Most of us live our lives in Push systems. Push systems – People push work towards you. You do it. Pull systems – You pull work as you have the capacity to do it. In IT and Project Management, there is a trend towards “Pull” systems – at least in theory. Agile techniques are based […]
Accounting for Energy
I’ve been thinking about personal energy and our plans recently. Often, we tend to make our plans based on our best case scenario. We’re feeling healthy, energetic, our best selves. We then make our plans and set our timelines accordingly. Then we beat ourselves up when the average to bad days kick in and we […]
Environment by Dimensions
When I look at myself and my relationship to the environment, I look in 3 dimensions: Time – The now > today > this week > this month > this quarter > this year > this life phase > long-term Altitude – What is right in front of me/the next step/the details to the very-high […]
Evolution Happens – How You Can Work With It
How is your life different from last year? How is your life different from 5 years ago? 10 years ago? 20 years ago? Since you left college (or high school)? How has your life evolved over time? Is it an orderly progression of steps towards mastery? Is it a series of plateaus punctuated by periods […]
The Power of Periodization
In 2009, I found myself carrying almost 25 pounds more than normal and having to go shopping (yet again) because my clothes were too tight. I knew it was bad when Mom began to give me her hand-me-downs because they were too big for her. I needed to do something. My weight had been stable […]
Combining Conflicting Goals
I abandoned my pursuit of a History Ph.D. in 1996. At the time, my colleagues asked “So what are you going to do? Teach?” They had images of me standing in front of a classroom of 6th graders. My response was “I’m not sure, but I have transferable skills as a result of this education. […]
Approaching Major Change
I was chatting with a friend a few weeks back. We started talking about how to handle conflicting major goals. As I reflected on the conversation, I realized that in my life, I’ve handled major (somewhat planned) change using these three approaches: Combination. Can I combine goals or activities? Example: If one goal is “Live in New […]
Focus and Prioritization
We live in a time of massive opportunity, massive choice, and massive distraction. We are no longer limited to our immediate physical environment when we make our choices. Friends are available around the world. Information is at our fingertips with electricity, internet, and a device. It feels like we are in a time of no […]
How to Use Video Games to See Patterns
Over the past few weeks, I started playing Stardew Valley –a farming life simulator (or what I would fondly call, an errand runner – where I do the tasks I SHOULD be doing in real life). Life simulators, like Stardew Valley and the SIMS, are agreat way to see patterns that you might miss while […]
Case Study: Health Goals
(Transcript) For this case study, I wanted to do a case study of a change that a lot of us attempt to make at one point in our adult lives for another. This is one for healthy lifestyle changes. I have a few caveats because I know this is a really sensitive topic. One, I’m […]
