I’ll be somewhere in the “Mission Hills” neighborhood, which I’m not familiar with at all…I gather it is near the airport. I’m looking forward to getting a little sun.

I’m at the point now that my brain is in full rebellion, and is eagerly jumping at anything that looks like a fun distraction. It got so bad on Saturday that I actually wrote down that I was going to do LAUNDRY on an index card, complete with a step-by-step list, and then used an old badge lanyard to wear around my neck. Everytime distraction threatened me, I would look at the card yoked below my neck. It looks ridiculous, but I can pretend I’m at a Laundry Conference, and it actually did help me muddle through my laundry task list. Yay!

Because I like ridiculous ideas, I do like the concept of wearing your tasks. I once made an Index Card Scabbard out of an archery arm protector and a pen protector sheath. It’s one of those love/hate things; a hardy few proclaimed their support, while others posted funny remarks on Lifehacker, along the lines of, “I’m not as dysfunctional as THAT idiot”. That said, perhaps it is time to bring it back. I certain could use it. In fact, there are a number of options available out there.

Recently, reader Jesse’ forwarded me some links to a “tactical arm board” and similar products used by pilots, as he had been using them himself and wanted to let me know what he’d found:

• Tactical Arm Boards are used by military personnel in the field, holding maps and other such things. They’re similar to the football wrist coaches, except built for heavy-duty use. There’s one that folds out into a map, but this Mayflower Arm Board seems to fit the bill with both external and internal compartments. The football wrist coaches are cheaper, but they also look flimsy.

• Pilots use knee boards and armboards too. Jesse’ forwarded this link to a pilot writing armboard which is essentially a notepad on your wrist. It looks gigantic, but if you’re writing down stuff while flying, I guess this is what you want.

• While surfing for good web links, I stumbled upon this WristWriter, the so-called “toolbelt for the wrist”. It’s a scrolling paper wristpad, using waterproof Rite in the Rain paper. I’m going to have to order one just to have in my collection.

The lanyard approach, if it’s not uncouth to toot my own idea, is less extreme-looking than any of these products (though I still want them all!). I may go find a nice piece of wood laminate and cut a slot in it to serve as a surface for sticky notes so I can wear them around my neck. For extra stealth, I could make it look like an actual security badge on the outside that flips open somehow at the press of a finger to show you your to-do list. Or, I can just use thick index card stock and a slot punch. The important part to me, though, is the step-by-step list that accompanies the to-do task list. Might not be a bad thing to do; reader ChewLH mentioned another aviation-themed product idea to me a few months ago that might work well with it, but it’s not my idea to share.

As a concluding observation, there’s something very satisfying about wearable information aids. Wearing a watch, for example, has been very reassuring when I’m flying. I usually just use my cell phone to tell the time these days, but having a watch(especially one you like) gives you INSTANT TIME OF DAY. That little bit of assurance helps keep me from freaking out when I wonder what time it is, for the 100th time, as I’m waiting to board. To-Do lists have something of the same power, but when they’re not easily accessible they lose their immediacy and directness; this is one issue that smartphones and PDAs have, as the to-do list takes a few taps to pull up usually, and in the process you may get distracted by something else you see.

There may be something more intimate–and therefore stirring more commitment–about wearing your task list. Unfortunately this conflicts with looking organized; wearing your list around your neck makes you a target for ridicule if you’re not a pilot, football coach, astronaut, or squad leader. Those watch-shaped Post-It pads are a step in the right direction, but this will be a tough one to crack.

It’s February 2nd, which means it’s another Groundhog Day! It’s my favorite holiday because it’s silly and it’s also easy to remember. It’s the day that I officially declare my new year’s resolutions. I call them Groundhog Day Resolutions.

As I’ve written before, the traditional date of January 1st for making resolutions is the worst time to do it. These days, the end of the year is when we are our most frazzled. We’re dealing with holidays, family, and end-of-year accounting all at the same time. The beginning of the new year is spent closing last year’s dangling commitments, ideally followed by a period of recovery as the drama of the holidays recedes into the past. Personally, my mind isn’t clear enough to even think about the new year for a few weeks.

So, on January 1st, I just start thinking about what happened last year. On February 2nd, this day of hopeful prognostication, I declare my intentions for the year. To follow-up on these intentions, I also schedule periodic review days every month, following the pattern of 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, and so on.

Additionally, there are progress days that occur one week and three weeks after each Groundhog Day Review Day. While the monthly review is good for reflection, it doesn’t mean anything necessarily gets done. Add a minimum of two progress days helps keep things moving along. There is no particular day set for them; I just arbitrarily pick days approximately 1 week and 3 weeks after the start of the current Groundhog Day Resolution period, and schedule them into Google Calendar with everything else.

This year’s schedule looks like this:

For 2012, my overall resolution remains the same: create a system for self-sustaining life balance. This is really a terrible resolution, as far as achievable goals go, but I keep trying every year. And for every year, I have not succeeded in cracking this nut. However, the failures themselves have been instructive…this year I will try to address some of the main issues, forgive myself for being quirky, and then take those quirks into account as I plot anew. For the details, read onward!

Vision, measurement, and knowing what’s next are the three focii for this year’s Groundhog Day Resolutions practice. I had started to write a much longer article about the creation of goals, measurements, and so forth as a followup to Plotting Motivations, Part II, but in the interest of maintaining momentum I’m going to stick to just the goals, and post the rationale later.

The Vision

I like what I’m doing with my life right now, but would like to improve a few aspects. The main one is raising my income level so I can start funding bigger projects, pay down debt, and move 100% to doing my own design and writing work. Furthermore, I’d like my work to capture more of the spirit that I like about creativity, empowerment, and inspiration.

