Category: Productivity Booster

I am going to be passing this over to the Marketing Over Coffee audience later today or tomorrow, but I figured that since there are a lot of Bostonians that read over here I’d give you guys first crack.I have a pair of tickets to The New Marketing Summit coming up on the 14th and 15th at Gillette Stadium. Get a chance to meet the organizers: David Meerman Scott, Paul Gillin, and Chris Brogan. Christopher Penn will also be presenting. Comment here if you want one and I’ll follow up with you.

I’ve had to fill out a bunch of forms recently for a number of different events. New events can be very exciting, covering hot topics and having no established old guard to leave the FNG’s feeling left out. On the other hand, with things being done for the first time, often on the fly, things can slip through the cracks.

Any time you request copy from someone be sure to give them a word count, even as only an outline. Nothing will make a brochure or look weirder, or make your graphic design job a real headache than having paragraphs of text from 20-1,000 words to string together. If you’re going to farm out work, be sure to set some guidelines, otherwise it may be more headache than it’s worth.

A couple of days ago I noticed a twitter post from Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang that made it sound like he is considering switching to the Dvorak keyboard layout. I felt I was in a unique position to respond after having switched to Dvorak about 5 years ago.

As usual, Wikipedia has a fine overview here if you are unfamiliar with Dvorak, but here’s the short version: back before the dawn of history, like the 70’s, there used to be these things called typewriters. If you are less than 25 you may have never even seen one, but the idea was that you had a keyboard and when you pushed a key, this little metal arm with a stamp of a letter on it would hit an ink-soaked ribbon and make that mark on a piece of paper (photo via Creative Commons on Flickr from Shel Israel).

Even if you have seen or used a typewriter you may not know that there is a reason behind the way the keys are laid out. The overall gist of these legends is that if you typed too fast these swinging metal arms would snag each other and jam the machine. To avoid this the keys were assembled in a formation to slow you down.

Dvorak applied some science and came up with an alternate layout that would allow you type as fast as humanly possible. Both Mac and PC support Dvorak (former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold is said to type in the 80 words per minute range, and his rank might explain why when you have Dvorak activated in Windows you can toggle back and forth between it and QWERTY (standard keyboard layout, named after the top left row of keys), using left CTRL and Shift keys.

Ok, so you’ve been brought up to speed. Here’s the meat – what you need to know if you consider switching:

1. You’ll notice that it’s easier – Even when you start you’ll feel how much better it is having the most frequently used keys in the right spots. This is important in extending your typing lifespan. After 10 years of hammering on crummy laptop keyboards on a desk my hands, wrists and arms were often stiff or aching. I made a full switch to a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, a trackball (much less stress than a mouse) and Dvorak. Easier also translates to less pain if typing is your life, it will add years to it.
2. Difficult to learn – There are two major problems here. First you are going to drop down under 25 words per minute for up to a month and it will take a long time to get up over 50 wpm. It took me over a year to get back up over 60 wpm, that’s a big productivity hit for a full year. The other problem is that you need to find a typing tutor software that works with the dvorak layout. Most typing tutor programs are designed to teach you row by row, and that is no longer valid when you change the layout.
3. It’s Faster – With the same amount of work you will type faster once you get up to speed. The world record holders are on Dvorak. When you go back to a QWERTY keyboard you’ll realize how rotten the layout is. Overall I am about 5 wpm faster (You can test your typing speed here, feel free to share your scores). Speed is an interesting factor – if you are doing transcription this will put you in another league. On the other hand you may notice that you are not actually held up by your hands, but by your mind as you are putting together sentences (in technical writing for example). I know that although my mind is not nimble enough to change gears between layouts, I always have a problem with my thoughts coming faster than my hands or mouth can write or recite them.
4. What you see is not what you get – Hardware is a big problem. You can either pay big bucks to get a Dvorak keyboard, or you bust out the Sharpie and write the new letters on them. If you are using someone else’s machine you are stuck. The only good news is that after you have made the transition you are rarely looking at the keyboard.
5. Transition is hell – going from 65wpm down to half that is incredibly frustrating for the first month.
6. Games and death of the holy trinity – Many games use an arrow formation like AWD for Left-Forward-Right. All these are ruined in Dvorak, but most games allow you to remap the keys. The same goes for the trinity – if you are a hardcore keyboard user you know the trinity – XCV, three keys that with the Control key are cut, copy and paste (being error prone, I add the fourth, Z, for undo). These keys are now spread apart, but there is an alternate dvorak layout that leaves them together just in case you are an uber freak who wants to use a bizarre, seldom used keyboard variation on top of a bizarre, seldom used keyboard layout.
7. Not everyone can switch – This is another critical point, this has to do with your brain and motor skills. I’ve read of some who can touch type 60wpm on both layouts. I don’t know if this is true, but I cannot do this. From my limited research, most people can type one layout or the other, not both. If you have the capacity to do both, then there’s nothing holding you back, you should switch to Dvorak at once, if you are like me and have some real mental issues that will take you up to a year to get back up to speed you may not want to go this route.
8. Security Bonus – Nobody else can type on your keyboard unless they know the secret Ctrl&Left-Shift code.
9. You are one huge frackin’ geek – This makes you a card carrying member of the dork club. I always get the same weird look when I have to explain to people why my keyboard doesn’t type the letters on the keys. I think it’s the same look you’d get if you were in High School and you were talking to the Cheerleading Captain about the cool Dungeons and Dragons and video game festival you dressed up in costume for last weekend. Please let the record accurately reflect that I have never dressed in costume.
10. Some keys get lost – If you have need for some of the more screwed up characters like the curly bracket or the pipe you will have a hard time finding them, I had a hard time with them on the standard layout anyway.
11. Passwords can be tougher – Not getting any visual feeback and using strong passwords can be tough now and then, I’ve had to resort to using notepad to confirm I have them right and then pasting them over. No hunt and peck for accuracy when the keys have the wrong letters on them.

