MIND MANAGEMENT, NOT TIME MANAGEMENT

In this guide, a product designer and author shares principles of “mind management.”

Writing his debut book, Design for Hackers (2011), made Kadavy realize he needed to practice mind management instead of time management. In his latest work, the author both recounts his writing journey and offers a novel system for being creatively productive. “Too many of us live by the to-do list,” notes Kadavy, as he urges readers to rethink the concept of time management. To support his argument, he points to a Harvard study indicating “the busier knowledge workers were, the less creative they were.” Instead of readers being victimized by time, he describes first how to recognize and incorporate “divergent” and “convergent” thinking into creative work and then how to embrace the “Four Stages of Creativity”—Preparation, Incubation, Illumination, and Verification. To illustrate these stages at work, Kadavy uses the contemporary example of how Paul McCartney crafted the celebrated Beatles song “Yesterday,” referencing a similar process employed by other renowned creatives as well. Next, the author explores what he defines as the “Seven Mental States of Creative Work”—Prioritize, Explore, Research, Generate, Polish, Administrate, and Recharge. This discussion is especially illuminating; it suggests a distinct relationship between one’s mental state and creative productivity, which Kadavy explains in lucid detail. The author helpfully shares some of the techniques and tools he uses to encourage the desired mental state. A subsequent description of “Creative Cycles” and “Creative Systems” may cause concern among some individuals that the creative process is being too tightly controlled. But Kadavy assures readers that while “the creative process is characterized by unpredictability,” it is possible to “predict how you’ll arrive at the final solution.” The author diligently demonstrates how his self-discoveries apply to his own creative processes, particularly writing and podcasting. Some of his nomenclature—for example, “Minimum Creative Dose,” “Sloppy Operating Procedure,” and “Creative Cascade”—may be a bit too slick for some readers’ tastes, but these labels aptly describe elements of an original way of doing things. If nothing else, Kadavy’s approach is likely to spark a new evaluation of conventional time management.

An exhilarating but highly structured approach to the creative use of time.