Let’s unpack the above statement a bit to get a handle on what to measure.

• Raising income means picking a number. As a freelancer my income fluctuates from month to month, and I limit the number of hours so I can theoretically focus on things on blogging and designing more tools. The kind of income that would be best is passive income, which to me would be the selling of my own goods. Income from customizing and consultation regarding the work I’m already doing would also be OK, as it fulfills a social need to make new connections.

• Having the time to commune with others is very important to me. I’m willing to accept a lower income level (from working fewer hours) in order to have the time and flexibility. I have the luxury of being single and childless, which is an advantage I am taking advantage of. However, I would like whatever system I come up with to work with almost ANY amount of available time. I think the its a matter of targeting few goals and persevering.

• I’m not passionate about a particular field of study, profession, or hobby. I like seeing PEOPLE who are using what they’ve learned to create exceptional objects. I’m kind of a nerdy gear-loving enthusiast that loves to see excellence in practice, and being around people who strive for excellence in a warm, conscientious manner.

As I’ve written in the past, I see this as becoming a kind of store. While I was writing the earlier Plotting for Motivation posts, I was able to further define what kind of store it was, and who would go visit it. There’s a LOT of effort that goes into making a store function from supply to order fulfillment, but it’s not rocket science…I’ve made some progress on this over the years. What was missing, though, was the sense of WHO would come into the store, and whether I could predict who those people are. Having let go of the idea that passion had to be limited to the practice of a particular art, I can now define who those people are clearly: they are the self-empowered people who seek inspiration and tools that makes their life richer and laden with possibility. Basically, people like me with broad interests and an appreciation for clever design. Inspiration and Empowerment are the two reagents that are present in anything that I would possibly sell or write about. I’m now making that official.

Measurement and Knowing What’s Next

Borrowing from Role Playing Game (RPG) design, I’m going to use the INCOME LEVEL as a main indicator of success. Instead of just making it straight dollars, though, I’m going to create a series of tiers:

To have the energy to make this work:

• I also need to ensure that I have a steady supply of incoming energy in the form of feedback, friends, community, and creative novelty on a weekly basis. I have to be careful with the amount, though, as too much of this energy is overstimulating and keeps me from doing new work.

• I need to produce work frequently and show it frequently.

• I need a very specific blueprint that is capable of re-capturing my attention completely and providing direction without dictating method. I have some ideas inspired by my past life in video game development, as well as having greater insight into the way my brain functions.

In addition to income level, I’m going to create PERSEVERANCE points that are earned when completing a task related to building up the income level. These are all the tasks that are related to designing stuff, creating products, taking orders, fulfilling orders, and so on. Each task can be written like a “mission” within an overall project narrative.

In addition to perseverance, I’m going to have EMPOWERMENT points (awarded for the creation of useful tools and designs) and INSPIRATION points (awarded for any feedback received on what I’m doing). All three will provide, I think, an qualitative measure of how product any particular day has been.

If I were to abstract these ideas into a general-purpose structure:

• MISSIONS – Your task list, converted into bite-sized doable tasks that exist in the context of the overall project plan.
• EFFORT EXPENDED POINTS – Awarded for completing a mission, with documented evidence that it is done (e.g. you showed someone the design you made or the new button you added). This corresponds to my PERSEVERANCE points, and can be measured in time or some number that feels appropriately large for things you find difficult and/or don’t want to do.
• INCOMING FEEDBACK POINTS – Awarded for any response you get to result achieved from expending all that effort.
• OUTGOING PRODUCTION POINTS – Awarded for something you’ve made and shown to someone
• POWER LEVEL – When your project is able to produce the resource its intended to produce, its salient attribute is ranked by someone knowledgeable in the field. The levels are broken into ranges of points.

Next Steps

I had hoped to have some kind of mission outline available today, but I have been swamped with client work. I’ve also been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic to unwind in the evenings, which further reduces the number of waking hours I’ve been spending on this.

That said, I can write up some mission tasks right now and put them on index cards:

• Outline store layout – will give me categories to fill in
• Create tracking package based on ETP – first step in designing a new workflow for tracking Groundhog Day resolutions

I’m having enormous difficulty staying awake and need to take a brain break, so I’ll end this here.

The next step is to define what the game will be. Time to dust off that old game design hat!

System Goals

Before I can design a system, I need to define what it’s supposed to achieve. The glib answer is “Happiness”, but pragmatically I am ready to accept a limited (and therefore achievable) objective. For example, a can of ice-cold grape Fanta would make me REALLY HAPPY right now. That is something I can actively plan and execute, and I even know where I might find some. Failing that, I could probably find a reasonable substitute. It’s challenging, but doable.

It’s funny how much easier this is when you’re working on someone else’s problem, because you can then just focus on finding a solution. When you’re the one picking the problem to solve, you will be of one of three minds:

• You already know EXACTLY what you need to do, and it’s a matter of queuing up the logistics and operational resources to get it done.

• You DON’T KNOW what the problem is, though you know it’s lurking. You need to call in some analyst resources to look at what’s going on and define what the problems are, what’s causing them, and what effect they’re having.

• You CAN’T PICK WHICH PROBLEM to solve, because they are many or have roughly the same level of uncertain benefit in return for expending resources you don’t really want to commit. You suspect that it’s important, but are paralyzed in choice.

These three minds are present all the time in various guises, and one is not better than the other. The system I want will have to support all three mindsets.

