Inside the Bubble

Last week I wallowed in semi-self-pity and paranoia though fought back with deliberate mindfulness by not paying attention or having these thoughts without judgment to realize their silliness.  Daily meditation allows one to be in the moment but the mind ceaselessly churns out thoughts but now with less consequence and control. A meditative mind that is mindful of its thoughts needs a tool to be aware of the demands of work, the next steps of a project, reply to an email, need to schedule meetings, and whatnot. A calm mind is a solution to burnout and overwork but may not be the best mind in a busy workplace where the need for action is paramount.

However, there are great business leaders like Ray Dalio the late Steve Jobs, and other who benefits from meditation and mindfulness. The secret is to Build a Second Brain (BASB) - a tool for knowledge management that makes one efficient by having more bandwidth in the brain by moving out mental data into an external location using tools like OneNote, Notion, Obsidian, and EverNote. This is really more on managing your mind not only with meditation but in the way one thinks, and building systems like BASB and knowledge management.

The key is a strong note-taking habit and a process to distill and categorize these notes into a system can can be organized and easily retrieved when the need arises. This requires one to be less emotional which is my main challenge. Often thoughts brought out by events bring out anxiety and fear with misattributed or incorrect reasonings and misguided course of actions. Meditation allows one to control and mind and one's emotions which scales back the thinking process in a way that one is not used to if one like me is driven by thoughts, action plans, strategies, and so on.

Instead, a calm unassuming mind that is temperate removes the constant churning of thoughts and actions and externalizes them into outside systems of knowledge - a second brain that allows one to be active in the moment but content that another tool is behind one's well-being. Otherwise, one remains inside the bubble forever driven by a monkey mind without the benefit of mental rigor and calm deliberation. Get out of the bubble which is not only achieved by meditation and BASB but also by journaling and practicing CBT or cognitive behavior therapy.

Video Casting

I started my course on video storytelling in The Great Courses. I took the first 3 courses after my workday ended. I also have several other lessons on video casting in Udemy and MasterClass. The plan is to start a second career in this space; to be a content creator. There are several YouTube videos on the topic. This is the natural progression of courses in increasing productivity like Building a Second Brain.

It makes sense to move to this area as I have experience in blogging and uploading YouTube videos made from pictures. I studied AdSense, SEO, monetizing blogs, and other such topics for several years but the endeavor never took off. Most of the successful entrepreneurs in this space are young with a new life ahead of them. My goal is to have something to do after I retire; hopefully to generate income; the old fogey strikes back.

I bought an Apple Mac mini in an attempt to jump-start this plan. I also bought a Smartphone Gimbel as well as a new Pixel 6 with a dual camera.  What I lack in youth I compensate with experience as a project manager and extensive computer skills and the naivete of an amateur. Lessons on Building a Second Brain and other productivity topics have given me a spark of possibility that I lacked before; instead of ruminating in a never-ending thought cycle.

My new role as squad leader necessitated my quest for increasing productivity which is really an emotional challenge. Procrastination is all about managing one's emotions and trying new techniques such as interstitial journaling is a way to handle one feelings and be mindful at work. All this learning in productivity, including my daily meditation, had provided mental space to bring in these new thinking with the potential for achievement.

My work-life and personal goals merge into a single stream with the common elements of using new tools in Microsoft, Google, and personal knowledge apps like Notion and Obsidian. Interconnectivity and synchronized workspaces are the keys. Externalizing one's thoughts based on concepts like The Extended Mind, Building a Second Brain, and The Organized mind make this possible.