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Originally appearing on the amazing and useful writing/blogging site ProBlogger.net, this post is one that I wanted to add here, as I feel it really makes sense. Those of us struggling (or “juggling”) with a lot of projects, deliverables, and other tasks, can often feel overwhelmed and end up rushing things.

Don’t do that.

Instead, focus on creating, and enjoy the process–this is something I’m learning more and more about every day, as my first book enters the editing and proofing process. Here’s an example–taken from my own semi-interesting life, I might add–why you should!

“Brushing it Off” Vs. “Brushing It Off”

Are you “brushing off” the work you need to complete? Or are you able to “brush it off” when it’s finished, ready to launch into the world? I’ve had experience brushing off the things that needed to be done–and I’m sure you have, too–but I’ve also had the satisfying feeling of being able to put down my tools and say, finally, “I’m done.”

I’m referring to that point you eventually reach, after many long hours and sleepless nights, where there’s no more you can you can possibly do to improve your project, no more tweaking or adding or altering–it is done; as perfect as it can be.

But this “feeling;” this goal I invariably set for myself prior to embarking on any project, is sometimes fleeting, lofty, and quite unreachable. Sometimes it’s a matter of scope–the project is too large to possibly accomplish by one person. Other times it’s the lack of direction; we don’t know where to go with our blog–or our business–but still other times it’s just a matter of not understanding clearly our expectations, and the time it takes to complete them.

I was thinking recently about my experience as a Boy Scout during my grade school years. I enjoyed pretty much all of the events, camping trips, and fundraisers we did, but there was one annual event we participated in that was held in much higher esteem compared to the rest. My father and I, once a school year, would begin that journey every young man so impatiently awaits throughout the rest of the season–the coveted Pinewood Derby competition.

A “Pinewood Derby” is a small (about 8 inches by 3 inches), four-wheeled vehicle powered by gravity–and graphite-rubbed plastic wheel bearings (please note: the car in the above-left picture is not, in fact, a “Pinewood Derby” car… I just thought it looked neat.) The cars, two at a time, would be raced down a track made of wood. Sounds simple, but for young American boys everywhere, it was the “raison d’etre” for joining and paying your dues to the Boy Scouts of America.

Every year, my dad and I would start dreaming about what style and shape to cut, design, and paint my car. We would shoot for the most aerodynamic, stylistic, and awe-inspiring design that would still be allowed in the races (there were, of course, weight and size restrictions!). One year was a “hot dog” design that almost took home the gold, while another year was a failed attempt at a Camaro convertible with a spoiler.

We would start the project most years by planning, blueprinting, and marking the rectangular block of wood with cut marks in pencil (did I mention my dad’s an engineer?). Only after planning, sanding, cutting, and sanding some more could even begin to think about putting on the cool pewter attachments–engine blocks, headers, etc. Finally, after letting glue dry, sanding once more, and then waiting a few more days, we would apply the paint to the finished product.

With me as Creative Director and Dad as Chief Technical Officer and Director of Engineering, the product, no matter how poorly it actually performed in the races, would be something prized and rewarding for both of us–it was something we would, literally, “brush off” when we’d finish, take it inside to show Mom, and then put on the trophy shelf after it had served on the racetrack.

One year was different though. Dad was either out of town during the initial months leading up to the Derby, or I’d just decided I was old enough to get started myself. I had my wood block, access to power tools, and plenty of sandpaper.

Rather than waste time with the planning, creative process, and initial sanding, I decided to jump in get started making my dream car. I’d also decided to start about a week before the competition.

Needless to say, the car was shoddily built–it was sticky to hold, as the paint hadn’t really set well, the pieces constantly fell off (we had to bring a hot glue gun to the event), and it gave everyone splinters (I said it was part of the car’s built-in defense mechanisms). I had mostly “brushn off” the steps that he’d taught me were necessary. Dad wasn’t overly excited about it, but he knew a lesson was in store for his oldest son.

Sure enough, I realized (though much later in life) what the lesson was: while each stroke of the sandpaper and each slow pull of the paintbrush wouldn’t make a marked difference on the outcome, it was the step-by-step process we went through to ensure every piece of the puzzle was in place that created the final wooden racer. In short: the whole was much bigger than the sum of its parts.

I skipped out on a lot of the process, and because of that, I couldn’t “brush off” my work and show it off to my friends and fellow scouters. As this is an anecdote that needs to be applied to something relevant to what you’re doing, here’s the takeaway:

• Don’t cheat the system–if you’re trying to start a blog, and you know that blogs need great content, don’t spend money on a ton of ghost-written PLR articles that sound exactly the same.
• Don’t cut corners–If there’s a “standard process” that others in your niche have gone through–maybe they spent most of their early years doing nothing but churning out guest posts and commenting on blogs–don’t think there’s a “secret way” to do the same with much less work.
• Don’t “brush it off”–don’t brush off the little things. Every comment, every guest post, and every Tweet that you send is an ambassador for who you are–what you are–online. I don’t know you from Adam, so if I visit your blog and see posts written at a second-grade reading level with nothing but AdSense everywhere–what do you think that says about you? Come on, get it together!

Ok, ok, there’s always the exception that proves the rule. 

If, by chance, you do blog for money only–and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that–you’ve got systems and procedures in place for that as well that need to be honored. The “same” rules apply:

If you find that most money-making blogs are earning their income because of their massive amounts of content, why do you think you can do better only writing 3 or 5 posts per week. Spend some money on some well-written posts to fill out your site, and spend your time building your business.

If you run a business of any kind online, don’t cut the corners or “brush it off,” or you’ll most likely give people splinters. There’s a reason internet marketers spend so much time cultivating and building their email lists–why do you think you’re special and can just buy a billion emails for $50 bucks?

Don’t skimp on the details–they’re what are going to set you apart from every other teenaged marketing “guru” out there, and they’re going to also give you more experience in much less time. As so many business experts and professionals have said, “fail often.” Don’t be afraid to fail–just know that it will be a failure that will help you “brush off” a project (in a good way!) in the future.

“Brush off” your project or business now, and you won’t be able to “brush it off” in the future. Don’t “brush off” your project today, and you’ll be able to “brush it off” and show it off tomorrow.

Get it?

Nick Thacker is interested in learning and writing about ways to live better–his website is Life Hacks for Living Well, and is a repository of tips, tricks, and resources to getting what you want out of life, in a better way. You can subscribe to his feed directly by clicking here.

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1. How to Hack Your Motivation: Part 1 – Why You Are Not Motivated
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I recently wrote this article to be posted on a great Christian time management blog called LifeOfASteward.com. Seriously, check it out if you get a chance. Loren does an outstanding job providing information on time management principles, tips, and tricks, and maintaining a great work-life balance as a Christian.

I’ve reproduced the post here in full as an homage to his site, but again–subscribe to his RSS feed if you can!Are you a church worker, pastor, or volunteer? Are you the kind of person who spends every waking hour (literally) on Sunday mornings helping out with anything and everything? Do you struggle with finding the time to get everything done throughout the week, just so you can be spiritually fed on Sunday?

Maybe you’re a youth director or music minister, or even the “tech guy” (or all three!). Either way, there’s probably a lot of expectations and responsibility put on you, and you need a better way to handle the pressures—and sometimes stress—of Sunday mornings.

I’m one of those people. Currently, I’m serving as the Music Director for my small church plant in Texas, and I’ve also served briefly as the Youth Director. My Sunday schedule starts at 6:00 am, when I wake up and drive 45 minutes south to church. I start by picking up beer cans and trash in the parking lot (we’re currently meeting in a pavilion that’s a dancehall on Friday and Saturday nights…). Then I go mop and sweep the floors inside the building.

When everything’s smelling fresh and Lysol-y, I start rolling the large road boxes over that contain our equipment and setup items. I begin to assemble the stage pieces and projector screen, along with setting up the speakers, soundboard, and lights. All of this can take anywhere from one hour to over two—depending on how good the band was the night before!

I’m diving into all of this to say that there’s really no way I could even think about accomplishing this stuff without some sort of plan; some sort of weekly battle strategy that I can do without thinking—I want to focus on worshiping God on Sunday, not wondering where my drummer is or if the light rig is too bright.

Oh yeah—this isn’t even my full-time gig.

I’m a marketing consultant at a Christian website company, and Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, I’m sitting in a cubicle doing just about everything else besides planning an awesome worship service.

And I run a Christian worship leader resource website, a personal blog, a side business, and I’m writing a novel.

I’m not trying to impress anyone with this amount of stuff I’ve got going on—I know you all have your “stuff” as well—kids, spouses, softball leagues, businesses, etc.—I’m just trying to point out that without a clarified, specific, and consistent “action plan” for my week, none of this could ever get done.

Maybe you could benefit from something like this, too. Maybe you’re a church musician who’s also trying to handle the music management side of things—printing and organizing copies of music, etc.—or you’re just a volunteer in charge of helping schedule Life Groups for Wednesday night. Either way, you need to be able to show on Sunday morning (or whenever else you’re there for church) and just worship. Here’s a bit of what I do that helps me “get focused” when I walk in the door on Sunday. Hint: it starts way before Sunday!

