Write daily to become a better manager (Shipping Atom 24 of 30) https://curatella.com/write-daily-to-become-a-better-manager/
Reflect on your day, and plan your tomorrows. You will become a better manager in any field of your life, personal and professional.
Do you write daily? Is it improving your management skill?
@Massimo_Curatella One way I simplify is to limit the amount of time I am allowed to spend on something. No endless obsessing to get something perfect - just capture the essence of an idea or carry out a quality task in the allotted time. This isn't necessarily "lowering the bar"; it's forcing yourself to learn how to deliver quality in a short period of time.
@GeoEng51 said: @Massimo_Curatella One way I simplify is to limit the amount of time I am allowed to spend on something. No endless obsessing to get something perfect - just capture the essence of an idea or carry out a quality task in the allotted time. This isn't necessarily "lowering the bar"; it's forcing yourself to learn how to deliver quality in a short period of time.
Constraints facilitate commitment and creativity. As time-boxing, for instance. I've tried and failed many times with the Pomodoro Techniques, but I can manage well smaller tasks in a time frame rather than aiming at big goals.
When I say "lowering the bar," I want to remember that being too ambitious with little planning is too risky and, as you write, it's better to aim at high quality in a short period of time. Meaning, you need to aim at doing less but doing it better.
Sometimes my bar is so low that DNA has to fold to get under it.
Sometimes my bar is so low that all it takes is a head nod to make an accomplishment.
And it helps to set the bar low and then reset it lower if the desired outcome is not produced. When forming a habit, reducing tasks till they are trivial is away at the beginning of overcoming inertia. I've struggled with this in the past, wanting to be an urban sketch artist. At first, I set the bar at one hour of sketching per day. You can guess how that worked out. I kept lowering the bar till now. I try to remember to add a 3X5 card to my pocket journal when the old one gets full. If I add all the 3X5 cards I've filled with quick sketches, it adds up, and I feel like I'm getting somewhere.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time. kestrelcreek.com
@Will said:
Sometimes my bar is so low that DNA has to fold to get under it.
Sometimes my bar is so low that all it takes is a head nod to make an accomplishment.
Don’t lose your mind. Back it up (Shipping Atom 26 of 30) https://curatella.com/dont-lose-your-mind-back-it-up/
While waiting to upload your physical brain, do yourself a favor, backup your digital documents now. And check if it worked.
Massimo, that was a great rift on sparks of memory. You could have gone on with more memory. I sense you were just getting warmed up. It read smoothly. It had me comparing my memories to yours.
Indeed it would be an awe-inspiring jolt to be transported back to ten-years-old. Looking back on journals from when I was 40 brings a smile to my face. I can only imagine if I could look back to when I was 10.
Thank you for the smile.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time. kestrelcreek.com
Dear @Will, how do you call a smile caused by a smile?
I've always thought I should write about my life and I've never started. I have the feeling that if I'd start I would never end. Maybe this short-and-sweet format will help.
Same here -- really dig the post about being 10 again. Because there's health trouble on the horizon regarding my close family, I'm in a reflective mood at the moment anyway and a lot of things pop up on their own. Plus there's the diaries. I still have written records from my pre-teenage years where my handwriting was barely legible. I wasn't armed with any tool of psychological reflection but the pen and teenage angst It's fun to see how the contents haven't changed in the decades when I didn't worry about anything: I mused about creating fantasy worlds and creating a computer game to experience them. I didn't write much about my family, though, as I guess that's something I didn't consider worth keeping. It's never too late to reminisce and capture later, though, even though it's with the voice of a grown up now.
@ctietze said:
I'm in a reflective mood at the moment anyway and a lot of things pop up on their own.
When I was in a very stressful and life-changing situation I've started to experiment with "Time Thought Travel." I felt so uncomfortable that I started to wonder: "How could it be to be not so bad?". So I committed to memory those harsh moments with the intent of thinking again about them when I would have been better.
It worked, somehow, I remember clearly what I was thinking when I was in that unpleasant situation and I have this reassuring feeling that I am all good now.
This is one of the reasons why I think journaling, writing, and reflecting upon the things of our lives can make us stronger and richer than our past selves.
It's never too late to reminisce and capture later, though, even though it's with the voice of a grown up now.
No, it's never too late. And if we could pass this experience to real 10-year-olds, can you imagine the benefits for them and for the futures they'll bring?
Thanks for sharing this!
You're really welcome, thank you for your exchange.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time. kestrelcreek.com
The habit of building habits (Shipping Atom 30 of 30) https://curatella.com/the-habit-of-building-habits/
You choose to be who you are by repeatedly doing what you decide to do, consistently, continuously.
