The Friendly Anarchist

Kamil Tusznio At Work: The two-sessions workday

Sandy’s finally slowing down a bit, and I hope all of my US readers are safe and dry, and ideally even enjoy working electricity!

It’s At Work day again here at The Friendly Anarchist. Today’s guest is Kamil Tusznio, an indie web and mobile software engineer, and I’m extremely happy to welcome him! By the very nature of his work, this interview is a little bit technical at the beginning, but don’t let that stop you: Kamil’s approach to work will be extremely interesting for anybody interested in bootstrapping a small (software) company.

In this At Work interview, Kamil talks about the importance of ergonomics, his daily planning sessions in the shower, and why he doesn’t do all of his work in just one big session. Plus, there’s a free productivity app inside, right at the end of this post!

Hi Kamil! Overall, what is the kind of work that you do? How many areas of focus do you have?

My workday tends to involve three types of work: design, development, and marketing.

I’m typically building a web or mobile app, so designing involves figuring out the UI (how the app will look and feel) and UX (how the user will interact with the interface). I usually start with a pen and draw the interface out on paper. If it’s my own project, I’ll go from a drawing to implementing the design in code. If it’s for a client who needs to sign off on the design, I’ll use Balsamiq Mockups to create a better-looking wireframe.

Development is basically writing the code. For that I’ll be in Xcode or vim writing Objective-C, Ruby, JavaScript, php, or whatever else the project requires.

Marketing is the last piece of the puzzle and arguably the most important because better marketed products beat better engineered products just about every time. I typically only do marketing for my own stuff and it’s been tough. I’m pretty new to it all, and while it’s fun to learn, it’s definitely not easy.

Do you have any specific time at which you normally get up? Do you use an alarm clock or do you just sleep until you’re well-rested?

I try to sleep no more than 8 hours, and I’ll set my alarm every night to keep that constraint. If I’m going to bed at 1, my alarm is set for 9, and if I end up staying up until 2:30, my alarm gets set to 10:30.

The big thing to having this work is to keep the range of hours in which you end up going to sleep fairly small so your body doesn’t freak out. I rarely go to bed before 1, and rarely later than 3:30, so my body knows I’m getting up between 9 and 11:30.

Do you have any routines?

I always eat breakfast before getting to work – I’m no good on an empty stomach. After breakfast I’ll figure out what I want to accomplish during the day while showering. Like other people, I find that I get a lot of good ideas in the shower, and thinking about my day seems to prime those ideas somewhat.

Any rituals to find focus?

The only ritualistic thing would be regular breaks. Sitting for extended periods of time is really bad for you, so I try to get up and walk around and do some stretching at least once every hour. I use 30/30 on my iPhone to break my workday up into 60 minute sessions with 10 minute breaks in-between.

If I really can’t focus for whatever reason then I’ll take a break and do something else completely. I might read a novel for 30 minutes or go get groceries, but this doesn’t tend to happen too often.

Where do you work? Any important things in your work environment?

I work from home and I have a room dedicated as my office. I like to keep my desk as organized as possible, mostly so that when I need to use the surface space I’m not distracted by having to find a pen or clearing space.

Ergonomics are really important for me (and I think they should be for everyone). I have my monitor elevated so it’s at eye level, and recently started using an ergonomic keyboard (MS Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000). It’s been awesome so far, the elevated wrist bar is really good. It’s the first split keyboard I’ve used, but it’s been a surprisingly easy transition. I’m still trying to find a mouse I really like, but for now I have a simple Logitech wireless mouse.

What tools do you use to help you get things done?

I use Evernote for notetaking. I have separate notebooks for projects. I wish the app had a nicer UI but so far it’s the best solution I’ve found for organizing notes and keeping them synced to my phone.

I use Sparrow for email when possible. It’s quick and gets out of my way, which I really appreciate.

I use Gmail’s web client for more advanced features like filters. I also like the Boomerang extension which lets you bring an email back to your inbox at a later date. I’ve been making use of it a lot when I send out an email that I want to follow up on. I get it boomeranged back in a few days and in the meantime it’s not cluttering up my inbox. I wish I didn’t have to open gmail.com every time I want to use this.

