The Information Dojo: New Directions

Friday, July 25, 2014

Photo Credit: David Reece via Compfight cc

New directions for The Information Dojo

Hello all! Lately, I've been pondering my blogging strategy and topics for The Information Dojo. I've been blogging for almost four months but have yet to get any long-term subscribers. And I want to start building my list seriously. So, I'm switching up my strategy, topics and website design.

New website coming! 

Sometime next week (I hope) I plan to launch my new WordPress website. I'm working with an excellent web designer, Charlie, from Charfish Design, and he has so totally brought my ideas to life. I'm super excited to launch it and can't wait to make the transfer from Blogger to WordPress.

New topics! 

I realized that I had too many topics I was trying to cover in my blogging. And I'm whittling it down to several that I feel are the most important for the direction I want to take my blog.

My new topics will include:

  • Personal Knowledge Management 
  • Creativity 
  • Confidence 
  • Courage 
  • Writing 
  • Blogging 
  • Technology
  • Mindfulness 

While I was re-evaluating my topics, I realized just how important the concepts of confidence and courage are to me and how I've lived my life so far. As a result, I will be including them in my blog from now on and I think they fit in nicely with the rest of my topics. 

I'm both nervous and excited for this new step and I hope you will continue to follow me in my blogging journey  :) 


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Mindfulness and New Experiences

Thursday, July 24, 2014


Photo Credit: Tc Morgan via Compfight cc

Hello everyone, I'm sorry this post is a day late. I've been dealing with horrible allergies the past week and it's the first time in my life that I've had them. So, it's been a new experience to say the least and it gave me the inspiration for this post.

My new experience

New experiences can be terrifying and scary, particularly when they are so far from what we normally do. Six months ago I made the decision to move to Vermont for my new job. Before moving here, I had never lived outside of my home state of Illinois. Why did I decide to move to Vermont when I could have tried to get a job closer to home?

Because I knew myself. I knew I needed to grow and I couldn't stay where I was to do that. I wanted to experience new places and new interests. And in the six months I've lived here, I come to know so much more about myself and what my interests and hobbies are.

How can we stay mindful in the midst of new experiences?

 There have been many times where I wondered if what I did was the right thing for me. Sometimes, everything just completely overwhelms me. I've felt sad, angry, and homesick on numerous occasions since moving and I've wondered if my job is right for me more than once.

How did I get myself out of these funks? By recognizing that it's just a moment. Every bad day is just that: one bad day. And thankfully, we get a brand new day right after it. 

How did I conquer those overwhelming feelings? By tuning into them at the height of my emotions and remembering to just breathe.

Tuning into my thoughts, feelings, and body for a peaceful moment has hugely impacted how I react to stress. I am so thankful for what those peaceful moments have taught me.

When you are feeling overwhelmed by your new experiences, remember to: 

  • Breathe 
  • Practice gratitude
  • Accept that it's just a moment 

As always, thank you for reading :)


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Tools for Creativity: Focus Sessions

Monday, July 21, 2014

courtesy of Mark Hunter on Flickr

Creative resistance and uncertainty

This past week I've been having a lot of trouble gaining clarity on my current creative projects. I write blog posts, I'm writing an eBook, and I'm writing fanfiction (for the first time in my life). Needless to say, all these projects require me to think creatively.

And then, this past week, I became stuck. Stuck in my ideas and in my uncertainty. I have been constantly writing now for three months and I love it. I can also now recognize resistance when it rears its great, ugly head. And I recognized my uncertainty about my projects as my resistance to them.

So, how did I overcome my resistance and uncertainty? I had a focus session.

What are focus sessions?

My focus sessions grew out on my need to stop multitasking and to start singletasking. Research has shown that singletasking, rather than multitasking, is much more productive and less stressful.

It's so easy for me to get overwhelmed with all the projects I have going on at once. So, I've decided to start holding focus sessions, where I focus on one, and only one, creative project during a scheduled time.

