Executive Masters

Blog deprecated

2011-07-16T19:32:00.000-07:00

In case you're still listening, you may have noticed that I haven't posted here for a while.I've started a Tumblr blog called "It feels better to share." It's really an experiment to find out the best way for me to publish things in my head.

So far, a month into Tumblr, I don't really like it. Tumblr seems focused on small posts, and my thoughts don't fit well into small posts. But I'll continue using Tumblr until I find something better.

Please continue reading the stuff that leaks out of my head onto It feels better to share.

Using Jabber Accounts in Adium: Error Socket Not Connected

2009-03-01T16:18:00.001-08:00

Use Adium? Having trouble getting Jabber accounts to connect? I found a workaround.

I discovered that Adium was not logging in to my Jabber account on startup. It was in an endless retry loop with "Error Socket Not Connected."

I googled it and got some results telling me to change the port number. No joy.

I happened across a bug report for Adium saying that you had to click the Register button even if you've already created your account. Yep, that works.

Here are the details:

1. Go to Adium > Preferences > Accounts.

2. Right click (or control click) on the Jabber account. Click Edit Account.

3. On the Account tab, click Register New Account.

4. Everything should be all better now.

As the Internet Rewires Our Brains

2009-03-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

When you have about 10 minutes to focus on reading and considering something important, take a look at this: As the Internet Rewires Our Brains by Kurt Cagle at O'Reilly.

Over the past decade a whole new field of study has evolved on the topic of neuroplasticity - the idea that our brains literally reprogram themselves ("re-wire" themselves in a very physical, physiological way) based on external stimuli like physical activity, reading, playing games, etc. It's a very real, scientifically measurable effect.

Given that, a very good question to ask is, "What effects are the Internet and all its associated activities and modalities having on our brains?" It's not just children's brains that will respond to Internet use; adult brains are plastic as well.

You can find all kinds of dire warnings in the media about how the Internet is dumbing down human civilization. Some of that may be true. In his article, Kurt Cagle offers a little bit of balance to that.

On the whole I think Cagle's article is fair and does not get too excited on either end of the argument. There's lots to think about there.

Cloud Computing Bill of Rights

2008-09-13T20:00:00.000-07:00

James Urquhart proposes a Bill of Rights for vendors and buyers of cloud computing services.

I think this is a very intriguing idea, even if it may lack practicality.

The thing I missed in it, though, is that there are several references to "the community." But who and what is "the community?" I believe I understand correctly that he's referring collectively to all the people who use and/or purchase cloud computing services and deliver value-added services based on the same.

But so far I see no reason to call that collection of people and companies a community. A community has shared norms, values, language, history, and/or mythology. A community has ways of establishing and maintaining relationships between members. I don't see that users and purchasers of cloud computing services have enough of those things to be called a community yet.

Free Association

2008-09-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one whom the Google Chrome Logo reminds of the Martians in the original War of the Worlds?

Tomorrow is C Day: Google Chrome, September 2, 2008

2008-09-01T17:10:00.000-07:00

Rumors have been around forever but finally Google has publicly announced the release of Chrome. It may well fizzle but it could really change the game entirely for many, most, or all web companies.

Sometime tomorrow, Tuesday, September 2, 2008, www.google.com/chrome will become live and you will be able to download this cool new toy. Google described Chrome in a 38-page comic book that is part marketing spiel and part "Introduction" chapter to a technical reference guide.

This comic book itself is pretty revolutionary. I'm guessing we'll see a lot more "documentation" like this from many other companies in the future.

I'm bummed that the first release of Chrome will be Winblows only. By itself Chrome won't be enough to bring me back to Gatesland, but I don't like it when something really cool isn't available to me :(

Google Notebook for GTD

2008-08-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

A while ago Lifehacker suggested that Google's Notebook could be used for GTD. It may work for some, but not for me.

Google Notebook is a nice little app. It has some convenient features and I use it now and then. Most recently Notebook has been integrated with Google Bookmarks which gives it a real purpose in my book.

But I tried to set up Notebook so that I could use it for GTD. For me, Google Notebook eleminated itself as a GTD tool within about 20 minutes of experimentation. Here's why:

I can't drag and drop items from one notebook into a section within another notebook. This seems to me like a really, really poor design, but there you are. I can drag from one notebook to another, but it won't let me see the sections in a second notebook when I'm already in the first notebook. Fail.
No way to do recurring tasks. There's also no way to mark a due date on a task that is Pending. Fail, fail.
Can't email into Notebook. If I were driving down the highway and suddenly remembered something very urgent, I couldn't use Jott to transcribe my voice note and email it to Google Notebook. I'd have to have Jott email it to my mail box and I would have to manually convert the email to an Inbox action item. Fail, fail, fail.
No keyboard shortcuts. I have to take my hands off the keyboard and search for the mouse to do almost anything. Fail, fail, fail, and FAIL.

