White Paper Progress

For the past 16 years I have done the same daily exercise. No, not running on a treadmill :-) -- anyone who really knows me knows that isn't an exercise I would choose. Instead, I take 30 minutes out of each day to sit with nothing more than a blank piece of white paper and a pencil.

I usually do this exercise outside (at least I have since moving to California). I wouldn't recommend this in the dead of winter on the east coast. Whatever the climate around you is, find a place where it is quiet. No TV, no radio, no noise or distractions. Sit quietly with your blank paper and pencil and wait for the ideas, thoughts, random musings to enter your mind...and write them down.

I recommend not using lined paper as it causes the brain to think in a more linear fashion than what this exercise is meant for. Plain, white copy paper from your printer will work perfectly.

Write down any and all things that enter your mind. Sometimes, I wrote down a grocery list, things I haven't done yet but should have done during the day, things that are on my mind for tomorrow or days to come.

By writing down these ideas, these random thoughts, I jog my mind into a vetting emotion. I free myself mentally from all of the cobwebs and at the end of my 30 minute session, I feel free.

I have spend countless hours in my life doing this. At times, I have very little on the paper and there are days when I have covered the front and back of the paper and can barely find room for yet another idea, concept or mark of pencil lead. Its at those times when I realize how valuable this lesson really is.

Its like a blueprint of my mind. I can designed great software architectures by using this method. I have cut out sleeping pills because I have freed my mind from the distractions and I can rest peacefully at night.

I always recommend to people that they try this exercise. Don't do it at work. There is too much going on to attempt this in such a tumultuous place.

Find your 30 minutes of inner peace each day to try this exercise and I guarantee you will get back more than 30 minutes of peace in each day to come.

EFCS

I have worked in a couple companies that believe in an EFCS approach. Employees First, Customers Second. I'm not sure I really agree with that. I think in this day and age where people are so focused on themselves and what they can get from a job, they fail to realize that employment is a two-way street. You get what you give.

Don't get me wrong....I believe in taking care of your employees and staff but I also believe that by treating people right (not necessarily putting them first), you can foster a Customer First approach (notice I didn't say Employees Second).

Urgency and Immediacy are both things that seem as if they can't be taught. I with the world worked at the speed in which I felt it should. Our customers would be better off and in my humble mind, so would our employees.

Ford use to say "Satisfaction is Job One." I think that is a fair phrase. Satisfaction from doing your job well and helping customers should be job one and the reward you get in return invaluable.