“You’ve been at this for six years. Throw yourself into something else. Your writing is a reflection of your living. You’re allowed to disappear.” A friend said this when we were talking about the realities of making a pro-longed living online. I followed his advice. In the end, despite having a six-digit audience across platforms, I stayed away from the online game for nine months. A fifth of my youngest son’s life.

I’m a big fan of the recipe for increased productivity made famous by executive coach Dan Sullivan which is aptly named — “Free, Buffer, and Focus Days.” In short, “Free Days” are the days where you don’t do anything work-related whatsoever; “Buffer Days” are the days you work on your business without any client work or appointments; and lastly, “Focus Days” are the days you work in your business and do your client work and hold appointments.

My wife was sitting on our family room floor, staring at a dozen old photos she’d spread out in front of her. Normally, I would have enjoyed the image. But not that day. We had 18 hours before the movers arrived with at least 36 hours of work in front of us. “We’re never going to get packed in time!” I snapped. “Throw that crap in a box!” Rather than fight back, after my wife was done with her leisurely stroll down memory lane, she looked me dead in the eye and proceeded to move in exaggerated slow motion while packing up the photos.

The future doesn’t belong to the smartest person in the room. Nor does it belong to the strongest or the fastest. The future belongs to the people who focus on what’s in front of them instead of being distracted by everything around them. This includes not only the work we do but also the people in our lives. After all, no matter our title, we all have the same job: to be good to the people around us — and this becomes seriously difficult if you’re head is on a swivel.

The most important lesson I’ve learned about creativity didn’t come from something I read, but rather something I saw. I was watching a profile on Christoph Niemann, the artist with the most covers gracing The New Yorker. Suddenly, his office clock struck six and without hesitation, he stopped what he was doing, grabbed his jacket — and within seconds — was breathing in the cold Berlin air. Just like that, the clock made a ding and he stopped working.

All was good in the world. Until it wasn’t. I’d just started a new sales job, and after hundreds of rejections, I’d finally begun to catch some green lights and a few clients were getting close to closing. Within an hour of arriving at the office though, I got hit by lightning bolts in rapid succession. Not only did I receive word a deal I’d been working on for three weeks was dead in the water, but I was also on the verge of losing the only other one I had going.

I kicked off 2022 with a massive pit in my stomach. The next three months are going to be tough. I’m juggling two books with clients, working on my own book, and I have to design 30 hours worth of leadership and communication course material to deliver in February and March for MBA students while running my first online storytelling course with a buddy. I’m on schedule. My clients are happy.

I read an article recently where the author claimed people without kids are exposed to just as many distractions as people who have kids. I disagree. I’m sure I’m not the only one. I try not to speak in absolutes. But I’d bet everything I own, plus $47,117 that I don’t own, parents working from home with kids at their feet have to deal with more distractions than those who are kid-free.

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You wake up thinking about all the things you have to do. But after working like mad all day, you manage to complete only half the tasks on your list. You spend the rest of the evening feeling annoyed. There’s a way to remedy this common feeling of overwhelm: Cap your to-do list at three things every day. The advice comes from Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach.

There is a moment in the Netflix documentary series Abstract that’s stayed with me: Illustrator Christoph Niemann is hard at work when he notices that it’s 6 p.m. Without hesitation, he stops what he’s doing, grabs his jacket, and leaves the office. As a viewer, I was shocked. Isn’t clock-watching only for people who hate their jobs? Wasn’t he in his flow? What if he couldn’t find his rhythm again tomorrow?

Embrace the “Invert” This past February marks the 10th year I’ve lived in Catalunya. When I look back at pictures of myself from before I moved here from the US compared to now, I feel like I’m looking at an entirely different person. Not only have I managed to keep off the 60 pounds I lost during the first few months of living here. But in some photos, I actually look like I’m smiling without having to fake it.

Takeaways from running two mastermind groups Two and a half years ago, I made a decision that would change the trajectory of my career: I challenged myself to get to know one new person a week who was doing something I thought was cool. This decision alone was worth its weight in silver. What turned it to gold, however, was asking a few of the people I was speaking with to team up to form a mastermind group.

4 steps for separating work from play I used to believe there was no such thing as work-life balance. Workdays would often become work nights, and I’d be okay with that. I’d muscle through creative projects, figuring dinner, chores, and texts from friends could wait. And then I got married and started a family. My kids don’t care about my job. My wife does care, but I bet not nearly as much as I think.

