A small tip to save large amounts of time

You have two versions of the tip: a quick version followed by the slow version:

"The News"

The tip: set a goal for your day before you open your e-mails. Be aware of the automatic processes that will take place and think about what your reaction is likely to be. Remember, you don't have a choice about these, they happen automatically. Now think about what action you want to take - you have a choice on this one. Make sure the action you choose relates to your goal.

"The Mini-Series"

The biscuits on the conveyor belt provoke several simultaneous thoughts. One focuses on the manufacturing process and the neat lines and the other, not quite expressed in words, but if they were, would mean: "hmmmm...I wonder if anyone would mind if I ate one?"

In a similar way, the "conveyor belt" of information that feeds our senses provoke several simultaneous reactions. The red brake lights of the car in front immediately warn us to slow down and we reduce speed. When letters and words are shown, we habitually read them and this triggers a thoughts that strongly influence our thoughts, immediately and automatically. For instance, quickly read at the list below and say out loud the colour of the word:

RED  BLUE  YELLOW GREEN PURPLE

Then read this text:
"I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too."

In each case, a reaction is triggered automatically. In the first it may have hindered you, while in the second case it may have assisted you.

The first task many people do on arrival at work is to read their e-mails.

The task starts as a brief task to assemble a plan for the days work, but often this intention is derailed when your automatic reaction to content of each e-mail causes you to take the wrong direction. I will check my e-mails (five minutes) becomes I'll answer each one now (one hour) or "how dare he write that about me? I'll show him!" (two hours).

The tip: set a goal for your day before you open your e-mails. Be aware of the automatic processes that will take place and think about what your reaction is likely to be. Remember, you don't have a choice about these, they happen automatically. Now think about what action you want to take - you have a choice on this one. Make sure the action you choose relates to your goal.

David Hockney on the Influence of Technology on Picture Making

An article from the Financial Times on the influence of technology on picture making at http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e613f3d2-1b9a-11e2-ab87-00144feabdc0.html (free registration required to view article).

Interesting reading in its own right, and included here because the effects that technology have on the recording and expression of ideas are often imperceptible to those under the influence.

Authenticity: the Key to Public Speaking

Over the last two months, I have been training a group of people in public speaking. Many speakers don't lack what is required to present effectively, rather than inhibit what they do possess.

"I'm not going to be Steve Jobs, so I had better not speak."

"I have an accent so I am not going to sound like Churchill."

Remember: in making a connection with the audience words are only a small part of the delivery. The example - a master class - from Viktor Frankl demonstrates this effectively.

ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor

I recently returned from Cardiff where I attended an excellent course and became a ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor. Four days of excellent tuition and inspiration.

ThinkBuzan is the company that arose from Tony Buzan's invention: MindMaps. I am pleased and proud to be an endorsed instructor and will bring the learning and materials to my work with customers and clients.

I first used MindMaps just before my 20th birthday. Like many for whom MindMaps "click", I wish I had learned about them sooner. Since then I have been a regular user. Here are a number of observations I have made over the intervening years:

1. MindMaps are a thinking interface between your mind and the world. They work, because they record and present information and ideas in a way that delights your mind. Delight sparks creativity and memory.

2. MindMaps are "taught" in schools these days. My impression is there is a wide variation in the degree to which it is taught. Some schools do a thorough job and demonstrate the technique, encourage learning and guide students in the correct application of the MindMap principles. Others outline the technique, familiarise students, but don't persist in guiding or encouraging students in applying maps to their work. The result: poor teaching leads to poor technique. Poor technique leads to frustration in creating maps that don't work, frequently because the maps are not MindMaps. The result is the opinion: "I tried it and they didn't work for me".

Sad really. Many people hate cricket and when you find out why, it wasn't the game itself, but the way it was taught. A long afternoon spent at Fine Leg in the burning sun (no batting nor bowling) is not conduisive to a happy childhood sporting memory.

The real pity is that poor teaching is like an inoculation. You introduce a feeble strain of the disease so the body recognises it and is taught to reject it. Feeble strains of mapping lead to the recognition and rejection of proper MindMap techniques.

3. "Use Your Head" was first published in 1974. This was the book in which Tony Buzan outlined the MindMap idea and explained its uses. Since then there have been many advances in knowledge about the brain and the mind. The MindMap as a technique has been validated by these changes in our knowledge.

4. In the workplace, some organisations use maps, others don't. Many people in the workplace are familiar with mapping, endorse the benefits, but don't act. The persistence of linear interfaces and materials and their widespread use demand compliance. The use of MindMapping is silently ostracised by culture.

5. There are many mapping softwares available. Some are good in what they achieve, but many do not produce MindMaps. The only software that applies the MindMap principles is ThinkBuzan's iMindMap.

6. As technology increases, many look to "bells and whistles" to improve their lot. The technology depicted in the movie "Minority Report" is often cited as the next step and some mention systems that can do this. I believe that a person can gain more traction by understanding how they interact with information, learn how they process it and then apply what they learned to design and shape their world. They can become more efficient and productive. MindMaps are a cheap, easy and simple step to take a major step on this road.

To go to the ThinkBuzan website, click here.

Worried about the future?

Starting a new topic for a class of tertiary students, I set the scene with an exercise.  What was life like in the past?  Small groups summarised the main factors at different times: 200, 100, 50, 20 and five years ago, followed by a discussion of the results.  The groups then speculated as to what life would be like in the future at the equivalent distances in time.  In discussion, it became clear that the incremental progress and improvement of the past would not continue.  The discussion of the future could be summarised as "Fewer opportunities, higher taxes and less pay in a crowded, polluted world".

If this is your outlook, I would recommend you read "The Shift" by Lynda Gratton.  This book discusses the themes and forces that affect our world and provides a solid framework to make sense of it and plan for the opportunities that will undoubtedly arise.  The power of the book is not that it provides "the answers" as much as it guides you to find the answers that apply for you.  There is a free accompanying workbook that can be obtained through: http://www.hotspotsmovement.com/ ("Resources", "The Shift", "Download The Shift Workbook") in which you can put your ideas into action.

The bleak and pessimistic future reminded of a story in John Watson's excellent book "A Terrible Beauty. The People and Ideas That Shaped the Modern Mind".  In the Introduction, he wrote:

"Interviewed on BBC television in 1997, shortly before his death, Sir Isiah Berlin, the Oxford philosopher and historian of ideas, was asked what had been the most surprising thing about his long life.  He was born in Riga in 1909, the son of a Jewish timber merchant, and was seven and a half years old when he witnessed the start of the February Revolution in Petrograd from the family's flat above a ceramics factory. He replied, 'The mere fact that I shall have lived so peacefully and so happily through such horrors.  The world was exposed to the worst century there has ever been from the point of view of crude inhumanity, of savage destruction of mankind, for no good reason,...And yet, here I am, untouched by all this,...That seems to me quite astonishing'."

You can view the full interview here.

Stop worrying - it may never happen.