JR Kovacs

Poet, Writer, Creator.

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Productivity Poisons

Turns out that things that eat up a small amount of time at a go are total productivity poisons.  Before writing this post becomes one of mine, some of my, favorites(?) are:

Tappy tappy smartphone games.  Pay attention to the fact that they often give you a couple of rounds at a time, and how long each goes for, and suddenly you’ve lost half an hour.

Reading the news.  Just because it’s current…

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I Really, Really, REALLY Hate Exercising

I Really, Really, REALLY Hate Exercising

Words cannot quite express how much I’m not one of the type of person who just *needs* their workout to get through the day. But if there’s something I dislike more, it’s feeling slow, out of shape, and just on that side of heavier than the range where I’ve felt my best. There are a couple of steps which are in practice small, but can have huge ramifications if followed through on. Such as:

Measu…

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How to Choose What You Put into the World

How to Choose What You Put into the World

I’ve been thinking a bit about what I put out into the world- blogging, videos, research, anything really- and how to deal with looking back at past work, and (often) cringing, because current me would do it better/in more detail/from a different perspective.  While some things you can go back and edit, squirrel away behind a larger back catalog, or just ignore, others you can’t, and you have to…

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PICKLE RIIIICK!! ..Or Why You Should Do Things Because You Can

PICKLE RIIIICK!! ..Or Why You Should Do Things Because You Can

If you could turn yourself into a pickle, would you?  I mean probably not, but you do you.   In the episode “Pickle Rick,” Rick Sanchez of Rick and Mortyattempts to explain to Morty that the reason people would turn themselves into a pickle (very, very literally) is because they could.  Fair point Rick.  I think that internally, I, and I’m sure others, self impose limits on our decisions on new…

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How to Actually Ask for Help

How to Actually Ask for Help

Over the course of the last few months of work, I’ve noticed something that can occur when asking questions: not all asks for help are made equal.  It can be incredibly easy for people who have the best of intentions to miss the crux of your question, because of a difference of perspective, difference understanding of what should be common knowledge, or wording of your questions simply not being…

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Leave it At the Door

Leave it At the Door

It can be incredibly easy to pack up the stresses and mental strain of your work along with your coat and bag, and bring it home with you.  While sometimes working in a different space, or in a place where you can be more comfortable, can help bring amazing breakthroughs.  However, it can often, and it’s not hard to tell the difference, result in setting up mental roadblocks from overthinking,…

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Be Honest

Let’s be honest.  Five weeks ago, according to one of the many spreadsheets which rules my life and tells me what to do because waking up each day without an extensive and comprehensive list of what I’m supposed to do is a scary concept, I should have published a post called “Be Honest.”  It was, again, according to the spreadsheet of wonders that I made sufficiently long ago that I can pretend…

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Mushrooms Rock!

Alright, alright, cut it out.  Not those ones.  I mean probably.  Not.  Maybe. ….Stop it!

Anywho, mushrooms are about the coolest non-Sciurinae multicellular organisms that this world has to offer.  And I have concrete proof.

They can be used to clean up toxic chemicals, because of course they’re magic.

Mushrooms are honest to goodness the hardest thing to overcook(you’re welcome, everyone else…

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5 More Minutes! Oversleeping Exhausts Us

5 More Minutes! Oversleeping Exhausts Us

I don’t know about you, but I’m certainly guilty as hell of oversleeping, hitting the snooze button, and committing extensive and rather egregious internal justifications for squeezing in just one more minute of sleeping in, regardless of whether or not I can really afford it in my schedule.  I’ve already covered here what has worked for me to try to get myself from my bed, collected together for…

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Wednesday Winddown: Lost in Space Sometimes in order to chill out, you've got to look up to the stars and maybe try to hitch a ride to whatever comet David Bowie grabbed a hold of back in the day. 

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How to Speed Read

How to Speed Read

I’ve known for many years that I can read at a significantly faster pace than is perhaps average when necessary.  However, I can recognize in my own reading, as backed up by literature, that there is a trade off between reading comprehension and speed that eventually becomes problematic.  But for those interested in learning more about the process, here are some notes.

There is no single way to…

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Audio Drama Sunday: It Makes A Sound

Audio Drama Sunday: It Makes A Sound

Everyone, I think, has some piece of music that sticks with them from when they were kids.  It could be a song that you remember hearing on the radio, a concert that you saw, some little song someone close to you would sing; something which stays with you over the years, and takes on an outsized status in your memory as the music of your childhood.  For Dierdre Gardner, it’s the music of Wim…

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Whence Came You: Podcast Review

Whence Came You: Podcast Review

Whence Came You, the Masonic podcast hosted by Bro. Robert Johnson, is something of an anomaly for me in my podcast feeds.  I am subscribed to a boatload of audio dramas, podcasts about mythology, true crime podcasts, shows about writing and other aspects of creative careers, and Whence Came You, the only show which is more or less targeted towards an organization.  I added the show to the list…

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Audio Drama Sunday: The Deep Vault

Audio Drama Sunday: The Deep Vault

On a scale of 1-10, how claustrophobic are you?  Killer robot-ophobic?  Generally afraid of dying in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in an underground bunker that was supposed to be the salvation of humanity, but is instead a cavalcade of horrors and nightmares?  If the serious answer is above like a 3 for the last one, here and now in the real world, you presumably live in a war zone or own a…

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Wednesday Winddown: People Are People I really like AJJ (the band formerly known as Andrew Jackson Jihad).  Alternating funny, smartly socially commentating, and emotionally heavy hitting, they are for me one of the best folk (/folk punk) acts around. 

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There's A Shark In The Pool

There’s A Shark In The Pool

When I was a kid, I used to imagine that there was a shark in the pool.  Well, I should qualify that statement: when I was the first person in the pool, I used to look into the pool and objectively know it was empty.  I also would objectively know that a body of water that size could hide jellyfish, sharks, or the occasional moray eel.  Or stingray.  Or whatever else lives in the ocean and tries…

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"The Decision Book" by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler: Nonfiction Book Review

“The Decision Book” by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler: Nonfiction Book Review

“The Decision Book” by Mikael Krogerus and Roman Tschäppeler is a book of what they describe as “fifty models for strategic thinking.”  I came across it, as one does, at an airport, and picked it up for some light reading before a flight.  While it does in fact deliver on its tag line, I have some difficulties with the book.

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