There’s a limit to how long anybody can devote deep focus to a task.After a certain amount of time, the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and fatigue—physical and/or mental—starts to impair your effectiveness.Schedule breaks periodically even during the busiest days.

Take Breaks

If the demands of your day include routine tasks, try to group similar tasks and schedule certain times during the day to knock them out.By batching similar tasks, you save the time lost to ramping up multiple times a day and reap the benefits of momentum.<h2></h2>

Batch Process

Evaluate that to-do list carefully. What tasks could someone else do, thereby freeing you up to focus on the things only you can do?An important key to productivity is doing only those things that only you can do, and giving somebody else the opportunity to contribute by doing those other tasks.

Delegate

Uncompleted commitments take up psychic energy, each one making you just the tiniest bit more tired, more distracted, and therefore less productive.The first step to managing your life and time is getting every commitment, large and small, out of your head and into a trusted system.

Write It Down

There are countless studies confirming the importance of breakfast for maintaining our health.Healthy people are more productive. No matter how busy you are, eat a decent breakfast. It’ll fuel you for a terrific start to your day.

Eat a Healthy Breakfast

When someone calls or appears at your door with a request for your participation in some activity, take a breath and consider whether it fits into your own priorities If the answer is no, then just say no. Practice it ahead of time: “Thank you for inviting me, but no.” “Thank you for thinking of me, but no.”

Say No

Before leaving your workspace, or before going to bed, take 10 minutes to look over the next day’s commitments.Decide what you’ll do first. Look at that to-do list and decide whether any tasks on it can be delegated to someone else or crossed off the list altogether.

Get a Head Start

Every one of us has one or more tasks on our to-do list that we dread doing.Do it first thing. Writer Michael Hyatt talks about slaying your dragons before breakfast—there’s nothing more motivating for the rest of your day than crossing that monster off your list first thing in the morning.

Do Your Most Dreaded Task First

One of the major productivity killers is the distraction of constant interruptions: emails, phone calls, people appearing at your door…Schedule a block of time to focus on that commitment, turn off all outside communications and give yourself the necessary luxury of undisturbed time to really focus on the matter at hand.

Turn off Distractions

Exercise makes you healthier, so be sure to get some exercise every day.You don’t need to spend hours at the gym to get the benefit of this; take a walk around the block, or do some isometrics at your desk.

Get Some Exercise

Achieving work-life balance can be really tough. More and more people are reporting that managing their personal and professional lives has become more difficult. Longer working hours, more pressure to get things done quickly, more pressure to succeed and less personal time. Added together this combination of things creates more stress and plenty of daily struggles.

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

timemanagement

Time Management

Top 10 Productivity Tips to Achieve More and Create Peace of Mind

There are only two communication states: actively listening, and not really listening. Active listening requires us to understand, interpret, and evaluate what we're being told.Our attention should be on the speaker and when we get the urge to say something, we stop this urge and instead concentrate on what's being said.

Active Listening

<ol><li>Acceptance - means trying to avoid expressing agreement or disagreement, at least initially. </li><li>Honesty - means that you're down to being open about your reactions, similar to acceptance — honest reactions given too soon can stifle further explanation on the part of the speaker</li><li>Empathy - is your ability to understand their situation on an emotional level </li><li>Specifics - refers to the need to deal in details rather than generalities</li></ol>

The 4 Components of Active Listening

<ol><li>Ignorance and delusion</li><li>Reluctance</li><li>Bias and prejudice</li><li>Lack of interest</li><li>Opinion of the speaker</li><li>Own feelings</li><li>Wrong time and wrong place</li></ol>

The 7 Common Barriers to Active Listening

<ol><li>Minimize external distractions</li><li>Face the speaker</li><li>Maintain eye contact</li><li>Focus on the speaker</li><li>Be open-minded</li><li>Be sincerely interested</li><li>Have sympathy, feel empathy</li><li>Assess the emotion, not just the words</li><li>Respond appropriately</li><li>Minimize internal distractions</li><li>Avoid "me" stories</li><li>Don't be afraid of silence</li><li>Take notes</li><li>Practice emotional intelligence</li><li>Check your understanding</li></ol>

How To Improve Your Active Listening Skills

Active listening is the key to empathy and relationship building but the authors explain that by actively listening — we:<ul><li>encourage people to open up</li><li>reduce the chances for misunderstanding</li><li>are more able to resolve problems and conflicts</li><li>build trust further</li></ul>

The Importance of Active Listening

"Speaking is one person reaching out, and listening is another person accepting and taking hold. Together, they form communication, and this is the basis of all human relationships."

Reflective listening is concerned with how you process what you've heard. All four components of active listening are put into work towards creating reflective responses. The main principles of active listening are:<ul><li>Listen more than you talk</li><li>Deal with personal specifics, not impersonal generalities</li><li>Decipher the feelings behind the words to create a better understanding of the issues</li><li>restate and clarify what you've heard</li><li>Understand the speaker's point of view and avoid responding from your own viewpoint</li><li>Respond with acceptance and empathy, not coldly or with fake concern</li></ul>

The Main Principles of Reflective Listening

Understanding more about the common barriers to active listening – and how to best overcome these – are the biggest lessons you'll learn from this book.

