Today I slept an extra hour. I’m still groggy and not feeling top of my game, and I’m not feeling like writing. I committed myself to writing every morning for at least fifteen minutes, and I want to prove to myself that I can carry through on that. I’m not one to stick relentlessly to …
Some things I don’t do because, while I can produce perfectly adequate results, my results are not world-changing. I may enjoy the process of getting there, but not enough to overcome the feeling when I look at the result: yes, that’s okay, but it’s not stunning. I enjoyed drawing and painting in school and I’m …
Let’s talk focus. Sometimes, you really just have to get something done and you’re really just not in the head space to sit down and do it. For me, that was yesterday afternoon. I had to get prepared for a meeting coming up. I blocked off my entire afternoon after 3PM, figuring I’d be done …
There’s a study out there that says context switching costs fifteen minutes to get back into the task. The classic example: You are doing some deep thought work and have been nose-deep in code or spreadsheet formulas or editing for an hour. Your phone rings. Interrupted, when you settle back down to your deep work, …
What if Future You were Current You’s best friend? You would treat your future self like a separate person that you care about deeply and would go out of your way to make life easier for. This is the absolute best way to prevent myself from procrastinating. Instead of saying “I’ll do it in the …
It took a long time for me to realize my influence on my coworkers’ work atmosphere. In my scrum team’s retros, I began to notice that wherever my mood rating was, others’ would cluster around it. I had a great past two weeks? So did everyone else. I was in a pessimistic mood? I dragged …
I used to work myself up right after waking up. I’d go peer out the window to see if it was raining, go check the outside thermometer, then log onto my laptop and check the weather forecast to judge if the conditions for riding before work were favorable. Even when all that looked good, I …
It’s the last few weeks of winter as I write this, the tail end of February, and it’s been a stormy, wet week. I’ve caught time outside here and there between the rains, but my riding has narrowed down to a sedate loop on the one path that is gravel and asphalt – every other …
Say yes to that which will bring you further and say no to that which holds you back. What are your personal areas for improvement? Say yes to anything you possibly can which falls in this umbrella. Do some risk-reward comparison – i.e. you might say yes to a meetup but not to a six-month …