“Nothing unreal can persist and nothing unreal can be destroyed”
Author Archives: Tom Evans
It’s Powtoon Time
Big Thanks to Lea Woodward and Jackie Walker for pointing me earlier this year at the most fabulous animation tool called Powtoon.
It allows ‘numpties’ like me to put together pretty amazing trailers for product and book promotions – there’s just a few examples below of what you can do with it.
And even better still, they have invited me to do a animation series on how best to communicate a message in Just a Minute … watch the trailer here
Powtoon Application #001 : Product Promotion
I prepared this short trailer to promote my Bending Time ecourse
Powtoon Application #002 : Web Site Landing Page
Here’s a trailer for a new web site for the marvellously talented Sue Warwick
Powtoon Application #003 : Book Trailer
This is an example for a book trailer
Powtoon Application #004 : Presentations & eLearning
I even used Powtoon to build a whole Udemy training course based on an earlier book called Flavours of Thought. This animation is just one of 30 in the course which comprise over 160 minutes of animated content – phew !!
Related links:
Start Powtooning yourself today – use the coupon TOMEVANS to get 20% off too!
Bending Time
Sue Warwick’s Soul Verses
Get your copy of This We Know
Flavours of Thought
Most Mind Maps are Brain Maps
When I was introduced to Mind Mapping about ten years ago, I discovered a tool that increased by creativity and productivity by leaps and bounds.
Like many people, I just started using what I thought was mind mapping software without even looking at the manual. A course I attended with Andrew Wilcox on Mind Jet’s Mind Manager opened my eyes incredibly.
Mind Mapping had so many applications. Not only could it be used to sort your To Do lists but there are a plethora of business applications like taking meeting minutes, project planning, Six Sigma and even writing a whole book or building a web site.
While this course opened my eyes it was only when I trained with Tony Buzan and became an iMindmap Licensed Instructor that my mind was opened. I learned about the power of freely associative Mind Mapping and how to really use them in the creative process. I discovered how they get the left and right brain working on the same task in harmony – I learned the power of Whole Brain Thinking.
I also learned the power of a good map using just pencil and paper and how to use them to great effect in my creative writing courses and one to one mentoring with authors.
I started then to research the psychology of Mind Mapping and how they trigger our neurology and get stored in it. Along the way though working with my clients removing creative blocks, I discovered something remarkable.
As amazing as Mind Maps are, nearly all the software tools and training programmes out there seem to promote the mapping of the brain only. That is, they help map the conscious mind processes in the outer cortex of our two brain hemispheres.
They take no account of the other active mind centres in our body like the gut and heart minds, now recognised by some more open minded neuroscientists as active centres of consciousness. No account either was made for the collective mind ’outside’ our bodies.
“Most so-called Mind Maps are merely ‘Brain Maps’!! They miss huge amounts of data from the whole gamut of our sensory inputs.”
To find out how to go about Whole Mind Mapping, take the new Udemy course, Getting in the Zone
It comes with loads of fabulous visualisations to get you into the Chillout Zone too !!
Get In the Zone today!
The Five Bandits of Time
The normal human mind can only have one thought at a time.
Just think about what you are thinking about and the thing you are thinking about gets replaced with the thought you are having about that thought.
Just read the above sentence again, pause from reading this article and just check the validity of this notion.
So armed with this new knowledge about the way we think, this gives us the most amazing insight when it comes to our time management.
“If we are focused on anything else other than the task in hand, time will slip away from us.”
So just think about this for a few seconds, these are the Five Bandits of Time …
- Switching away from the current task
- Being diverted away from the current task
- Fretting over the past
- Worrying about the future
- Thinking about something too much
If you read conventional time management books, they will be awash with tips and techniques on how to priortise better and how to stop interruptions. I recommend Time Management for Dummies, by Clare “no relation” Evans, to help with these first two Time Bandits.
There is nothing much out there that deals with the last three Time Bandits though – until now that is !!!!
How to Learn to Bend Time
This new self-study programme deals with time management at a fundamental level. By clearing blocks, setting goals you can forget about and showing you how to change the speed at which you think, Bending Time is revolutionary and very effective.
You will also learn how what we actually think also affects the passage of time and how to stop thinking completely.
Start Bending Time today
Getting in the Zone
We know when we are in the zone and we know when we are out of the zone.
What we are not often sure of is where the zone actually is.
So I have set out on a bit of a mission this year and that’s to explore The Zone, to find out where it is and to draw up a map for others to follow and explore themselves.
So what you will see this year is:
- One if not three or more books on the subject
- A new Udemy ecourse called Getting in the Zone
- A series of interviews with people who spend time in and out of the zone
This is the first of many blogs on this subject and here’s an ‘amuse bouche’ to help you get in the zone each day …
Latest Zone News
The first book in the series is now available for Amazon Kindle and free Kindle Readers …
Take your first step into the Zone today …
Note that this special first edition of the book contains a special redemption code to get access to the Getting in the Zone ecourse worth $10
This World We Could Know
I am really thrilled that my new book, This We Know is seeding new thoughts and forming a new movement.