And that was the last Atomic Essay in my challenge!
What to write when you don’t know what to write https://curatella.com/what-should-i-write-now/
If you find yourself in the situation of not knowing what to write, you can leverage on your drafts, your notes, or your creative toolbox.
Oh, congrats on reaching your objective and then some! Do you have an aftermath/reflection on the whole writing experiment? It seems you're still in the mood to write more, so if you wanted to get into the habit of writing more, not less, that sounds like a useful accomplishment
@ctietze said:
Oh, congrats on reaching your objective and then some! Do you have an aftermath/reflection on the whole writing experiment? It seems you're still in the mood to write more, so if you wanted to get into the habit of writing more, not less, that sounds like a useful accomplishment
Thank you, Christian!
a few people asked me to reflect on this accomplishment.
This is what I wrote to MG1896 on fs.blog
I like receiving questions and yours, @MG1896, are very good ones.
when you wrote, was it always in the morning like a habit or did you vary at times?
Like many others, I have a busy life. Although it's smarter and easier to set always the same time to perform a habit, it solidifies it and makes it a ritual, it's not always possible to do it always at the same time.
Writing Daily. The most pressing motivation was the need to check the box for the day. The constant thought of "I need to write, I need to write, I need to write", it's not always positive but it is useful. After the first 4-8 weeks it is so ingrained in your day that you know, no matter what, at any time, in any way possible, you MUST write those 500 words. So, while I had a daily reminder at 07:00am every single day of the year, with no exceptions, I moved and postponed that reminder several times during the day. This is, unfortunately, adding stress to the daily schedule, and it forces you to juggle with another item to make the magic. I would like to improve this aspect, when possible, it would be much better to set a fixed time on the calendar and to do it always at the same time. Morning or evening, it's up to you, make some tests, and check the results. If I have learned anything from this, it was the importance of measuring actual results on the field rather than living on approximations and speculations.
30 Atoms in 30 days. The schedule is tight. Again, It's impossible to plan a time to do it. Sometimes I wrote at night because I could not sleep. I must say I don't really care. I like to think that I must do it and I am confident I will do it. So, as soon as I can dive into my daily essay I feel like I've reached my happy place. It is really a great experience if I think how much it was painful starting the first day on a blank page.
Do you write daily? What's your approach?
was it free flowing or prompted by questions?
This is a fantastic question.
Writing Daily. When you start you feel stuck, stupid, and empty. What the hell shall I write about? The beginning is very hard. So prompts, are really making a difference. It could be anything: what are you thinking about right now? What do you see? What did you do today? But, still, you feel stupid about doing it. Then, after many times you start and you suffer, the magic happens. You feel like you MUST write something that you need to dump, to download from your brain. It really doesn't matter the style and the content. Writing is not anymore the goal. You must put it in words because it becomes a way to think. And so you realize that you "have been writing" your whole life. Since the day you were born. "What were you thinking when you couldn't talk" I've asked once to a 4-years old kid, "That I wanted to talk", she replied. The trick is: transcribe your thoughts. That's it. nothing more than that. Difficult? Yeah. Sometimes senseless? Of course. Long and boring? You bet. Do it for 200 hours and you'll own the World.
30 Atoms in 30 days. Thanks to half a million words I had in my dirty drafts, I went from "what the hell shall I write about?" to "How the hell shall I put an order in this monstrous mess?". That became curation, then. And that is one of the best evolution you can do. Going from struggling to produce thoughts to curating your thoughts. I cannot believe what I am about to say, it was easy! I had so much, written down, that I have just to read, copy, and paste it into drafts and revise it. I was able to plan 30 essays from day zero. I had no shortage of ideas but rather the opposite. I have 100 ideas for essays and I have "only" 30 slots to fill. Isn't that amazing? That is why I am planning to participate in the 100-Twitter-Thread challenge to be run someday this month.
how did you analyse/pick out the themes/patterns and then use them to inform yourself about your behavours/tendencies etc?
Writing Daily. Trust the system and write freely but consistently. Reflection and synthesis can only come later, sometimes much later. My 500 drafts are untidy, messy, fragmented, incoherent. But when you put each of them, organized, in each line of a boring spreadsheet, and you put a title summarizing its content, you start to see patterns. You should track your mood, daily. You should highlight the key topics of each daily item to identify, exactly, themes, and threads. If you really want to have fun you should use color-coding and zoomed out, over encompassing, synoptic views to explore the landscape of your mind. You will discover wonders and you will ask yourself: is this me?
