David Sparks on Switching Gears Intentionally

David Sparks' latest newsletter featured some details on how he’s handling the significant challenges that can arise when context and task switching get out of control.

From his newsletter (also a post on Macsparky):

The hard part isn’t the next thing. It’s the last thing. Your brain wants to keep chewing on the project you just walked away from, and it will happily do that while you’re supposed to be doing something else.

Man, isn’t this the truth. His solution involves something near and dear to my heart (and a little newsletter I keep chugging away at): Interstitial journaling. The idea is that when you finish something, instead of jumping right into the next thing, you grab your journaling tool and write a sentence or two about the previous process. Once that’s done, then you can move on.

Again, from the piece:

Something about writing it down lets me set it down. The open loops stop circling because they’re now sitting in a note instead of in my head. By the time I get to the next task, I’m actually thinking about the next task. Not the last one.

I’ve heard David speak about interstitial journaling before, and while it sounded neat, I couldn’t quite find where it might fit in with my life. But this explanation makes it click, and it’s something I’m trying.

MacSparky Journals to 5,000

Speaking of hitting journaling milestones, my friend David Sparks hit a big one. 5,000 digital journal entries. Well done!

David Sparks on Avoiding Email

I don’t deal with email as a stay-at-home dad like I did when I was in management, and yet I’m still finding value from what David Sparks has written about email. Part one, about doing the hard stuff instead, is here. Part two focuses on email as a tool, and David makes this excellent point:

Despite its widespread use, email is not an efficient tool for all types of communication. We’ve overlooked its limitations in our attempt to make it do everything. It’s time we acknowledge that email is often the wrong tool for the job.

Give it a read. David knows his stuff and wants us to use our technology in the ways that best serve us.

David Sparks on Journaling as a Maker, a Manager, and a Consumer

Last week I wrote a piece for the Finding Focus series about the benefits of waking up early and quoted podcast host and MacSparky Labs founder David Sparks' idea that, as creators, we should make before we manage.

David wrote more on this idea a few years ago and shared his thoughts about how being a maker, a manager, and a consumer impacts the purpose of his journaling process. He writes about the evolution of his journaling:

My purpose in journaling is tracking how I'm spending my time in these roles. I don't view any of them as inherently good or bad. The magic is in the balance. While making is most important to me, both managing and consuming enable making. I want to spend more time making than consuming. I need to spend time managing, but not go down the management/productivity rabbit hole so far that I don't make anything.

So with this in mind, I've been focusing my journaling lately not so much on what I had for lunch, but what I make, manage, and consume. Using tags, I can then see it on a daily, weekly, and even monthly basis. If I look at my week and realize I spent most of my time sharpening pencils and sorting tasks (manager) and not enough time producing content (maker), I know I need to make changes. You can get similar information by tracking your time, but I think there is something more concrete looking at a list of things you've made, managed, and consumed over a period of time.

David suggests using Day One and assigning a tag to each role as an effective way to aid in planning and review. More good advice from someone who, to quote another often used Sparks phrase, pays for his shoes as a self-employed creator.

A journaling practice is a powerful way to see where and what you've been doing. Of course, your journal cannot predict the future, but you can certainly use it to forecast where you might end up.

I’ll be doing more writing about journaling here and in the monthly newsletter. The April issue focused on the topic and offered some ideas on how to get started or stick with your own practice. You can subscribe here if you’re interested. Just be sure to check your email (and spam folder) for the opt-in confirmation that’ll get sent. If you're interested in the April issue, let me know and I’ll get it to you.