Ideas for thriving in business (as a person) 2010 edition

This presentation is available as a download over at Slideshare. I wanted to publish it here in a slightly different setup because the notes at Slideshare can easily be missed and this presentation is worthless (more or less) without them. Actually, nor can you emded presentations with notes. Hope the dudes at Slideshare will sort that out soon.
Enjoy.

This presentation will hopefully inspire you to have more fun in your work. If you believe that there are elements missing, please do comment or send me an email. I do handle negative and positive comments equally well. So shoot. Other than that, I hope that this is worth 10 minutes (should take less) of you´re time. Thank you for reading.

KILL TIMEBANDITS
Behaviour analysts have proven that open deadlines makes us postpone the matter in question (the lack of immediate reward). Too often, we rush after tasks with (short) deadlines. It gives us a sense of completion. But breakthrough ideas, the difficult tasks, the big new thoughts are usually not commanded by deadlines . So, who have said that you must reply all emails asap. Who have said it´s urgent? Who have said that meetings last an hour? Who didn´t demand a detailed invite to the meeting and replied “I will only attend first half since the second does not include matters within my control or knowledge”. The timebandits will kill all your surplus time if you don´t stop their ambush early on. Read email only every second hour. Skip some meetings. The world will go on, and you will have created time to do more of the subjects on the following slides.

PLAY
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Have kids? Play with them. Or even better, steal their LEGO and make your own unique grown up creations (see mine in a couple of slides). Happy and single? Brave soldier, power up the game console or a little iPhone game. Some girls say it is childish. It´s not. Research show that games are a timeout from the serious world for adults. Our mind let go of worries. In other words, games create room for new ideas in our great braintank. Play is too serious for our mental health to deny ourself the liberty to explore. Or as Matt Thompson (mthomps.com) puts it: Students of play will not only learn to exploit cultural forces, they’ll unlock the cheat codes for the games that underpin everything—language, politics, science, faith, art. They’ll figure out how to approach goals as game designers—how to engineer systems of rules, scores, simulations and wagers that can transform everything from tax preparation to house-cleaning into recreation. They’ll discover how to tap our innate affinity for play to improve education, our communities, and our quality of life.

START A JOURNAL
Yes, it might feel a bit teenage angst girl, but don´t worry. Many great thinkers were excellent at writing journals and that might have been key to their success. Ideas and important thoughts have a tendency to arrive with bad timing. By having a journal (available at hand) you will be able to capture your thougts. Most importantly. Be tedious. Make it a habit. A good one. Once you get the flow, this will release a rush from mind to pen. Think how great you´ll feel when you stop asking yourself what that funny thing you thought of last night were. Look it up in your journal. Write, draw, silly, funny or serious. Doesn´t matter. Just make it a habit. Oh, and make sure the journal have no lines and are pocket sized (at least handy).

DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT
Do you have a hobby? If so explore it further. No hobbies? But like coffee? Try different blends from your local roaster, learn how to taste the distinction between them. Congrats, you are now a certified owner of a hobby. Do your read books? If not, start now. Books fuel your train of thoughts (imagine all the wonderful quotes in your journal). Try mixing between bizbooks and fiction. Biz only makes you a dull boy. Moby Dick can be a better companion for finding inspiration than another sexy spreadsheet book. Point being: You will not become better at your field by focusing all energy on that specific subject.

PLAY THAT FUNKY SYMPHONY
To see the big picture is imperative. Too often we become idiots of our own unique crafts. If we´re not able to play together with experts of other fields we will be out of tune. It is also of great importance to be curios and have an understanding of related (and unrelated) fields. Think of the renaissance man (the polymath). For them science, culture and society as a whole were closely connected. By having a broader view (holistic approach to life if you like) you´ll become better at your own unique “idiot” field of work.

MAKE MISTAKES
The path to mediocricy is built by avoiding risks. Doing acceptable is not a great conversation starter nor funny. Greatness is achieved by learning from mistakes. If you´re scared, start by making small ones (not deliberate but by trying new approaches, stuff etc). It´s fun.
Mistakes can be great for disruptive business. Mistakes can be your killer app. Hard to believe? Google “inventions that happened by mistake” and get some comfort factor on your journey.

THAT SOCIAL WEB
Dear, it can be cold outside. Find your friendly fireplace conversation on the web. By following advise from this presentation you should have more time to explore that social web. And I´m not talking about Facebook (nice but you need more). You will have texts that you can publish, have found confidence in commenting hobbies of likeminded, joined groups on LinkedIn, perhaps played with the thought of making a silly presentation like this (it took me only 6 hours because most material was existing notes and images were mostly from my iPhoto library or my favs on Flickr. Embrace the social web, be open and helpful and you will be rewarded. Oh, and even if you figure out that painting minifigures is “your thing” there are others out there with the same passion.

DO IT NOW
Remember the timebandits? Don´t wait. There are allways a reason for why “the fun stuff” have to wait. Urgent requests, LOL cats, a interesting news story in NYT or something something on TV. Stop. Play, journal, take timeouts, explore, learn, be curious. Now. What´s the point in becoming good at something when you retire, when you can be great at it now. And best of all, make your daily job so much more fulfilling.