Don't Organize, Simplify

@zen_habits on Twitter, Leo Babauta of http://www.zenhabits.net, made a 3 word Tweet today that kind of irked me.

Leo, I love your work, man, but the tendency to oversimplify in the name of Zen or whatever else is something I can't really abide.  Now, we all know who's the productivity blogger here and who's the trading card game blogger, so I hope I'll be taken with a grain of salt. 

There are times when simplification and organization are two halves of the same whole.  When I organize my store's stock of thousands upon thousands of tiny pieces of collectible cardboard, I need to do both.

I need to mind my daily workflow - what system allows for easy input and output?  What system allows an employee other than myself to come in and learn without any teaching (ie is it intuitive?)  What system represents a division of cards along multiple axes - Value, Set, Format etc. such that when I go to a trade show or event, I can take only the most relevant with me without having to undo any sorting whatsoever?

My system is as simple as it can be without sacrificing efficiency or efficacy.  It is also organized.  Each item has it's place.

Just food for thought, since I don't believe that simplicity alone is the answer to everything.  It is something that should be pursued alongside other goals, like logical workflow and an intuitive user interface.

In Plain Sight

I'm sitting here staring at a spreadsheet that just tripled in size out of nowhere and realizing that the exact answer is directly in front of my face - I just can't see it.  It's not that the data doesn't exist, it's that I have no idea how best to process it.

That seems to be a problem unique to the age of the Internet.  In days past, there just wasn't a whole lot of data to process.  Those who are the first to harness the power of this data will be a lot happier than those that don't.  Take MTG for example.  The fact of the matter is, with Magic Online, we have access to a ton of data.  If WotC ever decides to let more of it out, then we will have a flood of information on our hands.  Whomever handles that data the best will win more tournaments.

I wonder what other areas of life have data that's not being processed?

He draws his pictures on...what?

I got a tweet from a gentleman who goes by the name of Tyler last night about a project he's undertaking.  The details of the project are  here, but the gist is that he wants to show what 100 well-connected people can do together.  The vessel?  The art of the immensely talented Hugh MacLeod.  I've been a fan for a long time, and am honored to get a chance to help spread Hugh's squiggly gospel.

This is probably my favorite of Hugh's works, as I'm sure many others will agree.  The surly looking squiggle-a-saurus really sells the concept behind the words on the page. 

I like to think companies like Apple and Google "get" this and ones like Microsoft don't.  Case Study:  Bing.  Pardon my French here, but just what the fuck was Microsoft thinking?  You're not going to run clever TV ads and magically steal market share from a company that grew organically.  That's old, pre-Internet thinking.  The very nature of thought is changing; groups (tribes as Seth Godin would call them) generate preferences based on more perfect information than ever before, and there are so many ideas accessible that it is no longer enough to tell people that they should use your product.

Make a great product that costs very little, get it into the hands of the people who need it most, and let the amazing power of modern idea-commerce do the rest.  My store has customers, my twitter has followers and my main website has readers, and I've not spent a red cent on an advertisement in my life.


The status quo will always be average.  No one ever got good at anything by trying to be average.

A Master's Tool

I use this phrase a lot these days.  I don't know where I got the concept, or if I just came up with it one day.  I remember my father saying once that no CTO ever got fired for choosing IBM.  It means that while something might not be optimal, it's safe.  Magic has a lot of cards, and decks, like that.  UW Control is one.  Cards like Deprive are another.

You're never going to lose a match because you didn't play UW, or because you didn't include Deprive in your deck as a 1-2 copy upgrade to Negate and Cancel.  You might, however, win because you chose to use it and did so properly.  Deprive is a great example.  Most times, you'll do just fine by Cancelling and Negating their spells, and you could potentially blow yourself out by including too many copies of Deprive.  It can stunt early mana growth which is critical to your development in the game.  However, in the cases when you use it to full effect, ie re-buying a Halimar Depths and setting up your next draws, it shines bright.  Halimar Depths, incidentally, is a similar card.  It's hard to lose by not playing it, but successful inclusion in a strategy can earn victory.

Some things in life are this way too - command line interfaces, stick shift cars, free weights at the gym.  For most users, a GUI, or an automatic transmission, or a cable-based weight machine will give them most of what they need from their tool, but there comes a time when you stop making large gains and need to begin squeezing out small percentages here and there.

Identifying and properly using, or not using, a master's tool is a very important skill, and one I am always trying to hone.  What have you mastered, and what are your tools?

ps, I'm writing this on Blogger right now as I contemplate WordPress features I want to add to the new version of Quiet Speculation.  There's a perfect example of a master/apprentice set of tools.  I hated WordPress until I learned how to use it.  Then I loved it.  I never really loved or hated Blogger.

My MicroOffice

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@kellyreid, if you don't) are well aware that I am into David Allen's Getting Things Done, and in a big way.  I've implemented it only a few days ago, but the results already speak for themselves.  While I'm definitely having some growing pains adapting to my new workflow, I can see how things are developing and I am very, very happy.

One of the suggestions that Allen makes, and one that I had actually already conceptualized and developed before reading his productivity manifesto, is the concept of a Micro Office.  That's fancy B-Speak for a bag of important stuff that goes with you everywhere.  A high-tech man-purse, if you will.  I don't travel as much as I'd like to, but between trips to New York to see my family, Chicago for leisure, Indianapolis for business and events, and any other trips to MTG-related events, I'm out and about often enough to merit a good system.

The crux of my mobile office is my old MacBook.  I've had this thing for a few years now, and it's the best machine I've owned.  I was a steadfast PC customer until I had to return two Windows Vista notebooks from HP.  Oddly enough, the MacBook was the best Intel-based notebook on the market at the time and had every feature I wanted - including the ability to run Windows XP with a minimum of fuss. 

Currently, my office-in-a-bag has the following things:

• 13" MacBook & Charger
• 16gb iPhone 3GS & Sync Cable
• Otter Box iPhone case for traveling
• "Fashionable" Speck iPhone case
• iPhone Battery Dock (holds a full extra charge and turns any mini USB port into an iPhone jack)
• Gym shorts, socks and T-Shirt
• Wireless bluetooth mouse and a small mouse pad
• Pen, Pad, a few dice (never know when you'll end up playing Magic!)
• No-Doz, because I'm growing to hate non-water beverages and still need caffiene
• A few small water bottles and packets of some sort of sports drink mix

 All of this currently lives in a 6 year old canvas American Eagle messenger bag, but I'm going to upgrade to a more professional looking vessel soon enough.  The leverage this gives me to take advantage of small windows of time is huge.  I have access to my entire empire from this bag - store inventory, all contacts, my Getting Things Done lists, all forms of social media, and every message I've sent or received in the last few years.   The next step is getting all of my technology properly networked again.

As someone who tries to always push the limits of what I can do with my time, this has been a tremendous boon.  Ever the ADHD poster child, having this compartmentalized system has been invaluable.  I am now able to discern what tasks are most pressing, but only view those that are actionable with the resources I have on-hand.  If something requires me to be at the store, I don't want to know about it until I am actually at the store.

What are some of your favorite portable productivity tools?  Methods?  Got anything you think I ought to try?  Leave a comment and let me know!