Productivity is dead, long live productivity. No, really.

In his own words, “43 Folders is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.” He is now re-dedicating his site to people who want to actually do stuff. GTD is great, he claims, but he’s tired of pampering the converts who don’t have a clue how to GTD once they’ve inbox zeroed, and reduced background noise.

It’s a really risky post, but boy did it inspire me. Check out Merlin’s post on 43 Folders here.

It felt just like an experience I had when I needed a creative boost. I’m an illustrator, and a year or two ago I was feeling stuck so I read the first few chapters of “The Artist’s Way” and started the practice of Morning Pages. Each day, I’d wake up and write three pages of whatever came out. This was meant to get my juices flowing, and to spark my creativity. I’d scribble streams of consciousness, sense or nonsense, I’d write…. for an hour, or two, and then work at my job which was more meetings and less drawing. After about a week I felt like the baker who spends all his time making sure his shop looks nice, and who forgot to actually do any baking. So I swapped the pages for morning art and started doing a painting each morning (my inspiration was my commute). Soon after I actually left that job and now paint and draw full time.

So, we at GrowthPop applaud Merlin’s clarity of vision, and courage to get it done even against the inertial energy of his very popular site.