A simple list: Spend no time planning If you forget to plan, you are planning to forget. Spend too much time planning Masturbatory planning can be fun, but it accomplishes nothing. Let the planning tool do the work Even if we had artificially intelligent planning tools, they still wouldn’t want the same things for our […]
I am a planner nerd. It all started in high school. I remember browsing the stacks at the library and coming across a new book that sounded interesting to my 16-year-old brain: Super Self: Doubling Your Personal Effectiveness It was the first book I remember reading about increasing your productivity. And I ate it up. […]
If you haven’t heard Jocko Willink’s near legendary “GOOD” video, go do that now. It’s at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTMDpizis8. Seriously, it’s only two minutes long. And you need to know the message to understand what I’m going to say about it. Done? No?! Try again. Ok, that’s better. Now we can move on… Have you ever done […]
I am a software developer. I write code. Therefore, I deal in abstractions. Abstractions are just models of something more complex, that we can use to hide all of the complexity in it. So, a map is an abstraction of the real world. By hiding unimportant details of the landscape, it helps you navigate in […]
Are you out of balance? You can have balance in your life. But you have to understand what it is. You have to set your expectations correctly. And then you have to act accordingly. What Balance Is First, let’s look at what balance is. Balance is dynamic A person who has physical balance is constantly […]
What does a real life daily plan look like? Well, here’s mine, from a couple months ago, chosen at random: Why do I share this? Well, I think there are a variety of little lessons that can come from picking it over closely. Plan the stupid stuff If you read through, you’ll see that breakfast […]
“People who are successful keep track of their work with todo lists.” I doubt anyone has said those exact words. But lots of people believe them, and so they use todo lists. They have a todo list for their side project. One for errands they have to run. Another for their volunteer work with a […]
The other day I wrote about my own strategies for getting through the waves, dips, troughs, and crests of life. Life has its ups and downs. Those natural ups and down, whether they be physical, psychological, individual, or for a group, make it harder to understand the effects of intervention. One result of this is […]
On Sunday during church, my seven year old daughter decided to make a plan for the rest of the day. It is awesome. And, it has some flaws. But first, here’s a picture: Let’s get the flaws out of the way, so we can focus on the best stuff. First, it’s pretty clear that she […]
One of my email subscribers (my wife, actually) admitted to not reading every email I send out. I immediately kicked her off the list and banned her from ever signing up again. Just kidding. But I was tempted. Clutter First, some background. We were having a good discussion about Cue, and these emails came up. […]