Tracking Progress

Setting goals is one thing. Reaching them is quite another!

You're much more likely to reach your goals when you track your progress. Doing that visually helps you see the big picture at a glance. It also keeps your goals in the front of your mind so you're less likely to forget about them.

That's what performance dashboards are for. They're like the dashboard in your car in the way you can see at a glance how things are going. But they're for tracking progress towards your goal, instead.

Here's a performance dashboard I created to help me track how often I stretch throughout the day. All I have to do is put a dot by the time of day when I stretched. At a glance, I can see if I've been remembering to stretch or not.

A performance dashboard like this is super simple, yet so much more specific than just saying, "I need to be sure to stretch throughout the day."

Visual Thinking & Synthesis Images: 2014 in Review

The brain likes to keep things simple. Then it knows just what to focus on. And remember. When there's a ton of information, it's far too easy to get distracted. Or confused. Or just plain tired.

That's one reason synthesis images are so helpful. They make things simple so you can easily understand and remember them. Because they're visual, you literally see the whole picture. That means you get to see how things are connected or related. And new ideas and insights are more likely to occur.

Here's a super simple synthesis image of a few major headlines and topics of 2014.

Visual Thinking & Lettering: Use What You Have!

There's a myth floating around that creative people are not so practical. Truth is, the most successful creative people are really highly practical. They think about what can be accomplished with what they already have. And then use what they have in new ways.

One of those things is time. The great thing about visual thinking is that it doesn't take much time. It's quick and simple. And that frees up your time to really accomplish things.

Even one little picture makes a huge difference. And there's no need for it to be fancy. Just keep in mind: The simpler the drawing, the more you'll have time to draw. And the more you practice, the faster you'll draw!

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Surprise!

Hiding a surprise in a visual is a great way to make them more fun. The surprise can't be hidden so much it would take hours to find. It needs to be hidden just enough to be missed on the first glance. But easy enough to find in a minute or two.

Discovering a surprise gives the same sense of satisfaction as solving a problem. And that's what people will feel after discovering the surprise in your visual. And because they really looked at it, they will be much more likely to remember the visual, too.

So what's the surprise hiding in Santa's sleigh? Here's a hint: He's the one wishing everyone Merry Christmas, not Santa!

Visual Thinking & Creativity: Just a Hint!

Our brains don't like to leave things open-ended. They like complete pictures. And they work really hard to fill in any missing pieces.

To fill in those missing pieces, the brain searches everywhere. And comes up with a lot of different options. Some options may be quite obvious. Others not so much. Those not so obvious options are often the most creative.

To create visuals that are a bit more open-ended, don't draw the whole thing. Try just giving a hint instead. Like in the visual above. You're sure there's a cat in the stocking. (The "Meow!" alone pretty much gives it away!)

Just seeing the ears makes you wonder what the cat is doing in that stocking. Why did it jump in there in the first place? Did it catch a mouse? Is it eating some Christmas goodies? Is it taking a nap? Trying to get out?

If you're after clarity, draw it all. If you're after creativity, just draw a hint.

Visual Thinking: Simple Can Be Powerful!

No fancy art skills are needed to turn your message into a picture. Really!

Just take a look at the image above. It's made from super simple shapes and lines. The snow on the ground is just a bumpy line. The poles are long, skinny rectangles with slightly curved stripes. One flag is a rectangle. The other is a rectangle with wavy lines on the long sides. The snowflakes are made from four lines crossed over each other in the middle. That's it!

When you put all those simple things together and make them fill the page, you end up with a picture. Add some words to those flags and suddenly your picture turns into a message. A message with impact. A message people get in a glance. Or one that's interesting enough to study a bit longer.

Give it a try. You'll be amazed at what a few simple lines can turn into!

Visual Thinking & Creativity: 15 Christmas Trees

Want to generate a lot of ideas fast? Pick one thing about your subject and change it. That's it!

That's all I did to get these 15 Christmas trees. I used different types of lines to draw the main shape of the tree. I experimented with different shapes, too. In a few of them, I had to change the trunk a bit for it to make sense. But the star stayed the same in all of them.

Changing one thing makes it clear how everything fits together. Visual thinking lets everyone see if that change will leave a big hole or maybe other things to get rid of. That's true for Christmas trees and corporations alike.

Visual Thinking: Make 'em Look!

Like a green leaf on a bunch of red bricks, hand-drawn visuals are hard to ignore. There's something warm and inviting about them. They really draw you in. And make you really look.

No matter how boring and monotonous those bricks may be, that lonely leaf somehow makes them all a tad more interesting. It makes you look. When you do look, you actually see what you're looking at instead of breezing right by.

Now imagine you watched that leaf fall on the bricks. It caught your eye as it danced around in the air. You may not have been sure exactly what it was or what it was doing, but it looked interesting. You wanted to get closer. When you did, you really looked at it. And noticed things you may have otherwise missed.

Even from the back of a huge auditorium, a live graphic recorder catches people's attention. People want to get closer to see what it is. When they do, they really look. Not just at the drawing, but at your great content. They think more deeply about it. They make connections and get new insights. They're engaged. You stopped talking long ago, but they gladly keep the conversation going.

Like a green leaf on a bunch of red bricks, hand-drawn visuals are hard to ignore. They really draw you in. And make you really look.

Visual Thinking: Words and Pictures Together

Pictures often steal the show when it comes to visual thinking. But words are important, too. Images that contain both words and pictures are more far more memorable because they both reinforce each other - it's repetition without being monotonous. And teaming the two clears up ambiguity, too. So not only is the message more memorable, it's more accurate.

Another "waiting in the airport" doodle above, started in San Francisco and finished in Palm Springs.

Graphic Recording: Confidential Material

One of the most challenging parts of being a graphic recorder is building up a portfolio of sharable work. The challenge is not in doing the work itself, but in doing work that is sharable.

Extensive non-disclosure agreements are often required for jobs. This could be due to highly confidential content. It could also be so people feel free to speak up without their comments being shared with the public at large.

Either way, the fact that much graphic recording is done behind closed doors and stays there, shows it provides far more value than merely drawing out a pretty picture.

The image above was done at the Shop.Org Summit, the only one non sharable with the public.