A fascinating book about the serious business of play is “The Red Rubber Ball at Work”. It’s all about play at work. Kevin Carroll reminds us of our childhood connections to play and of how often we have forgotten  how to play and the fun of it all.

Using a creative mix of the book itself, internet links and video you are encouraged to discover your own game. Scoring in business is like play as  David Allen points out in his forthcoming book: its about “winning at the game of work and the business of life”.

In this book we meet many successful people who have not forgotten how to play at work. I particularly enjoyed reading the different perspectives of play taken from the various angles in people’s lives. Memories of childhood and how these children’s games and play went on to form the successes in adult life. Success in every sense, part and walk of life.

Challenge yourself! And challenge your children to learn to play (with) music and share a lifetime of ways “to tap into imagination, be more inventive and discover new things” as Kevin Carroll discovered when he took up playing the Cello again.

At whatever age music and singing is a very creative way of learning. Like a recent school concert that my twins gave of Mozarts Requiem. Rehersals started several weeks ago. These were disciplined, repetitive and structured, teaching the children to listen to their own voice and that of the whole choir.

I was taken by the enthusiasm with which this singing project was undertaken. Shown in little comments, like Thomas coming home from school one afternoon “I want to learn Latin!” “Why?” “So I can understand what I am singing!”

Singing in the adult choir, I was able to experience how everything came together with orchestra, choir and finally the concert. Mozart’s Requiem is a powerfully moving piece many will remember from the Film Amadeus. Days later the twins are still singing parts of the Requiem.

The Red Rubber Ball at Work needs to be understood from a child’s perspective. And remembering how I loved to play as a child, I share Kevin’s belief that play is essential to growth and development of healthy children.

At a young age, more important than learning to read or write, is learning to play. Many educators (and researchers) of young children realize the need for more playtime in spite of some worrying trends by national Governments.

Play is many things at work and Kevin shares interviews with authors such as Seth Godin, Malcolm Gladwell and Paulo Coehlo:

• Play is innovation
• Play is results
• Play is teamwork
• Play is leadership
• Play is curiosity

And now for something completely different! Monty Python - Office Sketch.

Please use the comments to share with us what your game is? Where is your ball? Which colour is yours?

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Editor’s Note:  Dr. O’Connor is an occasional contributor to GTD Times.  Her bio is here.  She sent me an email about this book and I was so intrigued and felt that other GTDtimes readers would be similarly interested that I asked Dr. O’Connor if she could share her thoughts with the rest of us.  Thanks Lynn!

I’ve been reading a fascinating book, Spark, by John J. Ratey. It’s a quick easy read, a popular book, describing the role of exercise in neurogenesis, cognition and learning. It describes a pilot program in a school district in Naperville Illinois. They discovered that strenuous physical exercise led to participating schools raising their scores in all the national tests measuring children and adolescent’s academic achievement.   One year they had 97% of their 8th graders take the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an international test of science knowledge/skills. Their young adolescents scored first, just ahead of Singapore. They have found that kids who participate in the program (they changed the name from PE to Fitness) end up with dramatic changes in their learning, concentration, memorization skills, cognitive flexibility, etc.

The kids are all given heart rate monitors and instead of competing with each other as they do in more traditional sports, they each are expected to keep their heart rates at 80% of capacity for an hour –therefore they are going for their own personal best. The effect on learning is remarkable. They found that the kids who arrive at school at 6:30AM to do their exercise are more able to learn in the classes that follow. Other research (on mice for example) is described, demonstrating the mechanics of this, with physical exercise leading to significant increases in BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and other growth hormones which directly lead to neurogenesis –making new neurons affecting the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus (maybe other brain areas also, I don’t know yet, still reading the book).

