» The Beginner’s Guide to Unschooling Post written by Leo Babauta. There’s nothing I get asked about more as a parent than unschooling, and nothing I recommend more to other parents. It’s an educational philosophy that provides for more freedom than any other learning method, and prepares kids for an uncertain and rapidly changing future better than anything else I know. My wife and I unschool four of our kids, and have been for several years. And yet, as powerful as I believe unschooling to be, I’ve never written about it, because the truth is, I certainly don’t have all the answers. The beauty of unschooling is in the search for the answers. But I’m getting ahead of myself: what is unschooling? What is Unschooling? First, it’s a form of homeschooling. However, this is how I describe it — in contrast to school: Let me emphasize that for a minute: in unschooling, life itself is learning. This is how I learn as a self-employed writer, as an entrepreneur, as a parent. Why Unschool? More reasons to unschool: How to Unschool
201 Ways to Arouse Your Creativity Arouse your creativity Electric flesh-arrows … traversing the body. A rainbow of color strikes the eyelids. A foam of music falls over the ears. Creativity is like sex. I know, I know. The people I speak of are writers. Below, I’ve exposed some of their secret tips, methods, and techniques. Now, lie back, relax and take pleasure in these 201 provocative ways to arouse your creativity. Great hacks from Merlin Mann of 43 Folders
50+ Personal Productivity Blogs You've Never Heard of Before (and about a dozen you probably have) The personal productivity niche on the Web has grown by leaps and bounds since Lifehack launched only a few years ago. While a few sites dominate the rankings, there are lots and lots of lesser-known sites that are as good or even better than the “A-list” productivity blogs. Most of them are solo operations — the GTD newbie documenting his or her quest for greater control over their life, the coach or consultant sharing his or her knowledge with the world, the writer adding to his or her published work with notes, errata, and new findings. Their voice is personal, intimate even — and deserves to be heard. Of course, the big names are here too — after all, I owe some of them a tremendous debt for helping me get a grip on my own life. Enjoy! 43 Folders: Merlin Mann started a lot of us on this journey, so now he has to pay. Do you know any productivity blogs that the world should know about? Read full content
The 26 Best Self-Improvement Posts Ever Need a place to find the best self-improvement blog posts ever? One big list of inspiring geniuses? Well, here it is… my list of the best self-improvement posts ever: 1. – How to be Creative – Originally published in 2004 by Hugh Macleod at the Gaping Void. 2. – How to Make Money From Your Blog – If I had a dollar for every person who started blogging after reading this post… well… I could quit my job. 3. – Zen To Done (ZTD): The Ultimate Simple Productivity System – This is a post you can put to use to improve you life immediately. 4. – How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour (Plus: A Favor) – Tim Ferris describes in detail how you can learn the basics of new language quickly through a method he calls deconstruction. 5. – The Art of the Finish: How to Go From Busy to Accomplished – This post was written about three years ago on Scott H Young’s blog. 7. – Do You Have Weirdo Syndrome? 9. – 279 Days to Overnight Success – This isn’t a blog post.
Unchained Dreams The What-The-Hell Effect What pizza and cookies can teach us about goal-setting. Goal-setting can be a handy way of improving performance, except when we fall foul of a nasty little side-effect. Take dieting as an example. Instead of your healthy meal at home you’re faced with a restaurant menu. Then in the restaurant you eat some bread and have a drink while everyone chooses from the menu. So, just as we’re getting somewhere with reaching our goal, the whole thing goes out the window in a moment of madness. The what-the-hell effect isn’t just a lack of self-control or momentary lapse; it is directly related to missing a goal. The pizza and cookies experiment Recent research by Janet Polivy and colleagues at the University of Toronto is a good example (Polivy et al., 2010). Except the experimenters didn’t much care how the cookies were rated, just how many they ate. This made some people think they’d eaten more than they really had; although in reality they’d all eaten exactly the same amount.
12 Tough Truths that Help You Grow As you look back on your life, you will often realize that many of the times you thought you were being rejected from something good, you were in fact being redirected to something better. You can’t control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen. Because sometimes the truths you can’t change, end up changing you and helping you grow. Here are twelve such truths… Everything is as it should be. Photo by: Martin Gommel Related 10 Mistakes Unhappy People Make Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. May 28, 2012 In "Hacks" 50 Quotes to Help You Let Go and Live “Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. November 20, 2013 In "Happiness" 9 Good Reminders that Will Change the Way You Think “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking.
