Today was One of Those Days, but even Those Days are bearable if you insist on thinking of them that way.

It started this morning when our home Internet connection was down and I had to figure out a way to make my 9:00 tele-presentation. I excused myself a third of the way into my 8:00 conference call after the problem refused to solve itself, and tried waking up Wayne that he could have a crack at it. He couldn't solve it either. After some frantic scrambling, I realized that the only thing to do was to come into work. I stuffed the electronics into my bag and sprinted to work. I knew I would have just enough time to make it.

I still needed to copy the files from my Linux partition to my Windows partition. Crouching on the floor of the crowded subway car, I balanced my laptop on top of my rolling case and rebooted. A young woman stood up and offered me her seat. I thanked her profusely. She understood that it was One of Those Mornings.

I managed to copy all the files over by the time we pulled into Yonge Station. I made my way through the early morning crowd and into the IBM office downtown. I headed straight for the first free meeting room I could find. After dumping my things in order to claim ownership of the room, I snagged a lamp from an unoccupied desk. I was going to do the presentation with video, and I wanted good lighting.

It turned out that I had a few minutes of allowance before I was going to speak, so I quickly uploaded the files to our company intranet and got myself ready. There was nothing I can do about my hair, but at least I could catch my breath. And then my session started, and all the hassles of that morning faded away.

I had so much fun talking about the way work is changing and what my generation practically takes for granted. The questions were among the best I've ever had after presentation. They were clear and thought-provoking, and I learned a lot in a process of answering them. I also had the opportunity to pull in one of my previous short presentations in order to help answer one of the questions about Gen Y retention.

Being able to see the audience through video and knowing they could see me made me feel as if I were there. Sure, I was a talking head, and most of my gestures didn't quite fit in frame. On the other hand, my facial expressions were a lot easier to see. It reminded me of watching Evil Dead: the Musical and being able to see Ash quirk his eyebrow. Someday, I'll make even better use of video in presentations.

I stayed on for the panel discussion, which was also a lot of fun. I learned a lot from the questions and the answers of the other panelists. Again, being able to see people asking and answering questions did a lot to help me feel part of the event.

After the panel ended, the stress of the morning caught up with me. I was having strong cramps, I was feeling slightly dehydrated, and I had forgotten my lunch at home. Almost all of the seats in our mobile offices had been booked, so I moved my things out of the meeting room and to a temporary working area. I tried getting back in touch with the organizers of the event, who had said that one of the people there had wanted to talk to me. They also tried patching me in to attend next talk. The beginning was very interesting, but when I felt myself unable to concentrate, I knew it was time to call in sick. Or, as I was in the office anyway, just tell people I was going to go home. I think it was my first sick day at IBM.

I slept on the subway ride home. On the way to the house, I take off what I was going to do as soon as I got through the door. I was going to heat up the hot pack and then enjoy a bowl of homemade chicken soup.

The hot pack worked fine, but when I added alphabet pasta to the chicken soup, I saw little black dots floating in the broth. Little black dots with legs. Eww. Abandoning my chicken soup, I pulled some rotini with meatballs out of the fridge, heated it, and had it for lunch.

And then I went to bed and the afternoon disappeared.

When I woke up, the house was still quiet, but the sun had set. I made myself a mug of hot chocolate, and everything started to feel much better.

What did I learn? I learned that even with a stressful start to my day (whether it's Murphy's Law striking or, as in the past, I heard that one of my role models was leaving the company), once I get on stage, the message itself fills me with excitement and gives me energy. I learned that I'm pretty good at quickly making plans to deal with sudden challenges, and that even when it seems everything's going haywire, my automatic-cheerer-upper finds all sorts of small things to smile about. Was this the best day ever? Not at all - but I think I did my best with it anyway.

I'm changing it already, and as I grow, I'll do better and better. I won't always succeed, but I'll always learn. I'll get better and better at finding better and better fits between what I'm passionate about, what I'm good at, and what the world needs.

It's not because I can be anything I want to be, but because I'm becoming more of who I am. Let's face it: I'm unlikely to become an Olympic swimming champion or the CEO of a wildly successful social networking platform. But there's so much I can do right now, and there's so much I want to grow into in the future.

There are amazing people around me who encourage me to keep following my passion, keep exploring new areas. They know you can't train people to do what I do, and that I create a lot of value you can't put into a job description. If people around me weren't this supportive, I'd just look for a different environment. I would keep following my passions, because I can't imagine living any other way.

I have what-am-I-doing moments. I have do-I-really-have-to-do-this moments. I have just-get-me-through-this-day moments. But I also have I-totally-rock moments and I-helped-someone-else-totally-rock moments, and I'm going to have more of those.

When people tell me I'm special, I tell them that I'm just like they are, and I ask them what it would take for them to live like I do. What would it take for people to live with passion and joy?

I'm Sacha Chua, and this is not just about Generation Y. =)

Technorati Tags: career, gen-y, life, millennial, passion

I love learning. I love being able to do something I'd never done before or to do something even better than before.

This week, I learned how to write a good set of low-level documentation using the doxygen tool, influence project decisions, test a website for accessibility, set up a digitizing tablet under Linux, sketch and edit my sketches, mindmap using a tablet, lay out a photobook, and answer some of J's old homework in French. I'm looking forward to learning even more over this long weekend!

Every time I learn or improve a skill, I like celebrating. I often write about what I learn on my blog, as it's a great way to not only share what I'm learning but also that sense of accomplishment in learning something new. Sometimes I take a moment to pat my own head, which alwas makes W- smile when he sees this. "Celebrating the little things?" he says. You bet!

