Brian Tinkler

I'm blogging over here now...for those few who have me in your aggregators

Brian Tinkler — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 05:52:00 GMT

Hello All (5 of you),

Due to a lot of changes lately in career and association involvement, I've decided to do my blogging over on an MSN Spaces site. I know, I know - real bloggers don't use MSN. That's ok - I don't mind being whatever that makes me. I'll keep this site going for my previous posts (as long as Jeff lets me), but all new posts will be at:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/briantinkler/

The actual RSS feed is:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/briantinkler/feed.rss

I hope to stay in touch with you all. Keep in mind, my blog is mostly about family and friends and Spaces just seems to be easier for them all to stay updated with.

Take care!

Here's What's so Great about our Country and our Lives...

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 07:11:00 GMT

I've been giving some thought lately to all the rhetoric going on around the news and around the world in relation to the United States. No, I'm not going to use this space to go on a long diatraub about what's wrong with everyone. Instead, I'm going to spend this precious space and your precious time talking about what's right. It may be shocking or annoying or whatever to some, but I don't really give a damn.

I recently watched a movie that reminded a part of me what is so great about our country. The movie was referring to a portion of the Declaration of Independence. It specifically, although seriously paraphrased, highlighted what I believe is the most important principle in enabling our country to enjoy so much prosperity for so long. This same principle applies to what each of us does every day and in every thought, word, and action we take. That principle is this...

Those who possess the capability, inherently have the responsibility to enact change.

Wow, seemingly simple thought. Often overlooked thought. If you think of all the ramifications that single thought possesses, you could spend hours staring at that one sentence. It applies to everything. So, to keep this brief, after our Thanksgiving season and now coming upon our winter holiday season (Christmas for me, but celebrate however makes you and your family feel peace), think about that sentence - that thought. What capabilities do you have (were you given) and what does that mean in terms of your responsibility in using them? I know what that means for me and I use this thought every day to drive my words and actions. I'm far, far from perfect, but I know that I'm trying and that is akin to taking the path less traveled in today's world. So, as Robert Frost would say, I happily take the path less traveled and that my friends, has made all the difference.

Peace and love to you and your families this holiday season and God bless you and this great country of ours!

I'm still alive

Brian Tinkler — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 08:45:00 GMT

Hello!

Wow, it has been quite a rush over the past few months since joining Microsoft. I’ve received a lot of e-mails from people asking me how things are going. It’s been great, but I will say that I’ve missed the regular communication I’ve had with many of my friends from the WI .NET Users Group and WI Windows Users Group amongst others.

I’ve learned that time management is the most important skill to master in the world. When you have more than any human can accomplish on your plate, prioritization and time management really makes all the difference. I’m happy to know that my investment of time over the past few years in various programs to learn these skills is paying off. All of my colleagues are facing challenges similar to my own in terms of managing priorities.

I am spending most of my time these days working with partners and the rest of my time working with customers around information worker solutions. Information Worker (IW) is all about all what Microsoft is doing regarding helping people, teams, and organizations to be more productive. If you want a view into what this entails, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/05-19newworldofwork.asp. Here you can watch a fairly recent web cast of a Bill Gates speech on IW and download a very important and informative document about the “New World of Work”.

For those of you who have been asking about my family – thank you. We’re doing great and having fun. You can check out our family pictures at http://spaces.msn.com/members/briantinkler.

Take care!

My Productivity System (for those who have been asking)

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 18:36:00 GMT

My Personal Productivity System – How it Works

I've had a few people ask me questions about how I use all the tools I do in a systematic way. I may sometimes be seen as using too many tools and plugins. One of the initial criticisms I've heard from people is that it takes too long to use all the tools. I disagree. At first, it does take awhile to learn to use a new tool. It also sometimes takes awhile to learn which tool to use for what, since many tools overlap in functionality is seemingly conflicting ways. All that stated, I have personally found a system that works very well for me.

Since the questions I keep getting are how my system works - that's the answer I'm providing here now. Please keep in mind that this is just what works for me, based on my situation and needs. If you're just getting started in a formalized system of personal productivity management, you may want to try my way, but I am confident you'll change things and tweak things for your situation. You are the only one who can determine what helps you get stuff done effectively, efficiently, and with the results you need.

One quick word of caution – this is an extremely long post. However, I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression. Tools alone won’t do anything except complicate your life. You need the principles behind the tools integrated into your life before the tools begin to perform magic. If you automate or speed up the wrong actions, you only end up getting the wrong results faster.

