geekofweek

This week, as summer starts to fade away and we settle back in from the long holiday weekend, it’s a great time to take stock and make small changes that could result in big improvements in our work and personal lives.

Good news: We’ve been collecting some ideas for you. Every week, we ask our featured Geek of the Week to share a “best tip or trick for managing everyday work and life.” As we say in the questionnaire, “Help us out, we need it!” In that spirit, we’ve assembled some of their best and most practical advice below. We hope it helps. Please share your own tips and tricks in the comments below.

Sharon Magliano Feliciano
Sharon Magliano Feliciano

Sharon Magliano Feliciano, ParentingGeekly founder: “A shared family calendar. If it’s not on the calendar, it’s not happening. My kids, my husband and my sister all know that if they need me somewhere they’d better make sure they’ve put it in the app.”

Ben Gifford, Array Health user experience designer: “Become ruthless with what you care about. Stop doing everything, even the stuff that seems important. As soon as you do, everything becomes very clear.”

unnamed
Carole Tomko

Carole Tomko, Vulcan Productions GM“Lists, lists, and more lists and then a lot of flexibility. I’m particularly good at multi-tasking at work and in my personal life. Prioritize and don’t procrastinate. Delegate and hire great teams. I always trick myself by getting at least three to six easy things done first thing in the morning so I don’t feel like I’m behind already at 9 am. Before I get into the office, I’ve usually tackled a few key assignments. It’s imperative you actually schedule the time to get the projects done that you need, book it on your calendar, set reminders and then just get it done. You can’t lose time on emails or things that aren’t as important. I also firmly believe in healthy eating, exercise and fresh air to keep your brain in top shape. And, go to your kid’s games—you won’t regret it and can always get back on the computer after. But don’t be that parent that is on the phone pacing the field the whole time — no one likes those people.”

Jonathon Loucks

Jonathon Loucks, DropForge Game Developer: “When there’s a lot of work that I need to get done, I listen to the same song on repeat. Hundreds of times. I’m completely reliant on my calendar — if it’s not in the calendar, I’m not going to show up, because I have no idea it’s happening. Otherwise, I’m easy going. Other people are going to do things that I’m not going to understand, so it’s hard to get worked up about it.”

Kimberly Amundson, PATH program officer: “Well, it’s never a perfect science, but I find it so important to do something active before, on the way to, or after work to separate out my day — I often find it faster and a lot more stimulating to bike to work. I also soak up the wise ol’ advice to actually block out time on the calendar to focus on priority tasks — if not, it’s so easy for unnecessary meetings to take up that time.”

Nick Berry
Nick Berry

Nick Berry, Facebook Data Scientist: “Three things: Google Calendar, Dropbox, and Facebook. On any of my devices I drag and drop meetings, notes, files, code, documents, work in progress, and it just synchronizes in the cloud with all the other machines. It’s sufficient advanced technology that it is indistinguishable from magic, and it just works.

Facebook is a great productivity tool (we use it extensively internally to communicate and leverage Facebook group functionality heavily). Facebook is also my ‘virtual-water cooler’ and keeps me socially connected with friends, family and colleagues all over the globe.”

Paul Furio, Founder of Sync Build Run: “I like to keep to-do lists, but I keep them focused with very specific exit criteria, and very specific dates. The Amazonian in me is still very date-driven, so getting a date for every commitment from myself or my contractors, is critical to keeping on schedule. If we don’t know a date, we do the Amazon thing of a “date for a date”, so we always know our next checkpoint. The exit criteria is also important, so we don’t fluff over a commitment. There’s no “good enough.” It’s tough to pick the right criteria to hold ourselves to high standards, but it keeps us honest so that we don’t keep slipping milestones.”

Erez
Erez Benari

Erez Benari, Microsoft: “Other than having the right software, the key is time management, and being able to quickly switch from one thing to the other. Waiting 6 minutes for lunch? Great time to hit eBay or Amazon and clear stuff off my shopping list. Mr. Douch is late for my meeting? Fire up ya’ old browser and pay ya’ bills. Every minute counts!”

Barnabas Kendall, web developer and ordained minister: “Multitasking is an illusion. Some think they can simultaneously talk on the phone and drive with no impairment, and they’re wrong. Similarly, others believe they can deal with things from home at work or vice versa and suffer no impairment, and they too are wrong. Choose where you are going to be and be there until you leave.”

