Pushing yourself – End of the Day for July 30, 2014

As I mentioned a few days ago, tomorrow marks the beginning of the Dog Days of Podcasting Challenge where we create 30 podcasts in 30 days. As I recorded and edited the Introduction podcast today, I must admit I was feeing a bit stressed. Since I signed up for this year’s challenge I had been feeling a bit worried that I was taking on too much. Along with all the regular podcasts and blogging I do, including this daily post, did it really make sense to add in another daily commitment? Perhaps not, but I also had to remind myself that sometimes you have to challenge yourself in order to change and grow. That is exactly what something like Dog Days is all about. Sure it is going to be challenge, but you never know what you might learn, what you might discover, what might happen. This is just one reason to push yourself — at least some of the time.

That fact is, I had been planning on gearing up for more videos, podcasts and blogging anyway, so this challenge will be a chance to test out some systems and procedures to see if it is possible to create more output or if I am already at a saturation point. Since the challenge is something greatly critical — nothing will suffer except my ego if I miss a day, it is a great, low pressure way to see what I am capable of. If you are going to working hard, you should at least make it as easy as possible on yourself, right?

One of the tricks to new media productivity is making use of those down times to actually be doing work. Like the old 1960’s Easy Off over cleaner advertisement, where the lady sits reading a magazine in a comfy chair, “I’m cleaning my oven.” Its the same for me, really. To be the most productive, I need to use my sleeping time, my consulting time, my out of house time, etc to be doing something like rendering video, uploading video, mixing audio, uploading audio, photos, whatever. Every minute I sit waiting on my computer is time I could be spending creating something new, Of course, this requires preparation and planning to be most effective. I have to have work prepared so I can let it work while I am otherwise occupied or that time and productivity is lost. This is where I am trying to focus my attention in the coming weeks as I produce these special Dog Days podcasts as well as my usual output. Where I can I find ways to conserve time and make the best of what I am given. This then allow me to push myself a bit further without breaking something important.s

Previously on End of the Day: