Morning rituals: baby steps

March 22, 2016 Leave a Comment

I just got back from SXSW in Austin, Texas. SXSW is a ten day technology, film, and music festival — a convergence of creativity and ideas (and late nights, parties, and networking). It’s a gruelling marathon for its participants and attendees. This was my seventh or eighth SXSW and I’m happy to say, also my best. Why? Because I maintained my morning ritual.

Every productivity blog talks about morning rituals. I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon and say, “Yay, morning rituals — do them!”. It’s not quite that easy. No matter what anyone tells you, like everything else that’s good for you and takes sacrifice, morning rituals require willpower and discipline. But as all of my gurus say: Your morning sets your day, which sets your week, which sets your year, which sets your life (or something like that).

During grad school, I waited tables at a restaurant famous for their breakfasts. I had to be at work by 6 AM. I’ve never been a morning person. In retrospect, it kind of amazes me that I got any tips at all. Friends would ponder my decision to work early mornings as I spilled coffee and grumped about. I’d never been one of those happy, smiling kids eating their Cheerios every morning. Getting up any earlier than absolutely necessary didn’t seem to be in my DNA. How did I turn into an early bird?

Part 1: Forming a habit

My morning ritual started off with a bet. I really wanted to keep a journal but for some reason couldn’t do it. I’m sure it goes back to someone reading my diary or something when I was eight. I couldn’t do it. Finally, I asked a workmate (yes, a workmate) to be my accountability partner. I set myself up in Stickk and set my non-compliance punishment (I would donate money to some right-wing fascist organization), and we were off! I wrote in my journal for ten minutes on my morning bus ride. When I got to work, Nicole looked at my journal to make sure there was some writing, and then she checked a box on Stikk. After a month, I was hooked, my habit had formed. Mission accomplished.

Do something every day for thirty days — even if you don’t want to.

Part 2: Getting up early

I’ve been trying to meditate off and on for many years. I’d taken classes, set aside time at work, and made a special little corner in my apartment. No luck. One day over coffee, my friend Weaver told me to get my ass out of bed fifteen minutes early and just to it!

When you’re blatantly challenged, as opposed to passive aggressively challenged, it’s hard to ignore. What’s fifteen minutes after all? So I got up fifteen minutes early and meditated for ten minutes. And then I found that I wanted to meditate longer, so I got up twenty minutes earlier. Turns out that if you take baby steps, it’s not that hard to get up a little early.

My morning routine these days is rock solid. I do it every weekday and a modified version while I’m on vacation. There are areas I need to work on (my weekend routine), but my mornings get me energized and centered for the rest of my day.

Start small and build the habit. Add to your routine incrementally until it’s second nature. You’re the only one who will know when you’ve nailed it.

Getting started in five easy steps:

Decide the one small thing that will really kick-start your day.
Determine how long it will take.
Set your alarm X + 5 minutes early (get X from #2 above and add five minutes).
Do it.
Repeat.

If you need it, get an accountability buddy (or use one of the thousands of tools out there). You can even try the Seinfeld technique.

My morning ritual and your morning ritual will be different. That’s okay. Morning rituals changes over time; that’s also okay. As with everything in life, there’s an ebb and flow to what will work and what won’t. That’s where you get to be creative. That’s what makes life interesting — we’re all different and we all respond differently.

Getting a Job

May 21, 2015 Leave a Comment

I’ve been taking a break — that’s not really true since I never really had a consistent writing schedule to start with. I’ve written many posts; just never published them. I have every writer’s (and wanna-be writer’s) bucketful of excuses. I’m going to give you the tl;dr version of where I’m at, set a public schedule for my writing, and then get on with it.

I’m in a unique position. I’ve been working with a technical writing team that wants me to join them. They know my skill level, and they know that I want to make this career change. It should be a done deal.

I work at an unusual (and highly regarded) company. They have checks and balances in place to ensure the integrity and quality of their workforce remains top notch. This means that I have to go through the complete hiring process before joining my new team.

The complete hiring process includes:

A writing portfolio
Four interviews
Letters of support from past and future managers
A review by a hiring committee

I’m waiting to be reviewed by the committee.

I’ve spent the last month putting together a portfolio and preparing for interviews. I finished my fourth interview this week. This was difficult. I am stuck in the proverbial chicken and egg situation — I need more technical writing experience to get the job where I’d get more technical writing experience. So here I am…

Since I’d rather be writing. Here’s my new blog schedule:

Film Friday: The first and third Friday of the month, I’ll publish something that excites me about — you guessed it, film. I’ll cross-post to Gypsy Cinema.
Tech-Writer Tuesday: The second and fourth Tuesday, I’ll publish new tidbits that I’ve learned or am learning about my new career in technical communication.
Sunday Staples: I needed an alliteration that’d give me a chance to fill in the blank. Every other Sunday, I’ll write about things that I’m interested in.

Six posts a month is pretty aggressive, but Chris Brogan says to set goals that are challenging yet still fit your mission. Goal set.

Now to do the work.

I Care about Your Opinion

March 25, 2015 Leave a Comment

Everyone I met in line at SXSW was a journalist. I know it just seemed that way. I wanted to write about the films I was watching, but was intimidated by all of the “professional” writers around me. I could hear them bantering about storyline and acting depth and… well, you get the picture.

It stifled my enthusiasm. Just an amateur with a small blog with a couple of readers. Waiting for the screening of Spy, I could hear the reporters behind me lamenting that they were going to miss Deathgasm because they needed to write up this film. They were snotty and annoying. I was happy when a retired parks designer from Sacramento sat down next to me. He really liked Love and Mercy — he thought that I’d like it too.

I really valued his opinion. I went to see Love and Mercy and left thinking it could very well be the best movie of the festival. I don’t know what the professional reviewers thought about the film. I cared what the guy sitting next to me thought of the film. We weren’t professionals, but we knew what films we liked. It was fun talking with him.

It’s how you relate to a film that matters. I like films that convey complex emotions and ideas — either the characters, the story, or the cinematography. I like beauty. I don’t have hands on experience making films or as a film critic. I do know what I like and that, it turns out, is important.

I really liked the film Manglehorn. Written by Paul Logan and David Gordon Green especially for Al Pacino. It starred Al Pacino and Holly Hunter. David Gordon Green directed a gentle movie about loss, acceptance, and moving on. Al Pacino gave a subtle and moving performance. Holly Hunter was vulnerable and bright, the film was a touching portrait of loss, acceptance, and moving on. I loved it.

The critics either loved or were indifferent about Manglehorn. If I had made my film viewing choice based upon Peter Debruge’s review in Variety rather than listening to the Austin couple standing next to me in line, I would have missed out on a subtle and beautiful film.

I’m the intended audience of the film. I’m the person who pays (or doesn’t) to see a movie. I love films with all their imperfections. There’s someone else like me, who might care about film the way I care about film. A person who wants to know if they should pay for this film or wait to stream it on Netflix. Someone like me.

“Everyone’s a critic”, the saying goes. I’d argue that the best thing is a “professional” film review is the historical and social context. I care about what you think

The only thing I care about in a “professional” film review is comparisons to other films and historical context. I love thinking about and comparing artists.

I care about what regular people think about films. In the end, the film is for you and your opinion is important. Go watch movies, write about movies, and talk about movies. They’re being made for you and the person standing in line next to you cares about what you think!

Sheri Shipe

Writer - Technologist - Optimist