Last year I had the opportunity to meet a designer from Google. During our chat he mentioned that a course on deep listening helped him become a better designer. While I don’t have access to the course I figured a book is the next best thing to learn more about this topic. Deep Listening — Impact beyond words seemed to be the most popular so I went with it even though it’s really short–just over 100 pages.

Turns out the secret to deep listening is…to just listen:

• Be present in the moment
• Give the speaker your undivided attention
• Give the speaker space to think–avoid jumping in just because they pause
• Don’t start thinking about a reply
• Don’t interrupt

When you think about it, it all just sounds like common sense and mindfulness. I’ve been guilty of interrupting, eagerly waiting for my turn to speak and being distracted to name a few. In the past few days however I’ve made a conscious effort to notice those things in order to become a better listener.

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” –Epictetus

★★★☆☆

It’s been around 6 months since the last lockdown in New Zealand. Things had just started to feel normal again in the recent months. I would often tell people that I felt very lucky to live in such a safe environment when other countries still struggle to contain the virus a year later. It’s easy to forget when you don’t watch the news.

Yet the many masked faces in public transports and QR codes at the entrance of every building are constant reminders that the pandemic isn’t over.

Earlier this week the entire country went back into a lockdown. A single case of COVID-19 in the community brought everyone back to reality. It feels eerily familiar to be stuck at home again while we wait for daily updates and hope for the best.

Remember we’re all in this together. Stay safe and be kind.

After reading The Elements of Style and a couple of other books on writing I didn’t necessarily plan on reading another one on this topic. But when I saw that Derek Sivers recommended On Writing Well on his site I thought it might be worth checking out.

I learned a lot about how to improve my writing in the first few chapters of the book. They were relevant, filled with examples and easy to understand. The main takeaways for me were:

• The best writing comes from rewriting as much as necessary.
• Strip down each sentence to its essence.
• Avoid long sentences. Break them down into smaller pieces if it’s easier to understand.
• Ask yourself “What am I trying to say?” and check in later “Have I said it?”.
• Writing in the first person is the most genuine way to write.
• Don’t forget to have fun, your readers will notice and enjoy it.
• Use people and places in your writing, they make your story come to life.
• Write like a human being and avoid confusing your readers with fancy words that don’t mean much.

Now every time I write whether it’s for my blog, at work or anywhere else I try to put these learnings into practice. The book gave me new tools to improve my writing and made the process more enjoyable. It’s like I was given a clear path to follow on my journey to becoming a better writer.

All that’s left do is write. And rewrite some more.

★★★☆☆

With every side project there comes a time when you might wonder if you could start making money with it. After all, it makes sense to be compensated for your work if other people find value in it.

This blog is one of my side projects and it allows me to pursue my hobby–writing. It’s fun to put my thoughts out there and contribute to the web instead of just consuming content. In the process I’m trying to improve as a writer, especially since English isn’t my first language.

Like most other hobbies blogging requires some investment in the form of time and money. Since I enjoy spending time on it to improve my writing skills that’s not an issue at all. It’s necessary. As for the money, I’ve splurged a bit on this site to buy font licenses and migrate to Blot. The site is super lightweight and I don’t use anything fancy to compress images or optimise the performance. The only recurring cost is hosting in order to keep it online and the domain name which comes to about $50 per year. Compared to some of my other hobbies this is really cheap.

I’ve seen many content creators try to cover their running costs or even earn a little on the side with platforms like Ko-fi or Patreon which seems like a great way to monetise your work. Even I used to have affiliate links in my book reviews at some point.

But I didn’t want money to play a role–no matter how small–in the things I do for my enjoyment. I believe that as soon as your hobbies start feeling like work they’re no longer hobbies. Usually they’re no longer fun either because money now dictates what you do and how you do it.

I don’t write articles in order to make money or to sell something to my readers down the line. I just write because it’s fun and maybe somewhere someone enjoys reading my blog.

I’ll happily pay 50 bucks a year for that.

When I was a kid my family had a little ritual on Sunday mornings. My mum would bring home delicious bread and pastries from the bakery and we had breakfast together around the kitchen table. There wasn’t much talking however. Not because we didn’t like talking to each other–we did. But part of that little ritual was that we all brought our own things to read. Every now and then my dad would share news he found particularly interesting which we all then discussed at length.

He still reads the news everyday and occasionally sends me articles to read but I don’t follow the news whatsoever. While it’s important to be interested in the world around me, when I’m confronted with anything news-related I usually ask myself: “Should I care about this?”

If something is really important and worth knowing I’ll find out about it sooner or later. Last year was an exception as I visited RNZ pretty much every day to get a status update on the situation in New Zealand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even so I started to limit the amount of times I’d seek out information in order to protect my mental health. I noticed the less news I read, the better I felt. This is especially true since these days they are usually filled with negativity and pessimism. Two things I don’t need in my life.

What I learnt from reading Factfulness is that things aren’t as bleak as the media make them out to be–quite the opposite actually. Even so I’ll still refrain from reading the news unless it’s beautiful news.