File this under ‘weird things that Colin does for fun at parties.’

In addition to playing the Meet New People game (which I’ll cover in the near future), I make it a point to learn at least one completely new fact from each person I talk to when I’m out networking (also: at a friend’s birthday party, attending a museum opening or really anything else where I come into contact with people).

The facts don’t have to relate to anything in particular and can run the gamut from something you’d learn in a textbook to something you’d learn on prime time television to something you’d learn on the streets.

One of my favorite assignments in design school involved going through my old class work and re-appropriating something I had done before into something new. I took old photographs and turned them into new album covers. A once-glorious illustration became a newly-glorious social poster. A really-quite-bad infographic became a really-quite-funny t-shirt.

The idea of reaching back into your near- or distant-past for inspiration can be taken beyond scrapping old projects for new raw materials. Case in point: I’m in the process of selling off everything I own, and my trusty old guitar is sitting in the middle of my living room (which has become Purgatory for my items in transition).

A little known fact about me: I hold the high score on 5 Tetris arcade machines.

“Why would Colin waste his time with games, when the game of life is the only one worth playing?” you’re likely asking yourself at this moment. “And aren’t video games for geeks and Wii-bowlers?” Two very good questions. The answer to the latter question is a resounding ‘No.’ The answer to the first question is a bit more involved. Let me start with some interesting facts about Tetris.

Tetris is one of those rare creatures that refuses to stay sequestered within its primary niche. Sure, it’s a video game – a very popular game (the only one that has been translated onto almost every video game system, graphing calculators, and the sides of buildings all over the world) – but it has many properties help it distinguish itself from the rank-and-file Mario flicks of the world.

I’m a big fan of Ramit Sethi’s blog (and book), I Will Teach You To Be Rich. One of the key concepts that he focuses on in teaching people to accumulate wealth is to start saving early; the sooner the better.

The reason for this is compound interest. This wonderful mathematical principal says the sooner you start saying, the more you will make over the long-term (the difference between starting to save at 22 and starting to save at 24 can be millions of dollars by the time you retire). In essence, the sooner you start saving, the longer that money will have to accumulate interest (and the longer you will be adding to it).

This is a powerful concept, and one that I believe applies just as well to education.

It’s probably safe to say that, at one point or another, all of us have run into a wall with our work. We’ve all had that terrifying moment of stagnation when we realize the creativity well has run dry, and it only takes a few seconds before our minds become as parched for the once-flowing ideas as our lips would get drinking dust instead of water. It’s a sad state of affairs.

There is a solution to this problem that tends to work pretty well, though, and it’s so simple that it’s easy to overlook. Work backward.

If you’re anything at all like me, your time is very valuable to you. You only have 24 hours in a day and ostensibly only a portion of those hours are yours to use for productive things, so you do your best to make the most of them, cut out the chaff and increase your output the best you can.

Needless to say, this kind of mindset is not conducive to breaks, naps, lollygagging or friends (just kidding on that last one….or am I!?).

But despite my own and your propensity for productivity, I want to propose a non-intuitive method for increasing effectiveness, alertness and mental health. I call it Your 20 Minutes of Awesome, and I want to tell you why you should utilize this method every single day.

Achieving higher education means more to some than others. Many take the opportunity to learn all they can, involve themselves with clubs and extracurricular activities, and to meet people who have completely different worldviews and engaging them in rich discussions full of ethical koans, expressive metaphors and philosophical solutions.

Most people, however, instead use the opportunity to drink heavily, partake in questionable sexual escapades and spend a lot of their parents’ money to get a Communications degree that they will keep in the closet throughout the next decade while they work an entry-level job at a faceless organization of some kind.

Running a small business (or a freelance career) is a lot like launching a long-term sortie into enemy territory; an enemy that is much larger, better equipped and with a weekly budget of more than you make in a year.

But you soldier on, because you have advanced training, the persistence and durability of a cockroach, and the hopes and dreams of an innocent child who….

Okay, so you’re pretty damn well outgunned. It doesn’t matter how talented and ambitious you are, because at the end of the day those big-name competitors are holding all the cards. They laugh at your pathetic attempts to outbid them. “Mwa ha ha!” they cackle, “You are puny and pathetic and one against our many! What could we possibly have to fear from you?”

I am VERY new to the world traveling, live where you want, work where (and if) you want, nomadic kind of culture. So new, in fact, that I haven’t yet left the country (though I will be in a few months!) and all I’ve had to work from in preparation is what I’ve been able to glean from friends, family and the people I’ve met online.

Fortunately, the online community for this kind of lifestyle is rich and varied, full of wonderful people (some of whom I’ve listed in my Field Guide to World Travelers) who are more than willing to share their experiences, tips, warnings and resources with you.