Chris Crouch's Blog

Controlling Your Behavior in a Purposeful Way

There is an article titled, "The Secret of School Success" in the September 2, 2009 edition of USA Today. The article addresses the topic of self-regulation, or lack thereof, among today's children. Self-regulation is defined as: people's ability to stop, think, make a plan and control their impulses. Forget about school kids for a moment...most modern day adults need to learn how to do this! Here's a very interesting observation from the article:

"It appears that self-regulation can be taught."  

The article goes on to say, "This ability to control behavior in purposeful ways has enormous implications for kids later in life", says Clancy Blair, a New York professor of applied psychology. I absolutely love the thought of getting better at "controlling behavior in purposeful ways." I love the thought that even if you didn't learn to master self-regulation in your younger years, it appears you can teach yourself to do this. I didn't articulate this as well as Clancy Blair, but I have spent a lot of my life developing books and courses to help people "control their behavior in purposeful ways."

OK, how do you get started if you want to teach yourself to control your behavior in purposeful ways? My marketing-self wants to quickly advise you to buy my books and attend my training courses. But I am going to self-regulate a bit and tell you to do two other things first if you are ready to head down this learning path:  

1. Buy a copy of Following Through by Steve Levinson and Pete Grieder. 
2. Buy a MotivAider (it is explained in the book Following Through) and use it to start teaching yourself to self-regulate.   

This book and this tool (the MotivAider) are "dead on target" if you are serious about controlling your behavior in a purposeful way. Then buy my books and attend my training classes.   

Opportunities for Providers of Ordered Knowledge

With so much information at our fingertips, I believe more and more people are going to seek providers of ordered knowledge. 

Professor Hugh Heclo of George Mason University observes: "In the long run, excesses of technology mean that the comparative advantage shifts from those with information glut to those with ordered knowledge, from those who can process vast amounts of throughput to those who can explain what is worth knowing and why."

...quote from The Power of Simplicity by Jack Trout with Steve Rivkin   

Are you an information glut peddler or a provider of ordered knowledge? What about the people you count on to help you accomplish your life goals? Are they fire-hosing you or providing you with ordered knowledge?

My Kindle 2 Is Here!

Oh yeah...it came about a week ago. My Kindle 2 is here!

Point 1:

I've been seriously reading for decades....and decades. If I read a book and like it, I usually keep it. If I don't like a book, or think there is little chance that I may want to reread it or refer to it in the future, I give it to someone else or donate it to a charity. Sometimes people borrow my books and do not bring them back. The net result of all of this is that I have accumulated about 1,200 books in my home office library. That's a lot of books! However, I'm told that my Kindle 2 will hold 1,500 books.

Point 2:

I'm well over the halfway point in life, so...I have already lived much longer than I have remaining to live. If you make a few assumptions and do a little math involving my life expectancy and the number of books I have accumulated so far in life, the storage capacity of my new Kindle is a gross overkill. I only need room for about 308 more books. 

Point 3:

That's about all the bad news I have to offer on the Kindle 2. 

• They fixed the "it's easy to accidentally turn a page" problem. 
• They fixed the "you have to highlight complete lines of text or you get fragmented sentences on the front-end or back-end of your highlighted passage" problem. 
• The Kindle 1 was easy to carry around; the Kindle 2 is even easier to carry around. It's very flat and easily fits in the pocket of my small leather portfolio (the kind used to hold a pad of paper). 
• They say the battery life is much longer. 
• It talks to you! I know the speech-to-text feature has generated some controversy. However, so far it is very cool to kick back, sip a glass of wine and listen to what the "Kindlemeister" has to say. 

OK, you can read all about the rest of the new stuff on Amazon if you are interested. Here's something I really like about my Kindle. I am a member of an informal learning group. We often discuss books during our monthly meetings. We rotate facilitation duties and each month a different group member leads the discussion. It's my month and I have been asked to lead a discussion on Malcolm Gladwell's latest book titled Outliers: The Story of Success. I downloaded Outliers to my Kindle and highlighted significant passages as I read the book (it is very easy to electronically highlight text on the Kindle). In some cases, I highlighted fairly large blocks of text. Then, I simply connected the Kindle to my computer (with the USB cable that came in the box) and...zip...the highlighted text popped up on my screen. I edited a few things, added a few of my own notes and clicked the "Print" icon. In a matter of minutes, I created notes for discussing the book at our meeting. It worked perfectly! Think about it. This little feature is quite handy for extracting and remembering the main points of any book.  

Yeah...I still like to read books the old fashion way. And I expect I will keep buying physical copies of certain books for various reasons. But I'm glad I caught this technological wave and I am going to continue riding it for a while to see where it goes. Now I'm no Charlton Heston, I'm not that dramatic and I don't own a rifle, but you will probably have to "pry my Kindle from my cold, dead hands."   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

In Defense of Multitaskers

During debate class in college, we were often required to debate one side of an issue...and then switch and debate the other side of the same issue. Fortunately, we were only required to take one side at a time rather than multitasking and taking both sides simultaneously (Ha, ha...I thought I'd take one last shot at multitaskers before I switch to the other side of this issue).

