There are two things I love – love – to do:
- Curate the heck out of my existence
- Listen to what you want… and then give it to you
So I'm doing both of 'em up big-time this month.
Many people in this awesome community recently took a brief survey where I asked some questions to guide the future of Value of Simple. A prominent theme from your responses was (and I'll paraphrase):
Dude, you need to be more concise. And we love all the posts and podcasts about “why” and “what,” but we'd really love some more “how to.” Hook us up, bro!
It's time to get hooked up as I hereby dub August “Experience Curating” month!
I hope you're ready to FAOCAS (read: focus), because it's about to get all groovy up in here!
Just don't think I'm letting you read new curating posts and not asking you to participate. Put on your secret agent hat and prepare to take on some assignments that nobody else gets. It's going to be like a mental James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Inspector Gadget experience rolled up into one.
Note: this message will not self-destruct in fifteen seconds.
Assignment 1: Experience Curating… Ya Dig?
As I explain in my Ignite Minneapolis video – a five minute task you can undertake (if you dare) – Experience Curating starts by filtering all your moments with intention. Then you create a system to archive those moments, organize them for future slicing-and-dicing, and preserve the context forever.
It's then, with easy access and relevant sharing, that amazing outcomes result.
Yep. Experience Curating is as easy as 1, 2, 3… 4, 5, 6.
- Filter
- Archive
- Organize
- Context
- Access
- Share
That's FAOCAS.
And that's my attempt to create a catchy acronym that kinda, sorta, maybe works… but, not completely.
Although this is the first “official” Value of Simple Experience Curating article, I've published three podcast episodes on curating your existence (that kinda, sorta, maybe rock). Each one shows my evolution as a curator and they are some of the most popular SASM episodes.
- SASM 005 – The Awesome Importance and Startling Benefits of Curating
- SASM 014 – Cultivating Curating's Promise and Storytelling's Evolution with Steve Rosenbaum
- SASM 023 – Curation, Informational Nurses, and Getting Some “P.I.E.” with Robin Good
Between the Ignite Minneapolis primer and these deeper dives, you will be feelin' what I'm puttin' down in no time. Ya dig?
Assignment 2: Get Featured in Experience Curating (The Book)
It wouldn't be cool to create a new paradigm for how to live and validate our life without literally writing the book on it, right?
That's why I'm cranking away on my first book, Experience Curating: <Insert Super Awesome Sub-title Here>.
In addition to the to-be-determined sub-title, I need your help to make this book a true team effort. So if you're game to get featured in the book or play a role in seeing it released with the polish of a $300 manicure, here are some special groups you can join:
(For your eyes only)
- The Curating Adventures Posse: If you have stories about filtering, archiving, organizing, preserving or adding context, accessing, and sharing your experiences, I want to hear about them!
- The Advanced Copy Insight Team: I need people to read, edit, add examples or case studies, and generally offer insight on the advanced copy when ready. Maybe one of those schuper schweet people is you?
- The Technical Tester Squad: Experience Curating will initially be released only in eBook formats. But the formatting and technical side of each version – from Amazon to Apple to PDF – will need more eyes than just mine.
- The Doers and Shakers: If you are or know a great copyeditor, book cover illustrator, graphic designer for interior pictures, PR expert, digital book formatting guru, or distribution master, I'd love to speak to you or them about my book.
A free final version of Experience Curating is yours (plus some potential other secret goodies) if you can help this dude out.
Simply tell me which special group you want to join in the comments or in an email to joel@joelzaslofsky.com.
Assignment 3: Let's Get It On (Curating Style)
Don't miss your chance to see new posts about how to rock the six steps of FAOCAS. Subscribe to my RSS feed or check this post frequently for new links.
- “F” is for Filter
- “A” (#1) is for Archive
- “O” is for Organize
- “C” is for Context
- “A” (#2) is for Access
- “S” is for Share
Welcome to Experience Curating month, friend! It's time to start working on your secret agent assignments.
For the Comments:
Which FAOCAS step do you need the most help with? And what part of Experience Curating do you have something to teach us about?
—
For me, it’s the organize part. It takes a lot of discipline to go back to your raw material and get it organized so you can find it again, and maybe even share it. It’s something I struggle with because it never seems to be as high priority as other things on my todo list.