Need Some Motivation Right Now? Read This IMMEDIATELY If you’re in desperate need of some motivation, we’re going to fix that problem, right here, right now. Prepare yourself. WARNING: I’m going to swear and yell a little in this post. Desperate times call for desperate measures. You said you needed motivation. If this isn’t the kind of motivation you need, leave now. Alright. Here goes. Do you want some motherfucking motivation right now? I SAID, do you want some MOTHERFUCKING MOTIVATION RIGHT NOW? Do you want to get some seriously useful shit done today? Do you want to get off your ass and start producing instead of wallowing in despair, depression, self pity, fear, doubt or whatever is holding you back? Are you sick of not getting anything done? Let’s DO THIS. The point of this exercise is to give you motivation to do something right now. Follow the steps below carefully. 1. The world doesn’t care. And if you’re feeling depressed or down, stop feeling sorry for yourself while you’re at it. We all face obstacles. Did you catch that? Period. 2. 3. 4.
Best Procrastination Tip Ever Post written by Leo Babauta. Your first thought as you look at this article will be, “I’ll read this later.” But don’t. It’ll take you two minutes. I’ve written the book on ending procrastination, but I’ve since come up with a very simple technique for beating everyone’s favorite nemesis. Try it now: Identify the most important thing you have to do today. Clear away distractions. Sit there, and focus on getting started. Pay attention to your mind, as it starts to have urges to switch to another task. But don’t move. Notice also your mind trying to justify not doing the task. Now just take one small action to get started. Get started, and the rest will flow.
Fake it Till You Make it: 10 Ways to Feel Confident (Even When You Aren’t) “Original Fake” Photo Credit: courtesy of MashKulture Is your self-confidence natural, or a daily struggle? Many people’s confidence naturally wavers from day to day, leaving them too timid or confused at just the wrong time. Whether you are naturally confident or could use some better eye contact with your life, setting in place a few simple strategies goes a long way to stoke your inner confidence. If you think you’re not especially smart or capable, or that failure is a given no matter how hard you try, you’re right. And if you believe you’re brilliant and can accomplish anything you set your mind to, you’re right. Amplifying your inner confidence is like any other skill you develop; you can do it in a blink. Same with confidence. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. You don’t have to follow all 10 of these tips, but they are starters that will help you find your internal confidence and boost your sense of self belonging. Confidence is the key to EVERYTHING. Related Articles:
The Fastest Way to Change Something About Yourself Do you have some personality trait, quirk or habit that you would like to change but have yet to succeed? Well I know the easiest and fastest way to change anything about yourself. That sounds way too good to be true, but I guess you’ll have to keep reading if you want to know for sure. Step 1: Decide what you want to change Examples include confidence-level, speech impediments, ability to converse with the opposite sex and other sources of insecurity. Step 2: Lie to yourself I know this sounds stupid at first, but hear me out. If you are very shy, then tell yourself that you are considered by most to be “the life of the party” and that you love addressing entire groups of people. Step 3: Imagine the change in yourself Create a minute-long movie in your head of yourself after the change has been made. It’s almost like you’re planting a false memory in your head. Step 4: Become a method actor You need to emulate the person you want to be as if you already are him/her. Step 5: Believe
7 Secrets of the Super Organized A few years ago, my life was a mess. So was my house, my desk, my mind. Then I learned, one by one, a few habits that got me completely organized. Am I perfect? So what’s the secret? Are these obvious principles? If your life is a mess, like mine was, I don’t recommend trying to get organized all in one shot. So here are the 7 habits: Reduce before organizing. If you take your closet full of 100 things and throw out all but the 10 things you love and use, now you don’t need a fancy closet organizer. How to reduce: take everything out of a closet or drawer or other container (including your schedule), clean it out, and only put back those items you truly love and really use on a regular basis. Write it down now, always.
5 Steps for Taking on Something New It’s a scenario most solo web professionals find themselves in now and then: You have the opportunity to work on a project that includes something you haven’t done before, and that something is pretty big. Maybe it’s editing video for the web, conducting user-testing, or creating a mobile web design. Whatever it is, it seems to be a capability worth adding to your repertoire. But how do you know if it’s the right move? It’s happened to me, both as an independent consultant and as the owner of a small design and development firm (Poccuo). After countless conversations about "investing in learning" and "the ethics of competency," I figured I’d share five steps that I fall back on when the opportunity to add a new capability pops up. 1. If you’re considering taking on a task you haven’t tackled before, it’s key to understand what’s involved before you commit to the project. Take some time to check out blogs, books, tutorials, and tech docs on the subject. 2. Will you like where it takes you?
77 Creative Ways to Lighten Up In Tough Times 51 Email Share We’re living in a time where nearly everyone is feeling overwhelmed with the changes and problems in the world. Some of us feel stuck, uninspired and fearful. Others have suffered major losses and feel hopeless and helpless. Some people find ways to thrive even in bad times. Today you can make a conscious decision to revitalize and renew your body, mind and spirit. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. 11. 12. 13. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 50. 54. 69. Phot by: DH Hamp1