7 Quick Hacks To Improve Your Productivity

7 Simple Hacks To Better Your Productivity

How do you become more productive?  Is it something that is undefinable or is there a way to improve your productivity?

There are all types of definitions on productivity and various metrics on determining what makes someone more productivity. For example, in Chron magazine, they define the concept of productivity through the metrics of employee output divided by the hours taken to accomplish that specific metric.

1 - Do What You Can Complete The Fastest: 

A task like taking the trash out should only take a couple minutes.  Get it done as early as possible.  The point is to get it done so that it doesn't interfere with your workflow later. Additionally, as discussed on the Simple Programmer blog, doing the easiest tasks first gets small, incremental gains accomplished and gives you momentum toward accomplishing more difficult tasks.

2 - Stop Multi-Tasking:

Concentration and focus are twin engines toward accomplishment.  The idea that we are more productive juggling different tasks is just plain wrong.  Try reading a book while talking about a topic completely disconnected from the material you're reading.  It's an impossible task.  Our brains can't handle that type of input/output effectively, it takes an extra-level of concentration and while you may be able to masterfully handle one of these tasks, you can't master both.

3 - Tackle The Most Difficult First:

There's an article on Lifehacker that details the importance of tackling the most difficult tasks first. In it, the discussion is about knowledge acquisition and how when we first set out to learn something, we read about the details until we grasp them.  Slowly mastery of the subject grows, but the emphasis is on the idea that to learn the concepts on a meta-level, you first need to take on more challenging tasks to learn.  Second, with a finite amount of will power and energy to devote to any particular task, doing the most difficult tasks first will allow you to complete more tasks overall.  Why? Because getting the difficult ones out of the way first, we devote large amounts of energy to them, so that when we get to simpler tasks, we are utilizing an appropriate amounts of will power to those tasks.

4 - Break Large Important Tasks Into Small Ones:

Every marathoner knows that in order to train for a marathon, you have to segment your training into smaller, more manageable distances.  The reasons for this are two-fold: First, it's extremely taxing to run the distances, and Second, the amount of time needed to recover is built-in to this training concepts. You need to think big, act small to better your productivity output.

5 - Use The Pomodoro Technique:

The Pomodoro Technique is a tactic that the person utilizing it sets a timer for a short amount of time, typically 20 minutes.  During the length of time allowed, the person works as intensely as they can and at the conclusion of the timer, they take a short break, typically 5 minutes, from the tasks. This is the 80/20 rule broken into time.

6 - Pace Yourself - Set A Time Limit And Take A Break:

Even as you implement a technique like the Pomodoro one discussed above, research is proving that more productive work is done after an immediate break or vacation. The reason for this is the recovery time allows you to regain energy stores much like an athlete or author.  For the athlete, they know that they have to break down their training into cycles and phase those with proper recovery time.  Ideally recovery needs to be 6x the work load, i.e. 2 hours of work, 12 hours of recovery. Every author knows that while they don't want to break the momentum of their writing, they also need time to think and relax from what the work they were doing previously.

A recent article in Entrepreneur magazine discusses the importance of breaks influencing productivity. The New York Times emphasized the point even more in their article titled "Relax, You'll Be More Productive!"

One way to recuperate and speed up your recovery time is simple: Get More SLEEP

7 - Don't Believe The Myth Of Hyper-Productivity:

We all have limitations. Limitations can exist in our physical endurance, mental willpower, finances, genetics, even sociability. We also only have the same amount of hours as everyone else.  24 hours a day, 365 days a year. That doesn't mean that you can be productive the entire time.  It's a falsehood, one that is perpetuated by the stereotype of the "Puritan Work Ethic."

The Toughest Test

The Hardest Day

While in class my Senior year of high school, it was final exams of the Fall semester.  I had spent the three years after my freshman year turning my academics around.  What had started as a near "Blutarski" G.P.A. of 0.8 at the conclusion of 9th grade, was nearing a 3.0 cumulative. Not the best, but hey, considering where it started, I was pretty damn proud.

I had really gained some steam in school.  I finally felt like I had mastered the material, I had studied my ass off and was more than ready for the exams.

I had swim practice on Monday night.  While the pool was warm, the deck and air was freezing.  It was January after all. I swam a couple hours, feeling the ache each yard put me through.  My arms were spaghetti, my legs burned.

It was a great training.

Afterward, I headed home to finalize my preparation for the exams that started the next day.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up with a flu.  I had a fever, was exhausted and couldn't move without pain.

But I didn't tell anyone.  So I went to class, took my first two exams before heading home and falling into bed for the day.

I didn't go to class the rest of the week, the flu took me down for a few days.  I had to take incomplete grades for each class I missed, and had to retake them once I could schedule the time.

I was unfortunately docked 10% for the delay in taking my exams.  For a couple of them, it was over a month before I was able to take the make-up exams.

I did alright, but I'm positive that I would have fared much, much better had I been able to take them when they were scheduled.

Overcome Your Challenges

Sometimes there are challenges that we face, things that present themselves to be overwhelming.

These challenges can seem like mountains too big to climb, valleys too deep to descend, chasms too wide to jump,  and oceans too broad to swim.

The challenge than, is to find a way to climb, dig, traverse, fly-over or traverse.

Life can be difficult.  It's definitely precious.

The challenge isn't our perception of the problem, rather, it's how we continue on our journey in the face of it.

In memoriam: Pete

Get Going! Why You Need To Get Started With Self-Improvement Goals Even When You're Not Ready

In middle school, I was just as awkward as everyone else.

Not Me BTW

That's not true.

I was more awkward than everyone else I knew.

My braces and spacers came with headgear, that thankfully I only had to wear while I slept.

I wrote my own stories - talked about comics with my brother as if they were real (they were and are!), would spend hours staring at walls to watch shadows move.

