If you’re new here I’m trying to make a living doing up to 8 different jobs in an “Octopus” style portfolio career. Back in September I launched Octopus Project 1: Brand Consultancy.
Today I’m launching Octopus Project #2, the “Life at a Glance Calendar". The video demonstrates what it is and how it might be used.
I’ve been sitting on this idea for a while, debating whether it was worth doing, wondering if anyone would want such a thing, and fighting off fears that I would embarrass myself if no one wanted it. But now that I’m living my Octopus Life, where I’m exploring a wide variety of creative interests, I figure I’d put this out into the world and see what happens.
A few years ago I bought a bike on Kickstarter, and really enjoyed the process of helping crowdfund a project, and also support a creator. Since then, Kickstarter has been in the back of my head. I thought it would be fun to try a crowdfunding campaign of my own. So here we are, click here to buy the calendar on Kickstarter. The campaign runs until Jan 5, then closes. If I do not reach the campaign goal ($3000) then the project does not happen.
How I’m Thinking About Tentacle 2
This is a “small bet” experiment, a low risk way to see if there’s any interest in this product. If the Kickstarter goes well, I’ll probably create a Shopify store or upload it to a print on demand website, and sell it in an ongoing fashion. I may also license it out to others who want to sell it. I also have some other ideas for related tools to help people be more productive and encourage positive life change.
I’m using a modified version of
’s "Always Be Launching” strategy, which encourages you to launch early and often, providing updates along the way, rather than trying to have one enormous “big bang” launch, which doesn’t work as well as it used to.I’m also trying not to give in to the tyranny of getting everything right with this launch. There are a million things I can do to promote something like this, but I’m trying to live a calm life, so I guess you could call this a calm campaign, where I’ll do what I can but keep my sanity.
A Meditation on The Brevity of Life
Most people are afraid to think about death, however far away it might be. But if you’ve read Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks, Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life, Bronnie Ware’s Top 5 Regrets of the Dying, Ryan Holiday’s stoic history of Memento Mori, or heard people like Steve Jobs or Tim Ferriss talking about the value of pondering death, you know that it can be a profound forcing function that drives one to consider the shortness of life, and what one might do with what there is left of it.
Some people find this depressing and would rather live in denial of death, but if you are willing to ponder the unponderable you may find yourself becoming highly focused and motivated to live a different kind of life. This poster is a subtle and useful reminder that death comes to us all, and whatever your philosophy is about how one should live, I hope it encourages you to think about what really matters to you, and what you’d like to see happen in your life before it all comes to an end. I’ll be elaborating on this subject more in future posts, but for now I would just ask you to at least be open to entertaining the idea of facing your mortality.
A Tracker for Your Whole Life
In addition to being an existential motivational tool, the calendar can be an interesting way to see and review the entirety of your life. Every birthday, graduation, marriage, child birth, geographic move, holiday vacations, new job, major life event, major accomplishment, peaks and valleys, joys and miseries, all in one view.
As a practical day-to-day tool, you can track your progress on a new habit you’re building, an exercise program, practicing the piano, writing a book, running a life experiment, growing plants, training pets, making art, or any other daily activity you want to remind yourself to do. Some habits can take months or years to cultivate, and it’s hard to see your progress on a mobile app or paper journal that only shows you a day or week at a time.
You can also get a calendar for your kids, whether they’re lazy teens who need a kick in the butt, or younger kids who haven’t quite grasped the concept of time, but might have fun tracking progress on a new learning activity.
Be creative, the calendar is meant to be written on, colored, crossed off, and used up. Or you can just frame it if you like.
What are you hiding from the world?
This product is something I’ve been sitting on for too long. If I keep these ideas to myself, no one benefits from them. Putting ideas out into the world gives them a chance to make someone else’s life just a little better.
Do you have a “secret” idea that you’ve been harboring for years? Something you want to put out in the world, but have been hesitant, afraid of what people will think, or worried that it might not turn out the way you hoped? Why not send out an exploratory tentacle into the world, and see what the universe gives back?
If you think this poster is an interesting idea, do you mind sharing the Kickstarter campaign page on your social media, or forwarding this post to some friends who might be interested? I am curious to see how far this can go via word of mouth of my friends and followers. I appreciate it!
Feel free to ask me anything about this project, and thanks for being a part of the Octopus family :)
Dave
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