It’s the start of the new year, and like most other people I’m rethinking a lot of things and how to improve. Last year I purchased adamberg.blog and considered using that for more consistent updates that were less SEO focused and more stream of consciousness. I never really stuck with it, but every time I did write a post there I got big value out of it. My domain subscription lapsed and so I was left with wondering whether I renew or just put that on this site.
Ultimately, I’d like to be writing a lot more consistently and I think doing so in one place is the most likely way to successfully do this. I write so infrequently that I don’t have a good routine. There are certain things I like about this Jekyll blog, but things like adding screenshots is such a hassle that I procrastinate certain posts because I know it will be too painful. Then I convince myself that I can just build something to make this more tolerable. I already have, and it’s called “hyde”. I’m still a bit lost as to whether it’s supposed to replace jekyll or simply work in tandem with it. The name is apt because I literally feel like Dr. Jekyll getting angry and turning into Hyde.
These update posts are for those curious about what I’m currently working on and wanting a deeper look into the thoughts behind things. My very first post on adamberg.blog was about how I wanted and needed to get off of Twitter. It ended up taking me most of the year to finally make that leap. I found it very difficult to not open Twitter several times a day, despite never really enjoying the experience. I would much rather spend my time creating than consuming and so having a space that only lets me do one of those things is incredibly valuable to me.
Kaizen
This year kaizen.place will be a key focus for me. My good friend and co-founder, Ben, is coming on full-time and we will be learning and exploring how to make this a success for music creators and as a business. This journey will inevitably have lots of twists and turns, but I’m looking forward to the adventure.
YouTube
I am again and again reminded that crafting good YouTube tutorials is where I should be focusing energy. My tutorial on Writing a Wav File in C picked up 10,000 views over the holidays and led to 233 subscribers so far. And I feel like it’s just getting started. There are so many things I want to put together, but I need to hone my focus and align goals of different projects. This most likely means continuing to focus on audio programming topics to be able to showcase the evolution of these projects on my music.tails Kaizen account.
This is probably the hardest one for me. I would like to be consistent in posting, particularly on my music.tails account. I find so many barriers and excuses for not posting here. What I really need to do is set up some kind of schedule where I block off time to make/prepare content. e.g. I have a bunch of footage from my first band performance from last year that has never seen the light of day. Going through and cutting out clips is just enough work and far enough outside my comfort zone that I continue to defer doing this.
Solo Live Music Performance
In early February, I plan to put together a performance of some songs I have been learning to sing and play on piano. I’m hoping to lock down a date and venue this week so I can stop delaying this.
Thrashing
The word thrashing came up recently as a computer term mapped to the human brain. I have definitely been thrashing the last little while. I have so many things I want to do and others that I need to do and others yet that others want me to do. This year, I want to be more mindful of this and do a better job of prioritizing and probably delegating.
Conclusion
I’ve already spent longer on this than I would have liked, but at least I made it. Especially early on, I’d like to attempt to do this daily. Essentially like a public journal. I think this would help me narrow down focus and force some accountability on myself. If I can get it down to 15-20 minutes of writing or less should be esay enough to have part of a morning routine.