Lately I’ve been struggling with my process for getting big creative projects done. They feel like they are taking forever to finish. Each step feels big so I put it off thinking I need a bigger chunk of time to deal with it.
Lately I’ve been struggling with my process for getting big creative projects done. They feel like they are taking forever to finish. Each step feels big so I put it off thinking I need a bigger chunk of time to deal with it.
Learning a new tool can be really frustrating. And if you've dived into Tana thinking it looks cool, only to find yourself clunking around not knowing what to do then today's video is for you
There is nothing more detrimental to finding flow in your digital systems than having to click around constantly to work on things. My Focus Sidebar in Tana keeps me focused on the most important things, wherever I am in my workspace.
I struggled for a decade to be a creator without a creative practice Instead of practising daily, the only time I switched on my creativity was when I needed to produce something. No wonder I struggled for so long!
Content is simply the communication of ideas.Lots of people have ideas, but if you can't communicate them well all those amazing ideas are going to get lost in translation.So communication is the real game of content creation.
In today's video, I'm going to show you three quick & easy command buttons you can add to your task supertag so you can spend less time managing tasks and more time actually doing tasks.I find that a lot of people are still not using commands either because they don't know how, they don't know what they can do with them OR it all just seems a little complex
Lately I’ve been struggling with my process for getting big creative projects done. They feel like they are taking forever to finish. Each step feels big so I put it off thinking I need a bigger chunk of time to deal with it.
I am a master procrastinator. Not because I don't know what I should do or because I'm not motivated - but because most of the time I just don't have the headspace to get stuff done.
Yesterday I searched Google for the phrase 'How To Stop'I couldn't exactly articulate what I was trying to find, but basically, I wanted some advice on what it looks like to slow down, stop, & rest. I assumed I'd find some advice on this exact thing. Except I didn't.
I love this time between Christmas and New Year. It's always so full of hope. It's quiet and gives me time to think, plan & dream for the new year. And like everyone I'm thinking about goals I want to accomplish, creating concrete plans of reaching those goals.
Consistency. I bet it's on your list of 'want more of it' in 2023. After all, it's the holy grail of productivity & self-improvement. And yet most of us feel like we're failing at it most of the time. But what if locking yourself into a rigid view of consistency is actually hindering you rather than helping you?
Daily planners are not a new thing. It's literally the simplest & most powerful way to plan the day. Take a sheet of paper (or screen), put the date at the top & start organising your day. I remember getting my first Filofax and then going on to design my first paper (then digital) planner pages.
Despite what it looks like, I'm not one for complicated systems.And while I admire all the people who can put their head down for days and go through long yearly reviews & planning rituals, that is not for me.
Unpopular Opinion: Procrastination has nothing to do with your motivation (or discipline) levels. I constantly defer tasks on my list to tomorrow. So much so that I created a list in my daily planner called 'All The Thing I'm Putting Off Till Tomorrow.' At first, it was a joke, but it's become a key way of noticing patterns in my behaviour.
Strength training has taught me more about consistency than any other thing I've done in life (including growing as a creator). The other day my trainer programmed inverted rows (under a low bar and pulling/rowing up). Every time I've attempted them before I have had to do them in batches. So when she said 15 reps I yelled an expletive in my head.
We all Need More Headspace. You know - time & space to think & make better decisions. More time & space to be creative at a deeper level. A magical place where you can achieve more with less effort.
I'm always better with a plan. Planning gets a bad wrap from hustle culture - as if it's some kind of procrastination for weak people who can't just get in and get work done.
Ideas take time to emerge. I rarely go from a new spark idea to a fully formed thesis in one spark writing session. They need time to soak & marinate. Often over days, weeks or even months.
I've been building what I now call my Spark Writing habit for the past 3 years. I'm not sure I've explained this before, but It's actually what set me on the path of becoming a creator and writing online. The more I built knowledge privately, the more I wanted to share publicly.
Even after 10+ years as a content marketer, I still hate that moment at the start of the week when I’m staring down the barrel of a blank screen, wondering what to post.So I swapped a blank screen for a 🏦 Content Bank full of ideas.
