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- July 17, 2014
Life Lessons from Online Role Playing
July 17, 2014Read more
It’s Wednesday in my BLOGGING FOCUS WEEK, and after a productive Monday I found myself falling back into playing WildStar, the multiplayer sci-fi online game that I’ve been talking about recently. As I noted in my production-vs-consumption breakdown, I’ve been spending 35-40 hours a week playing this game, staying up way too late. That is an AWFUL LOT of “consuming” behavior, but I’ve started to realize that it’s actually not pure empty-headed button mashing. I’m actually learning how to be a more social, outgoing person because of the online Role Playing (aka RP) community. In fact, for the past two weeks I’ve actually not been playing WildStar as a game. I’ve instead been living inside the game’s virtual society!
The long, bizarre tale of this two-week journey, plus the three life insights I gained from it, follow below. It’s really long and rambly, I’m afraid, but a few of you out there might find the idea of “learning how to make small talk” by “pretending to be a nice blue cat girl” interesting and weird! (more…)
- July 14, 2014
Using Themed Work Weeks instead of Themed Work Days
July 14, 2014Read moreLast week I was talking to my cousin about the work we’re doing together for UCLA, and he suggested devoting a week to the project to renew momentum on the project. I loved the idea; he looked up which weeks in July would work with his busy schedule, and I was able to allocate the same weeks.
This got me thinking about the other projects on my plate. Right now, they are comprised of work for another client and the stuff I’m doing for myself via blogging and product-making. I wondered if I could also devote a week to each of these projects as well, which might help resolve some ongoing issues with distraction I’ve been having.
Thus was born the idea of themed project weeks to replace the themed days appraoch I have been using for the past year. Details follow! (more…)
- July 7, 2014
2014 Resolutions Review 05: Limited Progress
July 7, 2014Read moreAh, it’s time for the 5th Groundhog Day Resolutions Review for 2014!
We’re right in the middle of the short New England summer. Because this time of year is so fleeting, I tend to want to spend my time outside. Not actually outside, mind you, but near it so I can enjoy feeling warm. Actual nature, with its plentiful swarms of mosquitoes and poison ivy lurking along every path, tends to leave me cold. Instead, I celebrate with ice cream and watermelon, wearing flip flops, and generally just enjoying the feeling that things are HAPPENING.
So what happened this past month? Let’s review my goals, and measure my accomplishments. (more…)
- July 1, 2014
The Ramadan ETP w/ Productive Muslim
July 1, 2014Read more
About a month ago the folks at Productive Muslim contacted me about the possibility of making something for Ramadan, the month of fasting that is observed by Muslims around the world. During our quick Skype, I learned a tiny bit about Ramadan and its role as a month of spiritual reflection, and the practical details of the fast. What I hadn’t expected, and realized I had never really thought about, was how it impacted productivity. It’s apparently quite challenging to be fasting, praying five times a day, AND still have a regular work week. I was asked if perhaps I had some thoughts on how one might make something for this?
As someone who likes (or rather, can’t help) mixing my personal values with my work, I immediately wanted to have a go at it, especially in the spirit of spiritual cooperation! We were able to come up with a quick modification of the Emergent Task Planner with the following changes:
- Removal of fixed hours in the DAY GRID on the left, using the five prayer times instead, as the reference times. Sunrise and sunset vary by day and geographical region, so putting in hours w/ labeled prayer times would not have been feasible. I find it interesting to use the prayers themselves as reference points too; you’re NOT GOING TO MISS those prayer times, so I imagine they may be even better anchors for the day that plain old hours.
Splitting the NOTES section into two, adding a RAMADAN SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS section. This is, after all, a time of such reflection, so building it right into the form makes perfect sense.
Modifying the text provided by the staff at Productive Muslim, and making it all fit.
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p>There is only the A4 B&W size available; maybe next year we will try something fancier based on feedback. If you’d like to give it a try, head on over to The Ramadan ETP page on their website.
- June 30, 2014
Producing Day 23-29: A Week of Data
June 30, 2014Read moreI somehow made it through the entire week without writing a blog post about the daily grind as I measure my production versus consumption ratio. I’m just about to wrap up the month of data monitoring, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the week as a whole:
The above diagram shows an increasingly-familiar pattern. On the left is the amount of time spent during the weekdays, and on the right are weekends. Green represents time that can be construed as producing creative works, while orange represents time spent consuming. As I’d feared, the majority of my time is spent consuming. (more…)
