The Best Advice My (Nutty) Karate Teacher Ever Gave Me

If you’ve ever taken a look at my photo, you might be surprised to discover that I’m a killing machine.

That’s right. Green belt black tip in the deadly art of karate, courtesy of three years of classes at my local YWCA.

This is a few years back.

I’d like to pretend that my martial arts training took […]

The 10 O’Clock Rule

This is a nifty one, simple to implement and, in my experience, surprisingly effective.

Set your watch to beep every night at 10 o’clock.

When your watch goes off, get up that instant and prepare for morning. Whether you’re in the middle of watching a DVD, rushing to meet a work deadline, reading that one last blog […]

Work + School + Life = Impossible?

Okay, the Discrete Math class I’m taking is kicking my ass. I did pretty well during the first half of the course, but now the amount of work is intensifying. I’m learning lots, but is it really possible to work full time, take classes, blog, and still have a fabulous designer life? I’m beginning to […]

Decimate Those “Someday” Projects with Triangulation

You’ve got at least one Big Project on your someday list, or at least in the back of your mind: that novel/painting/web start-up/symphony you’ve always wanted to tackle “when the time is right.” One day, you tell yourself, when there’s a nice long lull, you’ll get to it, but until then it’s nose-to-the-grindstone on more […]

Quickly Prioritize Notes with Color-coded Shorties

I’m a stationery nerd. I can’t resist poring over the shelves of office supply stores for unusual items that might fit a tricky niche in my productivity lifestyle.

Occasionally I strike gold. For instance, this weekend I discovered Pacon’s exellent blank tagboard flash cards. They come in boxes of 1,000 in an assortment of 5 colors. […]

Where to Find Greeting Cards that Don’t Suck

Being a designer is a curse. Why? Because everything around you looks like crap. That includes menus, signs, websites, business cards, and worst of all, greeting cards. Go down the greeting card aisle in any drugstore, and you’ll soon be overloaded with banal cartoons, flowers, and kittens. And don’t even get me started on the […]