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The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox — Arts
The Busy Creator Podcast with Prescott Perez-Fox

Conversations on creative culture, workflow, and productivity. The Busy Creator is for you, the creative professional working in arts, design, and media. You’ll hear direct from industry pros and learn the tools, techniques, and habits they’re using in their practice. We discuss strategies and pro tips you can use to be your most creative, productive self and excel in business.

Past guests include designer and entrepreneur Armin Vit, design firm owner and professor Debbie Millman, Pentagram Partner Michael Bierut, author/speaker Todd Henry, and writer Jeff Goins, to name a few.

Latest Episodes:

Todd Henry Returns to Discuss Significance, Vision, and Competence for Creative Pros – The Busy Creator Podcast 64 Aug 10, 2015

Show notes

Todd Henry (@ToddHenry) is an author, speaker, and creative consultant who has written three books, including his newest, Louder Than Words, available August 11, 2015.

Todd Henry’s new book, Louder Than Words

Building on his previous writing efforts, Louder Than Words is aimed at creative professionals who struggle to find significance in the larger arc of their work and careers. Together, we discuss his unwavering writing methodologies, the struggles faced by creative pros at various points in their career, and what he’s discovered in writing and publishing three related books in seven years.

Catch up with Todd at ToddHenry.com, or AccidentalCreative.com

Freedcamp CEO/Co-Founder Angel Grablev Shares the Company’s Origins and Methods for Project Management – The Busy Creator Podcast 63 Aug 03, 2015

Show notes

Angel Grablev (@AngelGrablev) is the CEO and Co-Founder of Freedcamp, an online project management and collaboration application. Angel began Freedcamp as a side project, but has since built a global distributed team, and now works full-time to improve project management for thousands of customers.

Our conversation covers Angel’s previous work as a web developer, Freedcamp’s origins and intents, as well as the trouble faced in conventional project management. We also discuss management style and company culture more generally, as it relates to measured results and keeping your co-workers informed.

Sign up for Freedcamp, for free, at Freedcamp.com

Show Notes & Links

Freedcamp is a collaboration system which helps any team work together on any sort of project.
Prescott learned about Freedcamp from Bryan Orr, when he appeared on Episode 31 – Project Management Tools & Collaboration Software
FTP, the best way to share files not that long ago
Jack Johnson
Lenny Kravitz
Angel’s former employer introduced him to Basecamp
UCSB – University of California at Santa Barbara

“No team is alike.”

—Angel Grablev

Angel got the idea for Freedcamp after attempting to organize a camping trip on email
“Underdo The Competition” — Basecamp’s tagline
iPhone 1, started with basic apps, but the App Store added tons of functionality

“No one is interested in paying money to organize a camping trip.”

—Angel Grablev

Freedcamp boasted 30,000 users in its first year
Some use cases include hurricane clean-up efforts, parent-teacher associations, university students
ADHD & Dyslexia led Angel to becoming a web developer with design skills
Angel built the first HTML5/CSS3 framework, 52 Framework
Santa Barbara City College
Freedcamp’s team lives in California, Australia, Ukraine, and Netherlands
Eating your own dog food
GitHub
Agile Development
Scrum
Waterfall
AMC, users of Freedcamp
A gaming studio used Freedcamp’s Wiki application to plan an entire game
The Wall, a social, less formal place to have conversations within Freedcamp
Reddit
Animated GIFs & Emoji — adding flavour to group chatter

“The biggest gift I have is the people I work with.”

—Angel Grablev

The One Thing by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan On Amazon and On Audible
Angel broke the daily habit of drinking a Monster Energy Drink each morning
bacn, the newsletters and other stuff in your inbox that isn’t quite spam
Ramit Sethi‘s example of Flossing One Tooth

“Take one step, everything else will take care of itself.”