What stuff do I have to deal with?

I am an “information worker“ or “knowledge worker“ and my personal life also consists of information activities. Of these activities, they come from 2 basic sources. The first form comes from me. These are self-initiated activities. They are comprised of values, mission, goals, projects, tasks, etc. that I initiate based upon my own determination. The second form is ALL the stuff that comes from some extrinsic entity. They are comprised of e-mail, voice mails, snail mail, meeting requests, conference calls, personal interactions, etc. Regardless of the source of activity, any personal productivity system that works must be able to manage all of these activities.

Laying the Intrinsic Foundation: Part 1

Values/Mission
Because most of our lives are so busy with the extrinsically generated activities and workflow, I highly encourage everyone to take a couple of days (or more, if needed) to lay the foundation for your intrinsically generated activities before you start using the system to manage extrinsically generated activities. There are many reasons for this, probably one of the greatest being the tendency to focus on the urgent activity requests from outside because they are urgent, rather than those activities that will bring the greatest benefit to you personally. For help in laying this foundation, I highly encourage everyone to read and adopt Stephen Covey's “7 Habits of Highly Effective People“ model. (Yes, I also highly recommend his relatively new book – “The 8^th Habit”). You can read the book or listen to the CD for help in understanding the concepts.

Then, I encourage using FranklinCovey PlanPlus for Outlook 3.0 and utilizing the tools there to define the foundation of your personal productivity system within the tool. With the tool, I outline my values (I define my values in 7 main categories, each with a mission statement). I define my personal mission statement, family mission statement, career mission statement, friendship mission statement, role at my employer mission statement, community mission statement, and spiritual mission statement.) You can see my mission statements for examples here (I have left off my role at my employer mission statement because it includes confidential information).

Goals
Based upon my values and missions in each area, I then create a set of goals. I try to create goals within each mission area. I start with a goal setting process I learned from Jim Rohn, a well-renowned “business philosopher”. Basically, the process says to think of as many goals as you possibly can for anything you could ever dream for yourself. Make sure you have at least 50. The first 5-10 will be easy to come up with, but the value will come from the last 25, because you will dig really deep in your mind to come up with them and they will be surprisingly good. Then, go through your goals and mark 1, 3, 5, 10+ next to each goal. The number is how many years you think it will take for you to reach that goal. Don’t spend too much time on this part; just go with your gut.

Now, I take these goals and enter them in the Goals section of FranklinCovey PlanPlus. I set the date field for the time I specified for the goal completion (1, 3, 5, 10+) and keep the goals sorted by date in ascending order so without scrolling the list, I always see my most near-term goals. I review these goals in my weekly planning process. More on that later, but it’s important to review your goals at least weekly (daily is better if you have the time).

Laying the Intrinsic Foundation: Part 2

I’m separating this part from part 1 for a key reason. Part 1 above (values/mission and goals) should happen first. They are the cornerstone of who you are and who you want to be. Without them, you have no way of knowing if you’re managing yourself productively for any real purpose.

Compass
Based upon my values/mission and my goals, I use a Covey principle called a Compass. Just like the name implies, it provides a guidance of which directions you need to focus on. Again, I highly recommend you read Covey’s book or at least read the excerpts from it that are included in the PlanPlus help files, which give greater depth to this topic than I will here. My Compass defines the roles I play in all areas of my life. I’ve chosen to have my roles align with my mission statements (as identified above) since that helps all of this integrate into accomplishing the most valuable things for me personally. Then, every week (as part of my weekly planning) for each role, I identify the 3-5 most important things I need to do within each role. This helps ensure I’m living a balanced life and accomplishing across all key areas of my life.

Covey discusses this at length in his book and tools, but the compass works on the principle of “big rocks” and “little rocks”. In short, say you have 7 big rocks, 20 little rocks, and a bunch of sand. Your mission is to get them all into a bucket. Now, analogize the big rocks are your roles, the little rocks are your projects, the sand is all your tasks, and the bucket is your time/productivity/life. How can you ensure you optimize your life? Start by putting the big rocks into your bucket, then the little rocks, then the sand. If you do it in any other order, you won’t be able to fit some of your big rocks into the bucket at all. Following this principle has made all the difference in my life and the results that have followed and continue to follow.

