I’m a great believer in routines.

I’m a believer in them because I think that innovation is predicated upon standardisation. In other words, routines afford us the spare capacity to think about things other than (repetitive) tasks at hand.

Routines provide spare capacity by removing, or narrowing, choice.

Take my morning routine, for example. Granted, having children means that no two are identical, but every day I’m at work in the office at JISC infoNet Towers, I do the following:

• Have a cold shower
• Eat eggs (either scrambled on toast or an omelette)
• Listen to the same ‘Train’ and ‘Walking’ playlists via Spotify (albeit on random)
• Read Baltasar Gracian’s The Art of Worldly Wisdom on the train

Of course, it’s not necessary to have to undergo a commute to have routines. They’re just things you do at the same time and/or place.

So far, so obvious.

Routines gain power by becoming rituals. For example, there’s something about the first cup of coffee in the morning. It has a ritualistic element; it symbolises waking and the liminal space between home and work.

Whilst routines are easy to create and maintain on an individual level, rituals are slightly trickier. This, I believe, is because rituals involve gathering. It may be people who are gathered together, it may be thoughts. Rituals pull together and coalesce disparate elements.

Organisations and educational institutions are extremely well-placed to turn individual productive routines into collective rituals. One of the best places to start is often around food. At JISC infoNet we have a weekly Cake Club: the cake serves as a convenient hypocrisy for a kind of gathering we otherwise would not necessarily experience.

What kind of routines could you or your organisation turn into rituals?

Image CC BY visualpanic

However, earlier this week I was approached by Josh Johnson, someone with whom I’ve never interacted save a couple of comments he’s left on this blog. He asked for my help in such a friendly, unassuming and genuine way that I could hardly say no! What follows is a brief email interview I undertook with him.

1. Hi Josh, you got in touch after reading ProBlogger’s ’31 Days to Build a Better Blog’. Could you tell us a little more about that?

I’m currently in the process of reading ’31 Days…’ and I’ve been stuck on Day 15 for quite some time. The task was to find a blog partner – somebody to share ideas with, chat with, and help out.

I’ve been keeping my eye out for a friendly blogger that focuses on productivity or design. When I hit one of your recent articles – Getting back on the productivity wagon – I decided to jump in the comments discussion. You responded very quickly with some great additional input, so I decided to get in touch.

As for the book overall – it’s been a great resource into breaking past a few barriers and establishing a regular post schedule. I would recommend it to any blogger, old or new.

2. What does your blog focus on?

My wife and I have been trying to write articles that help designers and clients create harmonious relationships with each other. This ended up splitting our blog into two topics – Client education and designer productivity.

We believe that if clients can understand designers, and designers are able to deliver more to their clients in a timely manner, everybody stays happy.

3. You mentioned to me (via email) that ‘Creatives tend to be unorganized’. How are you trying to help with that?

Creatives tend to be visual thinkers, emotional, and intuitive – right brain thinkers. Unfortunately, they also tend to be unorganized and unable to prioritize.

By introducing easy-to-use productivity systems and “life hacks” to designers, we hope to make a positive (productive) impact on the creative community as a whole.

4. What are your plans for the future?

I have a few personal “sprint” plans that involve an ebook, building up a community on the blog, and a bit of travel by the end of the year. Marathon plans usually burn me out, so taking short-term wins is a goal now.

Also, I would like build a platform for designers and clients to openly discuss methods to improve their working relationships.

5. Finally, if you could recommend five things that you find indispensable, what would they be?

That’s surprisingly easy.

1. A dot grid notebook. It’s graph paper, lined paper, and blank(ish) paper all-in-one.
2. An unlined Moleskine notebook. For when dots get in the way.
3. A mechanical pencil. Because you can’t erase ink.
4. A laptop (with Evernote and Dropbox). Great for typing, organizing, and easy web browsing.
5. A smartphone (with Evernote and Dropbox). Portable device to capture ideas and get them into a system.

I keep those 5 things packed with me at all times. I think I may have cheated by including software, but I take those programs for granted now.

Josh’s website: nascentstudio.com

Josh got in touch with me via the Email me! at dougbelshaw.com. Feel free to do the same!

Background

At the beginning of the year I decided upon the following exercise regime: The Amphibian. This would lead to a fitter, happier Doug:

• Monday: Swimming
• Tuesday: Running
• Wednesday: Swimming
• Thursday: Running
• Friday: Swimming
• Saturday: Kettlebell
• Sunday: Weights

I can count on the fingers of no hands the number of weeks I’ve managed to do this. Sometimes it’s because I’m away from home during the week. Other times it’s lack of discipline.

