Does Writer’s Block Exist?

A coupla tweets for your delectation: Lookee here! Another guy–and they almost always seem to be guys!–claims #writersblock doesn’t exist. They seem to come out of the woodwork every once in a while. https://t.co/Eb5deQQdG1 — Hillary Rettig (@hillaryrettig) May 7, 2018 “Writer’s block is a delicious myth” How callous and condescending, not to mention, #clueless, can you get? #writersblock #writers — Hillary Rettig…

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Stuck? Lose Your Label!

Here’s a useful piece by Austin Kleon on How to Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Chaotic Times. I like #3 a lot: “Forget the noun, do the verb.” Calling yourself a “writer,” “artist,” “activist,” “scholar,” “entrepreneur,” or any other label can invite procrastination if you use that label perfectionistically. For example, if…

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Dogs Don’t Like Perfectionism Either!

This piece by Nancy Tanner on how impatience ruins dog training is brilliant: When I am asked what is the biggest problem I see in dog training today, it is the same problem I saw fourteen years ago, and thirty years ago, it is the misunderstanding of time. It takes time to learn how to…

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A Self-Critical Paragon of Productivity

Last weekend, a woman with whom I was speaking on a business matter told me she was “really could use help” with her time management, citing as proof the fact that we were working over the weekend. She had forgotten, however, that the reason we were doing so wasn’t because of anything she had done,…

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The Welcome Debunking of “Grit”

I’m happy to report that “grit,” that awful, victim-blaming concept, has largely been debunked. An Education Week piece by University of San Francisco psychology professor Christine Yeh reports that Grit author Angela Duckworth has been forced to walk back some of her book’s key claims: “Much Ado about Grit: A Meta-Analytic Synthesis of the Grit Literature” by Marcus Crede…

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When a Success Leaves You *Less* Able to Do Your Work

I use the term “situational perfectionism” to describe circumstances that cause your perfectionism to spike. A failure (or perceived failure) can do that, but so, paradoxically, can a success, especially if it causes you to feel more visible or scrutinized. J.K. Rowling experienced this after the exceptional success of the first Harry Potter book, but…

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Michelin Chef Says Non! to Relentless Competition

I was inspired by the news of the Michelin chef who has asked to be removed from the prestigious ratings system: “One of France’s most celebrated chefs, whose restaurant has been honoured with three stars in the Michelin guide for almost 20 years, has pleaded to be stripped of the prestigious ranking because of the…

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How to Interrupt a Social Media “Ludic Loop”

“Ludic” is a cute word, and it means “showing a kind of spontaneous and undirected playfulness.” A “ludic loop” is less cute, however. That’s when you get stuck bouncing from one procrastination-enabling activity to another: e.g., from email to the Web to your social media feed to YouTube, and then back to email again, etc.…

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Research Agrees: You Should Use Money to Buy Time

Loved this piece from a couple of weeks ago, describing a study in which researchers found that people who pay others to do work they don’t want to do are happier for it: “New research is challenging the age-old adage that money can’t buy happiness. “The study, led by researchers at the University of British…

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Thank you Fast Company!

I’m kvelling! A few weeks ago a wonderful Fast Company writer, Stephanie Vozza, approached me for input into an article on how to be as productive as possible during the summer. I told her that I actually thought the opposite: that summer should be for relaxing, and, moreover, that in summer people often relax into…

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