The other day, I wrote a thinly disguised attack on multitasking and multitaskers. The exercise I included in the article was my attempt to help excessive multitaskers figure out that switching back and forth was not a good idea if you want to maximize productivity. Today, I will take the other side and tell you why it is not only okay, but at times a good idea, to multitask. Please allow me to put the semantics debate on hold for a moment and use the word "multitasking" with the understanding that, yeah, it really means a person is rapidly switching back and forth from task to task rather than actually doing several things simultaneously. 

Multitasking bashers like to bring up the significant cost, in terms of lost productivity, that goes along with switching your attention back and forth from one thing to another. My response is...so what? Evaluating and executing trade-offs is a normal part of life. And making a commitment to never, ever multitask can be just as counter-productive as constantly multitasking. I suspect if you encounter a person who swears they never multitask (which, by the way, is just as impossible as always multitasking from a neurological point of view, especially if you consider reptilian brain activity), they would be an incredibly irritating person! Let's say you approach them and, for whatever reason, you genuinely need their attention. If they truly never multitask, they would totally ignore you and not acknowledge your existence. In this case, you might say, "Hey, I need to talk with you. What's the matter, are you a one-trick pony? Can't you multitask like the rest of us?" This might provoke them to turn toward you, raise their eyebrows, look at you over the top of their glasses, put their hands on their hips, launch a mini-lecture on the evils of multitasking and say...in a sing-song voice, "You know, there is really no such thing as multitasking. The thalamus and thalamic reticular nucleus won't let you multitask!"  And your response to such a lecture can probably be summed up in one of two words...the words "jerk" or "jackass." Now that I think about it, there are many words that probably describe a pathological unitasker. Anyhow, if the unitasker fell for your cleverly crafted NIGYSOB trap and diverted their attention from what they were doing to give you a lecture, you would have full "nah...nah, nah...nah...nah" and "stick out your tongue" rights if you chose to respond to their lecture. You might say, "Ha, ha...I made you multitask!"

My suggestion is that you take an Ecclesiastes 3:1 approach to multitasking (even if your particular brand of religion dictates that you seek guidance from other sources of wisdom and information). What is the cost of a lost friendship or failed relationship? How does the cost of being a jackass to people who genuinely need your attention compare to any potential productivity gain? Thou should thinketh about that shouldth thou not? Whoa...I'm beginning to get a bit preachy here, aren't I? Sorry about that.

Here's my bottom-line advice:

• Block out a reasonable amount of time each day to unitask. During that time, focus on the 20 percent of your efforts that create 80 percent of your results. If you can manage to do this at the same time most days, people who rely on you will quickly get used to it and respect your need for some daily focus time. If you've read chapter 9 of my book Getting Organized, you know that I recommend at least 96 minutes of focus time each working day.  
• Do what feels natural for the rest of the day...including switching back and forth from task to task if you feel like doing so...and don't feel guilty about it! 
• If you choose to engage in an interaction with another human being, switch to the ultimate-unitasking mode - get focused and give them your undivided attention. Here are a few ideas to help you practice this: Imagine you just happen to be promoting a new self-help product and you run into Oprah and she says, Hey, have you got a minute?" Imagine you are a professional investor and Warren Buffet says, "You know what I would do with some extra money right now?" Imagine you suddenly hear the voice of E.F. Hutton (ask an old person if you don't get this or click here). 

The key issue is to maintain a reasonable sense of balance between multitasking and unitasking. Balance...that's almost always the best strategy in the long run. Reasonable multitasking facilitates healthy human relationships. Reasonable unitasking facilitates healthy productivity. Taking a hard-line position and saying you absolutely love one or the other the most is like Bill Henrickson saying he loves Barb, Nicki or Margene the most. It's not a good idea!    

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

An Interesting Game for Master Multitaskers

The question of whether or not someone can, or cannot, multitask and how it influences their productivity comes up quite often these days. People on both sides of this issue often get irritated when those who oppose their viewpoint shift from the persuasive mode of communicating to the condescending or nagging mode. Why don't we call a truce and declare this a no-fault issue. In other words, let's concede the fact that you are neither a good nor bad person if you support or oppose multitasking. So, what will we do with all the time we formerly used to argue about the issue of multitasking versus productivity? I've got an idea...let's play a game with the extra time. 

All you need to play the game is a piece of paper, a pen or pencil and some sort of timer or someone to time you. 

Write the following statement on the top of your piece of paper: MULTITASKING VS PRODUCTIVITY. But wait...don't start yet!

I want you to time yourself (or have someone time you) and alternate between writing letters of the statement above and numbering the individual letters of the statement. In other words, switch between the task of writing the letters and the task of numbering the letters. For example, write the letter "M" and directly below it write the number "1" and then write the letter "U" and below it write the letter "2" and so forth and so on until you have completed the entire statement. You should end up with 26 letters on top and 26 numbers below. Here's an example of how to get started:

M U L T ... 

