May 25th, 2008 by Brian Cors
Are you stuck in a creative rut, either as an individual or as a team? Does your linear thinking stifle your capability to come up with breakthrough ideas?
Unleash your creativity using a concept called “mind mapping.” Around since the 1960s, the concept of mind mapping utilizes several elements within the brain to stimulate more creative thinking. Mind maps combine words, images, colors, numbers, logic and graphical relationships to encourage non-linear, visual approaches to thinking and solving problems. The Mind Map Book by Tony and Barry Buzan (see our review) explains the scientific reasoning behind the approach, and provides examples of how mind mapping can be used for different purposes.
Until a few years ago, mind mapping was just a curiosity to me. For those (like me) who are artistically challenged, a graphical approach to thinking presents some challenges when those graphics must be hand-drawn. Moreover, hand drawings are very difficult to modify; adding content to a mind map generally requires squeezing in the new information using teeny-tiny print. Finally, for a person like me who likes to store (and back up) every piece of information electronically, hand-drawn mind maps don’t fit well into my filing methodology.
MindManager – developed by a company called Mindjet – eliminates all of the shortcomings of hand-drawn mind maps, and provides capabilities that extend mind mapping way beyond what could be done by hand.
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May 12th, 2008 by Brian Cors
In its March 20, 2006 issue, Fortune magazine interviewed several individuals renowned for their incredible productivity. Instead of focusing on productivity theories, the article’s authors spent significant time with each person to determine their day-to-day activities and how they really spent their time.
Each individual had their own approach to optimizing productivity and how they managed their day. I was able to read all of the profiles and glean good ideas from each of them. Some of the profiles also revealed bad productivity practices (in my opinion), but at least they allowed me to pick and choose what works for me.
What did they all have in common? As high-profile individuals, they are all over-saturated with information and requests for time. What differentiates them is their ability to focus on what’s important.
Some of the key highlights for me include the following:
- Meetings on a single-topic should be strictly limited to 90 minutes, with 50% of the time reserved for presentation and the rest for discussion (from Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan).
- Determine the time of day when you do your best thinking and schedule that time to tackle activities requiring the heaviest-duty thinking (also from Carlos Ghosn).
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April 16th, 2008 by Brian Cors
At the end of the day or the week, do you often ask yourself “what have I really accomplished?” The reality is that you’ve probably accomplished lots of tasks. But you probably haven’t completed the tasks that help you to achieve your most important personal and professional goals. Why? Most likely, it’s a lack of FOCUS.
As humans, we naturally gravitate toward pursuing activities that fall into one of two categories. We do what’s easy and comfortable, or we pursue the “shiny object” that’s fun and exciting but, truth be told, is truly beyond our reach or doesn’t help us achieve our critical goals.
Companies fall into these same traps. They continue to plod along, doing the things that are easy and comfortable. Companies are also tempted by the “shiny object,” pursuing strategies that other companies have found successful or that are “hot” at the moment. Similar to the “what have I really accomplished” question that individuals ask themselves, companies find themselves asking: “where did the money go?” Often, in the end, it’s the lack of focus that has drained the company’s coffers.
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April 3rd, 2008 by Brian Cors
How many hours per day do you spend at the keyboard? If you’re like me, it’s generally several hours per day. A good keyboard makes a huge difference in my ability to convey thoughts from my head into the written word. A good keyboard can also help prevent repetitive motion injury.
When I was searching for a keyboard, my first priority was to find a keyboard that would maximize my touch-typing productivity and minimize my chances for repetitive strain injury (RSI).
My initial search brought me to the usual suspects: the ergonomic “split” keyboards made by Microsoft and Logitech. These are wonderful for limiting RSI because they do split the keyboard and allow you to properly align your wrists and forearms in a straight line, but they are rather large because of the way that they “bulge” in the middle and – at least for me – would not fit properly in my keyboard tray.
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