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Today was the first day I have truly been alone in the woods…

I was out wandering around the woods looking for signs of deer and ended up in the middle of nowhere.

I had been breaking brush following game trails for a couple hours when the forest got just too thick and the brush was like a fence.

I stopped to take a break, and just sat in a quiet shady spot. Sad to say that the lack of trash laying around made it clear that people weren’t coming back in that area very often.

After a few moments of sitting quietly, the forest began to make its noises again. A strong breeze blew through the trees. Making the pine trees creak.

It was really nice, and I’m not sure how to explain the true peace I found in that spot.

I never did see any deer, but those few moments alone deep in the woods made an impression on me.

Lots of people say that nature is healing. I had always thought that just being outside would do the trick.

Turns out that you really need to put in some work to get to find it.

Just do what works for you…

I can usually get a few pointers from a podcast or TED Talk, but this podcast from The Product Breakfast Club got me thinking. And that usually gets me writing, which is also a good thing.

I’ve really come to like the AJ&Smart YouTube channel. I came across it while learning more about UX Design, and not only do they have some great ideas, it’s very entertaining.

I think what really got me into this episode though was their guest. They were interviewing Jason Fried from BaseCamp. Not to sound like an endless promoter, but I really like his writing. The book It doesn’t have to be crazy at work was awesome, and pretty much discribes my dream work enviroment. Check it out… No affiliat links here, just think it was a pretty cool book.

Anyway, there are a few parts that just stuck with me and I wanted to share them here. Nothing verbatium, but just what I took from it.

Use your own process…

Yes, it’s tempting to follow what the most successful people or compaines around you are doing. It’s easy to forget that what works for one, doesn’t really translate to the other. especially when you are just rushing to try to move the needle.

I’ve been just as guilty wasting time checking out some framework or app that might be all the rage today Medium, or whatever other super productivity guru you might follow. I have a few if you need some recomendations , by the way…

Just focus on the process that works for you. Don’t fall into a defualt just becuse it’s “best practice”, or most deffinalty when it’s the way it has always been done. Find your way of doing things, and just get stuff done. It may not need to be anything fancy, or have a cool name. However you work best, just do it that way.

Work on short projects

Now this sounds like a great concept to me. They discuss getting a project done anywhere from five days to six weeks, and how great it is to have an end in sight. Better yet, what can we do in a week?

This would be fantastic! I would think it’s much easier to keep up the motivation when you know that you will be done, and moving on to the next cool thing in a few weeks.

But, I work on projects that generally take a few months to move into production, and even then I continue to manage the now active program to help ensure it becomes successful. With all the moving parts, I don’t see much happening in a week. I had a little chuckle when I was asked recently how we could get something implemented in 30 days.

Here I caught myself falling into that defualt state of mind mentioned earlier. Just because I haven’t been able to get things done in a somewhat quick way in the past doesn’t mean we can’t do it now. A challenge? Most deffinalty, but I guess anythign is possible.

The question now… How would I do this thing, while unblocking all the obsicles in the way? I’ll ponder on that one a bit more.

Be willing to just do it…

You have to do the work. I’ve looked for all the quick angles, and any shortcuts but nothing relpaces the work.

If you want something you are going to have to show up and do what needs to be done to finish. And, you need to just let it finish when it’s time to be done. I don’t know how many times I will need to read that, or hear it to finally just do it.

Let go of perfectionisum, becasue it’s never going to happen anyway, and just let that thing go into the world to do what it’s meant to do. You can always come back and fix something that isn’t quite right later.

I have struggled with this in my writing, and now most recently in my UX Design studies. I try so hard to be on par with those that I admire, that I end up getting nothing done because I think my work is so inferior. But, best that you can do at that moment is more than enough to get to that next level and then the next. It will always take more of just showing up and doing the work.

Figure out what really matters, and focus on that…

This is a hard one. I have plenty going on, and it all matters becasue everything I’m doing is supporting my end goal. I can’t let one thing slip as I’ll just fall behind in another as I catch up.

So I guess the question here is, how do you find out what it is that really matters? That would depend on what type of problem you want to solve. Are you trying to fix something at work, or at home? Business or personal?

As much as I like to keep business and my personal life as separate as possible, we really are what we do for a living. Or, what we do for fun.

When you meet a stranger, what do you talk about?

Make the time to make it happen…

Schedule a day with no meetings.

Decide to do something, and just go do it.

RV Projects…

What’s better than getting a new RV?

Buying a used one, and making it your own.

We have been working on updating the interior of our 2011 Coachman Freelander for awhile now.

My wife has been doing a great job of painting over the drab 90’s style wallpaper. Also, removing the old shades and window coverings makes a huge difference!

This months project is all about changing out the countertops with something better than Formica.

Here is the old one…

We chose to build out the new countertops using some pine 2×8’s from Home Depot. Nice and cheap.

Finding the best layout.

We decided to use biscuits and glue to join the boards together creating a large table to work with.

Once everything dried overnight, we cut out the countertops we are replacing.

Here are the rough cuts sitting in place.

New kitchen counter.
New range countertop.
New nightstand.

Next comes the sanding and finishing. We are waiting for our new sink to come in so we can keep going…

Nothing beats the feeling of an actual new book…

Recently I purchased my first physical book in I don’t even know how long. I have some schoolwork related books, but the one I got today was the first hard cover book I have actually picked up in several years.

Using a Kindle to read becasue I didn’t like having the guilt for getting rid of all my books when I was done with them. Since none of these were classic’s that would look cool on a bookself, there was never a good reason to keep them. Even the books I have lugged around since I left home sit in a box in the shed. Digital copies just seemed so less wasteful.

This perticular book is smaller in size than I’m used to, and for some reason I really find myself admiring the craftsmanship. I’m thinking this will be a good book, and that maybe I should go back to the real thing more often.