Jim Eagar Reading Time: < 1 minuteA year ago, David Sparks (aka MacSparky) announced that he had shut down his half-time law practice and was going to dedicate his full time to producing MacSparky creative work. When Sparks announced his membership program, MacSparky Labs, in early January of this year, I immediately joined the highest level of membership (there are three …
Reading Time: 5 minutesSurgery on my right shoulder (I’m right-handed) in late December motivated me to try using dictation more on my iPad and Mac. I have dabbled in using dictation but haven’t used it very consistently. During the past week and a half I’ve extensively used dictation to: • Write emails and messages. • Write notes on …
Reading Time: 5 minutesHow do you start a new project? If you don’t have a template, you’ll likely leave out some important steps. In Tiago Forte’s excellent book Building A Second Brain, he discusses in chapter 9 the importance of having a checklist to launch new projects. “Before they taxi onto the runway and take off, airline pilots …
Reading Time: 5 minutesAccording to writer Todd Henry in Daily Creative, steady, deliberate progress is the key to creative success. It takes three things to get things done and bring about creative success: 1. Commit to steady, deliberate progress; 2. Do it every day, and; 3. Work even when you don’t feel like it. The key to creative …
Reading Time: < 1 minuteYesterday on his weekly podcast and report to MacSparky Labs members, David Sparks made a media recommendation — the movie “Spirited” on Apple TV+. When we were done with dinner, I suggested to my wife that we might want to watch it. She wasn’t sure about it, and I wasn’t either. I said, “Let’s watch …
Reading Time: 6 minutesDuring the first week in December, my wife and I when to Disneyland to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary (we’re not really that old — we married when we were 5 😉). The event and discussions with friends about it have prompted some thoughts I’d like to share. Don’t panic, it’s not all mushy stuff. …
Reading Time: 2 minutesSocial Media Is Designed to Waste Our Time Most people interested in tech are aware that social media platforms are specifically engineered to manipulate human weaknesses to make people addicted to their platforms. The goal is to suck you in and keep you in as long as possible so that the platform receives advertising revenue. …
Reading Time: 7 minutesIt’s almost always a mistake for me to just sit down and start writing on a topic, or start working on a project without first thinking in detail about what I want to do and how I want to do it. I need to take time first to think things through. Mind mapping is the …
Reading Time: 6 minutesA couple of years ago I was at a point in my retirement where the “permanent fun vacation” (finally freed from work!) period was over, and I was feeling bored, unproductive, and unfulfilled. I fortunately encountered material written by David Sparks (aka MacSparky) on how to do a life roles inventory and evaluation. I took …
Reading Time: 4 minutesMost of us who identify as nerds are introverts, and that means we’re natural planners and organizers. We enjoy the process of thinking about things and organizing elaborate systems and plans for doing projects. However, sometimes we’re so into planning and preparing to do something that we never get anything done. We never act. “Motion …