Some of my more perceptive readers have noticed the little sign-up box that currently resides in the right sidebar of this site. For those of you who haven’t noticed, I’ll wait while you check it out (If you’re reading this in a feed reader you will have to click through to the actual site to see what the heck I’m talking about).

Pretty shnazzy, right?

This is your ticket to the brand new, monthly, and free The Simpler Life Monthly Newsletter. Those of you who are intrepid enough to sign up will receive all sorts of goodies the non-newsletter-subscriber readers of this site will be completely oblivious to. You can look forward to things such as:

• Premium and exclusive content. Think interviews, video updates, me singing songs (probably not that last one).

• Longer form articles where I explore a concept that is too long to post as a regular article on the site.

• Sweet coupons and deals on past and future products I release. I could see myself releasing my new ebook at a steeply discounted price to my newsletter subscribers.

• Other excellent incentives that I haven’t thought of yet.

If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, I highly recommend you sign up for the newsletter. I’ll only be sending it out once a month because the last thing I want to do is flood your inbox with unwanted email.

Venture over to the right sidebar or click here to sign up for The Simpler Life Monthly Newsletter right now!

Today I’m going to share an excellent resource that Jonathan Wondrusch of Grokkery developed a few weeks ago. If you’re familiar with Jonathan’s writing you’ll know that he is all about self-awareness. To help people develop this quality he created a PDF worksheet. Today, I’d like to share my answers to his thought provoking questions in hope of inspiring you to give it a shot as well.

You can download the PDF here.

the basics.

1. What area of my life am I trying to change?

I’m trying to change the way I approach my blogging business. I need to treat it like a job and put forth the effort to grow my site, grow my involvement in the community, and grow my knowledge of blogging and the subsequent topics I must improve my knowledge of (copywriting, marketing, social networking, etc.).

2. What am I excited for in that area of my life that already exists?

I’m really excited by my blog and the fact that I have already released an ebook. I have taken the first steps toward developing a readership and monetizing my content. I think I’m slowly building a pretty rad community of people trying to improve their lives by taking a serious look at how simplicity ties into their goals.

3. What causes me the most pain in this area of my life?

My inconsistency when it comes to writing. I will go stretches where I write very little and then I’ll make up for it by cranking out several articles in a matter of hours. I would like to be more consistent with my output. Also, my inability to take the time to learn the minutiae behind the “business of blogging” is restricting the growth of my blog, I’m sure.

4. Am I willing to take total responsibility for my current reality?

You betcha. Nobody else is going to make this blogging thing happen for me. If I want to make a living helping people with my writing I gotta make it happen myself. I want the location independence that blogging provides so I can accompany my girlfriend/wife wherever her job takes her and still provide for some of our material needs. If we get married and she ends up in the industry she is working toward, there is a very real possibility that we could move to Ireland for an extended period of time. I want to be able to take that awesome opportunity and continue to be productive at the same time.

5. How committed am I to making a change in this area?

Committed enough to be writing this during an all-night writing session when I have to work at my manual labor “real job” in the morning. Let’s do this thing.

embracing reality.

1. What patterns in my behavior created my current situation?

When I’m productive and successfuly creating quality content for my blog I seem to get complacent. Instead of building on that progress and leveraging it into something better, I slowly lose traction until I find my head barely over water.

Also, despite what I preach, I let distractions dominate way too much of my life when I should be writing. I somehow think I’m above being affected by distractions even though I know that’s not the case.

2. What facts and fears have I been hiding from?

I’ve been hiding from the fact that if I fail at this venture I really have nothing to fall back on other than my deck refinishing job. A teaching job is nowhere in my immediate future due to the economic reality of the Detroit-area. My coaching gigs do not pay enough to sustain me. Once the summer is over and there are no more decks to refinish, I either have to go back to subbing (which I abhor**LINK**) or I need to make my living off this blog. If I fail, I have to spend my time doing something I hate just to make enough money to scrape by.

3. Have I blamed anyone else for my situation?

Not intentionally or obviously, but I’m sure I have subconsciously. At some level I’m sure I have blamed more successful bloggers for “saying everything there is to be said” or having more readers or something else equally inane.

I’m sure I have subconsciously blamed anyone who has ever distracted me such as my friends and/or girlfriend. However, I’m the one who regulates distractions, not them.

4. What actions have I avoided taking?

I have avoided eliminating distractions when I’m trying to be productive. I should turn off the internet, silence my phone, go somewhere quiet, and write within WriteRoom every time I need to write. I get lazy and think I can write in TextEdit (like right now) with an instant message window in the background, Twitter on one tab and my email on another.

