Mindjet alumni and Microsoft maverick Michael Scherotter recently had the opportunity to interview my childhood friend (I wish) Ice Cube. On a serious note, I'm a HUGE fan of hip-hop, and Michael got a once in a lifetime chance here that I can't help but envy:
I appreciate the depth of Cube's thinking on what technology means to the musical landscape. And I wonder if he'll use the Zune? If not, he can send it to me with a car adaptor.
In my interview on the Personal Productivity Show, I took great pains to say that one day a week, you should get off of your computer and not work for an ENTIRE DAY. Hot damn and oops, I think I may have shot my big mouth off too soon about turning the technology off.Look, if your idea of a great Saturday is making some computer music or playing some computer games, more power to you... that's hobby, not work. The last thing I want to do is destroy your enjoyment of the one day per week you tell your work where it can go, so if I spoke hastily, my apologies.
And in a lot of ways this is a CYA (Cover-Your-Ass) blog post as I was talking about me above when I said computer music and games (Seriously, I do mind mapping for a living: What the hell were you expecting, running with the bulls and shark fishing?). So, before I get booed out of the local Starbucks, I thought I would give you the insight that my original intention in telling you not to work/touch a computer 1 day per week was since most of you are desk jockeys, the easiest way to free you was to remove the enabler, your computer.
Turns out, this angers a lot of us who have hobby-related stuff on our computers. So... If your hobby is on your computer, orders from headquarters are for you to go crazy with it on your next full day off. Just don't give me any BS about your work being your hobby as an excuse to work. Even if originally it was a mere hobby, it's now a full-time gig and you need a different hobby to keep from going crazy (or too crazy if you're already there). Further, if you love your work and do it passionately 60-100 hours per work, one day a week is needed for proper brain elasticity (I'm not a scientist, but the brain does feel stretched at times). Just make sure you don't check e-mail or do any work. Repeat after me, 'E-mail & Work can kiss my ass on (Day you take off) '. There you go.
I know I'll be hobbying it up on my computer this coming weekend, with e-mail and work kissing my rump the entire time.
If you have any feedback, please leave a comment as there's still a part of me that thinks the computer ought to stay off completely one day per week if for no other purpose than change of scenery. What do you think?
Yeah, it's great that I came out against hair dressers whose hair looks like crap in a previous post about eating your own dogfood. Poor people, I found out today how easy it is to be negligent in an area of supposed expertise.
See, I went to see my accountant today (Sunday) and have my taxes done (Pipe down with the hypocrisy exclamation mark: Saturday is my Sabbath). And lo and behold, I'd done an A+ sucky job of systematizing my finances over the past year. I had everything we needed with me... it just took eons to find it all. Not that I'm a finance whiz, but I do tell everyone else to create Projects that turn into Operations - Processes... and meanwhile, I've piled crap onto crap in my own situation. The hell with eating my own dogfood, I need water wings as I'm swimming in the by-product. I made the damn VSS template set... I guess I could live by it in EVERY area of my business, not just those I enjoy (hello Marketing, hello R&D, hello Training & Consulting).
And God bless my accountant, who has given me what I feel is a framework to turn 2008 into the year I systematize financial processes like Lil' Wayne makes mix tapes. I'd give her a shoutout by name, but I haven't a clue if she wants to join this online freakfest I've created at the Underlying Blog. I'm a freakfest! Beautiful.
So, where are you falling short in practicing what you preach, and what is the next action you can take to fix it?
Tonight, my own dogfood smells like crap... tomorrow, I have to eat it. Me, I'll be process mapping some financial stuffery.
So the hypocrite rides again. I'm hungry, it's time for lucky charms.
That's life, and that's the way it is, and it's a good problem to have.
Folks, I've sucked about blogging over the last couple few of weeks. No excuses. I've just been a lazy bastard about it. If I were you, I'd probably quit reading it (as if you didn't anyhow... oh wait, here you are).
