What do kids know about productivity? Aren’t children, what with their sleepy heads and easily distractable attention spans, the epitome of UNproductivity? I guess it all depends on what productivity means to you.

Kids actually give us a few clues about how to be really, purposefully productive. 

1.) Plan.
One important step to productivity is planning. If you wanna get stuff done, you gotta know what stuff you wanna get done. Simple, right? If you want to drive to Pittsburgh, but you’ve never been to Pittsburgh, chances are you’re not going to just hop in your car and start driving. You might go to Google Maps and print out some directions, a nice list of all of the things you need to do in order to arrive in Pittsburgh. There are all sorts of strategies and systems out there that offer their "best" way to plan. Lists are a good start. I have one big list of things I’d like to get done eventually. From that list, I make another list of things I’d like to get done next week. And every night before I go to bed, I make sure I have another simple list of what I want to get done the next day. Haven’t we all been doing something similar when we were kids? Didn’t you have a list of things you wanted to be when you grew up? (By the way, kids think it’s entirely possible to fit being a movie star, a cowboy, and President of the United States into one lifetime — and they’re right, just ask Ronald Reagan!) And most kids, when they go to bed at night, know exactly what they want to do the next day — "I’m gonna build a huge fort with my Legos tomorrow!"

2.) But Don’t Over-plan.
As true as it is that children have fixed in their mind the big thing they want to accomplish when they wake up, it is also true that they don’t over-plan the day. They don’t  say, "I will wake up at 6:00 a.m. and play with my Legos until 8:00. Then I’ll color in my coloring book until 9:30, when I’ll have myself a snack before a quick ride around the block in my tricycle…" The secret that kids can teach us is that they have a definite idea of the MAIN thing they want to accomplish during a day (the thing that will make the most difference), but they leave a lot of air in their schedule for the unexpected things that come up. Like serendipitous opportunities, or the little moments that present themselves and make life worth living (such as a call from a long-lost friend, a quick stroll on a beautiful day, or an impromptu lunch with your significant other). These are the things that fly right by us when our knuckles are white and our nose is to the grindstone, as we try with all our might to be "productive."

3.) Mind Your Passion.
It is easy to get caught up in the idea that "getting stuff done" is the same as being productive. But what happens when all this stuff we’ve done leads us down a road we never intended on going down? It’s easy to get caught up in the almighty to-do list, where the most important thing becomes crossing everything off the list instead of keeping in mind why you made the list in the first place. I think it’s a good idea to consider the concept advanced by David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, which is the idea that when you die, your to-do list will STILL have items on it. Lots of ‘em. The idea that we’ll actually ever cross everything off our to-do list is a lie. It’s an Adultitis trap that tricks us into ignoring the little things, the little Cracker Jack prizes, that make our lives fun, enjoyable, and truly fulfilling. As it has been said, it doesn’t do any good to climb the ladder of success if when you get to the top, you find that the ladder was leaning up against the wrong wall. Every once in a while, we need to step back from the stuff we do and ask, "Why?"

"Why am I working on this project?"

"Why am I doing this right now?"

"Why is this the best use of my time?"

Kids mind their passion. They do things that excite them, things that are interesting, and fun. Being a "grown-up" means we sometimes have to do things that aren’t always pleasant, but it doesn’t mean we have to chuck our passions out the window. It doesn’t do anyone any good to accomplish all kinds of stuff in the name of productivity, if the stuff you’ve accomplished doesn’t amount to a hill of beans.

The BEST way to be truly productive is to be working on something that inspires the heck out of you in the first place.

P.S. This post was inspired by a challenge put forth to me by Tara Robinson (and originally by Ben Yoskovitz.) And I’m officially tagging Chris Hollenback, Don the Idea Guy, and my wife.

Technorati Tags: ultimate guide to productivity, childlike, Adultitis, to-do lists, planning

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If you have one of those anti-bacterial hand gels in your possession, think again.

