What time is it anyway?

I was in Bangkok the past couple of days. I'm now in Manila. and Thursday I fly to Seoul for a day. In the meantime I'm conducting business in the U.K., and across the U.S. Plus I'm trying to schedule webinars in Polish time on Nov. 2 and in Greece on Nov. 20. I get to talk with my family for 20 minutes a day using Skype, but I can't remember how far ahead/behind they are from me. So I'm afraid I'm going to wake them up.

My brain is tied in a knot of timezones. Someone help!

Travel Then -- Travel Now

How I wish for the days of vacation travel. Before my wife and I got married we traveled a lot. We were both in the travel industry so vendors threw free cruises, airline tickets and hotel nights at us so we could try them out. We had so many offers we had to turn many away. Our first date was to Italy followed by ten's of thousand's of more miles which led us to a family of four.

Unfortunately, I'm still traveling. But it's not the fun kind. It's the business kind. A day here...a day there. Airport after airport. Meeting after meeting. I've blown through every frequent flyer status available this year and still have two big international trips ahead of me.

I long for the days when I can travel to exotic places with my wife again.

Some Assembly Required

The replacement parts for my mitre saw came today. Of course there are about 50 pieces in a box and no instructions on how to assemble them together.

If anyone needed the instructions on how to rebuild this death machine, it would be the imbecile who was using the saw incorrectly in the first place causing the destruction all safety gadgetry.

The next post I write may be using my toes or a pencil held between my teeth.

Thumbs and Mitre Saws Don't Mix

So, I almost lost a digit yesterday. While cutting a lopsided piece of wood for a neighbor, I had to hold the "blade guard" up so it could cut properly. But somehow the thick plastic blade guard got sucked into the blade's path causing a deafening noise while shrapnel exploded across my front yard.

After I checked to make sure my son and neighbors were OK, I felt a horrible pain in my left thumb. The very thumb that was holding up the blade guard just moments before. Was I going to look down and see half my thumb missing?

My thumb was still there. Luckily. But the thumbnail was lifted up during the explosion -- it will probably fall off in a few weeks and look really ugly.

So, the moral of this story is simply, "don't be dumb" and "always wear safety glasses".

Five Tips to Reduce Your Stress: Tip #3

If you’re like most people, including me, your task might require its own Dewey Decimal system. Do you get a dozen new tasks every day, on top of the dozen you were handed the day before? Although it may seem impossible, there is a way to get the most important things done.

Tip #3: Plan or Perish

If you’re like me, you have multiple projects. Each with dozens of sub-tasks that need to be done “right now.” Right? To get through this jumble of projects you must do one simple thing: plan. It’s as easy as that. It’s no secret. It’s pure and simple common sense. Try out this process and you’ll see for yourself.

1. This coming Sunday night, before your work week begins, review your list of tasks.
2. Prioritize the ones that are most critical to your team’s goals.
3. Identify those tasks that you can easily delegate to others (see my previous post).
4. Identify what meetings you have during the week and find tasks that can be accomplished during those time periods.
5. Then, every morning, before anyone else comes into the office, take five minutes and review your list. Check off things you’ve done, review the day’s appointments, and adjust your tasks as necessary.

If you’re a user of Microsoft® Outlook® or IBM® Lotus® Notes® you might consider checking out some quick and simple Time Management webinars offered by FranklinCovey. They’re only about 1 ½ hours long and will provide some amazing techniques to help teach you how to use these tools while you plan your days.

In my next post, I’ll cover tip #4: “No” is not a four-letter word.

A better frequent flyer program

I’ve spent a lot of time on airplanes this year. Delta just came out with their “Diamond” status – a step above Platinum. To reach this you have to travel the equivalent of flying to Jupiter and back. I’m just rounding Saturn as I type this post.

But before you try for that new status, let’s look at it another way. Let’s view it in terms of memories missed.

How much will that “status” cost you in personal experiences with your family and friends. Important Caveat: I’m more than willing to travel for my job, it’s how I get my job done and I like my job. But this year has been a bit extreme.

Some memories I’ve missed this year:
--A couple of weeks of summer with my kids
--Several family member’s birthdays
--And this week I missed my kids first day of school

I’m not saying you shouldn’t travel. When it happens you have to deal with it. I’m just wishing there was a way that we could better plan it around our personal lives. Wouldn’t you?

