When I started my professional career, I had only the most vague sense of how visual aesthetics related to business. I knew there were brands that I was inherently attracted to, such as Apple. And I had a fairly good sense for what was beautiful, from a childhood spent in museums and art galleries with…
One of the most powerful shifts I see people make in the way they work is breaking down their large projects or goals into smaller chunks, which I call “Intermediate Packets.” I use the term “packet” because it reminds us that so much of our work today is digital, which means it is malleable and can…
I recently hired designer and writer Michael Dean to summarize my Building a Second Brain course in visual form. Michael is the writing coach and lead facilitator for The Writer’s Studio, a new cohort-based writing workshop he recently launched in partnership with David Perell. I asked Michael to take the course as a participant, and to document the main lessons…
Over the past 6 months as COVID has raged around the world, millions and millions of people have had to switch abruptly from working in an office, to working from home. Even if you had previous experience occasionally working remotely, you’ve probably noticed that doing it FULL-TIME is a completely different experience. You need a radically higher level of…
I recently received this testimonial from Parker, a student in my online course Building a Second Brain. It’s a great example of how someone can overcome longstanding challenges and truly succeed in their personal knowledge management. Tiago, I’ve been a virtual student of yours for well over a year now, closely following Praxis since the…
MESA Co. considers their method not just a problem-solving tool, but an entirely new way of working. As their ambitions have grown, they’ve begun looking toward a future in which this way of conducting work is nothing more than common sense.
In this article, I’ll outline a vision for what the future of work might
The MESA Method is full of firmly held beliefs and sharp distinctions. To understand why they’re so important, you have to understand where they came from. I recently sat down with Bárbara Soalheiro, the founder and CEO of MESA Co., and Lígia Giatti, her number 2, to try and understand the origins of this new
In Part 2, I laid out what I believe are the 10 principles that MESA Co. uses to fine-tune the working environment.
But what are they fine-tuning the environment for? Unlocking people’s creative potential.
The open secret of MESA (and other Accelerated Work Experiences) is that, beyond the rules and guidelines and structures, their true
Enter your email here if you’re interested in hearing more about MESA in the future. In Part 1, I described the basics of the team-based work sprint methodology known as MESA. In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the underlying principles that tie together MESA and other kinds of Accelerated Work Experiences (AWEs)….
For years I’ve written on this blog about new ways of working that allow people to bend time, space, and the human mind to their advantage.
How do I have the confidence to believe that a radically new and better way of working is possible?
The most important practice that I recommend everyone adopt for their personal productivity is a Weekly Review – a regular reflection on their priorities and goals designed to give them a sense of clarity for the upcoming week. Whether you adopt the Getting Things Done method or something else isn’t important. It doesn’t matter whether you…
I’ve published a few ebooks over the past year, and have plans for a couple more before the end of the year. In contrast to fears about the “end of reading,” my self-publishing experiences have led me to believe that we’re in the midst of a transformational revolution in reading. But it remains to be…