Projects
Try to get any preconceived notion of projects out of your head for just a few minutes. Depending on your work, you most assuredly have projects of some sort that you work on. We all play different roles in those types of projects. However, we’re talking here about your personal productivity projects. These are really nothing more than the next logical sub-units of your goals. When you want to accomplish your goals, the best thing to do is to break them down into steps. The first breakdown should be into projects.

I define projects as any multi-step process of tasks that lead to a goal. When determining my projects, I try to think of 3-5 things that if I did them would lead me to achieving my goal.

The Productivity Begins: Operating with the System Part 1

Ok, so here’s probably the response that most people were looking for in their questions. However, I believe the preparatory work must be done similar to how I identified it previously before any of this stuff will help you achieve anything meaningful.

There are probably dozens of tools out there for managing all the things we’re going to be talking about. I use a few that I’ve found work great for me. These, to stress again, are the ones that work for me and how and why I use them. By all means experiment and see what works best for you. Each of these products has numerous competitors. I won’t mention them, because this is already probably the longest blog post in history and I’ve already found I prefer the tools I use and mention here.

I start with a product called MindManager from Mindjet. This is a brainstorming tool that enables me to draw out my life plan. I add my roles at the first hierarchical level, then sub-level contains my goals, then sub-levels of each goal contain my projects. I then further break projects down into tasks – usually just high-level ones at first in MindManager. The product costs about $275 from an online vendor. Don’t buy it direct from them, or it will cost you $350.

I export the MindManager map to Microsoft Project. I find MindManager great for creating a high-level view of things, but not so good at managing task-level items. Nothing is as intuitive and easy to use in creating tasks for projects, assigning and managing resources, reporting, progress tracking, etc. as Microsoft Project. Further, it’s inherent ability to integrate seamlessly into the other tools I use makes it the clear-cut winner in my opinion.

I’ve had people ask me about PlanPlus projects features. This is a great idea from FranklinCovey, but implemented terribly. There is no meaningful way to manage projects in PlanPlus, try as you might. The worst thing in the world is to have all of your projects and related tasks organized in that tool and suddenly have them vanish when you re-prioritize your tasks or any number of things that you will do from time to time. As much as I love PlanPlus (which is quite a bit btw) I recommend NOT using the Projects feature in it.

I use TaskLynx from a company called Critical Path to integrate my Microsoft Project tasks into Outlook tasks. Within Project, I click on the TaskLynx icon and it will synchronize tasks from Project into Outlook. This synchronization is bi-directional, so as you make progress or complete a task in Outlook, the next TaskLynx synchronization will update the Project plan. All the necessary and relevant fields synchronize, so you’ll have task notes, due dates, % complete, etc. all in synch. The tool only synchs tasks that are assigned to you, but it is flexible enough that you can customize how this occurs. This is an absolutely awesome tool and nearly indispensable to me. The main reason being, I do most of my productivity activities within Outlook and the less software and tools I have to interact with, the more time I can spend on those activities. I highly recommend this software.

Once in Outlook, tasks can be difficult to work with. In case you haven’t noticed, by following my system, you are going to have hundreds of tasks. The 3 – level priority system in Outlook is insufficient (imo) to manage this many tasks (even in 2003, but big time in older versions). So, I use the task prioritization structure of PlanPlus to prioritize tasks. PlanPlus allows A1, A2…B1, B2…C1, C2…etc. prioritization. The idea (again going back to Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits process) is to always focus on the highest priority task. Organizing your tasks this way and then following the plan will accomplish this for you.

I use TaskLine from a company called Results Ware, Ltd to schedule my Outlook tasks into my Outlook calendar. While it is possible to work from your prioritized task list without having the tasks scheduled into your calendar, I don’t recommend it. The reason being is that it is sometimes easy to look at a set of 10-15 tasks and think, “no problem, I can do this one later or accept another task from somebody.” When you schedule your tasks into your calendar, you quickly see how much effort it will really take to complete your tasks. TaskLine also adds a tab to your tasks which allow you to track the time you estimate it will take to complete task (which is essential to complete in order to schedule them into your calendar) as well as other additional task metrics.

The Productivity Begins: Operating with the System Part 2

Now that you have the system working, you have to now incorporate all of the extrinsic stuff that flies at you all day, every day. You’ll continue to use (very frequently) the tools I mentioned in part 1 above, but that still doesn’t tell you how to process the information and get it into your system in the first place.

