I had the pleasure this past week of visiting Tampa on a business trip. My home base in Illinois has remained relatively cold as of late, so it was nice to spend time in warmer weather. As a bonus, the hotel I was staying at was located within a mile of the beach. Being a Midwesterner, I don’t get the chance to see the ocean much. So of course, I had to take it.

On my first morning there, I set out for a short run. After only a few minutes, I made it to the beach. I made my…

Whatever your thing is, whatever passion you have, it has an origin. It’s that place where for you at least, it all started. For me, since my thing is personal productivity, that origin was a site called 43 folders.

In its heyday, it was a place to find everything from wonky tips on how to use apps better to deep and insightful essays about the nature of work and life. But in 2011, that all came to a halt — at least as far as the website was concerned.

Cranking

In April 2011, Mann posted what would prove to be his…

Over my time creating things, I’ve heard three conflicting messages about the reasons why a person should create. Let’s call them the 3 modes. And the longer I continued to create things, the less sure I became about which message was the one to take to heart. They all make sense in their own way. So what to do?

You should create for your own sake.

Create and put in the work because you’re expressing yourself. Don’t concern yourself with market testing, or polling your audience. Do what you feel, and do it to express what you feel. …

I have struggled with procrastination for as long as I can remember. As a kid, being asked to clean my minimally messy room turned into a day long project. I would go through many iterations and variations of avoiding the simple task that I was given. At 9 AM, my mother would ask me to pick things up. When she returned at noon, almost 0 progress would have been made. It was agonizing to both of us.

Fast forward to my time in college, and the situation was much the same. I was aware of deadlines for papers, but paid…

My first job was as a bagger at a grocery store about a mile from my house. Every day, after clocking in, I had to check in at the front desk to receive my day’s assignment. Once I got there, a manager on duty would look at the schedule, see what needed to be done, and assign me my work for the shift.

But that big front desk was also the customer service desk. It was where customers would bring returns, haggle about wrong prices, and generally look for help. …

At the beginning of the year, I hopped on the 12-week year wagon. That is, I began setting goals and measuring my activity based on 12-week intervals that I treat like a year. If you’re curious about how this works, check out the book. I highly recommend it.

Right now, I’m in the period where my “year” has ended. I’m reviewing, renewing, and setting the goals and plan for the coming 12-week year.

While doing that, I took a look at the books I read during that period that are worth sharing. Most of them, I’ve shared already in some…

As for most people in the U.S., my life was turned upside-down around March 15th, 2020. We had been hearing about COVID-19 for a few months, and the chatter became progressively louder, but we didn’t expect that it would turn into a lockdown that would keep most of the world away from each other for over a year.

But here we are — a year since being told to stay in our homes and away from each other — and it’s hard to underestimate just how much has changed during that time. When I say “changed,” I’m not talking about…

In the first pages of The Art of Peace, Morihei Ueshiba lays down a lesson that has stuck with me for the decade or so since I first read it:

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

The message is as simple as it is powerful. But it’s easy to miss, if you don’t give it much thought. …