🔬 Life Experiment 9, 2021

Hey There.

I did some simple woodwork again:

The desk for the workshop part of the studio is coming along. Now I have to fix the desk into the wall and hang up all the tools and hardware.

(More on what happened on the personal brand side and studio in the next issue of the newsletter. The report is almost ready but not yet polished.)

Building skill

I completely forgot how much I enjoy sketching out pieces of "furniture", getting the raw material and combining everything into a finished piece.

I'm no carpenter, but I really like the process and skills I get to use when I build physical things—a nice change compared to staring at the PC all day.

This carpentry isn't my first attempt. Readers that have followed my work since 2019 will be familiar with my attempts off building a custom wordrobe that can be disassembled and moved.

Even though I enjoy working on physical objects and pieces for my environment, this work is yet another thing I do. One of the thousand things I do.

I guess if I asked most of you how to build a simple wardrobe or a desk, you might struggle a little but figure it out eventually.

Sure, it's really nice to have the basic skill set needed to build a desk. Or a skill set to make some semi-professional photos, web pages, phone apps, blog posts, social media campaigns, analysis reports, drawings, ...

There's a term for people like that:

Jack of all trades master of none.

I'm not entirely sure that I fit this category. Still, I have the predispositions to fall into it sooner or later. Of all the labels we covered in the Who am I? series , I'm not really fond of this one.

So. What to do? What to do?

I wrote and then wrote some more—every day for the past week.

My writing was primarily focused on the Thinking through writing guide. Then I realised that I could use some of my own advice to think through a problem and find some clarity.

Analysis

Trough writing, I realised that I need to:

Focus. Don't over plan.

You see, all the planning in the world can't make it up for the lack of focus.

I concluded that I have this little issue, called the focus.

I'm willing to bet that I'm no the only person in the world that struggles with focus.

Focus

I've been trying to tackle focus in the past, but not as brutally as this time.

More on focus in the thread hear .

Lately, I've been struggling with the second one, the long term focus. Working on something for a few hours, no problem. Ask any of my close friends or family, and they'll tell you that I'm impossible to reach.

Working on something for weeks, that's a no go. Yes, I'll jump from one thing to another. Several times a week.

Okay, maybe I occasionally make an exception if a significant deadline is coming up like exams did at Uni. If there's no urgent big hairy goal around the corner, forget it. No, my long term focus is on a photo safari.

Shiny new projects

Before I finish a current project, I open a new exciting one. Why? No clue.

I've been doing this over and over again for years. Not to mention that this approach had bitten me pretty hard in my ass in the past.

But for whatever reason, I haven't learned my lesson yet. So if I would have to identify my biggest struggle or obstacle at the moment, it is this:

I have an issue working on one thing from start to finish for an extended amount of time.

Well, to be precise, I've had this issue for years. I was just to blind to realise it till now.

I have no issue working a lot either for my research work or for the freedom business. But I have a massive problem of working on one thing for a longer period.

The funny thing is that when we are younger, we lack options, opportunities to pursue.

Life possibilities

We are building our options and have to work super hard to get even the tiniest chance. Then at some point, the equation flips. You get an abundance of possibilities—one after another.

You either say no consistently or burn out.

I've learned to say no to others but saying no to myself; that's what I still struggle with—every day.

In the future, I'll slightly adjust the Weekly Experiment topic. I'm not going to share all of the experiments that I do weekly but just the ones about focus, clarity and writing.

Maybe we'll be back to everything next week already 🙂 Who knows what sort of focus jump will happen.

I'm still on my focus journey. What about you? If you haven't figured it all out, read on. Otherwise, share some wise advice with me.

🔬 Weekly experiment 8, 2021

I think there is a way to achieve long term focus. Some people have figured out how to stay focused on a specific goal for an extended period.

Let's see what you can try out.How many things are you working on at once? One, two, three? Or more like fourth to fifty 😉

• Are you strategic about your work? Or you just work?
• Are you taking systematic notes? What do they reveal? Can you find some clarity in them? Can you identify where you lack focus?

Things to do:

• Find a spot in the sun where you can read, write and reflect each morning/day.
• Do a 28-day writing challenge. Or 30-day Atomic essays (250-word pieces). Why? Daily writing will accelerate your thinking process. If you pick a specific topic, you'll get even further.
• Use writing to figure out what to focus on. Write all the stuff you have to do. Then think and write down what's the point of the work you are doing. Are the tasks you identified actually getting you towards the end goal? If not, how can you adjust the course?

There's another excellent side effect of regular writing and focusing on focus 🙂

The regular reflection and adjustment through writing helps you make many connections that you normally wouldn't. So writing isn't just about writing, but it serves as:

• 1.) The tool we use to capture ideas.
• 2.) The tool we use to distil and polish ideas.
• 3.) The tool we use to sharpen the message we want to send.
• 4.) The tool we use to write the text that lasts.

Writing might be a craft, but it could also be the most powerful thinking tool you use to deal with big harry complex problems.

All this focus talk doesn't mean I'll stop expanding my knowledge, learning new things, meeting new people.

Reading material

No extra reading material this week. Don't want to jam you up with too many links this week. Plus, this newsletter is a bit longer 🙂

Don't forget to experiment and cheers till the following experiment.

Ziga

P.S. Sharing is caring, so forward this newsletter to at least two friends. The friend who subscribes to the newsletter after you forwarded it to them has to send you a bag of gummy bears in return. Plus, send pics, or it didn't happen. 😉