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Resources For Modern Workers

New content weekly to help you build your personal digital systems for productivity, self-improvement, knowledge, creativity & team work.

Browse By The Personal Systems You Want To Build...

I Quit Productivity. Now I Get Far More Done Every Day

A quick browse through Quora & you quickly realise people are obsessed with productivity. We have become programmed to fill our days with as many tasks as we can. And we call it productivity. Wearing 'busy' around like a badge of honour. But what if true productivity was about doing less?
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Busting the #1 Introvert Myth (that even introverts believe)

I'm an Introvert. Yeah yeah. I can tell you're shocked. Most people are when I tell them. Because people assume that I'm an extrovert because they see me 'out there' online or chatting comfortably at an event, or hosting Twitter spaces or doing a thousand other things. Basically they don't see me acting 'shy' so think I must be an extrovert.
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Why Do We Chase Quick Fixes When We Know They Don't Work?

If there is one thing that has derailed me on many a 30-day experiment, it's submitting to the voice in my head. You know THAT voice. You've probably experienced it too. You're trying to build a habit. You start off so well, you might even get a week in, and when you're not seeing the results you thought you would... BAM doubt starts to creep in.
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How To Turn Your Ideas Into Essays With One Golden Rule

I have ONE GOLDEN RULE for capturing new ideas. I never capture an idea without doing a quick brain dump. Never. Like Never. Did I mention... Never
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What A Pile Of Laundy Taught Me About Finding Flow

I might be killing it with Atomic Essays, but that doesn't mean I've got my whole life together. For instance, In the last two weeks, I haven't done any washing, I've been to the gym a mere 3 times and my house is a chaotic mess. Sure I've had some big things happening, like launching my first paid product. But surely not everything needs to go to crap.
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Can A Pink Sheet Help Make Your Writing Better? Let's Find Out

The world is full of people who have ideas but can't articulate them. A few years ago, I sat in a seminar listening to one of my coaches. I was completely in awe of the way someone would ask him a question and he would always have the exact right metaphor or be able to draw the right model to illustrate his point.
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Can We Ban Mid-Morning Meetings Please?

This year I started timeblocking my days. Breaking my day up into hour-long chunks and scheduling tasks to do within that time. It all started so well. Then a meeting would get scheduled in the middle of my morning and I wouldn't be able to get into any kind of significant work, because all I felt was the meeting looming.
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Every Experiment Starts With A Hypothesis. Even 30 Day Ones

Every experiment starts with a hypothesis. It's one of the only things I learned from year 7 science. No one is performing experiments just for the fun of it. OK, we may or may not have had some fun with the bunsen burners... but I digress.
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Why The Advice To Read One Book A Time Is Terrible Advice.

Reading one book a time is hugely inefficient. I've always been an avid reader. My favorite place to hang out at school was in the library. But there was always one thing that bugged me about reading. The advice that you should only read one book at a time.
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I Have A Magical Playlist 🎶 To Instantly Get You In The Flow. No Really

I've been struggling to focus lately. I'm flitting from one tab to another, constantly checking my phone, jumping on Twitter every 5 minutes (reading all the amazing essays). But getting any kind of focused work done has been painful and fleeting. So, this afternoon I grabbed my headphones, headed for a sunny corner in a cafe, and switched on a rather magical playlist. Almost INSTANTLY I was transported into a state of calm, relaxed, flow.
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The Truth About Constraint & Why They Will Set You Free

Creativity thrives in constraints. As creatives and creators, we often balk at that idea. We want wide open space to be able to create and explore unlimited possibilities. But in reality, has your best work really been produced when you've had unlimited time and resources?
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So, you feel like an imposter do you?

45 days ago most of my tweets went unnoticed. It's amazing how quickly showing up daily compounds. Now the engagement on Twitter is literally crazy some days! And I'm running to keep up. I can't remember the last time a tweet had 0 engagement. But something else has happened beyond just likes and comments.
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The 'First Moves' Framework That Will Kill Your Procrastination Forever

3 min 11 seconds
The science-backed method that helps solopreneurs start (and finish) their hardest tasks
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The Simple Task Method I Used To Eliminate Procrastination For Good.

