10 Months

It's been nearly 10 months since my last post here. Where did the year go? What happened? What have I been up to?

I guess, yet again, it's time to light the pilot light on this blog. 

Progress of Design in Perpetual Beta

I have been tinkering with the design here.

The current blog design is one I created to be light, clean and very readable. It was not originally designed to scale down for mobile or small screens.

Yesterday, I spent a little time making adjustments to allow it to respond based on device screen size. This required some layout changes at smaller sizes as well as ensuring that on large screens things don't get haywire.

The next experimentation will clean up the typography further and potentially make this design available to be distributed in some form.

I am hardly a designer—more a student of design. I appreciate design that delivers on a functional and aesthetic level simultaneously. It's what I am aiming for and this offers me a little creative outlet beyond writing and my other work.

Why am I sharing this? First, it is to offer a little insight into the design process and all that entails and second, to force myself to write and share on a consistent basis.

What creative experiments might you consider sharing?

The Truth Will Always Be out There

I've been on a mission to learn all I can to live a long, healthy and active life. I want to feel good and ideally postpone or avoid much of the degeneration and disease of old age. To better understand and find approaches, I read a number of blogs, studies and journals on human health and well being.

Every day I am amazed see new theories emerging with new truths replacing old truths. What this really means is that we were not at the truth, if the truth is an irrefutable absolute. There is truth in choice and numbers. Our understanding of the universe, however, is not boolean.

Agent Fox Mulder knew the "Truth is Out There" but like tomorrow, when it comes to making sense of the world around us, truth is not something that ever arrives but an always present horizon.

What are we left with?

We have understanding.

Understanding is not truth, it's a milestone on the road to the absolute truth. Some understanding we hold is closer to the truth end of this infinity—some is just off the starting line. Furthermore, we have no idea where we are on the road, there are few, if any, landmarks. There is no end, and the flag waving in the distance that shows the last stop moves fluidly closer and further away, sometimes completely out of sight and at other times nearly close enough to touch.

Let go of truth and instead use it as a beacon while you build your understanding and consider the truths of others ingredients to reflect on and incorporate into your understanding. You will feel relief by giving up on truth because you no will longer be betrayed by the new truths and welcome them into your understanding with open arms.

7 Questions to Ask when You Are Distracted to Get Your Focus Back

For many people, staying focused is easy, for others, it is a constant struggle against the forces of resistance to get the work done.

Here's my list of the 7 questions I ask myself when distracted and some solutions for each:

• Are you checking your email? If so, stop!
• Are you looking at social media sites? If so, stop!
• Do you have unread articles open in my browser? If so, save to “Read it Later” or Evernote.
• Have you started a task on request without evaluating it? Is it important? Stop doing it, evaluate it, and either add to list in priority, or, just do it if less than 2 minutes of effort.
• Have you reviewed your daily task lists and prioritized? If not, do so now. Then, do one of the things on your lists.
• Have you added all new requests for action to your task lists? If not, do so now. Then, do one of the things on your lists.
• Have you written down or added new ideas to Evernote? If not, do so now.Then, go to your task list and pick something to do on your lists.

You don't need to use the tools I use such as Evernote or Instapaper. Getting your ideas out of your head and into some sort of container will free you of the psychic baggage that is preventing you from getting focused work done.

Share Yours

What tactics do you use for staying focused and getting things done?

Update: I just realized I have another item to add to the list: "Are you checking for responses and shares of your blog post? If so, stop it.

Using Blog Software Doesn't Make you a Content Management Expert

I have developed a new pet peeve. I have been observing a proliferation of Marketing and Business experts who frequently recommend the use of blog tools for businesses because they have personal experience with them.

Keep Away from the Drafting Table

Living in a house and doing minor repairs and maintenance doesn't make you an architect, does it? So how does maintaining and writing a blog make you a Content Management technology expert?

All Businesses Have Unique Needs

Real businesses need real tools to market, sell and create interaction points for their brands. Sure blogs are a valuable piece of the marketing puzzle but centering your complex business needs around a niche technology because a respected expert in another field likes using it doesn't make sense.

