We’re halfway through 2011. It’s a great time to muster some resolutions that can take us through to 2012. Here are some that I’m putting into practice to make sure I’m creative, productive, and grounded in life and work:

1. Listen to entire albums

I’ve become a serial user of sites like Pandora and Grooveshark. Albums contain entire stories. Songs are just the chapters. I’m get started I have sitting next to me Beck’s Modern Guilt, Radiohead’s, The Bends, Sinatra’s, September of My Years, and Van Morrison’s, Astral Weeks.

2. Check my email inbox about as often as I check my mailbox

If you’re trying to do work that is creative and contributes value to the lives of other people, multi-tasking is a myth (recent research is pretty conclusive about this one). Good work comes from deeply focusing on one project at a time. Email inhibits this kind of focus.

3. Draw one picture each day with my non-dominant hand

For many of us, our left brain (the logical, rational, and rather uninventive side of the brain) is like a cushy couch we can’t crawl out of. To wrest myself from its grasp I’m going to solicit help from my right brain. So I went to the university bookstore yesterday and purchased a drawing pad and nice black Copic pen. These drawings are horrid to look at and so fun to make, especially knowing I can’t erase.

4. Read better books

Good books make skimming impossible. You have to completely immerse yourself in the text. I’m a third of the way through The Brothers Karamazov. I’d say it qualifies.

5. Complete my next book

I’m near the completion of my first short ebook on how to engage people with important messages. This will be the first portion of a larger book on engagement that I plan to publish by January 2012. If you’ve ever taken on a project like this, you know it is like trying to wrestle Andre the Giant while wearing a blindfold. But I plan to see it through.

I better stop there. I hope you find this interesting, perhaps even inspiring. Make your own list. It’s nice to have a handful of things to tether to which you can tether your daily schedule.

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Tags: creativity, engagement, productivity