At family dinners and gatherings, I'd put headphones on and hide behind couches and chairs. Often I wouldn't be listening to anything, the batteries of my walkman (yes, "walkman" - look it up) having died some days before and I didn't have the money or resources to replace them. 

This post is about how getting started at working toward a goal can lead to even better, sometimes unintentional benefits.

But looking back on that period of my life, all of those problems seem so simple to me now. 

As I was in middle school, confidence was a huge issue.  

I struggled every day to feel a sense of fitting in or being normal. It probably didn't help that I moved between two different middle schools in my area.  

My parents wanted to try them out for my siblings, and being the oldest, I was the crash-test dummy as it were.  You know the crash-test dummy.  They're the mannequins researchers strap into a seat, from cars to airplanes and use to test the types of impact a body may go through in various degrees and speeds of impact.  

Zits were another issue.  

As were my forearms.  

They stung like someone had performed a painful surgery on them while I slept.

I dreamed it was a little doctor in a white lab coat, with a head mirror and stethoscope wrapped around his neck like a waiting boa constrictor while his nurse straps me down on a gurney. 

After a bit, the surgical lighting would be turned on, and he'd perform his magic. Without sound or noise, he'd put extenders into the marrow of my ulnar and radius. Once he was done with my arms, he'd move to my legs.  He inserted the same separators into my shin bones, making them feel like they were bamboo splinters, fiber breaking apart in every direction, and then Poof, he'd be gone.

Until the next visit anyway. My growth spurts hurt like hell. 

But I figure everyone had the same experience with growth spurts.  So that was nothing new.

The one thing that I struggled with, and still do, was my weight.  I always felt too big for my pants and shirts.  I always felt to be like Chris Farley in the movie Tommy Boy: 

Fat Guy In A Little Coat

via GIPHY

So knowing that exercise is an important factor to weight loss, one day I put on my shoes - probably a pair of beat up Converse - this is before the running shoe industry was so omnipotent - and went for a run around the neighborhood.  In my beat up Converse and Levi's and whatever shirt I was wearing already, I went running.  

When a small, overweight middle schooler is running around the neighborhood in regular clothes, the neighbors probably thought it was a bizarre sight to behold.

For poor old Mrs. Swearinger, looking out from the nook of her kitchen window, she probably wondered what had gotten into me. She already knew that we had a bizarre home environment, but now that I was running down the block in the same clothes I had gone to school in earlier, it probably seemed that something was wrong.

Perhaps there was a fire and she should call 9-1-1.  Or perhaps my puppy "Tootsie" got loose and I was running after her.

Maybe she even called my house wondering if everything was ok. 

I don't know what she did that day.

More importantly I didn't care.  

All I knew is I wanted to start running. 

So I did. 

Over time my interest in exercise led me down a path that I never imagined.  

In high school I joined various teams.  Even played a few sports in College.  

And got into coaching for a long time.  Coaching allowed me to work with some amazing colleagues, and mentor a number of outstanding young people, and travel the world. 

All because I went running one day. 

Sometimes our actions can lead to some incredible unintended results.  

But you have to get off your butt and do something to find out. 

Get Along Little Doggies! The Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup 

On Tuesday March 1st I set out to challenge myself to write 31 posts in 31 days.

The point of the exercise was to see if I could maximize my output with the tips I preach within the blog.

So far, the most difficult aspect has been deciding on the type of content to write and in what order.

With that in mind, Monday's will emphasize what has already been written. It's a roundup of all my articles the previous week here at http://david.writerlife.me

So, without further ado - here's the roundup for March 1-7.

Tuesday March 1 - How To Get S#!T Done!

It's all about the process and this post discusses my individual challenges about trying to write, and publish, multiple articles in a week.

In this post, I discuss the value of showing your work, as discussed by Austin Kleon in his book "Show Your Work"- a short, quick read that I have gotten into lately.

I used the image of a sausage maker for you, the reader, to grasp the analogy that it's all about the process and me showing you how I go about blogging.

Wednesday March 2 - How To Invert Your Publishing Calendar And Engage More Readers

This is the actual announcement that I'm on a 31 day publishing challenge.  I discuss why publishing the first two articles actually makes more sense.

By being out of sequence the idea was to generate some interest in the challenge by showing my process before announcing my publishing ambitions.

One caveat here: That announcing my goals is proven to actually limit the chances of success.  In the post I discuss (and link) an article that discusses the research behind it.  You can click (and link) to see the article, or click HERE.

Thursday March 3 - How To Make Your Success EPIC

Rarely do you hear someone say; "Man I enjoy being mediocre."  For those that do aspire for the average, this post isn't for them.

In it, the emphasis is by getting off your "duff" and do something.  Fear is for the timid.  Doing is for the brave.

Make It Epic

The point is, we learn more by doing than sitting on the sidelines and if you have something you want to accomplish, the only way to see it happen is to MAKE it happen.

Friday March 4 - The Myth Of Hyper-Productivity

Having just preached that you need to get off your butt and do something, along comes a contradictory warning about the dangers, and lies, of doing too much.

Everywhere we turn these days, we're inundated with the concept that success is by hustling more than others.

It's a myth that we developed as a society, one that is as antiquated as it is based on falsehoods.

There's plenty of research you can find that proves we need to rest as much as we are active, and productivity research shows that without periods of reset, we actually reach a point of diminishing returns much faster.

Good luck with running that marathon after going on a 100 mile bike-ride...

Saturday March 5 - The Executioner's Revenge (Part One)

In Part One of this two-part article, I lay out 4 necessary steps that will guarantee success for any goal, or objective, you set out to accomplish.

As we've discussed earlier, it's about the process that gives you the highest chance for success.

Phase 1 is to plan.  Plan as if you know every minor detail, every major hurdle that will come your way.  But know that there are going to be circumstances beyond your control.

