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Transitions and Flow
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- 4/30 11:57 PM
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I attended the Diggnation party at Mighty tonight. Having driven yet not had dinner, did not partake of the drinks offered. Earlier I had tended to a few appointments and the Data Portability meetup on rel="me" - Chris Saad had invited me to attend and help with Q&A.
A number of things happened over the course of the evening which made me think. Most of them were events occuring in a longer sequence, pieces that helped complete thoughts in progress. I won't go into details but suffice it to say it has inspired a change in focus. Here are some of the topics.
I had most of a blog post written about the etiquette / apparent rules that I'm using for accepting / following / leaving / blocking people on various (semi)real time services like IM, Twitter, Pownce, Dodgeball, Dopplr, and most recently BrightKite - this was going to be my SXSW Tip #2 (and may still be). However, since such rules are always in evolving and changing as new situations occur, I realized that the documentation of such etiquette is much better suited to a wiki. A couple of mini-tips for now: add nice people that you meet in person, drop people if they're mean or noisy (by your judgment).
Such etiquette inevitably touches on the topics of friendship and flirting, two things that I'm still learning lessons about, and as a self-acknowledged late blooming introvert, will undoubtedly continue to do so. However I've learned enough to share, and again, will do so via wiki. Until posted, I'll leave you with the principles of transparency, respect, and compassion.
As can be easily concluded from the above, for a while now I've been very inwardly focused.
I've made progress on some key areas: GTD, fitness, fear, insecurity, will power, assertiveness, and focus. While still "in progress", I know the improvements are pronounced enough to affect changes I myself have noticed in things like my average comfort level across a variety of situations, and even punctuality.
In mid-April I went to New York City to see my sister in a play ("Paris Commune" at The Public) and ended up packing nearly hour with various informal meetups and appointments. The part that stood out for me personally, besides getting to meet and hang out with great friends old and new, was that I made it on time (often with many minutes to spare) to every appointment. Doing so consistently for a week was a total first for me, and IMHO is a reflection of increased abilities in the areas of will power, assertiveness, focus and having a better sense of time's flow. Perhaps the pulse of NYC helped. By no means have I conquered punctuality for good, however I feel it is finally within my grasp.
March and April were very much months of transition for me, to make key decisions, be more assertive, be more spontaneous, and be more open about recognizing and openly declaring my own limitations to friends and business contacts, especially limitations to do with expectations, obligations, and dependencies.
In continuing with this transition, I've realized that it's time to turn that inward focus outward. The Data Portability meetup hosted by LinkedIn (thanks to one of the leading microformats implementers Steve Ganz) really helped me realize just how much work there is still to be done with making microformats as easy to understand as possible, not just for publishers and implementers, but for users as well.
I've decided to immediately increase my travel to spend more time with those that matter to me, and share the messages on the efforts I care about.
I'm looking forward to the next couple of months. May for me will be a bit of a microformats sprint. I've already arranged meetings with a major software company on Friday. Workshops in New Zealand after that, and issue resolution meetups when I return to San Francisco. June will bring more travel, with BarCampSeattle, and a return to San Francisco with the Supernova Conference (get tickets before a) prices go up, and b) it sells out!), for which I have the honor of chairing the "Open Flow" track. Coincidentally the book I'm currently reading is titled "Flow", thanks to my new super friend Tara Brown, who somehow knew exactly where my head was at and gave it to me to read just last week. It's a really good sequel in many ways to David Allen's Getting Things Done that I previously mentioned. Give them both a good read, try incorporating elements of both into your life, and then let's chat.
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