Tag: productivity

  • How to Hack Your Creative Workspace

    How to Hack Your Creative Workspace

    This is a guest post by Allie Smith-Hobbs. 

    It’s the middle of summer. How’s your productivity? 

    grant deadlines

    There are nights where I’ve been up in the wee hours ruminating about projects. And although our work endeavors can sometimes be frustrating, they can also be the reason we joyously jump out of bed in the morning and rush to the computer with excitement. Work thoughts often fill our minds, but have you given much thought to where you do your work?

    The where of your work matters. 

    grantwritingworkspace

    Your workspace can dramatically affect your entire work experience including both your creativity and your productivity.

    Whether you’re a small business owner or a tenured professor, your clarity and quality of work will reflect your inner state. It’s very difficult to write clearly or work productively with muddled goals and fuzzy thoughts. While the much bigger topics of core alignment, inner clarity and mental schemas are definitely at play when it comes to our creativity and productivity, there are a few simple steps you take right now to hack your workspace.

    So grab a cup of tea, spend a few minutes answering these questions and make a few tweaks to dramatically improve not only your creativity and productivity, but also your overall quality of life.

    mockupNIHgrant

    Location. Location. Location.
    This is where the magic happens. Your workspace is your personal real estate. 

    Where do you find your groove? Is it in a high energy environment like the corner of a bustling coffee shop? Or perhaps a quiet space in your home office with a cat on your lap and a latte on the desk?

    Your workspace may include the office, a local coffee shop or even a laptop while lounging by the pool.

    If you have the option of working wherever you want, pay attention to which locations give you inspiration and which give you even more distractions. Depending on your vocation, you may or may not have much latitude when it comes to where you plug in your computer. If you’re required to work in your onsite office, you still have choices that can improve your productivity. How about giving yourself the gift of two hours of uninterrupted time behind locked doors with all distractions (including phone and internet notifications) turned off? What could you accomplish without the constant distraction and drain of colleagues popping by every few minutes?

    Aesthetics
    And speaking of distractions…is clutter overwhelming your desk? Is there a stack of paperwork that needs to be filed?

    Our moods contribute to our productivity (or procrastination).

    What type of mood does your workspace invoke? Does it make you feel tanked of energy – even if you’ve only been there a few minutes? Or is it filled with things that inspire you?

    If you experience a particular emotion every time your eye lands on something, it’s in your best interest to make sure it’s a positive emotion. File those papers, pay those bills, clear off the table – you’ll find it easier to get things done.

    Music and Silence
    Music is powerful and silence is golden. Are you a fan of music or do you need silence during your business hours? Does putting on the headphones put you in a focused state? Personally, I love music but during intense writing sessions, I find most music a distraction (particularly if it has lyrics). The Spotify channel “Deep Focus” is an exception, as its tracks are selected to improve a flow mindset.

    I crank the tunes when in an editing phase or when doing creative multi-tasking, which is a different mindset than getting ideas down in a rough draft, documenting in a spreadsheet or anytime I need to get into the nitty gritty details of a project. It’s your preference when it comes to your auditory input, what’s the difference between focus and distraction?

    Routine and Variability
    Do you thrive on the discipline of a routine to get tasks done at the same time and/or day or do you prefer variability to keep you interested and your ideas fresh? You may prefer a different environment when churning out rough drafts, mind maps and brainstorms versus the refining and editing phases.

    Do you prefer being in solitude or do your ideas flow from collaboration and interaction? From scheduling to location, what routines work best for you?

    You define your creative workspace. A customized workspace that fits your personality and work habits will contribute to a peaceful, energetic and organized mind. 

    Let’s hear from you – are you a solo writer, researcher or entrepreneur or do you need to chat and collaborate in the hallways to ignite your creativity? Do you lock yourself in your office for a late night or do you get up early with a cup of coffee and do your best work at the kitchen table before 8 am? What changes can you make – right now – to make your workspace a place you want to be?

  • Is your life ruled by "Lizard Brain?"

    Is your life ruled by "Lizard Brain?"

    Chances are, it is.

    If you have difficulty making tough decisions…

    If you have far too much on your plate and not enough time for it all…

    If you suffer from procrastination or perfectionism…

    If you like to wait until money is assured BEFORE you invest in yourself….

    If you regularly listen to the news and react with anger/frustration/fear…..

