The Effective Minimalist

Update

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 02 Jan 2017 17:00:00 +0000

I ended up taking some time off during the holidays, but will be getting back into the swing of things tomorrow. Expect a new episode of the Effective Minimalist by next Monday at the latest!

Podcast 018 - The Value of News

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 18 Dec 2016 23:00:00 +0000

In this episode I clarify a point I raised last episode about reducing the scope of my work, and mostly talk about news and some of the reflections and adjustments I've been making to how I seek out, process, and act on news.

Podcast 017 - Plateau

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 12 Dec 2016 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode I share some of the challenges I've been having with minimalism and how I've been feeling that my efforts at both minimalism and productivity have plateaued.

Podcast 016 - Return

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 20:02:00 +0000

An update on what I've been up to, and why it has been so long since I put out an episode.

Apologies... and an update!

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 02 Oct 2016 17:21:00 +0000

I wanted to let everyone know that I have NOT given up on this podcast! :)

Why the delay for a new episode? The short answer is that I had every intention of continuing to release new episodes through August and the start of the fall semester, but life intervened... in a good way!

In hindsight, I should have declared August as a summer break and not committed to putting out a new episodes. It would have been less stressful for me as I wouldn't have had to deal with feeling that I wasn't living up to my commitment to my listeners.

Same probably goes for September and the start of the fall semester. It is a very busy time at the university where I work: lots of prep, presentations, and demands on your time.

And while the start-of-the-semester rush has begun to die down, I'm still not ready to make a commitment to exactly when a new episode of The Effective Minimalist will be released. The reason is that I have another exciting Big Thing™that I'm involved in and that I need to focus my attention and energy on. I'm hoping to be wrapping that up by the end of October. Once I do and things get back to normal (ha!), I plan on resuming my podcast and getting episodes out to you on a regular basis.

In the meantime, I will be sharing updates, thoughts, and links to interesting content over on the Facebook page for this site. If you've enjoyed this podcast so far, I encourage you to head over and "like" that page. Getting feedback and interacting with listeners are for me some of the most rewarding and motivating aspects of podcasting, so I hope that I'll see you there.

Podcast 015 - My ideal week

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 00:10:00 +0000

In this episode I share my ideas about how I plan on organizing my work so that I can stay focused on my priorities and ensure that I have enough space and time to do good work.

Podcast 014 - Starting over

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Thu, 30 Jun 2016 13:42:00 +0000

After roughly a month hiatus, I decided it was time to put out a new if short episode to give an update on the reason for my absence and to renew my commitment to putting out this podcast on a regular basis.

The title of this episode refers to the fact that after a month or two of being in crunch mode to get a major project out the door, I’m finding myself having to rework and rebuild the habits I had been working on to minimize the clutter in my life so that I focus on what matters. I’ve decided to see the last two months not as a failure or as a set back but rather as a learning opportunity, one that has helped me to identify the shortcomings in my systems. Over the coming weeks I’ll be putting things back in place and sharing my experiences in future episodes.

Thanks for listening!

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To subscribe to The Effective Minimalist, see the Subscribe page.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below, or connect with me and other listeners on the Effective Minimalist page over on Facebook.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 013 - Update

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 29 May 2016 15:55:00 +0000

In this episode I share a few updates about work, explain why there was no episode last week, and explore some of the insights I've had about how minimalism can be applied to my work.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 012 - Reflections and second thoughts

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Fri, 13 May 2016 23:34:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about some of the challenges I’ve been facing at work that have left me feeling overwhelmed much of the time. I’ve also been thinking what I said about purpose in the last episode, and share some of the doubts I’ve been having as a result.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 011 - Purpose

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 08 May 2016 19:12:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about purpose, about how having a sense of purpose relates to minimalism. I share some of what I've been going through as I struggle with finding my own sense of purpose at work. I explore the role of purpose in helping me to work towards tenure, my use of minimalism to try to get things back on track, and the role that I feel purpose and minimalism will play in helping me to move forward with my work from here.

