Entrepreneurial

Imposter Syndrome

Many business owners and creative professionals have moments where they feel something called impostor syndrome. It’s a feeling that your success is an accident and you do not deserve it. You fear people will soon find out “you are a fraud” and that you do not possess an ounce of real talent at all.

Adam Grant states that Imposter Syndrome is not a result of other people overestimating what you can do. Rather, it is a result of you underestimating your own potential and that it’s a normal response to internalizing impossibly high standards.

Imposter Syndrome

Are you leading with your ego?

I grew up being modeled that the only way to lead by example is to do more, be more, and know more than the folks you are leading. But that model of “leadership” is literally unsustainable.

I very much believe in leading by example, but there are other, more sustainable ways to lead by example.

There are two problems with do more, be more, know more. For one, it causes our ego to get in the way. And, secondly, it is a short-sighted and lazier approach leadership.

In the long run, it is far better to be candid in your communication and have clearly defined expectations of your team. Then, lead by example in terms of your work ethic and your margin and work boundaries.

Are you leading with your ego?

Your Questions Answered about 11-years in business

A few weeks ago I shared about how my company just celebrated its 11-year anniversary. And many of you emailed me with some fantastic questions about running a business, etc.

So I’m wanted to answer a handful of them here. Let’s go….

. . . . .

“What did you give up and what did you gain vs. a corporate job?” (From Brendon)

There were a lot of tradeoffs between my previous job (a marketing director for a large non-profit), versus my self-employed job. In the early days, my hours were still pretty crazy — it took me a few years to finally slow down, work reasonable hours, and to take vacation.

Financially, I was able to fully replace my previous salary beginning on day one. Back in 2011, my business made money from sponsorships, affiliates, and a paid membership access to my private podcast. Today we are entirely supported by our customers who buy our online courses and clients who hire us for coaching and consulting. (Though we do have something brand-new though that I’ll be introducing in June.)

Something else I gained by starting my own business is autonomy. There are pros and cons to this. It means I get to decide the direction my team and I are going. But it also means I have to define the vision for our company — who we are, what we do, etc. It’s an incredible privilege and after 11 years, I still love it and wouldn’t trade it!

. . . . .

“Do you think present-you could have convinced just-starting-up-you to adopt the 8-week work cycle?” (From JJ)

I was nearly 6 years into running my business before we began testing the 8-week work cycle. Most folks focus on the week-long sabbatical break that comes every other month. But, that is only one element to the whole cycle.

The week-long break is there to help you stay on track during your focused work cycle, to celebrate the progress you’ve made during that time, and then to allow you you reset for the next work cycle.

So, don’t start by focusing on the break. Don’t ask this: “Can I get away with taking a week off every other month?”

Instead, ask this: If I were more focused and intentional, could I get 8 weeks worth of work done in just 6 weeks?

Think of it this way: If you could sit down with yourself on Monday morning and say, “Here is exactly what I need you to get done this week. Once you’ve done these things, then you are done for the week.”

Chances are very good that you would get your projects and tasks done well before Friday at 5pm. And here’s the wild thing: It’s actually easier to compress 8 weeks worth of work into 6 weeks than it is to compress 5 days worth of work into 4. Because the time window is so much bigger, you have a better chance at hitting your goal and you have the margin to work around bumps in the road.

As founders and leaders, we tend to go find more work for ourselves. It can be easy to feel that we are being wasteful or negligent when we aren’t doing something.

All that to say, if it were Present-Day Me trying to convince Just-Getting-Started Me in the value of the 8-week work cycle, I would focus on how much you can actually get done if you are focused. And then, instead of just adding more work on top — celebrate that progress by taking a break. This makes your work far more sustainable in the long run.

. . . . .

