From the Desk of Caspar
Over the past few weeks, alongside speaking engagements, I’ve been working on many projects. One of those has been around managing my ideas and information. How I, and I suspect many others fall into the same trap is that we’ve not looked at how we manage information and our time since we were taught techniques for doing this at school and university.
For me, in the decades since then, the amount of information we are exposed to has grown exponentially and I have come to see that my internal operating system, my mental software for processing and managing information needs a radical overhaul. The reset button needs to be hit in order to be be fit for purpose to enable me to do my best and most productive work.
I am in the process of drawing together many ideas. It started with David Hieatt sharing his thoughts on how he uses electronic notebook system Evernote and a recommended book, ‘How to Take Smart Notes’ by Sonke Ahrens. It’s led me into David Allens ‘Get Things Done’ world and into the book ‘Visual Thinking’ by Willemein Brand’, into Marie Kondo’s world and her book with Scott Sonenshein. It’s led me to talk to my wife who has spent a life time exploring organisation systems and listening to the intricate way that she uses a variety of paper based systems to feel in control of her life.
Here are some of the things that I have discovered and will continue to discover on my quest to free up brain space so that I can devote what Elon Musk calls more brain cycles to things that matter. It’s interesting that just last week I listened to Elon in conversation with Joe Rogan talking about Neuralink (implanting chips into our heads to improve our cognitive abilities) and how Elon is decluttering his life by selling the vast majority of his possessions. In his words, possessions slow us down - he is in pursuit of better clearer thinking. I’m on a similar quest - I’m not at the same conclusion he is which I would need to understand better, but the concept of freeing up brain space is something I aspire to also.
In reading ‘How to Take Smart Notes’ I see the learning from the ‘Slip Box” and in doing my notes like this, I am implementing the first learning from that. It is this. Our writing is a great way to crystallise our thinking. As we are doing our thinking we should seek to capture it at time as different ideas collide and interact with each other to form new ideas. The single best time to do that is as you learn and discover things.
This has several benefits.
1) You learn something better when you take it and put it into your own words.
2) If the plan is to share the ideas whether in a blog or a book, then by capturing the ideas at the point of creation and organising those ideas into a neat system, then the bulk of the writing work is already done as you have progressed. You’ve already done the work and the writing of it makes it better.
This is why I am writing this now!
What else have I discovered on my journey into ones brain and how to better organise oneself.
One of the biggest drains on our mental resources, our ram, our operating system is having lots of open loops in our minds. The ‘oh i must remember to message Ellis’, ‘I need to change the light bulbs in the garden’ right through to ‘how do I learn how to deal with home schooling’.
These loop all take energy and by engaging in our digital devices, more loops are continuously opened by social media posts, emails, must watch videos and so on. Our brains are left wide open to the world for a continuous tidal wave of information which unless we develop effective ways to deal with them can easily swamp and overwhelm us.
I’ve certainly experienced this and the feeling that I’m permanently reactive to all the things that are thrown at me rather than being pro-active and taking control of what I give permission to enter my world.
Here’s the practical steps that I need to cultivate for myself and I suggest you might want to as well if any of this resonates with you.
a) Given the plethora of information sources and the mental degradation from associated open loops, it is clear that our brains are not the best tool for holding what we need to do.
I like to think of the Harry Potter film where Professor Dumbledore has a pensieve where he places and stores his memories so he can access them when he needs them.
Each of us needs that thing, the pensieve.
I read somewhere that it is like a set of scaffolding around your brain. In the past three weeks I have indulged in detailed and thorough planning of my future world and the things I want to create. I have used my outside studio and all the wall space to structure my thoughts and ideas. I have if you like turned my brain inside out and the walls are a reflection of all the finest thinking that I have done. I have on these walls created a set of scaffolding outside my brain.
Wallspace is great for the big goals and projects that we want to head towards, but there isn’t enough wall space for me to manage all the various minutae and details of everyday life so I need a different system, a different process for this which gives me that same clarity of thought.
This has taken me into the David Allen GTD world and the Sonke Ahrens world to learn more.
The pensieve needs to be a trusted system. A place that you know will work for you. If you don’t believe that, the loops will stay open in your brain and the system will be flawed before it has got off the ground. The trust needs to be developed into both what the system is and crucially how you will interact with it and use it. There are far too many of us who have tried new methods to get organised and they have failed. We need to develop the process and the commitment that take us beyond that failure point so that the system becomes a living ingrained way of doing things.
