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Aug 10

don’t worry, this isn’t about politics.  it’s about your brain.

anyone’s brain really.  first, stop reading this post, fix some tea or coffee and sit and read the following articles for the next few minutes, avoiding distractions, phonecalls, facebook, etc.

“Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains” on WIRED (Michael Hyatt recently linked to another incarnation of the same information).

“The Creativity Crisis” by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman of Newsweek.

what does this mean to the creative? what follows is my largely uneducated answer to that question.

continue reading »

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Dec 09

pomodoro going well today. getting a lot of reading done. some books i have are to shape my long-term goals, some is purely out of curiosity, some are for entertainment (read: enlightenment), some for education & professional development. i should probably categorize them to better schedule reading time throughout the day.

i really do love reading. wish i could do it more often w/o feeling like i’m avoiding “real work.” same goes for watching movies.

back to the books…

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Nov 24

tried pomodoro yesterday in a staff setting. completely different dynamic, which in turn of course presents an entirely new set of issues.

several times, questions interrupted my session in the morning, but i felt they were things i had to answer or it would keep others from working. other than that, though, i did not experience any distractions and was able to use my iPhone as a laptop basically, which is cool. when my laptop finally gives out, which may be soon i fear, i’ll likely go with an iMac or Mac mini, though the portability of the MBP is nice. big problem is, I’m going to need some serious cash to get ANY kind of new computer, and that’s a problem.

another problem yesterday was not having a real master timer, other than the clock. when things came up like setting up a new account for vorgity, suddenly the entire day was thrown off. i suppose that’s the value of the first four months of the business plan— we all work on getting everything up and running with as few kinks as possible so that when production comes, everything goes relatively smoothly with fewer distractions or interruption due to things not working or having to figure things out.

brief devo this morning, meet with melton, then headed to nashville to babysit my nieces. i will have three female dogs and three female children under my wing tonight. zoinks.

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Nov 22

liking the pomodoro technique so far. can see that i’ll still have trouble deciding which line item to do next.

also i’ve noticed that i don’t have too many problems focusing on one thing for 25 minutes. it’s the break inbetween that kills me. it ends up being like an hour or two or something. granted i’m usually continuing to be productive in one way or another, but it’s going to require some focus to stop every 25 minutes. relax for a few, and then pick a new line item.

more refining to be done, but i definitely got a lot done today. after i overslept, anyway. gotta start setting a sunday alarm. i just don’t end up getting up early enough to do what i want before leaving the house, and then it throws off the whole day.

bedroom is cleaned. laundry is done. scout bags are packed. kitchen is mostly clean. bathroom, also mostly clean. ok more laundry to be folded while the dogs eat dinner. then dinner then shopping. then back home for more work!

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Nov 22

just finished a few pomodoro items and can see it being very beneficial as far as getting things done. i still need to prioritize, however, perhaps by combing with Stephen Covey’s urgent/important matrix. will work next on organizing my table in Pages to reflect that. i do see where my getting distracted comes in, and knowing I’m on a time limit is helping, at least for now. wonder how easy it will be to get distracted when the “new” wears off. ok. 3-5 min break over. back to work.

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Nov 22

i (sort of) started using pomodoro technique today.  i can see that it will be influential, but I’m obviously not very good at it yet.

first things first, i need to make a list of the things that i need to do.  that may be the hardest part for me.  the hardest parts of any task for me are the very beginning and the end.  i have a hard time getting started, because i want to approach it the right way, the most efficient way, the best way.  in so doing, i usually don’t approach it at all and end up watching The Office instead.

so i’m going to make a list of things, and start breaking it down into 25 minute tasks.

while watching The Office.

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