Month: April 2011

Attention to detail

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I’ve found myself obsessing over a few pixels for the better part of a few hours now, and while doing it I’ve been thinking how I can slim things down so just the most important is left behind, so the user see the attention to detail we’ve put in.

Too often we pore over every detail in the hope of everything being 100% perfect, everywhere. I know that’s my natural tendency. I think this is something almost unrealistic to expect, or manage for.

Instead, why don’t we think of making 100% of the 20% that counts, perfect; rather than 80% of the 100%, which leads to noise?

That way we end up with something which is slimmed down, but the attention to detail will be obvious to those that see the result of what has been done. And then the opportunity is to gradually increase the 20%, or keep it that way. Most often, people only use 20% or less of a product anyways, it’s just the way we are.

This is nothing new, so I’m not claiming original thought here – more than anything, this is a little line in the sand to remind me every time I start going down rabbit holes!

;-)

Functional bodyweight workout: “Falling over”

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Did a functional bodyweight this afternoon, and fell over on the last pushups set.
So in honor of that I’m naming this one “Falling over”.
Aim was to get in a workout in under 35 mins, and do 400 to 500 Kcal.

5 min row for warmup.

Squat to shoulder raise, using kettlebells for resistance in the raise x 10
Pushups x 10
Alternating jack-knifes (I don’t know what else to call them – doing lunges one leg to the other at speed) x 20
Pushups on blow up wobble board x 10
2 mins rest between sets.

Took about 24 mins, then moved onto:
4 mins of box jumps, with 1 min on, 30 secs off, which gives you about 3 reps.

After that, I was falling over.
I did 2 sets today, which is crap. Should be getting back to 3 in a few weeks, and 4 in 6 or so.

HR didn’t go above 156 though, and dod 400Kcal, which is below what was aiming for, but OK for today.
Weak areas were chest and triceps, hence the falling over.

Execution is everything

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Some quick thoughts on execution, and speed:

Sometimes the temptation to be perfect is overwhelming.

We work towards perfection because we’re told that it’s worth aspiring and achieving. The problem for you and me is that perfection for some is rubbish for others, especially when your product reaches beyond the early adopter pool of people.

There are so many cliches around this thinking, some of which are below:
Release early, release often
Minimum Viable Product
Lean Startup Thinking
Ship it!
etc etc

What they all say is that getting out the door with something working is favorable to pretty much everything else.
Just get your shit out there for people to use.

It’s something I have to remind myself of every day, because the temptation is to labour over every pixel, every word, every line of code, so that it’s perfect. But perfect doesn’t pay the bills.

To me, that is execution.

* I guess one caveat to this is not to build up so much technical debt, or otherwise, that you can’t recover.

Functional bodyweight workout: “Back in the saddle”

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In the spirit of Gym Jones, I’m going to start giving my workouts names, and posting them here both for myself and for others ;-)

Today was functional bodyweight followed by medium low impact cardio, aiming to be done in around 30 mins:
Warmup:
5 min bike ride to the gym
3 min row (need more work here)

Functional bodyweight exercises:
10 x pushups
10 x lunges each leg, with hanging kettlebell
10 x reverse pushups (on those straps)
10 x squats with same kettlebells
10 x box jumps (not sure of height today, but aiming for 24″)
2 min rest

At x 2 sets of the above.
Was about 16 mins.

Cardio:
20 mins of Ski machine doing HIIT speeds to HR 160.

Actions, projects, priority, benefits

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One of the things I do most often, to my detriment, is grouping actions along with projects. So the result is that I end feeling overwhelmed and unable to accomplish everything.

Ever done / found that yourself?
I’ve been doing this for years, so it’s a really hard habit to break but I’m getting there ;-)

So what I’ve started doing is using columns for my thinking, before they go into my GTD system:
The left column is for actions. [Usually full]
The middle column is for projects. [Usually 3 to 4 things]
The right column is for projects that are further out, and are just nagging at me but don’t need immediate attention. [Usually one or two items]
Items that are highlighted are a priority right now. They get immediate action. [Usually 3 or 4 items]

So that helps me to get things in perspective. I run through the actions on the left to make progress, and figure out the next action for the projects in the middle. The ones on the right, well they stay there.

And that’s it – 20 secs to do the columns, 10 mins to put things into their place, 5 mins to get it into your GTD system.
And voila, I feel back in control.

Hope that helps.

How do you do things?

Do you want it enough?

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I’ve come across many people who talk a good game, who want the acclaim, who want to be the rockstar. Very few are prepared to do the work to get there. Even fewer are prepared to keep doing it when success isn’t immediate.

So when you look at what you’re doing in your life, do you want it enough, to go the distance, to complete the race, to finish it, or are you just a hobbyist?

If you can’t answer yes to the question above, then what do you get out of bed in the morning for? What fires you up? What makes you do what’s necessary?

The world is full of people on the same treadmill, following the same herd. Which direction are you moving in?

Food for thought.