Category: Creativity
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The Overlap
The Overlap happens when we discover what we want to do, and what other people need in their lives. The Overlap happens when we find two skills that compliment each other well, and merge them into a new skill to tackle new problems. The Overlap happens when we create something new by taking two existing…
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What to Do When Your Work Won’t Sell Itself
Great work does not sell itself. Honestly, I don’t think it ever really did. I’ll acknowledge there was a time when curators were more trusted than they are now. However, many critic’s tastes have been questionable. Worse yet, not everybody had access to a curator’s attention. A curator can not promote what they don’t see…
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What I Wish I Knew About Quoting Other People In My Writing
Recently, I read a passage from someone working in psychology which said, “Every time I want to make a point, my brain immediately asks, ‘Is there a widely-cited, randomized controlled test study to support that?’” If there wasn’t, they would decide not to pursue the idea any further. I can relate, all too well. This…
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You Become What You Write About
No matter how fast digital software evolves, there are some habits and objects ground in the physical world that draw me towards them. One of these is physical notebooks, usually a Moleskine. I’ve filled out three of them the past couple of years, and brought a fourth half-filled with me halfway across the world. It…
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How to Take Your Career to the Next Level with Notes
It was only yesterday when I needed to make a minor decision I had been stuck on for a week. The situation didn’t require a friend or advisor’s advice, precious time I’d prefer to save for something of greater gravity. Instead, I consulted a set of notes I’d taken on making decisions, which took me…
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How to Write Faster
Image: Lady Writing a Letter (1887) by Albert Edelfelt/Artvee Every day, you and I write. We write emails, text messages, letters, birthday cards, and search queries. This is a practical guide on how to write faster, because we spend so much time writing. This isn’t about touch-typing faster or handwriting faster, but the process of…
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The Limits of Personal Productivity
I’ve been writing about productivity for close to a decade now. I learned things, piece by piece, and owe whatever career I have in large part due to my research on psychology, motivation, and getting things done. Putting my learnings into practice has paid off. I’m working on a full-time assignment as the editorial director…
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You’ll Never Have Enough Time. Start Your Creative Work Today
In Make Your Art No Matter What, Beth Pickens writes, “The most frequent issue with time for artists is the belief they don’t have enough time for their art practice or as much time as they would like to devote to it.” Artists with all sorts of different schedules, habits, commitments, family expectations, all report…
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Work on the Weekends Only If You’re Learning Something Useful
You should only work on the weekends if you’re learning something that supports your future or puts you on a path to enjoying your work.
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How to Stop Overcommitting at Work: A Summary of Unplanned Work in The Phoenix Project
The Phoenix Project is a fictional story covering how an IT team leads its company, slogging through technological and organizational transformation. It’s an exciting way to learn more about software operations. It’s a business fable, not dissimilar from The Goal, The Wealthy Barber, or The Grumpy Accountant. I want to summarize one of the key…