1. Get your mind right. Early in the week, prayerfully consider what it is that you’re going to do this week. This means get down on your hands and knees and specifically and intentionally ask God to give you insight and wisdom in planning out your week and each day of it. Pray for your family and friends to support you in this, and then thank Him for what he’s blessed you with so far.
2. Get focused. Block out things that you don’t need to help you plan. No email, internet, TV, Frisbee in the park, etc. Just a pencil and paper, or an electronic to-do list, are perfect. You’ve already cleared your mind and are prepared to thoughtfully start planning, don’t let distractions break your kung-fu focus.
3. Get going. Start by writing everything out into your chosen planning system. I find a simple list works best—don’t try to format as you go; don’t try to organize by area (Errands, Church, Home, Work, etc.)—just brainstorm and go nuts.
4. Take a brief break. The Pomodoro technique will help you here, but suffice it to say a simple 5-10 minute break will work wonders when you come back to your list.
5. After your break, do it again. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like I always forget something (or 20 somethings…) when I go through my list the first time. The break should help you further focus on the stuff you’ll need to do during the week.
6. Organize by section. This is where you’ll actually split stuff up into groups—make a group for each larger project or area in your life (David Allen’s Getting Things Done is good for explaining this part as well).
7. Schedule. When you’re done grouping, try to split the tasks up throughout the week into places that make sense (“work”-related tasks can be done at work, “Church” stuff might be able to be done anytime, etc.). It’s hard to be specific about this part, since everyone’s schedules are so different—I find that it helps though to make sure everything’s out of my head and into my system.
8. Start marking stuff off. Once you’ve got a good idea about what to do, there’s nothing left to do except do it!

I know, I know—this all sounds so basic! …And it is. You’ve heard it all before, probably right here on Loren’s blog, but it bears repeating: Write down the goals/tasks, organize them, and start doing them. I can’t imagine not having a set time each week to send set lists, update the repertoire, and communicate regularly with the band members—these are necessary things, but easily forgotten or pushed under the rug without proper organization in place.

Develop a habit. Once you do this for a few weeks, you’ll be able to step back from micro-managing the system, and let it actually work for you. I don’t think about sending the set lists anymore—it’s just part of my normal Tuesday lunch breaks at work.

Finally, don’t worry. Jesus never worried, and it seems to me he’s a pretty amazing role model to have! Why worry about stuff? You can either change it or you can’t—be willing to change the things you can, and be able to let go of the things you can’t.

Thanks for reading, and to all you “Weekend Warriors” out there: let me know in the comments section what you’re doing to manage your time throughout the week to stay sane (enough) on Sunday morning!

Check out this post on Loren’s LifeOfASteward.com!

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I’ve been writing a lot lately. Not necessarily here, though I have been taking some time to plan out my blogging schedule for the next few months.

No, mostly I’ve been writing a novel. You can check it out here–it’s a thriller; an action-packed novel, and I’m pretty proud of it.

However, as a writer with an almost-published book (I’m self-publishing, but more on that later), I’m learning more and more of the absolute most important concept of self-promotion.

More and more, I’m learning the importance of maintaining active social media profiles, like Twitter and Facebook accounts (and Pages!), as well as continuing to try to provide helpful resources for current blog readers.

As such, I thought it might be helpful for any writers out there, whether they focus on fiction or non-fiction, blogs or ghost-writing, for me to post just a few of the amazing and thought-provoking resources that are freely available online.Some of these are websites you’ve heard of, some are not–the great part is, if you’re at all interested in writing anything, either now or in the future, these resources and blogs are great to subscribe to and get started reading.

So do it now, not later. And go write!

First, the sites that could be helpful:

1. ProBlogger – Sort of a catch-all hub for bloggers, writers, and online marketers, ProBlogger is one of those places that if you haven’t heard of it, you’ve probably been under a rock for some time. It can seriously help with your writing, but it can also give you some great ideas on marketing and promotion.
2. CopyBlogger – Another huge and constantly-growing resource for writers of all kinds, CopyBlogger has an immense archive of writing tips, tricks, and advice, and will help you sell more through your use of the written word.
3. Ghostwriter Dad – A bit different than the rest, but it nonetheless has some outstanding courses and information on ghostwriting–a field that I predict will become more and more popular in the near future as we all grow bigger and bigger platforms, yet not get any less busy!
4. NaNoWriMo – Admittedly, this forum is a little on the “14-year-old-I’m-a-writer-too-yay-vampires” side, but it’s still a great place to get some quick tips and helpful critique (especially in November!).

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1. Book Publishing and an Interview with James Rollins
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In the style of Chris Brogan’s three-word “resolutions,” I spent a brief period of time summing up my three-word attitude for the new year of 2012. Not to be confused necessarily with a set of goals, these words are merely all-encompassing ideas and mindsets that will help achieve my own personal definition of success this year.

I’ve finished the first draft of my first novel, The Golden Crystal, and in the interest of literary alliteration, I’ve chosen three words that start with the letter “P” (cute, isn’t it?). I anticipate that my year will be filled with all three of these words, in differing amounts and in places I’ve yet to discover. As my goals and definition of success, at least what it means to me and my family this year, changes along the way, I’ve focused on three words that I believe will be a continuing point of focus for me.

Prepare

Finishing a book (or work of any significant length) would absolutely have not been possible without some sort of preparation. My workflow, habits, and personal motivation create a difficult environment for me when I don’t prepare well enough in advance. One succinct way to put it: if it doesn’t get written down, it doesn’t happen.

So, therefore, my vow will be to at least write down my goals, track them along the way, and measure the successes and failures as I go forth. As the next phase of writing a novel—the editing and re-writing phase—is upon me, I will seriously need the stringent and focused guidelines of written goals and a prepared plan to keep me to the schedule.

Practice

Malcolm Gladwell writes in his book Outliers that “expert” status is reached in most fields of study after 10,000 hours of practice. Using case studies like The Beatles, Bill Gates, professional musicians, and others, he makes a strong case that active, focused learning for 10,000 hours is the “magic number” of reaching a point of absolute expertise.

10,000 hours is a lot of hours, by the way. A typical American workweek of 40 hours, 50 weeks a year, would warrant 2,000 hours of “practice” in a full-time job. That’s if it’s spent actually “practicing” the work—not the administrative tasks, getting to and from work, and other non-related activities that are necessary to any job.

My goal, then, is to focus a portion of my non-working hours on practice: writing, music, blogging, etc. I don’t expect to get anywhere near 2,000 hours in any of these areas, but intentional focus and practice is something I can do daily—building positive habits for the future. Maybe 1,000 hours of writing this year is a possibility, though—meaning that in 10 years, I would be on track to becoming an “expert” writer.

Persist

2011 brought many blessings to my life—a great church job, a pseudo-finished novel, growth in my career, and oh yeah—my amazing wife! I hope and pray that 2012 will bring with it many more and continued blessings, though I know there will be down periods as well.

Through these periods of struggle and strife, my keyword will be persistence—I will persist in prayer, in patience, and in peace (sorry to overuse the alliteration), and I will be persistent in my efforts to provide for my new family.

Not to be relegated solely to the unfortunate periods, I intend to be persistent as well in the way I build positive momentum. Blogging regularly has always been a struggle for me, though every time I’ve stuck to a schedule for writing and posting, the benefits have far outweighed the time and effort spent. In the same vein, I’ve been able to finish a 110,000-word draft of the novel only by sticking to a regimented “try-to-write-every-day” approach. Persistence is a solid description for the how part of goal-fulfillment for me.

I’m not the type of person to set “goal-type resolutions” for myself—I guess the popularity of “losing 20 pounds,” “joining a gym,” and “starting a blog”-type of stuff that people come up with has lost its novelty to me. I’ve found that the best time to start something is either yesterday or today. Dieting doesn’t work, but changing a lifestyle does. Setting resolutions so often is a catalyst for failure—leading to a loss of motivation, lack of interest, and a “bah-humbug” attitude.

Instead, I opt for resolutions that are at once vague as well as actionable. Vague and undefined in a sense of specificity, yet actionable in that I can actually measure the results. Preparation, Practice, and Persistence can be applied to pretty much anything I will engage in during 2012, and yet I can measure how well I’m living up my three-word resolution the entire time.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about publishing, writing, and the selling of fiction novels lately. Hmm, I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that I just finished my very first novel? Yup, and it’s looking pretty nice, too–check it out if you have a second: www.thegoldencrystal.com.

As I’ve been working with Lulu.com on the physical printing and sales of the book (sales: most likely an oxymoron for me…), I’ve consequently been researching, Googling, and doing way too much “not” work in the meantime.

I came across this post by Joe Konrath today, and it had so much wisdom; so much actually helpful advice, that I had to share it. It also has a lot of advice from my favorite fiction author, Mr. James Rollins himself…

Read the full interview here (it’s totally worth it, too, even if you’re not going to publish a book soon).