1 2 3 4 ...   

Now do the same exercise (once again, time yourself or have someone time you) and write the statement MULTITASKING VS PRODUCTIVITY. But wait! This time, your first task is to write all the letters of the statement without stopping and then switch tasks and write all the numbers (1 to 26) without stopping.

Compare the two times for completing the game.  

When I did this, it took me 54 seconds the first time and 31 seconds the second time. Therefore my performance, or shall we say productivity, improved by 43 percent when I focused on one task at a time (a 23 second improvement, divided by my original time of 54 seconds). Well damn! That's interesting! 

Considering vacations, holidays and other time off, there are about 2,000 hours in a typical work year. Therefore, using my results as an example, if someone made a commitment to cut back on what is generally perceived as multitasking and reduced their habit of switching back and forth on tasks by just 10 percent, they would free up 86 hours of productive time each year. That's a two work-week plus six hour productivity gain for a 10 percent reduction in multitasking, or whatever you prefer to call the habit of rapidly switching your attention back and forth. (OK, I'll come clean...I have an agenda. I am one of those pesky people who believe there is no such thing as multitasking when you are referring to the higher order brain functions).

Now, if you feel so inclined, try the exercise again...only this time write a letter of the statement MULTITASKING VS PRODUCTIVITY, switch below and number the letter and then switch below and assign the letters of the alphabet in sequence to the number. For example:

M U L T ...

1 2 3 4 ...

A B C D... 

I think you can guess the results of switching back and forth among three tasks. By the way, these are relatively simple tasks...they all involve writing That is, writing simple things on a piece of paper. Things get worse as the tasks get more challenging and diverse.

President Obama recently suggested that it was time to put some of our childish things away if we want to solve our economic problems. Maybe we should also put some of our childlike games away if we want to solve our productivity problems. When we were children, it was fun to try and pat our head and rub our belly at the same time. But it is not so much fun to play the adult-equivalent of this game - multitasking. Maybe if we cut back on this productivity-killing habit we would have a lot more time for fun! 

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

What's in the Well, Comes Up in the Bucket

Let’s play a word association game for a moment. I will give you a word and you think of the first thing that pops in your mind before reading any further. After a few seconds, see if you can come up with a sentence using the word. Here’s the word:

TEAR

What popped into your mind? There are at least two easy possibilities. You could have thought of pulling or ripping something apart (“Tear up those old papers and throw them away.”), or maybe if you are a Hank Williams fan you thought of a drop of salty fluid secreted by the glands of the eyes (“There’s a tear in my beer ‘cause I’m crying for you dear; you are on my lonely mind.”). I’m not as interested in what you came up with as I am in why people see the same four letters and come up with different ideas or different interpretations of the letters.

In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

• You saw four ink characters on a page or computer screen.
• These characters were immediately converted to electro-chemical impulses by the receptors in your eyes and routed to various areas of your brain for interpretation.
• As the impulses headed toward your memory storage area something unusual happened. The impulses lit up a network of neurons representing pulling or ripping something apart…or the impulses lit up a network of neurons representing drops of fluid.

Now, here’s the interesting part. I could have probably swayed your interpretation (in other words, altered the neural pathway to your memory storage area) by making a simple statement before asking you to play the word association game. For example, I could have said, “This is a word that has to do with sadness and crying” or “This is a word that has to do with destroying something.”

Here’s the point: Your current thoughts significantly influence your future thoughts and interpretations. And here’s the point related to productivity: Your current beliefs related to productivity significantly influence your future thoughts about what is a productive use of your time and what is not a productive use of your time. And here’s yet another related point: Many, perhaps most, people nowadays have some irrational and erroneous beliefs about what is and what is not a productive use of their time. Here are just a few examples:

• Consistently working more than eight hours a day is a good way to stay on top of things.
• There is no real harm in consistently overloading your day.
• Multitaskers consistently get more done than people who do not multitask.
• Being plugged in and accessible 24/7 enhances your productivity.
• Busyness is good for business.

Look around. If actions truly speak louder than words, most people these days must believe that all the above, and many other bad productivity habits, are actually productivity enhancers. As a matter of fact, these are things that you might hear smart people brag about doing.

Let’s put two and two together. How can we use these insights to alter your neural pathways when it comes to sorting good ideas from bad ideas in terms of being more productive? And how can we help you convert your productivity intentions into productive actions? Here are two simple ideas:

1. Read good books on productivity.
2. Attend good courses on productivity.

Of course, I probably just lit up the “he’s really a self-serving book author” neural network in your brain. Yes, I write books on being focused, organized and productive and work with a group of trainers who teach a course on the topic. However, I don’t really think it is wise to apologize for something I do for a living and passionately care about. On the contrary, I think it is OK to spread the word about it. My books and courses tend to focus on the human behavioral aspects of productivity…and are based on sound, proven strategies. In other words, the ideas work! However, you are not going to suddenly become the Oprah of productivity by simply reading my books or attending a course. The real value in such activities is the fact that they will serve as catalysts to begin altering your “productivity neural pathways.” Just as I can alter your interpretation of the four letters “TEAR”, I can encourage your neural impulses to go to different, more productive places in your memory storage area. Good books and good courses create new memories to draw on when you are trying to increase productivity or solve problems.

