PRODUCTIVITY

Violinist Hilary Hahn started a 100 Days of Practice project. She posted a video of her practicing violin on Instagram for 100 days with #100daysofpractice and invited others to join her. That started a movement.

Austin Kleon (the writer of How To Steal Like an Artist) came up with a grid to log his progress for 100 days. He calls it PRACTICE to SUCK LESS grid.

To get good, you first have to be willing to be bad. Don’t practice to get good, practice to suck less. — Austin Kleon.

I thought it was a brilliant idea. You can use…

TRAVEL. TURKEY. INSTANBUL. WEST ASIA.

The three-country packaged tour of Turkey we are doing had only one day for Istanbul, which was really disappointing. Istanbul was on my list for a long time and I wanted to see all the main attractions.

It turned out that with a bit of prior knowledge and planning, you can cover a lot in a day.

Most of Istanbul’s attractions are concentrated in one area. They are within walking distance, which makes it easier because by walking you can avoid traffic jams in old Istanbul, which can have you stranded for hours.

You think there is a book in you.

It might be a memoir, or it might just be a novel. You are not sure.

Some scenes keep playing in your head again and again. You have even met the protagonist.

She comes into your dreams and talks to you. She has shared some secrets with you—just some. You know there are more secrets, but when you ask, she remains quiet. Then she disappears. You push her to the back of your mind and get on with your life. …

This year, in mid-April, I set myself an outrageous challenge. To write 100 articles in 100 days. It was outrageous because I averaged just 2–3 articles a week, spending 5–6 hours per article.

If I were to make article writing an integral part of my routine, I have to reduce that time to 1–2 hours per article.

The only way I knew how to achieve that was to follow Violinist Hilary Hahn’s 100 Days of practice model. So I announced my crazy idea and started keeping the score on Austin Kleon’s PRACTICE to SUCK LESS grid.

Do you know what we writers lack?

A proper curriculum to do develop writing skills.

Most of us have embarked on writing without any proper training. Some like me got into it because our writing sucked, and we wanted to get better at it.

No wonder writing is such a hard skill to master.

Every other artistic field has a way of teaching the basics. Two years ago, I learned how to draw cartoons. I followed a curriculum for six months that taught me all the basics. Once I learned that all I needed to do was practice every day…

The term “work-life balance” is so common that it has lost its meaning.

Ask a bunch of people what work-life balance is for them, and they all will come with a different meaning.

Balance means a state of equilibrium, a condition where everything is still and in equal proportion.

Have you ever had a day when either your work or your life was still? Do you spend your time in equal proportion on work and life?

This suggestion of work-life balance is based on the assumption that work is bad, and life is good; spend more time on life and…

In 2008, Kevin Kelly, the founding editor of Wired magazine, wrote one of the most famous blog posts in internet history: “1000 True Fans.”

Kevin’s 1000 True Fans concept was made popular by many gurus of online audience-building and monetization, just like Malcolm Gladwells made Anders Ericsson’s 10,000-hour practice rule popular through his book Outlier.

Kevin Kelly’s idea was simple but novel. He wrote:

To be a successful creator you don’t need millions. You don’t need millions of dollars or millions of customers, millions of clients or millions of fans. …

1. “Discipline in writing is important but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take the only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging, and motherly love).” — Elizabeth Gilbert
2. “You must have a room, or…