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Technotheory.com

Time-saving reflections on lifehacking, social media, and technology.

How to get to work, now. And some inspiration from Mr. Murakami.January 5

It’s January 5th, the first day everyone’s back to work.  This is a short post to help get through the overwhelming expectations of a new year.

Nothing happens over night, but things will happen today, and tomorrow, and the day after that.  It’s time for less macro-thought and more micro-focus, so that we can live up to those high hopes.

I’ve done so much brainstorming and dreaming over the last few weeks that I don’t even know where to begin.  I’m not ready to list my resolutions, but it doesn’t matter.

What matters is that I know exactly what I’m going to do today and what one bigger project I want to tackle this week.  I need laser focus for today, and I need to save the rest of the big picture for the end of this week.  So the 2-3 things I’m going to do, I’d also suggest for you:

1. Write down what you want to do today—make the list incredibly short
2. Focus on that and don’t check your email, Twitter, Facebook or voicemail, or make a phone call during the first few hours of the day
3. Tonight, write the list for

One word for 2009: Impact. What’s your theme for the New Year?January 1

Much of life is planting seeds: investing your time in people and projects.  Then, lo and behold, your labor may produce fruit. So now what?

For me, the last few years were full of planting and building.  Now, I have to ensure the work was not for naught; my theme for 2009 is impact.

Past and Present

The real accomplishment of the last couple years has been aligning the activities I love with a business motivation for doing them—i.e., finding a way to really do what I love.  To some extent I’ve had that for a while, but I feel Technotheory, AwayFind, and most of the painful steps toward building a platform are now comfortably mature.

It was a fun but risky process that cost a lot of time and money (more than a year’s worth of both).  However, now I feel that my efforts in writing, speaking, and traveling can reap greater rewards.  I just have to be wise about what I do with those efforts.

With all my decisions, big and small, I’ll ask myself the following question: what will help me to achieve the most impact?

A Deeper Look at Past and Present Impact

I mentioned that my activities and my passions needed re-aligning, and that I wanted to make more impact.  Here’s the story of how I arrived at t

Looking back before looking ahead: surprises and lessons learned from 2008December 29 2008

This is an entry about me.  About a year of change as well as growth, and about what I’ve learned.

I’m going to explore what expectations were met and what themes reoccurred.  Thank you again for your time.

Results from 2007’s Resolutions

First, I want to start with the specifics (if you’re looking more for what I’ve learned, feel free to skip to the next heading).  I began this year with several concrete goals, and I succeeded with many:

• Almost all the books I’ve read have been ones I really enjoyed, a stark contrast from 2007.  In particular, I’ve read a great deal of Murakami and Fitzgerald…and outside of the election, I’ve ignored most of the not-very-pleasant world/local  news
• I wanted a trip abroad, and I’ve been out of this country for more than 2 months this

Photography 201, equipment, and wtf this has to do with productivityDecember 23 2008

Sometimes we hold priorities too high, and we miss out on much of life’s enjoyment.  Photography is one way that I’ve been able to open my eyes.

The following is a combined “why photography?” and a brief guide to what I’ve found helpful both for equipment (my camera, bag, etc) and education.

Disclaimer: I’m no photographer, and am amateur by amateur standards.  But I’ve taken thousands of photos over the years and just recently invested in a more serious camera.  I’m once again in love with what can be captured…

Why Photography.

As you can tell from this blog, I have a tendency toward the practical, and continually struggle to focus while recalibrating my priorities.  Objectively it’s easy to aim for ‘get married sooner than later’ and ‘make money’ but there’s a lot missing from those aims; most conspicuously: life.  So as I sit on a train to Girona writing this post, it would be a serious pity to not stop for a few minutes and recognize the beauty of the Spanish countryside.

How necessary is a necessary evil? An important consideration with 2009 just ahead…December 15 2008

When you’re making a decision, especially an important one, there are often ‘necessary evils’ as part of the equation.  On the one hand, the ‘evil’ may sound like a ‘cost of doing business,’ but it may be more serious than that.

Perhaps you should strongly consider just how ‘necessary’ the ‘evil’ is.

I’m sitting in an apartment in Barcelona (view from my terrace above), where I’ll be for the rest of the month.  The last two days have been a whirlwind of Spanish, dancing, and discovery.  I already feel totally immersed, enough to recognize how important and different this world is.  (perhaps more on that in another post)

Then tonight I’ve once again gotten caught up on the web.  This past week I’ve been at the Le Web conference, where I got to spend serious time with really frickin’ smart folks.  It made me realize that if I want