“I am wanting to start a side business as a coach and advisor. What do you think is the best way to put myself in front of other creators?” (From Justin)

It’s simple, but not necessarily easy. There are a few ways to get started.. In no particular order, here are a few ways to begin getting traction:

  • Show up consistently to an online / social space to begin establishing yourself as a trusted authority and to begin shipping your ideas. (Search YouTube for video tutorials that will teach you the basic strategies for how to grow your followers on whichever social platform you choose.)
  • Get very familiar with the challenges, struggles, and pain points of your ideal clients.
  • Reach out to everyone you know and ask them about their current system and approach; find out what is working for them and what is not; ask them what they are doing to solve the problems they have or where they go to get answers to their questions.
  • Have a baseline product or service that you offer, that people can easily purchase and where they will know exactly what they are getting and what value / benefit you will provide.

Remember ABC: Action Brings Clarity. Get started to get started, and once there is movement you’ll get much more clarity about how to keep going.

Recommended book: The Snowball System. Mo has a fantastic framework for business development that is straightforward and works.

. . . . .

“My productivity slows down when I have to sit down and write something. From a proposal to an email. What do I do?” (From Myles)

When a task seems very daunting and I just don’t want to do it, I will often just set a 5-minute timer and commit to working on the activity for the next 5 minutes. Then, when the timer is done I am free to quit that task and move on to something else. (Oftentimes, I get momentum going and end up finishing.)

. . . . .

“How do you balance being generous with your work and making money?” (From Joschua)

Something I learned a few years ago was to stop trying to “balance” this. I used to feel that they were at odds with one another, but I now see how they go hand in hand.

The primary way I do both of these is with a dedicated checking account that gets money put into every month from the profits of the business. I use that account to fund non-profits, charity work, and giving to others. So, right off the bat, there is a baseline of generosity built-in to the way I handle my personal and business finances.

Secondly, I am very confident in the value and quality of the training that we offer. So I never feel conflicted in our pricing or in running a profitable business.

Your Questions Answered about 11-years in business

How I spent my recent Sabbatical (with pictures!)

This was something like the 30th sabbatical week that my company has taken since 2017.

After years of these regular, week-long sabbatical breaks, I’ve discovered a few things that help me make the most of my time out of the office.

One of the best ways to get the most out of a sabbatical week is to know the difference between true rest and counterfeit rest.

True rest will leave you recharged with more energy. Thus, you want to find restful activities that give you energy rather than draining it. I love to say that if you work with your head, rest with your hands (such as cooking, woodworking, landscaping, etc.).

And so, here’s the thing: true rest usually takes a little bit of effort.

Things like reading a paperback novel, cooking a meal, going out for a walk, having a conversation with someone, listening to an audiobook with your significant other. Heck, even just sitting down, alone, and not having a phone or screen can take some effort.

And so, during my sabbatical breaks, I focus hard on getting a healthy dose of that restful and creative work.

My aim is usually to have one big project that I can get done during the week in addition to daily anchors such as exercise, getting out on a excursion, having a meal with someone, etc.

I also keep my same sleep schedule. It would be easy to toss discipline into the wind for that week and treat it like full-on vacation mode. But honestly, that leaves me feeling more exhausted and behind at the end.

Anyway, for me, this past Sabbatical that was just last week seemed to be themed around taking pictures and cooking food. I smoked about 40 lbs of beef brisket and I got out several times to make photos with my Leica Q.

One other thing, on April 12 I began posting daily videos to Instagram. You can’t schedule these videos ahead of time, I was on Instagram posting them every day, which definitely led to me spending much more time on social media than I normally would.

My Screen Time Report for last week shows an average of more than 90 minutes / day on Instagram. Ouch. Even though a lot of that was time spent in the app to create my daily videos, it’s still a lot of time on social.

Anyway, if you’re curious what an average Sabbatical week looks like for me, it’s not too far off from how I spent last week’s break. Here’s a rundown:

Monday

Smoked a 12-pound brisket, just for fun. I woke up early on Monday morning to get the brisket on the smoker. Then spent most of the day tending to the food and prepping the sides. And, because we live in Kansas City, of course I separated the point and chopped it to make burnt ends. It was fantastic.

