Thought Lateral » productivity

Berry nice phone you have

Denver — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:18:13 +0000

No the title isn’t an inebriated typo, or a forage into composition of Engrish prose. Those with communication induced sore thumbs may immediately recognise it as a reference to the Blackberry communications device from the company Research In Motion (RIM).
In a long saga spanning pretty much an entire year I have finally become an owner of a Blackberry device. Though the painfully expensive and protracted saga ended but a few weeks ago I can already state it was worth the hassle. Well worth the hassle.
I’ve never had any predisposition for RIM devices and still don’t, as long as it gets the job done I’m a happy bunny. Palm and Windows mobile devices just didn’t cut the mustard.
I wondered why many successful business people, and presidents owned Blackberry devices. Now I know; from experience.
Full Qwerty keyboard.
Suitable for one hand use.
A universe of software and support.
All of its features are geared towards getting things done efficiently. (Checkout its shortcuts for instance).
That last point is the clincher for me. I’ve had too many device features fail to live up to their promise, turning out to be mere eye candy rather than fulfilling a useful purpose.
The wow factor fails to impress me much, but the “can do” factor?.. mmm that sounds Berry nice!
[Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device - where else?]

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Get up on the sound of the alarm

Denver — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 12:32:10 +0000

What is the difference between the alarm going off in the morning and getting out of bed? For me it is the snooze time in between.
When the alarm goes off I’m still semi-concious and hit the snooze button for extra repose. So the time set on the alarm to get up is not the actual time I arise.
How do I get up at the set time? I could set the alarm earlier, so that after snoozing I’d be up at the time planned. However this is interpreted by a freshly awoken brain as “useful time when I should actually still be asleep”, and consequently it feels it is owed extra slumber than the snooze button will give.
The optimal solution is to arise on the sound of the alarm, yet my freshly woken mind is convinced that the one hour for morning tasks (allocated before I went to bed) can be accomplished in just half, which leaves the other half hour for snooze time.
Coersion, threats, etc, have limited impact upon the awoken mind. The most significant impact I’ve found is to bed down earlier the night before, which significantly increases my chances of getting up on the alarm. So changing me over time from a night owl to an early bird.

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#5 Live 5 Minutes In The Future

Denver — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:28:27 +0000

A simple fiddle of the knob, and you're in the future already!

T – 5:00 and counting….

I used to have a digital watch for a Digital age, and perceived them to be superior to analogue watches. Modern digital watches are for modern times – or so the reasoning went.

…T- 4:00…

However, such a view was short sighted as analogue systems have a benefit I much underestimated .

…T- 3:00…

You can see the scale as a continuous range. For example, on a watch you can see the future time lying ahead of the minute hand, and the past that lays behind it.

…T – 2:00…

Using this advantage, I’ve set my analogue watch five minutes ahead of the actual time.

…T – 1:00…

This continually conditions the mind to see five minutes into the future. It helps re-align my present actions so I’m in the correct place, or have done what I need to, when the time arrives.

…0:00 Time out!

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#1 Sleep to dismount a vicious cycle

Denver — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:52:36 +0000

Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

“What does every man wish he had more of, but never knows when he has it?” says the Riddle.

“Sleep” replies the Answer.

I’ve come to think that battles of “Morning commute rush” and “Groggy afternoon malaise” are won the night before, particularly in the time I go to sleep. The earlier the bedtime, the less likely the following morning would seem like a rat race, or the afternoon turn into a sleep-deprived stupor.

It is said the sleep hours before midnight are worth double those after, and I’ve found this has some truth to it.

However, there is a counter force that resists earlier bedtimes. Long work hours means there’s no evening to be had. So watching a late movie tempts to improve the work-life balance. Thinking laterally though, the long work hours may be shortened if adequate sleep is obtained the night before – as the better productivity results.

So the more sleep, the more likely this vicious cycle will get a puncture.

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