Lesley Baker
Lesley Baker

Lesley Baker, Software Developer:Trello. That’s where I get s**t done. It’s basically a digital sticky note to do list. You create cards (that can be color coded and include checklists) and put them in to different columns. My columns are things to do ‘today’, ‘tomorrow’, ‘two weeks’, ‘next month’, and ‘future’. I can easily drag the cards around or complete them from my phone or computer. It’s simple but very effective.”

Josh Parmenter, iOS Developer: “Play and create. I play with my kids. I play with my wife. We cook together. I play music. I create new music. I create tools to help me create music no one has ever heard before. I perform that music. I perform music others have created. And I try to be part of all those communities.

Nothing balances out everyday work like a group of people that you like to play and create with. And when you work with people that you like play and create with, it is even better. I’m very lucky in this area; at Vectorform I work with a wonderful group of colleagues who accomplish amazing things, especially considering how compact we are as a team. And we also find ways to connect and share what happens to us day in and day out, at work and outside of it.”

karan2
Karan Goel

Karan Goel, UW Computer Science student: “This is what I have recently started doing – I used to wake up at around 7am until a few months ago, but now I wake up at 6 in the morning. Yes, for college students, this is the “holy-shit-it’s-too-early” time, but for me, it’s the time when I am most productive. I have found that waking up early, washing up, and then working on personal projects gives me the most productive hour of the day.

The main point here, however, is to be consistent — sure, if you pulled an all-nighter then you deserve to sleep, otherwise, keep your sleeping schedule consistent throughout the week (that includes weekends). I highly recommend that you try this for yourself and find your perfect time (mine is 6am).”

John Bursett
John Bursett

John Bursett, Senior VP of Underwriting for Delta Dental of Washington: “To find a good work-life balance, it’s important to keep everything in perspective. Find a job you love because you’ll spend 1/3 of your life doing it, but don’t let it stress you out. It’s not worth it. Be sure to focus on the other 2/3 of your life. Take time for yourself and fill it with whatever makes you happy.

Avanade COO Darren Hardman: “I keep a few things top-of-mind as it is easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day. First, make sure you ‘don’t get too busy making a living that you forget to make a life.’ And secondly, from a career perspective I like to stop and assess the direction I am heading regularly; ‘if the road is easy you’re going the wrong way’ is a mantra that keeps me on my toes and pushing for new challenges and experiences. Finally, you have to trust in others. Empowering others grows them, but gives you space to grow as well.”

kentaro
Kentaro Toyama

Kentaro Toyama, Author of ‘Geek Heresy’: “The mobile phone I own is a ratty old Nokia phone from 2004 with only voice and text. It’s the only mobile phone I’ve owned in America. It’s got great battery life — lasts almost a week, if I don’t make many calls — so I don’t have to keep worry about charging it. And, it’s not a smartphone, so I’m not constantly distracted by texts and tweets and e-mails. People don’t expect me to respond right away. I highly recommend it.”

[Related: GeekWire Radio: “Geek Heresy” with former Microsoft researcher Kentaro Toyama]

Jean Paoli
Jean Paoli

Jean Paoli, President of Microsoft Open Technologies: “I need a clear early morning of alone time, 15 minutes of no electronics, with green tea, looking at the beautiful views, trees and water of our amazing Pacific Northwest. Best thinking time. I also do not read emails during my vacations: people needs to leave a voice message on my home phone if there is anything truly urgent that cannot wait a few days: nobody ever called in 25+ years. Dedicated time to travel, to connect with family and friends, helps me gain the perspective necessary to move forward with renewed commitment and energy. I also take notes manually as it helps me digest information. But I discard them afterward (or quickly re-transcribe the gist of ideas) as I rarely re-read them later.”

Michael Gray
Michael Gray

Michael Gray, GlobeSherpa co-founder : “Find the minimal set of tools that help you capture and track what you need to do and then master those tools. An example of this is a favorite task manager. I also find it helpful to remember that work is part of life. I think we can all benefit if we view our work as part of life and life as part of our work.”

Kevin Hall, Snackdish: “Number one, I would say find the routine that works for you and be relentless in following it. For me, I like to wake up early, often 5:00 a.m. That gives me time that is uninterrupted to work. Mornings are also when my mind works best to address big issues. And I always know what I am going to work on and accomplish. During this time, I always listen to music. By 11.00, I like to pivot and eat lunch. I try to get outside if I can for a short walk, or to exercise (weather permitting). Afternoons are for less mentally taxing work, catching up, talking with colleagues, reading or free thinking. By evening, if I have not exercised, I try to get out for a run or short hike. I then like to make a final pivot and spend time with my family, and later after the kiddos are in bed maybe watch some TV, or read a book. During that TV time, I usually quickly review my list of things to do, and update it for the next day.”