—Angel Grablev

Tools

Freedcamp
Gmail
Google Docs
Basecamp
Jira from Atlassian
Trello or Asana, competitors to Freedcamp
Adobe Photoshop
PNGHat & CSSHat, plugins for Photoshop
XAMPP, to run local servers
JQuery & Angular.js frameworks
Skitch, for screenshots
Sketch, for interface design
Fireworks, InDesign, for vector-based design

Techniques

Reduce email; get everyone on a project mgmt. app as soon as possible
Don’t build a huge feature list; go for simple and easy to use
Think about where your product can grow
Find a technical co-founder; don’t suffer alone with skills you lack.
Go for 80% functionality and create a workaround for the final 20%
Be flexible with how you use any tool
Use [brackets] or #hashtags as a DIY way to have tags/categories
Create a catch-all “bucket” of to-dos for your company. It deters meetings & email.
Discover what works best for your team
Write down decisions made in [daily] meetings
Skim, don’t read, email. Just look for critical things.
Pause and look for the “most important thing”
Break down a project into two-week increments

Habits

Track time to get an accurate picture of your week, and to send invoices
Be social with your co-workers on the Wall
Establish a daily standup meeting to discuss what you’re working on
Follow-up and share results for projects or tasks
Continually gather ideas from your team
Use three monitors for Photoshop, Code, and Browsers
Quit Caffeine (be prepared for headaches)
Avoid email first thing; instead do your most important work first

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Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get Remote: Office Not Required by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson as a free audiobook

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 63 (MP3, 52:35, 25.3 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 63 (OGG, 52:35, 26.3 MB)

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Programmer & Developer Ben Borowski explores the creative side of software and shares his recent personal projects – The Busy Creator Podcast 62 Jul 20, 2015

Show notes

Ben Borowski (@TypeOneError) is a software developer and programmer based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In past years, Ben run a small studio doing web development for top agencies, but has recently made a move to create his own project, and is working on that full-time.

Ben is one half of Oki Doki, along with Designer & Digital Strategist Marie Poulin. Together, the duo are hard at work on Doki, a web platform to build and run online courses and communities. In this conversation, Ben discusses the creative side of programming, the definition of a “coder”, and the challenges of putting aside client projects for the endeavor of building your own app.

Catch up with Ben on his site, Type One Error, or check out Doki.io.

Show Notes & Links

Marie Poulin was a guest on The Busy Creator Podcast last year
Ben defines himself broadly as a web developer, but more specifically as a programmer in Ruby, and other disciplines
TWiT – This Week in Tech
Ben doesn’t subscribe to the idea that “Coders aren’t necessarily programmers”
If Statements, For Loops – essentials in programming
Mark-up is code

“I’ve met many computer science guys … who are completely stumped by CSS.”

—Ben Borowski

“If you’re building a website and you write HTML tags, you’re a coder.”

—Ben Borowski

Markdown, the coding format for Reddit comments
Dustin Hartzler, WordPress Engineer and host Your Website Engineer Podcast
Podcast Movement Conference

“Programing is more technical … but making software is creative.”

—Ben Borowski

Product Designer, as the term applies to web design, can incorporate development/programming
Open-Source, a place for inspiration
Ben consults and develops cross-platform games, and other projects
Doki, currently in development as a consulting platform and will be a public product soon
Previous guests on The Busy Creator Podcast have discussed online teaching, such as Karen Marston, Steve Dotto
Javascript framework Ember.js (similar to Ruby-on-Rails for the front end of the website)
Prescott attended Drexel University, a school set up on the quarter system.
Alpha testers

You can’t have nine people make a baby in one month.

—productivity adage

Unit Tests or Feature Tests are useful for programmers when merging code and error-correcting
Material Design, from Google — hard to describe because it’s almost like a framework … for design
Facebook asks developers to work on the main product in their first week
Gone in 60 Seconds, writing on the walls in detergent and using a blacklight
Type One Error
Oki Doki
Ben Borowski on Twitter
Ben Borowski on Facebook