So I keep looking for the perfect GTD tool . . .

MonkeyGTD

2008-08-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I continue my search for a GTD tool that meets my needs. Today I looked at MonkeyGTD.

MonkeyGTD is based on TiddlyWiki, which is essentially a self-updating .html file. TiddlyWiki uses some scary-smart JavaScript to let you make your own wiki, along the lines of Wikipedia and such. It's meant to be used to build and maintain your own personal knowledgebase.

MonkeyGTD starts with TiddlyWiki's scary-smart JavaScript but pumps it full of steroids and trains it in the fine art of GTD. The result is some truly stunning technology. The people who built this are simply geniuses.

However, MonkeyGTD doesn't meet my needs for a GTD tool. Essentially it's just too complex to use.

If I jumped into MonkeyGTD I think I'd figure it out in not too long. But that's beside the point. By figuring out MonkeyGTD's view of the world, I think that my mind would set up a whole translation schema and I would be constantly (subconsciously) translating or mapping my natural, stress-free way of managing tasks into MonkeyGTD's paradigms. And I think that would introduce stress, even subconscious stress, into my task management. That means I wouldn't use it effectively and it could no longer be my *trusted* system.

That's a (hopefully) thoughtful and elegant way of saying I'm too lazy to figure out how to use MonkeyGTD.

Key requirements for my GTD tool(s): simple to use, easy to adapt, and little or no need to read the documentation.

Maybe that's why there are so many different GTD tools out there: Everyone looks at task management differently and therefore everyone needs different tools.

I would really recommend MonkeyGTD to other people looking for GTD tools. It's just not the one for me.

2018

2008-08-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a cool service called Twine and some one named Kevin Makice, I found this post predicting what the cloud computing market will look like in 10 years.

A long time ago I heard my boss's boss, Hugh Ryan at (then) Andersen Consulting, quote some one who said something like "Anyone with the audacity to predict the future lacks the credibility to be believed." I can't find that exact quote anywhere; if any readers can give me its source I would really appreciate it.

Given the wisdom of that quote, here are my predictions for the competition in various enterprise IT markets in 2018:

PCs and PC hardware:

Apple merged with Acer, Dell, Lenovo, and/or one or more lesser known Asian manufacturers
several vendors of ultra-cheap presentation layer devices that will hardly be called PCs (try googling 3270)

Servers (this market will be small):

HP
Sun (possibly merged with the hardware-making portions of Google)
IBM (possibly merged with HP or EMC)
EMC

Phones/Smart devices: competition between:

Apple
Nokia

Privacy- and security- focused services/clouds:

Microsoft merged with ADP, either Oracle or SAP, and a bunch of tiny fodder
Amazon
eBay
Google

Throughput- and functionality- focused services/clouds:

Google
Google merged with Salesforce
Google merged with Sun
Google merged with Salesforce and Sun
Google merged with Salesforce, Sun, Oracle, SAP, Blackwater, BP, Eli Lilly, Philip Morris, and Waste Management

Airlines:

Amtrak
Union Pacific

Social Surplus of Time

2008-08-06T01:56:00.000-07:00

How much time do Americans spend watching TV?

The CIA estimates that the US population in July 2008 is 303,824,646 (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/us.html).

The Nielson Company published in July 2008 that each month the average American watches 127.25 hours of television (http://www.nielsen.com/media/2008/pr_080708.html).

Do the math. 127.25 hours/month x 12 months/year x 303,824,646 people is 463 billion person-hours each year - and that only includes Americans.

It has been estimated that the sum total of all of Wikipedia represents about 100 million person-hours of work.

If these numbers are true, it means that each year Americans spend as many hours watching TV as it would take to complete about 4,630 projects the size of Wikipedia.

Imagine the affect that would have on human society - globally, not just in the US. Imagine 4,630 project with the social impact of Wikipedia. Each year. Imagine.

6.6 degrees of separation

2008-08-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

The old idea that everyone in the world is connected to everyone else within 6 degrees of separation got some statistical support recently.

A study by Microsoft, based on MS Messenger instant messaging usage, says that on average, every Messenger user is connected to every other Messenger user within 6.6 degrees of separation.

