Daily Yamabushi

One of my aims in undertaking the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata was to learn how to effectively make videos. Part of this was making good quality videos in a relatively short amount of time, and I have come some way in achieving this aim, at least when compared to the past. There’s no better teacher than experience, and by getting out and actually making these videos, even after only about five of them, I have already learned a whole lot.

I’m quite proud of myself as I managed to get a video edited in less than a week. Up until now my videos have been a lot of editing out and covering over plainly bad footage. This has meant more of a focus on getting better footage, which in turn means that I can edit videos much faster than before.

The biggest difference is definitely switching to mainly using my Sony camera, but also thinking more about composition, getting myself into the shots in a good light, and also practicing my lines or taking multiple takes to get the lines right. I noticed all of these things in editing my Mt. Kyogakura video, which is currently uploading. Now all I need to do is keep this effort up, and I should have a good set of videos for people to enjoy.

One of our coaches for waterpolo used to also be a professional referee, even at the Olympic level. It’s not often you have someone in such a position on the coaching staff. She always used to tell us to never talk back to the ref, ever. Luckily with waterpolo you have something that is pretty good at muffling the sound right beneath you. Whenever a decision doesn’t go your way, and you have something to say about it, all you have to do is put your head under the water and let it all out. This in itself goes a very far way in calming you down, and since there is no one to hear it, it’s also entirely victimless.

Before long, you come to realise that you can forgo this very process if you give yourself enough time to let the feelings lapse. If you just pause, take a deep breath, and then continue about your day, often this is enough. There are times when this doesn’t work, however, and you need to stop and think before responding to impulse, and in the very worse cases, you may need to find a nearby equivalent to a pool to let the emotion out. These momentary lapses of judgment can be very damaging if not controlled, so it helps to be conscious when the feelings arise, and to just let it subside uneventfully.

The problem with modern devices is that to be intuitive, menus and buttons become easier to change, but this means they are also easy to accidentally change as well.

I was looking through some of my footage from climbing mountains the past few weeks, and I noticed that a lot of the pictures weren’t as sharp as usual. I also noticed a few of my videos were showing up darker than they should the other day, but didn’t do enough to see what the problem was. It took me a while, but I just worked out that the problem was my ISO was set to 100, rather than just having it on auto. This is most likely due to me bumping the camera by accident, and then being in the spur of the moment, not realising what was happening.

Then, a few months back I found every time I looked in the viewfinder it was blurry. Turns out I had also bumped a dial next to the viewfinder called the diopter that adjusts the blurriness of your viewfinder. I have also had similar problems with the GoPro. The touch screen is not very sensitive, there have been many times when I haven’t been able to use it, and was forced to use the app on my phone.

Small sacrifice to pay, but you have to be extra careful that you haven’t accidentally changed the settings on your camera! It also pays to check that the settings are what they should be every time you set out!

Brutal. Merciless. Unmoved. Sometimes you just gotta let things go. Sometimes you just gotta suck it up, take it on the chin, and move on. Sometimes you just gotta be brutal, merciless, and unmoved on yourself so that you can get through. There are some things from my past that I deeply regret happening the way they did, and every so often one little thing just reminds me of it and sets me on a rollercoaster of emotions. This to me means that I am still processing the feelings, even though they are from many years passed.

In times like these, when emotions run high, you really do need to take a deep hard look at yourself and see why you are still feeling this way. You also need to stop blaming yourself, and to just let bygones be bygones. This is called living in the past, and it’s not helpful at all. Focus on the now, focus on what’s in front of you, what you can control. Then forgive yourself, and move on.

Thankfully these feelings don’t happen that often, and thankfully I have a way of dealing with them that is productive in most stressful situations; deep breaths. In the moment it can be difficult to remember this, but you just have to force yourself to stop and breath slowly. Take in ten deep breaths and see how you feel, I guarantee you will feel better.

Shooting footage of mountains for videos feels like when I used to be goalkeeper in waterpolo. I was only the goalkeeper for one season, I think I was alright but nothing special, but I had this one trick where I would swim out to meet someone and steal the ball if we had a one on one, which worked more often than you’d expect.

