1. At the beginning of every day, mentally fast-forward to the end of the day, and ask yourself: When the day is over, what three thing will I want to have accomplished? Write those three things down.
2. Do the same thing at the beginning of every week.
Inspiration from The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.
What is user-centric design?
Ellen Lupton needs no introduction, and in her book Beautiful Users she once again taps into our design brains to challenge and empower brilliant thinking. Like copy, I believe that great design is created using brilliant strategy.
“Design isn’t simply about beauty anymore. It’s about making things relevant. When designers create products, spaces, or media, they inevitably ask along the way how human beings will interact with their work.”
Effective design is about finding a solution from the point of view of the user. Beautiful Users explores the changing relationship between designers and users and considers various design methodologies and practices, using user research, hacking, open source development, and the maker culture.
Recently, a designer friend and I were discussing whether design shaped the future of technology. Design indeed is very important in today’s day and age. Apple practically invented the concept, and set the bar high for products to look as good (or even better) than they functioned. But their now iconic designs were inspired by Braun products from a previous generation. Nest is one of those cutting-edge designs that had drawn my obsession over the last few years. Designed by Tony Fadell, it’s as beautiful looking as it is wonderfully practical. It goes beyond the perfunctory homage we give to “form follows function”. Instead, it embraces what Frank Lloyd Wright argued for in that “Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
Nest brings advanced interaction to a basic home device. Smartphone apps allow the user to program the thermostat remotely and to track energy use over time. Yes, I love Nest. There are competitors in this category — namely Honeywell and Ecobee — although I would argue that nestled in great branding and product, is a design that has allowed the company to fly by its competition and feather its own nest comfortably in this early battle of “internet of things” smart thermostats. After all, brilliant strategy without brilliant execution is invisible.
Friday inspiration looking at artful books.
Uplifting art to brighten your day.
Source: From Rain To Rainbows by Chronicle Books
Look no further than this collection from Chronicle Books.
Writers and illustrators can say goodbye to their creative block.
These pocket books offer prompts to spark inspiration in a flash.
From writing a convocation speech for preschoolers going off to kindergarten, to drawing a number on a rotary phone, these prompts will tap into the most obscure part of your thinking to help you clear your mind and solve any creative problem at hand.
642 Tiny Things To Write About
It’s always nice to be inspired and aspire towards greatness.
Most Creative People In Business 2015 | #success #smallbiz #ThinkBlink http://t.co/Bsm5s42Gcu
— Shilpa #ThinkBlink (@ShilpaRaikar) September 29, 2015
Is there a secret formula to help you worry less, achieve more and above all, rekindle the passion for your work? According to Graham Allcott, there is. He the author of the new book, How To Be A Productivity Ninja, and has a few tips up his sleeves.
This is not a book on time management. Graham suggests that time management is dead; somewhere along the journey the game changed. Today we are bombarded constantly with emails, social media, voicemails, text messages, instant messages, intranet, conference calls, collaboration tools…and this happens 24/7.
Get one thing straight, you will never get everything done.
“The trouble is, the modern work paradigm gives us so little sense of completion or clear space that it feels like we’re constantly straining to see the light at the end of a long, long tunnel. And when the light at the end of the tunnel finally approaches, you realize that it’s just some nasty bloke with a torch bringing you more work to do.”
So how do we cope and be productive in this new work era?
Graham Allcott talks about something he calls “skilful attention management”. This he claims is the new key to productivity. How you use your attention and productivity will be crucial in your success. The challenge will be battling stress, procrastination, interruptions, distractions and annoying work practices.
How To Be A Productivity Ninja guides you through the process of developing your ninja mindset and then applying that to every area of your working life — and beyond. Don’t aim for perfection, Graham says. Instead, operate from a default position of organization to achieve a super-productive ripple effect.
The bottom line is this: Be a ninja not a superhero. The latter is an unrealistic dream, a fantasy that can never be fulfilled.
If you’d like to pick up the book and start your ninja training, you’ll find it at your local bookstore or at amazon.ca
Top-notch campaigns that have gone live without pretesting include Allstate‘s “Mayhem” and Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” And as more marketers rely on gut feel rather than time-consuming consumer surveys while they pump out content on tight time frames, ads are being judged, altered and sometimes expanded after they are in market, using tools like social listening to gauge viewer engagement.
Adapted from Advertising Age.
Need For Speed in Digital Putting Copy Testing to the Test | CMO Strategy – Advertising Age http://t.co/XXOFP53I9D
— Shilpa #ThinkBlink (@ShilpaRaikar) September 15, 2015
If you are paid to be a creative, conceptual thinker, then it is easy to get pulled into the drudgery of looming deadlines and pressures of production and deadlines. It may seem that delving into a bit of creativity and playful diversion is a waste of time. But the fact is, that is really far from it.
Danny Gregory’s book Art Before Breakfast is my latest obsession. I’ve learnt that making art will make me saner and happier. And, to tell you the truth, starting off my day with a contour drawing of my desk (my first project) really did help me begin the day less stressed. I felt like I was Picasso, exploring new territory, seeing my environment (in this case my desk) for the first time in a very different way. The various pieces I had on my messy desk reminded me of why I selected them in the first place. To inspire me.
But the art we are talking about here is far from the art that’s in museums and art galleries. Danny Gregory calls it art – with a small “a”.
art with a small “a” is not a product. It’s a point of view. While Art is made by trained professionals and experts, art is made by accountants, farmers and stay-at-home moms at restaurant tables. All it takes is desire and just 15 mins a day. And, this type of art gives you perspective and purpose.
Art Before Breakfast is published by Chronicle Books and distributed in Canada via Raincoast Books.
A cartoon by Benjamin Schwartz. See more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/1MpjpB0
Posted by The New Yorker on Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Via @mashable
Weirdly, in the context of innovation, impossible questions are more useful than hard questions. http://t.co/euEnlpQDey
— Shilpa #ThinkBlink (@ShilpaRaikar) July 7, 2015