So I can’t help myself–I’ll take on something big, even if it’s “out of scope” from regular work.  But time and again, the value I get from that effort is so much greater than 100 little projects.

When I look back at  what’s been really meaningful for me, it’s been cases where I went all out.  Sometimes it was a few extra hours on a task that could’ve taken a half hour.  Others it was writing an eBook or a content site instead of a simple blog post.  Perhaps it was even turning AwayFind from a hobby into a product, team, and business.

This isn’t a prescription to  "go big or go home."  There’s a balance, and a point of diminishing returns for all of our activities.  It’s just that, for me at least, the reward from creating something that takes the extra work far outweighs the effort.

This may all seem obvious, but I’m sharing this now for two reasons:

• Perhaps not everyone thinks this way.  I’m genuinely curious—a lot of people would prefer to take on challenges with less risk-reward involved, but have they seen just what kind of reward is at stake, even if it’s just personal fulfillment?
• To talk myself into creating more.   I feel that I can offer much more value than I’m doing now, and getting started again here is likely the first step for many of the creative projects I’m interested in.

That first step is tough, for me as much as for you.  But I’m taking it here as I want to create more.  Do you want to create more, to do something big?  What’s your first step?

Flickr photo credit: gdudg

They were engineers, and their arguments were logical and comprehensive, but fundamentally misguided.

Their arguments were of the "this won’t cure cancer" variety: they explained that my proposed solution would not be definitive, just like most research on cancer targets just a subset of people.  Trying to cure cancer is about making progress, until maybe someday we arrive at the true panacea.

Here were the specific arguments presented to me:

This pattern doesn’t always indicate [that path], so we can’t recommend [that path] to the user"
- paraphrased from a conversation with Person A

But the pattern (which was easy for our software product to identify, but nearly impossible for a human to recognize) is accurate more than 90% of the time.  So, as far as I’m concerned, 90% is good enough to recommend a path to our users.  This solution doesn’t address a life or death problem, but even if it did, it’d still be the best recommendation.

It has the potential to be successful, much like businesses that sell anti-aging cosmetics to aging women.  The customer understands that the problem is unsolvable, but readily pays for a combination of A) buying time on the hamster wheel, and B) fooling themselves for some amount of time.
- verbatim from an email from Person B

Once again, this colleague is comparing a working solution to a fantastical cure-all.  My solution wasn’t tricking people, it was just solving one portion of a bigger problem.  If that portion weren’t a problem on its own, then perhaps I’d be selling snake oil to fools.  But if that portion is legitimate (and he does believe that there are benefits) then I’m making real progress for real people.  Even if I’m talking about productivity rather than saving lives.

Someday all of us can hope to cure a disease or overthrow a nascent industry.  In the meantime, it’s both reasonable and right to push society forward in small and meaningful ways.

Aim for progress, don’t get caught up in perfection.

Flickr photo by wili_hybrid

In 2012, I did give my best.  What was challenging, even more than the fight forward, was staying sane enough to let go and to keep moving forward.

When things are outside of your control, when they don’t work out, you’ve simply got to push forward with your business and with yourself.  At work, that’s easy—keep doing the marketing, keep following up on the leads, keep building a great product.  But outside of work, it’s not so obvious.

When I looked back on 2012’s challenges, I mentioned that there were 3 things that got me through it.  Here they are again, this time with explanation.  I offer my formula to you, so you too can push through:

1. Take Care of Yourself

When shit got hard in 2012, I hit the track.  Without realizing it, I found myself in particularly good shape.  It’s been a (not quite) joke in my relationships that when things are peachy-keen I have nothing to write about.  I’ve uncovered a second truth—when things gets tough, I run more, too.  Try it—hard running feels a lot better than a marathon of Breaking Bad.

Beyond running, I went camping and kayaking and generally surrounded myself with the beauty that is the Bay Area.  Nature physically changes me, and a day away is a chance to get to know friends much better than breaking bread.

When it’s rainy or late, writing has always been a help for me.  If I’m too tired to write, I’ll simply record to my iPhone.  It’s amazing what sharing it all can do, even if it’s just sharing with yourself.

Lastly, I added chess to the mix this year.  Though I generally avoid games, something about the thinking that chess demands just felt right to me; it’s an escape that I’m comfortable with.

2. Find the Company of Friends or Family

As I mentioned, I try to stay active when there’s a lot on my mind.  I also try to surround myself with friends, even if it’s just their company when we’re working across from one another at a cafe.

