Posted by Doug on December 19, 2008
Photo: westernhorse
The ability to acquire new skills easily is not a universal trait, but it’s the sort of know-how that is extremely useful to the almost anyone who is self-employed at home–freelancers, consultants, Web or graphic designers, programmers–almost all of us find ourselves needing to learn something new from time to time. (For some of us, it’s nearly every week!) What follows is a set of suggestions for how to go about learning a new skill. You’re probably not going to become an expert quickly, but with some hard work and directed activities, you can that old dog (you) some new tricks.
1. Take small steps.
You may have a lofty goal–”learn PHP,” for example–but if your goal is big and broad like that, you will do well to break it up into a set of smaller steps.
There are two aspects to this suggestion: first, learning a new skill takes time, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t learn it all overnight. For example, you might desire to learn CSS or Rails, or perhaps you want to learn how to use JQuery or do something in Photoshop. Pick a reasonably long time frame as a deadline. It might be two weeks, or a month, or a year, depending on what you’re trying to learn. If you make that timeframe too small, you’ll end up frustrated; if you reach your objective faster, all the better.
Secondly, it’s a good idea to schedule your learning time. That’s not always easy, and the nature of your workload and workflow may be such that you have to take spare time as it comes, but if you schedule some time for learning something new each day or each week, put it in your calendar and treat it as a priority, soon you’ll be on your way to acquiring that new skill.
2. Collect the necessary tools.
If you’re learning a new software application, for example, you obviously need to have that application. If you’re learning a programming language, you may want to find a text editor that has some built-in features for that particular language. If you’re not sure which application you’re going to use, look around for a demo version that will at least give you a feel for how it works.
In the example of learning PHP, you’ll probably want to use something like MAMP, WAMP or LAMP to install Apache, MySQL and PHP locally on your laptop or workstation, so you can experiment and learn in an environment over which you have complete control, and where the consequences of “breaking” something aren’t great.
In your quest to learn a new skill, don’t forget books. I’ll admit that in recent years I’ve bought far fewer books on technology things than I once did, simply because of the preponderance of online technical information. But some of us like having a book that we can take with us and peruse whenever we like. If you’re looking for good books on stuff like Web development and programming, freelancing, starting a home-based business, and such, please check out the Underpants Office Bookstore–we’ve done some of the searching for you in these and other selected areas, and you might find just the right book to help you get moving on learning something new.
3. Take a class.
There are countless options for structured learning–you can probably find a local adult education or continuing education course through a nearby college or university or community college. There are also hundreds (perhaps thousands) of online courses that you can take. For example, if you’re trying to learn PHP programming, a simple Google search will turn up dozens of resources, many of which are free. The same is true for almost any Web development skill, but even if you’re looking for information about something a bit more obscure, such as lutherie (guitar-building), you’re probably going to find some resources online. If you’re reasonably self-motivated, the online option is great.
4. Set yourself some goals.
Without a defined goal, you might flounder for a long time, so take a little time to figure out some reasonable, measurable goals. To continue the PHP learning example, you might find discover the Killer PHP site, where you’ll find a bunch of instructional video screencasts–you could decide that a reasonable goal would be to set aside an hour each day for a month (there are enough of them to do that), and work through all of the examples yourself. You won’t necessarily be a PHP ace when the month is over, but you’ll be a few steps farther down the road. (See item #1 above.)
5. Pick a simple, real-world project to work on.
If you’re learning something like PHP (and by now you might have figured out that learning PHP is on my list of skills I’d like to aquire), you can write simple “Hello, World!” programs until the cows come home, but what will really help you is to pick a project that is interesting to you (and might actually be useful) and work on that. If it’s learning how to build a guitar, get an inexpensive kit and actually build one. It might not be your best work, but you have to start somewhere, and you might as well start with something useful.
