Halloween iPad Dreams—A Life Transformed

It's Halloween! No costume, no candy, not even a fucking pumpkin to carve into a Steve Jobs jack-o-lantern. But tomorrow, my ancient, first generation iPad will magically become an iPad Air! I'm very excited.

This calls for a celebration. So in honor of All Saints iPad Day, I'm going to attempt a NaNoWriMo. I'll also be losing 20 pounds and gaining immense self-respect. Damn I'm good! Where to begin?

Obviously, the celebration begins with a trip to the Apple store for a 64GB, 4G model. This is such a life-improving event that I'm going to need a maximally-equipped model. And I need 4G for the times I spend in my mobile office.

Don't need a keyboard. Do need a case. Don't need a car charger, do need AppleCare. Don't need software, do need software, but I'm not sure what and won't know until I get used to my new life with this new iPad.

What I really need is what everyone needs, to get better organized, to be better organized, and to stay better organized. Since my whole life is changing, it's a good time to put some of my not-yet-lost weight behind this effort.

It's about productivity. I know this is so, because I admire productive people and rail against my own lack of accomplishments. Just as a better camera would make me a better photographer, I know that a new, faster, more-capable iPad will make me a more productive person (though I doubt it will cure me of incipient irony).

I'm having second thoughts about becoming a completely different person, but I'm still buying a new iPad, tomorrow. I want a white one, because my old one is black.

Productivity Perceived

I got a lot of work done yesterday, or at least I feel as though I got a lot done. But how does one actually measure productivity? Am I fooling myself and do I have a false sense of having accomplished something when there's really nothing measurable? It's a curious thing, and I suspect has as much to do with feeling content as it does with getting anything substantive completed. So what have I done?

Mostly just answered a lot of emails. In fact, I've even caught up with a bunch of old emails that were waiting impatiently, nagging at the back of my mind for action. I shoveled the driveway three times, though with help. I chopped wood and made coffee. I finished a "handover" document (one of the bains of my existence) so that we can sign a new book for August,p[ and worked with Dave Mark to straighten out some of the confusion over our up and coming iPhone books.

It doesn't sound like much, and it's probably about average for any given day; really all in a day's work. But I finished the day without any bothersome and difficult things that should have gotten done. So I somehow have a feeling of having been productive.

Or perhaps it's that I finished the day and nobody was annoyed at me or felt I had let them down. Actually, I could be wrong about this and everyone is angry and annoyed, but just too polite to say so. I'll probably find out about it today, and that little happy feeling of accomplishment will vanish under the weight of today's realities. Time will tell.