There is an old saying, “What’s in the well, comes up in the bucket.” When you are struggling with your workload and priorities, what comes up in your bucket? If, in this situation, you access thoughts that motivate or compel you to work harder or longer, maybe it’s time to upgrade your memory files. Maybe it’s time to read my new book titled Being Productive: Learning How to Get More Done With Less Effort. Maybe it’s time to attend a GO System training course. These activities will forever alter your neural pathways related to productivity and could possibly make you so happy it will bring tears to your eyes.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

The National Limbic Resonance Movement

Being an ordinary citizen (I like to think of myself these days as "Joe the Author"), I'm looking for a few more ordinary citizens to help me turn this crappy economy around and get things back on track. My plan is to use something called limbic resonance to kick-start a much needed economic-stimulus-oriented National Limbic Resonance Movement (NLRM). 

It's simple; this is a strategy to change the feelings and attitudes of the 300 million or so people who live in the U.S. Hopefully the NLRM will spread to other countries that are also experiencing hard economic times, but let's be realistic and start small. If you are interested in being a part of this movement, read on. Admittedly it is a pyramid scheme, however, unlike Bernie Madoff's schemes, it is a psychological - not a monetary - pyramid scheme. It doesn't require you to pay me any money. It's more like Pay It Forward than, "Hi...I'm Charles Ponzi from Boston and have I got a deal for you!" Just to be totally aboveboard...it doesn't prevent any of you from doing business with me. That's always an option if I happen to be selling something you want to buy...like, for example, a book, training course or speaking engagement.     

In a nutshell, limbic resonance means you have the potential to regulate another person's nervous system. In other words, you can change the emotions of people in your circle of influence. We use many words to describe emotions, however, six words capture the essence of most emotions that humans experience on a day-to-day basis: joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. I want to kick-start a NLRM for five reasons:

• Our economy (in many cases that includes your personal economy) is at the least in the doldrums...and perhaps in the crapper and in danger of deteriorating further (OK, I know I have used some form of the term crap twice now...I'll clean it up a bit). A large part of the current economic dilemma is due to the underlying emotional attitude of the American consumer, predominantly fear and anxiety. 
• This neutral (in the doldrums) or negative trend does not have to continue. I personally prefer that it not continue. It's simple. If it continues, things in the economy will get worse. If not, things will get better.  
• We (you and I) can use limbic resonance to help turn things around quickly. 
• I like the idea that all of us as individuals can at least do something...rather than totally counting on someone else to solve our current economic problems. Many believe waiting on someone else to take action is what got Kitty Genovese killed in 1964. It's an interesting story. If you need more inspiration to get involved in the NLRM, read about Kitty's demise and the lack of involvement surrounding her circumstances. Let's get involved, and play a meaningful role, in turning the economy around. 
• These thoughts, and the thought that some of you might get involved and help me spread the word about the NLRM are already making me feel better and converting my potential sadness, anger, fear, disgust and negative surprise into joy and hope. Why don't you join me and let's help the folks in Washington get this economy turned around?  

As it happens, the time is perfect for us to jump in and collectively help the people who are already working diligently on this problem. For example, soon-to-be President Obama will give a speech this week as part of his inauguration process. I'll bet the economy is on his mind and I've seen this guy operate long enough that I am pretty sure he is going to pull out all the stops and deliver a highly inspirational speech. He knows as well as anyone how the right words at the right time can absolutely turn a situation, and perhaps a nation, around. Here are a few examples of previous NLRM kick-off statements:

• FDR in his inaugural address (in a situation much like today's economic dilemma) said: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
• JFK in his inaugural address said: "Ask not what your country can do for you...ask what you can do for your country."
• MLK in a 1963 speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial said: "I have a dream." Fortunately he didn't stick with the original title of his speech "Normalcy Never Again". I'm not sure those words would have launched as much limbic resonance on a national scale.

These are just a few examples; three individuals and a total of 31 words; 31 words that mobilized the spirit and energy of millions of people; 31 words that made incredible things happen much faster than they would have otherwise happened; 31 words that launched massive viral positive movements that changed the emotions, attitudes and actions of the people who make up our nation. The words influenced our collective national nervous system in a very positive way. I am not personally famous enough to launch a NLRM by myself (it is possible, but not likely). But with your help, we can piggyback on Barack Obama's speech and stir up some excitement. I feel certain President Obama will say some really cool things about getting the economy back on track because, after all, it is in his nature to Keep It Cool! We can all pick up the ball after he gives his speech and run with it!  