I’m hoping to invest some time in 2009 in learning PHP (and a few other Web-development skills), and I’ll try to post along the way to let you know how I’m doing with that. In the meantime, I’d love to hear about your experiences and goals and approaches. Leave a comment and let us know how it’s going! (And if this article has helped you get off dead-center and decide to learn a new skill, I’d appreciate any Diggs or Stumbles!)
Posted by Doug on December 8, 2008
Photo: orinrobertjohn
Most of us, at one time or another, find ourselves in a place like this: our work has piled up, for whatever reason, and there is so much to do that we don’t even know where to start–it’s paralyzing, in a way. This probably happens to some of us more than others, depending on a variety of factors. I’ve had whole days when I got essentially nothing done because I simply couldn’t figure out where to start.
How did I get here?
Whether your work overload is a rare thing or a consistent pattern in your life, it’s helpful to consider how you got into that situation, provided you take steps to keep it from happening again. Sometimes the reasons are entirely beyond your control–a supervisor suddenly assigns you a massive project with an unreasonable deadline; you become seriously ill and unable to work for an extended period of time; your business experiences a rapid, unanticipated growth spurt; your business partner suddenly quits, leaving all of her work in your lap. I suspect, however, that much of the time, the work piles up for reasons that you probably can control: procrastination, disorganization, bad prioritization, and yes, even laziness. Perhaps you just took on too much work–it wouldn’t be the first time someone bit off more than they could chew.
But you probably already know how you got into this mess. The question is, what do you do now? How do you get off dead-center, or push past the paralysis that has settled in on you, making the problem worse all the time?
The answer is the same as the answer to the old proverbial question, “How do you eat a 500-pound banana?” One bite at a time. Here are some suggestions for how to begin chipping away at the mountain:
Assess your situation honestly.
Photo: castironskillet
When a debt counselor works with a client who is drowning in financial obligations, often one of the first steps is to do what the client has been avoiding–make a list of all of the money he owes. Likewise, if you’re drowning under an overwhelming pile of backed-up work, you need to sit down and make a list of everything in the stack. Like the person in debt facing up to what they owe, you may find this to be a daunting, unpleasant task, but it is the only way you can begin to get back in control. List everything, including the big projects, the small projects, and the routine tasks.
Break the big tasks into smaller pieces.
A task like “plan the conference” is too big and broad to be helpful to you. Break every big item on your list into several smaller, more concise tasks. Yes, it will make your list longer, but you’ve got to know what you’re up against, and when you begin prioritizing, you may find that there are some little tasks within those big tasks that might require higher priority than the bigger task as a whole. For example, “plan the conference” is a big task, but “book the conference venue” is a smaller task that has a much higher priority than many of the other bits of the larger task.
Prioritize the list as best you can.
Illustration: doug
Do it in several passes. On your first pass through the list, identify the tasks that are absolutely the most critical, if-I-don’t-get-this-done-I’m-fired sort of things. It isn’t always the case that the highest priority tasks are those that are the most overdue or the oldest deadlines on the list–in fact, some of those tasks probably have become irrelevant, and you should cull those from the list. Set yourself no more than three or four priority categories–every item on the list should be assigned to one of those categories. When everything is divided into those priority lists, prioritize the items within each of those lists.
Delegate what you can.
Granted, for most of those of us who work in home offices, there may not be anyone to whom we can delegate anything. “Delegating” for us might mean outsourcing. As you look through your lists, are there things that you would normally do yourself that would be worth paying someone else to do, under the circumstances?
Begin working the list one task at a time.
Photo: kyshuttergirl
Take a deep breath and tell yourself that today you are going to begin to turn this thing around. Begin with the highest priority item on the highest priority list, and focus on that task as if it were the only thing on your plate. If you let yourself think about the rest of the list, or the other lists, or the size of the workload, pretty soon you’re going to be paralyzed again, or at least so distracted and discouraged that completing the work at hand is going to be much harder.
