DO NOT WANT This week, I’m starting a series of user interviews at work, in an effort to develop personas for users of the content we produce. It’s all part of my role as a senior content strategist at a software company, and it is something I have been working toward for a year. I…
Tag: productivity
Can you be a productive creative?
I have a complicated relationship with “productivity.” I learned as a kid that I am not very good at productivity in the traditional sense. I struggled to keep up with homework. I procrastinated and ignored household chores. Even as a surly teen, I thought there must be something wrong with me. I tried to implement…
Productivity: Why is this so hard?
There’s no way to control this to-do list. It has a mind of its own. Sometimes it races to add to itself and flow off the edge of my dot-grid journal. It won’t be contained by Todoist or Things. It is full of never-do tasks that I look at and decide “not right now, no…
7 Harmful Productivity Myths
It seems that everyone — regardless of level of success or actual rate of “productivity” — would like to be MORE PRODUCTIVE. I sure would. I have about 17 projects I would like to be working on apart from the endless should do’s (the dishes!) and hafta do’s (pay the rent!), not to mention a…
How to be Happy(ish)
Do you know someone who is genuinely happy? I know people who appear pretty happy, and I think they probably are. People with well-rounded lives, stable relationships, interesting interests, and generally healthy habits tend to have a shiny aura about them that we might call happiness. I know others who act happy, but who are…
Things I’m Not Very Good At: The Mundane Stuff
Self-employment has certain pitfalls (or benefits, depending on how you look at it), like the ability to lie around in bed reading the internet as long as you like, any day of the week. In this morning’s link casserole, I happened across this great little piece of advice from Derek Sivers for getting through difficult times….
Job Hunting for Dummies: Structure and Connection
When unemployed or freelancing (or some combination thereof), it’s pretty easy to sink into an anxious, disorganized funk. Throwing résumés into the void of the internet feels “productive” — except of course it isn’t. I’m always strangely satisfied when I actually receive a rejection form letter two weeks later, because that means there actually is…
Why I Never Delete Email
I used to aspire to “inbox zero” — that zen state of an empty inbox with important messages filed into their proper folders and everything else archived. When I was busy, this was pretty much impossible to maintain. I used to be a vendor for Microsoft, and they like to send emails. If I was…
the essentials
So much noise and clutter. It’s surprising we can still function at all, and this is surely much of the reason that suddenly we are seeking out “productivity systems” to help manage our daily lives. We are immersed in tiny decisions about what to look at or think about. And no matter how minuscule the…
Plumb Wonderful 