The object isn’t to be perfect. The goal isn’t to hold back until you’ve created something beyond reproach. I believe the opposite is true. Our birthright is to fail and to fail often, but to fail in search of something bigger than we can imagine. To do anything else is to waste it all.

Full Post: Is it worthy?

The post Fail In Search Of Something Bigger appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

Taking a first person perspective of someone else’s perspective can be both good and bad. It’s good that you can step inside another person’s experience, an ability that can foster compassion and empathy. But it can be bad when you don’t differentiate between the two perspectives, yours and the other’s, resulting in an almost narcissistic view of the world.

“I Can Do That” Syndrome also shows up when someone has “book smarts” but no actual experience. When you’ve read a great book about how to write lyrics and you think the work has been done.

This applies to more than just music too. A business person reads a book about copywriting and thinks, “I can write a sales letter and make a million bucks.” But great copywriters study a long time and do something else that business person hasn’t done yet, they write… A LOT.

Great songs are written by songwriters who have written lots of songs. Great voices come from people who sing all the time. Timeless symphonies are composed by musicians who have written a lot more than one symphony.

It’s a trick of the mind to experience something remarkable and believe that we too can do that. It happens to me all the time. “I could write a funny TV show. I could direct a blockbuster movie. I could cook this restaurant meal.”

Well, maybe I could. But not the first time. Probably not the second either. It may take longer than I have patience for.

The point of the story? There’s something to be said for people who specialize—who find something they love and stick to it, gaining the wisdom only time can bring.

Maybe you could sing, dance, compose, direct, paint, cook, be a successful serial entrepreneur, get washboard abs, play in the NBA, design a hot line of clothes, write a novel, run for office, raise a happy family, be a great spouse, start a non-profit, end world hunger…

But the hardest thing to do is to commit to one thing and stick with it until the very end.

The post “I Can Do That” Syndrome appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

While I’m clearing things up, I used the word “expert.” The research supports the correlation between practice and expertise. Just saying.

If you “get” that spending lots of time practicing your craft is a good thing, then good for you. You’ll be happy with what I have to show you. If you don’t get it, then it can only be for three reasons that I can think of right now…

1. You’re resistant to, or afraid of, committing to your craft. If so, that’s a valid feeling and you’re not alone.
2. You’re lazy — unwilling to work or use energy — and have deluded yourself into believing that you don’t need to work at developing and mastering your chosen craft. This too is totally common and nothing to be ashamed of.
3. You just don’t want to be told what to do. If this is the case, maybe the timing just isn’t right for you. Maybe you shouldn’t commit just yet. I’m sure you have your reasons.

If any of those points describe you, heck, even if they don’t, read The War of Art. Maybe that will inspire you to break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles.

Enough said. Moving on.

Rescue Time is a free application (Mac,Win,Linux) that has become very important to my weekly GTD review. It’s helping me put some metrics to my writing goals.

Rescue Time tracks your activity at your computer. If you’re working, it logs it. If you’re slacking off, it logs it.

It uses application, category, and tag based tracking. This means you can track how you’re spending your time by the application, the tag you give to your applications and websites you visit, and by category.

You really start to understand your computer habits fast when you see the results of your time in a pretty bar graph. It can feel intimate. This is your life you’re looking at!

Here’s an example. Logic Pro is my main compositional tool. Within Rescue Time’s interface, it’s listed under the Audio/Video Tools category. I’ve also tagged Logic Pro with the keywords, composing, audio, work, mixing, music, recording, and creative.

When I look at Rescue Time’s data, I can see how much time I’ve spent using Logic Pro, or how much time I’ve spent in the Audio/Video Tools category, or how much time I’ve spent composing.

When you see how much time you’ve spent at something relative to something else — like composing vs. surfing the internet — you really get much needed perspective on how your actions line up with your goals.

So I’ve set up a goal to compose at least one hour a day. Every time I reach my goal, that is, when I’ve used Logic Pro an hour or more, Rescue Time sends me an alert.

I’ve even set up some negative goals. I’d like to spend less than an hour on Twitter each day. (a goal I’ve met ever since I started it, knock on wood.) If I were to go over my alloted time, Rescue Time would either email me or text message me, depending on how I set it up.

As you can see, if you would like to reach an hourly songwriting goal, tag the applications that you use to write songs and set it up in Rescue Time. It’s simple.

Back to the expert practice advice.

To reach 5,000 logged hours of songwriting, starting now (June 2, 2008) at 10 hours a week, you’ll get there on Thursday, December 28, 2017.

Looks like I’d better get back to writing now.

The post How To Rescue Your Time And Get Your Life Back appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

For example, iCal alarms can remind you of an event minutes, hours, or days before it occurs, but it won’t count down to a goal with date-based math. Say you’re trying to lose 10 pounds by the first of June. No calendar application that I know of will tell you that you have 49 days to reach 170 pounds. This is where Remind rules.

Here’s how I have my system set up. Remind pulls all of my custom reminders from a few text files. It outputs them to my desktop using Geek Tool. I have a couple scripts that convert my iCal events to Remind format and Remind events to iCal. This way everything is synced up. I get Remind events in iCal and on my iPhone and I get iCal events on my desktop with Geek Tool. Using Spanning Sync, I can publish all of my iCal and Remind events to Google Calendar for sharing with family or colleagues. And if you don’t want to pay for Spanning Sync, you can publish your iCal to .Mac and then subscribe to it with Google Calendar. It’s not two-way syncing, but it works.