I’ve found some good ways to basically combine the archive and organize steps of FAOCAS so they can be done simultaneously. Have you ever tried to do both at the same time so that you didn’t have to go back and organize the somewhat raw experiences you save?
Ummm…1 and 4-6? 🙂 I struggle with processing all the information I encounter, but once I get something into my system, it rarely sees the light of day again. So I’m quite looking forward to this whole series (and to Experience Curating, the book!).
I’ve never analyzed how many of my curated experiences – and what type – see the light of day, Erin. Certain ones keep popping up over-and-over as I pass along this article to that person or recount this story to that group of people. That actually gives me an idea to add a new column to my spreadsheets about how often I use a curated experience. Something simple like a tally mark system that I could sort and filter on to see which experiences are the most popular (or helpful) over time.
I think you just helped me more than I helped you, but I’ll try and turn the tables soon. 🙂
For me it’s probably the organizing. I like categorizing and tagging to make things easy to find, especially websites. The problem with categorizing is when something fits several categories. Life isn’t hierarchical by nature. So with bookmarks it’s hard to find sites I want to get back to.
I address how to create a curating system that deals with vertical and horizontal categorizing in my book, David. That doesn’t do you much good since it won’t be published for a while though. I know we spoke about this at WDS and I don’t have much to add to that conversation at this point. However, I will say that really good categorizing systems can distill just about anything down to logical hierarchies. I’ll find a way to address this for you in a concise way between now and when Experience Curating (The Book) is published.
Organize for me as well. I do well with organizing, but I get bored with the method I choose.
I’m not sure what “context” means.
Lots of votes for organizing being the toughest part of dealing with our experiences. I would agree that it’s the toughest – both initially and ongoing – even though filtering is the most important.
“Context” refers to what the meaning, value, and original intent/history of an experience is/was. It’s your condensed and synthesized thoughts about why the experience was important, who it’s useful to, when you think you might need to refer to it, etc. I’ll address this one fully in an article about context later this month, Denise.
I’d never heard of ‘curated experiences’ and I’m not sure I understand the whole concept, but perhaps what I’ve done over the years is comparable. I’ve kept a calendar since 1999 which became digital in 2000 and reflects all my activities & experiences daily. They are also color-coded or have icons reflecting the parts of my life & so I can see balance as I am in the present & moving forward.
Wow, a daily activities and experiences calendar, Manda. That’s pretty groovy.
Why do you feel the need to capture the daily moments in your life in a system like you have? I’m especially curious to know what you do with the 14 years of accumulated life experiences if you care to address that too.
I recognized years ago that there are so many special moments and times (that we would normally forget), that I would want to remember for the rest of my life. Knowing that this would be impossible, I started handwriting them in a calendar. I’ve been fortunate to see dozens of amazing plays, operas, & shows. I’ve had fantastic experiences and traveled around the world including missions.
I have travel journals with heartfelt writings that I know have potential for impact. Through all these times I would think “I don’t ever want to forget this.” and so I began to record the activities and so the memories come back so quickly as I read through the calendar alone.
For the rare times I look back (or even think back like now), I realize what phenomenal, rich experiences I’ve had. Truly most of them have been from ‘putting myself out there’ with people and taking risks – how can you not want to remember those times? (I always said that if I ever have Alzheimer’s I’ll be able to read my life story over and over and be in wonder of the adventure. Not too mention hundreds of photos.)
It’s not just the ‘history’ that is valuable. As I look at my calendar each month now (Google), I have icons that very clearly show my activities and therefore, my priorities. (altruistic, spiritual, physical health, fun, learning/growth). This is not just encouraging, but helps me to quickly identify where I am lacking and need to refocus.
My apologies for being verbose, but the benefits of this exercise have been rewarding beyond belief.
You made a couple of great points, Manda. The first is that the best experiences are often the “riskier” ones and when we get outside of our comfort zone. That’s definitely been the case in my life. The second is that curating isn’t for curating’s sake or historical documentation. Curating is for what it unlock within ourselves – seeing trends and acting on them – and what it empowers others to do when we share our experiences in meaningful and relevant ways.
I love that you’re able to look at your Google Calendar and see what you need more of, less of, or want to rededicate yourself to. What an amazing gift you give yourself by living intentionally.