Innovate Learning

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.

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.

Think you're multitasking? Think again.

I used to take such pride in my great ability to multitask. It turns out that what I was doing wasn't really doing two things at once, but rather slowing myself down by quickly switching back and forth between two things.

NPR quotes neuroscientist Earl Miller as he reminds us, "People can't multitask very well, and when they say they can, they're deluding themselves..." We are actually more likely to make mistakes and to slow ourselves down when we attempt multitasking.

Here are a few tricks to stay efficient when you're working to get a lot of stuff done quickly:

1. Close down your email application (unless, of course, email is what needs to be done). Hearing an audible reminder that an email has come in, or seeing the email indicator icon appear can cause us to lose focus on what we're doing. Check your email at scheduled times and you'll actually be better able to hit your project deadlines and get back to people promptly and professionally.

2. Consider scheduling meetings at odd times (not on the hour) and only schedule an hour if the problem you're attempting to solve requires that much time.

3. Each morning, make a list of the three to five most important things that you need to get done that day and block time out to meet those goals. I use an electronic system for my tasks (www.rememberthemilk.com), but in this case, I go old school and write each primary goal on a sticky note. I stick each task on the bottom of my monitor, so I can visually track my progress toward achieving what I set out to do that day. At the end of the day, I then get the reward of checking them off in my electronic to do program and considering what is most important for the following day.

4. Read Crenshaw's The Myth of Multitasking and use his time tracking system to assess and then enhance how you spend your time each day. Alternatively, check out the Emergent Task Tracker, shown on Lifehacker.

Feel overwhelmed already? Pick one of the four recommendations to start with and let us know your other tricks of the trade in the comments section.

Five Tips to Achieving Your 2009 Goals

It is that time of the year: lot of people are setting goals. Many of these individuals will never achieve what they set out to do. Here are five tips to help you attain your 2009 goals:

1. Write it down - you're much more likely to accomplish your goals, if you have them clearly articulated. Post the goals in a location where you'll see them often.

2. Create SMART goals - specific (what is it you're going to accomplish?), measurable (how will you know when you got there?), attainable (be realistic - with a reaching or stretching toward your goal, not an entirely different league - use your strengths, versus trying to change yourself entirely), relevant (a part of your overall character and values - part of the bigger picture) and time-based (break larger goals into pieces and determine when the milestones along the way will be completed)

3. Make room - think about what you won't do (carve out the time to accomplish what you're setting out to do) and designate time to think (some of our greatest leaders have done this with great results)

4. Organize your milestones - Use a system that fits your style and strengths to track your progress toward your goals. I use a varation on the techniques described in
   David Allen's Getting Things Done, along with a web-based, mobile/iPhone-based task management system called Remember the Milk. I also post a calendar on my wall (to suit my visual preference) where I post various stickers when I perform actions that will bring me closer to my goals. Worked out? Post a green (health-related) sticker on for that day. Spent time meditating / praying? Post a purple (spiritual-related) sticker on for that day.

5. Celebrate small successes - Take the time to recognize yourself for intermediate achievements. Just be sure your celebrations don't work against what you're trying to achieve (for example, don't take yourself out for dinner and dessert once you've hit a new weight goal).

What techniques do you use to achieve your goals? Our readers want to hear from you in the comments section.

Top 100 Learning/Productivity Tools

161 learning professionals were surveyed by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies on their top ten tools for learning both “for their own personal learning/productivity and for creating learning solutions for others."

http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html

If 100 is a bit much for you to digest, here’s my top ten for both purposes (personal learning/productivity & creating learning solutions for others), from their list, as well as a few additions of my own:

1. http://del.icio.us social bookmarking tool – keep your favorites with you @ all times, regardless of which computer you’re on. Share with others. FREE.
2. www.rememberthemilk.com absolutely the best way to keep track of your tasks. Simple to use and grows with you as you learn more. My favorite tip is to empty those emails in your in box that require more than a couple of minutes of follow up by forwarding them to your own personal rememberthemilk email address. Works well with the Getting Things Done system, not to mention any of the others I can think of… FREE or go pro for life for $25 and get the incredible iPhone app & more.
3. www.Jott.com turn your voice into text. Set reminders. Add contacts. Integrates flawlessly with RememberTheMilk, among many other online productivity tools. FREE.
4. http://www.mindomo.com/ - online mind map tool. Share with others. Generate multiple file formats (PDF, jpg, png, etc.) Basic account = FREE.
5. www.picnik.com online photo editing application. Add text to photos. Effects. Resize and/or crop to a specific size with just a couple clicks. Save in multiple formats. FREE.
6. www.librarything.com track your personal library and much, much more. It links in with my FaceBook account, too, which I love. FREE for up to 200 books, $25 for life.
7. www.snagit.com the world’s greatest screen capture tool – it doesn’t get much better than this – and yet it keeps getting better all the time. Around $50, if it is your first go at it – download a free trial.
8. www.moodle.org open source (meaning free, written by programmers for the greater good) learning management system (track your eLearning/quizzes/forums/assignments). Since you probably don’t have a Dad with his own web host, you’ll need a good Moodle host. Check out www.moodlerooms.com as an option.
9. www.articulate.com still the easiest way to make SCORM-compliant (trackable) eLearning courses with a beautiful interface. A bit pricey for some (around 1k for the whole suite, which I recommend), but worth it, for what you get.
10. www.typepad.com absolutely an incredible blogging tool. We use it for the blogs mentioned below in my signature and couldn’t be happier. We pay around $150/year for our needs, but there are less expensive options available.

