American teachers* are required to stay current with the latest educational trends, practices and theories. In fact, the state has formalized the process by requiring them to earn a certain number of Professional Development Points, or PDPs, per year. My wife is in the process of picking some up which made me think … why aren’t I?
Staying current, sharpening skills, pushing forward professionally … these are things all professionals should do. Unfortunately, most industries don’t have a formal system in place. It’s worse for independents like me; I can progress or stagnate with no one to answer to but myself. With that in mind, I’ve devised a system to identify professional areas of need and make sure they get fed.
I’m going with a college semester model. Right now I’m in my spring semester. What will I study? Well, that was determined by answering this questionnaire.
What do you want to learn?
What is the next step in your career?
What concrete, observable actions can you take to take the next step?
The answer to number one was simple: I want to continue to write about Apple, Inc. The next step is twofold: To improve my current skills and to write for a wider audience. Step three gets to the meat of it.
I’m taking two “courses” per semester. Each course is worth 3 PDPs. The first course is “Writing for Independent Professionals.” The required texts are
Royal is first. During Week 1 (March 1-6), the assignment is to read chapters 1-3 and complete all exercises. During week 2 (March 7-13), the assignment is to read chapters 4-5 and complete all exercises. This continues for 10 weeks until I’ve completed the book and all exercises. At the end, I’ll demonstrate mastery of the course’s lessons in some way (haven’t figured that out yet).
On week 11, I start again with Zinsser. Once that’s over, I’ll again take another “final” followed by a 2-week break. Then my 2nd semester begins.
Future courses will stray from grammar, style, structure, etc. and focus on Apple, writing for the web, networking, etc. I’m looking forward to it and I’ll tell you how it goes. And now … time to hit the books!
*This is probably true of teachers outside of America, but I don’t know.
I used Tags 1.x and liked it. It’s not really an “everything bucket,” but a powerful tool when combined with search. Version 2.0 is a free upgrade for registered users or US$29 for a license.
Gale Sayers is a pro football hall of fame inductee and my go-to source of motivation.
Watch the highlight reel above. He’s got an almost supernatural grace. Time and again he absolutely should have been tackled to the ground, only to run another 40 yards. He disappears into a crowd of players and emerges, sprinting, from the mess. His speed is super-human.
It’s his elegance that stuns me. Gale weaves in and out of defenders and linemen as if his brain is five steps ahead of his body. There’s no time for calculation, he just reacts. It’s incredible. At the 2:04 mark, he actually comes to a full stop behind the line and then runs 60 yards for a touchdown.
It doesn’t matter if you dislike football. There’s a power in watching someone truly excel at something. When I watch this footage of Gale, I want to write better, work harder, attack the day’s to-dos, make my kids feel special. In fact, I watch it several times per week.
You think working from home means watching Star Trek in your underwear? Grab your bat’leth, because those are fighting words.
In the feast-or-famine cycle of self-employment, I’ve recently put on my Fat Guy Pants and pulled up to a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. It’ll last as long as most turkey dinners do, but I’m going gorge myself until it’s over.
Managing it requires paper, pens and a plan. I typically do a weekly review of all my open projects, but tonight the David Allen Angel on my shoulder was pestering me. “Dave,” he said. “You’ve got to get this out of your head. Don’t wait until Sunday. Remember the anxiety dream you had the other night? Who do you think sent that to you?”
He’s right, of course.
David Seah creates amazing files for this very purpose. The Progress Tracker is an awesome project manager. Use one sheet per project, with the associated actions listed below. Track how long each action step takes in 15 minute increments and use the notes section for reference info. I keep each one in a labeled manila envelope.
Now I’ve got each project broken down into small, observable action steps. The most pressing go into my notebook, sorted by importance (the 3 Most Important Tasks of the Day go on top) and context (@computer, @phone, @errands, etc.). Now I can feel I’m in a state of relaxed control even though there are many people waiting for me to fulfill commitments I’ve made (Please don’t stop writing me checks!). There’s a lot to do, and some discipline and organization can make it all happen.
If there’s time to watch TNG (Skin of Evil is the best episode ever. EVER!) while wearing a pair of boxers and my Cooper’s Seafood House T-shirt, I haven’t found it.
(Pay no mind to the fact that I wrote this in running pants and a hoodie).
As an independent worker, I’m learning to be the manager, technician and boss of Dave, Inc. The most important lesson I’ve learned is to never sit down in front of the computer without a list of what must be done.
Approaching the work day without a list of observable, clearly-defined actions creates one of two scenarios. Either you’ll attend to every distraction that pops into your mind and make insignificant progress on many projects or you’ll spend an inordinate amount of time on a project that’s less critical than others.