I think that airlines should come up with a better reward system, especially when we have to sacrifice our memories. If I was in charge, here’s how I would award points:

--Missing a child’s soccer game or recital: 1,000 bonus miles
--Missing a child’s birthday: 10,000 bonus miles
--Missing your anniversary: 50,000 miles (transferable to your spouse)
--Missing the birth of a child: You get to ride shotgun next to the pilot.

Com’on Jet Blue. If you did this, I’d be a regular passenger.

Five Tips to Reduce Your Stress: Tip #2

Have some of your colleagues been laid off recently? Are you being asked to pull up the slack and do more with less?

You’re not alone.

I mean, there are still other people in your organization, right?

Tip#2: Embrace Others

Odds are, when you’re working fast and furious, there is probably someone, somewhere in your organization that may have some downtime, or they’re worried about not being aligned with strategic projects. Find them. Grab them. Capitalize on their skills. And have them chip in. People are generally happier when they’re engaged and contributing. Sure, quality might slip a bit and it might take longer for you to get that project done. But there is a huge feeling of relief when you delegate a task to someone and you go back to your office and are able to tackle something else. And there is an even better feeling when they come back to you and the project is finished and better than if you did it yourself.

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey outlines the principle of abundance. What this means is that there is always enough work for me and you, and the person in the office down the hall. Don’t be afraid to relinquish a bit of control over your projects. It will only benefit you and the people you bring into your circle. Your projects will get done better than before and you’ll be helping other people become engaged.

In my next post I’ll cover Tip #3: Plan or Perish.

Review of ClickHeat by LabsMedia

OK. I admit it. I could sit for hours and look at web stats and analytics, evaluating different patterns of behavior...following paths...seeing what is or isn't working... I just love to dig into the data.

I was introduced today to another analytic tool that will eat away at my weekends, HeatClick by LabsMedia: http://www.labsmedia.com/clickheat/index.html.

Here's a sample ClickHeat image from a page off of one of my sites:

I know. It looks like a bunch of smudges. But what it's telling me are the popular places where people are clicking and where they are not clicking. It's even telling me where people rest their mouse when they're looking at my page (perhaps that's too much data). Anyway, from this you can tell what is and isn't working on each web page. It's a great visual indicator that I can't get from Google Analytics. In fact, it confirmed several suspicions I've had but couldn't validate until seeing it visually. I wouldn't ever use ClickHeat as my exclusive analytic source, but it's a great addition to my quiver of data tools.

To download ClickHeat which, by the way, is freeware, just click here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/clickheat/files/

I give this product an: A+
Download it today and recommend it to a friend!

Five Tips to Reduce Your Stress: Tip #1

Some of you may have read portions of this blog before. However, I've expanded it and will now republish it in five sections. I'd love to hear any comments. You can leave them here or e-mail me directly at matthewmurdoch@yahoo.com.

Why is it that when layoffs occur, and the workforce retracts, the work seems to expand? The remaining employees are, quite often, left with additional responsibilities and fewer resources. Sound familiar? I’m going to share with you my five keys to remaining sane when your job requirements try to drive you mad.

Tip #1: Eliminate Chaos
When everything around you is moving fast it’s hard to get organized. Does this sound like your typical day? You return from one meeting only to go to another and yet another throughout the day; you don’t have time to focus strategically on one project because your time is spread so thin over a dozen; you have three people at your door waiting for a decisions on three different projects.

Unless you gain control over the madness of your days, it will control you. You need to do whatever it takes to prepare yourself for these tornadic days - because they’re not going to stop. You need time management. You need to get organized.

Come in 30 minutes early and straighten your desk and reply to urgent e-mails: It’s amazing how much quality work you can do when nobody else is in the office.

Organize your files so you know where everything is: It’s a great feeling to be called into a last minute meeting and be able to grab the appropriate file.

Block out chunks of your days to ensure you have time to get your work done: I find that I’m most productive on Monday-my brain is fresh and I’m still thinking clearly. After my morning meetings I’ve blocked out a few hours in the afternoon to actually work.

Take time to help others: You’ll find that when you’re organized, you’ll be better able to help others and help them with things they need.

I’ve learned that when my life is chaotic, I work minute-by-minute. I can’t see the horizon and I start to feel overwhelmed and stressed. So, take some time and eliminate the chaos by getting organized.

In my next post I’ll talk about Tip #2: Embrace Others

Lessons Learned

Last week I was teaching my eldest son how to be thrifty by patching his bike tire rather than having to spend money on a new one.

