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Clay

[Note: Bear with me here at the beginning.  The second half is better than the first].

Conventional wisdom says that a well-balanced meal contains all the major food groups. On the contrary, nutritional research indicates that nutritional balance just isn’t necessary during each meal. Balance among the food groups isn’t even necessary over the course of a day. In fact, nutritionists generally believe that while a diet might not be balanced with regards to a particular day, what’s important is that nutritional balance be achieved over the course of a week (or even two).

What does nutritional balance have to do with life balance?

Just as nutritionists have rethought nutritional balance, I’d like to propose that we start . . .

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(Above: The Productivity Ninja playing game cube with the Productivity Zombie)

What’s all this nonsense about productivity ninjas? :-) Seriously people.

The productivity industry’s use of ninja-ness to seem cool works about as well as this kid’s use of gang signs (see left) and rapper chains (see right) to try and seem hip.

Ninjas, rock stars, and computer hackers are cool (well, some of them) but productivity ninjas, productivity rockstars, and productivity hackers? Please.

But perhaps I’m being too harsh (I probably am). Perhaps there’s really a productivity ninja out there. I mean, everyone seems to be talking about him (or her). I’ve spent countless hours in the productivity blogosphere and people are name dropping this ninja left and right.

So maybe there is a ninja out there. If there is, no one seems to know much about him except that he’s really, really productive. Given this situation, I decided to do a little investigating and . . .

Here’s What I’ve Found About the Productivity Ninja

1. He “Rocks” the Computer with Keyboard Shortcuts

Throwing a ninja star is cool. But “rocking” the computer with keyboard shortcuts is about 100 times better. And what’s more productive than learning keyboard shortcuts? Not much. This ninja’s a definite badass.

2. He Might Be Bruce Lee

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Photo by Weekly World News

[Note: This post is by no means intended as a rant against the Lifehack blog, which in my view represents a very healthy, holistic, and multifaceted take on the word Lifehack.]

In short, a hacker discovers what is normally hidden to the common man.
-Elf Qrin

If you’re tinkering around in the basement of life, seeing what works, and trying to figure things out, then . . .

You ARE Hacking Life

If you’re getting honest with yourself and trying to make positive changes, then you’re hacking life. It’s that simple. We are not machines with instructions manuals and when it comes to this organic & circuitous black box of a thing we call life, there are only hacks.

If you think for yourself and are trying to build a better life, then you’re hacking life, because the roadmap to a beautiful life isn’t outlined in our DNA and it can’t be discovered through brain scans or science. We’re all just a group of hackers trying to crack this messy, organic, and beautiful thing that is life, and sharing out what we’ve found along the way.

Even if you’re a religious person and believe you’ve found the roadmap or key to everything, you’re hopefully still questioning things and thinking for yourself.

So anyway, I LOVE life hacking. I love tinkering around in the garage of life, exploring the depths of this human experience, and trying to look for the hidden truths and solutions. I also love the DIY ethic, because as far as I’m concerned. . .

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Contrary to the smack-talking I’ve done about numbered list posts, I recently wrote one for Zen Habits.  It’s called Living the Prolific Life: A How-to Guide.  Haters should note that the article follows several of the rules delineated here.

That’s announcement #1.  Here are 4 more:

1. Kelly Rigby over at She-Power.com recently interviewed me.  The questions were thought-provoking, and a couple were difficult (I dodged at least one of them).  Anyway, Kelly’s one of my favorite blogger’s and I’d definitely recommend checking her out.
2. After reading The Alternative Productivity Manifesto, a good friend recommended that I submit it to ChangeThis.com.  A little investigation left me feeling very impressed with CT, and I ended up taking her advice.  If you enjoyed the Alt. Productivity Manifesto I’d be grateful for your vote (no login required).
3. This post has resulted in far more phone calls than I expected and I’m really sorry if I haven’t gotten back to you yet.  I’ll be returning all calls by the end of next week.
4. I’ve been compiling responses to two questions: (1) "what is productivity to you?" and (2) "what isn’t productivity."  Please email me at TheGrowingLife [at] Gmail [dot] Com (or post your thoughts in the comments) if you’d like to chime in on the discussion. Note: If you’re a blogger, please be sure to send me your blog’s URL so I can link back to you after responses have been complied.