Phase 2 is to take action.  You can kill yourself in the details, if you allow it.  But by taking action, often before you feel ready, you're going to learn what is, and is not, going to work for you.

Knowledge is experiential, and you can only learn by doing.

So sit down and make a plan.  Then get off the couch and get running, or jumping, or whatever.

But just get started on something.

Because it's all about phase 3 that is the most important factor to your success.

Why?




Sunday March 6 - The Executioner's Revenge PART TWO

In Part One of this two-part article, I lay out the need for planning and action as two of the four most important factors influencing whether you're successful or not.

In Part Two,  I discuss the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR toward your chance at success.

That deciding factor is: Recalibrate your self.

First, you planned. Next you acted.  But now you need to take stock of where you are, how far you've gone and what changes you need to make in order to create the clearest path to your goals.  If you're able to be flexible and reset your trajectory, you have the best chance for success.


So that's the week 1 round-up.  As Lloyd Christmas says in the movie Dumb and Dumber:

Knowing How To Execute Is The Most Important Factor Toward Your Success

The Executioner's Revenge Part Two

(To Read Part One - Just Click Anywhere On This Link)

There once was a famous football coach in the US.

He coached the Trojans of USC to some Rose Bowl victories and 4 National Championships (kinda big deal), but he grew bored with college, joined an expansion team in the National Football League in 1976.

When asked about the difference between College and the Pros, he was quoted as saying;

"I  don’t know what this pro football mystique is. I’ve gone to the pro camps. They throw the ball; they catch the ball. Many of them are ex-USC players. I’m not amazed at what they do. I’ve watched the pros play. They run traps; they pitch the ball, they sweep. What else is there?
- John McKay, in Sports Illustrated"

3) Evaluate And Rededicate

You set out to make some changes, to set some goals and accomplish them.

What you did so far is:

1) Make a plan

2) Set that plan in motion

And now things aren't where they should be. You aren't getting the results you wanted or expected.

After you take action, probably the most important step is to evaluate what has gone right and what went wrong.

It's this third phase that is perhaps the most important in determining your odds for success.

John McKay is instructive on the importance of evaluation.  He chose to deal with his team their struggles through humor.

That team? The hapless, bumbling Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Even though these were professional athletes in a professional league, they had some serious limitations.

Some of the players were over-the-hill and too old for peak performance.  Some were just not that talented and hence, why they were allowed to be exposed to an expansion draft in the first place.

Regardless, these were men who had played a sport at the highest collegiate levels; men who worked to perfect their craft over decades of repetition.  Yet they still were bad as a team.

Horrible even.

They set a record for single-season futility at 0-14 (losing every game) that lasted for over 32 years.



They also set a record for most consecutive losses between the 1976 and 1977 losing the next 10 games.

At the depths of it all, Coach John McKay was asked about how poorly his team had played and his reaction to their lackluster showing.


In a moment that is forever linked between what he should've filtered and absolute honesty, the coach was asked a series of questions culminating in one timeless exchange:

"Coach! What do you think about your offense's execution?"

At which he replied, "I'm in favor of it."

Some of his more notable quips included these classics:

After a lackluster defensive effort in a game with a lot of miscues:

Reporter: "Coach, what are your thoughts on those missed tackles?"

John McKay: "We didn't tackle well, but we made up for it by not blocking."

And

On the concept that a newly built team such as his expansion NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the late '70's:

Reporter: "Coach how much does experience play into your lack of wins so far, and going into the upcoming season, how will your experience as a team effect this year's wins and losses?"

John McKay: "If you have everyone back from a team that lost ten games, experience isn't too important."

The point of these quotes from Coach McKay is that it doesn't matter your experience, or your game plan if you can't execute and evaluate your plan, it doesn't matter.

4) Recalibrate Your Trajectory And Blast Off

How you set out to plan is important.

More important is how you act once your plan is in motion.

Because for every plan you create, there are inevitable factors that create uncontrolled circumstances.

Things that you absolutely cannot plan for and things that cause you to be more flexible than you imagined.

As the Robert Burns poem - To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With A Plough - warns the reader:

"...the best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry."

So in the end, you need to plan; do, evaluate and create new action from the original plan. There's always going to be some disruption to your goal.  But by knowing this ahead of time, you create a circular flow toward the most important factor toward your success:


Execution.

How Executing These 4 Steps Will Guarantee You Succeed At Anything

It's All About The Execution - The Executioner's Revenge Part One

(To read Part Two Click This Link)

Too often we think about the results of what we want, and get lost in the big picture.  It's often what is difference between our chance for success and the possibility of failure.

What separates the truly successful from those that get-by?

The successful know that the difference between success and failure is minute, but the minute details are what make the difference.



This post is a two-part discussion about the differences between success and failure and what is ultimately, the factor most important.

And that is the execution of a plan.

Bear with me.

This post is going to have plenty of sports metaphors - and will be published in two parts - but the point of the post is that the difference between success and failure is often one of execution.

Success and failure are often separated by mere inches, or seconds, in sports.

In life and business that line is one that is often times subjective.

It's subjective to an opinion of the audience and can shift just as a line is drawn in the sand -which, is why I don't like the term, line in the sand - if the wind blows, what then?

Success and failure are twins often separated by a razor fine line

Sure, if you're keeping score, the one with the highest score at the end is the winner.

Except in golf.  That s#!t's cray-cray.

The lowest score wins the hole, but it's kept track by the honor system.  When I hear people talk about their golf scores, their handicaps and how far they can drive the ball, a couple of thoughts come to mind.

