• Hitting roadblocks while working on a project or during the creative process is quite common. • This naturally slows down our pace of work and what goes unnoticed is the amount of time being wasted by dwelling and thinking bout how big the roadblock is instead of doing something about it. • This happens so quite often and so unknowingly that one day it just hits you that you've just wasted weeks, months or even worse, years. • This disappointmen and regret of wasted time can be averted by being BRUTALLY HONEST and IMPATIENT with yourself.

Roadblocks And The Role Of Self-awareness. 

• Addressing the problem head-on, immediately and keeping an eye on what your response to solving the problem is quite essential.• Be strict and BRUTALLY HONEST with yourself and ask: "what am I doing to solve this issue?" • If the solution is in progess, good.• If it's not, then get highly IMPATIENT at that moment and make effort to come up with a solution within a timeslot. "I'm going to solve this issue today" or "I'm resolving this problem within 30 min" • Set the timer and FORCE YOURSELF to dive in.

Brutal Honesty And Impatience

• Unbiased honesty may also come in handy while making decisions when you do not know what the right decision is.• Eliminate the inner bias and external influence while decision making and with BRUTAL HONESTY ask: " Do I really want to do this? yes or no?" Or "Is this the right choice? yes or no?" • Whatever the answer you get, from yourself, stick to it, don't look back. Don't think of it anymore because now you know the answer is the unbiased truth with no influence. Now stick to it and IMPATIENTLY execute.

Being Strictly Honest With Yourself While Making Decisions.

"Ask yourself at every moment 'Is this necessary?'"

career

Career

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Being Self-aware Of Inaction And Wasting time When You Hit a Wall while Doing a Task.

These are 4 main principles for effective study or learning: S - spacing T - testing I - interleavingC - categorizing

STIC method

If you combine these 4 principles in study, it will be much more effective than ever ever.

<ul><li>Active recall what you've learned or simply test yourself.</li></ul>testing yourself 1 is much better than rereading multiple times.<ul><li>The more you test yourself the more you remember</li></ul>

Testing 

<ol><li>You SHOULD test yourself even before you learned some topic</li><li>Test yourself before, during and after learning the specific topic</li></ol>

How Do You Test Yourself?

<ul><li>Leave the space between your topics </li><li>You probably would forget something</li><li>But after you retrieve it, you'll remember it even more than if you don't forget</li></ul>

Spacing

<ol><li>If you want to learn somethiniyg, you should put a structure and categories for information, than just learning</li><li>It's about building a tree of knowledge</li><li>Tree of knowledge is helps you understand the subject better</li></ol>

Categorizing

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Mix the problems of what you want to learn </li><li class="ql-align-justify">It will struggle more (it should be hards and pain in the ass) </li><li class="ql-align-justify">But it will be more easier and effective in the result</li></ul>

Interleaving

The harder you gonna get to this information remembered, the longer it will stick in your brain

If you find it easy that you don't learning it at all

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x Hey team, in this video we’re talking about STic, a framework for studying / learning anything. We talk about Spacing, Testing, Interleaving and Categorising. If you can build your own study routines around these 4 principles, you’ll be unstoppable. Enjoy xx WATCH THESE OTHER STUDY-THEMED VIDEOS TOO 1. My most popular video introducing Active Recall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE 2. My 2nd most popular video about Spaced Repetition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zNHHpXoMM 3. How to learn new content - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBXnxlLR0PY 4. The Retrospective Revision Timetable - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA 5. A playlist of my study tips videos - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BImOT2srcGCCjBBwNvU5zaB9F30lWye Links 1. David Epstein on 'Invest Like The Best - http://investorfieldguide.com/epstein/ 2. David Epstein - The Sports Gene - https://geni.us/SRgj7Au 3. David Epstein - Range - https://geni.us/O9j7D8 4. McDaneil & Brown - Make it Stick - https://geni.us/MakeItStickBook -------- MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎬 Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 😃 How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism TOOLS OF THE TRADE: 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 📚 How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy 🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES 📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam 📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb 🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). BE MY FRIEND: 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/ 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/). 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭 PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

productivity

Productivity

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x 

Hey team, in this video we’re talking about STic, a framework for studying / learning anything. We talk about Spacing, Testing, Interleaving and Categorising. If you can build your own study routines around these 4 principles, you’ll be unstoppable. Enjoy xx

WATCH THESE OTHER STUDY-THEMED VIDEOS TOO
1. My most popular video introducing Active Recall - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE
2. My 2nd most popular video about Spaced Repetition - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zNHHpXoMM
3. How to learn new content - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBXnxlLR0PY
4. The Retrospective Revision Timetable - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA
5. A playlist of my study tips videos - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BImOT2srcGCCjBBwNvU5zaB9F30lWye

