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Negative Space
One of my clients has been experimenting with creating more space in his day after work. He’ll get off work a little earlier and do whatever he needs to do for “life” stuff – unpack, re-register his car, change over insurance, etc. before bedtime. This “negative space” is allowing him to get administrative tasks done,…
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“Unproductive” Saturdays
“Unproductive” Saturdays are sometimes the most productive day of the week. When I try to make every day as productive as possible, I will crash and have a very unproductive day (or days) and worsening health symptoms. What I do on these “unproductive” Saturdays matters. Video games and watching TV do not relax me the…
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A Weird List
I have a weird list. I’ve experimented with many self-improvement hacks and there’s one I’ve found useful for managing chronic illness. I have a list of half a dozen or so things that I need to do or my health will suffer. They vary in difficulty, but the secret sauce is having one or two…
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How much is too much?
I was talking to a client about how to judge when too much is too much — and then I didn’t. This client was talking about how he generally does better if he takes a quarter to a third of the days off in a month. He wants to try to do that on the…
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Make It About Them
All of the best connections I’ve made have been focused on the other person without expecting anything in return. Sometimes I make it about me, and it doesn’t work. When I make it about the person I’m talking to, that’s when impactful moments and deep connections are born. I think of prompting my grandpa to…
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What’s the First Obvious Action?
I was talking to a client today about how even finding the right phone number to call can make a big difference in whether or not we call to negotiate a bill or make an appointment. If we know the number we can stick it next to the to-do item in our list. We both…
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Slow is Fast?
I was talking to a client who wanted to slow down some of the things he was doing because he realized that trying to push harder was actually setting him back. I laughed (internally) when I heard that because I was a little late for that call so when I went to my computer I…
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“Is this the most important thing that I could be doing right now?”
“Is this the most important thing that I could be doing right now?” I started asking myself this question and find it liberating. No. I don’t have to read the fancy Sherlock Holmes books a friend gave me when I’d rather listen to the audiobook. No. I don’t have to read Made to Stick. It…
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What is the Goal? – and New List Schedule
Imagine this. You’re in the big city. You like going to cafes. You like being able to go for a hike and go out on the town in the same day. You have a freelance software development business and it’s going great. You’re making just enough to support the “big city” lifestyle, more or…
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Raising Prices
It occurred to me that I haven’t done an email specifically on resources for raising prices. This is what I and my clients have found useful for charging more while creating better outcomes for our clients: The Why Conversation by Jonathan Stark (11 min): https://podcast.ditchinghourly.com/episodes/the-why-conversation The Why Conversation helps you uncover a prospect’s underlying motivations,…