Asking for advice isn’t doing the work.
Studying how other people do the work isn’t doing the work.
Preparing to do the work isn’t doing the work.
Talking about the work isn’t doing the work.
There are lots of valuable things you can spend time doing, but none are as valuable as actually doing the work.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. HOW TO BALANCE LEARNING AND DOING
“The time we spend learning makes us feel like we’re working hard, convinces us we’re progressing toward our goal, and wraps us in the comfort of not needing to risk our confidence, ego, or dreams.”
I love learning, but it can also be a trap because it’s a way to hide from something more valuable — doing.
In this post I explore how to balance learning and doing and suggest 80% of your time be spent doing, you’re a creator no matter what your job is, and the best way to learn is to do.
RELATED: Why you should consume less and create more.
2. WATCHING THIS VIDEO EVERY MORNING COULD CHANGE YOUR LIFE
“Small choices become actions, actions become habits, and habits become our way of life.”
This is a three-minute animated video from Project Better Self that I bet would change your life if you watched it every morning.
It’s called The Choice and is a simple reminder of how the little choices we make every day ultimately determine the course of our life.
RELATED: How to improve your life one experiment at a time.
3. HOW TO BALANCE FULL-TIME WORK WITH CREATIVE PROJECTS
“Growing accustomed to missing out takes time, but learning to say ‘no’ to things — even when you truly wish you could do those things — is an indispensable tool for maintaining focus and productivity with your art.”
There’s an assumption that having a “day job” prevents you from pursuing creative projects, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Jeffrey Silverstein shares tips for how to balance full-time work with creative projects including to be honest about your 9-to-5, get comfortable with boundaries, and be realistic about your productivity.
RELATED: A manifesto for creative people.
4. THE BEST WAY TO WASH YOUR HANDS IN 20 SECONDS
“Science tells us it’s got to be a minimum of 20 seconds. That feels like a lifetime to everybody. But that’s the way it’s got to be if you want to be 100 percent correct and ensure your hands are sanitized from any potential microorganisms.”
This two-minute video will change the way you wash your hands for the rest of your life.
The Kids Should See This shares a video from The Ministry of Health in the Congo about the right way to wash your hands using soap and water and breaks down a technique that’s also used by emergency room physicians.
RELATED: How to sit.
5. PRICE ONLY MATTERS WHEN NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
“If you fail to distinguish yourself in any meaningful way, your customer will default to price as the final criteria.”
There’s a classic marketing mantra that says nobody buys on price, but that’s not exactly true.
Barry Davret suggests price only matters when nothing else matters and explains how service, specialization and exclusivity can all override price when it comes to a customer’s decisions.
RELATED: How to reposition your product and charge 8x its price.
6. THE BEAUTY OF NOT KNOWING
“To know is to be in a prison. To not know is to be free.”
duke stump has spent decades working in marketing for companies like Nike, Seventh Generation, and lululemon, but his DO Lectures talk is about much more than marketing.
In this 22-minute video he shares stories from his family and work experiences to suggest you explore the beauty of not knowing. It’s as powerful and inspirational as it is entertaining.
RELATED: The life-changing advice of 100 insanely interesting people.
7. HOW TO OVERCOME THE FEAR OF BETTER OPTIONS
“People are afraid of making the wrong decision, and at the base of that is a fallacy of what a good decision even is.”
In a world with ever-increasing options, our decisions can become paralyzed by our fear of making a wrong one.
Clare Thorp explains how to overcome the fear of better options by separating decisions from outcomes, figuring out what you want before looking at the options, and developing a system to narrow your options.
RELATED: What happens when you automate your decisions for a week.
8. FIVE DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES TO BUILD YOUR BRAND THIS YEAR
“One of the hardest parts about building a brand online is accepting the fact that what works today, won’t necessarily work tomorrow.”
If you want a crash course in how to build your brand using digital marketing right now, this is a good place to start.
Nicolas Cole shares five digital marketing strategies to build your brand in 2019 including to not be married to any one platform, invest heavily in the one or two methods that work best for your brand, and avoid anything that doesn’t offer measurable metrics to track your progress.
RELATED: 20 marketers share their best digital marketing strategies.
9. THE LAST CHESS SHOP IN NEW YORK CITY
“We have provided a place where when no other place will welcome you, you have a seat.”
It’s amazing how a well-made video can make you see and understand a whole world in just a few minutes. This is one of those videos.
The Atlantic profiles the last chess shop in New York City in a six-minute video that’s a moving look at a shop owner, his customers, and the city itself.
RELATED: The inspiring story of the Forest Man.
10. YOU’D HAVE A LOT MORE FOLLOWERS IF YOU ACTED LIKE YOU ONLY NEEDED 10
“You’d create things for a few people to LOVE instead of for a lot of people to like and set out to be the perfect choice for somebody instead of the acceptable choice for everybody.”
Your pursuit of a larger audience for your work may be the very thing keeping you from having one.
In this post I suggest you’d have a lot more followers if you acted like you only needed 10 and offer suggestions of what you’d do differently and why it would work.
The tips include to pay closer attention to your audience, be more targeted in your approach, and care less about the gatekeepers.
RELATED: Everybody’s an influencer, so treat them like one.
WHERE I FOUND THIS STUFF
I got some of this week’s ideas from DO Lectures, Tina Roth Eisenberg, Creative Mornings, and Jason Kottke — they’re awesome and worth checking out.
Image via klimkin.