Why shouldn't we celebrate these little victories? A baby's first smile, first word, and first step are all monumental milestones people celebrate. Growing up, we celebrate the first time we tie our shoes by ourselves, the first degree, the first paycheck. What if we never grew out of celebrating these milestones? What if we celebrated more?

Celebrating the little things keeps learning fun. What have you learned lately?

I'm getting a better idea of the work I enjoy doing. Here's a rough sketch:

• I love sharing what I'm passionate about, helping people learn more and become more effective, and encouraging people to grow. In my current role, I get to do plenty of presenting, conducting workshops, coaching, and writing. People appreciate not only the information I share but also the enthusiasm with which I share it and the thoughtfulness with which I help people learn.
• I love learning about all sorts of things. I'm currently working on visual literacy, and I'm looking forward to using the Cintiq tablet to experiment with graphics even more. I also love learning about social networking, communication skills, and other topics that I can share with people around me.
• I love connecting people with other people, ideas, or tools. It gives me a thrill whenever I can introduce people to just the right person who can help them do what they want, to a book or article that fits their interests, or to a tool they'll love.
• I love exercising my creativity and helping people brainstorm. As part of my work, I often get to help people brainstorm Web 2.0 business ideas, and I really enjoy bringing in things I've learned from all the different aspects of my life.
• I enjoy working on lightweight projects based on open source technologies with vibrant user communities. I get to do this with my Drupal-based project and with my Emacs book. I love being able to read source code and learn from other people's contributions. I love sharing tips on my blog and learning more from others. I love giving back to the community, too!
• I can write technical documentation better than most developers can. And I don't mind doing it, too, as long as it doesn't require me to keep changing applications or operating systems.
• I don't like working on front-end interfaces, such as designing graphics, writing CSS, or trying to make a page look exactly like the design. I can do it, but I'd rather do a simple design.
• I really don't like working on cross-browser or cross-platform issues.
• I really don't like dealing with inconsistent, fiddly, or frustrating things such as bugs in one's operating system (really, my mouse should Just Work) or convoluted administrative paperwork. Some people enjoy solving problems like that. I don't.

I'd like to explore sales at some point, too. I want to find out if it might be a good fit for me, too, and I like the idea of helping people find the right solution for them.

So that's a general idea of my strengths. I love helping people be more effective, whether it's by sharing ideas or tips, connecting them with others, or building or tweaking tools for them. I enjoy software development and technical writing too, but mainly as a way of supporting my ability to help people be more effective. Those are the "whats," at least right now. What about the hows?

I don't see myself working on projects with unrealistic time expectations. I don't see myself sacrificing life for work or for career advancement. If I did, I'd be going up the ladder, yes, but it might be the wrong ladder for me.

The things I love doing and the things that make me special all require me to be happy and passionate about my work. I believe that I can be successful at them while living according to my values. I'm looking forward to seeing the kind of life I can build. =)

Have you thought about your whats and hows?

This isn't a forget-your-worries kind of vacation, but more about keeping my ties. I grew up in the Philippines, and most of my family and my friends live in Metro Manila. The short trips I take are the only time I get to catch up with them face-to-face.  I remember one trip when I felt so distraught at the prospect of leaving that it was hard to enjoy the days before my flight back to Toronto. When departure looms, every moment gets thrown into hyperfocus, and there's such a temptation to pack every instant with activity. When I return to my quiet(er) Toronto life, the the sudden vacuum in my schedule gets filled with the pain of being between worlds.

So when I decided that I'd find a way to make it to the wedding of one of my best friends, I felt guilt over not being able to spend the whole time relaxing. My team members were counting on me to contribute to the project. I didn't feel comfortable taking an entire two weeks off, and it didn't make sense to fly halfway around the world for a trip of only a week. My compromise was to spend the first week on a proper vacation and the second week working remotely.

It turned out remarkably well. This week of work is what made everything feel more like home. It seems that the greatest leisure is the feeling of normalcy, of being part of the everyday routine, of following the rhythm of meals and work and some unwinding at the end of the day. Last week was hectic: lots of fun, hardly any time to breathe, hardly any time to reflect, hardly any time to slow down. This week, I feel more like I'm at home.

This trip to the Philippines feels much more relaxed than the others, as if we're not trying to cram too much in too little time. Yes, we're flying back to Toronto two days from now. Yes, two weeks is still too short a trip. Yes, I've run out of evenings for planning get-togethers. But it doesn't feel as jarring as the last time I traveled. I don't feel as misplaced, and I don't feel that I'm unraveling from the strain of being "on" all the time. I have space to be normal. I have time to breathe.

I've checked off some bugs, written some documentation, responded to some mail, and thought about some improvements. There's a sleepy cat on my lap. All is well with the world.

I'm flying back to Toronto in a couple of days. In the past two weeks, I learned that I can work anywhere, there are things I love about both worlds I live in, and that I can be fully present–here and now–even though I'm becoming a person of two worlds.

This reminds me of a point I've been wanting to think about for a while. =)

When people look at the way new generations or new hires immerse themselves in learning, they often think that they themselves could never do that, could never find the time to try out and learn all these different things.

If you've ever told yourself that or heard someone say that, I'd like to help you remember what it was like to be on the other side of the fence, and I'd like to remind my future self what it's like to be here.

