Productivity

A Practical Framework to Create and Break Habits

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Reading Time: 14 minutes 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. …

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Life Lessons from John Grisham’s Writing Habits

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Reading Time: 6 minutes 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 …

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Mindful Work – Capturing, Prioritizing and Working on Tasks Effectively

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Reading Time: 8 minutes 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 …

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Mindless Work – The High Price of Continuous Multitasking

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Reading Time: 5 minutes 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 …

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Letters to my Daughter: Myths and Tips to Strategically Distinguish Between Careers and Passions

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Reading Time: 10 minutes My dear daughter, you are still so incredibly young. But no sooner than I catch my breath for one moment and puff, you will be quickly wondering: what should I do with my life? What job should I pursue? Should I follow my passion? After all, isn’t what they say “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”?  No, my dear daughter, following your passion is terrible career advice. Focus instead on building rare and valuable …

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A Comprehensive Guide on Time Blocking

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Reading Time: 8 minutes Time blocking is a productivity method where we split each day into time blocks of variable length, from 20 – 30 minutes to 1 hour. In each block of time, we single-task and focus only on that specific task associated with the current time block, with no context-switching. Instead of managing to-do list items, we control the time when we can implement those specific items.  Benjamin Franklin, one of the early adopters of time blocking, used this technique to distribute hours for deep work, …

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Shoshin, the Zen Concept that Applies to Companies, Science and Personal Development

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Reading Time: 7 minutes “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few.”  Zen master Shunryo Suzuki  In Zen Buddhism, “shoshin” translates as the “beginner’s mind”, where “sho” means beginning or origin, and “shin” means spirit, soul, or attitude.  A beginner’s mind is different from being a beginner. Shoshin is about having the attitude and mindset of a novice who learns a new practice for the first time, especially after reaching expert levels in our fields.    In the beginner’s mind, there is a lack of preconceptions, a willingness to learn, to ask and try, …

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Everyday Productivity Insights from Great Artists

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Reading Time: 3 minutes A creative person is one, who enjoys, above all, the company of his own mind. Anything done well, from baking a souffle to putting together a winning stock portfolio is creative. The trick to creativity, if there is a single useful thing to say about it, is to identify your own peculiar talent and then settle down to work with it for a good long time. Everyone has an aptitude for something. The trick is to recognize it, to work with it… The problem is that the things you’re good at …

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