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Hack Your Life Project | Take a break

by Fabrice Calando on February 13, 2012

The weekends and evenings challenge was about shutting down my mobile phone and taking control of my digital communications. Mobile phones get you addicted to “more”:

  • More emails
  • More Facebook messages
  • More Tweets
  • Just more…

You unlock your phone to see if your friend’s sent you an email, you start reading a couple other messages, you tap a link to a blog post, share it on Twitter and start conversing with others there. See how a 5 minute task just took 30? Yes, computers offer the same challenge, but phones are that much more addictive.

Although I did miss a few important calls/messages because of the challenge, I found the whole process quite liberating. It was hard at times, but I found more time for what’s important. And as a business person, what really stood out is just how much the world has changed. Consumers really have all the information in the world at the tip of their hands and businesses are barely playing catch-up.

Martin Gauthier has been participating in the #HYLP, but he’s been trying to keep the challenges alive even after the week is over. Like him, this is a challenge I’ll take on regularly. Not every week, but regularly.

How did you find this challenge?

#HYLP Challenge #7: Take a break

Still along the lines of disconnecting and taking a step back, this week I’ll set time aside for myself. In early January, I shut down the electronics an hour before going to bed, last week I locked up my mobile phone on evenings and weekends. This week I’ll set aside some time each day just to think and reflect.

Why?

The goal here is to spend time with my thoughts. No electronics, no people, no books, no magazines; just me. As I mentioned back in early January, I watched an interview with Tom Ford. Everyday he makes some time for himself to think. He thinks about what he has to do, priorities, new ideas and concepts and sometimes…he just thinks of nothing. Challenge #2 was taking a step closer to this, this challenge IS this.

And one of the best parts is, like the happyness challenge, it’s easy to incorporate in your daily life, long after the week will be over. You see, you don’t need to spend a lot of time each day: take the time when you have it. 15 minutes here or an hour there. As long as you’re completely alone with your thoughts.

This week I’ll be taking a break from everything, but I’ll be gaining a world of insight.

Past challenges

If you’re new here, on the first week of January I started the Hack Your Life Project. Each week I challenge myself to explore the details of the programmable system that is my life and stretch its capabilities, as opposed to most of us, who only prefer to learn the minimum necessary. I no longer want to breeze through my life, but take control of it.
These are the past challenges:

  1. Hack your life | Get rid of excess clothing
  2. #HYLP Challenge #2 | Turn off the electronics
  3. Hack Your Life Project | Hello stranger
  4. And then…everything changes | The happyness metric
  5. Hack Your Life Project | Do
  6. Hack Your Life Project | Weekends and evenings

In case you were wondering, there’s not picture with this post because I use my phone to take them. No phone, no picture.

Related Posts:

Tagged as: #hylp, alone, blog post, challenge, computers, control, digital communications, electronics, email, excess, Facebook, hack your life project, happyness challenge, insight, liberating, Life, martin gauthier, mobile phones, more, programmable system, shut down, spend time, take a break, think of nothing, thoughts, time to reflect, tom ford, Twitter, weekends and evenings

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Hack Your Life Project | Weekends and evenings

by Fabrice Calando on February 6, 2012

Hack Your Life Project | Weekends and evenings

As the week winds down, I find myself having learnt quite a bit. I’ve learnt how to organize my “to do” lists — important stuff gets done now and the rest gets scheduled out in order of priority. Here’s what you want to remember:

  1. Specify the exact time when you’ll do the task. You know you’ll be at work from 9 to 5, you should know when you’ll do the rest.
  2. Don’t let the “to do” get in the way of the important stuff. “To do” lists tend to be filled with mundane or long-lasting tasks. By scheduling when you’ll do them, you actually free-up time for the good stuff like writing, selling, marketing, growing, testing, trying, etc.

Keep up the good work!

#HYLP Challenge #6: Turn off your mobile phone

The second challenge of the #HYLP was about turning off the electronics an hour before going to bed. The goal was to take notice of just how much electronics are part of our lives as well as find more time. Tuning out helps to focus and rethink. This week, I’ll be shutting my mobile phones in at home in the evening and all weekend.

Why?

To put it simply, I’m always using my phone. Challenge #2 was really about taking notice, this challenge is about taking control. Mobiles make access to everything way too easy. Sure you can access Facebook, Twitter and email on your computer, but somehow all the notices that pop-up on your phone and the general easiness of a mobile make them way more addictive. In other words, computer offer more control and allow for better work.

I’ll be cutting down on the use of my mobile so that I can focus a little more on the important things like writing, reading, studying and spending time with my girlfriend.

I’m not trying to get you fired. If you want in on the challenge, but you need your mobile in the evenings or weekends for work, try having time outs once in a while.

This week, I’ll be shutting down the mobile to gain more control.