They say it takes about 20 minutes to refocus every time you switch tasks.I don’t know about you, but I don’t have 20 minutes to waste every time I switch between the tasks on my list. My time is limited. So I created a way to skip that 20 minute hazy moment where you’re faffing around…
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How to Stop Being the Bottleneck in Your Team’s Progress

The life-changing method I created to manage work that was waiting on me, get back to people faster, and create more space to do my best work.
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Master Your Schedule with My 10-Minute Weekly Planning Process (using Tana)

My foolproof weekly planning routine that takes me about 10 minutes every week and keeps me organised across my work, my creator business & my whole life.
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How To Make Steady Progress On Your Big Creative Projects

Lately I’ve been struggling with my process for getting big creative projects done. They feel like they are taking forever to finish. Each step feels big so I put it off thinking I need a bigger chunk of time to deal with it.
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An Essay About Boring SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)

2 min read
I am a master procrastinator. Not because I don't know what I should do or because I'm not motivated - but because most of the time I just don't have the headspace to get stuff done.
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What Goal Setting Looks Like For Infinite Game Players

2 min read
I was listening to an Instagram reel the other day from Sahil Bloom talking about finite v infinite games. If you're not familiar with the concept...
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Three Questions About Rest The Internet Couldn't Answer

2 min read
Yesterday I searched Google for the phrase 'How To Stop'I couldn't exactly articulate what I was trying to find, but basically, I wanted some advice on what it looks like to slow down, stop, & rest. I assumed I'd find some advice on this exact thing. Except I didn't.
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Five Weird Things I Do To Prepare For A New Year

2 min read
I love this time between Christmas and New Year. It's always so full of hope. It's quiet and gives me time to think, plan & dream for the new year. And like everyone I'm thinking about goals I want to accomplish, creating concrete plans of reaching those goals.
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How To Level Up 🆙 Your Life One Day At A Time

1 min read
Daily planners are not a new thing. It's literally the simplest & most powerful way to plan the day. Take a sheet of paper (or screen), put the date at the top & start organising your day. I remember getting my first Filofax and then going on to design my first paper (then digital) planner pages.
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A Simple Yearly Planning Ritual That Takes Less Than An Hour

2 min read
Despite what it looks like, I'm not one for complicated systems.And while I admire all the people who can put their head down for days and go through long yearly reviews & planning rituals, that is not for me.
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All The Things I’m Putting Of Till Tomorrow

2 min read
Unpopular Opinion: Procrastination has nothing to do with your motivation (or discipline) levels. I constantly defer tasks on my list to tomorrow. So much so that I created a list in my daily planner called 'All The Thing I'm Putting Off Till Tomorrow.' At first, it was a joke, but it's become a key way of noticing patterns in my behaviour.
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How Great Creators Take Notes

Most creators still take notes like they are in Miss Buckman's 6th grade class summarising that book they only half read and wished they had watched the movie instead. If you want to create your own unique ideas that stand out, here's how you should be taking notes instead. Great creators are great consumers. But they are not summarising every single word they read & hoarding it away for when they might need it.
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This Journaling Technique Will Make You Wildly Productive

Do you journal at work? When most people talk about journaling they do it in the context of their personal lives. You don't often hear people talk about journaling when it comes to work. But I've found that work journalling can actually make you a more productive, happier employee.
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You Don't Need To Be A Creator To Build A Knowledge Library

I've often wondered if I wasn't a creator would I still be so bullish on building a knowledge library? And the answer is a resounding YES. It might look a little different with different kinds of knowledge stored. But I believe building a knowledge library can help accelerate whatever you are pursuing in life.
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Your Notes Are Meant For Much More Than Just Storing Away

For years I clipped notes from things I was reading & consuming and put them into a notes inbox to process. I was under the impression like many people that notes were some static thing that were meant to be stored away for safekeeping in case I might need them sometime. I was optimising the process of note-taking for storage.
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How To Take Multiple Courses At A Time (& Actually Finish Them)

