Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality (9781591843122): Scott Belsky. How to Start a Blog that Matters. 35 Cubicle Renegades to Watch in 2012 | Pocket Changed. Ryan and Joshua each had well-paying, cushy corporate jobs and decided enough was enough. They both began to embrace a life of minimalism (not just in having less stuff, but in living a simpler life). To document their journey they began writing at The Minimalists. They've built a big audience around their site in a niche (minimalism) that everyone thought was over-saturated, but their high-quality of writing and honest accounts from their life has kept people coming back for more. They are currently part way through a 33 city meet-up tour and while I didn't get to meet them on that tour because of my road trip, all I hear is good things about them. You can find out more about Joshua and Ryan at The Minimalists.
Has one of these 35 cubicle renegades made a difference in your life? Please share this post using the buttons below if you found someone new to check out this year. 20 Bloggers to Watch in 2012. 8 Wastes of Time That Can Actually Make You Smart. We’ve all had it happen to us. A whole day flew by and it felt like a total waste. Everything took twice as long as it was supposed to, countless hours were spent surfing the web, and a marathon of your favorite show just couldn’t be missed.
It happens to the best of us. But what if you could reengineer the things you waste time on, so that the time wasters actually make you smarter, better, and more awesome? Some may say that everyone needs their downtime to do nothing, recover, and start anew. I agree to a certain extent, but why not repurpose your “downtime” so that it is also “uptime”? Here are eight of the biggest time wasters in our society and how you can turn them into ultra-productive, brain-growing habits.
Waiting Whether you are stuck in a super long bathroom line at halftime of the big game or you get to your doctor’s appointment way too early, you can spend that time learning or absorbing new information. Pick up an e-book that is easy to read in short sittings. You should: img. How to Improve: 3 Must Read Essays on Getting Better Everyday. Improvement doesn’t come in one fell swoop.
Improving takes time, effort, determination, and focus. Becoming good at things may be considered a lost art, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t always be working on getting better at something everyday. In this post we’ll showcase three essays from The99Percent.com (one of Corbett and I’s favorite sites on the web) that will teach you how to improve in the best way possible. 1.
How often do you start your day focused on your inbox instead of your outbox? In this essay, Mark McGuinness lays out a simple strategy for switching your day around. Creative work first, reactive work second.Tune out distractions.Make exceptions for VIPs.Be really efficient at reactive work. The thing is, if you want to create something truly remarkable, it won’t be built in a day. 2. In this age of technology, we have the ability to always be consuming new information. Scott Belsky, author of Making Ideas Happen, argues instead that we need more downtime in our lives. 10 Laws of Productivity. You might think that creatives as diverse as Internet entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, industrial design firm Studio 7.5, and bestselling Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami would have little in common. In fact, the tenets that guide how they – and exceptionally productive creatives across the board – make ideas happen are incredibly similar. Here are 10 laws of productivity we’ve consistently observed among serial idea executors: 1.
Break the seal of hesitation. A bias toward action is the most common trait we’ve found across the hundreds of creative professionals and entrepreneurs we’ve interviewed. While preparing properly as you start a new project is certainly valuable, it’s also easy to lose yourself in planning (and dreaming) indefinitely. We must challenge ourselves to take action sooner rather than later. 2. When our ideas are still in our head, we tend to think big, blue sky concepts. 3. Trial and error is an essential part of any creative’s life. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. The Key to Creating Remarkable Things. No one likes the feeling that other people are waiting – impatiently – for you to get back to them.At the beginning of the day, faced with an overflowing inbox, a list of messages on your voicemail, and the to-do list from your last meeting, it’s tempting to want to “clear the decks” before you start on your own most important work. When you’re up-to-date, you tell yourself, your mind will be clear and it will be easier to focus on the task at hand.
The trouble with this approach is that you end up spending the best part of the day on other people’s priorities, running their errands, and giving them what they need. By the time you finally settle down to your own work, it could be mid-afternoon, when your energy has dipped and it’s hard to focus on anything properly. “Oh well, maybe tomorrow will be better,” you tell yourself. But when tomorrow comes round there’s another pile of emails, phone messages, and to-do list items. Here are a few tips to help you make the switch: 1. 2. 3. 4. What Happened to Downtime? The Extinction of Deep Thinking & Sacred Space. Interruption-free space is sacred. Yet, in the digital era we live in, we are losing hold of the few sacred spaces that remain untouched by email, the internet, people, and other forms of distraction.
Our cars now have mobile phone integration and a thousand satellite radio stations. When walking from one place to another, we have our devices streaming data from dozens of sources. Even at our bedside, we now have our iPads with heaps of digital apps and the world’s information at our fingertips. There has been much discussion about the value of the “creative pause” – a state described as “the shift from being fully engaged in a creative activity to being passively engaged, or the shift to being disengaged altogether.” This phenomenon is the seed of the break-through “a-ha!” Moments that people so frequently report having in the shower. However, despite the incredible power and potential of sacred spaces, they are quickly becoming extinct. Why do we crave distraction over downtime? 1. 2. What is Lifestyle Design? What are you planning to do when you retire? Do you hope to travel, spend time with friends and family, take up new hobbies or volunteer to support a cause?
How long will it take you to retire? For average people, it takes about 45 years, if you live that long. Maybe you’re hoping to retire sooner, in 30, or 20 or even 10 years by working hard. Why does it have to be that way? Why do most of us go to college, find a good job and spend 30-40 years of our lives climbing the corporate ladder only to retire when we’re past our prime? Why not live the life you want to, right now? Can it be done? Yes, you can live an unconventional life that unlocks the lifestyle of the rich and retired now, while you’re still in your “working years.” Lifestyle Design has received a lot of attention lately, ever since Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich broke into the public consciousness in 2007. Just how does Tim Ferriss define lifestyle design? Perhaps. 47 Decent Lifestyle Design Resources | Clay Collins Blog. 79 Email Share Email Lifestyle design (LD) has a lengthy past but a short history .
The art of (sometimes radical) lifestyle configuration, however, has been practiced for quite sometime by liberated people from all walks of life. The growth of the Internet has enabled those loaded with cash to disconnect from the 9-5 without disconnecting from their Porches, Louis Vuitton gear, mobile cash cow businesses, and brokerage accounts. Here’s a list of lifestyle design resources that might be of help to the interested. Here goes: – The Painless Escape from Email that works with the 4-Hour Workweek, GTD…and your sanity Dreamlining Worksheet (highly recommended) Ideal Lifestyle Costing Worksheets Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business Gap Years for Grown Ups Halftime: Changing Your Game Plan from Success to Significance In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed Lonely Planet Career Break Book Power Sabbatical: The Break That Makes a Difference Anywired.