Links
1. David Epstein on 'Invest Like The Best - http://investorfieldguide.com/epstein/
2. David Epstein - The Sports Gene - https://geni.us/SRgj7Au
3. David Epstein - Range - https://geni.us/O9j7D8
4. McDaneil & Brown - Make it Stick - https://geni.us/MakeItStickBook

--------

MY FREE ONLINE COURSES:
🚀  Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity
🎬  Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing
🎓  How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying
😃  How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism

TOOLS OF THE TRADE:
🎥  My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal
⌨️  My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 
📝  My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 
🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk
📚  How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 
🎵  Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound
👻 Where I get my Website Themes from - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-themes
👻 My personal Ghost Website Theme - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-theme-ali
What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy
🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost

OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES
📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam
📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb

🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking
My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). 

BE MY FRIEND:
💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/
🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 
 
📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal
🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal
🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal

WHO AM I:
I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/).

🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 

GET IN TOUCH:
If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭

PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

📚 Check out my first book Feel-Good Productivity here: https://www.feelgoodproductivity.com/

Hey, I'm Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity expert 😜 

On this channel, we explore evidence-based strategies and tools that can help us be more productive, and build a life that we love. 

If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing! See you in the next video x

Ali Abdaal

How to Study for Exams - The STic Framework for Effective Learning

One of the many reasons we don’t innovate is the fear of failure. What if you could celebrate your failures?Failure is a part of innovation. I know how to fail, but then I get wiser and become a better business person each time I experience failure. Now I call them experiments, not failure.

Embrace failure

Admitting to mistakes and learning from them will translate into deeper insights for your business and markets. Having employees and co-workers talk about failure in previous/current projects can spark innovation in a way that success cannot.Viewing your failures as portals to innovation will allow you to map out strategies to benefit from them.

Drive innovation from failure.

Employees need to feel like they belong. Instil a sense of ownership.They need to see your overall business goals as an extension or at least some sort of connection to their personal life goals. You will be amazed by how much creative energy you can amass by finding parallels.

A culture that encourages sharing ideas.

Challenge what is normal. Market research before getting into business is created, but what if you could create a whole new market because you showed up?Airbnb, Amazon, Uber, The Boring Company are examples of companies that challenged the status quo and dared to be different.

 Dare to be different

The role of innovators and entrepreneurs is to challenge received wisdom.

You focus on the need, not the product. You become immersed in the minds of your customers, looking for ways to expand demand. Your business strategy is driven by the marketplace. Do you know the difference between what you make and what people need?

Consumer Insights

Companies must spend enough time on insight generation, insights activation (sharing and acting on customer/market, the understanding gained from research) in marketing, R&D and innovation platforms so it can constantly respond to market opportunities and unexpected threats.

Insight Generation

Do you have the tactics to turn ideas into reality? Here are some insights or tactics you might find helpful.

One of the many reasons we don’t innovate is the fear of failure. What if you could celebrate your failures? Heard of Fuckup nights? Fuck up nights — Networking events in 90 countries where people…

corporateculture

Corporate Culture

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

business

Business

Tactics to make innovation happen in your business

“a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

A praise for someone who is skillful in many skills instead of being a master at one.

"Jack of all trades" has become somewhat of an insult, but it didn’t begin as one. Far from letting it deter their path, some entrepreneurs swear that being a jack of all trades is necessary.

education

Learning & Education

Why Being A Jack Of All Trades Is Essential For Success

As a product manager, you don’t need to be a data scientist, but you do need to be comfortable analyzing and utilizing data. It’ll benefit you not just for your current product, but throughout your entire career.

What is Product Analytics?

By making Data-Driven decisions, you improve your product and the user experience. When companies focus on the data, and use it to make decisions, they build better relationships with their customers. Creating a Data-Driven company culture allows for better understanding.

Why The Numbers Matter: The Importance of Product Analytics

A Data-Driven product manager is someone who arms themselves with as many facts as possible. Being dedicated to data is more about playing the long game. It's a long term practice that influences your product decisions and leads you to long term success. Being Data-Driven won't make you an overnight success.

Being a Data-Driven Product Manager

There are a whole host of product analytics platforms out there, as well was business intelligence platforms who offer similar features. These are the most common and, arguably, the most important ones:

Product Analytics Tools: The Features You Need

A/b testing offers you the chance to test out your hypotheses and improve your product based on the results. It can also help you to test out different versions of your product with different users, in order to understand who prefers what. For example, Netflix implements almost religiously.