    These are signs that your LIMBIC system has control. The limbic brain came from our reptilian ancestors… eat, have sex, and run away from danger. That’s about it. It’s pretty good for those things… if that’s all you think your life should amount to, then keep on doing just that.

    And here’s where it will lead to:

    * As an entrepreneur, you’ll go from one marketing/sales program to the next, looking for the “magic bullet” that saves your hide. But somehow the hide-saving never quite happens. Meanwhile, you never seem to overcome those “hurdles” that keep rearing their ugly head each time… as you overwork yourself to the point of being ready to go back to a day job.

    * As a researcher, you will be scratching and clawing to get that next grant. You’ll procrastinate and perfect, spending nearly all your time on the small stuff, never finding the time for the big stuff that would move your life and career forward. You’ll know you’re capable of SO MUCH MORE and you scratch your head, wondering why you never seem to quite BE the SO MUCH MORE that you are.

    This lizard brain is very tricky… it not only keeps us shrinking back in fear from taking the big leaps that will truly make a difference… but it ALSO keeps us chasing after one “holy grail” after another to keep us entertained … just one more launch, just one more grant, just one more XXXYYYZZZ until salvation! Yay!

    As long as you are ruled by the FEAR (well disguised so that your ego doesn’t have to admit that you’re afraid – “who, me? I’m NOT AFRAID!”)… and as long as you are ruled by the chase-the-next-easy-out… your life, your business, your career will go NOWHERE.

    I can say that with confidence because I have previously let the fear infect me… I have let the lizard brain take over. Too many times. Each time I have gone backwards on money, relationships, and health. It was only by taking charge again (and getting good help) that I regained control.

    The only way to leave the lizard brain behind is connecting with your higher self. Scientifically that is your neocortex. Spiritually that is your core, or your “soul.” Operating from that place is THE OPPOSITE of being ruled by lizard-brain. It’s chill, it’s abundant, it’s fun, it’s easy.

    Beware lizard brain: it’s a big investment. And because this is what you might NEED, rather than being another easy little shiny-object or delaying tactic, you are probably firing full out right now. Red light. Red light. Scary. Let’s click onto the next post, or go get a coffee and procrastinate… again! Tomorrow will be better, or maybe the next day, or the day after that. Yes. That’s the easy way out. Lizard likes EASY. Yay!

    Well, if your higher self is watching all of that lizard brain stuff, and ready to actually TAKE CHARGE and do something about becoming the BEST person you can be (which will ONLY happen when you learn new habits to operate from the HIGHER SELF), then reach out to me. Like I said, one spot – that’s it for now.

  • I GIVE IN!!!

    It’s time I come clean, put my BS aside and take responsibility for my truest, most raw BEING.
    Why?
    To serve & honour myself…YES! And just as important, to lead by example.
    To inspire & facilitate your most extraordinary evolution through my deeds NOT JUST THROUGH MY WORDS.
    And to bestow on you, what you are worthy of….choice.
    See…
    For years I’ve been focused on bringing you things like grant writing and productivity because that’s what my ego thought you wanted.
    Did you ever notice that your ego creates many illusions? Mine certainly does.
    One of the illusions it created is this: “my story isn’t important.” I had a false sense of modesty, thinking that “I’m not interesting, let’s not talk about me…”
    And yet…
    Every time I’ve told my story of transformation (several of them!) and of ultimately “finding myself” I’ve had far more requests for help than at any other time. It has inspired people to grow and change, because my story shows that it’s possible despite great obstacles.
    So I finally had a “duh” moment the other day. People have been craving this for a reason:
    Our society is set up from day one to program us to NOT be ourselves, but to live for other people’s impressions of us.
    Our ego gets addicted to the positive feedback that others give us when we do things that are pleasing to THEM, and we un-learn how to just be ourselves.
    Yet being ourselves is THE platform for truly inspired creativity. Lots of people claim “I’m not creative” which is total BS. The lack of creativity is simply a lack of being tuned into “being oneself.” This goes on to impact all other areas of life, limiting career progress and satisfaction.
    Being disconnected from who you are, and living from ego gratification, presents challenges to deep, satisfying relationships. It presents challenges to being truly healthy. 
    Who you are is a wonderful, loving, beautiful, fun, unique being.
    Who you’ve been programmed to act as is quite likely competitive, skeptical, reserved… constantly having to “prove yourself” to others around you in order to feel worthy.
    This way of being leads to things like the “impostor syndrome.” If you’re not being you – but operating out of your ego’s notion of what you think others want from you – you’re going to feel like an impostor! Operating from this false platform will never lead to truly good things in life.
    People who’ve achieved so-called success in that way always end up self-sabotaging at some point. Like the guy I just heard about from a friend who was wealthy, until a particular self-sabotaging behavior (coming from Ego) sunk the whole ship, and now he’s destitute.
    Yep, that was me, for many years of my life. And it continued even after I had the sex change. One surgery didn’t suddenly resolve this disconnection I had from myself. (Oh I wish it were that easy!!) It took far more work than that.
    I had PLENTY of self-sabotage going on, despite my apparent successes that my ego has been able to brag about (like the track record of grant funding and business growth).
    So anyway….
    I give in! I give up on my own illusions that my story is unimportant and uninspiring. I give up on the notion that people need help with grants and productivity and creativity… when if I’d been listening, I would have heard the message loud and clear:
    “Morgan, help us learn how to powerfully express who we truly are in the world, with no illusions, games, or false fronts!”
    And in doing that, I strongly suspect that the “troubles” with grants, with sales, with relationships, with health, with employees, with feeling like an impostor… those things will start resolving themselves. (EVERY big breakthrough in these areas I’ve had has been directly correlated with work I’ve done on aligning with core.)
    Honestly, it’s a bit weird to do this. It seems too “easy” – but that’s only because I’ve spent years and some major ups and downs learning how to do just that. Learning how to finally be myself! So I’ll see how it goes….
    And, if you’re ready to go to work on this – to remove those layers of falsity that keep you from expressing who you are in the world – then reach out to me. I can help.
    Morgan