1. I'm reminded of Mark Twain's quote; "Golf is a good walk ruined."
2. Regarding scorekeeping I think: "You walk around, often drinking, keeping score with a small pencil on a pad.  You keep your own score, and there isn't a judge or monitor to see you're recording it correctly.  And then I think if accountants were able to be this loose and free while drinking mind you, would you still hire them to do your taxes?
3. When they talk about their drive game, basically they are telling you they have advanced degrees in surveying.  How else can the professionals drive an average of 280+ yards, but any amateur is driving 285+ yards.  Then I wonder to myself, "wow - all these golfers are experts at determining distances, what did I miss in school that I can't tell 6 inches from half a foot?"
4. Once again I'm reminded of Mark Twain's quote; "Golf is a good walk ruined."  

It doesn't matter the strengths and weaknesses of the plan.

There are 4 stages of planning and most important, executing that plan that will dictate the best opportunity for success.

Those stages each feed on the other and if done properly, bring you full circle.

1) The Planning Stage: Think of all things that you want to accomplish.


2) The Doing Stage: Get out there and get started.


3) Evaluation Stage: Mistakes are made.  Things happen.


4) The Success Stage - Execution come full circle - You need to use the data from all three previous stages and get back to work on your path.

1) If You Plan For Success, You Succeed At Planning

Every plan has holes; every day has ups and downs.  In concept, it's the understanding of those fluctuations that make a plan an effective one.

While it's definitely important to make a plan, it's also crucial you act.

Think about everything you want to accomplish. What are some of the larger tasks?  Some of the smaller ones that may be lower hanging fruit - the tasks that may be easier to accomplish in shorter time and with less energy?

By planning ahead and thinking about all the potential hurdles that may get in the way, you have a better, more sure-footed path toward accomplishing your goals.


By acting on a plan, we discover where those pitfalls may be.

2) Get Off Your Butt And Get Doing

Discovering what works and what doesn't is the input you need before the evaluation phase of your plan.

It tells you whether or not your plan is on the right trajectory.

But you need to first do something to enact your plan before you can evaluate the data.

Because after you act on your plan, it's going to look a little, or a lot, different than you first began.

Knowledge is experiential.  That means that we learn by doing, not by thinking, reading and dreaming.  We are kinetic learners on a biological scale, we learn by doing.

It's the meat, the spices and casing of the sausage making process.

Like I wrote before, making sausage is about putting everything together, some things that may or may not appear to work together, but with proper testing and planning, you know are awesome fits.

After you get started, there's bound to be some bumps and bruises.  It's part of the learning process that is called trial and error. By doing, we're gaining data that allows us to properly set up our next course adjustments, which are the most important part of how you adapt your execution of your plan.

Above all else, adapting and recalibrating is the primary difference in determining your success and failure.


Part Two Of The Executioner's Revenge

The Myth Of Hyper-Productivity

What's Your Hustle

Everywhere you look these days, there's a glorification of busy.  From business leaders, entrepreneurs, athletes, politicians and more, the idea that working 24-7 is one that has run its course.

The problem isn't that being busy is a bad thing.

There are plenty of studies that claim we are better at managing our tasks and our time when it's more finite.

What we need to stop glorifying is the idea that we need to be constantly on the go, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365(+) days a year.

To paraphrase John Wooden, the famous UCLA basketball icon, we're confusing the idea of activity for accomplishment.

And that is at the risk of our success, and most importantly, our health.

It's A Lie The Puritans In Salem Tried To Sell Us

Piling on hours of work just to be busy doesn't guarantee we're accomplishing more.  Research shows that we are in fact, achieving a higher volume of lower quality.

No doubt it was once a great survival mechanism for the early settlers in New England, especially the Puritans.

Expelled from England, living in dire situations in the middle of brutal winters and with mortality rates being astronomical, it would make sense that someone would have to work constantly.

You had very little help.

But that was hundreds of years ago.

The Puritans definitely couldn't have imagined centralized air and heating, an iPhone much less the Internet or the current Presidential contests for that matter.

So why do we Americans uniquely obsess over a survival mechanism that is outdated as the New England Witch Trials?

If you don't know what the witch trials were, it was a test that was thought to prove whether a person was a witch/warlock or not.

If accused of witchcraft, a person was tied to a rock and thrown into a body of water.  If the person floats to the surface, they were "proven" to be a witch.  If they drowned, their innocence was proven.

Not much good that did for the innocent.

It's a fact that our attention spans are much shorter than we assume.  The Atlantic published an article that backs up the claim that our attention spans are finite and much less durable than previously believed.

The idea that you can work 12, 14, 16 hours a day and not have a point of diminishing returns is factually false.

In fact, working less, with much longer breaks in duration is a concept that is rightfully gaining a lot of steam.

Interval training for athletes with long breaks between performance is an area that has proven to be a strategy for peak performance and one that should - and hopefully may - be moved into the working world.

Again, the idea of those monster "all-nighters" to reach a point of maximal productivity is simply wrong.

It's actually a race to diminished returns.

Which is a great strategy for the makers of trolls. You know those little plastic toys with the whips hair that you could place on the tips of your pencils.

While it may be a great tactic if you need to build millions of little pencils with trolls on their erasure tips, it's not much help if you're trying to get something of value accomplished.

Again, thinking that being active is ideal for a lifestyle and goal achievement, being busy and always active is proven as to be not so great a tactic.

No, the key to being successful and happy is to focus on one task and to see it to completion.  Or concentrate on learning just one skill and see it to mastery.

Then and only then, is it best to move to a new task or skill.

How To Make Your Success EPIC

There's One Simple Thing You're Not Doing That's Limiting You From Achieving Your Goals

Become By Doing

Every musician knows that you don't get better at playing an instrument by just reading music.

Similarly, every basketball player knows that you can't improve your shooting in a game any better without getting off the bench.

Accomplishing a goal is no different.

The first thing you need to do is decide what you want to try to accomplish.

That's the dreamer part.

It's easy.

Everyone has dreams, ideas and "goals."

The hard part is setting in motion the things you need to do for the proper sequence to happen that will make you successful at your goal.

Especially if you don't know what to do in the first place.