My favorite takeaways from James/Joe:

• “The way to fight piracy is cost and convenience.” True, true. Make readers wait longer and pay more for something that’s already available on that infamous pirating website, and the publisher AND author loses. In fact, just the other day I was searching for a book by a new (to me) author, and I came across a forum for sharing pirated copies of ebooks. In one of the threads, the actual author himself posted something like, “Hey guys, thanks for reading my book–I really hope you like it, and if you actually read it, you should consider supporting the work that’s gone into creating it. It’s only $0.99 right now at Amazon.” or something like that. Very classy by the author–I bought his book.
• “Windowing is useless in a digital world.” Books can now be shared, downloaded, streamed, listened to, and more in a plethora of devices. Konrath points to the music industry as proof that it’s never going to be the same again. Already major publishing houses are claiming that sales of ebooks (by unit numbers) are smashing the sales of print books. It doesn’t take a genius to wonder if things are changing for good…
• Rollins: “If left on my own, having to set and stick to my own deadlines, I’d probably still be a veterinarian.” Amen, brother. Statements like that give me hope. They remind me that pretty much all bestselling authors and smashingly successful writers had to start somewhere; had to work hard (and continue to work hard) to achieve even mild success. Thanks, James.

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How do I not get hurt?

Don’t get into any new situations or relationships.

How do I prevent people from being upset with me?

Don’t do anything out of your comfort zone.

How do I stay on people’s “good side?”

Don’t do anything thought-provoking.

How can I prevent causing any trouble?

Don’t do anything controversial.

How can I prevent being stressed?

Don’t start any new projects.

How can I make sure I’m always content and satisfied?

Don’t learn anything new.

How can I know that tomorrow I’ll be okay?

Don’t take any risks.

How can I make sure I won’t fail?

Don’t take any chances.

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1. Increase Motivation by Dealing With Boredom

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I’ve actually been thinking about motivation and its effect on boredom (and vice versa) quite a bit this past week. Was I bored? Actually, not really. Honestly, I was pretty motivated. It was just something I was chewing on for awhile because it seems to be an excuse I have used before for remaining in a certain “funk,” or having a “lack of motivation,”  and it’s certainly something I’ve heard others use as an excuse for not doing. Also, The Art of Manliness just wrote a post on “Characteristics of An Educated Man” that I thought touched on increasing motivation by analyzing boredom pretty well.

Boredom isn’t really something I’m struck with very often–I’ve certainly been bored, and I’m not going to say otherwise, but I’ve gotten good over the years at keeping my mind occupied enough to prevent boredom. I’ve also been motivated and productive, and at times have still been bored–so I wasn’t sure if it was something that’s been an issue for anyone else, but if so–here are some thoughts on the subject. It turns out that there have been some other bloggers talking about motivation and boredom this week as well, one of which was Trent over at TheSimpleDollar.com, who wrote Boredom is Our Enemy. I’m not going to go into his post much, as I don’t want to keep you from reading it, but I will be referencing part of it in this post soon.

Boredom as a Motivation Killer

Perhaps the most important reason we have to “prevent” or “overcome” boredom is to prevent becoming unproductive, or experiencing a decrease in our motivation. We want to stay as motivated as possible, knocking things off the to-do list, while staying focused and engaged in our work. Boredom can set in and immediately derail our motivation and productivity efforts–causing us to spend too many hours in front of the TV, on Facebook, and generally away from what we should be doing.

If you’re interested in preventing boredom for these reasons, keep reading–I’m going to go over a few ways I’ve “prevented” boredom and maintained a high level of motivation by being able to control my actions and thoughts.

Boredom as a Brain Killer

Maybe slightly exaggerated, I’m of the firm belief that boredom can actually harm us mentally. Do I have actual scientific evidence to back up this claim? Nope (at least not yet). But if you spent enough time Googling, I’m sure you’d be able to come up with something that confirms my hypothesis. My reasoning is simple–life involves interactions, whether with people, stuff, or our surroundings. The very definition of boredom seems to fit in with this concept quite well; namely that without environmental triggers to occupy or actually engage with us, we get bored, lose motivation, and ultimately “fail.”

But is this a problem of our environment or our own conceptual understanding of it?

I tend to think it’s the latter–sort of an “it is what you make it” concept. If I believe I’m bored, I’m probably bored. If I start to think I’m not motivated, I’m probably not very motivated to do something about it. If I believe I’m engaged and interacting in some way, I’m probably going to be hard-pressed to argue that I’m bored…

Enough with the idealistic rambling…

So, what can we do to “prevent” boredom and jump-start that motivational boost? For starters, it’s about understanding boredom for what it is–failure to interact with our environment, due to a lack of “interesting” subject matter, or a void of subject matter altogether. For that reason, I’ve prepared the ultimate bulleted-list of things to do if our environments begin to get too “void of subject matter” and cause us to lose that motivating edge:

• Fill it with more stuff.

You laugh, but what you may not realize is that our boredom is so often brought upon by our own doings it becomes habitually reinforcing. In plain English, we can prevent boredom by removing the things from our current situations that make us bored and replace them with things that are motivating, productive, and engaging.

Huh?

What I mean is, find the things that are causing boredom–is it your work? Your nightly ritual? This can be a difficult step–easy in concept, difficult to actually figure out. But try to figure out what it is that you’re currently doing that’s causing you to feel “bored,” and replace it with something that’s not so boring. Trent (that guy I mentioned up there who wrote that post I also mentioned up there) says that he keeps a “project book” filled with projects that aren’t necessarily pressing, but things that he can pull out on the occasion he feels bored or unmotivated.

Bored Bucket

Because I’m an avid amateur alliteration aficionado, I’m going to call this my “bored bucket.” Inside my bored bucket, I’ll place projects that I’m not currently needing or wanting to work on, for whatever reason. These projects are things that might help motivate me if boredom begins to set in. Maybe these projects are:

• Not pressing. They need to get done, but not right now.
• Not interesting enough. They’re things I want to do someday, just not now. They’re currently not going to help motivate me as much as something on my current list.
• Not feasible. Building a house isn’t something I’m in a place to do right now, but it’s something I’d like to one day accomplish.
• Not fun. Some projects stay on our list because they’re not really that interesting or fun, but still need to get done. They’re dangerous, but we can’t really take them off. Often they are things our spouses have assigned to us.

When boredom sets in, we just go to the bucket and look through our list. The idea is that something should present itself as a “yeah, I guess I’ll work on that now”-style option (something that will help motivate us) and we’ll be able to at least keep our minds occupied long enough to prevent the temporary bored bugs to get the best of us, until we can resume the thing(s) we are supposed to be working on.

So far, it seems like a good and workable solution. Admittedly, I don’t have a problem with lack of motivation or boredom too often, but I’m thinking it might be because I actually have been employing Trent’s method in my mind for awhile, without realizing it. My wife loves to make fun of (among many other things) the fact that I have so many “projects” going on at the same time. Here’s a brief list that comes to mind:

• Read the Bible again
• Finish my novel
• Learn AfterEffects CS5
• Learn Russian
• Finish the Christmas album
• Create an informational product to sell here
• Create a membership site for LoopingWorship.com
• Write a music theory book
• Lose 15 pounds

Again, not all of these things are set up in my productivity system in a way that they’re “ready” to be worked on yet. By this I mean I can’t just start doing some of these larger projects without doing some planning and organizing first. However, part of using a motivational and productivity system like mine is that I create Projects that have actionable to-do Items within them, like David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology. So while I couldn’t just pop open Wunderlist (my favorite to-do program currently) and start going down the list of Items for the Learn Russian Project, I could use my “bored time” as a motivator to create the Items that need to be there.

The bottom line for me is to remain focused on a few sub-projects at a time, because that’s how I work best (not multi-tasking, which I don’t believe in, but working on subsequent projects “simultaneously,” meaning multiple projects within the scope of a business day), and using my Bored Bucket as a backup; a go-to in a worst-case scenario. As I’ve used this system, it seems that the old adage of doing something to build momentum holds true as well, so whenever I start doing a project that’s in my Bored Bucket, it often ends up leaving the bucket and becoming something that lands in my rotation of current projects.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that it’s good for my workload(!). But it inevitably keeps me from getting bored…

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1. How to Hack Your Motivation: Part 1 – Why You Are Not Motivated
2. Thoughts…
3. How to Increase Your Blog’s Readership

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I’ve spent countless hours of my young life figuring out which productivity systems worked best for me. I’ve gone through programs like Things, Evernote, the Omni stuff, and my current to-do list manager, Wunderlist. Yes, I understand the inherent irony behind spending most of my waking hours wading through feature bloat and trying to do side-by-side comparisons of Mac, PC, and phone apps and software.

And, as it turns out, there’s already a fantastic place online dedicated to giving us the rundown of what’s best, what works well, and what has the best-looking icons. What I finally ended up realizing, though, is that “productivity planning” and “task management,” at least as it has to do with how most us structure our time, all boils down to one thing: Projects. David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done, seems to be the de facto standard method of organizing our thoughts into specific, actionable, and manageable tasks. And it works pretty well, I must admit.

The problem, though, is not with the system–it’s the approach we’re taking to using the system. Specifically, it’s the applications, methods, and “things” we put in the way of the simple concept behind task management.

Projects

Projects are the bread and butter for a system like GTD. Projects keep every task in a drawer, every item in a spreadsheet. We all have the overarching stuff going on in our lives that translate into Areas, like “Home,” “Work,” “Personal,” and “Finance,” etc. Projects, though, are the things inside each of those larger areas–the things that hold our day-to-day To-Dos and tasks and mini-projects.

When we start to grasp the concept of project management, things begin to come into focus. Instead of “getting our finances in order,” we mentally separate “saving for a car” and “preparing for retirement” into different and, for all intents and purposes, mutually exclusive buckets–or projects.

