The pulse of Alexander Interactive

If you aren’t already familiar with Google Wave, check out some basic info, and a very in-depth video here. Wave is a new project from Google that reinvents email communication. Forget everything you know about email, it was invented back in the 70′s, things have changed; technology is faster, we have cloud computing, web apps look fancier, and for a while, a large portion of email users are moving (back) to web based clients.

Email is the current method of communication and collaboration when working on a project. You usually have a folder for that project in Outlook, some rules to filter project related messages into that folder, and an email chain for each issue. People reply to messages inside that chain somewhere, the thread gets continued, people get added to the thread, people drop off. You don’t know where you are in the chain when you check in a few hours later, and you get bombarded by… STOP!

Wave is very early in its adoption, it’s invite only, but it has the strong potential to fix a lot of these problems. It can clean up a lot of the clutter of project communication and throw it on the cloud so you can get to it anywhere. Wave does need some more security built in for the corporate settings, but that is in the pipeline. Right now waves can only be private or public, but once inside a private wave, that user can invite anyone.

Some notes on how Wave can help a project:

• Each Project would get its own folder in wave
• Anyone working on the project would have access to this folder
• Every issue or conversation would get its own wave and everyone who needs to be involved in the issue is added to the wave.
• At this point every project related message is confined to the projects folder. No Outlook rules or message dragging will ever be needed. If a new person needs to be involved in the discussion, they are just added to the wave, no forwarding or reply-all.
• The conversation can continue similar to email, with individual replies, but it can be so much more. In line replies with related topics can appear right with the original topic, not hidden down 6 replies in an email chain
• You can show only new replies on the wave and get caught back up in the discussion quickly
• You can do a playback of all or part of the discussion and see who chimed in and when
• Need to share documents? You will eventually be able to drag them right out of your file system into the browser and into the wave. (This is currently only supported for pictures)

As I said, Wave is very early in its adoption, but after more people join, and more developer plugins come out, I think it will be a very valuable tool both in the workplace and at home.

Trying to find a program to launch by browsing through the list of programs can be time-consuming, especially if you juggle applications throughout the day. My first suggestion to overcome this is to drag the program on to your quick launch or dock. Your program is now one click away and will save you time next time you have to launch it.

Another method for quickly launching an application is to use a launcher such as Launchy (xp) or Spotlight (Mac). These save you even more time by eliminating the search for the icon on your dock or taskbar as you launch the program by typing instead of clicking.

The third approach is to use the superbar (windows 7). The well thought out new taskbar is very time-saving. You can open an application once, pin it on the superbar and it will always be there when you need it. If it is not open, it opens when you click it, if it is open it goes to the window. It is very intuitive and streamlines the computer use process.

Methods like these help trim off time during development, leaving more time to focus on writing code.

Every now and then you get a process that just does not want to coordinate. How many times have you seen this?
The usual way of going about terminating this process would be to:
Right click the taskbar, select task manager, click process, click end process, click ok? or Press ctrl+alt+delete, open task manager, click process etc…
How about two clicks? That is what task killer enables you to do. It’s a very handy program to quickly clean up your system of processes you don’t need running.

This tool is free for Windows users and can save you a lot of time.

One of the little things I do in the realm of GTD is prioritize my email. For me, this usually boils down to taking my various opt-in emails and shuttling them into a separate folder when I don’t have time to read and process them appropriately.
The past few weeks have been rough on the opt-in folder. While I was at Internet Retailer Web Design ’09, I didn’t have the time to focus on newsletters, so I put them aside. When I got back, I kept doing it, because I wanted to start from the oldest emails and work my way forward. Then I got a stomach virus and lost much of last week. Now my opt-in folder has more than 200 unread emails. Eek!
What to do? I’d like to process these items as they come in but work generally comes first. I’d like to get through the backlog, but 200 emails is daunting. Yet I’m also unwilling to declare email bankruptcy on them, because they’re full of relevant information that I don’t get in my RSS feeds.
Sooner or later I’ll get to them. In the meantime I’d love a new idea.

Today marks the start of Ai Fridays, a new way for us to wind down the workweek. This is a hard-working office, and we’re doing our best to acknowledge the need for a) targeted, stress-free time and b) a little bit of fun.

Our new Friday format is threefold.

1. Breakfast in the office. Some of our peers buy everyone lunch daily, but that’s more of a perk, and this is more of a thank-you for a job well done. It’s also a nice way to start the day. The breakfast station behind my desk has been convivial all morning. Our routine will be bagels, orange juice and the like, although at an unspecified Friday in the future I’ll be rolling in an omelette station.
2. Fuss-Free Friday. This applies to how we’re supposed to work: no meetings, no calls, no instant messaging, infrequent email. In a client-driven business, we often spend the bulk of the week in conversation, leaving little time to get things done. Fridays are now earmarked for “me” time, where we can all focus on projects with minimal distraction.
3. An early whistle. At 4 or 4:30, we’re turning on music and taking the beer out of the fridge. Ai employees typically work past 6, so the last few hours of the week are now a weekend kickoff. We’ll get a little work done, but we’ll get to enjoy some communal downtime and finish Fridays with a smile.