Jason and I have been out and about enjoying spring. The grass is quite green in Madison, which tells you it’s been raining a fair share.

Spring brings puddles.

Puddles bring fun.

And wet shoes and socks, which is why at some point in our lives we start walking around them instead of jumping directly into them.

What if I told you that getting messy and dirty is actually good for your mental and physical health?

Last month an article came out entitled, Kids exposed to dirt at lesser diabetes risk. It has to do with the problems of our hyper-clean culture. The study reveals that our cleaner environmental living conditions and improved hygiene actually adds to the risk of type 1 diabetes in children. We have put ourselves in safe clean bubbles without trusting our complex and magnificent immune system to do its job.

The immune system also works to fight off depression with the many chemicals in the body. In the article, Depressed? Go Play in the Dirt, it shared how there are certain types of bacteria in soil that cause the immune cells to release chemicals called cytokines, which help to activate nerves that relay signals from the body to the brain.

“The stimulated nerves cause certain neurons in the brain to release a chemical called serotonin into the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain known to be involved in mood regulation, among other things. Only a very small number of neurons in the brain make serotonin, but they have massive branching projections to every part of the brain. Scientists think the lack of serotonin in the brain is thought to cause depression in people.”

In other words, in order to stay healthy we should be playing in the dirt. We need exposure to bacteria. This is not the natural tendency for us grown-ups, especially with the convenient hand gels that we can keep on hand.

The best possible strategy is to learn (or relearn) how to do this from the sherpas themselves, the kids. They seem to be having no problem getting dirty and messy. It’s just what happens to them when they are living their lives.

Are we truly living or are we just trying not to get our shoes wet?

Technorati Tags: spring, puddles, juvenile diabetes, type 1 diabetes, depression, anti-bacterial, sherpas, serotonin, Ker Than

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by John Gundich

I’ve been able to escape adulthood by having my first child with my wife, Patrizzia. Before Miabella was born, Patrizzia and I would have a rough commute to and from Downtown Chicago every day, work, eat, watch TV to unwind from the stressful commute…and then do it all over again. It was mundane and empty after a while.

Then, Miabella entered our lives, and we have both been filled with such joy and life. Every day has been filled with new experiences and laughs. She makes every day special again….like it was when I was a kid. It’s not that we will live vicariously through her…it’s just that she brings us to a better place in our lives, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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I tried to avoid using such a cheesy title for this post, but gosh darnit, that’s the only way I can describe the work of Jeffrey David Montanye. He has combined his photography experience and love for mazes to create intriguing puzzles from photographs. I’m not sure if the guy is a big kid, a veritable genius, or a dude with some serious OCD issues (maybe a little of column A, B, and C).

Every maze is made up of hundreds or even thousands of a certain item. Here’s the crazy part: the mazes are taken apart immediately after they are built and photographed. You just have to see them for yourself. Wicked cool.

Here are some more sample mazes. You can also buy a book of Jeff’s work.

(Hat tip to Bernie DeKoven.)

Technorati Tags: maze, mazes, puzzles, photography, Jeffrey David Montanye

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by Kim Kotecki

A few years ago for our anniversary, Jason and I rented a cabin at Devil’s Lake in Baraboo, WI. We now affectionately refer to that cabin as the hobbit house, as we had to duck to get through the front doorway. Jason and I are tall, but we’re not considered giants.

One of the things we were really looking forward to doing was building a campfire outside the cabin, gazing up at the stars, and of course making smores. Romantic, right?!

It rained the whole weekend.

Did I say rained…I mean poured! We ended up reading a few books and getting a lot of rest, but were pretty bummed about getting jipped out of the campfire and smores.

We made the best of it, however. (Please note: Firefighters, stop reading now!) Jason had the idea of making our smores inside using the small flame on the gas stove. So we enjoyed our sticky treats while standing over a very old stove in our teeny hobbit-like cabin. We laughed and laughed.

I bet you didn’t think this birthday card we offer was actually inspired by true events. (I’m so glad we didn’t burn down that little house.)