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To subscribe to The Effective Minimalist, see the Subscribe page.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below, connect with me on the Effective Minimalist page over on Facebook.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 010 - Am I part of the problem?

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 01 May 2016 16:54:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about how although we likely see each ourselves as part of the solution, each one of us might in fact be part of the problem. I think this is a topic that I'll be coming back to every once in a while, because while self-improvement is a laudable goal, it shouldn't come at the expense of the people around us. More importantly, the best way to bring about lasting change is to change not only ourselves but the culture of the our workplaces and communities in which we live.

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To subscribe to The Effective Minimalist, see the Subscribe page.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below, send me an email at edward.bilodeau@gmail.com, or connect with me over on Twitter (@edbilodeau)

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 009 - Pushback

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 24 Apr 2016 19:58:00 +0000

In this episode I continue the discussion on minimalism at work, focusing on the pushback that you are likely to get when you try to adopt a minimalist approach. I want to share some of the questions and ideas that I've be thinking about as I try to understand where this pushback is coming from and what I can do to deal with it.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 008 - Minimalism and privilege

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Sun, 17 Apr 2016 18:17:00 +0000

In this episode I take a step back and share some of the issues and questions that have come up as I've been reviewing the past few episodes. I talk about some course corrections that I need to make and why I do believe that what I'm trying to do can be called minimalism. I also start to unpack the topic of privilege as it relates to having the power or agency to be able to make decisions required by minimalism, specifically at work.

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You can subscribe to The Effective Minimalist through iTunes or Stitcher, or you can right-click and copy URL for the show's RSS feed and paste it into the subscribe function of your favorite podcasting app.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below or or send me an email at edward.bilodeau@gmail.com.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 007 - Commitments

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 11 Apr 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about taking a minimalist approach to my commitments, to "declutter" the things I've currently committed to and to make sure that going forward I'm spending as much of my time as possible making a real impact on the things that matter.

I also provide a short update on where I'm at in terms of improving my email and task management, and what my next major area for improvement is.

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Mentioned in this episode:

The Macs Apple was selling in 1996

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 006 - Overhead

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about using minimalism to reduce the amount of time and energy I spend on so-called overhead activities at work, so that I can focus on the things that matter to me and to my organization.

I also provide a short update on my (lack of) progress in making improvements over the past week, and how I plan on addressing that.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 005 - Tools

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode I discuss how I’m applying the concepts and approaches of minimalism to improve my efficiency and effectiveness with the various applications that I use to carry out my work.

I also give an update on my efforts to improve my effectiveness, which in the past week has had me focusing on trying to fix performance issues with my laptop. Here again, I’m turning to minimalism to help guide my efforts, and the results so far have been positive.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Cheatsheet - App to help me to learn the shortcut key combinations for the applications that I use.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 004 - News feeds

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode I wrap up my overview of the tools I use at work and describe how I currently use Feedly (news reader), Instapaper (reading), and IFTTT (integration) to keep of track of news and developments in areas that are important to me.

The purpose of these overviews (see Episode 3 for a discussion how I manage email and tasks) was to describe how I handle some of the key areas to my work so that going forward you will have some context when I talk about how I need and am trying to become more effective in these areas.

What that done, I think we can expect the coming episodes to get back to talking about the practices of minimalism and how I am trying to use them to improve my life.

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Mentioned in this episode:

Feedly -App I use to subscribe to RSS feeds
IFTTT -Web service that I use to integrate Feedly with Instapaper
Instapaper -App I use for reading blog posts and other content that I've flagged in Feedly or come across elsewhere on social media or on the web.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 003 - Email and tasks

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In this episode I give an overview of how I currently handle my email and keep track of all the things I need to do. I also talk about a few ideas that have come out of recent conversations about minimalist, as well as an update on some improvements I've made towards being more intentional and productive at work.

