How to Do a Monthly Review

In 2012 I wrote a fairly popular post about my monthly review template. Since then, I’ve updated and changed my monthly template, and followed it diligently for the last two years. It’s what I use to teach in my mastermind groups. For the end of the year...

Keeping Secrets With Yourself

For the last several months—actually, the past year—I’ve been running experiments on myself and my process. One month I gave up social media. The next month I played with internet blockers. For three months I’ve been doing mornings pages, with few exceptions. But the thing I keep struggling to figure out is how to get more writing done. More writing in. The business trap is real. I’m not sure what else to call it, other than the pull of the machine: emails to answer, blog posts to write. It’s easy to get sucked into the frenzy of doing things for doing’s sake, and the tangible output of writing a draft, or even just plucking away at the next stage of researching, always seems to be time whittled away. This week, however, I stumbled on something that turned my mind upside down.

In Search of Mental Focus and Clarity

Those of you that have followed my posts recently know I’m experimenting with my relationships to social media, email, and the internet. I love tech AND I also want to stay smart about my habits, impulsivity, and addictions. Because make no mistake: tech is an addiction, for sure. How do we achieve mental focus in the increasing onslaught of information? Get this: the average person checks email 74 times per day and spends 28% of their time on email. If we’re not questioning this, we should be concerned.