I just finished reading the newest productivity book phenomenon, Four Thousand Weeks — and wow, it was a thinker. The author, Oliver Burkeman, asks us to question the value of trying to get everything done (which is the underlying driver behind nearly all productivity and time management principles) when we have only four thousand weeks […]
Personal growth
Doodle Challenge Fail
About a month ago, I started a challenge to draw a doodle for 100 days in a row. I made it exactly 31 days before I gave it up. Here’s what I learned: 30 days is my limit for a challenge. When I do (visual) art out of obligation instead of creative urge, it isn’t […]
Potential vs Achievement
What matters more? Potential or achievement? This has been coming up for me a lot lately in my daily life and my reading. I believe most of us tend to judge ourselves based on what we have or haven’t achieved — but in the contexts that have the most daily, real-world consequences (the workplace, interpersonal […]
Sienna
Recently I thought back over the 13 years of my marriage and realized something startling: In that time, there were only two years with no major life events. For 11 of those 13 years, we’ve gone through births, deaths, major illness, big moves, natural disasters, etc. And we’ve survived … and even grown stronger through […]
Hearing the Inner Voice
After listening to John O’Donohue’s The Inner Landscape recently, I’ve been thinking on the concept of “a world inside yourself.” Though O’Donohue’s take is richer than this — his concept is of a whole universe of being inside yourself — I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the notion of the inner voice. […]
The Network of Good
I’m a tinkerer. It’s my superpower. I get obsessed with puzzles and technical problems and I tinker until the pieces connect. I am always on the lookout for threads, connections, common themes — everywhere, with everything. I think in networks. Which is why I love Roam’s graph database. I’ve been using it for a couple […]
