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Meet people at raves, not in a bored room.
If you’re attempting a meeting on a Doesday, make some noise. Turn that meeting into a mind blowin’ party.
Here’s the agenda.
- Get the brews in.
- Make notes in Aberton Live.
- Gurn.
- Grin.
- Giggle.
- Keep going till the sun comes up again.
Haven’t got a copy of Aberton Live? Here’s a fully working demo. Go – remix your Doesday.
So Doesday, right we all fucking know what it means right? I mean it says it right there. Do. Does. Day.
No meetings, none..so what the hell am I mean to do all day?!? Because we’re so conditioned to not doing stuff efficiently, that when we try, it’s a fucking challenge. Kind of ironic no?
The idea of telling everyone where to stick it and getting stuff done was something I loved so I’ve tried to do it – and come 2359 on a Monday, I’m usually awake and ready to slay the to-do list.
Rather than a meandering and dull post about something not very interesting, I thought I’d do a list of things that help me do. Because everyone loves a list right? I hope so.
So let’s get this sucka rolling.
1. Night
I don’t really sleep, I just can’t, which is a problem sometimes, but it’s great when I need to get stuff done. Because there’s no-one awake and therefore nothing else to do except crack on. So midnight to 5am is my most productive time by far. It might not seem practical, but when you get things done at blinding speed, all the stuff you need to be awake for…well it’s already done.
2. Twitter
I love Twitter. If people think I’m weird because of it, well they’re right. But I still love Twitter. It’s simple and it cuts out all the crap and let’s you do the most important things of all: listen and talk. Listen to what people are saying, talk to them about what they’re doing, what you’re doing and how you can make you, your work and your life better. Join Twitter. Today. And today’s doesday will be complete. Do it quickly guys, before it becomes a tool for blockhead marketers trying to milk money out of it. Right now it’s so elegant and simple, it’s knowledge exchange, just like back in the day when money was nothing. Twitter rocks.
3. Cans aka Headphones aka Buds aka ‘Phones
I have two awesome pairs of headphones and they help when the whole work at night thing isn’t happening. Or even if it is. They block out the world and let me get it all on. I was stuck at Paddington one time in between job interviews, I stuck these babies in and I swear everything was drowned out. Awesome stuff. (My choice of aural poison is here – check it out).
I gave up caffeine because a) I really don’t like how coffee tastes and b) it takes my ADHD to a new, uncharted and altogether uncomfortable (even for me) level. So my beverage of choice is ice cold H2O. Stick a couple of bottles of the good stuff in the fridge every night and that’s my rocket fuel, it wakes me up and kicks me in the proverbial spot where the sun don’t shine when I’m feeling kinda drowsy. And it’s the main character in a crazy funny movie. So it gets bonus points in my book. Water wins.
5. The Get Fresh Crew aka All of You.
The final and most important piece of my Doesday puzzle is the hardest to get, cause you can’t buy ’em in any stores that I’ve been to – amazing people. By far the best thing about technology and web 3.145566464 or whatever they’re calling it these days is that it lets us to get to new, amazingly intelligent and cool people faster and better than ever before. And the more cogs that are turning, the faster that damn wheel spins – and the better everything is. A year ago I didn’t know anyone out here in blogland, now some of my closest and coolest are *gasp* people I met on the Internet. So it rocks. Always. This is the hardest thing to find, but the most awesome.
That’s how I do, how about y’all?
First Tuesday. Classic Tuesday’s schoolboy error that bought web1.0 its knees. LARGE business meeting’s on a Tuesday. Sheesh.
Unforgiving, they’re back as Second Chance Tuesday. Check out the videos of Ben, Mike and Simon. Watch and learn folks. Watch and Learn.
And tomorrow is our ‘first Tuesday’ (oh yes it is!) of the Doesday effort. It’s not going to be easy to get into the swing, even I have two unmovable chunks in the diary. One is a bump over from a previous day (key point: take Mondays meetings full on, else they could easily be bumped to the following day, especially is looking empty.)
The other is a chemisty meeting, but I’m suspecting it’ll slide into a formal meeting. Crafty. Stealth booking. Meetings on Tuesdays can get framed like that – dressed up as a chat but actually they’re like any other weekday meeting.
Take note of the presentation style in the videos. Perfect for keeping chemistry meetings just that. If you can make a little money on the side, all the better. The meeting turns into doing when you complete a transaction.
It’s really your choice, but don’t let it pull you into bad habits.
Cram ’em in. 15 minuters. 10 minuters. All day long. They wont come after you on Tuesday after all those sessions. More on Monday can give you less on a Tuesday. Get competitive, see how many meetings you and your colleagues can squeeze into a Monday. Eight hour day: 5 x 10min meetings in an hour, giving you 10 mins to freshen up. That’s 40 in a day going flat out. Let call 30 the bench mark. Just do it, brag it and enjoy the Tuesday.
Blackholes suck you in, just like your watercooler. Judge your proximity wisely on a Tuesday. Bring in your own water instead. Or a smoothie. They’re better for you anyway. Or just get some apples, just as good and cheaper, and better for the environment.
Basecamp. Good stuff. Strong advocacy. Good Stuff.
“I worked in the project management software industry for nearly fifteen years and Basecamp is the first product I have seen that is truly project management for everyone. Nice to see someone finally figured it out.”
-Jim Dunnigan, Former Product Manager Microsoft Project
“…it boasts one of the most beautifully simple user interfaces I’ve seen in a web application.” evilmonkey
“Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I love Basecamp. I can’t remember the last time I loved an application right out of the box. I can’t wait to have clients test it further.” Diana Montalion Dupuis
Gushing Tuesdaiians. Not so Good.
Basecamp does not let you set up recurring meetings, so be careful about getting pulled into a Tuesday meeting request through the seduction that is Basecamp, the poster app of productivity 2.0.
Microsoft Project does. Yay. So don’t forget to add this to you project plan set up. Nice to see MS support Doesday in such an effective way. Thanks fellas.
Seth’s advising on how to make your regular meeting roadblocks a thing of the past. Something to think about on a Tuesday, in advance of the meetings on Wednesday.
Make sure meeting room lights are off, not only is this helping your firm reduce it’s carbon foot print, it also makes it more obvious to see which rooms are empty all week around. But leave them on on Tuesday. Makes it look like the room are in use, thus cutting down on ad hoc meetings.
Venetian blinds are also useful in cloaking room usage.
I’m thinking Project Rooms.
Playing the long game is going to help with up holding the Doesday Manifesto. Eliminate some of the least used rooms.
Ask if anyone else can smell gas in specific rooms. Not only does this help bond with your colleagues, collaborative sniffing is so primal, so oxygenating, which can help get everyone revved up and keen to get out of the meeting in question.
Ask if anyone has seen the gas engineer in the east wing meeting room (the large meeting room), especially towards the end of the week.
“You know, I think I did.”
Job done.
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