Interview
Shaun Inman
What are some things you do to help yourself into the state of mind necessary for creative work?
What's creative work? All I do is support.
Do you follow a strict daily (or weekly, etc.) routine with regard to workflow, or is every day (or week) different?
Every day is different and is usually dependent on the volume of Mint support requests that arrive overnight, the particular problems and how responsive the troubled user is (time between emails, general attitude).
Do you prefer to work in a closed, private environment free from other people and distractions, or in a more open, collaborative environment?
Definitely a private environment. I find it extremely difficult to maintain momentum when working with or around other people.
What do you do to get your day(s) started in the right direction?
Keeping a list of todos and consulting it to identify a realistic number of goals for that day--before checking email--can help shore up your day against meandering tangents.
What task management technique do you use?
I always keep a simple todo.txt open in BBEdit. It has two sections, "todo" and "done". Time-insensitive things get added to the todo list and moved to the done list once completed. Time-sensitive items can bypass the doc entirely or go straight to the done list once completed--depending on how important the task was.
What things tend to disrupt your workflow?
Support emails. Volume, difficulty of request and responsiveness of the user are huge variables in my day-to-day work.
What previous experiences have influenced your workflow?
The guys at Silverpoint are great at making lists. They send out OMPs every morning ("On my plate") where they share what they will be working on that day with the entire team. It helps keep everyone in the loop and forces you to consider and set achievable goals for the day.
What other disciplines influence the way you work?
Software development (iterate, iterate, iterate).
Is there anyone in particular you have learned from?
Angelo Otterbein at Silverpoint, list builder/demolisher extraordinaire.
What things help keep you focused on the work at hand?
Turning off instant notification/growls of incoming email and IMs. Avoiding Twitter and other social status sites. I check my work and support feeds no more than once an hour. I only get on IM when I'm supporting someone via IM. I've never used Twitter. Sometimes music helps focus that creative energy but other times it's just a distraction, it all depends on what kind of thinking I am doing and the number of variables involved in the decision making.