Cerebral Insights - take a peek at the hum of my mind

4 Days In El Nido, Palawan: The Ultimate Adventure

August is part of the Philippines rainy season. But if you’re adventurous, it’s also the perfect time to visit the country’s pristine beaches. Less crowds, more time to soak in the sights. Check out our adventure.

August is not a common month for vacations in the Philippines. It’s the rainy season and prone to cancellations, delays, and bad weather.

But with the country experiencing sunny days year-round, it’s also the best time to visit pristine beaches minus the crowds.

So, we decided to take the risk. We booked a trip to El Nido Philippines in the middle of August.

From sunny to dull, the weather can change drastically at sea. Photo taken during our Aug 2017 El Nido trip.

And despite the typhoon that ravaged the country in July, we were blessed with sunny and beautiful weather.

Beautiful sunny weather in El Nido (be careful, you can get sunburned!)

Read about our itinerary, what to expect, and how much to prepare.

Getting to El Nido

El Nido is located in the North-Western Part of Palawan and is a 1 and ½ hour flight from Metro Manila if you are taking a direct flight to Lio Airport.

However, those flights are expensive. So to save some money, we opted for a promo flight through Cebu Pacific from NAIA 3 to Puerto Princesa International Airport. This is a 1 hour and 15 minutes flight.

To reach El Nido, you must board a van and endure five to six hours of land travel through winding roads – but mostly beautiful countryside views.

You can choose from private or shared van transfers. Private vans cost around 6,000 one way. Shared vans cost about 600 per person but are available for a fixed time only. Your hotel accommodation can help book these vans.

Our plane arrived at Puerto Princesa around 7 pm. Based on prior research, we knew that public vans are available only until 5 pm so we had the hotel arrange the van pickup for us.

However, since there are a lot of late-night flights to Puerto Princesa, there are still private vans waiting for their passengers to El Nido up until the last flight arrives. If you’re traveling solo, you can opt to share a ride with these vans.

I recommend working with your accommodation as they can give you the best deals on van transfers and give you peace of mind that you’re going directly to your hotel.

Vans have a halfway stopover, around 3 hours after you leave your pick-up point. This is the spot where you can eat lunch or dinner. This is also the only stopover for CR breaks.

Our accommodations at El Nido for 3 nights

Building My Personal Brand: A Social Media Dilemma

Building a personal brand and capturing your unique identity is not easy. What if you don’t know how to merge them but want to express them both?

How many facets of personality do you have? How many unique quirks do you possess?

I wager a lot.

We are multi-dimensional people, unique from everyone else. We have different circumstances & experiences that produced the unique persons we are now.

In growing an online brand, we need to reach a specific audience. We can’t be everywhere. Our brand has to be focused.

This is easy for company brands. But what about personal brands? A person is multi-dimensional. How do you capture that?

For most people, they focus on one or two aspects only. They grow their personal brands as broadly but specifically as possible. You could be the “ambitious freelancer” or the “email guy” or the “build in public guru”. Everything is specific but with massive appeal.

But what about when there’s another side of you? Something you can’t quite fit to your “personal brand”. What do you do?

LinkedIn Polls: Hate It or Love It?

LinkedIn polls are more popular than thought provoking pieces. And creators hate them. What makes them popular? Read on.

Yesterday I came across a goofy LinkedIn poll. It asked which of the following people hate more.

Nickelback
Twilight
The Kardashians
LinkedIn Polls

There’s a trend going around in LinkedIn where polls are favored by the algorithm. They drown well-crafted posts.

Before that, I saw a dog meme that shows LinkedIn polls are like dogs on steroids.

text along with a picture of a dog — Image Not Mine

Creators who spent hours creating thought-provoking pieces hate it. But the algorithm loves it.

Why? Because polls generate engagement.

And algorithms exist to show what’s engaging.

How to Remain Productive Despite Procrastinating

Procrastination can be a strength. Your greatest enemy can be your greatest friend. Read on to know how I use procrastination to be more productive.

I’m a procrastinator. I’m not proud of it but I’m not ashamed either. I’ve learned to accept this ugly side of me. I used to fight it but that ended in disaster. Now, I’ve learned to turn it into a strength.

Procrastination is universal. Even the most successful people do it. But despite procrastinating, they go on to achieve their goals 99% of the time.

So what’s the catch?

The key is to understand why we procrastinate. I learned that procrastination is not a default mode. It’s a response to something happening below the surface. Something we’re not conscious of.

I discovered there are 3 reasons we procrastinate:

Stop Trying So Hard and Just Let It Flow Naturally

Recently, I’ve been too hard on myself in this whole creator journey. I’ve realized early on in my Freelancing Business journey that I need two types of strategy to succeed. I need an INBOUND and OUTBOUND strategy.

My OUTBOUND strategy is pretty straightforward. Utilize the power of online social networking. I’ve chosen my target market and I’ve consistently connected with them via LinkedIn. I’m elated that I have a high acceptance rate and in the past two weeks, I’ve steadily built my prospect list.

The next steps are also pretty clear. Study their companies, come up with killer blog ideas and send them a pitch.

Done. Outbound strategy finished.

But to make freelancing sustainable, I cannot rely on just an outbound strategy. I need to find a way for clients to find me.

Enter Inbound Marketing Strategy.

Applying what I’ve learned from Hubspot’s Content Marketing Course, I decided to also apply an Inbound Strategy for my business. This also mirrors the service I give out to clients.

But an inbound strategy is way more difficult than an outbound strategy.

I have to come up with content that my target market would find useful and valuable.

Eventually, I realized I had to become a content creator in order to serve my market.

