Had lunch and basically completed (and combined) my Gamification articles. 1800 words! Just need to ensure all the links work and then post.
Finally processed all of my notes. A clean slate for a busy weekend.
I quite like it when I meet people about whom I know absolutely nothing about what motivates them to live and breathe.
Being helpful is often an excuse to avoid thinking about your own problems.
Briefly insecure – what do they think of me? – before realising that I don’t care. (Aside: I do care, but try not to make it affect me)
Bile begets bile. Kindness begets kindness. The absence of kindness begets bile. The absence of bile doesn’t equal kindness. Thus bile wins.
Currently distracted by Leo Babauta’s book on Focus in an age of distraction. Lesson one: avoid banal eBooks. http://t.co/GGmSEs8
My waterproofs have lost their proof but kept the water. Soaked through, wearing an unironed shirt, with a pile of notes to process.
The nights grow darker and the oblivion of winter gathers momentum. Time to attach lights to my bike, I think.
Contemplative. Trying to reduce my to do list any way possible.
Office conversations are necessary but often occur at exactly the wrong time. Need to start wearing a hat or something when I’m not busy.
The combination of late night and gin are catching up on me, but in a good way — reminding me to be realistic about projects.
Hello. Because this site continues to fascinate people and because I am increasingly distracted, I have decided to resurrect it. Now …
Shocked at my chameleonic prejudices. Nothing worse than a white board that never changes.
Cold, tired, distracted. Wonder if Inception affected my dreams.
Random music from my music library, most of which I have never heard and instantly want to delete.
The great pleasure of Saturday morning is the smoky sweetness of my 2nd pot of Oolong tea.
My God, where does the time go? And why is it so quiet on a Friday?
What do you do with people who are perpetually distracted, who can’t switch off? You tell me.
The replacement waitress was so much kinder than the usual one, presumably because she hadn’t been told the rules yet.
Friday treat: going to the hub and reading Bill Moggridge. Not together.
Remarkable when you’re doing the Pomodoro technique how many times you are interrupted in the course of a morning.
Meetings are the opposite of work, getting in the way, wasting people’s most productive hours vacillating between arguement and daydraming.
Back on the Pomodoro path. Doing it properly this time, noting interruptions etc.
The perfect human is a very close relation to the frustrated, self-improving human.
Is it worth going blind just in order to get a view of the outside world? No, no it isn’t.
Anecdotally it does seem to be the case that people with a sloppy appearance tend to produce sloppy work. But is it statistically so?
Woke up breatheless, both arms paralysed under the pillow, hope that I don’t have sleep apnoea.
Sludgy thoughts, muddy ideas, silt on top of which squawking seagulls float.
Used to keep wallet and notebook in my back pocket, now too sensitive. Strange.
It’s not the being unsocialble I mind, it’s the pressure to be sociable that’s the problem.
I don’t have a tattoo because I think too much about what my possible future self thinks about the decisions I make.
Incredibly humid in Glasgow today, even with the air con. Heavy breath, sniffling, the monkey in my brain i chattering away.
No one can be good at everything, but it is quite easy for some people to be universally bad.
Listening to skeptoid with Brian Dunning. Very curious voice he has, compellingly meaty consonants.
Going to eat some cake. I don’t really like Victoria Sponge, but need the sugar.
Surprisingly untired after lunch, focused, direct, almost as if – and maybe it is true – I know what I’m doing.
Amazing how adrenalin can transform the world, everything is sharper, brighter, more delirial. It’s like the manic bit of bipolar disorder.
So far the tiredness is winning. I am just keeping quiet.
Today is going to be interesting. Can my native good humour overcome the derangement lurking in this extreme weariness.
A productive, satisfying day: http://heavenlyrecordings.com
Realize that I should have updated the Twitter login for f91w.com and now it’s all out of sync. Sorry!
The great thing about the pomodoro technique is the break. Without breaks, all productivity is unsustainable.
add phew
Rather than buy a £40 stand for the iPad I bought an easel. Much more artistic, I think.
In order to work on the projects I want to work on I have to complete all the projects that are getting in the way. That may be a problem.
Radically reassessing my goals in life for the first time in a long time. It is a vertiginous feeling.
Back pain possbly caused by being hunched over various screens. Will work out a strategy for getting fit.
Slightly conflicted about GTD these days, it really is something you do or don’t do, there’s no inbetween.
Inspired by the iPad to learn to draw, write more, and design more websites. It is not just for consuming.
Love Rob’s article on doing one things at a time on the New Escapologist, he says whilst updating 3 sites and listening to Collings and H.
Typing this on my new iPad which is more or less everything I had hoped it would be. It glows. Outside the rain becomes a deluge.