Our “saving for a car” project becomes filled with individual tasks–”research bank account savings rates,” and “call dad for advice,” etc., and our “preparing for retirement” project fills up with “open a Roth IRA,” and “sell that crappy ex-US index fund” (not that I’m opposed to ex-US index funds…).

When we look at one project per day, in this case, our overall goal of being financially fit becomes much easier to handle. We don’t need fancy checkboxes fed to us by the latest iPhone app, nor do we need any electronic system whatsoever. These systems become useful to us only after we’re able to conceptually grasp the difference between a large, long-term “goal” and a shorter-term, manageable-in-chunks “project.”

I’ve started naturally thinking in terms of “projects,” and while I swear by my Wunderlist syncing and Evernote notebooks, I only started using them after I had clear, concise areas with individual and independently-constructed projects within each.

Once this mindset becomes second-nature to us, the “system” we use for managing, cultivating, and structuring the mindset will become apparent. From there, it’s a matter of finding the features we need our system to have, and the deliverables we’d like for it to produce:

• Do we need it to have the ability to sync between multiple devices? Mac t0 PC and vice-versa?
• Do we need it to be able to update with a simple email reminder?
• Do we need it to be able to export a project’s items as a PDF?
• Do we need it to look pretty?

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1. Productivity 101: Every Time You Sit Down, Make Something Happen

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Seth Godin coined the phrase “sneezers” to describe the small majority of people on the “adoption curve” that exist before early adopters. Stowe Boyd also has a pretty great article describing what these people are like. These “sneezers” are the ones who get the widget before you’ve even heard of it. They’re lined up—in costume—before the release date has been announced. You can say they’re fans, but you wouldn’t really be doing them justice.

The thing about sneezers that’s pervasive for people like you and me—people who are bloggers, online “types,” writers, businesspeople, etc.—is that we can actually use the concept of sneezing for our own purposes.How? Well, for starters, we can use the concept for something we all make a living from, at least on some level: idea generation.  Yeah, I wrote an ebook that talks about idea generation quite a bit, but I thought it might be time to revisit the concepts again, this time using something we’re all familiar with.

Let’s break it down: you know those kids who are lined up outside of Harry Potter or the Twilight flick hours or days before the showing?

You know the people who are waiting in line at the mall’s Apple store in anticipation of the next iPad release?

And surely you know the people who have Amazon wish lists set up with scheduled reminders for the release of the next video game in their favorite franchise?

What each of these groups of people has in common is that they are all the type of person who would be able to “sneeze” about their adoptions—over and over again.

…And what does that mean for you?

It pretty much means that you need to find the things you “sneeze” about—or would sneeze about, given the opportunity. Are you the type of person to jump at the chance to be “first,” or type of guy who’s going to be the first person in your office to see the new Star Trek movie?

These things are our bread and butter for ideas. They are what we want, need, talk about, dream about, and have ideas about. We need to figure out what we’re “sneezing” about, and then capitalize on that single thread, extrapolating every idea from its core until we have what we need.

That’s how people invent great cases for the iPad or iPhone, and that’s how we keep an idea like a blog, book, website, or business going.

Think Steve Jobs started out trying to build the best computer in the world? Nope. He just had an idea that by building a computer (and then a music player, and then a phone, and then a…) that was simple to use and elegantly minimalistic by design, people would sneeze about it.

What’s your “sneezable” topic, industry, or product? Chances are, it’s either something you’re already blogging about or something your business is already creating. If it’s not, and you’re looking for something that will prove to be a scalable, flexible, and fruitful idea for your meme, figure out what it is you sneeze about.

For me, it’s figuring out how to “hack” and optimize our lives—to make it more enjoyable, fun, rewarding, easy, whatever—and then sharing what I find with you.

What’s your “sneezable” idea?

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Setting goals is one of those quirky activities our grade school teachers tried to get us to do every year, on the first day of school. They’d sit us down, pass around a handout with some hokey title like, “GOALS! WOOT! BOOYAH!” or something like that (it’s been awhile since I’ve been in third grade…). Then the teacher would twist up an egg timer to 15 minutes, and we’d “goal set” away with our two #2 pencils and the gentle, soothing ticking of the timer to calm our nerves.

What?!? Does anyone actually remember achieving any of these goals? Or even what they were?

Of course not.We were just humoring the old chap sentenced to babysitting us for the next 180 days with his or her busywork. We weren’t given instructions on how to set goals, what a S.M.A.R.T. goal was, or even why we were supposed to set them in the first place! We, like all good little boys and girls, were following instructions–a concept that has led us into dreary underpaid jobs with bosses and mundane lifestyles chasing after dreams.

Setting goals shouldn’t be so freakin’ scary. It shouldn’t conjure up nightmares of ticking time bombs and broken pencils, and it really shouldn’t be something we dread. Setting goals–ridiculous goals–can actually be a necessary, helpful, and very motivating exercise for us, if we’d only stop and realize its benefits. Setting goals:

• Can boost productivity by giving us a spark of recognition–we can look toward the future and realize it’s probably going to be better than the present.
• Can boost creativity by letting us, once again, be kids–we can dream big, forget colloquialisms that keep us “normal,” and be free
• Can help with our motivation–goal-setting can let us organize our thoughts, dreams, and inhibitions into manageable chunks of usefulness
• Can let us plan our life–do you buy a car before you get married? Do you save for a house or those 2.3 children you don’t have yet?
• Can help us relax–I can have my plate stacked with 10 other peoples’ plates, and just by writing everything down I can realize that I’m going to be able to get it all done.
• Can help us prioritize–is it really important to finish that TPS report now, or should you spend some time with your kids, ’cause God knows next week you’ll be slammed?
• Can let you see the brighter side of things–setting goals helps us realize why it is we do the things we do–the things we realize we probably shouldn’t do also end up on our goal sheets, and we can then cross them off since we’re not going to do them!

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Stop telling me you don’t have time.

Stop telling me how busy you are.

Stop updating your Facebook account after you’ve complained about being too busy.

Stop telling me about your favorite show on television after you tell me you can’t figure out how to start your blog.

Stop making excuses for yourself–excuses are boring, and their contagious.

Stop worrying about everything–Jesus never worried, so you shouldn’t either.

Stop complaining about what you don’t have, and focus on what you do have.

Stop leaving your work for later, when you know in less than an hour, you could have it finished.

Stop putting the mundane aside to focus on the fun stuff–live like no one else today, so you can live like no one else tomorrow.

Stop being normal. Everyone around you is busy being normal, dreaming about the people who are abnormal.

Stop living in the future–all you have is the present, so do what you want to do now.

Stop telling me you don’t have time.

Related posts:

1. Stop Advertising Your Failures
2. Productivity 101: Every Time You Sit Down, Make Something Happen
3. Man Stuff: Becoming A Better Man

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Have you ever dreamed of writing a novel? Like a big-boy chapter book? I certainly have, and I’m almost to the point where I can check off that goal of mine. I’ve always felt like I could do as well (or better) than a lot of the novels I’d read, and since I read a lot, I figured I might as well give it a shot.

The problem, I quickly found, was that writing a novel wasn’t difficult. Figuring out a plot idea, or developing character sketches, or even the basic research wasn’t hard. The tricky part was–and still is–keeping everything organized. 

I’m currently participating in an event called “NaNoWriMo,” which stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s an annual no-holds-barred writing extravaganza every November that exists solely to encourage and promote the idea of writing a full (50,000 word) novel in a month. Since I’d started my project a few months ago, I’m going to be shooting for 50,000 words in November that I can use to stuff my blog with great posts for a year (!). But here’s a bit of what I’ve learned, 70,000+ words into my book:

In my head, my book makes sense on a general level. You’ve got the good guy–the unassuming stereotypical hero archetype who saves the world, against all odds (I did mention it was a genre thriller, right?). But it was when I tried to get slightly more detailed; slightly more granular, when things got out of hand.

How does Person A get from Point A to Point B, while taking out Person B? What about Person C, who’s supposed to be with Person A the whole time? What about Setting A? What time does the sun even come up in Setting A in December? Will people be able to tell that I’ve never even been anywhere near Setting A?

Arg!

As such, I thought it might be helpful to all you other aspiring novelists out there, or anyone who’s engaged in the process of or considering writing a large, multifaceted work. Here are a few tidbits I’ve learned from doing this only once:

• Don’t try to keep everything in your head. You will fail, and your book will suck.
• This means to write everything down. I thought it was sort of a waste at the beginning of the project to go through and figure out who each character was and write it in a character sketch–who cares what they eat for breakfast? But it was a huge help to be able to write freely, knowing what their twitches, quirks, and characteristics were.
• Spend ample time outlining  each section before you dive in. I can argue that it’s great to just “jump in” and go nuts, but after awhile you really will be better off if you take some time to plan your attack. For this process, I use a combination of Scrivener and Evernote. More details below.
• Plan to rewrite. Everything. This is the phase I’m sort of in now–going back to the prologue and figuring out what parts don’t make sense (most of them) and which sections need to be rehashed (all of them). Don’t take it as an insult, but (especially if this is your first time scoping and writing something of this magnitude) it’s probably not nearly as good as you think. Unless you think it’s terrible. Then you’re probably right.
• Figure out which sections/paragraphs/sentences/words you don’t need. Then chop them out.