This is not the emphasis in article below, but it is related. It made me want to resume going to the gym, and not just doing kundalini yoga although that probably works too –but I get the impression that the more strenuous exercise has a bigger impact. The children and adolescents are given a big choice of activities to choose from –running, cycling, climbing an elaborate wall, doing that computer generated dance activity (I don’t remember the name), etc. Ratey points out that in more traditional school sports, kids spend a great deal of time just waiting around, and some kids who are not “athletic” get left out altogether. Not so with the fitness emphasis, it’s a whole new endeavor.

I knew that exercise promoted better mood and countered stress. What I didn’t know was that exercise has profound effect on cognitive function. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to get inspired to engage in more regular strenuous exercise, while strengthening cognitive apparatus.

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Both David and longtime friend to the David Allen Company and developer of eProductivity for Lotus Notes, Eric Mack will be presenting at Lotusphere.  Their session, called IBM Lotus Notes and Me:  Maximizing Personal Productivity with Lotus Notes is on Monday, January 9th at 5PM with a booksigning at 6:30PM.  If you’re attending Lotusphere you should be sure not to miss this session which is part of Track 4.

Here’s the abstract for the session:

Session abstract People often talk about Lotus Notes being an “organizational” productivity tool; that’s the way Lotus Notes is marketed and it’s often the way organizations deploy it – as a top down solution. Seldom do you hear about Lotus Notes being used for “personal” productivity or knowledge management. As a consequence many users see Notes as a “company” tool and not “their” tool. When tools become “personal,” productivity increases and when personal productivity increases so does the productivity of the workgroup and the organization. This session will show both expert and novice Notes users how they can use Notes coupled with proven best practices to make them immediately more productive.

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On December 13th the David Allen Company is presenting a special FREE event, Q&A, and book signing with David Allen at UCLA. You’re invited!

Registration begins at 9AM and the event runs from 9:30 to 12:30.  Here is your chance to get a preview of David’s new “Making It All Work” seminar, the next generation of his popular RoadMap training.

If you want some keys for staying in the driver’s seat in the unfamiliar territory of this economy,  need to get a better handle on everything or just wish to ensure you begin the coming year with a fresh start, then this event is for you.

This special program is also the kick off for David’s new marketing campaign for 2009. Our goal for this campaign is be to reach a broader audience with the GTD message, and we are hope you will help spread the word..

In preparation for the campaign, we will be filming this event so that we can capture testimonials and some really great visual footage.  Please come dressed in business casual attire.

Registration is free: simply click here!

Seats are limited, so be sure to  sign up now to guarantee yourself a spot.

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Will Traveler make getting things done with Notes easy?
I have a long-standing interest in devices and applications that increase mobile knowledge worker productivity, particularly those that support the GTD methodology and can sync with Lotus Notes. The problem is that most of the devices that I have used to date fail in one or both categories. For this reason, I have continued use and recommend the Treo 755p for power GTD users that want a powerful mobile list manager that seamelessly integrates with Lotus Notes. It’s not that the Treo is the best mobile platform out there. It isn’t. It simply has the best native list manager for managing projects and actions using the GTD methodology.

Since I know that someone will object to my statement, let me explain what I want in a mobile list manager: I want to click one button and see my list of projects and actions, sorted by context. I do not want to have to click Start, Run, and then click a bunch of options to find my tasks. I also want these views and the way I set them up to be persistent, which rules out two of the most popular device families on the market today.  I don’t mind using third party solutions to accomplish this, but for some devices, like the Nokia Series, they simply do not exist. I find it amazing that devices marketed to the business professional and equipped with so many productivity features would be so lacking in this vital component of productivity: list management.

For years, David Allen and I have discussed this: why do manufacturers make great hardware and then drop the ball when it comes to the suitability of their list management and task integration? (David uses a 755p, also.) I think it must be that manufacturers are expecting people to purchase based on the shiny features and not on what they can accomplish with the device. Earlier this year, a client generously gave me a shiny new Nokia E90 Communicator  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90> as a thank you gift. The E90 is a truly amazing mobile productivity device. Except, it has two problems: No task management. Zip. Zilch. Nada. (Unless you count their lame recording of a task as a note in a calendar event) and no reliable over-the-air sync of tasks to Lotus Notes. David and I played with this device this summer and agreed that while it sported an impressive list of hardware features it was essentially useless for us as a mobile GTD support tool. So, into pile of “really cool devices that I cannot use” it went. I hoped that someday, I might find a solution that would allow me to test this device as a list manager with Notes.

