text stringlengths 0 1.46k |
|---|
My son had to do this thing for school -- he's in pre-school, he's four years old... And he had to explain what his dad did, and it was comical. I loved it... Because apparently, I listen to music all day. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** You've got headphones on and you're just jamming out... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I've got headphones, we talk into mics, we have music on our podcast, I edit, there's music involved... You know, there's definitely music involved, but his perception of what I do is uniquely different than most other kids... And how does that shape him? What I mean by that is how do you let what y... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, that's a good question... My kids are two and a half and four, and they're just now to the point of questioning things, deeper questions... What did my son say the other day...? "Where do strawberries come from?" He was just genuinely curious, like "Do they come from animals? Do they come from a... |
They're kind of starting to get the concept, like "Hey, we make and sell physical products", and then they're trying to reenact it... But I don't think they understand that most of the time, most kids don't get to see their dad all the time, or walk in on him in the middle of a call, and all that... Now it's becoming m... |
\[48:34\] And I'd love to get them involved in the business in some way. Not like they have to inherit Ugmonk and have to carry on the family name, but just to show them what it looks like to pack 100 orders, and get all sweaty carrying boxes up the stairs. That's part of it too, and I think that's gonna be fun, just t... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. That's such a cool thing, I think... And I feel so fortunate, because we do podcasts with my son that we have, The Eli Show. My son's name is Eli... We haven't done one in a bit, but we do a podcast together every once in a while. It's usually about trainings, or certain colors, or questions l... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, I have this one cabinet back here that's their cabinet, and it's just got all the extra hardware, and pieces of stuff in it, and they come in and take it all out and make a big mess... But they know that's their one cabinet that they get to play with, and pretend to do work, and deliver me my co... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** So yeah, trying to keep them incorporated... And big-picture, what I desire is that they'd be able to see how many options there are to do what you wanna do in life. You don't have to follow a certain path, and I think so many people are just assuming, like "You have to do this. You have to go to scho... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Absolutely. Let's laser in on Analog, because I'm really curious about the inception. It's literally a physical list that you handwrite, it's a unique system... From what I can understand, you've been doing it for years... What's been the process of creation, and what does it mean to you? |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, so Analog is what I'm calling "The simplest productivity system." When I describe it, one of the key things is this paper to-do list - it's 3x5 index cards that I've designed - does not replace your digital system. It's not like "Oh, instead of writing emails, now I use a typewriter and a carrie... |
There's something about that, and the tangible crossing things off, having it there, not having to swipe up and look at it, or switch tabs to look at it. That has worked really well for me, and that's why I created a product out of it. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** \[52:14\] What is this system? Is it simply a daily thing, or is it like a long-term, "Here's a week goal"? Is there more to it than just simply every single day? |
**Jeff Sheldon:** I use it daily. So there's three cards; it divides everything into Today, Next or Someday. The Today card is what I start with every single day. If I don't start with that card, I'm usually in my inbox, or scrolling YouTube or something, and before I know it, half the day is gone. |
The Today card I fill out every single day, and then anything that doesn't get crossed off automatically goes on the next day's card as I start that day. And what happens is you start carrying over these tasks that you're not doing or not getting to, and by the fifth or sixth time you're like "Either I don't need to do... |
It's beyond just being an index card, and being a well-designed index card with this wooden holder. It's really a way of thinking, and it's about prioritizing, it's about constraints... It's about really saying what is enough, like "How much did I do today?" If I have a digital list of 53 things and I only get to five,... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** What about the design process to this? How did you get to this framework where you just literally -- you know, somebody else's 3x5 cards, turning them vertically, writing things down... Or was it a blank sheet? How did you get to this system to think "I should design this and make this a thing" and ... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, years and years of using regular index cards, and saying "This keeps working for me. Maybe I should design a custom one, print out some ones just on my own printer..." The card itself is really simple, but what I did was pull in other ideas and concepts that have already been established as ways... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Just simply, yeah. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** People are even telling me -- some of the friends I had testing it was "I bring this to meetings with me. I bring one 3x5 card to a meeting, and that's all the notes that I can take, and then I leave, and I don't bring my laptop." The difference is made in the clarity of discussing things without havi... |