Anyway, as a goalkeeper, you try to think what you would do if you were in their situation, and you try to counteract that. When you do have a one on one, you’re more focused on getting closer to the goal than worrying about what the goalkeeper is doing (this is possible in waterpolo because you swim with the ball in front of your face in a way that can block your front-on view).

I feel like getting footage is very similar. You think deeply about what sort of footage would make the job easier for future you. And to be honest, the footage I have been getting has been getting progressively easier to work with.

This has meant that my turnaround, well, the speed at which I can produce a video, has become a lot faster than it was before. Some of the earlier stuff I took was hard to edit simply because the source footage I had wasn’t really up to scratch, and it took a lot of work to make even somewhat useful. I’m starting to see this less often.

So, every once in a while, try to think like a goalkeeper. What would you do, or what would you want, if you were in the other position? Then counteract it, or in my case encourage it.

Learning and contributing is what it is all about. This morning started out with a walk to see Mt. Chokai, and turned into a 100 minute walk. How do I know this? I was live-streaming on Instagram.

There’s one spot near here that I always go to because it doesn’t have as much distraction (power lines and rusted fences), but when I got there this morning, the whole area was shrouded with fog like I’d never seen before. It was so intense I just needed to share it, while also exploring more of the area.

Recently I’ve been thinking about doing more livestreams, or at least doing them on a regular basis so that I can put out content on a regular basis. I mentioned my backlog before, and have finally gotten around to editing and uploading the videos, but that backlog is still there, and it increases every time I don’t put something out.

This makes the whole thing sound like a chore, but I assure you it isn’t. I really do love getting out into the mountains and trying to express the beauty in both words and through video. This whole project is about learning how to do just that in an effective way, and I think I am doing that, albeit a bit slowly.

Live-streaming if it means I get content out and get practice at getting good content out sounds like a good idea. I think I’ll give it a go for at least a few weeks to see how I like it, and to see if I’m really learning and contributing, after all, that’s all you could ask for.

Putting in the hard work out in the field is 1000 times better than trying to work with crappy footage in the editing stage. I think a lot of work is like this. If you put the effort in the right place, it can make a world of difference. I believe this is called The Pareto Principle, but it makes me wonder what other areas I should be applying this principle in.

Today I released my video on Mt. Atsumi. Like the Nihonkoku video this was a long time coming. But unlike the Nihonkoku video, this one was much easier to edit as I had the assistance of a very good friend (who you get to meet in the video).

Also, on Sunday I climbed Mt. Maya. I was looking through the footage, and I think I have a better idea now how to make sure I get good footage. Probably the first thing is to default to my Sony camera, and only use the GoPro for moving shots and when the Sony just isn’t practical. I’m looking forward to putting that one together because I think it will be much better cinematography wise.

Focusing on the right areas it seems really does make a world of difference! Here’s hoping my lessons turn into results!

Experiment, experiment, experiment. Experience, experience, experience.

It’s better to regret something you did than something you didn’t do (I believe that it is Flea who sings this line, I could be wrong).

Do something new. Then do something else new. See what works. See what doesn’t work. Whatever it is, the only way to find out is to do it.

Sometimes we reach a point in a project where we simply don’t know what to do next. This is a natural part of the creative process, and it wouldn’t be called the creative process without having these parts where we have to be, well, creative.

In times like these, it helps to list up what needs to be done. This can be done by thinking backwards from the finished product, or by simply thinking of things that need to be done to proceed, without thinking of an order to do them in. Once you have these, it’s a matter or prioritising tasks by which parts give you the greatest benefit going forward.

Even better is if you already have a set order in which you do things. For videos this would be something like idea generation, information collection, scoping out the locations for interesting ways to portray that information, making a script, filming, editing, re-editing, putting on the finishing touches, and then publishing. Then, all you need to do is work out which part of the process you are in and work from there.

It sounds boring and analytical, rather than going with the flow creatively, but if it helps you do the creative stuff, it needs to be done.

P.S. some form of deadline is helpful in guaranteeing you do the work in a reasonable amount of time, even deadlines for the specific tasks that need to be done.

