June 2007

Once upon a time… a much younger MT (who had not yet learned the wisdom of wearing a bag on her head) found herself on a rather poorly marked spiritual path. She was a bit afraid of being lost, and thought she’d rather like a few landmarks and maybe a map (not to mention a few less brambles), so she ought out others who were on a similar path.

But when she found them, the Others didn’t offer her a map. They didn’t have a compass either, and worse, they didn’t really appear to be *doing* much of anything.

They just sort of milled around, muttering about moss and north and trees. When she approached them, they shocked her by turning to her for their own direction and guidance! She did her best to help where she could, until …

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A Tweak-Worthy Web Comic

Earlier this week, I caught up to an old friend, and was thrilled to discover his lastest project: a thrice-a-week web comic that captures snapshots of his conscious and subconscious mind. With any luck (and a bit of cooperation from the Wordpress Gods) you’ll see more of his work here, but for now, here’s a glimpse of what goes on Under The Lids: Floaty Rocks

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Free July Issue of Scientific American

The brainy publishing folks over at Sciam.com are kicking off the redesign of their magazine by making it available online, for free. So hop on over and grab your copy before the end of the month. I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but there’s a promising article on how the mind makes memories. While you’re there, be sure and bookmark Scientific American Mind — the website and blog for their mind-focused edition.

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Nicole Kidman’s Brain

Nintendo’s Brain-Age for DS was one of the first commercial foray’s into the new brain-training market, and they’re following it up with a sequel, with the no-brainer title of Brain-Age 2. To go along with the UK release this week, Nintendo has gotten themselves a highpowered spokesperson for their UK release this week….. I have to admit she’s adorable in this.

The US release is scheduled for August.

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MindTWEAK: There’s always room for Tidbits.
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For those of you following the Live Writer/Wordpress image upload saga….

My inside sources (ooooh wow. I have inside sources. I’ll earn that geek-girl propeller beanie yet. Wait. What was I saying? Maybe I better start over. Sorry about that) Ahem.

Inside sources say that the tech folks over at Microsoft put their heads together with the tech folks over at Eighty-Out.com, and.. Tada!

They found the underlying problem between Wordpress and Windows Live Writer. It’s something about xmlpwhatever and image size and extra carriage returns and… ok, it went over my head.

The good news is they found the problem, and it will be fixed in the next release.

The bad news is you’re still stuck with the problem for now.

As for workarounds? Try these.

• Use WLW’s built in FTP upload function.
• Upload the images to your site using WordpPress’s built in image function, or an FTP program, then use WLW’s “Insert picture from the web” function.
• Upload the images to one of the photo sharing sites (Like Photobucket or Flickr) and use WLW’s “Insert picture from the web” function)

Meanwhile, we anxiously await the next release : )

So, who needs Plate Spinning Productivity?

Well, I do.

But in case you aren’t me… (and you probably aren’t) I came up with gratuitous bullet-points, to help you decide.

• Are you a creative type, involved with the arts, product development, copywriting, design, etc?
• Are you primarily in charge of your own scheduling?
• Do you struggle with dividing your attention between multiple, diverse projects and areas of interest?
• Do you work best entirely immersed in a single project?
• Does the idea of prioritizing tasks according to importance confound you?
• Do you require a lot of ruminating time on projects?
• Are you overwhelmed with the idea of balancing acts of actual creation (writing, painting, code development) with the business end of marketing, promotion and book keeping?
• Do you long for your own personal project manager?
• When focused on a project, have you got the nagging sense that you should be working on something “else”?
• Are you regularly behind schedule, overwhelmed, and missing deadlines?
• Is there a collection of shattered, splattered china tucked away in your closet, the remnants of abandoned projects that lost momentum?

Now, I don’t have a nifty little scoring formula from this quiz to tell you if you need to learn Plate Spinning, but somehow, I suspect you can figure it out

I would really appreciate comments, though… Please let me know how many of these points describe you!

