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keep an activity log for two weeks.
We all do activities that have ZERO return. I call those activities time-wasters.
list of ten unproductive habits that I learned to do less, or eliminate.
Working Too Much Some days
Don’t have a deadline? Take it easy because you need that juice for stressful times. And most importantly: Have patience.
We just don’t know until we listen to others.
But if you always think you’re the best in the world, you never give people a chance. I think everyone is stubborn.
stubbornness is also a good trait. It’s good to be deaf to critics and not care about what people think.
sometimes it’s so bad I don’t even listen to myself. But I keep trying.
Checking is not a useful thing. It might be a verb, but it’s not a real action.
try to keep my “checking” at a minimum. That’s why I deleted all news and social media apps on my phone. I don’t even have email on my phone.
I only want to check my email when I have time to answer emails.
Pick only 1 or 2 “checking” vices you actually like. Eliminate the rest. You’re not missing anything anyway.
I learned that the hard way. These days I deal with problems before they become big problems.
Don't ignore your problem. Deal with it when it's fresh.
If you keep saying yes, you’re living someone else’s life.
Want to be in full control of your life? Say no to a million things and yes to a few things that matter.
Not writing down your thoughts, ideas, tasks, etc, is stupid. Why? Because you’re wasting a lot of brain power when you rely on your memory. When you write everything down, you can use your brainpower for other things.
Everything you do after getting out of bed is a win.
Your life stops when learning stops.
Just learn new things. You’ll be more productive and more excited about life.
when it comes to productivity, the first rule is: Have rules.
Rules actually help us to solve problems and get the most out of life.
Josh Weltman,
“Solving a problem requires a weird combination of freedom and constraint. Whenever I hear “Just have fun with it” or “Think outside the box,” I know from experience that things are about to turn into a colossal waste of
one of my personal rules is this: Never complain. Another one is: Read and exercise every day. And: Close the day every evening by setting your next day’s priorities.
when you’re ready to go to sleep, you can’t. Your mind is buzzing with thoughts you don’t want at that time of day.
if you lack the energy, you’re not doing anything productive.
That simple exercise helps me to: Remember what I did (sounds stupid, but we forget most things we do). Review my progress and see whether I’m doing all the things that I should be doing
Jim Rohn. He says: “At the end of each day, you should play back the tapes of your performance. The results should either applaud you or prod
close every week before you start a new week. Similar for every month, and every year.
This simple exercise takes away almost all stress and anxiety I have. Most anxiety comes from unsolved problems.
we worry about problems that are not real.
But when you say to yourself: I’m going to work on problem X from 10 AM unti...
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there’s nothing you can do late in the evening. Just go to bed, already. Leave the problem solving for tomorrow when your brain is fresh.
your brain is a muscle. And after a certain amount of decisions, your brain runs out of juice. And that means the quality of your decisions will decrease. That’s called Decision Fatigue.
Most people don’t use technology but are rather used BY technology.
“To be
Specifically, research shows that distractions are associated with more stress, and higher frustration, time pressure, and effort.
Too much of anything is a bad thing.
It’s like an all-you-can-eat buffet. You’re already full, but you still keep eating. And after you’ve stuffed yourself, the regret will eat you up alive.
On my phone, wifi and mobile data are standard off. I only turn it on when I need it. On my laptop, I use an app called SelfControl during the times I work (try FocusMe for Windows). The app blocks distracting sites. The advantage is that my apps like Evernote, DayOne, Office 365 remain connected so I can save my work in the cloud.
after a while, you feel like you’re not missing out on anything. That brings a sense of calmness to your life.
I will not look back and regret that I didn’t spend enough time on the internet.
You’ll probably look back and reflect on the time you spent with your family or friends. Or the memories you made when you were traveling. Or how much you enjoyed your work.
Do you want to know the secret? I’m finally doing something that I love.
Do you want to get stuff done? Do stuff that matters.
I enjoy reading—I don’t want to spend less, but more time on reading.
“If you find yourself wanting to speed up the reading process on a particular book, you may want to ask yourself, “Is this book any good?” Life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy reading.”
If you find yourself regularly procrastinating, you may want to ask yourself: Am I passionate about my work? If the answer is no, you know what you have to do — find something that you are so passionate about that you don’t want to procrastinate for one second.
“We all sorely complain of the shortness of time, and yet have much more than we know what to do with. Our lives are either spent in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the purpose, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. We are always complaining that our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
