<ul><li>Transfer money to your savings account every time you receive a paycheck</li><li>Choose all your outfits for your week on Sunday and hang them in the closet in order</li><li>Subscribe to a weekly fresh delivery of organic vegetables and fruits to your home</li><li>Standardize the typical daily meals you like the most, saving time in cooking and grocery shopping</li><li>Prepare your sports bag every night and put it in your car. If you prefer running the morning, leave your running shoes near the bed</li><li>Automate all electronic gadgets to go into sleep mode at a certain hour</li></ul>

Automate Decisions

Switching between tasks can have damaging costs to our work and productivity.Develop the habit of single-tasking by forcing your brain to concentrate on one task and one task only. Put your phone away, close all the browser windows and apps that you don’t need. Immerse yourself in this task. Only move to the next one when you’re done.

Single Task

“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends.”

Productivity is directly related to your energy level.Find your most productive hours — the time of your peak energy — and schedule Deep Work for those periods. Do low-value and low-energy tasks (also known as shallow work), such as responding to emails or unimportant meetings, in between those hours.

Work Around Your Energy Levels

Before going to bed, spend 5 minutes writing your to-do list for the next day. These tasks should help you move towards your professional and personal goals.You’ll be better prepared mentally for the challenges ahead before waking up and there won’t be any room for procrastination in the morning. As a result, you’ll work faster and smoother than ever before.

Plan Your Day the Night Before

A golden time management technique: Find your most important task (MIT) for the day and tackle it first. Your MIT should be the one thing that creates the most impact on your work. Getting it done will give you the momentum and sense of accomplishment early in the day. That’s how big life goals are achieved: small continuous efforts, day after day.

Start the Day with Critical Work

<ol><li>Write down all your tasks.</li><li>Identify what’s urgent and what’s important. After each task, mark them with “U” for Urgent and “I” for Important. </li><li>Assess value: look at your “I” tasks and identify the high-value drivers of your work. You want to find which tasks have priority over others and how many people are impacted by your work</li><li>Estimate time to complete each task. Order them from most effort to least effort.</li></ol>

Prioritize Tasks

<ul><li>Find to the right person: he should have all the necessary skills and is capable of doing the job</li><li>Provide clear instructions: write down the tasks in a step-by-step manual be as specific as possible</li><li>Define success: be specific about what the expected outcome is and the deadline to have the task completed</li><li>Clarity: have the tasks explained back to you and offer clarification when something is unclear, rewriting the specifications if needed</li></ul>

Delegate or Outsource Tasks

Putting some of your daily tasks on autopilot is key to working smarter.<ul><li>Create canned responses for emails you keep writing over and over again</li><li>Set reminders in your Calendar so you never forget anything</li><li>Proofread your writing automatically</li><li>Schedule and automate your social media posts in advance</li><li>Automatically fill online forms,  saving all your passwords in one place</li><li>Create spreadsheet templates for reports you have to do weekly/monthly.</li></ul>

Automate Repetitive Tasks

Set deadlines even when you don’t need to. Schedule less time to complete tasks and force your brain to focus.Parkinson’s law states: “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”. So, if you reduce the time you have to complete a task, you force your brain to focus and complete it.

Set Time Constraints

<ul><li>Turn off all notifications on your phone, computer, and tablet</li><li>Leave your phone in odd places that prevent you from immediately finding it</li><li>Work with headphones as people are less likely to approach you.</li><li>If you find interesting articles, save them  to read later, such as during the commute</li><li>Turn off your Wi-Fi when your tasks don’t require internet connectivity</li><li>Don’t browse social media at work at all. </li><li>Use “Do Not Disturb” functions on chat systems.</li><li>If you have an office, shut the door.</li></ul>

Eliminate Distractions

Invest your focus on big decisions and make quick calls on medium and small decisions.Small decisions impact you for a day, such as what to wear or where to eat. Medium impact your life for a year, such as deciding to go back to school or rent a different room. In the long term though, very few decisions matter. Those are the big decisions: they are worthy of serious pondering, discussion, investigation, investment, and decision making.

Make Quick Decisions on Things That Don’t Matter

Track your time to have real data on your work and uncover insights on how you can improve your productivity.After a couple of weeks, you’ll start noticing patterns and knowing where and how your time is leaking. By being aware of how exactly you are using your time, you can devise a plan to attack your leaks and how to get rid of them.