This updated and expanded second edition of the The Art of Active Listening: How to Double Your Communication Skills in 30 Days provides a user-friendly introduction to the subject Taking a clear structural framework, it guides the reader through the subject's core elements. A flowing writing style combines with the use of illustrations and diagrams throughout the text to ensure the reader understands even the most complex of concepts. This succinct and enlightening overview is a required reading for all those interested in the subject . We hope you find this book useful in shaping your future career & Business.

communication

Communication

books

Books

Lewis Lyons

The Art of Active Listening

Procrastination has become our habit. To vanish that resistance you face here's a HACKFirstly, clearly know what your task is. Then you just have to organize the material required to do that task. You don't have to force yourself to do it. Now just keep exposing yourself to the material you have gathered. You'll be compelled to do something with that stuff. That's your task. Your task is a value adding thing, that's why you'll do it. Just apply the HACK! This always work for me and can for you as well. Giving it a go is your choice.

Hack That Beats Procrastination Every Time 

product

Product & Design

Mayank Singh on Sep 04

Most people want to change themselves completely. The problem is wanting to do everything at once.Because this intense motivational boost can backfire — you shift from over-enthusiasm to total frustration. Achieving your goals requires building momentum, to progressively develop your capacity and strength.

Wanting everything at once

It is the tension between the ‘current state’ and ‘desired state’ that creates anxiety and fear. Most people feel paralyzed — they focus on ‘the gap’ (how much they need to accomplish) versus on moving forward.

The ‘change gap’ 

Focus on making small everyday progress. What is the 10% change that is going to move your life forward?<div>If you aim for small gains, you won’t exhaust yourself. Making continuous progress will generate momentum; thus, building confidence and helping you focus on the ongoing success rather than on the ‘change gap.’</div>

The ten percent advantage

Self-control is critical to developing new habits and overcome resistance.But by pushing ourselves too hard, we exhaust the mental muscles needed to stay focused, to avoid temptations, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure.

Self-control is limited

Momentum is the force that something has when it is moving. It’s the strength that allows you to keep going — it grows stronger and faster with time.Momentum is when your preparation starts to make sense — your effort becomes visible in the form of achievements. Momentum is a rewarding and joyful feeling.

Momentum is the antidote to inertia

... ten percent at a time:<ul><li>Prioritize your first steps: focus on one or two things you want to improve. Keep change simple.</li><li>No step is too small: focus on gaining momentum.</li><li>Celebrate small wins: Acknowledging progress is vital to consolidate the momentum and keep yourself going.</li><li>Focus on the gain, not on the gap: Focus on your daily 10%</li></ul>

Making progress 

It is a byproduct of self-discipline — it requires a method, not just a positive attitude.Rather than worrying about the end result, focus on how to make daily progress.

Success

The antidote to inertia "Change has to be hard because you're fighting against inertia." ― James Thornton When you are exhausted, change feels hard (or even impossible). Most people wake up in the morning full of dreams - they want to change themselves completely.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

problemsolving

Problem Solving

The Ten Percent Advantage: How to Make Progress Every Day

Systems are great for getting organised & productivity maintenance. But it can be overwhelming for us to create & most importantly stick to that system. That's why simplicity is so important.

How I Created A Simple But Effective Productivity System 

A to do list is to declutter your mind ASAP. You can create two lists for good organisation. <ol><li class="ql-align-justify">One for all the formal work like studies/job. </li><li class="ql-align-justify">Second for your personal creative work/business. </li></ol>I personally use Microsoft To Do as I can add lists in a group. A writing app is for collecting ideas &amp; taking further action on it or to create something creative out of it. You can differentiate your short form &amp; long form notes using labels. I personally use Google Keep because it's so simple &amp; ad free and it has all the key features in it.

How To Use Them To Maximise & Maintain Productivity? 

A calendar is to schedule your day or ﻿to create time blocks to ensure productivity maximisation. I personally use Google calendar, again it's so simple &amp; effective

Use Of Calendar 

We're targeting for simplicity, so we'll use only 3 main things. <ul><li>A Humble To Do List</li><li>A Writing App</li><li>A Scheduling Calendar </li></ul>

Top 10 Productivity Tips to Achieve More and Create Peace of Mind

The Art of Active Listening

Mayank Singh on Sep 04

It's time to
Read like a Pro.

The Ten Percent Advantage: How to Make Progress Every Day

CURATED BY

Top 10 Productivity Tips to Achieve More and Create Peace of Mind

The Art of Active Listening

Mayank Singh on Sep 04

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The Ten Percent Advantage: How to Make Progress Every Day

CURATED BY

It's time to
Read like a Pro.