Thank you to those of you who attended World IA Day Chicago and heard my talk, "Better Living Through Design"! I'm glad I got to share my stories with you.
First!
I must acknowledge that I am by far not the first person to do this type of "life is a design project" work. You should read up on people like Christina Wodtke, whose "Personal OKRS" was inspirational. (If you're in IA, you should be reading her stuff anyway.) My friend Derek Wade and I chatted about the concept of "personal Agile" a long while ago, and that got me researching and thinking on this quite a bit.
Specific References from the Talk
"Strong Opinions, Weakly Held" by me: You know the phrase, "Strong opinions, weakly held," right? Have you ever applied it to your opinions of yourself?
"Make Small Plans" by me: Those little things add up. Over time, they become the bigger things we want to do or need to do.
Leslie Jensen-Inman on recognizing where she is: When I feel in limbo and feel I have no control over anything, I remind myself to be where my feet are.
"Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are" by Amy Cuddy
"Getting Started with Getting Things Done" by Merlin Mann
Back to Work with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin
The effortless fame of George Clooney by Jason Kottke, which led me to the Esquire piece I quoted
My work
Of course, you should also visit Centralis and Designing Yourself.
If you have any questions or feedback for me, get in touch! Namaste.