It's only after having "cleaned the pipe" of your free-flowing creativity that you will start to see raw gems. And, since it is you talking to yourself, you just have to acknowledge that you feel some sort of interest in some of them. Stop. Enjoy the pattern. Listen to that strange music. Polish it. Put it on a shelf. Repeat. Day after day, week after week, month after month, you'll be amazed at looking at your shelf. Now you have lines of shiny pearls waiting to be joined together in brilliant jewels. That's your serendipity made tangible. That's your group of themes. That's you, but now you can touch it, shape it, and share it. You won't be able to contain the joy.
30 Atoms in 30 days. That's exactly the process of identifying threads, topics, and themes with an effort to polish them and make them public. And it feels wonderful!
Writing about writing about writing https://curatella.com/writing-about-writing-about-writing/
Write daily: a lot, a little, but write. Write free-flowing or with intentions, but write. Collect, organize, and connect, but write. Review, revise, and publish, but write!
Constrain your creativity to make it easy https://curatella.com/constrain-your-creativity-to-make-it-easy/
When trying to build a daily writing habit, setting creative constraints can immensely help in your game. When I’ve challenged myself to write every day for one year, privately, and then to publish for 30 days, publicly, I’ve found helpful the strategic use of limitations.
Design methods, how to avoid reinventing everything https://curatella.com/design-methods-how-to-avoid-reinventing-everything/
Study, research, and adapt the best design process for the context of the problem you want to solve. And design solutions that are effective, efficient, and pleasurable.
Comments
Haha! Never underestimate external incentives!
https://curatella.com
Practice transcribing your thoughts to become an effective communicator (Shipping Atom 23 of 30)
https://curatella.com/practice-transcribing-your-thoughts-to-become-an-effective-communicator/
Transcribe your thoughts, frequently and intensely. You will become a better thinker and a better communicator.
Did you become more confident by writing a lot?
https://curatella.com
Write daily to become a better manager (Shipping Atom 24 of 30)
https://curatella.com/write-daily-to-become-a-better-manager/
Reflect on your day, and plan your tomorrows. You will become a better manager in any field of your life, personal and professional.
Do you write daily? Is it improving your management skill?
https://curatella.com
I don't know why, but I really like that there are images with each post
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
thanks! it started as a game, a double challenge, now the post, without an image, seems... naked.
https://curatella.com
Do it small to do it better (Shipping Atom 25 of 30)
https://curatella.com/do-it-small-to-do-it-better/
Lower the bar. Reduce expectations. Make yourself impossible to fail. Do it small.
Do you lower your bar?
https://curatella.com
@Massimo_Curatella One way I simplify is to limit the amount of time I am allowed to spend on something. No endless obsessing to get something perfect - just capture the essence of an idea or carry out a quality task in the allotted time. This isn't necessarily "lowering the bar"; it's forcing yourself to learn how to deliver quality in a short period of time.
Constraints facilitate commitment and creativity. As time-boxing, for instance. I've tried and failed many times with the Pomodoro Techniques, but I can manage well smaller tasks in a time frame rather than aiming at big goals.
When I say "lowering the bar," I want to remember that being too ambitious with little planning is too risky and, as you write, it's better to aim at high quality in a short period of time. Meaning, you need to aim at doing less but doing it better.
Thanks for your exchange.
https://curatella.com
Sometimes my bar is so low that DNA has to fold to get under it.
Sometimes my bar is so low that all it takes is a head nod to make an accomplishment.
And it helps to set the bar low and then reset it lower if the desired outcome is not produced. When forming a habit, reducing tasks till they are trivial is away at the beginning of overcoming inertia. I've struggled with this in the past, wanting to be an urban sketch artist. At first, I set the bar at one hour of sketching per day. You can guess how that worked out. I kept lowering the bar till now. I try to remember to add a 3X5 card to my pocket journal when the old one gets full. If I add all the 3X5 cards I've filled with quick sketches, it adds up, and I feel like I'm getting somewhere.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
kestrelcreek.com
You just won everything.
https://curatella.com
Don’t lose your mind. Back it up (Shipping Atom 26 of 30)
https://curatella.com/dont-lose-your-mind-back-it-up/
While waiting to upload your physical brain, do yourself a favor, backup your digital documents now. And check if it worked.
You do backup your data, right?
https://curatella.com
Write daily to enhance your reality (Shipping Atom 27 of 30)
https://curatella.com/write-daily-to-enhance-your-reality/
A small insignificant detail could change the meaning of what you understand. If only you could see it.