Who should switch? If you type more than 4 hours a day, or to the point that you are in pain, you will get a productivity boost and pain reduction in the long run.

Who should not switch? If you spend more than an hour a day on a shared machine it’s not worth it unless you are a brainiac that can shift gears between layouts. If typing is not a core competency for what you do, don’t bother.

In closing, the benefits are not as great as I had hoped, I would have liked 10 wpm. On the other hand, I understand you can switch back in less than a month, but I wouldn’t want to. Your keyboard sucks.

Further comments: After posting, I forgot – there is actually a relevant business and Marketing point here. Consultants use Dvorak as an example of human behavior, market power and human factors. Even though Dvorak is an obviously superior and more efficient way to lay out a keyboard because the standard has been set the world lives with the crummy layout. It’s a good case study for the “We do it this way because everyone else does” mindset that plagues every bureaucracy.

1. Keep a first aid kit in the crates – it’s not a show without somebody bleeding at some point
2. A bottle of scotch is good too – a painkiller, and it can be traded to get your cases back after the show
3. Arrive a day early to set up, already have the address to Home Depot in your GPS
4. Always Advance Ship to the Warehouse
5. Bring a box cutter but always keep it in the show cases, bring it to the airport and your next prostate exam might be at Git’mo
6. Packing Tape, Black Sharpie, Flash Drive with soft copies of all show collateral
7. Get your bill of lading 3 hours before closing if possible
8. Bring a tape measure, you can use that with the duct tape and knife to snake power under your carpet
9. Order the padding
10. Staffing adequately beats good shoes

Tonight I just wrapped up my 7th and final ooVoo session (thanks to Sherman and Sean for a great chat). Just in case you missed it, ooVoo allows video conferencing for up to 6 people with audio for free. If you are familiar with Skype and have done video chat there, add 4 more people and you get the idea.

As far as best practices:

1. Insist that all callers use headsets or earphones. Sound coming out of PC speakers that can hit the mic will cause an echo that can mess up the audio for everyone.
2. Have some serious bandwidth, a solid 100kpbs per user on the call is a good place to start.
3. As moderator you must keep control of the call – introduce topics and call out to bring everyone into the conversation. I also attended 4 other sessions and Steve Hall did a great job of keeping a call moving and I’ve tried to steal some of his style.
4. Have your topics listed before the call begins – treat it more like a meeting than a casual conversation. Have an agenda and topics ready to go.

The best part of it for me was to have more of a two way conversation, you get instant feedback and it’s much easier to learn from others. On the down side, limiting the conversation to 6 creates a smaller overall audience. One thing I might like to try is to get a panel of 6 that can work well together and record it for release as a video podcast. I think it might be able to work if you had the right group of people.

Overall it was a great project, I’d definitely use video chat again in the future.

A little more than a month back I wrote a post about how to get the most out of social networking events. Chip Griffin from Media Bullseye asked me to beef it up a bit and the new, updated version is up. Learn how to network like a pro over at Media Bullseye.

Would you like to talk with some of the sharpest minds in marketing and new media (or how about to me)? You can take part in these Video discussions for FREE.

I’m really psyched to have been selected to take part in My ooVoo Day, a program with a bunch of Marketing and New Media folks who are going to be talking about whatever you want to talk about.

All you have to do is set up an ooVoo account (it’s like Skype but with video), and then sign up for one of the sessions I’m doing. And while you are there you might want to check out some of the other presenters like:

• Mitch Joel/Six Pixels of Separation – always good
• Steve Hall/AdRants – I’m in on this one
• Bob Garfield/AdAge & On the Media
• Joseph Jaffe/JaffeJuice – Sippin’ on Jaffe Juice
• John Wall & Christopher Penn/Marketing Over Coffee
• iJustine
• Marshall Kirkpatrick/ReadWriteWeb
• Irina Slutsky/GeekEntertainment.tv
• Connie Reece & Susan Reynolds Every Dot Connects / Boobs on Ice
• Chris Thilk/Movie Marketing Madness
• Erin Kotecki Vest/Queen of Spain
• Dave Delaney/Two Boobs and a Baby +
• Jack Myers & Friends/Media Village
• David Meerman Scott/The New Rules of Marketing & PR – On a tear this year
• Geoff Livingston/Now Is Gone
• Allan Cox/Your Inner CEO
• George Parker/Madscam
• Scott Sigler
• Chris Brogan – Hard drinking Social Media Superhero
• C.C. Chapman – had a cameo in B.J. and the Bear
• Susan Reynolds/Boobs on Ice
• Laura “Pistachio” Fitton – loses cameras

This event is open to the pubilc but there are only 5 slots per session so you have to sign up quickly to guarantee that you’ll get to see some of the bigger names. The first 5 to sign up for one of my sessions and comment here will get a $5 Dunkin Donuts coffee card from Marketing Over Coffee.

Please don’t let me be the loser that nobody signs up for. At the very least, get in on the first Monday at Noon, my co-host from Marketing Over Coffee – Christopher Penn, will also be on that one (I’m going to see if I can get him in on the others but that’s the only one confirmed).

I hope to see you there!