Tools

HTML to Markdown converter
Markdown to HTML converter
WordPress
Jetpack, the official suite of plugins for WordPress
Infusionsoft
MailChimp
Google Analytics
WishList for WordPress
Platform-as-a-server
Amazon web services
Heroku
EngineYard
9Folds
Sit or Stand adjustable GeekDesk
MacBook Pro
SublimeText
GitTower, a GUI application for managing Git projects
iTerm, Terminal replacement for Mac
Homebrew, a Ruby Framework
Vagrant, custom virtual machines on your system
Teamwork.com
EcoStatic Slickynotes

Techniques

Write your WordPress entries in Markdown — it’s fast and simple
Examine where you can reduce lines of code, load time, etc.
Launch first, and then go back and optimise
More team members always help the progress of a programming project
Give your team the building blocks, for design or programming alike
Develop a naming and organization system — any system — for your team to follow
Require new [programming] employees to push live code to the site on day one; this teaches them the entire process
Head to a coffee shop or co-working space 2-3 days/week even if you prefer to work from home
Keep a clean image of your system after a fresh reinstall
If you can, go full-time toward developing a product rather than try to cram it in “after hours”

Habits

Jog or Rock-Climb
Take breaks to walk (or wrestle with) the dog
Do some exercise in the morning, even stretching
Drink and eat in the morning (write it down if necessary)

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get The Healthy Programmer by Joe Kutner as a free audiobook

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 62 (MP3, 46:17, 22.5 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 62 (OGG, 46:17, 39.8 MB)

Subscribe to Get New Episodes

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Woodworker & Furniture Maker Matt Cremona discusses self-teaching and doing a solo video show - The Busy Creator Podcast 61 Jul 06, 2015

Show notes

Matt Cremona (@MattCremona) is best known for his woodworking video channel on YouTube. Primarily self-taught, Matt challenges himself to build beautiful furniture, going so far as to cut and prepare the timber, documenting the forest-to-finished-piece process along the way.

Matt’s background is diverse, with previous work in software development, interface design, and economics. Together we discuss wood, carpentry and essential tools, and producing a weekly video show. Check out his videos and some of his work at MattCremona.com

Show Notes & Links

Woodworking with Matt Cremona on YouTube
Matt calls himself a “furniture maker” because he doesn’t focus on pure design
Matt, a former software designer, learned to build and maintain homes by working for his landlord
Unlike most woodworkers, Matt will take a piece from forest to showroom.
Adam Smith wrote about the input of labour into the cost of goods
Matt studied Business Finance and Vertical Integration

“Everything I have that’s useful in my day-to-day life … I taught myself.”

—Matt Cremona

Autodidact

“Every time [timber] changes hands, the cost doubles.”

—Matt Cremona

Dovetail Joint & Half-blind Dovetail Joint
Dovetail Joint

Half-Blind Dovetail Joint
Matt’s Shop Update — published every Monday, after four hours of production
Matt learned video editing in the high school A/V club, and returned to the practice years later
Lindsay Katt, quotable past guest on The Busy Creator Podcast
Calculus

“Geometry plays an incredibly large part in what I do.”

—Matt Cremona

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Is this a Rhombus or a Kite?
Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and other electronics
Modding XBOX to build a Linux web server, for example
Prescott aspires to 3D model and print his own steampunk outlet covers
Drywall anchors, tile spacers — can be 3D printed
Drywall anchors, will be 3D printed as needed in the future
The original Metre was just a brass bar with two chinks in it (now it’s the oscillations of a Krypton ion)
The First Metre
A Foot is actually defined by its proportion of a Metre — .3048m exactly
Chroma keying (green screen)
Slabbing up a 6000-lb red oak log
Matt’s Cherry Cabinet project
Selecting the panels for the doors
Matt Cremona on Twitter
Matt Cremona on Facebook
Matt Cremona on Instagram

Tools

Milling machines such as jointers, planers
YouTube, for learning just about anything
A second monitor (the best tool for a digital workflow)
Display Fusion, and other Taskbar management apps for dual monitors
Evernote
Adobe Premiere
Stabilization Plugins
Saws – hand saw, circular saw, mitre saw

