So, you have an idea. Do you grab a pen and a trusty notebook in your pocket or purse or do you fire up your tablet or computer?

I am a notetaker, I am always taking note about ideas, things to do, projects to map out, errands to run on the way home for my “honey do” list, etc, etc. How about you? Do you find yourself wanting to take notes often?

Like many professionals in the 90′s with the laptop computers becoming more affordable and more powerful, I went from using blank or gridlines pages inserted in my Day-Timer® to wanting to write everything on my computer. I felt, like many of you, that to write it down on paper only to later type in into my word processor was a waste of time.

Then about 10 years ago, I learned about mind mapping and I reverted to pen & paper. The cycle continued, and a few years ago I started using mind mapping computer software, and then I thought I had hit nirvana when the iPad came out. Suddenly, I could draw a mind map with my fingers, I could type notes really fast or record them.

Now, that I have more than a few projects on the go, I find myself wondering again which is the most productive way to not only take notes but to be able to access this information when I need them.

Over the next few weeks, I will be examining both the electronics tools and my trusty bullet pen and field notes® notepads to measure productivity. As I look at it from this side of the review, I think that the criteria will be:

• which is more accurate, which one better collects the idea from my brain, conversation or research.
• which is faster, is the notepad faster than the iPad or the laptop. I’ll take into account the transcription time if I end up having to type it again.
• which is more reliable as a reference tool. How reliable is the information when I return to it in a week, a month, a year. I’ll be looking at old notes in electronic and handwritten format and see which ones is better as a reference tool.

Why don’t you try to do this do? Or, if you already know your answer, would you please share this in comments below.

Either way, this is going to be a valuable exercise and the results will add to our productivity arsenal. I look forward to read your comments.

There is a crisis in the human resources climate, as critical as the climate crisis. Talents and passionate people are being wasted, positions are filled with people that do not like them. It is time to change or simply allow change to happen.

Our current thinking and education system is failing.

Here is a video of Sir Ken Robinson that I recommend for your viewing.

After the March 11, 2004,train bombing in Madrid, psychologists found many residents experienced positive psychological growth. So too do the majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer. What king of positive growth? Increase in spirituality, compassion for others, openness, and even, eventually, overall life satisfaction.* After trauma, people also report enhanced personal strength and self-confidence, as well as a heightened appreciation for, and a greater intimacy in, their social relationships. (W. James, Psychology:Briefer Course -Harvard University Press (1984))
In his recent book, The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor develops the principle of Falling Up whereas we aim to bounce forward instead of bouncing back after a trauma or a failure. It is not enough to bounce back, bouncing forward, or adversarial growth is the goal.

Actor invites us to look at adversity not as a stumbling block but as a stepping stone. This is an awesome book that I recommend you to read wherever you are in life. This book is not about some mumbo-jumbo positive thinking theories when you are ask to numb yourself to the realities but it is rather a solid presentation of key principles to help us discover or re-discover happiness.

The ability of turning adversity into opportunity or to make lemonade out of lemons seems to come more naturally for some people. However, it is possible to train or “re-wire” your brain to identify the positive. Achor refers to this skill as learning your ABCD’s.

The ABCD model of interpretation (Adversity, Belief, Consequence, Disputation) has a long history in positive psychology,starting with Albert Ellis, father of cognitive therapy, then adapted by Martin Seligman (see Learned Optimism, Authentic Happiness).

- Adversity is the event we can’t change; it is what it is.
- Belief is our reaction to the event; and why we thought it happened and what we think it will mean for the future.
- Consequence. Depending on our explanatory style, how we view the event, the consequence or possible outcome(s) will be different. If we have an Optimistic Explanatory Style, which we can learn to develop, our brain will be scanning for opportunities. Just like when you purchased a certain colour car, you see that colour everywhere, an optimistic explanatory style will “see” opportunities as consequences.
We will ask and look for solutions instead of thinking that the situation in unsolvable and desperate. Instead of being in a state of learned helplessness we will find hope and growth.
- Disputation comes in when our belief is showing us only negative consequences. We “dispute” or challenge that belief. We recognize that it is just that, -a belief, not a fact. We ask ourselves what are, if any, the evidence for this belief?

What is the worst case scenario? The ‘real’ worst case scenario, not the imaginary one. I built a course on exam preparation after so many student coming to me in panic before or after exams. One of the strategies that I recommended (even more so now that I read his book) is to ‘face the fear’. I would ask the students to write down and verbalized the worst case scenario and then shine a light on it. If you should fail the test, what is the worst case scenario? Can you re-write it? If your fear is to run out of time to write it, can you ask for more time to write?
If your job depends on your passing, like a licensing exam, can you re-write later and get your job back or another one like it?
Once you realize that the fear is worst that the possible outcome, you start to relax.

“Just knowing this quirk of human psychology -that fear of consequences is always worse than the consequences themselves -can help us move toward a more optimistic interpretation of the downs we will inevitably face. S. Achor”

I will end this article with a final quote from Tal Ben-Shabar as found in this book. “things do not necessarily happen for the best, but some people are able to make the best out of things that happen”

You can learn to become one of these people, why don’t you?

Yes I know that it is the end of January as I write this, but better late than never, right?

As I look back at 2010 and look forward to 2011, I find myself wanting to review the past and plan for the future. After major health issues in our family this past few months, it is easy to feel discouraged. However, it is important to remember that we all face disappointment and setbacks.

Everyone has times in their life where they ask themselves such questions as “is it all worthwhile,” “am I really on the right path” and “if so, why is it so hard?”

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We’ve all heard of the dismal state for reading literacy of the students coming out of our school system and I do not need to add to it in this post. What interest me here is how to I develop a product, a marketing plan or a course to target today’s audience that clearly does not like to read.

Here are some recent stats from the US Census, and I am sure the stats in Canada and the UK are not much more encouraging.

So, does it not make sense to explore different media to target your audience? Over the last year, I had the opportunity to develop a few online courses, and most of them delivered via online video lessons. The feedback and the actual test results from our students are outstanding. Adults like the options to be able to pause, rewind and play back videos at their leisure. They tell us that they also like to be able to even play the video on a larger screen, as it makes them feel more like sitting in a classroom.

On the marketing side, we’ve also started to use short videos on client’s web site with great results. It looks like Google also likes video a lot. Our tests showed that pages with a video posted on it, with a great title and a short paragraph to introduce the topic or product and service showed on the video, ranked people than the similar topic or subject page with a 800-100 words article.

Go figure, people really don’t like reading that much any more. So, don’t quit writing great content but do add a short video – it will pay off.

PS: I’ll start making video posts, or at least make the post available as audio soon.

Alain