Posts Tagged ‘ideas’

Overplanning Can Kill Your Business Idea

Most articles about starting a business cover planning. Creating your business plan. Creating your marketing plan. Creating page upon page of plans, plans with great intentions and perhaps excellent potential for success. There’s nothing wrong with planning itself; if there was, I’m sure we wouldn’t see such an emphasis on it in business literature.But not so often mentioned is the dark side of planning, and it’s the dark side that… Continue reading

April 27 2009 | By Joel | Tagged: business, ideas, Money, planning | 7 comments»

How to Cultivate an “Insight Outlook”

One powerful way to live a more creative life is to cultivate an "insight outlook" -- the art of looking more deeply at everything we experience with an open, inquisitive spirit. Creative people are intensely observant, paying careful attention to everything they think and hear. They realize that their environments – the people they talk to, the places they go, the things they read or hear on the radio or… Continue reading

February 18 2009 | By Chuck | Tagged: association, brain, creativity, ideas, problem-solving, thinking | 6 comments»

10 Hacks to Improve Your Home Office Productivity

If you work from home, the central part of your work life is the home office. For some, that means the kitchen table, but most of us assign a specific room to be the base of operations and (try to) do our work from there each day.Given that we must take into consideration strategy before tactics, it stands to reason that we should make it a room… Continue reading

April 25 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: creativity, focus, home, ideas, office, workspace | 23 comments»

How to Fuel Your Idea Machine

"Reading fiction is a waste of time."Have you ever heard someone spout this line of complete and utter bollocks? I've rarely heard anything so ridiculous said in my life. Fiction, like all the arts, is an important part of culture; both a reflective distillation of it, and the base elements that form it. Society's collective attitudes, values, beliefs and the public memory have a symbiotic relationship with the arts. Books… Continue reading

April 12 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: books, creativity, fiction, ideas, problem-solving, reading | 22 comments»

30 Tips to Rejuvenate Your Creativity

Recently, we asked the readers what their tips for staying creative were. Sometimes creativity flows from the heavens, but other times, as we all know, it’s like drawing water from a stone. The following are the best tips you gave us.1. Surround yourself with creative people. Hang out with writers, musicians, poets and artists. Often, just being in a creative environment will inspire you and refresh your creative mind.2… Continue reading

March 20 2008 | By Joel | Tagged: creativity, ideas, inspiration | 61 comments»

11 Tips to Carve Out More Time to Think

“The person who reads to much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking” - Albert EinsteinHow much time do you get a week to just think? Not while listening to music, driving your car or during group brainstorms. Not while playing video games, doing chores or taking a shower. Just you and your brain.I’d wager that few people ever average… Continue reading

January 10 2008 | By Scott H | Tagged: creativity, gtd, ideas, learning, Productivity, smart, think, time, weekly review | 27 comments»

How to Boost Your Creative Output

Working productively can be broken down into several key skills: time management, organization and controlling your attention and energy. One of the often neglected but most important factors is your creative output. Successful people tend to have an unusually high creative output and I’d like to offer some tips for how you can boost yours.What is Creativity?Creativity is often compared with originality. When you see someone… Continue reading

November 27 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: create, creativity, ideas, improving, learning, Lifehack, Productivity, thinking | 19 comments»

How to Study Less by Learning Things Once

You read over your notes. Then you read them over again. Then you read them over a third time. Then you take the test and are surprised at just how much you missed. Despite reading everything three times!A lot of study time is wasted because of one problem: you fail to learn things the first time around.Repeatedly going over the same information like putting a… Continue reading

November 15 2007 | By Scott H | Tagged: holistic, ideas, learning, school, study | 23 comments»

Sticky Ideas Workshop (Part 5): Emotional

If you want to connect -- I mean, really connect -- with an audience, you have to hit 'em square in their emotions. Movie makers know this, and exploit it to the fullest, making us laugh, cry, punch the air in triumph, jump out of our seats in terror, and even swell with love for all humanity -- almost on demand.A lot of times this is pretty cheap… Continue reading

August 29 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: emotion, ideas, madetostick, malcolmgladwell, psychology, tippingpoint | 4 comments»

Sticky Ideas Workshop (Part 4): Credible

”I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” Back in the early ‘80s, Vick’s Formula 44 cough syrup ran commercials that opened with that line, featuring Peter Bergman, who indeed played a doctor on The Young and the Restless All My Children. Vick’s could, of course, have chosen an actual doctor to tell us how good Vick’s product was, but instead chose a TV star – someone… Continue reading

August 24 2007 | By Dustin | Tagged: Communication, credibility, ideas, madetostick, statistics, teaching, writing | 4 comments»

How to give yourself the best chance of a good life (Part 2)

Last week, I posted Part 1 of this article . Here are some more straightforward and practical ways to give yourself the best possible chance of living a good life, focusing on what is most likely to produce lasting changes for the better.

Broaden your horizons. Take an interest in something new. Try to meet different people. Explore something that you think isn’t interesting. Read challenging and stimulating books

June 25 2007 | By Guest | Tagged: ideas, life, living | 6 comments»

How to give yourself the best chance of a good life (Part 1)

The greatest and most persistent blockages to your progress in life usually come from a single source—yourself. Here are some simple, practical ways to give yourself the best possible chance of living a good life.

Make the time to work out what’s most important to you. What’s so important you wouldn’t give it up, save in the most extreme circumstances? What feels like part of your deepest nature? What would it

June 18 2007 | By Guest | Tagged: ideas, life, living | 17 comments»

Ask the group: How to start a small business?

Reader Steven asks the following question:I've had a small business on the side for a few months now and I would like to turn it into an L.L.C. I've never done this before and have no idea where to start. What information can you provide on making a small business more formal?I don't have much insight to offer Steven. What tips can you offer Steven… Continue reading

January 26 2007 | By Kyle | Tagged: howtos, ideas, smallbusiness, tips | 13 comments»

14 Tips for Communicating Ideas

I'm doing a lot of speaking all of a sudden, related to my pre-launch plans around a new media company. I'm finding that there are certain skills in communicating the information and building understanding that are important and useful. I thought I'd pass on some thoughts along those lines.Use AnalogiesOkay, sometimes my analogies are bad, but the premise is still good. It's important to be able to talk… Continue reading

July 24 2006 | By Chris | Tagged: Communication, conversations, elevatorpitch, ideas, information, pitching, startups, storytelling | 16 comments»

Manifestos All Around

Have you visited ChangeThis? If not, you're missing out on a wealth of free documents (they call them manifestos) from really interesting minds about topics that I'm betting matter to you. Here's a list of some of the recent ones: