This morning I was reading a book outside my favorite beachside coffee shop when an 18-year-old kid sat down next to me and said, “That’s a great read, ain’t it?” So we started chatting.

He told me he was getting ready to graduate from high school next week and then immediately starting his college career in the fall. “But I have no clue what I want to do with my life,” he said. “Right now I’m just going with the flow.”

And then, with eager eyes, he began asking me one question after the next:

• “What do you do for a living?”
• “When and how did you decide what you wanted to do?”
• “Why did you do this? Why didn’t you do that?”
• “Is there anything you wish you had done differently?”
• Etc.

I answered his questions as best as I could, and tried to give decent advice with the time I had. And after a half-hour conversation, he thanked me and we parted ways.

But on the walk home I realized the conversation I had with that 18-year-old was actually quite nostalgic. He reminded me (more…)

“You are the average of the people you spend the most time with.”
? Jim Rohn

Over the years Angel and I have written a lot about our personal struggles on this blog.  But a related topic we haven’t addressed nearly as often is our professional struggles.  We help our course students with various aspects of career and business strategy every day, and yet we rarely write about it publicly.  This morning, however, Angel and I received three emails from blog readers that all proposed the same fundamental question:

How do I find successful mentors who will help me reach my professional/business goals?

This is a great question – one that I feel warrants a public response, because we once struggled with the same predicament, and the specific solution we discovered continues to have a profound effect on our professional lives.

So, it’s time for a quick story about life and business…

Many moons ago, when Angel and I were young twenty-something entrepreneurs who were struggling to get our business off the ground (with little money and basically no connections), we realized that if we ever intended to achieve our dreams we needed guidance and mentorship from some successful people who had already walked the path we were embarking on.

So we did the most naive thing (more…)

by Karl Staib

“Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.”
?Austin Kleon

How are you managing your work?  What do you focus on?  Are you overly anxious?  Way too stressed out?  Or just in need of a little more mindfulness?

I’m here to tell you that a bracing dose of self-awareness could be just the trick.  To that end, I’ve culled together 10 powerful ideas that will help you tame your stress levels, persevere through uncertainty, boost your creativity, and get more of the right things done with a smile on your face.

1.  Dedicate time to playful exploration.

In 2006, students from Xavier High School were given an assignment to write to their favorite living authors – several students chose Kurt Vonnegut.  Vonnegut’s response, the only one the class received, encapsulates essential insight on the importance of playful exploration as it relates to doing great work:

“What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives.  Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her.  Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on.  Make a face in your mashed potatoes.  Pretend you’re Count Dracula.”

Although Vonnegut’s response was for young students to motivate them to start learning and exploring new ideas and skills, it’s easy for all of us to limit ourselves to one specific domain, like writing or coding or design.  We get comfortable and never stretch our creative and intellectual muscles.  We never become all that we can be. (more…)

Many of us go through our entire lives as total strangers to ourselves, simply because we never pause long enough for moments of self-inquiry.  We are so busy seeking answers to other people’s problems that we forget to ask questions for our own well-being.  Obviously, this isn’t wise.

Wisdom, after all, is not about knowing all the answers every minute; it’s about asking the right questions.  In the long run, the simple questions you ask yourself on a regular basis will determine the type of person you become.

At the very least, you need to set aside some dedicated “me time” at the end of each week – a personal timeout for self-reflection and self-inquiry – to ask yourself questions like these:

1.  What pleasant surprises did I discover this week?

Life’s dynamic nature continually renews the possibilities before you; you honestly never can be certain when the next gust of wind will arrive and what it will blow in your direction.  Open yourself to these surprises and pay attention.  Many of them will bring goodness you never knew you were missing.

Some of your best discoveries will likely come when you least expect them, in places you never even thought to look.  What you were not looking for can end up being more than you ever hoped to find.  So seek your goals and dreams diligently, but don’t be so unyielding that you develop tunnel vision.  Do not blind yourself from all the unpredictable wonders and opportunities passing in your periphery.

You are never too old, too young, too busy, or too educated to find value and joy in new, unexpected opportunities.  So stay on the lookout, and keep track of (more…)

Success is not final, failure is not fatal.
It is the courage to continue that counts.
-Winston Churchill

I.  Rejected from Seven Universities

When I was 18, I wanted to be a computer scientist.  So I applied to seven U.S. universities known for computer science.  MIT, Cal Berkley, Georgia Tech, etc.  But I got rejected by all of them.

Soon thereafter, a high school guidance counselor told me to apply to The University of Central Florida in Orlando, which had a rapidly growing computer science and engineering program.  Out of desperation, I did.  And I got accepted and received a scholarship.

And when I settled on Orlando, the move changed my life.

I met Angel there – my wife and the love of my life.  And I met a professor, Dr. Eaglan, who convinced me to switch from the school of computer science to the school of computer engineering, with a strong focus in web design and technical writing – two skills I use today to run the blog you are reading now (a website that makes me happy and financially supports my family).

If I hadn’t been rejected by those seven computer science schools, neither of (more…)

No matter what happens, no matter how far you seem to be away from where you want to be, never stop believing that you will somehow make it.  Have an unrelenting belief that things will work out, that the long road has a purpose, that the things that you desire may not happen today, but they will happen.  Persist and persevere, your desired path remains possible.

Here are 40 quotes to help you follow your passion and find meaningful work.

1. The heart of human excellence often begins to beat when you discover a pursuit that absorbs you, frees you, challenges you, and gives you a sense of meaning, joy and passion.
2. I have found that one thing that helps me to live peacefully and mindfully on this glorious planet is successful engagement in meaningful work, keeping my mind where my hands are.
3. Your work is to discover your work and then, with all your heart, to give yourself to it.
4. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.  This concept can be universally applied.
5. Everything worthwhile in life is work.  But if it puts a smile on your face, it doesn’t feel like work.
6. Hard work becomes easy when your work becomes your play.  Never underestimate the value of loving what you do.  Read The 4-Hour Workweek.
7. Continue to work hard at what you love no matter what the odds are.  Eventually, someone will praise and appreciate what you do.
8. It’s not how much money you make that ultimately makes you happy.  It’s whether or not your work fulfills you.
9. The best feeling in the world is getting paid to do what you love.
10. Don’t be normal.  Sadly, normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you financed, in order to (more…)

In various ways, these 30 books convey some of the philosophy of how Angel and I live our lives.  I honestly credit a fraction of who I am today to each title.  Thus, they have indirectly influenced much of what I write about on this site.  A medley of both fiction and nonfiction, these great reads challenged my internal status quo, opening my mind to new ideas and opportunities, and together they gave me a basic framework for living, loving, learning and working successfully.

If you haven’t read these books yet, I highly recommend doing so.  They will enrich your library and your life.

1. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert – Gilbert, a Harvard professor of psychology has studied happiness for decades, and he shares scientific findings that just might change the way you look at the world.  His primary goal is to persuade you into accepting the fact that happiness is not really what or where you imagined it would be.  This is my favorite book on happiness by a long shot.
2. The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck – Pretty much the granddaddy of all self-improvement books, it’s easily one of the best nonfiction works I’ve ever read.  By melding love, science and spirituality into a primer for personal growth, Peck guides the reader through lessons on delaying gratification, accepting responsibility for decisions, dedicating oneself to truth and reality, and creating a balanced lifestyle.
3. Getting Things Done by David Allen – The ultimate ‘organize your life’ book.  Allen’s ideas and processes are for all those people who are overwhelmed with too many things to do, too little time to do them, and a general sense of unease that something important is being missed.  The primary goal of this book is to teach you how to effectively get your ‘to-do inbox’ to empty.
4. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – Covey presents a principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems by delivering a step-by-step guide for living with integrity and honesty and adapting to the inevitable change life brings us everyday.  It’s a must-read.
5. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand – This novel is an explanation of what has (more…)

Big companies like Apple, super successful websites like Facebook, and bestselling books like The 4-Hour Workweek all have one thing in common:  They begin with a million dollar idea.

The big question is:  How did their creators come up with these ideas?  Did they sit around waiting for an inspirational flash or a mystic spell of luck?

The answer is:  Spontaneity and luck had little to do with it.

In this article, we’ll take a brief look at 20 tried and true techniques that some of the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs have used to generate million dollar ideas.

You don’t need to have a 100-person company
to develop and execute a good idea.
– Larry Page (Google)

1. Generate lots of ideas. – The more ideas you create, the more likely you are to create an idea worth a million bucks.
2. Fail a lot. – All of the ideas that don’t work are simply stepping stones on your way to the one idea that does.  Sometimes you have to fail a thousand times to succeed.  No matter how many mistakes you make or how slow you progress, you are still way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.
3. Consume information consciously. – Some of my friends think it’s wasteful that I spend so much time reading books and blogs.  It’s not.  It’s what gives me an edge.  I feel engulfed with new ideas and information.  And I’ve actually used what I’ve learned to launch a few successful websites.  When you read things and interact with people, take off your consumer cap and put on your creator cap.  There are million dollar ideas (or at least some really good ideas) all around you waiting for discovery.
4. Focus on topics and ideas with large markets. – A million dollars is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly is if you’re trying to earn it in a small market with limited opportunities.  Even if you put Steve Jobs in the role of CEO for a new venture with a maximum market size of 100 people he wouldn’t make more than a few cents.  ‘Big bucks’ result from high demand in a substantial market.
5. Make sure there’s money in your market. – Bank robbers rob banks because that’s where the money is.  Before you become emotionally attached to an idea, do a little market research.  Make sure the idea you’re pursuing is where the money is.  Who are the clients and consumers?  How much disposable income do they have?  Etc.
6. Keep your eyes, ears and mind wide open. – Oftentimes one idea’s failure will open a door to a new idea.  Don’t get so hung up on one failed attempt that you miss the opening for many more.
7. Test variations of the same idea. – Think about the iPhone and the iPad for a second.  One is just a variation of the other.  Both are multi-million dollar ideas.
8. Figure out what works well in one market and tailor it to another. – Find an idea that’s already proven and think about how it could be applied in a different context.  Take a formula that works in one niche and apply it to a new niche.  Or take the best aspects of one product and combine it with another product.
9. Put the pieces together. – YouTube’s creators didn’t invent Flash.  They didn’t invent modern digital cameras that can record computer-ready mpeg video.  And they didn’t invent broadband Internet connections, cheap web hosting, embedded website content, or one-click website uploading technologies either.  What they invented is a technology that takes all of these existing pieces and combines them into an online video sharing portal.
10. Spin a new twist on a previous breakthrough. – A new twist on an old idea can still be a million dollar idea.  Take Facebook for instance, it wasn’t the first big social networking site, but Mark Zuckerberg and company added twists and features the others did not grasp.  How can you take an existing million dollar idea, or even a common idea, and give it a new twist, a new direction and journey?
11. Systematize a popular service into a reproducible product. – A service is productized when its ownership can be exchanged.  Think about Alienware and Dell back in their infancy.  Both companies simply systematized the service of building IBM compatible PCs and then sold them as a packaged product.  If you can convert a high demand service into a scalable, systematized, efficient process and sell it as a packaged deal, the million appears.
12. Play with opposites. – When something becomes extremely popular, the opposite often also becomes popular as people turn away from the mainstream.  When WordPress, Blogger and Movable Type exploded in popularity by giving anyone with an Internet connection the ability to share long, detailed blog posts with the world, Twitter and Tumblr came along and started the micro-blogging revolution – for people grasping to share extremely short content snippets.  There are hundreds of other examples.  Just remember, the opposite of a million dollar idea can paradoxically give birth to another million dollar idea.
13. Look for problems and solve them. – There are many real problems in this world.  Like a business owner wondering why his profits are sinking.  Like a golfer worrying about his slice.  Like a young man who is growing bald at 26.  Like a mom whose child is suffering with allergies.  Like a new dog owner who’s unsure what to do about her puppy barking all night.  Solving problems like these can make millions.
14. Design new products that support other successful products. – How much money do you think iPod, iPhone and iPad case manufacturers are making?  Millions?  Billions?  What about companies that jumped into the market of manufacturing LCD and Plasma TV mounting brackets eight years ago?  You get the idea.
15. Keep it simple. – Don’t over complicate a good idea.  Business marketing studies have shown that the more product choices offered, the less products consumers typically buy.  After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices.  If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up.  So if you’re designing a product line, keep it simple.  (Read Made to Stick.)
16. Exploit the resources and skills you already have. – It’s not as much about having the right resources as it is about exploiting your resources right now.  Stevie Wonder couldn’t see, so he exploited his sense of hearing into a passion for music, and he now has 25 Grammy Awards to prove it.  If you pursue a new venture that involves leveraging your resources and skills, you’re ahead of the game.
17. Surround yourself with other thinkers. – You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with.  If you hang with the wrong people, they will affect you negatively.  But if you hang with the right people, you will be more capable and powerful than you ever could have been alone.  Find your tribe and collaborate to make a difference in all your lives.  Bounce ideas off each other, etc.  (Read Tribes.)
18. Be enthusiastic about what you’re doing. – Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of creativity.  Big ideas blossom when you’re passionate and enthusiastic about what you’re doing.  It’s nearly impossible to pioneer ground breaking solutions in a domain where there is not passionate intensity.  But when your mind is stimulated by a fundamental curiosity and interest in the subject matter, your creativity will run rampant and your motivation will skyrocket.
19. Accept constructive criticism, but ignore naysayers. – When someone spews negativity about your idea or product, remember, it doesn’t matter how many people don’t get it, it matters how many do.  No matter how much progress you make there will always be the people who insist that whatever you’re trying to do is impossible.  Or they may jealously suggest that the idea or concept as a whole is utterly ridiculous because nobody really cares.  When you come across these people, don’t try to reason with them.  Instead, forget that they exist.  They will only waste your time and energy.
20. Actually do something with your ideas! – A million dollar idea is simply a good idea given the chance to grow.  On paper, Google and Facebook sprung from fairly ordinary ideas: ‘a search engine that’s accurate’ and ‘a website where friends connect with each other.’  Remember, neither of these companies were the first ones in their market.  Their ideas weren’t groundbreaking at the time.  Many people had the same ideas even before Google and Facebook existed.  But Google’s and Facebook’s creators did something with their ideas.  They worked hard and one-upped the competition.  Their initial success was in their execution.  Remember, it’s not the ideas themselves that count, it’s what you do with them. With the right execution, a simple idea can evolve into a million dollar idea.  (Read Making Ideas Happen.)