I get a lot out of doing for others.  While it can be frustrating if they don’t reciprocate, I’ve come to accept that I’m the one who will likely reach out more.  We all have our own approach to friendships, and I know my friends appreciate when I include them.

While there are some ways that a friend can’t replace a significant other, it’s surprised me just how good a job they can do.  Whether it be reading together on a weekend morning or late night dancing or cooking together, most activities don’t have to be reserved for lovers.

3. Never Give Up on Doing What’s Right

Whether or not I have a chance to get outside or be around close friends, I at least try to avoid the things I might regret.  Somehow this is easy for me (I’ve never drunk-dialed), but I know that for others this is difficult.

By doing what’s right, that means I never say hurtful things, instead I over-communicate, and I blame myself whenever possible.  It means that I don’t always win, but at the end of the day I feel like I did what was best for the situation in the long-run, even if it wasn’t good for me in the moment.

This approach to being the better person led to one of the hardest weeks of my life, but now I know that I put everything in…so it’s possible to let go of the results.

If you’re not sure about something, write out what your instincts tell you.  Talk to a friend.  Sleep on it.  Sometimes it’s just a matter of letting time dull the situation for the right path to come to you.

–
These are the things that got me through the challenges in 2012.  I imagine that they’ll play a role in guiding me through the years to come.  I welcome any techniques you use to let go of the results and make it through the year.

* Wayne Willis not only helped me to let go of the results, he was a big part of knowing what path to forge.  I hope you too can find someone who’s been through similar life challenges and wound up on top.  Thank you, Wayne.

Flickr photo by sziliotti

Still, it’s worth pausing to look into what BlackBerry brought to mobile email, and to point out how iPhone and Android users can replicate some of RIM’s best features.

The Core Difference Between BlackBerry and iPhone/Android: Email

In full disclosure, I began writing this post after a bunch of former BlackBerry users moved to AwayFind.  I started digging deeper into what AwayFind had to do with BlackBerry, and it all made sense: BlackBerry is a server-to-server enterprise email tool with a mobile device serving as the frontend.  Android and iPhone are mobile computers with email clients as one of their applications.

What these different architectures mean for smartphone users:

• The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) sits behind a corporation’s firewall and talks directly to a mail server, in realtime.  It stores all the mobile device’s settings, and thus only communicates with the BlackBerry when there’s something it needs.  The BES is designed to make email on the BlackBerry as fast and efficient as possible, and utilizing the phone (and its battery) only when necessary.
• Android and iOS devices check the email on their corporation’s mail server directly, over the internet.  This happens in one of two ways, either the phone asks every few minutes, “is there any new mail?” or the phone does its best to maintain a connection with the mail server(s) directly, waiting for a change in the inbox.  In either case, it takes up battery life, and is neither as quick nor as reliable.  Without a server in the middle, the phone does the hard work.

The reason for this is simple: BlackBerry is an enterprise email device; Android and iPhone are consumer devices with software that checks email.  If you’ve ever traveled with a laptop, you know that email software sometimes works great and sometimes works unreliably—email isn’t at the center of the universe on laptops.  And the same is true on Android and iPhone.

Without a server-to-server mail environment, iPhones or Androids will never perform the same as BlackBerry devices, but the gap in capabilities is narrowing.  There are now both native and third-party ways to bring the worlds together.

In case you’re curious: the parallel to AwayFind is that the AwayFind server talks directly to the mail server and only notifies an iPhone or Android device when necessary, similar to BES.  Since AwayFind uses the push notification service provided by Apple/Google, it’s usually faster than SMS.

Features that BlackBerry Users Miss on iPhone and Android devices.  And how to replicate them…

AutoText / Word Substitution

BlackBerry has a robust shortcut-> common phrase tool, that even lets you insert variables like the current date/time.  For instance “lmk” can automatically turn into “let me know.”

With iOS5, this is now relatively easy…but Android still hasn’t quite caught up.

On iOS, go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts.  Type the full phrase in the “Phrase” and the abbreviation in the “Shortcut.”  You can see some of my examples to the right…

On Android, you most likely won’t find Auto Text with the keyboard that comes pre-installed.  Even Swype (the most popular third-party keyboard) does not include it.  Auto Text Keyboard is one the most popular apps for this.  Just be aware that when installing a tool like this, you are changing the entire keyboard on your phone, and not just adding Auto Text.

