Productivity is Undeniably Spiritual Sometimes, I let my mind wander. I let it go wherever it wants, without trying to control it. If I’m being honest about it, I don’t really initiate it, it just happens. When it does, it appears to the onlooker like I’m just staring off into space. But really, I’m digging.… Read More »What Productive People Know that Others Don’t
The Woolgatherer’s Handbook — Selected Thoughts Thank you for reading. This series contains excerpts from my writings spanning back 2 years or more. They represent what I consider the most useful thoughts I’ve written down and published. My sincere hope is that you find value in these For more stuff like this (and not just links to my… Read More »The Woolgatherer’s Handbook — Selected Thoughts
Some off-the-beaten-path tricks to help kick-start a productive frame of mind The mind is a powerful thing. The more we study it, the more we see just how much is going on in there, and just how much we can do when we learn to use it well. When we have insight into our own minds… Read More »4 Mental Habits to Help You Get the Most Out of Your Mind
Effective Speech in the Age of Constant Speech In the United States, the first amendment to the constitution guarantees — among other things — that congress shall not enact laws that restrict the free speech of the people. For the past few centuries, the freedom of speech — in both spoken and written form — have been highly valued by people not just in… Read More »What Has Free Speech Done to Us?
How Our Ambitions Might Just Keep us From Our Potential From the time that I was 6 years old, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be an artist. I would sit down at the little table in my parents’ living room every day, break out the pencils and… Read More »When Goals Become Limits
“Black Suprametic Square” by Kazimir Malevich. Credit: Tretyakov Gallery 6 Forgotten Aspects of Minimalism Minimalism — like so many movements — began with the arts. But it certainly branched out from there. During the past few decade, minimalism has earned an enthusiastic following, fueled by the proliferation of lifestyle-based websites and publications. The term is now used as as… Read More »Less, But Better
credit: Pixabay On the Inner and the Outer Scorecards, And How We Measure Ourselves Of my many shortcomings, one of them is surely that I care quite a bit what other people think of me. In fact, there are times when I care too much about what others think of me. So much so, that… Read More »Why We Never Feel Successful Enough
credit: ISAW I’ve been reading and writing about productivity for a few years now, and in that time, I’ve seen a lot of the same general advice recirculated in different ways. The formula tends to be the same. In most cases, an article about productivity proceeds by assuming that you have a series of things… Read More »What Most Productivity Advice Misses
How Talking to Yourself (Really!) Can Help You Do Great Things One of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to write was the writing sample I had to submit with applications to graduate schools. I had about 2 months to produce 20 pages of high quality academic research and writing — mostly from scratch, and on my… Read More »Success Through the Positive Self-Interview
credit: Bill Morrow Or: Mountain Time It’s 11pm Mountain Time here in my hotel room in El Paso. I’m a literal stone’s throw away from where a wall will supposedly be soon built. Dizzy Gillespie’s “All the Things You Are” emanates softly from my phone’s speakers. I’m still not used to Mountain Time. It’s times like these… Read More »Times Like These
