Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

bearwithclaws


The Pursuit of Kōan

Barefoot Running

Like many others who read Born to Run, I started running barefoot. 

After many unsuccessful attempt to get my own Vibram Five Fingers, I got myself a pair of Lunas instead.

I felt good in my first two run. Since there is no cushioning (only a 
6mm Vibram neoprene sole), you simply couldn't heel strike. I got into forefoot strike naturally (I tried to get myself into midfoot strike but somehow failed). I've also kept trying to increase my cadence and decrease my stride length.  And for a moment, I felt like flying.

Looking forward to run every morning and the Standard Chartered KL Marathon next month. 

Productivity Hacks Revisit

It's been awhile since I've written about productivity. Here's what I've learned since then.

  • The best and simplest productivity advice I came across: One thing at a time. Most important thing first. Start now.
  • Don't plan too much ahead. I found out that if I planned thru my days of what tasks needed to be done at what time, I normally didn't follow thru (not sure why). The best way is to simply define 2-3 most important things at the start of the day. And that's it.
  • Structured Procrastination works. When you don't feel like working on one thing, then work on another thing (rather than taking break or dozing off).
  • Take real breaks. It's really easy to do half-hearted breaks, like random surfing, or reading tweets. It's important to rejuvenate your energy in breaks (that's what breaks are for). Go for a walk, run, bike, hike, meditate, yoga, workout. Outdoor works best (with no computer/internet in sight).
  • Get a co-working buddy. Especially someone who understands and respects your flow and productivity. 
  • Eat real and good food. VERY important - especially breakfast. It provides the energy throughout the day and helps you keep going.

Vanilla Cart and UnderCon, now on GitHub

There's been a constant flood of email to me asking for the two free themes I've released earlier - Vanilla Cart and UnderCon. The themes used to be in Shopping Themes, which I sold last year. And currently, it's no longer there.

So today, I'm putting them on GitHub where anyone can download it, or better fork it and make it your own version:

(download)

Simple Productivity Hack

July will be hands down my busiest month ever. And thanks to that, I have discovered this simple productivity hack and been using it consistently to get a lot of things done:

1. Allocate a time slot for yourself, within 1 - 2 hours. 

2. Make it clear that within this period of time, you will do absolutely nothing but the single task (which would be your most important task) in your mind. That means no phone calls (keep the phone someplace else), no Twitter, no wiki surfing, no Hacker News and no email, etc.

3. Do that single most important task. If you think it would take longer than 2 hours, break it into several parts where one part could be done in a single time slot.

4. Once finished, take a mini break to refresh your mind: take a shower, have a tea/coffee, workout, read some magazine or have a snack, etc; if you are still going strong (or, 'in the flow), keep going.

5. Rinse and repeat.

Using this method, I could easily get a productive 10-12 hours from a normal work day. Even when I'm travelling, I could still get some real work done. If you are one of the rare and smart readers of this blog, try it and let me know how that works out for you (or let me know if you have a better way).

Super Tiny Frog

I went to D.R Park today on an impromptu trip to Ipoh. 

When I was strolling at its Japan Garden, I noticed something as big as a fly jumping from grass to grass. I took a closer look and found out - it's a frog, as big as the size of a fly!

Anyway, these are the photo I took using my really crappy camera (ixus 50) on Digital Macro mode. I especially like the one when it posed and hugged on the tiny japanese grass.

(download)

It's ok to be crappy

I attended #barcampsg5 last week. 

It was great fun. I met a lot of great people. It was also my first time to Singapore, our nearest neighbor country, which was a truly eye-opening experience. It's amazing how clean and organized a country can be.

Anyway, back to BarCamp Singapore - I delivered absolutely the crappiest presentation in my whole life.

Thankfully (for the audience as well), it was only a 5 minutes lightning talk. I wasn't prepared. My hands were shaking, and then I realized I haven't speak in front of audience for a very very long time.

Incidentally, the presentation was about 'being crappy'.

My lightning talk presentation

I started the presentation with a controversial quote: "Specialization is for insects", then I went on explaining how one person can be a dreamer, coder, designer and marketer at the same time. Here's a quick summary:

Becoming a dreamer
Realize that nothing is impossible and don't put a limit on your imagination. Take a notepad with you all the time to jot down whenever ideas pop up.

Becoming a marketer
It's the experiments that matters. If one method doesn't work, try another; if the method works well, also try another, then compare and optimize. I also shared about a real life marketing case study on WPWebHost.

Becoming a designer
Focus on simplicity. Look for inspiration (Web Creme is a good place). I also talked about the idea of 'Learning by Profitting', supported by my experience when I built ShoppingThemes.

Becoming a coder
Use frameworks. Blueprint CSS for CSS. Ruby on Rails for web apps. Adopt TDD (Test Driven Development) to build your app. 

Conclusion
I concluded with the quote "Being crappy is not the reason not to do it.". I admitted that despite I'm both a crappy designer and coder (and a crappy speaker, at this point), I still do it for the sake of curiosity, learning and having fun.

BarCamp KL next?

The next BarCamp will be happening in KL on 24-25 April 2010. And yes, I will be there! (and hopefully my presentation gets better)