Yes, being new means I have no bad habits to unlearn. That's part of it. But it's also true that I don't have as many good habits as you do, or even "good enough" habits that can get me through. That's one of the things that drives me to go out there and experiment. Because I don't have a "good" way of dealing with so many things, I need to try lots of different ways and see which ways work for me.

In other areas, where I've found things that work for me, I stick with them and get deeper and deeper into them. Someday, my mind might have been so shaped by the tools I've used that I won't see any need or potential beyond them, and it might be someone else's turn to explore even further.

I think that the trick, then, is to keep "breaking" things, keep stepping out of my comfort zone, so that I always feel the urge to learn something. For example, even though I've used Emacs for years, I'm always pushing it to do something new, and I'm always tinkering with other editors and other systems to see if I can steal any good ideas.

Helping other people also stops me from becoming complacent, becoming too comfortable with my current toolkit. When I'm helping people brainstorm, answering their questions, customizing systems to fit their needs, I learn more about them, the system, and myself. I learn in the process of teaching.

I'm not going to adopt every single thing that comes along, especially when I've already got something that works out quite well. (Look at how old my text editor is!) That's okay. That kind of exploration will naturally fit other people. What I can do, though, is:

• expand the breadth and depth of my tools so that I'm not just replacing interchangeable parts, but exploring new territory
• keep exploring the depths and the interconnections between different tools
• help people with as many tools as I can, especially if that takes me outside my toolkit
• borrow ideas from other tools

That's how I plan to mix being both new and experienced. =)

How do you keep yourself new?

• I switched to flat shoes. When the massage therapist mentioned that high-heeled shoes could be the reason why some of my muscles were tense, I said I'd switch to flat shoes. This was apparently not the way most women react. They're more likely to say, "Sure, when they make flat shoes that aren't ugly." Well, I found two pairs of shoes that look presentable enough for the office. =)

  It turns out that you really do need to walk a mile in your own shoes before they're broken-in enough to be comfortable. Both of my new pairs of flat shoes are now comfy enough for extended walks. The fancy insoles I picked up to add arch support threw me off balance and induced enough pain to make me hobble, so I got rid of the insoles. Now I just use plain liners to keep the shoes relatively clean.

• I switched to crossing my legs at the ankles, not at the knees. Sometime after grade school, I picked up the habit of crossing my legs at the knees. I suppose it was because practically everyone else I saw did it. Probably not goot for my back muscles and circulation in the long run. Stopping this behavior took a little conscious thought for a couple of days, and then it felt natural not to do it any more. Now I just cross at the ankles if I want to, all proper-like.
• I switched to a rolling laptop case instead of a backpack. Yes, it's a bit of a challenge getting a bulky rolling laptop case through the wickets or up and down stairs, but my shoulders think it's a good trade-off.

There's only one thing I'm having a hard time doing: leaning back. The massage therapist said that some of my back and neck muscles are tenser than they need to be because I lean forward instead of using the chair back. I'm not used to the idea of leaning back against the chair. It feels casual, and it sometimes means that I'm not in quite the right position to type.

Hmm…

The blog makes it easy to review the year. So, how am I different from the person I was in August 2007?

There were three major changes in my life, all related to each other.

The first is my relationship with W-, which began in March 2008 and is now such a core part of my life. I can't say enough good things about it without sounding like a Hallmark card.

The second major change is the transition from the academe to the industry: I finished my master's degree and joined IBM Canada as a technology evangelist and application developer.

The third major change followed naturally from the first two: instead of going home to the Philippines, I'll be in Canada for a while. Because of W-, I chose not to return to the Philippines after the completion of my studies, and because of my work, I had the means to support myself here. This change was the most challenging, but I'm sure it will work out somehow.

Along the way, I learned how to sketch, cook, defend myself, do yoga, drive in winter, make it across the monkey bars, go on the static and flying trapezes, grow a herb garden, script virtual worlds, manage my retirement investments, survive the conference circuit, dictate to the computer, inspire my colleagues, share thoughts about my generation, develop with Drupal, and connect with amazing people.

I've grown as a person. I've learned a lot about love. I've learned a lot about fighting for what I feel and building bridges after the storms. I've learned about the wonder and delight one can feel in ordinary things. I've learned about the kind of person I can be.

I've grown as a writer, speaker, and developer. I've learned about how writing fits into my life. I've learned about my personal style of presenting (interactive, enthusiastic, practical). I've learned about configuration management, testing, and all sorts of tweaks to make my development environment a better fit for me. I've shared what I've learned along the way.

What will the next year be like?

I'm looking forward to deepening my relationship with W- and seeing what another year of shared experiences will bring us. I'd like to get better at connecting with friends and family. I hope to get an even clearer idea of how I can contribute professionally, and to do so. I'd like to explore other ways to work and live more fully.

Here are some of my measurable goals for the next year. By August 2009, I'd like to be able to look back and say that I've:

• completed a book on Emacs (whether published by No Starch Press or self-published)
• increased my reach and responsibilities at and outside work
• completed my paperwork for the permanent residency application (Canadian experience class?)
• continued to donate 10% of my income
• continued to save at least 50% of my income
• developed another income source aside from salary, interest, and index growth
• learned how to cook at least 20 new recipes

Join me as I figure more things out! =)

Moving tasks to the night before can support this early-morning writing by freeing up more time. The more I can do the night before, the less I need to do the morning after - and it pays off even when the exchange isn't 1:1. For example, moving the half-hour I used to spend cooking steel-cut oats for breakfast from morning to evening means that I spend just a few minutes heating up a breakfast with much more texture than instant oatmeal. I packed my lunch last night, so I just need to grab it from the fridge and head out the door. I checked my purse for my keys and badge, too. Doing these little things the night before helps me streamline my morning routine.