Once you have Auto Text available, I’d recommend taking a couple minutes to insert common phrases.  As you can see in the image above, I have shortcuts for my email address and common phrases.  For instance, “afloc” transforms into “I’m at 169 11th St, SF — http://bit.ly/sfawayfind” (which is my office address).

Blinking Indicator for New Emails

BlackBerry is perhaps best remembered for its multi-colored blinking LED, which let you know of various states for the phone.  By default, red means “new message,” green means “low battery,” and blue means “bluetooth.”  People were particularly keen on the red display (more on this in the next section, in the video especially).

On Android, there are many applications that allow you to customize the color and behavior of the LED, however not all work on all phones.  One popular application is called Blink (pictured to the right), which can display a particular color indicator for an SMS or phone call.  While this won’t let you know about new emails, you could use a program (like AwayFind ;-) that converts an email into an SMS to accomplish this.

On iPhone, you can navigate to Settings > General > Accessibility > LED Flash for Alerts and turn it On.  If you place your phone face-down on your desk, you’ll see the LED flash light up once for any notification.  There isn’t a way to set a persistent blink (without jailbreaking it and using a program like FlashEnhancer).

Notification of Only Certain New Emails

On BlackBerry, one can even further customize their LED to only blink for emails from certain specific people.  This is one of the most popular BlackBerry features, since it can be distracting to see a blinking light every time an email arrives.  A quick story about why BlackBerry users love this this:

If you use Gmail and Android, you have the ability to send specific senders to specific labels.  Then on the Android Gmail app, you can set specific labels to trigger a notification.  (On the Android Gmail app, Go to Settings, click on your email account, and then click setup both Email Notifications and Labels to notify.

At present, iOS does not offer this.  However, on iOS6, they’re introducing an Email VIP feature where you can star specific people.  Then, when those people email you, a notification will appear with the context of the message.

Even with these features, this need is one of the main reasons people come to AwayFind.  AwayFind offers this for both iPhone and Android, integrates with Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, and Google Apps, and can be deployed throughout a company (even for non-smartphone users through SMS).  It’s also much faster than the push functionality built into the iPhone and Android OS because AwayFind talks directly to the mail server.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Compose

On the BlackBerry, it’s always quick to create a new email. From the Home screen, you need simply press C (since there’s a physical keyboard!) to create a new email or SMS. There are all kinds of shortcuts for similar things.

While this might be possible with iOS’s new AssistiveTouch, it’s definitely not designed for this, and I wouldn’t recommend trying. Fortunately, tapping the Home button, clicking Email, and pressing Compose shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds. The Compose button is available from every email display view (except when you’re already composing an email).

On Android, it can take a little longer to navigate to Compose (about twice as many clicks in some cases), but you can use a gesture to navigate straight to the Gmail application. My Gesture Shortcut Launcher is one application to try, which will at least cut a few steps.

BlackBerry vs iPhone and Android for Email

If you spend all day replying to emails on-the-go, BlackBerry will be faster.  But not because of the above features—it just comes down to the keyboard.  Swype for Android may help, and the iOS keyboard is pretty good, too…but nothing beats a physical keyboard.

On the other hand, if you spend more time reading and processing email, then the bigger screens and easier navigation will make the email experience more pleasant, and perhaps as productive.

And, it goes without saying that iPhone and Android have a much larger array of both productivity applications and games.  From multimedia to news to task management, and even just keeping the device in sync (with things other than Enterprise mail), BlackBerry still needs to catch up.

How Have You Found the Switch?

While many individuals made the switch a long time ago, a lot of enterprises are going through the jump just now.  If you’re running into difficulties getting your users moved over, I’d be curious what challenges you’re experiencing?  Maybe there’s something I can help answer in the comments or in a future article…  Feel free to respond below or email me at jared A technotheory.com.

Like an offensive line that makes room for the star player to act, the right timezone frees you to make the play.

This past week I worked out of Paris (to attend and speak at Le Web).  I was reminded how incredibly easy it was to get ahead when everyone in the States was asleep.  But to keep my team on task and address some big opportunities, I also found myself Skyping and emailing from 1-3am.  It was the best and it was the worst.

A few years ago I worked out of Barcelona.  This past summer I worked out of Buenos Aires.  A big part of why I take these trips is that they’re simply better timezones for me.  And I mean it when I say that the only thing I truly dislike about San Francisco is Pacific Standard Time.