Everyone who claims the title of U.S. citizen is familiar with the ingredients for your average smore. I found some fun recipes that will help mix up your smore routines.

Peachy Caramel Smores
This seemingly healthy but fun recipe is from FamilyFun.com. Find the whole recipe here.

“It’s summer, and peaches are abundant, ripe, and heavy with juice–just right for making this campfire dessert that tops off the natural flavor of fresh fruit with a light caramel sauce and toasted marshmallow.”

I also found an article written by Kelby Carr. She gives a bunch of ideas that will transform your everyday smore into something quite unique. Here are some of her variations:

Nilla Wafer, White Chocolate and Banana Smores
Put a half-banana on a stick and hold over campfire. Take two vanilla, or ‘Nilla, wafers, insert chocolate and banana. Tasty, and even kind of pretty.

Healthy and Happy Strawberry, Dark Chocolate and Oatmeal Cookie Smores
Get (or bake ahead) a whole wheat version of oatmeal cookies, which you can often find at organic and whole food stores. Bring fresh strawberries. Add dark chocolate, which is known to contain powerful antioxidants. Combine, cook and enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie, Marshmallow and Caramel-Filled Ghirardelli Smores
Get downright indulgent with this mix of oh-so bad but oh-so good ingredients. Heat your marshmallow over the fire. Place Ghirardelli or other caramel-filled and thin chocolates onto two oversized chocolate chip cookies. Place your marshmallow on top of one, and close like a sandwich. That is an extreme smore!

Our seventh anniversary is a month away. I hope Jason gets me a smore keyboard.

Club K&J members: share YOUR recipes, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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by Katie Richert

I never realized I was getting, as I always called it, “old,” and that my childhood (and even young adulthood), was gone until a few days ago. I was sitting in the living room at 11 in the morning, still without a shower while my (as he puts it ALMOST) 4-year-old screamed about being a Ninja Turtle who had “team” and my 3-month-old slept comfortably in his swing. I glanced down at the cup of coffee I had been trying to consume to stay awake after pulling another all-nighter with the littlest guy, and saw the words “MOM” written on the cup.

That makes someone at 27 cringe. At that second, I crawled out of the chair and picked up the second little plastic golf club he was using to attack the “bad guys” and decided to join in. I guess it isn’t really a way to escape adulthood (I never really thought of myself in that term), but I guess I looked like a rather large child in a bathrobe at that time swinging at invisible monsters. But the squeals of laughter both boys were emitting by the time I was finished helping in the battle made me realize that sometimes to make it all seem better all we really need to do is play. So I guess my advice to escape the whole grown-up world is to find your plastic golf clubs (or whatever the kids may have laying around), shower or none, and just play.

Then go off and down 4 marshmallows as a way to refuel (which was the advice the oldest gave me), and continue the battle. So needless to say, 4 marshmallows later we were back at it — bathrobe and all.

Club K&J members: share YOUR stories, strategies, victories and challenges in your quest to escape adulthood!

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I saw this photo the other day at This Is Broken. It’s a walker, with tennis balls on the feet. I had to stop and think, but yep, I’m pretty sure that EVERY SINGLE WALKER I’VE EVER SEEN has had tennis balls on the feet. (Granted, most of them are green, but that’s neither here nor there.)

I have lots of questions (Why tennis balls? Who decided tennis balls would do the job? How in the world did the idea spread to every single walker user in the universe?), but the most important question is the one that apparently hasn’t been asked.

"If the people who use our walkers feel the need to add a tennis balls to make them better (I’m presuming it’s not a fashion statement), why don’t we think about re-designing our walker to better suit the needs of our customers?"

Meanwhile, tennis ball manufacturers the world over are screaming, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

As an ardent enthusiast of Seth Godin, I suspect that it’s too late to ask the question anyway. The story has already spread. Thanks to tennis balls, people no longer have a walker foot problem. And if a company did change the design to one that wouldn’t require tennis balls, I bet no one would buy it. Because the walker wouldn’t seem right without the tennis balls. People would probably add tennis balls anyway.

