Learn To Say “It’s Not For You”
The work you do is a gift to the world, but that doesn't mean it's for everyone.
Learn To Say “It’s Not For You”
Articles about Articles
Don’t Allow Your Rituals To Become Ruts
Don’t Allow Your Rituals To Become Ruts
Simply changing your circumstances or your productivity system might inject a measure of energy into your work and give you a boost for a short while, but that increase in output will be short-lived if you aren’t committed to an outcome.
Are “Time Drains” Ruining Your Productivity?
Are “Time Drains” Ruining Your Productivity?
You have 168 hours each week. Some of those hours you will probably spend doing things you have to do, some of them doing things you choose to do, and some of them doing things simply on autopilot.
Don’t Be “The Coach”
Don’t Be “The Coach”
Yes…we need coaches. However, don’t be “The Coach”. Instead, offer feedback that is timely, contextualized, empathetic, and helpful in the context of the outcome you’re committed to.
What Gift Will You Give?
What Gift Will You Give?
As you consider the gift that you have to offer - the expression that is uniquely yours, and yours alone to give away - consider this: the impact of a gift given away in freedom is vast, while a gift spent on the giver quickly fades.
How Rituals Unleash Your Creativity
How Rituals Unleash Your Creativity
What is the first thing you do in the morning? The last thing you do at night? Your first action when taking on a new project? Your impulse when receiving good (or bad) news?
If you asked those questions to many highly productive creatives, they’ll have immediate answers. Not because they are micro-obsessive about their schedules, but because over time they’ve developed predictable rituals around key areas of their life and work.
The 3 Career Investments Every Creative Should Be Making
The 3 Career Investments Every Creative Should Be Making
Here are three career investments that I think every single creative should be making now, and should continue to make consistently. These are the three aspirations that you should be chasing in order to ensure that you won’t be left behind.
Pushing Through The Season Of Incompetence
Pushing Through The Season Of Incompetence
Any time you are attempting to learn a new skill, or experiment with a new means of doing your work, you will inevitably go through a season in which you risk coming across as incapable of performing well.
Build Buffers To Focus Your Creative Energy
Build Buffers To Focus Your Creative Energy
Feeling a bit stressed? Manage your energy and bring more of your best effort every day by establishing buffers between important meetings and tasks.
There Are No Secrets. There Are No Shortcuts.
There Are No Secrets. There Are No Shortcuts.
For creative pros - those charged with turning our thoughts into value every day - the promise of a quick path to successful work is alluring. If there were proven ways to avoid the uncertainty and pain of the process, they would be worth their weight in gold. Unfortunately, they don't exist. Not really, anyway.
Which Productivity Profile Are You?
Which Productivity Profile Are You?
In my brand new book Die Empty, I examine the common places where bright, sharp, talented people eventually get stuck in their life and career. The goal, of course, is to get your best work out of you every day and to not leave it inside or take it to your grave with you like so many people do.
Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Getting Out Of Your Comfort Zone
You cannot pursue great work and comfort simultaneously. While you may experience comfort in the course of your work, or as a by-product of your work, great work and comfort are mutually exclusive objectives. Brilliant bodies of work are built as people choose over time to do the right thing, even when it's the uncomfortable thing.
What Your Secrets Say About Your “Danger Zones”
What Your Secrets Say About Your “Danger Zones”
We each have danger zones we have to watch out for in the course of our work. They can be particular habits or patterns we fall into when we go into "coast mode" or areas or situations where we are likely to get irritated and short-circuit collaborative relationships.
How To Get Attention For Your Work
How To Get Attention For Your Work
To get attention for your work, regardless of what it is, requires effort and persistence. It also requires that you gain an understanding of how to approach those who might help you get the word out.
How Doing Nothing Makes You More Creative
How Doing Nothing Makes You More Creative
Ever get inspired in the shower? Have a good idea while driving in the car? Of course you have. We all have. But why do our moments of greatest epiphany happen at the least opportune times?
A Simple Method For Insanely Productive Meetings
A Simple Method For Insanely Productive Meetings
While meetings can go bad in an endless variety of ways, one thing is common to all bad meetings: they’re a colossal waste of time. Sadly, if a typical month includes a number of meetings, this wasted time amounts to a massive chunk of our lives! We need a solution.
Why So Many Creatives Struggle With Discipline
Why So Many Creatives Struggle With Discipline
Discipline is sometimes perceived as a "dirty word" because it's interpreted as pushing through the muck, doing the unenjoyable activities first, and forgoing the chocolate cake for the steamed broccoli. However, I think this is a gross misunderstanding of the word.
How To Find A Mentor
How To Find A Mentor
Ideally, you'll have all three kinds of mentors (pathfinders, virtual, truth tellers) to turn to when you're stuck or generally need advice.
Four Reasons You Should Sketch Your Notes
Four Reasons You Should Sketch Your Notes
Still using lists, facts, and to-do's for your notes? Try sketch notes as a way to open your mind and generate new ideas. In this interview, author and illustrator Mike Rohde shows us how.
Stop Worrying About Your Tombstone. Instead, Build A Legacy.
Stop Worrying About Your Tombstone. Instead, Build A Legacy.
Your legacy is not just what you do, but also how you do it. It will be determined by a series of choices you make over your life about how to spend this moment - here, and now.