The Piano Inside My Brain

If you are reading this, you may have figured out that I’ve been taking a little posting break since the beginning of the month. While you are relaxing at a BBQ this weekend, consider this…

Before email, postal mail arrived (and still does) only once per day. What if email only arrived four times per day? How would this affect your productivity and your stress level?

(Post your comments below.)

With less than a week before my wife gets back from Los Angeles, I’ve made significant progress on the Home Improvement List of Death. Let’s review what has been done.

• I raised the floor in the room off of our kitchen so that it is at the same level. This involved sealing the concrete, building floor joists and laying the sub floor. Also included adding insulation to some of the exterior walls (which weren’t insulated!) and replacing the drywall. Then the room was also repainted.
• In preparation for painting our entry hallway and other rooms downstairs, I ripped out all of the drywall in the hallway. There had been 2 coats of paint, wallpaper, then more paint, another layer of wallpaper in some parts, and paint over that in other parts. And it was ripping away. And there was a hole from where Danielle kicked the wall. New drywall was a much better choice, and that is now up. In the process, we also put in the wiring for recessed lights (which will come later) and coax for wiring cable TV into the room that will eventually become the family room. And we added a light in the hall closet which is a surprise for my wife.
• I reinforced the shelves in the closet in our bedroom with L-brackets. Thankfully, it was a 15 minute task which mostly involved taking everything off the shelves and then putting everything back on.

So, what hasn’t been done that is still expected by my lovely wife?

• The new drywall in the hallway needs to be spackled and sanded. That will be the job over the next few days.
• The room off of the kitchen (soon to be dining room) needs to have some minor paint touch ups and the new floor installed. Paint touch ups today, floor Monday night.
• I need to assemble our new grill. I’ll do this at the last possible minute before Danielle gets home just for the sport of it.

My Dad deserves some seriously special kudos for giving two of his Saturdays to my insanity. Four hands makes for faster work and better conversation.

Next summer, I think that I will remodel the kitchen and put new flooring in the entire downstairs area. I have to up the ante somehow.

Every summer, my wife and daughters go off to Los Angeles for an extended visit with my in-laws. So while I get some appreciated bachelor time, I’m also left with a list of home improvement projects. Last summer, the list was easy: I finished in the first couple of days.

This summer is the Home Improvement List of Death.

Hopefully not literally.

When you help out a salesperson, does it make you feel dirty?

Most people have a negative view towards sales people. And no one likes to be “sold.”

But everyone likes loves to buy.

So would you go out of your way to actually help out someone in sales?

Would you help the nice family that owns the wonderful Italian restaurant by recommending it to a friend?

Would you help your niece or nephew that just graduated college by passing along their resume to a colleague?

Would you help your co-worker by speaking on their behalf to your boss?

No one feels dirty helping out someone they like and trust. So maybe the job of marketing is to create an environment of trust and friendship.

How deep is your email inbox? Seriously, how deep.

I’ve been there from time to time, but I’ve been proactively working to keep my inbox as close to empty as possible.

If your inbox is over 2000 messages deep, you might need to do something radical.

Perhaps you should declare email bankruptcy. Here is how:

• Step 1: Select all messages in your inbox. (Ctrl+A on a PC or Cmd+A on a Mac)
• Step 2: Delete the selected messages.
• Step 3: Send an apologetic email to your close contacts and ask them to resend anything important.

It is quite refreshing. Don’t worry, people will understand.

Social networks can be strange. Especially Twitter.

Networks like Facebook or LinkedIn require that connections be mutual. That is to say if I want to connect to you, you have to accept and then connect to me. So when I “friend” someone or “connect” it is a two-way street.

Twitter is different. On Twitter, you can follow anyone. (At least anyone that has a public profile.) If you want to follow my “tweets” you simply click the “follow” button and you are set. I’ll receive a notification that you are a new follower, but I don’t have to return the favor.

The results are interesting.

Guy Kawasaki and Merlin Mann both have very interesting Twitter streams: useful and fun. Guy followed me back, Merlin didn’t return the favor. But it doesn’t matter. I still like reading both.

There are people who follow my Twitter stream that I don’t follow back. But if there is an opportunity to have a conversation, I will follow back. I’ve even dug into some other interesting conversations to “meet” new “friends” on Twitter.

I’ve had some fun, interesting, educational, goofball conversations with people from the Twitterverse. And some of these conversations have spawned communication beyond Twitter, both email and phone conversations.

But once the conversation becomes two-way, you realize that there are a lot of very good humans out there.

And this “Not a two-way street” that is Twitter has spawned new friendships and even some new poetry.

Sometimes you just have to take a step back and point out the obvious.

Today was one of those times. I was in the middle of typing out a detailed email message that was going to be longer than five sentences when a blinding flash of the obvious hit me: pick up the phone.

So I did and it worked. I’m glad that I started typing the email, but very glad that I didn’t click send. Starting to type things out allowed me to collect my thoughts around a difficult conversation. When I picked up the phone, I was clear and concise and convincing. And I think the person that I talked to appreciated that.

Many business professionals carry around an iPhone, Blackberry, Treo or other smartphone. So there is the opportunity to talk, text message or email right from the palm of your hand. But it doesn’t take an email ninja to know when to use the right tool, just one simple rule:

Respect the recipient.

If you have something difficult to share with someone, don’t hide behind an email message. Yes, write a letter or create an outline to organize your thoughts at first. Hiding behind the email message will actually make it more difficult for you in the long run. My rule is that if you are having a hard time picking up the phone, you probably really need to pick up the phone.

If you need an answer right away, email is not the best choice. Yes it is true, email is seriously fast, but it also creates email inbox clutter. Most people leave hundreds or thousands of messages in their email, so if you can simply send a quick instant message with your question, you might just get an immediate answer!

Text messages are great for the one-liners that are time sensitive. Examples such as, “Caught in long meeting and running late,” or “Please stop for pizza on the way home,” or “Do not cut the blue wire.” SMS is relatively instant and if for some reason it doesn’t get through, it keeps trying. For the recipient, they get some form of a beep. If needed, responses are typically very short, such as “No prob,” “OK,” or “Too late.”

What are your best suggestions that “respect the recipient” for phone, email, IM and text messages?

For those of you that work in an office, you know that around 3pm you start getting just a bit tired. So what to do? Another cup of coffee or get more rest at night? Nope, take a 20 minute nap.

Mind you, it may be hard for you to convince your boss that a post-lunch siesta will increase productivity. My suggestion is that you point her to this article at Ars Technica and then make her read the entire Sleep Journal to locate the study.

My suggestion is that you get more sleep at night, drink a ridiculous amount of coffee in the morning and then sleep through afternoon meetings.

I always love to see that wine is actually good for you. This study is specifically about longevity. Of course, please drink responsibly.

New Hints Seen That Red Wine May Slow Aging
Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human life span, a new report suggests.

If your cell phone can do this, imagine what it can do to your brain! My suggestion is that you get a bluetooth or wired headset.

Post in the comments if you can repeat the experiment with your phone.