All Entries in the "Weblogs" Category
Give Yourself One Hour A Day…Or, At Least, 60 Minutes
Last month, Todd and I ran across this article (via Consumerist) about how Charlie Munger, the Vice-Chairman of Warren Buffett’s investment company Berkshire Hathaway, used to set aside one hour each day to work on personal side-projects for himself. I like this idea for a couple of reasons:
- One hour is about all the time I can spend on a project right now.
- It’s such a small amount of time that the pressure of producing something “epic” is kept at bay.
Over time, these little actions will yield big results. It’s not a new idea, I know. But it’s easy for me to get caught up in a mental gumption trap, believing that I shouldn’t or can’t start something right now because I don’t have the time to give it the attention I feel it deserves or needs. Of course, that is complete and utter bullshit.
Over the past week, I’ve been trying to keep this in mind, working on various side projects I’ve intended to get around to someday. Not surprisingly, at the end of each hour, it’s satisfying to have been able to work on something that’s been sitting around in my head for weeks, months, and years.
After doing this for just one week, a couple of things become obvious:
- I still watch too much television.
- I don’t get enough sleep.
And these two things greatly influence how well I do other things throughout the day. I need to fix that.
As the article asks
“…if you aren’t satisfied with your current situation, why not work for yourself an hour each day? Instead of just idle dreaming, set aside specific time for action. Perhaps the key is small chunks of time, but at regular intervals.”
How very Kaizen. How very Bird by Bird.
At the end of the month, I’ll have a better idea of which projects I’m actually enjoying spending time on, and which ones I’m better off ditching.
Not Swallowed In The Sea
For my three readers that stop by on a quasi-semi-regular basis, you’re probably stunned to see a new post here. It’s nice to be surprised every once in a while, isn’t it?
The thing is that writing has been on my mind lately, and I’ve been pondering and cobbling together bits of a story that will eventually become a full-fledged novel. I haven’t written fiction in a long time, and I’m mentally stiff and creatively out of shape. What I wrote this weekend took way more effort than I expected. It was the creative equivalent of trying to eat a candy apple.
They say the more you write, the better you get, but I wouldn’t know because I’m always restarting from square one. One of the reasons I started a blog was so I would stay in the practice of writing something — anything — no matter how little, on a regular basis. Even if I wasn’t working on anything else, I could mentally shadow box here. Obviously, I made the mistake of neglecting this space. Then again, maybe I needed to be away from it for while, so I could miss it, and get to that point where I wanted to be back here, you know.
Well, for better or worse, I’m back.
He’ll Get Around To It, But He’s A Little Busy Right Now
So, most of the people in my Inner Circle know that a few years ago, Todd quit keeping a personal blog. Well, under threat of being forced to watch Richard Simmons’s 20th Anniversary Edition of Sweatin’ To The Oldies, he’s back on The Tubes. His blog is here.
Oh, yeah. He and his wife, Yuko, had a baby boy, Lio, on Saturday. (Yep, you read that right.) He doesn’t have a blog entry posted yet, but don’t let that stop you from going over and saying hi.
Flock, Inc. The Social Web Browser!
Flock, Inc. The Social Web Browser!
Okay, I’m not really all that jazzed about Flock. I’ve tried it before and thought “meh”, but it’s been a while so I thought I would give it another go. This is just a simple test post to see how well it works.
I usually use Ecto at the house (Mac), and ScribeFire on Firefox when I’m at work (PC), but I try to give other options a fair shake if they look promising.
If any of you out there use Flock, feel free to give me a few tips on how to use it, or let me know some of the features you like.
This concludes the test of posting a blog entry with Flock.
Blogged with Flock
