Jumpstart your day (the night before) – an evening routine | zen habits By Leo Babauta Not long ago, I talked about the importance of a morning routine … it’s a great way to incorporate your goals into each day, at the beginning of the day. This is a beautiful time of day, when all is quiet and the world sleeps. But there’s another part of the day that I love, and that can have great benefits for you at a cost of only 10-30 minutes each day: the time right before you go to sleep. If you’re following my advice on how to become an early riser (and if not, try it out!), then you are going to be earlier, and perhaps reading yourself to sleep, so you won’t be so tired in the morning. Each person’s evening routine will be different, but here’s a sample routine that’s based on something I’ve been trying, with some good ideas that most people can use: Create your evening routine today and get a jump start on tomorrow!
Solve Tough Problems with a Brain Reboot This is a guest post from Scott H. Young. I’ve spent a lot of time looking into different methods for solving problems and boosting my creativity. I’ve come to the conclusion that meditation isn’t just for the monks. You can use meditation for finding solutions to difficult problems, taking control of your emotions or rebooting your brain. Im not big into the fancy mantras and religious overtones often associated with meditation. How to Meditate Meditation isn’t hard to do, but it does require practice. Get into a position where you don’t feel discomfort but aren’t completely relaxed. This entire process of getting into a meditative state only takes me about five to ten minutes. There are a number of ways you can use practical meditation: Solving Tough Problems One of my favorite ways to use meditation is to tackle tough problems. Once you get into a meditative state, try to form a visual scene inside your head. About Scott Young:
Accept It and Move On No one is perfect. The world is not perfect. Nothing is perfect. Don’t expect perfection from yourself, others, or the world. My biggest problem, that I’m aware of, is that I dwell on the imperfections of myself and others. However, I have found that complaining also has unintentional consequences. 3 Steps to a Permanently Clear Desk | zen habits By Leo Babauta Once upon a time, my desk was cluttered with all the things I was currently working on — not to mention dozens of things I wasn’t working on: notes, post-its, phone numbers, papers to be filed, stacks of stuff to work on later. I was too busy to organize it, and if I ever did get it cleared, it would pile up soon after. It’s a different story today. These days, my desk is always clear, except for the one thing I’m working on, and perhaps a notebook and pen for jotting down notes, ideas or to-dos as they come up. How did I make the transformation? Much of my current system (as opposed to stuff I’ve been trying along the way) is taken almost completely from “Getting Things Done,” by David Allen (via Lifehacker & 43 Folders). Here’s the system: 1. 2. 3. It’s that simple. Leaving stuff on top of your desk is procrastination (and as a procrastinator, I should know). What I’ve described is a good habit to learn, but it takes time to learn it.
Calm as a Monk: How Equanimity Can Save Your Sanity Post written by Leo Babauta . Follow me on Twitter . Reader Trina wrote in one of the comments: Leo, I admire the equanimity with which you deal with the more critical comments in your blog posts here and in other websites, especially the ones that begin with “You (or what you’re saying) is bogus/nonsense/idiotic” but whose arguments do not even prosper beyond the setting up of solid premises. For those who don’t know, “upeksa” or “equanimity” are basically one of the four “Sublime Attitudes” in Buddhism — also called “the Four Immeasurables,” or “the four sublime attitudes” (the others being loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy). Trina brings up a great point about my attitude towards comments on Zen Habits and elsewhere, and about my attitude towards everyday life. I can respond with similar negativity , and thereby increase the animosity between myself and the commenter, and the general community. How can you develop equanimity? Learn to meditate, even just a little .
Building Suspense: How to Keep the Audience on the Edge of Their Seat As a screenwriter, the ability to craft dramatic suspense can turn your script from a basic, by the numbers story into something memorable, and the basis of a movie that people will remember. Film is a visceral art, and a thousand things have to go right in the execution of a story to make it resonate, but it all starts with the screenwriter. Without the basic foundation and the proper storytelling tools, your script might not make it past the first read. Evoke Emotion Create sympathetic characters that the audience likes and can relate to. Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox | zen habits Post written by Leo Babauta. I use Gmail exclusively for email, and it constitutes a major part of my two day jobs. I get a fair amount of email each hour, and I am pretty quick at responding. However, one thing you’ll notice about my Gmail inbox is that it is just about always empty. It gives me a Zen feeling to have a clean inbox, a feeling of peace and calm and satisfaction. I highly recommend it to everyone. But GTD changed that (as well as 43 Folders and others), and for nearly a year now, I’ve been fairly consistent about having a clean inbox. Here are my simple steps to achieving Email Zen: 1) Don’t check email first thing in the morning, or have it constantly on. 2) When you check your email, dispose of each one, one at a time, right away. 2a) Is it junk or some forwarded email? 2b) Is it a long email that you just need to read for information? 2c) If the email requires action, make a note of the action on your to-do or GTD lists to do later. 3) I have only one folder: Archive.
