Productivity
Two Great New Year’s Resolutions
Happy New Year Everyone! I tend to be skeptical of New Year’s resolutions, which are often grandiose and built more around impulse than planning. But here are two good ones for 2023: 1) Reduce the time you currently spend on housework, chores, and errands by 25%, investing that time instead in “mission work” (creative /…
Read MoreWe’re All Done With Pandemic Shaming!
Happy to report that there’s been a swift and strong pushback on the whole “use your pandemic time productively” push. From the meme world… From the New York Times… …and from J.K. Rowling herself! No quote tweeting, but if you’re a ‘life coach’ who’s on here implying people are losers if they aren’t learning a…
Read MoreFocusmate: a Productivity App That Really Works!
So I don’t recommend products or apps very often, and when I have, the results have been mixed. (Libro.fm IS a good indie-bookstore-supporting substitute for Audible, but CBD oil as a sleep aid is probably an expensive placebo at best.) But I have NO hesitation in recommending Focusmate, an inexpensive app that gives you a…
Read MoreHow About We Not Be Perfectionist During a Pandemic?
Sorry I’ve been quiet: I’ve been finishing my latest book, Productivity is Power: 5 Liberating Practices for College Students. I’ll have more to share on that shortly. I’m compelled to write now, however, because there’s been a spate of posts by people who seem to think that shaming others for their supposed underproductivity during a…
Read MoreHow to Cope With Clueless Questions, Crass Comments, and Crazy Conjectures
Note: I’m re-upping this one from 2013, as it seems a useful follow-up to the Robert Caro post. Also see this piece on Advice for Academic Couples (excerpted from my book The 7 Secrets of the Prolific.) – Best, Hillary Oh, the things people say to writers! “What do you do?” “What do you write?”…
Read MoreBiographer Robert Caro on How It’s All About Perspective
Most books (and many theses and other projects) take years to produce, and that’s a simple fact. And yet, the “When will you be done?” question can bedevil new writers in particular. (Even worse when it’s phrased disrespectfully, as in: “What? Are you still working on that thing?”) That’s why this anecdote from Caro’s autobiography…
Read MoreA Big Part of Time Management is Learning How to Decline Unwanted Invitations…
…which writer Harold Pinter knew how to do LIKE A BOSS.
Read MoreSlow Down to Speed Up! Also, Bonus Moving Story.
Sorry for the hiatus – we wound up moving on somewhat short notice. Now we’re (mostly) settled in a bee-you-ti-ful new apartment (still in Kalamazoo), so it’s time for another newsletter. After the move, I was surrounded by mountains of boxes, mountain ranges of boxes. It would have been easy to get overwhelmed, but I…
Read MoreNope, “Perfectionism in Moderation” Isn’t a Good Thing
Writer Lindsay Ellis recently tweeted about imposter syndrome (where you think you aren’t up to the task, have everyone fooled, and are destined to be revealed as a horrible fraud). Unfortunately, she gets it wrong. She writes: “Because the thought patterns that lead to imposter syndrome need not always be a net negative – on…
Read MoreNonperfectionism in a Single Sentence
Nothing is as humbling, to a writer, anyway, as when you’ve used a lot of words to say something, and then someone comes along and nails it in a single sentence. But also nothing is more of a gift, so I guess it evens out. 🙂 It happened to me with my book The Lifelong Activist.…
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