In a focus session, you:

  • Pick one, and only one, project to work on
  • Declare that you will devote this time to only that project
  • Find a place where you can concentrate (wherever that may be) 
  • Establish a certain amount of time and set a timer 
  • Disconnect from the Internet if you have to
  • Work with other people if that helps you
  • Listen to music if that helps you to concentrate 

Tailor your focus session to be about you and your project. You don't have to make the focus session hours long if that doesn't fit your schedule. It can be as long as ten or twenty minutes if that's productive for you. But devote that specific amount of time solely to your creative project. 

What are the benefits? 

For me, I got clarity and peace of mind. I did my focus session for 30 minutes but I felt relief after those 30 minutes. I knew what direction I wanted to go for my creative project, which gave me more confidence in myself and helped me beat my resistance. 

Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves that we are indeed creative individuals (because doubt can creep in). And focus sessions are perfect for finding that we do indeed know what we are doing :). 

Question: What creative projects are you working on right now? Can you think of one that could use a focus session? 

As always, thank you for reading! 



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Blog of the Week: The Creative Penn

Friday, July 18, 2014


This week I want to look at the blog/website The Creative Penn, which is written by indie author Joanna Penn. 

owned and maintained by Joanna Penn 

What this blog is about

This website focuses on four main areas: writing, self-publishing, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

The topics covered in the blog include:

  • author entrepreneur 
  • creativity 
  • eBooks and technology 
  • marketing and promotion 
  • publishing options 
  • writing

It's for writers and authors who want to self-publish but either don't know how or don't have enough confidence to try. TheCreativePenn.com has been voted one of the Top 10 sites for writers three years running. The blog features both a podcast and YouTube video series.

Watch Joanna's Welcome to The Creative Penn video on YouTube.

 About Joanna Penn

J.F.Penn is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers on the edge, as well as bestselling non-fiction for authors published under Joanna Penn. She is a professional speaker on creative entrepreneurship, digital publishing and internet marketing, and was voted one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013.

Why I love this blog

This blog is another fantastic resource for writers and authors. Joanna is so practical in her advice, which comes from her experiences as a writer. She knows her stuff. She also drives home the point that authors and writers ARE entrepreneurs. When you subscribe to the blog, Joanna gives you the free Author 2.0 Blueprint, which tells you more about how to self-publish books and eBooks and is incredibly helpful.

Resources

The Creative Penn - http://www.thecreativepenn.com/
The Creative Penn podcast - http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/
Twitter - http://twitter.com/thecreativepenn
YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/thecreativepenn


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3 Lessons Learned When Writing an eBook

Wednesday, July 16, 2014


courtesy of Maria on flickr
Recently, I've gotten it into my head that I want to write an eBook for this blog. It will be the first eBook I've ever written and I want to share the lessons I've learned (so far) after two months of working on it.

Lesson 1: Know your blog/website 

This should seem like common sense but it's actually extremely difficult. When I started writing my eBook two months ago, I had no where near the clarity or vision for my blog that I do now. And writing this eBook has helped bring me clarity for my blog in many ways.

I know the changes I need to make and I've found a new vision for my blog. I've hired a professional web designer to redesign my blog to match these changes. In this sense, I'm extremely grateful to my half-written eBook for the lessons it's already taught me about my blog.

Lesson 2: Make an outline

I can't emphasize enough the importance of the outline. eBooks are so different from traditional print books in a number of ways. But the most important thing for an eBook is that it's easy to read. And remember, you're putting your eBook on the Internet, and you'll have no idea where it will end up or with whom.

To make my eBook matter to my blog readers, I needed to put a ton of consideration into the content and how I wanted to present it. This is where the outline became super handy.

Lesson 3: Accept that it's a process

Writing an eBook is a time consuming process. It will be full of both excitement and complete exhaustion. And there will be times where you just want to give up. I know I had many of these moments the last two months. I didn't know where my eBook was going and I was sick of writing in circles.

If you are writing an eBook, or want to write one, remember that it is a process that will take time and energy.  If you're feeling frustrated or stuck (as I was), seek feedback from other people. I'm part of a online writing group and they helped me to get unstuck and clarify my goals for my eBook.

These are the three lessons I've learned so far. I've included a couple of  resources at the bottom of this post that have helped me in writing my eBook.