As much as I like the device from a productivity perspective, the Palm OS-based Treo is rapidly being eclipsed by BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices with some competition from iPhone. (I say “some” as I have yet to find a suitable on-device sync and device management solution for iPhone, which means I won’t recommend it for use with Notes and GTD.) I recently surveyed our customers that use eProductivity for Lotus Notes and found that well over 50% are using BlackBerry. In the U.S. the remaining 50% is made up of a large number of WM devices and then a variety of other devices. In Europe, the Nokia S60 platform is more common with WM coming in second.)  (Before I go further, I do plan to purchase a BlackBerry Bold to evaluate as my next productivity platform, but that’s a post for another day.)

Enter Lotus Traveler

Last week, Nokia and IBM announced support for a number of Nokia’s S60-based mobile phones, extending the reach of Lotus Notes to millions of users of Nokia devices that use the Nokia S60 3rd Edition platform. According to the announcements and blog posts including yesterday’s on GTDtimes, in excess of 80 million people - the number of Nokia S60 3rd Edition devices shipped globally - will soon be able to connect to corporate email accounts on a Lotus Domino Server. The glue that makes this possible is Traveler, a product that launched earlier this year. The Lotus Traveler software provides real time access to email, calendar, address book, journal and to-dos and the newly added support for the Nokia S60 platform is coming next month.

I think IBM is making a smart move to extend the reach of Lotus Notes to a variety of platforms. For years, I’ve used and recommended CommonTime mNotes and Sybase iAnywhere. If you have a Windows Mobile or Palm device, CommonTime simply works. Sybase has extensive device support, however, my experience is that they are making it increasingly costly for clients to buy their products. (I guess they are doing really well and do not want my client’s business.) So, I welcome the announcement of Traveler. I think it’s great to have a native Notes solution to recommend as well.

How well will Lotus Traveler handle Task Management?

I have no doubt that the Lotus team will do a good job with sync to the Nokia platform, and I have read enthusiastic reviews from users who are using Traveler on their Windows Mobile devices. What remains to be seen, is how well Traveler handles task management. This is something that Lotus and other vendors historically haven’t done very well. The IBM Web site for Traveler shows a thumbnail for a task list but there are no screen shots of any task lists so I cannot tell how well they have been implemented. Since I have yet to install Traveler, myself, I cannot comment on how well  Traveler handles task management, either on Windows Mobile or on the Nokia Platform. If you are using Traveler for task management on either of these platforms, I’d like to hear from you with your thoughts.

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Lotus Notes users rejoice; your prayers (or at least your sincere requests) have been answered. Provided those prayers relate to accessing your Lotus Notes data via a Nokia S60 device or an Apple iPhone.

IBM has recently announced upgrades to their Lotus Traveler application making it compatible with about 40 different Nokia devices; most notably the new (and exceptional) E71 (reviewed here), the E90 and the E66.

This app, which features push e-mail technology lets users access e-mail and other content from Lotus Notes and IBM Lotus Domino Web Access users, has been extended to support Nokia’s S60 3rd Edition-based smartphones. There are some requirements that you should be aware of if you want to use or deploy this solution which will be released some time in December.

For more information as well as details on the web based access available for the Apple iPhone please check out this eWeek post by blogger Clint Boulton

*Yes, I know the images are representative of a WinMo device - what can I say it’s all they had on the IBM site…

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Editor’s Note:  Yolanda Otero, an HR Compliance Coordinator from AmerisourceBergen in Orlando Florida was kind enough to write in to GTDtimes to share a tip about how she implements GTD complete with an image showing her system in action.  This is great!  Yolanda, thanks so much from GTDtimes for making this information more broadly available.