My big point is this: why didn’t the walker manufacturers start asking these questions long ago, before the use of tennis balls on walker legs become more popular than American Idol? Maybe Adultitis is the culprit once again. One of the symptoms of Adultitis is the suppression of curiosity and the unwillingness to ask questions. Somewhere along the line, it seems that people in the walker making business stopped asking questions.

What questions do you need to be asking about your products, your business, your life?

Technorati Tags: walkers, tennis balls, curiosity, questions, This Is Broken, Seth Godin, Adultitis

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Perhaps some people raised their eyebrows when I suggested in my last post that our American educational system considers curiosity a disease. Well it sure seems like it to me, what with the OVER reliance on standardized tests and the OVER emphasis on fitting everyone into a standardized box.

Just the other day I was at a wedding, talking to an old friend who was a relatively new mother. Her daughter is a bit over a year old. I asked my friend what was her favorite part about being a mom. She didn’t hesitate with her answer.

“I love how much joy she has,” replied my friend. “She gets so excited about the littlest things; anything and everything around her. When she hears a dog bark, her ears perk up, her eyes get wide, and she wants to investigate. It’s really inspiring.

“I meet with a group of other moms I used to work with,” she continued. “And I asked them when kids start to lose that delight in the little things. They all agreed that it was about the time they enter school.”

Tragic.

I’ve recently watched a handful of videos about the guys who created Threadless.com. (Thanks, Don the Idea Guy!) They gave a presentation at Stanford University about the secrets behind their success (they sell millions of dollars of t-shirts every year and have only bought one ad. Ever. After which they decided to never buy another one again.) After the speech, a few business students approached them to share their disbelief. “All of the things you said you’ve done to build your business,” said the bewildered students of a very prestigious business school, “are the very things our professors have said will never work.”

Go figure.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that the Threadless.com guys were college drop-outs?

Technorati Tags: educational system, curiosity, standardized tests, Threadless.com, business school, business success

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This month’s featured Club K&J member is Judy Irené, who was our April Club K&J S.W.E.L.L. prize winner. She shares,

“I’m a type A who works really hard to keep the kid and joy in my life. When I discovered Kim & Jason and the Escape Adulthood theme, I knew I had found an ally in living my life to the fullest.”

• Hometown… I live 1hr north of SF, 30min from the ocean and redwoods surrounded by 200 vineyards and wineries in Santa Rosa, CA. With clients 30-80 miles away, my motto is “Live where you want to, work where you need to.

• My biggest dream… To live life fully in each moment! For me that meant leaving “corp America” after 20yrs and starting my own web agency to have a WHOLE life doing what I love and working with people I enjoy.

• My inspiration… My cats. They have an uncanny way of putting life into perspective. It’s easy to get too intense about work so I always use the phrase “Hey, chill a little, we’re not saving lives here!” Cats demonstrate living in the moment every day!

• When I was a kid, I… had a large collection of marbles that formed Marble Town. Each color stood for a different profession like farmers, bankers and firemen. The big marbles were the “parents” and there was this special yellow marble and a green one that were the princess and the prince. I had a whole little make-believe world there. Oh yeah, I still have that marble collection…

• One way I stay childlike is… my husband and I give each other “Tuesday gifts”. Something small (like the cool stuff at the Lemonade Stand) that we surprise each other with “just because.” But best of all, for 12 years we have celebrated annual “Princess” and “Hero” day. These are our made-up holidays where we serve cookies and milk, create homemade cards and give each other 12 little gifts – one for each month of the year to let each other know that I am his Princess and he is my Hero.

• What I know so far is… that every day I can learn or discover something new. I will never say, “That’s just the way I am” because tomorrow always brings new treasures, discoveries and delights.

• My favorite thing about “Kim & Jason” is… Stinky!!! Stinky just “gets it”. I have my own small collection of stuffed animals that have attitude and Stinky definitely has it!