As always, thank you for reading :)
Melissa

Resources

How to Write a High-Quality eBook in 30 Days from Copyblogger

eBooks The Smart Way by Pat Flynn (from Smart Passive Income)

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Developing an Information Strategy Part 3: Searching

Monday, July 14, 2014


courtesy of Tim on Flickr

Searching 

Ah searching. It's always the part that trips people up when you're on the quest for information. It's also the part that can easily overwhelm even the hardiest Internet user.

Even a simple search in Google can turn out to be not so...well...simple. There's so much information available through the web that where do you even begin to find what you need? It feels like finding a needle in a haystack.

Searching is a huge portion of the information strategy pie and there are three important aspects of searching to remember (and these will seem like common sense but we always forget them):

  1. Know what to search
  2. Know where to search 
  3. Organize your information as you search 
We'll be looking at the second aspect in this post. To read more about the first aspect (know what to search) read my post for how to define an information need.

Know where to search 

Okay, so we know what we want to search. And we know our personal process for learning. Now, it's time to pinpoint where you can search for resources.

Google or any other search engine is your best friend in this case and there are many different kinds of resources out there. To name a few:

  • Books and eBooks
  • Blogs 
  • Podcasts 
  • Wikis 
  • Ezines 
  • Magazines 
  • YouTube
  • Facebook 
  • Twitter 
  • Instagram 
  • Pinterest 
  • Bloglovin 

and the list goes on and on. Some of the resources I named are both a resource and a tool for finding other resources. So how do you choose which one to go with? 

Knowing how you learn will be your most effective method for choosing. If you like visual, maybe Pinterest or Instagram would be the best resource for you. If you like audio, then YouTube or podcasts would be a good resource. 

You've got all these choices on the web but how can you possibly look at every one of them? 

My advice: start with just one resource and then branch out 

When you look for resources, I recommend starting with one and then branching out to find others. This will help you avoid complete information overload. 

If you want to start redesigning your life or building a hobby, I recommend looking at blogs because they contain so many different kinds of information at once. One blog may have posts, a podcast, and a YouTube channel (I know of several blogs with all these things). 

For example, I follow the blog Tranquility du Jour, which I've mentioned and reviewed before on this blog. But the reason I mention it the most is because it is THE blog for me. Almost every other book, blog, author, or podcast I now follow was something that I learned about through Tranquility du Jour.

If there's one thing I've found, it's how small the Internet really is once you start exploring it. Everything is connected and one resource can lead to a hundred others.

Question: What one resource have you found that helped you to find others?

As always, thank you for reading :)
Melissa


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Blog of the Week: ProBlogger

Friday, July 11, 2014


This week I want to review the blog/website ProBlogger which is owned and maintained by Darren Rowse.


What this blog is about

ProBlogger is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium. Actually, it's the go-to resource for bloggers. If you have any question whatsoever about any aspect of blogging, go to this website.

The blog has posts for bloggers of all levels and features tons of resources, including a page for ways to make money blogging and a page for jobs as a blogger/writer.

About Darren Rowse 

Back in 2002 Darren Rowse stumbled upon an article about ‘Blogging’. He didn’t know it at the time but that moment changed his life.  Within 24 hours of reading the article he had started his own blog – a personal blog where he's explored issues of pop culture, spirituality and blogging ever since. He has since started many other blogs.

As his blogs grew in popularity and began to generate income, blogging grew from a hobby (some would say an obsession), to a part time job through to a fully fledged business in recent times. He has slowly built his blogging into a income source that has enabled him to dedicate more and more time to the medium to the point where he is currently a full time blogger – a ProBlogger.

Why I love this blog

As a beginning blogger, I have found this website and blog to be invaluable. And I respect the owner, Darren, because he started small and worked his way up to this powerhouse of a website. He worked up from blogging as a hobby to blogging as a professional (hence ProBlogger) and I guess I would like to hopefully do the same (someday).

Another aspect I really love about this blog is the emphasis on small steps to building a blog and, eventually, a business. It's a great reminder that it's okay to slowly go through the process of building a blog through lots of hard work and patience in a realistic and sustainable way.

I look forward to purchasing Darren's workbook 31 Days to Build a Better Blog. I also hope to eventually join the ProBlogger Community, which is a home for bloggers to come together to collaborate, learn and network in a private, supportive and authentic environment.

As always, thank you for reading :)
Melissa

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