Do you perceive a richer reality when you write daily?
https://curatella.com
If only I could be ten, again (Shipping Atom 28 of 30)
https://curatella.com/if-only-i-could-be-ten-again/
Write every day in your diary and keep it. You’ll be ten forever.
And think about what you could be if you kept your Zettelkasten!
https://curatella.com
Massimo, that was a great rift on sparks of memory. You could have gone on with more memory. I sense you were just getting warmed up. It read smoothly. It had me comparing my memories to yours.
Indeed it would be an awe-inspiring jolt to be transported back to ten-years-old. Looking back on journals from when I was 40 brings a smile to my face. I can only imagine if I could look back to when I was 10.
Thank you for the smile.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
kestrelcreek.com
Dear @Will, how do you call a smile caused by a smile?
I've always thought I should write about my life and I've never started. I have the feeling that if I'd start I would never end. Maybe this short-and-sweet format will help.
Thank you for the meta-smile.
https://curatella.com
Same here -- really dig the post about being 10 again. Because there's health trouble on the horizon regarding my close family, I'm in a reflective mood at the moment anyway and a lot of things pop up on their own. Plus there's the diaries. I still have written records from my pre-teenage years where my handwriting was barely legible. I wasn't armed with any tool of psychological reflection but the pen and teenage angst
It's fun to see how the contents haven't changed in the decades when I didn't worry about anything: I mused about creating fantasy worlds and creating a computer game to experience them. I didn't write much about my family, though, as I guess that's something I didn't consider worth keeping. It's never too late to reminisce and capture later, though, even though it's with the voice of a grown up now.
Thanks for sharing this!
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
When I was in a very stressful and life-changing situation I've started to experiment with "Time Thought Travel." I felt so uncomfortable that I started to wonder: "How could it be to be not so bad?". So I committed to memory those harsh moments with the intent of thinking again about them when I would have been better.
It worked, somehow, I remember clearly what I was thinking when I was in that unpleasant situation and I have this reassuring feeling that I am all good now.
This is one of the reasons why I think journaling, writing, and reflecting upon the things of our lives can make us stronger and richer than our past selves.
No, it's never too late. And if we could pass this experience to real 10-year-olds, can you imagine the benefits for them and for the futures they'll bring?
You're really welcome, thank you for your exchange.
https://curatella.com
Writing compounds despite everything (Shipping Atom 29 of 30)
https://curatella.com/writing-compounds-despite-everything/
Write every day. Regardless of successes and failures, you will grow, day in, day out.
This is something that Zettelnauts know very well.
https://curatella.com
Well, well. A bit of convergence today. Iterate through failure.
Will Simpson
My zettelkasten is for my ideas, not the ideas of others. I don’t want to waste my time tinkering with my ZK; I’d rather dive into the work itself. My peak cognition is behind me. One day soon, I will read my last book, write my last note, eat my last meal, and kiss my sweetie for the last time.
kestrelcreek.com
That's the networked thinking that I am looking for!
Thanks.
https://curatella.com
The habit of building habits (Shipping Atom 30 of 30)
https://curatella.com/the-habit-of-building-habits/
You choose to be who you are by repeatedly doing what you decide to do, consistently, continuously.
And that was the last Atomic Essay in my challenge!
https://curatella.com
@Massimo_Curatella Well done! And way to "hang in there".
Thanks!
And now, what? I'm asking myself...
https://curatella.com
I happen to did also 31 and 32.
This is 33
What to write when you don’t know what to write
https://curatella.com/what-should-i-write-now/
If you find yourself in the situation of not knowing what to write, you can leverage on your drafts, your notes, or your creative toolbox.
https://curatella.com
Oh, congrats on reaching your objective and then some!
Do you have an aftermath/reflection on the whole writing experiment? It seems you're still in the mood to write more, so if you wanted to get into the habit of writing more, not less, that sounds like a useful accomplishment 
Author at Zettelkasten.de • https://christiantietze.de/
Thank you, Christian!
a few people asked me to reflect on this accomplishment.
This is what I wrote to MG1896 on fs.blog
I like receiving questions and yours, @MG1896, are very good ones.
Like many others, I have a busy life. Although it's smarter and easier to set always the same time to perform a habit, it solidifies it and makes it a ritual, it's not always possible to do it always at the same time.
Writing Daily. The most pressing motivation was the need to check the box for the day. The constant thought of "I need to write, I need to write, I need to write", it's not always positive but it is useful. After the first 4-8 weeks it is so ingrained in your day that you know, no matter what, at any time, in any way possible, you MUST write those 500 words. So, while I had a daily reminder at 07:00am every single day of the year, with no exceptions, I moved and postponed that reminder several times during the day. This is, unfortunately, adding stress to the daily schedule, and it forces you to juggle with another item to make the magic. I would like to improve this aspect, when possible, it would be much better to set a fixed time on the calendar and to do it always at the same time. Morning or evening, it's up to you, make some tests, and check the results. If I have learned anything from this, it was the importance of measuring actual results on the field rather than living on approximations and speculations.