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Curiosity is one of the Eight Secrets. For a multitude of reasons, adults have a hard time being curious. For one, with a few exceptions, the educational system in this country seems to consider curiosity a disease, and they have a twelve-year treatment plan to remedy the situation (with four to six more available if you’re having trouble kicking the habit).

Meanwhile, most adults are afraid to ask questions because they’re too worried about what other people think of them. "They’ll all think I’m stupid," goes the thought process. "Everyone else seems to know the answer; I’ll just pretend to know I do, too."

Another reason for the lack of curiosity is that dang comfort zone of ours. We’re too busy and content making things just the way we like them that we hardly have time to look up from the din of our daily lives to wonder, think, or just ask "why?"

This weekend I was inspired to write a list of questions. One hundred of them.

The idea came from Scott Ginsberg, who got the idea from Leonardo Da Vinci.

It is quite an arduous task, but one that left me some interest insights. Here are a few highlights from my list:

9.) Is my planner filled with stuff that really matters?
22.) What are five things I need to let go of?
30.) What are three things we can do to have more fun at the office?
36.) How can I be a better husband?
56.) What three things to I want to teach my kids?
57.) What’s the perfect day?
71.) What are five activities that you’d be too scared to do?
72.) What if the Cubs won the World Series?
76.) Where am I failing to think big?
91.) What would happen if I gave TV up for a year?
93.) Where do I most want to see change in the world?
95.) Who are ten people that I really should reconnect with?

I’ve got a list of 100 questions, and it’s going to take me quite a while to sort through the answers. But I can’t believe how many little things have already changed in my life just because I decided to sit down and do this activity.

I can think of no better way to jump start your curiosity than to make a list like this. Give it a try!

Technorati Tags: curiosity, questions, 100 questions, Scott Ginsberg, Leonard da Vinci, why?

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This is a forum developed to help people remember some of the coolest, strangest, funnest, and most special things about the universe known as childhood. Peruse the Chalkboard topics to read what others have shared and offer your own thoughts

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What good is life if you can’t slow down long enough to enjoy it once in a while?

Kim and I had a fortunate opportunity come our way last Friday night. We spent the bulk of the day downtown at a café called Cosi, laptops open, writing, thinking, and dreaming. As we packed up to go home, a young woman (and fellow Mac user) sitting nearby offered us two free tickets to the Madison Symphony Orchestra. Face value was over sixty bucks each. She told us she wasn’t able to use them and was hoping to find someone who could. What the heck, we thought.

A few hours later, I found myself sitting in Madison’s new Overture Center, all spruced up and ready for some culture.

I am sure that the full magnificence of the performance was somewhat lost on me. But I can certainly say that it was wonderful to watch people who are really good at what they do, even if I don’t know the difference between a viola and a cello. A world-renowned pianist was a featured guest. He had a bucket full of prestigious awards that I had never heard of, and yet even I could tell that he didn’t just play music, he lived it. It was a part of him.

It was nice to sit there and take it all in. To relax, just letting the music stir my soul and refresh my spirit. I am grateful for the generosity of that nice Mac girl, whose name I never did get.

Later that night, I stumbled upon a blog post by David Wakerly about a little experiment the Washington Post recently conducted. They wanted to know what would happen if a world-famous classical musician played not in a concert hall, but in a Washington D.C. train station, in the middle of morning rush hour. Would people know who he was? Would they at least realize that he wasn’t your average street musician, and take a few moments to take in the free concert? Would they marvel at his $3.5 million Stradivarius? And exactly how long would it take for his violin case to be filled up with tens and twentys?

The musician the Post tapped for the experiment was a man named Joshua Bell, a 39-year old, critically acclaimed virtuoso. Ironically, I had heard of Joshua Bell for the first time of my life just hours earlier; he’ll be playing a one-night-only performance in October in Madison at the Overture Center. The full Post article is lengthy, but well worth a read (and it has video, too!).