Now...a very brief lesson on limbic resonance. If you are going to get involved in the NLRM, you need to know at least a little about it. The term limbic system refers to the structures in your brain that regulate emotions. In a sense, we all transmit signals to each other, similar to wireless internet signals that travel through space. Most of us do not understand exactly how wireless internet signals work; we can't see them or otherwise detect them with our senses...but we know something is going on that allows us to receive signals through the air and surf the web without physically hooking our computer up to anything. I use the wireless internet example as a metaphor to represent the signals that travel between us and influence behavior. However, not all signals that travel from one human to another are in the form of electronic signals (some may actually be due to the movement of electrons since electrical impulses drive the activities of our brain). For example, many of you have heard of pheromones...olfactory-stimulating molecules that float through the air and influence the physiology and behavior of people in close proximity to each other. Like wireless internet, it doesn't really matter if you totally understand how everything works. The main point is something goes on that allows one person to influence another person's nervous system and emotions. You don't really need a lot of scientific research to accept this theory. You have all been around people who somehow lift your spirits and others who bring you down if you allow them to do so. If two people who care about each other, one in the dumps and one as high as a kite, get together...some kind of emotional change is going to take place. Or, if you are the boss...walk among your employees with a happy, upbeat demeanor one day and a concerned look on your face the next day. Watch what happens to the emotions of the people in your circle of influence.

OK, hopefully you get it. We can regulate each others emotions. We can trigger good or bad feelings among the people we interact with on a daily basis. If you want to know more, read A Philosophical Physiology of Love (a free article available on the internet), or even better, read A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon. Don't be fooled by the term "love" in the titles. This is some serious, absolutely fascinating, scientific information about how the human brain and nervous system work. 

So what are we to do if we want to kick off a national epidemic and turn our ailing economy around? Here are a few ideas:

• Make a list of people you currently do business with, or want to do business with...people that you genuinely care about and want to help. As you already know, not every business is going to survive this economic downturn. However, let's try to make sure people who offer a quality product and caring service - people who are the "real deal" - survive.
• Visit or call the main representatives of the business and look for ways to emotionally uplift them and, if possible, financially support them. Get in a positive mood and go help them get in resonance with your mood. No faking it here! Do not put a business on your list that you do not feel good about. You know which businesses have earned and deserve your support. I'm OK letting the businesses that don't deserve your support suffer whatever fate unfolds for them in this economy.  
• Think about something you genuinely need or want right now, and if at all possible...buy it now rather than later from someone who deserves your business. Words, thoughts and emotions can only go so far in turning our economy around. In order to get the job done, we need to get money circulating ASAP. There are over 300 million people in America. Roughly 73 percent of these people are over 20 years old. Therefore, some reasonable number of the 219 million individuals over 20 years old are in a position to make buying decisions. For every ten bucks this group spends, over $2 billion is directly injected into our economy...and we also benefit from what economist call the multiplier effect (people who receive the money pay taxes, re-spend it on things they need, and so forth and so on down the line). If these people spend on average $100 each, that will pump over $20 billion into our economy and stir things up. $20 billion...that's more than Oprah makes in a year! As you can see, it doesn't take much at the individual level to kick-start a tidal wave of economic activity in the aggregate.

So, at a minimum, go lift the spirits of people you care about...you've got nothing to lose if you do this. Enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. And if you can afford it, spend a little money now that you were planning to hold on to a little longer. Make at least a few of those postponed purchases. I know for many of you (and I am with you on this), spending money is counter-intuitive right now. But I am not sure how else we are going to create a national movement and turn the economy around. I think spreading feelings of hope and optimism, and getting a little more money flowing though the economy, has the potential to turn things around quickly. Let's help Obama (he will still have plenty of other things to keep him from getting bored after we fix this) and help ourselves by doing what historically we as a nation seem to be pretty good at - overcoming adversity. 

OK, realistically we may not turn around an entire nation. Maybe this will turn out to be a Local rather than National Limbic Resonance Movement. To influence 219 million people, everyone reading this would have to reach out to one of their favorite businesses. And then those businesspeople would have to keep things going forward with one of their contacts for 18 to 21 rounds. Maybe we'll pull it off, maybe we won't. In any case, I am going to do my part this week. I'm going to get myself in the right frame of mind and reach out to several people I care about and offer them encouragement (that won't cost me anything). Then I'm going to pry open my wallet and pull the trigger on a purchase that I planned to postpone. I already know what I am going to buy. It is something I both want and need anyhow. And I am going to buy it from someone who cares about me and runs a good solid business; someone who needs my business right now. I want to do everything I can to help this particular person remain successful. I want them and their business to be around in the future. 

Why don't you join me?   

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.  