Capturing ideas is the single most important thing I do as a creator everyday.It's a cornerstone habit that cascades into every part of my content creation. When I sit down to 'do content' I don't have to spend any time brainstorming ideas. I have more than enough ideas to work with because I've captured them beforehand.
Most creators spend the majority of their writing time... writing content.And at first, this seems logical. You need to create content right? But if the only time you ever write is to produce content - you're on a downward spiral to burnout.Instead, I spend 80% of my time 'Think Writing' and 20% 'Content Writing'
Why do we subject ourselves to so many unwritten rules as creators and writers? One of these unwritten rules I decided to ditch was: If I didn't write it last week I MUST write it this week.
For the past 2 years I have had one morning routine: Wake Up Make Coffee & Write. It doesn’t matter if it’s a weekday or weekend, I'm on holiday, in the middle of a busy time at work, or whatever - I do the same thing each morning.
When I'm not creating content for the internet I'm a marketing coach.It took me a long time to embrace the role of coach in my life. When I first got started I thought I was supposed to have all the answers and that was why my clients were coming to me.
At the beginning of each year I choose a word to theme my year. It's a word that focuses me and provides a lens to make decisions, take action & frame everything I do. It's less of a goal or a 'thing to do' and more of an intention that infuses my thoughts, my actions, my goals & my days.
Most people stop learning when they finish school or university. School gives structure to our learning for the first years of our life. But when we finish school, unless we continue to be intentional about learning & growth, we end up wandering through life, maybe reading a few books (if we're lucky).
Learning a new tool can be really frustrating. And if you've dived into Tana thinking it looks cool, only to find yourself clunking around not knowing what to do then today's video is for you
There is nothing more detrimental to finding flow in your digital systems than having to click around constantly to work on things. My Focus Sidebar in Tana keeps me focused on the most important things, wherever I am in my workspace.
In today's video, I'm going to show you three quick & easy command buttons you can add to your task supertag so you can spend less time managing tasks and more time actually doing tasks.I find that a lot of people are still not using commands either because they don't know how, they don't know what they can do with them OR it all just seems a little complex
After years of trying to stay tool-agnostic when it comes to talking about note-taking, I’m willing to put it all on the line & say Tana has turbo-charged my note-taking & writing like no other tool I have used before.
You asked for it & you got it! Tana's new IOS Mobile App is here 🚀And it's pretty special. After using it for the last few weeks I honestly couldn't imagine my Tana workflows without it... and that's coming from me a girl who sits 90% of her day in front of a computer.
There are a lot of complex things you can to with the AI. But for normal everyday people just trying to get their work done it can be daunting. So in this video I want to show you how you can get setup easy & fast (it's SO easy) and how to create a chatGPT like experience right in your Tana graph.
There is nothing worse than getting your hands on a brand-new app, only to abandon it after a few days or hours because you just can't make it stick. In this video, I want to talk about three essential things to get set up in Tana to get your hands dirty using it every day.
The fastest way to get around in Tana is using the keyboard. Also, the most tedious way to use Tana is to open nodes, click into fields & make changes. So did you know you can create own Custom Keyboard Shortcuts in Tana for the functions you use most often?
In today's video, I'm talking all about Tana's brand new feature that just launched - Tana Templates. Up until now, it was a bit of a hack to get templates into your Tana workspace, but the Tana Team have been hard at work creating a native solution so you can snag the workflows of some of your favourite Tana people (including ME).
Are you using Tana for Task Management? In this video, I show you five of the top ways I've picked up over the years to plan & categorise tasks. So I can make sure I'm focusing on the most important tasks each day.
Are you just relying on one main search per Supertag? While that's a good start, you'll quickly find that constantly fiddling with filters & sorts becomes tedious. So in this video I'm going to show you how you can level up your Live Searches & build hubs for each of your Supertags so you can find exactly what you need, when you need. it.
