7 Rules for Maximizing Your Creative Output

~ Ben Messick

Steve Pavlina’s rules for optimizing the highly creative flow state:

  1. Define a clear purpose.
  2. Identify a compelling motive.
  3. Architect a worthy challenge.
  4. Provide a conducive environment.
  5. Allocate a committed block of time.
  6. Prevent interruptions and distractions.
  7. Master your tools.

From 2007, but as with many productivity articles, this one stands the test of time. I really need to work on item five. He says that his truly creative output starts in hour two…. most of my creative sessions don’t even last two hours…

TIP: iPhone Silent/Mute Switch Broken

~ Ben Messick

The mute switch on my iPhone broke this week. I spent some time at the beach– maybe I got sand in it? Not sure. Until I get it fixed, there is an easy way to turn the ringer on and off using a built-in accessibility feature.

If you find yourself in the same situation, here’s what you can do:

Step #1: Get into the general settings menu by pressing “Settings” and then “General”

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Step #2: Next press “Accessibility” and then “AssistiveTouch”

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Step #3: Turn on AssistiveTouch by pressing the switch. A grey-rounded square should appear on your screen. Pressing this square activates the AssistiveTouch feature.

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After AssistiveTouch is turned on, you can toggle the mute switch by pressing the grey-rounded square, pressing “Device,” and then “Mute” or “Unmute.”

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This was tested on an iPhone 6 running iOS 8. The screenshots were prepared using the apps Skitch and LongScreen.

Small Talk

~ Ben Messick
Paul Ford on Medium:

Here’s a polite person’s trick, one that has never failed me. I will share it with you because I like and respect you, and it is clear to me that you’ll know how to apply it wisely: When you are at a party and are thrust into conversation with someone, see how long you can hold off before talking about what they do for a living. And when that painful lull arrives, be the master of it. I have come to revel in that agonizing first pause, because I know that I can push a conversation through. Just ask the other person what they do, and right after they tell you, say: “Wow. That sounds hard.

❂ Just Write

~ Ben Messick

My friend Josh told me that I need a blog. I love to write (or rather, to have written), but where to start? What do I write about? Does anybody care? If a blog is written and no one reads it, is it still a blog?

Today I read an excellent article by John Saddington about starting a blog. In reference to how to start, he advises:

With that being said, just start. Just go. Write from the heart. It’ll be bad. That’s okay. It’ll be bad for quite some time. How long should it be? Doesn’t matter. Categories? Doesn’t matter. You should:

    1. Start writing.
    2. Hit the “Publish” button.

Topics

One of my biggest issues is that I really don’t know what I want to write about. I have so many interests and can’t seem to narrow down the topic list. So I won’t. Saddington again:

You know what writing really is? It’s about putting your completely incomplete and perfectly imperfect thoughts on paper. It’s about facing the stark reality that you’re not as smart as you thought yourself to be and that your beliefs about life (and everything within it) are not as clear as you had hoped them to be.

I will write about anything and everything. I hope in this “experiment mode” I will naturally find what I like to write about by writing.

I expect to write articles relating geocaching, travel, minimalism, networking, Macs, iPhones and life. I hope to share photographs, review a few apps and highlight some of the nuggets I find on the web. Who knows?

Goals

I will grow my audience to 10,000 active readers within the year. Nope. No goals. Instead, I am going to try to work on the system rather than set a goal. In this article, Burkeman states:

Focusing on a system means focusing on what you can control (your actions) rather than what you can’t (the endlessly unpredictable external world).

I am going to set up my Habit List to remind me to work on this blog every day. Some days, I plan to think. Some I will write. Others, I might fiddle with settings. But mostly, just write.

Platform

I choose Svble because I wanted to concentrate on the writing and not fiddling with the settings. My tendency is to experiment with tools and not use them. I also chose the platform because it wasn’t a free option. When I pay, I am the customer. When it’s free, I am the product. I like the simple model of paying for what I use. Also, I figured if I was actually paying for it, I would be more motivated to use it.

Let the experiment begin. Hitting the publish button now…

Updates

February 2015:  That didn’t last long. Moved from Svtle to Tumblr.   

December 2018:  Moved to WordPress hosted my own Amazon Lightsail node.