Photo by: Noah Coffey

Some of the smartest people I know continuously struggle to get ahead because they forget to address a few simple truths that collectively govern our potential to make progress.  So here’s a quick reminder:

#1 – Education and intelligence accomplish nothing without action.

It doesn’t matter if you have a genius IQ and a PhD in Quantum Physics, you can’t change anything or make any sort of real-world progress without taking action.  There’s a huge difference between knowing how to do something and actually doing it.  Knowledge and intelligence are both useless without action.  It’s as simple as that.  For some practical guidance on taking action, I highly recommend The Now Habit.

#2 – Happiness and success are two different things.

I know an extremely savvy businesswoman who made almost a million dollars online last year. Every entrepreneur I know considers her to be wildly successful.  But guess what?  A few days ago, out of the blue, she told me that she’s depressed.  Why?  “I’m burnt out and lonely.  I just haven’t taken enough time for myself lately,” she said.  “Wow!” I thought.  “One of the most successful people I know isn’t happy.”

I also know a surfer who surfs almost all day, every day on the beach in front of our condo complex in San Diego.  He’s one of the most lighthearted, optimistic guys I’ve ever met – always smiling from ear to ear.  But he sleeps in a van he co-owns with another surfer and they both frequently panhandle tourists for money.  So while I can’t deny that this man seems happy, I wouldn’t classify his life as a success story.

“What will make me happy?” and “What will make me successful?” are two of the most important questions you can ask yourself.  But they are two different questions.

#3 – Everyone runs their own business.

No matter how you make a living or who you think you work for, you only work for one person, yourself.  The big question is:  What are you selling, and to whom?  Even when you have a full-time, salaried, ‘Corporate America’ position, you are still running your own business.  You are selling one unit of your existence (an hour of your life) at a set price (the associated fraction of your salary) to a customer (your employer).

So how can you simultaneously save your time and increase your profit?  The answer is slightly different for everyone.  But it’s an answer you should be seeking.  The 4-Hour Workweek is a good read on this topic.

#4 – Having too many choices interferes with decision making.

Here in the 21st century where information moves at the speed of light and opportunities for innovation seem endless, we have an abundant array of choices when it comes to designing our lives and careers.  But sadly, an abundance of choice often leads to indecision, confusion and inaction.

Several business and marketing studies have shown that the more product choices a consumer is faced with, the less products they typically buy.  After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices.  If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up.

So if you’re selling a product line, keep it simple.  And if you’re trying to make a decision about something in your life, don’t waste all your time evaluating every last detail of every possible option.  Choose something that you think will work and give it a shot.  If it doesn’t work out, choose something else and keep pressing forward.

#5 – All people possess dimensions of success and dimensions of failure.

This point is somewhat related to point #2 on happiness and success, but it stands strong on its own as well…

Trying to be perfect is a waste of time and energy.  Perfection is an illusion.

All people, even our idols, are multidimensional.  Powerful business men, polished musicians, bestselling authors, and even our own parents all have dimensions of success and dimensions of failure present in their lives.

Our successful dimensions usually encompass the things we spend the most time doing.  We are successful in these dimensions because of our prolonged commitment to them.  This is the part of our lives we want others to see – the successful part that holds our life’s work.  It’s the notion of putting our best foot forward.  It’s the public persona we envision as our personal legacy:  “The Successful ABC” or “The Award Winning XYZ.”

But behind whichever polished storyline we publically promote, there lies a multi-dimensional human being with a long list of unprofessed failures.  Sometimes this person is a bad husband or wife.  Sometimes this person laughs at the expense of others.  And sometimes this person merely takes their eyes off the road and rear-ends the car in front of them.

#6 – Every mistake you make is progress.

Mistakes teach you important lessons.  Every time you make one, you’re one step closer to your goal.  The only mistake that can truly hurt you is choosing to do nothing simply because you’re too scared to make a mistake.

So don’t hesitate – don’t doubt yourself.  In life, it’s rarely about getting a chance; it’s about taking a chance.  You’ll never be 100% sure it will work, but you can always be 100% sure doing nothing won’t work.  Most of the time you just have to go for it!

And no matter how it turns out, it always ends up just the way it should be.  Either you succeed or you learn something.  Win-Win.  Remember, if you never act, you will never know for sure, and you will be left standing in the same spot forever.

#7 – People can be great at doing things they don’t like to do.

Although I’m not suggesting that you choose a career or trade you dislike, I’ve heard way too many smart people say something like, “In order to be great at what you do, you have to like what you do.”  This just isn’t true.

A good friend of mine is a public accountant.  He has told me on numerous occasions that he dislikes his job – “that it bores him to death.”  But he frequently gets raises and promotions.  At the age of 28, out of nearly a thousand Jr. Accountants in his division, he’s one of only two who were promoted to be Sr. Accountants this past year.  Why?  Because even though he doesn’t like doing it, he’s good at what he does.

I could come up with dozens of other examples just like this, but I’ll spare you the details.  Just realize that if someone dedicates enough time and attention to perfecting a skill or trade, they can be insanely good at doing something they don’t like to do.  For an insightful read in this department, I highly recommend The Talent Code.

#8 – The problems we have with others are typically more about us.

Quite often, the problems we have with others – our spouse, parents, siblings, etc. – don’t really have much to do with them at all.  Because many of the problems we think we have with them we subconsciously created in our own mind.  Maybe they did something in the past that touched on one of our fears or insecurities.  Or maybe they didn’t do something that we expected them to do.  In either case, problems like these are not about the other person, they’re about us.

And that’s okay.  It simply means these little predicaments will be easier to solve.   We are, after all, in charge of our own decisions.  We get to decide whether we want to keep our head cluttered with events from the past, or instead open our minds to the positive realities unfolding in front of us.

All we need is the willingness to look at things a little differently – letting go of ‘what was’ and ‘what should have been,’ and instead focusing our energy on ‘what is’ and ‘what could be possible.’

#9 – Emotional decisions are rarely good decisions.

Decisions driven by heavy emotion are typically misguided reactions rather than educated judgments.  These reactions are the byproduct of minimal amounts of conscious thought and primarily based on momentary ‘feelings’ instead of mindful awareness.

The best advice here is simple:  Don’t let your emotions trump your intelligence.  Slow down and think things through before you make any life-changing decisions.

#10 – You will never feel 100% ready when an opportunity arises.

