Now we're getting somewhere

In my final official experiment of 2017, I went a little crazy. I pulled out all the stops! Threw caution to the wind! I took an exam! I decided early this year to attempt Project Management Professional (PMP) certification through the Project Management Institute, which requires a bunch of training hours and a 4-hour test.…

For this experiment I spent 2 weeks learning how much money I wasted buying literally nothing. Paperless Statements + Auto Pay. Years ago I embraced the “conveniences” of automatic bill payment and paperless statements for most bills. In other words, I stopped paying attention. It dawned on me that maybe that was a bad idea,…

Experiment date: April 17-30, 2017. More experiments available here.   In this 2-week experiment I tracked two actions  – gratitude and complaining. I attempted to not complain for 14 days, failed miserably, and noted the details. Second, I tried to reflect on daily moments of thankfulness. Day 1: Let’s Do This. The sun is out,…

The worst day to start a new diet?  January 1. Immediately, New Year’s Eve’s leftovers beg to be consumed. Four weeks later, the Super Bowl party offers an array of meats and cheeses and dips and beers. Then come the sweets. The Girl Scouts start Sugar Season with their aggressive sales tactics and fructose-gluten bombs.…

This year I’m conducting a wide-ranging series of 2-week self-experiments. After the first 4 weeks, I learned that adding new activities to an already-busy life can make that life even busier. I’d like to carve out some space. Enter Experiment 3. I consider myself a minimalist when it comes to physical items, but not so much with tasks, activities, and inputs…

I’m planning a series of experiments aimed at attempting new daily practices, learning new skills, and finishing uncompleted projects. The first experiment of the year is simple: E-mail 50 randomly-selected people from my address book and see what happens. Choosing an address book. I’ve been a professional for 18 years, and in that time I’ve…

I’m literally posting this for myself, so I’ll be able to easily go back and watch it. A lot.

(I ran across a Halloween essay I wrote in 2009 – seemed like a good day to dust it off and re-post). My favorite part of Halloween in Columbia, Missouri, is trick-or-treating downtown. And the highlight of the evening is always a visit to Gotcha.   Gotcha is a costume shop in downtown Columbia, owned…

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” -Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country I recently discovered a fun thing: make your own searches in Google Trends. Google Trends provides a 10+ year graph of how often a word or phrase has been searched on google.com.…

On a recent drive by Taco Bell I learned about their latest invention – the Quesalupa.  It got me thinking about what their marketing meetings  might be like. Ok, there are 6 ingredients we use for every single menu item . We’re not adding more, so instead how do we rename what we have? How can we randomly combine new food-sounding…