In the last 2 years, I can't tell you the number of courses I've signed up. Some I've finished, some I've completely forgotten about simply because life is busy and there's always a lot going on. No matter how good they are if they are not front and centre in my system they just get left behind.
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Forget That Shiny New Note-Taking System. Just Take Notes

Your note-taking system will never be as valuable as just the act of note-taking itself. Whether you subscribe to Zettelkasten or PARA or GTD or something in between, the emphasis in the productivity & PKM space is usually on the systems of storage.
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You 100% Don't Need More Information To Get Started

I coach clients for a living. Both one on one & in group situations. Every coaching call clients jump on, ask questions, get clear and I send them away with an action plan to work on.
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How I'm Using Readwise To Speed Up My Note-Making Process

If you've been following me for a while you'll know I've had a few things to say about Readwise. Not always good. But last month I signed up and I'm ready to say I might be wrong. I'll always be outspoken on the subject of highlighting without taking notes.But if you are taking notes then Readwise can be a helpful conduit to get those notes into your PKM.
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Reading Has Never Been Easier Since I Started Doing This

I have more Kindle books in my library than I care to admit to you. It's not that I don't read. It's that there is more to read than I can keep up with. If I could spend my days curled up on my favourite chair reading and taking notes, I would. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time and I doubt you do either.
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How Creators Can Make Their Notes 10x More Useful (& Create 10x More Content)

Writing notes is cool. But building those notes into a library of useful content is even cooler. I see a lot of creators (& I used to do this as well) throw notes into some kind of database give it a category like 'mindfulness' and then move on. Or use bi-directional linking to just link a bunch of words and hope they'll find them again later.
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These 4 Daily Practices Will Turn You Into An Effortless (& Prolific) Creator

I've never run out of ideas in the year I've been writing online. My ideas list is always overflowing with new things to write about & I often get asked where I get so many writing ideas from. The truth is much simpler than you might think. Every one of my ideas comes out of my daily note-taking practices.
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This Is The One Thing 99% of Creators Are Missing When Taking Notes

Do you constantly feel like your note-taking is lacking? You take notes & you highlight. You have databases filled with quotes. But your notes are a chaotic mess and rather than being helpful to your creator life they are a constant cause of stress and anxiety. The more you consume, the more chaotic it gets.
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Your Ultimate Guide to Time Blocking in Tana | Step By Step Tutorial

3 easy timeblocking approaches to fit any work style using Tana.
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Supercharge Your Tana Day Page with Related Content - 10 Must-Have Sections

I've always loved how Tana keeps everything at my fingertips. But with the new Related Content feature, it's like having a supercharged dashboard right on my day page!
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Create Your Ultimate Digital Bullet Journal with Tana: Step-by-Step Guide

I have always loved the Bullet Journal system. It's simple & yet a profound way to get things out of your head and stay focused throughout the day.
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Unlock the Power of Tana's New AI Chat: A Step-by-Step Guide

Can AI really make your note-taking more powerful?
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Simplifying My Day Page With Tana's New Core Features: Full Walkthrough

How I'm using my Daily Page now with the release of Tana's Core features like Related Content & Google Calendar integration.
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Unlock the Power of Hybrid Note-Taking: Integrating GoodNotes with Tana

I very rarely miss my paper notebooks now that I use Tana. But every now and then when my brain needs to arrange my thoughts visually & find myself longing for a simple workflow where I can go from notes → drawing → back to my notes.
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My Set & Forget Tana Weekly Review System

Confession: I've never been very good at a consistent weekly review habit.
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My Tana 5 Minute Daily Planning Routine (Inspired by Sunsama)

I am notorious for creating day plans that are unrealistic and have WAY too much packed into them. Which is why when I saw Sunsama's daily planning routine it really got my attention
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I Replaced A Full Time Admin Assistant With AI

How I Use Tana To Get Admin Jobs Done Faster & More Efficiently Than A Human Asisstant
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How To Use Tana's Random Node Feature: 5 Ways

In this video I show you 5 ways you can use Tana's Random Node Field to review past notes, mix up your journalling practice, and have a little fun.
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Easy Mode Unlocked: The Ultimate Tana Starter Guide

