papershine

In the latest issue of Fast Company, the Heath brothers of Made to Stick fame discuss whisker goals, a good way to make changes in your world, particularly in crisis times. In the current economic climate, people are not making radical professional or personal changes- at least not by choice. But holding still is even more dangerous; incremental movement is still movement.

I am a sucker for crossing stuff of lists, which is harder to do when working in increments. I recently reorganized my action plan/to-do list into a galaxy poster. I wanted to try a new representation and it was fun to draw. At the same time I came up with a new tracking system, one that measures increments in a positive, encouraging way. At the end of every day I go to the poster and put orange dots next to things I worked on in some way, shape or form. If I made progress I earned a dot. In one corner of my galaxy I write the date and then put down the number of dots I got that day. I aim for four dots a day but have topped out at eight a couple of times. This doesn’t accurately measure if I worked like heck on one thing all day, but I’m trying to keep myself rolling, not create data metrics. It’s been a successful system for me. I look forward to getting out the marker and I can track where I’m making good progress and what things are being neglected. And since it’s on a big poster on my wall, the information (and motivation) is never far away.

Impersonate.

Suggestions for solving an impasse during a mediation session. Taken from the mediation notes I did some time ago.

Deescalate. Taken from the mediation notes I did some time ago.

Conquer.

Decelerate.

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Derring-do.

Defenestrate.

Desolate.

Aspire.