Productivity

How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 1)

by

Articles in this series: The Limitations of the Deep Work Hypothesis – Introduction How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 1) How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 2) As I mentioned in the previous article, the focus of this article is adding more examples of women (who usually either experience gender stereotyping or are caregivers or both) to the deep work philosophies Cal Newport identified in his book Deep Work. To recap some work strategies, Newport categorized four types of work philosophies …

Read more

The Limitations of the Deep Work Hypothesis – Introduction

by

Articles in this series: The Limitations of the Deep Work Hypothesis – Introduction How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 1) How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 2) In his Deep Work bestseller, Cal Newport coins the term “deep work” as “professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.”   In contrast, Newport defines shallow work as “non-cognitively demanding, …

Read more

Mastering a Crucial Skill for Adaptation: Learning How to Learn

by

Muad’Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult. Muad’Dib knew that every experience carries its lesson. Frank Herbert, Dune  An article published by the World Economic Forum says that we are “in the middle of a global reskilling emergency” as AI will automatize some of our …

Read more

Proven Strategies against Procrastination

by

Etymologically, procrastination comes from the Latin word procrastinare, meaning “deferred till the morning” or “belonging to tomorrow “. Naturally, there is a better side of postponing work where we can use purposeful delaying of our work as a creative way to let ideas and concepts grow arms and legs. The difference between meaningful task delaying and procrastination is when a tomorrow to accomplish that specific work never quite arrives.  A common opinion is that procrastination is about poor time management skills or that procrastination is related …

Read more

A Practical Framework to Create and Break Habits

by

Habits are behaviours we repeat regularly or automatically. The good side of habits is that they can act as energy savers. We don’t focus on them while performing them. Take, for example, brushing teeth: we have to remind ourselves to be mindful of this action. Change your hand, and suddenly, brushing teeth becomes something novel and no longer a habitual activity. Imagine the mental load of getting ready in the morning if we hadn’t encoded each step of the morning schedule as a habit. …

Read more

Life Lessons from John Grisham’s Writing Habits

by

While researching for my articles, I came across John Grisham‘s fascinating debut as a writer. Grisham became the master of legal thriller books, with many of his works adapted as movies: The Client, The Rainmaker, The Runaway Jury, The Pelican Brief, A Time To Kill, The Firm, etc.  Grisham never developed an interest in writing until he was practising as a lawyer. One day in the courthouse, he heard a tormenting testimony of a twelve-year-old girl.  I seriously doubt I would ever have written the …

Read more

Mindful Work – Capturing, Prioritizing and Working on Tasks Effectively

by

Part 1: Mindless Work Part 2: Mindful Work There are two main types of networks that the brain has, a highly attentive state network and a more relaxed resting-state network. In her book A mind for numbers, Barbara Oakley names the thinking processes related to the two main types of networks the focused mode and the diffuse mode.  The focused mode is associated with the concentrating abilities of the brain. Diffuse-mode thinking happens when we relax our concentration and let our minds wander: taking breaks, doing something that …

Read more

Mindless Work – The High Price of Continuous Multitasking

by

Part 1: Mindless Work Part 2: Mindful Work I must not always multitask.  Constant context switching is the mind-killer.  Craving distractions is the little-death that brings total obliteration.  I will face my interruptions.  I will permit them to pass over me and through me.  And when they have gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see their path.  Where the shallow tasks have gone, there will be nothing. Only my attention will remain. Litany of multitasking adapted from Dune  In computing, multitasking is the …

Read more