Environmental review
Let’s have a show of hands (and please don’t be embarrassed): How many of you brushed your teeth this morning?
Ok, good. How many of you brushed your teeth in a bathroom? How many in a kitchen?
Now, hands up if you brushed your teeth on the subway? No? No one? Why not? I mean, you have an awesome yellow travel toothbrush. Why not use it?
We hear you: you need some water to rinse, a sink to spit into, maybe even some privacy. That makes sense.
Tools are awesome. But we can’t brush our teeth anywhere we like just because we have the right tool in our pocket. We also need the right environment.
Keep that in mind the next time you think you can get real work done on the subway just because you have a Dick Tracy gizmo on your wrist. If there are cars honking and sirens screaming, a mobile phone isn’t even that helpful to make a phone call. Would you lead a conference call while sitting on your stoop across the street from a busy firehouse? Of course not. The right environment makes a big difference.
Summer Stipend 2015
This year’s panelists are: Liz Andrien, Moira Brennan, Gary Chou, Rachel Crawford, Cindy Gallop, and Patricia Rappaport.
The Macktez Summer Stipend is a $1,000 development grant to encourage one of the many people we meet and work with every day to finish their summer project. We evaluate applications on three simple criteria: originality, relevance, and conviction.
The application for our Summer Stipend is clean and straightforward. We’ve tried to help you keep on track by sharing this step-by-step project plan, including deadlines, specific actionable tasks, and time estimates. But where you do the work is entirely up to you.
Apply for this year’s Summer Stipend by July 25.
Where can you spend an uninterrupted hour or two? Do you work best at a desk or on your couch? Do you like low light or bright? Can you work through the buzz at Starbucks or do you need quiet? Do you need a fast internet connection, or can you go into airplane mode?
Now that you’ve settled in to the right environment, you can get to work on the Stipend application.
Working Yellow
Choosing the right environment is part of our second Working Yellow workshop.
In the first workshop, Planning, we identify the power of deadlines and the importance of writing things down, and we work through how to break any project into actionable tasks so that when you’re ready to get to work you know exactly what you need to do next.
In the second workshop, Doing, we talk about how important it is to have the right tools, the right environment, and the right frame of mind to step effectively through your tasks and not lose focus.
And in the third workshop, Collaborating, or Planning and Doing Together, we stress the difference between a good meeting and a good conversation. Plus we look at communication tips that will help you apply lessons from the first two workshops to a collaborative work environment.
If you’re interested in learning how to make daily progress on your projects and goals with more deliberate choices about your time, join us for a free, private offering of our three-part workshop in July. (We’re also presenting the Working Yellow workshops as part of UnionDocs’ summer intensive for emerging filmmakers.)
Summer Stipend Application
The deadline is July 25. Use this application worksheet to make sure you prepare your proposal thoughtfully and on time.
Let this application help you clarify your needs, focus your attention, and set a schedule.
If our panelists are moved by the originality and relevance of your application, you’ll receive $1,000 to help you reach the finish line.
The application period is now closed.
