Innovate Learning

Dan Pink's Work on Motivation

Mission Statements Don't Have to be Anywhere Near as Hard as We Make Them

Some terrific advice from Fast Company's Dan Heath about how to approach creating mission statements.

Important lessons from Dan Pink on motivation. Imagine if we all led with his principles in mind?

SCREENCAST: Photo Cube Effect in PowerPoint

My University of California, Irvine Training and Development course is in the middle of a segment on designing effective PowerPoints. A couple of the learners clearly find visual thinking as second nature, so it is fun to imagine what their finished projects are going to look like in our class.

I am so enjoying all the inspiration made possible by www.screenr.com , not to mention how easy it is to build your own screencasts using their web-based tool.

Here's a quick screencast on how to create a photo cube effect in PowerPoint. Amazing.

http://screenr.com/Hnd 

Fascinating video on social learning in the enterprise by the Internet Time Allowance.

Sticking to it in the new year

It is the time of the year when the Jazzercize classes are packed and there's a line for the treadmills. Many of us yearn for new beginnings and a new year gives us an opportunity to consider what changes we want to make in our lives.

As is the case most years, I suspect there will be more elbow room in Jazzercise and the ellipticals will be ready for our feet when we're ready to hop on. It is so easy to have our aspirations translate into a lack of follow through.

Here are a few ideas to help keep your resolutions and achieve your 2010 goals.

Make it measurable

Just saying that you're going to spend more time with your kids or learn a new computer program for work isn't going to cut it. Answer the question of how will you know when you "got there" at the end of the year and you'll be on your way to measuring your goal.

POLL

State it as an affirmative

Part of the way we set goals can be self-defeating. Instead of saying that you're going to stop doing something (e.g. stop eating poorly), it can be very helpful to state the goal in a positive way (e.g. start eating healthy). Affirm yourself and the goal in the way you phrase it and be reminded of why it is so important each time you look at it.

Track it

Speaking of "looking at your goals," you need a way of tracking how you're progressing toward your goal.

In the interest of eating healthy and exercising regularly, I have found a combination of a calendar posted on my wall where I see it every day and an iPhone application as a good means for raising my consciousness surrounding my goal attainment.

I enjoy using technology to help track goals, but you can definitely get a lot of mileage out of a paper-based approach. Check out these great printable paper productivity tools, highlighted by Lifehacker.

Each time I've dedicated myself to tracking what I eat and how I exercise using the free LoseIt! app, I am successful at losing weight. I easily get distracted by the rest of life, however, so this year I'll be using their new feature of having accountability partners in my goal setting. Without sharing the details of my specific weight, I can instead just specify a weight loss goal and share my progress with individuals of my choosing. Those of you with iPhones can't go wrong with LoseIt! as a tracking tool.

For the big picture tracking, I enjoy the Vision Board iPhone app, which allows me to create various categories of goals and include quotes and photos to paint the picture better of my goals.

As it gets down into the details of executing the plans, I still am a huge fan of Remember the Milk. If you're a pro user ($25/year), you can use their iPhone (or Blackberry) app for free, giving you access to your tasks on your mobile device, as well as over the internet. I also love that you can email individual tasks via email, or entire lists over email, which makes it easy to forward emails that come in for future follow up, leaving an empty in box.

Keep it attainable

One of the other reasons we fail to achieve our goals is that we get carried away in terms of setting them. Pick three to five of the most important things you could achieve this year that would make the biggest difference in your life. Build your systems around making sure that these big dreams are fulfilled and if you're able to do even more than that - you'll be that much further ahead.

Give yourself lots of reinforcement around your top goals. Tell people about your goals. Write them down. Post them (and track them) somewhere where you'll regularly be reminded of how you're proceeding toward them. Build relevant reward systems into your goal setting, so help keep yourself motivated toward achievement. For example, don't tell yourself you'll take yourself out to dinner for a week if you achieve your exercise and healthy eating goals, as you'll negate the importance of the goal as well as possibly sabotage your early successes. Instead, consider telling yourself that you'll buy yourself a new workout outfit, or schedule a beach walk with a friend once you hit your first milestone.

