Showing only Notes + Links tagged productivity
In one of his last typewritten letters, he observes, “This machine is delicate as a little dog and causes a lot of trouble—and provides some entertainment. Now all my friends have to do is invent a reading machine: otherwise I will fall behind myself and won’t be able to supply myself with sufficient intellectual nourishment.” Nietzsche feared his own typewriter might outproduce him.Rob Giampietro — Lined & Unlined » Blog Archive » Serial Series, Part 6
CP+B Job Tracker
Keeping track of all the jobs flowing through is a challenge for every agency. For about a year we’ve been fantasizing about a huge status board that was accessible to the whole shop. Something that was live and constantly updating. Like the arrivals and departures in Grand Central Station. Unfortunately, the status of “Project Ticker” has been ON HOLD for about 9 months and then I looked up yesterday and it was done. Man, it is really cool. Here’s what Director of Integrated Production, Dave Rolfe, has to say about it:
“The ProjectTicker is the real-time inventory of all of the jobs active in the Integrated department. It can be filtered by job due date, by account, by job-type (video, interactive, experiential, internal prods), by completion status, by CD or by producer. It also features a status bar that indicates the completion status of the job. All of this is automatically updated through our existent jobflow status process. So not only is it a thing of pride for the agency— in terms of the volume of work flow, accountability for that, and the diversity of jobs— but it also helps to highlight the importance of documentation on production status. Plus it is poised to truly demonstrate momentum. The Ticker will be manageable via a kiosk as well, which will be positioned at the front of the department, and the view-type can be adjusted by anyone.”
This is intense.
(via Monoscope)
Maybe it’s wrong-footed trying to fit people into the world, rather than trying to make the world a better place for people.Paul McHugh (from Brain Gain by Margaret Talbot — The New Yorker)
Time of Day vs. Productivity on Zephyr
Maybe I’m just a nerd (or obsessed with Indexed and infographics), but I’m having a pretty good time kicking the tires on OmniGraphSketcher. It’s exciting because there isn’t really intuitive software for charting and graphing yet and this looks like it could fit that role perfectly.
Anyways, this oversimplified* graph illustrates the idea that going to bed early and working during the day is pretty much always a good idea. A good example of overworking and not getting much done is when we stay until 10:30pm to work on Zephyr and realize that for the past two-and-a-half hours we’ve all been staring at our screens, drooling, and not-working**.
The dark blue area represents a typical Zephyr work day (2-10), and the light blue area represents today (8 - 10).
*I would probably shift the entire curve to the left, because I think my peak productive time is mid-morning.
**What is the difference or where is the line between doing nothing and incubating?
Creative people don’t want to “do it right.” They want to share the excitement you had when you yourself didn’t know how to do it right. Creative people are unconsciously attracted by the parts that make no sense.Bruce Sterling (via ronenreblogs) (via brocatus)
To be honest, I don’t have a specific agenda for what I want to do all that differently, apart from what I’m already trying to do every day:
- identify and destroy small-return bullshit;
- shut off anything that’s noisier than it is useful;
- make brutally fast decisions about what I don’t need to be doing;
- avoid anything that feels like fake sincerity (esp. where it may touch money);
- demand personal focus on making good things;
- put a handful of real people near the center of everything.
All I know right now is that I want to do all of it better. Everything better. Better, better.
- Merlin Mann (Better)
