According to psychologists, messy environments reduce our focus, tax our brain and make our overall working lives more difficult. In addition to this, the “Pygmalion Effect” suggests that tidy individuals are more likely to be seen as ambitious, intelligent and kind – all factors which subsequently lead to better performance at work.

A Messy Environment

Tidying up can sometimes feel like a never-ending process. We swing between moments of having a tidy environment to a chaotic one. Why can’t we seem to tidy and keep it that way?One of the main reasons for us not being consistently tidy is because of our intrinsic motivation behind it. You need to ask yourself whether you really want a tidy workspace based off your own initiative or because external factors require it. Secondly, you should be in control; don’t rely on others to do it!

Why are we not clean

Before you get started tidying up, it is a good idea to have an effective plan in place. <ul><li>Visualize Your Ideal Work-Life.</li><li>Know where everything belongs.</li></ul>When you encounter anything, ask yourself:<ul><li>Does it spark joy?</li><li>Is it needed for work or play?</li><li>Any future utility that it provides?</li></ul>

Getting Started

Books can provide us with knowledge and inspiration but can also become a barrier to tidying. Although a full bookshelf can seem fulfilling, we might keep books for the wrong reasons – like impressing others…Gather all your books into one space and ask yourself those 3 earlier key questions: Does it spark joy, is it needed for work and will it lead to future utility?If you find you cannot answer any of those questions, then it might be time to let it go!

Books: The Tidy Way

1. The pending onesThese are the ones that require future action. Think outstanding bills and things like proposals that must be reviewed.2. The ones we MUST keepMost workplaces will have things that are required by law – these might be long-term contracts or legislation. 3. The ones we WANT TO keepThese might spark joy or be valuable for other purposes. You need to be brutal here, however. If they get in your way and are not worth it then get rid!

Documents(Physical and Digital)

Make clear but simple categories which work for you. If you are a designer maybe break everything down by client and then have a master admin folder for general bits. If you do a lot of ad-hoc work maybe a date type filing system might be best? Ask yourself: How do I approach my work and how can I simplify how I obtain things I need?

Categorizing Everything

Regularly maintain a box – whether it be physical or digital – for things which are pending. This is your place to put things when they don’t have a place yet. Think new documents – do not just put everything here though! It is instead a short-term stop-off for documents.

Pending Box

There are usually 3 ways we approach our emails: all of which can lead to problems.1. Those who stay alertThese are the people who stay alert for inbound emails.2. The spring cleanersThese are the people who purge their inbox occasionally. 3. The accumulatorsThese are the people who let emails accumulate and then rely on the search functionality. If your inbox has at least 1000 emails in it then this might be you!

Email Personality Types

<ul><li>Firstly, consider those 3 questions we have been using above when deciding what to do with an email.</li><li>Delete anything which does not fulfil the criteria and then begin organizing the remaining ones.</li><li>I would suggest having a reasonable number of folders but no more than 10. Categorize the folders into different sections.</li><li>This is something which should be done daily. When you have a spare second, tidy your emails!</li></ul>

Taking control of Your Emails

It can be easy to fall into the trap of doing more work than we should. It can be so troublesome that psychologists have coined it “Over-earning”.We tend to invest lots of energy into things that don’t really matter. We might originally undertake a task to achieve a specific objective, but we can lose sight that we have achieved our goal and instead try to maximize whatever we can get. Instead of spending time enjoying the rewards, we have earned we instead keep working for the sake of it.

The 3 Traps: Overearning

Instead of making time to dive into focusing on one task we instead jump from one seemingly urgent task to the next. We work on auto-pilot and complete assignments based on what has been deemed urgent instead of the important tasks. What usually happens is most tasks become urgent when they are not, and it is no surprise that we feel overwhelmed and suffer the negative consequences because of that.

The 3 Traps: Urgency

Multi-taskers tend to be among the least productive people at work. Research suggests that by multi-tasking you could be decreasing your productivity by as much as 40 percent. We can only think of a limited number of things at once: take on too much and you are likely to end up doing a few things poorly rather than one thing especially well.

The 3 Traps: Multitasking

You do not have to let your schedule get the better of you. Here are some tips on taking control of your schedule:1. Identify your ‘core tasks’These are your central, ongoing activities that justify your existence at work.2. Identify the ‘project tasksThese are the kind of tasks that have a discrete beginning and end.3. Identify the ‘developmental tasks’These are the ones that help us learn and grow such as reading, training, and attending conferences.

