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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...

Tana OS
0 min read

How To Use Tabs In Tana To Setup Dashboards

Learn how you can use Tabs in Tana to start to create dashboards of different supertags that are grouped together. Build a projects/tasks dashboard or a dashboard for your content ideas to come together.
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The One Question You Should Ask Yourself When Setting Goals

I'm not usually a goal setter, but yesterday I found myself jotting down some goals on my daily walk. Goals are a weird thing. Some are big, some are small. Some are intentional others are off-handed. But every goal has focus, energy, time & attention attached to it. So if you're going to set a goal, you need to make sure it's worthy of those things.
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Tana OS
0 min read

Tana Walkthrough On The Keep Productive Channel

I was on the Keep Productive Channel this week! I was pretty stoked when Francesco asked me to show him through some of my new Tana workspace.
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Tana OS
0 min read

How To Use Tana To Track Your Wellbeing

I don't know about you, but sometimes I can be notoriously bad at looking after my well-being. So I decided to use the daily page to help coach myself when I need to feel good. This method works deliciously well for me as a way to guide myself through what I need at any given moment. Hopefully, you give it a try!
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How To Make Your Content Last Longer With The Remix & Reuse Method

I hate the word 're-purpose' when it comes to content creation. It makes me cringe so hard. The thing is the tools we use to make it really easy to create one piece of content, press a button and then spray it all over the internet. I call this the spray & pray method.
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The Problem With Deep Work That No One Talks About

Deep Work. It's all the rage. Spend four hours of your day in deep work without distractions & get your best work done.If only the real world was like that.
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Tana OS
0 min read

How To Get Started Using Tana: The Capture + Find Method

Welcome to another video about Tana! Today is a short one and I want to share with you the easiest way I see to get started using Tana if this is your first time using a more flexible app for knowledge.
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How To Build A Content Idea Capture System in Tana

Today I want to show you how I capture ideas in Tana and use Supertags to make it easy to add fields and default content specific to certain content types. So rather than having a bunch of fields that are not applicable to certain content, you can add only the ones you need. Plus I'll show you how you can powerful search and filter through all your ideas.
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Want To Accelerate Your Results? Find Ways To Show Up Daily

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.
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How I Review 99.9% Of The Tweets I Bookmark For Later

Be honest, how many of your tweet bookmarks do you go back and look at?Judging from the tweets I've seen in the last few days the answer is... very little. This is a no judgement zone here! I had hundreds of bookmarked tweets racked up that I never ever looked at.
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What To Do When You Hit A Creative Slump

I've been a bit quiet lately. If you've been missing the yellow essays of late, there's a good reason why... I haven't been posting them. The simple answer is... I've been in THE DIP. I'm pretty sure Seth Godin termed the phrase, but it's something that every creative person is familiar with and faces at some point (multiple points). Everything feels hard, everything is a push uphill.
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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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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: Here’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 Aren’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) ↓
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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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How To Use Tabs In Tana To Setup Dashboards

0 min read
Learn how you can use Tabs in Tana to start to create dashboards of different supertags that are grouped together. Build a projects/tasks dashboard or a dashboard for your content ideas to come together.
Read post

Tana Walkthrough On The Keep Productive Channel

0 min read
I was on the Keep Productive Channel this week! I was pretty stoked when Francesco asked me to show him through some of my new Tana workspace.
Read post

How To Use Tana To Track Your Wellbeing

0 min read
I don't know about you, but sometimes I can be notoriously bad at looking after my well-being. So I decided to use the daily page to help coach myself when I need to feel good. This method works deliciously well for me as a way to guide myself through what I need at any given moment. Hopefully, you give it a try!
Read post

How To Get Started Using Tana: The Capture + Find Method

0 min read
Welcome to another video about Tana! Today is a short one and I want to share with you the easiest way I see to get started using Tana if this is your first time using a more flexible app for knowledge.
Read post
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Three Ways To Show Up When You Don’t Feel Creative

2 min read
I've been struggling to write and create content lately. Oh, you didn't notice (or maybe you did)? I'm good at hiding it. I mean I have put content out there - but haphazardly. I have ideas, but every time I sit down to write and publish I'm blocked.
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How To Design Your Day As A Creative Person: Maker Time V Manager Time

