true.

From my previous posts, you would have already been aware of my mother's failing health, the fact that I returned to work to find myself completely swamped, plus our ongoing house extensions/renovations have been happening in the background. This was all more than enough to stretch me about as far as I can handle without it starting to catch up with me.

Well, it then all took a turn for the worst. After Mum came down to live with us for a while, her health deterioated, and she passed away earlier this month. It was a sad time for me, because it happened so soon after the difficult period she had to go through in January, being effectively forced to move out of her own home as she needed a higher level of care. My father died when I was seven, so it also hit home that I am the last one left from my childhood family unit.

Anyone who knows me though, also knows that I am more of a "glass half full" type of guy, and there has been a silver lining from these recent events. Firstly, the day my mother's death progressed about as perfectly as such an event can. I arrived at the hospital the morning after she was admitted, and was told by her doctor that she only had a few hours left. He gave me some time to process this, and then said that because Mum was suprisingly alert and also because she seemed like a "brave soul" (his words), that we should tell her that she was going to die, so we did.

Mum took this remarkably well once she clearly understood what was going to happen, and we then spent the next four hours together, talking about all sorts of things. She kept interjecting to apologise for leaving a bit of a mess behind, but I told her not to worry about it. Later, when she had recevied some pain relief, she became sleepy, and we said our goodbyes. Right at the end, she said "goodbye son", and I replied "goodbye Mum" and she went to sleep. About 4 hours after that, she simply stopped breathing, and that was it.

The fact that we could say our goodbyes, and to see her drift off to sleep, completely unafraid that she was not going to wake up again was a real gift to me and others who were present. It was the type of scene where if I had seen it in a movie, I would have scoffed that "it never happens like that", but it did.

It was also a real relief to know that Mum did not have to end up going into a nursing home, or witness her own loss of mental capabilities, as these were two very confronting issues for her, and I think she would have had a lot of trouble dealing with.

So yes, it has been a rotten start to the year, but somehow, I now think it is going to get a lot better. We still have a few things to sort out with Mum's affairs, we have a house extension to finish off and I now need to get back on top of my work, but I have no doubt it will be a lot easier now.

I am sorry for the space between posts, but I am sure you can understand.

Later.

DWM - Mark Forster has been at it again

Those of you who have visited my blog before will know how I have been using the various evolutions of Autofocus by Mark Forster for managing my tasks in recent times. They have all worked quite well for me, although each variation has had its strengths and weaknesses. None of them have been completely perfect, but they did seem to be a better overall fit for me compared to categorised lists in Outlook and my Blackberry, such as those proposed by David Allen's GTD system.

I'm sure much of the benefit for me has been the revelation of using a pen and paper/analogue solution rather than a digital one, but the various combinations of open and closed lists and the way your subconcious works when reviewing the lists to select the next task is also a major plus for me.

Mark's latest Autofocus variant is known as DWM, for the Day/Week/Month time management system. I won't go into too much detail on how the system works here, or introduce the concept of Autofocus in the first place. Mark's web site has all the information you might need if you are interested. I will point out that like Autofocus, DWM uses combinations of open and closed lists to manage your tasls, but there are some key differences.

The previous Autofocus systems did not have time or dates, they were timeless lists of tasks, and appointments were maintained separately. DWM still works on keeping your appointments on a separate calendar, but it does use a day to a page diary or its equivalent for the lists of tasks, and if tasks are not at least progressed when their date expires, they are dismissed/removed from the list, no exceptions. This makes a huge difference in that as the date a task is listed on gets closer, it's amazing how you will suddenly feel compelled to progress a task at least a little so it doesn't get dismissed, or fall over the edge and get lost forever. Brilliant motivation. Even tasks that seem stale, or those you simply don't want but unfortunately need to do suddenly jump out as something that must be progressed before they are lost, even if only for a few minutes. The fact that even working on a task for only a few minutes saves it, but only for one more week, also prevents you from forgetting about it again for too long. It really is incredible just what a difference this makes with procrastinating over unpleasant tasks.

Another key difference is that Mark has released the system without testing it thoroughly himself this time. In the past, he has told followers of his blog that he has a new system but will test it for a few weeks first before giving the details. You can imagine how some of these productivity junkies keep coming back every day checking to see if the details are posted. For DWM, the basic procedure has been provided early in the piece, and those who wish to try it out at their own risk can, almost like a beta release. I was going to wait, but decided to give it a go, because I know in Autofocus some of my tasks do tend to stagnate, although not so much in the last version.

