Hack Crack

LIFE HACKING

 

 image by: Robert David Reedy 2010 copywrite 

Life hacking is just a huge catch phrase for "getting stuff done".  It refers to the  ideals of productivity that utilize both silicon based technology and pseudo-scientific psychological new-age techniques.  Ive been surfing around the Life Hacking keywords and have found a plethora of how to's and PHD's pitching their new variation of last years self help fad.  By no means do I intend to persuade my loyal audience into thinking I am dogging on Life Hacking- quite the contrary.  I am now a full fledged card carrying Life Hacker.  If you wanna get stuff done you gotta learn to HACK. 

Upon trolling around the net looking for the how and why's of Life Hacking, I keep bumping into this "technique" called MIND MAPPING.  Mind Mapping is essentially a way of brainstorming and keeping notes in a non linear fashion.  According to it's "inventor" Tony Buzan, Mind Mapping is a way of making image and text associations that mimics the way the right and left sides of the brain cognitively function.  Check out Tony giving his pitch on his amazing life elixir Mind Mapping.

Tony Buzan "creator" of Mind Maps

Though Mind Mapping does appeal to the visual way that my brain functions, I was not completely sold by Tony's rhetoric.  So back out onto the seas I set my nets on a familiar but different colored brainstorming tech and found The Alternative to Mind Mapping : Rico Clusters.

The Rico Cluster

Rico Clusters were invented by Gabriele Rico and is seen as brainstorming and writing tool.  The steps to Rico Clustering are outlined in Dustin Wax's article Rico Clusters: An Alternative to Mind Mapping.

1. Write a word in the middle of a sheet of paper.
2. Circle it.
3. Write down the first word or phrase that comes to mind and circle it.
4. Draw a line connecting the second circle to the first.
5. Repeat. As you write and circle new words and phrases, draw lines back to the last word, the central word, or other words that seem connected. Don’t worry about how they’re connected — the goal is to let your right-brain do its thing, which is to see patterns; later, the left-brain will take over and put the nature of those relationships into words.
6. When you’ve filled the page, or just feel like you’ve done enough (a sign of what Rico calls a “felt-shift”), go back through what you’ve written down. Cross out words and phrases that seem irrelevant, and begin to impose some order by numbering individual bubbles or clusters. Here is where your right-brain is working in tandem with your left-brain, producing what is essentially an outline. At this point, you can either transfer your numbered clusters to a proper outline or simply begin writing in the order you’ve numbered the clusters.

So What the hell, here is my first Rico Cluster.

Rico Cluster by: Robert David Reedy 2010

I really enjoyed this quick little brainstorm session.  I followed each of the RULES of Rico Clustering and just let my mind do it's thing as I brainstormed, wrote, circled, and then imposed order.  I can really see this technique being useful in many areas of my creative and acadimic life.  But then I stopped to think about it and surmized that Rico Clustering is just another take of Mind Mapping.  Just becuase Tony Buzan and Gabriele Rico have PHD's and have written books on their techniques doesn't mean it's their way or the highway.  At this point I knew what I had to do.  I have to create my own technique of brainstorming and text associations.

ANARCHITEXTS 

                                                                                                                                                                                                       Anarchitexts is the newest alternative to Rico Clusters. Anarchitexts was created by the New Media Designer - Robert David Reedy.  There are no rules or formulas to Anarchitexts.   To utilize the technique one just creates and then repeats.  The goal of Anarchitexts is to associate and synthesize your thoughts to your own aesthetics. Utilize Anarchitexts and you too can be a genius.

Here are two examples of the newest and most promising thought association technique called ANARCHITEXTS

Anarchitexts by: Robert David Reedy 2010

 Obviously, Anarchitexts is just me ripping on Mind Mapping and Rico Clustering.  Each method is just a way of organizing and gathering thoughts.  The point being that there is no one way of organizing thoughts.  It does not  matter what system you use- Only that you use a system and use it repeatedly.

Life Hacking as a concept is just peachy. It  sounds great to talk about and say to yourself, 
"I'm going to do that someday."  

To Hack is to do!  Life Hacking is not a spectator sport.  It is a mind set to enable personal potential.   Use it.