Playing death
Humor was once defined as “distance that approaches”. It is one of the best existing relieves for our tortured and overwhelmed left brain (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Habits’
GTD for writers
I’ll admit it: everything I do, I do it for my fiction. I honor writing as the art with the biggest powers, when considering its effects, and the degree of intimacy, elevation and sometimes “possession” it grants (writing, in its finest hour, becomes invisible, the words stop being “black boxes” with a meaning inside and become something similar to music). (more…)
How to become optimistic with very little effort
I have a retarded mind: I very often go through the best ideas in books and posts without noticing them right away. They usually become some sort of “seed” in my head and take 3, 4 days to fully grow, without me having the least intention to do anything about them. And then one day, as a flower that opens after a delicate nurture, I say: “wow”, and do something about it.
Writing the successes of the day was one of those great ideas. Simple, non-coded, very little time-consuming, it pays off in a way that is almost scary. (more…)
Flowing with the workflow
As a product of a typically non-productive culture (sorry for the tongue twister), I have found a very useful tool for implementing the GTD method in monitoring workflow interruptions. The first thing I noticed was (more…)
Admiration is healthy (and powerful, too…)
When I was in my twenties, I used to go to the movies every weekend with a friend of mine. It would be fair to say that he was the one who taught me the real art of watching films, the art of really considering them and learning from them.
In spite of that, he wasn’t precisely a person of the enthusiastic type, (more…)
“May you have a good life”
Inspirator #1
I recently heard the story of an actor from a small town in the country who moved to the capital in order to promote his career. At first, he tells, everything in the city was so new to him, that, whenever he entered a subway car, (more…)
Reach for the moon, but start with your (two) shoelaces
In “Getting Things Done”, David Allen affirms that the size of projects does not matter (for those who are not familiar with the GTD methodology, Allen defines “project” as any desired result that requires more than one simple action-i.e. a “pack” of actions with a defined purpose), and in terms of logic, he is right. Everything in his book is rigorously logic. But it makes me think of certain Zen masters. (more…)
Prevent your books from becoming stuck
I love books, so I always try to improve my reading system by making it as organic as possible; I intend to get a system that sort of “defends itself” from the aggressions of modern life, hurry and other everyday monsters. I’ll talk another day about the working and behavior of my reading pile, which is still evolving. Here I want to explain the tiny ecosystem of my “now reading” area and how it works. (more…)
The king of misconceptions about the brain
I write this post after having heard this same cliché from the lips of several people, belonging to areas of the academic spectrum that range from illiteracy to PhD. In all cases, it exuded that feeling of filthy simplicity that I hate the most, and it’s my job to eradicate clichés and try to replace them with thinking. Here is the troublemaker: (more…)
The magic of journaling
While any moment is good to start, personal journaling has always been a classical example of new year resolution. And a very healthy one: it increases your awareness and allows you to squeeze to the most the juice of every moment. Furthermore: in an age where time plays and fools us so badly, I have come to think that journaling is a must for mental sanity. (more…)