Motivation is SO different from person-to-person, so for what it’s worth, here’s a couple of things I randomly consume whenever I need a shot of adrenaline:
——————————————

Dave Matthews blowing his lungs out:
After a 2-year long tour, this Central Park concert was the very last for The Dave Matthews Band, and in their final song “All Along The Watchtower” he screams his lungs off  (watch whole thing if you like, but screaming starts at 11minute mark):
http://youtu.be/fOaMQ-R9YGM?t=10m58s

Ellen DeGeneres speaking at a college commencement:
I like how she speaks.
http://www.upworthy.com/ellen-s-tragic-lesbian-love-story-has-the-most-beautiful-ending?c=ufb1

Earl Nightingales “The Strangest Secret”.
I can never make it all the way through without getting several great ideas and getting back to work.  Love Earl’s stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62DqsD2s5V8

Pendulum performing 2 re-mixed songs at GlastonBerry.
Cinematography is wonderful.  I dunno if they’re techno or a rock band, but I used to watch this constantly at wall-shaking & neighbor-complaining levels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnD0YRAT0bg

Slipknot performing “Wait and Bleed” live.  
I think the 1st minute of this live recording is unbelievably well done.  Don’t know why.  You might not wanna watch this at work or around kids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yngxExGNIHg

Steve Jobs talking about poking life.
I. Love.  This.  Video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfNvmF0Bqw

I have over a hundred of these, but this might be enough inspiration to get you going.
Bookmark the one’s that speak to you.
Sincerely,
Your lazy friend,
Neville Medhora

P.S.  Even if you don’t think any of my personal choices motivate you, I’d highly suggest you put a “Motivation” bookmark on your browser.  When in a lull, you’ll know what to do.

P.P.S.  Please share this list with someone you know it may help.

If you enjoy hanging out with friends.
If you enjoy reading.

You can combine the two and throw a fun event.  It would be partially productive, and partially fun/social.

I wanted to see friends before the busy holiday season sucks everyone out of town, so I put a Facebook invite out to some friends in Austin.  Here was the description for the party I wrote (Many people told me this was the favorite event-invite description they’ve ever got)!

FACEBOOK INVITE TITLE:
Pajama Reading Party @ Nev’s

Hey all, it’s my first ever READING PARTY!

Put some comfy clothes on and come READ at my place on Tuesday Nov. 20th!
Bring a book…..or borrow one of mine for the evening.

Show up at 8pm and we’ll all socialize. At 9pm sharp it’ll be library time….so we’ll all read for an hour.

This is just a fun, casual event for all of us to hang out (and get some reading time in).

 

—DRESS CODE—
Whatever you want…but comfy clothes or pajamas would be best.

 

—SCHEDULE—
8pm till 9pm: We’ll all socialize and hang out like cool kids.

9pm till 10pm: I’ll be a library cop and hush everyone up. We’ll all read for an hour till 10pm.

10pm till 12am: Wherever the night goes.

Try your best to show up at 8pm so we have time to talk beforehand. 9pm – 10pm I’ll actually hush you up and make you read!

 

—ALREADY PROVIDED FOR YOU—
-Healthy snacks.
-Extra books if you don’t have.
-Pillows, blankets etc to lounge on.
-Maybe pull the guest bed into the living room for lounging.
-Night time calming tea, soda, booze, beer (for those who wanna do some buzzed reading) :-)

 

—ETIQUETTE—
-No laptops please. Just reading materials.
-Let’s actually read for a full hour from 9pm till 10pm.
-Get comfy as possible during reading time. Make friends, grab a spot on a chair, or lay on the floor, or snuggle up to
someone and getchyo READ on.

 

—GUESTS—
If you have guests, make sure they’re cool, and make sure you can vouch for them. No bummers please like the Seinfeld library cop!
http://youtu.be/D9tP9fI2zbE

 

—ADDRESS—
Neville’s apartment at AMLI Eastside (formerly called Robertson Hill Apartments).

This map should show pretty closely the exact location of my apartment unit:
[insert map link here]

 

—PARKING—
Anywhere on the street around the building is fine. If you need, call me and I can let you into the guest parking garage.

I think I have cool friends….and it’s fun when you all meet!

I’ll see you all on Tuesday for a nice evening together :-)

Book-wormingly,
-Neville Medhora
-713.301.1546

P.S. Try to show up close to 8pm and don’t forget a book.

P.P.S. At 9pm sharp till 10pm we’ll hush up and read for an hour. So come a bit earlier to get some reading time in!

This description covered everything perfectly, so everyone was on time and brought books.

I wanted to make sure everyone had enough space to comfily sprawl out…..but in my apartment I only have seating for a few people.  So I ended up bringing a queen sized bed from my guest room into the living room for extra seating!

