Category Five Clicks

Five Clicks: Your Blursday Playlist

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The last few months have been a long, strange trip indeed. My teenage daughter came upstairs last weekend and asked when I was going to work, then seemed confused when I told her, “It’s Saturday.” 2020—since March, at least—has been that kind of year. It’s hard to know when one day begins and another ends, with the actual day of the week ceasing to be relevant.  As my filmmaker friend Jonathan puts it, “Every day is Blursday”.

I’d like to share what I’m listening to this week in the studio: call it my Blursday Playlist. Five things I’m listening to, reading and watching that inspire and inform and serve to remind me that I’m actually connected to a bigger world out there. I may not always know what day it is, but I can still use my time well.

“1619“, New York Times (Podcast)
Hands down the favorite thing I’ve listened to in a while. The six-episode series takes us back to the very beginning of slavery in America, when a pirate ship called the White Lion landed at the British Jamestown Colony near present-day Hampton Roads, Virgina and traded between 20 and 30 African prisoners for supplies. This small group of Angolans were the first of the multitude of African slaves to follow. 1619 is long-form audio journalism at its best.

“The Jordan Harbinger Show” (Podcast)
I’m sure I’m late to this particular party, but I only started listening to Jordan’s podcast post-pandemic, when I was looking for something I could do while taking walks. His long-running show (currently with 378 episodes) consists of interviews from interesting and inspiring people as varied as Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and Frank Abignale Sr. (the real-life subject of the movie Catch Me if You Can). Very entertaining and always interesting–you’ll definitely learn a thing or two.

ChilledCow (Livestream)
My daughter Maggie is the source of this lo-fi playlist, available on Youtube and Spotify. The creator, ChilledCow, started a 24/7 livestream on Youtube featuring this music back in 2017 and just…never stopped. By the time Youtube mistakenly shut it down temporarily earlier this year, it had chugged on for some 13,000 hours, churning out mellow hip hop beats that somehow are that perfect white noise when you have to study or chill.


“Shadow Country” by Peter Matthiessen (Novel)
Matthiessen’s sprawling historical epic is actually three books in one: “Killing Mr. Watson” (1990), “Lost Man’s River” (1997) and “Bone by Bone” (1999). At over 900 pages, it’s perfect for these socially isolating days. Set in the lawless wilds the Florida frontier at the turn of the 20th century, Shadow Country is a portrait of an American outlaw and sugar planter who meets a violent end amid a landscape of racism and exploitation.

“I am Not Your Negro” (Documentary)
A searing essay by Raoul Peck based on author James Baldwin’s unfinished book that NYTimes critic A.O. Scott calls “an advanced seminar in racial politics.” My daughter chose this one for movie night, which lead to a deep discussion about race, history, and equality. A few months ago, my daughter was perfecting the dance to “Renegade” on TikTok and today she’s deeply passionate about the state of our world. Watch it, but be prepared to really see.

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Five Clicks: Covid-19 Resources for Artists (and others)

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As we await the reopening of services, businesses and schools, I’m passing along five great resources that fellow photographers, creatives and others might find useful. Many of these listed below are free during this timeframe and will hopefully help you weather the storm. 


1) Yale Science of Wellbeing course
Looking to be happier and more productive?  This is a great course offered free by one of the world’s premiere universities. 


2) Covid-19 Freelance Artist Resource
From playwrights to visual artists, composers to stage managers, actors to art patrons, there is something here for you in this list of mostly free opportunities to support your art (or your artist).

3) 198 Free tools to help you through the pandemic (Entrepreneur.com)
We’ve all heard of Zoom by now…but there are 197 other tools on this list you may not be aware of and should.

4)Covid Resources for Photographers
This comprehensive list of ideas, resources, and initiatives from lenscultures is meant to support the global photography community. Check it out or forward it to a photographer you know.


5) Pixel computer glasses
Last but not least, something to ease the strain of looking at a screen for hours-long Zoom calls (not free, but a nice discount)

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Useful Stuff for Thinking People, Free (for Now)

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Inspiring Message

Everyone likes free stuff.

I thought I’d share a few resources that are being offered by companies for free right now that might make you healthier, wealthier or wiser during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Not to be too glib about what we’re all experiencing, but I don’t want to look back on this months and years later and wish I’d somehow taken more advantage of those things I have in abundance now: primarily, time.

