<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Write down your purpose and keep it on your desk to act as a constant visual reminder of why you do what you do</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Humans are basically suckers for punishment, and when we experience setbacks or receive negative feedback at work, it has a big impact on our energy levels</li><li class="ql-align-justify">In your own workspace, think about how you can create a wall of encouragement.</li></ul>

Create a "wall of encouragement"

When we are facing several big problems in our lives, we ironically don’t have the capacity to solve the little one. As a result, we tend to engage in short-term, reactive thinking.To escape the trap of tunnelling, give yourself some slack, in the form of time or resources. For example, is there a simple process that you find yourself executing regularly (budgeting, paying bills) that could be automated using software? Are there standard emails that you find yourself writing again and again that you could create a template for?

Tunnelling

When thinking about your “to don’t” list, consider the things you’re currently doing that are sucking your energy up.There might be certain people that you decide not to see, certain habits that you want to break, or projects that are no longer serving your growth at work. Sadly, there may also be a few items that you want to drop but can’t at this stage in your career. As such, focus on the things that are in your control.

Create a "To Don't" list

productivity

Productivity

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

"Skill is the result of deliberate, consistent practice, and in early-stage practice, quantity and speed trump absolute quality. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill."

Josh Kaufman starts by highlighting it is likely you have a skill you have always wanted to learn. For instance, maybe it’s competently playing the piano, doing well on the tennis court, or becoming conversational in French. Crucially, it is never too late to learn your chosen skill. One of the most common regrets is wishing one had pursued a skill earlier. Subsequently, humans will often quickly give up before even becoming familiar with the basics because they believe it’s too late.

Use Rapid Skill Acquisition to Learn Within 20 Hours

This is where we can use rapid skill acquisition to kickstart our experience. Through using this technique, you can become competent in various desirable skills by putting in 20 hours of work. These 20 hours will allow you to become acquainted with the basics, but skill mastery will require more than these initial 20 hours of investment.

The first few hours of learning something new are always the hardest, and this is where most people give up. However, if you break your initial 20 hours down into an hour of practice per day, you will rapidly improve. You will then find it considerably easier to continue building your skillset after you’ve completed the first 20 hours. Once you get through the first 20 hours, you’ll have a significant amount of practice under your belt, and further practice won’t be as difficult. Making the most of these initial 20 hours relies on adopting the ten principles of rapid skill acquisition.

<ol><li>Choose a lovable project.</li><li>Focus your energy on one skill at a time.</li><li>Define your target performance level.</li><li>Deconstruct the skill into subskills.</li><li>Obtain critical tools.</li><li>Eliminate barriers to practice.</li><li>Make dedicated time for practice.</li><li>Create fast feedback loops.</li><li>Practice by the clock in short bursts.</li><li>Emphasize quantity and speed.</li></ol>

Ten Principles of Rapid Skill Acquisition

"The trouble comes when we confuse learning with skill acquisition. If you want to acquire a new skill, you must practice it in context. Learning enhances practice, but it doesn’t replace it. If performance matters, learning alone is never enough."

There are probably many skills you’d like to acquire. Still, an essential first step of rapid skill acquisition is choosing to focus on one. Start by making a list of all the skills you’re interested in, and pick the one most exciting to you right now. This excitement will help you stay motivated through your practice.

Learn Your Chosen Skill By Focusing Your Energy

Don’t try to learn multiple new concepts at once because you’ll progress slowly, which is not motivating at all. Did you know you can achieve a magical “flow” state by spending more time focusing?Josh Kaufman explains that you should practice in 20-minute bursts so that you can focus all your energy on your chosen learning task. On top of this, these bursts should be characterized by deliberate and consistent practices. Hence, quantity and speed are more important than the quality of your learning. The faster and more often you practice, the more rapidly you’ll acquire the skill.

<ol><li>Research the skill and related topics.</li><li>Jump in over your head.</li><li>Identify mental models and mental hooks.</li><li>Imagine the opposite of what you want.</li><li>Talk to practitioners to set expectations.</li><li>Eliminate distractions in your environment.</li><li>Use spaced repetition and reinforcement for memorization.</li><li>Create scaffolds and checklists.</li><li>Make and test predictions.</li><li>Honor your biology.</li></ol>

Ten Major Principles of Effective Learning

Deciding how talented you want to become at your chosen skill is the third principle in rapid skill acquisition. This is called your target performance level. It’s important because if you can envision the end goal, it’ll be easier to get there. Decide what level of skill is “good enough” for you. For example, if you’re learning to play an instrument, consider whether you want to play a few songs by heart or you want to jump into a jam session.

Choose Your Skill Level

As well as choosing your skill level, you also have to utilize smaller steps. Break your chosen skills down into bite-sized pieces you can tackle one by one. You don’t attempt to down an entire meal in one bite, and you shouldn’t try to learn a skill in one swing. By dividing up the work ahead of you, progress will be easier, and the steps you need to take to succeed will be more clear-cut.