So I'm really just pulling in all of these concepts, both physically and mentally, and making Analog what it is. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And if you're listening and you're thinking "I wanna see this thing", I'm sure you can just google "Analog Kickstarter." A-N-A-L-O-G, like Ana, Log. Kind of like ChangeLog. Just kidding... But there' s a video at the top there, a well-done video. Jeff, there's nothing that you do -- gosh, sometimes ... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** \[56:04\] Thanks, man. Yeah, I actually shot the video and edited the video myself, because I was planning on going down to shoot with a whole film crew, and editing, and all that stuff - it was gonna be like a whole production. But then Covid happened, and I was like "Oh, what am I supposed to do now... |
So I spent like a month just planning it, working on it, diving into Final Cut, trying to learn all of the things... I had my brother over for a couple times to hold the camera. People were asking me how I was holding the camera with me at the desk... The two of us just worked together, and then I just edited it, I hir... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Scrutinizing the details, man... Yeah. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, I love obsessing over that stuff. That's maybe one of my strengths and my weaknesses. I could spend all day, just weeks and weeks working on a single thing. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Is there a future "Sweat the details" shirt coming soon? |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Say it again? |
**Adam Stacoviak:** That was tongue-in-cheek, meaning you sweat the details... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Oh, sweat the details... Yeah, I did have a shirt that says "All in the details." |
**Adam Stacoviak:** All in the details. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** And that's definitely it. If you're not obsessing over or sweating the details - those are the two ways you can kind of frame that. That's what we tend to tell ourselves. But then it's also "Perfection is the enemy." Sometimes when you're sweating the details, you're sweating perfection; and are you... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Thanks, man. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** I'm very impressed. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** I think it goes back to, again, that process. I actually had a ton of fun in that process. I had the story in my head, worked through so many different revisions of scripting it out and storyboarding it out, trying to get a concrete -- like, "How do I get this idea communicated? How do we shoot the Be... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Ha-ha! Well, you did go to -- what was it? Iceland? Or was it Greenland? |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah, that was a point-and-shoot camera in Iceland, and that video blew up. That was probably the most watched video I ever made. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** That's impressive though... We'll link it in the show notes for the listeners. That video was amazing. To me, one aspect that I like about what we've been able to do here at Changelog is that it started out as just a podcast. Just. That keyword "just". But then it got into all these other tentacles ... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** \[01:00:20.27\] For me it's more about training my eye to see things in just that natural understanding of the way that I can see the world, or just understand why I like something... I think a lot of people will say "I like that", but they don't really know why they like a certain thing. |
For me, it's a tricky balance. I think we all face this, but it's not about having the latest gear; I didn't rent some $20,000 RED camera. I have this camera that's a Micro Four Thirds that's probably 5-6 years old, decent lends... It's a decent enough setup, but really what it comes down to is nobody is going to like ... |
And again, I'm not trying to put myself on a pedestal, like everything I do is perfect, but I do know there's forums and forums of people debating audio and video gear, and what did you actually make with it? What did you create? What story are you trying to tell with it? And a lot of times what it comes back to is jus... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Yeah. Well, all too often do we get kind of gear-crazy, like "I've gotta know what Jeff's setup is. What does he have on his desk? I can be Jeff if I'd just know what kind of machine he uses, or camera he's used." And then that's a part of the story. The other part is the passion, and showing up, an... |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Yeah. Taking time to hone your craft is different than learning a new skill. Somebody could teach me how to play the trumpet in probably a couple of days. I'd be terrible at it though. It takes a lot of time to keep working and keep perfecting one thing, and in a world where there's a million options ... |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Well, if it was easy, everyone would do it. |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Exactly. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Ain't that right? |
**Jeff Sheldon:** Exactly. |
**Adam Stacoviak:** Let's put some urgency on the audience then... For those who are like "Man, I'm sold. Take my money, Jeff." How can you take their money? I'm just kidding... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.