That said, let me pick a happiness subset. These correspond to my Groundhog Day Resolutions Goals for the past few years, modified slightly to emphases what is PRODUCED. In my case, what I really like doing is a bit abstract:

1. Ultimately, what I want to produce is empowerment and inspiration. I like reading about it, and I like being a source of it. I like seeing it swirl around me and the people I’m with. Yay!

2. What produces inspiration and empowerment? In my personal experience, it’s well-designed products that help people do things that are meaningful to them. It’s also saying the right words at the right time, demonstration by example, sharing stories and tips, speaking directly to someone’s heart, and receiving know-how that can be applied immediately.

3. There are also certain conditions that I impose on myself for personal reasons. I prefer to work with people who are self-empowering by nature, conscientious, generous in spirit, positive-minded, and not exploitative. I also don’t see myself in a position where I’m used as a power source for someone else’s endeavor; in other words, I’ll sell generators, but not be responsible for providing the fuel beyond a certain point.

4. I imagine that this would result in a life of independent writing and invention that, unlike now, is completely self-sustaining. I would have enough money to live on and travel, collecting more inspiration and empowerment moments than I can from my basement in New Hampshire. I also would have a new laptop and an outstanding portable video/photography kit.

Analysis

As of this very moment, I’m not sure how this is going to happen. I know that parts of it are happening, but I can’t point at a map and say, “yeah, I’m closer to that.”

So, let me try to reduce the system goals into system measurable deliverables:

• Empowerment and Inspiration: This is measurable through direct feedback from people. I get a few nice emails a week from people who like what I’m writing about, and they are kind enough to let me know. This can be measured by a count.

• There are three ways that I produce empowerment and inspiration: through blog posts like this, through posting of useful information, and by making productivity tools available. This can be measured through web traffic, downloads, and incoming links.

• The printed pads I sell on Amazon are a new source of revenue, but are also a form of packaged inspiration and empowerment. This is the part of the system I want to grow, partly because it tickles me to some day tell people, “Oh, I design stationery.”

• There is also recognition, from being the guy who is nerdy enough to make design forms, from people who value such things. Celebrity can be measured by certain referrals from prestigious sites like LifeHacker and the occasional happy tweet recommending my work. Also, the percentage of work I do that’s analyst/workflow related, compared to general interactive development, web development, or graphic design is an indicator as well.

• There’s also the sheer giddiness I like to share, because I am a certain kind of obsessive nerd. Pens, food, and DIY manufacturing are three things that are much on my mind these days. To be able to participate meaningfully in these worlds makes me happy. I’m not sure if this is part of the system I’m designing, but I’m listing it anyway.

Pondering this list, I think I can make two bold design definitions:

• EMPOWERMENT is the production of packaged information (as a blog post or product).

• INSPIRATION is the feedback that comes back from the consumption of empowerment.

There are different levels of both empowerment and inspiration, which suggests to me that these could be used as a kind of overall score keeping device, which is useful for measuring my speed toward a goal. That’s a good start.

However, there also needs to be a destination. The idea of being that storekeeper who sells a lot of empowering products. I think that makes the goal itself that of being that storekeeper, a stockist of the finest empowerment solutions in the land, plus my own home-grown varieties. If Empowerment and Inspiration were an actual hobby, I would be serving a community of people who love creativity and sharing know-how, who perceive themselves as people on a quest to do meaningful things for the sake of doing them. In this case, meaning isn’t so much “helping the downtrodden”, but “helping people do more.” At heart, I’m kind of a knowledge nerd, so I am enthralled by things like maps and mapmaking tools, creative software, and applied science. Making the best knowledge and tools available and accessible on the individual level is part of that vibe, because I want to be able to make cool things too.

That suggests that the overall goal, the close to Act II of my life, is the creation of that store. Part library, part museum w/ gift shop, part laboratory.

The growth of a store is something that is far more concrete than just collecting Empowerment and Inspiration points.

System Design

Let me define this all more succinctly:

The Audience

Who’s interested? It’s the “hobbyist market” for people who love empowerment and inspiration. This market is comprised of people who:

• love creativity and sharing know-how
• are on a quest to do more meaningful work
• value “doing more interesting things” as their contribution to the world
• love insight and knowledge that are well-ordered and packaged for ready use
• appreciate fine tools that can be used in their quest
• value action informed science, introspection, inquiry
• love stories about people doing stuff like this
• are self-empowered and independent in mindset

The Game

There are two game pursuits:

• The challenge of creating a “store” that caters to the aforementioned audience. The game is won when the store not only exists as an entity on the Internet, but when it is also gains reputation on the Internet as being the place to go to when looking for a certain kind of product.

• The development of a line of productivity tools that are exclusive to the store, that helps define the audience as well as serving it.

Game Mechanics

A good game engages the mind using multiple dimensions.

In the time dimension:

• Immediate actions that lead to immediate feedback, accruing in a total score. For example, shooting an invader in Space Invaders is instantly gratifying, and gains you a small amount of points. The total score accrues, reflecting on your overall mastery of the game at the end.

• Short-term tactical decisions that utilize immediate actions for optimal gain with the minimum effective effort. Effectiveness is measured by time saved, points gained, or preference.

• Long-term goal achievement is about managing your available resources and energy with respect to what you know is coming. Do you have enough ammo to last a shootout with the bad guys at the end of the level? Did you not realize that you would not be able to buy rockets after you left the Moon level of the game? Do you have to make some kind of choice about which way to go, forever cutting off an entire line of action?

In the collection/completion dimension:

• Gathering pieces of a larger collection that can be cashed in for a big reward. It’s a little treat.

• Unlocking a new set of possibilities once you have completed a collection or accrued enough points.