The difficult thing here is that when the work piles up, your brain will try to remind you that the time you spend working on one task is time that you can’t spend on the others, and that those other tasks are just going to fall further behind. This is absolutely true, but you can’t let yourself focus on that. It is better to get one thing done than to get no things done, and the sooner you get that first item on the list done, the sooner you’ll get to the second item.
Work hard, but be reasonable.
There’s no way around the fact that you’ve got a lot of work to do, and it’s going to be difficult to get caught up–you’re going to have to bust your tail for a while. But with that said, it’s also important to remember that the quality of your work suffers when you’re exhausted, and trying to “binge work” your way through the list will probably end up badly for you. Maybe you will have to work some somewhat longer work days for a while, but if you don’t get enough rest, relaxation, time with your family, or other diversion, you won’t be able to do your best, and you’re likely to end up sick, or going nuts, which doesn’t do anyone any good.
Put up a “breakwater.”
Photo: 22189609@N08
The mouth of a harbor is often protected from the waves of the open sea by constructing a breakwater, a long barrier that helps break up the waves before they can get into the harbor. Your breakwater is whatever measures you can take to stem the tide of incoming tasks for a while, so that the overwhelming pile of work doesn’t just keep growing. Your temptation, as a freelancer, for example, might be to accept any and all incoming jobs, to keep the cash flowing, but unless you’re making a lot of progress on that backed-up mountain of work, is this wise? As hard as it might be for you, until you get things a bit more under control, you might need to tell a potential client that you’re swamped at the moment, but that you want to work with them and will get back to them in a month (or whenever).
Let the machine get it.
Photo: kleinman
Unless your contract with your clients or customers dictates otherwise, you really don’t have to answer the phone every time it rings. You could put a message on your voicemail or answering machine that says something like this: “I’m sorry I can’t take your call right now. However, I should be able to take your call or return your call between three and five this afternoon. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” You can do something similar with your email: instead of checking your email every ten minutes, agree with yourself to check it once or twice a day, at most. These tactics may get you some additional uninterrupted time to get caught up.
Get something done.
If you’ve made your lists and you’re still overwhelmed and can’t get started, find something else to do for a while–do a housecleaning chore, replace a burned-out light bulb, go around the house and test your smoke alarms, clean a toilet, rake some leaves, change the oil in your car, run a few errands–just do something so you can at least tell yourself that you haven’t wasted the day. The fact that you accomplished something may boost your self-esteem a bit, and that may help you get moving.
Clean up your surroundings.
Photo: djbrady
I’ve seen this tip in multiple places, because it seems to work. If your physical work space is as stacked up and cluttered as the pile of work you’re facing, it can be hard to be productive. Whenever I’m beginning to feel like there’s just too much to do, it always helps to clean up my office and make some space on my desk and in the room. I hadn’t thought about it until just now, but perhaps doing the same with your computer desktop might be equally helpful, if you use a computer for your work.
I’ve been in this situation more times than I care to admit, but I have learned that a mountain of work looks scarier from a distance–when you get up close and see what it’s made of, it’s just a big pile of individual things that you know how to do. Figure out where to start, and you’re well on your way to reducing the mountain to something that will fit comfortably in your inbox.
Posted by Doug on November 26, 2008
Photo: w00kie
You have suddenly found yourself without a job. You may have lost your job for reasons that were entirely out of your control. Perhaps the current state of the economy is to blame. Or perhaps the circumstances of your dismissal epitomize the word, “unfair.” Maybe you saw it coming. It might even have been a relief. Or maybe you just screwed up and got your sorry butt fired.
Whatever. It happened, and it mostly sucks. The main question now is, “How am I going to respond to this?” Maybe you’re here, reading Underpants Office because you have realized that you are going to have to figure out how to make a go of it on your own for a while, at least. That’s a step in the right direction. And more than anything, right now you need to take some steps in the right direction.
You must choose how to think about what has happened to you. It is natural to feel hurt or angry if you feel your dismissal was unfair, and it is just as natural to feel ashamed if you were fired because you messed up. You will probably have to go through a season of those kinds of emotions, but if you choose to stay there for long, you won’t do yourself any good.
