Weirdly – or perhaps not – a lot of people got excited about my column on how to hire a virtual assistant. For anyone wanting to give it a crack, Freelancer.com is offering this deal to three inquisitive, desperate-to-delegate readers…
Sarah Wilson
A Daniel Pink webinar + other brainy things to do … to make your life more expansive
Ideas are the new gossip. I like this. The Times recently wrote about how Brainy is Suddenly Chic and the “new vogue for intellectual pursuits” as a way of accessing happiness. 
More and more we’re becoming interested in sharing concepts and being truly informed. Not so much to wear the badge “Hi, I’m Informed”, but to connect with other people’s thinking and experience.
To this end, a few experiences that you might like to sign up for. Sometimes life is improved by simply signing up. Committing, sitting, absorbing.
1. Get Motivated with a Daniel Pink Webinar. Daniel is author of Drive, the New York Times bestseller. I’ve read it. It’s all about how the new way to motivate to tap into creativity, and to access the new flow. Very fresh. So….The Australian Businesswomen’s Network is holding a free lunchtime webinar with him next Thursday at 12.00pm. It’s free, you just have to register and be at a computer to listen in on the day.
PS these webinars are supremely well run and incredible to be part of. I did last month’s Seth Godin webinar. A community of more than 500 people are Australia listening and tweeting comments…a nice little community experience. Try it!
2. Think big with TED Sydney. Have you checked out TED? Ooooh, you should. The VERY best thinkers around the world – in technology, entertainment and design – congregrate to talk, each for 18 minutes…under the banner “ideas worth spreading”. My favourite is Jill Bolte Taylors‘ account of having a stroke, explained in spiritual, metaphysical terms. I cry ever time I see it.
And so TED comes to Sydney Saturday 22 May at the CarriageWorks. There will be a live audience and anyone can go…some people will be able to participate as a member of the live Bay 17 audience. Here‘s where you would apply to be within that group.
TEDxSydney we are on the lookout for merit, moxie & diversity. Applications close on 12 April 2010 … and we’ll be letting people know one way or the other via email on 19 April.
3. Intelligence Squared Debate with Annabel Crabb: These debates are held in Sydney and Melbourne on a regular basis and are webcast at SMH and podcast on Radio National. Pretty much an old school debate with great big minds…including one of my favourite writers, Annabel Crabb. The next one in Sydney is April 13: The Senate is still unrepresentative swill
famous thinkers’ daily rituals: an inspiration
I am pretty much obsessed with how other people run their lives. Since I was a kid I’ve asked others what time they wake up, how they organise their mornings, what little things do they stick to to get through their day. Because I think these kind of details give an insight into their success, and the vulnerability of their character. And vulnerability is often the portal to connection. I find.
Me, I start my day at 6.30 and exercise for 40 minutes, generally at the beach because the ocean wakes me up and sets the mood for my day (my Qi Gong teacher said 15 minutes in the ocean is enough to ground you for the day). I don’t phaff around the house. It’s clothes on and out, down the hill, on my bike. Then I meditate for 20 minutes, generally at the beach.
My ritual works to this point. Then it’s chaos for the rest of the day. But so long as this start-t0-the-day is in place, most things flow OK from there.
This rundown of famous thinkers’ daily rituals from onlinecollege is inspiring right now. I’m really scatty with my rituals and it’s making me scatty all over.
I like how neurotic some of the rituals are (having to eat an apple under the Arc de Triomphe every morning). And how stringent most are in adhering to them.
Interesting observation: many famous thinkers go to bed by 9.30 every night.
- Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway described his writing ritual as starting just as the sun began rising, then working straight through until whatever he had to say was said. He likens completing his morning of writing to making love to someone you love–being both empty and fulfilled at the same time. Upon completing that morning’s work, he would wait until the next morning to begin again, going over his ideas in his head and holding on to the anticipation of starting again the next day.