Tuesday

My youngest son was home from school on Tuesday, so he and I got to work together to build new storage shelves in the guest room closet downstairs.

Wednesday

It was a beautiful day for a drive in the CJ-7. I took my sister out to lunch. Made some photos with the Leica Q. And, later in the evening, I lit up the backyard fire pit for dude’s night with a good friend.

Thursday

Finished building the closet shelves.

Friday

Made dinner: Korean rice wraps with bulgogi beef and bulgogi tofu. Not gonna lie, the tofu was on point.

Saturday

Smoked more brisket! Not one, but two (!) briskets for a fundraiser at our church that was happening Sunday. I made them the day before because they needed to be dropped off on Sunday morning and I did not want to be up and down all night tending to the brisket and hoping it would be ready in time on Sunday morning.

I personally did’t get to try the brisket (I delivered it wrapped and uncut), but I heard it turned out great. And, of course, I also made burnt ends and I did taste test those and they turned out just as incredible as the same-day ends I made on Monday.

Sunday

Anna and I have made it a focus in life to go on a date every week. Sometimes we go out, and sometimes our date nights are at home because we want to stay home or maybe we just can’t find a sitter. Sometimes we sit on the back deck or walk around the neighborhood.

It has been an unusually busy month at home for us, and this past Sunday we were actually we able to get out of the house and go on a date. We went to sushi dinner, got ice cream, and enjoyed some beautiful weather walking around downtown area snapping some photos with my Leica Q.

. . . .

As you can see, my week above was a somewhat “normal” week. The only really different thing is that I didn’t go into my office to do any work.

But I still kept to my same basic daily schedule: I go to bed and wake up at the same time as I do on weeks when I am working. I kept my exercise routine and did my normal rowing and lifting workouts. Ultimately, for an average sabbatical week, the biggest change for me is that the 6-8 hours / day that I normally would be working, I instead will spend that time on personal projects — cooking, woodworking, making photos, and extra family time.

These regular sabbaticals give me the space and the time to pull back from work. I also love how the sabbatical creates a clear and consistent stopping point for our focused work cycles, that help us to avoid biting off more than we can chew and to get more work done in less time.

How I spent my recent Sabbatical (with pictures!)

Thinking in Bets

Last week I began reading Annie Duke’s fantastic book, Thinking in Bets.

First takeaway so far is this:

Do not equate the quality of a decision with the result of that decision.

For example: If you decided to drive home drunk and you happen to make it home safely, nobody would say that the “positive outcome” means you made a “good decision” in that scenario.

Yet, we so often apply “hindsight bias” to our decisions: We look back at the decisions which resulted in a poor outcome as being bad decisions and the decisions with a positive outcome as being good decisions.

And so, start to separate the quality of your decisions with the results of those decisions. Then, learn how to get better at making good decisions more often.

Thinking in Bets

Ray Dalio’s 5-Step Process for Making Progress on your Goals

In Ray Dalio’s book, Principles, he lists a 5-step process for how to make progress on your goals:

  1. Identify your goals.
  2. Encounter your problems.
  3. Diagnose the problems to get to their root cause.
  4. Design changes to get around the problems.
  5. Do what is needed.

In short, you must constantly measure your current outcomes against your desired outcomes and then take action.

You need to know what it is that you want, you need to know what is true right now, and then you need to decide what you are going to do about it.

Side note. Ray’s process of ownership, diagnosis, and action is almost identical to something my wife and I have been working on with our three younger boys. We are trying to teach them to take ownership of their own problems, consider cause and effect for various outcomes and solutions, and then make a choice and act.

Ray Dalio’s 5-Step Process for Making Progress on your Goals

Give Yourself Time

When I sit down to plan my week, I always write down the two or three most important projects I’m going to focus on.

Sometimes those projects are easy and obvious: fix this; build that; finish the thing.