• Optimal strategies for collecting points and completing sets of pieces, including evaluation of whether it’s worth it or not.

• Spending collected resources versus hoarding them.

In the story dimension:

• Every action, however small, reinforcing the premise of you as the character. If an action doesn’t add to that picture, the game fails on a fundamental level.

• Reminders of the big picture, the ultimate challenge you will be facing. Creating enough challenge to make you question whether you’re ready, with enough pressure to move you forward and realize that you were able to do it.

• Growth challenges that change enough rules of the game so you have to adapt and become more capable. Builds on what you’ve learned so far, but puts a new twist on it or adds some new element to manage.

• Moral or Ethical motivators through story and character development. At a certain point, you’ve been completely engaged with the game, and now you have to persevere if you are the warrior you have been led to believe yourself to be.

• Epic challenges, followed by adulation. Those challenges that have true meaning in the game world. Upon completing them, you are rewarded with the appropriate amount of game-delivered respect, a sense of closure, and then a set of new challenges to accept plus a few epic-level gifts.

• Pacing and Expectation management. Present just enough to focus expectations productively, with a level of pacing that is well-within the envelope of the player’s ability. Pacing varies depending on where you are in the story.

In the Social Dimension:

• How am I doing with respect to other players who are going through the same experience?

• How can I ally with like-minded people? Who will become my group of friends here?

• How do I defeat the people that are actively trying to defeat me?

• How will I retell the story? What references and in-game awards can I use that people will understand and respect? And perhaps want to experience for themselves?

Dave’s Game Specifics

Keeping that in mind for the design for my personal game, a preliminary outline might look like this:

Dave’s Time Dimension

The idea is to encourage me to work every day.

• Every public post that packages knowledge or shares process is worth EMPOWERMENT points.
• Every supporting task that supports the above is worth some small number of EMPOWERMENT points.
• Maximizing points, ensuring that there is time to do this is part of the tactical and strategic planning.
• Maintaining a certain number of points every day is worth certain rewards.
• Spending 15 minutes a day awards EMPOWERMENT points the longer the streak is maintained.
• Time spent is also counted as TIME points, which add an EMPOWERMENT score bonus.

Dave’s Collection Dimension

The idea is to complete and ship, by building features one element at at time.

• An initial set of STORE FEATURES is defined. The small store could merely be a single collection of posts about a topic. Essentially, this is the website development plan.
• Every post that can be turned into a group that belongs in the store as a curated piece of knowledge is worth a certain number of STORE points.
• Every new product that is put for sale is worth STORE points.
• Every sale is also worth STORE points, as well as DOLLARS.
• The DOLLAR amount from the store earned per month earns an ACCOLADE. This may work with a social gaming component; otherwise, a dollar earned is its own reward. The ACCOLADE name could be based on the amount of cash (e.g. MILLENIUM for $1000/month, or the ACTION JACKSON for making $20/month). DOLLARS translate to INSPIRATION points too, at some exchange rate TBD.
• When a set of STORE FEATURES is completely implemented, it is PARTY TIME and then an overall assessment of points earned for the phase is counted. An additional ACCOLADE is produced. Combined with the DOLLAR ACCOLADE, this creates a means of assessing players.

Dave’s Story Dimension

The idea is to acknowledge that what you’re doing is right, that things take a long time, and

• Every piece of email I get earns INSPIRATION POINTS, and also reinforces that I am doing the right thing.
• Every link or referral also earns INSPIRATION POINTS, and reinforces I am doing the right thing.
• Every frustration, setback, failure and disappointment is part of the story. Every time you encounter a case where you’re frustrated, you can log that for the day. Pushing past blockages or applying some kind lesson learned the hard way earns PERSEVERANCE POINTS. These can be used for covering days where you DIDN’T do a daily required task, maintaining your streak, until they are all used up. However, if you maintain enough PERSEVERANCE points you can earn a title like MASTER OF PAIN or something cool. The title is lost if you fall below a certain level of points.
• A streak of frustration free days in a row earns an ATTITUDE BONUS of EMPOWERMENT POINTS.
• Tasks are categorized into KNOW HOW, DON’T KNOW HOW, and DON’T LIKE DOING. These are each worth a bonus bundle of points, perhaps across different point pools. An additional accolade can be awarded for a task that takes a lot of time. But this gets into task categorization and assessment, which is a bundle of issues.

Dave’s Social Dimension

The idea is to engage with like-minded people.

• Every time I directly tell someone about something I’ve made or done, those are worth some kind of SOCIAL point. They may lead directly to INSPIRATION or EMPOWERMENT points earned through some other action.

• Every time I have a meaningful conversation with someone who approaches me because of something I’ve made or done, and this leads to some follow-up action, I think that’s worth some social points too.

Review

That’s a lot of point dimensions and structures. The next step is to reduce this down into something I can actually easily do on a day-to-day basis. I imagine this will come in the form of a map, an expanded Concrete Goals Tracker, and maybe a simple web application that helps track all these points and reminds me what to be working on. That sounds like a lot of work, but I’ll stew on this for a few days.

While I was looking for a mature plugin solution to aggregate all the subblogs with the main site feed, I came across Yahoo Pipes, which lets you manipulate data on the Internet with a graphical interface.

I put together an RSS feed that aggregates everything here, and have redirected it to http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavidSeah-All.

Anyway, if for some reason you want to follow everything that’s going on here, subscribe to that Feedburner feed.

UPDATE: The feed caching problem didn’t show up when debugging in Chrome, but it did when using Firefox. Tracked it down when using Firefox, and saw the stuck feed. Nuked cache directory and the feed seems to have fixed, but will keep an eye on it. In meantime, will take advantage of this chaos to migrate Feedburner feeds to my “real” Google Account, finally.