The number one thing I persistently see holding smart people back is their own reluctance to accept an opportunity simply because they don’t think they’re ready.  In other words, they believe they require additional knowledge, skill, experience, etc. before they can aptly partake in the opportunity.  Sadly, this is the kind of thinking that stifles personal growth.

The truth is nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises.  Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow emotionally and intellectually.  They force us to stretch ourselves and our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first.  And when we don’t feel comfortable, we don’t feel ready.

Just remember that significant moments of opportunity for personal growth and development will come and go throughout your lifetime.  If you are looking to make positive changes in your life you will need to embrace these moments of opportunity even though you will never feel 100% ready for them.

Photo by: Alemdag

All education is self-education.  Period.  It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop.  We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn.

Those people who take the time and initiative to pursue knowledge on their own are the only ones who earn a real education in this world.  Take a look at any widely acclaimed scholar, entrepreneur or historical figure you can think of.  Formal education or not, you’ll find that he or she is a product of continuous self-education.

If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you.  Broken down by subject and/or category, here are several top-notch self-education resources I have bookmarked online over the past few years.

Note that some of the sources overlap between various subjects of education.  Therefore, each has been placed under a specific subject based on the majority focus of the source’s content.

Science and Health

• MIT OpenCourseWare – MIT OpenCourseWare is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.
• Tufts OpenCourseWare – Tufts OpenCourseWare is part of a new educational movement initiated by MIT that provides free access to course content for everyone online.  Tufts’ course offerings demonstrate the University’s strength in the life sciences in addition to its multidisciplinary approach, international perspective and underlying ethic of service to its local, national and international communities.
• HowStuffWorks Science – More scientific lessons and explanations than you could sort through in an entire year.
• Harvard Medical School Open Courseware – The mission of the Harvard Medical School Open Courseware Initiative is to exchange knowledge from the Harvard community of scholars to other academic institutions, prospective students, and the general public.
• Khan Academy – Over 1200 videos lessons covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, chemistry, and biology.
• Open Yale Courses – Open Yale Courses provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the internet.  The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences.
• webcast.berkeley – Every semester, UC Berkeley webcasts select courses and events for on-demand viewing via the Internet.  webcast.berkeley course lectures are provided as a study resource for both students and the public.
• UC San Diego Podcast Lectures – UCSD’s podcasting service was established for instructional use to benefit our students.  Podcasts are taken down at the end of every quarter (10 weeks Fall-Spring and 5 weeks in the summer).  If you’re enjoying a podcast, be sure to subscribe and download the lectures.  Once the podcast has been taken offline, faculty rarely approve their reposting.
• Johns Hopkins OpenCourseWare – The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s OpenCourseWare project provides access to content of the School’s most popular courses. As challenges to the world’s health escalate daily, the School feels a moral imperative to provide equal and open access to information and knowledge about the obstacles to the public’s health and their potential solutions.
• Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative – No instructors, no credits, no charge.  Use these self-guiding Carnegie Mellon materials and activities to learn at your own pace.
• Utah State OpenCourseWare – Utah State OpenCourseWare is a collection of educational material used in our formal campus courses, and seeks to provide people around the world with an opportunity to access high quality learning opportunities.
• AMSER – AMSER (the Applied Math and Science Education Repository) is a portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in Community and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use.
• Wolfram Demonstrations Project – Wolfram brings computational exploration to the widest possible audience, open-code resource that uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts.  Free player runs all demos and videos.
• The Science Forum – A very active scientific discussion and debate forum.
• Free Science and Video Lectures Online! – A nice collection of video lectures and lessons on science and philosophy.
• Science.gov – Science.gov searches over 42 databases and over 2000 selected websites from 14 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results.
• The National Science Digital Library – NSDL is the Nation’s online library for education and research in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics.
• EnviroLink Network–  A  non-profit organization, grassroots online community uniting organizations and volunteers around the world.  Up-to-date environmental information and news.
• Geology.com – Information about geology and earth science to visitors without charge: Articles, News, Maps, Satellite Images, Dictionary, etc.
• Scitable – A free science library and personal learning tool that currently concentrates on genetics, the study of evolution, variation, and the rich complexity of living organisms.  The site also expects to expand into other topics of learning and education.
• LearningScience.org – A free open learning community for sharing newer and emerging tools to teach science.

Business and Money

• MIT Sloan School of Management – MIT Sloan is a world-class business school long renowned for thought leadership and the ability to successfully partner theory and practice.  This is a subsection of the larger MIT OpenCourseWare site.
• Investopedia Financial Investing Tutorials – A plethora of detailed lessons on money management and investing.
• U.S. Small Business Administration Training Network – The Small Business Administration has one of the best selections of business courses on the web. Topics include everything from starting a business and business management to government contracting and international trade. Most courses take only 30 minutes to complete.
• VideoLectures.NET (Business) – A free and open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science.
• My Own Business, Inc. – Offers a free online business administration course that would be beneficial to new managers and to anyone who is interested in starting a business. This comprehensive course is split up into 16 sessions covering topics like business plans, accounting, marketing, insurance, e-commerce and international trade.
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This morning I informed my colleagues that I had only one thing on my to-do list.  Two of them chuckled, a few of them rolled their eyes, but every one of them assumed I would spend most of my day slacking off.  They changed their minds, however, when our boss sent out a mass email this afternoon praising me for resolving a principal issue that my colleagues had been sidestepping all week long.

In my boss’s eyes, the one thing on my to-do list was more important than the fifty other things my colleagues had accomplished during the same time frame.

A Commitment to One Thing a Day

Some people spend 90% of their time organizing their time.  Some tackle to-do lists peppered with insignificance that stretch a mile long.  And still, there are others who refuse to do anything at all.

As for me, I am committed to doing one thing a day, and that has made all the difference.

The One Thing To-Do List

What one thing will you do today?

Get out a blank sheet of paper and a pen.  Write “I will do one thing today!” in big letters across the page.  Then list your one thing at the bottom.  It should look something like this:

Make your own “I Will Do One Thing Today” to-do list every morning and get it done before you get sidetracked with unimportant stuff.

#1 – We Only Have 2 Products: Time and Knowledge

No matter how you make a living or who you think you work for, you only work for one person, yourself.  Likewise, you only have 2 products to sell, your time and your knowledge.  Here are a few example scenarios:

• Migrant Farmer – Sells hours of his/her life to pick fruit or vegetables for a farmer in exchange for money.  A perfect example of trading hours for dollars.
• Doctor – Sells hours of his/her life to perform medical treatments based on the knowledge stored in his/her brain.  A perfect example of trading hours and knowledge for dollars.
• Best-Selling Author – Spends time crafting a book based on his/her knowledge or intellectual capacity and then sells the book (knowledge) many times over.  A perfect example of trading knowledge for dollars.  The key benefit here is residual, passive income.

In almost all cases of the self-employed, the small business owner is taking information out of his or her brain and spending the necessary time to convert it into a product of value.  This concept confuses some people, and to others it seems obvious.  The bottom line is that customers pay you for your time and knowledge.  Success is achieved by properly crafting the two into one convenient bundle that can be sold many times over (think of products vs. services).