So if you’re sick of watching Tiger King on Netflix and you’re done perfecting your Sourdough baking skills like I have, read on and learn some useful stuff (Note: I don’t endorse any of these programs and these are not affiliate links.  Just trying to spread the word.  Did I mention I dig free stuff?):

Nikon School Online classes free for month of April

CreativeLive is offering their streaming Health & Wellness courses, free

Poynter Journalism Courses (these are great!) for free

LinkedIn’s Work Remotely Learning Path (16 courses to help when working from home), free

Scribd’s Learning Resources free for 30 days (no credit card required). Like Audiobooks?  Access Scribd’s huge library for free for a month. 

60 Days of Skillshare Courses —you guessed it, for FREE

Bitdegree is offering a number of different learning paths, free during the Covid-19 pandemic, including:  

Blogging for Business course by Ahrefs Academy (normally $799, now free)

Yoast’s All-Around SEO Course (normally $699, now for free before June 1st).

Limitless Entrepreneur (5 day learning retreat) by Melissa Griffin, free

Edit:  How could I forget Arnold Schwarzenegger’s classic at-home exercise plan?   It’s free, you don’t need weights, and you’re out of excuses. 

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Five Clicks: My Favorite Podcasts

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During this time of forced isolation, it’s easy to fall into the trap of bad habits—eating terribly, watching too much tv, not getting exercise.
The daily news is stressful, and consuming too much of the negativity makes it even easier to fall into bad habits and wallow.


I like to balance the negative news with some positive input. While I’m working on editing images or video, I plug in and listen to my favorite podcasts and find that I’m more focused, inspired and hopeful. And given the uncertainties around us, a bit of hope goes a long way.


Here’s a short list of four of my favorite listens (plus one read) that I think you might find useful right now.

Building a Story Brand, Donald Miller
If you’re responsible for letting the world know about your brand, service or products, then this is a great podcast that’ll make you rethink your approach.

Start Today Podcast with Chris Cavallini
A short hit of motivation that reminds you to take personal responsibilty for your life.

The James Altucher Show
James is my guy. I love the way he approaches his interviews and the fact that he’ll ask questions I’ve never even thought about.

The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim is the original proponent of designing your life in optimal ways. There’s always something interesting and actionable here.

Lastly—and this isn’t a ‘listen’ but since you invariably do need to keep up with important and relevant news—let me recommend Dave Pell’s daily news roundup, NextDraft. It’s a smart, witty and short compendium of the news you need to know, with relevant links (“I am the algorithm”, writes Dave, who pores through dozens of sources to provide the content). During the crisis he now publishes seven days a week and you can sign up at the link above.

Five Clicks: Tools for Keeping on Track

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Being an independent photography professional or content creator is a great, amazing, beautiful thing.

Except when it isn’t.

When you first start as a photographer or designer, it’s like falling in love with a beautiful/handsome other person. Everything is great, and when you’re with that person, time seems to stand still.  Then you get married, and the relationship matures, and as wonderful as it is to spend time together, you also can’t help but notice that the dishes are piled up, the bills need to be paid and the in-laws are coming to visit, again.

If every day could be spent behind the lens while getting a ride with the Blue Angels or documenting a religious festival in the mountains of Catalonia, it would be like that spouse that never gets old, gets angry or challenges you in any way.  But the reality of marriage and of creative careers is that 80 percent of it is the ‘unsexy’ stuff—in the case of content creation it’s the production work, marketing and other tasks that keep the lights on—that makes the other 20 percent possible.

The problem is, it’s hard to stay focused and on track when the tasks are not so fun.  That’s why I love tools that make my job easier, are useful and help keep my animal brain on track. When my willpower or my resolve falters, I just let these pieces of software guide the way:

Activity Timer (iOS and Mac)
This is a very simple custom timer app that allows you to specify and save time blocks of custom length for various activities, and a custom “success” message. I know by experience that 90 minutes is about the longest I can focus on any given task, so most of my time sprints are anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour and a half. I have a stand-up desk and I use this tool to remind me to sit down and stand about every 20 minutes throughout my workday in front of the computer.

Trello (Web, Android, IOS, Mac, PC)
I’ve used Trello for at least 4 years. In that time, I’ve found other project management tools but the ‘kanban’ style visual drag-and-drop interface always brings me back. I use it to set up various ‘workflows’ relating to client work, my sales pipeline, and even for my editorial calendar. It’s great for collaborating between teams, too. Using this tool for my work ensures that I keep track of a lot of moving pieces in a consistent way.