UPDATE 2: The cause of this problem is WP-SuperCache 1.0, which was updated around December 6, 2011. I probably updated it a few days later, which is right around the time the feed froze. There’s a thread on WordPress.org about it. It apparently affects network (AKA multisite) installs of WordPress. Donncha’s next version will probably fix it.

• Tom Novak wrote me way back in October about his simple graphical countdown timer at Timerrr as a Chrome extension. For those of you who can’t stand tomatoes, I suppose :)

• Patrick Ng’s blog Scription is the blog I wish I was writing…super inspiring and beautiful. He’s a talented guy…check out his Chronodex, a circular way of representing time.

• From Daniel Dankworth, an alert that he’s created a “habit tracking” app for Android along the lines of Joe’s Goals; I don’t have a smartphone so I can’t test it, but you can check it out at doboko.com/habits

• I periodically post work-in-progress on my Facebook Page; just posted a preview of an Emergent Task Planner Instruction Sheet last night. These are going on the back of the 4×6 Sticky Pads.

Zonked out in bed very late Sunday morning, I started to trace through the likely causes of my unproductive bout of ill humor, establishing a preliminary framework of understanding to help realign my attitude.

Working through the Bummer

Lying in bed, I attempted to savor the feeling. I swished it mentally around my head, identifying notes of antipathy and uncertainty against the tang of mild depression. I was feeling that nothing exciting was likely to happen no matter what I did, and even if I did get off my butt to work I wouldn’t be rewarded for it in any way I could predict. I felt like I was trapped with nothing to look forward to.

Intellectually speaking, I knew this wasn’t the case, and my natural sense optimism poo-poo’d the idea that I was truly stuck in a dead-end situation. I know from experience that doing leads to movement, and this is what produces the sense of NEWNESS that I crave. However, I had to admit that in my immediate state that my depressed feelings were also true. While I knew that doing leads to action, I also didn’t have anything concrete that I was looking forward to. All future rewards were still theoretical, unseen, and of an uncertain distance away.

If the future didn’t offer anything specific, perhaps the past could be mined for an energy-giving sense of accomplishment. There were a handful of such accomplishments, I knew, but they had lost the pungency of being new. Furthermore, the memory of these accomplishments are easily dwarfed by the awareness that I’m awash in an enormous sea of to-dos and other commitments. I cope by recognizing that I can’t do everything at once, allowing myself to maintain a schedule according to my ability to do so, conserving energy and riding the tides as best I can. This reduces the negative mental pressure, but this isn’t enough. For complete balance, I need two more things: assurance that I’m moving toward some resolution at at speed, while I consume a steady supply of new datapoints to keep me excited about what that might be.

In other words: measurable progress and speed toward a resolution that delivers a certain kind of excitement. This suggests that I need to develop some technology that’s capable of measuring power and speed, with the instrumentation to give me the feedback that helps keep me going.

I have numerous forms and other rituals that I’ve tried in the past six years of deconstructing productivity, but none of them seem to address exactly what I want. Seeing the amount of time I have been spending watching seasons Community, mindlessly playing Star Trek Online even though I’m bored, and clicking repeatedly on Boing Boing and others of its ilk, I think it’s safe to say that I’m craving input. Something for my mind to process that is lightly rewarding, but not too difficult. What would be nice is to create a replacement for this that is based on my own end goal, based on a range of inputs and challenges. This is something like gamification, but I dislike the word because I think it trivializes game design as a collection of mechanical tricks that can be sloshed like a coat of paint over business problems.

I’m not sure exactly where this is going, but the way to deal with that is to nail down some definitions as an anchoring landmark, and then start taking steps.

Defining the Dream

Let’s consider the end goal first. If the problem is that I’m feeling blah, and this blahness is leading to inaction, then the most obvious step is to NOT feel blah. That suggests that I need to get some excitement going. For me, making new connections with high-quality experiences fits the bill. Food, for example, is exciting because of its enormous breadth. I also love design that expresses a profound level of mastery shaped by many years of collective experience. I think this stuff is magical. The connection between tools and mastery fascinates me. Secondly, I very much want to be making novel goods that didn’t exist before, imbued with the qualities that attract me. This is difficult to rationalize…I just like the idea of having my own store filled with boxes of my own inventions like Ollivander’s Wand Shop. Perhaps this stems from a love of stationery stores. My store would be one filled with tools that enable mastery, insight, and the achievement of dreams.

Recognizing the Nature of the Journey

If I knew that every action I took was making my magic shop more of a reality, then I probably would be more motivated. Build your own magic methods shop isn’t the kind of thing that you can easily Google, so this indicates that I’m forging my own path.

Forging your own path is hard.

Of the oft-quoted “10,000 hours to mastery”, I’d bet that 50% of them are frustrating, assuming you’re starting from scratch. And that’s not even taking into account that this figure is for well-understood activities like piloting airplanes or learning how to cook. When you are forging your own path, you are without a guide or lesson plan much of the time. That’s a depressing thought…thousands of hours of frustration await me, without guide or recourse. To suffer is my fate, if I don’t wash out first.

However…

An advantage to hacking your own path through the jungle is that you can change your mind and tweak the route according to circumstance. You just have to ask yourself whether the choices you’re making will take you closer to your goal, or perhaps add an additional dimension to it. If you also have some means of assessing the risk, you should do OK. Not a lot of things will really kill you. There are many ways to get to the same destination. By being comfortable with the amount of time it will take, it’s possible to embrace the journey and learn from it.

