Archive for the ‘User Manual For The Brain’ Category
Advice on Remaining Focused
May 22nd, 2007
Someone posted on a forum recently about how to remain focused and not to keep hopping from project to project.
Here’s some advice I gave them:
I’m with you. “It just takes discipline” is easy to write, but not so easy to do if you don’t know how to do it. Remember: there’s no such thing as “discipline”… someone “discipline’s themself”… it’s a verb, an action, a process.
The trick is learning that process.
I’ve recently got tremendously more productive. One reason was to commit myself to doing one project at a time. The other was to keep my daily tasks in front of me (using ) all the time, and keep reminding myself what those tasks are on a regular basis).
I’d suggest you need to find a method to keep yourself on target – something that works for you, specifically – and to do that you need to know what that target is. Make sure you’re current aim is not “to make money”, but to do something specific: “write 10 articles to promote my site”, “release this free report”, or whatever, and then break that aim into smaller steps that you can sit and do in one “session” – however long that is – and then just do one session at a time till you’ve completed each task.
Next: give yourself a break every now and again. Read emails, surf the web etc. When you’re finished. Close your email and browser, and get on with the task at hand.
Finally: if you get ideas or inspiration, write them down, in enough detail that in 10 weeks time you can read your notes and understand exactly what you meant. But don’t start work on them. Let them sit till you’ve finished your current aim.
Hope that helps.
Automatically Avoid Spending Money on WSOs
April 11th, 2007
WSOs. Warrior Special Offers. The bane of many people’s life. And the love of many credit card companies.
If you don’t know what they are, don’t worry. I’m not supposed to link to the site in question, so I’ll stick by that even though thousands of others don’t.
I’ve started a new process when I see an interesting WSO:
1. Copy and paste the initial post outlining the WSO, pasting it into my outlining software I use for all note-taking.
2. Make a note of the author’s username on the site, and when it was posted.
3. Go through what I’ve pasted, and make sure I’ve got all relevant URLs pasted OK
Save my money for a rainy day. Come back weeks later and contact the WSO author to see if there is still an offer. If not, shucks, them’s the breaks. Far better to spend $40 on a piece of software that I’m planning to use tomorrow, than get it for $20 and then never use it because I change my plans.
Automating Problem-Solving
February 15th, 2007
I’ve just read this post by Jonathan Ledger about problem-solving, and I’ve noticed something similar.
If I’m writing a piece of software, and can’t get my head around how to resolve a particular problem. I go to the thinking room. Most people call it the toilet. (Apologies if this is too much information considering you don’t know me!). Two minutes later, more often than not, I have my solution.
Ideas often come to me whilst taking my son for a walk in his pram.
Different situations, for different purposes.
What are your best “epiphany” moments, and for what type of problem-solving/idea-generation? Answer that question, and you’ll learn how to solve problems and generate ideas almost on demand.