I have avoided getting serious about learning about the technical aspects of blogging, site design, SEO, copy writing and all the other details that are important to blogging. I hide behind the “content is king” motto; but that is only true to a certain point. Eventually I need to learn how to market myself and my product effectively.

5. What are the past, short term, and long term consequences of my current behaviors?

Past: My blog has seen uneven and sporadic growth since it’s inception. When I go through spurts of discipline and create excellent content and focus on growing the blog, it improves. When I get lazy or uninspired, it stagnates.

Short-term: Much of the same. The blog doesn’t grow. I waste my time creating premium content because nobody purchases it. I have to move back into my parents’ house when my lease expires in October because I won’t be able to afford rent through the winter.

Long-term: I have to find a job that ties me to a geographic location. If my girlfriend has an offer to go somewhere else for her job (like Ireland) it will be difficult for me to pack up and move. My blog will eventually dissolve into obscurity and I’ll look back on it as an amusing past-time and nothing more.

defining the future.

1. What would the ideal version of this area of my life look like? Describe it in exacting detail.

I would spend my days completely self-directed. I would be productive and engaged with my work. Most of my time would be spent writing and reading with a minimum spent on the administrative duties of running a blog. My income would be largely automatic and large enough to allow me to live comfortably. I would be able to travel at will and still be able to maintain my blog. In fact, my blog would be providing enough income I’d be able to focus on other pursuits like coaching hockey, volunteering, or going back to school for a graduate degree.

2. What is the easiest, most achievable, first step i am able to take toward my ideal vision?

I could write an excellent article to be posted to my blog immediately. I could make sure it lines up with all the copywriting advice I’ve read, make sure it has a great headline, and is formatted to perfection.

3. What are the milestones between my current reality and my ideal vision?

• Releasing my 2nd ebook.
• Attaining 1,000 subscribers.
• Making an average of $1000/month.

4. What habits will you need to break and what habits will you need to create to move forward?

Break: Addictive need to multitask. Stubborness toward learning about marketing, SEO, and the other aspects of business I find boring, confusing, or shady.

Create: Everyday writing habit. Regular schedule of self-improvement when it comes to learning about blogging.

5. What can help me remain accountable as I move forward?

My blogging buddy, Jonathan Wondrusch. My girlfriend. All my readers.

I was really surprised by how much this worksheet helped me crystallize my thinking. I’d be really curious as to what your answers are to these questions. If you have an area of your life that you want to improve (and who doesn’t?) please consider sharing your thoughts in the comments!

It’s gut check time.

It’s 1:53 in the morning and instead of being sound asleep in my comfy bed I’m sitting at a 24 hour cafe with my headphones on, a steaming coffee by my side, TextEdit open on my laptop, and a beehive of activity swarming in my head. I was at my apartment twenty minutes ago, actually. I was ready to go to bed, to get a couple hours of good sleep before I have to get up and go to work– but I changed my mind.

I’ve grown complacent in my quest to grow this blog. Coincidentally, my blog is stagnating at the same time I feel like I’m stagnating as an individual. Part of the problem is the myriad of projects I have competing for my attention. Every time I sit down to work on some blog posts I feel like I should be working on my ebook. Every time I sit down to work on my ebook, I feel like I should be preparing for the upcoming hockey season. And, you guessed it, every time I begin planning the hockey season I feel guilty for not trying harder to find a teaching job. I’ve got too much going on and therefore, I have nothing going on.

I haven’t written anything substantial in weeks. It’s amazing how little writing you can do to just “get by” when you have a blog that gets even a little traffic. There are plenty of comments to respond to, other blogs to comment on, plugins to download, themes to tweak, networks to socialize and brainstorms to conduct. It’s easy to seem busy, to look busy, and feel busy while accomplishing nothing at all.

It’s time to decide if I’m serious about writing, about personal development, and living consciously. This spontaneous all-nighter is going to serve a couple purposes:

1. Shock myself out of my normal routine: I haven’t pulled an all-nighter since college. Something about the mix between fatigue, caffeine, a different environment, and the solitude of the night has always been conducive to my productivity. I’m a fan of routine, but sometimes busting that routine is what you need to break out of that rut as well.

2. Quiet time to knock out my most gnawing commitments: Twitter is quiet. Facebook is dead. My email inbox is empty. There is very little pulling at my attention right now other than what I need to get done.

