Writing a blog post in 15 minutes - the sequel

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about writing a blog post in fifteen minutes. I didn't really ever get into the habit I had pondered of actually writing a blog post every morning in 15 minutes and publishing it. For a start I found that writing a blog post in fifteen minutes wasn't that easy in reality, and the results were not all that brilliant when I did.

Giving Up Social Media for a Month

Are social media good or bad for you? I have been pondering this for a while now.  I really enjoy social media, and Twitter in particular.  I often find myself checking Twitter at more or less any time of the day.  If I think of 'bon mot' my first reaction is to tweet it. I enjoy all the great stuff other people stick up as well.  It is also a great way to keep abreast of the news and other interesting things.  I am not a huge fan of Facebook and rarely spend huge amounts of time on it, but even so I still visit it nearly every day to see what is going on.  I also read comments on articles if the article itself is interesting.  I also make comments - it is obviously important to make my own position clear over quite range of areas.  Needless to say I will check back to see if anyone has commented on my comments.

Why I Am Not Interested In Benefits

Harriet Harman is a skilled and experienced politician, and if she feels the need to support her political opponents' policy to reduce benefits to claimants  I am inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she knows what she is doing.  As to the issue itself, I am inclined to be generous when it comes to benefits.  But I don't really care too much about it.  I am quite sure that a journalist who put his mind to it could come up with a highly outrageous story of people living dreadful lives funded by the public purse.  And likewise, J.K.Rowling is not going to be the only example of someone for whom benefits provided a vital help in an otherwise highly productive life.

Focus Blocks

Steve Pavlina's blog has not been offering me much value lately - though I always read anything new he comes up with. But today he managed to deliver something really handy and right on time. I am at the stage with developing my business where finding the time to get things done is critical.

Can You Write A Book Without Even Noticing?

My last blog post was on the 7th of June, where I pondered whether writing a book on the management was a good way of keeping my focus on managing my time well.  Two weeks isn't long enough to make a definitive judgement, though it certainly isn't doing any harm. I think the 10 to 15 minutes I spend on it every morning before is returned in increased productivity, but I will keep an open mind on it for while.

Is Writing A Book On Time Management A Good Way To Manage Your Time?

I am, as always, struggling with time management.  Epictetus said that no man is free unless he is a master of himself.  This is very true, and nowhere more so than in making sure you are spending the little time you have wisely.

How To Read More Stuff

I have tried to teach myself speed reading a couple of times.  I have never really got the hang of it as a whole.  I can't look at a whole page of text and take it in in the way you are supposed to.  But I think I picked up a few things from it.  It does help to keep your distance from the paper and you can increase your speed by running your finger down the page to draw your eye more quickly than it would go at its own speed.

Time Management Good, Project Management Better

It is well said that life is a project and you are the manager.  We don't use such blunt language in these enlightened times, but the fact is you are not going to have a great life if you are lazy and disorganised.  Laziness is just short hand for poor time management skills and being disorganised is just another way of describing poor project management.

Short Term Productivity Tactics

My current situation is that I want to create a company that I can sell in about 10 years for a largish lump sum to fund my retirement.  That is the real priority, but I have a fairly urgent need to pay the bills in the short term.  The plan had been for my job to do that but when I lost it I decided it made more sense to earn short term cash as a consultant.

Pomodoro Technique

I have been vaguely aware of the pomodoro technique for a while.  I didn't look into it because I thought it was something I already did.  I have for many years now used something rather similar to it that I devised myself so I didn't really pay it any attention.

But I was on the new Lifehacker UK site a couple of weeks ago and it offered up a 2 minute video on the subject.  I could risk that amount of time so I gave it a try.