I’ve mentioned it a few times, but this week I really started to talk about my course with Jason Resnick called Stop The Cycle. This course is all about how to stop going from so much work you don’t know what to do, to figuring out how far you can get ramen to stretch.

Today I put together a video addressing some of the questions of purchasers.

Monday was an overview of what you’re getting when you take the course.

I hope to see you there.

What I Shipped

Monday I talked about a lady that lost the ability to dream. Thanks to the many people that reached out to tell me the post was great.

Tuesday I did a video on my shutdown routines in Things 3. Monday is a post on the same thing, clearly my content strategy is in flux. I’m going to combine content like this next time. In fact, going to revamp the days I post and how I’m doing it all in the coming weeks with a relaunch for 2019.

No, nothing much will change in the content you see, just how I deliver it.

Wednesday I shared some tips from Rafal to help you get yourself centred when you feel crazy. Rafal writes at Sandbox Rim, which I subscribe to because it’s great. You should to.

Thursday there was a bunch of content out (see I’m confused right now about my content). First I tackled the myth of the starving artists with Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins. You can read it or listen to it. Subscribe to Should I Read It so you don’t miss a book that matters.

I also did a video on my iOS podcasting setup.

The plan for today, maybe while you’re reading this, is to revamp what I’m doing on which days of the week so that next week is the last one with this much content work for a while.

Friday Five

1. Find your productive hours

The most useful method? The real “secret” to productivity? Its really quite simple…Learn when you are productive.

From dadlife.

I’ve never said it like that but I’ve gravitated to early mornings because those are my productive hours. After 3pm I hang out with kids and do house stuff. There isn’t much left in the tank even when I start late.

Do you know when your productive hours are?

2. Task Management Strategies

Good podcast from Mac Power Users. While I did write a book on Analogue Productivity I’m also playing with Things fairly heavily currently. In part for some video work, but also to see how digital tool may fit with what I’m doing.

If you’re struggling with task management give this show a listen.

3. A Freelance Interview with Gaya Kessler

It can get lonely at times, but it helps to have a client who wants you to visit their office. In the beginning it has also quite stressful for me since I gave up the “financial security” I used to have. I put quotes around it because nobody really knows for sure if the job they do, even with a permanent contract, still exists in a few months / years.

Nice to hear about the loneliness that can accompany working from home. Feeling alone can happen even if you’re not a freelancer, it’s something to address for all remote workers.

One of the big ways we can do that is by being intentional about seeing others outside of our work time. We try to have a friend over every Friday for pizza as one of the ways to do this. I also am starting back with a Thursday running group to get some more adult interaction.

Do read the whole article with Gaya, it’s good.

4. Our Chameleon Screens

Steve Leveen on Well-Read Life:

From what I’ve seen, our chameleon screens are distracting many of us much of the time. To actually get work done, some of us, including me, try to apply some discipline. We may try to check email only at certain times of day. We may intentionally go offline. We may even try to use software to shield us from other software, although this seems like asking the family dog to watch a house full of teenagers.

This feeling is why I use a Bullet Journal to run my Web Business. It’s why I wrote a whole book on Analogue Productivity. It’s why I plan my week in advance on paper every Friday and write down my tasks at the end of the day for the next day.

There are great uses for technology. I rely on Trello to collaborate with my clients.

I even use my Bullet Journal to sketch out data relationships when it doesn’t instantly come to me as I’m working.

Paper is a great piece of technology we should be using. Screens are not always the answer.

5. The “never work a day in your life” dream

From John Westenberg:

Why wouldn’t we want to have a life without work? A life without the pressure of getting shit done, a life where we don’t have liabilities and responsibilities that demand time and bandwidth and emotional and physical and intellectual labour? It sounds like a dream come true, but it really is only a dream.

Yes I love writing. I enjoy doing YouTube videos, yet Thursday was a pain in the butt and I didn’t even feel like reading.

I plugged away though, and pushed things forward a bit. It was still work though.

I aim to build a business that for 90% of the time I do it is something I enjoy.