Take your time
Greetings
In Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman writes, “The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things.” It has taken many years and many mistakes to realise that it is impossible for me to do everything that comes to mind. I have notebooks filled with random ideas. I have documents sitting in folders detailing possible projects. After a session with a business/life coach, I discarded a lot of the concepts/projects/ideas that, when I considered honestly, I was never going to do. There is only so much time.
I always great intentions. I always have a list of things that I will do, one day, like writing and recording book reviews on my site. I go through a decent number of books every year and reckon it would be useful - though I am not sure to who - to share my opinions on said books. Considering I haven’t even been successful with short thoughts on Goodreads, in reality, this idea will end up consigned to the ‘would-have-been-nice-to-do’ pile. However. Earlier this year, I was invited onto 702 to chat about a business book, with Bruce Whitfield, and I chose to chat about Four Thousand Weeks. Our 'busy' culture: How best to manage your time during your short stay on earth
It is that time of the year when life feels a little monotonous, where it feels like one is on a treadmill. It is a weird feeling for me because I, by and large, own my time and have a bit more of a choice when it comes to what I work on. Working with a Europe-based client has been eye-opening particularly regarding how people don’t seem to skimp on taking leave. Plus, during the summer holidays (July/August), a lot of people and businesses practically shut down. I could do with taking a week off when my colleagues at client are on leave but then South African based clients are often ramping things up at the same time. One day, I will get it right but, in the mean time, looking at How to Take Better Breaks at Work, According to Research
How Rick Rubin has crafted his life over the last few decades continues to fascinate me. Just finished listening to this conversation he had on the Huberman Lab podcast:
In the episode, Rubin talks about, amongst a bunch of other things, how he focuses solely on the work with the business (read ‘money’) side of things handled separate from him. For me, that would be the dream. To focus on writing, recording, creating, etc without worrying about the quoting, negotiating, invoicing, etc. Of course, one would need a support system that you completely trust.
The newest episode of my podcast, Listen To Your Footsteps, features celebrity make-up artist Nthato Mashishi. While I have known him for some years, there was still so much about his journey that I didn’t know, including studying HR, how he got his break into the industry, and the work he does behind-the-scenes in film and television.
One of my favourite all-time groups is Outkast. And, I am probably very late to the party but I only recently came across Nu Deco Ensemble “a flexible and innovative hybrid orchestra that celebrates living composers, reimagines all genres of music, and collaborates with a wide range of diverse musical guests, composers, choreographers, dancers, and mixed media artists.” And I can’t get enough of this performance of Outkast’s music.
Next time I am in Ghana, top of my list of places to visit is the Dikan Centre which, amongst other things, houses a library of photography books and magazines. They also run a course on photojournalism and documentary practice. Any initiative that seeks to document and archive our history, in various forms, is deserving of support.
The documentary series Maftown Heights: Untold Stories was released launched in South Africa and is showing on DSTV’s Channel O. It is definitely worth the watch for insights into South African hip hop, and I am not just saying that because I know the people behind it. I do hope that, once it has flighted on television, it will be available to a broader audience, in whatever way that makes sense.
That’s it for today. Please share, subscribe and/or comment.
Also, check out my podcast and book Listen To Your Footsteps.
Easy
Kojo