6+ people could easily fit on it, and it turned out to be the most comfortable spot!

Everyone arrived close to 8pm as requested, and we all hung out and chatted.  Since it was random friends and not just a particular clique of friends I invited, they all got to meet each other.

At 9pm we all started reading.  I thought I’d have to be a total library cop to shut everyone up….but surprisingly everyone was cooperative and ready to read.

In the background I put some soft music (Pandora.com on the “Chill/Downtempo Radio”) ….and it played great music the whole time that wasn’t too distracting (aka doesn’t have many words).

It was really fun reading around friends.  It kept everyone focused.

Someone pulled out a laptop at one point, and like the party description said, I made them close it.  The clickity-clacking of the keyboard is distracting to people reading.  I’m glad I laid down the law as laptops would’ve ruined the mood a bit.

Here’s everyone showing off their books before the reading started:

Here’s a shot of everyone reading (there’s a few more people on the left who didn’t make the picture):

That’s me laying down on the bed:

I’m not one to cook for a party, so a few hours before I went to Whole Foods and picked up some snacks.  Pretty basic, but it worked great:

• Water bottles (carbonated and non-carbonated).
• Beer.
• Tea.
• Sliced fruit (melon, kiwi, strawberries).
• Fresh guacamole & salsa + chips.

(on a side-note….checkout how neatly I placed my groceries on the conveyor belt thingy)!

Everyone was covered beverage-wise and the healthy snacks were delicious.

Overall this went off pretty well!

• Everyone got some quality reading time in.
• We all got to hang out on a lazy Tuesday.
• Just a fun, social gathering.

Try it yourself with your friends :-)
-Nev

But for about 4 years now I’ve used the same method which seems to work really well for me.

It’s simply a pen and paper……and I’ll shuttup now and you can see it live:

BY THE WAY: I only plan my tasks THE DAY BEFORE.  I rarely ever add on work for the same day (it’s how I stay sane).

It’s Sunday now…….and maybe if you’re dreading Monday a bit, you can plan out your day the same way I do.  It might work for you, it might not.  Give it a try and see if it boosts your productivity :-)

There’s some really cool things about working from home, and really sucky things.

I’ve always liked working from home or coffee shops.

Even till this day, I only go into our office whenever I start slowing down at home. This is simply because I get a lot of GREAT WORK done at home…..but then after few hours I get distracted and unproductive.

Here’s some of the pros, cons, tips & tricks we’ve all learned from working at home:

Also ways we’ve MADE good habits, and BROKE bad habits:

Here’s the Craigslist ad with more info:
http://austin.craigslist.org/cpg/2975234678.html

Here’s the form to fill out if you’re interested!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/embeddedform?formkey=dDNHOXIwcXZvOUF2aUliWnd1X2RNVWc6MQ 

Let any family/friends know what’s up!

Questions we answer:

• WHAT to outsource
• HOW to outsource
• Examples of what we’ve outsourced
• How to make sure you tell them exactly what you want
• Where to find outsourcing peeps
• How to test an outsourcer
• Horror stories, good stories
• Indians vs. Romanians vs. Americans vs. Filipinos

Link to the example in the video:
http://www.nevblog.com/outsourcing-lesson-examples/

Appsumo.com

Or watch at:
youtube.com/watch?v=4vsQkKl13Qc

….I saw they carried this little thing called the Boogie Board.  It’s essentially an LCD writing tablet.  But it’s not a computer screen…in fact it uses zero power except when erasing the slate.

It does nothing but let you write on it, then erase. I played with it from one second and immediately knew I would be buying it!

I always carry around one these standard journals for keeping my notes:

…but this little board allows me to graph out temporary thoughts, doodle, or just things I don’t need to keep written down. When I DO happen to write something on it that matters, I snap a picture of it with my phone.  It’s crude, but it works.

No color options, no spot eraser, and you can even use your fingernail to write (or any make-shift stylus like a pen cap).

I often jot on it in the mornings.  Even though I always plan my to-do lists the night before, I tend to jot down a few random thoughts on this when I wake up…just to get the day started.

…but mostly I use it to doodle! I learned how to draw these weird house-looking-things from Commander Mark when I was in elementary school:

The erasing feature is really neat….and I can see this concept being developed into many other neato products.  All you do is push a button, and the LCD screen “wipes” like this:

I bought the Brookstone Boogie Board a little before the Christmas rush for $19.99…but now everywhere I look they’re $39.99.  Guess they got popular QUICK!

Of course you have!

Enjoy 5 hours of me working on a computer condensed into 1 minute and 20 seconds.  EXCITING isn’t it!

You can actually see it start to get dark around the 1:00 minute mark:

It’s a little funny how many people would LOVE to work at home…little do they know, it’s just you sitting at a computer for hours on end.

…but I love it :-)