This isn’t particularly innovative; it’s just a nice way for us to wind up each week. It’s also year-round, unlike the summer or casual Fridays found in many offices. (Indeed, I’m not sure we can get much more casual.) Mostly, it’s a way for Ai to show its appreciation to the team, with a little added productivity as well.

I’m posting this on a Friday, so if you’ll excuse me, I have to grab a bagel….

Loren has me completely hooked on Sandy, the web-based “personal assistant.” I email myself from work when I have to take care something the following day, and when I check my iPhone the next morning, I have a text message waiting. For a guy who puts post-it notes on his wallet, this is a fantastic innovation.

The only problem has been with Sandy’s website: for a guy who puts post-it notes on his wallet, remembering my password has been next to impossible. The site requires a login to change preferences, and as a result, I’ve reset my password several times. And the password-reset screen doesn’t include a “remember me” prompt.

Hey Sandy–how about a silent cookie? Your target user obviously needs it, and probably won’t mind.

To: Sandy
Reminder: happy holidays, Monday at 5 p.m.

The Ai offices are closed next week. We’ll see you in the new year. Wait, wait – I’m not quite dead yet! -LD

Some of us start with a career of making stuff, and then transition into a career of talking to people. This transition can be painful.

Making stuff requires concentration, or “being in the zone”. People that make stuff, be they programmers, designers, writers or what-have-you, need to block out the rest of the world, really focus on what they’re doing and crank out their stuff. People who make stuff need periods of isolation, in order to create high quality work.

The other kind of job is talking to people. Talking to people jobs, like project management, sales, customer service and so forth thrive in environments of interactivity. People who talk to people for a living work better when they’re connected to other people, through email, IM, telephones etc. Their days are characterized by frequent brief interactions with other people.

However, sometimes people who make stuff find that their job starts to involve talking to people. Often this is a function of seniority, such as when a senior programmer becomes a tech lead. Programming is primarily a “making stuff” job, but tech leads function as a kind of “transformer” between project managers and developers; stepping down the voltage between the business world of the PM and the technical world of the developers.

This transition is where worlds start to collide. A tech lead is asked not only to talk to other people (co-ordinate developers, explain tech to the PM) but also to make stuff (take on lead programming tasks). This can make people’s heads explode.

When one’s job is predominantly either to make stuff or to talk to people, one can be fairly functional. Depending on their mode, they either get in the zone or they stay in touch. However, when one has a job that entails both responsibilities it can be very difficult to get either done effectively – one can wind up being torn between modes, appearing unresponsive to people who need them to talk, and unfocused when it comes to making stuff.

I call this the Tech Lead Problem, but it applies to anyone coming out of a production background who takes on management responsibilities. They can be designers, writers or information architects.

The two modes just don’t work well together. For this reason, if you’re someone who has their duties split between making stuff and talking to people, the trick is to cleanly separate the “making stuff” mode from the “talking to people” mode.

When you’re in making stuff mode, block out a nice big appointment for yourself on your calendar so people won’t interject meetings, shut off IM, and only check your email at fairly infrequent intervals (once per hour, perhaps). Its best to be completely open about this, allowing “productive time” to live as a first class citizen on your schedule, with appropriate priority against the various meetings and other “talking to people” activities.

Take other steps to reduce extraneous noise – can you work out of the office? How about noise-cancelling headphones? Our Creative Director here has taken to hanging a flashing bicycle light on the back of his chair when he’s in productive mode. Don’t bug him when that light is on.

Then, ensure that you provide ample “talking to people time”. Turn that IM on, check your email frequently. Even (gasp!) get up from your desk, walk over and talk to people.

At first, people who’s jobs are primarily to talk to people may have difficulty understanding the importance of separating these modes. Its important to educate them however, because achieving this separation is essential to maintaining sanity if you have a job that requires both kinds of activities.

(Ironically I was interrupted twice, by the same person, while writing this. Oh well…)

A while back I posted about how to survive crunch periods (How to Crunch). Tom Sullivan, a journalist writing for PM Network magazine (put out by the Project Management Institute) decided to interview me for an article he was writing on the same topic for this month’s issue.

Unfortunately it looks like the crunch article isn’t one of the ones that are offered as PDFs on the site, but if you or someone you know is a PMI member you should be able to grab it. If I find a way to access the article directly (or if someone wants to tell me how) I’ll post a link here.

(Not sure if I love that photo….oh well)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m trying out this new “digital admin assistant” service called Sandy. Every day I receive a “daily digest” email of items I need to take care of that day. I haven’t had anything for a couple of days – so this is what came in my “daily digest” this morning:

Nothing’s scheduled for today!

It’s been a couple of days without anything to include in your daily digest. Rather than continuing to send you an empty digest every day, I’m going to hold off until there’s something on your calendar, in your to-do list, or otherwise appropriate to send on.

If you’re having any trouble, are confused, or just need a little guidance on how to work with me on a daily basis, try leafing through my guide at http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide or send email to my helpers at help@iwantsandy.com — they’d be glad to help you out!

Have a good day!

Sandy

Just like a highly efficient human admin assistant would do. This is great! I fully expected to mechanically receive empty notifications every day I had nothing. By exceeding my expectations, and acting as close to a flesh-and-blood admin assistant as possible, the service significantly increases my productivity, and is a pleasure to use.