Looking for a positive attitude?
Feb 22nd
We’ve all had days / weeks or maybe (and hopefully not!)…….months where things just haven’t gone to plan, and it’s hard to find the positives which are required to get motivated and keep working towards a successful outcome. Whether its an arsey client at work, the inability to complete something on time, or just one of those days, there are things that can be done to ensure you can start the next day with a positive outlook on things.
I’m no expert on these kinds of things, but I have a few things that I practice myself to try and induce a positive attitude, especially at the start of the week!
Not convinced? Let me explain…!
- Mentality: It’s the classic “Positive Mental Attitude” cliché. If you believe that you can do something, and maintain a positive mentality about it throughout, then the chances are you will stay positive until completion. For example, if you start the day thinking “I cannot do the tasks ahead of me” or “I’m bored doing this” then its going to reflect in the work you produce. If, however, you think “I’m not sure how to do the tasks ahead of me, but I know I can ask for advice and enjoy learning how to complete the task” or “How can I make this work more enjoyable for myself?” then it’s a good place to start from.
- Ability: We all have phases where we feel we simply cannot do what is being asked of us. As soon as the word “cannot” is used then its instantly had a negative effect on the outlook. Try not thinking of things with a “cannot” attitude, and adopt a “can do” attitude. No one can do everything, its impossible! But we can take pride in the things that we couldn’t, and have now learned to do.
- Environment: Make sure you’re in a good working environment. This might not be possible for some people, but if you can at least put your headphones in and listen to music that makes you relax / concentrate then its definitely going to have a positive effect on the work you produce.
- Set Goals: The chances are you have goals set for you, for example, you have a piece of work that needs completing by Friday, without fail. Instantly, you’re under pressure, and it’s only natural for your mind to start to think of the negatives (what could go wrong, what If I can’t do this and so on).
Try breaking down the overall task into “Micro” tasks, that you feel are achievable. Take each “Micro” task at a time, and when it’s complete, have 5 or 10 minutes to yourself, to refresh your mind before you start the next task. The sense of completing a small task often will help motivate you through the overall task, instead of working for hours and hours with only one goal to work for. - Relax: Find something to do that takes your mind off what you’ve been working on all day. Whether this is something alone (A run, swimming, whatever), or something with your mates, make sure its something non-work-related, to enable your mind to just switch off and de-stress. Even if its just half an hour away from the desk, its crucial you allow yourself that time to relax.
Like I said, I’m no expert, but I guess we all have times when we could do with a pick-up, so if something I’ve written helps just one person, then that’s ace 
If you want to add any suggestions, then please feel free to comment
M
Cardiff Twitterers
Feb 19th
So, for those of you who don’t yet know, the next Ignite Cardiff event is on the 8th April at the Sodabar. It should be a really good event, so if you’re around, its going to be well worth popping in for a bit!
I’ve (foolishly, maybe!) offered to do a talk, so even if your not in any way interested in the Web Scene or anything related, at least pop in and laugh at me (that’s a definite “at” me, and not “with” me!).
It’s OK offering to do a talk, but of course, you need something to talk about! So for the past couple of weeks now (and for the following weeks leading up to Ignite), I’ve been tracking Tweets from people within a ten mile radius of Cardiff (According to Wikipedia, the centre of Cardiff is slap bang in the middle of Bute Park, so its a 10m radius from there!). Basically, I thought it would be interesting to see what kind of tweeters we are. Whether that’s Happy, Sad, Moaning, Drunk, Over Worked or just chatting to each other a lot, I thought it would show some interesting, and hopefully amusing stats relative to the people who will be at Ignite.
Before any one worries…..I’m not keeping the tweets themselves, so there won’t be any examples of embarrassing drunken tweets about your boss, who may well be there!
I don’t want to reveal too much, but here’s a taster to the kind of things I’m noticing (If you’re interested in viewing the stats in detail, pop me a comment, I have graphs and everything, how exciting!)
Stats from Saturday 7th February to Wednesday 18th February 2009
- Top Twitterer: Sianz - An impressive 936 tweets so far, with a total word count of 11556. Ironically, 2nd place WalesOnline have tweeted 12825 words. Over 1000 more, but only a total of 563 tweets.
- Ville1955 really loves Dancing on Ice. Cardiff tweeters have used the trend 135 times, with Ville1955 using it a massive 98 times alone! (Along with the following Dancing on Ice related trends: #Ice, #Todd, #Ellery, #Ray)
- On average, we tweet over 50% of our Daily total during “Working hours”, making over half of us “Social Notworkers”
- Wmjohn is the happiest tweeter, with 124 of their 495 tweets containing smiles, or happy words.
- There are currently 1293 Twitter users being located within 10 miles of Cardiff. If only 30% of those users could come to Ignite, it would be amazing, and very full! Hint hint
Of course, these stats are just for fun.
If you’re interested in seeing the stats so far, or have any ideas of things that would be cool to track, then please let me know!
That’s all for now!
Looking for new tooones
Feb 15th
I’d say, that, on average, I get bored of my entire music collection about 3 times a year…..and this is one of those times. It’s not a bad thing, in fact I really enjoy it when it happens, as it gives me the chance to spend vast amounts of time, money and effort listening to music that I’ve never heard before, which is just damn ace!
Right now, I’m loving quite a few groups / genres that have been recommended to me from friends / reviews in Magazines. Artists such as Fleet Foxes, Frankmusik, Passion Pit, Ladytron, and as of today, Low (See video at end of post).
I guess with Spotify in full flow, it’s become easy for people around the world to share playlists and have free access to practically any song in the world. And why not? You switch on the radio and have free music, you turn on the TV and can select what you want to listen to, so why not allow access to millions of songs at the cost of just a few tiny adverts here or there online.
But oh no, the music companies aren’t happy for people to have access to their artists without paying stupid amounts of money to download or purchase their favorite tunes. I’m not ashamed to admit that I have done / will download music from sources that don’t charge money before making a purchase. But I found that with Spotify, I hardly downloaded anything at all, because it was just quicker and easier to load Spotify and listen to whatever I wanted. So looking at it logically, the record companies we’re making money off me, not directly, but I was listening to the adverts, which no doubt funded Spotifies use of the tracks. Infact, I remember having a discussion with work colleagues about wanting an xBox, simply because we had all heard the xBox ad several times on Spotify that day.
I can only begin to think that the record companies are going to end up with egg on their faces if they continue to strip programs such as Spotify from its rights to play certain artists, after all, surely a steady stream of income through advertising is better than nothing at all, especially with the ever increasing “black market” of illegal MP3 downloads?
I’ve set up a collaborative play list on Spotify that I’d really like people to add to (sooner rather than later, before Spotify has nothing good left on it!), to introduce some cool music into my collection. Just click here and start adding, if you wish