‘I’d love to be a better business writer but don’t have the time.’ Ever hear yourself saying something like this? We’d all like to be better writers, but… How about if you could sharpen up your writing skills in fifteen minutes a day? Sound like a plan? Here’s how to do it. Getting started: create […]
It’s easy to confuse Action Plans and To Do lists? From one angle, they both have the same objectives. What I find is that I often end up with lots of to do lists, which are really hard to keep track of. And, it’s very difficult to see if they’re working or making any real difference. After […]
Let’s pretend for a moment that you’re writing a movie. Where would you start? In the old days before the film industry became just that, an industry, maybe you could get away with writing a great script and creating a movie. Though there are exceptions, for the most part, that’s all changed. The role of […]
So, you have a business blog and don’t know how to make it more interesting. What do you do? Let’s do a small experiment. The next time you’re in your local book store, go past the section where you usually hang out. Keep going. Soon, you’ll find yourself in parts of the bookstore you never knew existed. […]
Not getting things done? I’m not a big fan of GTD or other productivity systems. Despite their good intentions, they seem to take more effort to setup and often an indirect impediment to starting on tasks. Maybe that’s just me. However, I do have a framework that helps me get started faster and wrap things […]
I’m not a big sci-fi fan, but Philip K Dick is the exception. If the name sounds familiar, he’s the man who wrote, what were later to become, BladeRunner and Minority Report amongst others. His books aren’t sc-fi in the traditional sense and this is one of the appeals for me. Instead, he jumps forward […]
I finally have my first running injury. I overdid it and now cannot run for a few weeks. And while this is a bummer, I also feel slightly proud that I’ve managed to acquire a running injury, which is surely a sign that I’m trying hard, right? Maybe. Well, not really. The injury occurred because […]
Proposal writing might be easier if English had the equivalent of ‘usted’ in Spanish. Many languages have a formal and informal way of addressing people that’s not available in English. Maybe in the past, in olde English, ye served this purpose. I’m not sure. If you know, drop me a line. So, is there a […]
What we have here is a failure to communicate. If you’ve seen Cool Hand Luke you’ll know what’s coming next. While no one sets out to intentionally communicate poorly, we’re surrounded with examples where communications fail, are misinterpreted, or create a backlash. So, how do we resolve this? Let’s break it into three stages: Preparing […]
In this tutorial we look at how to edit any document. Before we start: what does it mean to edit a business document? Most people think an edit means: Spellchecking for typos How it looks and feels Grammar (sometimes) Creating a checklist Instead, create a checklist and review different aspects of the document one by […]
If you’ve seen Denzel Washington in Training Day, you’ll know that his training methods, while effective, are not the most orthodox. In the movie, Denzel is assigned to train a rookie and, for various reasons all of which make sense later, puts him through a series of challenges. Training Plan Day: what’s the point? One […]
If you use Netflix, you’ll be familiar with the way it tries to anticipate your interests and suggest movies according to your previous viewing patterns. What’s interesting here is that it’s quite good at it. After using it for a few months, Netflix has started to suggest movies that, reluctant though I am to admit […]
I didn’t like this book when I first read it, which was thirty years ago. Of course things change over time and one is a new appreciation of Mishima. Saying that, let’s not dwell too much on Mishima the personality as the controversy which surrounds him deflects from his talent as a writer. And he […]