A/B Testing

When you start figuring out exactly how users interact with your product, how long they spend on one feature, where they drop off, etc…you’ll wonder how you lived without user tracking!

User Tracking

Pinterest found, through product Analytics, that men were the most Underserved demographic. The product team used this information to offer more personalized results for these users, which led to males becoming the fastest growing demographic within their user base. Segmentation can also help you to understand seemingly erratic user behaviour.

User Segmentation

Gainsight says almost every team can benefit from product Analytics. Data gives you a common ground to begin discussions with Cross-Functional teams. If you see that no one is clicking on an important CTA, the objective truth is that no one is clicking on what you need them to click on. The next step is to take this problem and form your problem statement.

Who Benefits from Product Analytics?

You won’t know what questions to ask from your data if you’re not 100% what problem you’re trying to solve. A problem well defined is a problem Half-Solved.

Learning to Ask the Right Questions: Define the Problem Statement

Whether the problem comes from your users or another set of stakeholders, you need to properly understand the problem. The only way to do that is through a combination of research, and empathy. This means gathering both qualitative and quantitative data. Find out how the user/stakeholder feels about the problem, as well as how they behave in response to it.

1: Understanding the problem

Work out how much of your team’s work hours, budget, and resources will be needed to complete the project and solve the problem. Balance this out by seeing how the Best-Case scenario (Eg, you completely solve the problem) will benefit your product in terms of Okrs, and the bottom line.

2: Make a risk vs reward assessment

Defining the success of a project really boils down to the final part of your risk vs reward assessment. What does the best case scenario look like?If the answer isn’t obvious, think about your company’s North Star metrics, or your team’s KPIs. If the project is worthwhile, its goals should align with either, if not both, or these.

3: Define Success

Data science is a science. That means asking Iterative questions, testing multiple hypotheses, and using data to do more than just keep your boss happy. One key thing to remember when asking your questions is to remember that data science is a science.

How to Ask the Right Questions from Data

Most tools offer a free trial or a tour, allowing you to test before committing. If you’re particularly interested in data visualization, check out this All-You-Need-To-Know guide. If you don’t know where to begin with choosing the right tool, consider hiring a product ops manager to your team. Still got questions? try asking our community of 60,000 PMS on slack.

Finding the Right Tools

“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

Product Analytics is the term applied to the automated gathering, analysis, and visualization of data. Most people first get their introduction to analytics through the popular Google Analytics, but…

product

Product & Design

Comparing how you feel on the inside – with your doubts and insecurities – to another person’s external success means you’ll only see their achievements and none of their own self-doubt.If you have imposter syndrome, you might relate to some of these behaviours.

5 signs of imposter syndrome and what you can do to manage self-doubt

<ol><li>Procrastination: We might put things off because we don't want to expose ourselves as a fraud or a failure.</li><li>Perfectionism: We keep striving to get it right so we can't be exposed.</li><li>Being a workaholic: We overcompensate by over-committing, so no one can tell us we're not good enough.</li><li>Avoidance or apathy: We lower our goals as a coping mechanism. If we don’t do well, we can then claim we didn’t really try, anyway.</li><li>Blaming others: We blame others when things go wrong, because our own failure would be devastating.</li></ol>

Around half of us – 51% of women and 47% of men – have felt imposter syndrome at some point, SEEK research reveals.Even someone who has objective success, such as running a business for 20 years, can have self-doubts about the value of what they’re offering, Read says.Imposter syndrome is most common among people working in junior management, mid-level employee or graduate roles, with 65% of those employees feeling imposter syndrome at some point, the research shows.

Who has imposter syndrome? (It’s not just you)

“Firstly, imposter syndrome isn’t a clinical diagnosis,” Read points out. “It’s a description of thoughts and behaviours. It can happen if you were raised to value achievement, or if you don’t have the traditional qualifications for a role” Read explains. You might also feel like an imposter if you can’t invest as much time and energy into your work as you would like – such as if you have caring responsibilities, Read says.

Why imposter syndrome happens

“Imposter syndrome describes high-achieving individuals who, despite objective success, fail to internalise their accomplishments. They fear that they'll be exposed as a fraud, and someone will find out that they're not as good as they appear to be” Read says.

Impostor syndrome can change your behavior in the workplace – it could stop you applying for jobs, asking for pay rises, or make it hard to sell yourself in an interview, Read says.If you run your own business, you might be unsure how much to charge or be afraid to market yourself, because you don’t think what you’re offering is as valuable as what someone else is.

How imposter syndrome affects your work

“It can have a significant impact on the way we work, our job satisfaction and cause burnout and mental health issues,” Read says.“But doing a job well and being satisfied in your own work should be the main metrics of success, not whether you got the same degree as everyone else.”