  • Want Happiness and Productivity? Get to that Core! (video)

     

    Isn’t it funny how the more we try to have control — swatting at negative emotions and demands like buzzing flies — the more frustrated we get and the less in control we feel? That’s because when we’re reacting, we’re giving up control. We’ve decided to let an outside force set our agenda for us.

    Now, that doesn’t mean we should stick our fingers in our ears and go through life singing “I can’t hear you” to anything unpleasant that comes along. Control isn’t about tuning out the un-fun stuff or having things go our way. It’s about getting in touch with what we do want. That takes practice, and patience, and relaxed time spent thinking about what you want to be doing and why.

    Turn off your phone, give your “glowing rectangles” a break, and listen for that voice inside that says “Wouldn’t it be awesome if?” The more frequently you listen for it, the louder it gets. Pretty soon, you’ll feel inspired to do something about it. The steps you take from there are your most powerful.

    That’s being proactive.

  • Being on time – is this how to lead?

    Being on time – is this how to lead?

    Does being on time, every time, assure success?

    According to a recent post by my friend Chuck Rylant, it does:

    When considering hiring someone for example, if they say they will call at 3:00 PM, when they call at 3:10 PM, I terminate the business relationship immediately.

    It is interesting that Chuck chooses to be so black and white about it. I mean, what if he was hiring Donald Trump to speak about investing… if Donald showed up 10 minutes late, would that be it, finito?

    This highlights an issue that drives me bonkers about our modern society. We expect it to run like a big clock.

    Live by the clock, die by the clock. Really.

    I don’t wear a watch anymore. I try as hard as I can to forget what time it is because I enjoy life more when I’m not focused on the clock.

    For all of the millions of years of human development, we’ve had accurate handheld clocks for about 20 of them. That’s a tiny, tiny little slice of history. And suddenly, these little devices are making the BIG decisions for us, like whether to have a business relationship with someone?

    When you’re hiring, it pays to be picky

    I get it. When someone shows up late for a job interview, that is a really bad sign. There better be a very good reason. And, it better be clear that the person making the excuse is not just an excuse-maker in general.

    However, just this one thing doesn’t say anything about whether that person is the best for the job.  I’ve employed many people throughout my life, and some were more punctual than others. This was not always a direct correlation with who was more productive.

    Clocks kill creativity (mostly)

    Creative thinking is nonlinear. That means it is not predictable exactly when or where it will happen. It means that, even if you’re working around the clock, you may not get that idea you need to move the project forward. You may only get that idea when you take a day off and go to the beach.

    When we try to box our creative thinking into little slices of time that are available during the working day, we limit it, we contain it, we corral it.

    Maybe that’s why so few people call themselves “creative!” It may be that they’re simply doing things – like living and dying by a clockwork model of our lives. If they loosened up a bit, maybe the creativity would start coming, naturally.

