Submitted by steves on Fri, 2006-06-09 10:06.

Warning: This piece was originally supposed to go live a couple of weeks ago, but it was deemed so offensive that it would cause the Republic to collapse and I was asked for a rewrite. I reread it, of course, and it is possible that it could have been taken differently than I intended, though I didn’t think anybody would get upset about the Viking thing, so what do I know? So, anyway, I think we’ve got it licked now and this version is more in keeping with my original intent and there shouldn’t be any misunderstanding. If, however, you do feel offended, we here at D*I*Y Planner want to hear froum you. Please send all complaints to our public liaison officer, Donald Rumsfeld, care of The Pentagon. When you’re talking to him, ask about his new foreign policy position paper, Planning Today’s Catastrophe For Tomorrow’s Apocalypse. Thank you.

Greetings all, Steve here. I get no respect, none at all. As with most men, my organizational ideas are almost never given the respect and attention they deserve by some people. Let’s call them our wives and girlfriends. I don’t usually make gender-based stereotypical statements, but there it is. I’ve done it and there’s no turning back now. Just as the famous book said, Men Are From Mars And Women Are Quietly Superior.

A good friend of mine, immediately after his girlfriend moved in with him, changed his MSN name to “My girlfriend loves re-arranging my life.” Notice the point. In my experience, men tend to take a very direct approach to home organization, that of simply throwing things on the ground and picking them up later when they need them. Women generally don’t see this as being an especially good system, but I believe that’s merely because they don’t understand it. They see it as proof that we are lazy, inconsiderate, irredeemable slobs, when in fact we are embracing a time-tested male organizational paradigm, known as the Category Pile System.

It works like this. You very purposefully throw everything in piles on the floor, organized by category: basically, different piles for different things. To the untrained eye, the Category Pile System may look like total chaos, but it actually contains many subtle layers. For example, there is a pile for dirty clothes and a pile for clean clothes — for example, clothes which haven’t been worn for a full day of work. But this clearly doesn’t cover all possible gradations of personal filth and in between these two piles you will find a much less dense in-between layer of clothes. This in-between layer might appear to be merely a disorganized pile, when in fact it contains clothes I wore for a total of 3 1/2 hours when we went to see a chick flick and I spent the whole time thinking about Shakira.

To be fair, not all men are like this. Lots are worse. But many are better as well. I expect David Allen has his socks sub-categorized by thickness, colour, function and texture, but most men don’t go in for that level of detail.

On to the Venus end of the solar system. Females, and again I’m speaking in sweeping generalities, tend to adopt a more conventional organizational system, which I have named the Put Things Where They’re Supposed To Go System. For example, in our house, we use a variation of that system, called the Meghan Is Always Right Because She Says So System. The heart of this sytem, is well… you get the point. To be fair, this system works well for many people, especially if their name is Meghan, in that it results in paid bills, found clothes and organized papers, but I feel that it lacks the playful randomness of the Category Pile System. Yes, you get things done much more efficiently, but you have fewer adventures.

Now, I’m not trying to bad-mouth any one system and I certainly understand the benefits of this one. People can use any method they please and I understand that this works for many people, but it doesn’t work well for me. If I put things in logical places, then I’ll inevitably forget where I put them before I need them again, whereas with the Category Pile System, all my stuff gets put right there in my view, on the floor or on any other flat surface. This way, very important things get dealt with, because I trip over them.

The downfall of these fundamentally differing approaches is in understanding one another’s habits. Meghan doesn’t recognize the value of my system, nor does she recognize it as a system at all and she’s constantly “cleaning up” after me, undoing all my hard filing work and putting things where I’ll never find them again. If I get upset about this, she tells me that she will continue to put things away and will not let me put things away myself, apparently on the theory that I might hurt myself. When I insist that I have an organizational system which works for me and give her multiple reasons to support my claim, she takes a deep breath and gives me a look meant to communicate, I assume, her disbelief that I’m able to walk upright. This seems unfair to me.

This is a symptom of a larger problem, I’m afraid. In the same way that Meghan attempts to undermine my male organizational method, she very often fails to support many of my other ideas as well. Like my organizational system, many of my creative ideas buck the system, expand far outside the box, push the boundries of common sense and, let’s be fair, sometimes sanity and I get exactly the same kind of support: Zip. Nada. Bubkis.

Meghan’s never supported any of my organizational ideas, or any of my ideas at all, really. She’s always saying they sound crazy. Well, yeah, duh, but they’re good ideas. Well, some of them. But I get no support. My idea to hang a hammock chair up in the living room ceiling? Nothing. My plan to only make the bed on special occasions, thus making climbing into a nicely-made bed a special event? She won’t even let me try to make the bed anymore. Apparently I’m pitifully bad at it. My suggestion to get a studio apartment and cover the entire floor with pillows, thus making the entire floor space a potential bed (I proudly call this idea Sleeping Outside The Box)? Nope, not happening, señor. My successful attempt to graduate by accident? No help. My idea to start my own religion, one based on mutual respect and admiration for really good deluxe nachos? Zip.

It’s hard being a visionary.

Until next time, keep your pen on the page and your hammock outside.

Steve Sharam
www.whenrealityknocks.com

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Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-06-27 19:34.

I do a lot of work with self-improvement and creativity in and around my website at [chrisbrogan.com], and one really common “wish” I hear from friends and readers is constant: “I wish I could have the energy [ability/ skills / ideas] to write every day.” Congratulations. I’ve granted your wish. Gather close. I’ll tell you the secret. This is it. I won’t mess with you.