Taking Control Of Your Schedule

<ul><li>Gather all the medium stake and high-stake decisions that you currently or will soon face.</li><li>Look through your pile and put the high-stakes ones to one side. These must be kept!</li><li>Now you’re left with the medium pile. It’s time to find out what is worth keeping.</li><li>Again, ask yourself those 3 important questions.</li><li>In addition to this you should also ask yourself: Is this something someone else can do better or cheaper? If so, delegate the task to someone else!</li><li>Also think, does this need regular involvement and thought? If not, then try your hardest to automate these decisions!</li></ul>

Important Decisions

Most of our decisions are ones made with little effort or focus, however, other decisions can be high-stakes and require intense thought and then there are the medium-stake decisions which fall in between and are the ones we are likely to put off as they aren’t as easy to make. When tidying your decisions follow this process: Forget about the small ones, organize the medium ones and reserve your energy for the large and important ones.

Tidy Up! Decisions To Make

Instead of doing everything perfectly – forget the idea about being a perfectionist and completing everything perfectly, you might be able to cope for a week but after a while, you’ll get fatigued and start doing a poor job on everything. Instead, perfect the jobs that need to be perfected.That business presentation to a potential client? Get that right! Where to go for lunch with a friend? Who cares? Choose anywhere!

The Perfectionist Trap

1. Show upThis means not being only physically present but mentally present too. 2. Come preparedRead any agendas sent over and bring any information along which might be useful.3. Put away distractionsOther messages can wait… Give the meeting and its participants your full attention!4. Speak upEveryone has something useful to say, do not be afraid to give your thoughts on the issue.5. Do no harmIt should be a place to spread positivity and ideas, not negativity and gossip.

Simplify Meetings: 5 Steps

1. What do you want to accomplish?Is the meeting even required in the first place?2. Do you need to invite everyone?Fewer people but more engagement is better than lots of people with little engagement.3. Let others know the purpose of the meeting.Send out an agenda to help others decide if it’s useful for them.4. Encourage participation.Meetings are a place to spread and discuss ideas, make sure everyone is heard.5. Set realistic timelines and keep it short, like 20 minutes.6. The EndgameEnd the meeting summarizing everything that has been discussed, and what is learned.

Running A Tidy Meeting

This is the key to productivity and eventual success which most people overlook.

Declutter your desk and brighten up your business with this transformative guide from an organizational psychologist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The workplace is a magnet for clutter and mess. Who hasn't felt drained by wasteful meetings, disorganized papers, endless emails, and unnecessary tasks? These are the modern-day hazards of working, and they can slowly drain the joy from work, limit our chances of career progress, and undermine our well-being. There is another way. In Joy at Work, bestselling author and Netflix star Marie Kondo and Rice University business professor Scott Sonenshein offer stories, studies, and strategies to help you eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters. Using the world-renowned KonMari Method and cutting-edge research, Joy at Work will help you overcome the challenges of workplace mess and enjoy the productivity, success, and happiness that come with a tidy desk and mind.

productivity

Productivity

career

Career

books

Books

product

Product & Design

Declutter your desk and brighten up your business with this transformative guide from an organizational psychologist and the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. The workplace is a magnet for clutter and mess. Who hasn't felt drained by wasteful meetings, disorganized papers, endless emails, and unnecessary tasks? These are the modern-day hazards of working, and they can slowly drain the joy from work, limit our chances of career progress, and undermine our well-being. There is another way. In Joy at Work, bestselling author and Netflix star Marie Kondo and Rice University business professor Scott Sonenshein offer stories, studies, and strategies to help you eliminate clutter and make space for work that really matters. Using the world-renowned KonMari Method and cutting-edge research, Joy at Work will help you overcome the challenges of workplace mess and enjoy the productivity, success, and happiness that come with a tidy desk and mind.

Marie Kondo is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Marie Kondo has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Marie Kondo's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Marie Kondo

Scott Sonenshein is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Scott Sonenshein has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Scott Sonenshein's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Scott Sonenshein

Joy at Work

Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life

How self-aware are you? How well do you know yourself? Do you know how others perceive you?  There are two kinds of self-awareness: internal – how we perceive ourselves – and external – how others perceive us. To be truly self-aware, we need to gain both an internal and external perspective. To successfully take others’ perspectives in highly charged situations, we should start by “zooming in” on our perspective first to better understand it. Next, we should “zoom out” and consider the perspective of the other person.

