White space and subheads are just two examples of good graphic design. WORDS vs. IMAGES If someone were to hold a contest and these two were the competitors, who do you think would win? If you agree with the phrase “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” you’d probably side with “images.” But if you’re a…
This post focuses on something most of us, I’m sure, take for granted. TREES. I think I first “fell in love with” trees during one of my family’s many visits to Muir Woods in Marin County – just north of San Francisco. To get there, we first had to cross the Golden Gate Bridge, then…
Starting a journal is easy. Just pick up a pen and notebook … and write! Not all clutter is visible. Mental clutter is a challenge for many of us, and a major hindrance to creativity. That’s why journaling is so important. Keeping a journal may not sound like something serious business owners do, but not…
I first became familiar with The Elements of Style in junior college, in an English class. It was one of the few books I did NOT return to the used book store at the end of the semester. In fact, I still have that edition. But it was years before I realized that the person whose name stood out…
Post-it® Notes – like so many things we now take for granted – were invented by accident. In 1968, a scientist at 3M’s Minnesota headquarters was trying to develop a strong adhesive when, instead, he came up with a substance light enough to remove and peel apart. The problem? He had no idea how it…
Red pens are my favorite tools to use for proofreading! Proofreading is more than just looking for misspellings. It’s also looking for missing punctuation. Or sometimes, as in the sentence below, punctuation thatshould NOT be there. “Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.” Remove the comma from that last sentence…
Reading aloud to your children is one of the best gifts you can give them. Writing about storytelling in a recent article reminded me of something that’s very important to me: children’s literature. Like a lot of people who love writing, I learned to read early in life. In fact, I think I was reading…
Your story should be at the center of every message you send out. I don’t remember when I first heard of businesses using stories to help market themselves, but it caught my attention because “stories” and “business” didn’t sound like they went together. I thought of stories as something we read to children at bedtime…
Before 2015, I had never heard of Lenovo computers. But thanks to a suggestion from a co-worker, I ordered my first Lenovo laptop that year (when my old Toshiba died). I loved that Lenovo so much, I bought a new one in January 2020 – a Yoga version. One thing I like about my Lenovo Yoga…
“Thinking outside the box” is easier than you think! Everyone’s heard the phrase “thinking outside the box.” But what does that mean exactly? Here is Merriam-Webster’s definition: to explore ideas that are creative and unusual and not limited or controlled by rules or tradition The ability to come up with unusual solutions to problems is a…