RESOURCES:

ARTICLE: Introduction to the middle way of planning

ARTICLE: Making your resolutions stick (Lifehacker)

ARTICLE: Two lists you should focus on every day (Harvard Business Review)

BOOK: Getting things done (David Allen)

ARTICLE: Remember the milk and getting things done (GTD)

BLOG: 43 Folders (productivity)

Let us know in the comments section what else you'll be doing to maximize your potential in 2010 and beyond.

What SNL teaches us about activating learning

My husband, Dave, and I really enjoyed watching Weekend Update this past Thursday. They did this great spoof of Suze Orman, a clip of which is available above. Each time I'm watching The Daily Show, The Cobert Report, and now Weekend Update, I'm looking for opportunities to facilitate learning. 

People are so much more engaged when we first plan in opportunities to do what Dr. Merrill calls 'activating the learning.' In First Principles of Instruction, he asserts that" 

Learning is promoted when learners activate relevant cognitive structures by being directed to recall, describe or demonstrate relevant prior knowledge or experience.

One of the ways to help learners bring their prior knowledge or experience into the learning environment is through the use of humor. Not only does the process help them be able to then formulate new knowledge, but the physiological response to laughter gets the mind ready to do the work of learning new things.

What sources of humor have you found that work to activate the learning process lately?

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An iPhone home screen for maximum personal effectiveness

I've been having some medical adventures (again) lately that has meant some time on bedrest. It seemed the perfect time to think hard about my time management and productivity sytems and to find ways to improve upon what I've been doing. I began by organizing all my iPhone apps, including the home screen.

Principles behind my iPhone home screen set-up

As I rearranged my apps, I made sure to follow the following set of principles:

Contains most often used apps: Since the home screen is the one that is viewed most often, I wanted to make sure that the applications that I use most often, or at least should be paying attention to most often were front and center.

Integrates with a dynamic planning system: I think about planning from the big picture all the way down to the smallest of details, so I needed a good combination of apps that will help me to stay productive and organized.

Groups related applications together: The iPhone interface doesn't have a great method of visually grouping related apps the way the freeware Windows application Fences does. However, I wanted to do the best I could at having applications that were related near each other.

Organizing the home screen by row

Each row of applications has its own mini-system.

Row one: Utilities

The first row contains essential utilities, such as the clock (used most often for the timer and alarm clock), the calculator, Evernote (my online 'brain' for storing all sorts of photos, audio files, documents, and web clippings), and the app store (I love to see what new apps are available and what people are using).

Row two: Researching and tracking

The second row is for researching (safari - on the internet; and Google search - looking on both your iPhone and the internet) and tracking (Lose It! is an exercise and food tracking tool, while attendance tracks your students' attendance in classes, for those of you who teach).

Row three: Planning

The third row is really the powerhouse of my planning system. I start with the VisionBoard where I can think about big picture where I want to be in a specified amount of time, followed by the Gratitude! app where I record things that I am grateful for on a daily basis. Remember the Milk is my much loved to do program (written about previously in more detail). Q-Checklists is for list-making, when you're likely to need the list again in the future. For example, you're going to pack for trips often, so you wouldn't want to put a packing list on Remember the Milk, when having a templated packing list in a re-useable checklist format makes a lot more sense.

Rows four and five: Staying in touch and on time

The last two rows of apps are all about staying in touch and on time. The phone and SMS/texting apps go together, for when I want to get in touch with one or two people. The contacts and Facebook apps are for all my contacts in one place and what they're up to. The calendar app is for what I'm doing, while I can use Calengoo to see my husband's calendar combined with mine via Google Calendar. Tweetie keeps me up to date with what's happening with the people I follow on Twitter, while the email app keeps me connected with all my various email boxes.

Mission accomplished

Ever since I made the switch, I have found that I'm having to scroll off the home page a lot less often. When I do scroll over to another page, all my apps are grouped together on the page for related tasks. For example, when I want to catch up on the news, I go to the page with all my news readers and apps.

What have you done to keep your iPhone apps organized and easily accessible? Let us know in the comments section.

Twitter: Be more efficient with your Tweeting

Katherine Boehret of the WSJ gives an overview of applications that make you more efficient in reading and writing on Twitter.

Prefer to read her story and click to the app links? Let us know in the comments what Twitter apps you're using and how they're helping you save time and improve your experience.