Of course, that's people using Microsoft IM. There's a lot more people using Yahoo, AIM, etc., and many people who use more than one service (like me). I would guess that the real number for IM users around the world is lower. But, IM users are still a small portion of humanity.

Note: If the link to the Washington Post article asks you to register, get an ID off bugmenot.com.

Note2: You can get the full research report from http://research.microsoft.com/~horvitz/Messenger_graph_www.htm

Rock Star Employees

2008-08-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've done a lot of recruiting throughout my career. I've conducted countless interviews for technical positions, and I like to think that the people I hired were above average to spectacular. What did I look for in the interviews?

Sam Decker, CMO at Bazaarvoice, has a great post on what to look for in candidates. He pretty much sums up my thoughts on interviewing - more clearly than I would have!

In Search of the Perfect GTD Tool

2008-07-26T17:43:00.000-07:00

So here I found myself working at a software engineer's dream - Google - and the flood of to-dos coming in by email now made my Hipster PDA hopelessly inadequate. But now what to do? Abandon myself to the chaos that is, for many people, the email inbox? Tell everyone that I won't do anything unless they write it down on a 3x5 index card? Quit my job? Of course not. Instead, I searched for a better tool.

Just try googling some combination of GTD, software, tools, and getting things done. You will find more automated GTD solutions than you could possibly write down on an index card. Every little web app that allows you to hold a list of things suddenly calls itself GTD software. How could I possibly sort through them all?

In my compulsively methodical style, I started from the beginning: What was it that I really needed and wanted? I made a list of my "requirements." It looked something like this, in approximate order of need:

effective time and task management
email integration
low or no cost
offline access
accessible from more than one PC (via data synchronization or web solution)
a GTD-like paradigm
access from my iPhone

The top priority, of course, was effective time and task management. That's what it's all about! I put GTD-like paradigm near the bottom because I am not a GTD fanatic; as long as the system made me more productive it could use a butterscotch pudding paradigm for all I care. I did need the tool to be accessible from more than one PC because I wanted to have the same data with me when I am at work and at home. (After all, I sometimes do work stuff at home and home stuff at work.) And I put iPhone access at the bottom of the list because I thought it would be a nice-to-have.

Given 20-20 hindsight, I see how utterly naive that list was! After I selected a tool and had worked with it for a while, I found that offline access became less important with iPhone access. In fact, iPhone access should have been second or third on my list. Also, something gravely important was missing from the list. Can you guess what it is? Product stability and vendor reliability should have fought iPhone access for second or third priority. That's the first thing they teach you in enterprise software services 101: stability and reliability outweigh almost all other considerations. And I forgot that to my own regret.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I took this list (as it was) and put it in a spreadsheet. But not just any spreadsheet. I put it in a Google Docs spreadsheet from my personal gmail account and then invited my Google email address as a collaborator. That way I could work on the document from home or from work without any synchronization issues. The items on my requirements list became column headings in the spreadsheet.

Then I started sifting through Google search results to compile a list of products that looked like good candidates. For each product returned by my search, I went to its home page and gave it a very quick look. I read the product features page (if there was one), I looked at screen shots, and sometimes registered and tried out the tools for a minute or two. After that brief review, I went with my gut: Does this look fun to use, and does it look like it will do what I need?

When I had 20 prospects that passed my gut-reaction test, I decided enough is enough. I listed those candidates down the rows in my spreadsheet. Those candidates were:

iGTD	http://www.igtd.pl/iGTD/iGTD2/index.html
GTDInbox	http://gtdinbox.com/
Things	http://culturedcode.com/things/
Midnight Inbox	http://www.midnightbeep.com/index2.html
Kinkless GTD	http://kinkless.com/kgtd
OmniFocus	http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnifocus/
Thinking Rock	http://www.thinkingrock.com.au/
Vitalist	http://www.vitalist.com/
Nozbe	http://nozbe.com/
Backpack	http://backpackit.com/
Tadalists	http://www.tadalist.com/
Tracks	http://www.rousette.org.uk/projects/
Tracks Exchange	http://tracks.morphexchange.com/
Personal Tracks	http://www.personaltracks.com
Tracks Train	http://tracks.tra.in/
SimpleGTD	http://simplegtd.com/
Mojonote	http://mojonote.com/
Tasktoy	http://www.evernote.com
Todoist	http://todoist.com/
Evernote	http://www.evernote.com

I won't try to explain or evaluate these tools here. If you're interested, explore them yourself. Suffice it to say here that after trying these out for an hour or so each, I decided that GTDInbox was just what I needed.

I had great hopes for GTDInbox. Too bad it didn't work out for me.

