Early mornings, late nights, a trillion words written, loud music, standing desks, and bananas – week 1 of the April challenge was a massive success. If you haven’t read my post about what I’m doing this month, check it out here. As a quick recap, I promised to: Write 90,000 words in April (3,000 a day) Step up at the gym, and Quit drinking (boooooo!) … Continue reading April Challenge – Have You Ever Eaten Four Bananas?
We writers are stressed out, jumpy folks, don’t you think? Some of us can be downright irritable. We can be argumentative and contrarian. A lot of us aren’t very good in crowds. We get anxious a lot. That’s the stereotype, I know, so I apologize if any of you are different. I can just see a comment rolling in a few hours from now: “I’m … Continue reading How To Fly Stress Free
Write 90,000 Words. Step Up At The Gym. Quit Drinking (Temporarily). It’s time to make a change, and have some fun while doing it. Over the past few years I’ve been getting better and better at self-motivation, productivity, and juggling the multiple things I care about (friends and family, fitness, work, writing, etc.), but I always end up asking myself if there is more I … Continue reading Why To Make A Change – April Challenge
Divisive post, I know, especially to a group of people that (probably) mostly consists of night-owls. Here, I’ll post your reply for you: “Shut up, Dave, I work better at night. Don’t tell me how to live my life!” But I’m here to tell you that if you’re looking for an extra boost, that surge of productivity that’ll help you get more done than you ever have before, … Continue reading Why You Should Wake Up Early
It’s been cold in DC for the last few weeks. Not just chilly, but bone-biting, wind-driving, snow-piling cold. The bulk of people in the city have spent their time hiding indoors, layering like they live in the North Pole, and Ubering places they could easily have walked. I Ubered 4 blocks the other day. It was embarrassing.
Not anymore, though. The sun came out this weekend, we hit the mid-60s, and people have been running around like it’s the middle of summer. All anyone wants to do is join in the outdoor fun, but what if we have too much work to get done? (Yes I know that rhymed. No I didn’t do it on purpose. Yes it was still awesome.)
On days like this, when warm weather is still fresh and novel, it’s important to take advantage of what you can. It’s important to get outside. It’s important to breathe the fresh air. It’s important recharge your batteries like one of Elon Musk’s solar panels. The question is: How? Continue reading “Working On A Beautiful Spring Day”
What is it about a challenge that motivates us so much? Why is the pull of a one-week challenge so alluring?
There is something a little magical, and a little scary, about setting a short-term goal for yourself and driving towards it with all the power you can muster. You see it in the fitness industry all the time, in commercial campaigns and incentive programs at large companies, and, yes, even in writing… ever heard of NaNoWriMo?
Maybe people have short attention spans, or maybe the promise of a reward that’s only two weeks away is just irresistible; either way, short challenges work. Public ones work even better. Continue reading “15 Days to Done”
A couple weeks ago, after a work trip to Montreal, I was going to write a blog post about how much I love working on planes – they’re actually one of my favorite places to write. I’d gotten through a couple of paragraph before I thought, “Hm, shouldn’t I wait to write this blog post until I’m actually on a plane again?” So here I … Continue reading Words On A Plane
