Webby Clare

Thoughts and other writings by Clare Conroy

The measure of a day

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With a new baby to care for, at the end of the day I often find myself glancing around the chaos in my home, running through the never-ending mental ‘to-do’ list, and lamenting that ‘I got nothing done today’.

It’s so easy to get pulled into the trap of believing we need to do more in order to have more and to be more. My perceptions of success and self-worth are tied to my productivity. But what if I asked questions to determine the value of my day that were better than ‘what did I get done?’? Questions that were more aligned with my values and what really matters to me right now.

How deeply did I love and allow myself to be loved today?

Did I express love and appreciation for people I care about?

Who did I connect with? Did I form new connections or strengthen old ones?

What opportunities will I have to do this better tomorrow?

Book Review: Making Ideas Happen

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Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and RealityMaking Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality by Scott Belsky

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Enjoyable read with some good ideas. A couple of the parts that really ‘stuck’ were:
– the danger of focusing too much on idea generation at the expense of the execution phase (becoming addicted to the ‘brain-spinning indulgence of idea generation’)
– the three types of people (dreamers, doers and incrementalists)
– importance of follow up and persistence
– need to share ideas (‘the more people who lie awake in bed thinking about your idea, the better’)

The book also goes into detail about the Action Method (personal productivity/project management/to-do system) which I found quite interesting, but it’s not a system that I’ve implemented or that I think could work for me (at least not at this point in time). [Read more…]