Articles by: Hanna Brooks Olsen

[caption id="attachment_6634" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] CreativeLive CEO Chase Jarvis will quickly tell you: He's a great quitter.   He's quit all kinds of things, from various sports to med school.

[caption id="attachment_6560" align="alignnone" width="620"] By Sonja Langford[/caption] It's debatable whether or not the eight-hour workday works for everyone – or even anyone – mostly because it's darn near impossible to plop down in front of a computer and just hit the productivity switch. For freelancers, it can be even more challenging, as the distractions of a home office, the internet, or, you know, a life, begin to slowly eat away at the time when you should be working.

This week, NPR reported on a study that found that the human brain, regardless of a person's perceived ability to keep a beat, can still keep time. The findings further underscored a long-running theory that music truly is a universal human language, as old as time and as thoroughly rooted in our brains as the need to breathe.

[caption id="attachment_6499" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] Being a creative -- in whatever sense you may be, even if you choose not to use the adjective as a noun -- is deeply satisfying. Study after study has shown that job satisfaction and happiness among creatives tends to skew high, and that, conversely, creativity leads to happiness.

[caption id="attachment_6443" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via the State Library of Queensland[/caption] Let's all take a moment to reflect on the proud legacy of the sewing machine. Like clothes, jewelry, and clunky kitchen appliances, sewing machines are one of those things that most of us get handed down from a relative.

From building furniture to sewing quilts, crafting is a pursuit as old as time. And while making our own everyday items is much less necessary than it once was, crafting still remains a popular hobby -- and, in many cases, a full-time job -- though it looks quite a bit different than it did in the days of quilting bees.

[caption id="attachment_6369" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr[/caption] "Want to get together for coffee? I'd love to pick your brain.

[caption id="attachment_6365" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Gratisography[/caption] A recent Harris poll found that hands-on learning is the most popular method of education in the United States — but it's most likely that the pollsters meant "learning by actively doing," rather than just "touching stuff. " However, a different study has found that the power of touch itself might actually be a way to be more creative.

[caption id="attachment_6332" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image via Flickr. [/caption] Maurice Sendak is most well-known for his beloved children's book, "Where the Wild Things Are," a story rooted in imagination and independence and defiance.