And it’s no easy feat to create content. My respect for all the awesome and excellent content creators just skyrocketed.

Just the mere act of thinking about what content you need to put out is daunting.

Impostor syndrome is a constant battle. Procrastination is a threat. And the lack of efficient systems is a deal breaker.

I realized I had a lot of work cut out for me.

But it promises to be a rewarding journey.

Productivity Tools & Improving my Laptop’s Processing Speed

Nothing kills productivity more than a slow laptop. So, in my quest to continually improve my productivity, I keep trying various tools and hacks to make work more efficient and faster.

My most recent discovery is Notion HQ. It’s an all-in-one productivity app. It’s Trello, Asana, Write and Basecamp combined.

I’ve been through so many productivity and project management apps that I forgot my login credentials for all of them. (I’ve since managed passwords with Lastpass and Google Passwords Manager just to keep track).

Enter Notion. It promises to be everything you could ever dream of in a productivity tool.

Not to mention it’s totally FREE! There’s a premium version of course but the free version is so good, you may not need to upgrade except in very rare cases.

Sadly, there’s a catch.

Too much freedom leads to inaction.

You get easily overwhelmed. Well, I did.

Since I could basically customize everything to my own workflow – I realized, my productivity flow was flawed. Too flawed!

Given the freedom to design my workflow, and with the time freedom I get working from home, I realized I was lazier than I give myself credit for.

I find lots of excuses to procrastinate.

And if not procrastinating, I’m endlessly creating systems and plans that don’t translate much into action.

In the end, I’m worse off than when I first started.

But there’s a ray of hope.

On Building a Writing Habit and Improving Productivity

Building a writing habit is hard. Between joining writing cohorts and using coffee as a trigger, what else can I do? Should I write perfectly or imperfectly? How do I win this?

I shared last week that I am on a personal commitment to just write – and write – and write – until the habit sticks.

Along the way, I’ve come across various resources and several people who have been an inspiration for this journey.

And, as is no doubt evident in this blog, I haven’t stayed true to my word. I’ve skipped one day which turned into day 2 then day 3 until I stopped counting the days I’ve skipped.

So now, I’ve rebooted myself and am back to writing.

And this time, I’m committed (yes I am!) to make it stick.

No Such Thing as Perfect Writing

If you want to build a writing habit, you can’t aim for perfection. There are days when your output will really suck.

That’s ok. Just keep going.

Writing is a muscle that we develop over time.

Mastermind Groups: Why You Need It To Excel

Mastermind groups help us achieve our full potential in life. You need one to excel in this modern world. Read about my experience with one.

I’ve recently signed up for a mastermind group. And it’s the best investment I’ve ever made!

A mastermind group is a group of like-minded individuals with the common pursuit to excel in their chosen fields.

It has been more than 10 years since I’ve last joined one. And I’m glad I found a new group especially during these unprecedented times when we’re forced to isolate ourselves.

What a Mastermind Group does?

When you’re part of a mastermind group, you get to exchange ideas and solicit advice from the other members. The beauty of this setup is that you learn from different people. You are not limited to learning only from one mentor or coach.

You have a whole group of individuals of different backgrounds and experiences. While none is a singular expert in everything, everyone brings in their own expertise to the group.

Today, you may be the one asking for help. Tomorrow, you may be the one giving help.

It’s a very dynamic relationship.

My Heart Goes Out to Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a beautiful country. What’s happening today is heartbreaking and begs the question: what can we, the world, do?

The recent news over what’s happening in Afghanistan is heart-breaking. Despite not monitoring the news as closely as before, my husband alerted me to it when the events broke out.

By evening, I saw the videos circulating on Twitter showing one harrowing scene after another.

This morning, I watched US Pres. Joe Biden’s official statement over what happened. And so began my investigation.

The War That Stretched Too Long

Afghanistan has been at war for as long as they can remember. From the war with the Soviets to the internal civil war to the war with the US Army. They’ve been at war for far too long.

This video by Al Jazeera gives a clear summary about who the Taliban are and why is Afghanistan fighting such a long war.

Who are the Taliban? This video, made 2 months before the US left the country, summarizes the conflict in superb detail.

In Pres. Joe Biden’s speech, he said he wanted the bucket to stop with him. The war with Afghanistan has stretched for far too long and he cannot keep sending generations of Americans to fight their internal battles.

The US war in Afghanistan began with the relentless pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, thought to be the mastermind behind the Sept 11 attacks. It has gone on for 20 years now even as Osama Bin Laden was killed in 2011 by the US Army in Pakistan.

Yet despite accomplishing this 1st mission, the war raged on as the US attempted to help Afghanistan establish a democratic government.

Sadly, after 9 more years of helping the internal battle, the US has called it quits.

Building the Habit of Writing

How do you build the habit of writing? Write every day. It doesn’t have to be perfect or search engine optimized. It just have to be daily.

Building new habits can be tough. Especially if they do not align with your past habits. Building the habit of writing – when you’re not naturally inclined to write – is hard.

But it’s not impossible.

As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I commit myself to write daily.

It doesn’t have to be a perfect post every time. And, with the spirit of this blog, it can be about anything under the sun.

It doesn’t have to be a long-form content every day. And neither does it have to be search engine optimized. But if I can do that, then why not?

The goal is: to build a habit of writing.

Compounding Effects

As I’ve learned in Atomic Habits by James Clear, to successfully build a habit takes a long time of repeating the desired behavior again and again.

We need to focus on 1% incremental activities daily, instead of doing overnight transformations.

This means that even if I don’t write perfectly today, as long as I keep doing this, I will eventually get better.

It will come to a point when writing will become very natural to me.

And as a writer, that’s what I aspire to be.