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Ditch your clock! I mean at your workspace. I got this idea this summer, when I was doing a lot of tabling (at the farmers market, PRIDE festival, etc.) for our group Vegan Kalamazoo. Each gig was between three and six hours. On days when I wore my watch or kept my cell phone on, […]
Fan Mail From Novosibirsk
July 19, 2016 By Leave a Comment
I was thrilled to get some fan mail from Novosibirsk today: Hello, miss Rettig! My name is Alexander, I’m writer from Russia. Couple weeks ago I found your book – and it was like a revelation for me. I always want to be a writer. I was started to write seriously three or four times […]
If We Could Turn Back Time: Cher Models Nonperfectionism!
February 2, 2016 By Leave a Comment
I’ve always loved Cher’s tweets: they’re so playful and sincere, even when she’s making a sharp political point, which she does often. So naturally, I loved this New York Times piece about her Twitter style: She pays little to no attention to rules of grammar, like punctuation or sentence structure, and she capitalizes many words […]
Why “Positive Procrastination” is (Mostly) a Scam
January 19, 2016 By Leave a Comment
Every week, it seems, someone publishes an article about how procrastination can be good for you. This week it’s The New York Times. I am all about using whatever productivity techniques work for you. But in my experience pro-procrastination techniques work for very few people, and are actually more likely to undermine your productivity than […]
How John Scalzi Meets His Deadlines
January 8, 2016 By Leave a Comment
This week, bestselling author John Scalzi blogged about how he’s going to meet his 2016 deadlines: “For me, the major problem is not writer’s block or plot issues or anything structural involving the novel; I generally don’t have problems with those once I start, and with this new novel, thankfully, I didn’t have any real […]
How to Get Out of a Slump
November 2, 2015 By 1 Comment
I got a lovely note from a reader that included this passage (reprinted with kind permission): “For the last one and a half week I have been in kind of in a slump, disappointed after a school assignment I had trouble finishing. I thought I finally had my writing problem under control, but ended up […]
Russian Translation of 7 Secrets of the Prolific Now Available!
November 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment
And it’s got an amazing cover! Thanks to the good people at Mann-Ivanov-Ferber for the translation.
Some Awesome Links and See You in Colorado and Missouri!
August 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Busy preparing for my Colorado and Missouri trip. As my Facebook friends know—and, by the way, you’re invited to become one—I’ve morphed into a mushroom fanatic since moving to the midwest, and will be attending the Telluride Mushroom Festival. Oh yeah, and I’ll also be giving a bunch of writing-productivity and joyful-activism workshops, and would […]
Reminder: Upcoming Workshops in Colorado, Missouri, and Michigan
July 13, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Hope to see you at a workshop! Always check my calendar for the latest dates and information.
Lively Interview on Writing Productivity and Overcoming Perfectionism (30 mins)
July 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Check out this fun 30-minute interview I did on boosting writing productivity and overcoming perfectionism. The interviewers were the lively and knowledgeable Dr. Bob Wright and Christine Wright of StressFreeNow:
Productivity Tips from Alex the Parrot
June 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment
I just finished reading Irene Pepperberg’s wonderful book Alex & Me, about her work and relationship with Alex, the African Grey parrot who became internationally renowned for his cognitive and communications skills, including being able to hold simple conversations, spell simple words, and do simple math. Turns out he could procrastinate, too. One problem Pepperberg […]
Upcoming Workshops and Classes (May – July 2015)
June 2, 2015 By Leave a Comment
Online, July 6 – August 3 The 7 Secrets of the Prolific: The Basics of Joyful Production SavvyAuthors.com More info / To register Inspiration exists and is available to everyone at almost any time. Underproductivity, procrastination, and blocks are solvable problems. The secret to achieving a state of near-perpetual inspiration (a.k.a., “flow”) is to switch […]
Welcome! My goal is to help you recognize and overcome any disempowering forces in your work and life so that you can reclaim your joyful productivity and achieve your personal and professional goals more quickly and easily than you ever imagined! Thanks for checking out my site, and I always welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions at 
