2010: Articles I Think Worth Passing Along

Posted on June 1, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Open Loops

Tuesdays are open loop at SimpleProductivity blog.

Photo by TANAKA Juuyoh

The Art of Non-Conformity has an article “Starting With What You Have” which has some valid points. The truth of the reason why I don’t start something is always internal. If I try to convince myself it’s because of something external, I’m lying to myself. So I need to look for ways to start something today.

Zen Habits talks about how to “Kill Your To-Do List”: focus on the “one thing you’re passionate about right now”.

Ahem. Time to step on the soapbox.

Really? If I focus on writing, everything else will magically fall into place? I don’t think so. If I focus on writing to the exclusion of everything else on my task list, I will have a group of Brownies without an activity or snack tonight; the laundry will remain unwashed because we have no soap; and our tent will leak on an upcoming trip. As far as eliminating the routine items because they are “friction that stops you from doing what you really want to do”…well, pretty much all household tasks stop then. Shall I tell my eight-year-old that “sorry, we’re not having dinner tonight because it’s not what I really want to do”? These type of articles really burn me up because they present self-centered irresponsibility under the name of productivity.

(Step down from soapbox) Rant over.

I struggle with perfectionism. I fully realize how bad and unproductive it can be. Stepcase Lifehack threw a couple of other new points at me, though, in “Why Being A Perfectionist May Not Be So Perfect”. Two items in particular: “we fuss over unfounded problems” and “realize our concerns usually amount to nothing.” I always thought it best to be prepared…for anything…but I am coming to see how much energy that truly saps from me.

When I’m in a meeting and people haul out PowerPoint, I cringe. Normally PowerPoint presentations are too much information crammed into too few slides that go into presentation that goes too long. Guy Kawasaki gives a great effective PowerPoint guide at “How to Change the World: The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint”. I would only add that the slides need to be clean, uncluttered, and easily readable and digestible.

Minimizing pesticides that we consume is a priority for me. Lifehacker points to an “Organic Food Buying Cheat Sheet”. I like this because the graphics are so cute.