I don’t use anything for keeping an agenda, just Google calendar synced to iCal on my iPhone to keep track of appointments or calls.

The other big thing for me is bookmarking. I use Delicious and save a ton of bookmarks when I come across something I think I could make use of in the future.

To help with marketing I also make use of Buffer, which lets you push content out to social networks at regular intervals, and Google Analytics, which gives you all kinds of useful data for how people are interacting with your products.

How many hours do you work on a normal day? Do you take pauses as they come or at specific and fixed times?

I normally work 7-8 hours each day, and I try to break it up into two sessions, one when I wake up and the other before I go to bed. I’ll take pauses during the sessions only when I’m distracted. Otherwise I tend to get pretty zoned-in when I’m working.

Breaking my workday up into two sessions has been really helpful. It allows my brain to recharge so I don’t lose focus as easily as if I were working 8 hours straight, and I feel better physically since I’m not sitting for one long period of time.

Pretty interesting! This reminds me of Winston Churchill’s approach to work: He actually said that a similar routine allowed him to work 1 1/2 days in every 24 hours.

Do you use any timeboxing techniques (like a fixed agenda or the pomodoro technique)? Or do you prefer to work more impulsively, depending on the current state of things, taks from your email inbox, and so on?

I use 30/30 to do the Pomodoro technique, except I’ve extended it to 60 minutes with 10 minute breaks because 25 minutes is too short a time for the work I do; I need a longer session to really get into things. In general, I try to plan out my day in terms of what I want to accomplish, based on what I think is top priority. Doing this explicitly is helpful because it forces me to get important things out of the way first, even when I might not particularly want to do them.

Finally, do you have anything else that you’d like to share concerning your work day?

When I first got started on my own I wanted to know where my time was going because I felt like I wasn’t being as efficient as I could be. I ended up building an app called My Minutes which lets you set goals for your time.

I use it regularly alongside whatever I’m doing. I’ve got the following goals for my workday: at most 1 hour of email, at most 1 hour of browsing, at least 4 hours of development work, and at least 1.5 hours of marketing work.

These goals have made my time really black-and-white, and they’re excellent motivation to keep me focused as I’m working.

Thanks a lot for your Time, Kamil! And a quick note to all the productivity nerds out there: Kamil’s app My Minutes is available for free on the App Store. If it sounds useful to you, be sure to check it out!

Procrastination Week

Even though I have a love-hate relationship with procrastination, it’s a tad ironic that I’ve been surprisingly busy just during the days that Michael Nobbs has declared procrastination week. During this week, I’ve been taking care of two houses, one garden, and one elderly lady, I worked on the first release of the ILIAS LMS online help, organized my next trip (and an interesting speaking gig on Colombia), brought some order into my task lists ((Even more irony!)), and plenty other tidbits. I had less time to read and write than ever.

On the other hand, this unusual lack of free time actually made me procrastinate on publishing a new post this week. Which is why I decided to give you an inside-look into my thoughts on procrastination. Think of it as a best-of compilation, and as my contribution to #procrastinationweek!

Click on any of the links to read the complete article!

My Love-Hate Relationship With Procrastination

The More You Procrastinate, the Better You Get:

The real problem with procrastination is that people don’t know how to cope with it. And this comes to no surprise: We live in a culture of wannabe effectiveness and fake productivity, teaching even young children to make impeccable use of their time. Most 12 year olds in the suburbs of the USA seem to have a tighter schedule than I am ever going to have. Relaxing and doing nothing, they are taught, is a bad thing, just like using swear words or eating their finger nails.

As a result, people often fall into a trap I’d like to call the Möbius Strip of Fake Productivity: You don’t feel like you’re ready to work on any task that matters, but you don’t feel you’re allowed to do nothing, either. So you will just nervously fill up your day with minor tasks, getting nothing important done, but neither taking the time to relax and give your idle brain some freedom. Just like walking on a Möbius strip, you could go on and on and on like this until you reach retirement age.

