I spend a disproportionate amount of my time thinking about How I Work. Productivity gets kind of a bad wrap these days. And I struggle most of the time to describe what I write about because I don't want to be seen to feed into 'productivity culture.' I started calling it Anti-Productivity, but the truth is I'm not anti-productivity.

Due dates are useless for most people. I haven't set a due date for a task in years. I work in the context of weeks. Most of my tasks can be done within that date range. We set due dates because task managers make us. But this means we either make up an imaginary date & procrastinate because we know it's not really due. Or we totally leave it to the last possible day and end up trying to cram it in at the last minute.

In a perfect world we know we shouldn't task switch, but we don't live in a perfect world. Have you ever experienced this scenario? You're working on a project but have to close down on a Friday afternoon. You shut your computer down, go enjoy a beautiful weekend and when you log back on Monday you can't exactly remember where you left off.

Can I get my brain to work on command? This morning I had a pretty big presentation to work on. It had been a roadblock all week. It was going to take some serious deep work time to complete it.

Hi, I'm Ev & I'm a procrastinator. Yeah, I know, you thought I was superwoman and couldn't possibly have an unproductive day in my life. But it's been a few days, maybe a week that I've been slowly putting tasks off and I know something is up.

Some days just don't go to plan. Like today. There's nothing like waking up on a Monday morning ready to start a fresh week and instead be greeted at 6:30am with a message from a coworker informing me their Facebook Account had been hacked. And now our business manager was hacked, and all of the ad accounts of our clients were now hacked.

Why do we always think we can do more than we can? We try to cram all sorts of things into our days and weeks, telling ourselves that today will be different and we'll really get through all the to-do list items.

People often tell me I make things look easy. While shipping every day is far from easy, the reason it looks easy is because I spend a disproportionate amount of time on the planning and preparation.

What's in a name? Turns out everything. Interestingly I've had so many conversations this week about why naming things is so important. It all started with Danny Hatcher last weekend when we were talking about using plan language to describe the notes he was taking.

Notion will not save you. Neither will Roam. Or Obsidian. Or Asana. Or [insert other shiny new tool here]. Technology isn't a magic fix. Technology will only amplify your system.

In culinary kitchens around the world, you'll find chefs everywhere live and die by the three principles of Mise En Place: Preparation, Process & Presence. Preparation helps me to feel like I've got things under control (even if I don't) and that I'm bringing my best to everything that I do.

The thing that distinguishes Nobel prize winners above everyone else is NOT that they can relentlessly focus. It’s that they know the KIND of focus they need at a specific time and task. Study by Oshin Vartanian. There is a lot of talk these days about deep work. Long stretches of uninterrupted time for us to get chunky work done. Deep work requires a tight focus. It requires we turn off distractions and narrow our focus to just one thing.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 🤣

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

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...

You don't need a million-dollar launch to have a successful digital product.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

I used to hate yearly planning. And I think it comes down to my relationship with goal setting. I’m not much of a goal setter. A year is a long time and I don’t like to be locked into heavy goals throughout the year.

Most of us go through our lives literally just running on a hamster wheel.We wake up, we do the same things, we drive the same way to work, or eat the same meals, and we put things back in the same place.

Consistency. I bet it's on your list of 'want more of it' in 2023. After all, it's the holy grail of productivity & self-improvement. And yet most of us feel like we're failing at it most of the time. But what if locking yourself into a rigid view of consistency is actually hindering you rather than helping you?

Strength training has taught me more about consistency than any other thing I've done in life (including growing as a creator). The other day my trainer programmed inverted rows (under a low bar and pulling/rowing up). Every time I've attempted them before I have had to do them in batches. So when she said 15 reps I yelled an expletive in my head.

When starting something new you should probably find a way to do it daily. For years I thought the way to become a creator was to write two blogs a week (or 2 podcasts or two vlogs). After all, that seemed like a reasonable amount of writing each week.

I almost signed up for an 8 week summer book writing bootcamp this morning on Instagram. I don't need another Bootcamp or mastermind or course to actually write my book. I have an outline, I have half the content for it already! But I thought maybe this is what I need to get this thing finished.

Reminder: You are under no obligation to play by anyone else's rules. Most of us don't remember a time before the noise of the internet (& Twitter) meant every time you scroll you see another influencer or person with a social media account telling you how you should be doing everything in your life.

I am the queen of unused trackers. A few days ago I threw out a tweet declaring tracking bankruptcy. It came as I looked at my Daily Page and realised that the tracker I set up to track my mood daily that I thought would be interesting, I had used a total of 2 times out of 50.

I have a decent library of books that sits in and around my desk. I designed it that way. Literally, my desk is built into my bookshelf. Every book holds a significant moment or memory or reason for being on that shelf.

Consistency is hard. But when you master it, it's addictive as hell. 2 months ago I started training again with a personal trainer after taking a break for about 6 months. Starting again was HARD. Especially because I know what strong feels like. But what seemed hard on that first day is now starting to feel easier (if you can call lifting weight easy!).

I've been a little MIA this week. You might have noticed, maybe not? On Monday I landed myself in the hospital after having chest pains & thinking I was having a heart attack. Don't worry, I was cleared of any heart problems.

This is going to be an uncomfortable essay about consistency. I am going to put a caveat at the beginning to say I am NOT the queen of consistency. Most of the time I write about things I'm currently experiencing and thinking about. So take this as much as an essay I'm writing for myself as for anyone else.