Productivity
How to Convince Someone to do the Right Thing (Includes “Basic Instructions” Cartoon!)
Scott Meyer’s Basic Instructions cartoon strip offers great advice via funny (and nicely-penned) cartoons. In the below recent cartoon, which Scott kindly gave me permission to reprint, he shows how to help someone overcome procrastination. Below the cartoon is my analysis and interpretation of each frame. The TOP LEFT FRAME offers an excellent illustration of…
Read MoreI’m Interviewed at the Vegan Business Connection
You can learn about my current and past work here; also some tips for entrepreneurs. Link
Read MoreDon’t Forget to Check Out My September Online Classes!
Online courses are convenient, cheap, and fun–and you can be located anywhere! My SavvyAuthors class for graduate students, faculty, and other academic writers starts Monday September 16. I’m offering a discounted class/coaching bundle via famed writing community The Loft. All writers, including creative, business, nonprofit writers, welcome. Take a class now and have a productive…
Read MoreWhy the Middles of Projects are Tough (Part 3): Middles Have Middles!
I previously wrote about how the middles of projects are tough: *They’re the place where the work seems to get much tougher right at the same moment that your enthusiasm starts to ebb. *They’re a much bigger part of the project than most people realize. (Around 80%!) However, there’s another problem with middles: they have…
Read MoreI’m Offering a Powerful and Economical Online Class/TeleCoaching Bundle at The Loft
Super-thrilled to be teaching an online class at The Loft, one of the world’s premier community writing programs, starting September 30. Even more thrilled to be offering a class/coaching bundle. The class will set you up for greater productivity; the 40 minutes of individualized telephone coaching will personalize the class information and help you amplify…
Read MoreWhy the Middles of Projects are Tough (Part 2): Plus, How to Have Fun Revising!
Middles are Tough. Last time I wrote about how the middles of writing and other projects can be difficult, citing Dante’s Inferno, which begins “midway upon the journey of our life,” and John Bunyan’s classic The Pilgrim’s Progress, in which the protagonist, Christian, literally bogs down midway, in the infamous “Slough of Despond.” Middles are…
Read MoreLast Call: New England
If you’ve wanted to take my Grub Street Writers class NOW is the time. I am moving to Michigan in September (more on this later!), and August’s class will be the last for a while. It will be held August 12-15 (Monday-Thursday), 10:30am-1:30pm at 162 Boylston Street (2 mins from Boylston Street T; discounted parking…
Read MoreWhat To Do If You Are Stuck in the Middle of a Project
Middles are tough. It’s no accident that Dante began The Inferno, his allegorical journey through Hell, thusly: Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Or that Christian, the pilgrim in John Bunyan’s allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, encounters the bog called the…
Read MoreGuest Post: Working Absurd Hours Is Not A Badge Of Honor
The below article by digital marketing guru Adam Singer packs a ton of wisdom into a few paragraphs, and is reprinted with kind permission. Adam’s free newsletter The Future Buzz provides terrific advice on digital marketing, time management, and other success skills, and I urge you to subscribe. – Hillary My entire career I’ve worked…
Read MoreIra Glass on Developing Your Creative Skill: Go for Quantity, Not Quality
The below 2 minute video of Ira Glass explaining how the secret to artistic quality is to do a lot of art is well worth your time. Bayles and Orland make the same point in their terrific book Art & Fear. They tell a (true, I believe) story of two pottery classes: One class was…
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