Unfortunately, yesterday the patch job gave way and the tire was kaput. So off we went to WalMart to buy a new inner tube. We were having some great one-on-one guy talk about life when all of a sudden a cop appeared behind us with lights a blazing.

My registration was past due (side note: we recently moved and the registration forms never made it to our house and I totally forgot about the whole renewal process) and the cop said that it's within the time frame where he might have to tow my car.

My son, in the back seat, commented to the cop, "I always wanted to see a police car with the lights on but never like this." The policeman got a chuckle out of this and was somewhat leinient. He didn't tow my car, but I still got a ticket. Bummer.

In any case, it makes for a good story for my son, and I was able to teach him what it feels like to get pulled over.

Lessons learned:
1) How to change a bike tire.
2) What happens when you're not proactive.

Business and bicycles

In high school a teacher once told me that I don't just burn the candle at both ends. I cut the candle in half and burn the other two ends as well.

I'm typically a pretty busy guy. I like to be busy. I like to have a lot on my plate. I like to be involved. I like to go into work early and get things done. But with this lifestyle there is also a lot of stress. Plus, I feel like I'm missing out on part of my kids lives. In fact my five-year-old told my wife that he'll never be able to finish riding his bike because his dad isn't ever home to teach him.

So, I'm going to change my ways.

As of yesterday, I've started to block out my morning for time to "sharpen my saw" and spend more time with my family. I figure everyone else at work rolls into work at 8:00 or 8:30 and they still have a job. Why can't I? Sure. There will still be times when I have early morning or night-time meetings with partners in Europe or Asia, but for the most part I'm going to try this out and see what happens.

So, yesterday I stayed home in the early morning hours and let my wife go running. Although I still did e-mail from home. She was happy.

Today I went running (to begin my training for a 10K in a couple of months) and still had time to read a book before leaving for work. I also got to see how my kids look in the morning when they wake up :). I was happy.

I even told someone that I couldn't meet at 7:00 am for a meeting and he didn't complain. We're meeting at noon instead.

Guess what? The earth hasn't exploded and I still have a job.

I'm commtted to this new way of life. I believe that I will be happier, more productive, healthier and most importantly, my kids will know that their father really exists.

But the best part though, is I taught my son how to ride his bike last night and he couldn't be happier.

A very wise man once said, "No success at the office can compensate for failure in the home." I've never been one to accept failure and I'm not going to start now.

The Life of Bob

I recently went on a marathon trip to Mexico City, Costa Rica and Panama City with a couple of co-workers to launch LiveClicks to our offices there. The schedule was fast-paced and the flights had very little room for error. Five days...five flights. Miss one and you mess up the whole schedule.

I was traveling with someone I'll call Bob. Bob is a very hard worker yet he is very relaxed. I learned a lot from Bob on this trip.

On one leg of the journey, Bob's flight and that of our other co-worker, were accidentally scheduled to leave on the wrong day. Meaning they would miss all of the meetings in Costa Rica. We didn't discover this error until they went to check-in. The flight was oversold by 12 seats. Bob spoke kindly to the people at the ticket desk, letting them know that it was his fault that the dates were wrong. He smiled. He was relaxed. He was kind. My wife has a saying for this, "You'll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." The man behind the desk said to come back in 20 minutes and he'd see what he could do.

I was sweating. I thought that there was no way they were getting on the flight. My angry thoughts turned to the agent who booked the tickets... "how careless", I thought. Bob simply said, "It was just a mistake. Nothing we can do now but hope for the best."

20 minutes later we went back. Not only did they get on the flight, but got upgraded to first class!

On the next leg, we had 7 hours to make a flight. The only problem is we had to travel 1.5 hours in one direction, attend to 1.5 hours of business and then return 1.5 hours to the airport. 4.5 hours right? It was 1:00 pm and we thought we had plenty of time. We didn't factor in traffic jams.

We were sweating all the way to the airport. All of us except Bob. He was calm and casual. We made it back with 30 minutes to spare.

In The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Dr. Covey teaches about the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Control. The Circle of Control represents the things you can actually do something about. The Circle of Concern are things you can't. Bob is a great example of living a life of less stress because he doesn't worry about things outside his control. He works hard to influence those things, but when it comes right down to it, he realizes there is only so much he can do.

On the last leg of the journey, Bob actually did miss his flight from Panama. But he didn't panic. He caught another one a few hours later and made it home without any problem. We should all take note of this and try and live without so much stress.

What your customers want.

