Here at Happenchance, 2011 looked a lot like 2010, only with a bigger readership, a clearer message, and a bit more self-deprecation. (My original title for this post was ’2011: A Slow Year at a Mediocre Blog’).

In the late winter and early spring, I focused on writing longer articles. For the middle of the year, I slowed down my posting as I tried and failed to make a living outside the 9-to-5.

In the fall, at the request of my more faithful readers, I revived the roundup posts. While the roundups are easier to write (2 hours vs. 15-20 hours), they attract far less engagement than the longer posts and are of dubious long-term value to you. Whether they’ll continue in 2012 remains to be seen.

As I said before, my strategy for 2012 is to do less, better. With a baby on the way, a full-time job, and fiction to write, I’m going to be a busy boy, and as much as I enjoy writing for you, I only have so much energy and attention.

For now, I intend to take a couple months off from regular posting here at this fine site. I’ll likely start something up again in the spring. Until then, watch for longer, resource-rich articles, perfect for bookmarking and sharing (not just quick consumption).

A Few Stats

For 2011, Happenchance had 71,283 total visitors, about 5000-7,000 visitors/month. Most people read about 2.8 pages per visit.Of these visitors, 85% were new, 15% were returning. As of today, 165 people receive updates by email.

I created no products and earned less that $500 in commissions from the General Store and a couple affiliate products. Since I’ve never put any serious effort into monetizing this site, this comes as no surprise.

Popular Articles

Perhaps because it was picked up on Y-Combinator,  this silly-yet-fun article on standing desks was far and away my most viewed post.

Here are a few other popular articles I’m still proud of:

• 7 PhD-Approved Ways to Increase Your Happiness 
• 8 Lessons in Creative Work I Learned From My Garden
• How Creating Systems Can Make Your Microbusiness Rock (My microbusinesses actually sucked, but that’s because I had too many of them. However, the principles are still sound: creating operations manuals and checklists for your endeavors will make your life easier)
• Information is Overrated
• 5 Simple-Yet-Power Tools for Defeating Resistance 
• Stop Whining and Start Grinding

This year I’ve also received several kind emails from readers. For the most part, they just wanted to thank me for writing something they read here. This feedback is enormously gratifying, and if you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see in the coming year, please contact me and let me know. Your feedback helps me shape this site.

See You Later!

As always, thanks for reading. I’ll be back in a couple months. Until then, I hope you create something amazing!

Photo credit: jurvetson

You may also enjoy:

1. 2010 in Review…Plus Happenchance’s 2 Dirty Secrets

I’m not the sharpest sickle in the shed, but sometimes my coal-dust addled brain learns a lesson or two from its mistakes experience.

To wit: in 2011, I did all kinds of enterprising work to support myself outside the old 9-to-5: freelance writing, micro-affiliate sites, web design, junk peddling on ebay and craigslist, English teaching, and a couple other things.

I lived modestly and made enough to get by, but I still put in way too many 70-80-hour weeks. Now, every week, I spend half as many hours promoting tourism in my state for a modest salary and health insurance for my family.

In short, I quit freelancing because a cool opportunity came along and I was tired of getting my ass kicked by the patchwork Franken-career I had created for myself.  I realized I needed a smarter way to earn a living. My decision isn’t right for everyone, but at this time, it’s the best decision for me.

#

When I think about all the work I did, I debate whether I’m the world’s shittiest businessman, or if I was just trying to do too much.

Because I’m not without ambition, and since a struggling book publisher once credited me with saving his business, I’m going to go with the latter.

I suppose I could always sell ebooks that tell you how to make a living selling ebooks about how to make a living selling ebooks [/spammy lifestyle design blog rant].

In all seriousness, if a person diligently pursued any one of these activities, they could probably support themselves. My problem was that I just had to try them all.

So what’s the lesson?

Do less, better. 

Or, in the words of productivity guru David Allen: You can do anything, but not everything.

The bonus: I now have more time to work on things that are wildly fun and stupendously unprofitable!

Links for you

• The end of the year is a great time to both look back and look forward. While I usually end my year with several marathon journaling sessions, these aren’t for everybody. If you’re interested in how to review and prepare for the coming year, Chris at Art of Non-Conformity has a great post on How to Conduct Your Annual Review. While you’re there, check out his free new report The Tower.
• What if 2012 were the last year of your life? Pro tip: morbid thoughts can do wonders for your work ethic
  
• Another great post from Lateral Action called 6 Steps to Building Your Creative Endurance.
• If I had read this 12 months ago, would I have listened? How to Accomplish More by Doing Less
• Here’s a cool poster from Tanner at Creative Something.

