Love Your Work Creative Habits | Writing | Solopreneur | Productivity | Entrepreneurship | Startup

Big creative projects are daunting. It’s easy to burn out, and procrastinate. The problem is, creative problems don’t get solved in one go. In medicine, there’s a concept of the “minimum effective dose.” It’s the minimum dose at which the medication will elicit a response. If you follow Tim Ferriss, you hear him mention minimum effective dose often. You heard about the minimum effective dose of weight training back on episode 160. Now I’m going to tell you about the concept of minimum effective dose, as applied to your creative projects. I call it “Minimum Creative Dose". What should be our next Patreon goal? Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals. New Weekly Newsletter: Love Mondays Start off each week with a dose of inspiration to help you make it as a creative entrepreneur. Sign up at: kadavy.net/mondays Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/pos

Vincent Van Gogh was a loser and a failure. He failed as an art dealer, and as a preacher. He even got fired and banned from his own family’s business. On top of it, Van Gogh had terrible health problems. His gums were sore, he was losing weight, and he had a hacking cough. He was also prone to psychotic episodes, during which he was institutionalized for months at a time. Vincent never really found his place in the world. He died young, at only 37. I recently read an incredible biography of Van Gogh. By the end, I was left wondering, what can you possibly learn from this tragic life? Steven Naifeh is co-author if the incredible [Van Gogh: The Life]  (@VanGoghTheLife). It’s a 900-page treasure chronicling the life of an artist who is so revered, tourists bring their relative’s ashes to spread over his gravesite in Auvers, France. Steven and his co-author and partner Gregory White Smith spent more than a decade compiling Van Gogh’s biography. To do so, they had to sort through mountains of letters and literatu

Do you want to love Mondays? If you already love Mondays, do you want to keep loving Mondays? I’m launching a new newsletter that will help you do just that. It’s called Love Mondays, and it’s a weekly boost of inspiration to help you find the mindset to make it as a creative entrepreneur. If you’re already on my email list, you’ve already been enjoying these. Many of them include one of the more than 11,000 highlights I’ve built up over years of reading about how history’s greatest artists and thinkers have carved out their own unique places in the world. Others are the gems pulled out of conversations you’ve heard right here on Love Your Work. Those of you already getting these emails know I told you about how Georgia O’Keeffe decided to quit modeling to double down on art. I’ve told you about how professor Dean Simonton’s work shows that quantity of creative work leads to quality of creative work. I’ve shown you how neuroscientists have discovered that the best predictor of so-called “insight machines” is

Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) woke up one day and realized two things: The world seemed to be filled with more and more anger and distraction every day, and – to make matters worse – consistently doing creative work wasn’t getting any easier. Austin had already written three New York Times bestselling illustrated books. Millions have already learned to Steal Like an Artist – the title of his first book – and they’d learned to put their work out there with Show Your Work. Austin wasn’t sure how much more he had in him. That inspired him to write his new book, Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad. In this conversation, you’ll learn: Why making something for yourself is technically making something for someone else. Learn about the many different ways that focusing on your own creative expression can reach others. How can you be a valuable asset to the creators you admire? Austin shares a specific story that shows you why you have more to offer than you might think. What one thing can you do

If you do particular actions on a regular basis, you’ll change your identity. For example, if you make it a habit to write every day, you’ll eventually see yourself as a writer. But it can work the other way around, too. If you change your appearance, you can change your identity. If you change your identity, you can change your actions. In this week’s episode, I share my own experience of changing my identity, in order to change my actions. What should be our next Patreon goal? Take our survey at kadavy.net/goals. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/identity-actions-podcast/

David Allen (@gtdguy) has built a legacy. He’s created a system that helps millions of people get more of what they want out of life. Getting Things Done, the book, has sold millions of copies. And there’s an entire cottage industry of GTD apps and consultants, all over the world. Even if you’ve never read or heard of GTD, you or someone you work with probably operates with “next actions,” and “contexts.” David and I talked more about the GTD system back in his first appearance on the show on episode 85. This time, we’ll be talking about David’s accidental legacy. How does somebody create something that spreads like wildfire and changes the culture? Today, we’ll talk about: Your day to day actions are guided by meaning on various levels. How can you think about the different levels of what’s meaningful to you, and how can you think about what actions you need to take to make those things happen? Why does David’s screensaver say “let go?” Following a system like GTD may feel like it’s for control freaks, but

Lots of people want to build a “legacy.” They want to be remembered when they’re gone. It’s a natural product of our fear of death. But is it realistic to want to build a legacy? Is it realistic to believe you can control whether or not you’re remembered? And might aiming to build a legacy prevent you from doing the type of work that builds legacies in the first place? I examine these questions in this week’s episode. We've reached a new funding goal! We now have detailed show notes, starting with next week's interview episode. Start supporting Love Your Work at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Sponsors https://kadavy.net/motivation Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/no-legacy-podcast/

