How to concentrate
Oh, hi friends!
If, like me, you're having a hard time concentrating this week, can I make a suggestion?
15 minutes.
Set a timer for 15 minutes and do one thing.
Not four things at once.
One thing.
Deliberate focus leads to results. Or that’s the idea!
And if that little sprint goes well, set it again.
It's not particularly clever, but that’s where I’ll be today. Pressing a little button and forging through, 15 minutes at a time.
Oh, look! A charming, beautiful book created by one of my talented friends! Happy day! Alex Jeffries is a master of creative projects and he’s publishing Monstrous Me, his first rhyming illustrated book about the monsters inside all of us. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll relate to so many that you'll keep crying.
Please head to his Kickstarter to support him and pick up a copy (or two!) of this clever and insightful book.
Eager To Burst His Own Bubble, A Techie Made Apps To Randomize His Life
In San Francisco, the life Max Hawkins lived was arguably perfect. He was employed by Google, surrounded by friends and had his routine nailed down. He woke to artisanal coffee, biked to work along the beautiful Embarcadero waterfront roadway, lunched on Google's famed free food ("like four different kinds of kale" level) and — possibly the true mark of a successful millennial — got invited to many happy hours. But something was missing. Sometimes Max would lay awake at night pondering what felt so ... wrong.
"I just started thinking about these loops that we get into," he says. "And about how the structure of your life ... completely determines what happens in it.” …
This is Kara, breaking in to say: SO THIS GUY CREATED APPS THAT COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED HIS LIFE. Uber would drop him off at a mystery location. Facebook would send him to strangers’ events.
He knew if he told himself to simply “expand his world” he wouldn’t actually change much. Randomization forced his hand and eliminated decision-making. Read this story or listen to the Invisibilia episode. Obsessed with this idea!!! Would you do it? (h/t Emily Chang)
Thank you for reading.
Love, Kara