Bell played some of the most difficult and other-worldly musical pieces known to man for a little less than an hour. Almost 1,100 people walked by.

Only seven people stopped, at least for a minute. Twenty-seven gave money — some just pennies — for a total of $32.17.

1,070 of the people rushed by, most not even giving the performer a quick glance.

The Washington Post interviewed people after they passed by. One man, Calvin Myint, walked four feet from Bell, and didn’t even have a memory of seeing a musician anywhere. He was wearing his iPod.

The song that Calvin Myint was listening to was “Just Like Heaven,“ by the British rock band The Cure. It’s a terrific song, actually. The meaning is a little opaque, and the Web is filled with earnest efforts to deconstruct it. Many are far-fetched, but some are right on point: It’s about a tragic emotional disconnect. A man has found the woman of his dreams but can’t express the depth of his feeling for her until she’s gone. It’s about failing to see the beauty of what’s plainly in front of your eyes.

We are prone to that, aren’t we? We get so caught up in things that we miss some of the best parts of life.

In my presentations, I often liken these little details to Cracker Jack prizes. God has scattered these free prizes all around us: a watercolor sunset, the smell of fresh cut grass, the intricacy of a snowflake. We’re so busy being self-absorbed and stressed-out that we miss them all, because they’re hidden just below the surface of our hurried consciousness. How sad must it be for the Creator of the Universe to have made all of these spectacular Cracker Jack prizes for us to enjoy, while we mindlessly pass them by every single day. Brennan Manning writes along this same vein in The Ragamuffin Gospel:

We get so preoccupied with ourselves, the words we speak, the plans and projects we conceive, that we become immune to the glory of creation. We barely notice the cloud passing over the moon or the dewdrops clinging to the rose petals. The ice on the pond comes and goes. The wild blackberries ripen and wither. The blackbird nests outside our bedroom window, but we don’t see her. We avoid the cold and the heat. We refrigerate ourselves in summer and entomb ourselves in plastic in winter. We rake up every leaf as fast as it falls.

The reality of these words is heartbreakingly true. But it wasn’t always this way for us. We were all children once. For the Post story points out:

There was no ethnic or demographic pattern to distinguish the people who stayed to watch Bell, or the ones who gave money, from that vast majority who hurried on past, unheeding. Whites, blacks and Asians, young and old, men and women, were represented in all three groups. But the behavior of one demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away…

…The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother’s heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.

It saddens me to think of how many times I have obsessively concerned myself with the trivial, while missing the magical. Oh, how tragically often do we trade the Cracker Jack prize for the peanuts?

The problem is a grave one. Edna Souza shines shoes at L’Enfant Plaza. She is from Brazil, and was there the day Joshua Bell performed for an audience of ghosts, and she knows the problem firsthand. She sees it every day.

Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people rushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. "If something like this happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here."

Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: "Couple of years ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. The police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or slowed down to look.

"People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own business, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?"

The home page of Adultitis.org claims that Adultitis has transformed people into zombie-like doo doo heads. I marveled at my cleverness when I first wrote it, but now my stomach turns from its truth. The epidemic marches on, choking the beauty and value of life out of each successive generation. Its life-stealing shackles are passed down to our children like some sort of twisted family tradition.

I believe there is hope. The choice for change is our own. Opportunities to turn the tide present themselves every day. Sometimes in the form of a violin virtuoso on your morning commute, sometimes in the form of free tickets from a stranger when you’re tired and just want to go home. I am grateful that I took the opportunity to experience the orchestra Friday night, to drink in a moment I am richer for, and won’t soon forget. The struggle against Adultitis is a daily one, but one worth fighting.

Gene Weingarten says in his Post article, “If we can’t take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?”

An awful lot, it turns out.

Technorati Tags: Madison Symphony Orchestra, Joshua Bell, cracker jack, Brennan Manning, David Wakerly, Overture Center, Washington Post, classical music, violinist, Adultitis

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