What knowledge do you have in your brain that provides value to others?  How can you extract this information and sell it?

#2 – The Implementation of Knowledge is Power

Knowledge alone is not power!  The implementation of knowledge is power.  Knowledge is simply a commodity; it’s a product like any other that has the potential to be sold.  How knowledge is organized, packaged, presented, shared, and received by others is what makes knowledge so powerful.

Knowledge is useless unless it’s effectively shared with others.  Your ability to educate others in a way that allows them to effectively apply the instruction is what makes knowledge an asset… something worth buying.

#3 – Time is More Valuable than Money

One of the most important points to understand is the fact that there are two basic forms of currency, money and time.  Of the two, time is the most valuable, for it cannot be replenished.  A surplus of time, and the unfettered liberty to do with it as you choose, is the true measure of success.

Your time must be extracted from the formula of making money.  No matter how skilled you are at transferring your knowledge to others, if you are paid on an hours for dollars basis, your ability to expand your business will eventually plateau.  You will run out of time. 

The successfully self-employed have made this realization and concentrate the majority of their time and effort on the single greatest secret of self-employment: generating passive income.  Passive income is achieved by applying what you know into a package that can be designed and built once, and then repeatedly sold over and over again.  Finding a unique way to promote and sell this knowlege is the key.

Passive Income Examples: Useful books and guides, time saving computer applications, etc.

#4 – Success is About Knowing What You Want

Self-employed success is not the byproduct of working your way up from the ground up.  It’s based on knowing what you want, understanding your abilities and implementing them diligently to achieve your goals.  There are plenty of people who get laid-off from their 9 to 5 day job and end up making millions in a few short years of self-employment.

Take a look at some of the success stories around you that emerged from nowhere.  These success stories were not initiated by people paying their dues to someone else’s initiatives.  These success stories revolve strictly around perception and choice.  The people in these stories know their capabilities, what they’re doing, and what they want.  Once people make this realization, and the conscious choice to act on it, the possibilities for success are limitless.
Photo by: TeeJe

“Cutting to the chase”…  Strictly selling hours of your life for dollars is the inverse of a practical and profitable business plan.  The word “selling” is very important here because that’s what happens in every business transaction.  A product is sold and purchased at an agreed upon price.  The corporate exchange of hours for dollars is no different; it just has a different twist.

Everyone is the CEO of Their Own Corporation

What most people don’t realize is that you never really work for anyone but yourself.  The only question is: What are you selling, and to whom?  Even when you have a full time, salaried, “Corporate America” position, you are still running your own business.  You are selling one unit of your existence (an hour of your life) at a set price (the associated fraction of your salary) to a customer (your employer). 

Good Business vs. Bad Business

Selling hours for dollars is a flawed business plan.  Let’s take a quick look at the components of a good business plan vs. that of the standard hours for dollars routine.

A good business plan:

• Multiple Products – Providing multiple options to your customers.
• Product Development Growth – Innovating and expanding the core capabilities of your product.
• Multiple Customers – Your total income revenue is acquired from several sources.  The loss of a single customer will not jeopardize your sustainability.
• Scalable – Your business can grow naturally without disproportionately increasing costs.  Also, it cannot be shutdown by the absence of a single worker.
• Inventory Expansion – Inventory can be expanded to meet increasing customer demands.

The business of strictly selling hours for dollars:

• One Product – A single hour of your life.
• Static Product Growth – You can change your level of productivity within an hour, but you can’t change the dynamics of the hour itself (which is the metric you are being paid by).
• One Customer – Your employer.  If you lose your one customer, you lose your business.
• Single Point of Failure – If something happens to you (injured, ill, etc.), your business suffers.
• Ever Declining Inventory – Life has a limited inventory of hours.  They cannot be reproduced.

The Silver Lining: You Must Find Your Passion

There is, however, a silver lining.  When you are passionate about your work, even in an “hours for dollars” environment, you open the floodgates to a world of accelerated personal growth and contentment.  Suddenly, you are working to learn, mindfully indulging in the task at hand.  This passion is the byproduct of interest.  You have to be genuinely interested in the subject matter of your profession.  In other words, dollars cannot be the primary source of motivation.  Once you find your passion, here are some ideas for maximizing your career growth potential:

• Learn as Much as You Can – This becomes a natural process when you are truly passionate about your work.  Obviously, the more you know the more valuable your time will be to others.
• Pursue Unpaid Growth Opportunities – Get out of the “hours for dollars” mindset.  See if you can barter your skill set with others in your industry.  You educate them as they educate you.  Knowledge is worth far more than money.
• Provide Value from Within a Black Box – This is how you increase your level of impressiveness.  Your efforts must make someone think, “Wow! How does he/she do that?”  They can easily see your inputs and your results, but aren’t 100% sure how you got from point A to point B.
• Innovate – If you think there might be a better way, try it.  The worst case scenario is you’ll have to revert back to the way things are now.
• Help Other People – The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want.  This will also aid you in establishing strong professional relationships.
• Market Your Visibility – Don’t be bashful.  Take credit where credit is due.

Avoid the “Hours for Dollars” Mentality

Even when working in an “hours for dollars” environment, you can avoid the “hours for dollars” mentality.  Find something you’re passionate about and take it to the next level.  Become a guru.  This should help you to strategically position yourself as a “go to guy/gal”, someone your superiors (and industry insiders) see as a vital asset.

Doing so will ultimately free you from the bounds of an arbitrary hourly rate, because you (your business) will become entwined with the future objectives of your employer (and maybe even the industry as a whole).  This typically translates into big raises, bonuses, etc.  You’ll start getting paid based on the tangible value you provide.  Eventually, this position of power can be leveraged to start a company of your own.

Photo by: Antonio Martinez

Is it possible to work less and still impress your boss, wife, husband and friends?  In other words, is it possible to do less and accomplish more?  Everyone seeks the answer to this question.  We all want to generate the greatest noticeable impact with the least amount of effort, as quick as possible.  It’s the way of the modern knowledge worker.  We strive to work smarter, not harder.

The answer to the question is: YES!  With the right combination of skills, tactics and tools, you can work less and still impress.  It requires thinking outside of the box… and then implementing strategies that directly increase the visibility, impact and “wow-factor” of your labors.

The list below is not comprehensive, but leads in the right direction, providing six basic strategies geared for increasing your impressiveness without increasing your workload.