See Yourself With Clarity

When coaching others, I’ll often focus a conversation on why the other person wants to change. This isn’t a bad thing per se, but there’s a risk that we don’t get to the ‘actionable’ part of our insights or emotions. We need to ask ourselves about the “what”. Why questions draw us to our limitations, what questions keep us curious. What can I do? What do you like? These kinds of “what” questions are geared towards personal growth, to seeing our potential.

Don't Ask Why, Ask What

A simple but powerful tool is to spend five minutes at the end of every day reflecting on the following questions: <ul><li>What went well today?</li><li>What didn’t go well?</li><li>What did I learn and how will I be smarter tomorrow?</li></ul>

Daily Check

Reframing means that we look at our circumstances, our behaviours, and our relationships from a different angle. I know from experience how easy it can be to be drawn into a single view of a circumstance, and therefore struggling to find a good way to change things. We need to instead look at the good and the bad from multiple angles, as a way to help maximise our insights and chances of success.

Reframing

Instead of focussing on the problem all the time, we need to mine solutions, dedicating a good amount of our efforts to exploring different ways of solving a problem. To increase your ability to mine problems for solutions, try the Miracle Question:Suppose that one night, while you are asleep, there’s a miracle and the problem that brought you here is solved. However, because you are asleep you don’t know that the miracle has already happened … Think for a moment … How's life going to be different now? Describe it in detail. What’s the first thing you’ll notice as you wake up in the morning?

Mining Solutions

If being individually self-aware means who you are and how others see you, a self-aware team commits to that same understanding at a collective level. There are five cornerstones of collective insight that teams can access and address: <ul><li>Objectives – What are we trying to achieve?</li><li>Progress – How are we doing? </li><li>Process – The processes we’re employing to achieve our objectives.</li><li>Assumptions – Our assumptions about the business and our environment.</li><li>Individual Contributions – What impact is each team member having on the team’s performance?</li></ul>

Awareness At Team Level: Collective Insight

Leadership is not about trying to control every move of the employees. Leaders should help connect their employees with the bigger picture, give them the right tools and provide them with the space to make mistakes whilst still holding them accountable. Leaders can ask some key questions to their employees to make sure that teams share their collective insight: <ol><li>Do we all know the plan?</li><li>Do we all know the status of the plan?</li><li>Are we all aware of the challenges the company is facing?</li></ol>

What Leaders Need To Do

Learn how to develop self-awareness and use it to become more fulfilled, confident, and successful. Most people feel like they know themselves pretty well. But what if you could know yourself just a little bit better—and with this small improvement, get a big payoff…not just in your career, but in your life? Research shows that self-awareness—knowing who we are and how others see us—is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. There’s just one problem: most people don’t see themselves quite as clearly as they could. Fortunately, reveals organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, self-awareness is a surprisingly developable skill. Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, she shows us what it really takes to better understand ourselves on the inside—and how to get others to tell us the honest truth about how we come across. Through stories of people who have made dramatic gains in self-awareness, she offers surprising secrets, techniques and strategies to help you do the same—and how to use this insight to be more fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and in work. In Insight, you'll learn: • The 7 types of self-knowledge that self-aware people possess. • The 2 biggest invisible roadblocks to self-awareness. • Why approaches like therapy and journaling don't always lead to true insight • How to stop your confidence-killing habits and learn to love who you are. • How to benefit from mindfulness without uttering a single mantra. • Why other people don’t tell you the truth about yourself—and how to find out what they really think. • How to deepen your insight into your passions, gifts, and the blind spots that could be holding you back. • How to hear critical feedback without losing your mojo. • Why the people with the most power can often be the least-self-aware, and how smart leaders avoid this trap. • The 3 building blocks for self-aware teams. • How to deal with delusional bosses, clients, and coworkers.

