Apr 6, 2022 22:19:21 GMT N A T H said:

Finfluencers, are the new charmers.

I guess you need to look at a few things, are you focused financially on a magic turnover dollar each FY, or GP/Profitability? A business turning over a million bucks a year, can easily be less profitable than one doing a few hundred thousand less through its overheads/CODB ie; larger team = larger on cost entitlements. Potentially you scale the business down to a more sustainable model that allows the same or similar profitability, despite less trade. And long term, allowing a degree of balance between work and rest.

Finfluencers are pretty smart as they convince people whatever they say makes them money without realizing that the people watching the videos are the product the making the influence cash.  Streamer I follow just playing video games went to advertising fin apps as he gets thousands to talk about them for 3 minutes once a week, while also giving the disclaimer he cannot legally use them.

Apr 6, 2022 21:51:04 GMT c said:

The first step will be the same no matter what though, monitor your time. Note the tasks you take on during the day, the time spent at them, and how much effort you perceive to be giving them. When we retrospectively try to estimate these we are not accurate, so try to mark them as close as possible to avoid distortion.

I don't know how Incy feels but this is not something I'd be happy about doing. Seems to me like it's adding more work onto the work I am already not doing as much as I should. Maybe I'm being short-sighted but meta work does not interest me.

Apr 6, 2022 21:51:04 GMT c said:

One fast thing that my advisor who sounds like you but controls the chaos does is to separate things into piles - needs to be done soon as possible, needs to be done by the end of the day, needs to be done with the week and needs to be reviewed by the end of the month. File them in the piles as you think of them, then your work sessions are address the piles in order of urgency while taking time at the end of each day, week and month to review the tasks and determine if they need to be moved up or retained in their pile. He does it via emails, but can do it via spreadsheet, notebook, whiteboard or anything else that works for you that you will actually use.

Also meta work but I respect this approach more. That said, I've tried various forms of TODO lists over the years, although not organised specifically in this way, and like any other method it works well at first then the novelty wears off and I go back to my baseline.

Apr 6, 2022 21:48:16 GMT iron maiden said:

I feel like you maybe have the same issue as me?  You do not like to give up control, in that even if you are drowning you don't like to ask for help or delegate because you feel like it's inefficient and ineffective:  It'll take longer to explain than to just do it yourself, it ends up back on you usually any way so you might as well do it to begin with...am I correct?

You've described me perfectly. Not only because it could be inefficient, but because I don't like asking for help unless I'm absolutely sure I've exhausted all my options on how to make progress. And that takes time. It's more efficient to ask someone more knowledgeable for help when I start to get stuck, instead of spending potentially hours going down empty rabbit holes. Perhaps it's arrogant of me to assume I can solve everything myself; there have been many instances where I have spent half a day trying to solve a problem, then I ask someone and they figure it out straight away. Either because it was a blind spot of mine or because they have the greater business knowledge/experience to know where to look.

------------------------------------

I am reminded of a time in my PhD where my productivity was extremely low. My supervisor observed this and came up with a great idea of a diary. Every day, write down a summary of the activities I have done. Then present to him when we meet. Basically forced me to do the work. Not like he was going to punish me if I didn't do it, but psychologically it seems I am OK with disappointing myself by not working (I don't like it, but I can tolerate it), but disappointing other people or having to show other people my lack of work is too much to handle. I've not yet found a better motivator.

That method definitely worked for me, and maybe I should try to reinstate it with my current line manager.

Unfortunately Incy this may not work for you since you are your own boss, you don't really have anyone to hold you accountable in the same way. Maybe you could do something similar with your wife?

All that said, I am not unproductive 100% of the time. It comes and goes. This week has been pretty rough, I'd be surprised if I did more than 3 hours of actual work today. But the previous week and the week before that were fantastic. I have no idea what causes it though, maybe it's mood related?

Apr 6, 2022 13:03:57 GMT 🤯 said:

I feel like I have to echo the delegation comment, but understand I don't understand the Australian labor market well enough to offer totally applicable ideas.

I think N A T H really hit the nail on the head. And to echo you iNCY in your own paraphrased words, I think your business is at that point where systems least interest you and this your risk of disengagement or burnout is becoming maximized. The design and implement a solution aspect of starting from nothing and growing to a certain level of sustainably phase seems to have ended. Now you're in the sustain, maintain, mature, and evolve phase. Which is slow and boring and full of drudgery... And the worst, bringing people into the fold.

Aside from your released installer, your three-person shop is all family, right? You, your Wife , and your dad or FIL? Was the former installer family too? Do they do much of substance for the business, or is their employment more of a way to help ensure pre-tax dollars from the business go to your family? In general, do you feel like their employment has helped you or been an added burden? One thing I experienced twice, and have heard almost unanimously ubiquitously is never do business with or employ family. The drawbacks or potential cons aren't worth the hassle, headache, drama, etc.