Relatively Goods Times for Most of Us

The other day a friend called and complained excessively about the bad times we are all supposedly experiencing. Trying to be an optimist, I told her, "Yeah...things could be better, but they could also be worse." I started telling her an old story about a funny accident report, thinking that she would interrupt me and say, " Chris, I've already heard that story." But she didn't interrupt me, and she had not heard the story. And the story made her laugh and temporarily forget her troubles. I thought everyone in the world had probably already heard the accident report story. But as it turns out, I told the same story to several people over the next few days who had not heard it. So, I decided to share the story with you in case you haven't heard it (or have forgotten it). It's a story about a man who filled out an accident report. Subsequently, the insurance company contacted him and asked for more information. This was his response:

"I am writing in response to your request for additional information for block number 3 of the accident reporting form. I put 'poor planning' as the cause of my accident. You said in your letter that I should explain more fully and I trust the following details will be sufficient. I am an amateur radio operator and on the day of the accident, I was working alone on the top section of my new 80-foot tower. When I had completed my work, I discovered that I had, over the course of several trips up the tower, brought up about 300 pounds of tools and spare hardware. Rather than carry the now unneeded tools and material down by hand, I decided to lower the items down in a small barrel by using the pulley attached to the gin pole at the top of the tower. Securing the rope at ground level, I went to the top of the tower and loaded the tools and material into the barrel. Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow decent of the 300 pounds of tools."

"You will note in block number 11 of the accident reporting form that I weigh only 155 pounds. Due to my surprise of being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded at a rather rapid rate of speed up the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming down. This explains my fractured skull and broken collarbone. Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley. Fortunately, by this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold onto the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of tools hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel."

"Devoid of the weight of the tools, the barrel now weighed approximately 20 pounds. I refer you again to my weight in block number 11. As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the tower. In the vicinity of the 40-foot level, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles, and the lacerations of my legs and lower body. The encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell onto the pile of tools and, fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked. I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the tools, in pain, unable to stand and watching the empty barrel 80 feet above me, I again lost my presence of mind. I let go of the rope..."

As it turns out, the story appears to be an urban myth. It has been floating around in various forms for years (I originally heard it as a story about a bricklayer over 20 years ago). But that doesn't matter to me. It's a good story...it still makes me laugh. I keep it in my files and pull it out and read it when I think I am having a bad day. Now maybe some of you can print it out and do the same.

Have a good day!

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, is now available through Amazon.

Do Things Have to Be So Complicated?

In one sense, life is quite simple. As humans we all basically start out as little bits of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen...the building blocks of life. These four basic elements bond together in different ways to form more complex molecular compounds that make up most of our bodies. For example, hydrogen and oxygen (also known as water) bond to make up almost 60 percent of our bodies overall...and 70 percent of our brains, 80 percent of our blood and 90 percent of our lungs. Before you know it, enough molecules and compounds bond together to form something called amino acids...the building blocks of proteins. Throw in a few fat molecules (lipids) to help develop a membrane around the molecules (now bonded in the form of amino acids, proteins and other stuff) and you suddenly have a cell wall. This cell wall creates an inside world and an outside world for the molecules that somehow bonded with each other. At this point, new bonds begin to form and existing bonds begin to break apart inside the cell wall. As these new molecular bonds form inside the cell wall, they store energy...and when existing molecular bonds break apart, energy is released. By the way, this process of storing and releasing energy is called metabolism. We're getting pretty close to life at this point. Technically, we only need three things to classify something as living:

1. Metabolism
2. Boundaries (life needs boundaries - such as a cell wall - to separate "in here" and "out there")
3. The ability to make copies of itself 

Other molecules inside the cell wall (called nucleotides) form into twisted ladder-like chains called DNA and, as Archimedes said when he stepped into his bath, "Eureka!!!" Our internal copy machines are in place and ready...and we are ready to get serious about life. The first cell copies itself, the resulting two cells do the same, then four new cells do the same, etc, etc, etc. All the cells are pretty much the same when they start out, but then something even more amazing happens. They migrate to different parts of our newly forming bodies and differentiate. Some morph into brain cells, some into liver cells, some into heart cells, and so forth and so on until we end up with all we need (if we are fortunate) to sustain life, get an education, overuse fossil fuel, get a mortgage, get on junk mail and e-mail spam lists, run up some credit card debt, create a worldwide financial crisis, etc.   

Ok, let's stop here and think about it. All this happens - you happen, life happens - because four basic elements (carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen) somehow bond in different ways. Understanding everything about how these bonds ultimately are formed can take you down three fascinating paths: the path of spiritual knowledge, the path of scientific knowledge, or...if you are willing to ignore Descartes' separation of these paths (as I am), the path where spirituality and science merge. But here's my simple lesson for the day in all of this: If it only takes four basic elements to make us and sustain life, why does it take so much to make us happy and sustain happiness? Here's a possible answer: It doesn't really take that many things or that much to make us happy. Sometimes we just think it does!

