Dealing with difficult times

An informal daily huddle where everyone is face-to-face in a virtual meeting, holding a fresh cup of coffee is a great way to start the day with purpose and energy. It requires everyone to wake up early, get dressed and make a cup of coffee.

A morning routine is great for productivity too.

Infusing music and dance in your breaks can add a sense of pleasure in the otherwise dull and drab routine, enhancing the immediate virtual surrounding of the extroverts.

Aspirational tasks, like writing a book, don’t belong on a to-do list; instead, create a separate bucket list. 

Daily to-do lists should be focused. If you have a big project you want to complete, you can put it on your to-do list if you chunk it out into smaller, more attainable tasks.

When things seem to go bad, realize that there are always other options. And then assert exactly what you want for yourself.

Assert it to yourself, the people who support you, and the world. This is the first step in creating a life you’ll feel passionate about.

Stop dwelling on everything you think your life lacks. Negativity is not constructive.

We don’t have to live in the shadow of what could have been if we shine a light on what’s working to allow it to grow.

These are the shortcuts that help people get more done in less time. 

Don't rely on luck, build your strategy. Luck is what you do for a day or a week, strategies are what make it consistently happen for decades. 

We all have stories, those narratives we tell ourselves about why we can or cannot do or achieve something in our lives. Whether we believe we can or can’t, we’re usually right, because our expectation controls our focus, perceptions, and the way in which we feel and act.

• Create three columns on a board where you can use magnets or post-it notes. Label the columns: Options, Doing, and Done.
• Write your individual tasks down on separate cards. Post all of these cards in the "Options" column.
• From that column, choose no more than three to move into the middle "Doing" column. This is your work in progress.
• When a task is complete, move it into the "Done" column, and choose a new option to pull into "Doing."

Starting but not completing too many projects puts people at risk of the Zeigarnik effect, which states that people are better at remembering unfinished tasks than completed ones.

Before jumping to a conclusion, think about the long-term consequences of your decision.

We may respect those able to fling themselves into a hard problem and make a quick choice with seemingly little thought, but making a meaningful decision needs to be done with care for the long-term effects.

It’s important to be aware of what state of mind you’re in before tackling a hard choice.

Decision fatigue happens when the mental energy required to weigh the tradeoffs of our decision becomes too much for us to handle. 

Being accountable allows an impartial observer to assess your work. It is advisable to work with people who have walked your path or who have had similar experiences. 

Alternatively, someone who is completely unrelated to your interest may also serve as a watchful eye as they offer an unbiased perspective.

Focussing on smaller victories along the way gives you the self-confidence you need to forge ahead. 

You might stumble upon setbacks along the way during the pursuit of smaller goals that will serve as valuable lessons since they allow you to iron out the creases before pursuing the larger goal. 

It's hard when you can't function as well as you're used to, but slogging on doesn't work when you're in a downward spiral. 

When you're at a crossroads in terms of your mental health, you need to really say, 'OK, I'm going to ask for five days off. That might mean the difference between me not having a mental health breakdown, or needing to take additional time off.

"To stay with it and maintain an independent and productive life -- it's important to identify it, get the appropriate treatment and then stick with that treatment." 

Emotions can help us handle complex issues, and are an essential part of rational thinking; they are helping us envision future scenarios and this is called pragmatic prospection.

An 'emotionally healthy' mindset can be developed by the self-transcendent emotions like empathy, gratitude and wonder, which are focused on others.

The world's problems like global warming, air and plastic pollution, and terrorism cannot be solved without empathy. A lack of empathy makes us focus on short-term goals, and our greed, ignoring the larger, more difficult problems that need to be tackled. 

Even if someone does have empathy, it is limited to one's inner circle, and not towards humanity in general. Our empathy needs to be towards the entire planet and its inhabitants. The current age should harness humanity's emotional side if our future generations want to remember us as 'good' ancestors.