Sweet Shit Saturday #002 (Soaked To The Core Edition)

Fighting water, twitter/facebook hiatus, new 7 day trial, and sweet links …

Welcome to Sweet Shit Saturday #002, where we kick back and relax a bit. You and me, just chillin, hangin out. Cuppa tea maybe?

This past week was Songkran, celebration of Thai New Year. In Chiang Mai it’s essentially a 5 day water fight. On the one hand, this is awesome. On the other hand, if you just want to go get some food, it can be a challenge. :)

Speaking of food, the 2 veg restaurants by my apartment closed during the Festival, so I had to sneak around Ninja Gajda(n) style if I didn’t want to get soaked. It’s 100F/38C outside so it wasn’t really an issue because, for the most part, I did want to get soaked. :)

In other news: my 7 day no facebook/twitter trial went well. I didn’t get much more done than any other week, but it was Songkran, and who knows if I’ll ever be in Thailand for that again.

To be honest, after stepping away, I’m beginning to realize Facebook/Twitter are almost complete wastes of time. I was talking with a friend a few days ago who had a huge following on Twitter. ~25,000 followers. These were legit followers too since he wasn’t following many people. One day a month or so ago he up and deleted his account and he says it’s one of the best things he’s ever done.

Here’s the thing: Most of the bigger Twitter users (sometimes only bigger in their heads) ignore everybody (one-way communication; they don’t give a shit about you) and everybody else I connect with on twitter I probably already connect with outside of twitter in some way.

From here on out I’m going to drastically cut down on Twitter usage. I’ll login once or twice per day for 5 or 10 minutes, and see how that works. Most of that time will be spent replying to @KarolGajda public or direct messages and reading the first page of my twitter feed (20 Tweets). If you want to keep me busy for those 5 or 10 minutes I’m here: twitter.com/KarolGajda

I’m shutting out Facebook even more. I probably won’t login unless somebody sends me a message or in case I need to contact somebody and for some reason don’t have their e-mail/phone #.

My next 7 day trial, which is going to be my most difficult of all: cut down on checking e-mail. I’m going to timebox my e-mail twice/day. I think 20 minute timeboxes will be sufficient, and I will find out soon enough.

On to the sweet shit!

(all links open in a new tab/window)

15 Time Boxing Strategies To Get Things Done by Luciano Passuello

You know I wasn’t going to leave you hanging. This is a great article on timeboxing and if you’re looking to be a little more productive it’s worth a read.

Stuff and Happiness by Abhishek Mukherjee

“It is simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple.” Profound. If you liked that you’ll like the rest of the article.

Don’t Read This Blog If You Want To Be Ordinary by Everett Bogue

This was Everett’s own Finding Your Right People. Much like me, he discovered that his readership actually went UP after posting it. Funny, and awesome, how that stuff happens.

How To Turn Weaknesses Into Strengths by Srinivas Rao (on Jeffrey Tang’s ArtofGreatThings.com)

I’ve been doing an informal study for most of my adult life and I’ve found that 90% of entrepreneurial people are ADHD. Srini explains how to turn what you think are weaknesses (such as ADHD) into strengths.

Interview with Jeffrey Tang on BlogCastFM

Jeffrey (ArtOfGreatThings.com) and I did the inaugural A List Blogging Bootcamp (<– case study I wrote) together last August and since then both of our blogs have gone on to show nice signs of life. :) In this interview Jeffrey talks about too much good stuff for me to give a decent summary so you’ll just have to check out the greatness for yourself.

How To Add 10 Years To Your Life: The Do’s and Don’ts by The Daily Minder (top secret Mr X!)

I don’t know who The Daily Minder is. If I did I would shake his or her hand. This is a great article.

One Month Into My New Anywhere Lifestyle by John Bardos

I know exactly where John is coming from when he states: “I hate being in a constant state of movement and always rushing to the next destination.” I’ve already stated my feelings on that topic a few times so I won’t go into it again, but read this article for John’s take on it.

