On tools

Whenever I explain what I teach, I usually answer "email mastery, speed reading, and productivity." The next question I get is either for help with Outlook or a recommendation for email/task list/calendar software or other tools.

Focusing on the tools we use is a natural, but unhelpful, instinct. When we see someone doing something admirable, we want to know how they accomplished that feat - and that often includes the tools they used. Trek bicycles will sell you the same bike Lance Armstrong won 6 Tours on. But that doesn't mean you'll be able to duplicate the feat. It's not the tool: it's the skills, practice, and experience of the person wielding those tools.

I enjoy riding Motorcycles, and several years ago, I ran across an article by motorcycle enthusiast and columnist Fred Rau (found it copied here) that has stuck with me:

I remember once, back when I was about 11 years old, watching a pitchman
at a carnival as he demonstrated a gyroscopic toy that he balanced on a
string between his hands. He made the toy run back and forth on the
string, turn upside-down, do somersaults and all kinds of other
incredible stunts. I just had to have one, and shelled out my whole
month's hard-earned allowance of $5.00 to get "one of the last ones
left." Naturally, after getting back home with my prize, I found that I
couldn't make it do any of the things the carney had demonstrated. It
ended up in the back of my closet, an embarrassing reminder of how I'd
been taken.

Months later, when confessing to my Grandfather about what had happened,
he pulled out an old pocketknife he always carried with him and held it
up in front of me.

"Remember when I carved you a toy airplane out of a block of wood with
this knife?" he asked.

"Sure, Grandpa."

"Well, if I sold you this knife," he said, "do you think you could carve
your own toy airplane with it?"

"No, Grandpa. I don't know how."

"Exactly; it took me years to learn, and lots of practice. It ain't the
tool, boy. It's the man operating it. Just like with your toy."

...the article eventually applies this lesson to motorbikes, but the lesson applies here too: use the simple tools at hand to do extraordinary things. In many situations, we don't have the luxury of choice. Focus on developing your skill set.

What tools do I carry with me everyday?

• A cellphone that came free with the subscription plan (a SonyEricsson whatever-i)
• The smallest, lightest, cheapest laptop I could find (a 2.6 lb, $370 MSI Wind running OSX, Ubuntu and Windows)
• gmail (and Google Apps for Your Domain) and Lotus Notes
  
• A composition notebook
• An excellent blue rollerball pen given to me for free, two employers ago
• Business cards
• A $20 black canvas satchel

With these simple tools, I'm able to coordinate:

• A full time day job
• Owner of a productivity training company
• Serving on the board of a non-profit
  
• A significant other
• Friends
• Volunteer work
• Exercise