Feb 28, 2021To Persuade Someone to Change a Behavior, Think Like a MarketerWhat Advertisers Can Teach Us About Convincing Someone to Change Their Habits — Imagine the Geico gecko pops up on your TV, interrupting a show. He looks at you and says, “Hey can we talk for a minute? Lately, I’ve noticed you keep using the wrong car insurance. It’s bugging me. Can you please stop? I’m sorry. It’s like super annoying when you…Pshychology9 min read
Feb 21, 202120 Questions — The Ultimate Guide to Making ChoicesA COMPLETE Decision-Making Checklist — On May 4, 1886, an unidentified man ignited a stick of dynamite. He was somewhere in the middle of a crowd in Haymarket Square, Chicago. The incident, which took several lives, became known as the Haymarket Massacre. A century later, psychologist Daniel Gilbert drew on the incident in the introduction…Decision Making28 min read
Feb 3, 2021Your New Productivity Hack: ProcrastinationHow the Strongweek Method turns procrastination into prioritization. — I have a theory about procrastination. I blame cavemen. You can learn more about that theory here. Long story short: if you struggle with a short attention span, procrastination, overwhelm, or distraction, this one is for you. I’ll admit I wasn’t always a productive person. I couldn’t keep up with…Procrastination3 min read
Jan 30, 2021How Douglas Adams beat procrastination.Rethinking what it means to “get started.” — Before he wrote A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglass Adams cleaned chicken sheds. It was not a glamorous way to make an income. But that’s the kind of job you get when you are a procrastinator. Douglas Adams was such a procrastinator that a publisher locked him in a…Procrastination2 min read
Jan 18, 2021Member-onlyManagers: Replace “What’s due each day?” with “What’s most important this week?”Find clarity and reduce stress with the Strongweek Method. — I used to have a coworker with a giant whiteboard on his desk. Across the top, he’d scrawled, “Top 5 Things This Week.” Every Monday, he’d write down the five things he needed to get done that week. As he got them done, he’d draw a line through them in…Productivity3 min read
Jan 16, 2021Member-only“Learn More” is boring. Let me prove it.The words on your site’s Call-to-Action buttons are more important than you’d think. — Marketers spend hours workshopping titles. We A/B test email subject lines. We run blog titles through keywords tools. We show website hero messages to focus groups. Then we look at that all-important button right beneath it all — the button we need our audience to click — slap “learn more”…Marketing2 min read
Dec 30, 20209 Bullet Journal Pages to Get Organized for the New YearHow to apply Strongweek Method to your Bullet Journal To-Do List — At Strongweek, we usually focus on mobile apps. But the Strongweek Method works in #bujo too! In fact, the Strongweek Method is ideal for bullet journals. Since Strongweek doesn’t rely on dates, times, and notifications, you get 9 perfect pages to make your own. So how does it work? Usually…Bulletjournal2 min read
Dec 30, 2020The Easiest Way to Prioritize Your To-Do ListRanking Tasks Has Never Been So Quick — There’s something urgent you’ve got to do next. There’s something your boss wants from you. There’s something you need from a coworker. You promised your significant other you’d get some chores done. You can’t do it all at once. You need to prioritize. You read a blog post about urgent…Productivity2 min read
Published in hatchpad·Nov 3, 2020Member-onlyForget Productivity — What will Lockdowns Mean for Creativity?For Product Managers, creativity is more important than productivity, warns one of Tech’s top Product Management gurus. — There are a football and a UC Berkley baseball cap on top of a row of lockers behind Ben Foster. When he gestures at them, his right wrist comes into view on my laptop screen. I lean closer. Ben is something of a Silicon Valley product management guru, so he…Product Management5 min read
Published in hatchpad·Oct 29, 2020Member-onlyHow the Pandemic Changed Employee Benefits from Prix-fixe to BuffetAt hatch I.T., we’ve seen an accelerated shift towards a more personalized, customizable benefits model. — Jenny was our first remote hire at hatch I.T. She interviewed at our Northern Virginia headquarters and planned to move to our newest branch in Durham, North Carolina. Then the pandemic hit, and she found herself trapped in New York City. Our new Durham office was on hold. Jenny’s experience…Benefits3 min read