Being able to see multiple day nodes in one view comes in very handy for things like weekly and monthly reviews. If you use fields on your day page then it's actually quite easy to set up these table view 'logs' - I call them my Life Logs.
I struggled for a decade to be a creator without a creative practice Instead of practising daily, the only time I switched on my creativity was when I needed to produce something. No wonder I struggled for so long!
Content is simply the communication of ideas.Lots of people have ideas, but if you can't communicate them well all those amazing ideas are going to get lost in translation.So communication is the real game of content creation.
Constraints are a creative person's best friend.Most of us live in hope that if we can throw off the constraints of our life we'll finally reach peak creativity. We dream about quitting our job, going full time - thinking no constraints are the answer.But maybe constraints are a feature & not a bug for our creativity?
The common wisdom tells us we should focus & work on one thing at a time. So we dutifully create perfect content calendars for our creative work, and expect our creative spirit to fall in line with what we’ve planned.
On any one day I can have anywhere from 7-10 content ideas in different stages that I can choose to work on.Now usually, I'm a fan of focusing on just one thing. But not when it comes to content ideas. I find if I lock myself into working on just one thing my creative spirit rebels.So I like to have options.
I write much more for myself than I ever do for you (sorry, but not sorry).That's right, what you read on my feed or my blog or my newsletter is only a small fraction of what I actually write each day.
I grew my Twitter following from 500 to 1600 in 100 days 🤯. No hacks, no tricks. Just genuine human connection. This is how I manage it all while working a full-time job, creating daily content on the internet & trying to have a life 🤪
I've been glued to my phone for weeks. Sometimes I even trick myself into thinking I'm not addicted. I turned off my Twitter notifications from showing up on my screen a long time ago. But sneakily, left them on in the notification center, just so I could swipe down anytime in case something 'important' was happening.
I'm naturally a sharer. I love to share what I'm doing and what I'm learning. I'll easily take a screenshot, record a quick loom video or write out a process if I think it is interesting. I love taking a peek 'behind the scenes' of others processes too.
I joined Twitter in July 2008. It's been a love/hate ever since. I came back in December last year after about a year off and have been having the best time. But Twitter can itself be a HUGE rabbit hole and consume a lot of time.
I've been creating online since I was 18. A few years ago I started a Youtube channel. Everyone was vlogging at the time and it was THE platform to be on. Over a year I filmed and published over 60 vlogs, including a 30 day period of vlogging every day.
So many creators I speak to are scared to launch their first product.I suspect there are a lot of reasons but the main one I hear is "Don't I have to have a big audience or following to launch a product?"I launched my first product with 500 followers, no email list & I made $3k in 4 weeks.
Over the last couple of years, I've said yes to a million things as a creator. New projects, platforms, launches, content, newsletters, communities and more.
I almost wasn’t able to write such a glowing review of 2022. It was October and I was nowhere near reaching the (very reasonable) goals I had set for myself.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think all up it was about 11 products from templates to courses to workshops to guides. I tried it all. And I made a fair amount of money doing it as a second income. Launches are fun (when they work) and they provide a nice windfall of cash for that month that you are launching. But they are also exhausting work and when you are not launching… no one is buying.
I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think there were 11 in total. Launches are fun (when they work). And they provide a nice windfall of cash. But when I wasn't launching... no one was buying.
Here's what no one is telling you about being a creator... it's relentless. Being a creator seems fun at first as you proudly hit publish on your first blog post, or write a Twitter thread that gets more than a few likes and suddenly you start to build a bit of an audience.
I love it when I see people launching their first Notion template. After all, it's where I got started. I launched my first free Notion template in December 2020 and countless more after that. And by far the best advice I ever received from seasoned template creators was to put it on Gumroad.
Don't despair over Gumroad removing the pre-launch feature. Recently Gumroad removed their pre-launch feature. If you've been using it to pre-launch your products you might be wondering how the heck to do you do a pre-launch now?
Here’s an Unpopular Opinion For You: Having a day job and being a creator are not mutually exclusive.You can do both well & enjoy them. I do. Most people assume I’m a full-time creator. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.