    Do what you say you’ll do, and do it with excellence

    If I’m faced with a choice of whether to delay a project and make it far better, versus being exactly on time but delivering something sub-par, the automatic answer is not to always be on time. If someone needs something by a deadline, then being on time is more important. But in most other cases, actually taking a bit of extra time (a few hours or days) to do something that’s higher quality is always better.

    The best of both worlds is, of course, to deliver on time and with excellence, every time. This is the gift of masters. There are very few of them who truly exist in our world – and they can charge insanely high prices because of it.

    But for the rest of us mere mortals, let’s not try to live our lives exactly by the precision of the clock. We do not live in a precise world, no matter how much we want to try to slice and dice it into one.

  • Creativity-sucking education stamping widgets of children* (video)

    Creativity-sucking education stamping widgets of children* (video)

    Why our educational system is stamping out “children as widgets” – a great video with Sir Ken Robinson

    Working with the world’s top scientists and entrepreneurs, I’ve seen a few things. The biggest of those things is the thing of creativity being repressed and even outright absent. This stunts career growth and all sorts of other badness. So, check out the video to learn where it came from and what we need to do about it.

    And if it makes you really angry like it does me – or even if you just find yourself stifled because you feel “widgetized” and unable to make creative leaps and bounds in your life, then take it a step further.

    Learn how to kill the creativity killer. (I know, that’s a double negative. Hey, I’ve got creative license!)

    Incredibly cool thing for you: I’ve reopened registration for Think Creative! Be Productive! for one day (today) only!**

    This is the class that’s helping thought leaders all over the world reclaim their “birthright” of creative leadership. Seriously – if you look at leaders in any field, are they the ones playing “follow the leader?” Um, by definition, no. They’re the ones who are at the leading edge, creating new ways of doing things.

    Wanna be one of those? Or do you have the more modest goal of just taking control of your own life? Then join us in this class, asap.

    See you there! It’s going to be really fun (and eye opening!)

    Morgan

    * Occasionally I get some commenter freaking out about the “dramatic” titles I sometimes use. Well, if you don’t like the title, go read another blog – or better yet, create your own (um, yeah, that requires creativity, hah!). Seriously – with billions of pages on the web to get bored with, why do boring stuff? I mean, really! Don’t do boring stuff. Instead, join us in the class!

    ** Yeah, I know, maybe you’re a bit late hitting this page, and for that, I’m sorry – but you can get on the waiting list if that’s so!

  • Working hard does NOT equal success

    Yesterday I was on Facebook, and a very successful fellow entrepreneur posted something that shocked me. It was on a discussion of feelings of entitlement in society, and how many people have an undeserved “feeling of superiority” to their peers – especially in Gen Y.

    To paraphrase the response:

    I feel superior to my Gen Y counterparts because I work harder than they do. I have worked 100 hour weeks, consistently, and that’s what’s led to my success.

    It took me aback to have this otherwise very smart and successful entrepreneur espousing such a simplistic formula for “success.”

    I’ve seen plenty of entrepreneurs who “work 100 hour weeks” who don’t have anywhere near the kind of success this person has had in her business. I was one of them.  Back when I had my bike shop, I was driving myself into the ground, working 100+ hour weeks between my day job as a faculty member and the “side job” of running that bike shop.

    What happened when I did that?

    I made lots of poor decisions – decisions that cost us 10’s of thousands of dollars.

    I rushed into things, because I always felt “behind” and “hurried.” That made the bad decisions worse.

    I pressured employees and my business partner (who was also a family member). The relationship became strained and she became supremely unhappy with the business. She started self-sabotoging success, by making really bad choices.

    After doing all that, I eventually burned out. I just got sick of that way of being, and resented that bike shop for “doing it to me.” It wasn’t long after the resentment crept in that the business started going downhill – fast.

    That “hard work” wasn’t a recipe for success. It was a recipe for disaster. I still am paying off the loans from that failed bike shop (even though I’ve been very successful with my new business that was founded from the ashes of the bike shop).

    Look – if you just think that “hard work” is all it takes, then I suggest you go out and get a job digging ditches. There will be plenty of hard work for you – as much as you could possibly want.

    I’m not saying that entrepreneurs should never “work hard.”  There are times you’re going to have to do that. There are times in a business when you have to give birth to a new project – a campaign, a product, a book, or whatever. When you’re giving birth to something big, you will have to put in some long hours.