But sometimes a project’s outcome is not obvious. Or, perhaps I don’t know if I will be able to finish it this week or not because I don’t yet know how much time is left to find the solution.

Instead of committing to a finish line that may not be possible yet, I simply commit to spending time working toward my desired outcome.

Not all goals need to have a specific outcome or milestone right now.

Sometimes my most important project for the week is to spend uninterrupted time working on a project so I can keep making progress.

Give Yourself Time

Everything Requires Maintenance

A few months ago I bought one of the best drip coffee makers in the world.

Truly, as I was walking out of the store with box in hand, four — (4!) — different people stopped me to say how excited or how jealous they were that I was taking this coffee machine home.

Long-time readers of this site will know that I am giant coffee nerd. Probably the worst thing you can buy me is anything related to coffee. Chances are good that I’ve already seen it, researched it, bought it, used it, and have since moved on to something else.

Over the years my coffee shelf has been home to a V-60, French Press, Espro Press, AeroPress, Kalita Wave, Kone Brewing system, Moka pot, Siphon, and Clever dripper (to name a few).

After well over a solid decade of manual coffee making at home I finally aged out. I have moved to an automatic drip coffee maker. Gasp!

I bought the infamous Moccamaster. (It’s more than famous.)

A Brief Aside on Why I Bought the Moccamaster and What I Think About It

So, after all those years of manual coffee brewing methods, why did I get a drip coffee maker? It all boils down to my time.

The time I have between when I get up and when my day starts is never enough. And I wanted to spend those precious minutes on activities other than pouring hot water over coffee grounds.

I wanted to get back just a little bit of my time in the mornings without sacrificing the quality of my coffee, of course.

It’s been at least four months now since I bought the Moccamaster, and I love it. It certainly wasn’t cheap. The model I bought probably cost more than nearly all of my manual coffee makers combined.

One thing that makes the Moccamaster special is that it’s built to last. I’ve heard from many people who have owned their Moccamaster for years and years and still love them.

As far as quality of coffee… I would say that the Moccamaster makes almost as delicious of coffee as I could make with one of my pour over methods. If the Kalita or V-60 can make a cup that is 9/10 delicious, the Moccamaster makes one that is 8/10.

While I think I could get the coffee quality to be a bit better — you’d be surprised to hear about ways you can still get nerdy and fussy with a Moccamaster — I have intentionally chosen not to go that route because it would be the opposite reason for why I bought the thing in the first place.

I just measure my beans and water and I’m happy with the results. In fact, I’m drinking a cup of my coffee as I type this very sentence. Yum.

The one thing I do not like about the Moccamaster is that the carafe and brew basket are not dishwasher safe. It’s not a huge deal, but it just means every few days I have to wash everything by hand. It still requires some bit of maintenance.

Actually, now that you mention it…

Everything Requires Maintenance

Sadly, there is no gadget or system or process that is completely absent of all work and maintenance.

To some degree or another, everything requires your time and attention; everything requires maintenance.

Alas, even my “automated” coffee maker still takes some work to keep clean and operational.

As someone who doesn’t always like to trust the process, it has been helpful for me to keep this truth in mind: everything requires maintenance.

And it stands for more than just the things I own, such as my clothes, cars, lawn, and tax-receipt filing system. My physical self and even the productivity workflows I live within every day require attention to keep operational. (Ugh, right?)

Spoiler: There is No “Easy” System for Focus and Productivity

Perhaps one area I see the most hangup in this is related to productivity systems.

Staying in control of your time and your attention is an activity that requires some time in an of itself.

Lots of folks bemoan this fact. They have, no doubt, tried many systems and none worked for them. They feel frustrated because they don’t want to waste time managing their to-do list.

Now, side note, there is a lot of legitimacy to these frustrations. I definitely understand how frustrating it is to spin your wheels with an overflowing to-do list. A lot of productivity systems out there are way more work than they’re worth.

However, if you care about how you spend your time and your attention — then you also ought to care about the keeping up with the system that keeps you on track. And I think most people do care, which is why it can feel frustrating at times.

