This week was a solid week with more iOS Productivity videos recorded. I’m seriously looking at what it means to be successful on YouTube and how I can measure that.

Jason and I also announced a course we’re doing in a few weeks. It’s like a reverse Black Friday sale…it’s cheaper now than it will be then. If you’re tired of the feast and famine cycle in your business Jason and I will show you what marketing works for us, and how to schedule your day so that you can keep on your marketing when you’re busy. Get it now while it’s cheaper.

Finally, almost done The Freelancer’s Guide to Getting Started. I had hoped that the pre-order would be up this week, but it didn’t happen. Don’t have time tomorrow since it’s a day filled with running kids around as my wife is away on a course.

Stuff I Produced

We all feel overwhelmed sometimes and on Monday I gave you 6 Tips to deal with overwhelm in your work. I had a great response via email from Rafal (who runs the great Sandbox Rim). I’ll be talking about that response in a future podcast.

Tuesday I did two videos around my iOS and iPad workflows. First, how to build an ergonomic iPad workstation. Second, I talked about why I’m not upgrading to the latest iPad’s…yet.

Wednesday is for a new episode of The Smart Business Show. This time I talked about being more realistic with your time if you want to run a great freelance business.

Thursday I talked about Waking Up by Ted Dekker. You can listen to or read my look at his struggle with faith. Make sure you subscribe to Should I Read It so you don’t miss a book that matters.

And that’s it. What did you ship this week?

Friday Five

1. James Clear on Habits

I’ve already got my copy of Atomic Habits, but listening to this podcast with James Clear made me even more excited to read it. I don’t even know what part to recommend because there were so many awesome parts in the show.

Just go listen to it.

2. On playing the long game

From Farnam Street

There is an old saying that I think of often, but I’m not sure where it comes from: If you do what everyone else is doing, you shouldn’t be surprised to get the same results everyone else is getting.

This is part of the reason I write a bit every day.

What starts small compounds into something more. The longer you play the long game, the easier it is to play and the greater the rewards. The longer you play the short game the harder it becomes to change and the bigger the bill when you do change.

It’s added up to around 300k words published this year when I count the books I’ve released.

What long game are you playing? What action are you taking day in day out?

3. Individual action when the system doesn’t support it

In Lowtech Magazine:

But how effective is individual action when it is systemic social change that is needed? Individuals do make choices, but these are facilitated and constrained by the society in which they live. Therefore, it may be more useful to question the system that requires many of us to travel and consume energy as we do.

I’ve asked myself this as I got a call about a job in Vancouver recently. I was great for the job. It was management and yet I had to commute every day into Vancouver. I had to give up hanging out with my kids at 3pm.

No I didn’t take it, and I did question the caller about why they would setup a job to take their employees away from their family for such long periods of the day without allowing any flexibility. They didn’t have an answer.

Every time I have to drive into Vancouver along with morning commuters I spend most of the time asking myself how others justify wasting all the time daily? How do they justify the expense of gas? The loss of time with their family to sit in a car?

I can’t justify it so I don’t do it. Work is changing, but it’s a slow process so far.

The rest of the article goes into the ways that the systems we have going on around us are making it harder and harder to reduce our energy footprint. Do read it

4. The temptation to reschedule

Since then I have realized that the temptation not to follow through is compounded by ease. Never has canceling, for example, been easier and less painful for us than it is in the age of the text message. We can cancel without ever having to speak with, much less meet, someone. We can cancel five minutes ahead and without explanation. Just tack on an emoticon to our message, and we can convince ourselves that it’s almost the same as if we’d met our obligation.

And out if this post I have another book to purchase. The book in question is The Speed of Trust.

Ultimately, it comes down to saying “yes” to less and then sticking to the things we agree to. We can’t please everyone so don’t try.

5. When You Don’t Feel Like You’re Doing Great Work

I re-read the transcript this morning while I was once more feeling exasperated with how little time I’ve had for writing lately. (For me, writing is my yardstick for productivity. It doesn’t matter how much other work I’ve been doing behind the scenes here; if I’m not publishing, I’m not happy.)

What the author has is a measuring stick for his day. Mine is reading and writing. If I didn’t read for a while and do some writing I feel like my day was a waste.

Do you have your measure? How are you arranging your day to hit this goal?