business

Business

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Learn how to develop self-awareness and use it to become more fulfilled, confident, and successful. Most people feel like they know themselves pretty well. But what if you could know yourself just a little bit better—and with this small improvement, get a big payoff…not just in your career, but in your life?   Research shows that self-awareness—knowing who we are and how others see us—is the foundation for high performance, smart choices, and lasting relationships. There’s just one problem: most people don’t see themselves quite as clearly as they could.   Fortunately, reveals organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich, self-awareness is a surprisingly developable skill. Integrating hundreds of studies with her own research and work in the Fortune 500 world, she shows us what it really takes to better understand ourselves on the inside—and how to get others to tell us the honest truth about how we come across.   Through stories of people who have made dramatic gains in self-awareness, she offers surprising secrets, techniques and strategies to help you do the same—and how to use this insight to be more fulfilled, confident, and successful in life and in work.   In Insight, you'll learn: • The 7 types of self-knowledge that self-aware people possess. • The 2 biggest invisible roadblocks to self-awareness. • Why approaches like therapy and journaling don't always lead to true insight • How to stop your confidence-killing habits and learn to love who you are. • How to benefit from mindfulness without uttering a single mantra. • Why other people don’t tell you the truth about yourself—and how to find out what they really think. • How to deepen your insight into your passions, gifts, and the blind spots that could be holding you back. • How to hear critical feedback without losing your mojo. • Why the people with the most power can often be the least-self-aware, and how smart leaders avoid this trap. • The 3 building blocks for self-aware teams. • How to deal with delusional bosses, clients, and coworkers.

Tasha Eurich is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Tasha Eurich has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Tasha Eurich's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Tasha Eurich

Insight

Imposter Syndrome is that inner voice telling you that your work is not good enough or, even worse, that you’re useless as a person.
<ul>
<li>Self-criticism can really put (and keep) us down.</li>
<li>Suffering from ‘imposter syndrome’ is common among most of us.</li>
<li>Even with those people where you least expect it, they often suffer from some form of self-criticism. </li>
<li>Creativity comes from relaxing self-evaluation and self-judgment – and the self-criticism and self-doubt that result from them.</li>
<li>Feeling like an imposter can impact one’s ability to be creative or try things.</li>
</ul>

Imposter Syndrome And Creative People

Instead of applying self-criticism, we need to actively practice the opposite: self-compassion. Self-compassion is realising that self-criticism is the enemy and then acting to reverse its negative effects. Self-compassion also helps to unlock creativity. The two components of self-compassion:<ol><li>Making a conscious effort to stop self-judgment.</li><li>Actively comforting ourselves, the same as we would do with a friend in need.</li></ol>

Replace Self-Criticism With Self-Compassion

Awareness of your inner critical voice is crucial. This then enables you to see your critical thoughts for what they are: thoughts.
Being more aware of what your brain and mind do when sensing a potential threat in the form of being judged and receiving criticism will encourage the development of a calmer part of the mind.

Recognizing The Inner Critical Voice

There are a number of so-called cognitive distortions that are relevant to the Inner Critic: <ul><li>Mental filters, or selective abstraction.</li><li>Tunnel vision.</li><li>Magnification and Minimisation or binocular trick.</li><li>Overgeneralizations</li><li>Jumping to conclusions</li><li>Mind reading or hunches.</li><li>Pessimism and catastrophizing a given situation by imagining the worst.</li><li>Emotional reasoning.</li><li>Thinking in All or Nothing terms(Black or White)</li><li>Ignoring positive aspects of a situation</li><li>Thinking everything is our own fault</li><li>Mislabeling of characterizations</li></ul>

Cognitive Distortions

The good thing about negative confirmation bias is that it can be flipped to create a positive full-filling prophecy too. 
Rather than walking around in a perpetual state of feeling that no one believes in you, you can be on the hunt for support. Take confirmation and use it as a force for good to seek out positivity rather than negativity.

Seeking Positive Confirmation

Something happens and we imagine the absolute worst. Our mind plays tricks and we start ‘awfulizing’.
To stop this:
<ul>
<li>First, on a piece of paper or in a journal, write down and answer the question: What I am afraid will happen? </li>
<li>Next, write down a response to this question: What could happen?</li>
</ul>
If we actively apply realistic optimism, looking at the facts of the situation at hand without embellishing or minimising them, we can avoid a ‘spiralling’ effect.

