We all aim to be productive, keep our lives organized, and try to force ourselves from procrastinating the day away. David Seah makes beautiful, simple solutions to help you reach your goals.
His blog, which is essentially a public productivity and design battle with himself and his readers, provides insight into the various print and web materials David creates/uses to make his life and ours more productive. Throughout his journal David details the various trial-and-error attempts to create the most efficient and clear solutions to getting things done. One of his most popular threads is the Printable CEO series which details many of this productive management solutions and discussions.
If you were to peruse his posts you’ll find that David is both practical (uses Excel to track time) and innovative. And sometimes the avid readers of his blog take his print solutions and turn them into their own online solutions.
David is every reason why we started Juxtaviews - to interview the people making the web not only a place of their own but a better place for others as well. Everything you read and see on his site free of charge. He does it because he loves it, and he does it very well. We caught up with David to discuss his recent 1000 blog posts milestone, and the many time tracking, productivity, and organizational solutions he creates.
Name, age, favorite artist, and when you sleep at night you dream about?
I’m Dave Seah, and I’m 38 going on 14. I tend to stay up late because I like to work/think until I’m exhausted, so when I do sleep I tend to dream fitfully about things that have happened during the day and people I’ve talked to. I probably get more done with my active daydreaming: imagining apps that bring delighted smiles to people’s faces, scenes in movies, interesting storytelling mechanisms in video games, oblique applications of technology. My most compelling daydream at the moment is finding a great partner…it’s been on my mind quite a bit.
First, congratulations on reaching your 1000 published post milestone. So, what is it about blogging that excites you and keeps you motivated to publish quality content on a frequent basis?
Thanks! I’m not sure if I’m really excited by blogging as much as I’m compelled to write and share what I’m thinking. Something will tickle my brain, and I’ll pull together a few insights and need to write them down to clarify them. My blog is really an external memory device, searchable so I can find things later and perhaps draw later conclusions from the patterns I see. Now that I have 1000 posts, I’m thinking of looking back in the pile and pulling out the best thoughts from there. So that’s what drives me.
As for quality, I am pretty fussy about what I read, and this fussiness translates into an obsession with trying to make myself clear without being too boring. Combine this with the impulse to constantly document what I’m thinking, and you have a recipe for frequent posting. I feel an obligation to the people who stumble upon my blog to talk to them as peers, to be useful, and provide good information. That’s what *I* like to get from people; I believe that what you “put out there” influences what you get back, so I try to practice this as much as possible. Putting the best stuff I can out into the world tends to attract good stuff back, in other words.
Describe what David Seah does for a living and what you write about on your blog.
I spend a lot of time figuring out what I really do, and try to convince people that it’s worthwhile 
I have a lot of skills relating to new media and computer graphics with a healthy tech background, so that was my base of service offerings. Most of the work I get is through word of mouth, though the blog has attracted some inquiries. My big problem is that I have a lot of interests, and because of this I’m something of a jack of all trades, which tends to make me feel a little insecure when I go up against someone claiming to be a specialist.
What I think I am moving toward, and this is reflected in the blog, is storytelling. And storytelling is about people living their lives and trying to get things to work out. I see design and technology as tools that I can use to TELL stories; I don’t mean literally writing books or making games, but applying the skills themselves to allow ourselves to live our lives in the way we’d like them to be. We can make our lives; a little insight combined with clear thinking made tangible (design, in other words) can make a huge difference. Likewise, the means to create something new that allows us to achieve our life goals (living our stories, so to speak) is technology: design is the intent, and technology is the action.
So that’s what I write about: design, development, inspiration, and empowerment. I’m going through the process myself, so I use my experiences as the foundation of my storytelling, hopefully told in such a way that other people with similar inclinations can relate.
What makes being organized and managing one’s time difficult?
Not knowing what you’re supposed to do, not having clarity on what the future will bring, not having a system to handle all the elements that you think you need to organize, and not practicing estimation frequently enough to get a sense of how long things really take. Maybe more important, from my perspective, is lack of motivation, lack of feedback, and anxiety that something bad might happen…these are huge demotivators.
What’s the first step in getting organized and becoming more efficient at the work place?
The first thing that comes to mind is knowing what you’re supposed to do and HOW YOU MEASURE IT. You may know what you’re measuring, but then you need to be able to assign some kind of value to it. If you can come up with the right set of metrics that reinforce the values you need, I think efficiency is a natural byproduct. Assuming that laziness isn’t your goal.
The tricky thing is that value is not an independent quality; it is dependent on both you and your company / boss / coworkers. The RECOGNITION of your work (which is a form of feedback) is a powerful motivator. Seeing the BENEFITS of your work is the second powerful motivator. Reward feels good.