But I muse on all that to say bringing other people into the fold is such a challenge, probably even for "people person" people. I can't imagine the daunting challenge it must seem like for you. At least family is the devil you know, or are at least stuck with regardless, to an extent. I presume you've also become accustomed to certain margins in your business, so the idea of bringing onboard substantially more cost in the form of a hire or hires plus training time without a matching uptick in revenue from expanding business at the same time gives lots of cause for pause.

Then there's the golden handcuff comment about customers. It sounds like you need to train your customers better now too. If they trust you, they need to trust you'll only staff and assign employees capable of delivering the same quality your customers have come to expect from you (even if that's not entirely true). I don't think anyone other than you will ever be as vested in your business as you. Certainly not if they're not literally vested financially in it. And even then, probably never to the same level as you.

So I think the initial hires are probably critical to view through the lens of what three or so specific aspects of the business only you can do. Then hire around those first. I assume business strategy, customer relationships, and technical solutions are likely your three? So would hiring installers/customer support, supply chain planners/buyers, etc. be the best first move? Or, to your point, maybe just an executive assistant? But instead of thinking in terms of a part-time SAHM, I'd be thinking of a younger hungrier (likely male) candidate who can be mentored and groomed to not take over one day per se, but at least operate automatically as an iNCY Lite stand-in.

My family are not charity or tax dodge employees.
My wife is a qualified book keeper and our company books are no joke, we have accounts in three different currencies and that is a nightmare as far as tax goes, but she is all over it.
My Dad is working for me and I could probably get someone to replace him who could do more, but he does a good job of what he does and covers his own wage with a good margin on top.
If you are saying I need to employ more people, then I need to start with a manager.

As far as training customers I think that is a crap idea to be fair.
I see so many businesses realize they can save money if they replace their receptionist with a menu on the phone system or outsource their call center to the Philippines.
These same companies squeal like stuck pigs when their business gets replaced by a webpage.
If you commoditize your business you are just preparing for someone to replace it.

Apr 6, 2022 14:27:43 GMT c said:

Apr 6, 2022 5:33:19 GMT iNCY said:

Or frustrate them at every turn until they quit... Exciting!

If it is their job, and you treat them well otherwise, why would they quit?  Out of curiosity who is running shop while you travel?  Seems like this would be a great task for a domestic manager, while you go where you need to be internationally.  

ADHD does not fit.  You can focus when you want it appears.  Brain injury does not fit either.  Lack of organizational structure seems to be the theme, and now we are no longer young, this gets to be harder to fix.  This destroys people in academia as many learn to excel by sheer force of will until you hit a problem where the complexity is just too great to complete without structure.  Some of the brightest minds simply cannot complete a PhD if the three publication model is not allowed as you cannot force of will a well organized 200 page document summarizing existing knowledge in a field and moving beyond it.

The issue is not organization though but why you fail to be able to adapt to an organization system, which seems to imply an issue in volition or meta-motivation, which ultimately are two sides of the same coin.  Most of the books you consume on cog psych and apps you used in a business scene assume you have full control of these abilities, but they are learned skills not inate skills, and they are like never taught as we only recently started to understand how important they are.  To start into looking at this shit, look for stuff on Self-Determination Theory ideally from a psychological standpoint.  You will have to map the applications to business, but most of it is peer reviewed.  Benefits of peer review is we slaughter each other's work so only the strongest work endures over time.  Pop psych books do not go through this process.

My gut feeling tells me ultimately you do not see the value of these systems that you try to implement in action.  You see them as a cost that is not worth paying.  I mean if you can do what you do now without them, why use them?  For me, I would think you need to learn evaluation skills, to accurate evaluate if what you are doing is working and have a way to see exactly how well it works.  Program evaluation is the area that focuses on this, CIPPs model or the Stufflebeam model is where to start.  Generally go to this model when we used program evaluation for business problems anyway so learning it will have much broader uses as well.

The all or nothing mindset does need addressing but not sure how to really tackle that as that is a problem I have too.  The way I learned to deal with it, was daily tasks done at the start of the day and at certain times during the day.  Make them habitual.  So even if I do not care or want to put in effort force of habit carrying me through.  Second draft of my thesis was almost entirely written in this state and oddly enough was some of the best writing I ever did on extremely technical information comparing variable selection methods in statistics. 

All I got here is from sport psychs though and psyching up or getting into the zone.  I use cold psychology so I do not use emotions in my models, but this very much a hot model problem.  Basically in hot models though you would find a routine to use to get yourself motivated to get more involved in what you doing using a mix or self-talk, music, mindset and goal setting.  This area is in the mental skills of sports, and they really are the only field heavily looking into the mental side of amping one's self up like this.  Benefit of learning these skills is they can beat burnout.