Tana is one of the most powerful knowledge management tools I have used. But sometimes all those powerful features can overshadow just how simple it can be to get started. And I guarantee that most people are overthinking it from the very start.
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Create A Custom Affirmations App In Tana: Step By Step Tutorial

Throw away your Affirmations apps & subscriptions and build your very own custom one in Tana
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How to Use AI to Kickstart Your Writing—Without Getting Generic Content

4 min 32
How to Turn a Messy Brain Dump Into an Outline Using AI in 10 Minutes (and while chilling on the couch)
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How To Create New Ideas From Old Content With A Simple GPT Prompt called 'Pretend Podcast'

4 mins 8
Breath fresh life into old content with a simple chatGPT prompt that will get you thinking in ways you never thought of before
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How to Turn Your 1:1 Calls into a Goldmine of Content: Step By Step Guide

2 min 37
What if every time you jumped on a call with a client you could generate a bunch of content ideas at the same time?
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Turn Your Morning into a Creative Powerhouse with This Simple 3 Step Writing Routine

3 min 39
How I Went from Sporadic Blogging to Consistent Content Creation with One Simple Routine
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The Quirky Method I Use to Mine My Newsletter for Social Media Content

2 min 39
Ever feel like content creation is consuming your life? This method will save you.
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3 Cheat Codes For Non Experts To Start Sharing Your Ideas Online

We live in a world where it has never been easier to share your ideas & build an audience (& a business) around your ideas.Think about how hard that would have been 100 years ago or even 50 years ago?So why then do we struggle so much to get started?
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Less Creation, More Communication: Why Your Best Ideas Deserve a Replay

When I post about sharing ideas in multiple ways the most commented thing ends up being:'Only a portion of your audience sees every post, so sharing it multiple times means everyone sees it.'But that comment misses the whole point of WHY we should share our ideas repeatedly.
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How To Build A Creative Practice Like The Great Artists

I struggled for a decade to be a creator without a creative practice Instead of practising daily, the only time I switched on my creativity was when I needed to produce something. No wonder I struggled for so long!
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How To Build Atomic Ideas (That You Can Turn Into Endless Content)

Three years ago I was desperate to build a consistent writing practice.
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How I Structure My Daily Writing Sessions To Unlock My Ideas

One daily habit pulled me out of years of inconsistency as a creator... Establishing a Daily Spark Writing Practice.
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8 Of My Go-To Frameworks For Turning Ideas Into Content

Content is simply the communication of ideas.Lots of people have ideas, but if you can't communicate them well all those amazing ideas are going to get lost in translation.So communication is the real game of content creation.
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How To Break Down Content Creation Into Easy To Manage Phases

If weekly content planning always feels like a big lift to you, try breaking down your planning into phases instead.
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No. You Don't Need A Lead Magnet To Grow Your Newsletter

Traditional wisdom tells us we should have a lead magnet to 'trick' people into signing up for our newsletter because no one just signs up for newsletters anymore right? WRONG. Every day, no less than 5 people sign up for my newsletter without having to be coerced or 'tricked' by a lead magnet.
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Why You Might Be Struggling To Grow As A Creator

2 min read
In 2 years I've grown from 0-18k here on Twitter and people are always asking me what the secret key or tactic or hack to unlock growth is.
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Why Every Creator Needs A Signature Platform

The biggest creators I know have started on one platform and then as they grew they branched out onto multiple platforms. Because being a creator on a platform isn’t just about the content, it’s about understanding the platform, engaging with people and a million other different factors.
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Social Media Is Not Your Enemy

2 min read
Social media can make us crazy as creators or writers. On the one hand, it's the perfect conduit to get our message out there and build an audience. On the other hand, we're constantly wrestling with algorithms, and the shortest shelf life for all of our content.
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Why Are All The Creators Leaving Twitter?