Learning how to stop is just as important as deciding to start. In January of 1911, Robert Falcon Scott from Great Britain, and Roald Amundsen from Norway, set out on a 1,600-mile race to conquer the last place man hadn’t stepped foot on during the Age of Exploration — The South Pole. The two men, along with their four-man teams, however, embarked on this journey in very different ways. Scott, the more experienced of the two men, would open up his tent each morning and look up at the sky to determine how far he and his team would travel.

“You know the rules! Y’all got exactly thirty minutes to eat as many of Miss Mary’s famous blueberry pies as possible!” the portly man shouted in a thick Southern drawl. “Just remember, there’s only room for one face on the cover of tomorrow’s paper — so get ready boys, on the count of three, I’m gonna fire my gun!” Seconds later, the man’s revolver made the birds fly and the babies cry.

In 2019, I averaged 30,000 views per article I published. My work is regularly syndicated in renowned publications like Business Insider and I’m also in talks with an agent about a book deal. When compared to the opportunities writing brought me during 2017 and 2018, the results are hard for me to fathom. Numerous times I came dangerously close to throwing in the towel. As the father of two young boys with bills to pay, the time investment was simply too much.

As a dad who works from home with 2 young kids, these tips have helped me stay productive and mostly sane. I’m writing this as my 5-year-old and 2-year-old are taking a nap on the sofa a few feet away from me. The two of them haven’t been feeling well the last 4 days. Combine this with the fact that 24 hours ago we went into lock-down here in Spain due to the Coronavirus, and it looks like this will be my life for some time to come.

#4. Create an advisory board “Go into your closet. Take all of your shirts and hang them so they’re all facing the same direction. When you’re done wearing one, hang it up so it’s facing the other direction so you have a ‘worn’ camp and an ‘unworn’ camp. After 90 days, grab all of your unworn shirts, and give them to someone who will wear them.” Three years ago, my mom told me about the exercise above.

“My guest is Frank Sinatra.” The man nervously adjusted his chair, turned the microphone to Mr. Sinatra, and said, “Why are you here?” Sinatra, who was notorious for not doing interviews, proceeded to tell the up-and-coming radio personality about a time he asked his buddy Jackie Gleason to cover a show for him because he had laryngitis. After Jackie did his stand-up routine and worked the crowd for an hour or so, Sinatra then walked him to his car and said, “I owe you one.

I’m a big believer that the enemy of productivity is always working. At the beginning of the pandemic, however, this belief was put to the test. Like many others, I saw my work contracts get cut in half, and I felt pressured to put in overtime to replace them. But fortunately, I didn’t have to. During this time, something surprising happened: New clients began reaching out, and I started feeling more creative and inspired than I had in years.

Start by making a “Holy Sht Jar”* Like most people today, I have many titles: Dad, Husband, Career Coach, Son, Consultant, Writer, Friend. But when the dust settles, my only real job is to not be grumpy all day. This can be challenging. Being positive doesn’t come easily to me. I have a bad habit of focusing on the negative things around me instead of appreciating all the good things in my life.

Early last year, my anxiety was at an all-time high. I’d cut ties with all my consulting clients and walked away from an ownership opportunity with a thriving startup in order to go all-in on my writing and coaching career. Every morning, I looked at my wife and our kids and I wondered if I’d made the best decision. Was my writing good enough? Would I have enough coaching clients to support our family?

Once, when a former manager caught me moping around the office during a rough day, he grabbed my shoulder and said, “Michael, go do something that doesn’t make you feel worse.” I stared at him, confused. So he clarified: “Take 10 minutes and go outside to get some air. I guarantee you won’t come back into the office feeling worse than you do right now.” In that moment, I very much disagreed.

If you leave your house in the morning miserable you’ve already lost Last Friday morning I sat down on a bench in Barcelona. In-between bites of a glorious chocolate croissant I observed people piling into their offices. Rays of sunshine were beginning to make their way through the gaps in the tall buildings. The foliage wasn’t exactly that of New England, but the additional shots of color lining the streets was a nice change.

Tipping points require tackling what we fear The last few weeks I’ve been in a rut. Zero energy. Zero inspiration. Zero smile. People told me to just keep at it and eventually I would breakthrough. A friend even quoted me Snoopy, “Keep looking up, that’s the secret to life.” Even though their intentions were good, their advice didn’t help. No matter how hard I tried to grind it out, and bet on my strengths, my creative muscles didn’t comply.