The alternative? Embrace this lovely human quality called procrastination! Grab your scissors, cut the möbius strip, and decide to turn pro not only in your work, but also in procrastination.

Procrastinate on Tasks, not on Your Life:

Procrastination is not necessarily a bad thing, as even the ancient Egyptians knew. It can just be a sign of one of the following: Either the task at hand is annoying (and should probably be avoided), or it’s a task whose carrying out still requires some thought. Outsource it to a machine, and you will never get an answer. In contrast, procrastinators generally don’t have problems finishing their stuff – they only decide to put it off… and to provide results “just in time”. The problem then isn’t procrastination – it’s stressing out.

The Loop:

Procrastination is part of the loop.

It costs energy and motivation and time. It costs what we call our life.
It costs the life of that girl.

It costs a whole chunk of life – an hour, a day, a week, a month – until she finally gets back to her core.
Back to what she is.
Back to what she wanted to create.
Back to her art.

That’s the first round of the loop: Create art, passionately. Become doubtful. Procrastinate. Then, finally: Reconnect. But immediately, it begins again.

Not Lazy. Not Procrastinating. Idle:

It’s maybe just a play with semantics, but for me, laziness is simply dead and sterile: You’re lazy after work because you don’t have any power left. You just feel exhausted, and you don’t want to do anything else, so you retract to your couch and TV.

If laziness is nothing but apathy, procrastination is the desire to escape from boring or gruesome work: You don’t want to do a certain thing, so you start doing something else. In this sense, procrastination is an “away from something”.

Idleness, on the other hand, is a “towards something”.

Idleness and Action: A How-To:

While idlers don’t feel bad relaxing, looking at clouds, daydreaming and generally doing nothing, we don’t do nothing all the time – we also know when to start doing stuff, and how to do it efficiently. We won’t probably get moving on Monday mornings at 8am just to please the system. But then, maybe we would. Or we would prefer a Thursday afternoon or a nightshift on the weekend. We’ll find the appropriate moment.

The core of idleness, at least for me, is not doing nothing, but avoiding stupid work. While your mileage may vary, stupid work for me has a lot to do with filling out forms, storing documents in large manila folders and sitting in neon-lit meeting rooms with a bunch of badly-dressed office clerks. I just don’t enjoy that stuff and generally don’t consider it a good use of my time.

At Work: Milo McLaughlin

Another two weeks have passed, so it’s At Work day once again here on The Friendly Anarchist. This time, I had the pleasure to talk to my friend and consigliere, Milo McLaughlin, about his adventures as a freelancer, pr0mising trial-and-error approaches to creative work, and the benefits of Buddhist chanting.

Hey Milo, welcome! First of all, is it true that your cat tends to steal your executive stair, leaving you with nothing but the cold, wooden kitchen chair?

(No comment!)

Damn, felines are tough! For the people who don’t know you yet: What is the kind of work that you do? How many areas of focus do you have?

Well, since taking voluntary redundancy in February (after ten years working in the Scottish civil service) I’ve been experimenting with building a creative business by working as a freelance copywriter for creative businesses and creating content for my blog, Clear-Minded Creative. I’ve also started doing Creative Clarity and Strategy Sessions with people who need help to achieve their creative goals, which I really enjoy doing.

This has only really been possible because I got a lump sum when I left my job which meant that I could comfortably survive for a year. I had already done some freelance work on the side which also made it less risky to leave ‘secure employment’, so when the opportunity came up I decided it was a good time to leave.