What else can I do to free up time? I might try watering the plants in the late afternoon or try outlining in the evenings. OpenLoops has good tips for making the most of these early morning hours, and I'm sure I'll discover more along the way.

I'd also like to look into freeing up weekend time. I used to save laundry loads and library runs for the weekend, but if I can use my weekday evenings to take care of these things, then that frees up a larger block of uninterrupted time.

That statement would probably have been more powerful had W- and I not chosen to skip the Ottawa Linux Symposium's closing party in favor of working on our computers. He's been trying to figure out how to get kubuntu up and running with all the usual IBM stuff, and I've been trying to figure out how to give Emacs all the features I like in Eclipse and more. So yes, that was what we were doing on a Saturday night: learning more about our tools while sharing a Killaloe sunrise beavertail. (No actual beavers harmed; it's fried dough.)

We're heading back to Toronto today. I'm looking forward to having oatmeal for breakfast and preparing a simple, Sacha-sized meal for lunch and dinner. A full week of eating out for every single meal has left me craving the kitchen. Yes, cooking takes more time, but I don't have to decide between feeling guilty about leaving food on my plate and feeling satiated, I don't have to take a chance on whether or not the restaurant will be closed (as was the case with many of our choices on Saturday evening), and I learn a lot more in the process. This is one of the reasons why I don't like traveling for an extended period of time. I miss the kitchen. I miss turning meals from just fuel or explorations of tastes into experiments that'll teach me something interesting along the way.

And yes, I'm also looking forward to getting back to the gym. It's funny how you miss it. I've been making up with lots of walking, but still. I miss what I feel like after a good workout: bedraggled but triumphant.

I've enjoyed my brief stay in Ottawa, though. I didn't get to meet the people I had been looking forward to seeing, but I did go to some of the birds-of-a-feather get-togethers. I checked out the Sparks pedestrian mall, the Rideau Centre, the Bytown museum, and I saw the cat sanctuary near Parliament (awwww!). I figured out some of the pieces that I'll need to improve if I want to telecommute effectively from the Philippines. VOIP is a big one, and a backup calling card won't hurt, either. I also need to figure out the timezone thing. =)

It's been a good trip.

I'm still learning how to drive.

It seems that most teenagers anxiously waited for the birthday that let them get a learner's permit and get on the road. I didn't. Between carpools, public transit, and other people driving, I never needed to drive. Besides, jeepneys, buses and tricycles made driving in downtown Manila a harrowing spectacle. In Toronto, public transit can get me nearly everywhere I need to go. I'd like to stay car-free as long as possible, as I've seen how owning a car can be an expensive proposition.

Still, there's no getting around the fact that driving is a useful skill, so I'm learning. It's difficult to learn something that other people already take for granted. I feel frustrated whenever I have to do so much back and forth in parking or when I make the wrong decision when it comes to navigating. I learn so slowly!

I'm lucky that W- can put up with my mistakes patiently, and he even tells me not to be so hard on myself. It's difficult not to berate myself for mistakes like stalling the car in the middle of the road and then grinding the starter in my panic. One of the things I'm learning from all of this is that even when I feel like a failure and all I want to do is make the stress stop, I need to relax and reset my mood if I'm going to be able to do better. I need to make an effort to switch my mental track from:

"Why can't I get this? Teenagers pick this up quickly."

to

"Everyone's alive? Good. Anything else can be taken care of. Now, how can I do things better next time?"

If I don't make that mental switch, I end up making more and more mistakes. If I do, then I might stand a chance of making it home without making W-'s knuckles white.

One of the things that I've noticed is that I have a hard time navigating. We've passed through those roads countless times, but even when W- asks me what looks familiar, I find it hard to distinguish between the different reasons that different things look familiar. So after driving practice today, I finally looked up all of these places on Google Maps. I couldn't figure out how they were related just driving along, because I couldn't focus on anything aside from not getting into an accident. Seeing the map in my head might make navigation easier for me.

Learning how to drive is not fun, but I know I need to learn. The only thing to do whenever I stall is to start again. (Preferably without grinding the starter.)

This week gave me an opportunity to think about time, work, and money.

I had spent much of Sunday and my evenings on conference-related work. As much as I enjoyed the opportunity to reach out and touch people I wouldn't ordinarily get to meet, I also realized that it was time I took away from my personal projects and my other relationships. By the time the conference wrapped up on Wednesday, I was looking forward to a quiet day working at home.

Although I'd already worked the typical number of hours for the week, I still felt that I needed to keep working on Thursday and Friday. I wanted to make some more progress on my main billable project, and I was also helping a number of volunteer efforts get off the ground. I put in a full day of work on Thursday, and I headed into the office on Friday.

After I did some more work on my main billable project, demonstrated some of our internal Web 2.0 tools, and replied to my e-mail, I looked into the process for filing overtime. I had given the company my personal time because the company wanted the value I could create, so I figured that I should be able to get some of that value back. I knew I could be compensated in either money or time, but I needed to do some paperwork.

Catching myself getting frustrated by the process for filing overtime, I decided to put off the paperwork until next week and enjoy some of the time that I had earned.

Don't get me wrong–I love the opportunities I have to grow and work with such wonderful people. I just want to make sure that I'm living the values that I want to live, because I won't be effective if I'm not authentic. This doesn't mean that I don't love my work. This means I love it enough to want to always love it, instead of coming to resent it or losing touch with myself.

