Beyond Rules Update

A quick update for those of you waiting for the new edition of Beyond Rules: The opening of Karol’s OnlyIndie store had to be delayed a bit, as some unforeseen issues turned up. That’s how development projects go – but nonetheless, the store should now launch on Thursday, April 5. Beyond Rules is already in the system (book no. 14!) for EPUB, Kindle and other MOBI devices. I’m really looking forward to the official release and will let you know once it’s available on the site!

Until then, let’s pass the waiting time as enjoyable as possible. In this context, I’d propose to entertain yourself with some quality ukulele music! Why not pay my reader Doogie’s Banker Song a visit? He’s in competition for ther Beat100 charts, so if you like his song, give him some vote love!

Happy Beyond Rules-Day

Beyond Rules (Revised edition for Kindle)“The Ides changed everything,” Cicero wrote in a letter, commenting on the events happening in the aftermath of Caesar’s assassination on March 15th, 44 B.C. They changed everything, indeed, leading to a resurgence of the civil war, the end of the Republic and the death of Cicero himself.

“The Ides changed everything” is true for The Friendly Anarchist, too. On March 15th last year, I released my first book on this site. It was called Beyond Rules: A Dilettante’s Guide to Personal Sovereignty, Space Travel, and Lots of Ice Cream. Since then, it was read by more than 1500 people and has gotten rave reviews. Thanks a lot to you all!

Today, I’m happy to announce a totally revised edition of Beyond Rules. It is accessible on all major e-readers right now – but I cannot yet publish all the details here, as I’m waiting for my friend Karol to open his indie ebook store next week.

That said, for those of you who want to celebrate with me, there’s a way to get the book today. Sign up for Mails Beyond Rules to learn all the details!

Let’s make the Ides 2012 another day that changes everything. But this time, without any wars and destruction. Instead, let’s aim personal sovereignty, space travel and lots of ice-cream once again!

Out of the Headlights

I got some interesting reader comments by email for last week’s post, Deer in Headlights. One common objection was: “But it’s not my fault!”

Of course it’s not. At least not exclusively.

Deer in headlights isn’t just a hart problem. It’s a hard problem. And it’s also a herd problem, from all I can tell: ((Memo to self: Stop making these ridiculous jokes.)) It cannot be solved by individuals alone, because our whole society is mad about getting things done – without ever asking whether any particular thing needs to get done in the first place.

So what shall we do about that?

No Need for Greed

There’s this famous old self-help advice: “Learn to say no!”

And I agree with it, of course: We permanently get so many ridiculous requests, there’s nothing wrong with declining a few of them.

That said, there are two sides to saying no: There’s the guy asking for a favor, and the other rejecting it.

If we want to avoid task overload on a societal level, we have to see things from a wholesome perspective: We may say no to some stupid requests. But even more important it is to stop making stupid requests to others. This means:

  • Think (and research) first before sending emails asking for information.
  • Consider if it’s necessary to interrupt your colleague for question X.
  • Be respectful of other people’s time.
Also: Whenever you approach someone to ask for a favor, don’t be greedy: Ask what you need to ask, but make it easy for them to say no.

Don’t fear that such a behavior will leave you alone in the dark. Most people are both kind and resourceful, and they are happy to help. But then, they might also be over-stretching themselves at times. By asking for favors, you might make their life worse. Thus, always include a simple and honest exit clause, so they can say no without losing their face.

All or Something

Even if we reduce our task load a little, overwork still is a widespread disease. It doesn’t have to be this way, though. The other day, I enjoyed reading a post by Emile of 37signals on the “all or something” approach to building a startup:

“The marginal value of the last hour put into a business idea is usually much less than the first. The world is full of ideas that can be executed with 10 to 20 hours per week, let alone 40. The number of projects that are truly impossible unless you put in 80 or 120 hours per week are vanishingly small by comparison.”

A similar idea is pursued by the New Economics Foundation, advocating a standard 21-hour work week:

“A ‘normal’ working week of 21 hours could help to address a range of urgent, interlinked problems: overwork, unemployment, over-consumption, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, and the lack of time to live sustainably, to care for each other, and simply to enjoy life.” (via New Escapologist)

For startups and the employed alike, dedicating less time to work in exchange for more idleness (or other projects) is indeed possible. If we accept to have a little less money, we can have all the free time that we want.

I know that most people will see this as a pipe dream. What they forget is that society is what we make it. Just because certain rules were fixed decades or even centuries ago, this doesn’t mean we cannot go beyond them.

