I've seen Leonardo Da Vinci notebooks which are filled with tiny, messy scrawls written in mirror image across the page. I'd love to know how he kept all his projects going at once.

You get energy from other people, so hang out with energetic people.

When I write, I love finding connections between ideas. When the connections are plentiful and strong, then I know it's a pretty good subject to write about.

I always have a ton of projects in mind. On my ToodleDo list, I divide projects into those I'm actively working on, those I'm not doing but believe I will do, and those that sound good, but who knows if I'll ever get to them.

I work with a lot of different editors at different publishers and magazines and so on, and having a system of shared folders makes keeping track of things a snap.

I get some of my best ideas while out walking.

I specialize in science and history, with a special emphasis on including do-it-yourself projects in the mix. My dozen or so books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. I'm also a contributing editor at Popular Science and at Make Magazine.