If you’re like me, you get a LOT of e-mail. I’m in the 200-400 a day range now. That’s not bragging, it’s a fact of how my industry and my company work. Much of it is good to know or keep for reference and some of it requires action of some type – whether now or in the future. I also get quite a bit of voice mail. Something has to be done with that as well – with the same considerations as e-mail in terms of processing it into and through the system. For any system to work, it has to be able to manage this effectively so you don’t have to worry about if anything “falls through the cracks”. The peace of mind alone to using this system is well worth the investment of money and time to implementing, learning, and using it.

I use the David Allen Getting Things Done methodology (or at least most of it) when processing information. I highly recommend reading David’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and buying the Outlook plug-in that allows you to implement it into your system. It’s an easy read and one that will change your perspective on your ability to control the activities and information in your life and work. In essence, the information processing methodology he discusses boils down to a simple process. To give you some idea of how powerful this process is, I end every day with ZERO e-mail in my Inbox and ZERO voice mail.

So, in a nutshell…

Whenever a new piece of information comes at you from an extrinsic source (whether e-mail, voice mail, meeting requests, whatever…) determine if it is something that requires action from you and if you are the right person to take the necessary action. If yes, is it something that will take 2 minutes or less? If yes, do it now. If not, is it something that requires a single action or multiple actions? If a single action, then create an Outlook task for it. If a multiple action, create a project plan for it (or as I do, create an Outlook task to create a Project plan for it). If not, is it something that might be valuable as reference later? If yes, store it in a reference sub-folder of your Inbox (I recommended categorizing sub-folders by category within the reference sub-folder as well.) If not, then delete it immediately. If you are not the appropriate person to do it, then I recommend creating the Outlook task and delegating it to the appropriate person (that way you can get status updates and monitor the activity occurring on the task). There is a lot more to David Allen’s process, but that is in a nutshell the part that I utilize daily when processing information.

You might be thinking that is great for e-mail, but what about voice mail? I type my voice mail notes into the PlanPlus daily record. Then, I process them just like I do e-mail as per the process above. This way, all of my voice mail is saved and searchable as well (btw, go get Microsoft’s Desktop Search tool, if you haven’t already. It’s a lifesaver). If an action is required on a voice mail, I make a task for that action (or Project plan) and it becomes part of my system.

Another important note on how I process e-mail, I don’t always approach it chronologically. To do so would negate the whole notion of working on the most important items at any given time rather than just the most urgent at any given time. If I’m out of the office in meetings for any significant period of time or engaged in other activity, I can’t just sit there and monitor my e-mail or voice mail. That means it bunches up and I have to process a lot of it in one block of time. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I recommend blocking calendar time for checking e-mail and processing it. I use a tool called ClearContext Inbox Manager from a company called ClearContext Corporation. This tool examines several parameters (customizable) and re-orders your Inbox by priority. Some of the parameters include Contact Priority (which you define at the contact level), Topic Assignment (can move messages to sub-folders automatically if they’re part of a threaded e-mail discussion), Scoring (based on known addresses, message and thread priority, thread participation by you, and message directness). This tool is a great way to ensure your processing the most important stuff first, which means you can take your most important actions first.

Getting the Most from the System

I believe the best way to get maximum value from this system is to apply some formal planning processes to it. I choose a yearly review, monthly review, weekly review and daily review process. I recommend you start with that if you haven’t done much formal planning in the past, but you’ll want to be flexible enough with yourself to be successful given your unique situations and needs.

You’ll also want to ensure above all else, that you have an integrated system that provides full access to your information regardless of whether you’re on the road, in an airport, at a lunch, at the office, at home, or wherever. This can be accomplished fairly easily as I’ll describe in a moment.

Yearly Review

As the name implies every year I sit down and start the planning process. I usually do this at the traditional “New Year’s Resolution” time because it is a good starting point. I’m usually refreshed from being away from work during the holidays and having spent time with family and friends. The Yearly Review for me, is basically a 2 day process where I evaluate my values/mission, goals (happy to have accomplished last years and adding more for this year), project successes and failures, and my overall satisfaction or lack thereof in getting the most important things in my life done. I take this time to make sure the foundation is set for the coming year in all the ways that I identified (much) earlier in this post.

Monthly Review

At the end of every month, I sit down and evaluate all the same elements as the yearly review, but do it with a 1 month time perspective. What do I want/need to accomplish this month? I spend about 2 hours on this with the result being a list of goals (that I print, yes print) and put in the back of my planner binder (yeah, the paper kind – more on this in a moment.) I also get a feeling of alignment and readiness for the coming month which helps shape future planning.