101 Conversation Starters People Love Below are 101 types of conversation starters to use on your first date, at a party, in business, with guys or girls, or on family and friends. The 101 great conversation openers are simple and effective. Do not be fooled. The most important point to remember when using any conversation starter is they aim to start the conversation. “Ice-breakers” break the ice; they don’t heat up the planet and make mother nature flourish. (Tweet this.) Conversation openers are not intended to make people laugh or get people to like you. What Makes a Great Conversation Starter? Watch this video for an amazing exercise you can do with me to create over 30 conversation starters that work for you The best conversation starters are situation-specific. ‘Ice-breakers’ break the ice; they don’t heat up the planet and make mother nature flourish. Here’s an exercise to help you develop excellent openers. Having done that, you already have 30 amazing conversation starters. “I’m [your first name].” Phew!
» Time Management #1: Why You Need to be Organised to be Creative BoDo: Business of Design online » Blog Archive Posted by: Mark McGuinness Category: Creative Coaching Bookmark on: del.icio.us Time Management for Creative People Manage the mundane – create the extraordinary By Mark McGuinness “Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.” So you start the day full of enthusiasm. Is this a familiar scenario for you? All of which is bad enough whatever your line of work. If you’re worried about the effect of all those interruptions, frustrations and distractions on your creative work, this series is for you. And that means being organised. There, I’ve said it. The film Amadeus dramatizes and romanticizes the divine origins of creative genius. This passage is taken from Tharp’s excellent book The Creative Habit: Learn it and Use it for Life, in which she argues that ‘routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more’. Questions What is your attitude to organising your creative work?
Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week | zen habits Every Monday is Productivity & Organization Day at Zen Habits. If your week is seven buckets, and you go into each bucket without planning ahead, and you fill it up with little pebbles and grains of sand and whatever other debris comes your way … soon there will be no room for the Big Rocks. Your buckets fill up faster than you know it, and once your buckets are full, you’re done. You can’t get bigger buckets. What you can do is put the Big Rocks in first, and fill in the pebbles and sand around them. The Big Rocks are the major things you want to get done this week. Plan your week ahead of time, placing your Big Rocks first. This is a similar concept to MITs, except on a weekly scale instead of a daily scale. Here’s how you do it (with the unavoidable list, of course!) Make a list. How does this simple method make you more productive? This is a way of getting the important stuff done. Note: You probably noticed that this post isn’t really about GTD. See also:
Social Skydiving: The Art of Talking to Strangers I’ve travelled all over the world, from New York to Cape Town, Rio de Janeiro to Tokyo. I’ve had the privilege of working with brilliant minds. A few years ago I learned French, and mastered the language well enough to speak in horrible slang with a fully authentic accent. But the single most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done was to make a habit of talking to strangers. Nothing has changed my world view, and my life, more than taking the risk of saying “Hi” to people I don’t know on a regular basis. How to Become a Social Skydiver I can’t help but geek out on almost everything I do. Figure out what you want. How to Approach People I prefer to keep my conversations fairly organic. What you say isn’t nearly as important as how you say it. If you’ve never done this before, you may get brushed off several, even dozens of times until you get really comfortable being yourself in front of other people. That’s okay. What I’ve Learned from Talking to Strangers People don’t bite. One Approach a Day
Infinite Being - Twelve Principles for the New Reality Twelve Principles for the New Reality by Owen Waters The New Reality brings with it a new vista of awareness. Such knowledge empowers you to awaken to your newly expanded potential and manifest it with ease. Here are some basic principles of the universe, as seen from the expanded vista of New Reality consciousness. In this, the ultimate reality is recognized as universal consciousness, which is the formative essence behind all that exists within the universe. Here are twelve principles which describe the New Reality awareness. 1. The universe exists within the consciousness of Infinite Being. 2. Creation is holographic in nature, meaning that the one can be found within the all. While you are a part of the consciousness of Infinite Being, you are also Infinite Being itself. Therefore we are, each one of us, Infinite Being. 3. Your overall purpose in life is to experience it from one individual, unique point of view. 4. Free will fills in all the details. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.