Once you figure out these things, then getting organized is largely a mechanical process. I’m not actually so much into organization as I am into productivity; they are different things.
What brought you into the discipline of time management?
I got interested in time management primarily because it’s one aspect of productivity. I shy away from mechanics and focus on benefits; for me, the benefit of time management is a feeling of calm, knowing that I have enough time to do something in the face of a deadline. And when I have enough time and am relaxed, I can be happy and more productive, assuming that the *motivation* is there. So time management for me is largely a psychological exercise. My own time management demons are related to procrastination and the tedium of tracking things by hand; the systems that I come up with are designed to minimize those bugaboos as much as possible.
Your time management solutions are very unique. For the most part it seems that you’re creating these designs and then publishing them on your blog for the public to digest and provide feedback. How has this publish/feedback process been for you and do you feel you are now evolving into a structure for your time management solutions that take into account the mass audience vs simply your own needs?
When I first started publishing these designs, I wasn’t sure if people would find them innovative or stupid. The first benefit to me has been a surge of confidence that I am on the right track, which gives me the courage to push the envelope. Sometimes I end up with something maybe a little too out there—my Index Card Scabbard is perhaps one of those missteps The feedback has also been useful in adapting the forms for other use, when have the time and the motivation. If someone asks me nicely, I’ll generally try to make a new variation; it’s always educational. I also see it as a form of research; all these forms and ideas and posts are bits of some kind of software or paper system. I’m clarifying the elements of my thinking process as I create. The feedback and commentary help refine them further. A lot of the ideas I have are rooted in the psychology of a task rather than the surface requirements; that’s a difference I think between how I design versus what someone else might do. So when someone posts a comment or releases a variation of their own, I get a look into the way that person thinks, which is valuable insight to gain. Eventually, I notice patterns, and THAT gives me some traction on what the mass audience might be looking for. In the meantime, though, I focus on making things that I like that work.
Frequently you create well designed paper diagrams that provide organizational solutions. Personally I find paper ends up creating more clutter and disorganization (although some people disagree). Some users of your designs have gone and emulated your designs and concepts by creating web solutions vs your paper solutions. Now you’re working on the alpha of Emergent Time Tracker which is a web version of your Emergent Task Timer. Is the web going to become your medium of choice moving forward? What is the benefit of each (paper vs web)?
I’ve always liked shrinkwrap software, though the Web in its 2.0 incarnation is becoming more appealing; data loss is the main reason I have avoided it, plus my unfamiliarity with back-end programming. The Web is great for multi-point access, though, and I’ll adopt the Web when that’s a useful feature to have. Software in general is phenomenal for navigating through manipulable digital fields of data, when it’s designed to deliver INSIGHT. Most of the time software is designed to merely output data in tables, and sometimes workflow support. Good software delivers benefits, not screens of sorted data. Great software understands the psychology, intent, and motivation behind the work you’re doing, and does just enough to support that. That’s the best case. I like paper because it’s tangible, real, and persistent. I have a dual monitor setup at home, and it’s still not enough. I am constantly shuffling windows around to get at the information I need. It is inefficient. I see paper as a cheap way of extending the infosphere around you; if you can have a great tracking form that tells you both what you’re doing AND what you need to do at a glance, that’s a piece of useful information real-estate. And it’s a lot more flexible than a computer screen in that you can fold it, file it, tape it up on your wall, compare them side-by-side, and so on. People think differently when moving their body, so I think of paper as another way of leveraging the thought process. The portability of paper is also a big advantage, particularly since it retains its high-resolution display characteristics.
I believe a few of your solutions could become corporate tools - services you charge for. Is there any plan to begin developing a suite of time management and tracking solutions?
One of my primary goals at the moment is to find a business or creative partner, and then I’ll figure out what to do. I’m looking for a specific set of characteristics: good chemistry, inspiring, shared values, positive thinking, competent and complementary, and fun to dream and talk with. But yes…after I find that person, I’d like to develop a suite of tools. I have very specific ideas about high quality interaction design and software, and I’d like to try releasing them into the public. It’s very tiring to be going it alone all the time; I’m finally waking up to that.
With my laptop, my computer, my blackberry, meetings, deadlines, travel, conference calls, radio, mp3 player, etc I feel like I’m going 100mph all day everyday. Technology is supposed to help us, but in fact it has made us (well, me maybe) busier, or maybe I should say opened the door to more distractions. Are these technologies benefiting us in the workplace or distracting us?
How does one measure benefits first of all? If technology makes us feel harried and anxious, perhaps that’s not a good thing then. All the various devices you’ve mentioned reminds me of process management in a multi-tasking operating system; if you spend more time processing interrupts than running jobs, then you’re not using your processing time efficiently if the goal is getting results done faster. You get more FEEDBACK with interrupts, because everything seems to be happening at once, but the actual time-to-finish a task (the deliverable that matters) gets pushed out. So in that sense…nope, not a benefit.