I could go on and on… but that should get you started on improving your learning and/or productivity.

Lost in Translation

I have been experiencing pain related to carpel tunnel syndrome for a few years now. Fortunately, I've learned ways to minimize the pain including outsourcing some aspects of my work building eLearning courses for clients, going to a wonderful massage therapist, and using voice recognition software. The product I use is called Dragon Naturally Speaking and it is just incredible how I can use a headset, talk at my natural speed and inflection, and have the words appear on my screen as I go. All that for the low price of around $80.

Just like us, Dragon Naturally Speaking needs to learn as it goes. It is really smart right out of the box, but the really great part is that it continues to learn as it goes and you can train it by letting it look at stuff on your computer (such as emails and documents that you've written) and by reading out loud to it. I had to teach it how to spell Stachowiak, since our last name is pronounced so differently than it is spelled.

Even though it gets more than 98% of the words correct these days, there are those instances where it gets something completely wrong. One of our editors sent me a gem of a mistake that it made on my last eLearning course.

It typed, "Opera tuna stick."

Translation?

Opportunistic.

I suppose it is a good thing that when it scoured my computer and learned from me, it is still naive enough not to know that word by now. Here are a few questions for today:

• What are we teaching the people around us?
• How do we handle it when others make a mistake?
• What are some ways we can become more efficient at what we do, so there is more time for ongoing learning and work/life balance?

Opera tuna sticks, anyone?

Back-to-School Supplies for Grown Ups

Dave’s Mom and Dad were out for a visit last weekend. Harriet (his Mom) and I went to Target to shop for stuff to pack into the back-to-school backpacks Dave and I are donating to local shelters in the area. It was great fun getting to do something for kids who otherwise wouldn’t have school supplies. We also reminisced about our own experiences preparing for school when we were young.

It tore at my heart strings to think about kids not getting to have a new lunchbox for school, a new binder with all the dividers in it, and a pencil box full of colors and possibility. The back-to-school rituals are unique to each family, but we all seem to have in common the season of preparation and celebration that it was.

Most of us are now done buying lunchboxes and new crayons for school, yet there is still the need for us to consider what we need to begin a season of learning. Whether you’re starting a new certification program, or just getting caught up on the latest leadership books, what are the tools we need for learning?

Coordination Tools

A good place to start is to set some goals and determine the ways you’re going to achieve them. It is time to get organized. There are a number of time management and organization tools on the web that are free and easy to use. These resources can help you organize all of your assignments, whether they are prescribed by a syllabus or you are on a path for self-learning and are disciplined enough to develop a plan.

BackpackIt: this free online software package is perfect for organizing small-scale and large-scale learning endeavors. You can create lists, add photo galleries, store notes, add pages, and attach files.

Remember the Milk: the name says it all. This intuitive and flexible to do list is incredible. I got started with it in about 30 seconds and have been staying organized with all my various roles and responsibilities. It is also a thrill that the program is doubly free – free in terms of the price and free in terms of advertisements.

Collaboration Tools

Learning today is hardly a solitary experience. Instead, we know that the more we collaborate in the learning process, the more we will reap the rewards of collective intelligence. Today’s learning requires ways of sharing ideas and seeing others’ perspectives.

Google Groups: this service offers an easy way to collaborate on multiple levels. Create discussion groups that will email all group members with a single email address, make web pages that relate to your group’s purpose, and share files and resources.

Google Docs and Spreadsheets: use this online office powerhouse to collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. You can create, edit and upload/import word processing documents and spreadsheets and then work on them together. You can even make edits simultaneously.

Connection Tools

Last but not least, the more we can connect with others, the greater our opportunities for learning. We all get busy, so it is critical to have efficient and inexpensive ways to stay connected.

Skype: don’t pay for long distance calls anymore. Stay connected using your internet connection and a simple-yet-powerful program called Skype. Anyone with Skype installed can call around the world for free to another person with Skype installed. If you want to call telephone numbers of people who don’t have Skype, you can do that for a small fee. Pay a little more (around $30 per year) and you can have your own telephone number that dials you up on Skype and you’ll have voicemail and what will seem like a regular phone, except it is much less expensive. You can use your web cam, or stick to strictly voice and text chat.

LinkedIn: this powerful online networking tool helps you stay connected with everyone in your network. Think of it as the software version of the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. You want to learn more about an industry. You find out that your friend Bob knows someone who works in that industry. You make a connection through Bob and acquire a new means for learning. I mostly use the service to stay connected with where my colleagues are working and where their personal journeys have taken them. I also can keep in contact with people who have been in my classes previously.

Whether you’re packing up your backpack for the start of school, or you’re strapping them on your kids, it is time to reflect on our own need for school supplies. Support your own quest for lifelong learning and check out one of these resources.