Normalise it by sharing: If we talk about it with other people, we realise that others experience it, too. “If you keep those thoughts to yourself, you can feel like you’re the only one,” Read says.Appreciate your achievements: Celebrating your achievements will help challenge your imposter syndrome thinking. If you find that difficult, ask people you trust to tell you about times when they see you at your best.

Challenging the lies that imposter syndrome tells you

It’s entirely appropriate to ask your boss for an example of how you’ve made a valuable contribution to the workplace, Read says.Take your thoughts to court: This is a favourite phrase that Read uses to challenge negative thinking. If you had to prove your case of being an imposter in court, could you really provide the evidence? “Your thoughts would pretty quickly get kicked out of court,” Read says.

As well as challenging the psychological impacts of imposter syndrome, there are several practical steps you can take to combat the negative impact this phenomenon can have on your daily work.According to Relaunch Me founder and career coach Leah Lambart, it’s key to stick to routine and implement a strategy when you feel those feelings creeping back in.

4 tips for managing imposter syndrome in your daily work

<ul><li>Regular self-assessment</li></ul>“Regular self-assessment is necessary to remind yourself of what you bring to the table,” Lambart says. Reflection on a semi-regular basis to help you identify your skills, strengths and unique attributes can build confidence in the workplace or when it comes time to search for a job. This can be as simple as making a list of things you do well, and the skills you can use – whether it’s a mental list or you write it down.

<ul><li>Document your achievements regularly</li></ul>“It may sound simple, but practice getting in the habit of writing down your achievements on a regular basis, even the small wins,” advises Lambart. “Consider keeping a daily ‘accomplishments journal’ and get into the habit of writing down one small win or accomplishment every single day. You may find that you are achieving more than you think.”

<ul><li>Don’t compare yourself to others</li></ul>There are many different avenues to career success, and everyone treads their own path. Just because you’ve reached your position via a different pathway to others doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be there, explains Lambart.“Focus on what you are achieving rather than how you arrived there. Everyone has their own unique set of skills, strengths and attributes that they bring to an organisation and no employer wants everyone to be exactly the same.”

<ul><li>Practice talking about what you have achieved</li></ul>Many people find it difficult to ‘sell’ themselves and often find that the first time that they need to do it is in an interview scenario. But you can get plenty of practice in when you’re working. “Make an effort to keep your manager informed of what you are working on and your successes – in regular catch-up meetings be sure to focus on ‘results’ rather than ‘activities’,” says Lambart.

If you sometimes feel like a fraud, recognising those challenging thoughts is the first step to tackling imposter syndrome. Sharing your feelings with others and asking for objective feedback will help you overcome self-doubt and boost your self-confidence. That can help you gain a new perspective, give you renewed work satisfaction and give yourself the assurance to take on new opportunities.

Feel like an imposter at work? Imposter syndrome is a feeling of self-doubt despite your achievements. Find out 5 common signs and how to manage it.  

health

Health

communication

Communication

5 signs of imposter syndrome (and what to do about it) - SEEK Career Advice

Stop complaining about what you don’t have.We only get one life. Who wants it to be mediocre, mundane and lazy? It is always better to work hard and to go after what we want in life, and not stay the way we are. But success in this sense requires a lot of discipline and hard work.

Stop complaining

If you truly want to accomplish anything in life and become the kind of person you admire, then you need to commit yourself to a disciplined program of actions that will help you get where you want to go. You don't just have the power to make vague declarations or have New Year's resolutions. That doesn't change things much.

No Vague New Year's Resolution

To make a real change, you have to start doing things differently than before; developing new habits; and so forth. This means commitment. This means accepting responsibility for your own life, rather than being a passive observer or an inactive participant.

Mind Shift 

Some people think the way to get ahead in life is to concentrate on their weaknesses and simply try to eliminate them. That's very bad advice. It's not the things we're bad at that hold us back, but the things we don't do at all - we fail because we never tried in the first place

Don't focus on your weaknesses

Here’s what you should do instead: pick one thing that you’d like to get good at and focus on that for an entire month. If you practice consistently for 1 month, the chances are good that you’ll see a noticeable improvement in your new skill.

Focus on doing one thing well

A lot of people are not clear about what they want and tend to complain about not getting what they want. If you want to get something in life, the first thing you need is clarity. It is always good to start by writing down your goals so that it will be easier to keep your focus on what you really want. The next thing is ACTION. The ideas here are intended to encourage thinking positively and taking some action steps toward creating the changes we desire in our lives.