1. Learn Skills Few People Know – Find a niche function (or two) that’s currently in high demand and master it.  If very few people can perform this needed function, your effective value to others will skyrocket into the stratosphere.  You will become the “go to guy”.  Even if it’s only a temporary gig, you will be able to make a significant impact in a short timeframe.  And if you play your cards right, you will find yourself doing less actual work and getting 10 times more credit for your efforts.
2. Provide Value from Within a Black Box – Mystery is a huge proponent of impressiveness.  In order to achieve the ultimate level of impressiveness your efforts must make someone think, “Wow! How does he/she do that?”  They can easily see your inputs and your results, but aren’t 100% sure how you got from point A to point B.  In other words, you have to provide (or innovate) tangible value without disclosing the specifics of the mastery.  This is similar to my point on learning a rare skill, but instead relies more on emotional curiosity and less on the end result.  Human beings are curious creatures.  If you can give them something they want while simultaneously stimulating their curiosity, you will always be more impressive than the guy who cranks out the most widgets.
3. Focus More on Less – A jack of all trades may do very well in life, but supreme impressiveness is achieved via specialization.  Elite expertise attracts attention much faster than a run of the mill juggling act.  This is because gradual increases in skill level have an exponential effect on the public opinion of overall impressiveness.  Think in terms of Karate: A black belt seems far more impressive than a brown belt.  But does a brown belt really seem any more impressive than a red belt?  The bottom line: Society elevates experts high onto a pedestal.  Hard work matters, but not if scattered in diverse directions.  Focus on mastering your trade.
4. Only Use Quality Tools – Trying to cut through a thick piece of fresh lumber with an old, dull handsaw would be a pretty foolish endeavor.  You would have to work extremely hard to make the even the slightest impact.  This principle applies to everything in life.  Don’t let inefficiency defeat you.  If the tools in your toolbox don’t fit the requirements of the job, find someone who has the right tools and barter with them, hire them, invite them  into the process.  Possessing the right tools (and skills) can easily shrink a mountainous task into a molehill.
5. Always Under-Sell to Over-Deliver – The crooked salesman constantly over-sells the capabilities of his product.  He sets the bar so high that the product ends up falling short of his client’s expectations.  If you want to boost your impressiveness, do the exact opposite.  Slightly under-sell your capabilities (or product, service, deadline, etc.) so that you’re always able to over-deliver.  It will seem to others like you’re habitually going above and beyond the call of duty.
6. Follow the 80/20 Rule – The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts.  If you can identify and focus on the 20% that matters most, you can be more productive (and impressive) without increasing your workload.  Try to automate or delegate the less productive 80% whenever possible.  When random emails and phone calls start pushing you off course, remind yourself of the 80/20 rule and make an immediate course correction.  If an emergency arises and you absolutely need to eliminate something from your schedule, make sure it’s not part of the vital 20%.

Photo by: Parker

Laziness can ferociously creep up on us at work even when we’re consciously committed to getting things done.  It’s a byproduct those evil shiny objects passing through our periphery just begging for attention.  We try to fight them off, but sometimes it’s an arduous battle we can’t seem to win.  After all, being lazy is what our unconscious minds would rather being doing anyways.  

Not all is lost though.  With the help of a few black belt techniques, laziness can be conquered.  You just have to game your mind before your mind falls victim to the lazy game.  Here’s how…

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.
– Anne Frank

1. Fully Understand the True Consequences of Being Lazy – If you are habitually lazy on the job there’s a good chance that you’re not fulfilling all of your responsibilities.  If you’re not fulfilling your responsibilities then you’re not doing your job, and thus, you’re not worth paying.  It’s only a matter on time before your superiors notice this and eliminate the dead weight.  There’s a pretty good article on About.com entitled “How To Get Fired.”  Take a quit look at this article and ask yourself, “How many of these points pertain to laziness?”  Similarly, if a self-employed person gets lazy, you can be fairly certain they will not be self-employed for long.
2. Never Lose Sight of the Whole Elephant – I’ve heard people use the phrase “take one bite of the elephant at a time” more times than I can count.  It is true, breaking up a large project into a series of smaller, bite-sized milestones is a smart way to hone your concentration and keep yourself motivated in the short-term.  However, it is never wise to completely lose sight of the whole elephant (the big picture).  After all, the whole elephant is the only reason you started working in the first place.  At some point you want to get promoted, land that full-size contract deal and have the opportunity to get ahead of the pack.  Those are big picture goals, goals that motivate long-term drive.  You must always remain cognizant of the fact that a bit of laziness now on a few small tasks may snowball into a lengthy stretch of missed opportunities in the future when the judge compares your performance to that of your peers.
3. Don’t Stop Doing… Start the Next Related Task – Once you stop, laziness kicks in and it’s hard to get going again.  The key is to complete a task and then immediately jump to the next related task.  I consider a related task to be any task with a similar type required mental thinking.  Your mind can transition seamlessly between related tasks because your efforts on the previously completed tasks have already geared your mind for the type of work required in all the subsequent tasks.  The sooner you forge ahead, the more confident you will feel going into it and the more productive you will be.
4. Do Work for You Too – Far too often I see competent, hardworking people only doing work for someone else, usually their employer.  When the workload is extremely light (or the day comes to and end), they get lazy and do less instead of transitioning their attention to accomplishing something for themselves.  If all you’re hard work is spent growing someone else’s business and all your free time is spent being lazy, you will never grow a business of your own.  Avoid laziness by spending your down time working for you.  The more you accomplish for yourself, the more motivated you will be in all walks of your work life.
5. Setup Physical Barriers Against Distractions – Distractions lead to laziness, and unfortunately, distractions are friggin’ everywhere!  If you’re like me, you love to check your favorite blogs and reddit.com 50 times a day.  How do I conquer the urge?  I setup a physical distraction barrier by unplugging my internet connection while I’m working.  If you’re like my wife, Angel, you are prone to spending too much of your “work at home” time watching Lifetime movies.  How do I conquer her urge for her?  I hide the dang remote!  😉  In all seriousness, sometimes you must setup physical barriers between yourself and the distractions that attempt to overpower your conscious will to work.
6. Actually Schedule In Late Afternoon Goof-Off Time – One of the most effective anti-laziness tricks I’ve implemented actually involves scheduling in goof-off time each afternoon at 4PM.  By doing so, I have slowly eliminated my spontaneous urges to check my favorite blogs and news sites because I now know I have a scheduled time to do so.  This may seem odd, or even somewhat counterproductive, but it has actually skyrocketed my early morning through mid-afternoon productivity levels.  So even though I’ve committed to being lazy in the late afternoon, the entire early part of my day (when my mind freshest) is spent in the zone without the physiological urge to slack off and succumb to laziness.
7. Coach Yourself Out Loud… Inch by Inch – This is another one that sounds strange (literally), but truly is an effective self-motivation method.  Break the task you’re currently working on into a few smaller, logical steps and then coach yourself through them out loud.  “You have to get this done!  This step is so easy!  Let’s do it right now!”  When you complete a step, congratulate yourself on a job well done.  “That was great work!  You’re on fire!  We’re going to be finished with this in no time!”  I find that coaching myself out loud through each step actually makes me more cognizant of my forward progress, thus motivating me to work even harder on the next small step.  Success is just a game of inches.  Every small inch of forward progress is a grand accomplishment, because at some point you will be able to add up all those inches.  When you do, you will find yourself in the end zone… Touchdown!
8. Take Mentally and Physically Active Reward Breaks – Taking a short, productive break in between every solid hour of work is something I strongly recommend, but only if you spend your short breaks doing something that actively stimulates your mind and body.  Inactive activities promote laziness and mid-day fatigue.  Take a quick stroll around the office, get up and talk to someone you enjoy speaking with, or crank-up your iPod and listen to a song that motivates you.  Whatever you do, stay active and alert.
9. Refuel Your Mind and Body with Premium Everyday – You are what you eat!  If you eat like crap, you will feel like crap.  If you feel like crap, you will produce crappy work.  Don’t sell yourself short of your full potential.  Refuel your mind and body with premium, healthy food and 8 hours of sleep each night.  Most unhealthy eaters who don’t receive enough sleep are unsurprisingly lethargic in every waking hour of their existence.

