Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Simple Feelings of Control

As mentioned in a previous post on the simplicity of the human brain in certain respects, I loved David Allen’s Getting Things Done from the moment when he identified that the foundation stone of effectiveness was a trusted system.

Since then, I’ve remained aware of the simple things that give a sense of control and a form of happiness because of that control.

Technopolis in the FT is a regular ‘(normally) expensive gadget’ review feature in the How to Spend It supplement magazine by Jonathan Margolis. Last weekend he featured two items which triggered my thinking again about the aspects of control.

One was a box called ‘The Sanctuary’ and the other, the less mysteriously named ‘Trekstor Datastation Microdisk’. Now this isn’t turning into a gadget review blog. Mr Margolis said they did their business. The business of The Sanctuary is to be a smart/ modern version of the bowl/ dish/ plate/ little area on the kitchen surface/ bookshelf/ bedside where you put your bits: keys/ money/ wallet or purse etc. It’s a £100 box. But it connect to the mains and has adapters for most mobiles/ PDAs and other battery-powered personal gadgets. So you come in and put your stuff into one place.

The Trekstor data station is a hard drive the size of a thick credit card. But up to 120gb (enough for about 100 films). No external power and high speed transfer via USB 2.0.

Mr Margolis rates them as two of the best things that he has come across in his 20yrs of ‘gadgeteering’. And why?

Read more…

The Growing of the Conscious Mind in Children

To celebrate the birth of my third child yesterday, a brief (bottles/ baby and child #1 & 2 to focus on at this time…) couple of thoughts as the seed of something bigger.

What struck me was: is it any wonder that we have a constant challenge with concepts of ‘ourself’ or ‘me’. Why is it a surprise to us that we find it hard to ‘manage’ ourselves (if that is what we try and do)?

I sit and see a homosapien offspring aged 1 day. A beautiful bundle of potential; at this stage though just a bundle of nerve endings and other-than-conscious reactions. Initial genetic pre-set programmes around food and reaction (crying) to more extreme sensory inputs (noise/ light) – I’m sure there are a lot more listed by experts.

And then the conscious overlay begins. Thoughts and knowledge. Habits, beliefs, states and behaviours. Sets of reactions and responses based on our map of the territory.

I can’t shake an image of layers of ‘material’. Like strata in a rock; residues from the ‘time and tide’ of life compacted by the heat and pressure of the moment/ that moment.

And then initially apparently so hard to mine out those conditioned layers in order to change.

Why Do We Feel Better if the Wording is Changed?

“There is no doubt that bringing elements of the US strategic arsenal close to Russian territory could be used to weaken our deterrent potential,” the Russian foreign ministry said. “…in such a situation the Russian side will take appropriate measures to compensate for potential created for threats to its national security”

Now I did a degree in Politics. Scary times, but not the point of this post.

A few minutes after reading the above in the FT, I opened up a letter about my subscription to the Times. They used to send ‘Timesaver’ tokens through with the vouchers. A perk of the subscription, it meant that I didn’t need to collect vouchers for anyspecial offers available. The letter said ‘You may notice that Timesaver Tokens are no longer included. We are continually working on new ways in which to deliver special promotions to you…..’

Yesterday I spent most of my time giving 360 degree feedback to my line reports at Madgex. We use a tool called My3Things which I based on a brilliant ‘rapid’ feedback tool from a guy called Matt Clarke from beyondnowhere UK. He worked with the finance team when I was at Sainsbury’s.

The feedback tool asks the person giving the feedback to give three things they’ve really noticed about the person they’re giving feedback to. And three things they’d love to see more of.

Now you may be asking yourself whether I’ve gone mad. What do these three things have in common?

Read more…

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