A close friend, Sue, is trying to hire a mid-career engineer. She had a lead on a great guy, who then dithered. He could not decide to leave. (I wrote a little thread on Twitter.) What kept him there? He felt as if he owed his team more work. (How to learn what he knew,
What Would It Take For You To Leave Work Every Day as If It’s Your Last Day? Read More »
I stopped with resolutions years and years ago. Instead, up until now, I examined my systems and see where I might want to practice one small change. (See What’s the Smallest Change You Can Make? for one example.) That has worked well for me. This year, I’m experimenting with a suggestion via Daniel Steinberg’s Driving
Stop Resolving: How Can You Challenge Yourself to Seize Each Day Next Year? Read More »
I’m working on my next year’s “plans.” I use quotes around that word because I use lean approaches to plan my work. I decide which work to do now, and I finish that work. Then, I pick from many options for the next bit of work. Based on my throughput, I have enough possibilities for
Three Questions to Become More Adaptable and Resilient in the Future Read More »
I love to make it easy for me to do my best work. To do so, I need to think about what I want to reinforce and what I want to dampen. When I create reinforcing—or virtuous—feedback loops, I use my data to do more of what I want. However, that’s not always easy to
Where Can You Create Reinforcing (Virtuous) Feedback Loops? Read More »
I love to get stuff done. I count various measures on my way to my productivity, but when I cross things off my lists? Yeah, I love that. I know what being productive feels like and looks like for me. It often feels like some amount of “stuff” per unit time. But creativity? I used
How Do You Know When You’re Being Creative vs. Productive? Read More »
I love the summer. The summer sunshine helps me do more—inside or outside. I even get a bit of a tan. Summer rejuvenates me. It’s also the time of year when I review my goals. That’s because July means half the year is over. Or, if you’re an optimist like me, you still have half
How Often Do You Choose to Reset or Readjust? Read More »
Back when I was a software developer, I excelled at certain mistakes. I could write an infinite loop faster than anyone. Then there was the off-by-one mistake for arrays or tables. I repeated certain mistakes too often. Until I started an engineering notebook. Once I started to learn about my mistakes, I stopped those mistakes. I
Mistake vs. Success: When Do You Learn from Each? Read More »
How Can You Use Optimism to Achieve Your Goals? I recently learned about “dynamic optimism” and “passive optimism.” Dynamic optimists act. They see their reality, they set a goal. They use a variety of steps to achieve their goal, using the growth mindset all along the way. They persevere. Passive optimists don’t do those things. They hope for
CAL Newsletter: How Can You Use Optimism to Achieve Your Goals? Read More »
When I was a kid, I went to summer camp. I loved it. In the last week, I would say to myself, “This is the last Monday. How can I make this my best Monday?” I decided on one thing and did that. Those last weeks were my best weeks. A couple of years went
How Can You Use Your Projected Last Moment to Create a Great Present Moment? Read More »
We often talk about “spending” time. I often think about spending in two ways: To expend, as in energy. To exchange some value for something else. For example, I spend money in exchange for goods or services. I’m not so sure I like the idea of “spending” time. I can’t ever get another second of
Do You Think About Spending or Investing Time? Read More »