Toluu

Work Less and Do More

Help Stever Robbins create The Get-it-Done Guy's Guide to Happiness, Success, and File Folders

How do *you* remember faces and names?November 3

I’m writing a Get-it-Done Guy episode on remembering names and faces. I know how I remember names. But my way isn’t perfect. In fact, if you’ve ever met me and expected me to remember your name, you’ll know my way sucks. (Sorry, Mom. At least, I think your name was “Mom.”)

I may use your answer in the Get-it-Done Guy episode. Please leave your name as you want me to read it if you would like me to give you credit in the episode. Thanks!

So…

How do you remember names and faces?

Can you give me (audio) examples of criticism?October 4

I’m writing a Get-it-Done Guy episode on criticism. I’d love to include some listener examples of criticism you’ve received in your own voice. It needs to be pretty short, and suitable for family listening. Real examples are preferred. For instance, “You just don’t know what you’re doing.” “Your suit looks great, if you’re  color-blind and have no taste.” etc.

Please call 866-WRK-LESS (866-975-5377) and leave your quote. I’ll use the best couple in the podcast. Please also leave your name and email address so I can contact you for permission.

Thanks!

What systems do you have that are worse than the problem?September 14

I’m writing a tip on solutions getting to be more complicated than the problem they are meant to solve. For example, I once bought clips to clip together similar pairs of socks during the laundry. Dealing with the darned clip turned out to be a lot more hassle than just sorting and folding my socks in the first place.

In what areas do you have systems that you might not actually need? Here are some of mine:

• Tracking parts of my finances that aren’t tax or business-related, and that I never go back and look at. (E.g. tracking daily expenses but never actually printing a report to find out how I spend my money.)
• Sorting socks.
• Elaborate TO-DO management software.
• Labeling my bookshelves by subject but not actually filing my books that way.
• Scheduled “let’s discuss house finances” days that don’t happen.

What about for you?

From sole practitioner to organization guySeptember 10

On Twitter, I’ve recently alluded to my new job. I’ve started working at Babson College helping to facilitate a community-wide re-examination of Babson’s capabilities, strategy, and future direction. I will then be helping to implement the community’s recommendations.

This job is incredibly exciting. The new Babson president, Len Schlesinger, has been a colleague, friend, mentor, and originally professor of mine since 1989. He’s one of the most visionary people I have ever met, combined with a firm grasp of data and execution. In short, he dreams big dreams and has what it takes to make them happen.

He came to Babson to build on its strength in entrepreneurship (we’ve been #1 in entrepreneurship for the last 15 years), to take Babson to its next level. What that next level is will be defined by the community in our next four months of conversation.

This should be incredibly exciting! I will continue to produce the Get-it-Done Guy podcast and, of course, will be finishing the Get-it-Done Guy book as well. I hope to continue posting to this blog, though until the book is done and I have more time on my plate, my entries will likely be relatively fewer and farther between.

To hear Len discuss the tension between business pressures and the ethical dimensions of business leadership, listen to (1 hour)

Writing is hard hard hard hard hard!September 4

I’m now late on finishing the first draft of the book, and I’m appalled at how far I have left to go. I based my estimations of how fast I could write on various client writing and things I’d done recently. The book is totally trashing those numbers.

One of the biggest problems seems to be that when I have a conceptual framework, I can write about it, apply it, and generate lots and lots of interesting content. In this book, though, I have lots and lots of random tactical tips. They aren’t linked by any framework or underlying concept, so each chapter, though short, feels like writing a whole separate book. My brain is not happy about this.

For example, if I’m writing an article on how to give feedback, there’s a mental framework I use about saying something positive, giving clear measurables, etc. I can write a chapter about it by giving examples, telling stories, and going deeper into each point. I can then write follow-on chapters by going even deeper into subtle variations on the basic situation, times when feedback is tricky because there are political or romantic implications, etc.

But when I’m writing two pages on giving feedback, followed by two pages on how to write an email subject line… I go to all the work of creating framework and examples for feedback, skim the surface, and then have to purge my brain and start all over with the email chapter.

I tried conversationally creating chapters by just talking about individu