Weekly Review

No matter which book or system you use, they all recommend a weekly review process of some sort. I’m a huge believer in it as well. I have my entire week planned out before it begins, so I can be focused on executing throughout the week rather than worrying about planning. I spend about 1 hour on this process. In my weekly review, I look over how successful in doing what I set out to last week I was and I prioritize tasks and schedule my calendar for the coming week. I also take this time to create my “un-schedule” as discussed in great detail in the book “The Now Habit: A Strategy for Overcoming Procrastination”. Basically, an un-schedule is the scheduling of all the fun and/or personal items in your calendar. Here, I block out family time, sleep time, commuting time, and extra-curricular activities that are important to me personally. If you use Exchange in your company, you’ll want to be sure to mark all of these as private appointments.

Daily Review

The daily review is a quick (15-20 minutes) look at the tasks and schedule that sits in front of you for the day. I make sure my tasks are prioritized accordingly, I make sure I have driving directions (and copied into my commute appointments in my calendar) for any meetings I have to travel to, I make sure I am familiar with any notes or other background information for meetings that day, etc. It’s a quick look to get your day started on the right foot.

Use a Single, Integrated System

One of the most important aspects of a system for personal productivity is to have only one system. I’m not referring to accessing it in a single way, I’m referring to the system itself being integrated and accessible via different mediums.

For me, I have 3 laptops that I use frequently and every day. Two of them are work machines and 1 is a personal machine. For my system to work, all of my personal and professional activities must be contained and synchronized on all 3 machines. I also have a paper-based planning system (Franklin Covey, of course) that needs to be integrated. I also have a SmartPhone that must be integrated.

While there are several ways to accomplish this integration, I’ll describe the method I use. Fortunately, my company uses Microsoft Exchange Server for our e-mail messaging and calendaring solution. The products I use all work great in this environment, so my 2 work systems are kept synchronized automatically. My home system does not connect to Exchange though. So, I synchronize my SmartPhone (could be a PocketPC also) with one of my work machines. This automatically updates Exchange, which ensures my other work machine is also synchronized. Then, I also synchronize with my home system. This keeps all of my personal and professional tasks, appointments and contacts synchronized across all of my environments. (again, make sure you use the “private” feature for items you don’t want co-workers to see). This effectively provides me a single electronic system.

I mentioned I also use a FranklinCovey paper planner. I feel this is important because it allows quick views into my tasks and calendar regardless of my connectivity or location. I use PlanPlus to print out my “daily pages” each morning (or each night) and put them into my paper planner system. This way, I have an integrated system whether paper-based or electronic access is available.

Ok, well I could go on with how using Microsoft SharePoint in addition to these tools and processes could make all of this information available via the web and across your teams for collaboration, but I think I’ve already exceeded most readers’ attention spans. I simply didn’t want to give anyone the idea that buying a couple of plug-ins was going to make you productive or that reading a book would somehow make you a master of multi-tasking. As in anything worthwhile, a personal productivity system requires the right way of thinking, processing, acting, and managing – with lots of patience and practice. The tools help greatly, but they only can help if you use a system to begin with. Good Luck and I hope this answers most of the questions asked by people!

My Take on the God/Science conversation going on right now

Brian Tinkler — Mon, 15 Aug 2005 05:38:00 GMT

For a scientifically unproven being to gather so much blog time (like here, here, here, here, and here) is truly impressive and amazing. It's 1am and I've got many things going on tomorrow, but I can't resist throwing my 2 cents into the mix. Thanks to Gerry for pointing this out to me first.

There are so many intelligent people on both sides of this discussion. I find it difficult to grasp how far apart ideologies seem to be by some of the posts. It goes to show that diversity of belief systems is very challenging for even the smartest of us all. I take my hat off to all who have made mention of the need to not let beliefs hurt our personal relationships or hinder us from continuing to build new ones while giving and getting more from our existing ones.