Mentioned in this episode:

Momentum - App for tracking daily progress on important tasks

Trello - The web app I use for managing my work

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You can subscribe to The Effective Minimalist through iTunes or you can right-click and copy URL for the show's RSS feed and paste it into the subscribe function of your favorite podcasting app.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below or or send me an email at edward.bilodeau@gmail.com.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

Podcast 002 - Origins

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 07 Mar 2016 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode I talk about the events and situations, both at home and at work, that led me to adopting a minimalist approach to life.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Minimalists: Let’s Play a Minimalism Game - 30-day minimalism challenge
Twitter: It's not personal - my blog post on decluttering my Twitter feed

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

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The Effective Minimalist isn't yet in iTunes or any of the podcast directories, so if you want to subscribe to it, you can right-click and copy URL for the show's RSS feed and paste it into the subscribe function of your favorite podcasting app.

If you have any feedback or questions, you can leave a comment under the show notes for this episode below or or send me an email at edward.bilodeau@gmail.com.

Podcast 001 - Introduction

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 11:00:00 +0000

In this episode I introduce myself and more importantly the ideas that I have for the Effective Minimalist podcast.

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Music: Close Tracking from Learning Kurve.

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Podcasting startup: Web site

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 16:33:00 +0000

As I mentioned before, I’ve decided to use Blogger for my podcasts’ web site, and after a fair amount of fiddling around, I think the site is good enough that I can move on.

Over the past year, I’ve been listening to and reading a lot of advice on how to start a podcast, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone mention using Blogger to host their podcast. Most will recommend WordPress, and for good reason. It is a better platform and is seeing far more active development than Blogger. WordPress also has a number of podcasting plugins that you can add that will presumably make it easier to publish and manage your podcasts. If you are willing to spend the money to set up a WordPress site, then I would agree that it is probably the best way to go.

My self-imposed budget for my podcast hosting is exactly zero, so I needed to find an alternative. You can get a free WordPress blog, but you are limited to how much you can customize it and add plugins, etc. What’s worse is that you are forced to display third-party advertising on your site that you have no control over. Just horrible, and certainly not something I wanted to have anything to do with!

So Blogger it is. I’ve been using Blogger since the beginning, since Pyra Labs first rolled out this tool that we could use to manage our blog posts and have the pages uploaded as static HTML via FTP to whatever web hosting we had. Good times!

I used to be far more proficient customizing Blogger templates, but they lost me when they switched to their new tempting system (somewhere around 10 years ago). But that isn’t really a problem, since the built in designer allows you to include your own CSS to over-ride the template’s. Although I’m forced to live with the HTML and structure of their templates (probably a good thing, since that could have been a major time-sink), I’m still good enough with CSS that I can get the site looking more or less the way I want.

So that’s what I did. I chose the “Simple” template and used the designer tools to customize the look and feel of the site as much as I could, which in this case meant stopping it down to the basics and then writing a handful of CSS rules to nudge things into place so it looked exactly the way I wanted.

I should also not that earlier versions of this site were for busier than the current site. I’d looked over dozens of podcast sites and made notes about all the different things I could include. The resulting layout had a lot going on, and I couldn’t help but think, given the focus of my podcast, that I was on the wrong track. So I stopped and made myself a list of what I need the site to do and then figure out how I could accomplish this with as little content or functionality. The result effort of that is what you see here.

I could spend more time adjusting and tweaking different aspects of the site, but I know I would just be procrastinating and not adding much value. I need to move forward, so I’m calling the web site done!

Next up: Audio production and publishing workflows

Podcasting startup: Hardware and software

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Mon, 15 Feb 2016 18:43:00 +0000

I thought it might be a good idea if I summarized my plans for how I’ll be creating, producing, and hosting my podcast. Not only should this help me move the project forward, but it should help me to avoid talking about these kinds of “meta” issues during the podcast itself.