I’m actually going to suggest that you find some reasons for gratitude in your situation, and not just because it’s Thanksgiving season–it’s actually the wise thing to do, and current research is backing that up.
According to a study conducted in recent years on gratitude and thankfulness, there are several measurable benefits associated with having a grateful attitude:
- General well-being: people who are grateful generally experience more positive emotions, more satisfaction with life, more optimism, and lower levels of both stress and depression. This doesn’t mean they are in denial about the negative things in life, but simply that their outlook is more positive.
- “Pro-sociality”: people who are grateful are generally more inclined to be understanding of others, and are more generous and helpful to other people.
- Spirituality: people who are grateful tend to be more spiritual, tend to recognize the interconnectedness of all life, and feel a responsibility to other people. This could mean that spirituality breeds gratitude, or that gratitude fosters deeper spirituality–either way, there is a correlation. (I believe that all I have is a gift from God, and I begin each day by thanking him for it.)
- Decreased materialism: those who are grateful tend to put less importance in material possessions, and are less likely to judge themselves or others on the basis of what they have. Grateful people tend to be less envious of others and more likely to share what they have with other people.
The study suggests several techniques for developing a daily disposition of gratitude:
- Keep a gratitude journal. Take a few minutes each day to write down what you are grateful for that day (and why), and to think gratefully, on paper, about the good things in your life. Experiments have shown that people who do this tend to exercise more regularly, feel better about their lives in general, and felt more optimistic about the days ahead.
- Make a gratitude list. This is less involved than a journal–just a simple list of things that you are thankful for. Over time the list may become very long, and that’s good. In experiments, people who kept gratitude lists were more likely to make progress toward personal goals than those who didn’t.
- Take time to think gratefully each day. In the study, people who practiced a daily “gratitude intervention” were more alert, more enthusiastic, more determined, more attentive, and more energetic than those who focused on their troubles or were envious of other people.
All of these findings suggest to me that if you’ve lost your job, whatever the reason, you will do well to begin counting your blessings immediately–you’ll be far more likely to make progress toward a new career, you’ll be happier with your life, you’ll be healthier, and you’ll be friendlier and more helpful to others. All of those results will be of value as you work on rebuilding your life and your career.
In case you’re still having trouble getting your mind around this, let me suggest several possible things for which you might be grateful. None of these is meant to ignore the fact that you don’t have a job, or that you’ve just lost your source of income, or that there was pain and/or embarrassment involved in what you’ve been through. But if you’ll take a few minutes to think about these and perhaps find other reasons to be grateful, you’ll find the path to the next stage of your life is a little easier:
- You’ve got some extra time on your hands. If you’re like most people, there are a thousand things that you’ve wanted to do, but couldn’t, because you had to work. Well, some of those things might actually get done now, especially if they don’t involve spending money–things like cleaning the garage, tending to the yard or garden, tinkering with the car, reading, pursuing art in one form or another, listening to music.
- You’ve got some time for your family. When I quit my job almost a year ago, I became a house-husband for a while. My wife was working, and I helped create some margin for her by taking care of many of the household things that she used to do–cleaning, laundry, cooking, taking my son to and from school and work, doing various errands and such. This created some extra time and space for her that she really appreciated, and it didn’t take all of my time–I still had plenty of time to pursue my career aspirations. If you have kids, you may find that you can connect with them now in ways you never could have before.
- You’ve got an opportunity to take better care of yourself. When I quit my job, I weighed well over 300 pounds, from years of sedentary work, way too many fast-food lunches, and little time for exercise or recreation. I started working on my diet and fitness in early May, and now at the end of November, I’ve lost 70 pounds and I feel better, physically, than I have for years. Not eating out is cheaper and healthier, too.
