Digging Out

The Sparks family had an amazing vacation in January. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips to London and Paris. My kids are at the perfect age, and my wife and I both agreed that we don’t know how many years we have left with both of them around to vacation with us.

My point is, I didn’t want to spend the entire vacation working. So I spent some time deliberately thinking about work before I left. As a business lawyer, I often have clients dealing with one sort of emergency or another, and that is unavoidable if I want to continue in this racket. Non-emergencies, however, are a different story. My plan was to get up a few hours early every day and deal with whatever emergencies were thrown my way and then close the computer and spend the rest of the day with my family. It was a ten-day trip and how much day-to-day stuff could really pile up, right?

For once, I stuck to the plan. Partly thanks to jet lag, getting up early wasn’t a problem and the several emergencies that appeared all got handled.

The surprising part for me was precisely how much non-emergency stuff piled up in my absence. I spent the plane ride home reading Cal Newport’s Deep Work, and I had this grand plan about how I was going incorporate a bunch of his ideas into getting more work done on my next book starting the day after I returned.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, I took stock of the backed-up legal and podcasting work and smacked my forehead. I had to dig out. For a day or two, I kept thinking I could get my fresh start on writing more for the book while digging out but eventually I worked through the four stages of grief and arrived at “acceptance”. My deep work on the book was going to have to wait a little bit longer.

So instead I resolved that I would just focus on digging out. I made a list and (for a few weeks) largely cut myself off from social media, television, and other diversions. It turns out I needed two weeks to get caught up with work. It’s probably obvious to most people, but the biggest revelation for me in this process was where I stopped and just accepted that, despite my efforts, nothing new could happen until I dug out. Once my brain wrapped around the idea, it was a lot easier to put my head down and get the work done. It probably sounds silly, but I’m quite pleased with myself having survived the deluge and enjoyed the big vacation.

As I write this, I’m finally back in a place where I can put time into the book. This morning I put several hours into writing, and it feels great. Chapters are showing up in the iBooks Author file, and boxes are getting checked. Stay tuned.

MPU 413 – iPad Productivity

I somehow forgot to link to this episode this week. Whoops. I really like the way this episode came out where we picked several categories of work that we get done on the iPad and explaind our favorite apps and workflows for getting it done.

25 Years Without Dad

Today’s the 25th anniversary of my father’s death. I still miss that guy. A lot.

Here’s an article I wrote several years ago about how my dad taught me about craftsmanship.

Jazz Friday – Chris Potter

I recently received an email from a reader thanking me for these jazz Friday posts. He explained that he loved learning about some of these older musicians that he had never heard of before but then he very politely ended the email, “Do you listen to anyone that’s not dead?” After I got done laughing I wrote him back and said that yes I indeed do and will even share a few of my favorite non-dead jazz artists.

Chris Potter (Wikipedia) is one of them. He’s one of the finest saxophonists ever to pick up the instrument. For whatever reason, his name has never really entered the public awareness like Wynton Marsalis or (God have mercy on my soul) Kenny G. Nevertheless, he’s an amazing saxophonist. He came to prominence in the late 90s but has continued to release solo albums and work as a sideman with a variety of groups. The guy is a monster. You really can’t go wrong with any Chris Potter album but my favorite is Follow the Red Line: Live at the Village Vanguard (iTunes). Live jazz is always the best, even recorded live jazz. The lead track on that album, Train (iTunes) always makes me smile and on Togo (iTunes), Chris puts down his tenor sax and plays the bass clarinet at the beginning and then comes back in later to play one of my favorite Chris Potter solos on his tenor sax. Be warned … Chris goes way out there on the Togo solo. Another good starting place for Chris Potter is the Apple Music playlist, Chris Potter Essentials. And best of all, Chris Potter is not dead.

Microsoft Office for Mac’s New Real-Time Collaboration

With the latest update to Microsoft Office for Mac, Microsoft has added much-improved tools for collaboration. I’ve only had the update for a day but I’ve been testing it out with a few friends, and it’s the closest I’ve seen yet to the Google suite. It even shows who is currently editing via small thumbnails. This is real-time collaboration. You can see your collaborator’s changes as they make them.

While this isn’t Google Docs yet, it is a significant step toward Google Docs-type collaboration. Even more impressive is that Microsoft is pulling this off through the native application. Google has an advantage of working through the browser. I have often felt it’s only a question of time before other companies catch up with Google’s real-time collaboration and it looks like we are starting to see that happen. Once we can have reliable collaboration across the board with the various office suites, it’ll be interesting to see how much staying power Google Docs has. There are still a lot of things I don’t like about Google Docs, but its real-time collaboration is so damn useful. If you work in the Microsoft Office environment, give their new collaboration tools a go. You may end up more impressed than you expect.

Being Productive from Kourosh Dini

My friend Kourosh Dini is a smart guy, and I’ve always thought of him as a kindred spirit. He spends his days working as a practicing psychiatrist, but he also makes music and writes books. His latest book, Being Productive: Simple Steps to Calm Focus, is a good one. This book follows Kourosh’s prior productivity book, Zen & The Art of Work.

Before telling you why I like this new book, I should come clean about my relationship with productivity books. I have always had a negative reaction to self-help/productivity books. I have friends who read piles of these books, but they never really seem to get anything out of them.

My attitudes on the subject are changing, however. I’m now reading a few productivity-type books, but slowly. I have been going through the books and incorporating a few good ideas into my life and not moving on until they stick.

The reason I’m telling you this is because Being Productive is an excellent jumping off point for just that experience. The book not only includes theory and advice, but also exercises and techniques to apply what you are learning in your life. I’m currently only halfway through the book. I’m taking it slow and learning as I go, but I’m far enough in the book now to easily recommend it if you are looking for a little help.

Daylite Gets Push Notifications

Daylite, the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and small office management tool, continues to roll out new features. Most recently, Daylite added the ability to send push notifications to your iPad and iPhone.

While I don’t use Daylite (I have a team of just one), I continue to be impressed with it. I’ve heard from lots of readers over the years who depend on Daylite for their small business.

Even more impressive is the way Daylite has successfully crossed over from server-based app to internet-based app. There are many apps that weren’t able to navigate those waters.

SaneBox Productivity Gold Promotion

Longtime MacSparky sponsor SaneBox has joined forces with several productivity tools to offer a nifty productivity promotion. They have collected several of their favorite productivity tools (most are web-based) and negotiated discounts for users. This is not a bundle. You do not have to buy them all. Instead, it is a collection of interesting tools they like. They have negotiated discounts on all of them, so if you are interested you can get them for a discount.

Several of the tools and services were familiar to me, such as 1Password, Todoist, and TextExpander, but there were also several that I had never heard of such as Habit Nest and Focus@Will. These offers are worth the click to see if they have something that will scratch your particular itch.