Author: Andrea Grassi

Following the advice I gave on the last post, I decided to write on something I had in my mind, new projects.

The work/life balance all depends on how you decide to work.
You might be the hard worker, the nerd, whatever, but that is just a part of the system you’re in.

It’s how you spend your time that will influence what kind of balance you’ll have once you stop working.
There are many subtle decisions that will influence this

• Will you have the work email on your phone?
• can you detach your mind from thinking about the next task?

just these two questions are enough to decide what kind of life you’ll live once you shut down your computer.

There is a trick to do something (like writing) when you don’t feel like writing at all.

The thing about this trick is that it requires you to do the work you’re supposed to do, and it works like this.

To write when you don’t want to, you start writing.
That’s it. That’s how this post came up.
I gave myself the rule to write every single day, and I don’t expect to have a good idea or something worth sharing every day (and if that happens, good for me).

So to write, you just have to write.

But I agree with you sometimes we don’t have ideas don’t we?
So, can you cope with that too?

Given the fact that you can write even if you don’t want to, what if you have to write on a specific subject?
My personal tactic when I don’t have an idea is to take an object or an element, and start writing about that.

If you are allowed to write about any specific subject (for example you want to create a new chapter for a fiction book, or a short story), then pick whatever is around you, a black swan, a tv, a pomodoro.
Describe it, start with that and then open the visual to what might be around this subject (this time don’t describe what are you seeing, but go with the flow).

If the topic is defined beforehand then pick something on that single topic.
For example: do you want to talk about web development in php and you already wrote about php and basic programming? Let’s dig deeper into advanced flow paradigms.
It might not be the perfect next chapter, but it will be a good start, and you can arrange it later.

Also, if in doubt on how to get ideas, remember to read this article on questions.

I continue thinking that our biggest value is what we do, how we do it and with whom we do it.

Up to this point this only leads to building experience with people, creating relationships that matter, trying to influence people with the good you learned.

To achieve this, I believe building memories is a great thing.
Traveling, sharing moments, are what a good life is about.
Taking pictures, sharing them.

I have an idea for a side project about mindful happiness.
We’ll see if I get it done.

Many early-riser think that sleep is bad.
After all while you sleep you aren’t doing a thing.

I guess it’s a difficult to make this cultural change but sleep (among many other things) is good for us.
It helps us recharge and refuel so we can do our best.

Sometimes sleep will solve anxiety, issue with people, will give you ideas, and will let you feel better.
The reality is that we don’t sleep enough, but we go to gym probably more often than we need.

Let’s see sleep as personal hygene, or as a training. We shouldn’t slack, but we need to take our hours of sleep.