Box of Crayons

Box of Crayons Blog

Three new (and unexpected) tools to fight malaria

Cheese, dogs and pills. Bart Knols at TedxMaastricht.

(not up for rubbing cheese on your feet? You could always buy a copy of End Malaria instead…)

Posted in makes me smile, resources | Tagged

Best 3 Books on Productivity (which aren’t Getting Things Done)

Productivity – it’s a slippery beast.

On the one hand, it makes all kinds of sense to get focused and efficient and what you do.

On the other, it can become an end in itself (“woo hoo, zero inbox!”) as opposed to serving a great purpose: finding more time to do Great Work.

Here’s my video review three books that aren’t David Allen’s Getting Things Done that I think find a useful and, let me say it, productive line on productivity.

I’m talking about

(And apologies for the echo chamber effect. Clearly, the experiment of filming in that space didn’t quite work…)

 

Posted in productivity

End Malaria wins the Eric Hoffer ‘Culture’ award

The big win with End Malaria is that it raised more than $300k for Malaria No More.

That said, there have been some lovely side benefits. Working with a bunch of people I’ve long admired, both creating the books with Seth and The Domino Project team and the 62 brilliant contributors. Hitting #2 on Amazon.com was also quite the thrill.

And now it’s the winner of the 2012 Culture prize, one of the Eric Hoffer award categories. Hurrah! (Here’s Seth’s post about the glorious moment.)

 

Posted in resources

Julia Sloan, Learning to Think Strategically

Being strategic is one of those buzzwords in corporate life. So many companies seek to become more strategic without really knowing what it means or if all the stakeholders are defining it in the same way. Can people really learn it? Is it one of those things that you either have or you don’t?

For answers, enter Julia Sloan, author of Learning to Think Strategically. She is an expert in teaching executives and global leaders how to do just that.

In this interview I talk with Julia about:

  • How strategic thinking is like positioning a lighthouse
  • The difference between complicated and complex
  • How a state of disequilibrium can produce innovative thought

You can find out more about Julia on her website.

Listen to my interview with Julia Sloan

Posted in Great Work Interviews | Tagged , , , , , ,

Six Top Entrepreneurs Share Their Secrets Based on ‘The $100 Startup’

Let me introduce my awesome mastermind group – The Brain Trust.

Left to right: that’s me (long arms, so I get to hold the camera), Michele Lisenbury Christensen of Loving with Power (with baby Mira), Eric Klein of Wisdom Heart, Jen Louden of JenniferLouden.com, Mark Silver of Heart of Business and Molly Gordon of Shaboom Inc.

We’ve supported each other (strategy and tactics, hugs and arse-kicking) for 6 years now, and we met once a year to hang out and go deep on our businesses.

A couple of weeks ago we were all on Bainbridge Island, and I happened to have a advanced copy of Chris Guillebeau’s new book with me, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future, a book that happens to be released today.

At a lunch break we took half an hour and shared our own insights and secrets based on Chris’s book, including:

  • What we think of shameless self-promotion
  • How to find the bridge from our passion to serving the people we serve
  • The key thing we’ve each started and stopped that’s helped our businesses grow

It was a great conversation, and if you run your own business you’re going to find this useful to listen to. You can download it here for your easy listening pleasure. If you’d prefer to read, then the transcript is here.

And if you’re toying with/starting up/running your own small business, then check out Chris’s book.  It’s full of insights, worksheets and tactics from his and many others’ micro-businesses that you can grab and use.

Posted in productivity, resources, self-management