2 Easy Ways To Increase Willpower — Courtesy Of The Cookie Monster
llpower Is Destiny Haven't we all heard of Mischel's Marshmallow Self-Control Test by now? If not, here's a quick summary: Stick a little kid alone in a room with nothing but a marshmallow. Tell the kid they can eat it now or, if they wait 15 minutes, they get two. Then you leave the kid alone. Some children eat the marshmallow immediately, others wait and earn two. Big deal, right? Wrong. It's a huge deal. Check with those kids 20 years…
3 minutes
Slacker’s Guide To Productivity: 6 Ways To Goof Off And Get More Done
ve posted about how people at the top of their field are relentlessly productive. But you can't sprint for miles. There's plenty of research showing that being a touch lazy might be beneficial at times. Here are six research-backed ways to get more done in less time by taking it easy. 1) Work Less Working too hard for too long makes you less productive. Yes, pulling 60-hour weeks is impressive. But pull them for more than 2 months and you…
3 minutes
Productivity Ninja: 5 Powerful Tips For Getting More Stuff Done
Know When You're At Your Best And plan accordingly. To be a productivity ninja focus less on time management, and more on managing your energy. Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, used a system like this to make sure he was always growing. He identified the hours when he was at his best -- and then routinely stole one of those peak hours for learning. Via The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen: Charlie…
5 minutes
Stay Focused: 5 Ways To Increase Your Attention Span
you guys are anything like the readers of Slate.com, 38% of you are already gone. You couldn't stay focused long enough to engage with this post at all. Is it time to scroll to see more? Too much effort, too busy, meh, gotta go, HEY LOOK SOMETHING SHINY!!! -- another 5% of you just vanished. Yes, attention spans are that bad. Now I'm wondering if I should have made this post shorter. Cal Newport, Georgetown professor and expert on…
3 minutes
Time Management Skills Are Stupid. Here’s What Works.
t the schedule down for a second. Consider something I read in The Power of Full Engagement: Maybe it's not about time. It's about energy. Via The Power of Full Engagement: Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance. It's a qualitative lens instead of a quantitative one. Focusing on your time management skills sounds great but all hours are not created equal. We're not machines and the time model is a machine model. Our job isn't to be…
4 minutes
Work Smarter Not Harder: 17 Great Tips
Dan Pink's Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself he closes the book with a long, excellent list of "Work Smarter Not Harder" type advice for people who want to start working for themselves. Frankly, the list is so good I think everyone would benefit from it. Below are my favorites. I've included links to research and prior posts backing Dan's advice. via Free Agent Nation: The Future of Working for Yourself: Make a "to don't" list. Another gem from the…
4 minutes
This One Simple Thing Can Make Your Life Much Better
Buy A Notebook Many people have written to me saying they love all the research on bettering themselves but need that first step on how to shoehorn it in to their day-to-day life. Incorporating a lot of the blog's strategies can be as easy as buying a notebook. (No, it doesn't need to have glitter on it or say "MY SECRET DIARY" on the front.) Others might think: "I don't need to write stuff down. Reading is enough." Nope.…
6 minutes
“Keep it simple stupid” is great advice. Here’s the best way to do it.
at's the best way to keep things simple? John Maeda is a computer scientist -- and an artist. He's the President of the Rhode Island School of Design and founder of the SIMPLICITY consortium at the MIT Media Lab. His book, The Laws of Simplicity, is a short set of meditations on simplicity, and how we can use it to better our lives and work. The Kiss Principle ("Keep it simple stupid") is an old design idea from the Navy.…
2 minutes