Here's my suggestion. Learn from mother nature and stick with the following simple four-element plan for generating happiness:

1. Every day, think of the activity that creates the most joy in your life...then do it.
2. Every day, think of the activity that kills the most joy in your...then don't do it. 
3. Repeat step one above for the rest of your life. 
4. Repeat step two above for the rest of your life. 

One joy-generating activity is enough to get started on this plan. I am lucky. Currently, there are 26 items on my list of joy-generating activities. Most of them cost little or no money. The activity that struck me as most desirable today was writing (yeah...unlike some people, I actually like to write). Now that I am almost finished with this blog, I'm moving on to the next activity on my list. On a good day, I can make it through many joy-generating activities. Yesterday, I participated in 15 of the activities on my list...so, it was a very good day! Of course, make sure the activities that creates joy in your life are appropriate and good for you and others in your environment in the long run. Follow this simple plan, get plenty of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen and life should work out fine for you. Good luck!

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive. His new book, Being Productive: Learning to Get More Done With Less Effort, scheduled for release in early December is now available for preorder.

Licking Your Elbow

OK, I will remain open to the remote possibility that among the people who read this blog, one of you may be able to lick your elbow. Some people can do strange things. However, for the most part, I suspect none of you can lick your elbow. I'm not talking about barely licking the side of your elbow. I'm talking about bending your arm as much as you can and solidly licking the lower (pointy-end) of your humerus where it connects with your ulna and radius (the part of the elbow your spouse uses to jab you when your behave inappropriately or make a weird comment in front of others). 

How many of you just stopped reading and tried to lick your elbow? 

Here's what I predict. Most of you reading this blog just tried to lick your elbow. And most of you couldn't do it. Whatever...I'll take a chance and predict that none of you could do it!  I further suspect that you will try to lick your elbow a few more times and then give up. You will accept the reality that you can't lick your elbow, and then move on and use your time and energy on things that you can do. 

I brought up elbow-licking because trying to do this is similar to what many of the people I talk to try to do over-and-over-and-over-and-over every day. The number one complaint I hear among clients and potential clients is: "There is not enough time in the day to get everything done." Let's briefly analyze this comment:

• The amount of time in a day is relatively fixed. It only varies one or two seconds a year on the rare occasions when scientists adjust the atomic clocks used to maintain our time standard in order to keep them in sync with the Earth's rotation around the sun. These adjustments are called leap seconds and are typically made on June 30 or December 31. This one-second adjustment has only occurred 23 times since they started doing it in 1972 (the only two-second adjustment was in 1972). There will, by the way, be a one second adjustment on December 31, 2008 so get ready for it. The bottom line...you can usually count on having 31,536,000 seconds to get everything done each year. That, as they say in algebra, is a given or known factor. Hold that thought for a moment. 
• The other significant factor related to this comment is "everything" - as in the "everything" that you need to get done. 

OK, now we default to the principle so clearly articulated in the Serenity Prayer. You know, the part about "accepting the things we cannot change, changing the things we can, and having the wisdom to know the difference." For all practical purposes, we cannot change time. It is not a variable that we can influence. It is not really a variable at all unless the "things we need to do each day" involve quantum activity (those of you working on the new Large Hadron Collider can skip this blog). So that leaves only one strategy for solving this problem...work on the "things we need to do" factor. In other words, figure out ways to adjust your daily workload. 

Once you accept this reality (and, in effect, quit trying to lick your elbow), you can do two things: 

1. Eliminate some items on your "to-do" list (fairly solid evidence suggests that about 80 percent of the items on your list do not matter anyhow). This is the effectiveness strategy: Are you doing the right things or can you delegate some things to others?  
2. Learn how to do the things on your list in less time. This is the efficiency strategy: Doing things right. Do you need to upgrade your skills related to recurring tasks?  

Do the right things and do things right! I'll admit, this is all textbook, Juran, Deming, Six-Sigma, Management 101 stuff that has been around forever. These are relatively simple ideas that worked in the past and work now...if you finally decide to take action on them. When I hear someone consistently saying that "they don't have enough time to get everything done" it makes me think of the Peanuts character Charlie Brown and his futile efforts to kick the football while Lucy holds it. She always jerks it away right before he kicks it. Charlie keeps on-and-on-and-on trying to do the same thing that never works. Lucy jerks the football away at the last minute every time. It's like trying to lick your elbow. It's like trying to overload your day, over-and-over-and-over, and thinking it will work. 

The moral of all of this rhetoric (it's political campaign season, so I am even more wordy than usual right now): If you find that you are consistently overloaded, stop what you are doing and remember that your best strategy is to accept that you can't create more time in a day and focus on what you can do to solve your problem. Attack the workload side of the equation by eliminating things, delegating things or upgrading your skills related to doing the things on your list. 

Or, I've got a new book coming out titled Being Productive, Getting More Done with Less Effort that suggests 24 specific ideas for enhancing your productivity. You can stop what you are doing, contact me and order a copy of my book in advance (available December 2008, price $15.95 plus shipping). Or, you can stop what you are doing and try to lick your elbow. Do whatever makes the most sense to you.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.