This is a big commitment, but the prize for getting to the other side of it is sufficiently enticing, that of greater clarity, of greater impact, of greater brain power and creativity that it is worth investing the time, energy and effort into making it happen.
As I write this, I do not know what the best system is for me personally and I will continue to research and learn from the very best before me and around me so that I can stand on their shoulders without the need for me to make many of the mistakes they have made before!
What do I know for certain at this stage?
I know that the best system is not email.
I know that I am curious to see if Evernote is a good system and I testing that.
I know for this to work it needs one and only version of the truth. It has to be one central repository for all the things I need to do.
I know that the review and usage process around whatever system is absolutely critical to the success of it.
I know that each piece of information, each item has to be framed up with the specific action that I need to take around. By doing that I do that piece of thinking at the time of the thought and I make that decision there and then. Making decisions is hard on our brain power as to decide something we have to give up other things, to cut away other choices. Make that decision at the time of thinking when all the variables are in your head and it saves both open loops in your mind and having to engage in the same thought process later on (which is repetition and therefore an unproductive use of your time).
I love the 2 minute rule. Can I reply to this in less than 2 minutes. If you can, then you should as it is overall more time efficient to do this than it is to be put another action item into the system. It reminds of the finance story that each invoice costs around £30 to the organisation in terms of processing time and energy. Things that can be quickly despatched should be quickly handled and despatched.
I like the concept that there are only certain times when you allow new information into your mind. Set times when you check emails, social media, news etc. Process each piece of information and decide then and there what to do with that information.
For me this will be a very big one as I see how easy it has been to get distracted by the feeling of new information, new stimulation flowing into our brains.
I can see that two times a day. In the morning and in the afternoon to open emails and social media and to accept and process a new incoming set of information is a good starting point.
I’ll update more in future blogs and where I’m up to but what is certain I’m already feeling the benefit of being more organised and corralling my thoughts and ideas into more helpful structures.
Tip: It’s always a good time to be absorbing and learning new things and thinking about how we adapt and learn. When was the last time you reset your internal thinking and organisation processes?
Managing your business in uncertain times
I had the pleasure this week of working with a diverse range of brilliant people from Cisco’s CyberSecurity team on how they are managing and handling change and adapting to a set of moving goal posts. Simple ideas that work include:
Getting crystal clear as a team on what’s the #1 priority and working towards that collectively
Being clear on the roles that each person has to play in making that happen (at work and at home)
Being deliberate specific and conscious of the rituals and habits that you are using right now
Playing to your strengths whilst not falling into your weaknesses.
In these strange times, the teams that work best are the ones that stand the best chance of thrive and accelerating through our current situation.
Leadership tip of the week - Managing Your Emotions
In these changing times, one of the most important skill sets I’ve learnt (the hard way) is how to deal with your own emotions. In this interview, I address the question of how to make good decisions when our emotions are all over the place.
Tip: To have emotions is to be human: understanding and successfully using and navigating them is a different matter.
How expeditions are shaping tomorrow’s leaders
Charities are having a tough time right now. One that I’m involved with, The British Exploring Society is finding ways to adapt and change to our current times (more coming on that soon).
Their mission is helping young people become resilient leaders of the future - something that is definitely needed right now. To get some great insights into the impact and work of the amazing charity, read this interview with CEO Honor Wilson-Fletcher MBE sharing stories of how their expeditions develop young people.
https://wearethecity.com/how-expeditions-are-shaping-tomorrows-leaders/
Thought of the Week
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It’s rare to find a speaker whose lessons are equally applicable to both business and family life so having Caspar speak to our sales team was a real treat. His informal and relaxed style belies a seriously determined individual with incredible grit and determination. His amazing story is well told with unerring humility yet the lessons he teaches are simple and practical. So often people come up with complex models for self-improvement that are difficult for us mere mortals to implement, but Caspar has developed a framework that can be utilised quickly and easily. Our team not only found his talk motivational and inspirational but also admired Caspar’s candidness during our question and answer session. If you have a team, and you are interested in improving their performance, then look no further than Caspar Craven.”