Issue 7: Bag Of Obligation-Holding
In January, I launched a new site, Two Common Cents Club. The goal was to publish articles twice a month on how I'm trying to grow my own little microbusiness, Dropped Bits, and it featured a paid subscription that offered the ability to comment on posts, receive the articles as a newsletter, and get access to some discounts on things like email providers and such.
It was a lot of fun to do at first, but lately it's been a slog. I'm just not feeling encouraged to continue working on it, and quite frankly it makes more sense to just discuss this topic in my (dormant) business' newsletter.
And so, I'm shutting it down. This was supposed to be a year-long experiment to see how this went, but I strongly believe that you should revisit the progress against your goals on a regular basis to see if you need to course-correct — or in this case, quit early. It completely pulled my focus from other writing, and took a lot of time away from working on my upcoming app.
Every opportunity is an obligation, and my bag of obligation-holding is full.
Around The Web
- Tommy Tomlinson implores us to try being easily pleased: "There is so much flawed beauty out there, so much crooked glory, so much incredible pleasure in the seconds bin. Don’t cast any of it aside."
- Prioritizing time for your art —rather than retreating to it when your calendar allows— is becoming a common theme in my writing, and this quote from Alan Jacobs' article, the attention cottage relates: "We think we should be living in the chaotic, cacophanous megalopolis and retreat to our cottage only in desperate circumstances. But the reverse is true: our attention cottage should be our home, our secure base, the place from which we set out on our adventures in contemporaneity and to which we always make our nostos."
Thought Of The Week
If you're tired, take a nap. I've done it four times this week, at random points in the day, and wow does it make a difference.
That's it. That's the thought of the week.