My Franklin Planner in Memoriam

I threw away my Franklin Planner this week. Mine was old school, pre Franklin Covey merger. Fresh out of college, I remember receiving my first Franklin Planner and going through the day-long training.

Towards the end of the class, our instructor had us go out 21 days and add the task of sending her a note (not an email, an actual paper note) describing how our first three weeks using the planner were going. A colleague I worked with who was 20+ years my senior flipped his planner to the next day and began writing more immediate tasks he planned to accomplish back in the office. I asked him why he didn't do the exercise as instructed, and he said, "I have no intention of sending her a note."

I admired his thought process, and while that incident has stuck with me all these years, I still struggle with being selective on what actually gets added to my Omnifocus inbox.

I remember upgrading my planner from burgundy plastic to navy blue leather, but it's been years since I've ordered a refill or used any form of a paper task manager or calendar. I still see others who do, but they are becoming more rare every year. I've moved my old planner from office to office clinging to it like a security blanket, but as I packed for an my next move it was time to let it go.

I'm lucky I got to spend some time with it saying goodbye. I paged through it and kept some of the insides, the most important being my mission statement - written in 1993, printed on a dot matrix printer, and signed by Stephen R. Covey in 2003. I was pleasantly pleased to discover how much in alignment I've been living what I wrote 21 years ago. Not achieved it, but living it.

I retyped my mission statement in nvALT in it's original form, resisting the urge to tighten it up and remove a few cliques, and I took a picture of it to store in Evernote.

I also found this little gem - a poem from Rumi via Gordon MacKenzie's Orbiting the Giant Hairball. It seemed like a perfect summary of this transition of letting go.

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I carried this poem in my planner for years.

Mega Content Consumption Workflow

The New Year is a time for resolutions and promises. When the calendar rolls over, it serves as a trigger for us to reflect on what we could do better. It's a chance to hit reset and start anew. But unfortunately, our goals quickly turn to faded dreams as we get excited to start, but lack the willpower to follow through all the way. Any of these Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year's Resolutions sound familiar?

• Lose Weight and Get Fit
• Quit Smoking
• Learn Something New
• Eat Healthier and Diet
• Get Out of Debt and Save Money
• Spend More Time with Family
• Travel to New Places
• Be Less Stressed
• Volunteer
• Drink Less

I'm not a big believer in resolutions, but I am a big believer in constant improvement. The area I'm focused on right now is my diet - not my physical diet, but my content diet. Maybe diet isn't the right word, because it implies less, and what I want to do is consume more. Not more for the sake of more, but more high-quality content. I want to feed my brain with nutrition - content that will make me better.

So here's my mega content consumption workflow for 2014:

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STRATEGY | Predator or Prey?

On a trip to the zoo last weekend, I read this sign on the Tiger Trail that pointed out the differences in eye positions between predators and prey.

Eyes on a predator face forward. This allows them to focus their vision on their prey. Because both eyes are pointed in the same direction, their vision is binocular which gives them great depth perception. Eyes on prey are located at the sides of the head giving them good side and rear vision. Their vision is monocular, and they can use their eyes separately seeing two different objects on opposite sides of their body at the same time.

I had never thought about how important such a relatively simple and somewhat obvious characteristic like the placement of the eyes could be. My first reaction was that makes so much sense. Predators need to see different things than prey and vice versa. Then my second reaction was what a powerful metaphor for business strategies. Do you have a predator strategy or a prey strategy?

PREDATOR STRATEGY

Are you focused on looking forward? How’s your depth perception? Do you know how far and fast you have to move to achieve your target? Zappos, Southwest, and Apple are all examples of companies that look forward. They don’t care what others are doing to the side or behind them. They focus on their target and move towards solving real needs for their customers. Predators take risks and go for Yahtzee.

PREY STRATEGY

Are you focused on to what’s beside and behind you? Are you constantly worried about your competitors and what they are doing? Home Depot and Lowe’s, McDonald’s and Burger King, and Marriott and Hilton all strike me as prey competitors keeping a constant eye on each other. One half develops an innovation, and their pair competitor imitates to follow. They are focused backwards and to their sides.

This distinction reminds me of the difference between Warren Buffett and Eddie Lampert. Buffett’s annual letters tend to be internally focused answering where are they headed. Lampert’s tend to focus more externally describing what’s happening in the market around them. Where would you rather invest your money? Predator or prey?