Todoist (Web, Android, IOS, Mac, PC)
This is about the 1,000th ‘to do’ app I’ve tried, but at this point it’s won the award for longevity. It’s very simple to use and can interpret deadlines from text (i.e., ‘in two weeks’, or ‘next January 1’) easily. I use it all the time….and I like the way it gamifies item completion—the more you complete, the more ‘karma’ you earn and the more enlightened you become. One of these days, I’ll be a Grandmaster. But not today.

Routinist (iOS, Android soon)
I’m fascinated by the idea of creating good habits (and getting rid of negative ones) by ritualizing them into a routine that you perform daily until they become deeply ingrained. This little app helps create and define routines based on a sequence of actions and habits that, once triggered, run in sequence until they are complete. I’ve used this app to change the way I approach my morning routine.

Streak CRM (Web, IOS, Android)
This software is a CRM (which stands for “customer relationship management” tool) which is a fancy way of saying that it is used for sales, projects, leads, and anything else related to your clients.  It’s capable of far more.  I use it to do project management, sales and client pipelines in situations where most communications are email conversation-based. First I define the stages of a pipeline and also set up email templates for some of the stages. I then create a box for each new client/story/item/lead and move it through each stage of the pipeline until done. It saves me a lot of time but more importantly, Streak is a powerful way to stay consistent on predefined processes built around email. In fact, it’s designed to be used exclusively with gmail, and it operates inside your email browser.   If you’re a gmail or Google apps user, Streak is worth checking out.  It’s particularly powerful for teams, including editors, journalists and bloggers. It allows you to schedule and track emails as well.

I hope you enjoy these tools—and more importantly, find them useful for keeping your own messy business life on track. Hopefully, that unsexy stuff just got a little more sexy.

Five Clicks: Inspiring Reads for Cool Kids

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I read, a lot.  But, that wasn’t always the case.  A few years ago I realized I was reading less and less, and decided that was a problem I’d like to do something about.  At that point, with a new business, a young child and plenty of ‘stuff to do’, I was averaging five or less books a year.

Last year, I read 46. “Read” is a relative term, since I consume less and less physical books each year and more e-books and audio books. As a result, I feel like my brain is being exercised and stimulated and the ideas and enjoyment I’ve gleaned from reading has made a big difference in my quality of life (and the way I do business).

Here are five of my favorite reads from last year (2017). All of these books held my interest from start to finish, of course, but more importantly they stayed with me long after I put them down.

Never Split the Difference: Negotiate As If Your Life Depended Upon It, Chris Voss
Former FBI Chris Voss takes you inside actual hostage negotiations and then explains the psychology behind his tactics. Then he uses real-world examples of negotiation that are a little more useful for the rest of us: negotiating a pay raise, a good price on a car, or dealing with contracts and estimates. I love books that change your perspective in fundamental ways, and this book definitely did that.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
If you are a closet nerd and/or are fascinated by 80s-era geek references, this book is for you (If you liked Stranger Things at all, you’ll love this book). I’m not going to spoil the story here, but I would highly recommend that you listen to the audio book version. It’s narrated by Will Wheaton, of Star Trek: Next Generation fame, and brilliantly so.

The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, Ryan Holiday
I read anything I can from Ryan Holiday, all the while regarding his intellect with a bit of envy. This book is an introduction of sorts to the philosophy of the Stoicisim, repackaged for consumtion by modern audiences. The amazing thing is that, due to the nature of stoicism, it doesn’t need much cleaning up to resonate. Worth a read or a listen (I did, four times).

The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman
If you’ve listened to gurus like Tony Robbins or even charismatic positive preachers like Joel Osteen, you know what positive thinking is all about. I’m not against positive thinking at all—I’m a fan in general of positive thinking but always felt that there was something missing. Sure, the “Secret” makes you feel good, but….how the hell does visualizing success and saying positive affirmations actually make you happy? This book explores what Burkeman calls the ‘negative path to happiness’, in which the negative thoughts in one’s head and the negative realities of life aren’t sugarcoated or ignored, but recognized and confronted. Great read.

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg
There are so many books out there on forming positive habits and breaking destructive ones, but this one—written by NY Times investigative reporter Charles Duhigg—breaks down the research behind habit formation and gives science-based tools to start forming better habits–today. It helped me to stop getting overwhelmed and to start taking action on great habits that I’ve managed to keep, now many months later.