Sign in Subscribe

Ryan Pavel

📍 Chicago http://3DProductivity.com

Procrastination in a Bunker

On deployment, I wrote a newsletter. I was 21, sending reflections from a foreign land with tight restrictions on what I could and could not do and say. I knew how to string sentences together, but I hadn't read or written enough to move beyond adolescent syntax and

The Thing That Made Me Read

Two weeks ago, I posted a poem with a shade of mindefulness. Last week, a guacamole recipe with a dash of democracy. Dear reader, you'd be forgiven for wondering what this blog is actually supposed to be about. In my defense, my working structure here is to interrogate

For Country and Guac

Last week, three things happened: First, I got to lead a seminar on the Declaration of Independence and Tocqueville's Equality of Conditions argument with a stellar group of enlisted veterans. Second, we witnessed quite a presidential debate. And third, I bought a bag of avocados. As the avocados

Is Be

On an evening flight home from a deeply rewarding trip, I caught a confounding mix of exhaustion and pulsing energy. I started writing, and words coalesced into verse: In times I cannot see the path, I find my way to peace By stepping through the woods without concern for every

Think - Part Two

Last year around this time, I reflected on one of the most important things my father taught me: to think. Father's Day was last weekend, and I'm reflecting again on that sage advice, which I heard so many times as a kid but didn’t really

How Dare You Procrastinate

Picture this. You're putting off an important task but you feel so guilty about putting off the task that you can't even relish the things you are doing instead of the thing you should be doing. Not only are you not being productive, but you aren&

The 98: Multitasking Lies

I'd like to think I'm an inclusive and engaging teacher. I've only had someone walk out of my class in heated fashion one time (unless you count my time as a high school teacher in Detroit, which came with a whole host of its

Cross-Pollinating Productivity

What can we learn from going outside our industry and examining how folks in very different fields get things done? I’m starting to think that the answer is: quite a bit. It's common to talk about breakdowns in communication and workflow within an organization. If sales isn’

The Power of a Name

I caught up with a law school classmate last week — a sharp guy who speaks about his work with an invigorating amount of technical proficiency and authentic interest — and came away unexpectedly thinking about the power of a name. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about blogging regularly is

The Flattening

I was spurred to start blogging regularly because of (1) a nagging concern that we’re increasingly flattening the human experience into one-dimensional soundbites, and (2) a questionably-founded belief that I have something valuable to say about that. Sometimes, the richest company in the world energizes the conversation for you.