0 min read
Do you find it hard to get anything done if you have a meeting scheduled in the middle of your morning? You're probably a maker (I find most creative people are). And the problem is that most of us creatives work with a bunch of managers who can compartmentalise their day into one-hour chunks.
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How To Make Your Content Last Longer With The Remix & Reuse Method

I hate the word 're-purpose' when it comes to content creation. It makes me cringe so hard. The thing is the tools we use to make it really easy to create one piece of content, press a button and then spray it all over the internet. I call this the spray & pray method.
Read post

How To Build A Content Idea Capture System in Tana

0 min read
Today I want to show you how I capture ideas in Tana and use Supertags to make it easy to add fields and default content specific to certain content types. So rather than having a bunch of fields that are not applicable to certain content, you can add only the ones you need. Plus I'll show you how you can powerful search and filter through all your ideas.
Read post

What To Do When You Hit A Creative Slump

2 min read
I've been a bit quiet lately. If you've been missing the yellow essays of late, there's a good reason why... I haven't been posting them. The simple answer is... I've been in THE DIP. I'm pretty sure Seth Godin termed the phrase, but it's something that every creative person is familiar with and faces at some point (multiple points). Everything feels hard, everything is a push uphill.
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The Insanely Easy Way To Turn Every Moment Into Content

2 min read
There are so many different ways to come up with ideas for content as a creator.Depending on who you follow, you'll find so many good frameworks, templates & tools for brainstorming content. Leverage your expertise, learn & document, have content buckets, answer questions, curate content, use AI to brainstorm your content.
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Four Ways To Find The Time To Be A Prolific Creator

2 min read
A lot of people ask me how I can fit everything I do as a creator into my life while holding down a full-time job. But when I look at my schedule it's an easy fit. I wake up early, I don't have kid commitments, I don't commute to an office, I watch very little Netflix.
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The Non-Experts Guide To Getting Started As A Creator

2 min read
I held myself back for so many years from jumping into the creator economy because I didn’t feel like an ‘expert.’ Even though anyone can turn on a camera or put words on a page we still have this mindsset that we must have something expert to say before we do.
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How AI Can Write A Blog Post For You In Less Than 10 Minutes

2 min read
AI is the future of content apparently. A few weeks ago I had an employee who submitted some email copy to me that just seemed off. The assignment was simple, take a podcast that was already produced and repurpose it into written email copy. She’s an experience content writer so I asked her about it.
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Never Suffer From Writers Block Again... Guaranteed

2 min read
When you've been writing for any amount of time you'll be guaranteed to come up against the 'I have nothing to write' days.I've got a pretty good pile of ideas that I keep on the go, but even then I experience these days like everyone else where I just can't seem to get the words out in the way I want to get them out.
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Four Writing Templates To Supercharge Your Productivity

5 min read
Mastering writing templates will supercharge your productivity as a creator But most creators I know never take the time to create any. For the past year, I’ve published over 300 essays & articles, thousands of tweets & a weekly newsletter while still having a full-time job. People often ask me how I can produce so much with so little time and the answer is — I use templates for everything.
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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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Forget Goals, Focus on Intentions: My Yearly Planning Rituals That Set The Direction For A Powerful Year.

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.
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Stop Cruising Through Life On Auto-Pilot & Open Up To New Possibilities

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.
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Why You Probably Don't Need To Be More Consistent In 2023

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?
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3 Lessons Strength Training Taught Me About Consistency

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.
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Want To Accelerate Your Results? Find Ways To Show Up Daily

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.
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Three Ways To Finally Do The Thing You've Been Putting Off

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.
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You Don't Need Another Guru To Tell You How To Live Your Life

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.
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If You Didn't Track It, Did It Even Happen?

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.
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Chase More Of What Lights You Up Inside

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.
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How To Fall In Love With Consistency

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!).
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How To Tell If You're Stressed & Why You Should Stop Ignoring It

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.
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Consistency Is Hard Dammit.

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.
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