On the other hand, sometimes we’re not assessed based on what we actually do, but by how BUSY we appear to be. This happens if one does not know how to assess the work of people directly (lack of clear metrics out in the open). Instead, people learn that LOOKING busy is the way to go. In this situation, then all these distractions help play into the illusion. These devices are also helpful if the only requirement of the task is RESPONSE (such as emotional support or acknowledgment), but I feel to get anything of tangible quality done, you need to put in a certain uninterrupted period of time.
That said, I’m probably the most easily-distracted person around, though I like how the TV show Numb3rs put it better: I’m not easily distracted, I’m easily fascinated
Its amazing how important I find the 15 minute timer noise alarm on Emergent Time Tracker. It really makes you focus on getting your work done. I feel like Pavlov’s Dog 
Beyond these well designed paper/websites solutions do we also need these types of visual and audio reminders to help us along on our tasks?
If you are not naturally focused, then having those reminders around are helpful. Since I am rather prone to being distracted, they’re helpful to me in that they condition me to ask myself if I’m on task. Since I work alone, having some external structure provided by way of software is probably even more critical; if I were working next to a team of motivated people, they would be providing the impetus for staying on-task.
Some people don’t need ‘em though, or they don’t need them all the time. It depends on how motivated you are, and where your motivation comes from. For me, I’m very much extrinsically motivated; I respond to external stimuli and needs. When it comes to doing things for ME, I for some reason don’t feel as motivated; it might be because the things I think of doing tend to be large, complex, and long-running; in the absence of having a good partner to at least share the complaining with, I tend not to spring into action. That’s until I get a call from someone or experience something relevant to it outside; then I can get going.
You have some very loyal readers. In fact, the majority of the comments per post on your site are constructive, well thought, and overall good reads in of themselves. How do you retain these types of readers and motivate them to continue your post conversation by adding interesting comments on their own?
I try to project the kind of conversation that I’d like to receive, and I try not to state things as definitive. Instead I present sides of an issues and propose general theories based on my experience. Always, based on my experience…I think that people with different experiences interested in the same topics naturally want to post their own. I try to make it as easy as possible, which is tough in these days of rampant spam.
I’m not sure how I retain readers though, so I just keep doing what I’ve been doing and provide “hooks” into new ideas in my posts. I’d like to get MORE comments, actually, so I experiment with different kinds of writing from time to time to see what hits. The Bee Story, for example, was such an experiment.
What new designs/solutions are you currently working on and when can we expect the version 1.0 release of your Emergent Time Tracker web app?
I’ve got a few fun things on the boards, but a lot of the time they just spring into my mind and I make ‘em quick. I’ve been trying to find people to brainstorm and ideate with that have a similar background in technology, interactive, design that would be interested in collaborating in making things. I’ve thought maybe I should also just take on some interns and go through the process of development myself. I clearly need to find some people and figure out some way of compensating them.
Sadly, there is no timetable on the ETT, though it’s been on my mind recently because I want to use it to manage my day-to-day tasks. I’ve been looking at web service programming periodically and writing a chunk of a module every once in a while.
What websites must you visit ever day?
I don’t really have any regular reads anymore, sadly. I’ll hit online comics that I’ve been following every few days, scan the message boards at 9rules and my own forum, hit some of the Flash development aggregators, read up on Boing Boing and LifeHacker every couple weeks, maybe check out the random design site or StumbleUpon recommendation. Mostly I’m on the web searching for answers to my questions, or exploring the relationships between ideas and objects. Oh, there are a few blogs I like to read, but I haven’t even been scanning THOSE regularly. I do visit the sites of people who leave comments, though; I find a tremendous amount of interesting stuff that way, so I guess it’s one of my primary information sources now.
Last great book you read? Any suggested reading for those looking to get organized?
Hmmm…I just read “Harriet the Spy”, which my sister left at my house. We both like children’s books. Along those lines I recently read “The Little Prince”, which I had thought would be some lame book about midget royalty, but is actually quite a moving story about love, friendship, regret, and human nature. A little more adult would be “The Alchemist”, which is more about daring to find your potential wrapped up in a fable…I liked it a lot. As for getting organized? I’m STILL not organized, so I couldn’t tell ya. I did like “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, but it’s the only book I’ve read. I’ve been meaning to read “The Power of Now”, “Flow”, and “Stumbling Upon Happiness” as the next round of books; again, these are all books that deal with the psychology of productivity, which is what I’m most interested in.
What part of your life (work/personal) are you least organized in?
Doing chores and scheduling maintenance type stuff.
Thanks for your time!
Thank you! Hope this isn’t too long.