Ensuring the Supply of Optimism

So we now have a dream and a realistic attitude toward the journey. In the early moments of a journey, it’s easy to feel optimistic. What we need to account for is the bad times when we’re travelling blind without companionship or certainty of direction.

For the everyday drudgery of the journey, it’s important to ensure that a regular supply of positive occurrences happens. Just because it’s a long, uncertain journey doesn’t mean you can’t plan for frequent feedback in the form of your own ability to assess. That creates momentum and energy, and it may just be enough to help push forward on those windless days in the doldrums.

To create this motive force, we need to be able to harness our everyday actions in the context of our goal. I have a form, the Concrete Goals Tracker (CGT), which is designed to help new entrepreneurs focus on the business-generating aspects of their daily activities. What I’d like to do for my magic shop goal, which seems vaster than the limited context of the CGT, is recognize that there are several areas of activity that I can participate in at any given time.

Here’s the first one: REFINING WHAT I ALREADY KNOW, in rough order of difficulty.

• gather the things I need to play for 15 minutes
• follow a recipe to completion
• repeat a recipe to improve it
• create a bigger recipe from multiple small recipes
• create a recipe from scratch
• master recipes to perfection
• distill key concepts of excellence in recipes
• connect with people who are true appreciators
• research fields that have complementary application
• recognize when you have enough

Everyone should be able to do something here, because you’ve been alive. By living, you’ve assembled a collection of sure-fire recipes that deliver desired results. For example, I know how to use Adobe Creative Suite to create visuals for computer screens and print. I can program computers and build them. I can take photographs. I can write two sentences that link to each other. The result is what you see on davidseah.com right now.

Plan for Learning

Although I have a nice pile of skills and recipes to call on, creating a magic shop requires still more knowledge. How do I make physical products? How do I write an iOS application? This means an expansion of my knowledge, which means I’m going to have to learn something and be really terrible at it. I summon the spirit of Noob, and am ready to suffer through thousands of hours of frustration. I have to LEARN WHAT I NEED TO LEARN, ONCE MORE. In order of difficulty (for me):

• commit to new area of endeavor
• master unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary
• catalog recipes and techniques
• practice new recipes, divining underlying principles
• master recipes to perfection
• create cross-disciplinary recipes
• connect with people who recognize the power of the combined recipe

Progress will be slow and filled with uncertainty, but so long as I am also working on stuff I know how to do, I can maintain a certain flow of achievement. Balance the power of the old skills with a modicum of the new to help maintain a net-positive sense of accomplishment. And remember…it will take time.

Raising the Stakes

At a certain point, I’ll have enough knowledge to shift from learning and into production. I think of it as BECOMING A PRODUCER OF GOODS, which I think means doing stuff like the following list:

• architect a system of production
• evaluate and grade quality of products
• figure out who wants it
• figure out how to pay for it
• figure out how to price it
• figure out how to scale up production
• estimate demand for products
• establish channels to distribute
• establish your presence so people can see you
• establish the means by which people can find you
• Clarify the philosophy behind your work
• Make it easy to understand for your audience
• Deliver happiness
• Profit, and re-invest in yourself and your market

I also think of it as becoming a CONTENT CREATOR, having the right attitude to make stuff that you can be proud of. Something like:

• Set the bar high
• Gather materials and supporting crew
• Accept no risk that could destroy you personally
• Or be willing and able to start again if it does
• Commit to proactive leadership
• Plan the gig, and push forward
• Hit your marks, and be accountable
• Be genuine in intent and in your value of your crew
• Accept no compromise until you design around it
• Don’t lose hope, retreat is not defeat
• Be alive and in the game until the final whistle blows
• Know what that final whistle is
• DELIVER DELIVER DELIVER
• PUT IT OUT THERE
• Give up control of the signal, and see what happens
• Share in victory
• Learn from defeat

When you’re raising the stakes, you’re daring to put yourself out there. That’s the barrier that holds a lot of us back, fearful of being ridiculed or embarrassed. Find your supporters and your peers, and it’s a little easier to do.

And Don’t Forget Existing Commitments

While doing all this stuff, I also have to take care of my current business, existing commitments, and maintaining good relationships with my clients. These activities are generally NOT part of the goal, so balancing between commitments and survival with pushing toward the goal is the real trick.

The way I’ve been practicing might be described as follows:

• Maintain equal balance between personal and professional commitments; they are both important.
• Don’t neglect or exclude your family, either.
• Look for synergy between personal and professional projects.
• Don’t take work that compromises or delays your own path.

System Design

This post is getting pretty long, so I’m going to stop here, re-balance and summarize.

So far, I’ve identified the failure state:

• I’m feeling bummed out and unmotivated. Meh.

…and postulated a cause…

• I lack of clear picture of where I am
• I lack a sense of progression toward a rewarding end goal
• I am lacking in immediate and regular feedback

…and re-defined a goal…

• Have my own magic wand / methodology of mastery shop

…and then defined several kinds of achievement ladders…

• Stuff I know how to do
• Stuff I need to learn
• Being a happiness-delivering producer
• Being a inspiring content creator
• Balancing the above with existing business and commitments

What I want to create is a physical representation of my progress, goals, and activities related to these various paths. Ideally, I can look at whatever that is, and know what my specific choices are at any given moment. It needs to predict the winds of change and the tides of work. It needs to map the way between the earth under my feet right now to the constellations of the heavens, identifying where the rising dust transforms into the celestial ether.

I have until February 2nd to put this together in some fashion, in time for this year’s Groundhogs Day Resolutions. I’ll pick this up again in a few days.

