- So this year decide.
- What is the one small thing I can do everyday to show up for myself?
- Make the rule.
- Never miss twice. (Jame Clear)
- Forgive yourself if you miss.
- Reset your resolve.
Flip Phone Update - Attention is the Currency
I never think about my phone.
I think of all the time and energy that I have given my iphone for the last 12 years.
All of the energy of trying to “manage” screen time. Too much light in my eyes before bed etc etc.
My Sunbeam flip charges in a little stand on my desk. With a glance across the room, I can see if I have a missed call - blue icon or a txt message - green icon. If nothing is on - I move on to other things I am working on.
I am blown away by this. This was something I was not expecting.
7 Years ago today, I received 1of 999 of the Kickstarter Bullet Journals
I had been using the system for a year prior and was excited to see what he made. It fired me up to double down into the bullet journal system. I used it for full capture. Of course I did migrate some things into digital but this book was with me at all times.
I stray from the system from time to time - thinking I can do it better. But I feel uneasy when I do not have my journal with me.
I am glad that Ryder, who I understand is introverted, was brave and shared this with the world.
The One Habit to Rule Them All
We crave to be part of a group.
It is part of human nature.
The is especially true this time of year as we approach the annual planning and New Years resolutions.
For health it might be: I am a vegan. I am a carnivore. I am keto. For Productivity it might be: I am analog all the way. I am apple. I am iOS only.
I want to offer some advice and insight I have recently understood for myself.
You have failed. So instead you take to Youtube looking for the right process to follow. If I can just find the right group or right process to follow then I can trust that process and not lean on myself.
I would encourage you to look deep inside yourself and pick up a pen and paper. Sit and write out the first goal that comes to mind for 2022.
For example, a common one might be weight loss.
Write that down. “I want to lose 50 pounds”
Next write, what information do I need to accomplish this goal?
My hunch is that you have done plenty of reading and experimentation and you already know the process you need to follow. You have just not followed it and then you gave up.
You only fail if you give up trying.
David Goggins says it best. “Motivation is shit”.
You need a process. You need the Show Up For Yourself process!
Reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits would be a better use of your time than watching YouTube or listening to a bunch of podcasts.
If you own the book turn to page 163 and continue on page 164
People often think it’s weird to get hyped about reading 1 page or meditation for 1 minute or making 1 sales call. But the point is not to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up.
If you can’t learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details.
Ouch. That last sentence convicted me.
Make a rule. You will do X. Make it simple so that there is no grey area. Make a rule so clear that if a stranger watched you all day they would know if you broke your rule or not.
I do not eat X food. I will walk 1 mile every day.
Let’s kick some ass in 2022.
Email me if you would like to discuss. I love to hear from people.
Your friend. Terry
Office or Study?
In 1993 I saw the movie, Shawdowlands.
Shadowlands is a 1993 British biographical drama film about the relationship between academic C. S. Lewis (played by Anthony Hopkins) and Jewish American poet Joy Davidman (played by Debra Winger), her death from cancer, and how this challenged Lewis’s Christianity.
The movie is about making meaning out of suffering. Is life Happiness and Joy or Pain and Suffering. It is worth the time investment.
The scene that came to mind today as I was cleaning up my desk area was when Joy (Winger) meets Jack (Hopkins) in his home study. It is a pleasant scene.
The room was full of books, pens and paper and a beautiful lamp and desk.
What was absent and of note to me - no computer and no phone.
I think there was a typewriter but growing up in the 80’s at the height of WordPerfect - the most modern Wordprocessor of that time - a typerwriter did not register as technology or a tool to use for any work.
The year was 1993. I was 25. My computer was a 386 running Windows 3.1
I can remember thinking “How does he do any work?”
Today I am 53. I have a similar room of my own. I do have a computer - still running windows. I work from home as an insurance agent. So yes I have to have a computer to work. It is 2021.
However, I am writing this on my other side of my desk in my office. My office has a U - shaped desk built in. It is designed to have 2 workspaces. I have chosen to have one side as my work side and the other as my personal side for journaling and reflection. I do keep this iPad on this desk for when I want to write something like this.
I believe in the movie C.S. Lewis called this room his study. I call my room my office.
Neil Postman talks a great length about the language we use around technology and how techology changes the meaning of things.
Each of us are bombbarded with distractions that cause mental context switching and decrease our ability to think deeply. To sit and study a topic or event.
Office vs Study
If walk into my study the name itself implies my task is to learn and reflect. To think deeply about a topic or book. There is no implied output.
If walk into my Office, the name implies output. Work implies the production of something. Often times this can turn into just doom scrolling.
Over the last 2 years I have spent too much time thinking about which app or device to use for different tasks. I have spent time watching YouTube videos trying to sort out my approach or how it improve. I scoffed at Ryan Holiday’s use of 4X6 cards for his commonplace book because it was not digital.
From my journal Nov 2020.
Life is not about fixing that one problem area or understanding that one concept that will unlock the secret. This is the modern lie. Rather I want to be a guy with a journal. I want to cultivate a deep life. A life where my values get translated into action.
Today my office is now called my Study.
Broken Links
or Why twitter and social media has ruined the open web
I have been reading a back through Merlin Man’s 43 folders blog.
It started in 2004
His last post was 2011 - Cranking. which is “peace out” I had a kid and that is more important.
His blog was part of Web 2.0 movement. Remember that? His blog is like a time capsule and it has a lot of relevant and helpful information about how productivity. It is quirky and fun and full of broken links.
It makes me think about all of the time and attention people are putting into twitter, instagram or tiktok and where that work you put in will be in 10 years? Will it result only in your vain attempt to find self affirmation in your 10 seconds of fame?
My Most Productive Time in My Life
The year was 2001. The Device was the Handspring Visor Platinum. The Software was Palm Desktop.
It was a simple setup and the sync was perfect.
Palm Desktop contains four main modules which correspond to the four main modules of the original Palm Pilot:
Contacts, analogous to index cards in a Rolodex card file or address book
Calendar information as discrete or repeating appointments
Tasks, sortable by priority, date or category in task lists
Notes, for reference materials, memoranda or journal entries
I made my life fit in these buckets.
I had spent a year trying to make Microsoft Outlook work for me. Then I got the handspring - and I spent another 3 months trying to make it work with Outlook via 3rd party sync apps. Horrible.
I met a guy at a networking group and he had a Palm Pilot. I asked him what he used etc. He said Palm Desktop. Quick. Easy. Simple.
There was not a lot of options back then unlike today. iOS has how many task and calendar and note taking apps that rarely work together?
iCloud
It is one reason for my personal (not work life) I use icloud. It is not perfect but it has all of these elements and they work.
I even had a folding keyboard so I could journal into the note app or update things in a coffee shop.
sigh
Lofi. Old School. @patrickrhone on 43 Folders.