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MindTWEAK: Bullet points. How… organized of me. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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(I got a bit carried away with this post, so if you’re in hurry, go on and jump ahead to the gratuitous bullet points. Otherwise, carry on!)

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Patsi Krackoff (of The Blog Squad and Writing Great Ezines & Blogs) recently posted something remarkably familiar:

“I have a problem managing my work load: I can’t multi-task like most successful people seem to do. I am a one-track minded gal. Like for most entrepreneurs and small biz owners, I have plates spinning in the air all the time, and juggling is required.

If it were up to me, the plates would have splattered already… ” (from One-Track Mind: I Have a Problem )

In my world, the juggling *is* left up to me - and I have an astounding collection of splattered and shattered china to prove it. I’ve also got an impressive set of productivity plans, kits and books, none of which quit did the trick, because again, like Patsi:

“…. I need ruminating time. I need to think about each project with plenty of “mind time” in between. That’s how my best ideas come to me - in the empty spaces in between projects.”

None of the systems I’ve tried allowed for that, or my other quirks. In addition to “mind time,” I need plenty of space to sink myself into my work.

With numerous, diverse projects, finding that space to focus, as well as that necessary mental space between tasks is very difficult — especially while also making sure that nothing essential (like, say, paying the utility bill) slips through the cracks.

So I’ve started experimenting with my own productivity system.

Enter Plate-Spinning Productivity.

Plate-spinning is all about keeping multiple, diverse projects active and rolling, with as little effort and maintenance as possible.

Currently in Beta .1 (or is it Alpha .04? maybe its… oh, bother. I’ve lost track. It’s in development, anyway), it’s tailored to over-focused creative types: people like me, like me, like Patsi, and very likely you, too (If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably creative. Only creative people seem to relate to my peculiar brand of insanity)

People like us often have trouble shifting gears and balancing priorities. We tend to work best according to the driving inspiration of the moment, rather than a pre-defined schedule. Our best work often comes when immersed in the process of creation, sometimes to the point of obsession, and we usually need plenty of unstructured free space to ruminate, think, experience, and shake off our obsessions.

Normal, disciplined productivity methods tend to get in our way.

We’ve tried most popular methods. They look great, they sound great, and we love the bells and whistles. Sometimes we get enthused for a while, inevitably become focused on the organizational method itself, and wind up forgetting the actual projects it was supposed to organize. If we avoid that trap, eventually we wind up immersed in another single obsessive project, and forget all about the method we’re supposed to be using.

“We’ll get back to it,” we think, “just as soon as we finish this project…” But we don’t get back to it. Most productivity methods aren’t designed to be put on hold while we work — the whole point is to channel and direct our workflow. No system, no matter how promising it is, can direct the flow when it’s not part of the flow.

Plate-Spinning is designed to stay in the flow, guiding without interfering.

In a lot of ways, it’s less of a system than an attitude, a way of thinking about multiple projects. With plate-spinning, the goal isn’t to get things “done”, organize, or schedule. The goal for us is simpler… keep a small amount of momentum behind each of our projects — just enough to keep them all spinning.

The idea is to keep the maintenance of our projects low maintenance and natural, opening up the time, energy and focus to immerse ourselves in the obsession of the moment, spend time on loved ones, or just staring blankly at the ceiling (ruminating is work, too!)

Plate-Spinning doesn’t replace your to-do list. It doesn’t require you to rework your entire productivity system, replace all of your file-folders, invest in new software, Moleskines or a lifetime supply of index cards.

Think of it as a plug-in or widget for whatever other system you may find successful.

So who needs it?

I do.

But since you’re probably not me, and you’ve bothered to read this far — you should go find out more, via the gratuitous bullet points check-list.

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MindTWEAK: Sometimes, it takes me thousands of words (this post) to come up with the few hundred words (the bullet points) that really matter. The great thing about blogging? I can post both!

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