Even if a project, say a presentation, isn’t due for a while, it helps immensely to have your ideas down in written form. Even just quickly writing out your ideas on a notepad, electronically or otherwise, as soon as you get the assignment can make a huge difference. Once you have the ideas written out, your subconscious can get to work as to how to organise the ideas and how to improve them. Then when you come around to working on the project proper, you aren’t exactly starting from scratch, and your ideas should have developed somewhat. While I don’t recommend this, this way you also have something to work with if you find yourself short on time and the deadline is looming.

I finally got my Nihonkoku video out yesterday. In the end it was a pretty fun video, that mountain is a funny one, the name literally means ‘the country of Japan’, and there are a few weird theories as to why it was named that way that I introduce in the video.

To be honest, that video was a source of a lot of procrastination. It took me a lot longer than it should have to put out, and now I have a backlog of about 5 or so videos to put out as well (actually I think it’s more).

What was the problem? The footage that I got in the first place wasn’t really good, GoPros are absolutely useless in low light, and that’s all I had on me at the time. Since then I’ve started to shoot more and more with my Sony, including today climbing Mt. Maya (which is gorgeous by the way!).

Plus, the idea was to use a bit of animation, which I did end up doing but I had to learn it first, which meant I had to get around to learning it. I didn’t dedicate blocks of time to the task like I should have, and I also didn’t set myself a deadline. These things can take their toll if you’re not on top of them!

So I think what I’ll try to do from now on is stick to one thing published every two weeks. This seems manageable, and should guarantee I put out videos frequently enough. The problem is making enough time for it, there are only so many hours in a day, and work does take up a lot of it. Guess the only thing to do is try!

Repetition and iteration is important because they allow you to experiment! This year I’ve made scones at least 10 times, and every time I try and do things a slightly different way to see what works. I think I’m nearly there, although today I should have stuck with baking paper and the metal scraper, the shape of the scones is a bit odd (still delicious).

Last week I also made an apple oat loaf for the first time. This introduced a few spices that I hadn’t thought of adding to scones before (I’m going to have to make some mixed spice, doesn’t seem to exist outside the commonwealth), and now my scones are even better!

Yesterday’s bread also made me feel like baking a whole lot more, I felt for a second that I understood why professional bakers love what they do, although I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to do it, at least not full time.

If you have even the slightest inkling to do something, do it! And if you keep at it, you never know you might learn to love it! Just keep experimenting and reiterating to stay on your toes!

Hobbies are how we express ourselves, not only by what we do when we do our hobbies, but also in the types of people we choose to be around, such as other enthusiasts. So when someone like Ramit Sethi says that we should feel free to spend money on our hobbies, I totally agree with him. I don’t believe I would be able to live without my hobbies, it would feel like a hollow existence. I also think having many hobbies makes it easier for me to relate to others, as there is a higher chance of having some sort of common interest. So, do feel free to spend money on your hobbies, and use them to their full advantage to express yourself, and to experience what it is to be human through them.

I just finished the final version of the October 2021 Lessons From Mountains, Yamabushido’s monthly newsletter due tomorrow. This was the 15th month we have put out Lessons From Mountains, and every time it does feel like a metaphoric mountain to cross, but one that is definitely worth it. This time around we have a special announcement that you’re going to have to sign up for to see (go to our homepage or the link I put in the first sentence), and every time we collate ten things about ‘the life and mindset of the Yamabushi, and more mindful ways of living and self development’.

Put simply, it can be hard to find ten items that are worth sharing each month. However, we now have a bit of a backlog now of things we can include. The items have to have some sort of practical application, which is the main reason why it is hard to find things. We also try to have a balance of different types of items, from books to videos, podcasts to magazine-style articles. Then of course they all have to relate to either mindfulness or Japan in some way or another.

This periodic collation and writing of such a niche thing is a good challenge to have. There are set parameters into what needs to go into it, and there is also that ever hanging deadline to give you the burst of energy you need to put something out there. This sort of structure is the kind of thing that forces you to produce content, and I would say it is an effective way of doing so. Once you have a structure, you also have a set of different searches you can do periodically as well to find new content, if that’s the type of content you are creating.