Each of these pens has a unique story about the creators pursuit of something better. The Pen Type A’s background is like a quirky love story, whereas the PHX-1 reads like the engineered result of a straight-forward business opportunity. The Render-K’s story is one about small American custom machine shops that design, fabricate, and are starting to create their own products. They are together creating the early history of the DIY-to-market movement that started with websites like Etsy; now we’re moving on to more complicated stuff!

Thank you to everyone who’s taken the time to create, write, comment and share something new with me. Looking forward to creating an AMAZING 2012 with y’all!

Impressions

I steadfastly continue to refuse to establish a routine, even though I know that routines help maintain a steady pace. When left to my own devices, my days tend to go either really fast or really slow. The fast days are productively hyper-focused. The slow days are spent recovering. This exacts a heavy toll on my sleeping schedule, with the major casualty being my sense of connection to humanity.

If I assume that this is OK, then what I need is a some kind of landmark to point me in the right direction. It’s got to be lively and open 24 hours, a place that always has room for me at the counter and a menu guaranteed to please my palate.

I’m not sure what that landmark or hangout will be, but it doesn’t currently exist. I can possibly combine multiple informational sources into one destination. It probably would live in my web browser, since I am constantly online. This was one of the goals of developing a software application for task tracking, which is ongoing but not a priority at the moment.

Goal Review

I declared it to be becoming financially self-reliant through my own applied creativity. The conclusion I drew last month was that it has taken a long time to figure out and accept what that entails. This month, I am starting to accept how long it takes to build a self-sustaining system, when you are building something from one’s own personal store of knowledge. This doesn’t just apply to business, either. It applies to learning how to do anything for the first time. It is long and frustrating work.

It’s also important to remind myself of the following:

• Business and Commerce are not the source of my joy. However, I see the mastery of business principles is necessary if I want to maintain freedom of creative and personal expression.

• The process of figuring out how to apply these insights to my own peculiar set of values and hangups is part of the creative struggle. This is a good thing, because in the end, working through frustration breeds solutions that did not exist before.

There are multiple ways to overcome frustration, too. It’s worth writing down:

• Pay someone to do it. Requires ample cash.
• Follow a recipe that someone else has created, and accept the results. Requires a bit of luck to find a good recipe.
• Explore and observe through trial and error, until you have found what you wanted to know. Requires perseverance and a discerning eye.
• Give up, and come back to it later when you have something new to try.

What Got Done

My logs, which are usually copious, are stunningly sparse. A lot of what I did were not on the books. That’s because my sleeping schedule has gone crazy, and I have been sleeping very long hours. The rest of the time has gone to retainer-based client work and email. A reader pointed out that it might be Seasonal Affective Disorder Syndrome (SADS). I suppose it’s possible.

Revenue Related Activities

There have been more inquiries into work this month. Some of it is coming from ongoing client relationships. The rest of them break down into new web, graphic design that has come through the website. This requires me to be a bit more strict with my scheduling, as I’ve found that 7AM to 10AM is the best time for me to tackle the toughest problems, before I read email. It has been difficult to adhere to this schedule, though, because of my recent run of erratic and long sleeping hours. This is where the money is coming from to sustain.

The personal projects are related to my goal of financial independence through application of creativity. Specifically, through product making and merchandising:

• Continued tweaking of the e-commerce for selling ETP pads in Europe.
• Moving the 4×6 StickyPad ETPs forward
• Making blocks of my time available for consultation

There are also activities related to personal strategy and visibility on the Internet, which creates new connections with people I haven’t yet met. Those activities include:

• Blogging / Writing / Website Improvement
• Maintaining Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook postings

And lastly, there are the activities that give me some feedback throughout the day:

• Web Analytics
• Personal referrals and in-person meetings
• Email with Readers

I think that covers everything that’s on my mind.

Blogging Highlights

This was a light blogging month, but what I did post was fairly useful stuff:

• Announcements about the european store
• Links to useful articles I found on the Internet
• 2012 Compact Calendar release, with several new features
• 4×6 StickyPad ETP design discussion
• A new version of the Fast Book Outliner

That’s really it. Just 9 blog posts on the main blog, but web traffic overall has been a bit above average. The main blog on davidseah.com is increasingly about things that are of potential interest use to readers, and less about what I’m thinking and learning. That’s what the process journals are for, though:

• A stab at compiling a Windows C# and WPF Application to understand how it works
• An evening of figuring out music theory through critical listening and signal theory, by banging on piano keys and seeing how I react to them.
• The “Limbo Brain” series in my stream-of-consciousness journal, which chronicles my low-energy state that may be due to SADS.
• Some design notes on shrinking the ETP design

So I’ve done some interesting things this month, but nothing that will pay off any time soon. The great struggle right now is sleep schedule.

Projects

As I mentioned above, there were several new products made:

• ETP 4×6″ StickyPad Design
• 2012 Compact Calendar
• WP-Ecommerce configuration
• New version of the Fast Book Outliner

Two of these are related to money making, while the other two are examples of foundational design work that was on my mind. I also laid the groundwork for photography-related work, which will support the blogging and document writing:

• Cut and painted various pieces of wood to serve as backdrops
• Researched and ordered a Century Stand with Boom to help with the lighting setup

People

I have been a bit withdrawn compared to last month:

• Did a podcast
• Hosted a Geek Lunch
• Attended a birthday party dinner
• Skyped with a couple clients
• Google Waved with Colleen Wainwright (weeks 98 to 102!)
• Visited Diane Vautier to talk shop about selling goods and entrepreneurialism on a personally-achievable level

That’s pretty much it. Didn’t go anywhere or do anything. OH, I did renew Star Trek Online on December 8th to see what was new in Season 5. I’ve reconnected with a few people there.

