Category: Getting Stuff Done

Matt Griffin on Working with Email

“And when you’ve finished that batch of email responses and are ready to return to your work? Close that email client, friend! Don’t open it back up until you’re ready to dedicate your attention to it again. Otherwise, it’s just a distraction. I find it useful to set times for checking my email throughout the day, for instance 10 a.m., 1:30 p.m., and 4 p.m.”

http://alistapart.com/column/my-life-with-email

Some good tips here. Email is one of those deceptively simple things that everyone misuses.

Creating Serendipity with Collision Hours

“Whether in person, or online, the idea of collisions and creating collisionable hours throughout the day, month or year is a powerful concept and one that I’m trying to embody more and more.

When I look back on my career there are a series of key collisions that have opened door to entrepreneurial opportunities and future investments. I’e always seen them as such, but didn’t have a term that captured what they meant to me and how to quantify them until I was sitting in that ballroom listening to Tony that day.”

http://bryce.vc/post/81685761115/collision-hours

Some of my best conversations have been in the times where I’ve bumped into someone (at work, at the store, at the park, etc.) and just chatted a bit about life and work.

The referenced slide deck from Tony Hsieh is worth a read.

Letter to a Junior Designer from A List Apart

“You’re damn talented. But in your eagerness to prove it, you sometimes rush toward a solution. You pluck an idea from the branch and throw it onto the plate before it has time to ripen. Don’t mistake speed for precocity: the world doesn’t need wrong answers in record time.”

http://alistapart.com/column/letter-to-a-junior-designer

Some good advice for younger folks regardless of profession.

Matt Mullenweg on holding “Auditions”

“…every final candidate to work with us for three to eight weeks on a contract basis. Candidates do real tasks alongside the people they would actually be working with if they had the job…The goal is not to have them finish a product or do a set amount of work; it’s to allow us to quickly and efficiently assess whether this would be a mutually beneficial relationship. They can size up Automattic while we evaluate them.“

http://hbr.org/2014/04/the-ceo-of-automattic-on-holding-auditions-to-build-a-strong-team/ar/pr

Automattic seems like a cool place to work.