Awfulizing

There are a number of valuable tips to help you learn to take criticism well and use it to get better at whatever you are doing:
<ul>
<li>Breathe.</li>
<li>Detach from the situation or event mentally.</li>
<li>Listen actively.</li>
<li>Get specific demands and relevant, constructive criticism.</li>
<li>Discover new perspectives.</li>
<li>Be curious.</li>
<li>Grow.</li>
<li>Learn in real time.</li>
</ul>

Living With Criticism

Letting go of our preoccupation with the trajectory of other people’s lives, we can transform our envy from a stagnant, blocking force into a powerful motivator for growth. The tools and ideas above help us reframe our self-criticism; seeing critical thoughts for what they are and combating them with compassionate thoughts.

From Stagnation To Action

Be so busy improving yourself that you have no time to criticise others.

Steps to overcome the feeling that you don't belong where you are, and you only got there through dumb luck.

problemsolving

Problem Solving

communication

Communication

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

The Imposter Cure

Moving from self-criticism to self-compassion

Silence the Voice of Self Doubt “Banish Your Inner Critic provides knowledge, insight, tools and practice for getting unstuck and expressing full creative potential." ?Rebecca Stockley, Co-Founder of BATS Improv in San Francisco CA Are you ready to boost your personal productivity—minus the fear and loathing? Are you ready to Banish Your Inner Critic and unleash the creative ideas and personal productivity within you? Help is on the way! Blocked creative ideas. Everybody has one, an inner critic that tells you that others have more talent, you’re just faking it, and that you’ll never have those great creative ideas that seem just out of reach. This inner critic is a subconscious deterrent that stands between the seeds of great creative ideas and the fruits of achievement. It afflicts us with a mental block as deadlines approach, makes us so afraid of being judged that we hold ourselves back and don’t share our expertise, forces us to question our ability to learn ideas and technologies quickly; and makes us doubt, discount, and kill our ideas before they see the light of day. Find a world of creative ideas. Denise Jacobs is a speaker, author and creativity evangelist who speaks at web conferences and consults with tech companies worldwide. As the Founder and Chief Creativity Evangelist of "The Creative Dose", she teaches techniques to make the creative process more fluid, how to make work environments more conducive to personal productivity, and practices for sparking innovation. Now, in Banish Your Inner Critic, Denise Jacobs shows you how to defeat barriers that are holding you back and achieve success through a positive mental attitude. Banish Your Inner Critic and: Identify and quiet the voice of self-doubt Master three powerful practices to transform how you relate to yourself and your creativity Generate more creative ideas than ever before If you’re a fan of books such as The Artist’s Way or The War of Art, you should read Banish Your Inner Critic.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

creativity

Creativity

“Gives you the practical tools you need to own the room by owning yourself. Banish that inner devil’s advocate and become as powerful as you can be.” —Alan Cooper, software alchemist, cofounder of Cooper   As the Founder and Chief Creativity Evangelist of “The Creative Dose,” Denise Jacobs teaches techniques to make the creative process more fluid, methods for making work environments more conducive to personal productivity, and practices for sparking innovation. Now, in her book, Banish Your Inner Critic, Denise shows you how to defeat those barriers that are holding you back and achieve success through a positive mental attitude.   Banish Your Inner Critic shows you how to move beyond that mental block to your creative ideas, realize instant relief and lasting insight, and:   · Identify and quiet the voice of self-doubt in your head · Master 3 powerful practices that will transform how you relate to yourself and your creativity forever · Overcome the fear of not knowing enough or not being original enough · Free yourself from comparisons, overwhelm, high self-criticism and self-sabotage · Transform your self-talk into a tool for success · Generate more creative ideas than ever before · Embrace your expertise and share your brilliance with the world   Banish your Inner Critic to start doing your best work, achieving excellence, and contributing meaningfully to the world!   “If you’re interested in diving deep into your own creative genius, this book will give you an abundance of ways to do that.” —Michelle Villalobos, “The Superstar Activator” & founder of The Women’s Success Summit   “A book I believe will inspire a new generation to step out of the shadows and shine.” —Paul Boag, author of User Experience Revolution

Denise Jacobs

Banish Your Inner Critic

“If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.”

Persistent people have a goal or vision in mind that motivates and drives them. They are often dreamers and visionaries who see their lives as having a higher purpose than simply earning a living. They often think of this vision first thing when they wake up and last thing before they go to bed. Reaching this goal becomes the focal point of their life and they devote a major portion of their energies and time toward reaching it.

