The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity What’s the best way to start your day so that you really get things done? Laura Vanderkam studied the schedules of high-achievers. What did she find? Almost all have a morning routine. I’ve interviewed a ton of top experts about their productivity secrets: Tim Ferriss, Cal Newport, Dan Ariely, Charles Duhigg, and others. But you’re busy. So many readers have written to me saying what my friend Jason always does: “I don’t have time. Okay, time to round up what the experts have said and build a roadmap. 1) Stop Reacting Get up before the insanity starts. When I spoke to productivity guru Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, what did he say? Here’s Tim: I try to have the first 80 to 90 minutes of my day vary as little as possible. Most of us get up and it seems like things are already in motion. So of course you aren’t achieving your goals. You need to wake up before the insanity starts. (For more from Tim Ferriss on what the most productive people do every day, click here.)
How To Start Keeping A Journal | The Kirk Report At some point you have probably already read somewhere about the importance of keeping a trading journal. In other words, taking time each and every day to write down and store your thoughts, observations and actions concerning the market and your trading activities. This exercise is done not only to keep those stored for future reference, but also as a self-evaluation tool to track your development. Given the complexity of the market, it is impossible for most us to recall simply from memory what we’ve learned, how we’ve acted in certain situations, and more importantly the best tactics to employ in specific market conditions and situations. If you ask most successful traders they will tell you that keeping a journal can be helpful. So, why don’t traders keep good journals or not at all? Looking back, I was very fortunate. This also raises the third issue I see – most traders don’t really know or understand really what a trading journal should include and so they don’t even begin.
Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives “If you imagine less, less will be what you undoubtedly deserve,” Debbie Millman counseled in one of the best commencement speeches ever given, urging: “Do what you love, and don’t stop until you get what you love. Work as hard as you can, imagine immensities…” Far from Pollyanna platitude, this advice actually reflects what modern psychology knows about how belief systems about our own abilities and potential fuel our behavior and predict our success. Much of that understanding stems from the work of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, synthesized in her remarkably insightful Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (public library) — an inquiry into the power of our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, and how changing even the simplest of them can have profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. One of the most basic beliefs we carry about ourselves, Dweck found in her research, has to do with how we view and inhabit what we consider to be our personality.
How to Hone Your Creative Routine and Master the Pace of Productivity by Maria Popova “When you work regularly, inspiration strikes regularly.” We seem to have a strange but all too human cultural fixation on the daily routines and daily rituals of famous creators, from Vonnegut to Burroughs to Darwin — as if a glimpse of their day-to-day would somehow magically infuse ours with equal potency, or replicating it would allow us to replicate their genius in turn. And though much of this is mere cultural voyeurism, there is something to be said for the value of a well-engineered daily routine to anchor the creative process. Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind (public library), edited by Behance’s 99U editor-in-chief Jocelyn Glei and featuring contributions from a twenty of today’s most celebrated thinkers and doers, delves into the secrets of this holy grail of creativity. It’s time to stop blaming our surroundings and start taking responsibility. Step by step, you make your way forward. Donating = Loving
Keeping a Writer's Journal: 21 Ideas to Keep You Writing Keeping a Writer's Journal: 21 Ideas to Keep You Writing by Sheila Bender Return to Creative Nonfiction · Print-Friendly Version Keeping a journal is one of the best tools to practice trusting your writing and to make sure you keep writing. You can keep a journal in a cheap or an expensive notebook, on scraps of paper dropped into a box, in computer files or in letter form. Just as long as you write as much and as often as you can without editing yourself and you have access to the words you've written, you are keeping a journal. If you haven't been journaling or doing it as often as you wish, think about where you write and when you are likely to have time to write. It may seem intimidating to develop the journal-keeping habit, and you may be thinking defeatist thoughts already, such as "I can't do this regularly forever. Make a specific commitment for a month. Next, make a commitment to the same system or to a new journal-keeping system for an additional month. Idea 1: A Travel Journal
10 Foolproof Tips for Overcoming Procrastination …and the very best tip is the easiest (hint: it’s the first one). Procrastination has been extensively studied by psychologists, probably because they have some world-class procrastinators close at hand: students. Students don’t have a monopoly on wasting time, though, almost everyone procrastinates now and then. The difference is that some people learn effective strategies for dealing with it and get some stuff done; others never do. Here are ten tips for overcoming procrastination, based on science: 1. The first tip is simply to start with whatever is easy, manageable and doesn’t fill your mind with a nameless dread. Have a look at your project, whatever it is, and decide to do the easy bit first. The great thing is that after getting going, you start to build momentum and the harder bits are more likely to flow. The tip relies partly on the Zeigarnik effect: the finding that unfinished tasks get stuck in the memory. 2. Planning can help with this, but planning is also a trap. 3. 4. 5. 6. Hmm.
