A month in nudenotes: March 2019
A monthly round-up of Dean O’Callaghan’s #nudenotes
Over at Night Sky Creative, I post a weekly roundup of all things nudenotes.
If you’re wondering what nudenotes are, everything you need to know is right here:
In this new series of Medium articles, I compile a monthly summary of all things nudenotes, alongside my insights and some key takeaways.
Every Monday on my Instagram feed, I start the week by sharing some sketchquotes, to help us get over that bad case of the Mondays:
My favourite quote from this month was from Jim Rohn:
“You don’t get paid for the hour.
You get paid for the value you bring to the hour”
This is a growing concept in the creative industry.
Measuring your work by time rather than the value you bring to that time is becoming a dated concept in the creative industry.
Special thanks to Design gurus like Chris Do who are championing and sharing the principles of value-based pricing.
Ten Scientifically Proven Facts About Creativity
Inspired by an infographic from @designmantic
I can’t think of a better way to say it than they do on their blog:
“It doesn’t really matter what you love doing, anyone can be creative if they put their heart and soul into it.”
Key takeaway: Just do it!
I’m putting number eight into action on this list by telling you to… go be creative!
Leaders Who Deliver Versus Leaders Who Destroy
Inspired by an infographic from @theperformanceroom_tpr
I’ve been learning a lot about creative leadership recently, and this chart pulled together so many of those ideas in a handy chart.
Naturally, I had to share it!
Key takeaway: Long-term leadership always delivers
Leaders who destroy may deliver the results short-term, but long-term, they will inevitably build up a negative debt, affecting business growth and employee happiness.
6 Reasons You Might Be Procrastinating
From terri.com
Do you struggle with procrastination?
I know I did.
I still sometimes struggle to dedicate time to my sketchnotes and blog side hustle in my free time.
As Edward Young said, “procrastination is the thief of time… so its time to catch that thief and lock him up!”
Okay, I added in that last bit, but it’s still true.
You can overcome that mindset.
Key takeaway: Understand why you procrastinate
The first step to solving the problem is to diagnose what the problem is, and this list definitely helps with that.
Every time I feel procrastination creeping in, I take a step back and think about these six points and start working on how to refocus my mindset.
It works nearly every time for me, and I hope it does the same for you!
Delegation Do’s & Don’ts
Inspired by an infographic from @strategic.coach
Do you struggle to delegate work?
Wonder how much management is too much?
Delegation is a tricky skill to manage, it can be difficult to let go of your projects.
Key takeaway: Release control of parts of your projects
I know I sometimes struggle with this, but the benefits can far outweigh the drawbacks.
The main benefit is that it frees up your time — by delegating those tasks that others can do, it enables you to focus on those things that only you can do.
Hopefully, this list will help you become better delegators, and achieve your goals faster, together as a team.
How to Improve Your Critical Thinking
From focus2achieve.com
Are you struggling to make objective creative decisions?
Improving your critical thinking skills may be the solution.
“Critical thinking is the key to creative problem solving”
— Richard Branson
Critical thinking is a decision-making process that subjects all of your possible options to scrutiny and skepticism.
This is done to ensure you can achieve the best possible solutions to your problems.
Key takeaway: Use critical thinking to achieve design zen
As I grow as a creative professional, I feel the need to improve my critical thinking and sharpen my objectivity during my process, eliminating knee-jerk emotions and personal biases in favour of effective analysis so I can make good decisions.
This then leads to a smoother design process, and a happier one.
I hope the notes help you achieve the same design zen.
12 Ways Leaders Can Build A Winning Culture
From Terry Starbucker
I believe that without a strong and happy culture, you will never be able to create awesome design solutions.
Leaders in the business of design are key to nurturing these creative environments.
Key takeaway: Culture affects everything
Making these nudenotes reminded me of a Simon Sinek quote I once read, “customers will never love a company, until the employees love it first”.
The culture of a company doesn’t just affect all the internal operations of a business, but it also bleeds into external aspects like your products, customer services, and marketing.
Don’t underestimate the power of good culture!
Feedback Do’s and Don’ts
By Lolly Daskal found on @theleadershiphub
How do you provide effective feedback?
It can feel like you are walking on a knife’s edge, but it can be mastered by remembering a few basic principles.
Key takeaway: Developing feedback skills is like developing a muscle
To develop strong muscles you need regular workouts — just like feedback skills.
Good feedback skills are essential for all designers.
I try to exercise my feedback muscles regularly, but I am by no means a ‘feedback-body-builder’ yet, but I know that these notes help keep me on the straight and narrow.
Features and Benefits 101
One of the universal principles within design, marketing, sales, and advertising is understanding features and benefits, including the differences between them and how to leverage them to truly connect with consumers.
Unfortunately for creative professionals, consumers simply don’t understand all of the blood, sweat and tears that goes into developing a new product feature.
Developing a new product feature is only half the battle.
New features need to correlate with benefits that tap into consumers’ emotional needs — this is the most effective way to make a sale.
Theodore Levitt said it best:
“People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole”
Key takeaway: Free PDF download
Don’t forget to check out my article Features Vs. Benefits, at the end of the article there’s a mini graduation present, a link to a high-resolution PDF of my nudenotes I made in preparation for writing the blog.
There are no catches, it’s a completely free resource for you to use as a reference whenever you need it.
That was a month in nudenotes — stay tuned for more articles like this in the future.
Feel free to DM me on Instagram or post a response with any new topics you’d like me to create nudenotes for, and look into.
Until next time… In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good morning and good night.
Can’t wait until next time?
Then head over to Instagram and follow me @deanoj312.
Or head over to nightskycreative.org for weekly updates on everything in the world of nudenotes!