1. AN ALL-CONSUMING VISION

Persistent people want it bad, really bad, and they never look for an excuse or a way out. What keeps highly persistent people going is their powerful level of desire.Repeated failures, dead ends, and periods when it seems like no progress is being made often come before any major breakthroughs happen. Persistent people have the inner energy and intensity to keep them motivated and going through these tough times.

2. A BURNING DESIRE

People who overcome the odds and achieve greatly are often described as “marching to the beat of their own drummer.” They know what they want and are seldom swayed by the opinion of the masses.Having a highly developed sense of who they are allows the highly persistent to continue on without being greatly affected by what others think of them or, being understood, or being appreciated by those around them. While that inner confidence gets challenged and shaken, it never gets destroyed and constantly acts as a source of courage and determination.

3. INNER CONFIDENCE

Rohn also once said, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”Highly persistent people know it is very difficult to stay continually motivated, particularly during difficult times and when it appears that no progress is being made. They have come to rely upon their self-discipline and developing habits they can count on to continue down the path toward their eventual goals. They believe the results of the efforts they make today may not be seen for a long time, but they strongly believe that everything they do will count toward their outcome in the end.

4. HIGHLY DEVELOPED HABITS

Persistent people have the ability to adjust and adapt their action plan. They do not stubbornly persist in the face of evidence that their plan is not working, but look for better ways that will increase their chances of success.The highly persistent see their journey as a series of dead ends, detours, and adjustments but have complete faith they will reach their final destination. They are not tied into their ego and are quickly willing to admit when something is not working. As well, they are quick to adapt the ideas of others that have been shown to work well.

5. ABILITY TO ADJUST AND ADAPT

Persistent people realize that any goal worth reaching will take time, effort, and continuously learning new skills and thinking patterns. They welcome change and new ideas and continue looking for ways they can incorporate these into their lives.Ongoing learning is seen as part of a process through which the highly persistent continually expand the range of tools that they have to work with. Naturally curious, persistent types not only see learning as a way to reach their goals more quickly, but they also see self-development as a way of life.

6. COMMITMENT TO LIFELONG LEARNING

While it may appear that highly persistent people act alone and don’t need anyone, most have a carefully chosen group of people they admire and emulate. These can be people who are actually involved in their lives as mentors/confidantes or they can be figures who they have read about and who have deeply impacted them.They usually stand out from their environment and are often misunderstood because they can make those around them feel uncomfortable. Having strongly ingrained models helps persistent people sustain and motivate themselves in an environment that is not always supportive.

7. ROLE MODELS THAT ACT AS GUIDES AND MENTORS

Talent, genius, and education mean very little when persistence is lacking. Here’s what true determination looks like.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

7 Habits Of Highly Persistent People

Amateurs Loves the Thing they do and they have nothing to lose. No one is an expert in today's growing era.

Be A Amateur

It takes time for things to grow. Think about Process and Document everything as you do. Share Documentations with your audience. They will relate with struggles behind the product.

Process Is More Important

Small thinks shared everyday will create large documentations of things you did. While Sharing do a "So What?" Test Internet Never Forgets.

Share Something Small Everyday

Stories define what was behind the art and give the art a lot of value. Structure Your stories and Keep it Simple.

Telling Good Stories

When you are growing your audience while teaching stuffs and showing work. Criticism will come from audience. It is helpful to not take criticism personally because it is for the work you did. Don't Feed trolls take criticism from the people who wants you to grow.

Take Criticism

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Show you work is book which is truly amazing. I had fear about sharing ideas and things but this book give me a courage to put forward things i know and share it.

In his New York Times bestseller Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by “stealing” from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey—getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery—let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as You Don’t Have to Be a Genius; Share Something Small Every Day; and Stick Around, Kleon creates a user’s manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity— what he calls the “ecology of talent.” From broader life lessons about work (you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it) to the etiquette of sharing—and the dangers of oversharing—to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name; give credit when credit is due), it’s an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age.

In his New York Times bestseller Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by “stealing” from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey—getting known. Show Your Work! is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery—let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, productive. In chapters such as You Don’t Have to Be a Genius; Share Something Small Every Day; and Stick Around, Kleon creates a user’s manual for embracing the communal nature of creativity— what he calls the “ecology of talent.” From broader life lessons about work (you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it) to the etiquette of sharing—and the dangers of oversharing—to the practicalities of Internet life (build a good domain name; give credit when credit is due), it’s an inspiring manifesto for succeeding as any kind of artist or entrepreneur in the digital age.