What I have been doing, again no excuses, is mind mapping the hell out of Rich Schefren'sStrategic Profits Live Event at Disney World in Orlando Florida. I'm proud to say the maps I've created will even be included with the Home Study Course Strategic Profits is offering. Life changing event I'll add, not the least of which was Gary Vaynerchuk going nuclear on having a lack of, errr... vision about one's own ascendancy to greatness. And Jay Abraham? The dude is the John Gotti of strategic business building: Teflon, smooth as silk and infinitely compelling. No Jay, I'm not saying you're a gangsta. Killer content, and I no longer have any excuses for being anything less than myself.
Check out Jay here:
Check out Gary here:
As much as I love being back in Ohio, hot damn do I miss the sun. I'm sure it was wonderful for the attendees to meet me, and I sure enjoyed making their acquaintance as well. I wonder if it's possible to make Ashland, Ohio and Amish Country the Silicon Valley of the Midwest? WE NEED A TECH COMMUNITY HERE. I love coffee.
Also, I'm a huge fan of Disney. I've loved animation ever since I was old enough to realize it wasn't real (Bambi sucks when you think the bullets will come out of the screen... Actually I'm not partial to Bambi no matter what). Alice in Wonderland, the Jungle Book, Nemo, that's the stuff. So yes, I'm a big kid at heart! My two cents to Disney though: Get some of your plain-clothes crime operatives to watch out for bad parenting in addition to theft as most parents have completely ceded control to their kids... who will slam into you repeatedly while waiting in line for Space Mountain. Say it with me, CUR-MUDG-EON.
One of the things I learned at the event is to BE-YOURSELF. Sometimes I write this blog in my own voice, like now. Other times, I write it like some corporate stooge, attempting to make sure it offends exactly no one and therefore bores the hell out of everyone, not the least of which is me, the author. I have to read this crap as I write it. Sucks when it's blandified oatmeal.
My buddy Brian Friedlander asked me what I've been up to: I'M BACK BAAABBBYYY!!! (Big ups, Joey Tribbiani).
Recently I took some hard flak from Marc C who left a scathing comment on the interview I did for the Personal Productivity Show. And I'd be content to cry in my beer at the local pub, repeating 'you know' (and not knowing on repeat) until ESPN cuts to infomercials for the night, if it weren't for how right Marc C is.
I said 'You Know' just about every time I spoke in the interview! As I said in my reply comment, counting the times I said 'You know...' was like counting the number of times Tony Montana said the F-word in the inspirational, family-friendly classic Scarface (that was a joke if you're grabbing your keys to run to the video store to get junior something to watch).
I think it speaks to a larger issue however. We instinctively don't like criticism. I certainly felt like the jolly lord of jackass when I read Marc's comment. It's an interview I'm proud of, and here is someone pointing out a tick I trotted out after nearly every question. But damn, the guy is right, and I can either wither away and steam, or I can take his comment and be better for it, kind of the way Christina Aguilera used an ex-boyfriend to inspire 'Stronger' (full disclosure, I don't know if she actually wrote it).
So to Marc C, I thank you for making me better and to everyone else who cares to rip me a new one now and in the coming years. You have my pledge that I'll try to keep the 'You Know's to a reasonable amount the next I complete an interview: I'll be better and you'll be less annoyed. If anyone has the 'You Know' count from my interview, I'd love to hear it.
Go Kyle!
And lastly, how can you benefit from the free advice your critics are giving you? Doesn't matter whether or not you like them: The thing is, do they have a point?.... If they do, you just got better for FREE.
Slowly and steadily, I'm working on the Visual Strategist Newsletter. Now, I've been accused of putting out the most comprehensive set of MindManager templates EVER, the VSS Template Set, so I'm not going to let my ego reign and just send you a newsletter I think is important (whole damn sentence was an oxymoron). I want it to be what YOU want, so please, leave a comment and let me know.
You see, the VSS templates are the outgrowth of my decade+ experience in knowledge management and mind mapping. Simultaneously, when I put them out last year as a free download, I had no idea how many of you were going to download them. So, it's a shared experience at this point and I simply cannot in good conscience send out a VSS-based newsletter that is hurled outward via my own tunnel vision cannon. I need YOUR input so I can ensure each time you receive an e-mail from me it's chock full of content that benefits you. Again, please bombard me with comments about what you want to see.