Create: It took me a while to get into the swing of things but I’m now in the habit of doing a solid chunk of creative work each day, whether it’s producing content for my clients, or for my blog and other outlets. This usually consists of writing but can also involve filming and editing if I’m creating a video, or working in InDesign and Photoshop for my Career Masterplan for Mad Geniuses series.
Connect: I try to spend 30 minutes to an hour answering or sending emails from clients, friends and blog readers (who usually are also friends!) and catching up with Twitter and Facebook. I’m not as focused or consistent as I could be with this, and sometimes take too long to respond to emails so that’s something I’m aiming to improve. I also love chatting with clients and friends all around the world on Skype or Google Plus Hangouts. I’m still amazed at how easy and cheap this is to do thanks to the wonders of technology.
Consume: I’m an insatiable reader so I’ll get lost down the rabbit hole of my Google Reader subscriptions and social media streams far too often, and I often sign up to online courses and then don’t get round to actioning the advice. I also love reading on the Kindle. I’d like to cut down the time I’m currently spending mindlessly consuming so I can increase the amount of time I’m mindfully creating – so I’m working on setting limits on my reading to make it more focused and purposeful.

Do you have any specific time at which you normally get up? Do you use an alarm clock or do you just sleep until you’re well-rested?

I’m naturally more of a night owl so I’ve had a few false (early) starts when it comes to establishing a specific wake up time – a few months back I set myself a morning routine challenge which failed miserably. Amazingly, once I eased up on myself and went for a more tempo giusto approach (as you often advise), I fell into a natural routine that works well for me.

I set my alarm for 7:30am which is around the time my wife wakes up. Instead of going back to sleep, I now make an effort to stay awake most mornings (it helps that the cat usually jumps on me wanting some cuddles). I usually check email and social media in bed for a while before getting up once my wife has gone to work.

This is so as not to get in her way whilst she’s getting ready as our flat is extremely small!

Do you have any routines?

As I’ve only been freelance since February, it’s taken quite a few months to fall into a steady routine and I think I’ve still got quite a way to go to perfect it.

As I said, once I wake up I tend to catch up social media and blogs for a bit because it takes me a while to wake up properly.

Then I will get up and have a cup of tea or coffee and some breakfast, and usually I’ll stick the computer on and get straight to work. Ideally I’ll keep the internet switched off for this if I am focusing solely on writing or editing, but sometimes I do need the internet for research.

I’m now getting in the habit of breaking up the day with exercise, whether it’s running outside or going to the gym (not drinking alcohol has helped with this). So I’ll try to work for 3 hours before and 3 hours after my daily exercise – unless I’ve got a very tight deadline to meet when I’ll probably work right through.

What do you think about rituals to find focus?

I don’t have a set ritual, but if I feel out of sorts or demotivated I’ve got a few ways to deal with it. Exercise is one of the best ways I’ve found to boost my mood and focus. I wasn’t a sporty type growing up so I might just commit to doing five minutes of yoga to begin with, and I’ll usually feel sufficiently invigorated after that to get outside for a run. The thought of strenuous exercise rarely appeals to me, but it always feels great once I’ve done it.

If I’m particularly tired or low on energy I’ll meditate for 20 minutes but whilst that sometimes give me more energy, it could go either way and I may just end up falling asleep!

I’m not religious but I do have a spiritual side, so some days I’ll say a short mantra to myself in the morning (usually in the shower) asking for the strength to do my creative work.

Sometimes I’ll follow it with a few minutes of Buddhist chanting. My mum converted to a specific school of Buddhism who chant ‘Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ and she often speaks of the benefits of doing this regularly. Again, I’m not keen on organised religion but I have found that a few minutes of this chanting lifts my mood and gives me renewed energy.

And when I’m writing or editing copy I’ll usually blast out some upbeat music. Cheesy 80’s pop is always good, as is decent electronica such as the brilliant Scottish band Errors.

Where do you work? What are the most important things in your work environment?

I’ve already mentioned that our living space is extremely small, with only a kitchen/living room, bedroom and bathroom. That means I don’t have a specific room for my work, but I use the kitchen table during the day and then a desk in the bedroom in the evening or at weekends. This is far from ideal and I’d really love to have my own office – but then our current mortgage is very affordable, which is definitely one of the reasons I was able to leave my job.

A clean and spacious desk/table is best for my mental state, but I usually have my MacBook, iPad (for reading PDFs and web content), & Moleskin notebook and pen at hand which isn’t exactly minimalist, and other clutter does build up from time to time!

What tools help you to get things done?