We know that we know loads more than people say 100 years ago.
We know therefore that our descendants in 100 years will know new and different things that we don’t know.
What we also know is that the things we imagine today are the seeds of this new knowledge.
Accordingly, I’ve started interviewing some amazing New Thinkers about the kind of world they would like to see in 100 years time … or even sooner.
“A little book with a big impact”
“In a category of its own”
“Short, elegant and perfectly formed”
… and find out why a 12 year old boy called it “mind bobbling”
The interviews are posted in reverse chronological order here as, appropriately reversing chronology is part of the mix.
Harun Rabbani on a World of Self Mastery
Pauline Crawford on Smiling and Willing-ness
Christine Miller on Creating a Self-Aware World
The World Francesca Gordon-Smith Would Like to Know
Mark Newey on Slowing Down being the New Speeding Up
What Nikki Turner Would Like to Know
Marie Taylor on Slowing Down and Appreciating More
What Jackie Walker Knows
Sherry Wakeman talking about the acquisition of knowledge …
Sally Asling on why what we know is what we actually believe
What The English Sisters Know
Vicki Wusche on a new model for property market
Shelagh Jones on solving the fossil fuel crisis
The Significance of an Equinox
This post has been timed for publication on the day and exact time of the Spring Equinox …
The exact time of this cosmically significant event is 20th March at 11:02 UTC
From where I am sitting and where you are reading this blog, we are completely unaware of this twice yearly event – and why should we be? In our modern day world where we are totally in control, nothing as trivial as the orientation of the Earth could possibly have any effect on us … surely?
When viewed from space however, a different perspective emerges. We can see clearly that half the world is in darkness and half in light. Well there is nothing new there as it is like that every day of the year. The difference is that the cusp between light and dark is lined up with the rotational axis of the planet.
This means that every person on the planet experiences approximately the same amount of daylight and darkness, apart from those standing right on the Poles … and of course miners and submariners.
The exact time and day of the equinox, however, is not strictly that important. What is significant is that we should use it as a time for reflection. Too often our years just bleed into each other with each one following the pattern of the last. The fact that the Earth goes around in circles doesn’t mean we have to.
It doesn’t matter so much if there is any astrological or cosmological significance to the Equinox, just that every so often we should take stock and do some forward planning and, once we’ve done that, we should take action.
Spring is a great time to start a new project – for example, I’ve written all my books in Spring – something I only realised after I’d published the fourth book !
So for the last two months I have been planning and Mind Mapping my next book – today I start to write it in earnest !!
So, whether you are planning to write a book, or not, take some time out today to Spring Forward and so the seeds of what you are going to grow over the next 12 months.
Note, although the word equinox is often understood to mean “equal [day and] night”, this is not strictly true. For most locations on Earth, there are two distinct identifiable days per year when the length of day and night are closest to being equal; those days are referred to as the “equiluxes” to distinguish them from the equinoxes. Equinoxes are points in time when the Sun is right over the equator. Equiluxes are days which can be a couple of weeks either side and can vary depending where we are on the planet.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
Bending Time is a time management programme like no other.
It introduces simple mind-fullness techniques that fundamentally change your relationship with time.
By changing the speed of our consciousness, we alter the perceived passage of time. Simply, we get more done in less time when we learn how to get and stay in the zone.
The techniques you will learn also have some collateral benefits such as improving your vibrancy, complexion and attractive-ness.
When you learn to Bend Time, life becomes easier, your serendipity increases and you stop pushing water uphill.
Listen to this interview with Kingsley Offor from Infusionsoft to hear how his life changed immediately after using the programme …
… and how he’s learned, “Not to sweat the small stuff.”
Start Bending Time today
Avoiding Mindfalls
Have you ever had the same thoughts running around and around in your head? Perhaps somebody upset you or crossed a boundary. Maybe you have a conversation looming that you were dreading or are rehearsing a speech or presentation.
These internal ’conversations’ can go on for days. Nothing you do can shake these thoughts from your head. This state is known as a mindfall.
Such mindfalls can be debilitating and can ruin your day. Eventually, if left ’untreated’, they can even lead to mental ’dis-ease’ such as depression or, on the flip side, even generate illusions and delusions of grandeur.
Avoiding Mindfalls is just one of the lectures in the latest course that fellow instructor Jackie Walker and I have published on Udemy.
The course is called Flavours of Thought : Recipes for Fresh Thinking. It’s based on the book of the same name I wrote over two years ago. This course though goes into much more depth about the flavours, their source and their use in our busy lives.