Jolene Jang
Jolene Jang

Jolene Jang, ‘Conference Reporter’: “Develop systems, routines and processes. I make Screencast “How To” Videos to help myself and others. If I not sure when I am will access the software again, this will help me remember what to do . Plus if someone else needs help, I can help them easily without impacting my calendar. I also to timebox my tasks and use countdown timers.”

Mona Akmal, Zulily VP of store technology: “Be ruthless about triaging your things-to-do list. Only do what’s important (i.e. not necessarily urgent) and be proactive instead of reacting. Your checklist is there to serve you, not the other way round so if there’s something on the list that has been there for 6 months, get rid of it and set yourself free.” (Note: Akmal was with Microsoft at the time of her Geek of the Week profile, but has since been hired by Zulily.)

zacharycohn
Zachary Cohn

Zachary Cohn, innovation specialist at the U.S. government’s 18F digital initiative. “In a startup, you might feel like you’re always working. You might even feel guilty for not working. The way to managing work/life balance is simple… Just go do what you need to do. And be transparent and encourage open communication about it. If I’m at work and it’s 2:30pm, I feel like garbage, and I can’t stay awake or can’t break the Facebook -> Twitter -> Hacker News -> Facebook cycle… I’m just going to go take a nap for an hour. I can come back at 2pm feeling refreshed and ready to kick butt. Why feel guilty for taking an hour to nap if you’re not feeling productive, especially if that will help you be productive? Alternatively, if I meet a cute girl and want to go out for coffee with her in the early afternoon… go do that.

Because when it comes down to it, you’re not working a 9-5. You’re working a Midnight to Midnight. If that coffee date turns into dinner, then we go see a movie and I end up getting home at 11pm… I’m probably going to hop on email and do a few more hours of work.

If you have a job that’s midnight-to-midnight, you need to take time for yourself. And you need to be okay with that. As a bonus, that time for yourself can be whenever you want. (The old joke: An entrepreneur can set their own hours — they can work any 20 hours of the day they want!)”

[Related: Check out Zac’s public to-do list.]

Heidi Yu
Heidi Yu

Heidi Yu, startup entrepreneur and ‘chic geek’ accessory designer: “Find the best life partner! I just got married recently, back in October. My life has totally changed and I feel so settled. I love my husband so much and he feels the same way. We share all the housework, we go to gym together, buy groceries together, we just share everything, but we are so different. He is a true geek …”

Brad Lovering

Brad Lovering, co-founder at SignalSense, formerly with Splunk and Microsoft: “Honesty. My primary tool for managing complexity in my life is to be honest with the people I interact with. The approach can be painful in the short term, but I find it’s the only sane approach over the long term and I can’t bear to spend brain cycles on guile.”

Dr. Rebecca Gardner, Seattle Children’s Research Institute: “Buying my groceries online.  No one should waste their Sunday afternoon in the checkout line.”

Ramez Naam, science writer and sci-fi novelist: “Start with the end in mind.  Some people manage their writing by saying “I need to get 2000 words written today.”  Others by saying “I will write for X hours.”   Not me.  I start with a plan for the book, break it down into scenes, and I know what scenes need to get written each day.  If the scene takes more words than I thought, so be it. If it takes more hours or fewer hours, so be it.

Ramez Naam

Of course, you can compromise. You have to adjust things at times, because your estimates were off or because you’re changing the structure of what you’re working on. You’re refactoring.

But at the end of the day, the world doesn’t care about how many hours you worked or how many words or lines of code you wrote.  It cares about your ultimate output. It cares about the book you got out or the app you wrote.  All the other stuff – hours in the day, lines of code, which productivity tools you use, whether you use ‘get things done’ or look at each email 10 times – all of that is just tactics. It’s just implementation details.

The high order bit is: Know the single most important thing you need to get done that day, and do it.”

[Editor’s Note: Ramez Naam will be one of the speakers at the upcoming GeekWire Summit, on a panel about the future of science, technology and humanity along with sci-fi writer Nancy Kress, former astronaut Ed Lu, and University of Washington professor Shwetak Patel, moderated by GeekWire columnist Frank Catalano.]

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