To other GTDtimes readers, if you’ve got a unique method of implementing GTD that helps you stay in “Master and Commander” mode, by all means send it to us: submissions at GTDtimes dot com.

From Yolanda

I been doing the GTD for the last 6 months and this has changed my day completely in a way that I’m more proactive, organized, and I have full control of work time due to the way that I manage my time through the GTD process.

This is an idea that I want to share with you all.  I do a lot of projects and it was not easy to keep track of every step that a project has as a different task.  What I do now is to write down all the steps in the body of the task and as I go to each task I mark the preceeding one “DONE”.   I change the subject, I type the new step # and change the due date and or category. Any thing new I’ll add it to the body and that way I keep track of the complete project in one task.

I shared this with the management team GTD meeting in our Division in Orlando and they like it. Hope you like it too, thanks.

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To the black-belt GTD practitioner, Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
may not offer any new principles, I nonetheless still highly recommend it as a motivational read to get a boost on whatever task it is that you’re deffering action on.

Brian Tracy has taken the catchy title from an analogy of Mark Twain. Mark Twain said that suppose tomorrow morning, the first that you do, is catch a live frog, stuff it into your mouth, munch it down and swallow it all up. Once you did that, the day can’t get much worse now can it? Therefore every morning, find the ugliest most repulsive task that you have on your to-do list (i.e. your frog) and knock that off before getting on to doing anything else. Once you’ve got that done, the rest of the day when you’re doing the easy-peasy tasks, would seem like relishing your favorite dessert.

Below are a few my favorite excerpts from the book, that got me eating my ugly frogs:

Taking the Frog analogy forward:
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.

When you’ve got two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one.

How do you eat your biggest, ugliest frog? The answer is: “One bite at a time.” i.e. you break it down into specific step by step activities and then start on the first one.

You should never be distracted by a tadpole when a big frog is siting there waiting to be eaten.

On the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule:
There is never enough time to do all the tasks, but there’s always time to do the most Important task.

The most valuable tasks you can do each day are often the hardest and most complex. But the payoff and rewards for completing these tasks efficiently can be tremendous. For this reason, you must adamantly refuse to work on tasks in the bottom 80 percent while you still have tasks in the top 20 percent left to be done.

A Question to ask yourself for maximum productivity: “What can I, and only I, do that if done well will make a real difference?” ~ Peter Drucker.

On Goals:
Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement. The bigger your goals and the clearer they are, the more excited you become about achieving them. The more you think about your goals, the greater becomes your inner drive and desire to accomplish them.

On Creative Procrastination:
The fact is that you can’t do everything that you have to do. You have to procrastinate on something. Therefore, procrastinate on small tasks. Put off eating smaller or less ugly frogs. Eat the bigest and ugliest frogs before anything else. Do the worst first! Everyone procrastinates. The difference between high performers and low performers is largely determined by what they choose to procrastinate on.

One of the most powerful of all words in time management is the word no! Say it politely, Say it clearly, say it regularly as a normal part of your time management vocabulary.

On Continuous Learning:
There are frogs you can eat, or learn to eat, that can make you one of the more important people in your business or organization. Keep asking yourself: “What one skill, if I developed and did it in an excellent fashion, would have the greatest positive impact on my career?”

“Why am I on the payroll?” This is one of the most important questions you can ever ask and answer, over and over again, throughout your career.

As it happens, most people are not sure exactly why they are on the payroll. But if you are not crystal clear about why you are on the payroll and what results you have been hired to accomplish, it is very hard for you to perform at your best, get paid more, and get promoted faster.

Guard your Physical Health:
Feed yourself as you would feed a world-class athlete before a competition because in many respects, that’s what you are before starting work each day.

photo credit: TimmyGUNZ

On Technology:
Discipline yourself to treat technology as a servant, not as a master. Technology is there to help you, not to hinder you. The purpose of technology is to make your life smoother and easier, not to create complexity, confusion, and stress.

