Philosophy

To Do, Everyday


I’ve been (only partially) joking for a while that I want to get a tattoo on my hand that says “To Do, Today” with 3 lines below it numbered 1, 2, 3 and then blanks that each day I could write (with a pen) a few goals for the day. Thought being, I do a ton of things every day, sometimes I do things all day long and then realize at the end of the day that the one thing I really wanted to do I never got around to, so if I can force myself to prioritize 3 things that would help me accomplish them. I still might do that, but I’ve recently started looking at the idea of daily to do’s a bit differently.

Those “3 things” I’d always thought would fit in the category of work, or maybe something around the house. And that’s probably accurate. But I started playing around with superbetter earlier this month and was presented with the idea that doing something I like can act as a bit of a power-up. I like this idea a lot, and I think there’s things I should be doing everyday not because they would be accomplishments, but because I like doing them and I feel better after I do, and then I can do even more things that are accomplishments. So what might those things be? I thought about it and decided to make a list:

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Unowning Solidification

In continuing thoughts about my last two posts about a year of no new stuff and cutting ties to crap I’ve been trying to solidify what this actually looks like. If I’m actually going to do this for a year there needs to be a very clear distinction of what I’m doing and what I’m not doing. Saying “I’m not buying new stuff, except for this, and that, and..” leaves a lot of room for wavering which is good, but also not so good. I need to refine this to something that makes sense before the first of the year, and until then I’m going to be thinking out loud a lot hoping for feedback on some of the thoughts.

I think a good approach is think of it in positive – what *am* I going to do, rather than negative am I *not* going to do. I should also try to make it as short of a list as well, so it’s easy to remember. Maybe 3 rules?

Again, disclosure is that this doesn’t apply to food/consumables, nor is it an anti-capitalist thing, so spending money on experiences that don’t result in more possessions is fine, as are digital purchases (ebooks, mp3s, etc) – it’s about less stuff and clutter. Also it’s personal, so doesn’t apply to my young, growing child who needs new things a lot or my wife who is already better about not getting new stuff than I am. I’m also just not even considering work related things, again this is personal.

  1. Addition: Limit purchase of items to 12 new physical items. Only get one a month, so use it wisely. Do not accept physical items as gifts/schwag above this 12 item limit.
  2. Substitution: If something wears out or breaks, first option is repair it. If repair isn’t possible or reasonable, and replacement is needed (sometimes it won’t be) 2 similar items must be gotten rid of to bring in a new one that doesn’t count against the 12 new item limit. No upgrades just for the sake of upgrades.
  3. Subtraction: Actively go through stuff and get rid of things on a regular basis. Document this with blog posts at the very least once a week. Stuff can be given to friends, sold, donated or thrown out, but not traded for other things. Aim to get rid of one item a day (or 5 a week).

Is that too open ended? Too restrictive? I think it’s reasonable, but I might be forgetting something. I know I can travel with nothing but a carry on bag for weeks on end and never feel like I’m missing stuff, so there’s not really a reason I need a full closet and boxes of stuff in the garage and things under my bed and blah blah. I have excess things right now, so I’d like to consciously reduce that excess over the next 12 months.

Just walk away

I’ve been thinking (and talking) a bit about my last post – the “don’t buy new stuff, get rid of old stuff” one. Mostly about the getting rid of stuff part because I still haven’t fully unpacked from my last move. To be fair, I moved into a much larger place and was able to get everything I had out of storage, and I’ve been traveling for most of the time since the move, but still – there is stuff in boxes.

A lot of the stuff I have is stuff I don’t want. It’s stuff I’ve tried unsuccessfully to sell or thought I knew of someone I should give it to. I’ve even told people they can have stuff for free, and yet, it’s still here, still in boxes. Giving things away is hard. It requires planning and scheduling. It’s a real pain in the ass honestly. I kept thinking that I was doing the right thing by holding on to stuff for other people or hoping to get back 20-30% of what I paid for an item a few years previously but I wasn’t. I was just enabling things to pile up.

So my current feeling is as I’m going through this, and I find something I’m deciding not to keep, that stuff is just gone. If I think it might be useful for someone else I’m putting it in a stack to take around the corner to donate to the neighborhood thrift store. If I think it likely isn’t useful for anyone else, I’m putting it in the trash. I need to just walk away from it all.

I also need to come up with some clear rules about what makes something useful to me or not and I need to do this before I start sorting. On an individual level I can justify keeping anything, but painting with big strokes I can write off half of it. I need to make some hard and fast rules that apply to the real word. I can’t foresee a situation where I’m going to need more than 1 week worth of t-shirts, so there’s no need for me to keep more than 7. Likewise, how many pair of black pants do I actually need? There was a time when I had 2 pair of shoes -every day ones and nicer ones. Now I have like, hell, 7 or 8 pair? That’s just stupid.

Anyway, I’ll keep chewing through my thoughts here, and as I solidify the rules I’m making for myself I’ll detail them as well. And hopefully I’ll begin documenting the stuff I’m parting with soon.

Getting voted off the island for fun and profit

There’s a common philosophy that encourages entrenching yourself in a project or organization so that you are hard to replace. It suggests that you want to be in a position where things couldn’t function without you because obviously in a case like this you are a very valuable part of the equation.

