Author: MAÔ

It’s easy to try and take on too much. But what can you really get done in a day?

I was recently introduced to the 1-3-5 system of productivity. Each day, you can handle one big thing, three medium things, and five small things.

Do I think this will work for me? Who knows.

But I don think having a system is important. I’m always looking for the one that will let me tame my heinous stack of paperwork, inbox, and random to-dos that seem to accumulate faster than I can even check one off.

Still. Some of us are prone to taking on too much. And it’s important to acknowledge that, and make space for yourself to recover.

You can’t connect with someone if you’re forcing yourself onto them.

Too often, some will try to espouse their many virtues in a first or second meeting. What accolades they believe they’ve accrued over the years. What benefits they provide. How great they are.

The thing is, there are those who will eagerly listen. But they’re likely not the ones to move you to the next step. The ones you want in your corner.

For those people, you have to offer, not take. Have your ears open, and your mouth closed.

Lately, I’ve been coaching a number of creatives. I’m not sure how it happened, but aside from the three or four projects I’m working on, I’m also fostering the creative output of another six or seven people.

While, yes, this is exhausting and does eat up a good chunk of time, creativity is like a bonfire. And if you have an idea, I feel strongly that you should get it out for people to see.

As I’ve said a thousand times over the past two months: writers write. Even if you’re not sure who it’s for, yet.

A great analogy a friend gave me the other day. Most of us go through our days with various levels of anxiety, patience, excitement – all the emotions. Those who suffer from anxiety, my friend told me, are like cars that have bad shock absorbers.

Any small rock in the road can throw the passenger into uncomfortable disarray.

It was an enlightening peek into the mind of someone who suffers from excessive anxiety, and I was grateful to be let in on that.

There’s nothing quite as satisfying as when everything lines up in the perfect way. Projects run seamlessly. Green lights all the way. An easy, satisfying, and enjoyable experience.

To make that consistently occur, you have to mindfully focus your intention. Don’t settle back, and don’t get stuck in your head.

Move forward as a force of nature.

Most of our struggles in life are ones of time. Spending too much time with the things we don’t necessarily want to be doing, while spending too little time with the things we do.

Find balance. Make time. It’s the only path to a fulfilling life.

As I said, I might share some thoughts on films I’ve been seeing. We’ll start with this one from a couple weeks ago when I saw “Abigail” at the AMC Parkway Pointe in Smyrna, GA. Some spoilers ahead, and also, this mentions multiple deaths in a vampire movie, so don’t feel the need to read if that bothers you.

Okay, “Abigail”… Let’s think about this one a bit. You’ve got a criminal empire, run by a shadowy figure. Who also happens to be a vampire. It’s the natural progression of Nicholas Cage’s Dracula in “Renfield”, had he not been successfully stopped. In this film, we wonder if this criminal is Dracula? While it’s never confirmed, one can believe that Lazar, “who has gone by many names”, may in fact be the most famous vampire in history.

And then there’s his daughter, Abigail. The ballerina vampire hitman who loves playing with her food. It comes as no shock that the heist team is being set up – the trailer all but gives that away, along with a number of scares and shocks that I feel would have been better kept secret until actual movie viewing.

But I’m not the one who cut the trailer, am I? The crime syndicate aspect was a good reveal, and there were some decent twists and turns. Giancarlo Esposito gives a rather notable performance.

There’s the typical genre tropes – don’t go up the stairs, but you know they do. Don’t go off alone, but, oh wait… So you can say you’ve seen that before, but it’s cleverly presented, which I think deserves a little grace.

Very early on, you see Barrera’s Joey as the hero, though many indications point to her being a very flawed one. She’s participating in the kidnapping of a little girl, for one. She connects with Abigail, and knowing what we know from previews, we wonder if she’s going to stand up to her team in defense of the vampire girl. 

This wonder is firmly put to rest just after Abigail reveals her true self, and Joey unloads her firearm into the girl at close range.

There’s an overall punk aspect to the film, if that makes sense. I find myself thinking of “The Lost Boys” quite frequently throughout, as well as smatterings of “The Fearless Vampire Killers”. A couple of exploding bodies. One beheading. A partially missing face. Some black spew that I absolutely could have done without. Three and a half stars, closing in on four. Check it out.

Happy Star Wars day. The original film, released in 1977, was nominated for Best Picture. But lost to Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”. It seems likely that more people have seen Episode IV than Allen and Keaton’s romance, though it was still quite popular. It also had small appearances by young Sigorney Weaver and Jeff Goldblum, so check it out just for that!

It’s hard to think that something like “Star Wars” could be made today, but the talent in the filmmaking community is no less that it was then. Who knows what could be coming from the imaginations of young filmmakers everywhere.

I did some work a couple of weeks back, and had a conversation that echoed a conversation from not long before that. It was regarding effective communication skills.

Communicating is basically conveying a message, and ensuring that the message is received adequately. Now, we all think we know how to communicate. But I’ve found that the latter half of the communication matrix – namely, ensured understanding – is often times overlooked.

If a supervisor tells someone something multiple times and it doesn’t get accomplished, too often the supervisor will raise their voice, shout, take “corrective action”, or just let the employee go. Without any indication as to whether the instruction was understood.

Sometimes, no further inquiry is needed. The employee ignored or was incapable of following the instructions. But there are many times when the instruction isn’t understood. In that instance, the fault isn’t with the employee, but with the supervisor.

While I spoke about it in regards to the workplace, any relationship can have failed communication. The ensured understanding is just as important as the meaning in the message, and more often than not, that’s where communication falls apart.

In a sort of trade-off for not creating, I have been attending a number of screenings. I’ll likely share some write-ups I’ve done for films here, though I can’t ever guarantee anything when it comes to writing.

Spending a goodly chunk of time at the Atlanta Film Festival this week. Panels, meet-ups, and films. It’s a good use of my days, at this stage in the game.

Come Monday, though, back to the regular grind.