If I’m feeling fuzzy-headed or overwhelmed I’ll do some journalling. I currently use my iPad with a bluetooth keyboard and the iAWriter app. I love the lack of distractions with this set up and it’s ultra portable so I can write in bed, on the bus, or in a cafe without needing to carry a laptop.

I also use the Moleskin notebook to scribble various ideas and mini-mindmaps when I need some clarity. Simplenote is also one of my most-used apps for keeping track of random thoughts and ideas.

In terms of a GTD tools, I’ve tried almost all of them and prefer Omnifocus on the iPad by far. However I still mostly resort to scribbling down lists with pen and paper when it comes to day-to-day prioritising.

How many hours do you work on a normal day? Do you take pauses as they come or at specific and fixed times?

It varies, honestly. If I have a client deadline then I might end up working 10 hours (with breaks for lunch etc) but in all honesty it’s probably closer to 4 hours of solid creative work each day at the moment and 2 hours of more fiddly admin stuff. I’d like to increase that to 8/9 overall, but as mentioned I have the same problems with distractions as many other people!

I tend to take a break for lunch when I feel like I’ve achieved a reasonable amount, and to exercise. I sometimes play the guitar for a while, though the cat doesn’t like that much!

Do you use any timeboxing techniques (like a fixed agenda or the pomodoro technique)? Or do you prefer to work more impulsively, depending on the current state of things, task from your email inbox, and so on?

I do find the pomodoro technique helpful in avoiding ‘Parkinson’s Law’ and use it now and again when journalling or doing other writing. Turning off the internet is perhaps the greatest productivity hack I know though.

Finally, do you have anything else that you’d like to share concerning your work day?

Well at the moment it is definitely a work in progress. What I most like about being freelance is the flexibility, so whilst I do tend to stay at home most of the time, I can also go out and meet friends for lunch, go to the gym, or now and again to a client’s offices for a few hours or even the whole day.

I’m also very aware that I’m in an absolutely amazing position at the moment, and that my current freedom is dependent on my earning more money in the future (and spending less).

Whilst I’ve earnt enough from my freelancing so far to pay my mortgage and bills each month, my lump sum from my old work has meant I’ve not felt the pinch of not knowing where my next meal is coming from yet. I’m going to have to work a lot harder over the next few months to make this a sustainable lifestyle!

Thanks a lot for your time, Milo! And anybody of my readers looking for more creative clarity (and an interesting take on developing your very own career masterplan!), be sure to check out Milo’s free guides. (They are the real deal and come with no strings attached!)

Yesteryou

David D. Cain on how the person you used to be still tells you what to do:

[We tend to] view our own beliefs as if they are real knowledge. I hadn’t realized how crusty and obsolete my impression of “dance music” was. In reality, since I’d last actively considered it, the sun had risen and set four thousand times, wars had been fought, borders had been redrawn, great loves had started and ended, eras had died. Children who were five then were now driving cars, and somehow I still felt like I had a pretty clear idea of what I was missing.

When thinking about who’s in charge of your life, David’s observation take you to a whole new battlefield: Maybe it’s not your parents, not your teachers, not that guy who treated you like an asshole back in 7th grade. Maybe it’s your old You.

To be sure, that old You doesn’t have to be a bad or stupid person. But chances are that, years after you last met her, she’s a very different person than Now-You.

The next time you’re tempted to say no (or yes!) to something, put Yesteryou on hold for a second. And instead, listen to Now-You. You might be surprised by how smart she is.

P.S.

And an interesting look at an adjacent problem by Jiddu Krishnamurti, sent in by a reader (Thanks, Melvin!):

Thought is response of memory, of experience, which are the conditioning influences. These influences are not only of the past but of the past in conjunction with the present. So, the past is always shadowing the present.

Mars Dorian At Work

It’s At Work Day again here on The Friendly Anarchist! Today’s guest is Mars Dorian, the crazyness-leads-to-epic-greatness mad genius designer and branding consultant from MarsDorian.com. I was lucky enough to meet Mars in person a couple of times and even visit his studio. As we chatted so much about our different approaches to tackling our creative work, I was sure he would be a great guest for this series.