I hate TED and pop psych, but Jonathan Fader does a pretty good of laying this stuff out.  He does this rap thing at most talks.  He did throw the ball when he talked with us.





But big picture would be to get skills to regulate your motivation or volition, then apply them to an orientation system that you evaluate as you use it to see if you are making actual gains or not.  One you see value, it should reinforce the use of that system.  If you do not see value, then fuck that system, it is bad.

Also evaluation skills will allow you to analyze your entire workplace, to see where you can offload some of what you are already doing to determine where you can offload some of what you do, and let others take on that responsibility.  You will have a short term productivity loss, but get a long term productivity gain from it.  Doing it all yourself is one of the most limiting things you can do as a manager as now you put an absolute top on your scale, which you really want to be limitless.  Which means either you accept you are nearing your absolute cap, or learn to offload.

My advisor went through this same issue recently as he is now at the crossroads of being one of the top young ed psychologists but to now become one of the top all-time psychologists he needs to increase production and increase his student load by about 3 fold.  Way he did it was systematically lay out what his responsibilities were at his job, what areas were worth his expertise and what areas should be offloaded to a post doc, and then try to see how much he was doing of both areas.  A great deal of what he was doing, was stuff that should have been offloaded as it did not need him personally and did not require his expertise.  As long as people could get the same information from someone else, he was better suited to focusing on more advanced things that others lacked the knowledge to tackle.  This is kind of what you need to do if you are looking to move things onto other people and prepare to scale.  Find where you can essentially replace yourself, so you can focus on what only you can do best.

It is not that I can focus when I choose, it is that I cannot regulate my focus, I am 1000% or 0%.
Delving into sports psychology for a minute I remember a couple of interesting comments that I think apply to productivity and business.
They had an AFL footballer on the radio and they were talking about truly gifted athletes and he claimed he wasn't one, which was a bit of humility on his behalf.
He talked about some of the wasted talent that the game had seen, peoples whose best was an 11/10 but their worst was a 4/10
He then talked about himself and said he would say his best was an 8.5 and his worst was a 7.5 and I think about that comment a lot.

Another coach said that it is not the best 5 players on your list that define your success but your worst 5.
This comment also resonates with me, not only in regards to a team, but also in business and life.
We all have areas where we are good and we are weak, I realised a couple of years ago that spending too much time on your weaknesses makes no sense if your strengths are what pays the bills (See my earlier comments on Essentialism)
It is true though that even our weakest areas will define our success if we cannot bring them up to a passable level.

Apr 6, 2022 21:19:01 GMT theend said:

4 hr work week technique. Outsource people to do your job.

As a fine of Timothy Ferris I get this comment, but I also am not sure it is the cure-all he makes it out to be.
As I stated earlier unless your business has a unique selling point or market protection, commoditizing your business just makes it replaceable.

Apr 6, 2022 22:57:27 GMT c said:

Apr 6, 2022 22:19:21 GMT N A T H said:

Finfluencers, are the new charmers.

I guess you need to look at a few things, are you focused financially on a magic turnover dollar each FY, or GP/Profitability? A business turning over a million bucks a year, can easily be less profitable than one doing a few hundred thousand less through its overheads/CODB ie; larger team = larger on cost entitlements. Potentially you scale the business down to a more sustainable model that allows the same or similar profitability, despite less trade. And long term, allowing a degree of balance between work and rest.

Finfluencers are pretty smart as they convince people whatever they say makes them money without realizing that the people watching the videos are the product the making the influence cash.  Streamer I follow just playing video games went to advertising fin apps as he gets thousands to talk about them for 3 minutes once a week, while also giving the disclaimer he cannot legally use them.

Most people who sell advice are grifters, if their advice was good they would make their money from following it rather than selling it.
All Finfluencers fall into this category, even the ones on TV like Cramer.

Same deal with the business gurus like Gary Vee and Robert Kyosaki.
If their ideas worked, they would be Billionaires.
Not saying their wrong, but they all have a habit of over-simplifying.

I have been searching for a Financial Planner / Wealth Advisor for a couple of years (Not that I am rich) not one has remotely impressed me.
They make their money from selling advice, I am sure there are good ones out there but the Financial Planners driving Aston Martins don't advertise and they don't talk to people at my level.

Apr 6, 2022 23:04:10 GMT Emperor said:

Apr 6, 2022 21:51:04 GMT c said:

The first step will be the same no matter what though, monitor your time. Note the tasks you take on during the day, the time spent at them, and how much effort you perceive to be giving them. When we retrospectively try to estimate these we are not accurate, so try to mark them as close as possible to avoid distortion.

I don't know how Incy feels but this is not something I'd be happy about doing. Seems to me like it's adding more work onto the work I am already not doing as much as I should. Maybe I'm being short-sighted but meta work does not interest me.