On the other hand, I have managed to do at least a moderate amount of exercise every week throughout the winter. Lunchtime swims along with a SAD lightbox and Vitamin D tablets has meant that I’ve had a much more positive (and less ill) winter than usual. Mega.

But I’ve fallen off the wagon in the last couple of weeks. I assumed that the hotel for the DML Conference in San Francisco had a swimming pool when, in fact, it didn’t. Jet lag and then preparations for TEDx Warwick have meant a couple of weeks with only two exercise sessions.

I’ve noticed in the past week or so that I’ve consumed more alcohol and eaten more sugar than usual. I’ve also been ill and off work for three days. I’ve been short and bad-tempered with people, and have procrastinated with tasks.

This isn’t the Doug I want to be.

3 steps to get back on the productivity wagon

Thankfully, with a bit of reflection it’s fairly straightforward to get back on track. Here’s how.

1. Make a commitment

I’m going to re-commit to The Amphibian exercise regime outlined above. It doesn’t matter that I haven’t actually reached that target yet.

The commitment is a line in the sand.

If you let someone else know what you’re doing (or make it public) it’s an even bigger commitment. Accountability reduces shirking.

2. Start exercising

Guess what? I really don’t want to do any exercise today. But I’ve made a commitment, and told both you and my wife that I’m going to do some. So that’s what I’m going to do.

It’s a beautiful day today, so even though it’s Saturday and I’m supposed to be doing my kettlebell, I’m going for a run. That’s a good idea given that I’m going to be in London for a couple of days this week.

3. Set SMART targets

SMART targets are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Timely

I had intended to do a sprint triathlon this year. That would have been a SMART target on three fronts (running, swimming, cycling).

Realising that I need something to work towards, I’ve just registered for the Great North 10k in July. I ran it two years ago in 49:30 which wasn’t too bad but this time around I’m aiming for 47:00.

I’ve got 16 weeks to get myself into shape.

Conclusion

I’m at my happiest and most productive when I exercise regularly. In fact, every person I know who’s both happy and productive does so. I don’t know if it’s the endorphins, the small victories, the metabolism boost, or all three, but there’s an symbiotic link between productivity and exercise.

The commitment bit is the hardest. It’s easy to make vague promises to do more exercise, but much harder to commit to a regime. Once that mental block is out of the way, it’s just a case of getting on with it and having a target to aim at!

What’s holding you back?

Image CC BY-NC-SA rosipaw

I suppose it’s kind of like zero-based budgeting:

In zero-based budgeting, every line item of the budget must be approved, rather than only changes. During the review process, no reference is made to the previous level of expenditure. Zero-based budgeting requires the budget request be re-evaluated thoroughly, starting from the zero-base.

So if I was starting again, knowing what I do now, what would I need?

Everyday bag

• Laptop (+charger)
• Mobile phone (+charger)
• Kindle (+charger)
• Headphones
• Notebook
• Pens
• Bank cards, library card, gym card, passport, etc.
• Card case

Clothes

• Shoes
• Trainers
• Thick socks
• Coat
• Underwear x7
• Jeans x2 (+belt)
• Trousers (+belt)
• Shorts
• Shirts x3
• Jacket
• T-shirts x5
• Swimming shorts (+goggles)

Health/hygiene

• Towel
• Sports towel
• Contact lenses
• Glasses
• Flannel
• Migraine medication
• Inhalers x2
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Multivitamins
• Deodorant
• Moisturiser
• Razor/beard trimmer (+charger)

My aim with #divest12 isn’t to go ultra-minimalist, but rather to reflect upon what is absolutely necessary to maintain my current lifestyle.

58 items, I reckon.

Have I missed anything?

Just look at this:

But it’s difficult, isn’t it? You collect things that are necessary at some point in your life (or that you desire) and then end up hanging on to them. Usually the reason we do this is because they have monetary and/or emotional value.

Back in 2009 I decided to spend a week ‘divesting’. Amongst other things I got rid of hundreds of CDs and books as well as really focusing on the software and hardware I use day-to-day. It was a liberating feeling getting rid of so much. I realised that, in effect, I was a librarian for my books rather than a reader of them. The relationship was the wrong way around. The same went for CDs, DVDs, and other stuff I owned.

Now fast-forward to last week when I ready about Andrew Hyde’s extreme minimalism. Never mind 100 things or 50 things, he owns 15 things. Yes, fifteen. Here’s his ‘floorderobe’:

If what I’m doing is the thin end of the wedge, this is very much the thick end of it!

