Category: Tools I Use

How do I: deal with constant change

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When it comes to change, remain aware of it. 

Accept it or reject it. It will not care either way. So why should you?

Dance with change when possible. 

Then, move forward, with or without that change in mind.

Change is rarely within our control, so it should not control our lives unless we allow it. 

We may zag when it zigs, and we should be ok with that.

It is not about feelings because change does not care.

We can try to be an agent of change.

Don’t wait for acceptance or approval. Otherwise, very little gets done.

Move forward regardless of change. 

Move purposefully with a clear focus, forward momentum, and good intentions. 

Worst case scenario, we learn more.

Tools I Use: not-to-do list

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Lots of us have to-do lists.

Some of us schedule the to-do (task) with the time assigned on our calendar.

Fewer of us have a not-to-do list. Literally a list of things we should not do ourselves or at all. Why?

Our time is limited, and valuable and we don’t need to do it ourselves. Or eliminate the task all together. You could also delegate it or automate it. Find out how below.

Kudos to Tim for the idea of the not-to-do list. Tim Ferriss has his not-to-do list, which are great ideas.

What is on my own not-to-do list as far as tasks?

  • Creating lists of contacts/companies to reach out to (use Upwork instead)
  • Copywriting for marketing purposes (ChatGPT, yes, use a machine to do it faster and often better than a person)
  • Coming up with gift ideas (ChatGPT)
  • Scheduling calls with back-and-forth messages (All calls scheduled through calendly.com with my fixed availability for calls each month that updates with my one master calendar)
  • Recording podcasts asynchronously (Try Rumble.studio and record podcast interviews without the podcaster and interviewee speaking together)
  • Editing podcasts (use Upwork instead)
  • Proofreading or editing my own book (Upwork)
  • Technical tasks (Upwork that are not worth my time and effort to do myself)
  • Creative tasks (Fiverr and not pretend I am a designer)
  • Shop at many different brick-and-mortar stores for the same product (this is what Amazon or Google Shopping is for… to stop wasting your time).
  • Buying wet and dry food for my pets (Petco.com repeat delivery every three months solves this too)

What is on your own not-to-do list?

What to talk about productivity? Schedule a call.

How do other authors struggle with writing?

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There is an assumption that published authors have an easy time writing books. Not true.

Writers do need to write though.

They may systemize parts of the series of books they write. They may have techniques to keep them writing. They may use assistants to help organize or assist them virtually.

Writing is hard because almost no writers will ever write once and publish exactly what they wrote.

Editing and rewriting can seemingly take forever.

Here are a few known writers who wrote about the struggle of writing and how to overcome these struggles:

How do I: record my podcasts?

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Tools of the trade

A while back, I used to use Skype with some recording software to record my podcasts.

Then, I noticed the audio quality difference between Skype and Zoom.

Zoom is my go-to for reliable calls, recording podcasts, and creating webinars for several years now.

Zoom can also split the audio recordings between each speaker to easily avoid crosstalk (talking over each other) or audio volume differences which is important for podcast recording.

Scheduling

Using Calendly.com, all podcast interview scheduling was completely automated based on my preferred availability on my Google Calendar when I wanted to record audio podcasts.

Recording Asynchronous Podcasts

Note that all of my podcasts are interviews now. I ask the same questions and get different answers from each person interviewed. I personally do not add value to the conversation by asking the same questions, therefore I could remove myself from the interview process.

As of October 2022, I found out about rumble.studio where I can record podcasts asynchronously. This means the two parts of the interview are recorded separately.

Part 1 is the Questions.

Part 2 is the Answers.

I record myself asking those same questions one more time for each podcast (Yes, I have several podcasts). Not per episode. The intro, middle roll and outro are recorded all separately.

Now ALL of my podcasts are recorded asynchronously. After 12 years of podcasting, I can say that I no longer schedule time to interview someone… anyone for a podcast because I can do this asynchronously. And you can too. And no one wastes any time.

Each interviewee gets a step-by-step process where they hear the question I recorded (they see the text question too), then they record their answer to their hearts content (as many times as they wish). This cycle of steps repeat for each question until they submit their last answer and then I am notified when they are done.