Apr 6, 2022 21:51:04 GMT c said:

One fast thing that my advisor who sounds like you but controls the chaos does is to separate things into piles - needs to be done soon as possible, needs to be done by the end of the day, needs to be done with the week and needs to be reviewed by the end of the month. File them in the piles as you think of them, then your work sessions are address the piles in order of urgency while taking time at the end of each day, week and month to review the tasks and determine if they need to be moved up or retained in their pile. He does it via emails, but can do it via spreadsheet, notebook, whiteboard or anything else that works for you that you will actually use.

Also meta work but I respect this approach more. That said, I've tried various forms of TODO lists over the years, although not organised specifically in this way, and like any other method it works well at first then the novelty wears off and I go back to my baseline.

Apr 6, 2022 21:48:16 GMT iron maiden said:

I feel like you maybe have the same issue as me?  You do not like to give up control, in that even if you are drowning you don't like to ask for help or delegate because you feel like it's inefficient and ineffective:  It'll take longer to explain than to just do it yourself, it ends up back on you usually any way so you might as well do it to begin with...am I correct?

You've described me perfectly. Not only because it could be inefficient, but because I don't like asking for help unless I'm absolutely sure I've exhausted all my options on how to make progress. And that takes time. It's more efficient to ask someone more knowledgeable for help when I start to get stuck, instead of spending potentially hours going down empty rabbit holes. Perhaps it's arrogant of me to assume I can solve everything myself; there have been many instances where I have spent half a day trying to solve a problem, then I ask someone and they figure it out straight away. Either because it was a blind spot of mine or because they have the greater business knowledge/experience to know where to look.

------------------------------------

I am reminded of a time in my PhD where my productivity was extremely low. My supervisor observed this and came up with a great idea of a diary. Every day, write down a summary of the activities I have done. Then present to him when we meet. Basically forced me to do the work. Not like he was going to punish me if I didn't do it, but psychologically it seems I am OK with disappointing myself by not working (I don't like it, but I can tolerate it), but disappointing other people or having to show other people my lack of work is too much to handle. I've not yet found a better motivator.

That method definitely worked for me, and maybe I should try to reinstate it with my current line manager.

Unfortunately Incy this may not work for you since you are your own boss, you don't really have anyone to hold you accountable in the same way. Maybe you could do something similar with your wife?

All that said, I am not unproductive 100% of the time. It comes and goes. This week has been pretty rough, I'd be surprised if I did more than 3 hours of actual work today. But the previous week and the week before that were fantastic. I have no idea what causes it though, maybe it's mood related?

Okay... I am getting weirded out, I feel like the out of time love child of Emperor and iron maiden
If both of you were split like the DNA of Danny Devito and Arnie in Twins with the good and problematic parts separating... And the two Danny and Danielle DeVito halves of your DNA had a baby... It would be me.

I don’t have a ton to add, but for me the simplest attack to my productivity failures was a clean and organized workspace and a very simple stripped down to do list. I’ve tried all the productivity apps you talked about (I in fact went to Trello again last week, that won’t last long), but the less likely I am to get distracted by unfinished work in my area, the more likely I am to deal with the list one by one and get things accomplished. When my organization gets out of hand (which it does frequently as I’m terrible at organizing), I feel my productivity sink with it.

Apr 7, 2022 0:08:39 GMT mikec said:

I don’t have a ton to add, but for me the simplest attack to my productivity failures was a clean and organized workspace and a very simple stripped down to do list. I’ve tried all the productivity apps you talked about (I in fact went to Trello again last week, that won’t last long), but the less likely I am to get distracted by unfinished work in my area, the more likely I am to deal with the list one by one and get things accomplished. When my organization gets out of hand (which it does frequently as I’m terrible at organizing), I feel my productivity sink with it.

I feel you on the tidiness, I would love to have a tidy work area... But I don't have anywhere for most of my stuff to go... And to be brutally honest I am not sure I would put it away if I did.
My actual desk isn't tidy, but it isn't too bad.... I would take a photo but there is a lot of sensitive crap around the placer... Business cards, invoices etc.

This is not my desk, but next to it... Where I build and test some of the devices I include with my equipment onsite:





Don't judge me...
I have created the perfect business in which my chaotic crazy nature can flourish... Until I die from the stress it causes me.

Apr 6, 2022 23:26:26 GMT iNCY said:

Apr 6, 2022 13:03:57 GMT 🤯 said:

I feel like I have to echo the delegation comment, but understand I don't understand the Australian labor market well enough to offer totally applicable ideas.

I think N A T H really hit the nail on the head. And to echo you iNCY in your own paraphrased words, I think your business is at that point where systems least interest you and this your risk of disengagement or burnout is becoming maximized. The design and implement a solution aspect of starting from nothing and growing to a certain level of sustainably phase seems to have ended. Now you're in the sustain, maintain, mature, and evolve phase. Which is slow and boring and full of drudgery... And the worst, bringing people into the fold.