Seth Godin is famous for posting a blog daily. In some of his podcasts he talks about how he used to post more than once a day, but that it got to be a bit too much, and that once a day seems to be the perfect amount. This suits me fine as well. The thing to do would be to find parameters or some sort of structure as well as deadlines that you can stick to. There was a month or so there when I was pumping out mountains articles weekly, but in the end that was too much, and I’ve fallen into a pit of despair again. Maybe twice monthly is where it’s at. Although I do have to balance that with this blog and also videos, so maybe one video and one mountain blog post a month is doable, something new to try.

So, I would say to set some parameters for the type of content you want to produce, and then try to make it at as frequent a posting schedule as you can. This of course would require some trial and error, but it would definitely help in producing consistent quality content.

Make progress part of your process. Process can benefit from my running philosophy; once you start, you can go as slow as you like, but you can’t stop until you’re done, thus guaranteeing progress.

The problem then lies in realizing when progress has stalled. Obviously this applies to different things in different ways, but it helps to set parameters for how slow is too slow.

The definition of done

How slow is too slow also depends on your definition of done. Sometimes the process itself is progress. Yamabushi training is like that. So is basically every martial art or any other art for that matter. That’s why they are 道, do, paths or the way, not destinations.

Beware the resistance

But in a project like mine where I’m documenting the 100 Famous Mountains of Yamagata, for example, the definition of done is videos out in the world.

I’m part way through making a number of videos, I actually have three that are at about 75% each. The main reason? I just couldn’t get round to doing the Mt. Nihonkoku video, as I had put it into the too hard basket. Progress has stalled, it has stopped to be part of the process.

I started this project to learn how to effectively edit videos. Part of that means periodically releasing them into the world. Now I have to set apart time each day until progress becomes part of the process. Although not ideal, even five minutes is enough.

Take this as a promise from me to you that I will be putting out more videos over the coming weeks. Resistance be damned.

There are a few words in Japanese that I always get tripped up on because their English is the same or similar. For example, in Japanese they say [Noun] no sei for being the fault of that person or thing, but [Noun] no okage for being ‘thanks to that person or thing’. Both equate to the English ‘because of’, but whether it is a positive or negative connotation changes the word that comes after it.

Recently I have been getting tripped up on the difference between Ondo (temperature) and Taion (temperature). Ondo is to do with the temperature of something, and Taion as body temperature. I have a tendency of saying Ondo when I mean to say Taion, and it confuses people, sort of like “did you measure the temperature?” when you mean to say “did you take your temperature”.

Then, one more that I really should have gotten a handle on by now seeing as I learned it about 20 years ago is that Japanese has different verbs for wearing things on different parts of your body, i.e. when you say ‘put on a jacket’ (kiru) and ‘put on trousers’ (haku), the verb changes. If I’m not thinking, I say ‘[verb for put on trousers] that jacket’. It must really confuse people, as much as it confuses me.

But the thing is, all languages have quirks like this. If you want to master the language, or to even get a handle on it, you need to be aware of these things, there’s no way around it. If you change your attitude from one where ‘this language is strange’, to an attitude of ‘let’s master this’, the difference is stark. Soon you forget that these quirks exist, and you can get on with learning other aspects of the language that give you a better command overall.

(one other one is how there are many different ways to count things in Japanese, for example, cylindrical things and animals or sheets of paper all have different ways of being counted, this takes a while to get used to as well).

There is a rule when you do a native check of a translation where you only change the translation if it is factually or grammatically incorrect, not if it was written in a style different to your own. This is a very useful way to go about projects in which you are not the only one involved in their success. Sure you need to take responsibility for the results of the team, good or bad, but you shouldn’t put others down for having a different style or method to you. Just be thankful that they are able to contribute to the project, and take their input on board.

When you attach yourself to a job or project, especially one where you are responsible for the results, it’s easy to want to go it alone, to do things the way you always have. Wanting things done a certain way, and thinking you are the only person who is able to do an effective job, these are examples of pride and attachment.