During my commute back, I looked at the options of no overtime, overtime for money, overtime for time, and free overtime, thinking about their effects on my happiness, relationships, increased opportunities to help, career progress, and bank balance. This is the chart I sketched on the subway ride home.

VALUES: Personal happiness and relationships are very important to me. I enjoy opportunities to help, but I'm not too worried about it because there are more than enough awesome opportunities to reach out and make a difference, both inside and outside work. I think about but am not overly concerned with career growth, because that tends to follow opportunities to help. Money is flexible. I don't mind growing wealth and I'd like to share in the value I create, but because I enjoy being frugal and I don't have many financial demands, I'm not driven to earn more and more.

OPTIONS:

No overtime: If I try my best to stay within the 40-44 hours that forms a "typical" work week, I think this will have a terrific effect on my happiness and my relationships. I'll be able to explore other areas, exercise my creativity, and keep myself from going overboard. I'll miss out on some opportunities to help at work and my career won't progress as quickly as other people's might, but I'll have more opportunities to help outside work and those opportunities may turn into things that can make money for me, too. This doesn't stop me from volunteering on things I love about work during my free time (but only the things I love!). =) What will I do with the rest of the time? Experience new things, think, learn, write, dream, doodle, listen, share, grow…

Overtime compensated by money: Ideally it would be overtime for something I really enjoy and would be doing anyway, but even in that case, I'd still have to deal with the paperwork. Once I sort out the paperwork, though, this will be less stressful. (I should revise this chart after I complete the process a number of times.) On the downside, I might find myself doing overtime on things I don't particularly care about, in which case I'll probably feel the strain of not enough rest, reflection, or creative randomness. I may also end up finding it easier to focus on work than on relationships, so that's not too good either. In addition, money is flexible, but time is irreplaceable. On the upside, it'll open up more opportunities to help at work, it would be good for my career (particularly that utilization target), and it would grow my bank balance (well, after taxes). It's also a good way of making sure that I spend time on things that other people will find valuable.

Overtime compensated by time later on: This depends on the circumstances. I would need to fill out paperwork and coordinate with my team members, which will take effort. On the other hand, if this allows me to move time around so that I can have more chunks of free time, then that can work out well for personal happiness and relationships. If I can put in work when demand is high and take time for myself when demand is low, then my opportunities and career would probably be positively affected. On the other hand, there will probably always be demand, and it's hard to take a break when other people are working hard.

Free overtime: I can skip the paperwork, but that doesn't solve the problem of being more stressed because I give up time spent on rest, reflection, learning, or relationships. It's good for opportunities and career, and has a neutral effect on money.

SUMMARY: My intuition tells me that the no overtime case gets me closest to living my values without too much stress, and even if that might limit my career advancement, it opens so much more of life to me. Overtime for money and overtime for time are pretty much tied, but it'll be a moot point because overtime is going to be phased out for my job category next year. Free overtime is good for the company, but it doesn't help me confront and try to live my values, and it's too easy to get sucked into work.

I'm going to work on the paperwork so that I can get what I'm eligible for and so that I can understand the process. After that, I'll avoid working overtime unless the company really really needs it, and then I'll see if I can either take that as time off (preferably) or as money.

I think it's good to think out loud about things like this. I've learned more about my tradeoffs, and I'd love to hear your insights. If my employer disagrees with the way I currently think, I'd rather hear about it now (and maybe work out a different view?) than later. It doesn't mean that I don't love my work. Again: all this means I love it enough to want to always love it, instead of coming to resent it. I hope that by thinking about my values and decisions, I can make the fit better and better.

So here are a few things that I want to learn more about, why I want to learn more about them, and how I'm currently learning about them. I'd appreciate your suggestions, and I'd love to hear about what you're learning!

Telling stories with words and images

A good story can make a point so much more effectively than charts or data can. I love listening to stories and showing people that they've learned something other people will find useful. I love collecting stories so that I can pick an appropriate story later. I love telling stories in my presentations, blog posts, and conversations, and I want to get better at it.

I want to get better at finding and telling stories because I believe it's a remarkably effective way to understand people's experiences and to communicate.

I practice telling stories with words and images by writing blog posts
and by including stories in my presentations. So far, I'm doing well,
but there's still so much more I can learn. When I grow up, I want to
be Dan Pink.

I want to get better at listening for hints of a story and bringing it out. I think I've read as much as I could about this, so it's really just a matter of getting out there and talking to people.

I want to improve my visual literacy. I often have a hard time thinking of a good image that can illustrate an abstract idea, and an even harder time finding an image that fits. I've used Creative Commons-licensed pictures from Flickr and stock photography from low-cost photo sites, and I've seen how they can make presentations much richer. I want to develop my ability to think of illustrations and either sketch them myself or find good stock photos. In order to improve that, I:

• read books about presentation design and cartooning
• flip through graphic novels and compilations of comic strips
• browse presentations on SlideShare.net
• sketch on my Nintendo DS

I think I just need to expose myself to a whole lot of images so that I can start making associations in my brain. =)

Helping new hires connect with the rest of the organization (and vice versa) through Web 2.0

Yes, that's pretty specific. =) I'm also curious about how individual employees can use social media to grow their networks and provide more value, how communities can use social media to support their activities, and how companies can incorporate social technologies into their strategies, but I'm particularly passionate about helping new hires connect. I think it'll not only make a big difference in employee retention and satisfaction, it'll also help companies get more value from what new hires know and what new hires are learning.

