Well it’s Christmas next week so I’ll be off for two weeks. There are a few episodes of Should I Read It scheduled already, but that’s it after today.
You can see my Merry Christmas goodbye video now:
In short, I’m ending The Smart Business Show after almost 250 episodes. It’s not catching so I’ll move on to something else focused on running a business in the midst of being a parent. I talk more about it in the video above. If you have things you’d like me to address with that podcast, send me an email: curtis@curtismchale.ca
Outside of that, expect to see more content in the second week of January once I’m back to work.
I Shipped
Monday I took a look back at the books that stood out to me in 2018. There were 6 good ones, and one that was terrible. Watch the video below:
Wednesday I did an in-depth review of Clockwork, which was one of the books that mattered in 2018. You can get the audio or the written version in the same spot. Make sure you don’t miss a book that matters by subscribing to Should I Read It.
Thursday you got to watch me go over some of my content planning with sticky notes. I think they’ll still be a bit of a content revamp once I’ve finalized my planning for 2019, but this is the start of it that you’ve been dealing with for a month. Find the video here:
Friday Five
1. Ryder Caroll one Notebook Migration
Yup this is for last year, but the process is the same according to Ryder.
My favourite quote is: “Maybe it’s not you that is bad at sticking to your goals, it’s your goals that are bad at sticking to you”. This idea is echoed in Atomic Habits (review coming) when James Clear says that you need to play in your areas of opportunity. Maybe your goals aren’t in your area of opportunity and you’re just making things even harder for yourself.
I talked about how I’m planning for my 2019 Bullet Journal last week.
Do subscribe to my YouTube channel to make catch videos on:
- Bullet Journal
- Coding on the iPad
- Being Effective
2. Patrick on being remarkable
I literally just finished editing my review of Talk Triggers and Patrick wrote an excellent post that goes nicely with it.
In his book Purple Cow Seth Godin talks about making a product that’s remarkable. To be remarkable, Godin says, is to be “worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting.”
Talk Triggers is about building something worth talking about. It gives to a framework to define a trigger and then a process to build one. You can make sure you don’t miss the review by subscribing to Should I Read It.
3. The Simple Ivy Lee Method
I don’t believe there is anything magical about Lee’s number of six important tasks per day. It could just as easily be five tasks per day. However, I do think there is something magical about imposing limits upon yourself. I find that the single best thing to do when you have too many ideas (or when you’re overwhelmed by everything you need to get done) is to prune your ideas and trim away everything that isn’t absolutely necessary.
I use a Bullet Journal because of the constraints. It forces a bunch of hard thinking about what is worth writing down and doing.
What constraints do you use?
4. Are you going to put 3-years in?
I’ve been following Matt for a while now and this short excerpt from his podcast hit me last night. If you’re going to try something new, as I’m trying out YouTube, are you willing to put 3-years into it before you judge it?
You start not even knowing what you don’t know. Then you get marginal at the skill. Then you have something that works and is worth the attention of people.
Only once you get to the point of having some skill at a new market do you really get to start judging it’s value to you.
So, that new thing you’re looking to start for 2019, are you willing to put three years in before you judge it’s value to you?
5. Austin Kleon on Writing with Kids around
This is my favourite quote from the post:
Lower your standards for what counts and progress, and you will be less paralyzed. – Adam Grant
You don’t need to have kids to do this lowering of your standards for progress. As I’ve done more on YouTube I’m happy if I’m properly in focus and the audio is good. Sure others have way more BRoll than I do and edit better, but I’ll get there.
Where are your standards so high that you realistically can’t meet them?