WTF Almost Two Years!

Sad but true it has been a long time since my last post. I never achieved the fitness goals I set out but learned some valuable lessons. Goals are important, but become useless when writing is an end in and of itself. Action is a much better indicator of success because it shows immediate results. Sometimes doing something based on instinct is just as valid as a planned attempt.

So what is the latest Mental Beat?

Do something immediately to see how it will work for you. Build a plan out of the natural process of doing that action. The plan will be organic and thus better suited to your work flow, style, and preferences.

Planning something in advance is OK if the plan is short. Long estimates are best avoided or broken into short lists of tasks completed within a foreseeable time, like a week or two. Work days are best divided into production and administration.

Production is any work on principal projects or billable time.

Administration is everything else.

The Elegant K I S S

My junior high school art teacher was a funny man. I could tell you many jokes he told us, but I'd rather remember him for his rules of simplicity in design rather than his sailor mouth.


He introduced us to the KISS rule. His version was Keep It Simple Stupid! Sure it was negative, but that didn't keep Walter Matthau from bossing The Bad News Bears into a winning season.

I digress.

The KISS rule works if all you want to do is simplify. However, in complex situations does this rule still work?

In trying to achieve simple solutions to complex issues the wave of mutilation must first be surfed. The process of learning all that can be learned about a problem will ideally result in the satori of solutions, the elegant solution.


This effortless outcome that seems so obvious it is not even dared questioned.

When this idea falls in line with things that contain beauty with simplicity and functionality coupled with harmony, this is the frame work for ideal idea generation.

More on this later.

Beat your mental!


Matthew, MB

5 Reasons for a Structured Concept Phase

The concept phase, the most important phase in any project, is critical in determining not only the success of the project but as well as the health of the team. A healthy team can think quick but direct, can make serendipitous connections, and have the stamina to put in the extra time when needed (this is always the exception, never the norm). Overall productivity and quality increases. As a result, the following side effects are likely to happen.

1. A non-reactive environment
2. Serendipitous occurances
   
3. Over deliver
   
4. Team can anticipate next move(s)
5. On the spot needs analysis
   

This can only come from controlled repetition.

Creating this structure and discipline will have future benefits of unknown proportions. It allows for clarity, stability, and flexibility when needed. It is like a craftsman moving effortlessly through his or her process.

"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect."
- John Pancott
and - Vince Lombardi

For more information try the following:

An Introduction to Concept Mapping for Planning and Evaluation

William M.K. Trochim
Cornell University

Beat on!