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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 &Ā team work.

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

When Showing Up As A Creator Means Giving Yourself A Break

Yesterday was the first time in 105 days in which I didn't publish an atomic essay. After watching the Twitter threads masterclass with Dickie & Cole I decided I wanted to execute on a Twitter thread I'd been thinking about. Two hours later I hit publish. I could have shipped, I had plenty of essays in my up next pile to work on. But I didn't. I had more than shown up for myself as a creator. So why did I feel so guilty, so worried? It felt weird and wrong and I wondered if I'd even made the right decision.
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The Definitive Guide To Notion Products That Are Not Templates

āš”ļøNEWS FLASH: You don't have to be using Notion as your main daily productivity driver to build cool products with it and make money online as a creator. Here are 17 product ideas that you could build & launch in the next week using Notion.
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How To Balance Thinking Deeply While Shipping Daily

Writing every day can be tough. Some days it can feel like groundhog day. Ideation, draft, write, publish. Every day. But what if an idea requires a little more deep thinking? How do you give each idea the time and thought it deserves while still shipping daily?
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Four Tools Every Creator Needs to Ship Creative Work At Pace

How do you continue to be creative over long periods and at speed? As well as having a full-time job that keeps me pretty busy, I've recently become a creator, a maker of products, and a co-founder of a SAAS company.
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Four Mindful Habits That Will Transform Your Twitter Experience

I've been glued to my phone for weeks. Sometimes I even trick myself into thinking I'm not addicted. I turned off my Twitter notifications from showing up on my screen a long time ago. But sneakily, left them on in the notification center, just so I could swipe down anytime in case something 'important' was happening.
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How I Went From Wannabe Creator To Creator in 100 Days

In 10 years of being a wannabe creator, I produced a grand total of 100 pieces of content on the internet. It was always the same pattern. Super excited about an idea I dreamed about it, planned everything creating a cool name and beautiful design before I even had any content. When I did put content out, it was hard to get anyone to read it except my beautiful supportive IRL friends.
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5 Mistakes Early Stage Creators Make That Are Holding Them Back

I've been shipping for 99 days and 3 cohorts. Here are some mistakes I see early shippers making.
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I'm Not Formally Qualified To Be Doing Any Of This šŸ˜±

Traditional schooling needs a major overhaul. Throughout my last 2 years of high school, I sat in Maths class boycotting the fact that it wasn't a required subject, but our school had made it required for us. Day after day I argued with my teacher about how utterly worthless it was for me to be learning any of these concepts that I would NEVER need to know in real life.
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Systems Won't Save You From Yourself. Here's What Will...

That shiny new tool, or template or system is not going to save you from the perceived disorganised mess that you are. We've all been there. Being blinded by that shiny new toy that promises ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY. Only to find it months or weeks later laying dormant on our computers, untouched, in the graveyard of other good ideas we've abandoned. And then beating ourselves up, wondering why we just can't contort ourselves into this perfect system?
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Stop 'Saving Things For Later' and Start Triaging Instead

We are not living in our parents world. Today you have to deal with more information coming at us than any other person in history. Every day, as humans collectively we create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Even if you tried to consume it all, you couldn't.
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Why Over-sharers Are Building A Bigger Audience Than You

I'm naturally a sharer. I love to share what I'm doing and what I'm learning. I'll easily take a screenshot, record a quick loom video or write out a process if I think it is interesting. I love taking a peek 'behind the scenes' of others processes too.
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Thinking Of Building An Online Course? Don't... Try This First

The beauty of the creator economy is that there are so many ways you can make money. And you don't have to create your own 20+ module CBC transformational online course to do it. And you probably shouldn't (at first). A course is a big endeavor, it takes a lot of time and energy to build and there is no guarantee that anyone will buy it.
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This Is Why You Are Unproductive...

1 min read
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.
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Due Dates Are Dumb. Why You Should Manage Your Week Instead

1 min read
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.
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How I Get More Done Each Day With 'The Breadcrumb Method'

1 min read
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.
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Building A Command-Line For Your Brain

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.
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How To Trick Your Brain Into Being More Productive

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.
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Why You Need A Minimum Viable Day To Fall Back On

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.
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Want To Be Better At Time Management? Just Do Less šŸ‘‡

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.
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When Making Everything Easier Becomes A Curse

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.
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Help Your Brain Out By Naming Things Right

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.
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Why Technology Can't Save You From Yourself

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.
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Why Taking Time To Prepare Will Help You Be More Present.

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.
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Change Your Focus. Why Deep Work Isn't Everything.

The thing that distinguishes Nobel prize winners above everyone else is NOT that they can relentlessly focus. Itā€™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.
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The High School Highlighting Habit That Is Holding You Back and How to Fix It

Most of us learned how to study books & highlight in high school. And we're still doing it the same way.
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How to Generate Better Ideas by Trying Less

The fastest way to solve an idea is to leave it unfinished.
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Ditch Brainstorming: Hereā€™s How to Build an Endless Idea Ecosystem Instead

Why You'll Never Run Out of Ideas Again Once You Set Up This System
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Why Your Notes Arenā€™t Working for You (And the One Shift You Need to Make)

Traditional note-taking methods mostly feel like information storage. You spend so much time organising, categorising, and filing rather than the real work of exploring & working with ideas.
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4 Simple Strategies to Finally Review Your Notes Consistently

How to Turn Reviewing Your Notes into a Habit You Actually Enjoy
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How to Find and Share Ideas No One Else Is Talking About

Three beliefs held me back from getting started sharing my ideas online. (And the simple shift I made to overcome them) ā†“
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Talk It Out: 3 Effective Ways to Capture Ideas with Your Voice

Capturing ideas might be one of the most important practices we can develop as humans. But is writing or typing the only way to capture those ideas? Think again...
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The Unexpected Way to Gain Deep Insights from Social Media

Social media gets a bad wrap these days. And for some good reasons. It's easy to get caught up with the doomscrolling, letting it distract us, getting into arguments we shouldn't, helping us procrastinate, not doing good things for our mental health. And yet. It's still my biggest category of saved items in my knowledge library & serves me up a wealth of new ideas every single day.
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3 Weird Things I Do to Stay Inspired Every Day

One weird habit has kept me consistently writing for the past four years.Before I was known as Ev Chapman, Prolific Creator. I was Ev Chapman, Wannabe creator.
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4 Simple Steps to Make Your Notes More Useful In Real Life Projects

What if you didn't have to start each project with a blank page?
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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 ā†’ drawing ā†’ 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 Writingā€”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 isnā€™t just about the content, itā€™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 šŸ¤£
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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 šŸ˜

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 šŸ«£)

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 Didnā€™t 2x My Revenue This Year

I almost wasnā€™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 launchingā€¦ 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 Shouldnā€™t Quit Your Day Job To Become A Full-Time Creator

Hereā€™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 Iā€™m a full-time creator. But nothing could be further from the truth.
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How To Break Bad Habits When You Don't Have Willpower

I don't break bad habits. I focus on building good habits. If you do a search on Quora for habits, you'll come across many questions about how to break bad habits. It seems that we're more obsessed with breaking bad habits than we are about building good ones.
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