For me, I set aside about half an hour on Sunday evenings in order to plan out my week. (I go into the nerdy details of this in the “Analog” section of my All the Things course.)

During my weekly planning time I will decide what it is that I will focus on and how I will primarily spend my time each day for the upcoming week.

This brief weekly planning session never feels convenient. I am rarely in the mood and I’d almost always rather do something else. But my task list and calendar must get the appropriate amount of my time and energy in order for them to be effective and helpful.

When Inconvenience Becomes Opportunity

In the beginning, these inconvenient activities of maintenance often feel like speed bumps that are getting in the way and slowing things down. There is never a convenient and easy time to work out, or to eat well, or to plan my week or my day.

However, if you stick with it, then over time you will see how these activities of “inconvenient maintenance” are actually the foundational actions in our day in which we are choosing to live with intention.

The truth is, you won’t find anything that is free from all work and maintenance. This is as true for coffee makers as it is for productivity systems.

With that in mind, don’t try to find something that requires ZERO maintenance. Because it doesn’t exist. You’ll never find something that is devoid of all work and maintenance.

Rather, find a system that can work for you — one that you have the ability and the drive to to keep up with.

Everything Requires Maintenance

Tips for Delegating

I’m currently reading Mike Michalowicz’s latest book, Clock Work. One of the things that has really stood out to me so far is that there are two types of delegation for a business owner.

The most common type of delegation actually isn’t delegation at all. Mike calls it “Deciding”. This is what happens when you hire someone to help you with a task or a job, but you don’t ever train or empower them to make any decisions on their own.

Perhaps you do this out of fear or laziness or your perfectionist mindset… whatever the reason is, since you aren’t delegating properly you end up as the bottleneck for all work projects because at every junction in their work, people are having to come to you and ask you to make a decision about something.

And then… when they do finish the task you asked them to do, guess what? They sit and wait for you to decide what they should do next. Because you have not given them any autonomy or self-direction.

In short, you are still managing every little decision — you’re merely delegating (or assigning) the actions behind those decisions.

How does this differ from actual delegation?

Assign an Outcome

Actual delegation happens when you assign a task to someone while also empowering them to make any decisions related to completing that task.

Put another way, you are delegating the outcome.

When you can delegate the outcome, it is liberating to everyone involved. Your team member feels trusted and empowered to do their job without you micromanaging them. And you are free to focus on the things that you need to do.

Reward Ownership (Rather Than Quality)

One other thing related to delegating that stood out to me was the importance of rewarding a team-member’s ownership of a task and not the quality of the outcome of that task.

You must allow them to make mistakes, or do things differently. Because they will.

If you only ever reward them when they do things just perfectly the exact same way that you would have done it, then all you’re doing is training them to ask you for a decision at every juncture.

So, instead, celebrate their ability to think and work with autonomy while giving candid and helpful feedback to help them make better decisions in the future.

As Mike writes, it all boils down to letting go of perfectionism.

Tips for Delegating

Culture is What You Do

It was in February 2011 that I quit my job to blog for a living. (You can read the original announcement post here.)

For a few years I was writing here, full-time as an indie blogger and podcaster. And so, any of the choices I made about work hours, salary, time off, or projects were choices that, for the most part, only affected me.

But then, in January 2016 I hired my first employee. And last summer I hired my second employee. And that’s not to mention our amazing team of long-time contractors and contributors.

Needless to day, today, things are very different than they were back in 2011.

Now, when I make a decision about my company I have to think about how it impacts our team and our culture. (It’s not just me anymore. Thank goodness!)

When I make decisions about what projects we take on, what our company profit sharing looks like, the amount and type of time-off we allow, our team communication systems, and more, I have to think about this:

Is this a vote toward the type of work environment I want to have in 20 years?

Here’s the thing. It will never be easier to have an awesome work culture than it is right now.

Why should I be waiting for some sort of potential, future-state of my business before I can begin implementing the sorts of healthy work cultures that I want?