I recently got to take a break for a couple of days with my family driving through Idaho, Montana and Wyoming...essentially circling up through Island Park, down through Yellowstone and into Jackson Hole. We saw incredible sights and had a lot of fun like fishing in the woods. But at the end of the day, what my kids really wanted in a vacation was simply a swimming pool and a hotel room where they could watch the Disney Channel. I now realize I could've saved some time and money and just driven to the local Marriott.

Today I had a call with a product manager from a multi-billion dollar software company. He was letting me in on a sneak peak of their next release of some software which will be launching soon. He was very excited to show me all of the work his development team had done. And, certainly, they had done a tremendous amount of it. He even said that they had do develop a new technology for these added features.

The problem is they didn't listen to the customer.

They are only implementing half of what we really need. Had they taken the time to talk with customers before development they would've had a much better product.

I'm guilty of this same oversight -- as my kids let me know when they hit the pool in Jackson Hole. But this has opened my eyes to making sure I do my due dilligence before development. And you should too.

LiveClicks Webinar Workshops

A couple of years ago I was working with some colleagues trying to launch a paid-for webinar. It was going OK. We were making a bit of money with it, but not nearly enough to consider it a new business model.

One day while on a business trip to Laguna, I was sitting on a patio looking over the sea and the vision hit me. (Sea air can do that to you.) I understood what the need was, and how to build the business to support the need. I'm not going to divulge the business plan (he he) but you can get a taste for the business by watching a video on this page (www.franklincovey.com/liveclicks).

The business is unfolding even more rapidly that I had initially imagined. On November 21, 2008 we launched LiveClicks. On December 5 we held our first true LiveClicks webinar workshops. On May 26 we held our first fully international LiveClicks webinar workshop delivered by our Mexico office. Today I saw the very first LiveClicks Encore (a recorded, on demand version) created by our Japan office. We have many top brand name companies that are in the process of adopting LiveClicks in their organizations. And I've been invited to speak at the Adobe conference this fall.

It all goes back to the principle that before there is physical creation of something, there is a mental creation. I'd also like to add that before there is physical creation, there is a lot of hard work from a devoted team.

Contrasts

I've spent the past few days in India launching some new products to our offices here. It's been a fascinating experience, to say the least. I now understand the true meaning of contrast.

In one moment you're in a glass skyscraper eating delicious Chinese food and the next moment there are shoeless children in rags rapping on your car window, begging for a few Rupees.

There are BMW's speeding past men on bicycles loaded with bundles of sticks and narrowly missing cows wandering the streets.

There are dirty streets lined with refuse juxtaposed with women in beautifully colored saris.

There are smiling powerful executives being served by emotionless hopeless servants.

There is spicy curry and extra spicy curry (please, no more curry!!)

There are slums and there are mansions.

It's truly an amazing culture... and I've learned a lot about the market and the way people operate. But I'm really looking forward to my flight home tomorrow -- back to the U.S. where contrastss aren't quite so sharp and where I can get brush my teeth without using bottled water.

The Best Hot Dog - Gray's Papaya

I'm just returning from a marathon trip to New York:

• Red-eye flight Sunday night
• Two hour nap at hotel
• Eight hours of meetings to prep for our client meeting
• Five hours of sleep
• 90 minute client meeting
• 15 minutes lunch at Gray's Papaya
• Flight home
  

I'd never been to Gray's Papaya before, but a colleague refused to leave New York without one of their hot dogs.

The "Recession Special" was priced at $4.95 and I got two hot dogs (one with sweet onions and the other with ketchup and mustard) plus a cup of Papaya drink.

Perhaps I was delirious, perhaps just really hungry. But I placed it on my top 20 list of restaurants. Now, everytime I come to NYC, I'll be required to have one of their dogs.

Twitter: The New P.R.

I have a great employee, Courtney, who has been wanting to bring FranklinCovey into the 21st century. So, she has started the official Stephen R. Covey facebook account, the official FranklinCovey Facebook fan page, the official FranklinCovey YouTube account and now the official Stephen R. Covey Twitter account.

At first I was sceptical. Who would ever want to follow these micro-blogs. 140 characters. Too basic? Too simple?

I'm now a believer.

I am truly amazed at the viral nature of Twitter. Within just a few weeks, we have 600 Twitter followers including many other authors and celebs like Tony Robbins and Oscar de la Hoya. The marketing power behind Twitter is amazing. It it truly the new PR.