Aside from your released installer, your three-person shop is all family, right? You, your Wife , and your dad or FIL? Was the former installer family too? Do they do much of substance for the business, or is their employment more of a way to help ensure pre-tax dollars from the business go to your family? In general, do you feel like their employment has helped you or been an added burden? One thing I experienced twice, and have heard almost unanimously ubiquitously is never do business with or employ family. The drawbacks or potential cons aren't worth the hassle, headache, drama, etc.

But I muse on all that to say bringing other people into the fold is such a challenge, probably even for "people person" people. I can't imagine the daunting challenge it must seem like for you. At least family is the devil you know, or are at least stuck with regardless, to an extent. I presume you've also become accustomed to certain margins in your business, so the idea of bringing onboard substantially more cost in the form of a hire or hires plus training time without a matching uptick in revenue from expanding business at the same time gives lots of cause for pause.

Then there's the golden handcuff comment about customers. It sounds like you need to train your customers better now too. If they trust you, they need to trust you'll only staff and assign employees capable of delivering the same quality your customers have come to expect from you (even if that's not entirely true). I don't think anyone other than you will ever be as vested in your business as you. Certainly not if they're not literally vested financially in it. And even then, probably never to the same level as you.

So I think the initial hires are probably critical to view through the lens of what three or so specific aspects of the business only you can do. Then hire around those first. I assume business strategy, customer relationships, and technical solutions are likely your three? So would hiring installers/customer support, supply chain planners/buyers, etc. be the best first move? Or, to your point, maybe just an executive assistant? But instead of thinking in terms of a part-time SAHM, I'd be thinking of a younger hungrier (likely male) candidate who can be mentored and groomed to not take over one day per se, but at least operate automatically as an iNCY Lite stand-in.

My family are not charity or tax dodge employees.
My wife is a qualified book keeper and our company books are no joke, we have accounts in three different currencies and that is a nightmare as far as tax goes, but she is all over it.
My Dad is working for me and I could probably get someone to replace him who could do more, but he does a good job of what he does and covers his own wage with a good margin on top.
If you are saying I need to employ more people, then I need to start with a manager.

As far as training customers I think that is a crap idea to be fair.
I see so many businesses realize they can save money if they replace their receptionist with a menu on the phone system or outsource their call center to the Philippines.
These same companies squeal like stuck pigs when their business gets replaced by a webpage.
If you commoditize your business you are just preparing for someone to replace it.

Sorry, nephew. Poor phrasing on my part re: your family employees, in part from not knowing what exactly they did for the business. Your Wife has my utmost respect. Taxes and FX are, or were, the bane of my existence as well back when I was working in finance for rail. I think ultimately you probably nailed it. Manager, or I think I was thinking COO - but one who'd ultimately grow and groom managers beneath him or her. At this point, it just seems like you should be straight up CEOing.

That's fair on the training customers thing. You'd know better than I would, especially for your particular customers. And I recall enough posts about your distaste for the touchscreen menus at McDonald's in Australia. I'm just going by my American conditioning and experience where the "customer is always right" mentality has been so adulterated that the customers train the suppliers and take, take, take at the supplier's loss. In this sense, I'm thinking of my company before last and the high profile project I was on in field where the customer essentially got their way demanding the company CEO serve as the PM.

I just think at this point, you really seem like you should be transitioning to that strict CEO life. Even Mrs. iNCY should be transitioning to CFO. Lateral those tax and FX headaches to some peon underling she can order around and delegate to as necessary.

That all said and aside... I keep coming back to feeling unclear on what productivity is here. Productivity seems like a weightless measure. Are you trying to grow your business by X amount? A target increase in revenue or profit or cash year over year or something? What is productivity in your mind, and what are the simplest metrics for assessing it?

Apr 7, 2022 0:30:15 GMT iNCY said:

Apr 7, 2022 0:08:39 GMT mikec said:

I don’t have a ton to add, but for me the simplest attack to my productivity failures was a clean and organized workspace and a very simple stripped down to do list. I’ve tried all the productivity apps you talked about (I in fact went to Trello again last week, that won’t last long), but the less likely I am to get distracted by unfinished work in my area, the more likely I am to deal with the list one by one and get things accomplished. When my organization gets out of hand (which it does frequently as I’m terrible at organizing), I feel my productivity sink with it.

I feel you on the tidiness, I would love to have a tidy work area... But I don't have anywhere for most of my stuff to go... And to be brutally honest I am not sure I would put it away if I did.
My actual desk isn't tidy, but it isn't too bad.... I would take a photo but there is a lot of sensitive crap around the placer... Business cards, invoices etc.