The Drama Triangle

When high-traffic roads intersect, traffic flow is usually controlled by either traffic signals or roundabouts. Roundabouts, also called rotaries, force drivers into a one-way circular stream around a central island. Entering vehicles yield to vehicles already in the roundabout. Once you enter the roundabout, you continue around the circle until you approach your desired exit road and then exit the roundabout. This all sounds simple enough and is simple enough...once you learn the rules of the roundabout and how to get in and out of the circle. Unfortunately, there were no roundabouts where I grew up and learned to drive in Florence, Alabama. I encountered my first roundabout while driving near Boston when I was 20 years old. I got into the circle just fine, but I wasn't quite sure how to get out! I didn't know that entering drivers were supposed to yield to me (and as a practical matter, many Bostonian drivers did not yield to you if you displayed any signs of weakness...especially in my case since I also displayed Alabama license plates). So, I went round-and-round the roundabout, providing entertainment to some Bostonians and frustration to others. I was trapped! Getting nowhere! When I finally escaped and shared my roundabout experience with my native-Bostonian friends, they were quite amused. And then they taught me the written and unwritten "rules of the roundabout." After that, I actually enjoyed and became quite skilled at roundabout roulette. 

I told you the roundabout story because I think it is a good way to illustrate the Drama Triangle. I was just sitting here today trying to think of a topic for a blog...and someone called me (they were a bit distressed) and asked for help. After listening to them for a few minutes, I realized they were trapped in the Drama Triangle. And being trapped in the Drama Triangle is sort of like being trapped in a roundabout. You just need to recognize what is going on and learn a few rules for getting out and everything works out fine.

The Drama Triangle was first described by psychiatrist Dr. Stephen Karpman. The triangular model represents three highly unproductive psychological roles that people often assume in life: Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer. There is plenty of information about the Drama Triangle (also called the Karpman Triangle) on the Internet, so I will just summarize a few main points and move on to my main point of this posting.

• Victims feel powerless and are usually defensive, submissive and or manipulative. They generally feel as if they have no control over their situation and take no responsibility for it. 

• Persecutors are generally perceived as the cause of the victim's woes. They attack, criticize and are generally oppressive. 

• Rescuers ostensibly interfere on behalf of the victim. In reality, they usually increase the victim's feeling of powerlessness and enable the victim's unproductive behavior.

As you might sense by reading the role descriptions, none of these roles are productive life roles. Once players get trapped in the triangle, it is like getting trapped in a roundabout. Players often switch roles inside the triangle. For example, I think you can easily imagine how a Rescuer can get frustrated with the attitude of a Victim and lose patience with them. Then they start yelling at the Victim and morph into a Persecutor. Then the former Rescuer (now Persecutor) starts thinking, "Well, I was only trying to help and that person is being so ungrateful!" At this point, the Rescuer morphs into the role of Victim...and so on and so forth. All the players switch roles and go round and round the Triangle, if going "around" a triangle is possible. I wish Karpman had named it the Drama Roundabout, but I will not allow myself to become a Victim because he didn't. By the way, the other Bostonian drivers who were entertained by my first roundabout experience were probably outside the Triangle and the ones who were frustrated were probably inside it.  

Okay, here's my main point (and what I explained to my distressed caller today). If you want to avoid the perils of the Drama Triangle, focus on mastering three things: 

1. Become a master at Drama Triangle recognition and early detection. Know how to recognize the players and the dynamics of the triangle.
2. Know how to stay out of the Drama Triangle.
3. Accept that it is almost impossible to always stay out of the Drama Triangle (if you are a human being) and learn skills for exiting the Drama Triangle.

So, how do you best learn to do these three things? Read the 135 pages of large-font words in David Emerald's book titled The Power of Ted (estimated reading time for slow readers is only 2 hours and 15 minutes). I have read quite a bit about the Drama Triangle because of my interest in it and how it influences productivity. Emerald's little book, a very easy read, does one of the best jobs of not only explaining the Drama Triangle; it also offers some great advice on how to exit the Triangle. Learn how to convert Victims to Victors, Persecutors to Teachers and learn how to tell the difference in a Rescuer and someone who will genuinely help you and still allow you to take ownership and assume power over your situation. Even if you never get trapped in the Drama Triangle, this is good information for leader/managers, parents, spouses, etc., since many people in your circle of influence are bound to get trapped from time to time. 

I'm going to keep working on recognizing, staying out of, or getting out of the Drama Triangle. Why don't you join me!  

Special Note: To the person who asked me for more information on Crazymakers (by the way, Crazymakers are often Drama Triangle players) mentioned in a previous posting. Take a look at pages 44 - 49 of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. She does a great job of explaining these energy-draining people that you need to avoid if at all possible.

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Chris Crouch, president of DME Training and Consulting, has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive.