- Most Recent | Since 2004
- List View
- Archive
- April 18, 2015
Mall Finds! Skechers Flip Flops and LoveSac Sactionals
April 18, 2015Read moreWas at the Mall for the first time in months, and experienced two good finds. First, I didn’t know Skechers sold flip flops made from memory foam and yoga mat materials! Second, I think I have found the ideal modular couch system for my Living Room Cafe from, of all places, the LoveSac beanbag people. (more…)
- April 18, 2015
Droplet: Productivity Tracking and the Internet of Things
April 18, 2015Read moreI got some email about Droplet, a physical button that you can stick to something to track when you’ve done something. The great thing about this is that instead of having to haul out your smart phone, you put the button in the environment you are working in and press it to signal you have finished. For location-based activities, this is great for developing habits. It uses some kind of hub to work with multiple buttons, and there is apparently a smart phone app that can remind you when you forget to do things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAYi3Gf7xw
It’s a little pricey at $79 for one button and one hub, but you can check it out on their Kickstarter page. I am a big fan of context-based workflow, so embrace your inner lab rat, develop some habits!
- April 15, 2015
MicroTask 09: Trying to make progress in the face of distractions
April 15, 2015Read more
Yesterday I deployed the “project” version of my Microtask sheet, but it was one of those days filled with interruptions: running tax-related errands, yet another USPS package mis-delivery, and dealing with various non-profit related requests. On the bright side I had a great Skype chat with another productivity/flow enthusiast, which reminded me that YES, THERE ARE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO GET IT.
Where was I going with this? Oh, I didn’t get anything done yesterday micro-task wise. Or maybe I did; it depends on how I look at it. (more…)
- April 13, 2015
MicroTask 08: Drawing Boxes to Trick Myself
April 13, 2015Read more
The first week of my microtask experiment seemed to go pretty well. For this week, I’ve decided to apply the microtasking to actual project work to see how it might work with themed work weeks. I’d liked themed work weeks, but fell out of the habit when my time was mostly consumed by the big project. I guess I needed a mental break from programming. So for this week, the big project focus is artificial intelligence for Project 1401, which was what I’ve been trying to get in the mood for doing over the past few weeks.
Rather than launch right into it, I designated today’s microtask as making a project-oriented microtask sheet, so I could continue applying microtasking in this specific project context. It feels a bit like procrastination because my idea of a day of productivity is 8 hours of intense banging-away at the same task until it is done. The microtask experiment, by comparison, is about learning to pace myself and accept a lower level of performance. It drives me kind of nuts, but I suspect my current mental image of productivity leads to burnout and anxiety. And so, I put aside my feelings that I was cheating by not doing REAL work and moved to my microtask. (more…)
- April 13, 2015
Harmontown: Nerds full of Love
April 13, 2015Read more
Community is one of my all-time favorite television shows. It’s a comedy about a bunch of misfits trying to rebuild their lives at a community college and the unlikely friendships that ensue, all of it heavily-layered with meta-humor and pop culture references. The show is equally famous for its troubled-but-funny creator Dan Harmon, who after being fired from his own show in Season 4 for being difficult to work with, started a podcast and then took his show on the road to bring the show to multiple cities in the United States. The documentary Harmontown centers around post-fired Dan Harmon, his co-host, his girlfriend, and his dungeon master as he goes from city to city, reflecting on the nature of his self-destructive behavior and the mysterious connection he has with his audience. It is an unexpectedly uplifting documentary, helping me identify that feeling of disconnection that I often feel in the pursuit of my own selfish interests. First of all, this quote strongly resonated with how I want to feel:
Here’s the thing that, I think, saves me every time and I think saves all the people out there. I truly believe, about myself and about every single person in that audience, that they want other people to be happy.
You can be selfishly motivated, that’s ego-driven, but that’s as good as ego-driven gets is when you go, “I want to be the guy who makes people happy.”
I don’t like it when people are sad, disaffected, or otherwise feeling oppressed. And at the same time, I am dogged by feelings of disconnection. I have different priorities and different interests, and there are times when the world accessible to me is against it. Harmon relates a story that he hears frequently from his fans:
“I was sitting in my apartment, surrounded by pizza boxes and mannequin legs of my own. I thought there was something wrong with me. My next door neighbor didn’t like me. I felt like every time I opened my mouth, I had to lie because I don’t like what’s inside of me. And then I heard your podcast or I saw your TV show and something about it made me feel like I didn’t have to be ashamed of myself anymore. And it’s made me more able to express myself and it’s made me able to do what you’re doing, which is find other people who don’t mind what I’m saying.“
I’m a huge Community fan, so I probably get more from this documentary than a non-fan, but it’s notable for its willingness to reveal the darkness that goes hand-in-hand with creative drive. It’s for anyone in a creative pursuit that feels appreciated but not understood, filled with love but disconnected from their tribe.