Let's say you want to learn how to cook.  I mean really cook, like the chefs you see on TV.

When you think about what it takes to get there, what's the first thing you think you need?

An education?

That may help but doesn't guarantee that Rhubarb (gross and tart) and Strawberries (sweet and yum!) go together.

But they do.

Only by tasting the pairing of Rhubarb and Strawberries can you find out they actually complement each other.

You can study all you want, but without tasting the flavors together, you may try to add some citrus, or pepper, or something that may not work.

But how would you know if you didn't taste it?

Doing is how we learn.

You Want To Get Something Done?  Get Off Your Ass

As an athlete, nobody ever says, "Boy I hope I get some serious bench time in the game tonight."

The point of playing the game is to earn a chance to play.  It doesn't matter how often you've watched a drill or skill at practice until you've tried to master the task, you have no idea how to replicate it.

That's why many coaching and teaching methods emphasize a process of modeling.

First you explain an aspect of the overall task and challenge.

Next you demonstrate the skill.

Then you have the players/students work together on acquiring the technical components of the skill.

Finally, you examine the attempts, refine as necessary and re-demonstrate the skill before trying to work on it again.

The objective is to learn mastery of the skill before the competition and the only way you learn the steps necessary for mastery is by doing.

Acquiring better habits, learning new skills to accomplish your goals are all the same aspects of skill mastery.

It takes one direct action to learn a skill and build a better habit.  Repetition of those newly acquired tasks are the necessary building blocks of mastery.

If you want to master a new task, build better habits, or improve on something you already know, the only proven path is through action.

So get off the bench, get on your feet and get going.

How I Used One Simple Inversion To Write This Awesome Blog Post

The One Simple Thing You Must Know To Write More Awesome Blog Posts

My March Into Spring Challenge 

In honor of the month of March, I'll be writing 31 posts in 31 days.

Truthfully I should have released this statement yesterday, but I posted How To Get S#!T Done - My Kindle Publishing Experience instead.

Why did I do it this way?

In this post you're going to learn how making ourselves accountable to others sometimes makes us less likely to accomplish our goals; the importance of showing people how you do your craft; and how to move forward without a plan.

The Truth About False Starts 

I wanted to explain the purpose of why I was taking on the challenge of writing so many posts in so many days.

Especially when I'm unsure where I'm going with this challenge.  My editorial calendar is sparse, I've got minimal ideas and even less time.

So the inversion I'm using is writing about how the sausage is made, my process and the thought behind them before telling anyone why - more on that below.

Think of it as a bit of a false start like this poor guy:

Not only did he get a false start charged against him, by the looks of his dive, he also had a great belly-flop as well.

Basically I've done enough belly flops in my lifetime.

They hurt.

The point of inverting the publication of these two articles is that; 1) the article I posted was more in line with what I felt was needed to be said and had a little more value than a post about MY ambitions such as this one, and 2) I wasn't 100% sure I was going to announce my intentions.

Why did I hesitate?

The Truth About Goal Setting And Accountability

When you think about setting a goal, there are a number of popular beliefs on how to best accomplish them.

One way is to write it down and document your actions every day that you fulfill the steps necessary toward your goal.  It's been called the Jerry Seinfeld method, writing a joke a day, marking a calendar with an "x" that over time creates a visual chain - one that you don't want to break.

Other ways include a "vision board" - placing images, ideas and quotes that are motivational in nature and that you can focus your mental/imagination on.

Some believe in making our goals accountable with others by telling them all about it before hand.

The idea is that by sharing your goals with someone else, a friend or family member that you trust, you're making yourself accountable to not letting that person down.

There are plenty of studies that show that by announcing your goals aloud and to an audience, the odds of you accomplishing them decrease significantly.

Don't believe me?

How about this post: Shut Up! Announcing Your Plans Makes You Less Motivated To Accomplish Them

It's a review of studies that date back to 1933 that disproves the modern idea that when we announce our plans, we're much more likely to accomplish them.

The truth is the opposite actually.

Another reason is that I wanted to explain what I was doing with evidence that you could see.

As I wrote yesterday, people like to see a finished product.  They also really like to see how the sausage is made.

Think about your favorite song, your favorite band.

You've listened to the lyrics thousands of times; memorized every time change and melody possible, and still have no idea what the song is really about.

So you look to interviews, videos, YouTube, Facebook groups, anything to try and understand what's the song about.

Until the band speaks and shatters the illusion.

What you thought was a heartbreaking ballad of lost love and the power to overcome that broken person you were, is revealed to be about a drunken day with a dog and a squirrel chasing each other on the 4th of July.

(This never happened to my knowledge, yet...)

In one singular moment, a songwriter can tell you with absolute certainty that your interpretation is correct, or wrong.

And that experience is exhilarating or crushing in its revelation.

But only if you get to see how the sausage is made that you can truly understand the intention the artist had.

Make Your Sausage In Front Of Others - Otherwise Who Knows What's In It

So that brings us to why I hesitated to state my goal of 31 posts in 31 days.

Look, I'm not a prolific guy.

It takes me awhile to percolate an idea, let it marinate and finally set out to explain it.  That's why I showed the screen shot of a post I've been struggling with for over a week.

And once I write that idea, develop the concept and characters (in fiction, a tone in blogging), I'm spent.

Like don't ever want to write again - spent.

Until I pick an idea, see it develop and want to share it.

So the main reason I inverted the publication of my announcement for posting 31 articles for 31 days and yesterday's about "sausage making", was that I wanted to explain how and why I'm doing what I'm doing.

Especially since I'm beginning this challenge of writing 31 posts with only 4 ideas and topics so far.

It may seem (and you'd be right) contradictory that by claiming to write 31 articles in 31 days is the goal, which as we've discussed will minimize the probability of it happening, by showing you my process of how, why and when I go about generating my content, I secure a reasonable chance of success.