I’m a writer who draws. I make art with words and books with pictures. Author of Steal Like An Artist and other bestsellers. Visit my website: http://austinkleon.com/

Austin Kleon

Show Your Work!

Making peace and moving forward is often easier said than done. Being able to forgive yourself requires empathy, compassion, kindness, and understanding. It also requires you to accept that forgiveness is a choice. Here are 12 tips you can try the next time you want to forgive yourself.

_Forgive yourself_

One of the first steps in learning how to forgive yourself is to focus on your emotions. Before you can move forward, you need to acknowledge your emotions. Give yourself permission to recognize and accept the feelings that have been triggered in you and welcome them.

1. Focus on your emotions.

If you make a mistake and continue to struggle with letting it go, acknowledge out loud what you learned from the mistake.When you give a voice to the thoughts in your head and the emotions in your heart, you may free yourself from some of the burdens. You also imprint in your mind what you learned from your actions and consequences.

2. Acknowledge the mistake.

Englander says to think of each “mistake” as a learning experience that holds the key to moving forward faster and more consistently in the future. Reminding ourselves that we did the best we could with the tools and knowledge we had at the time, will help us forgive ourselves and move forward.

3. Think of each mistake as a learning experience.

If you make a mistake but have a hard time putting it out of your mind, Pickell says to visualize your thoughts and feelings about the mistake going into a container, such as a mason jar or box. Then, tell yourself you are putting this aside for now and will return to it if and when it will benefit you.

4. Give yourself permission to put this process on hold.

Journaling can help you understand your inner critic and develop self-compassion. Write out a “conversation” between you and your inner critic. This can help you identify your thoughts and will help you forgive yourselfYou can also use journaling time to make a list of the qualities you like about yourself, including your strengths and skills. This can help boost your self-confidence when you’re feeling down about a mistake you made.

5. Have a conversation with your inner critic.

We are our own worst critics, right? One important action tip is to notice when that harsh voice comes in and then write it down. You might be surprised by what your inner critic actually says to you.

6. Notice when you are being self-critical.

Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize the thoughts that are getting in the way of forgiveness. If you’re struggling to sort out your inner critic, practice this exercise:<ul><li>On one side of a piece of paper, write down what your inner critic says (which tends to be critical and irrational).</li><li>On the other side of the paper, write a self-compassionate and rational response for each thing you wrote on the other side of the paper.</li></ul>

7. Quiet the negative messages of you inner critic.

If the mistake you made hurt another person, you need to determine the best course of action. Do you want to talk to this person and apologize? If you’re on the fence about what to do, you might want to consider making amends. This goes beyond saying sorry to a person you’ve hurt. Instead, try to fix the mistake you’ve made. One study found that forgiving ourselves for hurting another is easier if we first make amends.

8. Get clear about what you want.

Oftentimes, it’s easier to tell someone else what to do than to take our own advask yourself what you would tell your best friend if they were sharing this mistake they made with you, and then take your own advice.If you’re having a difficult time working through this in your head, it can help to role-play with your friend. Ask them to take on your mistake. They will tell you what happened and how they are struggling to forgive themselves.You get to be the advice giver and practice telling your friend how to move on.

9. Take your own advice.

It’s human nature to spend time and energy replaying our mistakes. While some processing is important, going over what happened again and again won’t allow you to forgive yourself. When you catch yourself playing the “I’m a horrible person” tape, stop yourself and focus on one positive action step. Interrupting the thought pattern can help you move away from the negative experience and reduce stress and anxiety.

10. Quit playing the tape.

If your first response to a negative situation is to criticize yourself, it’s time to show yourself some kindness and compassion. The only way to begin the journey to forgiveness is to be kind and compassionate with yourself. This takes time, patience, and a reminder to yourself that you’re worthy of forgiveness.

11. Show kindness and compassion.

If you’re struggling to forgive yourself, you may benefit from talking to a professional. Talking to a counselor who can help you learn how to break these unhealthy patterns in your life and learn new and healthier ways of coping with mistakes.

