Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Productivity 2 Here's another great life post from Zen Habits--Productivity 2.0. I'm working on number 8 (although I do a lot of things besides Automation World). You've got to read the whole thing, but here's the list: 1. Don't Crank - Work with deeper focus 2. Minimize meetings and planning -- just start 3. Paperwork is out -- automate with technology (amen!) 4. Don't multi-task -- multi-project and single-task 5. Produce less, not more. (More can be just a big pile of crap) 6. Forget about organization -- use technology 7. Out with hierarchies -- in with freedom 8. Work fewer hours, not more (find interests outside the job to stay fresh) 9:09:22 AM    comment []

Houston I'm in Houston, and the thing that struck me is that there are almost no signs that a major hurricane roared through here a month ago. Fantastic clean up job. ARC Advisory Group decided to compete with the ISA Expo and hold a Forum on asset management. Looks as though he has 260 registered attendees with about 50 from end user companies. We stopped at the reception last night and got caught up with a number of industry people around the small exhibits. This forum is replacing the annual June one on software (enterprise applications). There has been so much consolidation in the enterprise software space, and the remaining ones in manufacturing spend very little promotional money. That makes for shallow business opportunities in that space. We can do it at Automation World because I view that area as just one essential component of an overall automation system (sorry, I'm a systems theorist). I'll be back over there this morning staying through the Emerson-sponsored lunch. Then it's off to the ISA Expo where I have wall-to-wall meetings for two days. I hope I can blog some of the news. I already have enough material for several Feed Forward blogs and several Automation Gear blogs. Now, finding time to write... 8:30:46 AM    comment []

ISA Back from a 3 mile run down San Felipe ran into Dick Caro in the Marriott lobby. Attention Wes: ISA now officially stands for International Society of Automation. By the way, Dick, who is a well known networking guru, has started a subscription newsletter on wireless called the "CMC Wireless Report." The link goes to a sample report. Good luck with the new endeavor, Dick. 8:17:06 AM    comment []