Getting an iPad may turn out to be one of the smartest things I’ve ever done, not because of how it has improved my life or my productivity (both debatable), but because it has re-introduced me to something I’ve always hated and avoided: reading books. They’re too lo-tech for me. Put a book on a computer screen and I’ll read but not on paper.
I’ve been reading a book about getting things done. (So it’s a self-help book. So what.) No, not David Allen’s Getting Things Done, though some concepts are similar. I’ll reveal the name of the book if or when I really do get a lot more done.
Getting work done for a client or an employer is not a problem for me—I can prioritize work. The problem is my hobbies and stuff in my personal life that I want to do. I’m the type of person who never gets bored and can’t understand how anyone could ever get bored. There is always something I want to do. If that sounds like a good thing, it’s really not.
Just off the top of my head I can think of five web sites that I abandoned before they really took off. I can think of just as many skills I wanted to learn and never stuck with. I’m never focused on one thing and I don’t have time to do all of them. (That sentence may be the story of my life.)
This book I’m reading is telling me to eliminate the things that do not take me toward my high-level goals, or that lead me away from them. It also suggests this as a way of clearing clutter: throw away everything. Or at least use that mentality. People generally keep everything and think about what to throw away. Well the book suggests doing the exact opposite: throw away everything and think about what to keep.
As I’m going through my massive to-do lists with the mentality of deleting everything, I’m finding that my to-dos for this blog do not qualify for keeping. There are several reasons but basically updating this blog is not a good use of my time, at least not now.
So I’m writing this post to say goodbye for now, because I’ll be updating very infrequently (if at all) while I work more seriously toward my personal goals. Wish me luck!
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