Archive - Sep 2006

As I've written elsewhere [1], networking has proven to be a crucial new focus (and set of skills) as I develop my personal productivity practice. One issue that often comes up when starting out is that of finding something to give to the folks you'd like to connect with. As Keith Ferrazzi says in Never Eat Alone:

"I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get."

However, I sometimes felt that, as someone new to the field, I didn't have much to offer.

I've been very busy these last few weeks with one-on-one coaching and preparing for some workshops I'm putting on, so the posting's been delayed.

But out of the (relative) blue, some great timing! My email interview with Josh Hinds is up at his Business Networking Advice blog. The article is Interview with Matthew Cornell of Matt's Idea Blog, and I was quite delighted to be invited. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much, Josh!

As both a Gmail user and a practitioner of David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology for personal productivity, I wondered what to do with the star feature. After all, because GTD doesn't have you assign priorities, it doesn't make sense to differentiate between "important" and "other" messages - they all need to be considered, decided on, and then moved out of "IN." [1]. Thus the star is freed up for something else [2]. But what?

In The crucible of teaching: Want to learn in a hurry? Teach! I wrote about using teaching as a means to learn a field of study, in my case creating an unofficial Master's degree in Personal Productivity. Because this idea appealed to readers, I wanted to give an update on my efforts to build a practice, put together workshops, do one-on-one coaching, and continue my professional development.

Content

I've lately been calling my process "WorkFlow 101" (which stems from my appreciation for higher education), because it addresses the idea that few of us, regardless of levels of expertise or education, are taught how to effectively manage ourselves.