Cleaning Up, Learning Things, New Month, and Killing Projects
KW 09 March 2018
Please make sure to open this email. I will soon remove everybody who hasn’t opened at least one of the last 5 emails from me
I hope you are doing great. It’s the first week of March. Can you believe that that’s already two months done of 2018? I hope you are on track with your goals. I kinda am, but more on that in the goals report.
A lot is going on this week. Specifically, I would like to let you know that I am going to remove a bunch of subscribers from my email list soon. It’s not really helpful to send emails to people who aren’t even opening them, so I am going to remove everybody who hasn’t opened at least one of my last 5 emails. Obviously, you are reading this, so you should not be affected by this and receive my weekly emails as per usual. If, however, you don’t receive a new email in the next 2 weeks from now, please let me know or enter your details again on the newsletter page.
And while I am talking about a culling. That’s also what I have been doing with some projects of mine. I spread myself too thin. More on that in the What I am Doing section.
If you have any interesting articles for me or tools that I might be interested in, please reply to this email and tell me about it. It’s always exciting to see some new stuff come up.
But now, let’s dive into the 4 bullets:
What I am reading: What We Should Have Learned in School But Never Did by Srinivas Rao
It’s not that long ago that I left the school system. I was frustrated at the time, and I am not really looking forward to sending a kid into it at some point. There are so many things left out of the curriculum (personal development for example is something I think is much more important than many of the random knowledge), teachers that suck and still teach, and negative reinforcement were regular for me, and it was frustrating.
But all that aside, this article shows a few of the things that we should have learned but never did. It’s never to late to learn - we all know that we are living in a world where we have to be lifelong learners. So here you go…
The full Article on Medium [23 min read]
What I am doing: Killing Projects
Over the past 10 years, I have amassed a whole lot of project ideas. Some of them bigger, some smaller, many started, all stored, documented. But there is one huge problem with that:
Being spread too thin.
Often the fascination with a subject faded, the problem I was solving didn’t have importance for me anymore, and the people who started using the systems - well - they weren’t enough to make a profit of the projects. But I still had lots of todo items on my list to get them done, and published. This week, however, I had a realization:
It’s time to let go.
Many of the projects I started were started with partners, with topics in mind that I am not really motivated about. I have my passions, my direction, my focus. Those projects started to feel like they are a distraction. But they are close to my heart, I spent a lot of time building these products. I didn’t want to kill them. I wanted these babies to succeed. But, at the end of the day, I only have 24 hours.
So I actually took a day out of my schedule and started taking projects, websites, and domains offline. Took some screenshots to remind myself of what I had built. Deleted them from my server. And archived all the files to an external hard drive and online backup.
Minimalism = Freedom and Focus.
Now my focus is clear. I want to concentrate more on Consulting work for Clients and content creation for MakeItYour.LIFE, my YouTube Channel, and the Instagram Profile. It feels cleansing to get rid of all this old weight — even though it was hard to do.
Do you have something that’s holding you down? Online or in other parts of life? Maybe it’s time for some minimalism, a spring cleaning, or some refocusing? Let me know if you need help with that. Building a strategy and plan to know what to work on is what I do for work.
PS. PushNotice.chat and WriterSprints.com are two projects that outlived the culling. But they only exist and will most likely not see any further development.
What I published: My February 2018 Goals Report
Are you still on track with your goals? I sure flaked out on some. And on others, I am off to a good start. Growing every day, keeping track of my progress.
What I am listening: The Last Samurai: Original Motion Picture Score
Hans Zimmer is a master of his craft in movie scores. He has created incredible work. And The Last Samurai surely counts to those successes. The movie itself is one I remember very vividly. Inspiring overall. Over the past 7 days, I’ve listened to this album so many times I stopped counting.
My favorite track is Red Warrior! The first minute up to 1:18 is really calm. But then the screams of the Samurai start, and it gives me goosebumps. So good!
Do you have a favorite original soundtrack you keep listening to? Let me know in reply to this email.
Quotes of the Day:
“Anyone who relies solely on inspiration won’t go far. You can’t wait for your spirit to move — you have to move your spirit.”
Anthony Moore
When someone beats a rug, the blows are not against the rug, but against the dust in it.
Rumi
The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.