Deer in Headlights

Have you ever been there?
You’re all alone, on a dark night’s street, somewhere in the countryside.
Light rain is falling.
It’s a little foggy.
No-one is around. (Apart from your two long-eared friends, perhaps.)

In the distance, you hear something.
You perk up your ears.

Suddenly: Noise! Noise and stench! Noise and stench and lights! Lights, brighter than the sun itself. Approaching fast.

You cannot move anymore.
And the lights are getting closer and closer and closer until…

…

Wake up.
You’re back in the room.

The Work-Ad-Nauseam Dilemma

What makes us fall into task bankruptcy?

  • Nagging bosses.
  • Tight deadlines.
  • Project overload.

To be honest, though, we’re all pretty good at getting there on our own: We fall into task bankruptcy because we overstrain ourselves until it’s too late.

Here’s a typical example from my own experience: The last few weeks had been incredibly productive. I got a whole lot of things done, while also having enough time to enjoy life, sleep in late, and have lots of coffee. Or cocktails. (In accordance with the day-time, generally.)

Increasing productivity, though, has some interesting side effects:

  • The more we get done, the more we initiate.
  • The more we get done, the more we communicate.
  • The more we get done, the more we ship; both internally and externally.

In an office context, increasing productivity leads to a promotion. This may happen either sooner or later; but if we’re extremely productive, it will happen at some point.

For the self-employed, increasing productivity simply leads to more gigs, clients, and ideas that get executed.

In short, growing productivity leads to more responsibility. And to even more work! As we manage to handle more, we get more things to do. And as long as we can still cope with it, we get even more stuff to handle – ad nauseam, if we don’t stop it.

Into Task Bankruptcy

It is well-known where this behavior leads in an office context: “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” People get promoted so long until they are overextended. If things go really bad, that’s where they stay until retirement.

As for the self-employed, it probably leads to a “deer in headlights” situation. That’s at least what happens to me.

“Deer in headlights” is the moment when there’s not just a truck load, but a whole truck armada of work approaching. And we’re there, overwhelmed in the middle of the road, not knowing where to run. Or which task to tackle first.

Here’s what I tend to do in these occasions: Instead of getting my act together and working on at least some of that stuff, I freeze. I look at that approaching trucker convention with my eyes wide open – while inconveniently showing a total lack of motor reactions.

And that’s when I have to declare task bankruptcy.

The Downsides of (Extreme) Growth

Here’s the take-away: Even a successfully implemented GTD system won’t make us super-human. And as much as it hurts to realize that, we’re probably better off once we get it: Even if we improve ourselves and become more organized, more disciplined, and more smarter ((Pun intended.)), we still suck! At least now and then. ((That’s because we’re beautiful human beings and not boring machines. Whoever states that he has got the perfect solution to that is most probably a snake oil salesman rather than somebody worth talking to.))

Extreme growth can put whole countries in danger. And on a personal level, it can be perilous, too.

You might well be asking: “But isn’t success what we all want?”

The answer is: Probably, yes. ((It depends a lot on your definition of success, though. I for one can live without hookers and SUVs. But then, I’m not a rap singer.)) But extreme short-term success can overstrain us. It can make it hard to build up on it. This is something we see with creatives from Hollywood child actors to early novelists to one-hit wonders. But it’s also something that I have heard from many successful bloggers: If growth explodes, it gets hard to hold up. It gets hard to deliver.

Getting a Haircut

So what can we do to prevent running into task bankruptcy?

I believe that the first countermeasure is getting a haircut. No worries, I’m not talking about getting a Mohawk. ((Even though that would be pretty cool. Send me a before-and-after photo and you’ll get a free copy of my e-guide, Productive Anywhere!))

I’m talking about crossing things off the list!

And while nobody likes to admit it, purging our to do list is extremely powerful. This isn’t just because we reduce the amount of tasks on our plate. It’s also because we regain a sense of clearness and control about the actual magnitude of the catastrophe. And that magnitude will often be much smaller than suspected: “Hey, it’s NOT the trucker convention after all! It’s just a bunch of beatniks on a moped!” ((I suppose I’m not the only one who gets this creepy feeling whenever I haven’t reviewed my project and action lists for a while. The longer I ignore them, the harder it gets to give them a good look. This is why weekly reviews are a key recommendation for any productive worker, idler, and really anybody.))