That said, I guess I'm missing the whole science negates God point. I am a Christian. I was raised that way, which is tempting for naysayers to develop a case for that being my proclivity for such beliefs. However, I fell away just about as hard as is possible for about 15 years of my life. Then, due to my scientific interest and mindset, I started what I now consider one of the most important research projects of my life. It was not sufficient for me to simply pretend to believe until I hopefully did. I wanted to really believe – whichever way things turned out for me. I launched an investigation into as many belief systems as possible. I did a lot of reading and I asked a lot of people a lot of questions. I found some good intentions and partial truths from many people, with many groups, from many perspectives. It seems whether there is a God or not, truth favors the seekers of it, not those waiting around for wisdom to strike. I won't get all holy on you and quote any scripture, but suffice it to say that a good deal of time is spent in the Bible on how to:

· Get knowledge and wisdom

· Treat one another

· Live a life that contributes to others

· Get the most out of life for yourself and loved ones

· Feel inner peace, even in troubled times

· Set goals and the value of perseverance to achieve them

Now, I make this point because most of the banter I've seen online is related to points of dispute. I can't think of anyone that i care about who is not seeking these 6 things. So, I ask you this: if reading a book *might* help you get those things, wouldn't it be worth the time? You may not agree with the who, what, when, why, and where of the Bible, but I have never known anybody who disagrees with the principles mentioned above that are contained repeatedly within the Bible.

Another important point is that science and religion would both be synchronized on things if we knew enough. The seeming dichotomy comes from our limitations and our human propensity to fill-in-the-blanks when we don't know something. I believe in God and I believe those limitations are part of our planned growth process to be the best "us-s" we can be. That's all God wants. Is that not really all any of us want?

I wrote something on my personal web site several months ago that I would like to share here. It discusses my philosophy about all this. I wanted this post to be commentary on the conversation going on in the community, not so much to share my beliefs. Visiting my personal site page will share my beliefs.

So whether you believe more in God or in science (or both inseparably as I do) - God Bless us all, until he decides it's our time to beam-up!

Screenshots of Windows Vista

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 21:00:00 GMT

I haven’t seen too many screenshots all in one place of Windows Vista until I came across this site. Now, I’m feeling like I want to risk my current laptop environment and put Vista on! Oh well, I’ll try to hold off a bit longer. I don’t know if I’ve got the power to run it in a Virtual PC session, but I may try that first if I can’t wait.

Has anyone else experimented with Vista Beta 1 out there with either good or bad luck?

Atlanta Geek Dinner filled with .NET Energy

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:53:00 GMT

Check out Dave Noderer’s blog post about the recent Atlanta Geek Dinner hosted by Robert Scoble at: http://geekswithblogs.net/dnoderer/archive/2005/07/24/48130.aspx.

It was an awesome time. The best part about it all was seeing all the energy happening in the .NET community. It’s easy to sometimes become numb from your own energy and that of your local .NET community. However, seeing an entirely new crowd (to me) share the same frenzied excitement and sense of anticipation for more great things to come was absolutely awesome.

I also wanted to thank Ken Grisnak of the 5 Seasons brewpub. Dave talks about it more depth in his blog post, but he was an awesome guy to meet and he was a very gracious host for all of us geeks. I highly recommend this place. They have 3 basic rooms that really seem like totally separate restaurants. One (where we spent most of the geek dinner time) was like a traditional brew pub bar. However, they also have a magnificent formal dining area that is very large. Then, to top it off, they have an outdoor beer garden type of place for casual dining and for trying all their custom made brews. Very cool place and great people.

It's official - I'm joining Microsoft!

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 20:43:00 GMT

Well, it’s been an interesting past few weeks to say the least. Nonetheless, I’ve made my decision officially now to join Microsoft. Before I get into any details, I want to take a moment to thank the awesome guys at Serlio Software for the past 16 months of challenges and rewards while working with them.

Serlio Software is a group of first-rate, top notch guys. I have never worked with a more talented bunch in my life. These guys are the best .NET developers and architects I’ve ever worked with. Even more important, they entrusted me to help them grow their business. They were an outstanding company to work for and I wish them continued growth and great success in the future. For anyone looking to work with the best in the business in Wisconsin, look no further than Serlio Software. Special thanks goes out to Matt Terski, the President of Serlio Software, and my boss. He was great to work with and always gave me the room I needed to succeed. I’ll miss them all.

So, now I’m off to the Mothership to test my skills with the largest software company in the world. I will be an Information Worker Partner Technology Specialist (IW-PTS). I have to get used to speaking in acronymsJ. I’ll be working with partners and customers (in WI, IN, and IL) to help businesses be more productive through all the Office System products and the solutions our partners build with those products. I’m extremely excited about the new challenges that lay ahead. I’m officially starting on August 8^th, so I’ll be sure to post more as I learn more and learn what I can and can’t post.

Getting Things Done - Being More Productive...