If I wait, then I run the risk of accidentally building a company culture that I don’t like. How awful would it be to look up 10 years from now and realize that I spent a decade building a business that is stressful and exhausting to work in?

The Two Types of Sustainability: Finances and People

Being sustainable in revenue is critical. We know that. But finances are not the only metric of sustainability.

There is also the sustainability of your team’s time and energy.

Is your company “human sustainable”?

If you were to look at the amount of work you are doing, and the pace at which you doing that work, would it be something you would still want to be doing in 20 years from now?

Anybody can talk about how they value a healthy work culture.

But culture is what you DO (not what you SAY).

Are the decisions and actions happening within your team right now in alignment with the values that are being spoken? Or are things crazy right now with the promise of change once XYZ milestone is reached?

As the folks at Basecamp would say, it doesn’t have to be crazy at work. And I agree.

Fear Brings the Craziness

In my experience, the craziness comes from fear. Fear that if things are calm then people are not being productive. Or a fear that without frenzied, emotionally-driven activity then there will be no revenue. Or a fear that without long hours the work won’t get done.

You can’t change your culture overnight (for good or for bad).

But you can make one small vote today about the sort of work environment you want to have in 20 years from now. And then, tomorrow, you can make another small vote… and another…

P.S. This goes for the culture you create other places as well. Such as your family, your personal finances, or your weekends. Are the choices you’re making in alignment with the values you profess?

Culture is What You Do

There will be poop

Two of the most productive hours of my day are also the most chaotic.

Guaranteed someone will get punched, someone will tell a not-funny joke but we will find it hilarious and belly laugh anyway, someone won’t get what they want, and someone else will poop his pants.

Now, I love a nerdy talk about time management as much as the next guy. But I believe that real productivity does not always look organized and tidy with everything just right.

Most of the time, when you’re really getting things done it’s messy; it’s human.

Those two productive-yet-chaotic hours of my day? They are the evenings hours from 5 – 7pm at the Blanc house.

My wife and I have 3 boys: ages 2, 5, and 7. Our evenings are filled with LEGOs everywhere, Nerf gun target practice with unsuspecting stuffed animals, wrestling, food fights, toddler nudity, meltdowns, and hiding behind closet doors to avoid brushing teeth.

I am a dad. And this is what family time is like with three fantastic sons.

As my boys become adults, I look forward to having a real-life friendship with them. But I don’t know of any “formula” for making this happen. I only know that if I am regularly present and engaged then I stand a pretty-good chance at building a deep bond and long history of trust with each of my sons.

So while our evening hours may look like disorganized chaos right now, they are also the hours where my wife and I get to consistently give our full attention to our boys.

That’s why, every evening at 5pm, my wife and I set our iPhones to silent Do Not Disturb. Then we put the phones away in another room.

Value / Identity: I’m a dad.

Expression / System: I spend quality and undistracted time with them on a regular basis.

Outcome / Goal: I’m building a thriving relationship with my sons.

This is just one example of how I am taking a personal value for my life and aligning it with how I spend my time each day. And the result will be one of life goals.

The immeasurable value of good systems is found in their ability to bridge the gap between our personal values and our goals.

When your time and energy are NOT being spent on the things that matter to you, it’s frustrating and stressful.

Frustration = The Tyranny of the Non-Essential

Ask yourself this:

  1. What is something in your life that you think is important but you are not giving very much time or attention to?

  2. What is something in your life that you do NOT consider important but yet it is receiving too much of your time and attention?

Aside fom someone else eating the last of the ice cream that you were totally saving for later, there is nothing more frustrating than when the things which matters most are pushed to the back burner, forced to succumb to the tyranny of things which do not matter at all.

Which is More Important: Systems or Goals?

It’s somewhat of a trick question; they’re both important.

However, if I had to pick just one, I’d pick systems because most folks already have some goals.