This is not my desk, but next to it... Where I build and test some of the devices I include with my equipment onsite:





Don't judge me...
I have created the perfect business in which my chaotic crazy nature can flourish... Until I die from the stress it causes me.

That doesn’t look very bad. A couple plastic organizers and a set of drawers and you’ll be set.

Apr 7, 2022 0:46:13 GMT Gyro LC said:

Apr 7, 2022 0:30:15 GMT iNCY said:

I feel you on the tidiness, I would love to have a tidy work area... But I don't have anywhere for most of my stuff to go... And to be brutally honest I am not sure I would put it away if I did.
My actual desk isn't tidy, but it isn't too bad.... I would take a photo but there is a lot of sensitive crap around the placer... Business cards, invoices etc.

This is not my desk, but next to it... Where I build and test some of the devices I include with my equipment onsite:





Don't judge me...
I have created the perfect business in which my chaotic crazy nature can flourish... Until I die from the stress it causes me.

That doesn’t look very bad. A couple plastic organizers and a set of drawers and you’ll be set.

My Dad organizes it once a fortnight 😎

I'm just now remembering and realizing why iNCY had a banner featuring Dalek on the old PW...

He does robots!

Apr 7, 2022 2:50:45 GMT 🤯 said:

I'm just now remembering and realizing why iNCY had a banner featuring Dalek on the old PW...

He does robots!

Not robots... but automation... I might have posted this before, but this is one of my babies.




I didn't build this panel but I installed the machine with this panel and I have to support and fix it if things go wrong... Which they do, hence the ghetto fix of the orange wire.
One of the machines I sell has about 7 cabinets like this of varying complexity.
It is getting better now because more of the machines I have networked and can diagnose from my office.

Incy with ADHD you would not be able to work at 100%. ADHD eats away at your ability to focus so you are always working less than 100% at best.

Def is a regulation thing, but not likely regulation of attention.

Basically see you having two ways to tackle this, wade into the science side through psych or tackle it from a management side and delegate / reallocate responsibilities or what not. Gonna assume you can evaluate shit on your own from a business side.

That said if you have not done it, review your business from a management workflow side as if you were an outsider. Always good to do from time to time, and that may help you see if you are the problem, or maybe this is something that should change on a jobsite level.

Apr 7, 2022 0:30:15 GMT iNCY said:

Apr 7, 2022 0:08:39 GMT mikec said:

I don’t have a ton to add, but for me the simplest attack to my productivity failures was a clean and organized workspace and a very simple stripped down to do list. I’ve tried all the productivity apps you talked about (I in fact went to Trello again last week, that won’t last long), but the less likely I am to get distracted by unfinished work in my area, the more likely I am to deal with the list one by one and get things accomplished. When my organization gets out of hand (which it does frequently as I’m terrible at organizing), I feel my productivity sink with it.

I feel you on the tidiness, I would love to have a tidy work area... But I don't have anywhere for most of my stuff to go... And to be brutally honest I am not sure I would put it away if I did.
My actual desk isn't tidy, but it isn't too bad.... I would take a photo but there is a lot of sensitive crap around the placer... Business cards, invoices etc.

This is not my desk, but next to it... Where I build and test some of the devices I include with my equipment onsite:





Don't judge me...
I have created the perfect business in which my chaotic crazy nature can flourish... Until I die from the stress it causes me.

If I showed you my desk, you'd feel better.      

Used to drive my boss mad because she has a flawless desk daily and I'm a 'spreader'.  That's why I was less than thrilled about the prospect of desk sharing with the new company.  1) I would have to shut down my computer and notes every night and lug it back and forth and I always have at least 20 excel files and PDF's open at any given time.  2) My desk is an extension of myself.  I have sticky notes all over my monitors with important info, notepads strewn with daily To Do lists and 'notes' and I have a pile for my day job, a pile for my side hustle and a pile for personal.  

Emperor , I tried emailing my boss with a list of my daily duties, but it became cumbersome for me.  Yet another 'busy' work I didn't have time for and resented, so it got dropped.  

Right now, I'm finding success in going with my very weird sleeping patterns, but it's not a sustainable model.  I find I am most productive between the hours of Midnight to 6am in between short 2-3hr sleeps.  However, the down side is my work is most active from the hours of 6:30am-5pm.  I sleep 2 hours at lunch, another hour or two after work, another couple after dinner and then I'm awake from Midnight - 11am.  This allows me to get the admin portion of my job done without interruption.  It's working at the moment, but again not sustainable so burn out is not far behind. 

I also make lists, however usually half or more of the stuff on my list doesn't get accomplished due to new issues and priorities cropping up daily because as we know there's no such thing as multitasking.  You can have 11 things on the go, but you can truly only focus on one at a time.  That's where I'm struggling.  I'm like a squirrel on crack.  

