Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

Another one of Monday’s ses­sions I really enjoyed was given by Scott Belsky of Behance. For those of you that don’t know about the com­pany, they main­tain sev­eral cre­ative ini­tia­tives. They include the Behance net­work, an online cre­ative com­mu­nity; a line of pro­duc­tiv­ity prod­ucts, a method­ol­ogy for pro­duc­tiv­ity and the core of their com­pany: the Action Method, the newly-launched Creative Index, as well as var­i­ous arti­cles and tips. More projects are in the works.

I am a huge fan of the com­pany and their prod­ucts. I have my own pro­file up here. I haven’t got­ten to use the site to its full poten­tial just yet, but so far it’s been great to get feed­back on my work and vir­tu­ally meet some new people.

Belsky’s talk cen­tered on the phi­los­o­phy behind the action method and their process inter­nally. But the bulk of the talk included an exten­sive list of tips for pro­duc­tiv­ity. A few I found most helpful:

1. Distinguish urgent vs. important
2. Spend energy on stay­ing orga­nized > cre­ativ­ity x orga­ni­za­tion = impact
3. Measure a meet­ing in action steps > pro­tect your time
4. Don’t meet just because it’s Monday
5. Create a back­burner rit­ual > keep a sep­a­rate Word doc etc. and go through periodically
6. Prioritize projects visu­ally with an energy line
7. Don’t become bur­dened by consensus
8. Take the team’s tem­per­a­ture
9. Always move the ball for­ward
   
10. Seek restraints