Merlin Mann's tips for getting unstuck
Here are five great tips from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders on "getting unstuck" when you are procrastinating or don't know how to move forward.
Hack your way out of writer’s block - “Literally. Put five completley random words on a piece of paper. Write five more words. Try a sentence. Could be about anything. A block ends when you start making words on a page.”LinkSolve problems by writing a note to yourself - “Seriously, open up your email program, type in your own email address, then choose a brilliant subject line that perfectly encapsulates your particular problem.”
Do a fast “mind-sweep” - “And as long as you let that stuff accumulate as chunky deposits on the edges of your perception, it’s very unlikely it’ll get done since — well — they won’t get done until they’re been captured and properly started, right?”
Cringe-Busting your TODO list - “Per cringe item, think honestly about why you’re freaked out about it. Seriously. What’s the hang-up? (Fear of failure? Dreading bad news? Angry you’re already way overdue?)”
Patching your personal suck - “Every patch that fails teaches you a little something that might come in handy some day. Mistakes, as they say, can be a buddhist gift.”
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Good old Merlin, helpful advice while also being funny.
And if all else fails consult your Oblique Strategies.
Eno always knows best :
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rf6t-tyfk/oblique.html
Over 100 worthwhile dilemmas by Brian Eno & Peter Schmidt.
"There isn't a road you can go down that won't take a little tread off of your tires"
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Ha, these are great, and exactly what I need this weekend. The only one that raised an eyebrow though was:
"Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph. Limits create focus and change your perspective."
This is not sound advice and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!
Do you have such a list that applies to a software guy ? I need to make hundred of changes in a soft, but the very first one will break everything, so I'm not in too much of a mood to get started...
Dargaud@3 - I'm a dev myself, and have that exact same feeling at least once a year, more so when it looks like yak shaving. My un-insightful but entirely effective (for me at least) technique is to make a comprehensive list of changes and arrange them in to a partial ordering / dependency tree. After checking that everything is current in source control and I've created a new branch, start at the hardest of the leaf nodes.
whatever happened to lighting a doobie?