Hope to see you back here tomorrow (I’ll be posting this site’s first video Anti-Hack).

For more enthralling housekeeping posts, consider subscribing to The Growing Life.

I’m on vacation during the first part of this week (posts will resume on Thursday) and have used my free time to talk to some of you.  Read the rest of this entry »

First off, you must start with a quotation. Preferably by an Asian spiritual leader (quoting Lao Tzu, Confucius, or the Buddha works, but don’t quote Jesus). The quotation really doesn’t have to relate to the article or the picture at all. It just has to make you feel good. And quotes by people with obscure names are a good thing.
-Sun Zhongmou Liu Yuanzhi Xu Shu

The perfect productivity article should start with a picture of a person jumping. Pictures of beaches, sunsets, or children also do the job, but a picture of someone jumping really is best. It really doesn’t matter whether the picture relates to the topic, so long as it’s a really cool picture of someone jumping. Then you can proceed with the introduction.

The introduction shouldn’t be very long. Its real purpose is to make you look like a writer instead of a glorified list maker. Because if you don’t have an introduction, then you’d just have a list of tips and that wouldn’t look very good.  Or literary.

Bear in mind that a lot of people aren’t going to read past the second paragraph of your introduction. They’re just going to skip to the list, which is the most important part of the article. So without further ado, here are 70 simple power tao secret hacks to writing the perfect productivity article, plus a guide & system for doing it:

1. Call Your Article a Guide or System

No matter what the content or article length, make sure that you call your article a guide. Or a system. Your piece might only be 500 words, but that’s OK. Remember, people want to read guides and systems.

2. Make a Numbered List

Making a list is the most essential element of a productivity or self-help article because there are few things as compelling, sexy, motivating, and exciting as a list. So make sure you have one. The reason you want to have a list is because it allows you to number things. Also, it’s easier to make 70 points poorly that to make one point very well. Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes too much productivity can turn you into a real tool.  We’ve scooped these 5 winners from the productivity loony bin to provide our own self-development lesson about d-baggery and what-not-to-do. . .

Nutjob Type #1: Mr. Space Man

People always ask the same questions about these types: “is all that technology really making them more productive?”  The answer, of course, is obvious:

Of course they’re more productive than you. They’re freaking cyborgs!!

Anyway, we know Mr. Space Man all too well.  He’s got $10,000 worth of gadgets in his fanny pack (not to mention, space ice cream), and can’t stop futzing around with his stylus.  He speaks flawless Klingon and has most definitely been assimilated.

If you approach him with a productivity problem, the solution will likely come from a recent issue of Pen Computing Magazine and it will probably require you to install another program on your PDA.

How to Identify Him

You’ll know this guy because his cordless headset NEVER comes off. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Pete Woodhead

The Growing Life’s biggest milestone didn’t come when I started receiving 50+ new subscribers daily.  It didn’t come when yesterday’s article hit Digg’s front page (thanks to John for the sub), or when Leo Babuta accepted my guest post.  The biggest milestone wasn’t crossed when Copyblogger hit publish on my stuff, or when I made the Zen Habits TumbleLog (although I was, and still am, very grateful for the link).  It didn’t even come when when Alltop added me to their top 15 lifehack websites (that was the second biggest milestone).

No.  The biggest milestone occurred after I wrote Quitting Things and Flakiness.  It’s a long, rambling article, and I was sure it’d piss people off and die on Stumble Upon.  The article did piss a few people off, but it also received more comments than any other post on TGL (StumbleUpon ate it up, by the way).  After publishing Quitting Things, my subscriber count increased more than it ever had (at that point) in a single day.

Quitting Things and Flakiness was a milestone because it was the first article written for myself and to myself.  It helped me find the beginnings of my voice, and the response to it confirmed that I could write to the beat of my own drummer without losing readership.

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