I suppose the question everyone wants to ask is What counts as ‘one thing’?

The “rule” of ownership is the express-lane checkout rule. If you were checking out in a grocery store, what would be counted as one item in your bag? A six-pack of beer would be one, right? I count my things as resellable items I would be pissed if someone took.

Coffee cup? No. Jacket? Yes. iPhone and headphones? One thing. Simple enough?

Whilst 15 things is not my ultimate goal, I am making a conscious start to declutter and divest. Yesterday alone I took two bin bags full of clothes to the recycling bank, identified 52 books from my study to get rid of, and made an inventory of my electronic gadgetry with a view to consolidating.

I’d like to:

• Reclaim some physical space
• Feel less of a ‘curatorial’ burden
• Be less concerned about the monetary value of my stuff

Want to join me? Add a comment below, write about it on your own blog or just use the #divest12 hashtag on Twitter or Google+!

Image CC BY Andrew-Hyde

Note: This is an update to a previous post.

During the summer holidays before I headed to university I worked in a secondhand bookshop on Broad Street in Oxford. And then, to help support myself during my MA in Modern History I worked in Waterstones bookshop in Newcastle. I love books.

But, despite my affection for the printed word, I still prefer, on balance, reading on my Kindle. One of the main reasons for this is the ease by which I can highlight sections of text (non-destructively) which are then available at kindle.amazon.com.

Whilst I’m waiting for everything that’s ever been written to be digitised I need a solution for physical books that is:

• Quick
• Accurate
• Citable

I think I’ve got that with the following system. Here’s what to do.

The Basics

1. Sign up to Evernote. You can experiment with a free account but, like me, you’ll no doubt go Premium for the added data storage/transfer and functionality.
2. Install the Evernote app both on your computer and your smartphone (I’m using the iOS version)
3. When you start reading a new book, create a new notebook for it and take a photo of the front of the book. Title this first note something like Author (Date of publication) – Title, Place of publication: Publisher
4. Every time you come across something you want to make a note on, take a photo of the text. Add any comments or thoughts you have and title it something like Author – page number(s)

After syncing, Evernote provides OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the text of images, so you could stop here as you’ve now got searchable notes from books (as promised in the title). However, I’ve gone one step further.

Going Further

Now that the notes you want are in Evernote, it’s time to tidy them up and make the text copy-and-pasteable. Here’s what to do after carrying out steps 1-4 above:

1. Create a Book Clippings notebook
2. Sort the notes in the notebook to make ensure the note with the front cover is at the top
3. Select all of the notes, click on ‘Note’ in the top menu and then select Merge Notes
4. Type out the text you want from each photograph underneath it. Add the page number in brackets afterwards and delete the photo and references.
5. Repeat. Yes, this takes time.
6. Drag your tidied-up note into the Book Clippings notebook.
7. Start reading your next book.

Conclusion

I’ve found this an extremely effective way of getting searchable notes from physical books. As a bonus, you might want to try using Evernote’s Web Clipper to import your Kindle notes so that everything’s together in one place.

Have you tried this? Have you got a different system?

Last year I took a personal digital hiatus better known as Belshaw Black Ops. I got plenty of stuff done, really appreciating the time out of the constant digital attention stream.

This year I’m planning to do the same for the month of December. It’s slightly difficult given my role at JISC infoNet, but here’s what I’ll be doing (and not doing):

1. Spending time with family.
   
2. Not responding to email. If you email my personal email address you’ll get an auto-response. Other than work-related emails on my JISC accounts, the only other way to contact me is my mobile number. Ask for it if you need it.
3. Avoiding social networks. Yes, even Twitter. And Google+, Facebook. The lot.
4. Not blogging. Or moderating comments.
5. Collating and curating. Change doesn’t come through one person having a good idea. Change comes through ideas being packaged in such a way that they become memes and alter the status quo. I’ll be going back through what I’ve written and created over the past year and thinking through how it connects with other stuff.
6. Playing Battlefield 3. What an epic game!
7. Migrating web hosts. I’m sick to death of Bluehost. They used to be great, but now they’re slow and unreliable.
8. Researching ancient monuments. Visiting Ggantija Temples and Hagar Qim on Malta has rekindled my interest!

