apple juice

Next Step Focus – Farnam Street:

Where you focus can hold you back.

Focusing on the outcome makes the gap between now and the finish line seem larger than it is.

Yesterday I wanted to go for a long run. That little voice in my head said “Imagine running for 90 minutes. Dude, you didn’t sleep well, and that’s a lot of effort. Let’s save our energy and check Twitter instead.”

Taking the first step seems impossible when the gap between now and your desired outcome seems large.

Changing your focus changes the size of the gap between now and achievement. When you shrink the gap, doing what you know you want to do becomes easier. I was focused on the gap between now and 90 minutes from now. The gap I needed to focus on was between me putting my shoes on and running to the end of the block.

This happens with my kids all the time too. They often come home with a boatload of homework that takes them hours. When they focus on the gap between getting home and being done, getting started is hard. “I’ll never get all this homework done.” When they focus on doing the first exercise, action becomes inevitable.

Don’t focus on writing a book. Focus on writing a good sentence.

Don’t focus on getting healthy. Focus on cooking a healthy meal tonight.

Focus on the next step.

I should read this advice from Shane Parrish at the Farnam Street Brain Food newsletter every day. And share it with my kids and students.

If you’re not already subscribed to their blog/newsletter/podcast – I highly recommend it.

I just completed a 5 minute sewing fix on my favorite sweatshirt. I find it to be such a satisfying accomplishment to bring a piece of clothing back from the brink of being thrown away or recycled.

It is possible that given experience in 7th grade home-ec, when my teacher looked upon my misshapen football pillow final project with judgmental eyes, that I’ve been hesitant to let my sewing skills shine out in the real world, all these years later.

But today, I’ve been able to push through that, and now my sweatshirt lives on to see another day.

I submit this to you without comment…

Ok, I’ll admit it. I bought some PowerBall tickets.

I did not win.

At the lunch table we were discussing whether or not the lottery was an economic stimulus of sorts. This post sheds a little light on to that topic…

Why Powerball Is A Terrible Way For States To Raise Money

“About 35 percent of the money dedicated to lotteries eventually winds up back in state coffers.”

(Via ThinkProgress.)

I don’t think I can add much to what has already been said about Steve Jobs. Like others I’ve read on the web, I consider my life, professionally and personally to be linked in a way to Apple, and Steve Jobs. From my first interactions with the Apple II in kindergarten, to my Campus Representative job in college, the Mac SE/30 I bought my Grandparents so they could email, my current job, the announcement we sent out about our engagement (edited with iMovie), the thousands of photos I have stored on our laptops, FaceTime and iChat conversations with my family and friends. It all seems possible because of Apple and Jobs. We probably would have gotten here without Steve Jobs, just a little less elegantly and maybe not for another few years.

Here’s just a couple things you should read / watch about Jobs:

Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot

The Steve Jobs I Knew

Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address at Stanford, 2005

The iconic, “Here’s to the crazy ones” Think different ad, narrated by Jobs

 

 

How our “security” obsession costs us – National security – Salon.com:

“Of course, the U.S. national security state has quite a different formula for engendering safety in America: fight the Afghan war until hell freezes over; keep the odd base or two in Iraq; dig into the Persian Gulf region; send U.S. Special Operations troops into any country where a terrorist might possibly lurk; and make sure the drones aren’t far behind. In other words, reinforce our war state by ensuring that we’re eternally in a state of war, and then scare the hell out of Americans by repeatedly insisting that we’re in imminent danger, that shoe, underwear, and someday butt bombers will destroy our country, our lives, and our civilization. Insist that a single percent of risk is 1 percent too much when it comes to terror and American lives, and then demand that those who feel otherwise be dealt with punitively, if they won’t shut up.”

Time to re-read 1984?

Internet, I love you, but you’re bringing me down.

(with all apologies to LCD Soundsystem)

I can’t get up the motivation to blog about much these days. Summer is here, the socks are off, Emilia keeps growing and growing, and there just isn’t much time for blogging.

I should be a better journal-er, I know it’s in there somewhere… but the priorities go something like this…

1. Spend QT with Family

2. Relax by medium-sized body of water suitable for swimming

3. Cook tasty meals with the ample vegetables received from our CSA: Featherstone Farm.

 

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99. Wax Car

100. Blog more

101. Beat Mario Galaxy

That may be a little overstated, I did play Mario Galaxy for 20 minutes a few days ago instead of blogging.

Regardless,

I’m starting to get on the wagon when it comes to the idea that multitasking is bad for your brain. I didn’t hop on this train after I turned 30, either. Most of the research that I have seen lately says that people are cognitively better off to focus on one specific task at a time. The PBS documentary Digital Nation wades right into to this debate. Turn off your IM, your email, your TV. Quit every application that you don’t need running and FOCUS.

It’s funny, but one way I think the iPad is a glimpse into the future of computing is by the way it forces you into a single-tasking environment. It’s almost too bad that one of the major new features of iOS4 is the ability to “multi-task”. I guess it will be good for allowing Pandora to run in the background, but personally, I feel like we don’t need any help doing more things at once. If anything, we need help (serious, lie-down-on-the-couch type help) doing less.