Lynda Sez » work

Time to get back to work

rgdaniel — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:02:48 +0000

September’s arrival means the lazy summer is over, and the cool nights confirm it. I have had some welcome time for garden design and maintenance, visits with family and friends, a few short hikes, and a whole weekend of superb music, with only a few work projects to interrupt now and then. Soon the garden must be put to bed and I must shift into more disciplined work days, as my clients start to come up with things for me to do. September seems to have a freshness, an energy that is fueled by the shorter days and brisk evenings. Top of my mind is a getaway to the big city in a couple of weeks. My portable office and I will be camping out in the wilds of Etobicoke for a while, close enough to see lots of old friends and maybe be a tourist in downtown Toronto.

Putting the prod in productivity

rgdaniel — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:54:50 +0000

Writing is a love/hate activity for most of us and a fellow sufferer has come up with a possible solution. Write or die offers a way to punish us for failing to fulfill our commitments to ourselves. As the programmer points out, we are more likely to avoid writing that we really want to do for our own reasons, than writing we have committed to other people to do. Mind you, this would even work for the latter situation.

About what I’m doing for real work this week

rgdaniel — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:43:56 +0000

The two women I am running this week’s internship program for are a dream to work with. They are inquisitive, interested in the material, and quick, both to question what is unclear, and to draw their own conclusions and connections. My role is that of mentor, rather than teacher; thus I think it’s my job to expose them to ideas and information, make some suggestions about how these are connected, and then maintain a supportive role. If I can promote their inquisitions in relevant directions, if I can provide supplementary material in answer to their questions, then I guess I am doing the right thing. There are a lot of gaps in this process, some significant constraints we have to work with, but overall, I think I am meeting the client’s objectives, and I certainly am getting personal satisfaction. And how do the interns themselves evaluate what’s happening? I just hope they will tell me.

Speechless in Edmonton

rgdaniel — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 23:46:38 +0000

I’m speechless now because my speech is done. I presented my piece on dealing with office clutter this afternoon to a receptive and appreciative audience at the Editors’ Association of Canada’s national conference. I was glad to be presenting after other sessions, because they were informative and diverting enough to keep me from getting too nervous before my turn. Several people came to me afterward to ask questions or thank me, saying how they planned to go home and try out some of my ideas — that’s the best thanks I could have hoped for. I have lots more to say on the subject — yeah, you can’t shut me up now. It will become fodder for my new site (in development, but live in an alpha version). And now I’ve got to work on a better version of my speech.

Flying out today

rgdaniel — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:02:21 +0000

The two-week work marathon in Saint John is over and I fly and drive back home starting this morning. It was the most intensely demanding piece of work I have done in a long while, but also one of the most intellectually satisfying — boy you don’t get to say that very often about a job! I was part of a team sitting around a conference table day after day thinking out loud about how to do things within a certain domain, then coming up with an accurate process description that people could use. The work isn’t over, and I’ll continue with the team for several weeks, but I doubt that we’ll approach the great synergy we had in that room. But that was the point of going at it for these two weeks, to give us all a running start.

Back Home Again

rgdaniel — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 00:51:36 +0000

I have returned safely from my latest adventure in the U.S. of A., doing my bit to keep the Internet running. While I was down in Dulles this time, it occurred to me that the whole environment (whose bizarre perfection I have written about previously) was very like Second Life. As I walked with a colleague from the office to a pseudo-Italian restaurant for lunch, past a purpose-built lake flanked by a landscaped garden space complete with fountain and flagstone paths, I was struck by how easily it could be a space I would discover in the game. The people are real enough and very nice to work with, but the physical setup still gives the impression of a world made six weeks ago. Ironically, the problems we are tackling for this job are the same old ones we’ve had for millennia: how do we communicate accurately and effectively to people to make things happen.

To Work or Not

rgdaniel — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 19:47:08 +0000

I’m fortunate to have a variety of work and hobby projects begging attention most of the time, but the research ones are the most dangerous. Not too hard to just zoom around on the net with a specific goal, you think? Well, maybe not for those who have magnificent self-discipline, but that’s not me, is it? I find myself wandering down endless electronic alleyways, following any flashing lights that dazzle. Of course the farther I go, the less likely my destination will relate to what I should be researching. In the old days, my mom and I would joke about “knitting a cover for the typewriter” when we were clearly noodling around to avoid working. The technology changes in fantastic ways, but our bad habits don’t. Sigh.

Another Monday

rgdaniel — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 20:47:35 +0000

Mondays can be so different. Last Monday I was up well before the sparrows to fly to Montreal for an all-day client meeting. Except for the getting up early part, it wasn’t as gruesome as it sounds. The meeting was well organized and all the right people were in the room when needed. There were subject experts ready to co-operate with the project leader and some even expressed themselves with passion about their product. Sure, it’s a commercial enterprise, and the point of the effort is to make money for the company, but the product can actually make a positive difference to someone’s life and that aspect was clearly in the minds of those making this project happen.
Today’s adventure was in town at Toronto General Hospital, where I had a gastroscopy, which is a diagnostic exploration of my stomach using a camera on a thin tube that goes down my throat. Also not as gruesome as it sounds. I had a spray anesthetic to calm my throat, but I declined the sedation so that I could watch the show. I got a spectacular view of my more or less healthy pink innards in real time on a screen a few feet away — yay technology! I was done and out of there in less than an hour. The worst part? Getting the IV needle, which I didn’t use after all, in the back of my hand. Oh, and going without tea since yesterday. Now I’m celebrating with a very large cuppa and a box of timbits.

Trying to Keep Up

rgdaniel — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 04:44:42 +0000

One of my favourite jobs these days is researching and writing a monthly report for a client on trends in information design. I like it for several reasons. One, it forces me to spend time each week listening to and reading about what the thought leaders have to say. They are frequently witty as well as provocative, inducing stimulating debate among their peers. And two, it takes me back to my journalism days, but more on the op-ed side because I have the latitude to select what I think is useful to the client and can even comment where appropriate.
The third reason I like it is that the research has led me to some really interesting (sometimes irrelevant, but still entertaining) places on the net. Most of my sources are RSS feeds or podcasts; that means they come to me in an easy to consume package that is fairly quick to scan. Neither technology even existed in general use a couple of years ago. I’m amazed at that.
For instance, today I discovered that British History Online has just posted all the ordinance survey maps for UK counties. These are very detailed maps, hand drawn right down to the farm field, dating from the 19th century and thus very useful for genealogy sleuthing. I recently discovered that one of my ancestors is from a small village in Sussex. With some digging, I’ll be able to pinpoint his birthplace on a map that was made before I was born, that is now available free to anyone, anywhere, with a basic computer. Information design in the 19th century delighting me in the 21st. — how amazing is that!?

Getting Started

rgdaniel — Mon, 09 May 2005 20:27:50 +0000

Today is my officially and personally declared Fresh Start day, when I look forward with delight to whatever comes next. My year plus of redefining myself as a cancer survivor is now over. From now on, survival is just the baseline; every day is a glorious new offering at the open buffet and I’m going to dig in with glee, yes, even to stuff that looks like work.
On the subject of starting fresh, I was interested to find this article about what happened at Samsung ten years ago when its leader decided to make a drastic improvement in product quality. He began with a version of ritual purification, an ancient tradition in Korea, in which about $50 million worth of existing inventory was smashed and burned. Hmmm. There must be clutter in my office that would make a good bonfire.