1. Droste Clock 1, 2. Untitled, 3. radio, 4. A Boatshed At Lowry Bay Under The Magical Skies Of The Southern Hemisphere

Bonjour! Welcome to Monday-land!

I’m not going to grade myself on last week’s resolutions because, well… I didn’t do too well. But hey! It’s a shiny new week, sparkling with promise. Who needs last week’s resolutions?!

Onward & upward. Here is what I am going to do this week!

Work more effectively & consciously
I’ve been reading Timothy Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek with great gusto & I’m really enjoying it. (I’m not finished yet, once I am I’ll review it for you.) One thing he talks about is how we get more work done if we have less time to do it in. If someone gives you two hours to complete a project, you’ll get it done straight away, while a deadline that stretches out in front of you for three months becomes a hideous wrestling match. Because I work in our living room, I find it hard to unplug from work, & so I end up caressing my Macbook from 7am until midnight every day. Even when I’m not posting articles, I am still replying to hundreds of emails, talking to advertisers, planning things for the future. As much as I love iCiNG, when I’m awake, I never really spend more than a couple of hours away from it. So I’m going to compress the hours I work on it — & hopefully this will increase the quality as well as the volume of the work. This kind of scared me as a concept, & I wondered what I would do with all this “free time”. This is an excellent problem to have. Life is going to become much more exciting because of this alteration!

Make a whole lot of changes to Cupcake!
I have a mailing list (oh, didn’t you know?!) called Cupcake which goes out every Thursday to a few thousand of my closest friends. (Hee!) Last week, as well as the normal stuff, I asked my Cupcake kittens to fill out a little survey about how I could improve what I mailed out. The suggestions were magnifique & I’m going to start doing things differently. Ooh la la! It’s an exhilarating time! & I have to say, asking your readers for feedback, while initially a bit nerve-wracking, is totally worth it. If you have a blog or a mailing list or anything that you want to make better, start asking your readers for their thoughts! They know what they want; all you have to do is give it to them.

Finish up podcast
I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, so… it’s time!

Start planning trip to New Zealand
Simon & I are going to be in Wellington from the 2nd to the 7th of April. Yay! I’m hoping it’s not going to be too cold, but I’m sure we’ll survive… ! I am about to whip out my Moleskine & start doing some serious planning! We both grew up in Wellington so there are always about 3 billion people to see, places to eat at, favourite shops to visit, etc. I’m also planning on doing a spot o’ shopping… Dare I say the clothing in New Zealand is better than almost anything I’ve found in Melbourne?!

What’s on your to do list this week? Grab a badge & tell the world!