The Science of Productivity. “It is not enough to be busy… The question is: what are we busy about?” ~ Henry David Thoreau Busy is already a given in our twenty-first century stampede. Busyness has multiplied by all kinds of parallel realities. It used to be just made of flesh. Meet Lady Productivity, our century’s muse. How do you assess your productivity? Contrary to what we tend to believe and try, productivity can’t be increased only by willpower, ability, or the amount of time we spend on a project. Optimal productivity boils down to a healthy balance between work and play, activity and rest. The brilliant creators at AsapSCIENCE, try to decode productivity in this animated science bite: Created by AsapSCIENCE in collaboration with Sparring Mind. Review, Rewind, Remember… Tips to boost your productivity: 1. What works for you? What doesn’t? What could? What’s the first step? Take it now? More creative, compact curiosity by AsapSCIENCE: >> Could Zombies Exist? >> The Scientific Power of Naps. >> What’s behind an orgasm.
graphic design 1920s 1930s 1940s 1960s 1970s in paper ephemera This brochure is another example of a series of brochures issued by the South Manchurian Railway as part of a beautiful series in the second half of the 1930s (previous). This brochure “Hsinking” was issued in 1935 to promote travel to Hsinking the capital of Manchuria. The artist signed it either in a Chinese character or with his own symbol but I cannot identify it. I particularly love the smaller letters embedded in the larger letters. As noted previously, I do not know the back story on the creation of this brochure series. The South Manchuria Railway ( or 満鉄 “Mantetsu”) was created by Japan after its victory over Russia in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War to develop Manchuria. Travel Brochure: Hsinking, South Manchuria Railway, 1935, Cover click for more images… Tagged as: 1930s, art deco, booklet, brochure, design, ephemera, graphic design, japan, manchuria, mantetsu, railroad, smr, south manchuria railway, travel brochure, 満鉄 南満州鉄道 Along Manchurian Railways, 1937 Artist Unknown, cover
Stop Beating Yourself Up for Not Getting Everything Done Every Day | Inc.com One of the biggest challenges that we all face is the steadily increasing number of things that we have to do on a daily basis. There is nothing new about this but many people struggle with a sense of daily frustration simply because they can't get everything done and in all likelihood they never will. I get the feeling that this sense of frustration is becoming a little more desperate every day. I'm suggesting a simple process that can dramatically change how you feel. At the end of the day, when you look at your to do list, and start the afternoon "I'm not good enough" session, beating yourself up because you didn't get everything done, try making a new list. On this list, jot down a few bullet points for each of the following 5 questions? 1. Now don't just give them a cursory glance, actually read through the list of things that you were able to cross off and give yourself a pat on the back for getting them done. 2. 3. 4. 5. When you finish your "DONE" list--go home.
How Keeping Things Simple Makes You A Productive Entrepreneur Running your own business is a complicated affair; making it successful can be even more complicated. If you don’t have a plan to be productive and keep focused, the details that you are responsible for can quickly overwhelm you. In fact, one of the biggest failings of new entrepreneurs is to get so caught up in an avalanche of unimportant details that more important priorities get left unattended on the table. What can you do to be a productive entrepreneur, focused on what really matters? Get up early, so that you don’t lose those most productive early hours. Start your day with a bang. here is some great advice from some highly productive people: Work fast – don’t waste time with the many distractions waiting to tempt you. Think faster, too. Original source – Funders and Founders
Visualizing Wifi This is one of those things I’ve always wondered in the back of my mind. How far does a WiFi network actually reach and what would it look like? How come I have reception in one spot and not in another? Well a team from Oslo including Timo Arnall, Jørn Knutsen, and Einar Sneve Martinussen set out to answer just such a question by creating visual representations of actual Wifi networks to spectacular effect. Utilizing long-exposure photography and a four-metre long measuring rod with 80 LED light points they were able to “reveal” cross-sections in wireless networks. We built the WiFi measuring rod, a 4-metre tall probe containing 80 lights that respond to the Received Signal Strength (RSSI) of a particular WiFi network. See the full photo set and read much more about the project here.
Benefits of Simplicity to Productivity Simplicity is often perceived as boring, unattractive and unremarkable. Majority of people want something striking and complicated. But as Leonardo da Vinci has said, Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Different to the common belief, simplicity is not boring, unattractive or unremarkable. The Misconception of Being Productive The common error of people who aim to succeed at something is the tendency to make the process complicated, such as over analysis and accepting responsibility beyond one’s capacity. Take for an instance when an individual or company spends too much time planning and perfecting a product. However, being productive neither needs too much analysis nor working long hours. The Benefits Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! If you want to be more productive with minimal effort and stress, learn how to simplify and stay focus. 1. Simplicity aids clarity; the directness of expression and purpose. 2. The majority of people are incapable of staying focused. 3. 4. 5. 6.
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