Past challenges

If you’re new here, on the first week of January I started the Hack Your Life Project. Each week I challenge myself to explore the details of the programmable system that is my life and stretch its capabilities, as opposed to most of us, who only prefer to learn the minimum necessary. I no longer want to breeze through my life, but take control of it.
These are the past challenges:

  1. Hack your life | Get rid of excess clothing
  2. #HYLP Challenge #2 | Turn off the electronics
  3. Hack Your Life Project | Hello stranger
  4. And then…everything changes
  5. Hack Your Life Project | Do

Related Posts:

Tagged as: #hylp, challenge, computer, control, do, electronics, email, excess clothing, Facebook, hack your life project, hacking, important, Mobile, phone, stranger, time, Twitter

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The mobile work force is coming

by Fabrice Calando on August 16, 2011

the mobile workforce is coming

Many companies have already implemented remote work arrangements with their employees. It makes sense, not only does remote working make employees happier and, therefore, more productive. There’s less commuting, less office politics, less stress, less constraints. Obviously it’s not the case for every company and chances are your company doesn’t allow this – corporate culture changes don’t come easy. But one thing is for sure: your company’s employees will be mobile. How can I be so sure?

Change is inevitable

Ask anyone who’s been working for 30+ years what life at the office was like and they’ll probably tell you about a world of typewriters and three-piece suits. Technology completely changed the way they were doing business — for the better in most cases. Typos were easier to correct; secretaries became admin assistants and were able to do more than type and retype the same letter; mail and faxes were replaced by email and now arrive in the palm of your hand. Computers, Microsoft Word and smart phones are a common sight, but all in all, they’re pretty new.

Why would nothing else change?

VPN, email, social networks, smart phones and the cloud pretty much allow you to do the work from anywhere. The office encouraged communication and interactions. But a physical space is no longer needed. Actually, technology has made the office LESS relevant. Constant email and easy conference calls have become burdens that distract us from doing real work. Before we had phone calls, pop-ins and a few meetings, now we have phone calls, pop-ins, meetings, emails, web conferences; in other words, all the distractions. So stepping away from the office is increasingly necessary – employees are able to cut out the old distractions to increase productivity.

Change is normal and this is one evolution. As an HR Director, it’s your responsibility to make your employees happy and productive. Setting them up for remote work is your responsibility. So the question is, do you want to be ahead of the curve or not?

What’s your take on work away from work?

(Photo credit: tiny packages)

Related Posts:

Tagged as: #hrtoday, Change, Cloud, cloud computing, companies, email, happy employees, HR, hr today, mobile workforce, office productivity, productivity, real work, remote working, smart phones, social media, tiny packages, vpn, working from home

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Working from home increases employee happiness

July 22, 2011

The tools we now have at our disposal allow us to work from home just as easily as from the office. Cloud computing, VPN and smart phones allow us to work and communicate like we were sitting next to each other. If you agree that happy employees are productive employees, do you encourage remote working? [...]

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Productivity at the office

June 27, 2011

Last week we spoke about staying productive at work during the summer months so you can benefit from the nice days (which somehow often end up being weekdays) but still stay on top of your game. Today, I wanted to add a couple more tricks that I’ve learned along the way… Book yourself for a [...]

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Surviving the busy summer days

June 23, 2011

Summer months are weird. On the one hand, the motivation to go to the office is at an all time low and on the other it’s often the busiest time of year: People are on vacation, so you have to pick up the slack; other times clients scramble to get things done before they leave; [...]

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What HR can learn from consumers’ sharing habits

May 23, 2011

Recently eMarketer published the report What Marketers Can Learn from Consumers’ Sharing Habits. I think HR can learn from this as well to encourage visitors to their career site to share job openings. Paul Adams, global brand experience manager at Facebook, said that the average person has four different friend or influence groups. Each has [...]

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Intangibles

May 6, 2011

Most of human communication is non-verbal. We’re thrive on subtlety. Email is notorious for being the source of miscommunication: I meant it to be funny, you saw it as arrogant. Yet, as companies we often fail at trying to identify those intangibles that make us unique. There already is a Walmart that works hard at [...]

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Innovation vs. irrelevance

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On February 12 of this year, I attended the TEDxConcordia event. It was great. There were some great talks by Mitch Joel, Tara Hunt, Adele McAlear and Lenny Rachitsky just to name a few. I also really enjoyed chatting with people in between the talks. A conversation that stuck with me was with Ray Hiltz. [...]

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Managing your inbox!

February 2, 2010

Steve Rubel retweeted an article from @smarterware today: Control Your Email Inbox with Three Folders It’s really simple and definitely worth trying out.  Creat three folders: To Do Wait Reference Answer easy and quick emails on the spot and sort the rest. I’ve started this today to test it out.  What method do you use [...]

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