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Business Class

June 10, 2008

Break Your Schoolhouse Habits!

Business Etiquette Rules
Scott Belsky

Head of Behance, VP Products - Community, Adobe

Summary

Our years of formal schooling created habits that actually set us back when it comes to productivity and pushing ideas forward! While our in

Our years of formal schooling created habits that actually set us back when it comes to productivity and pushing ideas forward! While our instinct may be to live life as we were taught, we must consider the contrary. Some of the most productive creative professionals that we interview have a different approach to conventional wisdom.


We were taught to memorize and take copious notes. 

Memorizing takes up mental space and leads to forgetting. Especially as we start to get senior moments, organizing information in a readily accessible manner is much more important than memorizing facts. Memorizing also consumes our precious energy for creativity. Note taking, another scholarly impulse of ours, has become a vestige skill. Amidst our busy lives, we're lucky to complete our action steps, yet alone have time to read old notes.

Our instinct was to work towards the good grade, now it's the paycheck.

Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means. When your mentality has you working toward the next paycheck or the year-end bonus, you are less likely to invest effort in long-term goals. The great achievements that lie years ahead are often compromised for near-term rewards. Sometimes we must short-circuit ourselves and focus on the faint light at the end of the very long tunnel.

Lets keep our old schoolhouse memories as just what they are: memories. A productive, creative life requires independent thinking and reasoning. Be skeptical of the things you do just because.

Behance articles and tips are adapted from the writing and research of Scott Belsky and the Behance team. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network , the Creative Jobs List, and develops knowledge, products, and services that help creative professionals make ideas happen.All information (c) Scott Belsky, Behance LLC