It was the fall of 2005. I was a 20 year-old student at Saddleback Community College near my hometown in Orange County, California.
Over the previous year, I had exhausted nearly all of my college savings by attending one of the most expensive universities in the country, in faraway Washington D.C.
I can hardly believe it, but my manuscript is officially in production and pre-orders for my book Building a Second Brain (BASB) will open in just TWO WEEKS, on Tuesday, Nov. 16!!!
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I recently hosted Dan Charnas, author of the book Work Clean: The Life-Changing Power of Mise-en-Place to Organize Your Life, Work, and Mind (affiliate link), for an in-depth conversation about the most interesting, impactful principles from his work. Dan takes us on a fascinating journey through his career in the music business, as one of the first…
Octavia Estelle Butler was born in 1947 in Pasadena, CA. Known in her early years as “Estelle,” she was raised by a single, widowed mother who worked domestic jobs to make ends meet. Painfully shy and introverted from a young age, Estelle became an easy target for bullying at school. Her shyness combined with slight…
Many of the case studies I share about how I use digital notes involve major writing projects, because that is the most challenging kind of project I use my Second Brain for. But there is a different kind of use case that is just as meaningful: everyday life challenges. Challenges like troubleshooting the wifi at…
I recently joined David Duncan to discuss his new book The Secret Lives of Customers which teaches the Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) framework using the intriguing format of a detective story. The basic premise is that consumers “hire” a product (or service) to perform a certain “job” for them. I’ve used JTBD in my own business to figure…
The #1 question I’m receiving these days is “When does your book come out?”
(If you’re just joining, I’m writing a book based on my online course Building a Second Brain)
So I’ve decided to give you all an update on how it’s going and what I’ve learned so far.
By Praxis Fellow Christina Luo Productivity is about managing emotions as much as projects. Yet we often focus on productivity as a toolset more than a mindset. Our proximity to an abundance of information makes us think we’re making progress when we’re merely deciding how to react to stimuli. The means of note-taking, task-making, and…
I’m very proud to present my new book, Ways of Knowing, a curated collection of 14 essays with my very best writing from the past two years. The book explores the various forms of intelligence we have at our disposal as humans – not only cognitive but emotional, intuitive, somatic, and social – and how we…
Everything you’ve done up to this point has been preparation for this singular moment: the launch of your book.
An incredible amount of time, energy, money, and attention has been invested by many different people. The foundation has been laid for sales of your book to reach thousands, or tens of thousands, or hundreds of
After all this work and finally signing a deal…it’s time to do the thing you’ve been asking for, and write the book.
Leave plenty of time to do this — more than you think you need. And then, add additional time for unexpected rewrites, reviewer feedback, finding photos and illustrations, securing permissions, doing followup research,
Once you’ve accepted an offer for the publishing rights to your book, it’s time to draw up and sign a binding contract.
Many of these contract details have standard provisions, but you can always ask about and negotiate for them. The more you understand about the implications and subtleties of these clauses, the more empowered