Buffers, Backburners, and Breakwaters
Three strategies for dealing with chaos and overwhelm.
Buffers, Backburners, and Breakwaters
Articles about Energy
Four Ways To Reclaim Creative Energy
Four Ways To Reclaim Creative Energy
When was the last time you purposefully pruned your life (and project list) so that you had the time, focus and energy you needed for your most important work? Doing this on a regular basis is difficult, because each pruned idea and project feels like you’re abandoning a child, but this kind of ruthless dedication to energy management is what’s required in order to sustain over the long-term. On today's episode we share four quick questions to help evaluate a project for potential prune-ability.
How To Plan Your Day In 10 Minutes
How To Plan Your Day In 10 Minutes
If you were going to purchase a house or a car, you would probably step back and consider how you're going to re-organize your finances to ensure that you're preparing yourself properly and will use your money effectively. However, many people are much less intentional abou thow they spend their day than how they spend their money. Yet, which is more valuable? How you spend your day is how you spend your life. On this episode, you'll learn a very simple 10 minute method for planning your day effectively so that you bring your best creative value to your clients and organization.
5 Ways To Shake Up Your Creative Process
5 Ways To Shake Up Your Creative Process
Over time, this pressure to produce every day can cause us to fossilize around bad habits. We get into a rhythm – the bad kind – that causes us to move mindlessly through our days without much thought for our process. On this episode we share five places where you might be experiencing “fossilization”, and some remedies for dealing with them.
Push Through The Second Wall
Push Through The Second Wall
There are two walls that creatives hit when engaged in making something meaningful. The first wall, and the most obvious one, occurs before or very early in the process. It’s what causes us to shrink back from engagement and to instead seek something – ANYTHING – that will immediately relieve our need to feel productive. It’s much easier to check e-mail, make a call or re-shuffle the papers on our desk than it is to bare our soul to the blank page, the blinking cursor, or the empty art board. However, the second wall can be the one that really keeps you from producing your best work. On this episode, we share some strategies for surmounting it and pushing through to your best work.
3 Strategies For Reclaiming Margin
3 Strategies For Reclaiming Margin
Feeling overwhelmed? Yeah, join the club. So many creative pros feel as if they are swimming upstream every day; like they go to bed at night a little farther behind than they were when they woke up that morning. Often, this is a function of a lack of margin in your life and work. On today's show, we share three specific strategies for reclaiming your life, and instilling margin so that you can bring your best work every day.
Make The Most Of Your Meetings
Make The Most Of Your Meetings
Meetings are necessary to a healthy team, but when you spend most of your day in meetings, it makes it challenging to accomplish any of the real work for which you’re accountable. Worse, when meetings are stacked one after the other, it sometimes means little time to think or be strategic about them. On this episode, we share five quick tips from Herding Tigers about how to make the most of your meetings.
Podcast: In Defense of the Steve Harvey Memo (and Boundaries)
Podcast: In Defense of the Steve Harvey Memo (and Boundaries)
About a month ago, a memo from comedian and TV host Steve Harvey made the rounds and earned him a lot of criticism. It was directed at his team, and instructed them not to approach him in public spaces, not to interrupt him when he's in the makeup chair, and not to barge into his dressing room to ask him something. People decried the memo saying it was an indication of Harvey's inflated ego, but I disagree. Yes, he could have handled it differently (and he admitted so himself), but in principle, what he did was healthy. He set clear boundaries to protect his ability to do his job.
On today's episode, I discuss three areas where you also need to set healthy boundaries if you want to be effective as a creative pro.
Podcast: The Power Of Saying No (So That You Can Say Yes)
Podcast: The Power Of Saying No (So That You Can Say Yes)
If you ever feel overwhelmed with the work and opportunities in your life, you're not alone. The vast majority of people I interact with express that there is simply not enough time and energy to get everything done. However, people are also hesitant to say no to projects and opportunities because they're afraid they'll miss out on something great. The truth is, they're probably missing out on something great because they won't say "no". On today's episode, I discuss four areas where you need to regularly prune so that something better can grow.
Podcast: Tending The Flame
Podcast: Tending The Flame
In your life and work, you are the keeper of the flame. It’s your job to keep the fire burning, whatever it takes. It’s essential to your ability to thrive, and build a body of work that you point to with pride.
Podcast: Five Kinds Of Buffers That Help You Be In The Moment
Podcast: Five Kinds Of Buffers That Help You Be In The Moment
It's easy to be pulled along by your work and to run from task to task and commitment to commitment, but if you want to thrive and do brilliant work, you must learn the value of buffers in life and work. Here are five that you can immediately implement.
Podcast: Three Pieces Of Advice For My 20-Something Self
Podcast: Three Pieces Of Advice For My 20-Something Self
When you are younger, it’s possible to be successful because you are smarter, more talented, or more of a hustler than your peers. However, as you grow older, you begin to see patterns that you might have overlooked before simply because you didn’t have as much data. Knowledge can be bought, but wisdom is always earned.
Podcast: The Necessity Of Unnecessary Creating
Podcast: The Necessity Of Unnecessary Creating
Your "on demand" job cannot contain the totality of your creative ideas and energy. We all must embrace "unnecessary creating" in order to maintain a portfolio of activity that helps us grow in skills, drive, and the ability to take advantage of opportunities.
Podcast: Tom Rath
Podcast: Tom Rath
Tom Rath is the author of several books, including Strengths Finder 2.0, and Eat Move Sleep. His new book is called Are You Fully Charged?, and addresses the small actions that make a big difference in everyday effectiveness in life and work.
The Power of No
The Power of No
Many people allow their life to become cluttered with passive yes's, not active ones. They are living with a decision they made months or years ago, and are not making the effort to re-visit whether it's still the right decision. Sometimes you have to say "no" in order to re-focus your efforts.
Podcast: Your Intended Audience
Podcast: Your Intended Audience
Your best work results from a deep understanding of who you're creating for. You have to define your intended audience.
Use Time Chunks To Master Distraction
Use Time Chunks To Master Distraction
Many of us lack the kind of latitude over our schedule that we’d like to have, but all of us have some discretion about how we spend our time. The best way to prevent distractions and make steady progress on your most important work is to dedicate predictable time to it.
AC Podcast: Hendrix & The Monkees
AC Podcast: Hendrix & The Monkees
Did you know that Jimi Hendrix once toured as the opening act for The Monkees? Let's just say that the experiment didn't go so well. Here are some reflections on making art for the wrong crowd.
AC Podcast: Adaptive Rhythms
AC Podcast: Adaptive Rhythms
It's important to adapt your rhythms to the season you are in rather than expecting circumstances to conform to your systems. To perform at your best, you must structure your weekly activity by design, not default.
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.