• How should I keep everything organized on my computer?
• What should I be writing in? (hint: it’s DEFINITELY NOT anything that starts with “Micro-” and ends with “-ord”)
• How should I organize my research files and links so that everything’s in the right place when I need it?
• What if I want to write at work, on a PC, or at home, on a Mac? Or what if I need to type an idea into my phone to sync with a server somewhere?

Well, I found my answers. They may not be perfect, or all-inclusive, and I might change my mind in the future. But for me, it’s a good start:

Using Scrivener and Evernote to Write Your Novel

In short, I use Scrivener to write and get creative. But I use Evernote to plan, store, and organize the stuff that starts in my brain. The three notebooks I currently have are:

• Ideas: This is where the book got its start. Everything starts as an idea, and I’ll have notes called “General Plot Ideas,” “Plot Holes,” “Questions,” etc. in here.
• Research: I love how Evernote has plenty of ways to “clip” stuff–this feature is paramount to incorporating into my workflow. If need to quickly find out how tall a monument is (’cause I’m gonna blow it up or something…), I’ll find it online, clip it, and do the bibliography info way later, so I don’t need to remember anything except my data.
• Current: This is a developmental notebook that came about from my differing day-to-day workflow. Usually I write from my MacBook Pro, but sometimes I’m on my PC at work. I don’t have Scrivener at work, so I need a way to keep my current place in the novel that I can immediately and effectively sync at a moments’ notice. Keeping a scratch file or two is a headache-solver for me.

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As a productivity reminder to everyone (but mainly myself), I’m re-posting it to hopefully serve as a boost for your motivation and a helpful tip.

As I grabbed my computer this morning to “just check everything,” I had a revelation: what if EVERY time I picked up my laptop or sat down at my desk, I consciously tried to make something happen? Rather than just “check in” with what’s gone on since I last left the interwebz (inevitably not long enough ago that anything dire or severe has changed), what if I made a distinct effort to actually get something done?

Since this is a lifestyle blog–focusing primarily on optimizing your life, how can you apply this to your productivity or motivation? Honestly, there has to be something beneficial and “forward-pushing” that you can do each and every time you sit down at your desk, walk into your office, or start up your computer–something that gets you one step closer to finishing that massive project, or something that gets you closer to landing that major client.

This something could be infinitesimally small–a response to an email–or larger. These “somethings” could be enough to snowball into finally finishing a huge project, or enough to just keep you going until it is done.

Either way, by admitting that you won’t sit down to just check the things you know haven’t really changed (analytics, revenue streams, even emails) unless you get some real work done, you’ll be able to recognize those times when you just want to jump on the computer to waste time and those times when you’re really engaged enough to get something done.

I think that we all have these big things we have to do–either put on us by a boss or some other authority, or by ourselves–you know what I’m talking about: the big things that hang over our heads and cause our productivity to wane, our motivation to be slowly sapped away, and our desire to do nothing more than sit in our boxers and play Halo to grow.

For me, it’s:

1. Writing for this blog (trying to get to the 3-5 posts per week range)
2. Writing guest posts for other blogs
3. Writing my novel (I’m so close to being finished!)
4. Working on my side business (www.LoopingWorship.com)
5. Planning, preparing, and dealing with the future of my business(es).

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1. The Secret to Productivity Systems: Projects
2. Social Media Influence: 3 Steps to Boost Your Social Media Productivity
3. The Ultimate Productivity Playlist

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Motivation is a tricky thing. I’ve heard it described as a “muscle,” meaning that like muscles, we need to exercise our “motivation” in order to increase its usefulness. Most of us suffer from instances of prolonged apathy or even disdain for our projects, our goals, and our lives. Some of us even have an issue with self-discipline. Why is it that motivation is so often an elusive emotion? Why is it that it seems more like a vegetable–something we know is good for us, but it tastes too bad to force down?
Usually, you “lack of motivation” really means you’re suffering from “3M” syndrome: Motivation and Momentum Monotony (clever, right?). This cute little phrase, to me, means that you’re not really unmotivated, you’re just stuck in another habit that needs to be “redirected.”

The “monotony” part comes in when we begin to go about our daily ingrained habitual tasks in a thoughtless, uninspiring way. You wake up, shower, brush your teeth, grab a coffee, and sit down at your desk, all in that order, all the time. When a new project comes across your desk, you intend to let the project’s work (the deliverables, presentations, final product, etc.) keep you motivated and focused on the end goal–but the real problem lies in the process you have leading up to the project, not the project itself.

For me, this means most often that I need to slightly alter my usual routine to incorporate this new project, if only to prevent monotony. Here’s an example:

I get a new consulting client. In order to give the new client the attention they deserve, I’ll need to block off a set amount of time each day or week to work on whatever it is they need. In previous years, I’ve had the “I’ll work on it when there’s something that needs to be done” mentality, but that’s never proved to be an effective use of my time–and my clients’ money!

The better way of handling this opportunity–and staying motivated and encouraged while doing so–is to prevent monotony, yet incorporate a new habit into your daily workflow. For a step-by-step guide on how to do this:

1. Grab a calendar or planner and split up your day into 15-minute chunks. Each 15 minute chunk, starting with your usual daily routine when you wake up until you go to bed, needs to be included. For me, that’s 6 am to about midnight.
2. Spend an hour and write your daily routine inside each chunk. Spend 15 minutes taking a shower? Fine, just estimate when you usually start/end your shower and bathroom routine.
3. Notice any holes? These are chunks that are not filled in with daily or repetitive tasks. Maybe you’ve “opened” a chunk or two for lunch, or like to have an open-ended dinner with your family. That’s good–just try to get everything you do on a day-to-day basis on paper.
4. Look for chunks that are “floating” in the middle of your day–these are usually tasks that can be pushed up or down in your day, and will help free up some extra time.
5. Finally, fill in the gaps with your new task(s), and spend a week seeing how the new project “fits” with your other chunks.

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2. Thoughts…
3. Productivity 101: Every Time You Sit Down, Make Something Happen

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I had just finished tagging every single book in my house into my Delicious Library 2 app–enjoying the “beep” it made as it scanned the barcode, and I looked back in my room to find my wife sleeping soundly in bed; long ago having passed out and given up waiting for me. I sighed, closed the laptop, and headed to bed. Still, however–after hours of finding, scanning, and reorganizing each and every book I could lay hands on–I felt somewhat unsatisfied. Unfulfilled. I’d read a chapters of my current book, even written a few pages of my novel. But I knew as I lay down that night–I was addicted to books. Not just reading them. Hell, not even just reading and writing them. I was a voracious consumer of fiction, a fanatic for non-fiction ancient histories, and I couldn’t fill my kitchen with enough cookbooks to satisfy a pre-culinary Julia Childs wannabe.I wish I could say I have a happy ending in store for you, but nay–I’m still helplessly addicted to books and all the wonder they hide between those gloriously-smelling pages. I have stacks of books next to the bed, in the bathroom, and in my briefcase, and a few audiobooks (what a sin!) in the car for those Monday-Friday commutes. Even after having sold/donated/tossed about a thousand books no more than a year ago, my bookshelf in the laundry room is already starting to (again) overflow with mass-market thrillers, favorite textbooks, and the occasional autobiography.

Why all the fuss?

After fighting back against my love affair with reading for my entire life, I’ve finally accepted my fate as a bookworm. Or nerd. But I’m okay with it now, and I feel like the world should be, too. I’m no genius, and I certainly didn’t do very well in most of my classes, but I’ve always felt as if I had some kind of edge, some kind of secret knowledge, over the general public. I’m here to tell you–whether you’re more interested in catching a summer blockbuster or going out and having a life with friends, it may be in your best interest to develop a habit for reading. Why?

1. It’s basically free. Reading is one of the few activities that most people can enjoy completely free-of-charge. You might need to spend a little gas money going down to the library, but you’ll be hard-pressed to not find something to read when you’re there. Having trouble making ends meet? Get into reading as a hobby, and you’ll have found yourself a way to not only cut back on expenses like going out for entertainment, you’ll also have found a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.
2. It offers virtually endless possibilities. Maybe, like me, you were severely burnt out from high-school advanced-placement English, when you were forced to choke down Heart of Darkness back-to-back with Jane Eyre, followed by Wuthering Heights. You justifiably swore off of books again, vowing to get your literature fill from CliffsNotes, bad Hollywood interpretations, and that weird cat lady from your local Half Price Books. Nevertheless, I was able to kindle my reading flame yet again with my current favorite fiction genre: fast-paced action thrillers, in the likes of James Rollins, Dan Brown, and Clive Cussler.
3. It makes you smarter. Or at least it makes you seem smarter. I do know that it can positively augment one’s bellicose endeavor to supplement their nomenclature, help with your memory, and even improve your health. At the very least, it’ll help put you to sleep.
4. It’s something the whole family can enjoy. Aww, how quaint. Yeah, I know, it’s not the quintessential American dream, but I do remember nights spent downstairs in the living room, Dad reading sophisticated engineering journals, Mom’s nose stuck in a dog-training manual, my brother consumed by an “all about trains/planes/something like that” picture book, and me wrapped up in a classic Goosebumps masterpiece.
5. It will expand your worldview. It makes sense–the more you read, whether it’s the Sunday paper, Al Jazeera, or fantasy novels, you’ll quickly begin to develop an appreciation for the world around you–and the worlds your authors have created for you.

