Posts by Hillary
Yoga Can Help With Creative Block
This article recommending yoga as a solution for creative block makes a lot of sense. First, as the article points out, a lot of creative endeavors, including even writing, can tax the body: As a yoga teacher, Bobowicz was concerned about the repetitive stress that plagues artists as they work. “Jewelers can hammer over and…
Read MoreEnid Blyton: Prolific Writer
The Guardian reports on a new exhibit on famed British children’s writer Enid Blyton. She produced more than 700 books, mainly for young readers, and was very disciplined both in her writing habits and her bookkeeping and business management: But grown-up visitors will be intrigued to see how little editing Blyton’s manuscripts needed. She would…
Read MoreSeth Godin on Why You Shouldn’t Take Critics Too Seriously
“Have you noticed just how often the critics disagree with one another? And how often they’re just wrong? “And yet we not only read them, but we believe them. Worse, we judge ourselves, contrasting our feelings with their words. Worse still, we sometimes think we hear the feared critic’s voice before we even ship our…
Read MoreWhat Procrastination Looks Like
Study: College Students Motivated by Intrinsic Rewards do Better Than Those Motivated by Money
The trouble is that many lower-income students don’t have the luxury of studying an unremunerative field just because they’re interested in it. According to this University of Rochester study, many choose a major more on the basis of whether they feel they can earn a living doing it than any intrinsic liking for it. This…
Read MoreJerry Seinfeld to Writers: “No Slack For You” Even on Festivus!
We like to look for one primary secret to the success of the superstars of the world, even though almost always a combination of factors, people, and circumstances were involved. It remains instructive though when a highly successful professional freely offers the big reveal on how they got to the top. As reported in Lifehacker,…
Read MoreFinals Week to Netflix (Procrastination Illustrated)
Does Dopamine Create Motivation?
Scientists now believe it does. “It was believed that dopamine regulated pleasure and reward and that we release it when we obtain something that satisfies us, but in fact the latest scientific evidence shows that this neurotransmitter acts before that, it actually encourages us to act. In other words, dopamine is released in…
Read MoreFranz Kafka’s Writer’s Block
Mason Currey, author of Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, writes about three procrastinating writers, Edgar Allen Poe, William James, and Franz Kafka: “In 1908, Kafka landed a position at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute in Prague, where he was fortunate to be on the coveted “single shift” system, which meant office hours from 8 or…
Read MoreWriter’s Block: Erykah Badu Gets It Right
Singer Erikah Badu’s fantastic advice re writer’s block: “Don’t worry. When U have NO content to express the emotion U are feeling. It’s not writer’s block. It’s just downloading time.” ht Sheldon Levine, Sysomos Here’s another singer who gets it.
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