Woolgathering #149: Are You Rushing or Dragging?
Plus: The Today System launches, Who Are You?, Ruthless Prioritization, and Better Storytelling
A quick word before the rest of the newsletter:
The Today System has launched.
Back in November of 2020, I began developing a personal productivity system centered around a simple 3x5” index card and a weighted score. It’s helped me be much more productive, focused, and motivated. It’s also helped quite a few others.
There’s now a full website at thetodaysystem.com. If you’re looking for a simple, effective personal productivity system that can link into whatever system you’re using now—check it out.
Also, join the gang on Discord, and leverage the power of the community.
I’m thankful to the folks from this very group that tested it over the past few months, and provided feedback.
Are You Rushing or Dragging?
I love the power of a good question. A good, simple question can refresh stale thinking and change how you view yourself. It can get your mind back on track, and out of a rut.
This question comes from a movie that, when I saw it, it made me think a lot about the pursuit of greatness: Whiplash. It comes from a pivotal (and tense) scene in that film about playing music. But it’s applicable to more than songs; it’s a question we can ask and apply to how we do our work—whatever that happens to be.
Who Are You?
On identity crises, the mind, and human potential
Whatever the noun or adjectives we use, we miss the fact that who we are, at our very root, is actually none of those things. Sure, get us in a room with a bunch of other people — or in a society with millions of them — and we seem to need those nouns and adjectives. We use them to define ourselves in opposition to some people, and in alliance with others. It’s what our animal brains seek to do. We sort ourselves into neat categories — even when those categories start off as a resistance to being categorized.
But those categories — however helpful they can be in the world — they aren’t who each of us really is.
Feed Your Mind
The Art of Ruthless Prioritization
Simple to-do lists are powerful. Long to-do lists are DISEMPOWERING. Once you’ve prioritized your list according to what actually moves the needle, I want you to cut that list in half.
Oh, if only I heeded this wisdom more often…
The “But and Therefore” Rule of Good Storytelling
In this video from a little bit back in the day, “South Park” and “Book of Mormon” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone give a crash course to some film students at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts on a simple rule for great storytelling. Basically, if you have the outline of a story, and the words “and then” belong between any two points in that outline, change it.
They suggest aiming for a different set of conjoining words instead. This isn’t just useful for fiction or even written work. How many stories have you relayed to people ineffectively because you’re running a series of “..and then..” points?
The Agile Manifesto: More than Software
Agile is mainly known a software development project management methodology. But if you read over the manifesto that started the method, there’s a lot there in general about how to make things and do business with the right motivations and right focus. I return to this now and then, to remind myself of some important things to keep in mind. Perhaps you will, too.
A Question
What can I let go of?
We spend a lot of time accumulating things—whether we want to or not. In fact, as I’ve grown older, I’ve found that things seem to just pile up in my life. This applies both to physical objects, as well as expectations of me and commitments of my time and attention.
The thing is, every one of those ‘things’—be it a physical object or psychological force—carries weight. Too much of that weight impairs your ability to move freely and enjoy life. It can—after going a while unchecked—begin to fee like too much.
That’s why it helps to ask, from time to time, what can I let go of? As you do this more, and actually let go of things more, it can become a helpful habit. It also compounds. You begin to allow less stuff to pile up. You being to move in a way that doesn’t allow undesirable things to stick to you. You become more focused.
So, ask yourself today: what can I let go of?
A Quote
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”
- Marie Curie