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 44 Roundup: Gaps, Ruts, and Word Births
2. Week 48 & 49 Roundup
3. Week 45 Roundup: Building Momentum, Creativity Models, and Incubation

Hello Happenchance readers, I just wanted to confess something: I’m scared shitless.  

Why?

Because in less than three weeks, I’m going to be a first-time father.

Yet, even though I’m scared shitless, I know things will work out fine. I won’t leave the baby on top of my car, feed it paint chips, or dangle it over an alligator pit (and if I did, my wife would single-handedly fight off a pack of alligators to retrieve it).

Of course, this new responsibility is terrifying; the life of a very tiny person will be in our hands. But scared or not, I still have to be some baby’s daddy, and freaking out about it won’t do anyone any good. So I just have to accept that I’m scared shitless and proceed from there.

The wife and I, we’ll figure it out as we go along. We’ll make mistakes, maybe get CPS called on us once or twice (joke), but for the most part, we’ll be good parents.

How do I know this?

[Here's the part where I bring it around and make this post relevant for you, loyal reader]

Because metaphorical dragons aren’t so scary after you slay them.

Because doing a thing is the best way to stop being afraid of that thing.

Think about all those things you’ve done that at first terrified you but later were okay: your first day at school, your first date, the first time you shared your work in public, etc., etc.

Just the thought of doing them made your pulse quicken, your heart pound, and your stomach twist up into knots. But, after you did that thing, you look back and ask yourself “what’s the big deal?”

You can read articles on getting over your stage fright, but the best way to get over stage fright is to get on stage.

You can take classes in communications, but the best way to get over your fear of public speaking is to do some public speaking.

You can make great plans and avoid failure, but the best way to get over your fear of failure is to fail (publicly, and hard).

You can study martial arts, but the best way to get over your fear of getting punched is to get punched (then punch back, twice as hard).

Why does doing a thing reduce a person’s fear of that thing?

Because experience is the best teacher you’ll ever find.

Homework assignment:

Go do something you’re afraid of. You’ll be fine, I promise.

On to the links:

• Julien Smith, blogger and co-author of Trust Agents, just released an excellent new book called The Flinch. Right now, it’s free on Amazon, so go download it. 
• While you’re on Amazon, grab a free copy of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 
• I recently re-read Hugh Macleod’s book Ignore Everybody, and while I can’t share that, I can send you over to his 37 tips to be more creative in art, business, or whatever.
• This article is aimed at jazz musicians, but poses a question we could all benefit from asking ourselves: Do you wonder why you get crap results despite the amount of time you invest? Maybe you step back, forget the advanced stuff, and focus on the basics.
• This guy created something amazing: a one-stringed instrument called the Filari.
• My twitter pal @valeriestorey has started a cool series called How to Stay Creative Everyday. Check it out at her site. 
• Great design and predictions for the future? The Future of Science 2021 Map has both.

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
2. Week 44 Roundup: Gaps, Ruts, and Word Births
3. Week 46 Roundup: Monticello, Procrastination, and Commuting

I’m not a great pool player, but back in winter 02 I spent a lot of time playing and decided to enter my first nine-ball tournament. I won the first game by a hair, but my second opponent, a rail-thin kid with bad teeth and an Earnhardt t-shirt, taught me a lesson I’ll never forget.

The kid made nothing on his break. I made the one ball then missed the two because I gave myself no leave. He proceeded to sink the eight remaining balls without giving me another shot.

Afterwards, I congratulated him on his victory and asked him if he had any tips. He said (and I’m paraphrasing):  ”you got to plan ahead for the next few shots. Where your cue ball goes after you sink a shot is almost as important as making the shot in the first place.”

I nodded, took his advice to heart, and over the next month watched my game improve. I had just received a valuable lesson on the benefits of being proactive. A few insights:

• The proactive player sets him/herself up not only for the shot in front of them, but for the next four or five shots.
• The reactive player focuses all their effort trying to sink the shot in front of them; they’re so worried about their tactics that they completely ignore giving themselves a strategic leave position.
• The reactive player asks themselves “what do I have to do today?” or “what am I being forced to do today?”
• The proactive player asks themselves “what will I do today?”
• The reactive player says “how can I make this work?”
• The proactive player says “how can I make this work for me and the people around me and leave me in a good position for my next five moves?”