3. Force me to decide how serious I am: If I’m passionate about my craft then staying up all night and working at it should not be tough. Especially when my commitment has been weak as of late. I want to be a great blogger. I want to be a great coach. I want to be an amazing individual. I am willing to sacrifice sleep to accomplish that.

It’s 2:15 and I’m not tired. I’m exhilarated by the thought of accomplishing something worthwhile tonight. I’m excited to be doing what I love doing. My body is alert and wondering why my routine has been altered.

Have you found yourself in a rut lately? Do something, anything, to shock yourself out of complacency. Stay up all night, change your environment, or do something different. The change in routine might be exactly what you need to get the wheels turning again.

Photo by eekays photography

Michael Bungay Stanier has done something that has never been done before by any other personal development author. He has created a “workbook” that I have actually completed in its entirety. Self improvement books love to have you do writing exercises but most of the time I just end up conducting the activities in my head. Do More Great Work by Mr. Bungay-Stanier is the first book where I actually sat down and completed each exercise, on paper, from beginning to end.

Obviously, Michael is doing something right. His goal is to have you figure out what your Great work is and how to spend more time doing it. Using his terminology, our lives are made up of Good, Bad and Great work. Good work is what you spend most of your day doing. You can think of it as your job description, actually. It is the routine work that you know how to do and probably do quite well.

Bad work is that mind numbing, soul crushing, pointless work you sometimes find yourself doing. Revising the cover page of your TPS report or sitting in on the 3rd staff meeting of the day are great examples of Bad work. If you could somehow find a way to never do Bad work again, you would probably be a very happy person.

Lastly, Great work is the work that truly matters. It inspires you (and others). It stretches, provokes, and excites you. It’s the work where you find yourself getting “in the zone” and losing track of time. Great work is often uncomfortable because you are in uncharted waters and there is a potential for failure. Nonetheless, Great work is what truly matters and this book tries to help you figure out what your Great work is and how you can get started on it.

The book is broken down into 12 maps that help you analyze and identify different aspects to developing your Great work. My aim is to share these maps, along with my results, over the course of several posts. Obviously, I recommend that you pick up the book as you follow along because Michael has filled it with a myriad of helpful tips, suggestions, and theory behind his methodology. However, my aim is to make this series of posts intelligible even if you don’t have the book.

Map 1: Where Are You Now?

Click here to download a copy of Map 1.

Map 1 helps you figure out what your current distribution of Bad, Good, and Great currently is. It asks you to list examples of each type of work and estimate how much time you spend on each. For my purposes, I consider my “work” to be blogging, coaching, finding a teaching job, and my own personal development. Since I don’t have a typical office job with a specific description or responsibilities my “work” is going to be quite diverse.

A few examples of my Bad work are:

• Mindless surfing (Twitter, Reddit, etc.)
• Mindless working out (working out w/o a purpose)
• Mindless watching T.V.
• Filling out endless applications for teaching jobs.
• Administrative stuff such as scheduling posts, finding pictures, and editing guest posts for thesimplerlife.net
• Dealing with administrative work for the hockey team

A few examples of my Good work are:

• Researching specific drills for hockey practice.
• Reading educational books
• Editing my writing
• Leaving constructive comments on other blogs
• Focused networking on Twitter/Facebook
• Scouting and recruiting for the hockey team.
• Brainstorming topics to write about.

And lastly, a few examples of what I consider my Great work are:

• Writing for my blogs.
• Planning and coaching a hockey practice.
• Interviewing people for thesimplerlife.net
• Dissecting and analyzing game video for the team I coach.
• Running.
• Brainstorming new projects and products.

The distribution of these activities, unfortunately, is somewhere around 30%-50%-20%, respectively.

What surprised me about my results?

Surprisingly, I had a hard time coming up with examples of both Bad and Great work. On the one hand, it’s encouraging that it is difficult for me to identify Bad work. I’ve taken great strides in the past few years to safeguard my attention and grow my self discipline to the point where I don’t spend a lot of time on Bad work. On the other hand, it is concerning that finding examples of Great work were equally difficult to come by. Not only was it difficult to figure out what my Great work currently is, but when I was honest with myself I realized the amount of time I actually spend on these activities is disconcertingly low. I suppose the reassuring bit of this whole exercise is that I seem to be a great candidate for this book; I’m not totally clear on what my Great work is and I don’t spend enough time doing it! Do More Great Work indeed!

I hope you’ll join me for the next installment and analysis of Map 2, “What’s Great?” We will begin figuring out what Great work looks and feels like in your own life.

In the mean time, pick up this book, check out Michael Bungay Stanier’s blog, and share your thoughts and comments with me via whatever means you want!