Archive for the ‘Get things done’ Category
Over-consuming: Creating an incentive to publish
I spend a lot of time just consuming new ideas: reading blogs, twitter, books, watching TED talks… theres a lot of information out there.
And yet until recently blog was sitting stagnant.
I came up with the idea to use it as an incentive:
When I feel like consuming – I’m at a loose end, the automatic response is just to read blogs for a while.
Don’t. Publish instead.
Write something.
If I’m struggling with a problem.
Procrastinating.
Write about it.
I decided I’d try this for a week. And it’s been 2 weeks now.
I’m not doing it religiously but it got me started blogging again.
I’m still reading other blogs – but only a few key ones – and only when I actually have time – not when procrastinating.
Try it out.
Leave a comment and let me know if this worked for you too.
Or just tell me what strategies you have instead.
Redesigning your career.. don’t do it all at once.
I wrote this up quite some time ago but it seems most of it is just as relevant now.
Inspired by this lifehacker post – Tim Ferriss and Marci Alboher on Redesigning Your Career – featuring Tim Ferris and Marci Alboher talking at Google about of their books.
The main gem I took from listening to them talk is this:
You can pursue multiple careers but don’t try and pursue them all at once.
Drive and build one for a while then move onto the next one… while continuing the previous one. Keep adding incrementally.
In the past I’ve made a few attempts at to do everything at once.
It doesn’t usually work out for me.
Start with one thing – what’s most important or urgent right now
Get it moving quickly and then tweak it
(Hat tip: Ben Young (@bwagy) and Chris Guillebeau for various chats and comments about this)
De clutter your head
De-cluttering things is great
It creates space for new things
De-cluttering a house, creates a nicer space to live in.. and gives space for things you actually want
Clear out old documents, photos, projects, etc… create space for new ones that you actually want now
De-clutter your head…
This is part of why I blog.
It gets the ideas out of my head,
gets them into the world,
where they can contribute to others…
But it also de-clutters my head
Creating space for new ideas, new thoughts
(See also: Seth Godin talking about why he blogs)
Spring Resolution: Do less, Impact more…
Do less, Impact more
That’s what I came up with when trying to squeeze my current ideas into 4 words for a recent Intersect meetup.
It is in part I was inspired by this recent post by Seth Godin.
I keep saying I’m busy and don’t have time to do things, but yet I’m spending a lot of my ‘non work’ time either doing things I feel a duty to do, instead of the things I really want to do.
So over the next few months, I’m going to endeavour to start doing less of the things I just do automatically or out of duty.
This doesn’t mean I’m just going to abandon things I’m expected to do (like fixes for old clients).
- That wouldn’t serve me or anyone else very well
But I’m going to start tieing up the loose ends: fixing problems properly, so I only do it once.
If I still have to do something I’m not excited about, I want to do it consciously not just as an automatic reaction.
Basically I’m aiming to discover how much free time I really have and then be able to dedicate that to things I’m really passionate about.