Reading time: About 4 minutes, 900 words
Get 7 for Sunday in your inbox. āĀ Subscribe here.
This issue isĀ https://7forsunday.com/1
October 09, 2022 ā #1 →
I’m triggered, now what? →
The more fun your work, the less likely it is to set off these triggers. You wonāt struggle to focusātasks will attract your attention because theyāll be far less tedious, frustrating, challenging, and so on. There are a lot of strategies for overcoming procrastination. But making a project more fun disables a bunch of procrastination triggers at once, while also making your work more enjoyable. Itās a great strategy.
~ Chris Bailey from, How to stop procrastinating by making your work more fun – Chris Bailey
slip:4uciho3.
Great little article from Bailey with great points about the really common things that trigger procrastination, and some ideas on how to beat each one. What’s been working for me for a while is something inspired by Yoda’s comment that, “named your fear must be, before banish it you can.” I can tell when I’m procrastinating; perhaps not always, but definitely often. At the point of realization, I play the nameāgame: “Craig, what exactly is it that you don’t want to do?” Then like the school guidance counselor always trying to talk me out of sabotaging myself into detention, “Are you sure that’s the thing? Be specific.” Upon realizing I’m still in their office, “I don’t think you’re as sure as you think you are. Can you explain it to me like I’m 5 years old?” Until eventually, it’s so blinding clear what I need to do (or skip, or change, or screw up 3 minutes of courage, or whatever) that I just freaking stomp that procrastination.
É
Endless anxieties →
When circumstances scare us, our imagination tends to take over, filling our minds with endless anxieties. You need to gain control of your imagination. A Focused mind has no room for anxiety or for the effects of an overactive imagination.
~ Robert Greene
slip:4a1024.
Go to sleep →
In the military they speak of sleep disciplineāmeaning itās something you have to be good at, you have to be conscious of, something you canāt let slip. We only have so much energy for our work, for our relationships, for ourselves. A smart person knows this and guards it carefully. A smart person knows that getting their 7-8 hours of sleep every night does not negatively affect their output, it contributes crucially to their best work.
~ Ryan Holiday from, Here’s Your Secret To Success: Go The F*ck To Sleep – RyanHoliday.net
slip:4urygo1.
Sleep. sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep. Sleep? Sleep!
Know that old trope about if you could go back and tell yourself something, or send yourself a letter? ā¦and most peopleāincluding me!āsay something like: No I wouldn’t because I’d not be who I am now without those mistakes! Yeah no ima take that back. Note to past self: Yo! Go the f*<k to sleep.
And maybeā¦ just sayin’ spitballin’ hereā¦ try gettin’ up early if you really want to jump back on whatever it is you think it’s worth staying up for tonightā¦ ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ what do I know.
É
Don’t cheat →
You only need that lesson once. That wasn’t the standard, and you know what the standard is. Hold the standard. Ask for help. Fix it. Do whatever’s necessary. But don’t cheat.
~ Chris Young
slip:4a1023.
Rediscovering movement →
Play is a big part of our lives as children, but why do we lose our playfulness as we age? I talk a lot about the emotional and physical aspects of play, especially regarding Positive Ageing and aspects of Parkour. So many people feel like play is out of reach as they approach midlife, even though itās an innate part of you.
~ Julie Angel from, Discovering the power of play in midlife. – Julie Angel PhD
slip:4ujudi1.
Angel doesn’t write often, but when she does it’s something nice like this. I just want to say that physical movement and play are inseparableāwithout the former, you’re not really doing the later.
Or, perhaps I just want to say two things; That first thing, and that Angel is the filmāmaker who created my favorite video to share when people ask me, “what is parkour?” Movement of Three.
Actually, I want to share three things: Those two things, and Julie if you’re reading: OMG the cannoli!
É
The way →
The way to true knowledge does not go through soft grass covered with flowers. To find it, a person must climb steep mountains.
~ John Ruskin
slip:4a1022.
Microstructures →
We are well aware that structures such as buildings and organizational policies and operating processes support and constrain our activities. We tend to be much less conscious of smaller structures that influence our interactions with other people. In contrast to more tangible macrostructures, we call them microstructures. You have no choice. Every time you have a conversation or a meeting you are using microstructures.
~ Keith McCandless from, Liberating Structures – Microstructures & Design Elements
slip:4ulide1.
Once you see the solutions, you can’t unsee them. Youālike meāprobably think you do a good job of engaging other people. But there’s a great explanation in this little introductory article. It listed off all the waysā¦ ways for which I was congratulating myself knowingā¦ in which the microstructures we use today fail. And then it goes on (in brief in the article and at length through that web site, and a book) to show some beautiful ways to create and use structures which liberate us. That’s rather nice.
É
You had me at “tree” →
āA tree is a little bit of the future,ā Wangari Maathai reflected as she set out to plant the million trees that won her the Nobel Peace Prize. But a tree is also an enchanted portal to the past ā a fractal reach beyond living memory, beyond our human histories, into the āsaeculumā of time.
~ Maria Popova from, How to Face the Years with Confidence: The Mystery of the Worldās Most Majestic Tree ā The Marginalian
slip:4utepe1.
I recently flew from Philadelphia to Seattle. At one point in the journey I gazed down at the Cascade Mountains from the miraculous perch of technology that is an airliner, staring silently at countless trees in countless valleys.
É
Ken Burns →
It seems absurd to ask, but who was Benjamin Franklin, really? The American founderās legacy is at once ubiquitous and somehow elusive. He was never president, nor a cabinet secretaryāheās not even name-checked in Hamilton. Surveying his various careers as a scientist, inventor, writer, publisher, and diplomat, one could be forgiven for not properly engaging with any of them. Call it the curse of the polymath.
~ Matthew Taub from, Ken Burns on His Obsession With Ben Franklin, and Admiration for Guy Fieri – Atlas Obscura
slip:4uaaai11.
The Curse of the Polymath sounds like a classic film. The sort with a 15āminute overture, and an actual intermission. I’ve not yet watched the whole film, but I’m definitely past the intermission.
É