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- September 9, 2016
Groundhog Resolutions Review #7 (September 2016)
September 9, 2016Read moreIn last August’s Groundhog Day Resolutions Review, I was recovering from burnout brought on (I thought) by too much goal-seeking and travel. I’d also been frustrated by the lack of progress on my important projects, isolation, and the necessity of working by myself to make progress. All these conflicting goals ate me up, so I decided to cut a lot of projects and expectations out of my head, and stopped looking at my big project list. For a while, I was quite depressed and completely lacking in energy. (more…)
- August 26, 2016
Ambient Coworking Chat on Discord
August 26, 2016Read more
For the past three weeks I’ve been livestreaming a 15m project push on YouTube so I could have an anchoring daily ritual. This has helped me recover from an extreme slump in productivity I experienced at the end of June through July. While I’m not completely back to feeling 100%, I’ve gained a new insight into the condition that caused the slump in the first place: the lack of creative community interaction coupled with a sense of meaningful progress. Livestreaming early in the morning for just 15-30 minutes seems to set the tone for my day, even if there is no one watching. It’s a habit I’m thinking of maintaining at least for another few weeks.
Discord, the chat room for gamers
One issue I’ve had with the livestreaming is just being aware when someone asks a question in the chat. I’ve spooled up a Discord server to help with real-time chatting on YouTube AND also when I’m not livestreaming. If you’re not familiar with Discord, it’s a “chat room app” like Slack, except it is designed for gamers instead of business. Discord provides the basics in an accessible and free platform that is easy to use. I’m using the Discord App on my computers and mobile devices, but you can also just open the chat room in a browser if you don’t want to mess with yet-another-program.
Chat room organization
I’m starting to sit in the chatroom throughout the day. It’s split into two main kinds of channels: working channels where text/voice is primarily work-related, and the social channels for any random socialization or conversation. Discord supports both text and voice pretty well, and it’s easy to jump between channels. To get to the chat room, use the https://davidseah.com/discord link. At the moment I’m sitting in the #chat text channel and “ambiant work” voice channel, so you can hear me typing and muttering to myself.
It’s surprising how reassuring I find it to hear that someone else working nearby. I’m planning on sitting in the chat room whenever I’m working on my computer.
Patreon supporters
If you are supporting me on Patreon, let me know your Discord username and I’ll add you to the special patron list. Currently this just allows me to recognize who is supporting me so I can be supportive right back! As time goes on, I will be using the Discord as a way to facilitate real-time group chat for Patron-related projects. Thanks for your support!
- August 15, 2016
This Week’s Experiment: Testing Daily 15-min Project Pushes
August 15, 2016Read moreLast week I did a soft experiment in doing a 15-minute chunk of time first thing in the morning, a repeat of a 2013 daily session I did with a friend of mine. The surprising takeaway was that a small chunk of time applied DAILY did seem to improve my feelings of productivity. I’m curious if I still feel the same way, so I’m running the 15-minute-a-day experiment again for the week of August 15, 2016. This is actually the second week, continuing from last week;
Instead of meeting friends in a chatroom, I’m livestreaming my 7AM-730AM sessions. You can catch the archived streams or check out the livestream if you want to maybe ask some questions there or in my discord chat room.
- August 9, 2016
Groundhog Resolutions Review #6 (August 2016)
August 9, 2016Read moreI’m a day late posting my Groundhog Day Resolutions for August 8. Happily, it marks the end of a month of burnout recovery; the combination of semi-adventurous travel and relentless goal-seeking did me in. Since then, I’ve been operating in a kind of limp-to-recovery mode while administering self-diagnosis.
I am feeling better today because I have a renewed clarity about my end game, shifting the emphasis from “what I have made” to “what I learn and document”. With this change, I think I may be better off. (more…)
- July 25, 2016
Project Updates and Insights for July 2016
July 25, 2016Read more
I’ve been having a lazy few months, working through a depressive funk by taking a break from systematic, scheduled, productivity-oriented thinking. Quite a lot of time was devoted to family and household matters versus work and business. I think I’m coming out of the funk and regaining a sense of positivity. Here’s a hodge-podge of updates, with lots of pictures of food! (more…)
