Wednesday 2 May 2012

Diary Entry

Yesterday was a great day for experimenting with email handling and not saying "I". Also , my email is now partially Microsoft proof:
Automatic processing of reference email
My inbox now has a couple of rules:

  • Forward rule for mail that needs to be forwarded in my department
  • Info mail rule for subscriptions to newsblogs.
  • Archive rule for archiving reference materials (most often stuff that needs to be on a hard disk)
  • Delete rule for SPAM and recurring Phishing attempts
  • CC rule for later processing CC mail. It fills up at an alarming rate. Maybe the number of Important Persons that are exempt from the CC rule needs to be higher. It is amusing to analyse why people use CC. That is a study in itself.
  • Conversation clean-up function in outlook


My outbox has one rule: depending on a code in the subject header, the mail is copies to a jobs outstanding folder and flagged for review in two days time.

Due to the time needed for these changes the backlog on yesterdays CCmail has grown.

Today's to do:

  • Implement flagging for personal tasks and postponed actions
  • Implement Categories for projects (not really Allen proof but it is the advised Microsoft way)
  • Create a view to review pending actions

That is as much thinking about email that I can take. After that I will stop worrying about the bloody email.

On a lighter note: It has been fun to play the I games. Funny too that others intuitively pick up on it and stop saying I as well. It is absolutely not my normal mode of operations. Contrary to the Pennebaker's opinion it does influence your thinking. The reason to use I in speech is to be precise on the source of certain feelings and thoughts. If you stop being precise it has a strange effect on your perception and that of others. Furthermore the word "you" comes up a lot all of a sudden. That really disturbs my sense of internal locus of control! Thirdly, not to use the word I in feedback situations feels unfair, aggressive and embarrassing That is not fun at all.For the sake of the experiment colleagues will be experimented on, but not family.


Brandon

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Diary Entry

Today my email box will make great improvements! (According to Pennebaker in yesterdays tip, people in Charge do not use "I", and it can not be faked. It would be wonderful to challenge that assumption! Like the game we used to play: do not say yes or no! Besides some wonderful sidesteps to Leary's Wheel are possible, including doubt on the interdependence of Leary's variables). Back to the mail: Microsoft advises a four step plan, much like GTD from mr Allen, only better.

Monday 30 April 2012

Diary entry

Today I will finish the design on my planning system! This is what the design looks like:
1 Answer your mail
2 Prepare for meetings
3 Make GANTTs of all your projects
4 Use a document for weekly planning
5 process the actions agreed upon in meetings.
As always there are details. But this is the main plan.

Now for the implementation:
For mail I have a backlog of about 190 mail with approx 30-50 coming in today. If I do 60-100 mail a day I should be OK by the end of the week. The time I am willing to commit is 60 mins per day. See where it gets me! Also let's see whether I can come up with reductions!

There are three relevant meetings today with about 4 hours of prep time needed. There are two other meetings I have to skip in order to create enough prep time.

In the project department I have worked two Gannt examples. I need to finish the one and update the other. If I can do that and have a list of projects I will be happy.

Who ever said that planning was difficult?

At the end of this day I an state that I have not worked the GANTT charts I had made. Still not a bad day. 62 incoming mail and 120 mail handled.

I did come across a great read from Psychology Today: Turns  out that using the word I is very bad for your social creds! Go figure!


Brandon

Thursday 26 April 2012

All Systems a-Go

Yeeaahj. All computers working again! I can ramble on in my Blog once more! Today a couple of thoughts are going through my mind. I love to Blog and on my CHADD self test (GREAT TEST by the way) self confidence showed up as the only area of improvement. I definitely want to continue! On the other hand I am still making poor progress on planning, I am procrastinating and now that I have got my wife convinced to use doc Gordon I should start acting the part myself. Time for a regroup and rethink! Where to start! I think it should be procrastination. It has to do with setting priorities.

Monday 9 April 2012

Planning revisited

Next Friday I will see my therapist again and I am nervous. I have had two assignments: make my peace with mister Gordon and start up my planning thing again and I am failing miserably at both! Could I be resisting and sabotaging my own change? I Have already started planning once or twice.

Going back to mr Gordon: What did he ask of me? To be an active listener, to use I in feed-back, to always use win-win approach in conflict resolution and what procedure to use to solve said conflicts. Not a lot, and most of it I already do! Why does that feel like romantic drivel and do I oppose it?

Monday 26 March 2012

Commedia dell' Arte part II

So women often beguile men by being perky and wilfully misrepresenting facts. More over it offends my love of truth and it appals me that people I like have to fake emotions just to please me. But is that such a problem?

