Why I Blog (and 5 other random things)

tags

I’ve been tagged! Thanks to Ross over at the excellent Will it Change You? Blog.

I’m not usually one for chain letters or anything similar to that, but I’ve never been tagged in a blog meme myself so I thought I’d give this one a shot. Please forgive the boring insight into my personal life, but maybe you will find it mildly interesting. I’ve published this on a Friday for some relaxed reading.

OK, here goes -  6 random things about me.

1. I play the Guitar. For those that have followed my Lifestyle Project, this may not be something that you didn’t know but I have been playing for over a decade now and I’m still to be signed. Seriously, I really enjoy playing and find it a great way to relax. I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to song writing and soloing, which is probably why I haven’t really ever managed to finish writing a song and knit-pick the exact notes of a solo over and over again until I get there.

2. I did a parachute jump once. It was a static line jump from 4,000ft. I was amazing and surreal.

3. I’m an Advanced Scuba Diver. Once upon a time I wanted to move out to Australia and be a dive instructor. The fact is that I haven’t done any proper diving for years now, but the flame still burns. I’ve lost my diving log book which was a bit careless. I really want to go diving in Cuba and give my girlfriend the gift of experience scuba diving.

4. I collect watches. Or I like to think I do. I have 10 now I think, but my last watch purchase was to cut this down a bit as I now have a good quality everyday watch and a dress watch.

5. I wear contact lenses. Boring I know but I was running out of things to say.

6. The real reason I started this blog is….well when I originally started I was just messing about with the technology (I’m a well and truly out of the closet geek), I was reading a lot of blogs and getting on the whole productivity bandwagon. One thing I noticed about myself is that I am a starter and not a finisher. I quickly loose interest in things once I have mastered them with a reasonable level of competence. Acknowledging this I starting blogging a few times but gave up quickly. Once I learned more I actually got in to a regular posting routine and it’s been consistent for 8 months now (which is quite good for me to stick at something). Anyway, I wanted to prove that I could finish things, so I though if I could just finish a blog post that would be me learning to finish something. So yes every time I finish a blog post I ‘complete’ something. This is a real challenge for me. I am great at starting blog posts and coming up with ideas, but getting to the finished article is the real challenge, so with every post I publish I get a tiny little bit better at actually finishing things. Small steps.

So there you have it, my 6 Random things.

Here’s the science bit.

THE RULES:

1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU
2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG
3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF
4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM
5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG
6. LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP
7. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN (not actually a rule)

You’ve Been Tagged

I’ve chosen people who are active contributors to my blog, those who have made an effort to communicate with me and those who I think may participate:

Apologies if you have been tagged before. If you don’t want to participate by posting on your blog you could always leave a comment on this post with your 6 things or opt out completely, like I said at the beginning of the post I am not normally one for such things as I like to keep blogging simple.

P.S. I did think of trying to start my own meme asking people “What’s Your Lifestyle Project?” and tagging them in, to try and get the concept circulating around the blogosphere, but I thought it might be a bit spammy.

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Image by Sarah Parrott on Flickr via Creative Commons

Is the Productivity Movement Dying?

We shall never have more time. We have, and always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going… Concentrate on something useful.Arnold Bennett

There has been a trend recently of understanding what Productivity is and isn’t, and the realisation by many (myself included) that tweaking your productivity system doesn’t necessarily make you a better worker, person or anything else.

In the last week I have seen two posts that show this trend:

1. Jonathan Mead, regular contributor at Zen Habits helping us in a tongue in cheek way to understand that we make be productivity junkies.

2. The excellent Lateral Action highlights a post by Merlin Mann on the changing route of his 43folders blog (perhaps a blog that can be ‘blamed’ in part for the productivity movement’s overkill).

I  have been there, done that and got the moleskine notebooks with the over-the-top productivity systems. I proposed a 12 Step Programme for overcoming your Productivity Addiction several weeks ago. The thing is this, productivity is not about how your work out what you have to do and organise it, productivity is about using your time in the most efficient way to create more time for yourself. I have always been more of a fan of the world efficiency over productivity. Efficiency conjures up images of doing something well and doing something in a way that doesn’t waste time or resources. Productivity makes me think of car production where you want to increase your productivity which essentially means making more units per hour. In this way productivity is about creating more things in the time you have, efficiency (the true core of productivity) is creating more time to do more things (that you want to).

This is key to the principle of my blog. Just check out my about me page (which I will be massively updating soon as it hasn’t changed since I started blogging back in April). Essentially I want to create more time to do to do the things that I want to do, and pursue my Lifestyle Projects.

What are you thoughts on the productivity movement? Do you have any examples of productivity overkill? Let me know in the comments below!

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Bits & Bobs:

  • Don’t forget you can follow me in real-time on Twitter.
  • I’m planning a series of competitions on my blog starting very soon. Make sure you are subscribed for more updates.
  • I’ve also been reading about keeping things simple and concise so I thought I’d try a shorter post. Got another post coming your way this week.

Image Credit: by Spankmeeehard on Flickr via Creative Commons

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Time for Three:

Reading around the web:

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Thanks for reading.

I hope you enjoyed my post. I’d love to hear your comments below or get a Digg or Stumble!

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