The final trick is to use Quicksilver to get reminders into Remind fast. For this, I have a simple Quicksilver action that appends my Remind text file.

I use Remind to help me finish songs, save money, remember birthdays, take the garbage out, and just about everything. Where it shines the most is in events that can benefit from date-based math, like I mentioned above. Everything you need to get started is on my wiki.

The post GTD: Integrating Remind, iCal, GCal, Quicksilver appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

I’ve been responding to the idea of attraction put out by the less than scientific Secret folks and found a really cool spin on it by the more practical Coachville community. I’ve abridged the principles and expanded the message.

Ten Principles To The Zen Of Attraction

1. Promise Nothing
   Just do what you most enjoy doing.
   Hidden benefit: You will always over-deliver.
2. Offer Nothing
   Just share what you have with those who express an interest in it.
   Hidden benefit: Takes the pressure off of wanting other people to see you as valuable or important.
3. Expect Nothing
   Just enjoy what you already have. It’s plenty.
   Hidden benefit: You will realize how complete your life is already.
4. Need Nothing
   Just build up your reserves and your needs will disappear.
   Hidden benefit: You boundaries will be extended and filled with space.
5. Create Nothing
   Just respond well to what comes to you.
   Hidden benefit: Openness.
6. Hype Nothing
   Just let quality sell by itself.
   Hidden benefit: Trustability.
7. Plan Nothing
   Just take the path of least resistance.
   Hidden benefit: Achievement will become effortless.
8. Learn Nothing
   Just let your body absorb it all on your behalf.
   Hidden benefit: You will become more receptive to what you need to know in the moment.
9. Become No One
   Just be more of yourself.
   Hidden benefit: Authenticity.
10. Change Nothing
    Just tell the truth and things will change by themselves.
    Hidden benefit: Acceptance.

The post The Zen Of Attraction appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

Since I’ve been catching myself updating both Facebook and Twitter separately, I figured I should revisit my workflow and see if I can tweak my current level of automation.

It wasn’t difficult. I just added a couple lines of code to iQuickTwitter and now I can update Twitter, Facebook, iChat, and Skype with a single command. If you dig it, be my friend and let me know.
Graham English @ Facebook
Graham English @ Twitter

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

If all you want is to update Facebook with Quicksilver, try this:
Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

If you try to please everyone, somebody is not going to like it.

The post Update Twitter, Facebook, iChat, Adium, And Skype With Quicksilver appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

I’ve used this technique constantly in my creative pursuits. Whether it be composing, arranging, or songwriting, the Oblique Strategies have helped to keep me in a state of creative flow.

I wanted to create a mobile version since I find myself sans computer a lot now that I have my iPhone. This online version of the Oblique Strategies will work on any browser even though it’s optimized for iPhone.

Check it out and bookmark it if you like it: Oblique Strategies

The post Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies For Your iPhone appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

Follow MacZealots’ tutorial on Installing WordPress on Tiger. If you have any trouble along the way, you might need to check out Mac OS X Server 10.4.4: Improvements to Apache/PHP/MySQL interaction. Now you’ve got a local install of WordPress that you can dress up.

Now you’ll want to save this applescript as a ‘Stay Open’ application and set your options. If you want Growl support to work, you’ll either need to save it with the name “WordPress Journal” or modify the Growl tell in the script. I have it set to ask me what I’m doing every 15 minutes during regular work hours and every 30 minutes thereafter.

There may be times when you don’t want to use the automatic functions but you would still like to send something to your journal. For this, I’ve also created a Quicksilver action. Save this applescript in your Quicksilver actions folder. Again, if you want Growl support, save it with the name “WordPress Blog” or modify the Growl tell in the script. Now all you do is call Quicksilver, enter text mode and type your journal entry, tab over and type as much of “WordPress Blog” as you need, and hit Return.

Of course, you could use a remote version of WordPress if you don’t like the idea of installing it locally. But for privacy, it’s probably best to keep it on your own machine.

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.
— Charlie McCarthy

The post My New Method Of Automated Journaling appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

I’ve recently started using TextMate’s GTDAlt bundle for a number of reasons. While I’ve loved using Kinkless, I spend more time in TextMate. Using GTDAlt gives me the opportunity to really master this app. And GTDAlt imports Kinkless files so there’s no downtime. Plus, I’ve never really liked how I had to have OmniOutliner open to send things to my inbox. So while I patiently wait to give OmniFocus a try, I’m going to spend some time romancing TextMate.

This simple AppleScript takes the text I type and appends it to my GTD inbox. It also gives me a Growl notification when my inbox is appended. To use, you only need to change the path to the text file of your choice.

Click here to open the script in Script Editor.

There’s nothing remarkable about it. All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself.
— J.S. Bach

The post Append To Inbox Quicksilver Action appeared first on Graham English Blog Archives.

And I can say the same with AppleScript. Anything I do repeatedly, I see if I can script it. And when I combine AppleScript with Quicksilver… I feel like I can save the cheerleader and save the world.

So right now I’m blogging this from Quicksilver using Applescript. I can even set categories now. With an auto excerpt plugin and the use of embedded tags, I’m all set.

I’m not giving up TextMate as my blog editor. Not even close. But it’s nice to have even less my blogging be even more frictionless.

I’ll be dreaming code tonight.

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