Often the hardest part of making progress on a project is… getting started. Or re-started after a break. When you sit down to start a writing session, you’re facing a blank page. When you set up your easel to paint, you face a blank canvas. When you start a planning effort, it’s a blank calendar. When you’re cleaning the garage, it’s the opposite: complete overwhelm.
Whatever type of project you’re working on, getting yourself going on each session can be a challenge.
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Happy New Year!
It’s that time of the year again. We sit down and review the past year and map out a path for the next year. How are we doing on long-term goals? Is it time to discard some old ones? What short term goals should we attack for next year? Entire books have been written on goal-setting. But a few basic tips can help you set better goals for your resolutions for the New Year:
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Do you regularly delete perfectly good pieces of writing while editing? Do you have frequent “false starts” when you begin a writing project and stall? Do you have old unfinished attempts accumulating on your computer or in notebooks?
Consider keeping a writing snippets file where you can store miscellaneous pieces that don’t have a home. You never know when these writings may be exactly what you need for a future project. And storing them away is less painful than deleting them.
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When you’re stuck on a current project… When you’re looking for new ideas for your next project… When you need a creative solution to a problem… Creativity moves you toward your productivity goals.
Whether you’re writing a story, creating a work of art, designing a website, or planning a wedding, here are 5 tips to stimulate your creativity:
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Whether you’re starting a home-based business, are temporarily working from home, or are teleworking, you need a functional home office that helps rather than hinders your work.
You need an office workspace that helps you work efficiently. You need effective time management. And you need to stay organized. Here are some ideas for dealing with the challenges of working at home.
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Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day, which falls on the second Monday of January every year. Personal Knowbase can’t help you get rid of old pens, half-used batteries, and that broken coffee mug. But it can help you tidy up all those scattered bits of paper.
As part of your efforts, try this:
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Personal Knowbase is great for keeping a diary or journal.
The software stores free-format information divided into separate notes, called “articles.” You can effectively use it as a diary by creating a new article entry for each date. You can sort articles by date for chronological entries, as for a daily diary or a personal journal with irregularly-added entries.
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Interruptions are a problem for anybody whose work requires concentration for a block of time. The ability to focus is necessary for problem solving tasks and creative work like writing.
If you need an interruption-free block of time, here are some tips:
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I’ve been collecting quotations for decades. It’s something of an obsession. I sprinkle them in websites and blog posts, tweet them to my followers, and sometimes just collect for the sake of collecting. When I read, part of my mind is always on the lookout for good quotes. Not surprisingly, I store my quote collection in Personal Knowbase.
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Whether you’re writing fiction or non-fiction, memos or sagas, letters or white papers, here are five tips for improving your writing and completing your project.
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