Especially in projects that require teamwork, or in cases when there are too many projects to keep a handle on, the only way to get any of them done effectively is to not do them all yourself, and to disassociate yourself enough that others can also play a part in seeing their success. Trying to do it all simply will not work.

Disassociate your pride with the project, and break it up into completable tasks. Then, delegate. Have clear instructions for how tasks should be completed, but don’t get angry when they aren’t done the way you would do them. Be thankful, and also cognisant of the fact that without them you would never have been able to get to that stage.

This morning I had my first shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine here in Sakata City, Yamagata Prefecture. It was a relatively painless process, and besides a bit of a sore arm, and maybe a slight fever, I haven’t been feeling much else (my wife said my voice changed though). It’s still early days, but here’s hoping I get off lightly. I purposely did it on a Sunday, and I wanted to get in early so I booked the earliest time possible, 8:30. I arrived at about 8:15 to find people were already lining up, but I quickly got inside and was out by 8:50, then home shortly thereafter.

Getting a booking

Bookings for over 12s opened early on Tuesday morning. Until then the bookings were open for 50+ and weirdly also those of high-school and university exam-taking age. They had priority over me, the little buggers, but I’ve had my shot so shouldn’t really complain. Plus, they have to navigate schools here where there have been a few cases. We haven’t had any scares at our uni, yet at least, although honestly I do wish we’d do online classes just because there is a risk of infection still. Their risk is probably greater though.

In all honesty, bookings for people who have pre-existing conditions were open one day earlier than for the general public. I used my pneumothorax as an excuse, but it seems I didn’t actually need to. My second dose was automatically booked for 3 weeks from now, which was another reason I had to go for a Sunday. I timed it with our uni actually, as they will be administering the vaccine to students on the same day I get my second, so the following day is a day off class.

The experience getting the vaccine

The experience was rather insightful, in good and bad ways. We first lined up, with people not really following any social distancing rules, although there was tape on the ground at about 1m intervals. You walk in, get your temperature taken, and then are asked to sit in a row of seats that have been numbered. I was number 31, so was relatively early in the day. The thing is though, these seats were right next to each other. If you just reached out your hand you could touch the lap of the person next to you, or the shoulder of the person in front of you. So much for social distancing. Then we all had to line up, thankfully this was about a metre apart, but we kept having to cross paths with people, and got very close when we did.

First we had to take our pre-vaccine form to someone to check, and then go and talk to a doctor who checked the items on a checklist we had already filled out. Once that was done, we lined up and went into a booth to get a shot. It was very quick, less than a minute, and for me I hardly felt it at all. Much better than when getting a blood test. After that we got confirmation of our first vaccines with a sticker system they were using, and we just had to wait 15 minutes before we were let out.

Some advice for getting the vaccine

A bit of advice to those who are yet to get it, in retrospect I wish I had chosen a later time in the day so I could have climbed a mountain before going, but it is what it is, and I got to enjoy a quiet day at home watching movies and catching up on a bit of writing. Bring a book with you as well, it’s a good chance to get in some reading. Don’t forget to drink a lot of water as well! I have already had at least two litres today!

In all, the experience was very brief, as it was quite streamlined, but it was odd to see medical professionals not adhering to social-distancing rules. Anyway, I wish to thank everyone that had a part in getting the vaccine to us. It is such an important tool in keeping us all safe.

What does it mean to feel productive? There are some days where we feel, yeah, that was a good day. And days where we feel a bit disappointed in our efforts, or that we could have done more. What are the conditions for each, and which day would you prefer? I’ve noticed that I feel I have been more productive on days where I have done some sort of exercise in the morning, recently that has been running or using the rowing machine. What this means is that, I should probably make it a requirement to do either of those things, perhaps not every day but at least as much as possible.

I believe it was in Burn After Reading where George Clooney’s character says it, but he said he always tries to get in exercise at least every three days. I think this is a good benchmark to stick to, as any longer and it makes it much harder to get back into a good rhythm, which is extremely important in building productive habits. Any longer, and the feeling like you are starting over, and therefore you have to push that much harder, can become overwhelming (always focus on just finishing, don’t worry at all about the time, and go as slow as you need to but never stop until you reach your target).

