Month / March 2016

Change Comes from Planning and Following Through

You’re not happy with the status quo. Things are not how you want them to be. You want change.

But the change you want won’t happen unless you do something about it. You need to plan it and then act on the plan.

On a very simple level if you normally wake up at 8am you can’t expect to magically wake up at 5am just because you want to. No, you have to plan the actions you will take. Actions such as setting your alarm for 5am. Put if you don’t follow through and actually get out of bed when the alarm sounds nothing changes.

The same goes for every other change you want. You have to plan it and follow through.

The good change comes from you.

by Colin Brosnan

Break the Chain

You’ve probably heard of the productivity method used by comedian Jerry Seinfeld. Brad Issac wrote an article about it back in 2007. The method is known as “Don’t break the chain.”

In the article Issac describes how he was hanging around comedy clubs, doing open mic nights and trying to get better at being a comic. One night he was in the same club as Jerry Seinfeld and took the opportunity to ask him if he had any tips for a young comic. Seinfeld’s reply was that to be a better comic you had to create better jokes and to create better jokes you have to write every day. Every day, even when you don’t feel like it.

But writing every day was just the goal. It’s how Seinfeld suggested Isaac force himself to write every day that’s important.

Seinfeld told Issac to get a big wall calendar with a whole year on one page and hang it where he could see it. For every day that Isaac completed his task of writing he could put a big X over that day. After a few days he’d have a chain. With each day he wrote the chain would grow longer. Isaac’s only job once he got going was “Don’t break the chain”.

It’s a useful method. Simple and helpful.

But there’s a flip side, and it’s just as important.

It’s the bad chain that you need to break. The chain that’s not doing you any good. The chain that you’re allowing to grow longer every day out of habit. Knowingly or unknowingly your’re allowing the wrong chain to grow. Instead of “don’t break the chain” you need to “break the chain”.

Sitting watching TV every night? Break the chain.

Spending hours on social media every day? Break the chain.

Eating unhealthy food for every meal? Break the chain.

What chain are you keeping that isn’t doing you any good? Break it.

by Colin Brosnan

The Process is Important

The process is important.

But to know if the process is working you have to follow it. Otherwise it’s just arbitrary. You can’t complain about the cake unless you follow the recipe unless exactly.

Then if you don’t like how it turned out you can tweak the recipe and try again.

If a process isn’t working you have to change it. If you’re not succeeding you have to break it and remake it. Trim it or add in extra steps.

by Colin Brosnan

SlideMint Website Version Two

Yesterday the second version of the SlideMint website went live.

The first version of the website was very much a make it live as soon as possible job. As a result it was incredibly basic. The new version has a little bit extra content but is mostly about the look of the site. It needed to be made more appealing looking to visitors.

Every website tells a story and that story must match the story the business wants to tell. A badly designed website for a design related business tells the wrong story. It says these guys have no idea about design.

Here are version one and two side by side for comparison.

website-side-by-side

The website could certainly do with more content. All that’s been added in this version is an about section and a second presentation. The copy on the site is unchanged from version one. Laid out differently but that’s about all.

Version two is a lot better than version one but remains a work in progress.

If you have a minute I’d love to hear any feedback you have on the site. What can be improved?

by Colin Brosnan

Delayed Recognition

Olive Loughnane competed in the 20km walk at the World Championships in Berlin in August 2009. She was awarded the silver medal. Rob Heffernan missed out on a medal when he placed fourth in the 50km walk at the London Olympic Games in 2012.

Both these Irish athletes trained hard and long to compete at the highest level. Only to be beaten on their day. But not as it turns out beaten fairly. Athletes who competed against them were using drugs to gain an unfair advantage. Heffernan and Loughnane were pushed down the placings and the results they deserved were taken by the cheats.

Thankfully the cheats were found out. Their deception worked only so long. The cheating athletes have now been disqualified.

Loughnane and Heffernan’s results have been upgraded to the places they deserve. Olive Loughnane is now a world champion, while Rob Heffernan is to be awarded an Olympic bronze medal.

Denied the recognition they were due when they competed our congratulations should be extra loud now.

Congratulations Olive Loughnane and Rob Heffernan.

by Colin Brosnan

Heed It or You Don’t Need It

Heed It or You Don’t Need It

Articles, tutorials, videos, podcasts – if you want to learn something new the internet has you covered. But that great content is only any good if you follow through on it. It’s only any good if you DO.

If all you do is read that great tutorial you haven’t learned anything. You must put it into practice. That video won’t do anything for you unless you’re building off it. You’re fooling yourself into thinking you’re helping yourself. You’re procrastinating. You’re putting off the doing.

So stop. Close that article. Close that video. Start doing.

Start writing, or taking photos, or building websites, or building apps, or making furniture, or whatever it is you aspire to do.

Stop thinking you need to know more than you do now before you start. When you start you will be terrible. That’s okay. Be terrible. Revel in how bad you are. Celebrate it. This is the worst you’ll ever be.

Without starting you can’t improve. Reading about it is no substitute for doing. You still have to start. You can’t read about being a photographer and get to say you’re a photographer. You have to take photos. You can’t read about building websites and say you’re a web developer. You have build a website.

Start with the basics. Yes, you can use a tutorial as a guide. Just don’t use it to avoid the doing.

Once you’ve started, once you’ve actually done something, keep going. Now you know where you’re weak. Now you can find a tutorial about that. How can you improve? Try again. Do again. Read again.

You haven’t started at all if all you do is read tutorials, watch videos, listen to how-tos. Heed it or you don’t need it.

Enough reading. Enough watching. Enough listening. Start doing.

by Colin Brosnan

Wipe to Refresh

My phone had some problems so I had to reset it to factory settings.

I could have installed all the apps and files I normally use from a backup but I didn’t. I’ve started with a blank slate. If I want to do something with the phone I have to install the app I need.

Over time we develop particular behaviours around our phones. Habits built around what we have installed on them. Starting with a blank slate disrupts that behaviour. It creates a small obstacle that you have to deliberately choose to overcome. When we fall into habits we don’t question them. We just follow the pattern that we’ve built up. A small obstacle is enough to make you question what you’re doing.

With your regular phone set up, you might mindlessly open an app or apps and end up wasting time on them. Starting with a blank slate, if you mindlessly open the phone the app isn’t there so you can’t open it. You have to make a deliberate decision to download the app in order to use it. If you decide I really need the app you download it, otherwise you’ve stopped yourself from mindlessly wasting time.

Following this new behaviour for a few days should leave you with the apps you need but none of the apps that are simply time-wasters.

Starting over from scratch, deliberately deleting, is sometimes the best way to change. Your phone isn’t the only thing you can reset. You can wipe the slate clean in any routine to rebuild it better.

by Colin Brosnan