2 min read
Twitter Impressions are down. That seems to be the only thing I hear from creators at the moment. And yeah, it sucks. But it's not the first time they've gone through a dip, and it won't be the last.
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Why New Creators Should Go Deep (not wide) On Platforms

2 min read
Content alone isn't going grow your audience on content platforms. As creators, our main 'thing' is creating content, so it's easy to see social media platforms as just big distribution channels to get more people to see what we are creating. But if the internet is just one big distribution channel for your voice you are missing the point.
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Why It Took Me 18 Months To Start Writing On Medium

2 min read
It's the (new) age old question - Should you publish on Medium or your own blog? Over the past few weeks, I've had multiple people ask me why I chose Medium over my own blog or substack or the many other platforms I could write longer-form content on.
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4 Ways New Creators Can Get Started Publishing On Twitter

2 min read
Just over a year ago I got started writing on Twitter. I always viewed Twitter as a distribution platform. A place where you came to tell the world things you created. But these days Twitter has become my main publishing platform where I test ideas and get (mostly) instant feedback on them.
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The Quick Guide For Managing Twitter Without Having To Quit Your Day Job

1000 people. 30k essays. 7 million words.When I first heard that we had 1000 people in the January cohort of ship30for30 I thought I might have to quit my day job after all 🤣
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Every Creator Needs A Community

The creator economy is both wild and lonely at the same time. On one hand, I feel so lucky to be living in this moment where there are so many opportunities for creators. And on the other hand, it's an extremely lonely place that's easy to quit
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The Only Growth Hack You Need To Grow On Twitter

It's easy to get caught up in numbers on Twitter. There is literally numbers everywhere. Number of followers, number of likes, engagement rate numbers, numbers of notifications. It's enough to make you think that Twitter is all about numbers...
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How To Sell Digital Products On Auto-Pilot (Without Relying On Constant Launches)

You don't need a million-dollar launch to have a successful digital product.
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I'm Back From Creative Sabbatical & I Have Thoughts 😁

I've been on a creative sabbatical for the last 4 weeks and it's been the best thing I've ever done as a creator.
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How To Launch Your First Digital Product (& Survive 🫣)

So many creators I speak to are scared to launch their first product.I suspect there are a lot of reasons but the main one I hear is "Don't I have to have a big audience or following to launch a product?"I launched my first product with 500 followers, no email list & I made $3k in 4 weeks.
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When To Say Yes (& No) To New Opportunities As A Creator

Over the last couple of years, I've said yes to a million things as a creator. New projects, platforms, launches, content, newsletters, communities and more.
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My 2022 Creator Revenue Story: How I Almost Didn’t 2x My Revenue This Year

I almost wasn’t able to write such a glowing review of 2022. It was October and I was nowhere near reaching the (very reasonable) goals I had set for myself.
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I Cracked The Creator Content Funnel To Sell My Products On Auto-Pilot

I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think all up it was about 11 products from templates to courses to workshops to guides. I tried it all. And I made a fair amount of money doing it as a second income. Launches are fun (when they work) and they provide a nice windfall of cash for that month that you are launching. But they are also exhausting work and when you are not launching… no one is buying.
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The Evergreen Creator Funnel That Makes $2k Every Month

I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think there were 11 in total. Launches are fun (when they work). And they provide a nice windfall of cash. But when I wasn't launching... no one was buying.
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The Burnout Free Guide To Being A Creator In The Year 2022

Here's what no one is telling you about being a creator... it's relentless. Being a creator seems fun at first as you proudly hit publish on your first blog post, or write a Twitter thread that gets more than a few likes and suddenly you start to build a bit of an audience.
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Why You Should Always Launch Your Free Notion Template On Gumroad

I love it when I see people launching their first Notion template. After all, it's where I got started. I launched my first free Notion template in December 2020 and countless more after that. And by far the best advice I ever received from seasoned template creators was to put it on Gumroad.
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The New Way To Pre-Launch A Product On Gumroad

Don't despair over Gumroad removing the pre-launch feature. Recently Gumroad removed their pre-launch feature. If you've been using it to pre-launch your products you might be wondering how the heck to do you do a pre-launch now?
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Why You Shouldn’t Quit Your Day Job To Become A Full-Time Creator