Track Your Time

<ol><li>If it can be done in two minutes, just do it. Don’t add it to your to-do list, put it aside for later, or delegate to someone else. Just do it.</li><li>If it takes more than two minutes, start it. Once you start acting on small tasks, you can keep the ball rolling. Simply working on it for two minutes will help you break the first barrier of procrastination.</li></ol>

The 2-Minute Rule

Say “no” by default to anything that doesn’t contribute to your top 5 career goals.Your time is a limited resource and you can’t let people set your agenda in life.

Say No More Often Than Yes

<ul><li>Learn a new skill, either for your professional or personal life</li><li>Read books or articles you saved to for later</li><li>Organize your computer, folders, calendar or work</li><li>Plan your week, tomorrow, or the rest of your day</li><li>Listen to a podcast</li><li>Learn a language</li><li>Take a walk and think and let your mind wander</li><li>Take a productive pause to clear your mind.</li></ul>

Use “Gap Time” Effectively:

The 80 20 rule states that “80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action”. In other words, the little things are the ones that account for the majority of the results.Use the 80/20 rule in your life and work to prioritize the input that brings the majority of the output.

80/20 Your Time

Break down big tasks into smaller ones to avoid procrastinating and help you stay on track to achieve your final goal.Never put a huge project down as just one to-do on your list. Instead, put bite-sized to-dos that you can do one at a time. Take it step by step.

Break Down Big Tasks

Schedule tasks, working from your calendar instead of the to-do list. When an event is consistently scheduled on your calendar, it’s much more likely to transform into an unconscious habitUsing your calendar forces you to rethink your work from tasks to time units. That small change increases the likelihood of getting things done.

Work From the Calendar

<ul><li>Do not schedule more time than needed. Most of the times 20 minutes is the sweet spot.</li><li>Keep the number of participants small.</li><li>Send everyone an agenda and main points the day before</li><li>Keep conversation on-track by reminding the participants of the topic.</li><li>Group your meetings back-to-back to have a clear start and end point for each one</li></ul>

Take Fewer  Meetings

Aiming for perfection is a surefire way to delay or never complete a project. Choose to chase “good enough” instead.It’s easy to be caught up in an endless cycle of trying to do everything perfectly. But being a perfectionism can delay your work and make you miss important deadlines

Let Go Of Perfectionism

Create a To-Don’t list with all the habits you want to remove from your life. For example:<ul><li>Do not email first thing in the morning or last thing at night</li><li>No morning meetings</li><li>Don’t say yes unless you’re 100% certain you can deliver</li><li>Don’t drink coffee in the afternoon</li><li>Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end time</li></ul>

Have a To-Don’t List

The main idea behind this time management technique is to collect up a group of similar activities and do them all in one swoop. You can work efficiently on multiple tasks without losing your flow if the activities require similar mindsets. Batching forces your brain to be focused on one type of task at a time.

Batch Similar Tasks

Schedule breaks throughout your day to help you recharge and take regular vacations throughout the year. Rest is the best medicine for sustainable long-term productivity.

Take Time Off to Recharge

Good time management techniques simplify how you work and help you get things done better and faster. Here are my 23 favorite time management techniques. They are a set of principles, rules, and skills that allow you to put your focus on the things that matter and help you be more productive.

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Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

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Productivity

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Personal Development

23 Time Management Techniques of Insanely Busy People

“Anyone who has ever made anything of importance was disciplined.”

“Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

“Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other.”

“Always keep your eyes open. Keep watching. Because whatever you see can inspire you.”

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”

“If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan, but never the goal.”

“I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends.”

“Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.”

“You cannot save people, you can just love them.”

“It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.”

“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.”

“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”

“Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

“You will succeed because most people are lazy.”

“Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”

“A comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there.”

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

“Numbing the pain for a while will only make it worse when you finally feel it.” — Albus Dumbledore

“Do it with passion, or not at all.”

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.”

“The grass is greener where you water it.” — Neil Barringham

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.”

"If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.”

“Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.”

“Never apologize for having high standards. People who really want to be in your life will rise up to meet them.”

“I never dream of success. I worked for it.”

