Category: Productivity

Why You Feel Guilty Leaving Books or Games (or TV Watching) Unfinished

Dunno about you, but many of us over at TVWriter™ have this problem. Once we start reading something, or playing a game, or even watching a TV show, we feel obligated to finish…no matter how little enjoyment we’re getting from our so-called entertainment. For years we wondered about our state of mind, our very sanity. Now, at last, it turns out that this is a common phenomenon.

In other words, no need to feel crazy…but the way we’re wired says that, yes, feeling guilty is kind of a must:

k-bigpicby Thorin Klosowski

Ever find yourself feeling guilty because you put a book down halfway through? You’re still on the third level of that game you bought a year ago? Or maybe you left a movie in the middle of it? The guilt’s a strange feeling, and it’s not as much about the lost money as you’d expect. Here’s what’s going on when you’re feeling that odd guilt. read article

To Be Creative, You Need to Say “No”

The author’s title for this is actually: “Why Some of the World’s Most Productive People Have Empty Schedules,” but we thought leaving it like that would, you know, ruin the suspense.

Oh wait…

scheduleby Drake Baer

Why Some of the World’s Most Productive People Have Empty Schedules

Back in 1991, Warren Buffett met Bill Gates, though as he tells career community website Levo League, neither of them were excited to see one another. But it turned out they had a great time talking—and during the course of the conversation, Buffett pulled out the little black date book that he carries in his pocket. He flipped through it: The pages were practically empty. read article

LB: Where I Write – Oh, and Why

Glad You Asked Department 6/10/13

question_ditkoAbout a week and a half ago, the lovely and talented Peggy Bechko wrote a blog article that we picked up and re-posted here at TVWriter™ in which answered the oft-asked question, “Where do you write?”

Until I read that, I had no idea that readers/viewers/fans cared where writers did their writing. I mean, I’ve sure never cared where other people write, or eat, or sleep, or have sex, or satisfy any of their other basic needs in life.

And as soon as that reaction equating writing to the basic needs of life sprang into my consciousness I realized that of course I should care about where writers write, and I should share it too. Because if, like me, you’re one of those people for whom writing is an absolute necessity, a primal urge that can’t be contained, you need all the knowledge you can get about how to best, um, satisfy that urge. read article

The Real Reason Coffee Shops Boost Productivity

Um, we thought the reason to write in coffee shops was hot waitresses. But this guy has a point too:

coffeeshopwritingby David Burkus

Freelancers, creatives, and the work-from-home-set have long held the local coffee shop (or chain) as their secondary, semi-private office. You arrive, order a drink, set your stuff down, and many times enter into to a flow-like state of work, only to be interrupted when your cups runs dry or your battery runs out. Many even believe they are more productive or more creative when working from coffee shops–and they could be right.

But it’s not the caffeine that does it. It’s the background noise. read article

Angelo J. Bell: Balancing LIFE in the creative world

neo-noir-small-croppedby Angelo J. Bell

Life in the creative world is fraught with instances of friends  family and strangers telling you, “It can’t be done” or “The odds are against you.” Although I’m sure they exist, I don’t know of any artist who ever thought that the odds were in his/her favor. Instead, we, as creatives, merely acquiesce to fate/destiny and to the notion that we will never be happy doing anything else.

Even trying — and failing — is better than abandoning our hopes and dreams….our love affair, with the arts. Just ask any bitter person who long ago abandoned their childlike dreams.

The point then is not, how do we fight the naysayers and negative ninnies, the point is: accepting the full spectrum of our existence in the creative world. Yes, we should build a team of supporters, cheerleaders and motivators. But we must embrace the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the crowds and the solitude. Ultimately we must embrace that fact quite often we must take the first steps towards our goal alone, and in an unfamiliar territory. But isn’t that what has beckoned us into this realm of creativity from the start? read article