In the past three years, I’ve had one habit that has worked miracles for me. It’s easy, repeatable, and pays off every single time I do it. And I probably do it 6 out of 7 days. I put my clothes out the night before. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Saturday or a Sunday the following day; part of my night-time routine is I quickly pick out what I’m going to wear and put it out on the dresser. When morning comes, like magic, it’s like little birds have picked out what I’m going to be wearing. When I’m in a setting where people ask me my favorite strategies with saving time or procrastination, I fire t ..read more

About three months ago, I burned out of my job. You might read “burned out” like I suddenly didn’t like my job or my job suddenly frustrated me. That’s not the case. Burned out means that you have nothing left to give to the job and you no longer can see the purpose of it. Besides a paycheck no matter how big, you simply do not find any scrap of joy in it. This doesn’t happen during the course of a day or week. We all have issues when it comes to our job, busy times, hectic paces. Burnout isn’t about being “busy.” It’s this slow burn, like a savings account being slowly drained, more withdraw ..read more

This year I have dedicated myself to bullet journaling. For those of you unaware, bullet journaling is a way to capture everything in one place. Whether it is a list of projects, school information, packing list or gift ideas, it goes into the bullet journal—an analog warehouse of all of your thoughts and ideas in one place. Now, you might be wondering, but what about that digital life, the Evernote, this APP, that APP? Think of bullet journaling as your short term and medium term storage. I only look to digital storage if I’m going to keep something forever like tax information or an article ..read more

I get a lot of emails about goals—and I mean—a lot. But if I had a the ultimate answer for accomplishing your goals flawlessly, I’d live in a huge mansion. One of the biggest reasons that I see people fail in their goals is that whatever they want to do, whatever they want to accomplish is just obtuse. I mean the classic thing people want is to lose weight. I do. Maybe you do. But when someone only has that goal, nothing is going to happen after the New Year Eve ball drops. It’s unclear. I mean, clearly you want the number to be lower, but what else? That’s it? Now you might think that I’m go ..read more

I’ve been where you are. I’ve had the feeling of, “I can’t wait to start the new year with this new habit.” Maybe it’s writing. Maybe it’s working out. What happens after a month? It tends to drift, that commitment, that memory, that motivation. That motivation doesn’t simply just shut off. It starts to wane. Maybe you miss a day of working out. And then you get back to it. Then you miss two days. Then you get back to it. Then you eat an entire sheet cake and wonder, “What’s the point?” And then you resign yourself to figuring it out later. Or maybe you are overspending. You buckle down. You ..read more

I’d heard of habit stacking for awhile. Do this one thing and then it leads you into another thing.  But I just didn’t get it. As someone who is in the “productivity writing niche” you’d think I’d get a brochure in the mail. Nope.  So it wasn’t until I read Atomic Habits to full get a grip on how to habit stack—how to take the things you normally do—and add the things you normally don’t with ease and little if no willpower expended.  But before we get into it, let’s make sure we all know the lingo, shall we?  When I talk about willpower, I talk about the energy expended t ..read more

In Lord of the Rings, the most corrupt person has to be poor Gollum—corrupted by the One Ring, he desires it more than anything, more than anyone. His counterpart, the actual person he was before, Smeagol, desires the companionship that Frodo (not really Sam) offers. He is the jokester, the riddle-maker. But I have news. We have our own personal Gollum. Gollum is this depression-fueled beast, this inverse of our true-self, this corrupt part of ourselves that desires: Whatever is unhealthy for us. The impediment of our growth. To tear apart our relationships. To ultimately destroy us as we ch ..read more

Here’s what it’s like for introverts to decide to go to a conference: “Oh, let’s go to a conference where you know no one, expect to mingle and ‘network.’ Up next, getting your teeth drilled by a rabid monkey.” I get it. I get that you’d rather curl up with a good book or watch some Netflix than walk into a room full of strangers. But there is a way for introverts to thrive during a conference—it just takes a bit of preparation to endure the bombardment of new people, small talk and constant conversation. And by the end of this, you might actually envision not only going to a conference, but e ..read more

                  “What are those?” I was writing in a coffeeshop, in the flow of what I was working on—getting words on the page, in the zone. The man was pointing to my AirPods—they had come out a couple of days ago and I managed to snag some. I explained to him how they work—I can tap on them to summon Siri or play or pause a podcast. I also told him how I wear them religiously—I don’t leave the house without them. I’m an evangelist for few things, but AirPods—well—I will brag about these forever. When I finished my technological sermon, he look ..read more

  We have heard the long yarn of “a habit takes 24 days to create.” I think that’s bunk. I think it takes about 30 days or more to have a habit. Every single day. For me, it just takes that amount of time to get a handle on it, to see the benefits. We’ve all tried to do something for a week, but then something derails us and we throw up our hands and say, “Oh well. Next time.” We might feel we don’t have it in us to start working out or journaling consistently. We see everyone around us doing it (hint: they are not) and we wonder what is wrong with us? (Hint: nothing.) But a 30 day chall ..read more