My History of Getting Things Done

2008-07-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

The whole point of the GTD approach is to have a single trusted system which covers all the "things" in your life: to dos, appointments, projects, etc., etc. Sadly, my single trusted system has developed technical problems which I can no longer tolerate, and I need to find a new system. Over the next several posts I'm going to document my search for a new system. But first, let's talk about the systems I've used before.

For over two years I used the Hipster PDA approach: carry index cards, put each to-do on a single card, and keep the cards separated by contexts or projects. That probably seems terribly Luddite of me, but it worked beautifully through several phases of my life.

After working for a company with a severely punishing culture for two years, I left and became an independent contractor. I specifically wanted low-stress work. I wanted to be heads-down, with a low profile, fewer projects, and less dynamic priorities. I traveled pretty much full-time, but even with that I had much less stress than before.

The Hipster PDA got me through that very well. I had only 2 or 3 work projects at any time and a couple of personal projects. I had lots of little things to do: Some originated from email but just as many came from phone calls or just popped into my head.

Each task went on an index card, and I collected all my cards by project. I didn't use contexts very much because all my projects either had to be done at my computer or at home.

I also discovered how useful a tickler file can be: I wrote tickler items on cards and put them in a recipe card holder divided into months. And my beloved Someday list! All the wild daydreams I had about things I would do if only (fill in the blank). With a Someday list, those things no longer nagged at me. Each time one came up, I wrote it down and put it in an extra section at the back of my tickler. I also added a new tickler card to remind me to review my Someday list on the first of each month. I no longer felt like I was deprived of following my dreams, because my dreams were all written down and I knew I could come back to them at any time. What a stress relief!

Then I started a weekend masters degree program. I had a lot more tasks to do, and more projects, but the Hipster PDA approach worked fine. I started using contexts, because I now had several of them: in class, at study group, online, at the library, at home, at work, etc.

I changed jobs because I found it nearly impossible to travel full time and still study. I got a nice boring desk job at Dell, nothing stressful or challenging. That was OK, because I could put more energy into school. And my Hipster PDA still met my needs very well.

Then I graduated school, and Dell laid me off. Now my project list was down to one: Get a job! (Not really. I still had some home-maintenance kind of projects. But finding employment was Job One.) My Hipster PDA still met my needs. Few of my tasks came from email, but a lot came from meeting with people and reading things about job search. Note cards and a pen worked great: low maintenance, easy to use, quick, and platform independent :)

But then I got a job at Google, and everything changed. I went into learning mode, trying to quickly come up to speed with the products, people, and processes at Google. Suddenly my life revolved around email. I had many small projects, most of which I needed a computer for, but some had to be done at home and some at work. And suddenly I found myself having to make a lot of phone calls.

Now that easily 50% of my emails directly translated into one or more tasks, it made no sense to transcribe those to index cards. I would spend all my time copying from my computer screen to index cards!

So I went on a search for an automated GTD approach. And that is the topic of my next post.

I haven't forgotten about the blog - really!

2007-11-20T13:51:00.000-08:00

It's been 10 months since I posted anything. I know it seems like Executive Masters is just another abandoned dream. But that's not the case. I've been not posting on purpose . . .

I had written a post which was somewhat critical of the UT Executive Masters program. Before I posted that, luckily, I happened to think about what I had written.

The program administration or faculty or other students could have read that post and taken offense. Even though no offense was intended, I realized the post could have been read that way. And I really don't need that kind of trouble.

So I made a conscious decision to stop posting until after I graduate. Well, graduation is coming soon, and so is my next post!

If i'ts January, it must be Spring Semester

2007-01-21T22:43:00.000-08:00

I've just completed the first weekend of the first semester of my second (last!) year. This semester we have Advanced Marketing and Design Metrics. It seems like these two classes really do fit together well . . .

Advanced Marketing will be my first introduction to marketing as an academic pursuit. My only previous exposure to marketing was glossy brochures, funny product names, and people at company headquarters who seemed to know absolutely nothing of any value. I'm surprised to find that marketing does seem to have some intellectual rigor.

I thought that Design Metrics would address really boring stuff like documenting designs, measuring completeness of a design, and maybe requirements traceability. It's not like that at all. We haven't been given a meaningful syllabus, and it looks like we may never open the text book, but I'm getting a sense of what the class will be like. It seems to be addressing concepts like matching a product to a market: How do I design a product to meet a market's needs.

They really do fit together well. Marketing should teach me how to identify and quantify a market which a company can compete in. Design Metrics will teach me how to design a product for that market, and how to bring it to market. Cool stuff.