Depending on when I have to defend my thesis, I may also need to spend time making clarifications and changes to that. All in all, if you need to contact me, ask my advice, or invite me to speak somewhere, you’ve got four weeks before 2012 to do so…

Image CC BY-NC BaboMike

Recently I rediscovered the excellent free planners by Charlie Gilkey at Productive Flourishing. You can find them here. I like breaking out the crayons, so had a ball colouring in the productivity heatmap!

Unsurprisingly, the most useful on a day-to-day basis is the daily planner which is certainly comprehensive but needed tweaking for my context. So below is my effort, for what it’s worth. I’ve only been using it for the last few days but, in conjunction with Google Calendar for weekly/monthly planning it’s been awesome.

(Embedded doc not showing? Try direct link to PDF)

If you want to want to fill it in electronically or tinker with it for your own context there’s a Microsoft Word version below:

[download id="3"]

If you like this, you may also appreciate my (free!) e-book entitled #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity.

Productivity, to my mind, is about doing more of what of what you enjoy doing and doing less of that which you don’t. It’s highly context-dependent, although there are some things that work in most situations – as I outline in #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity.

What I’m concerned about is a condition just shy of Digital Taylorism, that twisted notion of productivity that Jean-François Lyotard calls ‘performativity’. It’s a cancer in the knowledge economy:

According to Lyotard, postmodernity is characterised by the end of metanarratives. So what legitimates science now? Lyotard’s answer is – performativity. This is what Lyotard calls the “technological criterion” – the most efficient input/output ratio. The technical and technological changes over the last few decades – as well as the development of capitalism – have caused the production of knowledge to become increasingly influenced by a technological model. It was during the industrial revolution, Lyotard suggests, that knowledge entered into the economic equation and became a force for production, but it is in postmodernity that knowledge is becoming the central force for production. Lyotard believes that knowledge is becoming so important an economic factor, in fact, that he suggests that one day wars will be waged over the control of information.

Lyotard calls the change that has taken place in the status of knowledge due to the rise of the performativity criterion the mercantilization of knowledge. In postmodernity, knowledge has become primarily a saleable commodity. Knowledge is produced in order to be sold, and is consumed in order to fuel a new production. According to Lyotard knowledge in postmodernity has largely lost its truth-value, or rather, the production of knowledge is no longer an aspiration to produce truth. Today students no longer ask if something is true, but what use it is to them. (Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy)

The reason that performativity is dangerous is because it strips out all of the enjoyment and self-actualisation that work can bring and reduces it to a commodity. Instead, as Seth Godin often gets across in his books and his blog, work should be hard but a fundamentally creative endeavour. Talented people leave jobs if they’re overly- constrained:

Whoever says artists can’t deal with corporate pressures because they have frail minds, is missing out on the potential the artistic mind has to boost company morale and increase productivity. Most artists would just as soon quit once they become conscious of their exploitation and that is a sign of strength not weakness. (Martin Dansky)

Our working lives, even if we are self-employed, involve both physical contracts (I will do X amount of work for £Y) and unspoken, tacit contracts. The latter can sometimes be pre-judged on a visit to a potential future workplace, but certainly understood in the first few weeks on the job. It’s the old “that’s the way we do things around here” chestnut.

Whether you’re a manager or not, make sure you’re focusing on productivity rather than performativity. Sometimes the internalisation of such rhetoric ends up having more of an effect that external factors. Focus on truth. Focus on creativity. Focus on happiness. Our time here is short.

Image CC BY-NC tarotastic

If you’re looking for help improving user outcomes, head over to Synechism Ltd.

Last October I published a book entitled #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity using a publishing process I devised called OpenBeta. It’s based on the principle of a book being cheaper the earlier you ‘buy into’ into the creative process. I always intended to make it free after a year, but I’ve decided to do so earlier as I’m increasingly referring to it in my interactions with people: I’d like everyone to be able to read it for free!

#uppingyourgame – Download PDF (free!)

It looks great on the iPad. It’s also available as cheap as I could make it on the Amazon Kindle Store (which might take a while to reflect price change) and as a physical book at Lulu.

Do pass the link on and let me know if you find it helpful!

#uppingyourgame is about personal productivity, not about applying somebody else’s system to your life. It’s about finding what drives you, discovering your ‘well of motivation’ and using this to create an ever-upwards virtuous circle. Above all it’s about doing more of what you enjoy doing and less of what you don’t.

The guidance, ideas and tips contained in #uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity range from coming up with a philosophy of productivity upon which to base your system right through to helping others become more productive.

#uppingyourgame is helps you develop productivity for life. It’s not just about ‘getting things done’.

PS If you’re looking for a shorter (also free) read, try my #onfire: ignite your productivity