If you've given up hope that Dell will ever ship Linux with its systems, take a look at the list of computers used by Dell's Chairman of the Board&l=en&s=corp. At the top, you'll find that at home, he's using a Dell Precision M90 with the following software on: Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn VMWare Workstation 6 Beta OpenOffice.org 2.2 Automatix2 Firefox 2.0.0.3 Evolution Groupware 2.10 I'm impressed, his software is even more up-to-date than mine!

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I just wrote an introduction to Getting Things Done on the latest addition to my own little blog network: on selbstadministration.de, I'll cover the topics of self management, organization and using your time reasonably (e.g., for maintaining another blog). Since I'm an IT guy, I'll also have a look at tools and tricks for a more effective and efficient life. Merlin Mann begged me to not make him obsolete, so I decided to write in german language. ;-) I wouldn't mind if some of you supported me in feeding the blog -- it doesn't have to be a one-man-show. So, if you're interested in writing about productivity and life hacks, give me a nudge!

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Via All Things Workplace, I just discovered David Zingers blog about employee engagement, where in his latest entry, he points out the different results of focusing on strengths or on weaknesses of employees. He explains that the Gallup Management Journal had found the following conclusions in their research of employee engagement: If your manager primarily ignores you your chances of being actively disengaged are 40%. If your manager focuses on your weaknesses your chances of being actively disengaged are 22%. If you manager focuses on your strengths your chances of being actively disengaged are only 1%. Obviously, pointing out weaknesses of employees and working together in resolving them isn't the best choice. For someone that always wants to help people develop, this felt a bit weird to myself first. Shouldn't I help my directs overcome their weak sides? But after some thinking, it occured to me that focusing on their strengths instead is actually a very reasonable approach. Employees aren't clay sculptures who I'm to shape, rounding all edges to a perfect state. I'm a leader, not a sculptor. And I don't like to be looked at and treated with the perspective of a sculptor, either. (Hm, why am I thinking of my spouse at this point?) People want to do what they can do best and to be recognized for that. Since it is one of my core beliefs that it's my foremost duty as a leader to make sure that my directs can work their magic as effective as possible, it's actually quite natural to focus on their strengths and to arrange their work in a way that they can employ them most effectively. A good thought to start the next week with.

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Since many attendees of the german blogger conference re:publica in Berlin are avid Twitter users, I'm receeiving my own little live comment stream to my desk. I can see what talks get positive or negative notions and how the conference is going as a whole. As a presenter at re:publica, I'd use this Twitter stream as a source of feedback to improve my presentation style, attitude and choice of topic It's also interesting to watch attendees even make appointments over Twitter. And I already have one very clear insight: at a blogger conference, there's one thing that's even more important than WiFi and power outlets for all the MacBooks: coffee Good coffee :-) PS: For the non-Twitterati, there's also a TumbleLog and a Onelinr backchannel live from re:publica.

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What ever happened to education? common sense? existing laws? (Hm, seems like Twitter is affecting my blogging style. But others have already written prosaic treatises why a code of conduct is utter bullshit anyway.)

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Twitter "XING" 30boxes

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Is it just me or has the ground temperature just dropped by 30 degrees?

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There are no technical solutions for mental problems.

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After using Vitalist for some weeks now, I think I really found my task planning solution. It's the complete concept of David Allen's Getting Things Done book (by the way, there's finally also a german translation) implemented as an easy to use Web 2.0 application. Over the weekend, the folks at Vitalist Solutions have released new features they had announced on their blog over the recent weeks: Contexts as Tags: the contexts a task can be handled in are displayed more prominently. Sub-Projects: you can now build a project tree by splitting a big project into several small ones. Quick Add/Edit: entering new tasks is now even easier. Priorities: you can give every task one of four priorities, symbolized by a coloured star. Michael Ramm has a detailed review of Vitalist over at the Black Belt Productivity blog. Like Michael, I see no need to get the paid version with features like encryption, attachments and collaboration. The free version has everything I need to get the calming feeling that everything gets taken care of in time. So, if you're looking for a GTD solution that you can access from everywhere you have net connectivity, give Vitalist a test drive. (Robert, it's time to offer an affiliate program!)

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Last week, I added another card to the board that displays my team's tasks for the coming weeks, saying "Having Fun". It stands out because it's green, in contrast to the white task cards. And tomorrow, I'm going to ask them what things there are that rain on their parade. We will talk about sources of unhappiness at their job and how we can get rid of them. Yes, I've been on a kind of happiness trip over the last weeks. But it's not because I've joined some joyful cult but because I get paid to maximize my team's productivity. And there is a direct relation between happiness and productivity, as Alexander Kjerulf points out in his blog entry Top 10 reasons why happiness at work is the ultimate productivity booster The 10 reasons he explicates on his blog are: Happy people work better with others Happy people are more creative Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them Happy people have more energy Happy people are more optimistic Happy people are way more motivated Happy people get sick less often Happy people learn faster Happy people worry less about making mistakes - and consequently make fewer mistakes Happy people make better decisions That's a buttload of advantages happy people have over their unhappy colleagues, isn't it? Therefore, I find it one of my foremost duties to take care of my team's happiness. Let's see how well they do on the "I feel good" scale.

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