Trust your dog and keep trying

A couple of days ago, my wife did something that I wanted to do quite a while now: we went truffle hunting. I found online a forester lady, who organises forays for small groups during the truffle season (from the early summer til December or January), and we decided to have a try for a full day.

On November 1^st, we joined her in a “secret” location somewhere in West Sussex in order to look for this very special mushroom, with the help of her fully trained dogs Zeb the Labrador and Ella the Cocker. After a long route and a morning Truffle bloody mary to celebrate Halloween and get some extra motivation, we made our way to the woods in order to find the brules where the black diamonds usually like to find residence.

After a few hours of unsuccessful hunt, the excitement started to fade away and doubt to emerge: “will I have the chance to see a truffle today?”. At midday, we all had lunch, and even our forester shared with us her growing frustration. No signs from animals in the areas we explored, and no major signs of activity from the dogs.

Dogs… the dogs!

The whole morning, dogs ran around, chased pheasants and other animals, rolled in the leaves, and were more willing to try to get their reward biscuits without even trying to deserve them. At lunch time, Zeb got tied to a tree in order to prevent him from stealing our lunch, one of his favorite activities… Several times they started to dig in the ground in a very energetic and forceful way

At 2pm, the forester tried a last attempt and followed a path that she seemed to recognise from a previous visit in the area. “More choke in this area, this looks more promising” she said. And suddenly, Zeb started to smell the ground and dig in a much more gently way then he did during the morning. The forester recognised this behaviour straight away and ran towards the dog (quick reaction was an absolute necessity as the dog would eat the truffle if we didn’t pay attention) to retain him, went on her knees and started to smell the ground on the very specific point targeted by Zeb.

“YES !! A sweet smell that smells a bit like sweet corn”. And it really does smell like sweet corn, as we all had the chance to stick our nose on the ground.

“Not sure if the truffle is still there… Zeb, find the truffle!” And the dog kept digging, until this very unique moment when a black ball jumped from the ground under the “oooooh” of the fascinated audience.

Our first truffle of the day – or how this silly dog became the hero of the day.

Ten meters away, it’ now Ella’s turn to dig the ground. Another truffle! Even Ella, who did absolutely nothing but slacking the whole morning…

In total, the dogs found about ten truffles that we all shared between ourselves as would the pirates after some pillaging. And this is with our hands full of truffles and other mushrooms that we headed back home after what turned out to be a very good day. Still empty not even two hours before heading back, we finally made this day a success by just:

• Keeping trying… to find another spot, another area, that the forester was convinced it would work. Several failures, and one success – twenty minutes were enough to gather our treasure.
• Trusting the dogs. Even the most unpredictable companions, deprived of conscience, inexhaustible players with poor discipline, can turn desperate situations into winners when they express their talent. It is just about putting them in the best conditions to excel and work for you where and when it matters.

I can’t imagine how my evening would have looked like if we had decided to stop our search at 2pm in order to have a coffee on the field, or if we had just kept the dogs on a leash. It would have certainly been a very usual Sunday night. But it would have never looked like this.

The ultimate self-organisation system

I certainly wasted five years of my life. At least two or three, but most likely around five years.

Why ?

Because five years ago I started one of the most adventurous quest of a lifetime : I started my search for the Holly Graal of white collar workers, i.e the ultimate self-organisation system.

You know, the model of organisation, which makes you turn into a very highly successful person because you are so well organised, which allows you to successfully manage both your professional and personal lives, to carry out all the projects successfully, to manage all your diaries (yeah, you have multiple diaries as you are a very successful person) and your tons of e-mails – successfully, of course.

I think you got the message, the ultimate system is about making you… successful!

All of that with a very minimal effort, because your model is soooo perfect and intuitive that you don’t even think a second that using it effectively may require a bit of focus and a lot of discipline.

It took me a long time to realise what follows, and even longer to admit it deeply down into my  very sensitive heart… but if it can avoid you the same pain, here we are – brace yourself :

The ultimate / perfect self-organisation does NOT exist. It is as real as the perfect job. Because the perfect job does not exist either. You didn’t know that ? Oops… wait… only one thing at a time please, let’s focus on the self-organisation system for today.

Are you surprised (that it doesn’t exist) ? I was ! Provided all the literature available on this topic in all libraries and bookshops across the world, all the articles posted on LinkedIn, facebook etc, all the trademarked methodologies, tools and techniques, I was convinced that I would find the pearl I was looking for in all of that.

---

First illusion: It’s all about the system

First, I started to read about the famous GTD approach. Do you know the GTD approach?

GTD is a model, created by consultant (another one!) David Allen, aiming to enable anybody to effectively and efficiently manage all aspects of their life: professional life, things to do, short term and long terms projects etc. The general idea is that one has to free one’s mind from recalling stuff to do by having a reliable system in place which captures all the stuff to do of any kind for you. It then makes sure to always turn all dimensions of our life into actions, in order to prevent users from having static projects.

GTD is a must-read. It contains a lot of common sense and a bunch of good ideas, which I used for the organisation of all my household’s admin stuff a few years ago. After reading it, I was so motivated to implement it, as it was nice to see a holistic system, which is supposed to cover any situation. I am sure it works and Allen’s method is highly successful. The only problem is that the system becomes more and more complex throughout the book, and the more the system is complex:

1. The more effort is required to apply it on an ongoing basis
2. The more costly it becomes to put in place

Building on point two, it took me so so long to sort out my admin archives that I couldn’t imagine if I had to do so for all the various bits and pieces of my life. And, even more importantly, I realised that the chemistry of the model didn’t really work on me. It was not that obvious and intuitive for me as I thought it would be, hence my growing disappointment. One’s biggest strength also being one’s biggest weakness, this definitely works for GTD: It’s all about the system. And if you don’t buy the system, well, you have to find another one, right?