To answer this question we must first understand the women themselves: What makes them tick?

Friday 23 March 2012

Commedia dell' arte

The last couple of days there have been many events but two of them made me think of Commedia dell' Arte and made me wonder why people need to fool each other as if wearing masks. It saddens me! Both events involved women and one of them was my wife! What a puzzle women are!

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Practical Wisdom

Yesterday I felt shamed because my business manager, say Peter, was disappointed with the way I handled my review: I had communicated to him there was an expected buget overrun. He did not like the story. The business manager that got reviewed with me, let's name him Homer, had a different emotional response: he became angry.
In my personal experience I have reviewed Homer myself, and I know what Peter means. Homer is great for motivating people, getting the impossible done (and circumventing the rules) but at times you get a feeling he is not really with you.

Monday 19 March 2012

reflections part 4

There are some new reflections that tell me how my brain works. It ain't pretty but I had better write them down anyway:

Saturday 17 March 2012

And still more reflection

Since I did this Kolb test the idea emerged in my head that I should try a different learning style. In stead of just doing and experiencing. I should observe and theorise. I am curious to know whether I can do it! So, to continue Friday's experiences. After that I will have to contemplate different views on the same situations and then synthesise into a new theory! Had my wife do the Kolb test, she is more of a reflecting person than I. The competition is on! There is only a couple more experiences to relate.

Friday 16 March 2012

Reflections: evening cool down

Intense day today with many important interactions and deadlines. Unfortunately someone wanted to talk to me on the way home so it will be a short reflexion. The things I picked up from it:

The coworker that I wanted to set the roles and responsibilities with agreed to do so. He also had to deliver some other input. The conversation felt a bit strained to me because he turned red a couple of times when I asked questions to understand his position better. He also went all procedural and started blaming others for work not being done. Later it became apparent he had to do a presentation for 15 people on Tuesday that he wanted to prepare for. I still do not get his logic, he was being hard on one of our best people and soft on poor performers that are his friends and he was fanatic about agreed upon rules, that he doesn't follow himself and weren't really appropriate for the situation anyway. Conundrum.

Reflections: Morning start-up

The goal of my new planning system is to free up me-time. There is nothing I like more than using my Blog to think things through and experience my life in more depth. Surprise! Blogger already thought of that! You just Blog on your Mobile! Wonderful: I can use my travel time for Blogging in stead of my sleeping time.
Today I will start with setting standard procedures, roles and responsibilities for frequent tasks. From an ADD perspective this has several benefits:

Thursday 15 March 2012

Planning Ahead

I promised myself to start planning... and I did not. I checked some Kolb test on what was my typical learning behaviour. Apparently I am an activist and a pragmatist (both very strong). I filled out the test on how I imagine organised people to be and it cam out the exact opposite: reflector and theorist. Isn't that a drag! Most books on planning are probably written by people who are NOT like me (Sean Covey excluded of course, because I love him!). So I need to set-up a system (drag).

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Winning the battle but losing the war

I think I am really getting somewhere understanding ADD/ ADHD, how the processes work, what the behaviour patterns are, how medication might help and what you can do about it! So I was rather positive until yesterday. My new boss took me aside and expressed his concern for my health.

"Why is that a bad thing?", you might ask. In itself it isn't, if not for my boss' constant proclamation of his own results. My boss is big on achieving results, to the point I am wondering why he feels he has to prove himself. Results will probably be the way to get his respect and attention.

Monday 21 February 2011

Diary Entry, 21-02-2012

My new medication is working beautifully. There is a lot of work to catch up on though. Today, after my boss, my business manager told me to that he tought other peopple were leaning too hard on me. Apparantly he was disappointed in the late delivery of some of my output. I let him think it was somebody elses fault, which is not at all like me! I took action on my boss. I went to see some of his friends to ask what might have been behind my boss' remarks. He thought it is because my boss is a "trooper", if neccessary sacrificing himself for Queen and country. Maybe that's the ticket. Still I feel that even suggesting that my performance is falling short is a personal insult, even when I know it to be true.
My business manager is a whole different ballgame. One thing I take from it that he apparently needs my skills on other stuff than I am working on at the moment. The second thing I take from it is that he does not like me to work late (therefor I must hide the extra work I put in). I will ask him what it is.he specifically wants me to do. I can give the type of performance that he needs. It is not hard to imagine what he wants. He is what I call the perfect son-in-law. He likes praise and gives it where it is due. I think he wants me closer to my program. I will go and put more work in that way.

Brandon