The secret to writing every day is to write every day.

Let’s look at the problems or the excuses or the reasons why people claim they aren’t able to achieve their goal of writing every day. Time ranks first and foremost on most people’s list of reasons why they can’t write every day. They seem to never find time. You want time? Here’s some time.

• Cut back (stop!) watching TV.
• Get your groceries delivered for $5 a week.
• Give a kid $20 to mow the lawn.
• Quit a few other pursuits (World of Warcraft, bowling team, online poker).
• SCHEDULE time (harder to mess with time you’ve set aside).

Lack of talent, skill or ideas always follows “time” for excuses people tell me why they don’t write daily. It’s funny how this works: writers complain that they’re not skilled enough writers, so they refuse to practice because they can’t see their writing improving. When I don’t put gasoline in the tank, my car stops working. Can you see the similarity in the arguments? Here are some tips for building your ability, your skills, and for finding ideas.

• Read every day, not just in your genre or subject.
• Write at least three paragraphs a day of total and utter bull5h!t. You now have permission to write the WORST story ever, a few paragraphs at a time. Or the worst article, or the worst business plan.
• Copy pages from authors you love. Type from their page onto your screen and as you do, think about the way the sentences feel to your fingers and your eyes.
• Pay attention to news related to your writing.
• Befriend weirdos that like to talk. Their stories are your stories. (Poach with honor and ask them first).
• Bring new subjects to the table daily.
• Write angry! Write about what pisses you off.
• Pretend you’re someone else, and write from that perspective.

Most of the limitations and problems and reasons we put upon ourselves with regards to our lack of ability or time (or your excuse here) with writing are really just excuses. You are a writer and you’re writing, or you’re not a writer, and you’re buying books on how to be a better writer. Writing is a verb. In fact, most of the things we want to do, and do more are usually verbs. Think about that for a moment. Verbs DO things. If you’re passionate about writing, then write. If you’re a reader who thinks you’re a writer, you’ll find your peace with that eventually, too.

And don’t forget to consider the fact that what you love to read may not be what you were meant to write. I love stories that I’m not capable of writing. In fact, part of what draws me to them is that very truth. I can write articles about productivity all day, and yet, I’m not a big fan of most of the productivity literature out there. Write from your passion and the details will often find their way to solution, one way or another.

The secret to writing every day is to write every day, even if it’s only to copy that sentence over and over for 20 minutes until inspiration hits. All the time you spend on other things is just that… time not spent writing. Writers write, and so should you.

–Chris Brogan writes far too much in a given day, splitting his efforts between here, [chrisbrogan.com], and Lifehack.org. He writes every day.

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Submitted by chrisbrogan on Wed, 2006-05-17 10:00.

When you try and remember something, like a favorite summer day, does the memory come back as text? If you’re telling someone how you want a new house to be built, would you open a word processor up and start typing instructions? Our brains are wired for a mix of systematic thinking on the left side, and visual thinking on the right. So why, then, do we take notes primarily in textual form?

Draw a Little

Sometimes, a word is easier than an image, but more often, putting something in visual terms is a great way to demonstrate a point more effectively. I recently read a book called IMPROV FOR ACTORS, by Dan Diggles(side note: I’m neither an actor nor am I intending to start up an improv act). There were circumstances where I found drawing two people facing each other and voicing some of the dialogue concepts in little comic talk bubbles was much more useful to me for comprehension than just writing out both sides of the conversation with “Actor 1″ and “Actor 2″ tags.

See Differently

In an earlier piece on mind mapping, I talked about the way visual depictions of data were helpful in uncovering information that wasn’t immediately apparent. Drawing mixed into your notes sometimes uncovers information or thoughts that aren’t there in text format. I once drew out the people physically involved in a process to manage international shipping. When I saw the people icons on paper along with their names, I realized that in one case, I had two people doing the same thing, and in another, I was missing someone to handle another job.

The Ultimate Software

Sometimes, it’s a matter of wanting your information to appear in a specific way and not having the software or the skills with a certain software to accomplish that goal. One coworker of mine didn’t have a copy of Microsoft’s Visio drawing software, and in its absence, she used a pen, a ruler, and a penny (for bubbles) to map out the file structure on a new linux platform. People smirked the first time they saw her drawing. Then, they’d ask for copies, because it became a great record of how to lay out the system for future engineers.

Right Brain Power

Attending meeting after meeting can take a toll on us, as can the daily grind of our jobs. Our creative muscles atrophy when faced with so much analytical and logistical thinking. But good news: adding drawing your note taking can sometimes help shake that. Take a look at sketch journalling by innowen for some more thoughts on one way to think about this. What if you journalled some of your thoughts of the day with images?

Drawing can help you focus your attention when you’d rather be elsewhere. Sometimes it’s a way of connecting with what someone is saying when you aren’t exactly interested. Draw little talking heads of the members of the meeting. Draw visual puns based on what they’ve said, or make pictures around the key points.

Consider using your visual note taking skills to build upon a practice of visual thinking. Use your eyes and your right brain to fill in some of the gaps for how you’re getting things done in a day. It may enrich the techniques you currently employ to capture the information you’re presented with in a given day.

– Chris Brogan writes about self-improvement and creativity at [chrisbrogan.com].

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