To me, Andrew Warner’s (@andrewwarner) Mixergy podcast created the entire category of entrepreneur interview podcasts – a category this podcast here falls within. I started listening to Mixergy something like ten years ago, and it was one of the main podcasts that got my gears turning to eventually start this podcast – after putting it off for years, of course. Andrew has created over 1,700 interviews and courses with top entrepreneurs. People like Jimmy Wales, Barbara Corcoran, and Paul Graham. He’s known for getting his guests to open up and reveal exact numbers in their businesses. Sometimes I find myself squirming at the direct questions he asks, but it works! I recently took a trip to San Francisco to be on the Jordan Harbinger Show (look out for my appearance on that show toward the end of the month, I think you’ll like what I prepared specifically for that show). While I was in town, I was trying to think of who I would like to interview. The first person who came to mind was Andrew Warner. In this con

To optimize your creative output, you need a creative productivity system. If you can identify the building blocks of your daily work, you can construct a system that works for you. One of those building blocks is what I call “task transitions.” Task transitions are those little spaces between finishing one task, and starting another. Each transition is a critical moment. It’s when you decide whether you’ll keep moving, take an intentional break, or simply fall off the tracks. I’ll tell you more in this week’s episode. We've reached a new funding goal! We'll have detailed show notes, starting with next week's interview episode. Start supporting Love Your Work at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Sponsors https://ce.uc

Vanessa Van Edwards (@vvanedwards) is a recovering awkward person who teaches people how to be more successful with people. Vanessa was a great student, but, she says, she was terrible with people. Until one day she discovered that she could study people and interacting with people the same way she studied math and science. In fact, she used math and science to break down social interactions. She set up a lab and started running experiments on everything from conversation starters to reading facial expressions. She shares everything she’s learned in her hit book, Captivate: The Science of Succeeding with People. This book breaks down social interaction so you can succeed, whether that’s thriving in networking events, or having a more fulfilling dating life. You’re going to learn: How can awkwardness be a part of your own unique brand of charisma? How can you get the most out of conferences, even if you’re an introvert? What is "The Franklin Effect," and how can it make you more likable, even to your mortal e

To follow a productivity system, you need to be able to trust that system. You need to trust that if you put something into the system, it will get taken care of at the right time and place. But the more complex you make that system, the harder it becomes to follow and maintain. This is where building “triggers” becomes invaluable in tweaking a system that works for you. A “trigger” is a stimulus that elicits a response. You can use productivity triggers to simplify your productivity system. Triggers keep your productivity system running smoothly, and they keep your system from getting bogged down complexity. In this week’s article, I’ll tell you exactly how to find the right triggers for you to use to be effortlessly productive. We've almost reached a new funding goal! Help us get detailed show notes. Start supporting Love Your Work at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Ques

Dr. David Rock (@davidrock101) is the author of Your Brain at Work, is also the founder of the NeuroLeadership Institute. They use a science-based approach to growing soft skills, working with companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and IBM. When I was just getting finished writing my first book, Design for Hackers, I was really mystified by what was going on in my own brain. I wanted to know why creativity was easy sometimes, and hard other times. That’s when I picked up Your Brain at Work, and my work changed forever. It served as a handbook for my brain. I learned to think about the strengths and limitations of my brain, the different categories of thought, and what mental and emotional states would make creative work come easily. Today, you’ll learn about: What are level one, two, and three tasks, in terms of your brain’s horsepower? How can you manage your day by these categories? What is construal, and how can it help you work more quickly, with more clarity? What are the four keys to creating the conditio

Creative productivity is about mind management, not time management. You have to get into the right mental state to be creative. And you need to have your brain stocked with the knowledge it takes to solve the creative problem at hand. I believe creative energy is the next resource to be managed—at least in the age of creative productivity. Think about the way we manage time, and we take that for granted. That’s why I’ve built my own system specifically to manage my creative energy. Today I’ll be sharing, in more detail than ever, the exact creative productivity system I use to crank out not just the ideas for books and podcast episodes, but to actually produce the work. We've almost reached a new funding goal! Help us get detailed show notes. Start supporting Love Your Work at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from

Mark McGuinness (@markmcguinness) is a creative coach, a poet, and a former psychotherapist and hypnotherapist. Steven Pressfield, author of The War of Art, calls Mark an "overeducated Brit who thinks deeply about stuff you and I have never heard of." Mark is the host of the 21st Century Creative Podcast. On the 21st Century Creative, Mark explores how to take advantage of the huge opportunities presented by the digital age. This at a time when there are more distractions than ever threatening to take you off course, and fewer traditional safety nets to catch you when you fall. In this conversation, we'll talk about: Click here to be creative: How to use mantras, chakras, – and other sometimes thought of as "woo" things – as like graphical user interfaces for altering your mental state. How the feeling > action > response loop can guide your creative direction: If you're wondering how to create work that really moves people, this is the key. How to use impostor syndrome to your advantage. It's a double-edged