If you can do this exercise or whatever makes you feel that the day was a productive one every day, then great for you. Sometimes with modern schedules and the like this is just not possible, so it helps to have some form of leniency built in. Don’t treat yourself too hard for falling off the bandwagon, and make it as easy as possible to get back on. That way we can all but ensure that our days are productive.

P.S., a daily blog is really helpful in your sense of accomplishment or productivity as it means that each day you have at least produced something. It may not be the Mona Lisa, but your blog post goes some way in processing your thinking patterns, and can also be helpful to those who read it.

I saw a great quote today:

90% of writing is realising 90% of your ideas are not worth writing about. But to find the 10% worth writing about, you need to work through the other 90% first.

–

Dickie Bush on Twitter

Writing and speaking are two entirely different skills, however they do have quite a bit of overlap. Writing you can edit and edit to say exactly what you want to say. Speaking you have no luck, you have to stick with what comes out of your mouth. Writing you can spend hours on end on, and speaking, well speaking is actually the same. Which is why I don’t believe in writer’s block, but if 90% of what you’re speaking is stuff to get to the good 10%, writing can be a way we can edit out the bullshit and focus on what’s really important.

Don’t shut up, just find a productive way to let the ideas out that doesn’t bother those around you.

Today I did a bit of baking with the leftover bag of apples we had. For the first time ever I made Apple Oat Loaf, and I also made a reiteration of the apple shortcake squares, which weren’t square because we don’t have a square tin. Still taste great. The apple shortcake squares were also because we had just enough apples left over for it.

It’s interesting to try something new with something you’ve made before, and to also iterate as well. While you try your best at each, you get to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t. What works is delicious, and what doesn’t work teaches you a lesson, but is still delicious (unless you burn it).

When starting out, a huge mistake we make is thinking our work is all about the money, that if you can earn a certain amount of money in a certain amount of time, that somehow that evaluated you as a person. After gaining a little bit of experience I realised that instead of focusing on how much money you can earn in an hour, you should focus on how much you can increase the value created in that same amount of time.

What this means is, instead of trying to earn as much as you can, focus on building your skills so that in the future you can earn even more. This can take form in many ways, such as investing in up-skilling, or even just focusing on accuracy with the expectation that your speed will increase, therefore increasing your productivity overall. This should go some way towards making sure your job in the future is more valuable monetarily or otherwise than your current one, if you want a job that is.

One other, and in terms of personal finance much more important, way of looking at this is, how can you increase the amount of money you make when you sleep? That’s the only way to ever get out of the rat race and to ever truly have the freedom to choose what you want to do. If done, and done well, this is one way to create value that takes the equation of your productivity per hour completely out of question by mooting it completely. Then, you can focus on doing what you’re doing because you actually want to do it, not because you’re getting paid to do it. That to me is proper freedom.

Sometimes an educated guess is all you can take. Sometimes? No, always.

Nothing’s certain, so why act like it is? Give your decisions the benefit of the doubt and act on them. You never know, it might just go your way.

Work for tomorrow’s work. This is something I wish I could teach my younger self, or force my younger self to do, and is by far the best way to get the better jobs.

There have been a number of times when I felt ‘job’s done, move on’. When in reality, there was still follow-up that could have, which meant it should have, been done. There were too many times where I was going for productivity, trying to see how much I could earn in a certain amount of time. What rubbish. What’s really important is doing the job for tomorrow, for your next job. Putting the pride in your work so that you build a reputation that gets you more, better work in the future. Not short-term productivity. Long-term productivity.

In most cases, the follow up is the more important work, the more valuable work, because it shows your attitude, and your real love for doing the job in the first place. This is true not only for others seeing you do it, but for yourself as well. People pay for the extra love. If you love something, show us, do the follow up work and take pride in it as you do so. Focus on the long-term productivity and you can truly deserve the better jobs.

From my old house, I couldn’t see what the weather was doing very well. I could see clouds and could tell when it was going to rain, but not much else.