But I estimate that more than 80% of the people reading this do not have a good goals system. And by that, I mean most people do not have a reliable and consistent way to accomplish their goals.

The Systems I Use to Accomplish Goals in Every Area of My Life

There are a handful of various tactics and systems I use on a regular basis to ensure that the important areas of my life are getting the time and attention I want to give them.

These are the habits and routines I’ve built that help me stay active with my physical health, stay on track with my creative work, and stay engaged in my awesome parenting life that I just shared with you.

One of the systems I use is something called my “Hybrid Productivity System”.

It’s a blend of both digital and analog tools to help me schedule my days, know exactly what to be focusing on, and keep the margin I need in my life to avoid burn out. Here’s a video (taken from my course, All the Things) that explains a bit more about the hybrid method.

There will be poop

On Making the Switch From a Consumer to a Creator

Last week my friend Nathan Barry posted an article with 13 tips for making the switch from a consumer to a creator.

Suggestions number 3, 6, and 9 from Nathan’s list especially resonated with me since these three tips in particular had to do with the focus, intentionality, and routine of creating.

I also love how Nathan states right at the beginning that in order to make this shift you don’t have to become a fundamentally different person, nor do you have to make radical changes to your life. You just need to stack a handful of small changes together and let the momentum build.

Show Up Every Day, Poster by Sean McCabe


The ”Show Up Every Day” print by Sean McCabe that I have hanging in my office.
As you seek to build a creative habit, it is professional-grade to be intentional with that time. You do this by (1) planning ahead; (2) scheduling yourself time to work; and (3) removing as many distractions as possible. This is literally what any top performer does. (I made a simple Show Up Every Day Worksheet that’s at the bottom of this article if you’re interested.)

And, not that Nathan asked, but since we’re blogging here I wanted to add an additional suggestion to his already excellent list:

Be intentional about what you consume.

What I mean by this is two-fold:

  • Making the switch from a “consumer” to a “creator” does not mean cutting out all media consumption. (More on that in a second.)

  • And therefore, consider what types of media consumption leave you feeling inspired, excited, and energized versus those which leave you feeling tired or complacent.

Which types of media take from you and which types give to you?

If I spend 15 minutes mindlessly scrolling Instagram or Twitter, I do not feel inspired or recharged.

But if I spend 15 minutes reading a book or a thoughtful article that’s saved in Instapaper, then my brain is usually bouncing with ideas and fresh inspiration.

Nathan’s article is all about making the switch from “consumer” to “creator” but I want to underscore the fact that the right kind of consumption helps with creating.

I think this is so valuable that not only do I have a habit goal to write every, I also have a habit goal to read every day.

Moreover I just deleted the social media apps from my iPhone so that I would have less opportunity for non-productive media consumption. (Even Peter McKinnon recommends quitting social media as a way to help overcome creative block.)

In his book, First Things First, Stephen Covey writes about what he calls “Sharpening the Saw”.

We often get so busy “sawing” (producing results) that we forget to “sharpen our saw” (maintain or increase our capacity to produce results in the future).

It took me a few years to to realize it was okay (even necessary) for me to take time away from “producing and creating” in order to maintain and increase my capacity to do my best creative work.

One of the ways you experience burn out is when you consitently try to create without any fresh, incoming inspiration. It’s like driving a without ever stopping to fill up — evenatually you will run out of gas.

Showing up to do the work is the noble part of the endeavor. But let us not get so busy producing that we forget to maintain and increase our capacity to keep producing results.

On Making the Switch From a Consumer to a Creator

What Drew Me to Infinite Canvas Whiteboard Apps

On the west wall of my office is a giant whiteboard. I use it often, but there are times when I want to use my iPad instead. And with the new iPad Pro and its #2 Pencil, I’m finally interested in a good whiteboarding app.

Apps that relied on the Apple Pencil never really stuck for me because I rarely had my Apple Pencil nearby, and if it was nearby it was probably out of battery. As you’ve probably heard a thousand times already, that all changed with the new iPad and the new Apple Pencil.

