self improvement

Where I Get All My Writing Ideas From

/ Stuart Danker / 124 Comments

A bunch of people brain storming in a meeting room with a cork board and post-it notes

Where do you get your ideas from?

I personally can’t say. I know when they have the most odds of showing up, but I don’t exactly know where they come from.

But as fate would have it, my friend would ask me this question on a particularly eventless morning, and that would be the tinder for this post. So Wan, if you’re reading this, that’s how I get my ideas.

Maybe this post will answer that question proper. Or maybe I’m just writing this because I need something for this week. Either way, let’s take a quick tour through my Idea Central and see if we can source for its… uh… source.

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The Things I’ve Removed For A Better Life

/ Stuart Danker / 112 Comments

Someone burning a receipt with a lighter, with a text overlay: Less, but better

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It’s easy to want more in life. In fact, we’re programmed that way. Give us a taste of sugar and next we’ll want doughnuts. Earn our first million and we’ll look for a billion.

The hedonic treadmill is real, and constantly running is not the path to happiness. If anything, it’ll probably highlight just how capable you are of crying in your Lamborghini.

Of course, I shouldn’t comment since I don’t have a Lamborghini, but I did win the lottery where authordom is concerned—a traditionally-published novel along with the subsequent press coverage.

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How To Shift Gears And Rev Up Your Productivity

/ Stuart Danker / 58 Comments

Orange supercar with superimposed text saying: go from 0–100 real quick (kinda)

When’s the last time you drove a stick shift?

Seems like an irrelevant question, until you recall the fact that I’m a writer. And as it turns out, being a writer affords me the ability to make the zaniest of analogies. Hence today we officiate the marriage between productivity and driving a manual transmission.

But first off, let’s discuss productivity overdrive (PO). Is it a fancy new term I made up? Yes. Is it important? Not really. Should we still treat it like pre-existing corporate lingo? Most definitely.

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How My Failed 2022 Will Help Improve My 2023

/ Stuart Danker / 106 Comments

An ice cream that fell to the floor

This is it. Another year has passed, which means it’s time for the New Year’s resolutions posts.

I thought of joining the fun, but then I realised how much I’ve yet to achieve for 2022. So for my final post of this year, I figured I’d reflect on my shortcomings instead of my hopes and dreams.

Because as Socrates said, an unexamined life is one not worth living. So let’s examine mine and we’ll see if I can cough up some lessons on how to make the most out of 2023.

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This Is How You Fail At Overcoming Procrastination

/ Stuart Danker / 88 Comments

A photo of someone slipping on banana peel with the text overlay saying: The best ways to (badly) overcome procrastination

Procrastination is like a credit card: fun until you get the bill. It’s also the art of keeping up with yesterday.

I wish I could say I came up with those insights. Alas, they’re credited to people much smarter than I am. Who, you ask? I’ll get back to you on that. Tomorrow. Maybe.

Look, I wish I could tell you I have the answer to procrastination, and that there is a surefire way to getting things done, but every time I think I’ve solved the problem, I wake up the next day and have to fight the battle all over again.

But just because I don’t have the answers doesn’t mean I don’t have the answers, am I right? So here are ways to fail at beating procrastination (which I excel at). And if you’re looking at actually being productive, all you’ll need to do is the reverse.

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