Continuing with the arcing themes of this blog so far, we'll be discussing Creativity, Self-Improvement, Goal Setting, and Maximizing Productivity in upcoming posts.

But it's a wide open editorial calendar and I've only got 4 ideas.

And this was one of them.

Man am I tired.

How To Get S#!T Done - My Kindle Publishing Experience

Welcome To The Sausage Factory - My Kindle Publishing Journey

Currently I'm reading Austin Kleon's Book "Show Your Work!"

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

A very simple, easy read and based on the format and layout of the book, I'm confident when I say that it's outstanding.

He builds on the discussion of his previous book, "Steal Like an Artist" about how creative types should embrace the idea of borrowing from others.  Not actually stealing the art of other creatives, rather, stealing parts and pieces to make your own work complete.

However, in the book I'm reading, he talks about the nature of people being social and enjoying the outreach of creative types.  Not the trope of an anguished, difficult, quiet recluse - of which there ARE some, I'm writing this at 11:46pm on a solitary Monday night - but that creatives should reach out to their audience however they may.

With that in mind, I'm making some sausage.  I've purchased the meat, seasoned it and pulled the grinder from off the shelf it rests.

I'm about to make sausage.  And share how I do it while I do try.

Below is a post I've been stuck writing for over a week.

After many different difficult starts and stops, writing words only to hit shift + A, then hitting delete, the screen grab above is what I'm working to finish by Friday March 4.

However, in the interim, I plan on releasing a number of posts.  One per day actually.

Case in point:

Simply, it's a post stating that I plan 31 posts for 31 days.  Part challenge, part reward for seeing that many posts in that many days.

I may batch write for days when the content doesn't seem to suit our needs.  Or I may plan, only to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Either way, I'm flying blind on the type of things I'll write about.

I've spent a lot of time on content about productivity, time management and how to maximize output as a creative type - a writer - that is hopefully beneficial. So I'd think that those themes will continue.

We'll see.

Because right this minute, I'm announcing the publishing plan.  Without having a plan.  But that's why you get to see how the sausage is made.

See you every day until the end of the month of March...

How To Process The Stupid Out Of Your Project

How To Overcome Any Obstacle In Your Way

There are many reasons to get serious about anything you care about, your passion projects, from creative writing, to painting, business and entrepreneurship.

But first ask yourself, what is it about theses things that you actually enjoy?



We often get in our own way.

We focus on the outcomes, forgetting about the steps necessary for our own success.

Do you get lost in the moment?

Is it something you can do in your own time, if left to your own devices?

Musicians are a great example of this.

They can practice for hours on songs and scales, perform for a couple hours in front of an audience that ranges from zero to huge, and afterward, sit down and play some more for the sheer joy of music.

How do you think about your passion?

Is it something that like David Foster Wallace wrote in his metaphor about two fish swimming by each other, one fish asks, "How's the water" and the other fish replies "what's water?"

In other words, is it something that you can just do, or do you have a self-limiting belief holding you back?

If you struggle with starting and maintaining your passion projects, you may be putting too much emphasis on the outcome rather than the necessary steps to get there.

Writing is not simple, and every writer - which due to schooling, the Internet and email, we are all writers - has to find a way to overcome the obstacles of momentum, motivation and inertia.

Think Of The Process Like Sailing

You pull out of your slip, cruise through the harbor and set out on the water.

If you constantly stare at the port, it's going to seem like you're never getting anywhere.

The gradual distance between you and the dock seem like it's taking forever to create any real distance.

But, if you look forward, focus on all the little things like wind, setting the jib and steering; enjoy the scenery in front and next to you, once you look back, you'll be amazed how far you've travelled.

Or imagine a cross-country flight.

You walk down the tunnel, board, stow you carry-on luggage, sit down and buckle in.  Luckily you have a window seat and can look out while you're on your way.

Do you spend the entire flight staring at the clouds and watching the square lots on the ground, wondering if there are people down there?  If so, where are they going? What are they doing? Are they looking at you as you fly at cruising altitude, bouncing around in your seat from a little light turbulence?

It'll seem like the flight lasts a life time if you try to count each lot as you fly overhead.

But if you strap down, watch a movie, read a book, or take a nap and only look out the window after you get up to use the bathroom when you need to, the flight will seem like it's passing in no-time at all.

It's All About The Process Not The Product

3 Authors That Will Help You Overcome Your Adversity To Writing

1) In his book on writing, The Lie That Tells a Truth, John Dufresne opines that when we focus on the end product, it's difficult to see it through. He encourages us in his preface that;

"Remember when you were a child, and you were stuck in the house on a rainy day, and Mom sat you at the kitchen table, gave you a pencil, a sharpener, a box of crayons, and a ream of paper, and you went at it? You drew all day long and never got blocked..."

The idea here is that as kids, we never thought about the outcome of our passion.  We used it to lose ourselves in the moment.  To act as a pastime when we could.  It was about the enjoyment of the process not the end result.

2) Similarly Austin Kleon writes in his books, Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work, that it's the process that people don't see when they think about creative work.

People enjoy the finished product, but as creatives we should focus on enjoying the process.

He suggests getting out in the world, carrying a notebook and making notes of the sights, sounds, smells, that you experience. You can use them at a later date.

I wrote a post about this process of stealing and borrowing for ideas on a blog post that you can read here: My Kindle Publishing Lesson: Beg, Borrow and Steal Your Way To Becoming A Better Writer.

The point is, you can borrow from people around you and utilize it to make your projects better.

3) Finally author Johnny B. Truant of The Smarter Artist Podcast (as well as the Self-Publishing Podcast and Write, Publish, Repeat) claims in his episode titled "Talking About Writing Is Not Writing" - he mentions the work that a carpenter does.

A carpenter doesn't spend their time talking about carpentry, they're actively working on the craft.