Photo by: Philippe Leroyer

I found that some of David Allen’s suggestions were instantly applicable, some needed a little tweaking to better suit my needs and others were a bit too rigid and were thus substituted for alternative methods.  After 2 months of fine-tuning I’m happy to report that I have implemented a productivity system that works really well.

That’s what this short article is about.  A crystal clear, 1 minute read on increasing your productivity by using the slightly modified GTD-based methods that have worked for me.  Let’s get to it…

1. Create 1 Inbox (Entry Point) for All New Tasks – This should be the only place you record the new things you must get done and the only place you need to reference when you are ready to review them.  I use my Outlook inbox as my GTD inbox.  This will work well for anyone like me who receives a large quantity of tasks via email.  If a task comes in any other format (snail mail, face to face meeting, phone call, etc.), I immediately send myself one email with a descriptive subject and body (more info below) for each new task.
2. Create “Work”, “Personal” and “Someday Maybe” Folders – I created 3 subfolders under my main Outlook inbox for this purpose.  All work related tasks that must be done will be filed under “Work” and all personal tasks that must be done will be filed under “Personal”.  Any less urgent tasks or miscellaneous ideas will be filed under “Someday Maybe” (these are open ended tasks like “learn Spanish”).
3. Completely Empty Your Inbox Every Morning – I completely empty my inbox every single morning without failure.  This entails deleting any garbage emails, instantly completing the open tasks that take less than 2 minutes to resolve (more info below) and then filing all the remaining tasks into their appropriate subfolders.
4. Instantly Complete All 2-Minute (or less) Tasks – This is the most useful GTD method in the whole book.  Every time you review new tasks (or new small parts of bigger tasks) ask yourself this question: Will this task take me longer than two minutes to complete if I start on it now?  If the answer is no, do it now.
5. File All Remaining Tasks with Actionable Labeling – As you’re filing all the tasks that take more than 2 minutes to complete, verify that the subject and description (for me this is placed in the subject line of an email message) of the task is clear and action oriented.  It’s easiest to think of this in labeling method as having two distincts parts, the task subject and the next action description.  For example, “Design New Website Layout | Meet with the CEO to discuss my design ideas.”
6. Set Reminders in Calendar for Time Dependant Tasks – You should place a reminder in your calendar (for me this is the Outlook calendar) for any task with an associated time dependency.  For example, a task entitled “Design New Website Layout | Design meeting Monday 10AM”, should also have a reminder entry placed in your calendar for 10AM Monday morning.
7. Review Every Open Task a Least Once a Day – Once your inbox is empty, read through all the tasks in your “Work” and “Personal” folders everyday just to review what you have in there.  During this quick review process you will be able to remove tasks that have been completed, edit tasks as necessary with additional information and refresh your memory on all the open tasks you have.  Note: Only review your “Someday Maybe” folder once a week at a set time.
8. Create a Short “Everyday” List for Complex Tasks or Projects – Create a short list of the things you must do everyday to ensure that you remain in control of a specific complex task or project (a group of related tasks).  Review this list every morning or whenever you need a quick reminder.  This especially helps me get into the groove of managing new, long-term projects that I have not yet fully mastered.  An “Everyday” list might look something like this: Project X Everyday – 1. Meet with program managers, 2. Review active status reports, 3. Verify validity of open issues, etc.

Hopefully this 1 minute, GTD-based lesson will set you on the right track and motivate you to implement a similar system in your own life, a system for productively getting things done.
Photo by: Paul Worthington

Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?”
– Brian Tracy

1. Plan Ahead and Start Early – 10 minutes of dedicated time planning each evening will save you from 20 minutes of ad-hoc preparation each morning.  Likewise, starting your morning on purpose 20 minutes early will inject at least 30 additional productive minutes into your day.  Think about it.
2. Handle All 2 Minute Tasks Immediately – “The 2 Minute Rule” is single greatest tip I picked up from David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done”.  If you roughly estimate that a task is going to take you less than 2 minutes to accomplish, do it right now.  It’s a waste of time and energy to keep small tasks like this on your to-do list.
3. Group Similar Tasks Back-to-Back – Switching gears between different types of tasks can be tough.  It takes most people several minutes to get into a productive mental groove geared toward a speficic type of task.  Therefore, it makes sense to group similar tasks in an effort to minimize the number of rough patches, and thus wasted time, between task orders.
4. Eliminate All Distractions for a Set Time – Distractions are everywhere.  They arrive via email, cell phone, coworker inquiry, etc.  I’ve found that cutting out all distractions for a set time is one of the most effective ways to get things done in less time.  You can’t remain in hiding forever, but you can be nearly 4 times as productive while you are.
5. Take Notes and Make Lists – Nobody’s memory is perfect.  If you don’t take notes and setup to-do lists for yourself you will end up wasting minutes of time trying to remember things that would have taken you seconds to write down.
6. Standardize Common Responsibilities – If you find yourself performing the same set of tasks on a regular basis then it makes sense to establish an efficient, standardized way of accomplishing them.  Are certain tasks easier to perform in the morning?  Are there additional resources that can be utilized only at a certain time?  It’s up to you to find an efficient pattern, standardize it and follow it.
7. Buy in Bulk, Cook in Bulk – Buying stuff and cooking food are two of the most common unplanned consumptions of time.  Most people buy replacements in small amounts only when they need them and think about food only when they’re hungry.  The probem is these issues will often arise at inopportune times.  The most efficient way I’ve found to counteract this is by doing bulk loads of both.  I know I’ll always need gas in my vehicle.  So instead of putting in $25 here and $25 there, I top off my tank every time I’m at the station regardless of the sticker shock.  Likewise, I know I’m going to be hungry at lunch time every day this week.  So on Sundays I’ll grill up 5 extra chicken breasts and make a chicken wrap or sandwich for every day of the week.
8. Use Productive Shortcuts – People who claim that there are no productive shortcuts in life have been brainwashed.  There are productive shortcuts for almost everything you do.  Finding and using them can save you a few minutes here and there on a daily basis.  If you use a computer, learn the keyboard shortcuts for the programs you use most often.  If you can permanently delegate one of your regular tasks to someone else, do it.  Is there a route to work with less traffic?  Where can you hit 2 birds with 1 stone? 
9. Organize All Your Space – How much time do you think the average person wastefully spends searching for items they’ve misplaced?  Keeping both your living and work spaces organized will undoubtedly save you 10 minutes (if not 20 or 30) daily.
10. Productively Use Waiting Time – Waiting time does not have to be wasted time.  When you are waiting at the doctor’s office, the post office, or on hold for the next available representative… what simple tasks could you complete while you wait?  How about sorting though your snail mail, writing those thank you notes you’ve been putting off, reading the book you keep meaning to read, reviewing and editing your to-do lists, etc…

The monotonous repetition and visual sameness found in the common office space could suck the creativity out of Picasso.  The environment you inhabit has a powerful affect on the way you think and feel.  If everything around you looks the same, your mind will eventually grow numb.  Likewise, if you do the same exact thing in the same exact way at the same exact location every day, you may very well think the same exact thoughts over and over again.