- You’ve got an opportunity to shift gears, so to speak. Unless you really loved the job you just lost, you’ve now got a chance to re-invent yourself and your career. Why not go for it? With online education widely available, there’s a good chance you can retrain and embark on a whole new career path, even while you work another job to pay the bills for a while. There are countless ways to go into business for yourself–freelancing, consulting, you name it. (For some ideas, check out the Underpants Office Bookstore.) You might find that you are willing to trade reduced income for increased flexibility. And you may find that you are more successful doing something you really love than you were at the job you just lost (or left).
Here are a few books that may interest you:
The Psychology of Gratitude (Series in Affective Science)
Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier
Count Your Blessings: 63 Things to Be Grateful for in Everyday Life . . . and How to Appreciate Them
So what are you thankful for?
(As always, if you liked this article, I’d appreciate diggs and stumbles!)
Posted by Doug on November 24, 2008
If you struggle with fear (and who doesn’t, now and then?), you might be interested in a guest post I did over on Zen Habits, called “Five Great Ways to Conquer Your Fears.” Many thanks to Leo for kindly giving me space on his excellent blog. As always, I would appreciate any diggs or Stumbles!
Posted by Doug on September 25, 2008
Photo by Doug
I don’t know how many seminars or workshops I’ve been to that touched on the importance of setting goals for yourself, personally, professionally, or financially. And I have done that, many, many times. But I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I’ve followed the second bit of advice that typically follows the advice to set goals–the advice to revisit and review those goals from time to time.
Setting goals for yourself in any area of life is a great way to focus your efforts and your attention on the things that matter the most to you. Actually revisiting those goals after the passage of time is the way you measure how effective you have been, and it can either be a sobering wake-up call or a huge encouragement. Either way, it’s well worth reminding yourself to do it.
I keep a personal wiki on my computer to organize my Web bookmarks, keep track of projects I’m working on, and to provide a little “sandbox” for me to explore and think through ideas I have. And yes, I also have used it to record and organize goals I have set for myself in several areas of my life. Recently, during a period of time in which I was experiencing a bit of discouragement about a project I was working on, I decided to take a look at some goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the calendar year, and realized that I had achieved, or was close to achieving more than 75% of them, nine months into the year. I was stunned, delighted, and very encouraged.
With that in mind, let me suggest that you:
- Take some time near the end of the calendar year (or fiscal year, or school year, or whatever interval makes the most sense for you) to set down some goals for yourself in the key areas of your life:
- Physical (exercise and fitness, diet, sleep, general health)
- Emotional and relational (marriage or dating, kids, friendships, mental health)
- Professional (professional or career development, projects)
- Mental (reading, continuing education, mastery of skills in a job, trade or hobby)
- Spiritual (fill in your own specifics here–for me it’s the development of my faith in God)
- Keep your goals in a place or in a form that you can get to easily. A document on your computer, a list on your PDA, handwritten on a sheet of paper in your wallet or purse–all that matters is that you can get your hands on those goals easily.
- Mark your calendar (or set your calendar’s alarms) to remind yourself to go read through your goals again at appropriate intervals, say, every three or four months, and certainly before the end of the year, when you will revise your goals and set new ones. Schedule some time for this. When the day comes, DO IT. Make the time. If you can afford it, take a whole day off and get away somewhere for a “personal retreat” to evaluate your progress on this year’s goals, and to set goals for next year. If you can’t take a whole day off or travel, even half a day at a coffee shop, away from your office, is helpful. (Don’t forget to turn off your phone for a while.)
If you find that you’ve accomplished more than you expected, great! This might mean that you need to set your sights a little higher next time, but progress is good, and you should be encouraged by it. If you clearly haven’t done too well in meeting your goals, don’t feel bad about lowering your sights a little bit–goals need to be reachable. But it also may simply be an indication that you’re not staying focused, or that you need to re-order some things in your life. That’s okay, too–we all need to do that from time to time.
The bottom line is that while setting goals is great, and can stimulate you to do bigger and better things, revisiting and evaluating your progress is just as important. Whatever you learn in that process, good or bad, can help you do better in the future.