I’ll start with the technical details.

Before I do, however, I should mention that I decided early on that I wasn’t going to invest financially in this new podcasting effort, that I would make due with hardware and software that I already had or could use for free. Having already podcasted before this wasn’t as limiting as it might sound, but it did limit my choices somewhat, often resulting in having to spend more time and effort than if I was just able to purchase recommended solutions to the problems I encounter.

Anyway, now for the details…

Recording equipment: After doing some testing, I’ve decided to stick with my Zoom H4 recorder, recording the audio to an SD card and then manually transferring that card to my laptop.

I tried using the line-out on the Z4 to go directly to my laptop and into Audacity, but the quality wasn’t very good, and at this point it isn’t worth trying to debug the problem. Besides I’ve heard that recording directly to software is not the best idea, since if the application or computer locks up you could loose part or all of your file.

Workstation: I’ll be using my MacBook Pro (older, entry-level, non-retina model) as my workstation for all aspects of this production.

Audio editing: I’ll be sticking with Audacity for the audio production work, even though I have the presumably slicker Garage Band on my Macbook. I have a fair amount of experience using Audacity and I don’t think there is much benefit to investing time in learning a new application.

ID3 tag editing: Part of my post-production workflow involves adding metadata to the MP3 files, and this is accomplished using ID3 tags. I looked at a number of options (Audacity, VideoLAN, iTunes) before settling on a new utility called Kid3. It’s easy to use, allowing me to edit the MP3 file in place, adding both the basic metadata as well as the cover art to the MP3 file.

File hosting: Free file hosting was the hardest thing to figure out, but in the end I decided to settle on hosting my MP3 files on the Internet Archive. Although the uploading and management of files is a bit clunky, it has the extra benefit of providing an HTML5 audio player that I’ll be able to embed in each of my posts as well.

I’ve seen a few mentions of the download speed not being all that great, so there is a risk that subscribers might have to wait a bit longer for whatever podcasting app they are using to pull down each episode. If the upside is free media hosting forever and an embeddable audio player, this is a risk that I can live with.

Web site hosting: I’ve decided to use Blogger for the blog web site. It’s free, ad-free, and supports enclosures (essential for podcasting).

RSS feed: I’ll be using FeedBurner to generate the RSS feed for my podcast. While Blogger generates an RSS feed, by running the feed through feed burner allows me to specify the cover art and have other iTunes and podcasting relating tags added to the feed. Yes, there’s a risk that one day Google with shutdown the service, but the chance of that is low and if it ever did happen and my podcast was something that people valued, I should have no problem getting them to switch to a new feed.

Miscellaneous: There are a two other applications that I’ll be using to help plan and produce the podcast: Photoshop (cover art) and iA Writer (planning, show notes, etc). These are image and text editing software that I happen to use, but you can of course use whatever works for you.

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Putting together this list has in fact helped me to think through the entire podcasting process and forced me to finally decide on my toolset! Now I can move on to the next step which is to publish a few beta audio clips so that I can sort through the next level of details and make sure that everything works the way I want it to.

Welcome!

edward.bilodeau@gmail.com (Edward Bilodeau) — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 17:24:00 +0000

Welcome to what will eventually be my new podcast, The Effective Minimalist!

I decided sometime last year that I wanted to get back into podcasting, and started to brainstorm and plan what that would like like. The result is this site and, hopefully, the podcast audio that I will soon start sharing.

Initially, I had planned to avoid all 'meta' talk about the making and behind the scenes aspects of this podcast, but I've since changed my mind. After all, my experiences might be useful to other podcasters or potential podcasters, and publicly talking about my plans and progress might help me to gauge and build interest in the podcast. Most importantly, though, I'm counting on starting a public record of my efforts to give me the motivation to move this podcast from an idea to a reality as soon as possible!

Questions, comments, etc are always welcome in the comments or via email at edward.bilodeau@gmail.com.