So find a way with your passion project to get deep into the trenches of doing the actual work.

The band Pearl Jam says that when they started, they're rehearsal space was in the basement of a warehouse that other creatives used during the day.

They'd walk past the artists, climbing down the stairs smelling the paint and tincture, and feel inspired to match what was going on around them.

In all of these examples, there is the reinforcement to focus on the process, the daily act of sitting down and writing.

No one is saying that following your passion project is going to be easy.  Or simple, or fun all the time.

There's no guarantee you won't fall on your face, lose your shirt, or fail.

Get Lost To Find Yourself

Set a goal.

Perhaps it's finding a new client.

Or writing 500 words a day.

Perhaps it's running 3 miles at the end of a long work day.

Set a goal that you can realistic do everyday.  Don't worry about the outcome of those goals.

For this exercise focus on small, micro-accomplishments that you can do and maintain daily.

The point is, create the process of doing little things that moves you , step by step, toward your goals.

The act of getting down in the trenches, of digging into the words and what you're trying to say, is one you need to be willing to do.

Teach yourself how to be preoccupied with the act of doing, how to get lost in the moment, knowing that you'll get there some day and some how.

Just don't worry about the outcome. How it'll be received, or whether it'll be any "good."

That's a burden that's too great to carry.

And one that, often, you don't have any control over.

So focus on the necessary steps, and diligently get lost in the process (an oxymoron for sure!).

3 Keys To Maximize Productivity And Improve Your Unintended Consequences

How To Be More Productive Without Meaning To Be

The Cause And Effect Of Unintended Consequences Toward Our Productivity 

Funny thing about a blog. 

The law of unintended consequences states that our actions create effects that were not what we had in mind.  It could be that you choose to sit down and watch an "innocent" film with the family, only to find out that there's a love-making scene in it. 

Hard to explain what's happening to a six year-old.

This law applies to writing as well. 

So you wrote another blog post or story.  

You write something, publish it and promote it everywhere and then wait.  Sometimes you wait and you wait and wait some more. 

Constantly refreshing your browser to see your audience and traffic results, you wait for someone to read it, you wait for someone to comment on it, and you wait for someone to promote it for you.

And while you're waiting, another funny thing happens. 

The unintended happens.

In this post, we'll discuss the law of unintended consequences as an effect of our actions.  By knowing your target goals, making small incremental gains that happen in the correct order, you'll prevent negative results and making it ten times easier to stay productive. 

The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Your blog post has stirred an emotion, a thought, an idea in someone else.  An idea that wasn't part of your intention when writing. Duh, that's why it's called unintentional.

Since beginning this kindle publishing journey and, more importantly, began to document it on this blog, I've stumbled upon a few interesting conversations.

Just recently a friend and I had an intriguing conversation about how she could get started writing.  
She asked how she could find the courage to get going, as if I had some secret confidence or potion to making it work.

As she spoke, I felt more and more like a fraud. 

I knew that it didn't take much courage to write.  

All it takes is just making the time a priority.  

Sit your ass down and write.    

What the conversation reminded me of was that we have to make it important.  Make it so important it's a habit. Like breathing. 

Then and only then would the words get put down on paper.  

Our conversation reminded me of the critical nature of staying focused on the goal. Also it was a reminder to think about the mini-steps needed to be taken, the lines that needed to be written in order to finish the novel, blog or story, that was started.

Another thing the talk reminded me of was the discipline needed, even if it meant taking a few minutes here and there between other tasks in the day, of stealing a couple minutes to get the writing down.

Life will get in the way.  That's one of the truisms, that what ever we want to do will be interrupted by things beyond your control.

There're always bills to pay, phone and text messages to reply, and emails to answer. 

Hello? Is Anybody There?

You published it, promoted it on all the Social Media platforms.  

Tried to connect with others in your area of interest and you wait.  

Again you refresh your browser and wait for the traffic. 

But still crickets. 

Anybody who writes knows the anxiety of first sharing your content and second waiting for a response from an audience. 

Another conversation I've had is with a friend who likes to tell me that they enjoy reading the posts, but never go into detail about what the theme or point of the post may be.  

While I enjoy the compliments, I get an uneasy tension as we talk.  

It's uneasy because the conversations amount to nothing more than platitudes, empty calories that are neither sustaining or nutritious. They're like a snickers bar when I'm starving.  But hey, I'm not really me when I'm hungry. At least they're reading, which I do enjoy hearing about.

In yet another recent conversation with another friend, she was telling me that she felt that she wanted to read a book.  

That's not surprising considering that in 2002, a survey as reported by the New York Times claimed that 81% of Americans claimed to have a book they wanted to write.  

The dicks at the editorial board of the New York Times and the writer Joseph Epstein epistemologically dictates that you shouldn't waste the energy, time or paper it would take to create a book.

But that's a sidebar for the point of my conversation with the friend.  

She was claiming how difficult it would be to write a book, how precious little time she had, yet how important it would be to write her book.

My advice to her was simple. 

1. Focus But Don't Obsess On Your Target: Decide on the outcome you want but don't start out trying to handle the full load, rather, find a way to work backward. This reverse planning will help you anticipate some missteps to avoid along the way that you may otherwise stay blind to with an outcome based perspective.  

Think of it like a marathon - Ugh, the thought of running makes my stomach churn and shins hurt - but if you know your distance to the finish line, and work on the steps leading up to it, the marathon is much, much easier - so I'm told. 

2. Succeed Greatly By Taking Small Steps:  You can't stand at the base of Mount Fuji and expect to get to the top in one super stride.  It takes the collective number of many, many small steps to cover the height and distance. 

Take the task at hand of writing a book, divide it up into micro-phases such as chapters.  It'll help you organize your thoughts, and organize the direction of your thoughts. 

 Think of it like eating a pizza. 

 It comes out of the oven, the cheese is boiling hot, the vegetables gleaming, and the pie is uncut.  