My early impressions are very favourable. I think this is the best Autofocus variant yet, but it is early days. I'm about to start hitting some task due dates, so that could be interesting, although so far I am generaly finding myself keeping ahead by at least a few days. The other big test will be when I head overseas again for a 3 week business trip in March. I will need to ensure that any home task I have listed are progressed sufficiently so they can wait until I get back, or are closed off so they don't expire while I am away. My time away on business trips have always tended to knock my to do lists around, or allow tasks to stagnate.

Hopefully this time will be different, but I will let you know in late March...

If you think you could do with revisiting your own task management system, check out Mark's blog and his systems, there just might be something that works well for you there too!

In the meantime, I hope you have a productive day!

Later.

Are your affairs in order?

I've been a little swamped of late with lots of things happening on all fronts, home, work and family!

As touched on in my last post, I had to get more involved with my mother's affairs because she had a fall, and we were told she could no longer live in her own home. This had a significant impact on everyone. There was the obvious shock to Mum. She had become quite comfortable in her home with a friend there as a live in carer but up to this point it hard worked reasonably well. I had the odd concern from time to time, but overall Mum's needs were appearing to be met.

When it was realised however that Mum couldn't return home, everything became very complicated, and it was made more so that Mum was starting to shut down from the shock of it all, and was not always consistent in her state of mind from day to day. She is also went through denial at first, essentially not accepting that she couldn't go home, and that this was all temporary. I won't go into all the details of what happened next, because my Mum is a very private person, but let's just say that my right as her only next of kin to help determine what happens next was challenged. Even though I have enduring power of attorney over Mum's financial affairs, the laws here are such that Mum had to make the decision, and it was at times doubtful whether she could actually make it, as she was refusing to accept that she could not return home. Other parties became involved who have been associated with Mum and my family in the past, and the whole situation became very complicated, and at times rather nasty as they tried to sway Mum's decision as to where should would live. Even aspects of Mum's estate were coming into the discussion, even though she was well and truly still with us in the land of the living.

After a painful two weeks or so, we managed to get a decision from Mum to let us care for her in our family home for a while, and then when she is ready, she can go into another form of care. I must stress though, only when she is ready.

So what is the point of this post?

A time will come for all of us where we are potentially forced to change our life situation, and you may not have a say in it. You could become disabled in a motor vehicle accident, you could be struck down with a serious illness or worse. No matter what age you are, you will have affairs, assets and liabilities that will need to be managed. Do you have your affairs in order?

Depending on your age, you may need to consider different things. If you are out of school and earning, the very minimum you will need is a will. As you get older however, it is also prudent to have a form of power of attorney in place with someone you trust and also ensure that those you have allocated this responsibility are well aware of your wishes, preferably in a documented form. Then, when the unexpected does happen, not only will your affairs be cared for, you will also be making it much easier and less stressful for those who need to become involved.

My Mum's affairs were partly catered for, but there were avenues for others to exploit and generally make it more difficult for everyone. It is also amazing how nasty something can become when there is money potentially involved.

You owe it to yourself, your friends and family. Be prepared, and have your arrangements in order. Also, as your situation changes, keep your affairs up to date with regular reviews.

Top of my projects list now is to sort my own arrangements out after having been through what was essentially hell for the last few weeks. I wouldn't wish what I have been through on anyone.

Later.

Swamped!

I've just got back to work and am completely swamped when it comes to my life at the moment. Then, just to make matters worse I have some family matters to deal with that are rapidly turning very ugly, and our house is still in bits with the renovations. Nothing like a challenge to make you wonder where to next...

I am going through periods of anxiety, stressing that I will not get to everything, but at the end of the day I can only do what I can get to with the time and the resources I have available. I must say Autofocus is helping me there. As long as I capture everything I need to do, and work through my list at least once per day, I will keep finding things to progress and sometimes even get them completed. Even if I do not get everything I would like to get done completed within the day I would prefer, I at least know it is there and can look at it again the next day.

I've been in this place before and it nearly beat me. It didn't beat me then, and I won't let it beat me now.

Taking just a few minutes to knock out this blog has helped me. Yes, I could have spent these ten minutes doing something else, but it is nearly bed time here, and the simple act of writing this has reminded me that I do have a system to capture everything, and all I can do is work through it with the time I have. Trust the system, and it will look after me.

Good luck if you are just returning to the grind after taking some leave for the holidays, and hopefully you don't have quite as many challenges coming in on separate fronts as I do at the moment.

Later.