Getting a haircut may also mean reducing our expectations:

Externally, don’t go for rewards. When I see how everybody these days aims at having a six-figure income (by – what – selling ebooks on how to educate your dog?!), I’m pretty happy to know that I can live well on less. Everything else is just the icing on the cake.

Internally, don’t expect anything great, either. Just get out of the headlights, enjoy your life and put the work in. That’s the only way to do it. And – at least in the long run – it won’t be in vain.

Thanks to T. Hall for the wonderful deers in headlights photo (CC BY-NC-SA) used in this post!

Good Reads, Server Move Edition

This edition of Good Reads is probably the scariest ever.

As you know, I have been moving every couple of weeks or months during the last 3+ years. And I’m quite comfortable with it: I just pack my stuff, put on some shoes, and there I go. This time, though, it’s different: While I will be staying right where I am, The Friendly Anarchist is going to move. The blog will leave the old servers behind and move to a new home.

Now, I’m not completely computer-illiterate – but the world of databases, name servers, and PHP is strange, mysterious and full of unknown dangers. At least for me.

The good thing is that I’m in the best of hands, moving from my esteemed company Macbay/SysEleven to ActualWebSpace, owned by tech maverick (and one of my favorite writers) Raam Dev. As Raam himself will take care of the move, everything should go fine (as long as I managed to send him all the data correctly).

That said, here’s what we’re expecting to happen: The Friendly Anarchist will turn into The Offline Anarchist for a couple of hours Friday night. My email address might stop working, too. So if you had planned to read through the archives or send me love letters tomorrow night, please mentally prepare that things might not work out as planned.

I will update this post once everything’s back to normal.

Update: Everything is moved now and things look great. Email may still be somewhat unreliable (my own fault, not Raam’s!), but it should be back to 100% later today!

In the meantime, please explore these excellent things I found on the web in recent weeks!

[¶]

From a man with a reputation for braggadocio, what he says here is completely true. In a rapidly transitioning industry, which is starving for something—anything—that will move copies of physical books, Tucker Max is one of the few authors out there who can predictably move truckloads of physical, printed books. He is, in the publishing world, a rock star. Simply put, few authors can beat his numbers.

And now, the man who can sell all those books shares in an exclusive with Forbes, he is retiring.

Long article from Michael Ellsberg on Tucker Max. This isn’t anywhere near as irrelevant as it may sound. It shows a surprising new side of the man (and of the author himself).

[¶]

“The only way to shoot more interesting photographs is to become a more interesting person,” writes Kirk Tuck. He’s right. As he generally is. And what Kirk says is probably also true for artists of other crafts: The best (if not the only) way to write more interesting books is to become a more interesting person, too.

[¶]

Install habits before installing software. Make sure you have a consistent set of useful behaviors in place before you try to solve your problems with plugins and apps. Is email causing you trouble because you are ignoring the basics? Do you have a habit (such as checking every time a new message arrives) or a lack of one (such as not consistently making decisions about new messages the first time you see them) that’s holding you back? Find a process to address that, and practice it consistently for 30 days before you install anything.

True words. In GTD, testing and optimizing software can be so addictive that we forget that it’s really about changing our behavior in the first place.

[¶]

How to deal with the unexpected?

I can tell you that having epileptic seizures, getting tattooed, pierced, and branded over and over again from the age of 18 until now (32), helped a lot. I can tell you that learning to talk to strangers helped a lot, as does (badly planned) travel, which helps me deal with unexpected circumstances as they arise. The more you leap into the unknown, the more you discover that the unexpected is rarely something you need to actually worry about.

Julien is one of the strongest non-personal development bloggers out there writing about personal development better than most personal development bloggers. If that makes any sense. Anyway, read this and act on it.

[¶]

With deep focus, we’re more effective, and less anxious.
We’re more effective if we can compose the notes while also paying attention to the groove.
We’re more effective if we use a tool correctly, while also considering if we’re using the right tool for the job (and switching if needed).
We’re more effective if we serve not only one person, but also their organization, and the mission that is meant to guide their organization.
Don’t pigeonhole yourself as either a “details” person or a “big picture” person. To be effective (at anything), you need to be both. You need to have the capacity to deal with the immediate minutiae as well as the ability to see the larger, broader, slower forces at play.

Well said, J.D. Moyer. That combination really is the key to it all.

[¶]

Lastly, a video. About an 88-year old man who causes a lot of happiness around his fellow citizens, day after day: Mr. Happy Man.