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The Importance of Daily Rituals to Writers, Artists, and Other Creators: What Would Flaubert, or Beethoven, or Balzac, or Edward Gorey Do?
An entire chapter of The 7 Secrets of the Prolific is devoted to the topic of resources and requirements needed to be a prolific writer. It’s not a trivial topic, as abundantly resourcing yourself can mean the difference between being and being blocked. Here’s an excerpt: Writers, like other artisans, tend to be fascinated by…
Read MoreJust Because…
Boston is on lockdown this morning, so here’s a yellow bird.
Read More“Minecraft” Creator Blocked
Markus Persson, the creator of the megapopular game Minecraft, is blocked on his next project. Sounds like a classic case of situational perfectionism to me. SP often follows a huge success or an early success. (See, also, this.) He sounds like a genuinely nice guy (among other things, a supporter of the Electronic Frontier Foundation)…
Read MoreFeeling Powerful Makes You Think Better
I’m turning into a big fan of Annie Murphy Paul’s Brilliant Blog. The advice in this article on thinking more effectively by locating your centers of power nicely complements The 7 Secrets of the Prolific’s thesis that procrastination is caused by disempowerment. I particularly like Paul’s advice to find a role in which you feel…
Read MoreHow to Spend Your Weekend
Some great suggestions from Laura Vanderkam author of What the Most Successful People Do on the Weekend: I like her #2 and #3 best: 2. They Don’t Go Limp. If you spend your workweek running — or worse, flying — from place to place, you may think you want to collapse on the couch all…
Read MoreProlific Robot
An artist did this for me a while back at a science fiction convention:
Read MoreIs Perfectionism Genetic? (Plus Solutions)
This Wall Street Journal article is old, but still worth checking out. It reports on twin studies showing that some young kids seem to have a biological predisposition to perfectionist behaviors like getting unreasonably upset if their shoelaces are different lengths, or to “[idolizing] the bodies of models and celebrities.” However, the article is quick…
Read MoreHealing Strategies
I live right near Boston’s Logan Airport so my main Marathon experience happens just before and after the race, when my normally sedate T (subway) line fills up with hundreds of incredibly skinny, fit, and exuberant people from all over the world who have flown in to take part. I was out of town when…
Read MoreTuesday Dog: Slickered
from Cute Overload
Read MoreYou Get There in the End
Below is a lovely meditation on procrastination and the virtues of persistence from Sven Herselman. Used with kind permission. Procrastination, I’m the master of it, or maybe it’s sometimes the master of me. I also enjoy going camping, but I have to admit that even though I have been living for over a year in…
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