I’m starting to realize I spend way to much time online and not enough time doing anything non-digital. Its been so much that I can tell my mood has changed and I find myself often bored and un-inspired.
I’ve realized this for awhile now but lately (not sure why) it’s become pretty obvious to me. I started rethinking what I do online each day (outside of work) and it 90% of it isn’t that important.
First I read my email, then catch up on a posts in my newsreader, see what’s new on any of the various project logs I’m a part of and next thing I know it’s been 4+ hours.
So I’m going to do by best to answer a question before opening the lid to my computer. I’m simply going to ask, What do I plan to do/accomplish on my computer right now?
. If I have a good reason, I’ll focus on that reason and do my best to just do that. I might find myself needing to write down my reason at times when I know it will be easy to stay online for awhile.
A few other things that will help me in my new indevor will be changing one of my email preferences. I’m going to take away the new email alert I have setup on each of my mail applications (Thunderbird and Mail.app).
I’m hoping this will allow me to stay focused on my task at hand - not to be pre-occupied by each new message that comes my way.
The next thing will be to begin removing the amount of sites that I try to keep up with. Merlin Mann from 43Folders.com made this recommendation along with the true statement of What does is really matter if you aren’t the first know of something or the 15th person to post on slashdot?
And you know what - he’s right, it’s not that damn important.
So I’m picking feeds that I know are good and I’ll pick times to focus on those.
These are just a few things I can think of right now but I’m sure others will come. As those ideas filter in, I hope other ideas of what to do when I’m not on my computer also come in - those seem to be a bit hard to come up with right now.
Maybe I’ll take up archery (shrug), what do you do with your time?
posted on February 25, 2006| 6:33 PM EST
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posted on February 16, 2006| 10:44 AM EST
One of my earlier memories in life is at the age of 12 when I went to Calvary Baptist Church and the pastor announced that a revival was coming.
I still remember trying to figure out how he could predict such a happening in the lives of the congregation. Was he analyzing the trends, having deep conversations with people, was he given a vision that this was coming or simply noticing that Christians were impacting other Christians and it was beginning to change the community for the better?
Sadly no, what he really meant is that the church administration hired a group of speakers to come jump up and down, speak the living truth with loud yelling and put on a show. Of course, this isn’t how he described it from the pulpit. It was more of a “Invite your friends and those that you’ve always wanted to invite to church, because now is the time. If you want people to see excitement in the church, have them come next Sunday because the word of God is going to come alive.”
Of course, at the time, I didn’t think about this much but I do remember the event pretty clear. Now that I’m older, I question the purpose of such revivals and the lack of organic revivals in churches around America.
A forced revival is really only smoke and mirrors along with manipulating people spiritual emotions. I could be wrong but I’m wondering what else it could be?
I’m thinking about this again because a local church is going to have a revival. Because of this my buddy and I were discussing our thoughts on the whole event and what (we think) it truly means to have a revival within the church, individual lives and the community.
Then, a few days later, I was listening to the Free Beer and Hot Wings Show and the church one of them goes to had The Power Team come in for a revival. The whole thing just sounded ridiculous and even though they didn’t mock the event, they said it wasn’t for them and weren’t sure how anyone could go to one of these and feel closer to God after seeing Rhino Man bust through an ice wall.
For me, this type of evangelism makes about as much sense as Chuck Norris having a dance off with his enemies instead of actually fighting. It just doesn’t work and it doesn’t make devoted followers.
So I’m frustrated with the word revival when church’s refer to it as someone coming in to get the congregation pumped up. I may be looking at this in the wrong way but unless someone helps clarify this for me - I’m not a fan.
posted on | 8:26 AM EST
We watched a video by Craig McNair Wilson at work the other day on brainstorming. Craig was an Imagineer at Disney that now he has his own creative company where he helps other organizations create.
The following are the rules of brainstorming used by Disney.
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Think distinctively. Remember that brainstorming begins with creative thinking, not critical thinking. Critical thinking comes later. You must allow people to throw out ideas - any old idea. When we start brainstorming, this is not the appropriate time to think critically, analytically, etc.
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“Yes, and…” When someone offers an idea, the correct response is “Yes, and what if we….”. You plus or piggback on their idea with something that follows in kind or something that is brought to mind by something the other person said.
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NO BLOCKING. No wimping. We do not say “no”, we do not give “constructive criticism”. We do not remind ourselves of parameters.
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More Ideas!!!!! Our goal is to come up with more ideas. They can lead anywhere.
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Wild ideas. We need to think of things that are embarrassing, too expensive, not possible, just plain crazy.
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Critical Thinking. Once the ideas are up, we open up the discussion. What do people want to talk about. Then talk about them. It is a natural way to whittle ideas down. No voting down bad ideas. No voting on which are the favorites. People will gravitate toward the good ideas. Then, choose.
A reminder on brainstorming groups:
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There are two kinds of people: people who talk, and people who think first and then talk. Make sure your brainstorm makes room for both.
- 6-8 people is ideal group size
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5-Senseing - Run through the five senses of an idea - what does it look like, feel like, taste like, smell like, sound like?
posted on February 3, 2006| 12:55 PM EST