Techniques

Examine your material costs and where you can save money by producing your own
Hire a guy with a saw mill, rather than try to do that part yourself
Look for trees that have already fallen or been damaged
Publish a weekly update to force yourself to do something each week
Fight to have everything square from the start
Keep an old computer in your shop and look at your notes
Shop for used equipment, build your workshop slowly
Arrange your workshop around your workflow; place first-run tools closer to the door
Pick a first project before you choose your first tools
Bring a camera and record events … you never know when you’ll need the footage!
Learn to use the grain of the wood

Habits

Combine power tools with hand tools
Find the time that’s most productive for your (midnight–3:00am for Matt)
Prepare and eat pancakes every day
Answer email and connect via social early in the morning, get it out of the way
Map out “main goals” for each day

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 61 (MP3, 51:37, 25.1 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 61 (OGG, 51:37, 42.5 MB)

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Copywriter, Author, and Journalist Kristen Fischer Discusses Life as a Freelancer – The Busy Creator 60 Jun 22, 2015

Show notes

Kristen Fischer (@KristenFischer) is an independent copywriter, author, and journalist living and working at the Jersey Shore. Following a stint as a cub reporter, she turned to freelance writing, making efforts to diversify her professional practice along the way.

A proponent of freelancing and professional issues around independent creatives, Kristen co-hosts Freelance Radio and has written When Talent Isn’t Enough, a business guide for creative professionals.

Our conversation covers writing tactics, the relationships between designers and writers, and how Kristen balances client work with authoring books. We also discuss the emotional trials of freelancing and some of the mistakes made and drama faced in her earlier years. Catch up with Kristen via her site, KristenFischer.com

Show Notes & Links

Kristen describes herself as a copywriter, journalist, author
Part of being a business writing is taking less-than-brilliant assignments at times
Two camps of copy — white papers, articles, and other long-form vs headlines, lead-in paragraphs, and short forms
Kristen teams up with designers; the best relationships work when writers think with design in mind and vice-versa
Kristen approaches a project as a journalism, getting right to “the gist”
Prescott wrote for The Triangle, the student newspaper of Drexel University
Kristen studied Environmental Science … naturally.
As a freelancer, Kristen, like Prescott, has worked part-time jobs to cover the gaps
Previous episode with Jeff Goins, author of The Art of Work

“Sometimes freelancing ‘on the side’ is very difficult to manage.”

—Prescott Perez-Fox

“Don’t ‘take the leap’, instead ‘build a bridge.'”

—Jeff Goins

The Art of Work by Jeff Goins On Amazon and On Audible
Kristen worked as a night editor for a year while she was building her freelance practice

“The first few years [as a freelancer], I was a hot mess.”

—Kristen Fischer

Freelancers typically struggle with one of three things: Staying energized, staying motivated, staying organized
Kristen struggles with long-term vision and emotional context, Prescott struggles with focus hour-by-hour
Our previous episode on Mind Hacking with Sir John Hargave
Kristen has a dedicated home office, where her four cats make themselves comfy
Creatively Self-Employed by Kristen Fischer On Amazon
Ramen Noodles, Rent, and Resumes by Kristen Fischer On Amazon
When Talent Isn’t Enough by Kristen Fischer On Amazon
50 Shades of Grey began life as Twilight fan fiction
Kristen Fischer on Twitter
Kristen Fischer on Facebook
Kristen Fischer on Instagram

Tools

Microsoft Word
Galaxy Note
Lenovo Yoga II
Docking station
iPod
Mozy, for backups
FitBit

Techniques

Keep an email headline to 50 characters
Marketing messages differ from subject matter messages
Concentrate on the gist, and add tone after
Write using an “Inverted Pyramid” for articles — if the bottom gets cut off, it doesn’t matter
The order of writing: Intro — Need — Call to Action. But that might change depending on the client and medium.
Keep asking yourself “why am I doing this?” and purse the long-term goals
Learn to develop a thick skin as a freelancer, not to take things personally

Habits

POP your troublesome tasks. (POP = Procrastinate on Purpose)
Schedule admin tasks like invoicing
Schedule time within the routine to work on your book or side project; a big block of time won’t appear
Stay “old school” with software and office tech
Clear your household to-do list so it doesn’t interfere with your business tasks
Give yourself permission to have a flexibility schedule (gym in the morning, when everyone else is at work)
Use Sunday as a Writing Day — go to Starbucks