Brian Tinkler — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 07:49:00 GMT

I came across this recently and recommend this as a background audio program you listen to while doing something productive. J

http://www.kuow.org/theconversation.asp?Archive=07-18

BTW – I’m a huge fan of David Allen’s GTD strategy. He’s interviewed in this audio program. By all means, it’s not exhaustive. If you really want to learn how to be productive beyond all previous measures, I’ll be posting about this soon!

Some wisdom we all need...

Brian Tinkler — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 04:30:00 GMT

"What we ponder and what we think about sets the course of our life. Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish, we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish, we can start a new activity. Any day we wish, we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.

"We can also do nothing. We can pretend rather than perform. And if the idea of having to change ourselves makes us uncomfortable, we can remain as we are. We can choose rest over labor, entertainment over education, delusion over truth, and doubt over confidence. The choices are ours to make. But while we curse the effect, we continue to nourish the cause. As Shakespeare uniquely observed, "The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves." We created our circumstances by our past choices. We have both the ability and the responsibility to make better choices beginning today."

- Jim Rohn

Elaborate methods to stay on top

Brian Tinkler — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 10:26:00 GMT

I’m always interested in how leaders in every industry manage to stay on top. After reading hundreds of books, thousands of magazine articles, countless personal development articles/CDs/etc., I’ve discovered that it isn’t any form of magic. That may seem obvious to most of you, but to me that was a revelation of sorts. How do some people get so far, so fast, so effectively? It used to puzzle me to no end.

Now, I see the method to their madness and it isn’t as complicated as I once thought. It isn’t easy, that’s for sure. Just taking a gander around my own finite communities, I can see many leaders in their fields, organizations, technologies, families, etc. There are literally way too many to link to here. You know who you are and if anyone happens along this post and is curious, just let me know and I’ll connect you to just about anyone you want in any field of expertise, in any industry, in any occupation, in any academic pursuit, in any philosophical or political belief system, etc. The world is filled with experts and I feel so very fortunate to be associated with as many as I am. I am humbled by my social network. Most of all, I am fortunately thankful.

The point is that the world, while being physically much larger than ever before, is actually much smaller in terms of connections. We’re really closer than ever before, in large part due to technology, and in ever-present part to the innate human desire and ability to communicate with each other. More people who share interests (and counter-interests) are connecting than ever before. I personally have hope that this connectedness will foster increased collaboration and innovation. It seems intuitive and I’ve seen it first hand and it works.

So, back to the beginning. Why and how do some get and stay on top? They do it through their commitment, their connections, and their communication with others who can/do/will benefit from interaction with them. Long live the connected age and may we all find the connections we need to elevate ourselves to the highest form of the grandest vision of our best selves!

INETA Growth

Brian Tinkler — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 06:28:00 GMT

Julie Lerman recently pointed out the phenomenal growth INETA has experienced. Check out her stats at: http://www.thedatafarm.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=e2803145-3908-433c-be6b-9e3b9995c644.

She’s definitely played a key role in helping build these numbers, as have about 80 or so other volunteers. Working with INETA is and has been a fantastic experience.

There are many new things on the horizon too, but I can’t speak of them all yet. We’re only getting bigger and better!

Scoble, MSN, and China...

Brian Tinkler — Sun, 19 Jun 2005 09:35:00 GMT

Interesting situation going on with Robert Scoble and the whole China/MSN situation…

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/06/18.html#a10422

I personally think the very notion of freedom in speech is typified in blogging. The fact that MSN is even there opens doors to the freedoms too many of us Americans take for granted. My reply to him was…

You have a unique position in the blog world, Robert. Nobody can truly understand how many influences, pressures, and other inputs you receive on a daily basis. After having met you, I know you write what you believe at the time you write it. You have all the freedom in the world to change your beliefs - and in fact, that is really what this issue is all about. We've all blogged things we would have rather stated other ways, but this transparency into our thoughts at the time of writing is one of the best attributes of blogging there is and why it is such a powerful medium. You're doing a great job in elevating awareness to this form of communication and regardless of what perspective you initiate or recant, your words have power and we're all tuned in. Thanks for your great contributions.

I certainly encourage the rest of you with strong feelings to post your comments – regardless of your position…

Brock is Born!!!!

Brian Tinkler — Sat, 18 Jun 2005 07:37:00 GMT

Wow. It’s hard to find words to describe how awesome of an event this has been. I’m absolutely the luckiest guy on the entire planet!