Oh, DUH:

• Cooked a Thanksgiving Dinner
• Had family and friends over for 5 days

That’s where a huge chunk of energy went. I was totally drained for the following three days.

Upcoming Chores

These are things that make improvements in my day-to-day operations. One big realization is that I don’t associate an effective working environment with working at home…I always escape to Starbucks to do the critical thinking work. I need to fix that.

• Christmas shopping
• Christmas decorating
• Create a better work shrine or methodology for working focused at home

This doesn’t include things like doing the dishes, vacuuming the house, and so on. Those activities are good for clearing my head.

Qualitative Assessment

I guess I DID get stuff done this month, though my initial feeling was that I was slacking off. I’d completely forgotten about Thanksgiving, for example.

I’d say there are three issues that have been coloring my impression:

• The erratic sleeping and lack of energy
• Not writing things down as accomplishments as they happen to maintain context
• Frustration with lack of progress since last month on the software and design projects

I need to remember last month’s reminders:

• POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE gives energy. It’s as easy as having gratitude for all the things that are wonderful in the world, and how lucky I am to be a part of it.

• CONTROL MENTAL FATIGUE by getting up so early that you can see the sun rise. This does wonders for me, if I’m not exhausted from lack of sleep. I think I should make that a goal for the month.

Quantitative Assessment

It’s time to do the numbers, starting with the financial side. Incomewise, they are holding steady from last month:

Looking over this, I’m reminded of things I haven’t thought about in a while. Simple Websites II…is it time to resurrect that? What about the Gun Safety Posters? They should be an easy make-and-sell. What’s holding me back? And then there’s the ideas for new products that I should have ready for January 1, based on the ETP and Compact Calendar.

This Month’s Web Traffic

Holding steady. I am seeing a surge, though, this month from all the calendar traffic. And I have noticed that when I post, traffic does go up. There is quite a bit of organic search traffic coming through on any given day.

A thought I had earlier: I might take down traffic generating posts that add nothing to my online presence. For example, the Mac Decals page gets a lot of traffic for really no good reason. It badly skews my analytics. I should remove it and see what kind of effect it has. A dip back to August levels. Statistically significant? It’s a net difference of 7K pages. This might have been due to the spike from a Polish productivity site, or perhaps in September there were a LOT of people looking for new calendars for the school year.

The End of the Year

This concludes the 2012 Groundhog Day Resolutions Season. I’m going to change things up a bit, though, and do my year analysis on January 1st in preparation for Groundhog Day Resolutions 2012 on February 2nd.

I think I’ve started to get some momentum going for 2011, and I’ve laid down the groundwork for a better 2012. For now, though, I’ve got to focus on finishing client projects and preparing for holiday madness.

Whew.

UPDATE: Here are some other Groundhog Day Resoloution Wrapups! Posting them as I find them (tell me about yours if you have one:)

• Stephen Smith – it’s interesting to see how someone else has broken down their goals. Stephen is more concrete than me in identifying specific tasks.

All 2011 Groundhog Day Resolution Posts

• GHDR 02/02 Kickoff
• Followup: Realigning The Compass 02/18
• GHDR 03/03 (posted 03/08)
• GHDR 04/04
• GHDR 05/05
• GHDR 06/06
• GHDR 07/07
• GHDR 08/08
• GHDR 09/09
• GHDR 10/10
• GHDR 11/11
• GHDR 12/12

Dream Job Available: Entrepreneurial Bad-Ass Who Believes Work/Life Balance is a Crock

Everyone talks about Work/Life balance. But they’ve got it all wrong. Work and life aren’t rivals. They’re best buds, inseparable partners, and both inherently good.

Points for opening by identifying life philosophy that speaks to me. Good to know I’m not alone in thinking this.

Anyway, Material is a new venture from the people who run PhotoJojo, an online store that stocks gadgets that photographers like to geek over. I’ve lost many an hour there myself, as it’s a fun place full of stuff that I’d love to have. Now, they want to do it for office supplies and stationery. That’s totally hot. If I didn’t want to make my OWN products for a living, I’d be all over it.

So check out the job page. It’s gorgeous, snappily written, and brimming with hunger for entrepreneurial excellence. That’s you, right? Go apply already at via mtrl.co.

We’re using a plugin called WP-Ecommerce, which is a popular free plugin that has premium add-ons. I’m not sure what it is about e-commerce, but this is an area filled with all kinds of confusing terminology and murky processes, and any mis-step gives rise to silent failure.

I dove into Google Analytics to see if the pages were even being visited, using the unexpectedly-cool “goal funnel” feature:

On the left is the source traffic, sorted by region/country. Google sees that 2500 people hit the Productivity Tool page in this time period. About 1500 of those people hit the Emergent Task Planner Page. Of those, 264 people soldiered on to the ETP PAD page, and 16 people then visited the CHECKOUT page. But after that…nothing.

Was it something about the design of the page itself? I looked at it again and saw just how poorly positioned some of the autogenerated content is (the “PAY” button, for example, is small and tiny). This can clearly be fixed. But then I clicked to order and was surprised to see that nothing seemed to happen. I checked the admin dashboard and saw that an order had been registered by the system, but nothing else happened. Silent failure.

After a bit of digging, it turned out that there is a “transaction results” page that wasn’t being triggered, because it wasn’t named as expected. A pop into the secret WordPress Options Editor fixed it, and now it appears to work. So if you’d like to try again, the A4 Pads are still in-stock and available. If you have any problems with the order process, feel free to email me via the contact form.