Timezones play a very important role in my ability to get things done.  Like a long flight without internet, they keep interruptions at bay.  But timezones also mean something psychologically—when I accomplish things before others are even online, it feels different.  A good timezone is an opportunity to not only get ahead but to feel ahead.  That’s powerful.

Try as I might to find another pattern, my routine has been unchanged for several years.  I get the most accomplished in the mornings, when I prefer to keep to myself.  I prefer to take meetings or calls in the afternoons.  And, no matter what advanced calendaring or ‘get up early’ techniques I’ve tried, nothing allows me to maintain this rhythm quite so well as a good timezone.

Essentially, I like to be slightly ahead of those I’m working with—ideally 3-6 hours.  In Buenos Aires I’m now 2 hours ahead of my east coast folks and 5 hours ahead of SF.  In Barcelona or Paris I was 6 hours ahead of the east coast (where I used to live), which was manageable…but the 9 hour difference from SF (where I now live) is not manageable.  So that means Europe is generally off my radar now, at least for long trips.

Of course, all of this assumes that when traveling there’s still an opportunity to get into a rhythm and complete your work.  Being far away from home can be challenging, but these days so long as you can find a good office, coworking space, or even coffeehouse, you should be able to get things done.  I try to take month-long trips since it’s enough time both to build a routine and qualify for monthly rates on apartments and offices.

I’ve been behind on writing to my blog, but now that I’m in Buenos Aires, it’s easier to find that time, as I’m probably writing this before you’re even awake.  I’m free from interruptions, and I must say that it’s nice to have long days in the summer sun.

Now it’s your turn to get away and get things done.  Who says they don’t go together?

I was lucky enough to be interviewed last week by Andrew, where we dug into some practical lessons-learned and shared stories and tips.  The video is embedded below.  So grab some holiday tofurkey and get ready to be productive…

Andrew and I discussed 11 specific and tactical tips for winning back time in the workday.  Below I’ve pasted the video interview.  On Mixergy.com, you’ll find a full transcript, an MP3 version, as well as a many (much more ; ) helpful videos for entrepreneurs.

Happy to answer any questions in the comments.  Meantime, enjoy your Turkey Day!

Flickr photo credit: jdlasica

Remember when we had homework and tests?  It was tedious and difficult to get A’s.  But even without a report card, the best results require the same struggle.

I hated high school, but I recall my last two years idyllically: most days I arrived by 7:30, attended seven classes, ran competitively at the track, and then spent 3-hours in a nearby university’s computer science class.  And I did well, even if my moniker “dot com” was hardly offered with affection.

While I enjoyed the subjects, let’s be honest—few of us would’ve labored through so many chapters or worked out so many math problems if it wasn’t required.  The proof: the concept of “practice” is no longer in most of our vocabularies.

Nope, now we just do.  Do it right, do it wrong—business (or nearly all our activities) are about showing up and giving it a shot.  Mind you, I get to grade my team and I rarely let a B result out the door, but in this case it’s easier to be the teacher than the student.

As the teacher I have no trouble forgetting about the competition (as Seth Godin advises), but I still have to do my own work.  I can certainly show up and move things forward (“minimum viable CEO”?) , but the things that will make the most impact feel more like homework.

The difference between a B and an A+ may be 100 customers vs. a million.  Showing up is just lip service.  Pitching 50 journalists, writing 100 customers, creating another video…no one will ask me to do it, and no one will grade me if I don’t.

But it’s not just about work and making a startup succeed.  It’s the willingness to do something that’s seriously tough, even if the light at the end of the tunnel is far away and you may damage your ego in the process.

To be clear, I’m not talking about taking on more—no, ambition creep can be toxic.  I’m talking about taking the things that you’re reasonable/passable/or even good at, and bringing them to the next level.  (For me, that’s writing/marketing, and Spanish.)

As I approach my thirtieth year, I want to still be able to step up to the plate with the difficult things.  Not in response to someone asking me to, but because it’s the only way I’ll be happy with myself and will make a substantial impact before the next decade is up.

Growing up may be a struggle, but it’s also a myth.  We’re never grown up, and it’s never too late to take things to the next level.

But there are two common problems that will sabotage any distributed team’s progress.  We fight them every day at AwayFind, and here’s what we’ve learned.

