This page contains free tools that will help you improve your writing.

Oblique Marketing Strategies

Based on Brian Eno's original Oblique Strategies, this tool will give you inspiration when you face a marketing problem. Just click on the text in the box to get a new strategy. (Read about Oblique marketing strategies on our blog.)

  1. Be more specific
  2. Be more emotional
  3. Subvert clichés
  4. Go across the street
  5. Who is in a similar business?
  6. Cement? Consolidate?
  7. Turn it upside down
  8. Which medium?
  9. Be quick and dirty
  10. Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do & do the last thing on the list
  11. Take a risk
  12. Work against your better judgement
  13. Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
  14. BANJO – Bang Another Nasty Job Out
  15. Phone a Friend
  16. Use an egg timer to get started
  17. Faced with a choice, do both
  18. Do something really tiny but exquisite
  19. Don’t be frightened to display your talents
  20. They can only say no
  21. Ask for more money
  22. Use ‘unqualified’ people
  23. Do as much as you can for a short period of time
  24. Bridges -build -burn
  25. Tidy up
  26. Do the words need changing?
  27. Shut up for a moment
  28. Call ten people who don’t want your product
  29. Remove the error from something human
  30. Discard an axiom
  31. Listen to the quiet voice
  32. Buy a strange magazine
  33. Give the game away
  34. Use fewer words
  35. Repeat your greatest success
  36. What would Microsoft do?
  37. What would Linus Torvalds do?
  38. Just carry on
  39. Reinforce success
  40. Spectrum analysis
  41. What mistakes did you make last time?
  42. Courageous spending
  43. Do it for nothing
  44. State the problem in words as clearly as possible
  45. Change the order
  46. Cluster analysis
  47. Do something boring
  48. Overtly resist change
  49. Accept advice
  50. Work at a different speed
  51. Down the pub
  52. Free associate
  53. Go for a run
  54. Build a bridge
  55. Do the things you love and the money will take care of itself
  56. Be more specific
  57. Be more emotional
  58. Subvert clichés
  59. Go across the street
  60. Who is in a similar business?
  61. Cement? Consolidate?
  62. Turn it upside down
  63. Which medium?
  64. Be quick and dirty
  65. Make an exhaustive list of everything you might do & do the last thing on the list
  66. Take a risk
  67. Work against your better judgement
  68. Take away the elements in order of apparent non-importance
  69. BANJO – Bang Another Nasty Job Out
  70. Phone a Friend
  71. Use an egg timer to get started
  72. Faced with a choice, do both
  73. Do something really tiny but exquisite
  74. Don’t be frightened to display your talents
  75. They can only say no
  76. Ask for more money
  77. Use ‘unqualified’ people
  78. Do as much as you can for a short period of time
  79. Bridges -build -burn
  80. Tidy up
  81. Do the words need changing?
  82. Shut up for a moment
  83. Call ten people who don’t want your product
  84. Remove the error from something human
  85. Discard an axiom
  86. Listen to the quiet voice
  87. Buy a strange magazine
  88. Give the game away
  89. Use fewer words
  90. Repeat your greatest success
  91. What would Microsoft do?
  92. What would Linus Torvalds do?
  93. Just carry on
  94. Reinforce success
  95. Spectrum analysis
  96. What mistakes did you make last time?
  97. Courageous spending
  98. Do it for nothing
  99. State the problem in words as clearly as possible
  100. Change the order
  101. Cluster analysis
  102. Do something boring
  103. Overtly resist change
  104. Accept advice
  105. Work at a different speed
  106. Down the pub
  107. Free associate
  108. Go for a run
  109. Build a bridge
  110. Do the things you love and the money will take care of itself
 

Concentration and meditation timer

Use this simple application to help you concentrate. Reset your concentration on your work whenever the bell goes. Stop and make tea when the final bell sounds. For more information see: how to concentrate on writing.