Category Archives: Inspiration

15-Minute Intervals of Work

Today I’m using the 15-minute work intervals approach.

I’m in the middle of my 15-minute blog posting interval. Kind of obvious, I guess…

  • Posted author comments to jrmays.com .
  • And now this post…I have a minute left. [Confession–I ran overtime on this. Still, it does get me focused to generate and finish.]

juggle-1027147_1280

Other 15-minute work intervals completed today:

  1. Job search cover letter revisions
  2. Review of editor’s comments on a piece of fiction. She and I connected through Reedsy. She’s right on the mark. Money well-spent. I have a lot of work to do on this project.
  3. Check in with authormarketingclub.com [Video on exploding your word count with dictation software]
  4. Generated list of activities for an ebook I’m writing
  5. First 200 words at-a-sitting [turned out to be 280, handwritten]
  6. Read James Altucher’s What to Do When You’re Rejected . Good food for thought.
  7. 200 words at-a-sitting [session 2] on my Chromebook. Turned out to be 550 words. Writing via keyboard never ‘feels’ as good to me as writing in a notebook, but it’s darned sure more productive.

***

My 15-minute email-check interval: Good to impose a limit here.

Listening to Steep Canyon Rangers [a group often often accompanied by banjoist/funny guy Steve Martin]

Bought The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Guillebeau. Currently $1.99.

A blogger ‘liked’ my post yesterday so I followed a link to that person’s work.

http://bit.ly/2raHB6y  [Gardening4Gains]

Here was my comment to the post:

One resonating line: Do you let life control you or do you take the reins?  Your point about exercise as privilege vs. chore really hit home. I stared at the 10 cubic yards of soil to shovel, wheelbarrow into backyard from front driveway and thought, “yick.” Then I remembered two friends who have had/will have surgery for back and neck stuff and thought, “Geez, T, what a weaselly wimp you are for groaning at the thought of good honest mindless grunt work.”

***

Still with the email session…

–Memorable line from Seth Godin’s daily email:

What if we take the responsibility instead of waiting for it to be offered?

–Unsubscribed from Hilton Honors Club. [Can’t say as I remember signing up for that one. I sure as heck don’t quality as a titanium club member or whatever their special designation is.

Am up to 65 unsubscribes. It feels like there might be 10 more around the corner…

Thanks for reading!

—

Dabble Hour [Giving in to attention deficit]

A while back, I explored the possibility of Dabble Hour, a 60-minute foray [well short of a leap] into projects that continue to interest me.

So here’s a quick rundown of today’s Dabble Hour…a list of a few of my sidetracks over the last couple of hours. [Yes, it’s true, I cannot seem to stop at 60 minutes and this session sank beneath projects that interested me.]

The irony of this post is I started my day by reading/tweeting about Srini Rao’s piece about his productivity strategies despite his attention deficit. Before I go on, my favorite takeaway from the article was this–Ask yourself:

“If the only thing I got done today was this, would I be satisfied?”

I could now interject with a ‘Ooh! Squirrel!’, but that’s soooo played. [See Dabble #1.]

Here goes…

Dabble #1: [I liked this one because it sent me into ScreenFlow to do some video editing.]

 

Dabble #2: Text chat with my friend over the end of the Giants-Dodgers game.

Dabble #3 : Signing up for digitaldeepak.com. Frankly, I was too distracted to take note that it offered what I’m only marginally interested in. {Yep, I think I do have a problem.}

Dabble #4 :Reading the email offer to join LOVE 101 about optimizing my relationship. [Okay, then, I guess I won’t be giving into every distraction thrown my way.]

Time out: back to the text chat…We’re now reveling in the solid performance from a S.F. Giants rookie. Okay, chat complete.

Dabble #5 :Okay, I’ve just been assured in an email that I can make a living from my writing. Cool. I’m impressed that these reassuring people continue to invite me to their webinars. I do have to say–these sessions do offer valuable content. [Pretty sure they would be less than impressed with my ‘Wandering-Wednesday-on-Tuesday’ approach to writing success, however. Then again, maybe they would pay me to be their ‘don’t be like this guy’ guy. Now that’s a distraction I can get behind.]

I did go ahead and sign up for The 3 Most Profitable Ways to Making a Living Writing Today. I know I’ll show up. But will I stay with it? Jeff Goins presents well, is down-to-earth, and offers solid content and guidance. So, yep. I’ll be there for the whole session.

Conclusion: Thank God my boss is understanding about this. He thinks it’s time for lunch. He’s even buying!

 

A five-minute writing pep talk…

One that I revisit regularly. Give the audio version a try. [SoundCloud link on the page.]

Patrick McLean’s Five-Minute Writing Pep Talk

In the survey below, feel free to let me know which points settled into your writing ethic. Thanks.

Rearranging your sock drawer. It’s actually therapeutic…

 

I subscribe to Srini Rao’s Unmistakable Media weekly emails.

Today’s topic:

How Making Micro Changes Can Help You Start a New Chapter of Your Life

My apologies to those who previously visited and got a bad link.

This one really resonated with me and I have a feeling may well do the same for some of you.

His main point:  “We struggle to change our behavior because our environments are designed to be a constant reminder of who we once were, as opposed to who we want to be.” 

clutter

photo courtesy of Pixabay, though my garage? Not much different.

And now, for me, it’s time for a little digital decluttering.

I’ll save my sock drawer for a slow Saturday night.