The Alternating Current » Helpful Tools http://thealternatingcurrent.com A Resource For People with Too Many Passions Fri, 01 May 2009 18:34:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 en hourly 1 Your Own Endowment to the Arts (or whatever you *really* want to do) http://thealternatingcurrent.com/2009/04/your-endowment-to-the-arts/ http://thealternatingcurrent.com/2009/04/your-endowment-to-the-arts/#comments Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:14:30 +0000 Alexia http://thealternatingcurrent.com/?p=314 As scanners/renaissance souls/eclectics we sometimes fall into the trap that we absolutely must incorporate everything we love doing into a money making pursuit. However, sometimes making yourself write blog articles for money when you really love writing novels and short stories may drain your writing energy. Work by Kriss SzkurlatowskiYou may want to consider the “Good Enough Job.” In Barbara Sher’s book Refuse to Choose, this is one tool an eclectic can use to create her own endowment to the arts (or sciences, or travels, or humanitarian pursuits…).

Here are the criteria for a good enough job:

  1. Doesn’t require more than 40 hours a week.
  2. Short commute.
  3. Non-toxic environment (i.e. micro-managers, negative co-workers, stressful culture).
  4. No take-home work. Leave it when you leave the building.
  5. Pays well. Insurance and a retirement plan are also good bonuses.

This “isn’t your dream job; it’s the one that funds your dreams.” (Barbara Sher, Refuse to Choose p. 136).

Stay tuned for a few examples and suggestions on how to find this “Good Enough Job.”

*Image by Kriss Szkurlatowski

]]> http://thealternatingcurrent.com/2009/04/your-endowment-to-the-arts/feed/ 2 Behance Action Pads http://thealternatingcurrent.com/2008/08/behance-action-pads/ http://thealternatingcurrent.com/2008/08/behance-action-pads/#comments Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:01:26 +0000 Alexia http://thealternatingcurrent.com/?p=88 Behance Action PadReading all these productivity blogs like Lifehacker, 43Folders and D*I*Y* Planner is a way to discover all sorts of new things to help keep me organized and making progress in my own projects. The one thing that has helped the most lately has been the Behance Action Pads. Perfect for brainstorming, these compartmentalized sheets give you room for sparking your ideas, brainstorming, a place for those rabbit trails we all get caught up in, and a brightly-colored set of boxes for Action Items.

Behance has their own project planning method called the “Action Method” mainly geared towards creatives, but I’ve found it works for just about any project. The goal is to funnel project brainstorming into a set of do-able tasks. Their steps, as outlined on the previous link, are as follows:

Action Sheet for Alt.Current

Action Sheet for Alt.Current

  1. Capture Action Steps: during your project brainstorming, record everything that requires an action. They recommend you begin each Action Step with a verb.
  2. Tend to Your Backburner: write down those rabbit trails you go down – some of them may be ideas for future projects. Get them on paper to clear some room for the project you’re planning.
  3. File Reference Items, Sparingly: Keep down the clutter. Only keep the things you really need for that project.

Before I bought a pack of the loose sheets, I downloaded a tester sheet as a PDF. This gave me the opportunity to try out the Action Sheets without plunking down any money initially. I loved them almost instantly and bought a pack the next day.

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