Being proactive is a matter of taking responsibility for your life. Dr. Stephen Covey thinks it’s so important that he names it the first among seven habits of highly successful people.

Here’s a great webcomic from  Stephen McCranie on being proactive rather than reactive. Choice quotes:

When you procrastinate you become a slave to yesterday. But when you are proactive, it’s as if yesterday becomes your secret ally.

And everyone needs a secret ally.

On to the links! 

• The trouble with bright kids, according to this article the Harvard Business Review,  is that teachers and parents tell them they’re bright, and that makes them lazy. (Great insight into why otherwise intelligent people give up too early on challenging endeavors).
• We’re all stressed. Here’s a useful (and printable) image link that tells you 50 ways to cope with stress. (Original source unknown)
• Here’s a cool mind map entitled ‘How to Focus.’

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 46 Roundup: Monticello, Procrastination, and Commuting
2. Why I Quit Freelancing and Got a ~gasp!~ Job (plus the Week 50 roundup)
3. Week 48 & 49 Roundup

• Who Enters Flow is a post from Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman. In this article, Dr. Kaufman addresses the question of who enters flow (much of the article draws on results from a new paper from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi). Interestingly, high intelligence is not associated with a greater likelihood of entering flow. My armchair theory: intelligent people have a lot of mental chatter that makes them self-conscious.
• As an English major, I noticed a definite bias among professors and snootier students against ‘genre’ fiction. Yet, as David Farland argues in this article, genres like sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, western, etc., satisfy a basic human desire: to get us high on endorphins and serotonin as a result of being drawn in to a good story. Next time somebody tries to give you hell for enjoying such works, just tell them you’re doing it for the endorphins.  (This doesn’t change the fact that I found Twilight unreadable).
• Have you ever wondered why our brains make us laugh? Turns out laughter is a reward mechanism for noticing unexpected patterns or realizing our assumptions were incorrect. Here’s a write-up on some recent research on this topic.

Have a great week!

Photo credit: anieto2k

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 45 Roundup: Building Momentum, Creativity Models, and Incubation
2. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
3. What is Flow?

Today during a visit to Monticello I gained an appreciation of Thomas Jefferson the geek:  TJ was an unrepentant polymath and reader who at one time held the largest collection of books in the young United States. He compulsively recorded his expenses, gardening activity, and the daily temperature and wind direction. He also wrote over 1,000 letters a year (which were copied then filed in chronological and alphabetical order). And he used a standing desk:

After strolling the grounds, I went into the gift shop and found proof TJ was also a proto-blogger: he wrote a top-ten list of “canons for observation in practical life.” Here they are:

1. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do to-day.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have it.
4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.
5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.
6. We never repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.
9. Take things always by their smooth handle.
10. When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

Now for the links:

• Corbett Barr just posted a video on 3 tips for dealing with procrastination. #1 is my favorite: procrastinate anyway, but do something fun that has value and moves you toward your goal.
• Seth Godin wrote something a couple days ago that resonated with me called Self Truth; he says that you’ll never become the best violinist in the world, but you can be an “idiosyncratic exception to the standard” [of best]. In other words, sitting around and improving your technique/skills is a form of hiding…or procrastination.
• Here’s a pair of articles from David Mansaray on consumption and production as they apply to advanced learning (1, 2). In my experience, it’s way too easy and tempting to use “research time” as a way to avoid the pain of actually producing anything. Getting out of this habit is a matter of behavior change. Check out this post for more.
• For people like the idea of Write or Die but would prefer something more cuddly (I kind of wish Write or Die’s  ’electric shock’ option actually worked), check out http://writtenkitten.net/
• Commuting sucks, I used to have a five-minute walking commute. Now I do 40 miles a day and the only thing keeping me sane is audiobooks. I enjoyed my car-free lifestyle while it lasted, but the commuter trains stopped running by my house about sixty years ago. Anyway, here’s a great infographic entitled The True Cost of Commuting. While you’re on the subject, check out this blog post on the same topic.
• Here are 8 Counter-Intuitive Ways to Increase Your Well-Being & Creativity.