    But the key lies in what you do after you’ve given birth to that big thing. Do you relax and recuperate (like a mother does after giving birth to her baby?) Or do you jump right back in to hard work, thinking that if you don’t do that, then you’re going to fall behind?

    There’s a big difference between episodic “hard work” and chronic “hard work.”

    Episodic hard work – if directed with clarity and good decisions – can yield incredible fruits. (I’ve built a multi-multi-six figure business very quickly with that kind of work).

    Chronic hard work, while it may yield fruit short term, over the long term only yields stress, ill-health, and burnout.

    Do not follow the advice of those who would tell you that to succeed you must work 100 hour weeks (chronically). It’s counter productive.

    My own situation is proof: just contrast the failed bike shop where I regularly worked 100 hour weeks, versus my present business where the 100 hour weeks have only happened sporadically, followed by recovery periods.

    My present business is more fun, more successful, and having a greater impact on the world.

    All because I have a lot more clarity about what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. That clarity doesn’t come from being overworked and overstressed.

    If you want more help – if you feel chronically overwhelmed, stressed, or exhausted – then I’ve got some good stuff coming to help you. I’ll be making a series of brand new videos on über-productivity for you. Just sign up for my newsletter (below) and I’ll let you know when they’re ready.

    ps – if you want to read a related blog post I wrote on this topic for scientists, you can check it out on my morganonscience.com blog. I have some specific pointers there that you should find immediately helpful.

    Get the Videos to Crush Overwhelm (all new)
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  • The BIG Lie!

    You’ve been fed a big lie.

    The lie goes thusly.

    You must study hard in school (creativity killer #1).  You must get good grades (creativity killer #2). You must listen to teachers (creativity killer #3). You must do what you’re told (creativity killer #4).

    Then, you must get into a great college or university by taking a standardized test (creativity killer #5).

    Once you’re in, you study (#6), listen well (#7), and get more good grades (#8). You don’t talk back to the professor (#9 and #10).⁠1  You accumulate student debt (#11).

    You graduate. Yay!

    The world is your oyster!

    You get the house and the mortgage (#12), the car with the car loan (#13).

    You find a job (Creativity killer #14-20 as you subject yourself to the every whim of your employer). Yippe doodle dandy! Money!

    You work hard to get promoted into the corner office-someday – and you schmooze with the boss (#21).  You listen to the gurus that tell you all you need to do is work harder and smarter (#22).

    You keep going down that path, blissfully unaware at all the ways in which you’re killing your creativity, bit by bit, until you hit retirement.

    Wohooo! Retirement. You escaped creativity killers #1-#42 with your body (but not your spirit) intact.

    You get to roam the country in your RV, doing whatever you want, whenever you want.  If you’re one of the lucky ones, you visit a few tropical beaches, and sip a few margaritas while watching the 20-somethings walk by in skimpy bathing suits.

    Soon, boredom sets in. Unless you find some other outlet for your creative energies, and quickly, the statistics aren’t on your side. You’ll be dead soon.

    It is not a path to happiness. 

    It is not even a path to real success.

    A lot of people, if asked what success is, they’d look hungrily at millionaires and billionaires on TV, and say: “that’s success!”

    I’ve met some of those people who have made millions (and even one who’s made billions).

    Take, for example, internet marketer Frank Kern.  His story – which he sometimes tells at events, is a rags-to-riches saga.  He went from broke and flooded out of his trailer home to generating millions of dollars in an online business.

    He talks about how – after generating his first million or so – he was at his most miserable ever.

    He had to go on a journey of self discovery to find his way to more happiness – after becoming a millionaire.

    Money helps – but it does not create happiness.  It does not create success.

    Success in life is more than just getting the stable job, the decent salary, and the white picket fence.

    Success is about living in the exciting flow of life.  Success is about having an impact on the people you meet.  Success is about changing the world in positive ways.  Success is about having enough money so that you’re not struggling constantly just to survive.

    Yet, if you’ve followed the path laid forth by tradition, you may well be headed in a very different direction.

    How did it come to be this way?  We’ll discuss that in the next post.

    Meanwhile, if you want to learn more about how to optimize your “creativity pipeline” to help you find balance in your business and life, go sign up here.

     

    1 Oddly, I often talked back to my professors. Maybe that’s why I became one, so I could experience what it was like to deal with a cantankerous rabble rouser like myself!

  • Productivity is NOT about getting more done!