Last semester I was enamored with Finance and I thought that I could turn my career in that direction. Now, after the first semester, I'm thinking maybe I'd like to turn my career towards marketing.

To be honest, I'm just so excited to be in school and learning things, that everything sounds great to me!

PMI PMP Certification

2006-05-13T22:00:00.000-07:00

Several of my classmates have asked me about how I passed the PMI certified Project Management Professional test. Although this is not strictly related to the Executive Masters degree program, it still might interest some one who is reading this blog . . .

I first heard about PMI and their PMP certification in 2000. My first impression was that the certification would look nice on my resume but it wouldn’t do my career any practical good. After all, I had already established my experience as a project manager. Back then PMI had a sample certification test on their website, and I gave it a try without ever having looked at the PM BOK. I didn’t pass that test but I was within 15 percentage points of passing. Given that I did so well on the first try, I sort of lost interest in PMI.

Things had changed quite drastically in 2004. I needed work desperately and was willing to try anything to land a job in that depressed economy. So I decided that PMP certification would be worth it.

I looked for a book to help me pass the test. I trolled through the many PMP test prep books and many, many book reviews on amazon.com before finally settling on The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe.

I studied this book probably about 2-4 hours a week for about six weeks. I worked all the exercises in the book and I took all the sample tests. I also made flash cards by writing out key facts on index cards. I went through the index cards, repeatedly testing myself until I had the vast majority memorized. All told, I probably spent a sum total of no more than 30 hours on preparing for the test.

On all the exercises and sample tests in the book, I just couldn’t get my scores to get much above 80%. While that was a passing grade, I wanted a wider safety margin than that before I took the actual exam. But regardless of how much a studied and tried to memorize, my scores just wouldn’t go above 80%.

So I went ahead and took the certification exam. I passed with about 80%.

I believe that The PMP Exam by Andy Crowe is an excellent tool to help you pass the PMP certification test. Unless you have a photographic memory, I believe you will probably not get much above 80% on the test. I think the only way to score higher than that would be to spend months literally memorizing the PM BOK. Sure, you could do that, but it wouldn’t make you a better project manager, and you wouldn’t get brownie points for passing the test by a wide margin.

It is my belief that the PMI PMP is a necessary but not sufficient qualification for a project manager. If I were hiring a project manager, I wouldn’t hire some one who is not PMI certified. However, a certified PMP still would have to demonstrate project management experience and have a great interview before I would hire him or her.

The Course Books

2006-04-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

I originally meant this blog to focus not so much on me, but on the program. I meant this blog to be a resource for perspective students and new students in the program. Instead my posts have tended to focus on my own experience and feelings. While I find this interesting, you might not.

So let’s get back to basic information about what students actually experience in the program. First, let me talk about the class course books . . .

At the start of the semester, the program gave us a big, sturdy plastic bag containing everything we need for the semester. This included a large 3-ring binder to store class notes and such. It’s professionally done with that trademark burnt orange color on the cover.

Also in the bag were all the text books needed for that semester’s courses plus a course book for each class.

Each instructor makes up the course book for his or her class. The course book is spiral bound and also has that burnt orange cover. It includes the course syllabus plus any articles or other materials the instructor wishes to give the students. For each course the syllabus includes things like the instructor’s contact information, the grading system, the topics of each session, and maybe homework assignments.

The course book for Dr. McCann’s project management class is thin, only 40 pages or so. It has a single article, which is from the Harvard Business School. But Dr. McCann’s class also includes 3 actual text books.

Prof. Haunschild’s organizational management class had no actual text books, but its course book is pretty big. It contains reprints of literally dozens of articles on management. Look for an entire post just on the materials for her class in the near future.

That 3-ring binder is great for holding the hand-out material from each class session. Prof. Haunschild passes out copies of all her materials and slides, already 3-hole punched. Dr. McCann posts .pdfs of his materials to Blackboard and if we want to have hard copies he expects us to print them out on our own.

The executive masters program at UT does everything they can to make the logistics easy. By providing all the books and materials for us, they really have helped us out tremendously. There’s no need to go digging through a book store and there’s no extra expense for books. It really couldn’t be any easier unless they provided everything in .pdfs on a thumb drive, and that’s really probably expecting too much.

Back in the Saddle Again

2006-04-21T18:54:00.000-07:00

I wrote earlier about the fact that I was disappointed in my score on my first test. Well, since then I’ve had two more tests and I’m feeling much more like myself again . . .