I used to think this made a lot of sense. Now I think it’s both stupid and cowardly.

Consider this:

  • Interesting projects attract awesome people.
  • Empowered fans become the most motivated leaders.
  • Leadership needs to be excited.
  • Term limits work in politics, maybe they should be applied to leadership as well.
  • Anyone who is worried about being replaced, probably should be.
  • If the idea is solid, it can live on without you.
  • If you are worried about losing control, then you don’t have time to worry about making the project more awesome.
  • The project can always be more awesome.
  • Anyone who is an active and valuable part of a team isn’t going to be replaced.
  • Anyone who isn’t an active and valuable part of a team should be replaced.

All this applies to founders as much as it does to people who join up several steps down the line. Earlier this week I talked about leaving Metblogs and suggested it’s something that perhaps should have happened sooner. It didn’t for many reasons, but not the least of which was my fear that without me things would fall apart. This is admittedly conceited and self important. It’s also false – Metblogs is and has always much bigger than me. I knew that, but I didn’t really know what that meant. I don’t know that I do now either, but I think I have a little bit more of an idea anyway – and that is that ideas are much more important than any one person and a really good idea will attract people who will embrace it as their own. This is kind of crucial, if no one else wants to embrace an idea it’s probably not that good.

I’m projecting here of course, but this is my blog so I’m allowed to do that. I have a short attention span. Some people can work on one project for years, hell some people work on one project for their entire lives. I completely respect that dedication, and at the same time I know that sounds like total hell to me. No matter how great the project is, as some point it’s just the project you’ve been working on for X years and you can’t see it from the same perspective as someone who just discovered it and is wholly consumed by the excitement of it.

Which is sort of what has led me to this new perspective.

Creating something that you can walk away from and it lives on it awesome. Super WIN.

Realizing you’ve contributed everything you can to a project and being comfortable with walking away allows someone else can take it to the next level. Super WIN.

Creating something that you can walk away from allows you to find the next exciting thing to create. Super WIN.

Being yourself for fun and profit

True story: A few years ago I got a call from a potential client asking for some help with an event they were working on – an ongoing annual event that they wanted to have a better online face than previous years. I gave them the usual line about my “pick your brain fee” and they agreed to it. A week later I was in their office to chat and brainstorm a bit.

As was another guy they had called for the same reason.

This guy ran a web shop and was definitely “slick.” He had his pitches down pat and I caught myself agreeing with him and even letting him answer questions entirely. He had a team and an impressive list of clients. Dude had his act together for sure. He had a business card and everything. I was just a guy. Also, I’m not very slick. And this was making me very self conscious. His answers were slow and collected, when he spoke the room matched his speech cadence. I bounce around like a hyperactive kid on ice cream cake. This guy was all “The road map we will layout will start with X and lead to Y” and I was all “Oh! And then we can do this! OH! OH!! And then this!! And check this out!!” Then I’d realize what a jerk I sounded like and I’d shut up and the the professionals talk.

Everyone was nice and some great info was bounced around. The meeting ended with the other guy saying he’d have his team draft up a plan of action and would have it over to them this afternoon and they could get started right away. We all shook hands and I went home and went on a bike ride assuming that would be the last time I’d hear from them.

The next day they called and asked me to come in the following week to talk again. I was a little surprised but was happy to g back in. I was even more surprised when at the next meeting the other guy wasn’t invited. They asked me if I could help on the project, I told them my price and they agreed right away. I asked about the other guy?

“Not really what we were looking for”

“Really? He had a pretty slick pitch”

“Sure he did, but we weren’t looking for a slick pitch”

From time to time I find myself think I should be acting or talking or presenting different, more like how some other successful person does it. But when I think back, I’ve never worked with anyone or been involved with any project because I tried to be someone else. In fact, I’d say the times things go wrong is when I get insecure and try to do things how someone else would. When I embrace who I am and what I have to say and what I can do, things generally work really well.

There are lots of people out there trying to be someone else. I’m the only one that’s me.

I have to remind myself of that from time to time.

Go Daddy board contacts

If you’ve been paying attention today, you’ve certainly heard all about how Bob Parsons, the CEO of Go Daddy, posted his “vacation video” where he takes a fun little trip to Zimbabwe and kills elephants. For the second year in a row. And brags about it, and poses with their corpses. You can read more about it here. Or just watch the video for yourself:

 

Obvious outrage is obvious.

It’s not surprising that people are moving their domains off Go Daddy in hordes today, and some domain registrars are offering deals for ex-Go Daddy customers. (unrelated to this event, my friends at Hover are offering a free service where they will do all the work and move your domains for you. I have my domains hosted there, and they are based in Canada, which is a plus for many reasons.)

Taking your dollars away from the company is a great way to show that you don’t support those kinds of actions, but you can also reach out directly and tell the Board of Directors that you are leaving their company because of the actions of the CEO. Luckily Jill Fehr tweeted their contact info earlier, but I wanted it all in one place so I could give the link out easily. So here you go:

Greg Santora’s LinkedIn profile
Chuck Robel’s LinkedIn prifile
Michael Gallagher – Phone: 508-624-8688

If you are a Go Daddy customer I would encourage you to watch the above video and ask yourself if you want to be paying the salary of someone who does that in his free time. If you decide you don’t, letting these guys know why you dumped their company can probably go a long way.