In this sample lecture, Jackie and I show how to use a single flavour to jump out of a mindfall. You can watch it free here and there’s many more tasty morsels like this to be savoured. Until the end of March, you can take the course for just $22 (that’s just $1 a flavour) …
Related Articles
You Are What You Think
The Secret of Youth
Decisions, Decisions
Publish a book in a month
Last year I wrote and published a book I had no idea I was about to write. I started writing it on the 3rd September and it was ready for publication on the 17th.
It shot into the top 10 books in Philosophy on the UK Kindle store by the end of September and the amazing reviews tell of the impact it is having on readers.
Here’s how I it came to pass …
Step 1: Have a Cracking Idea
I was watching my lovely partner snoozing on the sofa and wondered how many other people were also asleep right at that time. I also wondered how many people who were awake were also really ‘asleep’.
I was watching my lovely partner snoozing on the sofa and wondered how many other people were also asleep right at that time. I also wondered how many people who were awake were also really ‘asleep’.
Step 2: Have an Immovable Deadline
I was presenting a workshop on creativity on the 27th September at Sadler’s Wells at the Transformational Media Summit and wondered if I could write a book with a big message – and get it published in time so I could use it as a case study for the journalists attending.
I was presenting a workshop on creativity on the 27th September at Sadler’s Wells at the Transformational Media Summit and wondered if I could write a book with a big message – and get it published in time so I could use it as a case study for the journalists attending.
Step 3: Don’t Write a Big Book
To print a title and author name on the spine, you need about 100 pages or so. This equates to around 10,000-12,000 words. My aim was to write a book that could be read in a single commute or sitting.
To print a title and author name on the spine, you need about 100 pages or so. This equates to around 10,000-12,000 words. My aim was to write a book that could be read in a single commute or sitting.
Step 4: Learn How to Bend Time
I have been studying how we perceive the passage of time and I know some psychological and physiological ways to stretch time so we can get more done in less linear time. See Bending Time to find out how you can do this too.
I have been studying how we perceive the passage of time and I know some psychological and physiological ways to stretch time so we can get more done in less linear time. See Bending Time to find out how you can do this too.
Step 5: Write Short Chapters
A short chapter can be written and read in one session. What I do is meditate before each writing session for 20 minutes and I can then generate around 1000 words in an hour or so. The chapters in this book were actually around 500 words long so they could be re-syndicated in a blog.
A short chapter can be written and read in one session. What I do is meditate before each writing session for 20 minutes and I can then generate around 1000 words in an hour or so. The chapters in this book were actually around 500 words long so they could be re-syndicated in a blog.
Step 6: Review but Don’t Edit
Before writing each chapter, I review the previous chapter so I don’t duplicate and I ensure continuity and fluidity over the whole book. I only edit massive faux pas but don’t try and proof read or edit the whole. Incidentally, I normally Mind Map my books but this time it just came from ‘nowhere’.
Before writing each chapter, I review the previous chapter so I don’t duplicate and I ensure continuity and fluidity over the whole book. I only edit massive faux pas but don’t try and proof read or edit the whole. Incidentally, I normally Mind Map my books but this time it just came from ‘nowhere’.
Step 7: Know When To Finish
With epublication and print on demand, subsequent editions are easy. So when the 10,000 words or so are done and the base story is told, that’s time to wrap on this edition.
With epublication and print on demand, subsequent editions are easy. So when the 10,000 words or so are done and the base story is told, that’s time to wrap on this edition.
Step 8: Get Someone Else to Proof Read It
It’s impossible to mark your own homework so get professional, or a friend or colleague with an eye for detail, to read it and sanity check that it’s a Good Book and tells a solid story.
It’s impossible to mark your own homework so get professional, or a friend or colleague with an eye for detail, to read it and sanity check that it’s a Good Book and tells a solid story.
Step 9: Format It Nicely and Upload It to a PoD or ePub service
I use the CompletelyNovel print on demand service for my print books as it is so easy – and support is brilliant. Books normally arrive in 5 to 7 days. I uploaded it on the 17th of September and the box below arrived on the 20th in just three days!!
I use the CompletelyNovel print on demand service for my print books as it is so easy – and support is brilliant. Books normally arrive in 5 to 7 days. I uploaded it on the 17th of September and the box below arrived on the 20th in just three days!!
Step 10: Spread The Word
After finding a couple of other errors in the print books (so much easier than on screen), I uploaded it to the Amazon KDP platform and by the 21st September, it was available to download globally for less than the price of a cup of coffee. A few tweets and Facebook posts later and the reviews started flying in.
After finding a couple of other errors in the print books (so much easier than on screen), I uploaded it to the Amazon KDP platform and by the 21st September, it was available to download globally for less than the price of a cup of coffee. A few tweets and Facebook posts later and the reviews started flying in.
