Systems and Goals

• Decide on your mission for your quarter.
• Break mission down into objectives. 
• Draft your Key Results. Key Results are specific, timely and measurable indicators of your progress.
• Consider the purpose of each KR.
• Find an accountability partner. 
• Check in every 2–4 weeks with your partner. 

• Go to bed smarter than when you woke up.
• "I’m not smart enough to figure everything out myself, so I want to master the best of what other people have already figured out."

• Become better at probing other people’s thinking. Ask questions. Simple ones are better. “Why” is the best.
• Slow down. Make sure you give yourself time to think.
• Probe yourself. Try and understand if you’re talking about something you really know something about or if you’re just regurgitating something you heard.

• Writing a Journal: Writing acts like a mind emptier and one feels energized and ready to go.
• Read your Yesterday Journal: It gives a fresh and clear perspective to what you did the previous day.
• Set a Goal: Set a goal for yourself and try to follow it during the day.
• Opening Windows: Let the fresh air inside, letting yourself be refreshed and receptive.

• Exercise: Get yourself moving in the morning and bless your body with endorphins for the whole day. Going for a short walk also sets up the stage for the day, making you aware and energetic.
• A Short Yoga session: Do some Surya Namaskars or Sun Salutation, and give yourself calm and balance, in just five minutes.
• Spend time in the Garden: If possible, go to the garden or terrace and breathe in the fresh air, clearing your mind and your senses.

• Getting motivated by negative emotions like fear or regret.
• A sudden influx of motivation followed by giving up in the first instance of a setback ("All or Nothing" approach).
• Having a big and unattainable resolution.
• Not being in terms with the concept of failure.
• Not committing fully to the process.

New research suggests we are less prone to keep working on our goals after we publicize them. This is because we may end up talking about our goals and celebrating our success prematurely rather than implementing them.

Social Pressure makes us fearful, as we can feel afraid of appearing inept. This negative mindset does not work well where we need daily work.

The most effective way to turn your goal into a habit is to plan ahead. 

You can't hope that your goals will happen to fit into your current schedule, or that by nature you will prioritize it. You have to plan your schedule and block out time. 

An accountability buddy can work really well when you're doing everything else right.

The key is finding someone reliable and truly committed. If you can't find someone to be an accountability buddy, ask your family for support.

1. Create an overarching story that is different from what you’re apparently talking about. 
2. Something important has to be at stake. 
3. Its viewpoint has to run counter to the one held by those currently in power. 

• Don’t try too hard. Wit flows from passion for the subject.
• Wit is all about overturning expectations. The wit is in the surprise.
• To be witty, take the subject, but not yourself, seriously.  Wit begins with yourself, with self-deprecation.

Productivity requires continuous output, while creativity is a non-linear, messy, disjointed process that needs to be unstructured.

We have decades of exposure to historical and cultural beliefs on how work should be and what it means to be successful, so it is hard for us to understand creativity.

To be creative, we have let our brains loose. The mind needs rest and time every day to daydream, imagine and get intentionally bored. Letting our minds free is an incredibly important cognitive exercise.

Take the time to expose yourself in diverse subjects, things that inspire you and dissolve boundaries can foster creativity. Identify and let go of wrong beliefs and outdated stories you tell yourself every day.

You can’t fully focus on any behavior if you try to establish several at once. 

Doing so risks overloading your willpower and your habits may end up competing for priority.

The best way to turn a behavior into a habit is to use a trigger to remind yourself to do it. Your trigger needs to be something you always do anyway. Anything you already do without thinking works.

As you build new habits, you create new triggers for yourself and stack a new habit onto it. Each existing habit acts as a trigger to remind you to complete the next one until it becomes natural to do both together. 

Being a good listener is about two things: 

1. Demonstrating that you’ve heard exactly what was said by the other person.
2. Encouraging them to continue. This breaks down into what’s called “backchanneling” — offering short, enthusiastic responses as the other person talks (i.e. “yeah” “mm-hmm” “totally” “I can see that”), and asking follow up questions that reference the information you were just given.

Acknowledging your own fallibility and human imperfection can go a long way toward making yourself relatable. Especially if there’s a power dynamic where someone is asking for your advice, attention or help, you want to put the other person at ease.

Taking the time to call or meet in person also expresses humility.

Observe if those you’re speaking to are moving toward or away, by asking what that person wants.

If they start listing things they don’t want (they don’t want to fail, they don’t want to be stuck in the same dead-end job) or talking about what they do want  (a family, to succeed at their job) then you’ll know how to direct the conversation.

• When trying to communicate effectively with someone who has an internal frame of reference, appeal to the things they know about themselves. Tie your communication to a personal fact you already know about that person.
• Those with an external frame of reference want to hear more about what their peers thought about a given program or decision.