So, what if I already hate reading?

We all know reading is a part of life–we can’t escape it. Go ahead and try: try to look at a single word on this page and NOT understand immediately what it is. Reading, like most other skills, takes practice though. Lucky for you, you don’t need to revert back to the basic fundamentals of reading–see spot run, see spot squat, yada yada. You’ll be able to increase your reading speed and comprehension by doing little more than just simply reading. But how, you ask, do you get to the point where reading actually becomes an enjoyable task and not a dreary chore? One step at a time. Here’s what I think to be a good approach:

How to become an avid reader

1. Do it. Most habits take a basic foundational level of willpower, and reading is no exception. The best way to fight through the lack of desire is to read something every day, until you find something you really like.
2. Find a reading spot and time. If you have a favorite chair, time of day, or don’t mind setting up the bathroom throne as a personal reading station, you’re best bet getting into reading will be using this locale as your designated “spot,” used for comfortably slumping into a relaxed reading mode. I like to read pretty much anywhere, but starting out I was more apt to read while in the car (as a passenger, not driving!), in bed, and in the bathroom (I used to rate books by the number of “poops”–no joke. Les Miserables is a whopping 120-pooper, while the Matt Christopher young adult sports series titles were always much more manageable 3-4-poopers. My wife, by the way, hates this anecdote, while my 9th-grade English teacher thought it was quite droll).
3. Find your “guilty pleasure” genre. One great tip for finding your reading spot are to not read anything “heavy” or “dense,” and instead opt for a “guilty pleasure”-type novel. Again, my weakness is for high-octane thrillers that feature lots of guns, grandiose plotlines, and minimal character development. Pretty much the antithesis of “refined” literature (take that, undergrad Brit Lit professor!).
4. Keep turning the pages. It sometimes can be difficult to keep going in a book that’s off to a slow start–but take it from me: sometimes, the slow-starting thriller packs a rewarding punch that makes it all worth it. Think of it as the almost-a-dud-but-oh-shit-not-really M100 firecracker on the 4th of July; when you’re ready to throw in the towel and give it up, something explodes.
5. Don’t waste time on a crappy book. Somewhat contradictorily, this tip warns that if your slow-starter doesn’t eventually pick up (like, maybe, by halfway through)–put it down immediately. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve wasted wading through a snooze-fest that ends up worse than that abysmal disaster Waking Ned Divine. I admit that some of the better-known authors actually don’t keep me engaged enough to get through their stuff–Michael Crichton (Airframe, specifically), Tom Clancy, and Dean Koontz are a little too far on the science/explanation side of things to keep my mind occupied most of the time.
6. Expand. After you’ve found a book you like, see if it’s the author’s writing that you prefer, or the genre itself. When I first started with the James Rollins books (as an on-duty lifeguard–no joke), I read Amazonia, followed by Excavation. Having been thoroughly satisfied after, I quickly snatched up the other three available at Half Price Books, and a few more from Amazon. Now, my wife is halfway through his non-series titles and is making quick work of his Sigma Force novels. My point is–you’ll eventually find a “favorite” author, even if it’s just a formulaic approach in a tried-and-true category. Finally, branch out into other authors in the same or a similar genre–I like to use a tool called What Should I Read Next–or Yahoo! Answers. Again, some of the authors might be a little slow for you, but don’t give up.
7. Have a book-acquisition and downsizing process. This is my fancy term for ensuring that you not only don’t break the bank finding new books to read as well as finding a decent way to dismiss of read yet not “keepworthy” titles. I, like most avid bookies, am a pseudo-collector, wanting to keep as trophies the books I’ve purchased and consumed. However, this is not reasonable for most sane people, as books are heavy and very expensive if purchased new off the shelf. They take up a lot of space, and aren’t usually worth their weight in paper when they’re used. However, here’s a brief outline of the ways I’ve found to keep a nice cultivated bookshelf:

Keeping a Book Collection:

First, you’ll need to figure out how to get your books:

• Library. Again, this is by far the cheapest and most “green” way of reading–no space taken up in the home, and no money spent acquiring or shipping the few hundred sheets of paper. The downside is, of course, that you can’t keep the books.
• Amazon. Duh. This is like the new de facto standard in online shopping, and as it was originally the web’s first largest bookstore, it’s still an amazing place to find super-cheap books. Usually, you’ll be able to only get as low as $4.00/book, since the lowest price you can set for an item is $0.01, and the common shipping price is $3.99. However, Amazon is still one of the first places I’ll go to check reviews, ratings, and cultivate my beloved wishlist. With the advent of smartphones, I can even scan in a barcode on my Android and have it quickly added to my list.
• Other bookstores. Don’t always assume that Amazon will have the lowest price available for a specific title. Sometimes authors have specials through their websites, but more than likely another discount books provider will have a match-price policy and/or will be able to beat their overbearing Goliath contender.
• Friends. If you’ve got a reader in your family or circle of friends, check out what they have and see if they’d be willing to lend you a few of their favorites. If not, check out Goodreads and Bookmooch. You’ll be able to trade books with other people around the world, with the price of only shipping and waiting (which is often too much for me to handle!). Again, the social aspect comes into play here, so you’ll be able to find what others recommend and are currently reading.

Second, you’ll want to make sure you have some “rules” in place so your books collection doesn’t get too unmanageable. Here are mine; tweak as needed:

• If a book is not one that I will finish, I put it in the “out” pile.
• If a book was good, but not that great, I put it in the “out” pile.
• If a nonfiction book has given me a few ideas but not a reason to refer back to it, it goes in the “out” pile.
• If a fiction book was great, I hang on to it for at least six months/a year. The reason for this is that I may think I’d like to keep it, but I’d be better off selling it back and then possibly “rediscovering” it years later–rather than let it sit and collect dust in my home. After said amount of time, I’ll flip through it again and either throw it out or keep it to reread.
• If a book has sentimental value (a gift from a loved one, a story behind it, etc.), I’ll have a little more scrutiny, but I still want to only keep books that I’ll reread.
• If a book has a collector’s value (it’s signed, first-edition, etc.), I’ll put it aside to keep or to track the resell price.

Finally, how to get rid of books:

• Returns. Usually only allowed after a week or less at major bookstore chains, this option is best if you’re just not “feeling” it after a few days’ worth of reading.
• Give it away. If you have a reader friend, a great book can be one of the best possible gifts ever. Trust me. BUT, that doesn’t make EVERY book the greatest gift ever–essentially meaning it’s really HARD to pick out a perfect book gift for a reader…
• Sell it back. Makes sense–you want to use that “book money” for more books, right? I love Bookscouter.com–it has an Android app that can scan barcodes, and gives you a list of the top buyback prices and the store information for each. I’ve made over $350 in one (long) sitting this way, typing in ISBN numbers until my fingers bled, but it was worth it. And they pay the shipping!
• Donate them. I’ve found that donations (at least to bookstores) are a last resort for me. Aside from a few anomalies, Bookscouter.com’s stores will buy back anything Hastings and Half Price Books will, but at a much better price. Second in line for me is Hastings, which will actually look up each book individually and give you a final buyback price. Further, if there’s something you’re not going to get paid for, you can choose to keep it or have them recycle it. Last in line is Half Price, which will essentially pay you for a few “high price” items (but you’ve already ridded yourself of them on Bookscouter, right?), then give you a lowball price for the box of books in bulk. They won’t let you “take back” specific books that they’re not going to pay you for, and you’ll get a total box price for mass-market paperbacks around seventeen cents, for example. Hardly worth my time. Donating to the homeless, Goodwill, or underprivileged community support facilities is pretty sweet, though–and it’s a tax write-off.

Whew! I think, after that manifesto into the world of being a book dork, I’m done. If you have questions, or just want to mention some of your own resources, please leave a comment! I hope you’re able to start reading and actually enjoy it soon–it’s an amazing, rewarding, and perpetually-available experience! Lastly, here are some more helpful links:

• http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/14-ways-to-cultivate-a-lifetime-reading-habit.html
• http://www.fastcompany.com/1678254/how-many-books-are-there-in-the-world
• http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2010/08/books-of-world-stand-up-and-be-counted.html
• http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Reading-a-Pleasant-Habit
• http://readhabit.blogspot.com/

Related posts:

1. Useful Reading…
2. Book Publishing and an Interview with James Rollins

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Pursuing the Highest Level of Yourself.

As I enter my “mid-twenties” (which my wife says doesn’t really start until 25), I’m finding myself caught up more and more with books, articles, and websites offering one thing: tips and advice about becoming the best version of myself. From dressing to hygiene to cooking to being a loving, Christ-following husband, some of the topics I’ve been interested in have been admittedly vain, but nonetheless are topics I still feel drawn to, for one reason or another.

For example, I know there’s not much reason to get into a frenzy over looks. We are made in God’s image, and whatever goods he’s given us is “what we got…”

But the very act of consciously adapting my thoughts and actions to conform to a different, “better” standard of appearance has been eye-opening for me. Taking the “looks” and “appearance” question further, I’m convinced that (for some amazing, unbelievable reason) my wife doesn’t really care what I look like day in and day out. As long as I’m fully clothed, pseudo clean-cut, and not reeking of last night’s workout, she’s okay with whatever. As a man, this is one of the most awesome and liberating truths–but it’s not enough.

