Serial innovators Bre Pettis and Kio Stark came together to produce what the call "The Cult of Done Manifesto." As Bre explains, it was written "in 20 minutes because we only had 20 minutes to get it done." Talk about making ideas happen...

The manifesto, reprinted below, inspired technical illustrator James Provost to represent the manifesto as a poster (below). No word on how long that took...

We find this inspiring and very inline with Behance's mission to boost productivity and execution in the creative world. Much respect to Bre, Kio, and James!

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Poster by James Provost

It is interesting to "search" on Twitter for a particular product name or brand. Here's a quick example of this morning's search on Twitter for "Action Method" (below). In the new age, teams should use twitter searches to "get the pulse" of what people are saying about their products - and to learn from these searches...

It makes our day when we come across thoughtful industry thinkers, leaders, and bloggers that take the time to explore Behance, often offering a candid view on the strengths and opportunities for growth in our business.

In a blogosphere full of three sentence posts and quick video snippets, our team really appreciates coming across in-depth posts on some of the projects we are working on.

We came across two recent posts on Control Your Robot, a well outlined blog covering the intersection of design, technology and life. The site shares a really observant review of both the Action Method and the Behance Network (along with a few other portfolio sites). We enjoyed reading the postings along with some of the other articles on the site. One in particular, "Make My Logo Bigger...Enough Said," reminded us of one of the early favorites on the Behance Network, also on the theme of  "making the logo bigger!"

We also wanted to thank Ed Cotton over at Influx Insights for taking the time to interview Behance. We especially appreciated the nature of the questions and enjoyed going a little deeper on our mission, the trends and needs we are seeing in the creative community, and some thoughts on where Behance is headed.  Influx Insights is a truly influential blog in the advertising/media world, and we were honored to be interviewed.

We spend a lot of time thinking about how to encourage a bias-to-action among creative professional teams. Ideas are plentiful, but action is required to make ideas happen.

We came across a few great suggestions from our friends at Pick the Brain, a blog with great (and practical) tips on self improvement. "7 Ways to Grow the Action Habit" helps ground our energy with a healthy sense of discipline. Check it out.

As a small, passionate team trying to launch something new, we recognize the importance of collaboration and clear communication. Lately, we've been trying to better communicate Behance, our mission, and some of the research/writing we have done in the creative community. If these bloggers/mavens had appreciation badges next to their posts, then we would have gladly expressed our gratitude!

Behance is thrilled to collaborate with an exceptional list of bloggers that are coming together to make life...well, better.

The official description for this effort: "LifeRemix is basically a band of bloggers who enrich people's lives through blogging. The blogs are hand-selected, and each one is incredible....With the constant swelling of the blogosphere, good writing can be hard to find. We're trying to act as a filter so only the best writing is showcased, while at the same time learning a thing or two."

Blogs currently included in the LifeRemix network are:

Black Belt Productivity
Behance
Cranking Widgets Blog
Dumb Little Man
Freelance Switch
Happiness Project
LifeClever
LifeDev
Pick the Brain
Success From the Nest
Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Workweek Blog
Unclutterer
WiseBread
Zen Habits

We encourage you to check out LifeRemix and explore the insights and tips on productivity that are aggregated in this wonderful sweet spot of the world wide web.

It has been hot in NYC; and we were contemplating whether a sauna environment sparks action or stalls it all together.

Nevertheless, we've been trying to stay focused with only a few digressions. We were happy to see the response to our recent Behance.com Tip on surrounding yourself with action-inducing art. While the concept is a little extreme, the point rings true for our team and others we know. Thanks to LifeDev for picking up on it, despite the fact that the tip is a bit contrarian to the typical productivity principle of clearing away anything that is completed.

We were also pleased to see Write Well Me's take on some of our favorite Tips; great to hear her resonance with some of them...

We came across some insightful (and/or funny) comments on our latest Tip, "Surround Yourself With Action" on LifeHacker; worth checking out. Also, we really appreciated Core77's coverage of the same tip, which they so cleverly called "basking in your own done-ness." We like it.

Behance was featured this morning on Sirius Radio's LIME talk show with Karen Salmansohn. Behance founder Scott Belsky spoke about the need for more productivity in the creative community along with some of the research Behance has conducted on the topic. He also went through some best practices based on the Action Method. We love what Karen is up to and encourage you to check out her website...you might even sign up for her "Want to be Happy, Dammit" newsletter.

One topic that came up was the connection between passion and groundbreaking creativity. Widely-known author Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced chicks-send-me-high, seriously) writes about the state of "flow" as the prime zone for creative output. Of course, there are risks associated with becoming overly immersed in such a state: you may fail to keep track of the overall project's goals! Nevertheless, passion-driven creativity is the fuel for the greatest breakthroughs and most forward-thinking design. 

One designer we came across, thanks to the powers of Technorati, is

Bryan Rees, based in South Carolina. Brian's front page features "Branding : Design : Passion." And it seems that Bryan has a history of executing ideas.

So, key take-away: Be passionate, and exercise the discipline to channel it to make ideas happen.

Marc Andreessen has an insightful post on productivity that can certainly be extended to personalize the Action Method.

A few highlights:

• Don't keep a schedule: Andreessen cites Arnold Schwarzenegger's story, as told in the book A Perfect Mess, that emphasizes the importance of focusing on whatever is most important at any given time, rather than keeping a schedule that ultimately gets in the way of making progress.

• "Keep three and only three lists: a Todo List, a Watch List, and a Later List."

• "Each night before you go to bed, prepare a 3x5 index card with a short list of 3 to 5 things that you will do the next day."

I encourage you to check out the full post, as it is full of useful insights on managing email (rather than letting it manage you), using the ipod as a tool to ward OFF distraction, and other helpful goodies...