Kyle is a Dancing Bear
Need a Youtube video of me doing inverted cartwheels? Leave a comment. Need to know more about using the VSS Template Set icons to give you database-like functionality in MindManager? Leave a comment. Want video or written text? Leave a comment. Need a recipe for killer cheesy potatoes? Leave a comment and I'll tell someone who knows what they hell they're doing.
Sign-up now and be sure to download the free VSS templates while you're at it. It's all here.
And if you're feeling truly grateful for the hard work I do, you should pickup a t-shirt to support the Free T.I.! campaign, as my creative juices couldn't flow without the hits like 'Top Back' and 'What You Know'.
My buddy Craig Huggart of Techrest recently did an interview with Lisa Haneberg of Management Craft. For those of you not familiar, Craig is fighting the good fight, trying to get us all some more rest via skillful management of the technology apparatus in our lives.
You know, Craig's wraps his messages in hellaciously entertaining packages, yet I encourage you not to let the entertainment factor get in the way of just how serious Craig's points are. Personally, I've seen 4 to a table at a restaurant, each person on their own device, checking e-mail or texting or some other digital distraction from the flesh-and-blood sitting there in front of them. Scares the hell out of me to this day.
If you're drowning in e-mail and/or obsessed with it, this is 23 minutes well-spent:
I'm a Star! (FOLKS THE EGO HAS TRULY LANDED, PLEASE STAND BACK FROM THE CRASH SITE). Tony Goodson of the Productivity Show interviewed me recently... the same show David Allen, the founder of GTD, was once featured on!
Highlights include:
Kyle's GTD: He's a heretic yet is mostly keeping his own dogfood down
Mindjet MindManager: Pimp-out the interface
The World's most offensive rap album!
Second Life: The new warzone
GyroQ and ResultsManager: Pimp your productivity
Top Tips for having Meaningful Relationships and Pursuits
Get a Life
THE REAL QUESTION: How does a mind mapping guru end up talking about 'flying penises' and 'burping'?...
Listen now to the most exceedingly delightful, productivity-tip-laced, controversial Interview the mind mapping world has ever experienced:
Is e-mail you personal plague? Anyone who doesn't think so doesn't get e-mail, or has gone over to that nauseating drone status where they can do nothing but fiddle with little buttons on their Blackberry while wearing too-starched professional clothing. You think Jack Nicholson was scary at his typewriter in 'the Shining'? Picture a million of 'em at Starbucks.
Married to a drone? Love a drone? Want your drone back for Christmas? Haven't gotten any 'quality' time with your drone due to their e-mail addiction?
Never fear, my buddy Craig Huggart has come a ridin' into town on a white horse. As I've said before, this guy has the best value prop ever, getting more rest, and has just published his first book, 'Escape from E-mail Hell'. And God bless him for it. If you have visions of taking a bazooka to the nearest e-mail server, this is THE book for you or a loved one during the holiday season. Where else will you get to read about an 'angel of e-mail' saving a company manager?
Check it out the blog post here and the Lulu page here. And yes, it does deal with Blackberries.
Michelle Golden Michelle Golden is president of Golden Marketing, Inc. (and Golden Practices, Inc.) an organizational consulting and marketing company exclusively serving professional service firms.
Nick Duffill Businesslike Visualisation for Late Adopters
Cory Pina Cory's Inspired thoughts on Religion and Society
Robert Handwerk Executive Coach and employee selection service provider
Mindjet alumni and Microsoft maverick Michael Scherotter recently had the opportunity to interview my childhood friend (I wish) Ice Cube. On a serious note, I'm a HUGE fan of hip-hop, and Michael got a once in a lifetime chance here that I can't help but envy:
In my 
Yeah, it's great that I came out against hair dressers whose hair looks like crap in a previous post about 
Folks, I've sucked about blogging over the last 
I said 'You Know' just about every time I spoke in the 
My buddy Walter Terry has some flattering things to say about me in the following entry. He also rightly calls me a 'ham':
Never fear, my buddy Craig Huggart has come a ridin' into town on a white horse. As I've said before, this guy has the best value prop ever, getting more rest, and has just published his first book, 
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