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January 9, 2014
I’ve been struggling with my motivation lately. Actually, that’s only partily true – it’s motivation + a changed work situation that have thrown my old routines into disarray. But what’s an excuse, and those aren’t useful. What I need are solutions. Two things. First, I refer you to Jerry Seinfeld’s Productivity Secret. Side note: Though he revealed on his recent AMA that he didn’t come up with it, I’m sticking with the name because it’s how I remember it. Sorry Jerry, you’ll...
September 19, 2013
If you’re having trouble getting started, try this: do nothing. Do absolutely nothing until you feel like starting. No internet, no reading, no television, no talking. Sit down somewhere that isn’t too soft and do absolutely nothing. Perhaps a little music is fine if you’re not the type who gets into it too much, but that’s it. If you’re anything like me, doing nothing when there’s something you need to do is hard. It’s easy to procrastinate when you’re doing...
September 10, 2013
Some of the most productive days I’ve ever had were days when I only planned to do one or two things. I don’t mean that strictly literally – basic chores like making meals, cleaning up, and working out (once you’re used to it) don’t count. I’m talking about the rest of it, work and big errands and projects. Here, less is more. When you only try to do a couple of things, it’s much easier to get started. It’s less...
September 3, 2013
Here’s a followup to my post about getting started, specifically about writing. The amount of time I make myself sit down and earnestly try to write every day is 45 minutes. Once I’ve given it my best for 45 minutes, if it’s not in me that day, I can stop. I rarely do. To me, 45 minutes is enough time to get through my initial laziness and reluctance to work (10-25 minutes) and get some good writing in before the...
August 31, 2013
The hardest thing to do is get started, each and every day. Manage that and the rest is easy. Here’s what I do: don’t focus on how much you have to do. Don’t focus on how many hours or how much effort is ahead of you. In fact, don’t even plan to do that much. Instead, plan on only doing a little. You’ll find that once you’ve gotten started, it’s easy to keep going. If you want to. I learned...
August 7, 2013
I used to write a lot of notes. My first few years of “writing” deserve the quotation marks because mostly what I wrote was notes. I was generating ideas, I was scribbling them down, and then I had to organize them. It became a morass where I didn’t actually write any of the story I had set out to tell. I was a writer, but only of notes. That hardly counts. If you want to write, there will be a tendency...
July 16, 2013
In my personal and creative life I’m a compulsive note taker, which has always amused me since I wasn’t like that in school at all. In school – and especially in college – I understood something I’ve had to relearn since. Here it is: The value of notes is in having written them, not reading them later. Don’t believe me? How about this: “Just think about it. Deeply. Then forget it. And an idea will jump up in your face.”...
July 15, 2013
“There is a common mistake that often happens to smart people — in many cases, without you ever realizing it. The mistake has to do with the difference between being in motion and taking action. They sound similar, but they’re not the same.” – James Clear, The Mistake Smart People Make: Being In Motion vs. Taking Action Skim through that article real quick, and then come back and we’ll talk. Done? Good. In my last post I talked about focusing...
July 10, 2013
I had another post in mind today, but I had to stop and write this. It’s too important not to say immediately, for myself as much as you. “Stop thinking of a new habit as something you have to do, but as something you are allowed to do.” -Leo Babauta, Zenhabits.net Some days writing feels like a chore. “Ugh, I need to get started,” I’ll say. “I have to write today.” Have to? Have to? I get to sit down and...
June 24, 2013
As I sit here with a thousand things to do, I feel the pressure. Not the pressure of deadlines, but the frustration of having so much to do that it feels like I will never be done. It feels like a physical weight on my mind, pressing in on me and making it hard to start. I have long been critical of multitasking, and that’s a topic I’ll delve into more in the future. In this case, that’s not what...