Cultivating Kindness — and 2 Areas Where We Tend to Act Unkind

Reading Time: 4 minutesKindness Highlighted by Joe Moyer In a recent blog post and his monthly newsletter, my friend and fellow blogger Joe Moyer highlighted the value and importance of acting in kindness. He states, “Being kind should be at the heart of motivating and connecting with those around you.” I agree. I’m not always consistent in acting …

Read more

Transforming Quarterly Reviews With Dictation: A Step-By-Step Process and Evaluation

Reading Time: 7 minutesLast week, I performed my regular quarterly review and reflection retreat. However, I used an entirely unique method than what I’ve used in the past. I used dictation to answer the questions on my Quarterly Review Template. Normally, I write out my answers on a copy of the Template. The day before I began my …

Read more

Digital vs. Analog — Is Analog Reading Less Distracting Than Digital Reading?

Reading Time: 8 minutesIn a recent blog post to MacSparky Labs members, David Sparks wrote about The Importance of Reading (you won’t be able to access this blog post if you’re not a member of MacSparky Labs). He notes that he is reading more books in recent years, which is what I have experienced as well. In this …

Read more

A Review of Deepstash: Pros, Cons, and Overall Value

Reading Time: 4 minutesDeepstash is a service that lets you read shortened versions of different media types. The App Store description states, “Learn something new in just 5 minutes, with daily bite-sized knowledge from books, articles, videos, podcasts & more.” I heard about this app during a MacSparky Labs member meetup earlier this month. One of the participants …

Read more

Incubating Ideas — How to Supercharge Your Creative Process

Reading Time: 7 minutesWhen I was a young man attending a religious junior college, I took a “preaching 101” class. The teacher suggested that the best way to prepare a weekly sermon was to research a topic early in the week, then do nothing with it for at least a day or two. He said that while you …

Read more

Finding Your Voice as a Writer

Reading Time: 2 minutesAs a writer, it’s important to find your own unique voice. This can be difficult, especially when we are just starting out and may not know exactly what our voice is, or how to express it.

The Importance of Having Purpose in Retirement

Reading Time: 4 minutesI live in a 55+ community in the Phoenix Arizona area. Almost all of our 26,000 residents are retired.  The prevailing attitude is “I’m retired, and my reward for working is to not do anything but play.” This is reflected by declining participation in the service organizations in our community. Most of the people I know …

Read more

AI and Creativity: Finding the Balance Between Assistance and Replacement

Reading Time: 5 minutesAs I’ve used artificial intelligence (AI) more and more in my blog writing process, I’ve asked “At what point am I no longer the creator?” I don’t think it’s ethical for me to represent a computer’s work as my own, but I do want to take advantage of AI to do research, check my grammar …

Read more

Using AI to Improve Your Writing: Tips and Techniques

Reading Time: 5 minutesRecently, there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding AI in the productivity realm. Writing apps, such as Craft, have added AI to their list of features. From within Craft, you can request the AI to create a summary or outline of your document, write an article based on your outline, or write about a topic. …

Read more

The Benefits of Going on an Overnight Retreat: A Guide to Planning and Taking a Productive Retreat

Reading Time: 5 minutesThe word “retreat” is not a positive word for everyone. I can evoke memories of religious retreats they were required to attend, some kind of hippy-dippy, new-age spiritual experience, or boring corporate retreats where you were forced to do a lot of group exercises but nothing changed as a result. But there’s also a more …

Read more