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
2. Week 47 Roundup: Why We Read, Why We Laugh, Flow
3. How to Manage Procrastination

I’m dug in and fighting my way through this year’s NaNoWriMo, bleeding out my 1,667 words a day as I make my way through a draft of the final volume of a ridiculously large project. Here are a couple observations on starting a new project and building positive creative inertia.

1. Now that you’ve finished all the fun brainstorming stuff, you’ve got to sit down and start grinding. At first it hurts like hell; you want to find something fun and distracting in order to put off the initial pain. But this is only resistance, and resistance must be defeated at every turn.

2. After a few days of hitting it hard, you get in the groove and the magic happens; your project begins to take shape, sometimes in unexpected ways, and the work itself, the work you first wanted to avoid, becomes its own reward.

3. Later you realize that you’re in the groove and good ol’ flow has stopped by for a visit or two. (Intrinsic rewards are a key condition for flow).

On to the links:

• Here’s a cool infographic entitled 9 Steps for Creative Problem Solving. While the focus is on product development in a business environment, you could use it as a roadmap for just about any creative project.
• While we’re on the subject, here’s an overview of the different models of creativity.
• Incubation is a vital part of the creative process; sometimes it looks like procrastination, other times it just looks like the actions of an eccentric. Here’s an article (itself stuffed with links) on developing creativity by staring out the window. 
• Copyblogger has a good article up on Meditation and the Art of Writing. In my own experience, even a short meditation session helps the words flow a little easier.
• Scientific American recently ran a somewhat fluffy article called Answers In Your Dreams. To quote:

“Research is beginning to suggest that dreams are simply thought in a different biochemical state…This unusual state of consciousness is often a blessing for problem solving—it helps us find solutions outside our normal patterns of thought.”

You may also enjoy:

1. Creativity and Sleep
2. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
3. Week 47 Roundup: Why We Read, Why We Laugh, Flow

 Mind the gap. Sometimes you find that the work you’re creating is okay, but it’s not where you want it to be. You’ve been at it for awhile, but you’re not quite ready to get it out there. This dissatisfaction might be an aspect of Resistance, but other times you’re somewhere in what Ira Glass describes as the Gap, the awkward place between your ability and your taste:

All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste.

But there is this gap.

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, your taste is still killer, and your taste is why your work disappoints you.

A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit.

Most everybody I know who does interesting, creative work went through a phase of years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing we want it to have.

And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s totally normal and the most important thing you can possibly do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on deadline so that every week you will finish one story. Put yourself in a situation where you have to turn out the work, because it is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions.

I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.

It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.

#

• This is wild: word births, recorded by an MIT scientist.

when mom and dad and nanny first hear a child speaking a word, they unconsciously stress it by repeating it back to him all by itself or in very short sentences. Then as he gets the word, the sentences lengthen again. The infant shapes the caregivers’ behavior, the better to learn.

 

• I read in the Washington Post that, according to a recent AP-Ipsos poll, one in four Americans read no books last year. Yikes.
• [If you're looking for something to read, check out SFSignal's awesome flowchart guideto Navigating NPR's Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books].
• How many books do you read a year? I shoot for fifty, but this year it’s looking closer to thirty. Maybe I could start giving books away to a) get people re-hooked on books and b) thin my overflowing bookshelves.
• Got a side hustle? Here are five tips from Jen Gresham to help you stay sane and profitable.
•  In a rut? Sometimes the easiest way out, according to Leo Babauta, is to take that first step, and often the first step is to ask “what if…”  If you’re looking for on this topic, check out my article How to Get Out of a Rut.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Photo credit: meyerfelix

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
2. Week 46 Roundup: Monticello, Procrastination, and Commuting
3. Week 2 Roundup

Muttering To Yourself in the Name of Productivity

I recently read here that prolific sci-fi writer Kevin J. Anderson has dictated about 50 novels into a recording device while hiking.

Hiking and story creation all at once? Why the hell didn’t I try this before?

To test KJA’s technique, I left for a hike with only the seed of a story and a little digital recorder. When I returned, I had a reasonably well-developed first draft in my recorder. I still have to type it then run it through the revision mill, but I was happy with the results.

Some people might have an easier time getting ideas out by speaking rather than typing. Test this for yourself and let me know in the comments if this worked or has worked for you.

(A few years ago, the sight of someone walking around muttering to themselves might’ve been troubling, but we’ve all heard one half of some bluetooth user’s conversation. It doesn’t matter. Mutter away, my friends.)

