Note: Behance is a sponsor of LifeDev. But rest assured we wouldn’t have written this if we didn’t mean every word. Every word.

Behance is a productivity outfitter of sorts. As per their slogan “making ideas happen”, they’ve interestingly focused their products for creative types. This is a smart move. Creativity is a very important thing to foster, especially in a business setting.

If you happen to be (or know) a very creative person, you probably know firsthand how good at coming up with interesting ideas or solutions they (we) tend to be. And you probably also know how terrible they are at implementing them. Enter Behance. They’ve created productivity tools that are creativity friendly.

I’ve been checkin’ out the Behance Action Series as of late, and I love it. But maybe I’m biased. I loved it as soon as I saw the packaging. The good people at Behance have really taken the time in every aspect of their products. Even their packaging has little mathematical formulas for creativity wrapped along the bottom.

Productive Creativity = Creativity + Organization + Perspiration + Collaboration + ….(tons more variables all the way around the packaging) = Make Ideas Happen

The Action Pad

The grandaddy of the Action Series, Behance Action Pads are like structured playgrounds for the mind. Instead of just the daunting solid white of a plain ‘ol notebook page, the Behance team has managed to create a delicate balance between structure and freedom. That’s a hard thing to do.

On the right sidebar, they’ve created space for action steps (like Next Actions in GTD). On the bottom of that sidebar there is a space for your “Backburner” items, or things to worry about later. On the top left side of the page, there’s plenty of room to describe what the page is about and other reference notes, along with a “Prep/Focus” box for refreshing your mind as to what the page means when you’re looking at it later.

(I really like the Prep/focus area of the page, mainly because it’s sometimes hard to remember what scribbles on a page mean without any context stuck to it. Kudos for creating a solution for that need! )

And wrapping out the Action Pad feature set is roughly 2/3 of nearly-white space on each page. Instead of having lines for this area for order (who needs that anyway?), the Action Series uses a dot grid to allow for more freedom than strict ‘ol lines. And they’ve dedicated the entire back side of the page to the dot grid, for maximum brainstormage. Another smart move.

The Action Pad Mini and Action Cards

If you don’t need a whole sheet of creativity, but rather just something to write down what to do next, check out the Action Pad Mini.

The Action Pad Mini has everything that the larger Action Pad has, just less of it.

If you’re looking for an even smaller place to fit just next actions and a place to write/draw, the Action Cards may be a better fit. Very hipster PDA-ish.

One thing I like about both of these smaller products is that the back is totally dedicated to sketches, text, or whatever else you can think of.

Overall Conclusions

I like how all of the Action Series has enough color to be distinctive and noticeable, but not so much that it bogs down the creative juices with distractions. Also, the paper is of pretty high quality, and each order comes with a kickin’ sticker. How cool is that?

If there was anything I’d change, it would be area allotted to each Action Step. It’s a tad too much for me, but I tend to write small. I’m sure that size is perfect (and even too small) for others. Also, it would be nice to see a binder of sorts to house everything in. Just a thought ;)

Behance has done a great job of utilizing the space for their products. Nothing is wasted, so you can squeeze every last bit of creative goodness on to the paper. The product itself is truly productive, even before we get our hands on it.

While the Action Series isn’t cheap, it’s worth every penny. Part of the battle of staying organized and focused in our crazy, always-connected-world is having tools that are comfortable, grab your attention, and gently prod you into getting things done and stop being a slacker. Anything that can invoke change like that is worth every cent.

1. Behance: Productive Creativity Tools
2. 10% Off Behance Products for LifeDev Readers!
3. Behance Adds New Moleskine Notebooks

Here are some great links to check out in your free time this weekend. I found all of these over at the del.icio.us popular pages. It’s pretty interesting stuff… but then again would I point you to anything that wasn’t? :)

Hipster PDA Templates
“Inspired by Laurent Baumann’s brilliant Flat WhiteBezel icon set, the templates are designed to take maximum advantage of the limited real estate of the 3×5 card. The design favors writing space over boundaries. The borders and text are gray to allow your writing to dominate the page.”

Top 20 Motivation Hacks
“Achieving goals is not a matter of having “discipline”. It’s a matter of motivating yourself, and keeping your focus on your goal. Follow these hacks, or any combination of them that works for you, and you should have the motivation and focus you need.”

The Four Best Ways to Sit at Your Computer
“The reality of modern day information work is that most of us spend a good chunk of our time each day seated in front of a computer. I’m big on time maximization so my feeling is that if we’re going to be on a computer all day why not make the best of it. The problem with poor posture is that eventually over time it leads to injury.”

Five Weeeeeeeeeeird Tips For Great Meetings
“That’s why meetings become toxic—they put uncreative people in a situation in which they have to be something they can never be. And the more effort they put into concealing their inabilities, the more toxic the meeting becomes.”

Top 10 Gmail Tips and Hacks
“Since you can do so much with and to Gmail, I thought I would round up my favorite tips and hacks for users both old and new. Some of these are simple ideas for thinking about labels in a different way, while others add more powerful functionality for the most dedicated of Gmail ninjas.”

Slife Labs
“Slife is the new awareness browser for the Mac OS X that lets you visualize your computer activities like never before. Trying to be more productive? Wondering where all that time went? Now you can find out!”

GTD Mastery 100
List of 100 things you can do to become a GTD master. Maybe a little overkill for most people, but still some great tips.

How-To: Print DIY Planner Hipster PDA Cards Direct to 3×5
“This guide is designed to help the owner of an HP All-in-One model printer (or any other HP printer and perhaps any printer that will feed 3×5 cards) print cards using Mac OS X.”

1. Productivity links for March 15th
2. Productivity links for May 22nd
3. Productivity Software Links: Page Addict, Two Minute Timer, Clear Context

I’ve stated before that I use Merlin Mann’s Hipster PDA religiously. It’s just as good as a PDA in my opinion, and it won’t break the bank.

Well, thanks to WinterMute, you can make a cover for your Hipster PDA out of duct tape and checkbook covers.

Sweet!

I’m starting something new: weekly “stumbles”. If you don’t know about the service StumbleUpon, you should check it out. It’s a Firefox extension that shows you useful websites/pages at random, according to your preferences.

[DISCLAIMER: It's more addictive than crack.]
I know most of my blog is about being productive, but you gotta have fun sometime, right? Well here are some stumbles I’ve found while on my break that deal with productivity, etc.

Introducing the Hipster PDA
Merlin’s famous Pocket Organizer

PocketMod
Related to the Hipster PDA, it prints normal sheets of paper into notecards with just about any format you can think of. So cool.

Secrets of the Renaissance Soul
Don’t know much about this other than it sounds like it relates to me ;)

“Learn more about how to design your multifaceted life, manage your time, and connect with others who, like yourself, tend to keep changing from one thing to another.”

Sounds interesting anyway

50 Tools To Help With Writing
Extensive list of writing tools… sheesh.

ZapReader
Great speed-reading tool.  Has lots of tools and greasemonkey scripts for integration.

Joe’s Goals
Shmancy ajax personal goal tracker.  I signed up for an account, and it’s pretty fun.

Office 2.0 Database
Run-down of every web-based office program known to man.

How to Concentrate On Writing
10 Ways to Get ‘er Done

1. Stumbles For 10/06/06
2. Stumbles for 10/20/06
3. Stumbles for 9/29/06