Years ago, while attending California State University, Chico (CSUC) for a degree in Mass Communications, I took a class in Technical Problem Analysis (aka “Creative Problem Solving”). Our textbook was The Universal Traveler: A Soft-Systems Guide to Creativity, Problem-Solving and the Process of Reaching Goals, by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall. (The latest edition of this book was published in 2003.)…
hab·it – a recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition. We all know what habits are, and probably take them for granted most of the time. But bad ones can hold us back in our careers and personal lives, and good ones can propel us forward almost effortlessly. Take exercise, for…
Canva is something I’d heard a lot about, but had never actually tried USING until over a year ago. I was starting to create social media posts for a client each week, and I knew Canva would be the best way to do that. I had no idea what a treat I was in for!…
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…