You know when you go to the the yoga studio for a class and they have books, CDs, yoga mats, and whatnot near their cash desk. Well, my store is a bit like that.
The main service I offer is coaching. On this page are some related products.
Most of the products I put in my store are things that aren’t normally marketed to academics. I evaluate whether they might be useful to you and if I think they will, I offer them here. And just like the yoga studio, I make some money out of selling them.
The model for doing that on the internet is a bit different than it is in a bricks-and-mortar store. Your yoga studio probably pays a wholesale price for the products and then charges you the retail price. The difference is their profit.
On the internet we have what are called “affiliate programs”. The product creator retains control over the retail price and usually you buy from their site after clicking the link on my site. There is a code embedded in the link so they know where you came from and they pay me a commission.
However it works, it amounts to the same thing. If you click on one of those links, you are buying things from my store. Some of the money goes to the creator, some goes to me.
And just like at the yoga studio, if you just want my content and prefer to shop for the other stuff somewhere else that’s fine. No pressure.
If these products make you think “I wish there was a product that helped with…” let me know. I can look around and see if anyone is making one of those and offer it here. Or maybe it’ll be something I could create myself.
I’m in business to help you be a better academic.
What is offered here is stuff that I think will help with that: helping you deal with e-mail overwhelm, organizing your office so it supports your best work, dissolving procrastination, and so on.
To buy, click on the pretty buttons that accompany the product description.
Charlie Gilkey at Productive Flourishing helps creative entrepreneurs with productivity. Academic research has a lot in common with creative entrepreneurialism. And e-mail can overwhelm the best of us. This little product provides a simple system for dealing with e-mail so you can get on with the more important stuff.
And it is only $10 (US).
You get audio and written guides. Even a “by the side of your desk” summary to help. And if it doesn’t help, he’ll refund your $10.
Jen Hofmann at Inspired Home Office also mainly works with creative entrepreneurs. When I was setting up my office in my new house, I got Jen’s help.
Her approach to office organization is refreshing. It’s all about thinking what inspires you, what helps you work better, and how you need your stuff arranged so you can find what you need and not be overwhelmed by the stuff that you don’t.
The Wish Kit is a workbook for helping you think through all those issues and get started. Jen asks some really thought provoking questions that really help you figure out what’s important and what’s not. And making your office conform to someone else’s idea of what a tidy office looks like is not on Jen’s agenda (or mine).
$24 US is a pretty good price for that kind of help.
Havi Brooks at The Fluent Self has a few products that might be really helpful. They are a bit more expensive but worth it. Warning: this is hippy shit. If you don’t like that, don’t even both clicking through. But if you have been known to find hippy shit helpful from time to time, Havi is selling really useful hippy shit.
I have used her Procrastination Dissolve-o-Matic. The best thing about it is that she treats procrastination as a symptom of something else going on. You are not lazy or disorganized. You are procrastinating for a reason, even if that reason is not immediately clear. Havi provides some techniques for calming down and getting clear that will help you approach your work differently. It’s $108 US.
If the calming down part is the main problem, then I recommend her Emergency Calming Techniques. This is a fuller explanation of various techniques for getting calm so you can deal with what you have to deal with. She uses acupressure points, and various yoga techniques. And they really work. It’s $117 US.
Hanging out with Havi also got me thinking more about yoga. She packages a Paul Grilley DVD with some of her own explanations and support (indicating where to start and what you can skip). I have found that it really helps with getting my mind clear to do good work and with unkinking my body from too much sitting. The theory DVD appeals to my academic side. It is a 2-DVD set: one for theory, one for practice. I don’t know about you, but I really like having all the theory explained. It’s $66 US.