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Are You Missing This Essential Foundation for a Good Life? | Scott H Young
The Missing Practice
One practice of having a good life is to have regular conversations with people smarter than you or at least a bit ahead in some areas of life you care about.
Yet this practice is often omitted. People may think that they should start doing this, but admit that they find it hard to strike up a conversation with someone new.
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How to make huge improvements
If you want to improve your life, you have to be committed and start from the right foundation.
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A productivity system for your goals and efforts
The productivity system is not just about getting more work done - it's about organising all of your goals and efforts.
When it comes to self-improvement, people can face two problems:
- They don't feel they have enough time or energy.
- They fail to follow through.
A productivity system, built correctly, solves both of these problems.
The easiest win you can make is regular exercise
Exercise sharpens your mind and improves your mood. It is also entirely under your control.
It is recommended that you start with an exercise schedule that involves exercising at the same time every weekday so that it quickly becomes a habit. If you feel you are too busy, focus on high-intensity workouts for 20-30 minutes at a time.
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Good Rituals for Focused Work
- A good ritual should be accessible most of the time you plan to work. If you focus best in a library, but it is closed on weekends when you need it, it is not a good rit...
Using Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Wearing headphones can block out some of the ambient sounds and create a subtle barrier to being interrupted.
Regular headphones with some sounds playing will also do the trick. But researchers found listening to music with lyrics caused a decline in performance while white noise wasn't found to have the same impact.
The Distractions We Can Control
For any focused work session, we should prevent the distractions we can control.
- Allow only a select few emergency channels to go through and interrupt you. Turn off all other notifications on your phone and computer.
- Ensure your email inbox is closed.
- Pack your phone away to minimise the impulse to check your phone.
- Schedule short focused check-in times for essential emails.
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Learning comes from doing
Most people have a faulty idea about when they have actually learned something.
Learning doesn't come from reading or listening. Reading creates ideas and opportunities. You only le...
Personal development books
Reading personal development books and articles is extremely valuable. The only problem is when you confuse this with real learning.
Reading a book on exercise doesn't make you fit. Reading an article on time management doesn't make you productive.
Turning Ideas into Learning
We can increase our learning when we understand that reading is like a seed - the ideas you read about have the power to create incredible learning and understanding, but only if you act on it.
Pick a few ideas that you think have the potential to benefit your life most. Then allocate time, energy and resources to practice those ideas.