We need you.
But only if you need us.
Purple.space is six months old, and there are about a thousand of us now. It was an experiment, now it’s a useful tool.
The initiative hat is often ill-fitting. We rush to take it off and get back to doing chores.
And that’s why a community of practice is so powerful.
When we belong to a group that sees us, respects and is counting on us, the best sort of peer pressure arises.
Not to do the thing for others, but to do the best version we can for ourselves. Because our peers know we can.
About half the people who sign up for Purple.space unsubscribe during the first week trial… we even put the unsubscribe instructions right on the sign up page. That’s an essential part of an actual community–eager enrollment in the journey. We need you if you need us.
Go organize a peer group on your own. Find three or ten or how many folks who will support you as you support them. Or consider Brainstorm Road or Story Republic. Find the others.
The hat will fit better.
January 3, 2024
Welcome to 2024. Back to work, here we go. So it’s Productivity Week on the blog.
Productivity is the measure of the output (value) we get for the time or money we spend.
Two hats for productivity:
When I’m clearing my inbox, responding to comments in a doc, cooking lunch–these are chores.
Chores are the backbone of industrial productivity. We can check them off, measure them and see them stacked up.
Most of the time, most of us do chores. Finding a way to do your chores more productively is quite leveraged, and you can put it to use right away.
The other hat, though, looks very different.
This is the hat of initiative.
Finding a new problem to solve.
Looking for new tools.
Asking questions when we’re not sure there’s even an answer.
Launching a new project that might not work.
When staring into the bottomless hole of initiative, chores are tempting. Because they put us back on firm footing.
Neil Gaiman has a simple solution for writer’s block: He puts himself into a room where there are absolutely no chores to do. No sites to check, no emails to answer. Nothing productive is available except for initiative.
It’s hard to wear two hats at once.
January 2, 2024
My friend Jason points out that this might be where your heart is.
What would have to change for you to actually follow the wandering and make it real?
Or for your mind to choose to wander somewhere else? Somewhere you’re already going.
January 1, 2024
