Aaron Hollman's Blog

Feng Shui Compass

Humans are strange creatures. We crave comfort, want to be around what we know yet at the same time, this kills our creativity. Let me explain.

Like many of you, I have a home office. The furniture has never stayed in the same place for more than a few months at a time before I decided to move it around. I find, that for me, it is time to rearrange when I have little to no creativity left. Just the act of moving and sitting in a different spot lets me see things from a new perspective.

Sometimes I arrange my furniture in such a way that is not good for my creativity at all. In my post, Benefits Of A Clean Workspace (A Personal Experience) « Aaron Hollman’s Blog, I not only talked about the benefits of a clean workspace, but also made mention of the fact I needed to rearrange my office. It was in an arrangement that was not suited to my creativity. I would sit for hours just staring at the screen not know what to write or to do. I have since changed things up a bit.

Things seem much clearer to me now. I can think a little clearer and can sit without just staring, wondering where my creativity went.

I hope this is helpful to some of you out there. I am aware that there are those out there who want and need a stable, static location for their creative juices to flow and that’s fine. I’m just telling you what works for me. If you find that your creativity is about drained, give it a try, you might be surprised. If you are unable to rearrange your whole office, try changing some pictures on the wall, moving some stuff around on your desk, anything you want.

aaron

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Do you use to do lists? Do they work for you or do you end up using them for maybe a week then abandon them? I usually end up abandoning them mostly because my schedule is so spontaneous that they don’t work for me anyway. There are times, however, when a to do list would come in handy and be useful. I have even gone so far as to write my own small OS X application called Too Due to keep track of my to do items. Just one problem with that, portability.

I have recently begun to contemplate going back to the old way of using to do lists, pen and paper. In addition to this, I have thought about using not just one to do list, but two. This may sound a little extreme at first, I mean, who needs two to do lists? I do have, what I consider, a very thought out and sound reason for using two to do lists.

The first to do list would be one-time tasks that never repeat, or repeat so infrequently, each time its performed, its treated like a new task. Changing the oil in the car would be an example of this. (unless you drive a lot)

The second list is the one I am focusing on here. I am calling it a Repetitive To Do list. This list would contain all the repetitive tasks for a week that I need to do, much like the chore list that our parents used to have on the fridge for us to earn our allowances for the week. Once a task on the repetitive to do list is done, it will be checked off for that week. Not only does this let you know that that particular task is done, it also gives you a sense of accomplishment by taking one step toward finishing the week.

Repetitive To Do List

I like the idea of the Repetitive To Do list and look forward to implementing it. There are a few variations on the list that I can think of to try. They are the following:

• Print out the list then have it laminated. Use a dry erase marker to add tasks and check them off when finished.
• Add twelve more columns, one for each month so that when that month is finished, you can check it off. This will only really work with the laminated list as mentioned above.
• Add an extra column for multi-user use. Put the name of the person who the task belongs to in that column.
• Use different colored dry erase markers for each person.
• Place the list on the fridge for family use. Parents, don’t just use this for kids, be a good example and show them that you have tasks to do as well.

Nothing is set in stone. Use whatever makes things easiest for you.

aaron

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Weekly Roundup

Motivational Monday:
Benefits Of A Clean Workspace (A Personal Experience)

Tech Tuesday:
My Review of the Canon PowerShot SX110 IS

Wild Wednesday:
Pimpin’ My Photoblog Edition

History Thursday:
Apollo 11

Food Friday:
Spicy Garlic Shrimp and Pasta

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Like many creative people, I find my self all too often surrounded in messes of my own making. This drives my wife nuts since she is, by nature, a clean and orderly person. Over most of my adult life, I have made efforts to try to be clean and orderly, most of the time failing. This does not mean that I have not experienced the creative rush achieved by a newly cleaned work area.

I will probably never be one of those people who is always cleaned and organized, and that is ok with me,  but I do enjoy the feeling of a freshly cleaned work area. It seems to me that when I clean my work area, I am more focused on work and less focused on being, well, less focused.

I believe that for me, personally, there are a few key reasons for this. First of all, having a clean work area reduces my distractions. I can’t obsess and think about the insurance bill laying on my desk that I have to pay next week or the book I haven’t put away yet that I pick up and thumb through, for four hours.