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get The Art of Work by Jeff Goins as a free audiobook

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 60 (MP3, 51:34, 24.9 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 60 (OGG, 51:34, 43.6 MB)

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Prepare to Share, methods and mindset for bringing others into your projects – The Busy Creator Podcast 59 Jun 11, 2015

Show notes

For a full text transcript, see the show notes at http://busycreator.com/59

Tools

Techniques

Imagine an ideal workflow before you start sharing it
Store all files in an agreed-upon place, preferable automatically backed up
Use a tasking app for simple items
Review work online and be clear in your writing
Back everything up!

Habits

Track time and report daily or weekly, if not continually via a system

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 59 (MP3, 17:09, 8.5 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 59 (OGG, 17:09, 15.2 MB)

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The Busy Creator - programming note May 27, 2015

Show notes

Programming note from Prescott — The Busy Creator Podcast will switch release schedule for the summer to *every other week* rather than weekly. Episodes will resume Monday, June 1, 2015. Thanks for listening and supporting.

The Busy Creator 58 w/guest Karen Marston May 18, 2015

Show notes

Karen Marston (@KarenMarston) is an independent copywriter and the founder of Untamed Writing. Dissatisfied with her earlier roles, Karen took to writing SEO-focused articles and now works with clients writing bold, memorable copy for websites and other projects.

Her latest project is a foray into teaching. She now instructs others how to be effective, productive freelance writers. Our conversation discusses her personal workflows and habits, as well as her outlook on teaching and client project management.

Show Notes & Links

Karen describes herself simply as “a writer”
Karen started writing SEO-optimised articles — 500 word articles heavy with keywords to bring attention to the clients
Lately, Karen is taking on personal writing
JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, has a higher net worth than Queen Elizabeth II
Karen now earns more from teaching than from writing
Organisations struggle to have a voice, even though they talk about “brand voice” and whatnot

“As much as graphics and photos are essential on the web, it’s still mostly a written medium.”

—Prescott Perez-Fox

“A brand is the human component of a non-human entity.”

—Prescott Perez-Fox

Eat24, Mailchimp — brands with personality, especially in their written voices

“Serious and professional are not the same thing. You can be professional without being serious.”

—Karen Marston

Part of being a professional means pushing back against clients
Scrum-Sprint Methodology
A number of Karen’s students have self-confidence issues, which inhibits their careers as a freelance writer
The Top 3 Things that Stop Talented Writers Making Money

“I’m a best-selling author, not a best-writing author.”

-Robert Kiyosaki

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki On Amazon and On Audible
Untamed Writing School
Karen Marston on Twitter
Karen Marston on Facebook
Untamed Writing on Facebook
Karen Marston on Instagram

Tools

Facebook groups, especially if it’s your group
Location Rebel, and its forum
Trello, for to-do lists
Paper “catch-all” notebooks
Evernote
MacBook Air
StandStand
Kneeling Chair, as used by Lisa Simpson
Lisa Simpson uses a kneeling chair
OpenOffice
Dropbox

Techniques

Drop the serious, professional, corporate persona and write like an actual person
Be surprisingly human in your writing
Keep projects to two week periods: first week is planning, strategy, and first draft. Second week is for editing.
Allow unlimited revisions … but limit the time of the overall projects
Don’t specify to clients why you’re unavailable, just say when you can fit them in
Offer to connect a client with another writer (or designer)
Participate in a community and observe the questions being asked … then seek to answer them.

