Growing Old
It seems that as I age, more and more of what I write is in list format. This is probably an attempt to save time -- I'm growing older and running out of minutes. Granted, I'm only 37, but still. I seem to be obsessed with maximizing available time.
A few years ago, I tried using the Getting Things Done system. The system has its merits, and tons of adherents, but I seem to do better with just a plain, ordinary checklist with small, finite to-do items, rather than a system with a review process and "50,000-foot views" and that sort of nonsense. Plus, the two best GTD apps out there -- Things ($50) and Things for iPhone ($10) are pricey for what they are. Okay, I can spring $10 for an iPhone app, but $50 for a desktop app? No thanks.
A few months ago, I put Evernote on my iPhone and I'm starting to look at it, finally. I find it especially cool because it's web-based, meaning I can share data across multiple platforms -- I'll be putting the desktop client on my Mac tonight, my netbook once I decided whether to stick with the Hackintosh or go to Ubuntu, and my work PC today. Having one unified source for all this stuff should work nicely.
We'll see. Who knows? I might make my way back to GTD, break down and buy Things (big plus if it's in this year's MacHeist), and try getting all these crazy fucking things in my life under control. Sometimes process helps -- being a former project manager, you'd think I'd know that.
Rambling over.
A Minor Epiphany
I've been thinking about writing lately, and how my productivity has basically tanked since I departed college for the RealWorld™. There is a litany of contributing factors to that, and I think that with this post, I'll be scratching the surface of that set.
First and foremost, it's because I am not regularly in the habit of writing fiction. In college, I was forced to sit down and put electrons to storage medium on a regular basis. Whether that was straight-up writing of fiction, or doing any number of writing exercises, I was still hammering out words on a regular basis.
Secondly, my filter was more flimsy than it is now. As I write now, I second-guess everything I put to paper. I'm uncertain as to exactly why that is, but I suspect that a contributing factor is that I don't have anyone else's work to server as a benchmark for my own. In college, I would frequently look at the works of my peers and be absolutely aghast at the notion that some of these people thought that they were going to become writers. It was good for my ego. And as a result, I wrote more.
The trick now, of course, is going to be finding a way to replicate those conditions in such a way that I can maintain my relationship with my fianceé, my job, and my other time commitments without any sort of negative impact.
Right now there's too much going on to expect to be able to crank out 2000 words or more per day, but I can commit to doing a writing exercise per day and 250-500 words before leaving for the office (or during lunch). I've got 3 AM Epiphany and The Write-Brain Workbook, both ready for use.
I've got to start somewhere. Eventually, I've got to find myself a writers' group, too.
Like a Runaway Glacier
18-19 by krautwald.
I had forgotten just how tedious font design can be when you're doing it right. Back in the day, when Fontosaurus was putting out 1-2 free fonts a week, I was able to take designs from sketch to production in a matter of hours. But those were free fonts, with incomplete character sets and kerning and spacing that was, um, a bit on the side of sloppy?
Part of the reason for the delay with the Fontosaurus updates is that I am rebuilding a great deal of my previous works -- making them into what they should have been. And the new works are coming along slowly as well.
I do miss the methodical thinking that went along with this, though. So much of life is crash-and-burn now-now-now urgency that it's nice to spend quiet time getting those glyphs "just right" before committing them to public consumption.
Writing Where t is a Factor
Time (t) is the enemy of all writers. It was certainly mine this weekend -- I accomplished nothing. Granted, in my case, that was because I regularly placed other priorities ahead of my writing.
This is something that has frequently been a problem since I departed college -- time, or lack thereof, has a serious negative impact on my writing. The two key points where I'm impacted are:
- Productivity
- Loss of narrative thread
The first of these is somewhat obvious. If you're not consistently making the time to write, you're simply not going to produce much.
More Regular Updates
To put myself onto more of a regular schedule with writing in this blog, I've decided that I'm going to create a writing schedule for this. When I have x amount of time allotted on a day y to talk about topic z, that provides a level of focus that I haven't really had here. The thing is, there are three main topics I want to keep this blog focused on: writing, cycling, and font design. All are important to me. (I'd be very surprised if any combination thereof was interesting to anyone else, however.) At the same time, I want to keep some variety in here, so my schedule allows some flexibility.
Mondays, I will write about writing -- what I have going at the moment, musings on the craft, etc. On Tuesdays, I'll be covering cycling. That will encompass everything from product reviews to race recaps to my training. Wednesdays, I'll talk about font design -- what I'm doing, again musings on that particular craft, and so forth. Thursdays and Fridays, will be my "et cetera" days where I write about whatever interests me at the moment.
In addition, I'll have some regularly scheduled columns. On a monthly basis, I'll bring back the "Challenge Me" post, in which I let my readers assign me with a subject to write about. Every other month, I'll have a "Looking Back" post, revisiting five earlier posts -- cycling, writing, font design, and two "etc" posts -- to see where my opinions/thoughts have changed.
I'm hoping this will help keep me on a regular schedule. I've added it to my Google Calendar and it'll be synced to my iPhone, so that should keep me on-task.
The Working Life
ZenHabits has a great piece on how to keep yourself focused while at work.
Obviously, blogging about the article is a way to lose focus.
Life on a Card
Photo by Mrs Magic. Licensed under the Creative Commons.
It's amazing how easy it is to procrastinate, even with a life that includes a full-time job, part-time job, girlfriend, writing, training, and so on. Fighting the procrastination has been part of my New Year's Resolutions for 2007 and 2008. (The resolution was/is "be more awesome.")
A few years ago, I was on the GTD (Getting Things Done) bandwagon. The thing is, GTD requires a complete overhaul of habits and it demands them all at once.
Productivity
If there's one thing that unemployment is really good for, it's productivity. (I am, of course, ignoring the bad things it causes -- like stress, the shutting down of one's brain, money woes, an urge to drink heavily, and so on.) Since my lay-off from my previous employer nearly two months ago, I have spent a great deal of time actually getting back into my writing -- both from an actual emotional investment in the process and the actual creation of work. Granted, there's been a bit of a dent in my productivity since I brought the new TV home, but I anticipated that.
At first, I dreaded going back to work. Specifically, I dreaded the lost time.
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I'm at Don Pablo's - Roseville (2700 Lincoln Dr, Roseville). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Don Pablo's - Roseville
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I favorited a YouTube video -- Cycles http://youtu.be/-0Xa4bHcJu8?a [fontosaurus]
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have my Friday off, so here's my Follow Thursday: @mightywombat, @veloveggies, @Scoutwell_Cat, @kilgette, @actualmiles, @DoWhatITellYou #ff [fontosaurus]
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Man, talk about enabling commerce. http://is.gd/aeKE9 [fontosaurus]
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Mmmm. Thunderstorm. [fontosaurus]
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I'm at 3M Center- Building 225 (3M Center, Building 225, St. Paul). [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at 3M Center- Building 225