Another reason is very similar to the last, a clean area eliminates the thought of having to clean my work area. That is one thing that I have accomplished that is no longer an excuse for getting other work done. Now I can sit down and write what needs to be written.

A clean area keeps eyes from wandering. Again, this is related to the distractions theory, but instead of focusing on stuff that needs to be done, I focus on the ‘pretty colors  I see floating around on the sea of chaos that is my desk. No clutter, no colors to draw the eyes away from where they need to be focused.

A clean area instills a sense of feng-shui. I never used to be a big believer in feng-shui, but more recently, I find that I am agreeing with it more and more; I can tell its benefits from the way my furniture is arranged in my office. That reminds me, I need to move my desk back to where it was, it just isn’t working where its at.

I wish I were an orderly person, I like the feeling I get from order, but I am not. I suppose that is human nature, we always want to be someone we’re not.

Thoughts or opinions are welcome.

aaron

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Information Overload

We live in an era of 24 hour news stations, the internet and mobile devices that give us information on demand. Its no wonder that occasionally all of us find our selves ‘bummed out’ from information overload.

After seeing an article on dumblittleman.com (Six Smart Ways To Beat Information Overload) earlier last week, it got me to thinking, how do I deal with information overload while working in the IT field and taking on computers and technology as a hobby. I, probably more so than the casual person, is probably more susceptible to information overload; and I have been. Let me recount to you a story.

During and shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I remember wishing for something, anything, to watch on TV or listen to on the radio other than news about the terrorist attacks. Even my fail-safe channels like MTV and QVC were broadcasting news reports of the attacks. It was too much.

Life continued like this for almost the whole week and the internet was no escape either. No matter what website I went to, there was almost alway a reference to the attacks in some way, shape or form. Even theonion.com had already satirized the events of that day.

Even as the news began to fade and life got off the shoulder and pulled back onto the road of time, normalcy, human instinct would not. I found myself watching regular programming, but during the commercials would flip channels to CNN just to see what was going on. My intended few seconds of checking out ‘what was going on’ turned into hours of overloading myself even more.

It was at this point that I finally realized that ‘I had a problem’. I don’t say this to be offensive to people who suffer from other addictions such as alcoholism or drug addiction, but mean it to be serious. My thirst for news and information was getting in the way of me living a normal life. I began catastrophizing in my mind, ‘What if this? What if that?’ It was really affecting me in a not so good way.

I tried to pull myself out of it by first blocking all of the news channels in my TV. This added just a small hurdle to my desire to find out more about the train wreck that at the time was the news. I simply entered the channel number in manually and I was back to my old habits.

Real relief began later the next year when I disconnected my cable (mostly because I was a poor college student and not because I was getting too much news) It took a little time, but I found myself feeling better and better because I was not being inundated with all of this news.

Eventually, I stopped obsessively listening to news and talk radio and began turning my attention to more escapist type programming such as entertainment shows and music. Don’t get me wrong, I not only think it is ok to be informed, but also wise. It is my hope that everyone in the world can enjoy the freedom of speech and press that we enjoy and often take for granite in America.

The story I share is only one example of information overload. It can happen while searching for regular information as well. Wikipedia, Digg, Google, Twitter, Slashdot, Facebook, MySpace are all good to a point but when they start becoming an obsession, it might be time to escape back into real life.

When I was working on the Battle of Hastings article last week (admittedly, not one of my better articles) I found myself with burning eyes and a fatigued spirit. I had been reading about the battle for several hours. I needed a break so I took one. I went on the deck, bottle of (insert favorite beverage here) in hand. The only electronic device I had was my iPod Touch which I used to listen to Pandora radio (music, not news). I proceeded to do absolutely nothing for the next hour or so and it was great.

I believe that knowledge is power but too much of it at once can fry some circuits, and we need a break from it every once in a while. Here is a list of some suggestions to help take a break from the information overload when you need it. This is by no means a complete list, but just a start:

-Take a walk (leaving technology behind)
-Exercise
-Meditate
-Nap
-Go shopping
-Go out to eat
-Go on a date
-Do house/yard work
-Watch a movie
-Play with pets
-Volunteer

I would be interested in hearing any ways you may have to deal with information overload. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

aaron

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Motivation Monday

Here is Motivational Monday’s tip.