On Leaders:
The world is full of people who are waiting for someone to come along and motivate them to be the kind of people they wish they could be. The problem is that no one is coming to the rescue.

Only about 2 percent of people can work entirely without supervision. We call these people “leaders”. This is the kind of person you are meant to be and that you can be, if you decide to be.

See yourself as a role model for others. Raise the bar on yourself. The standards you set for your own work and behavior should be higher than anyone else could set for you.

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A brand new GTD Publication has just been launched, Productive Magazine.  The new publication is the brainchild of Michael Sliwinski, the founder of Nozbe and one of the contributors to GTDtimes.

The new publication is dedicated to GTD and identifying the best content and best practices for practicing a better organized and effortlessly controlled life - a lot like GTDtimes though in a regular publication format instead of a daily updated website.

We’re especially excited about the Productive Magazine because the cover story is an interview that GTDtimes did with David Allen a few months ago.

It’s well worth a read and it’s also a free download so you can take it with you and read it offline.  Definitely it’s something you don’t want to miss.

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Left to my own devices, I have a terrible time maintaining focus when I need to write, do web design, work on spreadsheets or databases, or do intensive analytical reading. While I refuse to go to the doctor to get a formal diagnosis, I pretty much know that I have ADD (I score between 75-85% of the indicators for it on the tests I’ve taken myself). I was fortunate to be raised in an environment that allowed me to develop coping mechanisms and become very high-functioning, and I’ve since learned that there is a high correlation between AD/HD symptoms and entrepreneurial traits.

So, where was I? 

Oh yeah… I was talking about maintaining focus when writing and doing other production work. I find that my brain is constantly throwing completely irrelevant ideas into my conscious awareness.

As a coping mechanism, as a student back in high school and college, I frequently used to study to music, and found that it usually helped my concentration.As an adult, I started slipping into the habit of media multi-tasking — trying to watch TV, IM/Twitter and read/write at the same time. NOT effective!

So as an experiment, I’ve reverted back to my school-age practice of using music to try to help me focus. The difference is that now I’ve approached it more scientifically, testing and comparing my ability to maintain sustained, focus effort with different kinds of music. Now, I’m not claiming that I’ve been rigorous — I won’t be publishing this in any medical journals — but I’ve definitely found what does and what doesn’t work for me.

Here’s what doesn’t seem to work for me:

• Lyrics - If there are vocals, it seems to activate the language center of my brain and distracts from writing or reading effectively.
• Too mellow - If it’s too relaxed, it puts me to sleep.
• Too simple - Apparently my subconscious mind requires a certain degree of complexity to keep its attention on the music. Ambient music allows my mind to wander still.
• Too complex - Polyrhythms, complex chord changes, etc., become an intellectual exercise of their own.
• Multiple instruments - Another form of complexity, multiple instruments demand more conscious attention. A simple rhythmic accompaniment is usually OK, but large ensembles don’t seem to work well.
• Too familiar - If the songs I hear are too familiar, my mind wanders to memories associated with the songs.

So that was my challenge: to find music that is energetic, moderately complex, performed on a single instrument (or small ensemble) and not overly familiar.

Enter the marvelous world of social music. Sites like Pandora and Last.fm allow you to create “stations” that play music of a particular style. You can “seed” the stations with particular artists or songs, then vote “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” on the songs as they’re played. Over time, you can create stations that are tightly formatted to the specific musical characteristics you’re looking for, but provide you new and unfamiliar music so you get plenty of variety.

I’ve been working on this for months, experimenting with the various musical formats. I’ve created/found a few stations at Pandora that perfectly suit my requirements for “music to work by”. I invite you to have a listen and see what you think. And if you don’t like them, you can modify them or create new ones for your own tastes:

• Modern Fingerstyle Guitar
• Flamenco Guitar
• Contemporary Solo Piano
• Impressionist / Modernist Solo Piano

How about you? What music helps you get things done?

Image by Jesse Therrien via sxc.hu

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