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personal mba

A week without books – Implementing GTD and thinking

As i wrote in my previous article about 10 pearls of wisdom, I have decided not to read a book this week so that I can focus on implementing the GTD method. This method is, in fact, very promising and I think that I can save a lot of time in the long term, but it also quite demanding to set up. I will write an article for you later telling you how I did it.

Does this mean I have given up on the idea of reading 52 books in 52 weeks? Yes and No. In the last 7 weeks I have read 8 books, including Personal Development for Smart People. Therefore even if I skip a week I am still in the game.

Well OK, Steve Pavlina’s book is not part of my Personal MBA challenge, so I am cheating a little ;) . The GTD method is supposed to save me time, therefore I am not giving up the idea of reading 52 books in 52 weeks. But just as important as the project or the books themselves, is what I will get out of them in my personal and professional life. Now, one of the major pitfalls of my project, which I have been conscious of from the outset, is that the pace I have imposed on myself is preventing me from fully putting into practice what I am learning. I chose to impose one book a week on myself because that seemed to have more benefits than drawbacks.

I envisaged this project also as an experience and not as a set of fixed rules, it is therefore possible that I will modify elements of it for purposes of making it more effective and efficient. For example, I have thought about the idea of switching off so that “one week I read a book and write a summary, then the next week I put it into practice and write an article about it, then continuing on.” But I hesitate to do that. What do you think? Do you think that would take something away from the spirit of the project? Or would I get more benefit from it? What would I lose in the end? I am just at the beginning, so should I keep it up for a while longer before asking myself that question? What do you think?

The Creative Habit – Learn it and use it for life

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The Creative Habit - Learn it and use it for life

One Sentence Summary:

Creativity is learned, nourished and maintained; for inspiration to flow through us and spring forth from the mind, you must prepare, have rituals that invoke it, to know our creative DNA – what we are made for, use our memory and connect disparate things with each other, organize work documents so that we always know where to find them, know how to scratch the surface of things to extract the essential, use the accidents and incidents that that appear in our life, have an idea-base which serves as a backbone for our creation, use our talents wisely, recognize roadblocks and the moments that overtake us, know how to fail, and pace ourselves over the long term – to the very end.

By Twyla Tharp, 243 pages, published in 2003.

Summary and Book Report:

First of all, this book is nice. Not only from the point of view of pure aesthetic, like 45 Effective Ways to Recruit Wisely, but because of all the books I have read for my Personal MBA Challenge this is the one that best that combines form and substance, using one to reinforce the other. Being an amateur writer (of science fiction), I am especially aware of this: why are today’s books content to put sad black letters on a white background, while modern technology allows creativity? It is time that writers understand that their expression space is not confined to words alone, but also to the way in which they are represented. 

The Creative Habit brilliantly manages to break out of this centuries old canvas by using a sober and original framework to highlight key elements of its content. This is done by putting some words in color, or using a larger character that stands out from the rest of the sentence, free placement on the page, or at the bottom of the page, shaded gray, or strategically placed drawings to illustrate the work. This book is therefore a joy to read and it is much easier to glean the important parts from it – it is almost enough to read the big red words. A book which makes excellent use of highlighting – almost reaching utter perfection – is The October Man Sequence, but only the initiated know about it.

Extrait de The Creative Habit - Learn it and use it for life

The Creative Habit - Learn it and use it for life

Great examples of highlighting in the book

Extrait de The October Man Sequence

But the beauty of The October Man Sequence remains unsurpassed. It is a work of art unto itself.

Twyla Tharp is an American dancer and choreographer, born in 1941. She has created numerous ballets and musical comedies, most of which have been successful, and some of which have been seen on Broadway. She directed the opera sequences in the film Amadeus and she has been the recipient of many prizes in her career, which began in 1965. On Youtube there are numerous extracts of her work, and I invite you especially to watch this clip of Movin’ Out – a musical comedy based on the songs of rock star Billy Joel – to give you an idea of her work.

For many people, the beginning, symbolized by finding oneself in an empty room, is something deep, mysterious and terrifying. It’s opening up your word processing software and finding yourself faced with a blank page. It’s picking up your brush and contemplating the immaculate virgin canvas. It’s taking your chisel and moving towards your block of stone in the rough. It’s being in front of the piano, fingers poised over the keys – to create rather than to play.

White space is perhaps humbling. Some people cannot handle it, and choose to avoid it. For Twyla Tharp, facing it is her job. She finds in a white, empty room a mix of challenge and trepidation, as well as peace and promise. Filling this empty room comprises her identity. She has become its roof.

However creativity is not limited to artists. It is important for business men who are looking for new ways to sell, for engineers who are trying to solve a problem, for parents who want their children to see the world in a new light.

We can have a gift and be especially talented to create in a particular area, but whether we are gifted or not, there is no creativity without apprenticeship, without preparation and daily routines which become second nature.

To be creative, you must know how to prepare yourself to be creative.

That’s the object of this book.

Twyla Tharp therefore shares with us the fruits of her 35 years of experience to help us develop, maintain and nourish our creativity, whatever it is. Every chapter, except the first one – is augmented with exercises, to help us practice the concepts that she has just outlined.

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My crazy project: Read 52 of the best business books in 52 weeks, and post a weekly review here on my blog

"You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library."
– Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), Good Will Hunting

First of all I want to introduce myself to those who don’t know me: I am Olivier Roland, I’m 27, I’m French and I manage an information services company that I created when I was 19 (3 people), and I am the author of two other French blogs, Techno Smart (great tools for smart people – that’s the slogan ;) ) and Habitudes Zen (translations of the best articles from the famous blog Zen Habits).

Are you familiar with the Personal MBA? It’s a concept created by Josh Kaufman (following an idea by Seth Godin). Going off the assumption that business schools don’t have a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom, he suggests that every one of us passes a personal MBA by reading a selection of the best business books that exist, around 77 published in 2008 (93 with supplements) in 12 different categories.

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