Awesome wife, awesome daughter, and now…an awesome son! Yee Haa!

So, you might be tempted to think I’m just an exuberant father, but I can prove he’s the most awesome son in the world. Ok, I’m not going to intimidate everyone out there and show you a frontal shot of him (although he’d put most men to shame with that perspective!). However, I’ve got pictures of him and you’ll readily and immediately agree he’s the cutest boy in the world…

Check out the pics on my MSN Spaces blog site (which I only use for pics, btw) at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/briantinkler/.

AWESOME!!!

Or, if you’re in a hurry, you can check out his birth announcement photo on the Hospital website. By all means, please leave your comments. If you say anything nasty, I will hunt you down and kill you – so be forewarned. No CAPTCHA needed – I will simply destroy you.

http://www.stmarysmadison.com/internet/home/stmarymadison.nsf/graphics/nurseryframe.html/$file/nurseryframe.html?open&URLID=3X9W4N8D3O

We’re grooming him to become an NFL Quarterback. Preferably Pittsburgh Steelers, but we’ll be happy if he chooses another team (J). His sister kissed him on his nose about 3 hours after he was born and he threw a touchdown pass (sans football – we haven’t taken it to that level just yet) right into her nose. We’ve got some genetic programming going this direction too. I was a quarterback through high school and his uncle on his mom’s side was a quarterback through college and plays semi-pro still. It’s in his genes, I believe. I’d be just as happy if he turns out to be a pianist, an artist, or any other thing he wants to be (yeah, even a programmer!) – but it’s early enough to daydream!

Oops, I almost forgot…You’ve got to give stats when you announce a new child. So, Brock was 7lbs., 9oz. and 20 inches long at birth. Mom would swear he was 220 lbs and 6’5”, but she has a different perspective on all of this (and rightly so!) He was born at 10:41am on Tuesday, June 14^th – Flag Day. Labor wasn’t too bad (at least for me!) and lasted about 7 hours. We were at St. Mary’s hospital in Madison for the birth and I will say I was incredibly impressed with the Doctors, Nurses, and staff there. We were treated as royalty (which for $10k a night, you should reasonably expect, right?)

More pics and news will certainly follow, but I needed to get something up here!

A bit more on productivity tools - because, oops, I omitted an important tool!

Brian Tinkler — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 07:57:00 GMT

In today’s world of productivity tools, philosophies and practices, I’ve tried just about everything out there. If I haven’t tried it, I’d like to, so let me know what I’m missing. I’ve posted most of the tools I use either here, here, or here.

One thing that still surprises me from time to time is how quickly the blog world works. I’ve been part of the Internet generation since this thing really got moving 10 years ago, but I’m still surprised by its speed of social collaboration and unique communications. A case in point is on the way of course!

Yesterday, I was writing about productivity tools I use and what I considered to be the “essentials”. I listed Franklin Covey’s PlanPlus, David Allen’s GTD, TaskLynx, and Taskline. I mentioned those as the “core” tools because they surround the workflow processes that I find important when processing, prioritizing and acting on information. To my surprise, and it was a pleasant surprise, I received an e-mail from the company who makes another GREAT product I use…ClearContext. They read my post from yesterday and were wondering if I had quit using ClearContext Inbox Manager. They weren’t rude about anything at all, they just figured I wasn’t using it if I didn’t include it in my “essential” tools. To their credit, they wanted to know what they could do better to get me to use it again. I was surprised by this primarily because I am still using ClearContext and I do really like it a lot. I was also surprised that they cared enough to continue reading my blog and took the time to ask me how they could improve. However, that got me to thinking about why I would have left it off my “essentials” list, especially since I use it every day.

The conclusion I came to was that I didn’t notice ClearContext as much as the other tools. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for the makers of this great software. It is good in that users will find it seamless in their activities of organizing and acting on e-mail. Basically, after using this product, you won’t want to work without it. However, it is a bad thing in that you really don’t think about it much after you become dependent on it. Most of the other tools I use have more elaborate user interaction required to make them serve their function. With ClearContext, you quickly get used to clicking on the prioritize buttons and don’t give much thought to what is happening under the covers. It works quickly, efficiently, and without major user initiative.

The fact of the matter is ClearContext is an invaluable tool that I use everyday. It looks like they’re rapidly making improvements to the product as we speak, including most notably workflow features. I’m anxious to see and test-drive the new features, especially seeing how they can add additional value into my productivity habits and make me all the better at the many things I do.