We can try to get people to come to our website, or we can go to where the people are. It's really exciting to go where the people are already congregating and provide them with something the really want.

If we continue at this pace we'll have a great social community on Twitter where we can really help people and help educate them on how to be more productive in their lives, at work and in society.

By the way, you can follow my Twitter here :)

Book Review: Outliers

I'll admit it. I never been a Malcom Gladwell fan. I read Blink, but didn't really enjoy it. I thought it was quite, well, ordinary common sense.

When my father-in-law gave me Gladwell's latest book, Outliers, I was less than excited (sorry Ken). It sat on my nightstand, looking at me every night. Then finally, my wife got tired of it sitting there and started reading it. "I think you'll really like this," she said every night and she devoured the book.

I'm happy to say that I'm now a Malcom Gladwell fan. This was one of the best books I've read in a quite a while. (Even though this guy has insanely crazy hair:)

The following paragraph sums up the book nicely, "[Successful people] are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy. Their success is not exceptional or mysterious. It is grounded in a web of advantages and ingeritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky--but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all."

I thought the most intriguing part of the book was the discussion of 10,000 hours. Gladwell's theory is that to become an expert at something, you have to practice doing it for 10,000 hours. He cited the Beatles, and how they would play gigs all night in Hamburg, and that because of this time, they learned to work together and create the genius music they did. It left me wondering what I'm going to become an expert it. 10,000 hours is a long time...

Matt's Rating: ***** (out of 5 stars)

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I!

5 Tips To Help Avoid Burnout

Stress, anxiety, and doing more with less. These are all things that are happening in today's workforce. I've never been one to back away from hard work, I put in my time. But when you work tirelessly without the chance to take a break, burnout can occur.

So, if you're 10 minutes from burnout, here are some tips I've learned to help you keep going.

1) Eliminate Chaos: When everything around you is moving fast and you come back from one meeting only to have to to go another, you don't have time to get organized. Do what you need to do to prepare yourself for your tornadic days. Come in 15 minutes early and straighten your desk. Organize you files so you know where everything is. Block out large chunks of your days to ensure you have time to get work done.

I know that when my life is chaotic, I work minute-by-minute. I can't see the horizon and I start to feel overwhelmed.

2) Embrace Others: Odds are, when you're working fast and furious, there is probably someone, somewhere in your organization that doesn't have enough to do. Find them. Capitalize on their skills. And have them chip in. People are generally happier when they're engaged and contributing. Sure, quality might slip a bit and it might take longer for you to get that project done. But there is a major feeling of relief when you delegate a task to someone and you go back to your office and are able to tackle something else. And there is an even better feeling when they come back to you and the project is finished and better than if you did it yourself.

3) Plan or Perish: If you're like me, you have several lists of projects each with a dozens of tasks. Before your work week begins, review this list. See what the critical items are for the week and see what you can delegate. Then, try to focus on one task at a time and get it done. You'll always have interruptions you'll have to manage. But come right back to the task at hand and execute on it. It will keep you moving forward on your plan and keep you sane.

4) "No" is not a four-letter word: When times are tough, people will ask you to do more. It's important to help others as much as you can. You may have the knowledge or skill they need, plus it's always good karma. However, there are times when you just can't do it all. You'll know when they are. And if you can sense that the request isn't "mission critical" just say no. The other person will survive. And it will keep you from getting distracted on your plan.

5) Find Time for Self: In the past this was the hardest thing. When I get to work I tend to be heads-down and not resurface for a long time. I would eat at my desk, or not eat at all. But what I found over time is that burnout comes faster. So, take time to read a news story of interest, run an errand at lunch, or call a family member or friend for a few minutes. Once I even went to Costco, grabbed a hot dog and walked the aisles for 20 minutes. It opened my mind and kept me fresh for the remainder of the day. Regardless of what you do, find some time just for you.

Hopefully these steps will help you avoid a crash and keep you moving forward.

The Art of Shawn Ray Harris

I've known Shawn Harris for years (decades actually). I've seen his artistic styles grow and expand over the years. My claim to fame is being the first first face from which he made a plaster mold -- I'm still missing part of my eyebrows from getting the mold off.

Recently I was amazed with his "Ice Project" -- a photography series of things melting in ice. You can see it on his website shawnrayharris.com or on his Facebook page. My favorites are the gold fish, the foreign currency and the eyeball (I'm afraid to ask who's eye this is.)

Some of my favorite photographs are his self portraits at the top of this page -- they're definitely worth a look.