In Dr. McCann’s project management class we had our first test. He allowed three hours for the test but he thought most people would be done with it in two hours. Sure enough, I took almost the entire three hours; there were only two other people left after me. But taking that extra time worked out for me: I got a 100% on that test.

We also have had our second test in Prof. Haunschild’s Managing People and Organizations class. This time I got 35 out of 35 - another 100%.

Now, admittedly, these two tests were easier than Prof. Haunschild’s first test. The average score on each was much higher. But still, these are the kinds of grades I’m used to. I feel like my old self again, doing well in school and feeling great because of it. Hello, UT, I’m back in the saddle again.

Getting Things Done

2006-04-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

In the Executive Masters program, I have a lot to get done: Work, home, exercise, reading, homework, papers, presentations. So it's only natural that I start looking for ways to become more productive.

David Allen has firmly established his position as a personal productivity guru. If you surf the net looking for “productivity” it won’t take long before you find references to David Allen and his book Getting Things Done. According to what you’ll find on the web, Getting Things Done is the answer to all our disorganization, wasted time, and incomplete tasks.

Personal productivity techniques I’m familiar with tend to be either tactical or strategic. Tactical techniques tell me that if I get the mechanics of organization and doing right, then I will be more efficient and I’ll get more done. All I need is to be more diligent with my to-do list and my schedule. Strategic techniques tell me that if I get my priorities straight, then I’ll get more of the important things done. All I need is to be more clear on my mission and goals.

Getting Things Done goes beyond both tactics and strategy. It goes to the “personal” part of “personal productivity.” The underlying message I got from the book is this: Everyone has more to do than they ever could complete; the reason I don't accomplish more has to do with subconscious resistance and unresolved feelings that limit me.

As soft and fuzzy as that sounds, Allen doesn’t get soft and fuzzy. Rather than suggesting we need more hugs, Allen presents a lot of practical ways to avoid or transform the subconscious resistance and unresolved feelings.

For example, he says that people feel stressed about not getting enough done because unconsciously they know there are a dozen or a hundred other things that they could have (or should have) done today. That stress makes people feel so overwhelmed that they probably didn't fully complete any of the things they did do that day.

The solution: Write down everything that you think you should/could/might/maybe/want to do today, tomorrow, or someday. Write it down and put it in a file or journal or something that you will review regularly. Once you've established trust with yourself that you will always come back to those things, the stress disappears. You may still choose not to do any of those things. But the fact that you trust yourself to not forget them and to make conscious decisions about them relieves the stress and the negative self judgments attached to them.

Without those negative feelings holding you back, you’ll get more done.

It’s a little more complicated than that of course, and the book presents lots of useful and practical tips on just exactly how to write everything down so that you will come back to it and have fun doing it.

I've started following some of his techniques just in little ways and it seems to have helped me get more things done with less stress. And I enjoy doing it. The real test, of course, is whether I still use these techniques in two years.

The book does have some flaws. It’s not a cookbook, and sometimes I had difficulty translating Allen’s recommendations into things I could really do in my life. I’d like it to be more direct, organized, and prescriptive. But its format does allow me a great deal of flexibility to interpret and implement Allen’s concepts in ways that work for me.

Getting Things Done by David Allen is available on amazon.com. David Allen's web site is http://www.davidco.com/.

Test 1: Managing People and Organizations

2006-04-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

As I wrote earlier, my first test was in February and I had lots of fears about it.

When the day for the test finally came, as Professor Haunschild handed out the stapled sheets, she reminded us that the test should last an hour but she would allow an hour and 15 minutes. Of course, when I got the test the first thing I did was put my name on it, and then I read each question to see how bad this was going to be and where I should spend my time. Things did not look good . . .

For a few of the questions, I knew the answers right away. For some I had a vague idea. For a few others, I couldn’t think of a single thing that seemed applicable. I gulped, and prayed, and breathed. I picked out the easiest one and started writing.

The test took me almost the entire hour and 15 minutes. By the end, I thought I had come up with some pretty good answers to all the questions. Even for the questions I thought were hardest, I came up with some answers that sounded fairly good to me.

Then I had to put it out of my mind. I had all afternoon to sit through Dr. McCann’s class. I had to focus on the classes, not the test.

I did not obsess about the test for the next month. I could have worried a lot, but I didn’t. I did think about it a couple of times, but I knew that I had done the best I could, and I resolved to do better next time. I checked Blackboard several times, in the baseless hope that Professor Haunschild would post the results before returning the tests.

