I've been very distracted recently. Here are a few things that have kept me that way.
1. These two brilliant articles written by two brilliant writers: The Rise of the Camera Phone by Stuart Jeffries and Twitter and the Singularity by Jim Stogdill. They write about distraction and modern technology in a way I never could.
2. Twitter. The combination of my iPhone and twitter has distracted me from even such essential things as sleep. I'm not complaining though. Here are some of the people I follow and I recommend you following if you're interested in the same things I am: @BBHLabs @wearesocial @iboy @mashable @swissmiss @binkythedoormat @davebirss. There are many more right here on my home page: @formeandu. If you're not on Twitter you probably should be. It's distracting but it's great.
3. Evernote. This nifty site and app have helped me with my scatterbrain thoughts. In the digital world it saves everything interesting you see online to your own online scrapbook with the click of a button. On the iPhone I can take a snap of say a somewhat attractive tree in the real world, upload it to evernote with any info I want to include, such as "Oh what an attractive tree" and there it is waiting for me the next day. I especially like the Twitter feature they've included. If I can't read a tweet on my phone or in work when I'm meant to be working, I can send it to evernote and look at it another time.
4. Personal Projects. I made one resolution this year: DO MORE PERSONAL PROJECTS. (I wrote that in caps because I'm shouting at myself). I've realised that personal projects are a must. The clients aren't playing nice or my ideas are just bad, but either way my creative ego requires stroking. Ji Lee of Google creative labs made this inspiring presentation on how he shook the shackles of the ad world with a personal project. I watch it every now and again to stay motivated.
5. Books. Here are some great books I've read and am reading:
Made to Stick Why some Ideas Survive and Others Die
On Intelligence
Why Not?: How to Use Everday Ingenuity to Solve Problems Big and Small
Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity
2 comments:
if you ever want to feel lazy/inspired about #4 on your list, check out this "do something cool everyday" group on flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1012163@N22/
here's what another super talented person did:
http://www.itistheworldthatmadeyousmall.com/projects/msced/
Brilliant, thanks!
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