Habits

Cross a big diagonal stripe across a paper to show that everything on it is finished
Don’t get out of bed until getting 8 hours sleep
Take time on Mondays to plan the week
[Try to] work out everyday, perhaps taking a 28-day challenge
Avoid the supermarket on Sundays (take advantage of your own schedule)

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki as a free audiobook

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 58 (MP3, 37:06, 18 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 58 (OGG, 37:06, 31.4 MB)

Subscribe to Get New Episodes

Subscribe to The Busy Creator Podcast on iTunes

The Busy Creator 57 w/guest Eric Peterson May 11, 2015

Show notes

Eric Peterson is a veteran cartoonist & artist who worked across a variety of industries and niches, through advertising & commercial art, and now as a independent artist. Eric has developed a signature style, based in abstraction and surrealism, and referencing silkscreen and printing techniques of centuries past.

Catch up with Eric and see some of his work on his Facebook page.

The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 57 with Cartoonist & Illustrator Eric Peterson 2015.05.11/0 Comments/in Podcast Episodes /by Prescott Perez-Fox

Eric Peterson is a veteran cartoonist & artist who worked across a variety of industries and niches, through advertising & commercial art, and now as a independent artist. Eric has developed a signature style, based in abstraction and surrealism, and referencing silkscreen and printing techniques of centuries past.

Catch up with Eric and see some of his work on his Facebook page.

Listen Now

THE BUSY CREATOR PODCAST WITH PRESCOTT PEREZ-FOX

Ep. 57 w/Eric Peterson

Eric Peterson’s artwork

Eric Peterson’s artwork

Eric Peterson’s artwork

Eric Peterson’s artwork

Eric drawing a character, without formal sketching

Show Notes & Links

Eric describes his work as strange, surreal
Eric’s influences were comic books and book illustration
Dr. Seuss
Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak On Amazon and On Audible
Block-printing and engraving, methods of reproducing illustration in centuries past
Example of an engraving illustration
Cross-hatching, a shading technique
Crosshatch styles
Gray’s Anatomy, originally published 1858
Dr. Henry Vandyke Carter, the unsung illustrator for Gray’s Anatomy
Eric worked in advertising in the 80s, but didn’t find creative satisfaction
Stream of consciousness
Zen
Canadian publisher taking on Eric’s next comic project

“A true artist does things that are organic or abstract.”

—Eric Peterson

Silkscreen

“There’s something that happens in spontaneity that lends a huge visual aspect that fine-tuning just doesn’t have.”

—Eric Peterson

Joel Duggan, cartoonist & illustrator, appeared on The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 2

“Coffee and drawing is perfect.”

—Eric Peterson

Art methods of old
The Learners by Chip Kidd On Amazon and On Audible
Brazil, The movie, written by Terry Gilliam
Eric Peterson on Facebook

Tools

Drafting table
India Ink
No. 2 or No. 4 Watercolor brush
Japanese brush pens
Red photo pencil

Techniques

Allow the writing to lead the art, as well as the art lead the writing
Take a break — perhaps even months or years
Keep your pencil sketching loose, let the inking process take the lead
Procrastinate on purpose, to take meaningful break
Embrace creative distraction

Habits

Sketch ideas as they pop into your head, don’t let them vanish
Wake up with coffee and enjoy the rituals of all its sensory aspects
Carry a sketchbook at all times!

Try Audible.com Free for 30-Days

Visit BusyCreatorBook.com for your free trial

Get The Learners by Chip Kidd as a free audiobook

Get The Episode

Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 57 (MP3, 30:19, 14.8 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 57 (OGG, 30:19, 22.8 MB)

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Join the Discussion

Leave a comment below to participate in the conversation.

About Prescott Perez-Fox Prescott Perez-Fox is a New York-based graphic designer and brand developer with 14+ years experience in branding, packaging, graphic design, and web design. He runs The Busy Creator.

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Tags: advertising, art, brush, cartoon, commercial art, Eric Peterson, illustration, ink, printing, silkscreen, sketch You might also like The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 47 with Digital Strategist & Author Lucy Leiderman The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 48 with Commercial Artist Eric Kass The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 2 with Illustrator & Cartoonist Joel Duggan The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 12 with Co-Founder of It's Nice That and Design Entrepreneur Will Hudson The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 27 with Video Producer & Director Christopher Sharpe Field Report: How Armin Vit & Joel Duggan Structure Their Mornings RECENT BLOG POSTS

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The Busy Creator 56, Mind Hacking w/Sir John Hargrave May 04, 2015

Show notes

Sir John Hargrave (@SirJohnHargrave) is the CEO of Media Shower, a content marketing and media company. Following a background as a high profile internet prankster, he has examined the conditions and obstacles that modern professionals face — many of which are mental. His upcoming book Mind Hacking discusses techniques for training a stronger mind and overcoming these obstacles.

