This is one of those books I will read again and again. And I'm DOING the book, not just reading it. It is not just information, but ways to renovate and restructure how we think about managing our lives to do the creative work better and with much less frustration. As David says, it is about managing our MINDS, not (just) our Time.
As I practice this stuff, I can go back and get more to work on, and I keep making progress. You can read it and check another self improvement or productivity book off your list, but I think there is enough here that a lot of the other stuff out there fits with this and supports it; or, maybe better said, this book gives us a foundation to build on, taking anything and everything we might have already known to the next level, or even the level above that, if we DO what David has given us.
The Four Stages of Creativity: Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification.
Just knowing what these are is very helpful for people who create (pretty much all of us), but David helps us see that we can't just call up these on demand; our minds need to be in the right state for them. We can build our lives, or at least our work or creative lives, around respecting these four stages by understanding the Seven Mental States of Creative Work, and matching what stage we want to be in with our mental state, or use our mental state to pursue the appropriate stage.
"Even time management is valuable, up to a point. But mind management picks up where all these methods leave off. Time management optimizes the resource of time. Mind management optimizes the resource of creative energy." This is a promise of the book, and I believe it delivers, if we are willing to DO it.
David Kadavy knows of many of the great books and tools for productivity out there. In fact, he has interviewed some of their creators on his podcast.
I liked this book a lot, not only because he takes things like the wonderful Getting Things Done and Atomic Habits and Deep Work and recent neurobiology to the next level, but he also weaves the wisdom of great creators together with his own hard won lessons on what works and what doesn't.
Jason Fried, Bill Gates, Stephen King, Steve Jobs, George Carlin, Elizabeth Bishop, Alice Walker, Marian Anderson, Maya Angelou, John Konious, Robert Levine, Meridith Monk, Lillian Hellman, Ari Meisel, David Rock, Seth Godin, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and David Allen, to name some of the people who are woven into this in big or little ways, not just as cute quotes on the margins, but as signposts along the way to a life where creativity increases and becomes easier because we learn to structure our lives around the way our mind works, rather than pounding ourselves into arbitrary industrialized notions of productivity and management and wasting a great deal of mental energy on distractions or trying to do something when we are not in the right mental state for it.
The Seven Mental States of Creative Work: Starting with the ideas from Deep Work, but realizing there were different flavors, David has done the experimentation and verification in his own life, confirming what he was finding with other creators and teachers and scientists along the way, and given us the fruit, that we can apply in our own lives, experimenting and tweaking as he encourages us.
Prioritize, Explore, Research, Generate, Polish, Administrate, and Recharge are the Seven Mental States.
They are all necessary, and they are all different. They can be cultivated by environment and rhythms, but for each of us they are not all available all the time. Once we find out what these states are for us, and how they line up with the Four Stages of Creativity, we are well on our way to being both more creative and more at peace with how we are ordering our lives because a lot of the stress has been removed.
A few of the other things David helps us with in this book: Creative Cycles, Creative Systems, our Creative Sweet Spot, nourishing our interior Passive Genius, and other useful tools and paragigms that all work together.
Also, what happens when life throws you for a loop, and then another loop, and then you find out that those two loops were small compared to the next loop life throws you? David's been there, done that. All of the stuff in this book can go with you on that journey if you are willing to learn it and apply it. This is because you have learned to harness the power of your own mind, and work with it as you face whatever life throws at you.
I don't usually write reviews. But I think this is an important book. You may need to do a little (or a lot) of your own thinking and experimenting to get all the benefits this book offers, but the meat (or, insert your favorite plant-based protein) is there, if you are willing to eat it and digest it.
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Mind Management, Not Time Management: Productivity When Creativity Matters (Getting Art Done)
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Reviews with images
A surprise delight for this prodcutivity-data-storytelling nerd
My husband and I’s first conversation was about spreadsheets; our first few months of dating was mostly "Check out this productivity tool!" flirtation. I teach and consult on productivity. I’ve built a business and lifestyle around the concept of making life easier. So I’ve read all the books, listened to all the podcasts, Evernoted all the articles, subscribed to all the newsletters — David Kadavy’s "Mind Management Not Time Management" lands on my super selective Top Recommendations list. While frustrated with Kadavy due to a sore neck from incessant nodding and the amount of "Love this!" post-its on seemingly every page, I found his book to be a perfect blend of insight, lessons, examples, realistic suggestions, and disagreement (there were a few points where we’re on opposite sides of the fence; I appreciate opportunities to reflect on my ‘right' and 'wrongness.’) What I was not expecting and what catapulted this gem to Must Read status was how he seamlessly wove personal narrative throughout the stats, quotes, and graphs. This book will thus delight data nerds and storytelling nerds, and if you’re a combo of both like me, gift yourself with this sweet spot. More unexpectedness — my tears while reading the last page. A bit to do with his story (I won’t spoil it) but mostly a result of a perfect book at a perfect time, when I needed the personal attacks, the validation, and the wheels-turning giddiness that had me up at 4:30AM, taking action. A productivity book that employs vulnerability and relatability and reminds you that we’re all human doing our best even when life is hard thus inspiring you to keep going and that you have the power to design the life you desire? In. A gift of many layers and on many levels.
Top reviews from other countries
Carrie Gallant, The Gallant Leader
Creative Systems
Reviewed in Canada on November 15, 2023Héctor Iván patricio moreno
Muy buenos consejos
Reviewed in Mexico on June 30, 2023