That’s it for this week. Comments/questions/wanna get married? You know what to do …

—-

P.S. My apologies to Ally Beal for calling her Abby on Twitter. It was my first timebox on twitter and I guess I was a little rushed. But no excuses. There is nothing worse than calling someone by a name that is not theirs. :)

20 thoughts on “Sweet Shit Saturday #002 (Soaked To The Core Edition)”

  1. I personally have to agree with you on the twitter thing, but there are people making it work, like @lkr, so there has to be something to it!

    But yeah, I’ve been using both twitter and facebook less and less, and loving it so far. Perhaps I may switch my priorities in the future, but, but ;)

    What kind of weapons were people using in the water fight? Water guns? Balloons?

    1. Thanks Henri. I’m not saying it’s not beneficial. It just hasn’t been particularly beneficial to me. Keeping it to 10 minutes/day will make it worth it for me. :)

      Weapons used: water guns, super soakers, backpack water tanks w/ pressure guns (the particular weapon I used), and buckets. Lots and lots of buckets!

  2. I’m never quite sure about Twitter. Lately I’ve been separating myself more from it and only hopping on at very specific times. It can be an enormous time sink.

    But, I wouldn’t be here if not for Twitter! Went to SXSW in March just to meet up with awesome people I met on Twitter.

    So it’s a tough call. For me the answer so far is to control the addictive qualities of it and use it as consciously as possible.

    1. In certain situations Twitter can be great. But, like you stated, it’s a time sink and controlling it is the key. Thanks Nicky!

  3. You just subconsciously acronymized ‘Ally Beal’ into ‘Abby’ so that should be
    excusable lol. Calling her Abbealy would have been worse.

  4. I like that you have always replied to every mention of my tweet and every comment on this site. Twitter is useless if it becomes a one way communication. Popular people claim to tweet so other people can read their blogs. There is a work overload when one has to reply to comments on their blogs as well as reply to mentions on twitter. If a blog is so popular, then comments on that blog claim superiority over conversation about that post on twitter. Comments stay with the post but twitter conversations done.

    If my blogs get popular enough, I will eliminate discussing them on twitter. I’ll save twitter for conversations leading up to a post.

    1. Thanks Abhishek. I agree, if a blog gets too popular it’s difficult to answer all communications. Then again, Gary Vaynerchuk does it and he’s more popular and busier than most people who “just don’t have time.” :)

  6. Hey Karol,

    Thanks for the shoutouts on my guest post and the interview :). Jeffrey really packed that interview with so much good information that it inspired about 5 blog posts that I wrote after that chat. I would recommend anybody listen to that interview because they would get alot from it.

  7. hey karol!

    read alot of your articles by now, and they make sure you learn something while they are actually quite fun to:)

    i just hope you dont cut to much on the email, your a great support on it, and i know very few(read none) people that run such a big community and still make time for the individual person. i think your doing a wonderful job:)
    keep in touch ^^

    Henk.

  8. Completely agree. Twitter and FB are time sucks of the worst kind. I deactivated my FB account for a month. I didn’t miss it. Not even a little bit. I reactivated, because it’s useful and can be convenient, but I try not to be on it much. Oh and hey, good luck on the marriage bit you slipped in right at the end… “That’s it for this week. Comments/questions/wanna get married? You know what to do …” :-)

    1. I didn’t realize you can deactivate and reactivate facebook. That would make it a lot easier to forget about it. But I’m doing well anyway. I login when I get a message, but other than that it’s a waste.

      I hope polygamy is OK because it seems I’m getting married multiple times now. I think it might be too much hassle though so I’ll probably stay married to the streets. :)

  9. Loved the links: Stuff and Happiness and How to Add 10 Years to You Life. We just lost our 87 year old Grandma on Wednesday and these two links really spoke to me. Thanks once again Karol.

  10. Re; “In other news: my 7 day no facebook/twitter trial went well.” Wow! How timely is this! I was thinking of joining those so I could give you a thumbs up and tweet you–not that I’m clear on what that is all about. No need to find out all about it now either – just tell me if that would be good for this blog. please.

    “It is simple to be happy but so difficult to be simple.” I do like that–will go back and read the whole article.

    1. Hey Pat,

      I still use Twitter. No facebook though. :) As far as Thumbs Up that’s for StumbleUpon.com. If you want to join that and thumb up my articles that would be fantastic, but it’s not necessary.

      Thanks!
      Karol

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