---

Second illusion: It’s all about the tools

The moment I started to lose my interest in GTD coincided with the moment, in which my Iphone was taking an increasing place in my life. Geek Theobald’s motto at this time was « it’s not about the system, it’s all about the tool ! ». I downloaded tons of various self-organisation apps, always excited to see how each of them was about to revolutionise my life. Evernote, Wunderlist, millions of task lists etc. I tried them all, looking for the ultimate tool, which would allow me to do everything with it : manage personal stuff, professional stuff, save articles and webpages I want to record, manage all types of to do lists, projects, manage my network, upload documents, manage deadlines, set-up reminders etc.

Those apps were really powerful and allowed me to do many things. But to be honest, I challenge anybody to show me that they’re using more than 40-50% of the functionalities available. Personally, I am still using Wunderlist, but only as a light daily to-do list, always open on my browser so that I can record any new task I need to do (pro or personal) at any time.

I don’t even think that I managed to actually use any app highly pro-actively and extensively for more than a week or two. The thing is – and this is how this is how the post now takes a more Freudian perspective – that I am not sure that my subconscious mind completely admitted that all the successes of my life would rely on this little piece of software, which it itself relying on this little piece of hardware called a phone.

Just imagine if I get hacked… Or if my phone gets stolen (the cloud was not as mature as it’is now), or if this f… app just crashes etc. « Your biggest strength is your biggest weakness », as the wise man said. It’s true, that sounds wrong, how can such a small app can have enough space for my unlimited life aspirations. I need more space, more breathing space, I need…

---

Third illusion: It’s all about the attitude

… a lifestyle!

Third step in my journey to find the ultimate system, and again it started with some reading. Some absolutely brilliant reading, of one of the (if not THE) best lifestyle books I have ever read. It’s a best seller called The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss.

Before I speak a bit more about it, just a little warning : this book literally had the same effect as a nuclear bomb blowing in my head. Therefore, and I am speaking first and foremost to my young and sensitive readers, please be careful if you open this book, which may have on your life the same impact as a weapon of mass destruction.

Well, I warned you, so back to our subject. At a very (very) high level, Tim Ferriss’ approach is the following : focus strictly on the important stuff in your life applying the 80:20 rule, delegate or automate the lower value activities, remove all the distractions and useless chitchatting and just don’t wait until you retire in order to enjoy life. Basically, take control of your environment and shape it in order to achieve the things you want in life.

A lot of common sense and some brilliant ideas – definitely worth a read.

So why have I not found there the ultimate answer to my existential question about self-organisation ? This where the pyjamas and the slippers come into place. Ferriss’ approach is definitely too much for me. It is too revolutionary, and I just don’t want that. I don’t want, within only three weeks, to travel to Australia, become a taekwondo champion or a bikram yoga instructor and speak fluently the Esperanto. I don’yt want to hire a personal assistant in India to book my British Airways tickets to France every couple of months.

This approach is too hedonistic and hardcore for the grandpa sleeping in me. My aspiration is about being happy with the people I love, and doing things I truly like instead of experiencing a maximum of things…

I prefer a passion or a hobby performed with care to a bulimia of short term  « fun stuff ».

Well, not Tim Ferriss’s approach then, or only a few interesting bits.

Then what ?

---

The truth: It’s all about myself

The illumination came when I started to realise that instead of choosing THE system, THE tool or THE lifestyle that would make my life, I’d rather choose MY system, MY tool and MY lifestyle, the ones I feel will support me in all my projects.

This quest is not over for me, but now I know I have enough resilience, because I truly believe in the following statement : If this system resonates in you and in your life, it will reach on its own a sufficient degree of maturity to be effective and efficient to support you in all your endeavours. It only requires a bit of resilience.

It’s all pretty simple :

Why would you use a sound-based alert on your phone for reminders if you constantly listen to music on your computer with your headphones ? …

Why would you use Evernote if you don’t have a smartphone ? …

Why would you use a big white board to manage tasks if you live in a 10 sq. meter flat ? …

Why would you use daily planning sessions if you are not a morning person ? …

And above all…

WHY WOULD YOU USE TO-DO LISTS IF YOU ABOLUTELY HATE TO-DO LISTS ? …

Finding my own system is a fun adventure, especially because it also involves my wife (for all the households stuff), and I am sure it will be even more fun with kids. And this is this adventure that I want to share with you on this blog, because I have the ambition to make my home the most enjoyable place possible… and prove anyone that having a management consultant in pyjamas and slippers at home is always useful.

I haven’t been truly honest in saying that I had wasted 5 years of my life, because on the contrary, it is certainly thanks to the long route made since I bought the GTD book that I am here trying to figure out how I am going to build the organisation framework that is going to support the next decades of my life.

However, don’t misunderstand me! I am not saying in this post that all self-organisation systems are working. Some systems are rubbish. But they are rubbish because they are just not right for the people using them, not because they have fundamentally intrinsic flaws. And some systems can even be surprisingly working against all the odds: you certainly remember this old or current colleague of yours, who is so disorganised that you wonder “how the hell is that possible that this person just… survives on his/her own?”. But this person does survive… and we may be the ones being mistaken here to some extent.

If you’re still not convinced, just be aware that Egyptians built one of the greatest civilisations ever writing all the society’s admin stuff on papyrus! Papyrus! They didn’t need GTD, neither the iphones, nor a fancy lifestyle, in order to manage the harvests and build the pyramids. And they developed their own perfect system only based on stones and papyrus, primarily because they had plenty of that.

Time to act, let’s put ourselves at the centre of our own game…