Your Sleep Cycle

It’s generally accepted we need around 8 hours of sleep daily. But who says we should sleep at night or all in one chunk. Varying your sleep cycle can help you find more time in your day and put more creativity in your work. Look at it this way: The majority of your distractions occur…

Think in Equations

Countless things in the world work similarly. Understanding one concept can help you understand a seemingly unrelated one. Solutions from one arena of thought can often be applied to solve problems in other areas. In business, this concept is called Business Problem Topology. You identify a challenge in your industry, find a solution from an…

A Good Hook

Ever get a song stuck in your head for days? Why does that happen? In most every good song there’s an element called a hook. It’s typically the part that gets repeated to “hook” you in. The hook is essentially the song’s “doggy bag” for you. It gives you something to take home with you…

Break the Rules

Remember your speech class from high school or college? Remember the rules they gave you for a good speech. Now think of the famous speeches from history–”Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, The Gettysburg Address, “I Have a Dream” speech. According to those speech-class rules, Patrick Henry, Abe Lincoln, and MLK would have…

Art vs. Function

Guest Post by Nate McConnaughhay: I have hundreds of unfulfilled ideas in folders on my hard drive. Why didn’t they make it to paper? This is the battle: art versus function. An idea can be so brilliant and unique, but without “function” it gathers dust in a folder. I used to think that limited resources and…

Own Your Stink

Yesterday I was approached by someone wanting to strike up a conversation. Normally I’m quite equipped to communicate with strangers, but this time something was wrong. It was clear from the dense smell in the air that he brought a foul stench with him to the conversation. That’s right. He cut some seriously aged cheese…

Inside Jokes

Creativity is art. Art is meant to be enjoyed. So enjoy your art. One of my favorite ways to enjoy creating is to incorporate inside jokes. These are secret elements that mean something special to me. Unless you’re in on the joke you wouldn’t notice it. Enjoy one of my favorite Family Guy clips to…