I want to get better at communicating the benefits and needed actions to experienced people. To practice this, I've joined a community that helps colleagues learn about Web 2.0 and use our internal tools effectively.

I want to improve my ability to show new hires the benefits and help them get started. I'm working on some materials for new hires, and I've gotten involved with our local new hire network.

Experience will help me learn a lot, and I'll also get to provide a lot of value along the way. =)

Sharing what I'm learning

I want to get better at figuring things out and sharing what I've learned. I'm practicing this by blogging and by talking to people. I can improve this in several ways:

• I can learn about more things
• I can improve my writing skills to help me write faster, clearer, and more effectively
• I can make it easier for you to find other things you might be interested in.

I want to get better at mapping what I know. If you know what I know, then you can make better use of it. I've got too many blog posts for someone to go and read all of them, but a good map of that - and a map of things I've learned but haven't written about yet - can help you find things you might find interesting.

Helping people change

The thing I enjoy about technology evangelism isn't convincing people to change, it's helping people who already want to change. I want to get better at helping people understand their options, figure out how to get started, and learn how to be more effective. I'm practicing by helping people at work and on my blog, and I'm learning more by talking to other people who have a similar urge to help others learn and grow.

Nurturing relationships over a distance

I'm here in Canada because my significant other is here and he can't move to the Philippines with me. My family and my old friends are half a world away. Being split between worlds is the biggest source of pain in my life. It's hard to stay in touch when you don't get to share as many experiences. It's hard to deal with expectations - both mine and other people's. It hurts because I don't want to go for either extreme. I don't want to give up on this wonderful relationship and focus instead on my duty to my family and my country. I don't want to focus only on this relationship and forget my roots.

I need to connect with other young first-generation folks. How do other people manage it?

I'd also like to nurture my old friendships, because I'd gotten to know some really incredible people over there. Some friends are easier to keep in touch with than others–they blog, they chat… Through them, I get to hear about other friends, too. I still need to think about how I can do this better.

I also want to learn how to nurture connections with people around the world - coworkers, acquaintances, people I've gotten to know through blogs… I currently practice that by responding to mail and by reading other people's blogs.

Learning how to nurture relationships over a distance is difficult, but I need to learn.

Being more practical

There are a lot of little things in life that I still need to learn. Driving, sewing, gardening, stuff like that. No substitute for experience - I just have to do it.

—

So those are a few of the things I'm working on learning these days. I'd love to hear your tips. How about you? What are you learning?

It's not about time management or productivity.

I probably work less than most new hires do. I don't work long hours because my evenings and weekends are full of wonderful things to do. (Okay, I do some work in the evenings and on the weekends, but that's because it's fun.) I've also kept a careful rein on the urge to immerse myself in work because I've heard that it can take over one's life. This is not to say that people who live for work have made the wrong choice (we owe so much to people like them!), but I like the balance I have.

I don't think I work significantly smarter than other people do. This is not about tips for handling e-mail faster or to make better use of your downtime. I've read a good number of productivity books and blogs, and I've incorporated many of their suggestions into my habits, but that's really more to minimize frustration than to trim every last minute and streamline my daily routines. Besides, all these things are things other people can do. Whenever I come across something that saves me time, I try to teach it to other people–lifting as I climb. I'm not looking for a competitive advantage. I want to make the path even easier for other people than it was for me.

Besides, it's difficult to compare productivity anyway. Let's take my current project. I can read and figure out PHP code quickly, but it takes me forever to do cascading style sheet designs for websites. Am I faster or slower than my teammate? I don't think it matters. My manager and my team members are happy with my work. I fulfill my end of the deal, and I help other people work more productively as well. I'm happy with my work and how I spend my time, and that's probably the best result.

So if it's not about longer hours or greater productivity, what's the deal, then?

These three things are true about time: you will always have the same amount of time in one day as other people do, there will never be enough time to do everything, and there's plenty of time to do the things that matter. The first point is the answer to "Where do you find the time to do this?" The second point is what stresses lots of people out. The third point is what makes all of that easier to deal with. It's like the difference between a half-empty glass and a half-full glass. If you're stressed out because you feel you don't have enough time, you'll feel even worse and you'll use up more energy when you're doing things. If you're happy that you have the time to do a number of valuable things and maybe even a little more, you'll feel better and you'll bring that energy to your work and your life. So much of happiness is in how you see things.

What matters? For me, my formal responsibilities matter. My team relies on me to do certain kinds of work. I can see the value in what I'm doing, and I know that if I do a good job at what I do, I help other people create even more value doing the work they do. So yes, my work matters.

But my formal responsibilities aren't everything. Even when it comes to work, I feel that it's important for me not to run totally flat out. Some people relish that kind of challenge. Me, I can probably pull it off as a sprint, but not a marathon. I'm not the kind of person you want working 80-hour weeks, schedule packed to the brim. I need gaps of unstructured, potentially "unproductive" time.

Where does that "unproductive" time go? I use that time to reflect, to learn, to reach out, and to share what I'm learning.

I regularly reflect on what I've been doing, how I've been doing it, how I can do it better, and where I want to go. This helps me practice relentless improvement. Reflection is such an important part of the way I work and live that when I don't give myself the time to step back, I feel raw, stretched, frayed. I need that quiet time. I need that space to learn, and I need that space to share.

