Denny Chapin’s Blog

Photo by Knokton

I just wrote a post about my major time-wasters. Mainly the interweb. My how you take my life from me, you shiny information devil.

This post address the flip side of the battle, doing the 20% of things with your time that produce 80% of your happiness and feeling of productivity.

Obviously you want to diminish the time-wasters, the lazy-makers, and focus on the activities that create that feeling of effective, goal centered, production.

Most of the list features creative activities. Here we go:

1. Bike. Specifically, to Seattle. Explore. Be her student. Learn her curves. Hit farmers markets for food.
2. Write. A blog post. Journal. Scribble words. Review notes, expand. Just use the pen to explore ideas.
3. Read. A balance of non-fiction, fiction, and philosophy. Philosophy with a cup of yerba mate. Non-fiction for inspiration and learning purposes (specifically-non profit companies), and fiction for the story, the style, the writing. Read before falling asleep.
4. Take photos. Explore angles, lenses, exposures. Ask a stranger to be a subject. Take some risks, see what happens. Upload them online.
5. Cook. This usually requires a trip to the grocery store. Try new foods.
6. Exercise. - Basketball. Ultimate Frisbee. Tennis. Cycling. Run with the dogs.
7. Muay Thai classes.
8. Photography classes.
9. Thai Chi in the park in China Town.
10. Go have dim sum with friends for lunch.
11. Meet people from meetup.com and couchsurfing.com
12. Organize events, parties, barbecues, and get togethers. Invite new friends and old friends. Integrate.
13. Take a family member out to coffee. No reason other than to talk. Enjoy their company. Listen.
14. Make contact with another blogger. Do an interview.
15. Work on website projects. Create new video content. Write articles.
16. Go shopping at Good Will. You never know when the golden nuggets show up.
17. Rent and watch a quality film. Never a waste of time. Always a good conversation thread.
18. Walk and talk. Approach strangers, find out their favorite places, see if they have facebook, possibly become friends.
19. Find mentors. Specifically about film production companies, non for profit companies, and cinematographers. Ask for book recommendations. Read the books, let them know your thoughts.
20. Post and sell old stuff on eBay. Always better to have less material items and the extra few bucks is an enjoyable evening with a friend.
21. Find and buy tickets to local shows. Yay for finally being 21 in Seattle where I can actually see local music.
22. Create posters and advertise websites (including this one).
23. Post up street art about philosophy (currently in the brainstorming phase).
24. Learn more about health and fitness. I don’t care what people say, I love wikipedia.
25. Meditate. Incrementally add more time to the process. Do this in the morning and during high stress points.
26. Hit golf balls. I find this to be a physical meditation. Driving range therapy. I really love it.
27. Play with the dogs. Even if they make me sneeze.
28. Make prints of photos. Make lots of copies. Send them to friends. Post them on the walls.
29. Modify the bike. Add small things, designs, etcetera.
30. Sleep six hours. Learned this from Martin in Berlin. Even though you’re tired when you wake up, you eliminate that laziness throughout the day. 10 minute powernaps to supplement.
31. Bike to the book store. I collect old editions of Hemingway novels and story collections.
32. Take out the video camera and collect footage. When bored with a friend, film a short. Make it under 2 minutes.
33. Watch and learn how to use Final Cut Pro. Watch friends edit. Play around. Re-edit the same footage each day for a week.
34. Contact locals bands through MySpace about filming music videos.
35. Strength training twice a week. Following this work out plan supported by this research.
36. Lay down outside and do nothing but think–no music. This is better than wasting mindless energy on the interweb.
37. Go swimming. Lake Washington is oh so close.
38. Skateboard.  I’ve had enough dreams of me skateboarding in the last two months to seriously take up this “extreme sport” again.
39. Check this list for activities to do.

Tags: Goals, wasting time, what to do

Photo by Knokton

When I’m not in go-mode, when I haven’t thrown myself into new situations, new challenges, I tend to do the same stupid, time wasting things over and over again. These things make me lazy, allow me to procrastinate, and generally make me feel like shit once the day is over.

No good.

What are the 20% of things you do that waste 80% of your time? Write them down. Slap yourself when they happen. And read below to see how I plan on combating them.

Here’s my personal list of what NOT to do. Thanks Tim Ferriss.

1. Useless internet crap - this means surfing the same websites over and over. Mainly a few forums I enjoy reading and some blogs.
2. Facebook. Yuck. Don’t need to check this other day let alone every four hours.
3. Gmail. Google I love you, but having the google toolbar that tells me when I get a new email is bad.
4. Making drinks. I spend a lot of time in between doing activities making coffee and tea. I like both, although I know I need to cut off the coffee after 11am. Instead I need to make a big batch of the stuff and keep it somewhere close.
5. Wandering around the apartment/house/flat. I know this is strange but I tend to sort of just get up, walk around, and then sit back down. I don’t really know how to explain this. It’s dumb.
6. Repeat #1, I use the internet for no reason whatsoever. Not to do work. Not to write. No reason. And no more.

How do I plan on preventing myself from continuing these useless time-wasting habits?

Replacing them with a What TO DO list. Basically signing myself up for a very active lifestyle. Shying away from these time-wasters that make me lazy and passive and instead throwing myself into proactivity.

That’s next.

Tags: Productivity, time-wasting, what not to do