As a man (yes, I’m going to say that quite a bit), I feel like I owe it to her–if not myself as well–and to others to present myself with pride and confidence. Dressing like I’ve put some thought into it, carrying myself with proper posture, and wearing a watch are some of the things that I believe say: “Hey, I’m in this for the long run, and I’m going for it. Take it or leave it–this is me.” It’s all one way of saying, “I’m putting my best foot forward.”

So, for that reason, I’m going to start a series here that will hopefully be transparent, honest, and possibly inspiring for other young men out there interested in “becoming the best version of themselves.” Not out of a learned “expertise” or assumed “knowledge” will I be presenting this–on the contrary, this series will just be three things:

1. What I’m trying to “better” in my life
2. What I’m reading/doing/wondering/asking to get to “better”
3. What the results are

Maybe this topic (call it “self-improvement,” “personal growth,” whatever) is something you’re interested in, as a guy. Maybe it’s something you’ve already invested in some way or another. Or maybe you don’t have enough time to work on yourself at all. I’m here to tell you that there is time–but we’ll get to that.

Man stuff.

I’m going to title the series, “Man Stuff,” since that’s what I think of when I read about things like, “How to Properly Wrestle an Alligator,” and “How to Pick Out and Fit A Suit,” but it also is a term that can describe “The 7 Best Weeknight Meals for Men” and “The Single Best Workout for Guys” and “The 10 Books that Will Change Your Life.” And yes, these are posts that I’ve planned for release here soon. I’m sure there will be topics that I don’t cover, or countless answers that I don’t provide, but again: this “Man Stuff” series is a process–a living, breathing repository of my experimentations with becoming the best possible man that I can be. I have an entire lifetime (minus 24 years) to complete this “task,” and I’m not sure if I even believe that there’s a “success” or “failure” stamp I’ll be able to put on it. For me, however, it’s the process, the journey, and the experience that I’m doing it for. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help people along the way!

The format.

Each week/month/whatever, I’ll pick a topic that I’ve been working on/in lately. I’ll provide the material that I’ve come across, whether books, magazines, websites, or something else, and I’ll post about what I’ve found that’s helped me “get better” at that topic. Here’s a brief list of some of the things I’m thinking about:

• Spirituality (warning/disclaimer: I’m a Christian, and this is going to be a Christian-focused Man Stuff section. There, can’t say I didn’t warn you.)
• Attitude
• Physicality (working out, active life)
• Nutrition (health, eating habits, weight loss, etc.)
• Cooking (health-ish, cooking awesome food with normal kitchen stuff)
• Intellectual Growth
• Business (making more money, being successful in the workplace)
• Personal Finance (saving, investing, spending less, frugality)
• Grooming (dress, hygiene, etc.)

Obviously, there’s some overlap, and there are some things I’ve missed entirely. Those things are either out of my current scope of desire to learn/figure out, or they’re something that’s slipped my mind completely. Either way, this is a blog. Leave a comment somewhere and let me know what I’ve forgotten as I go forth with this.

As always, I hope you enjoy the posts/articles, and I hope that someone out there is able to use my mistakes/failures/learning experiences for good somehow. No guarantees!

No related posts.

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Before I get into this post, I need to define what I mean by “social media” and “productivity” in this instance. First, by social media, I’m referring to your efforts to connect, share, mediate, and be relational online, whether for personal or online marketing reasons. I am including the use of social networking sites to socialize, social bookmarking sites to share your favorite information and resources, and microblogging, blogging, and forum-type platforms. Second, by productivity, I’m talking about how efficient and effective these efforts are. For example, I believe that it’s pretty easy to expand your social media reach online piece by piece by sending out Tweets each and every day, unsolicited, but you may not be as efficient as you could be. In the same vein, you may be able to convert a few visitors a day to your site/blog by sending these Tweets, but you may not be as effective as you want to be.What’s our goal here? Why look into the productivity of our Tweets? I’m only using Twitter as an example–this approach should apply to every “social media” or online marketing activity we partake in. Simply put, we need to analyze what’s working and do more of it, and find what’s not working, and cut it out completely or change it so it is. In traditional marketing campaigns, this process can be done through split (A/B) testing, focus groups, and old-school data-analysis. In the world of online marketing, the concepts are basically the same, but the social media methods are a bit more elegant and the results come (a bit) quicker. Let’s get started.

Step 1 – Break down what you’ve got.

Pick a social media channel–I’ll start with my blog. My blog only has about 30 regular readers on average. It sucks, but to me that’s 30 people a day who “seem” to care about what I’m writing here. As I started from nothing, building to a 30-subscriber count to me is a taste–albeit small–of success. Anyway, let’s break down what we’ve got.

• Who’s reading? FeedBurner makes it a bit tricky to analyze who’s reading, but judging by the comments I’ve received on the blog, I can assume most people who are stopping by at this point are bloggers, social media folks, and internet marketers. This is important data to me because I can either continue trying to reach this group of people by writing more about these topics, or I can focus on another sector by switching gears to something else.  However, just by understanding who’s reading shouldn’t be enough information to make that decision. We need to keep going to figure that out.
• Who’s responding? Who’s re-Tweeting? Who’s commenting? Who’s replying to your forum posts? Are they happy/sad/mad/whatever about your posts, or are they just trying to stir up conversation so you’ll go visit their site (by the way, visit their site–let them know you stopped by, and they’ll probably come back to yours!)? It’s not hard to tell who’s actively interested in what you have to say, and who just wants some cheap attention. Both reasons for responding are completely fine–but one isn’t going to be a lasting relationship.
• Who’s reacting? Is anyone on your blog or Twitter feed responding in a way that is fueling your conversation with the world? Look for re-Tweets of your messages from the same people, and reach out to them in the social media world more. Find those who ask questions on your comments pages and answer them publicly by writing a post in response to them. Reacting is basically responding with initiative–more than a “thank you,” and implying that they’re looking to you for advice, help, guidance, camaraderie, etc.

Once you’ve broken down your audience (your current audience, not your target audience), see if it aligns with what you envisioned for your social media and/or online marketing efforts. Are you reaching the people you need/want to reach? Are you getting the results (even if only on a minuscule scale) you intended? If so, move on to Step 2. If not, tweak your message and work extra hard to reach out to those who are your target audience.

Step 2 -Place measurement tools and checkpoints.

Once you’ve got a good idea of who falls into your readership/audience demographic, place the measuring tools within your reach. Using online social media tools every day can help you expand your network and keep up with your industry–giving you invaluable insight into what’s going on with your customers, competitors, suppliers, etc. Here are some examples of “tools” I use daily/weekly/monthly:

• Google Analytics – For my blog, I check in with my Analytics account daily. I want to see who’s visiting, where they’re coming from, and what they’re looking at when they get there. Also important to me are from where they’re exiting (exit pages), and how long they stick around.
• Hootsuite – For Twitter, I use Hootsuite almost exclusively now to send and read posts from all of my accounts–including those from LinkedIn and Facebook. Since I manage multiple Twitter accounts for clients, I like having the stats and dashboard for everything all in one place–and with only one login. Hootsuite also has a great built-in search function. I have live searches set up for things like #social media, #socialmarketing, #interpersonalskills, etc. Use the search function in whatever program you prefer to keep a tab on who’s saying what. Bonus: follow those who are coming up regularly in your searches, and re-Tweet their information liberally. Hootsuite can very quickly become your social media hub for checking in with your network(s).
• Google Reader – While I use NetNewsWire for my RSS subscriptions (because I can read them offline), Google Reader is a fantastic way to have everything under one roof. If you have an Analytics, Gmail, AdSense, or other Google account, Google Reader is a piece of cake to hook up. A great way to use an RSS reader is to do a Technorati search for the keywords that relate to your niche and subscribe (via RSS) to the results. They’ll show up right in your RSS reader every time it’s updated.

There are a million other social media resources out there for tracking and data analysis, but these are the most frequently used for me. Remember–burying your head in stats all day may enlighten you, but it won’t create your content or build your business for you. Keep it simple and you’ll be set.

Step 3 – Set up your systems.

If you’re like me, your motto is “I’ll procrastinate tomorrow…” Don’t let your good intentions go to waste by not acting on them. Set up systems for yourself that are easy to follow and reasonable early in the game, and try as hard as you can to stick with them. Here are some examples of my systems:

• Plan your posts/Tweets. For blog posts, I use the Blog Post Planners made available by ProductiveFlourishing. They give me a great tool to guide my blogging throughout the entire month for multiple blogs. For Twitter accounts, you can use Hootsuite or TweetLater (now SocialOomph) to schedule Tweets in advance. An excel spreadsheet is also a simple yet effective way to plan out your Twitter and online marketing/social media strategies. Most of what I plan in Twitter is on-the-fly, as I like to follow up quickly with RTs of great content from people in my network.
• Schedule your time. My daily schedule was so drastically different each day last year that I didn’t get nearly as much done as I could have. Just by having a single block of time daily for writing posts, I was able to completely turn around my business–and I’m still adding “blocks” to my schedule. By adding “blocks” one at a time, I’m able to still feel free and unhindered by an otherwise rigid schedule. Remember–as a blogger, you can work from wherever you want, whenever you want!
• Break the rules. After you’ve created and followed a schedule for yourself and your writing, stop following it for one day a week. Like dieting, your mind needs a day or two to completely indulge itself and recharge for the next week. Use that day to read something other than blogs, forums, and web stuff. I like a bit of fiction–maybe The Count of Monte Cristo?