A big part of remote (er, any) work is a need to communicate frequently, or even over-communicate.  But in a distributed team, there are two communication challenges that lead to big problems.

First, let’s make some assumptions:

• Others on your team have more experience with some of the things you have to do
• The work you’re completing now will change before it’s presented to customers

These are true in any company with a handful of people.  And depending on the degree to which you address these assumptions through communication and feedback, your team can sometimes suffer from:

• Over-perseverance – fighting through every new challenge completely on one’s own
• Over-polish – perfecting what one’s working on before offering it up for feedback

I love having a team that works hard and gets stuff done, so perseverance and polish are generally great traits…but when they lead to slow work and re-work, that’s both frustrating and dangerous.

And on remote teams, these two traits are even more prevalent.  First off, people who are attracted to remote work are often independent people who enjoy working through their own challenges.  But more importantly, in remote work there are far fewer casual check-ins:

• We’re less likely to ask for help form our colleagues when we don’t run into them
• We’re less likely to see a project before it’s finished when it’s not right in front of us

Think about it—when you’re working in the same room you see what they’re working on and hear their frustration.  We’re quick to help one another out and to address problems at earlier stages.

Now this isn’t merely an argument against distributed teams (I’ve long been a fan), rather it’s a warning to prevent these problems from occurring in your distributed team.  As a remote worker, you need to:

• Find a way to share your work well before it’s completed…and be open to reviewing others’ work while its unfinished
• Ask for help from your colleagues when you’re working with a new tool or technology…and regularly check in with others on your team to understand their skills and where you might be able to help

There is not a month that goes by where I don’t learn of someone who struggled with a project I could’ve helped with… or a feature that could’ve been corrected before it got to its present level of polish.  These things can set us back DAYS or WEEKS, and they kill me because they’re avoidable.  Fight back NOW.

These problems no doubt exist in every company…but in remote teams they’re even more prevalent and pervasive.  And if you want to work with people in different offices, you need to proactively combat these issues and architect a culture that supports early feedback and casual sharing of ideas.

While these aren’t the only challenges in distributed teams, these may be the biggest.  If you focus on them head on, perhaps you can reap the rest of the benefits…and join me on my next trip to Buenos Aires.

It’s no secret our greatest asset is time and our greatest predictor of success how we spend it, yet most of us have grown into our roles and task lists without giving it much thought.

Where do we kick ass…and where do we struggle?  Where do we have leverage..and where are we a replaceable worker bee?

At a dinner the other night, we got on the topic of "what are you best at?"  An interesting question perhaps, but it led to a couple better, more specific ones:

• In what area are you uniquely skilled, relative to others?
• Of your unique skills, which can you leverage the most for impact?

Take two minutes to consider your answers.

Though there’s scarcely one right answer, it’s likely that your responses will not be how you spend most (or even much) of your time.

I believe my answer is my ability to offer feedback and communicate advice in a way that’s useful and specific.  With my team that comes in the form of product vision, specifications, and feedback.  With the outside world it comes in the form of speaking and writing.

And as I look back on the past decade, my only regret is that I haven’t written more, created more, and shared more.  Like many of you reading this, as my team and responsibilities have grown, I’ve dealt more with unplanned situations, rather than setting my own agenda.  But, as I wrote a few months back, that’s not the way to make a difference.

How about you — are you spending most of your day in an area where you kick ass and leverage your time?  Any advice, for you or for me, for how to get back on track?

Go above and beyond and forget your to do’s.

We all know what “good enough” is—it’s passable and professional, and while it won’t win awards, it won’t draw criticism.  We’re always capable of “good enough.”

But for a few things, we’re rockstar good.  Maybe you can design landing pages, maybe it’s funny replies to support questions, or maybe it’s writing 10 page blog posts that land you on Hacker News.  Whatever it is, there are some areas where you can  do things that will pull people in and delight.

The sad truth is that when there are 957 things to do, many of them pressing, it’s easy to do “good enough.”  After all, some of our best work takes a lot of attention to detail and a lot of time.  What we don’t realize is that 957 good enoughs is worth less than one above and beyond.

It’s okay to fall behind, and then to fall behind further.  It’s tempting to switch into maintenance mode, to get more things done at good enough.  But then you’re just on the treadmill.  You’re not getting anywhere.

Don’t get things done.  Put them off to work on something better.  Be remarkable.

Flickr photo credit: williamallthing