“Avoiding failure is to avoid progress.”

If you have ever heard the expression "doesn't meet a stranger," you likely know that the phrase describes someone who is unconditionally friendly and able to converse with anyone. Some people have this trait, and others wish they did.

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Communication

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Love & Relationships

30 Of The Most Inspirational Quotes Of All Time

I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”

“You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can’t have it.”

“There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.”

“Give me a stock clerk with a goal, and I will give you a man who will make history. Give me a man without a goal, and I will give you a stock clerk.”

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

“It’s not about time, it’s about choices. How are you spending your choices?”

“Success…seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.”

“That’s precisely the question everyone should be asking—why the hell not?  – Why not you, why not now…”

“Intolerance of your present creates your future.”

“The dreamers are the saviors of the world.”

“Destiny is not a matter of chance; it’s a matter of choice.”

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavour.”

“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”

“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

“How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”

“Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“One man with courage makes a majority.”

“Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.”

“Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

“Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so.  For glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.”

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.”

“You can not retain a true and clear vision of wealth if you are constantly turning your attention to opposing pictures, whether they be external or imaginary.”

“Every great story on the planet happened when someone decided not to give up, but kept going no matter what.”

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, "Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion." Muhammad Ali ∞ "You can have anything you want if you are willing to give up the belief that you can't have it."

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

The 25 Best Motivational Quotes of All Time

The Japanese have a secret that embodies the idea of happiness in living, and it is called Ikigai.Essentially, Ikigai, loosely translated to life value, or life worth, is a concept of living that the Japanese culture imbibes for decades.

Life Value

Ikigai is illustrated in four overlapping circles, as in a Venn Diagram which talks about a synthesis of:<ul><li>What you love to do.</li><li>What you are good at.</li><li>What the world needs.</li><li>What you can be paid for.</li></ul>

Ikigai: The Reason for Being

According to psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya, the concept of Ikigai is similar to happiness, but with a difference.Ikigai looks at the larger picture of life, allowing you to be ok with a miserable situation, as the grand vision of life, and the future is still positive.

Ikigai and Happiness

The concept of Ikigai aligns with everyday life, as opposed to a lifetime. It makes us appreciate our daily life, celebrating it, and experiencing the small joys of living.Ikigai is the reason you wake up in the morning for, that thing you live for, daily.

Everyday Life and a Lifetime

Japanese have a large number of senior citizens, including many centenarians, with the average lifetime being 87 years for women and 81 years for men.Ikigai has been a major reason for the long life of the Japanese, along with special kinds of diets.

Ikigai and Longevity

Make three small lists:<ul><li>Your values</li><li>Things you like to do</li><li>Things you are good at</li></ul>The cross-section or overlap of these three lists, is your Ikigai, something you should do for the rest of your life.

Make Your Ikigai

Ikigai is not a theoretical concept to be understood and left aside, and can only work in daily action and constant practice.Your work should make a difference in people's lives, and not necessarily would be just working hard.

Purpose of Action

Japannesse know something we in the West we ignore

For Japanese workers in big cities, a typical work day begins with a state called sushi-zum e, a term which likens commuters squeezed into a crowded train car to tightly packed grains of rice in sushi. The stress doesn't stop there.

health

Health

longevity

Longevity

Ikigai: A Japanese concept to improve work and life

The average adult spends 36 % (or about one-third) of his or her life asleep.Purpose of sleep:<ul><li>Restoration</li><li>Memory consolidation</li><li>Metabolic health.</li></ul>

The Science of Sleep

The first purpose of sleep is restoration.Every day, your brain accumulates metabolic waste as it goes about its normal neural activities. Sleeping restores the brains healthy condition by removing these waste products. Accumulation of these waste products has been linked to many brain-related disorders.

Restoration

Sleep is crucial for memory consolidation, which is responsible for your long term memories.Insufficient or fragmented sleep can hamper your ability to remember facts and feelings/emotions.

Memory Consolidation

When we sleep 5.5 hours per night instead of 8.5 hours per night (recommended is 8 hours), we tend to burn more energy using carbs and protein, instead of fat.This can result in fat gain and muscle loss. Also, insufficient sleep or abnormal sleep cycles can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Metabolical Health

Cumulative stress takes place when the inputs in our body like nutrition, sleep and other forms of recovery are not able to fulfill the drainers, like exercise, stress, and other forms of things that take away our energy.

