Productivity
Jerry 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 MoreDoes 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.
Read MoreWriter’s Block is Universal
Sheldon Levine at Sysomos used his company’s social media analytics platform to see how often people mention writer’s block online, and who is mentioning it. He got some interesting results, including: Of the 100 days I looked at, 54.7% of all the social mentions of writers block that I found came from the United States.…
Read MoreScrivener Word Processor 50% Off at Amazon
Scrivener is an excellent word processor for long-form writing in particular. It was designed from the ground up with writing efficiency in mind, and harkens back to the golden age of word processing when we had speedy and versatile tools like Wordstar, WordPerfect, Textra (my favorite!), etc. It’s currently 50% off at Amazon – $20.…
Read MoreArtist Sol LeWitt’s Productivity Advice: Create More by Focusing on the Work Itself
This short movie contains many F-bombs but offers valid productivity advice: The movie’s text is an F-bombed version of a letter from Sol LeWitt to Eva Hesse, who struggled with self-doubt: Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping,…Stop it and just DO!……
Read MoreThe 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 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 More“I was held captive by perfectionism.”
A short but vivid description of one woman’s struggle. The writer gets so much right: that it’s a trap that it often begins in childhood In high school: “I sat before my Spanish teacher in tears over a B+.” Heavy involvement with ballet, an endeavor that “required excellence.” As an adult, a perfectionist approach to…
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