Looking at the size of the pizza may be overwhelming and you're unsure how you're going to eat it, much like starting out on a novel.  But just like the pizza, the cook cuts the pizza into slices, 8 pieces most likely, and now you're salivating for one.  

It's the little things that add up.

3. Pants First, Shoes Second: If you plan on going for a run, you need to put on your pants or shorts before you put on your shoes.  Know the proper sequence of events before taking on the tasks. I've written about how to put things in proper order in a previous post that you can read by clicking here: 3 Tips To Conquer Your Fears And Become The Person You Deserve

In effect, target those micro-phases, and divide them into even smaller phases.

Just like the pizza above, you can't eat a whole pie in one bite, and you can't pelican a slice in one bite either.  You're going to fold it and take one bite at a time, or if you're "cultured," you'll cut a piece off the slice and swallow it, after chewing of course. 

And my point to my friend was the same.

Take the idea of a book and divide it into small slices, then take those slices and make them into smaller pieces still.  It'll be more digestible and easier to find the time to get those mini-projects done.

Her response was that, "Wow, that doesn't seem as tough."

It's not.

The mountains we perceive are really just a molehill.  But the more we stare at the task, the more we obsess over the outcome, the greater we make the challenge for ourselves.  

By writing about my Kindle Publishing journey, it's led to conversations about time management, productivity, habit formation, and the importance of knowing your ONE thing to focus upon. 

Those are the unintended consequences of putting myself out there. 

If you're struggling with a task or goal, focus on the steps you want to take, put them in proper order and get started.  

To quote Joe Strummer of the band The Clash: 

The ONE Thing You Can Do To Improve Your Productivity

What's Your One Thing?

This post is, in part, a book review and a personal story about why I write.  Take it for what it is, and disregard the rest as you see fit.

There's a book by Gary Keller called The One Thing.

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

 It discusses productivity, management tips and self-improvement.

It preposes we tend to distract ourselves with too many things, too many tasks to do, too many demands on our time and energy.  Wasting too much of our time not only distracts us from the task at hand, but it also acts to form limitations to what we can ultimately achieve.

In simple terms, it breaks down that we should only focus on the ONE thing that we actually care about, and what we can excel. Or as the author states, "extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus."

There are some current myths discussed in the book and exposed as lies.

Multi-tasking? Not a real thing.

Willpower on call?  Not true, it's a finite resource, like any other energy/endurance capacity you may have.

Who is Gary Keller?  He built Keller/Williams Realty into the largest Realty firm in the world.  That's right, #1 position for a Real Estate company in the world.

My One Thing: How I Got Started

When I was a kid, I would spend hours in my tiny bedroom reading.

That is if I wasn't busy running around the street playing games and trying to get the neighborhood kids to compete with me.

Now, keep in mind I wasn't a superb athlete, so I made sure I'd work on my technique longer and more precise than any other kid I played. Beat me, I would work my ass off to make sure I could outlast you next time.

It was just the right mix of hyper-competitiveness, obsessiveness, and spite.

As a teen, I'd close my door to shut out the world and assay through pages of sci-fi, fantasy, thrillers, mystery, the "classics" from Thoreau, Whitman, Thomas, Poe.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered existential philosophy from thinkers such as Nietzsche and Kierkegaard.  For "culture," I read the Bible in multiple translations, the Thesaurus, Encyclopedia Brittanica and poured through the dictionary religiously.

Needless to say, that type of shit can really mess you up, especially in your impressionable early teen years.

Surrounded by my imagination, I'd enhance the mood by playing music on a tiny two-speaker boombox.

I'd play cassettes with songs from the Cure, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, rewind them until the tape wore down and drift off into a dreamworld of starships, foreign lands, and superheroes.

While I'd lose myself in the songs, I'd read as if my life depended on it.

And, I felt it did.

See, I didn't have a great home life.

My parents were divorced, my father didn't want anything to do with me and my 3 siblings while my mother remarried to a man who was overworked, drank too much and seemed overwhelmed by taking care of a pack of ungrateful kids.

So I read countless books, stories, and magazines to escape from what I felt in an unjust world.

But mainly I read as much as I did to learn the craft of storytelling and how to get a point across. I discovered that there is something universal about being human.

Part of the uniquely human experience is the desire to share our thoughts and ideas with others.

We're social creatures.

It's part of why we developed language and in turn, societies, cities, states and governments.

It's why we live with other human beings, even when they're screaming at you, or staring at you from out of the corner of their eye, not speaking with you at all.

Long before I had my "reckoning" about life and the human experience, my first victims of all this study and information were my younger brothers and sister.

They're all much brighter than me.

Like I'm a bag of wet cement compared to the genius of my siblings.

Probably in part of my competitiveness, but possibly from spite, I had to prove my greatness to them.

I was the oldest brother, meaning I had to be better.

So, I'd write them stories. This was in the beginning before they were old enough to read, and I barely old enough to write.

My early manuscripts would comprise of two, three or maybe four sentences with some poorly drawn pictures, but the point was to help them learn what I had.

I'm not sure they enjoyed the stories as much as I did in creating them.  Most of the time they were sci-fi epics that included spaceships flying around in a sky full of asterisk-drawn stars, shooting lasers and rockets at each other, while the story usually was text that complimented the pictures.

The point is, from the early beginnings, I knew there was something that I needed to share with others.  I coached for a long time to teach what I had already learned.  I wanted to share ways to think, to act, and to learn.

That's my ONE thing.  To communicate what I learn along this path that I'm walking, about life, about writing.

Well I guess that's two things.  That just goes to show you there's always more to learn.

If you're interested in reading about how you can become laser focused, pick up a copy of The One Thing from Amazon by clicking this link:  The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

(It IS an affiliate link, meaning if you purchase it I'll get a small share of the sale from Amazon)