Here’s an Unpopular Opinion For You: Having a day job and being a creator are not mutually exclusive.You can do both well & enjoy them. I do. Most people assume I’m a full-time creator. But nothing could be further from the truth.
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Why Today Is A Bad Day To Start That New Habit You're Excited About

Good intentions don’t work. Mechanisms do... Jeff Bezos. I was sitting in a workshop two weeks ago where I challenged my clients to a challenge to show up on social media for 100 days. It was a Friday, the challenge was set to start Monday. Some decided to start straight away. Admirable, but foolish. Their motivation died over the weekend and they had to start at 0 by Monday.
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How do you stay on track with goals when you can't see progress?

Why are habits so hard to stick to? I think because on a daily level they seem to make such an insignificant difference. It's often hard to see the change that those habits are making when we are caught up in the daily minutia. So how do we stay motivated to keep doing habits without seeing results every day?
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How This Comfort Zone Girl Found Her Edge And Came Alive

I'm learning that going to my edge is where I experience the most aliveness in life. The problem is that too often I revert back to my comfort zone all cozy-like and forget that the edge is where aliveness is. The past few weeks Sydney has been in full lockdown. It's also the middle of winter. So, I decided to go into hibernation in my cozy little apartment. Eat, sleep, drink (& write essays of course).
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Have We Been Fooled Into The 10x Growth Myth?

Would you rather 10x growth or consistent daily growth? The Internet is a wild place where one day you are minding your own business and the next you are exploding because someone retweeted you or shared your product or wrote something about your company. But we have to remind ourselves that those moments are the exception and not the rule.
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Using Notion To Be A Better Human | The Weekly Productive Chat With Elymar Apao

I spent some time chatting to my good friend from Ship30 Ely about note taking, my Notion system and being a better human.
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If Practice Makes Perfect Then Practice Being Who You Want To Be.

Who are you becoming? A few days ago I wrote an essay about how I don't 'do goals' instead I live in the daily and I let each day be a fresh start to becoming the person I want to be. It was a little throw-away line at the end of an essay. Until Joe Lurie asked me the ultimate question.
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Do The Things You're Future Self Will Thank You For

Is it about time you started showing up for your future self? I find it really easy to show up for other people. If somebody needs me I'll drop everything to help. Often at the expense of myself. But what if I showed up for my future self? That girl who's me tomorrow or this afternoon? What if I started to ask myself how I could make her life easier, to make her life flow more smoothly, to help her to reach her goals?
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What If We Could Re-Program Our Brains To Make Habits Easy?

What if we're thinking of habits all wrong? A couple of days ago Jackson Steger wrote an essay that I really can't stop thinking about. About values based habits and goals. Rather than building habits based on external outcomes we built them on our internal values instead?
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Want To Be More Consistent? Just Play The Next Play

Being consistent in one thing leads to consistency in all things. Seeing over 60 atomic essays on my calendar is cool and all. But it's meant something more powerful than just words on a page. It's proved to me that I AM a consistent person. And every day I write, I prove it to myself again. You see consistency isn't just about willpower. It's the belief that you can do it.
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Busting the #1 Introvert Myth (that even introverts believe)

I'm an Introvert. Yeah yeah. I can tell you're shocked. Most people are when I tell them. Because people assume that I'm an extrovert because they see me 'out there' online or chatting comfortably at an event, or hosting Twitter spaces or doing a thousand other things. Basically they don't see me acting 'shy' so think I must be an extrovert.
Read post

Why Do We Chase Quick Fixes When We Know They Don't Work?

If there is one thing that has derailed me on many a 30-day experiment, it's submitting to the voice in my head. You know THAT voice. You've probably experienced it too. You're trying to build a habit. You start off so well, you might even get a week in, and when you're not seeing the results you thought you would... BAM doubt starts to creep in.
Read post

Every Experiment Starts With A Hypothesis. Even 30 Day Ones

Every experiment starts with a hypothesis. It's one of the only things I learned from year 7 science. No one is performing experiments just for the fun of it. OK, we may or may not have had some fun with the bunsen burners... but I digress.
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