About a 3 weeks ago, I followed Tim Ferriss’ advice and setup an auto responder on my email. It said that I had a full workload and was checking my emails twice a day, but in the event of an emergency or something urgent, give me a call. The exact wording is below:

Dear Colleague, Due to high workload, I check email twice daily at 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM EST. I respond to urgent email at those times and endeavor to respond to all other email once a week, on Fridays at 9:00 AM EST. If you require urgent assistance (please ensure that it is urgent) that cannot wait until either 9:00 AM or 4:00 PM, please contact me via phone at XXX-XXX-XXXX. Thank you for understanding this move to more efficiency and effectiveness. It helps me accomplish more to serve you better. Sincerely, Jered

The only problem with auto responders is that they respond to everyone. I know that is the point of an auto response, but my place of work is run by people who have a fundamental misunderstanding of both email and productivity.

I was told to remove my auto-responder.

A auto generated message was sent by the president, who passed it on to a VP, then to a associate VP, to a director and finally to me. The message was presented to me as “the president says you need to remove your auto responder”.

My auto responder was probably seen as lacking in customer service, instead of, what a friend coined: “Oh, that’s just an autoresponse email. Definitely not meant to suggest anything other than here’s an employee who is really trying to focus on getting things done for the University. I think Jered is taking a proactive stand on his work, and wouldn’t it be great if more people were as focused and dedicated as him?”

Like the title says, a fundamental misunderstanding.

I have had this post sitting in limbo for a long time. I have been trying to gather all of my thoughts on the subject and I think I have finally reached my conclusion. What is the point of learning how to click, where to click, without understanding why to click.

In my freshman year of college (circa 2000), I took “Introduction to Technological Systems”, which was a renamed “Introduction to Computers”. I enjoyed the class and quite liked the professor, eventually getting an A in the class, along with pretty much everyone else in the class. The introduction to technological systems went through a computer part by part, from CPU to databases to the internet, giving a broad overview of a little bit of everything.

While the number of students entering college are becoming more technologically savvy, the problem that professors are, or should, be running into is teaching students why to click instead of where or how.

Speaking in broad terms, students entering college have a firm grasp on technology. Can they point to the ISA card slot on a late 80’s motherboard? Probably not. Can they install iTunes 7.3 and sync their iPhone? Probably. The level of computer literacy is rising rapidly. Students are rapidly coming to high school and college never knowing what a computer-less household is like. And fewer remember a time when the internet required the computer to make very strange noises via its modem.

The imminent failure of basic computer education is this: By focusing on the mechanics of how a computer works, the human element of computer is lost. By this, the computer education received tells us that a computer works, but does not educate us in how to interact with it. What is the most efficient way to store files? How should one reply to email. What are the basics of security when it comes to the internet? Why, when sending a mass email, should one use the BCC: instead of the To: in addressing? Why does my computer run slowly when I have 7 applications open, each with 16 windows?

These skills, while not as concrete as the how the laser reads the data on a CD-ROM, are the ones that are not being taught, but can ultimately be the most useful. Efficient, courteous and savvy computer users don’t need to know the physical happening to get work done. While it may be helpful in diagnosing problems or troubleshooting, there are plenty of people willing to take the time and put in the effort in that arena, I happen to be one of them. For the average user, teach them that repetitive task can be shortened to key-commands, that click around the computer’s interface can be shorted by using a launcher, or that email “stationary” is not really all that cute and can sometime gunk up an email client would go miles.

Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom.
from Wikipedia

The rote memorization of how a computer physically functions is no longer relevant in today’s world. Computer education instead needs to focus on the imparting of knowledge and well-developed wisdom.

I signed up for Fon, a wifi sharing system, in which you get a subsidized router and you share your wireless with the chance to use others wireless. All of this is facilitated through a slick Google Map interface and after receiving my router in the mail, I set it up and was impressed with the ease of it.

I am a Linus, that means that I give the wireless away and I get free access, if I were a Bill, I would get 50 % revenue of non-Fon day passes but I would have to pay. There aren’t very many Fon routers in this neck of the woods, but if I travel, major cities can have quite a few access points.

So what does La Fonera have to do with personal productivity?

If you share your personal productivity goals with people, they can help keep you accountable. I just started Weight Watchers and fatblogging (or fit blogging) and I made a very public share about how much I weight. It’s wasn’t easy, but I knew that if I share my commitment it would hold me more accountable.

I use the Getting Things Done system and this is my public commitment to making sure that I do my Weekly Reviews. That’s the part that I usually fail at getting done. I will post every week when I get my weekly review done.

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p>Share your goals with someone and ask them to make you stick to it.

Technical note:
I have had some issues with comments not showing up, I think I have resolved that. If you try and post a comment (’cause I know you want to) and it doesn’t work, please contact me

Now back to your regularly scheduled post

The last few days have reminded me that sometimes you have to give yourself permission to suck. What? Permission to suck.

Yes, I had originally resolved to post to the blog every day, but I have been so exhausted and busy that I just haven’t had time to write. On Friday, after not posting on Thursday, I was beating myself up, wondering if I should make it up, but I had to give myself permission to suck just a little bit. I have been doing really well in the arena of posting and i have been rocking out the work, so something had to give. Permission to suck granted.

If you haven’t done a check up on your New Year’s resolutions, today is a good day to start. If you have done well on some and not on all, like me, then give yourself permission to suck and then get back on the horse and try and make those resolutions stick.

Today, I helped teach a class about Adobe Illustrator. It was an art class, for college level students and I was pleasantly surprised by the level of skill that existed prior to my teaching. It was a little frightening, considering I went into college with minimal skills in my chosen profession and worked my butt off to get to the level I am today. These students are getting some of those skills in high school, what does that mean for the graphic arts profession?

That was not the chosen topic of this post, but it does segue nicely into finding your passion. While I was teaching today, I was really energized. I might have been a little off putting with my enthusiasm, but I found my passion.

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p>I am passionate about my work, I do it well, but I believe my passion is teaching. Seeing students “get” what I’m trying to teach them is a profoundly rewarding experience. Here are some steps that I have found to find your passion:

1. Go back…way back

   Do you remember what you were passionate about as a child? I wanted to be a comic illustrator, which probably played heavily into my current career decision. What did you love? What really got you excited? Can you turn that former passion into a current passion?

2. Inventory your life

   What do you love to do outside of work? What do you do at work but wish you could do more? What in your environment would be indicative of your passions? I have guitars, two of them. I have a passion for playing guitar, although it is not nearly as strong as my love of design and teaching. What do you have or do that would help you find your passions?

3. What gets you excited?

   I know it sounds painfully obvious, but how often in our day to day lives to we get to explore what really gets us fired up? Between paying the bills and the day job, there isn’t much opportunity to really contemplate or really explore what we really love. Take 5 minutes and really focus on what you like, is that your passion?

Knowing what your passion is can greatly increase your focus, either in getting to your passion or in the execution of your passion. Focus breeds productivity, need I say more?

Do you know what your passion is? Did you find your passion in an interesting way? Tell me in the comments

The talk about passion on Valentines day, was totally unplanned. The irony…