Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin relate to Richardâa listener in the middle of a quarter life crisis working jobs he doesn’t likeâwith stories from their pasts, suggestions to combat the cascade of seriousness, and some first steps for breaking out of the voc
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Tagged with “communication”
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5by5 | Back to Work #7: Vocational Wheel
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5by5 | Back to Work #118: One-Step Corn Kerneler
TOPIC: Toward an (Admittedly Dubious) Unified Field Theory of Creativity
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5by5 | Back to Work #117: The Flu Shots of Siracusa County
TOPIC: Offices, and when to get out of them.
This week—in what will surely be remembered as the greatest Back to Work episode of all time—Dan and Merlin eventually talk about working at a desk and when to take it someplace else.
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5by5 | Back to Work #115: Invitation to a Blame Party
TOPIC: Fixing the Culture of Meetings
This week, Dan and Merlin address the problems with meetings, and how we can each choose to improve them.
Ten quick ideas?
Purpose Agenda Grazing Policy Hard Edges Scheduling Guests Timekeeper No Ratholes Focus Follow-Up Consistency http://5by5.tv/b2w/115
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5by5 | Back to Work #107: Pull Out Your Dingus
TOPIC: Compression
This week, Dan and Merlin talk about compression. What happens when we don’t account for how long something really takes to do? And, worse still, what if we don’t think about what has to happen before we can even start it?
If you find you’re stressed-out, over-scheduled, under-resourced—and not particularly loving the things you’re making—there’s a pretty good chance you’ve become a victim of your own compression.
Acknowledge and understand the problem, and then learn how to avoid the classic pitfalls by falling in love with your calendar all over again.
Tagged with 5by5 5x5 5 by 5 five by five productivity communication work barriers constraints tools
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5by5 | Back to Work #2: Picture of a Boat
Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin formulate a five-minute warning tactic before discussing the reality of bringing change to your company, some patterns that work for startups, solving the right problem at the right level, why you can’t find the innovation button, and using PathFinder as a Finder replacement.
Tagged with 5by5 5x5 5 by 5 five by five productivity communication work barriers constraints tools
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5by5 | Back to Work #102: Hunter Ready to Write
TOPIC: Creative Costumes vs. Pushing Out Product
This week Dan and Merlin talk about how the legends and mythologies around creative people and beautiful losers can become such a destructive MacGuffin for us aspiring civilians.
Getting gakked out on Hunter S. Thompson’s cocaine and buying Sylvia Plath’s oven are unlikely to take you anyplace useful, interesting, or…creative.
Also: "BRIANMICHAELBENDIS!"
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5by5 | Back to Work #97: Pope of the Office
TOPIC: Using GTD to sanely and intelligently decide what to do, and when, and where.
This week, Dan and Merlin continue their discussion of David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.
Hopping over the basic workflow and setup (you’ll definitely need the book for that), this is all about doing—leveraging the horizontal and vertical axes of GTD to intuitively choose exactly the right task at any given moment.
Regardless of interruptions, regardless of unexpected change, and regardless of what you’re mindfully not doing.
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5by5 | Back to Work #85: Schrödinger’s Soap Holder
TOPIC: One Operational Paper Towel; One Safety Paper Towel.
This week, Dan and Merlin discuss how to use a public restroom.
There’s some other stuff, too. But, yeah. Mostly Dan and Merlin discuss how to use a public restroom.
Tagged with 5by5 5x5 5 by 5 five by five productivity communication work barriers constraints tools
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5by5 | Back to Work #84: Every Genie is an Actuary
TOPIC: Superpowers, Madness, and the Pursuit of Interesting Problems
Dan and Merlin talk about the superpowers you have and can’t control as well as the demons and drivers that our heroes have and can’t control. How sometimes we find ourselves craving the screaming in someone else’s head. Because, we surely do love and revere our Beautiful Losers and Genius Lunatics.
Entered into evidence: Hunter S. Thompson, The Incredible Hulk, Sylvia Plath, Brian Wilson, Nightcrawler, Van Gogh, Tom Waits, Robert Lowell, Howard Hughes, and Corporate Stooges (n.b.: Dan said that; not Merlin).
The upshot? Try not to get too obsessed with someone else’s ether in the convertible or, for that matter, the cake in your own conference room.
Get excited about constantly releasing that "better version of yourself"—and make the world a happy beneficiary of your own particular madness.
Tagged with 5by5 5x5 5 by 5 five by five productivity communication work barriers constraints tools
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