September 2008

Demystifying the Creative Process

“I’m not creative.” “I wish I could be more creative, but I don’t have it in me.” “Why are some people creative and others aren’t?” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard those statements or questions… The truth is almost everyone has creative potential. What separates good creatives (or dormant creatives that [...]

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October 2008 Planners Available for Download

It’s the 29th, so it’s time to pick up the next month’s planners. Pick them up here: Productivity Planner Series Blog Post Planners and Calendars (If you’re new here (welcome!) and wonder how to use these planners, jump to the Free Planners page for a few posts that help out in that area. Hopefully I’ll [...]

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History, Luck, and Intention

Our lives are the product of history, luck, and intention. These three factors interplay so much that it can be impossible sometimes to tell which one is the force at play. The movie “Recount” was actually the catalyst for this post. The film recounts the debacle of democracy that happened in the presidential election of [...]

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Why You Get Dumped On and What To Do About It

There’s a serious downside to flourishing: you become a target to be dumped on. People sense your strength of character and burgeoning wisdom and find you a source of comfort and calmness – then very quickly unload their problems on you. What they (usually) don’t realize is how much this affects you, because you’re not [...]

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When A Cobbler Wears His Shoes…

Last week was a good week on the productivity front for me. You saw this as an increase in posts, but it was also manifested in my offline work. I’ve had a few people ask me what changed last week so I’ll answer for everyone. Although this is a walk-through of what I as one [...]

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How Creatives Make Money

Odds are, if you are reading this, you make money by leveraging your creativity. You write, design, create, or do something such that your ability to make money depends largely on your ability to be creative. I’ll pause and let that sink in for a minute. I said in passing last week that your productive [...]

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How to Stifle A Good Idea

Or: Why You’re Probably Not Using the Productivity Planners (This post is a case study in how to stifle a good idea, using my own products as an example. It ends with a general take-away, so feel free just to skip to that.) Laurie, my good friend and neighbor, provided some of the best feedback [...]

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How to Spread Teamthink Throughout Your Organization

If you’ve been following this series, you’ve no doubt noticed that I view organizations more like teams than mere collections of people. There’s both a positive reason for this and and a realistic one. The positive reason is that people like being part of successful groups and being praised for what they do. People are [...]

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The Return of Productivity (via Merlin Mann)

This post is only tangentially about productivity. It’s completely about giving credit where credit is due and supporting the reemergence of someone whom I admire. I also said that I’d be profiling people who inspire us to get back to creating, so this is part of that. Some of you are new here, so you [...]

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