Professor Haunschild handed back our tests at the end of our first class in March. We had been in breakout sessions and we came back to find the individually sealed brown-gold 9”x12” envelopes on our desks. The tests, and the grades, were in the envelopes. That made it seem all that much more dramatic to me. I was a little late getting back to our room and many people had already picked up their tests and left for lunch. A few people sat at their desks, silently and intently going through their opened their envelopes. The room felt as tense as on test day.

Now, I like to play it cool. I always play down drama. I never let anyone know that anything is a big deal. So rather than making it seem like I actually cared about the test, I simply opened my envelope and looked at the first page. Written in red was 27.5. I looked at it a little closer and realized that was my total number of points. I figured out that this was out of 35 possible. So I got my calculater, figured out that I got a 78%, and put the test back in the envelope. I packed up my things and left for lunch while some of my class mates poured over their results.

A C. 78% is a C. My head spun and my body felt numb. I got a C. I couldn’t think of anything except getting lunch and getting a C. Even after eating a little I felt stunned, and I went for a little walk to try to clear my head. I resolved to do better on my next test. I don’t know how to study any harder. I don’t know how to be better prepared. I resolved to talk with Professor Haunschild and ask her how I can do better. I know I can do better than this, can’t I?

Obviously, the easiest way to learn how to do better is to read the test and Professor Haunschild’s comments. But for Dr. McCann’s class that afternoon, and for the next two days, I lived in fear of that envelope. Inside that envelope was the absolute evaluation of my knowledge, which of course in my mind was the final judgment of me as a student and as a person. Professor Haunschild might well have written comments about what a dolt I am. I couldn’t face that. I was too afraid.

It wasn’t until 2 days later that I had the guts to go over the test more thoroughly. In addition to the test, the envelope also contained a summary sheet telling me that the mean (average) score was 26, or 74%. Buried deep in the text on this sheet was this little gem: “ . . . you can assume that your grade on this quiz is in the A range if you scored at or above the mean . . .”

My C is actually an A. I spent two days feeling inadequate and disappointed when it seems I actually got an A.

A test, like any other part of a class, is a learning experience. This test in particular was a learning experience for me, since it was the first test I had taken in 18 years. And what did I learn? I learned that I am smart and capable. I learned that I do well on tests. I learned that I could do better. And I learned that it’s more important for me to read the test results in detail than for me to look cool.

Testing Fears

2006-02-15T03:56:00.000-08:00

This coming weekend is my second weekend of classes. I'm excited and looking forward to it. I hope that after the second weekend I come home as buzzed as I did after the first weekend!

However, fear is creeping in. I have my first test this weekend.

The test is in Professor Haunschild's Managing People and Organizations (ENM380.1). Technically, Professor Haunschild calls this a "quiz" but there are only two quizzes in the semester and together they make up 62% of my grade. Call it what you will, but it sounds like a mid-term to me.

I've not taken a mid-term for 18 years. And I've never taken a test over material like this.

I did, in fact, take the PMI PMP certification test two years ago. And I did just take the GRE. However, those are very quantitative tests. Or maybe the better word is objective. The test questions are multiple choice or true/false because the material is a set of concrete facts which either I know or do not know. I understand how to study for tests on material like that: I memorize lists of things, learn definitions and formulas, and become deeply ingrained with fundamental concepts.

But the material that Professor Haunschild has covered in class and in our reading is very different than anything I have ever studied. There are a lot of lists of things which I could memorize - lots and lots of them. Examples include techniques for brainstorming, types of teams, characteristics of effective virtual teams, types of networks, and network problems. But to my 40-year-old brain, those lists look insurmountable. I feel like I would be more likely to climb Everest than to memorize all that stuff. But most of what we've covered is soft, subjective, general concepts. It's not so much hard, measurable facts.

So I'm guessing there are two possibilities for what Professor Haunschild expects on my test. One is expressing general understanding of the concepts and how they relate to each other and perhaps to my real-life experience. If this is the case, then I should do great on the test. What she will be looking for is well-written general summaries of what we have discussed. I write well, I've paid attention in class, and I understand the concepts. The other possibility, however, is far grimmer. She may expect me to regurgitate the specific words used to discuss each topic we've covered. In that case I am doomed.

I'm a concepts man. I deal in meaning and intention and ideas. In my mind, everything we've discussed in class is arbitrary and relative. For example, last night I read about five informal network patterns that can cause organizational ineffectiveness. I understand and agree with the meanings and consequences of these network patterns. However, I think it's completely arbitrary that the author picked out those five particular patterns. The author ignored at least three other network patterns I've seen in my experience which are at least as common as these five.