Utilize Smaller Steps 

As well as defining the specific skill level you want to pursue, Kaufman also suggests you need to identify the tools you need to succeed at your skill level. These tools are the fundamental building blocks of your skill. For example, for Kaufman’s ukulele pursuit, the first tool he required was a working ukulele. Though this is a simple step, it is essential to find what materials and environments you’ll need to succeed in learning a new skill.

Acquire the Tools You Need

When learning a skill, there will always be barriers that interfere with your learning process. Therefore, consider any emotional roadblocks that may stand in your path, like fear or self-doubt, as well as distractions (like a ringing phone). After completing this process, try to eliminate any hindrances.

Limit Distractions

"If you rely on finding time to do something, it will never be done. If you want to find time, you must make time."

In today’s world, people are busier than ever. So, if you want to learn a new skill, you need to make time to practice. This is Kaufman’s seventh principle of rapid skill acquisition. Identify other activities in your life that you aren’t fond of, and work to cut those out to fill that time with practicing your new skill. Your goal is to free up 60-90 minutes a day to dedicate to practicing.

Give Yourself Time to Practice

You must get feedback on your progress. For instance, perhaps you are trying to learn Chinese. You should find a way to get fast feedback on your progress, so you’ll know if you’ve put a step wrong. After receiving this feedback, you can choose to approach your skill acquisition differently.  If you can, you should hire a coach to help guide you and give you feedback through the process. If you’re learning a new language, you can use a voice recorder to listen to yourself speaking. This will make it easier to hear mistakes in your own pronunciation or grammar.

Give Yourself Feedback

The author offers another example from his own life to highlight how he has used feedback. Kaufman received feedback when he was learning how to play the game Go. To do this, he downloaded a software called SmartGo, which gives the player feedback after every move. This software helped him identify his weak spots and made it simpler to progress.

Shortening your working periods helps mitigate the risk of working on difficult or tedious activities for extended periods. This is crucial as prolonged challenging work can be draining and often leads to inefficiency. When you first start learning, the hours of practice seem to drag on longer and longer. People tend to think they’ve actually spent more time working at the beginning of learning something new simply by how arduous learning the task is at the beginning.

Prioritize Quantity and Speed By Practicing in Short Bursts

Avoid this feeling from taking over by using a 20-minute time. The timer will let you know how long you’ve actually been practicing and, since you’ll know how long you’ve been working, you’ll be more motivated during that period. Your goal should be to do three to five of these 20-minute blocks of practice per day. If you do this, you’ll be shocked at how quickly you progress.

It’s better to recognize that you’re likely a beginner, and you shouldn’t expect yourself to be an expert from the start. So, focus on practicing quickly and often. By prioritizing quantity and speed, you’re less likely to get frustrated and subsequently demotivated during the initial stages of practice.

The First 20 Hours is a book about rapid skill acquisition: how to pick up new skills as fast as humanly possible.

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

philosophy

Philosophy

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

education

Learning & Education

Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less?   Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare?   Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of prac­ticing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . .   In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct com­plex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By complet­ing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well.   Kaufman personally field-tested the meth­ods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard key­board, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the sim­ple techniques he teaches:<ul><li>Define your target performance level: Fig­ure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better.</li><li>Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcompo­nents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first.</li><li>Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice.</li><li>Create fast feedback loops: Getting accu­rate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve.</li></ul>Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chain­saws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.

Josh Kaufman is an independent business teacher, education activist, and author of The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business.Josh's unique, multidisciplinary approach to business education has helped hundreds of thousands of readers around the world master foundational business concepts on their own terms, and his work has been featured in BusinessWeek, Fortune, and Fast Company, as well as by influential websites like Lifehacker, HarvardBusiness.org, Cool Tools, and Seth Godin's Blog.

Josh Kaufman

The First 20 Hours

Good habits can change your life. Better habits can improve your life. Lifelong routines change everything. Life-changing habits compound in our favor — they accelerate growth and help us become happy, healthy, and wealthy. Doing one thing by yourself, for yourself, that creates joy is such an important habit,

Many of these quick habits take just a few minutes to practice, but they can have a massive return on your life. If you are too busy for better habits, restructure your routine. You don’t need more time; you need to redefine your commitments.

Why Do We Need Them

It’s not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do, it’s that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have.

Things To Do Aand Time Equation.

1. For every demand on your time, pause or delay your response and think about the first and second-order consequences before saying yes.2. Practice social media fast once a week and use that time to read a few chapters of your favorite book.3. Write things down. Don’t try to remember everything. The brain is notorious for forgetting ideas.4. Start your day with a plan — you will think less and move faster.5. Plan intentional breaks in-between focus work — it will help you recover and recharge for the next task.

Habit 1 - 5

6. The world’s most successful people are always learning — be deliberate about how you feed your brain.7. Choose your knowledge sources carefully.8. Begin your day with the end in mind — focus on a few high-priority tasks at a time.9. Unplug yourself from work when it’s done — it improves mental clarity.10. Schedule news time — don’t react to every news break or notification. It’s a productive way to take back time for what you care about.