More on muttering: 

Here’s an older Times article from award-winning writer Richard Powers on dictation.

If you can’t be bothered to type what you record (or you shudder when you hear the sound of your own voice) you could try Dragon NaturallySpeaking (aff. link).

Related to K.J. Anderson’s dictation-while-walking technique, this article from the Association of Psychological Sciences discusses new researh on the links between body movement and creativity. One choice quote:

“Actual physical acts appear to activate the abstract processes that overcome mental rigidity and make new connections—the nuts and bolts of creativity.”

Genetic Stuff 

How much do your genes matter in learning and creativity? Are some people born brilliant and able to do advanced calculus?  In the article How Much Do Genes Matter, Scott Young does a great job of qualifying intelligence and making a case that training and skill improvement (leveling up) are just as important as genetics.

A couple weeks ago, Tyler Tervooren tweeted something about DRD4 (dopamine receptor D4), the novelty/thrill-seeking/adventure gene. Now he has an article entitled Hack your Genetics for Better Risk Taking.

Even though genetics may play a factor in your proclivities toward car theft and sky diving, in the overall scheme of things the amount of effort you put into yourself and your work still matter more than any inherent talent. Just as important is your perseverance, or as Jocelyn K. Glei describes it in this excellent article, grit. I agree.

All this reminds me of a quote (and I’ve forgotten the source):

“I work my ass off so somebody with half the dedication and twice the genes cannot outperform me.”

Other stuffs

Alison Gresik has a great article about working retreats and the benefits of loneliness on Sean Ogle’s site. I’ve spent several months on solitary working retreats, and I think they’re a kick-ass way to grow as an artist/craftsman/whatever. Plus it’s pretty easy to incorporate travel into a working retreat.

I’m including this article as much for the headline as for the content: Top 9 Ways to Deal With Business Overwhelm (So You Can Avoid Thoughts of Mass Murder). I would only like to add this pro tip:

it’s not the thoughts of mass murder that get you in trouble.

Have a freaky halloween.

Seth

photo credit: goaliej54

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 47 Roundup: Why We Read, Why We Laugh, Flow
2. Week 45 Roundup: Building Momentum, Creativity Models, and Incubation
3. Week 46 Roundup: Monticello, Procrastination, and Commuting

Happy fall everybody.

Over the next few months, I’ll not be writing many articles here at Happenchance. Between a pregnant wife, NaNoWriMo, a full-time job, and a couple other little projects, I’m a busy boy. I do have a bigger project here at Happenchance in my someday/maybe folder; I’ll keep you updated as this develops.

Until then, I want to keep providing you with useful content, so I’m going to revive something I used to do: weekly roundups of the best articles on creative work, initiative, time management, motivation, resistance, and other topics I think you’ll find useful.

In short, I’m going to dabble in content curation with the occasional original article. Let’s say for now I’m severing half a finger and putting it on ice for eventual reattachment.

A Novel in a Month? Why not? 

Before we get to this week’s links, I’d like to remind you that NaNoWriMo starts in a few days. I’ve completed this the past three years, and against my better judgement I’m shooting for a fourth. I’ve written about NaNoWriMo before here, here, and here. If you write, this may be one of the best exercises out there for building your fiction chops.

The Roundup

• Ever feel like you know all you need to know but can’t quite execute? This is not an uncommon problem. Here Dragos Roua explains why information is cheap but action is expensive. IMO, taking action, even the wrong action, is better than doing nothing; at least you’ll learn something.
• Related to the last article is this one on initiative from G.I. Jen at Everyday Bright. Without initiative, all you’ve got is bunch of ideas, and ideas without execution are pretty much worthless. To quote Edison: “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Fortunately, developing the initiative habit is reasonably easy, and once you do you’ll be in possession of an increasing rare and valuable skill.
• Julien Smith explains how our avoidance of risk is frequently based on faulty assumptions and relates this back to the #OWS protests.
• Jonathan Fields (of Career Renegade) has launched a new book on uncertainty, and here Mark from Lateral Action interviews him with an emphasis on the creative/maker aspects of his work. Here’s a gem:

Great work requires decisions and actions in the face of uncertainty. In fact, studies prove a strong and direct relationship between your ability to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty and creativity

You may also enjoy:

1. Week 43 Roundup: Muttering to Yourself, Genetics, and More
2. Week 47 Roundup: Why We Read, Why We Laugh, Flow
3. Week 2 Roundup