Ask the Author: Kourosh Dini
Answered Questions (6)
Kourosh Dini
Creating Flow with OmniFocus began as a small series of blog posts about how I use Omnifocus for a series of workflows. The posts became very popular.
I thought it would be useful to write a PDF to take a user completely unfamiliar with the program through a gradual path up to an advanced skill. It seemed at the time that it would amount to, perhaps, a 50 page PDF. However, it grew to become over 500.
The resulting text became popular in its own right.
Afterwards, I became interested in the ideas of workflow in general. There is, after all, much more to enjoying work and developing mastery than task management. Those ideas eventually became Workflow: Beyond Productivity and later, Workflow Mastery: Building from the Basics.
Now, several years after the first publication of Creating Flow with OmniFocus, I return to re-write it not only based on the update to the program itself, but also with ideas developed in Workflow Mastery.
I thought it would be useful to write a PDF to take a user completely unfamiliar with the program through a gradual path up to an advanced skill. It seemed at the time that it would amount to, perhaps, a 50 page PDF. However, it grew to become over 500.
The resulting text became popular in its own right.
Afterwards, I became interested in the ideas of workflow in general. There is, after all, much more to enjoying work and developing mastery than task management. Those ideas eventually became Workflow: Beyond Productivity and later, Workflow Mastery: Building from the Basics.
Now, several years after the first publication of Creating Flow with OmniFocus, I return to re-write it not only based on the update to the program itself, but also with ideas developed in Workflow Mastery.
Kourosh Dini
I am currently writing the Second Edition of Creating Flow with OmniFocus.
Kourosh Dini
I would like to change the question: What is my relationship to inspiration?
Inspiration is nothing to count on. It is certainly nice. It does give a definite fuel to the fire.
However, it is not the focus. The focus is in developing the kindling. The systems of daily habit are the practice that is needed to do anything with inspiration should it appear.
As I work, wake, walk, or otherwise, I can have several ideas come to mind. Importantly, I have a place to put those ideas where I know I will visit daily. As a result of having a trusted place and habit, my mind is more free to actually have those ideas. I am not caught up in the fear that they will be lost. The unconscious forces to "protect myself" from ideas I fear I would be unable to actualize are minimized.
The important matter is to take a step every day. Should the book one day appear, that is nice. But it also may not. It may also be garbage. But I do not believe writing it to have been a waste of time. The systems and ideas we develop generalize to the other parts of our lives which I turn feed back into the daily work.
In the words of Neil Gaiman, the job is to write: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNb5N...
Inspiration is nothing to count on. It is certainly nice. It does give a definite fuel to the fire.
However, it is not the focus. The focus is in developing the kindling. The systems of daily habit are the practice that is needed to do anything with inspiration should it appear.
As I work, wake, walk, or otherwise, I can have several ideas come to mind. Importantly, I have a place to put those ideas where I know I will visit daily. As a result of having a trusted place and habit, my mind is more free to actually have those ideas. I am not caught up in the fear that they will be lost. The unconscious forces to "protect myself" from ideas I fear I would be unable to actualize are minimized.
The important matter is to take a step every day. Should the book one day appear, that is nice. But it also may not. It may also be garbage. But I do not believe writing it to have been a waste of time. The systems and ideas we develop generalize to the other parts of our lives which I turn feed back into the daily work.
In the words of Neil Gaiman, the job is to write: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpNb5N...
Kourosh Dini
See my answer on inspiration.
Kourosh Dini
I get to write.
Words are a set of tools with which I can play with thought.
Playing with words helps me to develop how I think, which then let's me play with words some more.
That I get to share these thoughts with others is a neat bonus.
Words are a set of tools with which I can play with thought.
Playing with words helps me to develop how I think, which then let's me play with words some more.
That I get to share these thoughts with others is a neat bonus.
Kourosh Dini
Writer's block is a complicated psychological affair that cannot be done justice In a few lines.
Having said that, however, I will say that writing every day is an excellent component to the work of getting beyond it. Even if one only anticipates garbage to come out, that is fine. Just keep writing garbage.
At some point you may stop writing garbage. You may not, too. But that is not the point.
The point is to discover and re-discover play.
Certainly there is importance to developing our systems of work. However, one can easily get lost in crafting conditions to be "just right". They never are. The vision of perfection is a poorly drawn, fragile map that cannot represent reality.
We can guide play into mastery and meaningful work, but first there must be play to guide. Writing daily is a practice of play regardless of conditions.
Having said that, however, I will say that writing every day is an excellent component to the work of getting beyond it. Even if one only anticipates garbage to come out, that is fine. Just keep writing garbage.
At some point you may stop writing garbage. You may not, too. But that is not the point.
The point is to discover and re-discover play.
Certainly there is importance to developing our systems of work. However, one can easily get lost in crafting conditions to be "just right". They never are. The vision of perfection is a poorly drawn, fragile map that cannot represent reality.
We can guide play into mastery and meaningful work, but first there must be play to guide. Writing daily is a practice of play regardless of conditions.
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