For some reason, I always laugh when I see “seasonal affective disorder” made into an acronym. So, yes, I laughed at this article. But it probably has some good points, too.
There’s a Frank Peretti story called All is Well. My mom used to “make” us listen to it on Christmas eve every year. I just found it (here, requires Real Player… I didn’t know anything still required real player). I didn’t know it when I was ten, but listening now, it’s the Gospel. It’s good. I cried. Merry Christmas.
Interesting to have someone breakdown the science of the lineup at Walmart / Sears / wherever. More interesting? Realizing that there’s a better way to do things, but consumers won’t let stores do it for psychological reasons.
So, it occurred to me that the Create! Cha!!enge (outlined yesterday on my blog, http://www.andrewmackay.net/) will require an effort to track my time online versus my time creating.
In my day job, I’m blessed to work from home (I know, I know, what a hard life!), and I use a tool called Toggl (www.toggl.com) to track my time on different projects. In my occasional freelancing, I use the same tool to track the different projects I take on. But, even Toggl’s automated tool won’t quite do it for the level of tracking I want for this project.
So, I went looking. The mashable article in the link has six different time tracking tools with varying levels of browser integration and customization, so hopefully I’ll find a tool that works. I’ll keep track of consumption versus creation and let you know how I’m doing and how it works!
Confession: I used all those exclamation marks to drive my friends, family, and fellow-writing/publishing nerds nuts.
I hope you’ve heard of the 100 things challenge, wherein a Guy Named Dave decided to fight American-style consumerism and live a life of simplicity, characterized by joyfulness and thoughtfulness. It’s a good challenge, and it got me thinking:
A lot (okay, most) of my engagement with the internet is consumption driven. I consume information of many sorts. Some intelligent. Some not so. Some useful. Some absolutely useless.
How useful is information if it never actually gets used?
I’ve started asking myself, how useful is information, though, if it never actually gets used? It’s the proverbial tree-in-the-woods: If nothing is ever created from the synthesis of the information taken in, was the information ever truly received? (Answer: Ken Jennings?)
More ctrl-w and less ctrl-r
So, I’m going to challenge myself to use as much or more of my time creating than I use consuming information. I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but I imagine that it will be more ctrl-w and less ctrl-r (for non geeks, ctrl-w closes a window, while ctrl-r refreshes it). Ooh. That could be a cool t-shirt.
It’s been said (that means I have no source, but I heard an old guy say it once,) that never before has a people had access to so much information. What will we do with it? I’m going to try to stop (over)consuming and create something.
A really thorough and thought out inspection of the newly released film based on Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Going to have to watch Prince Caspian before I can even consider seeing this one, but that Dawn Treader was good will give me cause to sit through Caspian.
This little infographic sums up some of the challenges of working in a digital, always online environment.
Talk about great timing! I have no doubt that I’m going to end up outside tomorrow, throwing snowballs with my boy. We probably won’t throw them at Mommy, but… well, each other will be fair game. And, having read this post, I’m ready for him.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that he’s only two and a half.
You should check it out.
“Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let’s say you’re an astronaut on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he’s not Dracula, but you just say, ‘Think again, bat man.’”
Jack Handy