One of the things I feel blessed about having moved into our new house is that we can see Mt. Chokai and the rice fields clear enough (still blocked by power lines that Japan can’t get enough of, although it’s nothing compared to Vietnam :p), and it means that I go outside to enjoy the rice fields more than I used to.

This is an extremely good advantage that I didn’t expect, although we did design the house so we could see Mt. Chokai from our bedroom.

Case in point my wife just pointed out that the landscape was particularly crisp right about now, so I quickly got my jandals (that’s NZ for flip flops or as Aussies call them thongs) and headed out for a looksie. I was not disappointed.

I’m always surprised to see homes here that would have perfect views of the mountains but the build tiny windows or even worse, no windows at all. Houses in NZ are practically designed to take advantage of the views where possible. Japanese houses are designed to be practical, often at the expense of aesthetics, which does bother me somewhat (especially the kitchens, they look like they’re from the 50s, and they probably are). Anyway, the views won out in our house 🙂

When you have a whole lot of different jobs that need doing, or are doing a whole lot of projects at once, you need dedicated time blocks to do the deep work. I think we know this much. I haven’t been doing that recently, or at least not as much as I’d like, and I came up with the combined idea of dedicated time blocks of work, but with an extra way of making sure it is the right work.

I’m basically stealing the ideas of Tim Ferriss and Cal Newport with this one, but there are no truly original ideas, just rehashes of old ones, and this one I’m combining with Paul Nation’s Four Strands.

Establish a certain number of time periods of a certain length each day. These are entirely up to you. Bullet round 30 minute slots, hours of power, two hour ‘zone’ training, whatever suits your schedule, needs, and wants in the moment. This much is straight out of the books Four Hour Workweek and Deep Work.

The next part is the interesting one. Paul Nation’s four strands are in my opinion the easiest and best way to guarantee language acquisition.

The four strands are the four absolutely necessary components of language acquisition; Meaning-Focused Input, Meaning-Focused Output, Language-Focused Learning, and Fluency development. Over the course of a language class, a term, or a year of language learning, equal amounts of each strand should be practiced (Japan fails quite severely with sufficient use of the second and fourth strands).

My idea is to take these four strands and replace them with say four things that absolutely must get done. Maybe four projects that you’re working on, or four parts of a project that you’re working on, or three, or six. For language learning four just seems to be the number that works, but you might find you have more or less tasks that need doing over a certain period of time.

The equal emphasis I think can also be adjusted to the importance of the task. For language learning, these four really are important. However you might have a side project that you’re working on, this one you might want to dedicate 10% of your time towards. That’s also fine.

Think of everything that you have going on in the moment, and what you want to get done. Then, in percentages, weigh up the importance of each so it adds up to 100. Here it might be an idea to also put some form of rest or escape, such as a mountain hike or something similar. Up to you.

Then it is all a matter of divvying up the projects over your blocks in a way that gives the emphasis necessary, and applying this to your calendar.

Full disclaimer, I haven’t tried this. And to be honest, it sounds like it might be a bit of a chore, but I have been lacking discipline in recent weeks, and I’m willing to give it a try. Maybe not for a full day, maybe only part of the day. We’ll see, but I think it’s worth trying at least.

One of the tricks I learned on my short stint as a cafe worker with my friend about five years ago was the rule to always have something in your hands. If you’re taking something out to your patrons, pick something up on your way back. That way you can take advantage of the multiple trips you make.

I’ve just noticed that a similar philosophy has crossed over to the things I carry with me on the mountain, well, more the things I wear. I have a new pair of pants that are built for torrential rain, but they also double as snowboarding pants. My warm jacket I bought for the winter, that’s also a snowboard jacket (just a coincidence, but a good one).

On a non-clothing related note, my camera doubles as a camera for photos and also film, and I’ve been trying to get better use out of both of them too, although I think I will need to take a tripod with me in future. In this way I can lighten my load, while still performing what I need to, a win-win when it comes to hiking.

When you do do something like this though, you have to make sure these tools can at least successfully perform their target job, otherwise your plan to kill two birds with one stone, it doesn’t really work.