Welcome to the second in my ‘Bibliosnap’ series – snapshots of my current bibliography – what I am enjoying reading and what I am inspired by.
This time it is James Mallinson. James is a blogger who I have enjoyed following for a number of years, having built up an excellent Productivity Blog, Organize IT. However, James has recently put this on ice to put his focus into a new blog – this has given him the ability to really dig deep into a subject, and fling it about a fair bit. I enjoyed Organize IT, but I am loving:
James also very kindly answered my stock Bibliosnap questions to let you into his world:
1. Who are you in one sentence?
I’m James and I’m a part-time wage slave who in a nutshell likes music, console games, football, reading and writing.
2. What do you write about and more importantly, why that?
For the longest time I’ve written about productivity, though that has now broadened to larger lifestyle and cultural issues with my new blog, Part-Time Wage Slave. I like learning how the world really works – often it’s counter-intuitive and runs contrary to convention – and blogging about it is a great way to study that.
3. What is the Big Lesson you learnt most recently?
Self-help gurus make millions convincing us otherwise, but if you want to achieve things then ultimately you just have to consistently work really hard – whether that be having a popular blog, getting a book published or having a great looking body. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t think about the hows of doing things, but if you dwell too much on shortcuts and ways to make things happen easily and quickly you lose sight of the fact you need to work your ass off.
4. What are you NOT going to do ever again?
I’m not going to put up with piss-poor management again. Good managers can make even rubbish jobs bearable, bad managers can turn dream jobs into nightmares.
5. What is the first thing you try when you need to up your productivity level?
I do three things. I make a list of what needs doing, I break that list down into tiny actionable blocks of work and I work to a tight deadline (Parkinson’s law).
6. What do you do to put a smile on your face when you start your day?
It might sound lazy but getting a good nights sleep is always a great way of making sure I start the day in a happy place. Early starts are a big no-no to me. If I wake up and see it’s anything earlier than 8AM I cringe. I’m more of a night owl than an early bird so I try to respect that when I manage my time.
7. Where would you rather be right now?
Well considering I’m on an hospital ward right now, I’d have to go with anywhere but here 
However, if you want specifics, being on a beach in a hot Mediterranean country living the simple (not mnmlist) life would be nice!
8. What is the best thing you have ever read?
Difficult to pinpoint a particular book, I can think of several recent reads that have made me go WOW for different reasons, but I have a fond affection for the His Dark Materials trilogy. Books like Democracy Kills, Brain Rules and Predictably Irrational have also been recent faves.
9. What is the best thing you have ever written?
I’m proud of some of the blog posts I’ve done over the years but I’d have to go with the book I’m currently writing, if for no other reason than I’ve done 80,000 words to date which is probably 10 times more than anything else I’ve done before.
10. What soundtrack shall I listen to when I read your work?
Some big operatic number from a film like Star Wars or Lord Of The Rings… because I want to write something epic