So I'm feeling afraid of this test. I don't know what to expect of the test, and yet I have very high expectations for myself. After all, I'm an intelligent, resourceful, capable man. I expect myself to do much better than average both on this test and in life in general. I see this test as a dark unknown which could smash my expectations for high personal performance. And smash my personal self-worth and pride.

And I can think of nothing so scary as that.

How to Stay Awake in Class

2006-02-04T19:41:00.000-08:00

As an undergraduate, I was a highly motivated student. I truly wanted to learn. More than that, I felt I had to get good grades so I could graduate and get a job. My parents had died and I had no way to support myself. I strongly felt that doing well in school was my only way to get by in life. In my mind, doing well in classes was a matter of survival.

And in order to do well in my classes, I had to stay awake.

But there was one particular class in which I just could not stay awake. I don't remember the professor or anything about the class other than the fact that it was a physics class. I do remember sitting the lecture hall while that warm comfortable feeling of sleepiness encroached on my consciousness. Soon the room would begin to grow dim. I knew that the professor was speaking English but it sounded more and more like an ancient Babylonian rehearsing lines in a Klingon opera.

Now I find myself in a similar situation. During my first weekend of classes, in the middle of the afternoon in Dr. McCann's Project Management class, I felt my head drooping. I longed for a pillow. It would have felt so good to close my eyes, just for a moment.

This was just like that physics class. Except that now I'm an adult and I have a lot more experience and lot more responsibility and fortunately a lot more tools and techniques at my disposal.

So I stood up. I picked up my notebook and pen and got out of my seat and walked to back of the room. Standing, I was able to remain fully awake and focused on the class. I listened to Dr. McCann, took notes, and learned things. When I was sure I could stay awake, I took my seat again.

Back when I was an innocent undergraduate I had no idea the solution to the problem would have been so easy. Just stand up. What a wonderful, easy, simple fix. No caffeine, no outside forces influencing me. I choose what I do. I choose how I am. I choose to remain awake, focused, and present, and I have the tools and experience to make that choice a reality.

Having problems staying awake in class? Just stand up.

It's Hard to Study on the Road

2006-01-28T10:03:00.000-08:00

I travel a lot for my job. The travel tends to be cyclical; sometimes I'll be home for a month at a time and then be gone for 3 weeks (coming home on weekends). Over the past year I probably averaged somewhere between 50% and 70 travel.

I don't like the travel. I really want to stay home, be with my family, and have a life. But my job is the only income I have right now and the travel comes along with the paycheck.

Anyway, this past week I was out-of-town, working at a customer site. Because I have so much reading to do, I packed 3 big books in my suit case. I figured I'd get a lot of reading done since my family wasn't around.

Right. I only opened one of the books. I did finish the reading in that book, so it was worth it. But I found it very hard to read while on this trip. I'm going to have to find some way of motivating myself to read during my travels; otherwise I'll never get my homework done.

The problem is that I come back to my hotel room tired from the day. I think I should eat something, so I either go out to dinner or have something delivered to my room. Then I eat too much and I come back to my room and I'm too tired to study effectively.

Then I decide to surf the web for a few minutes in order to focus myself. Yeah, right. Suddenly it's 11:30 and if I don't get to sleep soon I'll be tired all day tomorrow. Then it's 12:30 and I'm finally shutting down my laptop. And I never opened my books.

The solution might be to simply skip dinner. Or exercise in the evenings. Both would probably be great for me physically, emotionally, and educationally. I'll keep you posted.

A Foolish Flight of Fancy?

2006-01-21T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have just completed my first weekend in the University of Texas at Austin Option III Executive Masters of Science in Engineering Management. And I am buzzed!

When I first decided to pursue graduate school, it seemed like such an impossible task. I work full time. I have a wife, two young children, and a house to take care of. I'm tired all the time anyway. I've been out of school for 18 years and I doubt that I can learn in a college setting anymore. I have no time as it is; how could I surrender one weekend a month? And let's not forget about the boatload of money it would cost. It seemed like a foolish flight of fancy.

Yet, here I am, having finished my first weekend.

Just being on campus is electrifying for me. The varieties of people, the sense of opportunity, the thoughts and ideas that float through the place like clouds. The vibrancy of youth, the feeling of all of life opening up before me, the seemingly endless stimulation. Wow. It's quite a high.

Now, I'm old enough to know that there will be lows over the next two years of this program. But right now I'm on a high.

I already have a list of 12 topics I want to write about on this blog, and this is only after the first weekend of classes. I have to go back to my real life now, but I commit to myself to keep writing here. It will help me maintain my high.