LivingUndaunted

The Small Secrets

Been thinking a lot about productivity recently.  Could be the Extreme Productivity course that Dave is always talking about, or it could be my own profound desire to do about 10 times more than I actually do.

So yesterday, as I was crafting a detailed marketing plan, I became reacquainted with the wonders of the Table of Contents feature in Word.  I discovered it years ago, of course, but had forgotten its luscious ease, how it updates with the click of a mouse and makes everything look so darn organized.  Just knowing I got to click on "update field" option and could watch my work automatically take shape kept me working about an hour longer than I intended to.

This, however, is not a post about the wonders of Word (I am not always a fan) or a tutorial on productivity.  It is simply a comment on being mindful of WHAT achieves the result you want.  Productivity, the gurus tell us, is about being totally streamlined and having awesome systems in place.  And that might be so.  But for all of us living in the real world, we know the system is working about 2% of the time and the rest time we're in course correction.  So be sure you've got the little unexpected energy boosters that keep inspiring you and putting you in the mindset you need to achieve success.

For me, it's a pretty little Table of Contents.  What's yours?

Shakespeare on Electrons

Last week, I made a date to have lunch in a hip New Jersey eatery with an editor for a mid-size publisher.  I had no agenda for the meeting (yes, of course I want to write and publish a book, but the meeting was really about getting to know him and what he does).  Like all good agenda-less meetings, it turned into a fabulous conversation that opened up my vistas far wider than if I'd written a book proposal and pitched him on it.

It turns out paper is dying.  Good news for the greens, sad for the quasi-antiquarian like me who enjoys the tickly roughness of a nice paperbound book, the smell of colored photograph pages and the joy of actually wanting the book to turn into a page-turner, not for the excitement, but for the sensation of turning the pages.

"If you think about it," he told me, "basically the book publishing industry is based on the assumption that people will be irrational.  It's irrational to want to take up walls and walls of your house with shelves of books, many of which you've never read, most of which you'll never touch again.  If you could have 10,000 books in a handheld device that makes every page searchable, wouldn't you rather open up the walls in your house for something else?"

"But the feeling, the texture, the allure..."  I was sure my argument must be based on something more substantial than my own prejudices and snobbery, but I was having a hard time finding anything.  "And a Palm for reading Macbeth?  Impossible."

"Yes, the only thing that's keeping us from being there is that there is yet to be a satisfying alternative to the feeling of holding a book in your hands."  I harrumphed.  Indeed.

And yet... he finally succeeded in piquing my interest.  Turns out there's this nifty thing called electronic paper they're developing.  So of course I ran home to research it.  ScienCentral Report says, "If computer screens were as lightweight and flexible as a sheet of paper, your newspaper could update you every hour and still be portable. 

For those of you who enjoyed Minority Report, the Tom Cruise futuristic thriller (don't let the genre fool you, it's actually a visually stunning movie) you'll be familiar with what they're talking about.  Remember the scene where Tom Cruise is a wanted man and is in the subway and the guy's newspaper across from him changes to show his picture?  Turns out we may not need to wait til 2050+ to see that.  A prototype is in development right now.

So, yes, the feeling of nostalgia kind of lingers.  But then again, I'm not pining for my vinyl LP's as I burn countless CD's or pack songs into an iPod.  So maybe it is time to take up painting again after all so I can have something to fill up my empty walls when all these shelves of books go away.

PS- Feeling futuristic?  Read some more commentary on Minority Report's vision of our future - Gap ads that speak to us personally as we walk by, very cool 3-D "desktop" screens and lots more - here.

PPS- And yet, after that meeting, I took a slow drive up the Hudson River on the way to my house and stopped at {you guessed it} Barnes and Noble on the way.  It felt like going into a museum that doesn't quite yet know it is one.  And in an act of independent irrationality, I bought two wonderful, paperful books.