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Where’s the opening?
“Low hanging fruit” has become an excuse to do boring things, so we need a new one. I liked this one I came across in therapy: “Where’s the opening?” Most action plans are set too far into the future; we must start closer to where we are right now. If you want to write a…
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Contentions: What does a vision for your company’s media operation look like?
I’d previously written, when it comes to content marketing, “ROI is meaningless with vision.” (One problem with this field: we use content marketing to describe too many things.) One way to think about this is showing people why they should be interested in the problem your business is solving: the same way DeSerres promotes art…
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Complaining vs. caring
NetNewsWire is at the top of Hacker News right now. It’s a familiar name; with a quick Google Search, I dug up an article I wrote over a decade ago for Guiding Tech that mentioned it. I didn’t have a Mac yet—I do now though, so I’m finally trying it again. It’s nice, and I’m…
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Creative Doing infographic
My publisher and I worked on three infographics based on my book Creative Doing. Each section contains a creative prompt and a very brief summary. We shipped the first one yesterday. What do you think?
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“But I haven’t been able to force myself to…”
Every time I hear the words, “Force myself,” I wince. I hear it in sentences like: “I want to do personal branding and more tweeting, but I haven’t been able to force myself to…” “I want to apply for more jobs, but I haven’t been able to force myself to…” “I want to eat four…
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Same word, different meanings
Writing. Writing a blog post is very different from writing an email, a deck, a memo, a book, or a comment. Compare this with St. Bonaventura’s description of making books: 1. Scribe: Write the work of others, adding/changing nothing 2. Compiler: Write the work of others, with additions not your own 3. Commentator: Write the…
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Show up early, leave late
That’s one way to make time in a packed schedule. If you can’t move things around, you’ll need to make the time. End a session 15 minutes earlier. Delay the next one by 15 minutes. Now you’ve got an extra half hour to do the thing you really should be doing.
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“If I were actually smart, then I would…”
… not be working this job. … be the person who’s my boss right now. … be making a lot more money. When framed like this, thoughts are an end point; because you’re not smart enough, you’re not going to do it. In other words, you can’t. That’s one way to appraise your work, self,…
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Ivy League creative exercises
One day project (Michael Bierut, Yale): “There’s only one rule, it has to be done by 5:00.” (via #The100DayProject) 100 day project (Michael Bierut, Yale): “Do a [creative] operation that you are capable of repeating every day… The only restrictions on the operation you choose is that it must be repeated in some form every…
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Contentions: Viewer discretion is advised
Beware people and products that position themselves to create a problem; to exacerbate a discomfort and dissatisfaction in your present life. For example, that job you were entirely satisfied with doesn’t look as appealing as the creator who claims to make passive income and is recording a video from a beach in Hawaii. Usually, someone…