Reading Time: 4 minutesMany, if not most, of us who write experience self-doubt about whether our writing is any good, has any value, and what that says about us as individuals. Even well-published, professional writers suffer from the same feelings. Diana Gabaldon is the author of the award-winning, #1 NYT-bestselling Outlander series of novels. She has a scientific …
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: 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: 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 …
Reading Time: 6 minutesJoe Moyer recently wrote a post in his excellent blog, 24 Letters, about how he writes using Ulysses. His post describes how he organizes and uses Ulysses to take his writing from ideas through completed posts. I also use Ulysses for almost all of my blog posts. I have some similar uses of Ulysses to …
Reading Time: 3 minutesEvery Monday I write a new blog post for one of my two blogs. I publish a new post every Sunday, so I like to get an early start each week and get another post done. That’s in spite of the fact that I already have a reserve of several completed posts. If I get …