Now, I’ve long been a fan of Paper by 53 (though it’s now Paper by WeTransfer) for drawing and sketching. I’ve used it many times to draw visuals to accompany my articles from time to time. But the Paper app hits its limits when you start using it to flesh out bigger ideas and mind maps.

For a few weeks during the Christmas holiday I was checking out different whiteboard apps for iPad. (Yes, this was how I spent my free time during my Christmas break and I don’t regret a moment of it.)

I did a bit of my own research, plus asked people on Twitter what they use, and there were a few apps worth mentioning. The two which stood out to me the most were Thoughts and Concepts.

Thoughts

What’s great about Thoughts is how simple and straightforward it is. This app is very easy to use.

There are only 3 tools: a black pen, a color pen, and an eraser. It also has both a light and dark theme. And there is an iPhone app that it syncs with. Thoughts is just a $2.99 one-time purchase to get the app and you’re set.

For me, one big drawback to Thoughts is that you can’t import any types of media onto your canvas. Meaning your whiteboard canvas can’t include images, links, and the like.

Another tidbit which took me a while to get used to is that the pen size is relative. When you’re writing and drawing with the pen, it’s always the same visual point size no matter what “zoom” level you are at. At first this bugged me, as I wanted everything to be the exact same, but I then began to acclimate to it and it actually makes sense given the way Thoughts works.

Thoughts not only has an infinite canvas, it also has infinite zoom. And, what’s funny but not funny about that is that I actually lost my document. I literally lost some work of mine by zooming out too far. It disappeared in the view and I tried zooming back in but must have been off-center and from there I completely lost my bearings and I literally couldn’t figure out where my drawing went. I lost it to the abyss.

So all that to say about Thoughts: it is pretty great because it’s so simple. You just launch the app and get to work. But for me, I found it to be too simple for my ideal workflow. I want to be able to drop in photos, screenshots, text, links, and also have a bit more control over the tools I’m using.

Concepts

The other whiteboarding app I was most drawn to (ha!) was Concepts.

Over on MacStories, John Voorhees saved me a whole lot of time by writing this in-depth review of Concepts before I could write one of my own. (Thanks, John!)

John’s and my use-cases and sentiments are nearly identical. I have no need for drawing or sketching or illustrating. But I do love to be able to quickly visualize bigger ideas / projects into something that make sense. And while there are some excellend mind mapping apps for the iPad, I prefer the free-form drawing nature of a whiteboarding app for the brainstorming and ideation process.

… I realized that the primary value of an app like Concepts lies in helping users record and refine their ideas. Whether your ideas result in something like [Yarrow] Cheney’s whimsical concept art for The Grinch or my messy soup of notes, screenshots, and highlighting, the core utility of Concepts, which is right there in its name, is the way it facilitates the exploration of ideas. That’s an important distinction that makes Concepts an appropriate choice for iPad users regardless of whether you’re an artist.

I haven’t yet spent as much time using Concepts as John has, and so his review taught me a few tips and tricks. And, like John, what I love about the Concepts app is how beautiful and simple it is, and yet how much power lies under the hood.

Compared to the Thoughts app, Concepts still gives you an infinite canvas that can go in any direction you like, but you don’t have complete freedom to zoom in / out forever and thus lose your work to the abyss. Additionally, Concepts puts little arrow darts on the edges of the screen, pointing in the direction that you have any drawings or media. Helping you stay oriented.

Using a whiteboard app like Concepts is definitely a scenario where the 12.9 iPad Pro would shine and be an excellent tool over the 11. But since I can zoom and scroll the canvas, I don’t feel hindered or cramped using the 11-inch iPad Pro.

All in all, the power and flexibility of an infinite canvas, whiteboarding app can be liberating to your ideas. Having both Concepts and the new Apple Pencil at my fingertips is a fantastic combination that has become a go-to in my workflow.

What Drew Me to Infinite Canvas Whiteboard Apps