Blog
Articles on finishing self-generated work and building expertise-based creative businesses, with the Creative Engine, Ground Truth, and Capacity frameworks.
creative habits
The Daily Top 3: The 5-minute method to finish your most ambitious project
You’ve got too much on your plate, and your most important work is always the first thing to slide off. You don’t have to drop everything and move to a cabin in the woods to fix that. You just have to choose. The Daily Top 3 is a simple, 5-minute routine for picking the few things that are most important each day, so the work that matters gets done and the rest waits its turn.
Against grit: Why setting the bar low is the way to get creative work finished
You think your problem is that you’re a flake, that you don’t have what it takes to finish. But look at your life. You’re one of the scrappiest, hardest-working people around. You’ve got grit to spare. The problem is that grit is the wrong tool for creative work, and even if you had more of it, that isn’t how you’ll get the thing done.
How to build a creative habit that sticks
You want to make your own work every day. But it has no boss, no deadline, and no one waiting on it, so it’s the first thing to go when the kids, the job, and everything else start in on you. Most habits fail because they’re built for an imaginary someone with perfect discipline and a life that runs like clockwork. This is how to build a habit for the real you that you can actually stick to, long term.