Thanks for this thread iNCY, I am finding it most enlightening.  Sounds like you, Emperor and myself need to make a support group.   :cheer:

Today was a productive day. I've got out of my funk. I woke up this morning and I already knew I wouldn't have many problems. And I didn't.

Certainly my issue of productivity is related to my mood. When I'm in a low mood, I'm more prone to procrastinate, which in turn makes me feel worse because I'm not working. It's a chicken and egg scenario. Am I in bad a mood because I choose to procrastinate, or do I procrastinate because I'm in a bad mood? I honestly have no idea.

Multitasking is an issue for me as well. My old job was structured really nicely in that I'd pretty much always be doing one thing at a time. Maybe a small distraction here or there, but for the most part my mind is on a big task. At my new job, which I started four months ago, we're in a much smaller team so we all have a larger portion of the work pile to attend to. My days are constantly broken up by meetings and I usually have two or three mini-projects on the go. Completing three mini-projects is parallel is much less efficient than if I were to do them in sequence.

Apr 7, 2022 16:15:13 GMT Emperor said:

Today was a productive day. I've got out of my funk. I woke up this morning and I already knew I wouldn't have many problems. And I didn't.

Certainly my issue of productivity is related to my mood. When I'm in a low mood, I'm more prone to procrastinate, which in turn makes me feel worse because I'm not working. It's a chicken and egg scenario. Am I in bad a mood because I choose to procrastinate, or do I procrastinate because I'm in a bad mood? I honestly have no idea.

Multitasking is an issue for me as well. My old job was structured really nicely in that I'd pretty much always be doing one thing at a time. Maybe a small distraction here or there, but for the most part my mind is on a big task. At my new job, which I started four months ago, we're in a much smaller team so we all have a larger portion of the work pile to attend to. My days are constantly broken up by meetings and I usually have two or three mini-projects on the go. Completing three mini-projects is parallel is much less efficient than if I were to do them in sequence.

Well done!
I am just about to finish for the day now and head to bed...
This is last night's sleep:




3hrs and 1 minute sleep the fitbit says, but I was in bed by 2am, but it alleges I didn't sleep until 4am.

I got into the office at 9am this morning.
Worked until 6:30pm and got home 6:40pm
Spent some time with the family and got my girls off to bed
8:30pm open laptop again...
It's 2:40am now and I am heading off to bed, I just wrote 6 proposals, I don't know if we will get any of them, if we got all of them it is over 10m USD... So unlikely.

I have been working since 1am. It's now 11:15 am here and I am off for nap #1: 11:30-1:30pm. I have been more productive following this method the last few days than I have in the past 2-3 years. I'm sure the ramifications on my health etc are probably terrible, but right now it's working so HUZZAH~! At least until I crash any way. I don't have small kids or a spouse though so I don't have to be all things to all people like you iNCY . Nor do I run my own company so my stress is decidedly less than yours I'm sure which is probably contributing to some of your sleep issues.

In recent news... My body still hates me:



I hate my body just as much as it hates me, so at least we have equilibrium....
My incredibly smart and patient wife thinks my caffeine intake is the problem, which is laughable... I mean I only drink 6-ish espresso's a day and two cans of Pepsi Max, why would that be a problem? 🙃

For those playing at home... Or looking to boost their own performance... Or the just bored.

I have found some better productivity these days... Still not close to my full potential, but it is helping.
After experimenting and playing the field, in the end I went back to Todoist:  todoist.com/



It's not perfect, but it is amazingly fast...
The main reason is that you can use natural language, if I need to do a task tomorrow I can write "Argue on PW at 9am tomorrow" and it will detect the date and file it accordingly.
The other main features:
You can email directly to your Todoist folder and it will pick up all your tags and apply them to the email, I use white text after my email signature to code the reminder
This would look like <date tomorrow> and then tomorrow it will pop up in your Todo list.
I have different folders for sales tasks or service tasks.
The other good point is customisable filters and tags.

Most of my systems are bastardisations of many other systems. (I put the bastard in bastardisation)
One of the most solid systems is GTD (Getting things done)
Great ideas but a little cumbersome.
The point I whole heartedly agree with is Todo list overwhelm just makes you depressed.
I take all my tasks i.e. @pc or @phone or @bh or @ah for Business hours or After hours.
This way if I am out I can look at my view which is just the calls I need to make.
Or if I am in the office only show me the tasks that can only be done at my PC during Business Hours.

I have shortcuts and text expanders that allow me to add the tasks super quickly.
Let's see how it goes.

All opinions and inputs are welcome.
Be warned though, YouTube productivity is a rabbit hole and it is hard to get honest opinions, because the productivity gurus keep jumping between Apps just so they have content to write about.

My next thing to really get into is "Second Brain"
I am not sure how this will work for me, because the more complex the system, the less likely I am to use it:




The amount of stupid things in my mind that I am trying to remember or have scattered across emails and various apps, pieces of paper is a total nonsense.