Clarity is everything

People in almost every workplace experience a variety of challenges on a daily basis. In most cases, the issues surround aspects of the workplace, colleagues and internal politics. As the old saying goes: "It is better to light a candle than to complain about the darkness."

Be the light in your workplace

The moment we are complaining about life, we are already losing it because our attention is clouded by bad thoughts and this leaches us of opportunities, joy and happiness.

Get a grip

Some people feel like they're drowning in their own problems, dreams, wants and desires. They're deeply aggravated and upset about all the things they can't do because of their living situations and/or financial issues. This is to help you get a grip and start living 

It's easy to want something you don't have. It's harder to be grateful for what you do have and then find a way to get what you need.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

strategy

Strategy

Get a Grip 

This does not mean to literally press the Ctrl+Alt+Delete buttons on your keyboard but instead:
Control the in-the-moment stress that is spiraling out of control and making you feel stressed
_Alt_ernatively, do something that will engage your focus better like meditating or breathing exercises
Delete the thoughts that are distracting you find your workspace and avoid the urge to let your mind wander.

Control, Alt, Delete

The general rule to beat the stress out of you is to not keep looking at future deadlines or to-dos. It's important to focus only on the list that you've curated for that day.
This is why we have a 'dump.' It is the area in your workspace where you store yet-to-be sorted to-dos. If something is urgent, we slot them into our schedule and put a task back in the dump.
At the end of the day, we need to review our dump to set up tomorrow's task list. As long as you're reviewing your done tasks, they won't fall through the cracks.

Have a 'dump'

I've been reading Eckhart Tolle lately in order to soothe my need for guidance and I've stumbled across this article. Here are the two things to do in order for us to beat the stress away. 

December 31 looms large, and pressures to wrap up key projects are ever-present. Fortunately, there's a way to avoid anxiety attacks and stress-induced burnouts. It starts with a simple focus exercise.

timemanagement

Time Management

2 Easy Ways to Beat the Stress of Ridiculous End-of-Year Deadlines and Improve Your Focus

Almost every single company claim to provide great customer service, however, we still hear complaints from customers so we will presume that there is an opportunity for improvement.In order to have a thriving customer support team you must define what "great service" is for your company. Afterwards, once you've set a standard you then only need to deliver on your company values, consistently exceed customer expectations, and examine any legal requirements.

Defining Great Customer Service

It's tempting to say that your company will be available on every channel for your customers however, this isn't applicable for small teams without having to spread your team too thin and deliver inconsistent customer support quality.In order to figure out which channels to support you need to find out what channels your customers are using the most (tech support/live chat/social media), start with focusing on fewer channels, and then capitalize on your existing skill sets.

Choosing which channels to support

So that you may be able to provide high quality, reliable customer support, you must have a great customer support team, but how do you filter out the ones that you need? Here are some questions that can help you better choose candidates:<ul><li>What is the ideal support personality you're looking for?</li><li>What skills should your support professional have? </li><li>How will you integrate this new hire to the team? and;</li><li>How do you keep them?</li></ul>

Hiring the right people

Customer service softwares produce detailed results for us, but it doesn't tell you which metrics matter to your team and what you need to do about them. In order to choose which metrics matter here are three big questions that will help you decide:<ul><li>Why are you reporting?</li><li>Who are you reporting to?</li><li>What do you want the outcome to be?</li></ul>The metrics you choose to report should be meaningful and authentic. Afterwards, take a baseline measurement, set internal targets for your team, and work forward.

Measure the right data

<ul><li>Selecting customer service software: You need to know the difference between "nice to have" features versus necessary features along with the apps that you need to integrate. Having slow or unhelpful tools will waste your support's time.</li><li>Internal Systems: Customer support teams are heavily reliant  on internal systems such as custom database searches, configuration pages, and logging systems to access customers' fix issues. If you can't afford attractive software, make sure that it's not painful to use.</li><li>Set aside a budget for individual tools for your support team, it'll be worth the investment.</li></ul>

Picking your tools

The only downside to having a knowledge base is that it's time consuming to develop, but here are the benefits of having it:<ul><li>It will lessen the strain on your support team</li><li>Allow for faster onboarding </li><li>Greater consistency of support; and</li><li>Saves time for both support and customer</li></ul>

Creating a knowledge base

It's highly recommended to have a customer-focused company, but what should the goal be? The goal is to build in systems across teams that support great service.Support managers are encourages to:<ol><li>Push decision-making to the front line</li><li>Automate customer-friendly processes</li><li>Create feedback loops; and</li><li>Making the team feel respected day in, day out.</li></ol>

Integrating support into your product and company

Follow these 7 foundational steps to build a brand new support department or maximize the success of your existing customer support team.

teamwork

Teamwork

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