The building hums more the older it gets, the lights are dimmer, the carpet flatter, the workers less excited: such is the aging process.
I have reserved an iPad and will take delivery of it this evening, all being well. Quite looking forward to stroking, caressing, my new toy.
Don’t question everything. Going to get all of this content added to the website.
Infantilisation can never be a good overall strategy can it? Does treating people as adults always turn out badly?
Have fun, play, be lighthearted, be free, don’t worry. Far better than being serious, earnest, and dull.
IE6, why am I still wasting my life trying to get you to play nicely. Be gone!
Slightly anxious about forgetting the words to the Beatles songs I’m doing at the 13th Note tonight.
I fear nothing because I feel happy with the odds. What will be, will be. All I can do is work with the information I have.
Daily review time: okay, but MITs I set myself were too vague to be engaging. Tomorrow they’ll be clearer.
My level of distraction seems to increase with the number of windows and apps open on my desktop. Time to close windows.
Post-prandial sleepiness should be acknowledged rather than drowned in coffee. Do what you can not what you have to do.
Excited that someone has made Launchy on the Mac, so much simpler than Quicksilver.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
It is noon and the office leaps into life with the promise of lunch. It isn’t work therefore it must be worth doing. We are still at school.
The magical thinking of OCD (believing in the palpably untrue) is an enormous barrier to being alive. Don’t try to crush, just be aware.
What is the parti of your site? For the one I am working on it is informed simplicity, nothing extraneous added and nothng essential removed
Large tasks can be done with small steps, as long as you’re going vaguely in the right direction and don’t beat yourself up about missteps.
Wasn’t intending to, but ended up watching the first half of the World Cup. Auctions went well. The design work, less well.
Thinking maybe it was a bad idea to end my eBay auctions as the World Cup Final begins: http://bit.ly/cmv73i
Just posted about growing a beard on my blog: http://www.neilism.com/blog/beard/
Of course, the more anxious you become about not doing stuff the less you want to do anything. Mindfulness. Just do one thing at a time.
The fearful heart of the man who has too much to do is made brave by not thinking.
It’s Friday night, the sun is shining and it’s time for . . . the big fortnightly house clean. This is civilization.
My problem is not that I think too much but that I think after not thinking. It’s the occasional moments of lucidity that really kill me.
Bought Fruit Ninja in a fit of post-materialist pique. It is only mildly cathartic to slice computer fruit alas.
Idle chatter. Why do I always have to sit by the idle chatterers? Is there anything more depressing than idle chatter? No.
How do you get rid of cognitive dissonance? Is there a way of instantly clearing the mind to re-focus on just one thing?
Intrigued by the sound of @EpicwinApp, a todolist that acts as an RPG. Just think how many mundane tasks could be made to seem necessary?
Boards of Canada is brilliant music for working. Engaging but not invasive. Now, let’s finish those icons.
I think I am going to die. One day. Still, at least I have . . .
Drank my Sow Mei too quickly and feel somewhat queasy. Replacing colourful engaging icons with minimal stark Helveticons.
Social media is the future, they say. I disagree. It is *a* future, a future in which everyone is distracted and no one can read books.
The silent dialogue of the worker using his only real power: handing in his notice. Setting up blogs with awkward HTML written by others.
Enjoyed the first Words Per Minute Glasgow, will post a link to photos imminently.
Finally got http://neil-scott.com and http://neilism.com in passable state. Now have so much clarity I don’t need glasses!
There’s a time to write and a time to edit. Now, with 1021 notes in my evernote, is a time to edit.
When procrastinating I find the most painful task, break it down, and give myself 25 minutes to do it.
Designing live is a good but unprofessional way to feel a sense of pressure.
So, how much of my website can I tidy up today – half, two-thirds . . . place your bets.
Imagining what it would be like to a hedge fund manager. From my bedroom. In my pants.
I work in a room with a full length mirror to my right. I look to me for support, but only see streaks.
eCommerce, whilst an admirable idea, has produced some awful implementations. Open Cart, however, is the excerption.
Thinking about Visit Glasgow 2.0 http://visit-glasgow.info
Roxy Music are really, really good. Amazing voice, that Ferry chap. Looking forward to imitating his croon on Wednesday.
Went to see the brilliant Martin Creed show at the Common Guild today. So, so funny.
Looking forward to seeing John Lanchester talking about the future of money at Aye Write. I wonder if he has heard of Chris Martenson?
Picked up new business cards from the post office today. They are great but for some reason I put brackets on the first bit of the mobile nu
I rarely watch a full game of football but quite enjoyed that one. Poor Villains. Now for some Escapology.
Contrary to Okakura, the third cup of tea from the same pot is always slightly disappointing.