When I learn, I divide my time between focused skill-building (like the way I'd burn through twenty books on a single topic or focus on a particular programming platform), general scanning (a feed reader makes it easy to stay up to date), and random-walking in search of serendipitous connections. All three types of learning have given me incredible value, not only for myself but also for other people. Focused skill-building gives me the deep knowledge I can use at work and I can share with others. General scanning lets me fish out just the right example from my memory when we're throwing ideas around at a meeting. Random-walking helps me draw connections between different areas.

Reaching out to people lets me find opportunities to learn more and to be of even more help. I'm a little shy about inviting people out for a walk or interrupting their concentration with an instant message, but I feel comfortable commenting on blog entries or e-mailing people about something we've talked about. My blog also helps me reach out. People come across it for all sorts of different reasons, such as a search result, an e-mail signature, or a casual conversation. If they find it useful, they sometimes write to say hi or to ask a question. So even if I'm shy or busy working on something else, my blog is always out there, reaching out to people for me.

My blog is also the primary place where I share what I'm learning. Teaching something helps you learn it more effectively, and you can create lots of value by doing so. I spent at least two days struggling with multi-step form validation in Drupal, and I happily spent fifteen minutes writing about it in the hopes of saving other people time. I try to do the same with the other things I learn. Teaching what I'm learning is a natural fit with my reflections. It helps me learn more effectively. It's a terrific way to reach out. I also give presentations, answer questions through e-mail, coach people over the phone, and talk to people. A lot of that material starts out as a blog post, though, as I try to figure out what I want to say and how to say it.

Teaching–whether it's an informal blog post or a dressed-up presentation–is a fantastic way to keep getting extra value from the time you've already spent learning something. It's like what I tell myself when I make a mistake or when I spend a long time trying to figure something out: "You've already paid the tuition. Now collect the paycheck." If you're the one in that situation, you know that the time you spent is gone. You won't be able to get it back. What you can do, however, is not only to learn the lesson, but to get even more value out of it by sharing it with others. It's like passive income, except it's about creating additional value over and over again. A little investment of time now can save lots of people time in the future, and that has a way of working out for you too.

So that's the long answer to "How do you find the time to do the things you do?" I do this stuff because it matters to me. It looks like it matters to other people too, so maybe I'm on to something here. I hope it works for you too!

The science centre assistant explained that we were going to be blindfolded, and we had to find our way from a random point in the room back to the stairs where we began. Before the blindfolds were put on, we had five minutes to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the room and the different sounds and textures. (No smells to work with, and I certainly wasn't going to taste anything!)

J- and I went first. We were blindfolded and taken somewhere, led around a few times, and sent on our way. Gino accompanied me and W- accompanied J- - not to help, but just to make sure that we didn't bonk our heads on something. When it came to finding our way back, we had to work by ourselves.

I heard the faint tones of a piano keyboard to front-left, and I knew that was the oil-bubble exhibit. (I'd played with it a number of times.) I also knew that the exhibit was close to the center of the room, so walking away from it would get me to some kind of wall. On the way to the wall, I felt the tall plastic poles of the craft center in which I'd once spent an hour or two creating random things using felt and fuzzy pipe cleaners. I knew where I was. Finding the wall was then easy, and I knew which way to go. After that, it was just a matter of tracing the wall (which took me into a little-used maintenance area, apparently) and getting back to the stairs.

As I stepped on the red floor that marked the goal area, the science centre assistant noted my time and said he was blown away. It turned out that the science centre had been running the challenge for five months, and at 4 minutes and 29 seconds, I was just a few seconds behind the first-place record established by a guy who was actually blind and who had done the challenge twice. I laughed and told him that my background in computer science meant that I'd written my share of maze-solving problems. Also, I'd been into assistive technologies in my senior year, so navigating blind didn't scare me–I knew totally awesome people who could do it. =)

I didn't mind navigating without sight, building the map in my head. In fact, I enjoyed listening to the different sounds and figuring out where they were, guessing my location and confirming or adjusting my mental model with each thing I ran across. The experience reminded me of the Tactile Dome in San Francisco's Exploratorium (another wonderful science center!), where I had a lot of fun figuring out what objects were embedded into the walls.

If I were to do it again (which is unlikely as this was the last day of the challenge), I would use just one long cardboard tube instead of trying to navigate with two, as I liked having a free hand to feel the textures and make sure I was on the right track. I would sweep the tube in front of me like the way that blind people use their cane to quickly check their path, and I would walk faster because I could trust it to tell me where the wall was.

That's what it felt like, and I encourage you to give it a try if you encounter this challenge yourself. =) (Maybe your local science centre might find it interesting!)

• Toronto Reference Library
• Royal Ontario Museum
• Active Surplus
• Linux Caffe
• Ontario Science Centre

Gino Ledesma (one of my friends from university) is in Toronto for some training, so I spent the afternoon showing him some of my favorite geek places. =) He was blown away by the size of the Toronto Reference Library (and I showed him Robarts Library, too - no stacks access, though =( ). We enjoyed walking through the Royal Ontario Museum (particularly the Philippine section with, err, basket-like cellphone holders). Guidebooks wouldn't have told him about Active Surplus or the Linux Caffe. =) And I might go with him to the science centre next weekend. (I love the place!) Ah, geeks hanging out…

Technorati Tags: Robarts Library, Royal Ontario Museum, toronto, Toronto Reference Library

Too much time on my hands. I've heard that a lot. People use it as a convenient excuse to dismiss what I'm saying, to not take action, to not think about what they're currently doing and what they can do better. And that's okay–as long as they're being intellectually honest about their excuse.

