Okay, so folks have been asking me what I’ve been up to, and I figured I’d share a bit about this little experiment I ran for myself a while back. It’s about this “Jamie Blyth” character, or rather, some ideas I picked up attributed to them. Not even sure where I first heard the name, probably some forum post or a random comment section, you know how it is.
Diving into the Jamie Blyth Thing
So, there I was, drowning in my own little projects. You know the feeling. Got a half-finished painting here, a half-baked app idea there, and a guitar gathering dust in the corner. My to-do list was a monster, just looking at it made me want to go take a nap. Standard stuff, right? Anyway, I stumbled across some talk about this Jamie Blyth approach to getting things done. Sounded super simple, almost too simple, which usually means it’s either genius or a load of crap. Figured, what the heck, can’t be worse than what I’m doing now.
First thing I did, and this was supposedly key according to the Blyth whispers, was to clear my damn desk. Literally. Everything off. Then, I got one, just one, cheap notebook and a pen. The idea was to pick a single project and write that down. Only that. Man, that was tough. My brain was screaming, “But what about the other twenty things?!” I almost caved and made a ‘backup’ list, but I held strong. Just one project. I picked finishing that ridiculously detailed miniature set I’d bought on a whim months ago.
The first few days were weird. Like, really weird. I’d sit down, look at the miniature, and my mind would immediately wander to the app, or the guitar, or that leaky faucet. The urge to switch tasks was massive. But I kept telling myself, “Nope, Blyth says stick to the one.” So, I’d force myself back to painting those tiny little details. I broke the miniature set project into even tinier pieces in my head – “finish this one guy’s helmet,” “get the base coat on these three goblins.” It was slow. Painfully slow at times.
What if something else popped up? Like, a genuinely good idea for the app? The pure Blyth way, as I understood it, was to just jot a quick note on a separate “maybe later” page and then get right back to the main task. No detours. That was frustrating, I won’t lie. Felt like I was stifling creativity sometimes. But, and this is a big but, after about a week of this, something amazing happened. I actually finished painting the entire miniature set. All of it. The whole damn thing that had been mocking me from the shelf for ages.
So, I jotted down some thoughts during that first phase:
- Pros: Stuff actually gets finished. Like, properly done. The focus is intense.
- Cons: A bit rigid. Feels like you’re wearing blinders. Not great for brainstorming or when inspiration for something else hits hard.
- Weird bit: My desk stayed clean. That was a novelty.
Next, I picked my next “one thing”: that app idea. This was different. Coding isn’t like painting miniatures. There are more roadblocks, more “stuck” moments. With the Blyth focus, I found I’d bash my head against a coding problem for longer than usual before looking for an out. Sometimes good, sometimes just stubborn. I did make progress, more consistent progress than before, but the rigidity felt even more pronounced here. Some days I just wasn’t in a coding mood, but Blyth didn’t care about my mood.
So, What’s the Verdict on Blyth?
Did I become a full-on Blyth disciple? Nah. Not really. The pure, unadulterated method is a bit too much for my messy brain and the way my hobbies ebb and flow. But, and this is important, trying it out was incredibly valuable. It hammered home the power of single-tasking. We all think we can multitask, but we’re mostly just kidding ourselves, switching rapidly and losing efficiency.
What I do now is a sort of “Blyth-Lite.” I’ll still pick one main project for the week, or even a couple of days. I give it priority. I try to clear the decks for it. But I also allow myself a bit more flexibility. If a genuine spark hits for something else, I might indulge it for a short while, then steer back. The core lesson from that whole Jamie Blyth experiment was the sheer, undeniable power of focused effort. Even if the pure method wasn’t a perfect fit, the principle behind it? Solid gold. Made me completely rethink how I approach my personal projects. So yeah, if you’re drowning in your own stuff, maybe give a simplified version of it a whirl. Can’t hurt, right?