Systems are a big favorite of mine. With systems, we can build an online business that is virtually run without our input–for some great examples of that, read Tim Ferriss’ The Four-Hour Workweek. Blogs can also provide a great example of an automated income stream based on systems.

In conclusion, it’s important to see your business from all sides: choosing keywords and targeting them through killer content can net you some profit, but it won’t go too far to build a network for you. Ideally you want to follow the set of rules the SEOs have set forth to optimizing your blog and website for keywords, but use the social media tools to help people trust you. A killer online marketing, branding and social media strategy involves both SEO and social media working together simultaneously. Don’t leave out one or the other!

As always, I want to provide this information free of charge in exchange for your readership–I’d love for you to leave a comment down there, and I’d love it if you signed on for more cool stuff like this. My RSS feed is here, and my free weekly newsletter is here.

Related posts:

1. The Social Media Paradigm
2. Online Marketing for Your Small Business: Networking and Social Media
3. Where Does Social Media Fit In With Your Marketing?

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I’ve been working a lot lately, and I came across some really cool, different music using Pandora‘s free streaming service. These songs are all on my iTunes “Work” playlist, but I’ve included (affiliate) links here for your ease (and my benefit…). I hope this post will be something that keeps growing, and you’re welcome and encouraged to include your own “working tunes” in the comments section.

1. Paper Route – Are We All Forgotten. This album has been on repeat for a few days now; it has a Postal Service flair to it mixed with a vocalist that sounds a bit like the singer for Kings of Leon. Check out the songs You Kill Me, Carousel, and the title track Are We All Forgotten.

2. Shiny Toy Soldiers – Season of Poison. If you don’t check out anything else on this list, download this one. These guys (and girl, it sounds like), have been around for awhile, and they have a really cool ambient/hard rock/chemical sound with some rap and nice textures thrown in.

3. Styrofoam – The Point Misser. This group is a bit weird, but they have a trance-like synth background during most of their songs, and an electronica/club beat going on in the ones I’ve downloaded. Try out Word Spoken, Future Debt Collector, and It What the Earth He Was Standing On That Was Moving.

4. Athlete – Tourist. Great guitars, great melodies, and overall great sound. A little like Oasis without the thick obnoxiousness, this is a group from the UK that has definitely been around the block a few times. Check out Chances, Wires, and If I Found Out.

5. Owl City – Ocean Eyes. Okay, okay. I know you’ve all heard Fireflies a million times already, but for a dude alone in his basement, the quality and musicianship doesn’t get any better than this! If you’re too tired of the main songs by now, try out Vanilla Twilight and Tidal Wave.

Are there others you’d like to add to this list? If so, leave a comment below and I’ll check it out! Now, back to work!

Related posts:

1. Productivity 101: Every Time You Sit Down, Make Something Happen
2. Social Media Influence: 3 Steps to Boost Your Social Media Productivity

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Put simply, if you are comfortable, you’re not growing. If you’re not growing, you’re dead.

In business, if we aren’t growing, our competitors are. Our clients are getting restless. Our employees are getting bored. Our profits are getting stale.

In blogging, we are losing market share to other bloggers, and in turn losing readers, subscribers, and customers.

If you are comfortable, you’re used to being comfortable and not used to change.

If you are uncomfortable, you have to change.

So what are you?

Remember–the more comfortable we are, the more drastic of a change we will be ready to make.

Related posts:

1. How to Generate More Business In A Struggling Economy
2. Turn Your Blog Into A REAL Business
3. Social Media Influence: 3 Steps to Boost Your Social Media Productivity

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I recently wrote this post for Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.net, which was met with HUGE success in my opinion (it received over 100 comments–only about 20 were mine!). For my new book, WordPress Success: The Definitive Guide to Making Money Blogging (coming out VERY soon!), I talk a lot about the importance of expanding your horizons–specifically by writing guest posts. I took my advice to heart, and my Analytics were off the chart! I’ll include more detail later, but here’s the original post:

If you’re anything like me, you struggle with self-discipline every now and then–especially when it comes to your business. I run two businesses, and am trying to build a successful blog. My businesses, luckily, are getting to be more and more self-sustaining every day, though they constantly need work and updating to maintain that “edge.” My blog, on the other hand, has been a terrible headache for me to grow and manage.

Until I realized it, too, was a business.

I never planned to sell anything on my blog, and may never want to (except for ad space). I knew that other popular businesspeople, “gurus,” and professionals had started blogging, some for pleasure and some for money. For a long time, I was under the impression that these people found their success through hard work, determination, and much luck. I assumed that starting my own blog was going to needsubstantial amounts of luck as well.

When I began writing and blogging, however, quickly realized that the workload and planning that my blog needed resembled the time commitment my companies required in their infant stages. Recently I began thinking of my blog as a business, and that has made all the difference.

If you are starting a blog for any reason, it will greatly benefit you to began viewing it not just as your own personal journal, but a living, growing business. Businesses need nurture, dedication, and planning, and one of the best ways to grow a business and “make your own luck,” is to look for ways to “systemize”  it. Here are great ways to begin systemizing your own blog to take advantage of processes, time management, and growth control:

1. Post schedule. There are already numerous articles on ProBlogger.net that discuss ways to schedule your posting frequency, but understand the importance a set schedule can have, psychologically. By writing out a physical schedule, I’ve been able to maintain a steady stream of fresh content for my own blog, and having the schedule on my desk has provided a great deal of “accountability” for me–if I miss a post day, my calendar will be there to remind me! A post calendar or schedule is also a great place to manage post topics and ideas, as is the Post Ideas WordPress widget.
2. Daily schedule. Going hand-in-hand with the first tip, planning out the time you spend in front of your computer can pay huge dividends in the long run. Before I had a plan, I would sporadically check email, write, browse the web, read favorite blogs, and a plethora of other things. Now, I sit down around midnight every day (I’m a night owl) and spend 15-20 minutes checking emails. I spend about half an hour checking my RSS reader and commenting on insightful posts, and then work for about two hours on client work. For a break, I write–sometimes a blog post, sometimes a rant. I finish up any client work, then spend about 1-2 hours researching and writing a post for my blog. This schedule is not perfect, but it keeps me active and ensures that whenever I’m working, I’m in “the zone” and not bouncing back and forth between numerous tasks.
3. Communication filtering. Part of promoting a blog, as you know, is reaching out to fellow bloggers and authors and becoming an active part of their communities. Commenting, posting on forums, and emailing are great ways to do this, but you can get carried away “following up” in so many different capacities that you forget to “follow through.” I used to comment on blogs and forums so often that I wouldn’t remember where I’d commented, and my efforts would go to waste. Eventually, I decided to set up a “system” for my communications to keep me in line. For example: whenever I comment on a blog or forum topic, I immediately drag the page to a bookmarks folder called “Threads.” At the beginning of my workday (night), I click “Open all in tabs” to see what changes, if any, have taken place on the sites. In addition, I always subscribe to “comment updates,” if available, to ensure that I’m contacted immediately after someone else has left a comment or post.
4. Staying in the game. I mentioned earlier the importance for my businesses to maintain their “edge,” and now my blog (about entrepreneurship in college) needs to be on top of current events and trending topics in my arena of business. Being a professional in your own industry may be enough for you to stay aware of what’s going on in your community, but if you want a little extra support, consider using services like Google Alerts and Twitter hashtags. Another great way to stay ahead of the curve is to become active in popular social media communities (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.). While being able to drive referral traffic to your blog, being a Web 2.0 socialite has the added benefit of letting you build these social systems into your blogging schedule (dedicate a specific amount of time to developing relationships, communities, and followers every day).
5. Building habits. My schedule is not ideal for many people, but I’m not married, not (currently) taking classes, and don’t have a day job. I maintain a midnight-7am schedule for blogging because that’s when I’m able to focus without being distracted no matter what. I may be able to work undisturbed during the day every once in awhile, but by choosing a time to work that is steady has led to my building a habit around this time. My body now knows at midnight that it’s time to focus, crack down, and produce. Habits are a great “system” to have in place because they can help force efficiency and effectiveness in everything. Get in the habit of writing at least once a day, and start building good habits around your blogging “business” as soon as possible.

The ultimate goal of systemization is not necessarily automation, though when executed deliberately and correctly, automation can be a welcome hand in your business’ operation. By systemizing your blog, you are able to begin working “on” your blog, not “in” your blog–to borrow from a popular business expression. Sure, you need to provide great, original content, but understand that there’s more to blogging than what you type (unless, of course, the blog is for your eyes only!) Systemize whatever processes you can that will free your mind and time for “business building” tasks, and you’ll find that your writing quality will actually improve rather than suffer!

I hope I’ve started the ball rolling for you to begin examining your current habits and systems, and I hope you’ll consider working out your own “systems” for maximizing your effectiveness at blogging. If you have any thoughts or advice I’ve left out–please comment to let us know!

Related posts:

1. Online Marketing Basics: 10 Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Blog
2. 7 Ways to Land Clients With Social Networking
3. 5 Internet-y Things Your Business Must Have