When I handle this question at my presentations, I usually show that all the activities I talk about can be salami-sliced into things that people are already doing. Spent two hours searching for how to solve a problem? Spend another two or three minutes posting the solution on your blog so that you can remember it and so that you can teach others. Reviewing the previous week and planning the next one? Blog about it as a way of sharing your progress.

People who understand the principle of relentless improvement (kaizen) and are interested in something will almost automatically find those slices. People who want to learn something but who don't know how to get started will find those slice suggestions useful. People who think it's a waste of time will shake their heads and say things like "She has too much time on her hands."

Clay Shirky made an excellent point about spare time and what people choose to do with them. Here's an excerpt from one of his presentations about Wikipedia and cognitive surplus:

[The television producer] heard this story [about Wikipedia] and she shook her head and said, "Where do people find the time?" That was her question. And I just kind of snapped. And I said, "No one who works in TV gets to ask that question. You know where the time comes from. It comes from the cognitive surplus you've been masking for 50 years."

Clay Shirky, Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

Too much spare time on my hands? =) We all have moments when we don't have to do anything. People can spend that time watching television or indulging vices, or people can do something that helps them and helps other people. As long as people are happy with the way they spend their time and the consequences of their choices, then they're fine. But if they use "I don't have the time for that" as an excuse to avoid thinking about how they spend their time, then that's their decision.

It's not about having time. It's about choosing how to spend time. I'm still learning how to do so, and I think I'll always need to learn more and more about the best use of my time. But I'm pretty happy with the way I spend time - there's always more to do, but I'm pretty good at doing good things. When I hear other people say, "She has too much time on her hands", I hear it as less of a statement about me and more of a statement about them.

How about you? How do you feel about time?

We arrived early, so we watched the previous class. The instructor was a lively young woman who coached and cheered the kids through their dance routine. You should have seen the serious looks of concentration on the kids' faces as they tried to remember all the steps. They wanted to do well - and they certainly didn't want to be That Kid Who Forgot The Dance Steps.

After a rather subdued dance routine, the dance teacher called all the students together and asked them to say the steps out loud, just as she'd taught them before. Some of the kids hesitated. The dance teacher explained, "It's not just for you. It helps other people remember the steps, too!" At that, the kids perked up. I guess they realized that other kids faced the same problems they did, and that they could help each other. =)

The kids went into the dance routine with renewed energy. Some kids jumped straight into it, shouting their moves. Others were more tentative, whispering the moves to themselves. Seeing that, the teacher said, "I can't hear you!" By the end of the run, the kids were yelling their moves as they did them, and laughing at each other's antics.

"Great! Now during the performance, we'll whisper it, okay?" said the teacher. Several kids turned to her with worried looks. The teacher reassured everyone that saying it out loud would help them remember. "Pinky promise!" she said. Then–if I saw it right–all the kids clustered around the teacher, pinky-promising one by one.

Other people around us are trying to figure out the steps, too. We can help others while helping ourselves. That's why I like yelling out my steps, sharing what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. Who knows, someone might be going through a similar thing too! =) Sometimes, what we need to boost our confidence is that pinky-promise from someone that things are going to work out all right. I pinky-promise you: things will be wonderful.

In a word, what I am talking about it responsibility. I may not be passionate about my 8-5 job, but I am passionate about being a quality employee and coworker. To buck Gen Y stereotypes, I guess you might say I am passionate about responsibility.

Holly Hoffman, worklovelife.com

That reminded me of this excerpt from a book I read last year:

Rather than quit work and go on a sabbatical to discover some burning career passion, which, by the way, might be just the ticket for some people, I've decided to go all in with my work because, well, it's my work. Seriously. I decided that whatever work I do can be a source of fulfillment and even joy, depending on the extent to which I go all in with it.

It can be a chicken-or-egg question. Should I wait until I find work that I love before I commit to go all in? Or should I go all in so that I will begin to love the work that I've got?

Why would I conceivably not want to be the best I can be at whatever I'm doing? I like the idea that whether I'm sweeping a street, weeding my yard, playing drums in a band, teaching a class, taking photos at a wedding, working as a customer service representative, selling insurance, washing cars, running a company, being a personal fitness trainer, bagging groceries, or writing a book that I take the attitude that I will knock your socks off with how I do what I do. Or maybe it's my own socks that I want to knock off.

Work Like You're Showing Off: The Joy, Jazz, and Kick of Being Better Tomorrow Than You Were Today (p. 72) by Joe Calloway Read more about this book…

Go and knock your own socks off.

I've been focusing on virtual assistants from the Philippines because I want to help out and because I'll have fewer language barriers. (It may be a good opportunity to pick up a dialect, even!) Over 80 virtual assistants and companies have registered on VA4U. The best practice seems to be to go with larger companies that can coordinate different kinds of talent and cover for gaps in staffing, but it's hard to get a sense of size in the list.

And every time I come across someone who confesses to be a computer geek, or someone who has a computer science degree, the teacher inside me feels a pang. I want to give them more interesting work than what most people might give them. Something that matches their strengths and helps them develop the skills they want to have. Yes, I know, I'm technically hiring or contracting with people, but I want to treat them as partners and help them develop anyway.

So I've started asking these potential virtual assistants what kind of work they love to do and what they want to get better at. Maybe we can find something that will work out for everyone. =)

Have you tried having a virtual assistant? How was your experience?

Ever been curious about it? What would you outsource?

Technorati Tags: va, virtual assistant