#uppingyourgame
#uppingyourgame: a practical guide to personal productivity is now ready! It’s the first book to be published using my newly-devised OpenBeta publishing model.
Chapters:
- The Philosophy of Productivity
- Productivity & Motivation
- Productivity as ‘getting on & doing’
- Productivity 2.0
- Helping make others more productive
Permanent link to the book’s page here at http://bit.ly/uppingyourgame
I think you should give either the preface/intro/contents away for free as a tempter for us to give over our hard earned £2!!!
That’s part of the game, though Dan isn’t it! When you’ve got the first
chapter it’ll be £3. Or you could buy it now and get the rest free for £2.
The choice is yours… :-)
Really interesting idea as a publishing model Doug. I’m in, and look forward to reading the book as it develops.
so how long until the next version and the increased price?
Ah well, that would be telling! Suffice to say they’ll be at least one
version per month… :-)
I’m in too Doug. Judging by the stuff you give away, I’m really looking forward to paid-for content. I’m a big advocate of “teacherprenerism” as I know the massive impact my work outside school has had on my work inside school. This model is a great way for teachers (and anyone with an interest they are ready to share) to widen their sphere of influence, but with more depth than a blog can manage.
I have realised that we only read books by people who are prepared to spend the time writing them. The OpenBeta model seems like a great method to allow people’s encouragement, both in financial and critical terms, to help them along the way.
Plus, I think you’ve given me the little drop of inspiration I needed…
Excellent! No pressure then… :-o
I’m in-Rather ironic you writing a book about educators productivity. When everyone’s thinking how the hell have you the time to write a book!Be great to have a chapter devoted to procrastination…..;-)
Good idea – not something I’ve ever struggled with, but shall try to work it onto the chapter on motivation! :-)
I paid just £2. Does this mean I will receive the book via the post for that minimal price??? Sorry – I’m not very bright :-)
Yes Jamie, you will get an email soon!
Doug
That bamboo story I promised. Its part of a collection of writing to challenge and inspire (CI)
http://kristianstill.co.uk/wordpress/?page_id=11
The Bamboo Story
You prepare the soil, pick the right spot, then plant the Chinese Bamboo seed. You water it and wait. You wait an entire year and….. nothing appears. No bud, no twig, nothing. So you keep watering and protecting the area and taking care of the future plant, and you wait some more. You wait another year and still, nothing happens. You are a persistent person not prone to giving up, so you keep on watering. Another year passes,you check the soil and, and there is still no sign of growth.
It has been three years. Should you give up? Someone told you that it might take a while to really see the fruits of your efforts, so you keep on, keeping on. More water, more care. You even offer a few kind words to encourage growth. Another year passes. You look around at all the other plants growing in the garden, their stunning beauty. No sign of a bamboo shoot.
So you begin year number five with the same passion as day number one, albeit deflated. You water, you wait. You keep watering and you keep waiting. You water some more and then, sometime during the fifth year…. could it be? Is it really? There, just showing through the dirt. The following day you return and you are left amazed, the bamboo has grown more in 24 hours than in the previous five years. In the six weeks that follow, it continues to grow approximately three feet every day, until it is over 80 feet tall! Yes, 80 feet in six weeks! Well, not really. It is 80 feet in five years.
The point is simple. If you had given up for even the shortest period of time, there would be no tree. The bamboo has spent the five years growing its extensive root network, in preparating for this explosive growth. Those roots made the bamboo strong enough, before it even made pursuit for the sun. Not all rewards are immediately achieved.
Great allegory, Kristian – thanks for sharing! :-)
Patience, perseverance and optimism . . . and time: in disappointingly short supply nowadays. As someone still expecting hard-won experience to bear fruit, I find that this story really hits the spot . . . sometimes it’s hard not to falter in conviction ;-§
It also makes me think of John Irving’s ‘A Prayer for Owen Meany’ but I can’t quite remember whether this is solely a paean to predestination, or whether experiences accrued along the way are also shown to befit (exquisitely) the protagonist for a particular role. [Worth a read, in any case :-)]
I’ll look forward to reading more from you!