When you're trying to make it as a creative entrepreneur, you need to make the most out of everything you have. You need maximum output with minimal investment of time and energy. The more complex you make things, the more you get bogged down. The more you surrender your creativity to the whims of the the muse, the harder you make it to bring your work into the world. Last week, as we talked to Paul Jarvis, you heard how he uses repeatable processes to make the most of his resources. I call these repeatable processes "productivity cycles." This week, I'll break down what's so great about productivity cycles, I'll share some productivity cycles that I follow, and I'll tell you how to build your own productivity cycles, based upon how you work. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Join our wonderful Patreon backers at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'

What if success isn't about scaling up as big as possible? What if success is actually about the freedom to call your own shots? Paul Jarvis (@pjrvs) was asking himself these questions as he left the corporate world way back in the 90s. Now he works from his home in the woods on an island near Vancouver. He explores what he's learned in his new book, Company of One: Why Staying Small is the Next Big Thing for Business. Previously, Paul was a freelance designer, working with clients such as Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, and Marie Forleo. He now writes books, and makes courses and software products. Courses such as Creative Class, which teaches you how to "go pro" in your freelance career, and software such as Fathom Analytics, which gives you simple website analytics without tracking or storing your users' personal data. In this conversation you'll learn: How to manage your time in a company of one: Paul shares specific details on how he manages his time on a weekly basis, a monthly basis, and beyond. How to buil

To start off the New Year you can see that we're covering topics for how to improve oneself – stuff like staying focused or even staying secure in your digital life. This week, I'd like to share with you a workout protocol that I've been enjoying for staying fit AND healthy – which, as you'll see, are not the same thing. I've tried many different workout programs, INSANITY, CrossFit, Strongfirst, many others. This is by far the best results for time investment I've ever experienced. It's a workout that only takes about 12 minutes, once a week. Now, I know a claim like that makes your BS detectors go off, but hear me out. And as you'll see, just because it's only 12 minutes doesn't mean it's easy. But I personally find it really enjoyable. Disclaimer: Always talk to your doctor and fitness professional before starting or changing an exercise routine. Try any of the following at your own risk. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your

Chris Wilken (@whereswilken) is founder and CEO of Let's Fix Security. He takes a behavioral approach to thinking about security, trying to make good security practices easy to implement. As a small business owner and a person in general, I've been thinking more and more about how to stay secure online. As soon as you start trying to think about how to stay secure online, you start to feel overwhelmed. It's hard to think up new passwords that are tough to hack, and it's even harder to keep them all straight. The two-factor authentication that more and more services are starting to require is annoying. I have limited resources as a solopreneur. Any unexpected interruption or loss of data means I'm not working on the things I want to be working on. Yet I also don't have the resources to have a full-time security expert to keep things buttoned up. It's probably the same for you. So this episode is for you. In this episode, we'll talk about: Are you a target? You don't have to be high-profile to be a victim of a

Smart phones are powerful. But with great power comes great potential to get off track. Smart phones are like a superpower. If you had x-ray vision, you wouldn't want to use it all of the time. I've discovered one simple thing to do with my smartphone. Since I started doing this, it's made me more productive than ever. Love Your Work is now fully listener-supported! Patreon supporters are now covering ALL production costs for Love Your Work! Join our wonderful Patreon backers at patreon.com/kadavy. Free Creative Productivity Toolbox I quadrupled my creative productivity. Sign up and I'll send you the tools I count on: kadavy.net/tools Feedback? Questions? Comments? I love to hear anything and everything from you. Leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Tweet at me @kadavy, or email me david@kadavy.net.     Show notes: http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/one-phone-resolution/

Chris Bailey (@Chris_Bailey) had a crazy thought: What if, after graduating from college, instead of getting a job – what if instead he spent a year learning everything he could about productivity? Chris followed that crazy thought into a project he called "A Year of Productivity." That was five years ago, and Chris has now written two books: First, The Productivity Project, and now his new book is Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction. Chris has a unique approach to productivity advice. He mixes scientific research with his own sometimes-whacky personal experimentation. He once purposefully made himself bored for an hour a day with tasks such as "watching paint dry" or "reading the iTunes Terms and Conditions." As we go into 2019, we're all thinking about how we can be better in many things. This conversation will give you fresh thinking for how you keep yourself productive and focused. We'll talk about: How did Chris make the decision to turn down job offers and dedicate himself t