Here’s Mars on his work day, sit-on-your-ass sessions, and the workplace he (almost!) loves more than his mother!

1. Hey Mars! Overall, what is the kind of work that you do? How many areas of focus do you have?

Right now, I focus on two major things. Designing and consulting. One improves my visual skills, the other my social skills. And both bring me moolah – which is always sweet. Pretty much everything I do nowadays falls into those two work categories. I also have this mentality:

Whenever I’m alone, I use all of my time to learn and work. Meaning – I constantly do stuff that makes me better and/or brings me money.

Whenever I’m out with people, I focus all my energies on having fun and bringing the people I’m with also a good time.
The question that I always ask myself is this – how can I make this better ?

I think it’s important to really master your focus in order to get and provide maximum value in life.

2. Do you have any specific time at which you normally get up? Do you use an alarm clock or do you just sleep until you’re well-rested?

Shit, since I’m my own boss, my schedule is totally messed up. I usually work until 5-6 in the morning, which sucks in the winter, because I go to bed when the sun rises and wake up during sunset – so no daylight for me. ;) My mother’s not the only one who calls me a vampire. Sigh.

I now force myself to bring more rhythm into it, but it’s one tough-tough-ass challenge.

3. Do you have any routines?

Yeah, I always listen to music and do exercise after I wake up. I get my body super-energized, then take a shower, eat a light breakfast and start the working day.

After every 30 to 40-minute sit-on-your-ass session (I only work with my computer), I do exercises (read: dance like a monkey on fire listening to music) and then start the next working session. We all know that sitting 24/7 is killing us so we have to fight back.

4. Any rituals to find focus?

I do incantations before I create my work. They are pretty much positive affirmations that you say out loud, preferably with mucho passion and determination. Stuff like: Today I, Mars Dorian, will rock my work. I will produce KICK-ass stuff. I WILL PRODUCE KICK-ASS STUFF.

It sounds ridiculous and people looking at you will think you’re getting cuckoo. But it’s more effective than drinking a barrel of coffee. The stronger you say those incantations (or better: scream), the more energized you’ll be. Try it.

Also: I finish my working day by thanking the internet for letting me do my work. I bow down to my Macbook while the browser tab is open and say a silent thank you. Seriously. I do this every single day.

5. Where do you work? Any important things in your work environment?

I used to work at home but switched to a studio, which has become my second home now. It’s ultra-important to switch your environments if you want to stay productive and creative. If you’re stuck in the same place, you drown in your rut and produce shitty work. That’s why I try to change places every few weeks.

Here’s a photograph of my current studio working place – I luv it almost more than my mother:

6. What tools do you use to help you get things done?

I used to have lists and programs, but didn’t enjoy using them. I mainly use Google calendar to schedule my events. I believe in simplicity.

The only productivity tool I use nowadays is an online stopwatch that I schedule for 30 minute periods. Basic. But it works like white magic.

7. How many hours do you work on a normal day? Do you take pauses as they come or at specific and fixed times?

That totally depends. But I work every single day. Sometimes 6 hours. Sometimes 14 hours. When I’m in flow, I forget time and sleep and work through a day or two.

I believe the whole work-life-balance is useless rubbish. If you feel fit, you can work a lot. If you tired like hell, you will rest. The body takes what it needs. No need to torture it with any moral rules.

8. Anything else you’d like to share concerning your approach to get things done?

Yeah. Time limits and deadlines are bloody brilliant. Doing that and making other people hold you accountable is a killer time management combo.

For example, I would tell a person to achieve a project by certain time frame, and if I don’t, I would have to pay him a fine (100$ or more). I neither want to disappoint the person nor pay the money, so I work at full throttle.

This is a strange secret that seems to be true not only for productivity but also for happiness – whenever you do something for other people, you work harder and more passionately than you would work for yourself. I think it’s because we are used to disappointing ourselves, but we HATE to disappoint others.

Thanks a lot, Mars!