30 Atoms in 30 days. The schedule is tight. Again, It's impossible to plan a time to do it. Sometimes I wrote at night because I could not sleep. I must say I don't really care. I like to think that I must do it and I am confident I will do it. So, as soon as I can dive into my daily essay I feel like I've reached my happy place. It is really a great experience if I think how much it was painful starting the first day on a blank page.
Do you write daily? What's your approach?
This is a fantastic question.
Writing Daily. When you start you feel stuck, stupid, and empty. What the hell shall I write about? The beginning is very hard. So prompts, are really making a difference. It could be anything: what are you thinking about right now? What do you see? What did you do today? But, still, you feel stupid about doing it. Then, after many times you start and you suffer, the magic happens. You feel like you MUST write something that you need to dump, to download from your brain. It really doesn't matter the style and the content. Writing is not anymore the goal. You must put it in words because it becomes a way to think. And so you realize that you "have been writing" your whole life. Since the day you were born. "What were you thinking when you couldn't talk" I've asked once to a 4-years old kid, "That I wanted to talk", she replied. The trick is: transcribe your thoughts. That's it. nothing more than that. Difficult? Yeah. Sometimes senseless? Of course. Long and boring? You bet. Do it for 200 hours and you'll own the World.
30 Atoms in 30 days. Thanks to half a million words I had in my dirty drafts, I went from "what the hell shall I write about?" to "How the hell shall I put an order in this monstrous mess?". That became curation, then. And that is one of the best evolution you can do. Going from struggling to produce thoughts to curating your thoughts. I cannot believe what I am about to say, it was easy! I had so much, written down, that I have just to read, copy, and paste it into drafts and revise it. I was able to plan 30 essays from day zero. I had no shortage of ideas but rather the opposite. I have 100 ideas for essays and I have "only" 30 slots to fill. Isn't that amazing? That is why I am planning to participate in the 100-Twitter-Thread challenge to be run someday this month.
Writing Daily. Trust the system and write freely but consistently. Reflection and synthesis can only come later, sometimes much later. My 500 drafts are untidy, messy, fragmented, incoherent. But when you put each of them, organized, in each line of a boring spreadsheet, and you put a title summarizing its content, you start to see patterns. You should track your mood, daily. You should highlight the key topics of each daily item to identify, exactly, themes, and threads. If you really want to have fun you should use color-coding and zoomed out, over encompassing, synoptic views to explore the landscape of your mind. You will discover wonders and you will ask yourself: is this me?
It's only after having "cleaned the pipe" of your free-flowing creativity that you will start to see raw gems. And, since it is you talking to yourself, you just have to acknowledge that you feel some sort of interest in some of them. Stop. Enjoy the pattern. Listen to that strange music. Polish it. Put it on a shelf. Repeat. Day after day, week after week, month after month, you'll be amazed at looking at your shelf. Now you have lines of shiny pearls waiting to be joined together in brilliant jewels. That's your serendipity made tangible. That's your group of themes. That's you, but now you can touch it, shape it, and share it. You won't be able to contain the joy.
30 Atoms in 30 days. That's exactly the process of identifying threads, topics, and themes with an effort to polish them and make them public. And it feels wonderful!
https://curatella.com
well, I made an article out of it!
Writing about writing about writing
https://curatella.com/writing-about-writing-about-writing/
Write daily: a lot, a little, but write. Write free-flowing or with intentions, but write. Collect, organize, and connect, but write. Review, revise, and publish, but write!
https://curatella.com
https://curatella.com/test-your-solutions-before-your-users/
The design process requires competence, focus, and hard work. Do not risk to create fragile solutions by skipping systematic testing of your designs.
https://curatella.com
Constrain your creativity to make it easy
https://curatella.com/constrain-your-creativity-to-make-it-easy/
When trying to build a daily writing habit, setting creative constraints can immensely help in your game. When I’ve challenged myself to write every day for one year, privately, and then to publish for 30 days, publicly, I’ve found helpful the strategic use of limitations.
https://curatella.com
Design methods, how to avoid reinventing everything
https://curatella.com/design-methods-how-to-avoid-reinventing-everything/
Study, research, and adapt the best design process for the context of the problem you want to solve. And design solutions that are effective, efficient, and pleasurable.
https://curatella.com