Matthew Lang

... with Michael Wade.

... or is it more than that?

Think about all the things you could communicate with a simple page like this. If you're a businessperson, you could sell something. If you're a teacher, you could teach something. If you're an artist, you could show something you've made. And if your words are good, people will read them.

— Just a Web Page by Justin Jackson

via FGGT

Last week I mentioned that I was bored with the fantasy genre for reading. It's not very often I decide to read something out with this genre, but after having put down a number of fantasy books before finishing them over the last few months, I decided that enough was enough.

The first book to read out side this genre was Max Brook's World War Z. I enjoyed watching the first series of The Walking Dead, but I've not been in a hurry to watch any of the series that followed. I did enjoy it, but for me it wasn't a must watch show. Which was why I was apprehensive about reading World War Z. It's a genre that I haven't really wanted to read, but with the movie coming out this year, I decided that I wanted to read the book before watching the film.

I loved it. I really loved it. Telling the story from different eye witness perspectives was a great way to write the book. You get to see so many different reactions to the oncoming threat and how people deal with it. It also shows the ugly side of humanity when it comes to a world disaster. Too many books and films use the idea that humanity would be united in such a scenario, but this book shows a more realistic human responses when faced with such a disaster.

A great read, highly recommended.

Coming up with new blog post ideas can be difficult if you're the kind of person who likes to post on a regular basis. I'm trying to write a blog post every weekday but I'll admit there are days where I am just not getting any spark to write about something. Not wanting to have another miserable blogging month like May where I missed a number of days, I wanted to start writing my blog posts ahead of their scheduled date they will be published.

I needed to generate a slew of ideas for blog posts and I needed it fast. Enter the mighty mind map.

Right so let's get something out the way first. My mind map might not look like a typical mind map, but space was limited in my notebook and rather than squeezing something unreadable in, I opted to list the final collection of blog posts in the bottom middle section of the mind map.

Let's get started

Okay, so you want to mind map ideas for blog posts. Why not just get started then? Well, mind maps work well when you have related ideas. That's the benefit of a mind map. It can let you generate related ideas and keep these ideas together.

Rather than simply adding blog post ideas to your mind map, take a minute to think about the categories on your blog. Can you generate more ideas for these categories? If not, then think about generating ideas for a series of related blog posts. A series has the benefit of having similar formats, with just the content being slightly different from one post to the next. It might sound like a cheat but keeping your posts short means that they'll havea better chance of being read.

So on your mind map, draw an image in the center for the central topic of your mind map, if you're not the artistic kind then simply the words "Blog Posts" will do.

Basic ordering ideas are the first level of branches that we add to our mind map. In our case each basic ordering idea branch is a blog post series or a category from our blog. Now for each basic ordering idea, simply add a branch for each related idea you can come up with for your blog.

My mind map has basic ordering ideas for the following series or categories:

1. Blogs you Must Read
2. Building a Blog Dashboard in Octopress
3. Review posts
4. Bike posts

Lastly I wanted a list of blog post ideas that were unrelated to any of the above series. With very little space left on my mind map, I decided to simply list the blog post ideas at the bottom. Mind map purists will be screaming at their screens at the moment, saying that this isn't a true mind map. Does it matter? As long as it works for you.

I set myself a time limit of 10 minutes to do this and managed to generate 30 blog post ideas. Don't worry if you can't generate this number of blog post ideas. With practice you'll be able to quickly generate more ideas with mind maps.

Take action

Now we have a list of ideas, what next? That's down to you. Add them to your to do list, start outlining them or even mind map each blog post idea!

I have my own method. In order to reduce the element of resistance (I'm lazy), I'm going to create draft files for each of these ideas in my blog. That way I can get started on writing them straight away and as each one is completed I can schedule it in for a specific date.

Your mileage might vary with a mind map. Some people get them, others don't. I've long been a fan of mind mapping so it is easier for me, however don't give up on it before you have tried it!

Every day is a school day. I love that phrase.

As a programmer and daily resident of the Internet, it really does apply to me. Not a day goes by where I don't learn something new. It might be a new method in the Ruby language, or a new trick in Rails. It might even be just learning that your favourite App.net client for the iPhone does allow you to save drafts. Really, I just discovered this last week.

The thing is though, I'm usually working at such a pace where I learn something, use it and then forget about it. No more.

You only learn from the things you write down. If you don't, trying to remember it with the million other thoughts that go through your head that day just makes it impossible. So with that in mind I am aiming to log a today I learned (or TIL) a day.

Mostly this will be programming stuff, but it should feed the my blog for potential development and programming posts. I might even post a summary of the week here if it becomes more than just programming stuff.

... for all that's part of you with Nicholas Bate.

I might not approve of Curtis McHale's choice of journaling tool (just kidding), but I do approve of his reason for journaling.

I’d like to think that they will want a better picture of what I was in my 30′s as my family was starting. I’d like to think that I’m interesting enough to leave a legacy for them that they’ll be interested in.

— Knowing those that came before you by Curtis McHale

Nitin Khanna has been enjoying Journalong:

So you like to note down your thoughts but don't want the complexity of a proper journaling software like Day One? Journalong is now free, so just hook it up to your Dropbox and start using it to write down your thoughts in txt or markdown, maybe even several times a day.

— Journalong: Easy Peasy Dropbox journalling by Nitin Khanna

via Pedal Consumption