As I write this, I'm sitting on the platform at the Back Bay Amtrak station in Boston, waiting for the train to New York. At 9am (6 minutes ago), I got a text message prompting me to write a blog post today. It said "Get your blog on!  It's a good thing".  The text message, of course, was sent to my by myself.  I've got a little robot in the cloud whose job it is to help me be a better person.  In this case, it's helping me be more consistent and less stressed about writing here, on this blog. The service I'm using is called IFTTT (If this, then that), and it's a very simple way of wiring together events from across various web services ("channels" in their parlance).  In this case, I have the SMS channel triggered to send me a text every day at 9am.  I also have a 10pm text which prompts me to write to my journal (that one says: "Take a 5 min break and post to brain [the name of my journal blog].  You'll thank me later."  Last night when I got that text, I said to myself: "Self, you're right -- I will thank you later".  And I wrote the post.  And here I am this morning. I've been thinking a lot recently about the difference between being organized vs. being disciplined, and I've been putting a lot of energy into increasing my discipline factor.  Who knows if this will end up sticking, but I hope it will.  At this point, it surely sounds like another exercise in yak-shaving, and knowing myself I'll let that stand as a possibility. But I really do like the idea that it's possible to get more effective by doing less yourself and recruiting more help from others (in this case, from robots).  And in this particular case, there's something particularly nice about being able to make up the wording yourself, knowing exactly what will push your own buttons and get you motivated. I really like IFTTT and will surely find more ways to use it.  There are other services out there too, like Happiness Engines and I'm sure many more.  At this point, I prefer the flexibility and straightforwardness over IFTTT to the slickness of Happiness Engines, but I'm looking forward to seeing where both go, and to experimenting w/ other ways to recruit robots to the cause.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to invest lately.  I'm not just talking about investing money, in savings or stocks or whatever; I mean investing in a broader sense, in yourself and in everything you do. I am without question an urgency addict -- as a general rule, I procrastinate, let things build up, and then power through with a burst of adrenaline when it gets down to the wire.  This also means, generally, that I'm bad at medium-term planning.  I often rely on my ability to "just figure things out" when I need to, and most of the time it works out.  Lucky for me, I haven't yet had a total blow up disaster, but I definitely flirt with it. More and more, I've been thinking about this approach as a kind of personal debt.  Every time I do something at the last minute, whether it's a presentation, a document, or plans for a trip, I'm burning reserves (cash, time, sleep, social capital) and often going into the red.  While it may work most or all of the time, it's not sustainable and it's not a good way of using resources. Credit cards bail you out when you're over extended and need to get by at the last minute.  Personal and planning debt is the same way. Conversely, investing in yourself, your plans, your friends & relationships, and your health is a longer-term proposition. It takes planning and discipline, and it doesn't pay off right away.  But investing is about building a strong base.  And it's about dedicating resources (time, thought, money) in things that are important, matter in the long run, and will grow into something even more valuable -- to yourself, to your friends, business associates and family. There are all kinds of good reasons for going into debt -- financial or personal -- whether its borrowing against a house or an education, using loans & credit cards to get through a tough time, or getting way backlogged on your work, your email, your exercise, or your family time. What I'm talking about is a general mindset of: "what am I spending my time doing -- am I making an investment right now, or am I burning capital right now -- and if I'm burning capital, am I beyond my reserves?" With that in mind, my new mantra is  "Always Be Investing" (imagining

As I write this, I'm sitting on the platform at the Back Bay Amtrak station in Boston, waiting for the train to New York. At 9am (6 minutes ago), I got a text message prompting me to write a blog post today. It said "Get your blog on!  It's a good thing".  The text message, of course, was sent to my by myself.  I've got a little robot in the cloud whose job it is to help me be a better person.  In this case, it's helping me be more consistent and less stressed about writing here, on this blog. The service I'm using is called IFTTT (If this, then that), and it's a very simple way of wiring together events from across various web services ("channels" in their parlance).  In this case, I have the SMS channel triggered to send me a text every day at 9am.  I also have a 10pm text which prompts me to write to my journal (that one says: "Take a 5 min break and post to brain [the name of my journal blog].  You'll thank me later."  Last night when I got that text, I said to myself: "Self, you're right -- I will thank you later".  And I wrote the post.  And here I am this morning. I've been thinking a lot recently about the difference between being organized vs. being disciplined, and I've been putting a lot of energy into increasing my discipline factor.  Who knows if this will end up sticking, but I hope it will.  At this point, it surely sounds like another exercise in yak-shaving, and knowing myself I'll let that stand as a possibility. But I really do like the idea that it's possible to get more effective by doing less yourself and recruiting more help from others (in this case, from robots).  And in this particular case, there's something particularly nice about being able to make up the wording yourself, knowing exactly what will push your own buttons and get you motivated. I really like IFTTT and will surely find more ways to use it.  There are other services out there too, like Happiness Engines and I'm sure many more.  At this point, I prefer the flexibility and straightforwardness over IFTTT to the slickness of Happiness Engines, but I'm looking forward to seeing where both go, and to experimenting w/ other ways to recruit robots to the cause.

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to invest lately.  I'm not just talking about investing money, in savings or stocks or whatever; I mean investing in a broader sense, in yourself and in everything you do. I am without question an urgency addict -- as a general rule, I procrastinate, let things build up, and then power through with a burst of adrenaline when it gets down to the wire.  This also means, generally, that I'm bad at medium-term planning.  I often rely on my ability to "just figure things out" when I need to, and most of the time it works out.  Lucky for me, I haven't yet had a total blow up disaster, but I definitely flirt with it. More and more, I've been thinking about this approach as a kind of personal debt.  Every time I do something at the last minute, whether it's a presentation, a document, or plans for a trip, I'm burning reserves (cash, time, sleep, social capital) and often going into the red.  While it may work most or all of the time, it's not sustainable and it's not a good way of using resources. Credit cards bail you out when you're over extended and need to get by at the last minute.  Personal and planning debt is the same way. Conversely, investing in yourself, your plans, your friends & relationships, and your health is a longer-term proposition. It takes planning and discipline, and it doesn't pay off right away.  But investing is about building a strong base.  And it's about dedicating resources (time, thought, money) in things that are important, matter in the long run, and will grow into something even more valuable -- to yourself, to your friends, business associates and family. There are all kinds of good reasons for going into debt -- financial or personal -- whether its borrowing against a house or an education, using loans & credit cards to get through a tough time, or getting way backlogged on your work, your email, your exercise, or your family time. What I'm talking about is a general mindset of: "what am I spending my time doing -- am I making an investment right now, or am I burning capital right now -- and if I'm burning capital, am I beyond my reserves?" With that in mind, my new mantra is  "Always Be Investing" (imagining