Our conversation discusses the symptoms that affect creative pros and how we can hack our mind with simple, daily techniques and habits.

More information about the book is available at MindHacki.ng. The book isn’t published until 2016, but previews and digital versions are available on the site.

Show Notes & Links

Sir John Hargrave is a renowned Internet prankster
Boston, Lincolnshire
John is the CEO of Media Shower, a content media company
“Sir” John received his knighthood by way of a name-change at the local county courthouse
Queen Elizabeth II and her many, many titles
The requirements to receive a knighthood (or a MBE, OBE, CBE, etc.)
Mind-hacking came about from John’s work with clients and employees, many of whom are creative and seeking peak productivity
Hacking, in the sense of tinkering, not infiltrating
The brain is not the mind
Most of our problems are based in the mind
Classic creative problem: procrastination

“[Mind-Hacking] is a bit like training a disobedient dog.”

—Sir John Hargrave

New Age Vibe

“We need to de-mistify meditation. It’s strength training for the mind.”

—Sir John Hargrave

Creatives can be precious, and it stops us from making decisions
The January Joiners
“Install” a habit (again, the computer metaphor)
A university study of quality over quantity, life drawing — two groups, who improved more
The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg On Amazon and On Audible
An experiment revealed that Professors who wrote a little each day reached tenure faster
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin On Amazon and On Audible
Ben Franklin’s Schedule
“Address powerful goodness” -Ben Franklin
3MIT — Three Most Important Things
“Eat That Frog” methodology, introduced by Mark Twain
Eisenhower Methodology for Urgent vs. Important
Limbic System, a component of our “Lizard Brain”
El Coquí (Eleutherodactylus coqui), a tiny frog native to Puerto Rico
El Coquí
Research shows that multitasking is less effective
Multitasking is usually “Rapid Switching”

“When you split an atom, energy escapes. When you switch tasks, focus escapes.”

—Prescott Perez-Fox

Programmers get in the zone (hence the headphones)
It can take 15-20 minutes or more to get back in the zone after a distraction
Psychic Exhaustion, when you feel mentally depleted
Manager’s Time vs. Maker’s Time, by Paul Graham
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber On Amazon and On Audible
Entrepreneurs have to make the thing, manage the business, and build the business
Mind Hacking is expected to drop July 2016, but previews are available now
Mind Hacking is available as ePub, PDF, and Kindle format
Sir John Hargrave on Twitter
Sir John Hargrave on Facebook
Sir John Hargrave on YouTube

Tools

Post-Its
Coach.me, an exercise app with goals, etc.
Mind-Hacking program on Coach.me includes a 21-day plan

Techniques

Learn to detach from your mind, to observe moments where we stray and get distracted
Concentration Training aka Mindfulness aka Meditation
Treat Concentration Training like a video game. Award yourself “awareness points” whenever you bring your mind back from distraction
Replace “All or Nothing” thinking with “Habit Formation” thinking
Set up a queue and a reward for each [desired] habit
Keeps rewards positive and healthy (smoothies, relaxing with a book)
“Eat a frog” early in the day
Reduce Multitasking, Increase Focus
Mental Decluttering: look for alerts and distractions you can shut off

Habits

Produce something everyday; eventually your quality will improve as well as quantity
Make list of “Positive Loops”, small goals which help your practice and life
3MIT methodology
Get mental rest during the day, not just at the end

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Get The Power of Habit by Charles Duhig as a free audiobook

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Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 56 (MP3, 37:28, 18.2 MB)
Download The Busy Creator Podcast, episode 56 (OGG, 37:28, 30.2 MB)

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