Every night between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM, I review my projects lists and pick the three mission-critical tasks that MUST be completed on the following day. Then I gather 5-6 other tasks that can wait a day but would be the icing on the cake if completed within 24 hours.
I then take a pen and a notebook and write them down. This simple practice reduces my anxiety tremendously, lets me sleep and gives me direction in the morning. When it’s 12:00 noon and I’ve completed all three critical tasks, I feel fantastic.
In less than 2 months, I will celebrate 1 year of freelancing with the Mac. It’s been the most educational year of my life. I learned about CSS and PHP, taxes and marketing, faith, patience and the power of being positive. I’ve also seen why the freelancing lifestyle is a cyclical return to the past, and how the Mac is the ultimate freelancer’s tool.
Take a moment and come with the to that little house on the prairie. Yes, I’m talking about Ma, Pa and Laura Ingalls Wilder. When Pa wasn’t saving the day (and making modern-day fathers like me feel inadequate), he was making furniture. It wasn’t Pa’s job to make furniture — there was no time clock to punch or office to occupy for 8 hours a day — it was his work. If you needed a chest-of-drawers, you went to see Pa. Got the flu? Call Doc Baker. Need some pestering done on your behalf? That Nellie Olson is always available. None of them had jobs, but they all created work.
The industrial revolution changed all of that. Instead of laboring at his little house, Pa would have found himself in a factory with a clipboard and a typewriter. He would have worked for the same company in the same physical location for the rest of his entire physical life (this is a metaphorical Pa, of course. Even with this awesome Dad Powers, he couldn’t have lived that long). At that point, Pa would have had a job.
That was the process for decades. Go to the office, perform your job and then go home. Now it’s 2009 and the model that my father adhered to — work for the same company for 35 years, get a gold watch and retire — is dead. Technological advances, automation and overseas outsourcing have eliminated the majority of those production jobs. Freelances like me don’t have jobs, we create work. Just like Pa.
In fact, if you look up the word “job” you notice that many of its meanings — a task, something to be done, an assignment — apply to work both as it existed in the Pre-Industrial Age and will exist in the future. Yet the world is still most often used in the sense that it took on during the Industrial Age — a permanent, full-time position with a single employer. For that reason, I suggest swapping “job” with “work.”
“Job” bears roughly the same relation to “work” that “orange” does to “fruit.” If you go to the store with your heart set on oranges and a bad winter has caused a shortage, you’ll end up disappointed. If you go looking for fruit instead, you’re likely to find a variety of ways to satisfy your taste and appetite.
When a worker has a job, s/he knows exactly what must be done in order to secure a paycheck. The chance that she will do anything beyond what’s required is slim. And why should she? She’s paid do perform her job as described and that’s all she’ll do.
Now, if she doesn’t have a job but is creating work, her choices increase tremendously. She knows her skills and what employers want. She’s free and motivated — heck, required — to move beyond what’s expected and consider what would benefit an employer; what would benefit her; what artful and beneficial way she can apply her skills to solve a problem (fruit, anyone?).
I’m happily creating work and thrilled to be doing it with a Mac which, incidentally, has undergone a transformation of its own.
Years ago, Apple’s slogan was “Think Different.” From the Crazy Ones ad to the Jolly Roger at Cupertino, Apple set their machines apart. No, they don’t operate like every other personal computer and that was the point. Many of us loved the branding. Many more did not. Then something happened while Windows conquered the business world.
Apple offered a free and painless way to run Windows on any new Mac. Suddenly, those machines went from being “different” to being “special.” Yes, they can run that mission-critical, Windows-only software, plus all this other cool stuff. In short, there’s nothing this machine can’t do. It’s the sharpest tool in my kit.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to write all about freelancing with the Mac. I’ll cover everything that’s been a part of my experience. I hope you’ll read along and get something out of it.
Today I received my first message from Twimailer and promptly fell in love. It replaces the dull, generic and largely useless notification emails from Twitter with informative alternatives. Now, when I acquire a new follower, I see her avatar, bio, name and location. Plus, her following/followers ratio, 10 most recent tweets and a big old “Follow Back” button. No need to launch a browser to decide if I want to reciprocate.
Sign up for Twimailer and use it. It’s a real improvement.
Below is a gallery of screenshots I took this morning of the Kindle for iPhone application [App Store link]. Buying a book via Mobile Safari sucked, but watching it magically appear without having to sync the iPhone or connect it to anything was nice. The text is easy to read and navigation works as you’d expect, though it lacks the eye candy of Classics and the Iceburg books.
For now, you must purchase books and subscriptions via Mobile Safari or your desktop browser. That’s the speed bump here. As soon as users can buy content from the app itself, it’ll be killer.
