Matthew Lang

Yesterday I attended the Nicholas Bate's Deep Productivity seminar in Oxford. It was a great chance to meet a fellow and much respected blogger and at the same use the course to gather up all the important bits about productivity.

The venue of the seminar was in the Magdalen College School. It was unlike any school I've ever visited and is also the oldest school that I've ever been in. If you like Harry Potter you will love this place.

I arrived a bit early being just around the corner for accommodation. I got speaking to Nicholas and a few other attendees to the seminar and then the hard work began at 9am.

The seminar was extremely valuable and it was a good opportunity to re-visit some strategies to help stay focused and productive. I also walked away with a number of books from Nicholas that have been added to the top of the reading list.

So what did I get from this seminar then?

Well, the whole point of this wasn't to learn something new. I'm a big fan of Nicholas Bate's blog and his material so I was already familiar with a number of strategies, but where I previously got this information over a long period of time, the seminar provided the opportunity to consolidate all of this information into a single form that I could digest more easily and refresh my brain.

It was also a great opportunity to meet Nicholas and other attendees.

All in it was a great investment of my time and I hope that it can yield some great results in the weeks, months and years to come.

Thank you Nicholas for putting on a superb event and it was great to finally meet you good sir!

For the attendees, I've managed to go my first 24 hours without bread as my first actionable item. Started yesterday during the seminar (thanks for the nudge NB) and made it to this morning by having cereal and a smoothie rather than toast. Yay!

Added Annie Mueller to the list.

Who's on your blogroll?

... over at Feedbin.

I love using Feedbin. Such a great RSS reader and the fact that they keep adding to it and improving it just keeps making it better to use.

Driving down to Oxford this afternoon for tomorrow's Deep Productivity seminar with none other than Nicholas Bate himself.

A great chance to meet and a great opportunity to learn.

If you're attending, say hi!

Medium announced it's paid tier called Memberships. I'm not convinced though.

Sure it's great that Medium are finally charging for their product, but there isn't enough value here.

You can count me out.

CJ Chilvers looks at the importance of being small and why avoiding the need to grow can be a good thing.

I've written before about my love of small books, but these past few days I've re-discovered a love of small blogs, small newsletters, and small products in general. Small could mean brief. There's bravery in brevity. Small could also mean minimal, a first step towards something larger.

— The Importance of Being Small by CJ Chilvers

Some essential coffeeshop tips and etiquette from the peeps over at DNSimple.

When you order your first drink ask for it straight away. Having a good relationship with the staff is important so give a good tip. I usually give 40%-50% on the first visit. That really helps get a good start with the people working there.

— Working in coffeeshops by DNSimple

I need to breakout from the home office a bit more often now that the good weather is just around the corner. Paisley only has a couple of good coffee shops worth working in though.

Lately I've been thinking a lot about marketing.

While making my afternoon coffee I was running some editing changes through my head on a post I'm writing. And then it struck me.

If you're not writing, you're not marketing.

I've struggled with marketing my freelancing business in the past, but I certainly could start making a step in the right direction by writing more for my freelancing business.