I’ve become familiar with Michael Pollan through books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food. Tonight I ran across the images above, which are pictures of his writing house. He built it himself (which is documented in an earlier book called A Place of My Own). Larger pictures are available on his website.
I think he’s got Creativityist HQ pretty well beat.
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Tags: inspiration, michael pollan, workspace, writing
The Artist’s Way Collective begins one week from today. There is still time to join us! You can read the Intro and the How it Works posts for more information.
For those who are going to participate, I hope you can see this not as accountability, but encouragement. I don’t plan on being the Artist police. Please don’t feel the need to share your success rate with the morning pages or specify what other activities you did, although you can if you like. We can get the most from each other’s learnings and experiences. Share with us how you are growing, being challenged, or inspired.
Don’t forget to take some time to read the introductory chapters this. (That’s up to page 24 in the latest edition of the book.) They will help you get a handle on what is to come. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. And once again, if you are going to join us, please consider a post on your own blog about it to help spread the word and let others know what is up.
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I’ve made no secret of my love for OmniFocus and it’s integration in my workflow. As a result, I often have people ask me more about how to use OmniFocus, or even about how I use it specifically. I’m not surprised. OmniFocus does have a learning curve, and it is not intuitive for a first-time user…especially for anyone who isn’t familiar with David Allen’s Getting Things Done.
I’ve thought about doing a bigger overview of OmniFocus. But, there plenty out there that are worthwhile, which I was reminded of as MacApper posted on this morning. So, for the OmniFocus inhibited, I offer links to some OmniFocus walkthrough that will be worth your time:
Above all, I would say the best way to learn it is to start using it. It will help if you are familiar with GTD; 43Folders’ Getting Started with “Getting Things Done”, as the title suggests, is a good place to start.
For newer readers of Creativityist, here are a few posts from the archive that describe some of my workflows with OmniFocus:
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Tags: david allen, getting things done, GTD, links, omnifocus
We have a little less than two weeks until The Artist’s Way Collective begins. There is still time to join us! You can read the Intro and the How it Works posts for more information.
Below is the schedule for what section we will be reading each week. The weekly hub will be posted early Monday morning each week, so it will work best for everyone to do the reading for the week over the weekend or early in the week. Then, during the rest of the week, you can do some of the exercises and reflect on your experiences.
Don’t forget to take some time to read the introductory chapters prior to Week 1. (That’s up to page 24 in the latest edition of the book.) They will help you get a handle on what is to come. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. And once again, if you are going to join us, please consider a post on your own blog about it to help spread the word and let others know what is up.
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Tags: artist's way collective, creativity, julia cameron, the artist's way
(The title of this post should be read with the same inflection and accent as the line “Bring out yer dead!” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you aren’t familiar with that line, then please go rent the movie and watch it before continuing…)
This is part of an ongoing series called Blinders where I explore some of the ways I streamline my computer workflows to minimize distractions.
The dock in OS X is one pretty piece of eye candy. It’s also visual clutter that can eat up workspace and serve to distract. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be useful. Here are a few ways I change my dock (pictured above) from the default settings:
Hope you enjoyed the movie.
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Tags: blinders, clutter, dock, mac, quicksilver
I’m pleased with the response so far for The Artist’s Way Collective. We have participants from five states and two continents so far. With three weeks to go before we start, there is still plenty of time to join us. You can read the Intro post for more information.
The structure I have in mind is simple. We will work on a new section each week; I suggest you read the section on Sunday or Monday. Early on Monday, I will post a hub for that week. It will act as a reminder for the section we are on that week, but also as a collecting point for everyone’s thoughts.
As you work through the material for the week, share some of your own reflections on what you are experiencing and learning. You can post these as comments on the hub post. Or, if you have a blog of your own, post them on your blog and share a link to them in the hub comments. (If you want to start a blog just for this purpose, I would recommend Wordpress.com.)
I see no need to be rigid with this structure, so if we rework it during the process…well, that just sounds like creativity in action to me. I would also encourage the participants, and anyone else, to be reading and responding to the insights of others.
If you already have your book, take some time to read the introductory chapters up to Week 1. (That’s up to page 24 in the latest edition of the book.) They will help you get a handle on what is to come. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know. And once again, if you are going to join us, please consider a post on your own blog about it to help spread the word and let others know what is up.
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As we’ve gotten settled in our new home in Austin, I’ve tried to give my office enough attention to make it an appealing workspace from the get go. I’ve had a few seasons of life where I had a tidy office, but mostly my office in the past has been…shall we say…a tad frenzied. In the last year or two, I’ve worked hard to have better systems in place, and I’m happy with the results.
I submitted pictures of my office to the Unclutterer Flickr pool, but I thought it would be fun to share them here as well. Click through the pictures to find a few notes about each on Flickr.
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Tags: flickr, inspiration, unclutterer, workspace
Other than my wife (hi honey!), I can’t imagine that there are any readers of this blog that don’t read Merlin Mann’s world famous 43 Folders. But just in case, I feel it is a duty to point your attention toward the series Merlin did this week called Making Time to Make.
In Merlin’s words:
“Making Time to Make” is a 3-part series about attention management for people who do creative work. It’s designed to help you firewall the time and attention you need to get out of the lite communication business and into your studio.
And here’s each post in the series:
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Tags: 43 folders, creativity, merlin mann
Yesterday, I looked at an item in OmniFocus, and I wasn’t sure what it meant. After the three minutes or so it took me to sort it out, I decided it was time to revisit the to-do guidelines I scratched out a few years ago. I thought I’d post them here as a helpful summary for others. Most of these originate out of Getting Things Done, by David Allen.
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Tags: GTD, omnifocus, productivity, tasks
Three years ago, I worked my way through The Artist’s Way at the recommendation of a friend. The book make a strong impression on me. As I am entering into a new season of life, I’ve decided to go through it again this fall. I think it would be fun and meaningful (and beneficial!) to invite others to join me, and so I present The Artist’s Way Collective.
The Artist’s Way offers the premise that all of us are creative, and that being creative moves us toward personal health. It is not just written for those who are artists, but for anyone who has a need for creative expression…I happen to think that is everyone.
The Artist’s Way Collective will begin on September 1. Using the schedule prescribed in the book, it will go for twelve weeks, finishing up the week before Thanksgiving. I invite you to be a part of this with me. Each week, we will read the corresponding section (usually 15-20 pages), do the activities Cameron suggests, and then reflect about our experiences, whether here, or on your own blog.
I will share more specifics about how it will work in an upcoming post. But I wanted to present this initial invitation so you have time to think about participating and preparing to do so.. If you would like to join me, here is what you can do between now and then:
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Tags: artist's way collective, creativitityist.com, creativity, inspiration, julia cameron, the artist's way
