The biggest time wasters

When you have fewer things to react to or you make it harder to react to them, you’ll be less reactive.

It’s easy to spend time organizing a to-do list and forget to do the things in the list to avoid that:

1. Pick an app that will automatically sync information on multiple platforms so you have flexibility without the work it would take to update manually.
2. Use an app ecosystem that allows easy integration of calendars, to do lists and email for maximum efficiency.

We spend all day staring at screens, read books on Kindles or iPads, and come home to relax by watching a movie or TV.

Digital technologies lump together the good with the bad.

As Cal Newport defines it, Digital minimalism is:

“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”

By scheduling every minute of your day you not only guard against distraction but also multiply your focus.

Also, focusing on one task at a time can make you up to 80% more productive than splitting your attention across multiple tasks.

• It takes a lot of time and effort.
• Few of us (if any) have the same schedule every day.
• We’re bad at estimating how long tasks will take to do.
• Constant interruptions and “urgent” tasks can destroy your system.
• Flexibility is key in most workplaces.
• You can lose sight of the bigger picture if you focus just on each day.

Everything starts with a wish. But don't transform that into fantasy.

When you fantasize, your brain thinks you’ve actually achieved your goal. So rather than ramping up, motivation dials back.

Be specific about the form your wish should take.

For example: If a "better work-life balance" is your wish, your outcome  could be “No work on weekends."

Take a few moments to create a plan of where you would like to see yourself in the next couple of months or years. 

Align those dreams with your priorities to help you focus on making your wishes come true. 

It's important to remember to set time aside for things that truly matter to you. 

Whatever it is, you won't feel fulfilled if you constantly put other things before your own happiness.

You need to have a beginning that builds to a middle and an ending, or at least an idea of where you’re going, as it is key to explore your themes and foreshadow things properly.

Another important thing is to revise your writings. Your first draft is likely to contain multiple errors, poorly phrased sections, and inconsistencies.

To do it, you must know what your audience expects from the type of writing you’re doing and then defy it.

Without the surprise, without the twist, if you don’t pull the wool over the audience’s eyes, then it’s unlikely you’re going to be memorable. It’s precisely the fact that things are not what they seem that makes a story interesting.

Focus on baby steps. The key to new good habits is to do the minimum and be consistent.

Do not be ambitious at the beginning. That leads to failure. Consistency is what you’re shooting for, so make the hurdle as low as possible.

Thinking about the details makes you more likely to follow through. 

Just writing down your plan also makes a big difference in effectively committing to your goals.

• Throw up your hands and give up. Then risking it all on the next big move for the company. Learn to fail faster - take lots of smaller risks instead of one big one and get feedback quickly.
• Not wanting to make a decision at all because of fear of failure. Learning from failure is a valuable part of your education. If you make a couple of mistakes but outweigh those blunders with successes, you are okay.

... is critical in uncertainty. We too often judge people by the outcomes of the decisions instead of on the process that was used to reach them.

However, isn’t it better if people had an unfortunate result and a great process than someone who had a successful outcome but flipped a coin to get there?