Cumulative Stress

<ul><li>Refill your bucket on a regular basis. That means making time for sleep and recovery.</li><li>Let the draining tasks in your life accumulate and drain your bucket. Once you hit empty, your body will force you to rest through injury and illness.</li></ul>

Keep your Bucket of Energy Full

The quality of your sleep is determined by a process called the sleep-wake cycle. This cycle is dictated by your circadian rhythm.There are two important parts of the sleep-wake cycle:<ol><li>Slow-wave sleep (also known as deep sleep)</li><li>REM sleep (REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement).</li></ol>

The Sleep-Wake Cycle

<ul><li>Develop a “power down” ritual before bed, limiting the use of technology and bright lights.</li><li>Use relaxation techniques like yoga or meditation.</li><li>Get some sun exposure every day.</li><li>Avoid caffeine.</li><li>Stop smoking or chewing tobacco.</li><li>Use the bedroom for sleep-related activities only, keeping it uncluttered and inducive to sleep.</li><li>Get some exercise in the day.</li><li>Keep room temperature ideal for sleep.</li><li>Avoid excessive alcohol.</li><li>Avoid noisy surroundings and conditions.</li></ul>

How to Sleep Better

It is impacted by three main factors:<ul><li>Light: probably the most significant pace setter of the circadian rhythm. Staring into a bright light for 30 minutes or so can often reset your circadian rhythm regardless of what time of day it is.</li><li>The time of day, your daily schedule, and the order in which you perform tasks can all impact your sleep-wake cycle.</li><li>Melatonin: this is the hormone that causes drowsiness and controls body temperature. It increases after dark and decreases before dawn.</li></ul>

The Circadian Rhythm

<ul><li>Develop a “power down” ritual before bed: shut off all electronics an hour or two before sleep and resume all work early in the day, to calm your mind.</li><li>Use relaxation techniques: proven methods include daily journaling, deep breathing exercises, meditation, exercise, and keeping a gratitude journal.</li></ul>

How to Fall Asleep Fast

<ul><li>Get outside. Aim for at least 30 minutes of sun exposure each day.</li><li>Turn out the lights. When it gets dark outside, dim the lights in your house and reduce blue or full-spectrum light in your environment.</li><li>Avoid caffeine and stop smoking or chewing tobacco.</li><li>Use the bedroom for sleep and sex only.</li></ul>Also, consider these sleep aids: exercise (it will make it easier for your brain and body to power down at night), temperature (the ideal range is usually between 65 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit/18 to 21 degrees Celsius) and sound (a quiet space is key for good sleep).

Daily Habits for Better Sleep

When choosing your bedtime, try not to fight your physiology. The best bedtime will differ a little bit for everyone, but it's crucial that you pay close attention to your internal clock and what your body is telling you.As long as you're getting the recommended 8 hours of sleep, just focus on finding the time that works best for you.

The Best Bedtime Will Differ For Everyone

Fall in love with a good night's sleep again!

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Books

Sleep Better

If you want to learn how to sleep better, then you're in the right place. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know if you want to get better sleep. I'll explain the science of sleep and how it works, discuss why many people suffer from sleep deprivation without knowing it, and offer practical tips for getting better sleep and having more energy.

A Brief Guide on How to Sleep Better Every Night

"Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”

“Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.”

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

“It’s not knowing what to do; it’s doing what you know.”

“The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.”

“Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.”

“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.”

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.”

“Simplicity boils down to two steps: identify the essential, eliminate the rest.”

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

“You don’t need a new plan for next year. You need a commitment.”

“Never mistake motion for action.”

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

“Life is too complicated not to be orderly.”

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

“Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all.”

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”

“All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.”

“It is not necessary to do extraordinary things to get extraordinary results.”

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last long. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

“Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.”

“Time management is not a peripheral activity or skill. It is the core skill upon which everything else in life depends.”

“The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it.”

“Ordinary people think merely of spending time, great people think of using it.”

“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

Productivity quotes are all over the internet. I always like tips that give insight into someone’s success. But they need to be actionable too. Reading random productivity quotes from a bunch of…

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It's time to Read like a Pro.

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