I've been taking a melatonin and l-theanine supplement which has been helping me fall asleep easier. I assume you've tried all kinds of supplements, iNCY?

Jul 6, 2022 15:38:35 GMT Gyro LC said:

I've been taking a melatonin and l-theanine supplement which has been helping me fall asleep easier. I assume you've tried all kinds of supplements, iNCY ?

No I haven't... I will add it to my Todo list 🙃
The weird part is that I seem to drift off quickly to me, but it must be taking a long time to get to proper sleep.
I am aware of dozing and waking.
Mind you, it is 1:49am and I am still working...

Well kind of side-tracked last 5 minutes... How cool is this?: gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

Insomnia is a bitch. The two decades I had it routinely were fucking awful.

Caffeine intake could be a problem but likely something else. I would try white noise while you sleep. Can help for things that may wake you. Assume also you are using a blue light filter at night time, but if not, yeah, filter out blue light hard at night time.

If you have anxiety that will also ruin your sleep cycle by putting you in a state of hypervigilance (this was my issue).

Also if you take any medications chat up your doctor. Many will cause insomnia if taken at night and most can be taken in the morning instead without any problems.

Jul 6, 2022 15:51:28 GMT iNCY said:

Jul 6, 2022 15:38:35 GMT Gyro LC said:

I've been taking a melatonin and l-theanine supplement which has been helping me fall asleep easier. I assume you've tried all kinds of supplements, iNCY ?

No I haven't... I will add it to my Todo list 🙃
The weird part is that I seem to drift off quickly to me, but it must be taking a long time to get to proper sleep.
I am aware of dozing and waking.
Mind you, it is 1:49am and I am still working...

Well kind of side-tracked last 5 minutes... How cool is this?: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003716291928.html

Not actually worth it.  I had a mini laptop for graduate school and to get it that small you have absolutely no protection in it, so it cracks super easily.  I replaced the screen twice on mine then gave up on it.  Cool idea in concept, but implementation is not there yet.  Also they have nearly no cooling so get super hot and thermally gate fast.

Jul 6, 2022 15:55:31 GMT c said:

Jul 6, 2022 15:51:28 GMT iNCY said:

No I haven't... I will add it to my Todo list 🙃
The weird part is that I seem to drift off quickly to me, but it must be taking a long time to get to proper sleep.
I am aware of dozing and waking.
Mind you, it is 1:49am and I am still working...

Well kind of side-tracked last 5 minutes... How cool is this?: www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003716291928.html

Not actually worth it.  I had a mini laptop for graduate school and to get it that small you have absolutely no protection in it, so it cracks super easily.  I replaced the screen twice on mine then gave up on it.  Cool idea in concept, but implementation is not there yet.  Also they have nearly no cooling so get super hot and thermally gate fast.

It wouldn't be my main driver, I do a bit of machine programming as well as PC admin, I like the USB and HDMI in, you can use it as a KVM.
The Serial port is also handy in my line of work, USB to Serial converters are buggy as hell, I have about 15 of them.

If it has a serial port they must be targeting field techs. I don't know the last time I saw a serial port on a laptop.

Make sure whatever you get is durable, as most of these def are not built to last.

Jul 6, 2022 15:51:28 GMT iNCY said:

No I haven't... I will add it to my Todo list 🙃
The weird part is that I seem to drift off quickly to me, but it must be taking a long time to get to proper sleep.
I am aware of dozing and waking.

The l-theanine allegedly helps you stay asleep, the melatonin is for falling asleep.

Replace the espresso with black tea and you get L-theanine that way too.

Another sleep trick is to temp drop. Hard to do, but if you can drop the temp like 5 degrees it often tricks the body into going to sleep as cooling is part of the sleep process.

Another chapter in my time saving journey would be the use of a Text Expander, this is something I think iron maiden , probably always uses in her type of role, maybe Gyro LC , too.
You can enter a shortcode for commonly used text and it will insert the phrase or sentence anytime you enter the shortcode.
The software just waits patiently in the background.

I use:



It is completely 100% free and easy to use.
My rule of thumb is that if there is a phrase or sentence I repeatedly enter, I save it in Beeftext.
For those who haven't played before...







I have a couple of examples:

#pa : is my full postal address
#wa : is the street address of my office
#ha : is my home address
#ie : my full email address

It's useful for pointless niceties too:
#gm : Good morning
#tye : Thank you for your email


But you can put in full sentences too:
p+a : Could I please have a price and availability on the following part numbers:

There's heaps of stuff I have saved in mine, my telephone numbers, customers names and addresses... It is very useful
Anyone make much use of text expanders?

Wow! Thanks iNCY! This looks like something I could definitely use in my day to day communications. I type the same sentences so many times in a day.