Your creativity relies heavily on your attitude, and your attitude relies on your enthusiasm, motivation and positivity.  Trying to maintain a positive attitude in a monotonous business environment can be tough.  And if your creativity is stifled because your attitude sucks, your effective productivity rate will plunge as well.

So what can you do to spark your business-minded creativity at the office?  I love to play around with innovative ways of approaching life at work.  Not everyone gets a chance to escape the 9 to 5 office space environment, but that doesn’t mean they can’t escape the monotony by exploiting their creative edge within it.

Here are 10 business creativity tips to help you get your mind on track:

1. Be a Visitor in Your Own Office – Sit in the guest chair on the opposite side of your desk for an hour or so.  It will give you a fresh visual perspective on the same old environment.  If you don’t have a guest chair or your own office, roll your work chair to a new location and bring your laptop and supplies with you.  Even the slightest change in your physical setting can stimulate your senses and your creativity.  Don’t be afraid to switch locations a few times a day.  It may sound strange, but it makes a world of difference.
2. Rotate Your Artwork and Photographs – First things first, buy some artwork you like.  Also, frame a few photographs of the important people in your life and place them throughout your personal office space.  Rotate the wall art from wall to wall every two weeks.  Do the same with the photos.  Occasionally swap out the artwork and photos for new ones.  You could even exchange them with others you already have at your house.
3. Get a Cool Chair (or Chairs) – Just like moving around, swapping that boring grey desk chair for a cool, comfortable Aeron or HAG Capisco can keep your senses refreshed and your creative edge alive.  If funds aren’t an issue, get both and switch it up every few hours.
4. Re-purpose Unused Office Space – Poll your coworkers for the most creative (and applicable) use of the unused space.  How about a sitting area with comfortable chairs, a few live plants, some inspirational artwork and a dry erase board?  Make sure you get your superiors on board with the idea.  Sell them on the benefits of a creative work environment.
5. Play Musical Chairs at Meetings – Break out of the foolish grade school habit of continually sitting in the same seat.  Sit next to different people, participate in their conversations and become more conscious of what each of them brings to the table.  They may surprise you and open your mind to new ideas.
6. Write Down Every Idea – Simple ideas fuel creativity.  Write down everything and anything that crosses your mind, even the simple ideas that seem stupid.  A critical part of having a good idea is the act of capturing every idea you have.  Capturing other people’s ideas is also a beneficial practice.  Maintain an idea list and then mindfully sort through them at an alternate location and time.
7. Take Short Stimulation Breaks – Read some quotes that inspire you.  Watch a motivational video clip.  Listen to one of your favorite tunes.  Or, you could create a small play space with some mind stimulating puzzles and games.
8. Break Your Routines – Routines can serve a useful purpose, but they also close the door on creativity.  Small changes in your routines can lead to fresh, invigorating experiences and creative thought patterns.  For instance, instead of driving to work, take the bus or carpool.  Go out to lunch with different people.  Try new things.
9. Mandate Personal Brainstorming Sessions – Brainstorming is essential to creative thinking.  Set enough time aside to brainstorm at least once a day.  Don’t stop until you have at least 10 points written down.  Add these points to the idea list I discussed above.
10. Buy Fun Supplies – I’m certainly not an advocate of needless spending, but I do support the occasional creativity / productivity enhancing purchase.  Need some ideas?  How about a colorful set of dry erase markers, a calendar themed to your liking, a gigantic bulletin board, and an art-styled writing table?

Your ability to be “easy” is the absolute number one key to creating and maintaining successful relationships, both business related and personal. People like things to be easy. If they have to unexpectedly struggle with someone or something, they usually give up without hesitation.

Let’s dive a bit deeper into the first 3 questions asked above.

How easy are you to work with?

Do you listen to other people’s opinions and feedback? Or do you run a “my way or the highway” operation? It’s all about teamwork in life. Your friends, colleagues and customers are part of your team.

You all coexist in a massive support system maintained by the natural exchange of giving and taking. The “give and take” exchange involves ideas, goals, advice, products, services, etc. If all you do is take without giving anything back, you will never be easy to work with and you will eventually fail.

How easy are you to get a hold of?

If people cannot get a hold of you, you are not being easy. Never underestimate the value of keeping an open line of communication. Your general availability and accessibility to others is extremely important to them.

When someone calls a friend, colleague or business contact, they have the intention of speaking to this person on the other end of the line. When this person doesn’t answer, it might slightly frustrate them. If this same situation occurs frequently, they may quit calling altogether.

How easy are you to understand?

It is natural human instinct to be skeptical of the unknown. If you and your product are not easy to understand, you will always be the unknown… And most people will likely keep their distance.

The most successful people have the ability to communicate effectively. The most successful products operate as their users expect. Why? Because in both cases they are easy to understand.

The Bottom Line: Being “easy” is a big part of being successful.

In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
– Publilius Syrus

Emotional People Think via Known Scripts

When people become inundated with a rush of emotion, they tend to fall back on predetermined personal beliefs as a foundation for their reasoning.  Some physiologists and cognition experts refer to these predetermined personal beliefs as “scripts”.  Someone consumed in an emotional state will think and communicate in a scripted fashion based entirely on what they presently believe to be true, instead of keeping their mind open to new information.

Break the Script to Ease Emotions

How do you ease emotions and restore order in a heated discussion so that the focus of communication realigns with the original intended purpose?  The key is to ask a specific question that forces the emotional communicators to break out of their emotionally scripted thought process.  I call this “The Break Script Technique”.  If you can break their script, they will typically become cognizant of the current communication problem.

Questions with Known Answers Work Best

To successfully implement “The Break Script Technique”, you have to ask a simple, familiar, off-topic question.  Your question should be so common that most people, including the emotional communicators, have a reflexive, scripted way of answering it.  You are essentially breaking them out of one script by substituting it for another script they are familiar and comfortable with.

Here are a few example questions that can assist in breaking the emotional script:

• “Sorry to interrupt, but do you know the time?”
• “How are you doing?” (or some variation… may be a bit odd in the middle of a conversation.)
• “What time do you usually break for lunch?”

Although off-topic, these questions will not seem unreasonable or inconvenient to the emotional communicators because they already know the answers to each.  The goal is to interrupt their train of thought just long enough to make them aware of their emotional state.

“The Break Script Technique” is not applicable in all situations, especially when untamed emotions have turned a civil discussion into a full-fledged argument.  However, if used correctly in the context of a fairly civil discussion, I have found this simple technique to be extremely effective.