12. Seek professional help.

Making peace and moving forward is often easier said than done. Being able to forgive yourself requires empathy, kindness, and understanding. Whether you’re trying to work through a minor mistake or one that impacts all areas of your life, the steps you need to take in order to forgive yourself will look the same.

mentalhealth

Mental Health

12 Tips for Forgiving Yourself

<ul>
<li>Finding New Work Every Now and Then: You need to make sure you are building good relations with potential clients, applying for jobs, answering emails, and constantly improving your work and marketing strategy.</li>
<li>Recurring Gigs: Having recurring gigs is crucial for freelancers to build a living</li>
<li>Irregular Projects: They are extra cash that you can use</li>
<li>Family Obligations: Family obligations can give you a hard time being the best in your work field as a freelancer.</li>
<li>Staying Productive: You cannot stay productive every minute, but it is important to stay productive for a reasonable amount of time</li>
</ul>

Things To Be Considered By Freelancers

As a freelancer, there are hundreds of things that can make you feel lost all the time. By just creating a schedule and being disciplined, you can fight most of your problems. You might forget to focus on priority tasks and end up spending extra time on things that can wait.

Create A Schedule and Stick to it

Keep in mind that efficiency is the key to better workflow management. To be efficient while working, you need organization.You need an organized workspace that is free of any clutter. For starters, decluttering your workspace will make you feel comfortable, at ease, and relaxed. It will allow you to work better.<ul><li>Identify necessary items. Anything else that is of no need should be placed somewhere else.</li><li>Do not eat on the desk- do not eat on your desk ever.</li><li>Create zones on the desk. Keep materials needed for research, meetings, etc separately.</li></ul>

Keep your Workspace Clutter-free

Start your clock as soon as you sit down for work. It is important to know how much time you are spending on every task. Track your time while doing anything work-related. For those who bill hourly, this step is unavoidable. In addition to this, it will help you in making future project estimations.Usually, it takes a little more time to complete tasks than we expect. So, it is better to tell your clients a little more time than you think. In this manner, you will not miss your deadlines.

Track your Time

If you lack communication skills, your freelance career might fall even before starting. Lack of proper communication with clients can lead to misunderstandings or poor understanding of projects which can cause conflicts.<ul><li>Take help of tools: Popular tools like chatbots can be used by freelancers to answer basic questions. But do interact properly with your client later.</li><li>If you have any doubt in your mind, ask it right away from the client. </li><li>Use different platforms- There are platforms like Zoom, Skype, etc that can be used to connect with your client in a better manner than over chat.</li></ul>

Put Some Work In Improving Communication

To boost your efficiency and productivity daily, you need to get better at every task. The easiest way to get better at tasks you perform is to develop intelligent processes. You need to work smart and not hard to stay ahead.

Find Ways to do Smart work

Unnamed files and folders can hamper your work progress, slow down your speed and bring stress and frustration. It can even delay your project and set you back.So, it is crucial to name your files and folders properly. It is a simple task but clearly an important one. Every time you begin a new project, create a separate folder to store all related files in it. For instance, graphic designers can create separate subfolders for logo design, business cards, etc.

Name All your Files And Folders Properly

Bullet journals are basically notebook calendars that consist of our to-do lists, plans, and everything you wish to. It helps you to keep track of the important tasks that need your important attention. Plus, everything remains in check in your freelance work life.

Keep a Bullet Journal

In order to stand out amongst your competitors, you must know how to market yourself properly. Also, you need to build a system that increases your marketing efforts so that you get more and more leads.<ul><li>Network in your field as much as you can. Connect with people online that do the same thing as you. </li><li>Build a social media presence and focus on attracting the target audience. </li><li>Build Portfolio: This step is crucial to attracting more freelancing clients. Your portfolio will speak volumes about you and your work, it must contain samples of your work.</li></ul>

Market Yourself Properly

Focusing on huge tasks at once can be a little overwhelming and frustrating. It is better to break these huge tasks down into small steps before beginning your work. It will provide you with much more clarity and relieve you from the stress too.

Break Things Down

You must be aware of your capability and how much work you can take at a given time. At the beginning of your freelance career, it might be tempting but you cannot say yes to every task you come across. You might not have the time to do everything together.Some clients need more attention and effort than others. So, carefully plan and check your schedule before taking in a new project. If it feels overwhelming and not possible then it is better to say no.

Say NO!

How Freelancers can Manage their Workflow

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