    Does anyone remember record players? I suppose that statement dates me.  But the one big flaw of record players is that when a scratch was present, they could get caught in a “loop” – endlessly playing the same litte bit over and over.  It was annoying as hell to be listening to your favorite song and to suddenly have the last three words of the verse go on endless loop.

    That’s a lot like the notions of “productivity” that are out there.  It is and endless loop: get more efficient, cross things off your list more quickly, outsource more – and you’ll magically get to the top of the field.

    It just ends up with lots of people more stressed out and overwhelmed than ever, because they’re missing a “secret ingredient” that the truly productive implement in their lives (don’t worry, it won’t be so secret once I finish with this post).

    Let’s take an extreme example: Bill Gates. He’s a polarizing figure, but almost nobody can deny that he’s been successful.

    Is he a billionaire because he “gets far more done” than other people?  Of course, that’s a ridiculous notion. If you compared the fortunes of Bill Gates to that of the average McDonalds clerk, he earns like 10,000 times more from interest on his investments alone than does the clerk, but if he was working 10,000 times harder, he’d be dead by now!

    Some – who are particularly susceptible to the poverty mentality – may argue that Bill Gates makes his money “off the backs of others.” I know of at lest two people who have jobs working for Microsoft that help them support their families, and if Bill Gates didn’t exist, those jobs probably wouldn’t exist, either.

    Then, what is the difference between Bill and the thousands of people that work for Bill, and make far less than him?  If we suddenly “evened out” the pay so that everyone at Microsoft earned a salary equal to Bill (by giving him a huge pay cut) – how long would the payroll stay even-steven? NOT LONG.  Companies like United Airlines have tried experiments along those lines, and there are always those who rise to the top, and those who sink like a falling stone.

    No, Bill has a “secret ingredient” that would very likely get him back on top if he were to loose his fortune.

    • It’s not his connections. Those are helpful, but they aren’t the answer. There are plenty of people in poverty who have connections
    • It’s not his “golden spoon” – that makes success easier, but by no means assures it. Just look at the history of people who’ve won the lottery – many of them return to poverty after their winnings run out
    • It’s not his “extremely hard work” – I’m sure Bill worked hard at times, but like I said above, not 10,000 or 100,000 times harder than others.

    His secret ingredient is his creativity.  He found a way to creatively come up with the right solutions at the right time for a fledgeling market in computers. He didn’t just do that once – he and his team did it time and time again! That is how he got to be a Billionare.

    Take another example: Steve Jobs.  In his Stanford commencement speech, he talked about how the design of the first Mac was a creative endeavor – bringing in new typography (and building on ideas that he’d seen at Xerox Parc labs).

    Some say he “stole” the ideas from Xerox, but they misunderstand creativity. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum! You don’t go from nothing to a complex idea in one single step.  It’s almost always incremental. Steve may have gotten ideas from them, but he and Wozniak built on those ideas, creatively.

    Did you ever see the first iPod? I had one. At the time it was a fricking revolution – storing 5GB of songs in your pocket.  It was a leap beyond the other players at the time, like the Archos jukebox (I owned one of those, too).

    Now, compare the current ipods and iphones to that first iPod. There’s no comparison! The current lineup is far more advanced, smooth, holds more songs, is easier to use, etc… (and the price is lower!)

    It didn’t happen in one step. It happened in many small steps – iPod touch, original iPhone, iPhone 3, iPhone 4, etc.

    If Apple had stopped innovating (creating) with the first iPod, would Apple exist today? Of course not. Their success is in direct proportion to how much they can apply focused creativity to solve the needs of the market in new ways.

    My point is this: if you want more success, you’ve got to bring your creativity into your endeavors – in a focused way. Lots of people associate creativity with dreamers and other often not so focused applications of creativity.  If you apply it willy-nilly, you’ll get willy nilly results!

    The challenge for a lot of us (me included) is that our schools teach us to thoroughly develop the left-brained skills of analysis, mathematics, etc – but they do almost nothing to develop our creativity.  That’s why some of the most successful people (like Steve Jobs) were college dropouts – they weren’t exposed to so much of the over-development of the “left-brained” skills.

    So, if you want to be more “productive” (i.e. getting to your goals faster) – learn to develop a balance between the right-brained skills of creative, big-picture thinking and the left-brained skills of rational analysis.

    If you are a business owner or entrepreneur interested in more training on that topic, check out https://morgangiddings.com/o/overwhelm