- Fred Rogers. (from the long-lasting PBS children’s show). Each day he would wake at 5:30 and begin his day with reading, writing, study, and prayer. He would take a swim most days of his life, take a late-afternoon nap, and go to bed at 9:30 each night. Perhaps the most idiosyncratic of his rituals was that he kept his weight at 143 pounds his entire adult life. He saw his weight one day and realized it aligned with the number of letters in “I love you” and vowed to maintain that weight, which he did.
blue moon tonight! whoa.
Here’s something to “Did you know…” your colleagues with this afternoon: Tonight it’s a rare Blue Moon. Rare? How so?
As Adelaide blogger and healer Rebecca Dettman at psyched in stilettos helpfully writes:
One Blue Moon, every once in a while (every 2.5 years to be exact), is rare enough. But how about two in the same year — within three months of each other?! March 30 sees the second Blue Moon for 2010…
The term ‘Blue Moon’ is at least 400 years old. The definition of a ‘Blue Moon’ is two full moons falling within a calendar month…
So what? Well, Rebecca adds:
It’s a time of new beginnings, and of getting things right that you messed up or missed the first time through. Some groups use it as a period of initiation and re-dedication, so if there’s something new you need to start, now’s a good opportunity to do so.
sunday life: in which I hire a virtual assistant
This week I hire a Virtual Assistant in India (and, no, the picture below has nothing to do with Virtual Assistants, or India, but is an image of what I’d like to have more time for once I’ve successfully delegated stuff I hate doing ).
I tell you, VAs are the PTs of the new millennium. Ten years ago we took to delegating our weight loss to personal trainers. Soon enough they became part of the fabric of life, popping up at clients’ dinner parties and dating their friends. Now it’s all about delegating our administrative clutter to a remote assistant. Or so I’m learning.
Every productivity guru and self-help blog I encounter advocates hiring one of these faceless helpers to coordinate travel itineraries, answer emails and organise the kids’ swimming lessons…all from a cubicle in Bangalore.
Admittedly I don’t know anyone in Australia who uses a VA. I think it’s because we feel quite puncy offloading our detritus to others. I mean, who admits to having a pool cleaner?
have a sweet weekend: 26 March xox
A very quick one because I’m about to jump in the car and drive South for my Uncle Pete’s funeral at Broulee. His ashes are being scattered out to sea, which is where he lived most of his life (he was a prawn trawlerer and surfboard shaper and dude who got shipwrecked and attacked by sharks). Big. And Sad. And Full of Life…
But a few little things of joy and interest:
1. This little poppet and her bunny ears, for sale (the ears) from Les Zigouis.
greeting e-cards: four really good ones to send with love now. Just because…
There’s no special occassion looming; all the better for sending an e-card to someone who just matters to you right now. E-cards are ace. So long as they don’t involve a dancing elf. They cut down on paper, save energy costs and can still be really creative and personal.
Bookmark these four FREE sites for moments when you feel like emitting some care.
1. The High Brow: Send a card created from an art in MOMA’s collection in New York.
2. The Cool Insert-A-Face Version: Jibjab does those ones where you can cut and paste your friend’s face into the novelty action. But they do it in quite a cool way. I also like the beatboxing flautist one.
I found this Deepak Chopra tweet pretty funny, actually
Not sure if you follow The DC on Twitter. I do. Although every now and then I “unfollow” him because he is a rather prolific twit… that is, he posts a lot of tweets! This morning, he posted this: No Gotham. Reality is the perceiver. The perception is deception In response to this from Gotham, … Read more
free for you: a melancholy song about divorce (which says so much about where we’re all at right now)
Bit of a sad-sack giveaway, you might be thinking? Ahhhh, not so! This free download from Tracey Thorn (of Everything But the Girl fame) touched this 36-year-old in lovely, poignant ways. It might you too. Thorn is releasing her solo album soon, but is letting us download the single “Oh, the Divorces!” for free in … Read more
give good quote: stillness
“In stillness the world is restored.” ~ Lao Tzu I can’t tell you how much this quote means to me right now. I’ve been moving around too much – travelling for work, looking externally for validation and stimulation, getting buzzy in my head about ideas and constantly in “scheduling mode”. I’ve been running late for … Read more