Dragonfly, Hippopotami, Blogger Tools

Every second today has been a glowing streak like
you see in time-lapse astral photography. I've had so much coffee that I am
slipping backwards through time, nimbly dancing through radiant
spaghetti stars. I am a dragonfly in an office of hippopotami, flitting around
giant creatures that are standing still.

But no
matter what I do, there's other stuff screaming to be done. Like this blog post,
meant for time-stressed bloggers who want to crack it out now now
now.

Here's two essential tools to do just
that:

A web-based alarm
clock. Just
set the alarm and leave the window open. The tone is the most grating,
aggravating sound I can think of, and impossible to ignore. I set it in
30-minute increments and focus on one task at a time. It
helps!

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's Oblique Strategy
Generator. Eno and Schmidt are a musician and painter, respectively. Brian Eno
is the most famous for having produced U2 and the Talking Heads, and you may
know his song "Needle in the Camel's Eye" from the Velvet
Goldmine soundtrack. Schmidt, I know a lot less about.


But I digress. The two artists developed a pack of cards
meant to jog the brain while stuck on a creative problem. The above link goes to
a web-enabled version. Some strategies may not relate, but others will hit right
home.

Every blogger runs out of stuff to write about, or
wants to be more interesting than he is. These Oblique Strategies are, in my
mind, a great tool for applying pressure to a stuck mind when pressure is
needed, and relieving pressure when there is already too much.


Let me know how it works for you. If you like, use the
Strategy Generator for your next post and leave me a link to it in the comments.


Or, you could just tell me to stop being all artsy-fartsy
and I'll understand.