Experts: Keep to Your Domain

If you are a business or marketing consultant or expert, please consult the experts in the Content Management and technology fields for advice and recommendations rather than just your personal experience.

Seek the Right Advice

If you are a business owner, start up marketer, I implore you to seek the advice of real professionals who may be at a local digital marketing or creative agency, business technology consultant or Content Management consultant about the challenges and goals you are hoping to address.

Know Your Tool is the Right One

Finally, I am not saying some businesses shouldn't use blog software for their website. You should have the right tool for your need and budget but make sure you know you're using the right tool and not just what your well meaning marketing or business expert finds works for them.

Make what Inspires Important

I'll get busy and let my favourite blogs stack up in Reeder but then I'll dive and and find that I am reenergized and rekindled by other people's experiences and ideas. Whether just news, a creative piece, photos of beautiful and artistic furniture or something related to my work, after reading just a couple I am full of energy and ready to do more and get creative. We must not let urgent actions constantly push the inspiration and time for rejuvenation on the back burner.

Working remotely in a small agricultural community my opportunities for having in-person conversations and discussions that expand beyond work are a precious few. Social media in general—especially those members of my social media "friends"—give me a beautiful part of that stimulation and provocation I need to survive and grow.

Thanks to anyone who has a blog, who has shared with me and to hope that more people, myself included will share their perspective in blogs, comments in their art but most importantly with someone else.

The next step is to reach out to some of the people that I read and who inspire me intellectually and creatively to let them know that what they are doing has a positive impact but more importantly to put the social into social media.

What or who inspires you to do better, do differently or continue on a creative endeavour? Do you actively seek out people with other perspectives or different ideas?

Manifest the Gifts and Flow Beyond Resistance

I am still digesting Steven Pressfield's the War of Art as I work to be a habit of creating and defeating "Resistance".

In "the War" he asserts that what you create is not yours but a gift from the gods (some higher power or inspiration), that it is external to us and that we are a medium for it to the earth. Where many people feel the sharing of work—be it art or an invention or new business— is the search for acceptance, reward or validation, he posits it is to fulfil the responsibility to bring it out of the ether and give it its rightful place in the world.

I don't necessarily agree that our creations—or the whisper of what becomes our creation, is from an external source but do know that it doesn't truly exist until it's reached beyond your own space and has been experienced by others. I do agree that to create something and not share is to not complete the process. Those who fear sharing their work to make it whole are still fighting "Resistance" and need to work through it and not fall victim to it's limiting force.

I've found in a short while, doing the work, becoming fearless of or ignoring resistance has freed me to create more and it has positively affected my professional work as a Marketer. The reward for me now is that accessing flow is less effort and I am getting more done. If that flow comes from the muse or an outside source so be it; but it comes to me and more easily each day so long as I do the act of the work.

Be a Habit

In the last month I've been focused away from social media on work projects. While I never mind missing things, I do gain a lot of inspiration and new ideas from many of the people I follow and those they follow and share. On the relationship side, I think it's important to be there and share and exchange too. I built up a following of some cool people who obviously appreciate some of what I share but my absence and infrequency will certainly have them forget they followed me in the first place and then it appears I am just a random stranger rather than someone they like to hear from regularly and make a part of their daily or weekly life.

Like blogging or email marketing, the aim should be to groove into the habit to publish and allow people to make you part of their habit to read, consume or interact with. The familiarity being and having a social habit just might turn into a real relationship.

Just Publish

Yesterday, I started reading Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art and then this morning CC Chapman shared the video of Susan Murphy below on Google+:

I constantly struggle with getting things done. For all sorts of reasons, I never even start and certainly don't finish. We all suffer the ebbs and flows of Resistance (as Pressfield refers to the evil force that stops us from moving forward) and once we are enveloped its undertow you're dragged down further until you can no longer breathe. I am up for air and I hope this video brings you up for air.

If you want actionable taste of the War of Art. You can grab Pressfield's recent Do the Work which was part of Seth Godin's Domino Project.

Are you being stopped by Resistance or do you just publish?