Articles and Essays by Todd Henry

Living

Mind Your Baseline

Mind your baseline. It’s alright to have standards and expectations for experiences, but be careful not to allow those expectations to become entitlement.

July 30, 2015

Creating

The Curse Of Peripheral Vision

Have you ever looked around at the work of others and felt like yours simply isn’t measuring up? Don’t allow Expectation Escalation to rob you of your best work.

July 3, 2015

Living

How To Stay Focused And On Course

Vision, learning, and celebration are key elements of progress. Taking a little time each week to ask these three questions can help you uncover opportunities for growth and impact, and prevent you from drifting off course.

June 23, 2015

Creating

The Four Kinds Of Reading

Each book deserves a different amount of your finite resources. Don’t feel the pressure to give everything you have to every book you read. Be more selfish with your focus and time.

June 9, 2015

Productivity

Schedule Time Blocks For “Deep Work”

Have you ever reached the end of a work week and thought, “what exactly did I accomplish?” If so, you’re not alone.

June 3, 2015

Creating

Why We Need Generalists In The Workplace

Don’t try to conform generalists into specialists. They can be some of the most resourceful people you will meet, and resourcefulness is a critical skill in fluid workplaces.

June 2, 2015

Living

3 Pieces Of Advice I Would Give My 22-Year-Old Self (That I Still Remind My 41-Year-Old Self Of Every Day)

When you are younger, it’s possible to be successful because you are smarter, more talented, or more of a hustler than your peers. However, as you grow older, you begin to see patterns that you might have overlooked before simply because you didn’t have as much data. Knowledge can be bought, but wisdom is always earned.

April 1, 2015

Creating

Mick Jagger On The Uncertainty Of Success

Don’t believe the lie that success is inevitable. On the inside, where all of the risk is being taken, it often feels like things could fall apart at any moment, and that’s precisely how it should be.

February 16, 2015

Living

Write A Resignation Letter, But Don’t Deliver It

Frustration and conflict are inevitable on creative teams. Here is one way to deal with it so that you can better frame up the true nature of the conflict.

February 13, 2015

Productivity

Is It A Net Gain, Or Net Loss?

Ask yourself if whatever you are doing is a net gain, or a net loss. Over time, if you do more things that are a net gain, you will – by definition – make progress on your goals.

February 12, 2015

Leading

The Key To Aligning Creative Teams

Here are three questions to ask when you are evaluating any piece of work, especially in a team environment. By filtering everything you do through them, you will illuminate the places where excellence is being compromised in the short-run, and stem the encroachment of frustration and apathy.

February 11, 2015

Productivity

Are You Too Attached To Your Work?

It’s easy to allow sentiment or nostalgia to stall progress. Whether that means latching onto an idea, or becoming overly attached to the way you think things used to be, it can prevent you from weaving your circumstances together for the better. You can’t hold onto a moment, you can only mark it and move on.

February 10, 2015

Creating

Intentions Are Thieves

It’s easy to get excited about your decision, and get caught up in the self-satisfaction of having finally acted on something that you’ve been meaning to get around to. However, intention is not the same as action. Decisions are not necessarily progress.

February 9, 2015

Leading

The Super Bowl, Creative Risk, and Criticism

Last night, close to 120 million people watched the Super Bowl, which means that the (disastrous) goal-line play call in the final moments of the game was one of the most publicly viewed creative decisions ever made.

February 2, 2015

Creating

Be Creative Under Pressure: My Talk From the 3% Conference

Last month I had the privilege of speaking at the 3% Conference in San Francisco, and sharing some thoughts about how to be creative under pressure and unleash your best work.

December 5, 2014