Reading Time: 4 minutesMinds are like bodies; they must be fed to grow and develop. Animals establish regular hunting trails that they use to seek the food that they need to live. People do the same thing. In my twenties and living in Colorado, I’d periodically go hunting for squirrels. I had one particular area that I would …
Reading Time: 5 minutesFor the past three years, I’ve been conducting quarterly review and planning sessions. These sessions are part of the roles-based intentional living system pioneered by David Sparks, as explained in his Productivity Field Guide. My last session was held the last week of March 2024. Over the years, I’ve made several modifications to my process. …
Reading Time: 4 minutesI started using dictation in my work about two years ago. In March 2022, I watched a deep dive in the McSparky Labs, during which David Sparks explained how he uses dictation in much of his work. When I first started using dictation, I felt very awkward. I felt self-conscious talking to a microphone or …
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn this final post in the “Working through the Productivity Field Guide” series, we will discuss the digital tools you might use to set up and maintain your roles-based productivity system. These tools can help you keep up with your roles and arete statements and streamline quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily review and planning sessions. …
Reading Time: 7 minutesMy wife and I have been reading and buying ebooks since we purchased our first iPads in 2011. It’s our preferred reading method. Recently, it’s become somewhat of a fad in productivity circles for some to advocate a return to reading print books instead of ebooks. They argue that reading print books is more “meaningful.” …
Reading Time: 6 minutesDo you have a shutdown ritual when you stop work for the day and plan for the next day? In this post in the “Working through the Productivity Field Guide” series, we will discuss the benefits of a shutdown ritual and when and how to do it. The Benefits of a Shutdown Ritual There are …
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWe live in a world overflowing with content, but much of it is impersonal. More and more text is generated by Artificial Intelligence. AI-generated text is the ultimate in impersonal writing since it’s machine-generated. Whether you’re a writer, artist, entrepreneur, or simply sharing your thoughts with the world, how do you truly connect with your …
Reading Time: 6 minutesIn this post in the “Working through the Productivity Field Guide” series, we will discuss how to follow your daily plans. It’s not enough to make a daily plan; for it to be effective, you must also follow it. Often, that’s not as easy as it sounds. You’d think that you’d be primed to do …
Reading Time: 4 minutesWe’re lucky to live in a time when multiple software options exist for daily journaling. People use the daily notes feature in Obsidian and Craft, and multiple journaling-specific apps are available: Day One, Apple Journal, and Journey are examples. The abundance of apps is great because it gives us many different designs and options to …