No calls. No scheduling. Once answers are all captured, the recordings are ready to be edited and packaged as new episodes. In a future post, we will cover editing as a matter of documentation, delegation and review.

Have you tried asynchronous podcast recording?

All those empty offices

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When it comes to discussing what to do with all the empty offices of today, there are several schools of thought of this.

The Executive’s Plea

The Executives at many companies plea for everyone to return to the office (RTO). Regardless of any new perks (carrots) or threats to fire/layoff those who do not RTO (sticks), many office buildings remain empty. How many quarterly losses will it take to realize most commercial office buildings are no longer needed for the number of people that are willing to RTO? How many egos will need to be checked before they offload most of this burden that was once considered an asset?

I keep telling employers if you want me to come to your office as a 100% virtual digital knowledge worker, I will resign.

Virtual employee and employer working from home

Over the past few years, many have learned how to work from home (WFH), regardless of who their employer happens to be. Many of the tools to do the work virtually have been there for years well before we took WFH seriously and even as a necessity.

The major exception involves work have to move physical objects as part of our daily work whereas virtual work is not possible: brick-and-mortar stores selling physical products including restaurants, hospitals, factories, warehouses, shipping, and delivery, etc.

Why are they happier?

More choices. Their own individual choices. Not choices made for them.

Ultimately, work wants work done. If you can get the work done virtually, it no longer matters where you are to get it done.

No more waiting for a meeting room. A scheduled meeting is 2 clicks away. An unscheduled meeting is 1 click away. Collaboration is virtual and more visual for clarity today.

The employee’s distress and employer’s disconnect

For those who long for the commute, time at the water cooler (mostly alone), the shared bathrooms, concessions, or a presumed sense of belonging by being in a shared office space or cubical farm, many of the offices still remain open today for you come to in and work just as you did at home. Once there, you may have plenty of space to reconnect via Teams or Zoom, with the rest of your local, regional, national, or global co-workers from your office desk. Maybe you will realize the difference between home and office as well as the advantages of each. Maybe you can list them both out and see for yourself.

Maybe you miss the printer, copier or fax machine. Maybe it missed you since it needs a good dusting. My printer went to the trash a few years ago and I have no reason to get a new one since I don’t print anything, even as a published author.

You might have a short-lived thought that being in the office is better than being in your workspace at home. This is likely nostalgic or a space issue. Maybe we had a few years to figure out a better way while working remotely and take those steps to improve our own workspace.

Maybe you are assuming you can impress someone by RTO, being the first one there or the last one to leave. Maybe you think someone will notice or care. Maybe you think it shows that you are dedicated while most don’t see you except on virtual video conferencing calls and through your own work results.

Maybe the technology is too complicated to connect when a scheduled event occurs. Maybe the employer never checked with employees to ask if anyone needed help with the “new” technology. Maybe the employees never spoke up to ask for help or seek it within the software’s help menu.

Maybe you miss the whiteboards. Maybe no one shared that this feature exists on virtual video conferencing calls, allowing remote collaboration among participants. These virtual whiteboards can be saved and shared after the call unlike physical dry erase boards that require a smartphone to capture and send at the end of the meeting.

Architect’s Dream

The architect’s dream is the present state: beautiful office buildings untouched by people.

Is it worth the expense of the art? Is the art of the office building dead yet?

The hard questions to answer

Are the intended purposes of a commercial office space overstated, outdated, or simply unnecessary at the present scale?

How will we continue to justify the commercial real estate burden for unused commercial office space year after year?

When will we do the hard thing, even when something was purpose-built for yesteryear, and stop ignoring the obvious next step? Dump it. The next question is how much do you need to keep if any? Keeping read

Since there is no compelling reason to RTO in order to do the work, why do employers need employees to RTO when they are happier and more efficient while they WFH?

Stop imposing.

Ask what everyone in the company wants to do (WFH, RTO, or a hybrid of both) and the obvious next step can happen from the results.

What do you think we should do with all those empty offices?