Cleaning with little effort. The trick is simple, if you stick with it.

First, create a schedule. A schedule that works for me is immediately after work, but before I want to really unwind for the rest of the evening. Allow yourself at least half an hour in this scheduled slot of time (but I don’t recommend longer than an hour). When you have decided on a time and duration, only clean for that time, but no longer.

When you clean, focus on one room. Pick up stuff first, like that sock laying under the desk or the glass sitting on it and put them away. While transporting the items you picked up, look around and see if there is anything that needs to go where you are going, another sock, a bag of peanuts that goes to the kitchen, and grab them as well. Do the same thing on your way back.

Before you realize it, your first room will be picked up and ready for the fine detail work, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Once this room is done, move on to the next room.

This next part is very important. When your time is up, quit cleaning and relax for the evening, there is tomorrow to continue the war against dirtiness, but, for today, you’ve won the battle.

Variations and Tips:

- Start slow. Start with half an hour and work your way up. Especially if you’re cleaning habits are far from perfect.

- The next day after finishing one room, begin again with that same room, picking up the stuff that has accumulated in the last 24 hours.

- Only do the heavy cleaning once a week after it has been done the first time unless it is really necessary.

- Rooms that need more attention are kitchens and bathrooms. Rooms that need less attention are offices and living rooms. Needs vary with families though.

- Integrate exercise by finding ways to take more trips up and down the stairs. This may involve longer cleaning times.

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When I was a pyschology minor, I took a class called Memory and Cognition. To be blunt, the class sucked; it was probably the hardest class I had ever taken, but it was very interesting stuff. One of my favorite topics in the class was about how we remember and recall information. That is what this post is about.

Suppose you have a sequence of numbers (1 0 6 6 1 4 9 2 1 7 7 6 1 8 6 5 1 9 4 1 1 9 4 5 2 0 0 1) and were told that you have to memorize them in a few minutes. When asked to repeat the numbers back, you might start by recalling the first five or six digits (1 0 6 6 1 4) and maybe the last five (5 2 0 0 1), but the middle dozen or so are going to be hazy. This is due to how our brains take in and store information; your going to be focused on remembering during the first few digits and memory decay will be less during the last few.

Now, suppose the numbers were grouped together into pairs (10 66 14 92 17 76 18 65 19 41 19 45 20 01) and your task was to memorize them again. You may have a little more success this time if you associated them as pairs instead of single digits. This time, you may remember four or five at the beginning and another four or so at the end but the middle pairs may still seem hazy and difficult to recall.

Now, lets take it a couple of steps further. Lets combine the pairs into quads and associate them as years (1066 1492 1776 1865 1941 1945 2001). There, that’s a lot more manageable to remember and I’d be willing to bet that most people will be able to recall all the numbers now due phenomena called ‘chunking’ and ‘association’. See, I told you it was interesting stuff.

I use this in real life when I have to remember passwords or ip addresses or other number sequences, hopefully, someone else will be able to find this information useful as well.

FYI: The dates are as follows:

1066 – Battle of Hastings – Norman conquest of England
1492 – Christopher Columbus lands in the Americas
1776 – The United States declares its independence from England
1865 – The end of the American Civil War
1941 – The bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Empire.
1945 – The end of World War II
2001 – The terrorist attacks of September 11th.

Comments and corrections welcome.

aaron

Cognition – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cognition: Exploring the Science of the Mind, 1st ed. 1997, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

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I have a friend at work who is a Marine. He tweeted something the other day that has stuck with me. Here’s the tweet:

@blamborn: Today I’m reminded of the 7 P’s I learned in the Marine Corps: Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

Its amazingly simple and it got me to thinking about times when I had started things that never really turned out the way I had intended; this would have helped.

I know, I know, its common sense. Sometimes common sense is like the stack of cash in the safe. You know its there, but it doesn’t do any good unless you can get to it. That tweet the other day reminded me how to get to that knowledge. Lets hope I don’t forget how to get to it again.

aaron

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