Archive for the ‘Personal Acheivement’ Category

Posted on October 26, 2009 - by josephnilo

Hourly Attitude Adjustment

One of the most effective tools I use to enhance my productivity, "change my vibe", and improve my overall well-being is an hourly attitude adjustment. It's quite simple. I tell my Mac laptop to announce the hour on the hour. This is a clue for me to stop whatever I'm doing and have an attitude adjustment break. This includes some deep breathing and "forcing" an attitude adjustment by focusing on things that make me happy and that I'm thankful for. Much has been written about the power of gratitude sessions. I might be in an awful mood-- behind on work, having difficulty collecting money from clients, experiencing the ever-present technical problems of being surrounded by computers, etc. But I always have things to be thankful for and I spend some time in gratitude and positive affirmations: • I have a roof over my head • I have a lovely daughter and wife • I have a great & supportive family • I am self-employed and successful, doing what I love for a living You get the picture. I've found that doing this hourly does wonders for my attitude. And I have a sneaking suspicion that making a habit of this might kick in the law of attraction and keep these good things coming that I'm thankful for. Next Action: Set a goal of an hourly 5-minute (or more!) attitude adjustment and gratitude session each hour of your workday. Extra Credit: Do this when you wake up in the morning, before you go to bed at night, and before each meal.

Posted on April 1, 2009 - by josephnilo

Tips for Acheiving a Flow State: Schedule It!

As a creative professional, I've found a great trick in enhancing my productivity -- scheduling around my best periods of Flow.  From the Wikipedia entry:

Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity.

If you're interested, I suggest reading more on the subject. You might gain some insight into yourself and get some explanations for your periods of effortless productivity. My best times for easing into Flow are: 8 AM to 10 AM for technical-related activities; 2 PM to 4 PM for creative activities; and maybe another small opportunity from 8 PM to 10 PM for further creative output. Why? I don't know. I feel like these are my natural rhythms for activity. And I've learned over the years to schedule the right activities in the right windows of opportunity so as to ease into the productive Flow state . . . e.g. encoding and uploading video, web design, spreadsheet organization, bill paying, etc. in my morning Flow period. Lunch, power nap, double shot of espresso, and then I'm ready for a creative afternoon-- writing, video editing, motion graphics. I know I'm in a Flow state when I lose track of time and get lost in whatever project I'm working on. I definitely am not watching the clock or procrastinating while in the wonderful grips of Flow. Further Actions: • Spend a few weeks noticing if there are patterns to when you acheive your Flow state. Write them down or put them in your calendar for further review. • Break it down further based on activity. What were you doing? Being creative? Being technical? House Cleaning? • Start to schedule the correct activity in the correct Flow period.

Posted on November 7, 2008 - by josephnilo

How to Not to Lose Yourself in a Steady Gig

Most of us rely on steady jobs to help us make it financially as freelancers. Whether your steady client is a “bread and butter” client, or is a bit more watered down in pay, these gigs can be valuable to tide you over between larger projects.

But there are downsides to working for clients on a regular basis. Especially if you want the diversity of freelancing but somehow find yourself “stuck” in a job that financially supports your freedom to freelance but doesn’t give you the time to explore projects and promote yourself. Read on to learn how to combat these trials.

[From How to Not to Lose Yourself in a Steady Gig - FreelanceSwitch - The Freelance Blog]

I loved this article over at FreelanceSwitch. Very timely for me right now. I'd add a couple of other "downsides" of having all your eggs in one basket.

Un-diversified

The most obvious problem with putting all your energy into one big client is that if something happens to that client's company or the job you're doing for them, you're out of luck. This is an important reality in the current economy.

Portfolio

An unexpected problem I've run into as a creative professional is that my portfolio over the past year contains mostly my one big client. It's almost worth it to get out there and get some other smaller gigs (even pro bono) just to have your portfolio reflect a larger body of work.

Getting Soft

My last 9-5 job had me editing corporate video for a large, diverse group of clients. This kept me on my toes, always learning, always pushing myself professionally. Now that I'm working mostly on one client, my "chops" in different industries and styles of editing are getting a little rusty.

Fear of Being Too Busy

Now, I can't complain about having a regular bread-and-butter client. Sometimes I don't get out there and market myself because it's outside of my comfort zone. And I like my current workload. When I get the random thought in my head that "I don't want/need any more business", I should give myself a quick reality check. What a silly thing to think! Strive for success, and if it lands in your lap, deal with it. It would be a nice problem to have.

Posted on May 17, 2007 - by josephnilo

The Secrets to Success in Multimedia or [Insert Tech Industry Here]

I wanted to repurpose a blog entry I wrote for my blog / podcast Mac MediaCast. I've been thinking about the subject of educating yourself to stay on top of your industry. Though the original article is geared toward multimedia production, I think it can be especially true for any tech-related industry.

After listening to a recent episode of This Week in Media, I was inspired to put in my two cents' worth on what I think is the most critical aspect of success in multimedia - Education. I believe that this is true on multiple levels -- whether you're an aspiring multimedia professional or just a home user wanting to create better music, movies, photos, etc. What sorts of education? I can't discount a college education, but, as a freshman-year dropout, I definitely can attest to alternate methods, such as:

Read the entire article here

Technorati Tags: business, gtd, howto, lifehack, personal achievement, productivity, tutorial

Posted on December 3, 2006 - by josephnilo

22 Ways To Overclock Your Brain

I found this great article on methods of keeping your brain in shape. We spend more time on our abs sometimes (ok, well, not me).

Very interesting read:

22 Ways To Overclock Your Brain

Posted on December 3, 2006 - by josephnilo

2 Blog Articles on the Power Of Paper

I found these two articles today, and I couldn't agree more (my comments below)

From Contract Worker: "It may sound obvious, but a really easy way to increase productivity is to maintain a daily checklist. You’d be surprised at how many (my old self included) fail to do this. A daily checklist helps you remember what needs to be done. Marking each item as they’re accomplished also gives a sense of satisfaction. I’d suggest keeping a small notebook and writing each new day’s tasks on a new page. This makes tracking your achievements over time possible. And you can see if you’re consistently reaching or failing your goals, adjusting your work load or habits to compensate."

From David Seah "Last week I wrote about these flat bookmark pens I got at Barnes & Noble. I finally got a chance to use them “in the field” during Barcamp Manchester, tucking one into a thin moleskine cashier journal. It was quite convenient, and I discovered that the flexing of the pen body was actually an advantage: it doesn’t break when you sit on it! At least, so far it hasn’t."

I'm a strong proponent of the low-tech paper solution-- keeping a notebook with me at all times to jot down and collect bits of information. I call it an "Inbox" a la the GTD method. Then at least once a day, I process all the information in all of my "inboxes"-- the notebook, my email inbox, lingering voicemails-- and figure out what to do next with each bit of information. And then (though you might think me a packrat)-- I keep all of these notebooks in a box or file somewhere as a backup. And sometimes the feel of pen on paper is just refreshing.

Technorati Tags: gtd, howto, lifehack, productivity