Habit 6 - 10

11. Start your day with 5 minutes session — it improves flexibility and boosts your mood.12. Drink at least a glass of water first thing in the morning to improve gut and brain health.13. Listen to audiobooks and podcasts in your gap times: waiting for your coffee, commuting to work, or work breaks.14. Make walking a daily or weekly habit — it’s the easiest and healthiest form of exercise to improve mental clarity and self-awareness.15. Upgrade your mind every year. Embrace lifelong learning to accelerate personal growth.

Habit 11 - 15

Life-changing habits compound in our favor. They accelerate growth and help us become happy, healthy, and wealthy. Here are 42 quick habits you can start today.

habits

Habits

42 Quick Habits That Have a Massive Return On Life | Hive

Ikigai is the intersection between what you are passionate about, where your skills lie, how you can earn a living and what the world needs.

Ikigai is where your reason for living meets your life goal

Once you find it, wether as a job or a hobby, you should not give it up as Ikigai is also the key to longevity as people from Okinawa show. Indeed an active mind and low stress are the key to a long life. To keep your mind active engage in social life, go outside and do mind games. This will avoid you get stuck in patterns and routines that promote your brain to slow down.

Everyone has an Ikigai that they were born to fulfill

Reducing stress is the key to a long life, try practicing mindfulness, doing yoga or taking time to exercise. This will give you a chance to calm down and observe your body and mind more closely.

Avoiding stress is key for Longevity 

“We have to learn how to turn off the autopilot that’s steering us in an endless loop.”

No Autopilot

In Morita therapy, patients are asked to pay attention to and accept their feelings, without attempting to change them. From there, they take particular actions to create new emotions, which gradually replace the old ones. <ol><li>First there is a week of complete rest and disconnect from media.</li><li>Second, the patient begins to integrate repetitive activities into her daily routine. </li><li>Third, these activities become more physical and creative producing a new set of emotions.</li><li>Finally, the patient is ready for stage four: reentering the world with a newfound sense of calm and purpose</li></ol>

Morita Therapy 

Flow is experienced when enjoyment and concentration are so deep they bloc out all other concerns – even time itself. Seeking out flow activities will increase your enjoyment of life and, therefore, your longevity. That’s why you should prioritize flow experiences over hedonistic ones like overeating, substance abuse or media entertainment. Ideally, your ikigai – your main life occupation – will regularly produce a state of flow, but if it doesn’t, be sure your hobbies do. Calibrating the level of difficulty is essential for flow.

Remain Young by immersing yourself in an activity 

Enjoy and cultivate your friendships, chat with your neighbors, enjoy quiet pursuits in the early morning, enjoy what you have

Friendships, gratefulness, early mornings and Garden vegetables 

The Okinawan diet contains an incredible variety of foods ( up to 206 different foods on a regular basis, including herbs and spices. The base of the diet is grains, like rice or noodles, while seasonings like salt and sugar are used sparingly. They eat small portions until they are 80% full and eat/ drink antioxidants rich foods like green tea and citrus fruits.

Eat Small portions in all Colors of the rainbow 

You don’t need intense workout but movement throughout the day: walking, doing chores, tending to the garden and getting up five minutes for every 30 minutes you sit

Movement is Crucial for a Long Life

Learn how to find your life purpose, enjoy life and live a long fulfilling life.

Los Angeles Times bestseller • More than 1.5 million copies sold “Workers looking for more fulfilling positions should start by identifying their ikigai.” ―Business Insider “One of the unintended—yet positive—consequences of the [pandemic] is that it is forcing people to reevaluate their jobs, careers, and lives. Use this time wisely, find your personal ikigai, and live your best life.” ―Forbes *And from the same authors, don’t miss The Book of Ichigo Ichie—about making the most of every moment in your life.* * * * Find your ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy) and bring meaning and joy to all your days. “Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” —Japanese proverb According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai—where what you love, what you’re good at, what you can get paid for, and what the world needs all overlap—means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they’ve found a real purpose in life—the happiness of always being busy. In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds—one of the world’s Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and—their best-kept secret—how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find happiness in every day? A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

mindfulness

Mindfulness

mentalhealth

Mental Health

travel

Travel

books

Books

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • 1.5 MILLION+ COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE “Workers looking for more fulfilling positions should start by identifying their ikigai.” ―Business Insider   “One of the unintended—yet positive—consequences of the [pandemic] is that it is forcing people to reevaluate their jobs, careers, and lives. Use this time wisely, find your personal ikigai, and live your best life.” ―Forbes Find your ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy) to live longer and bring more meaning and joy to all your days. “Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years.” —Japanese proverb   According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai—where what you love, what you’re good at, what you can get paid for, and what the world needs all overlap—means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they’ve found a real purpose in life—the happiness of always being busy. In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds—one of the world’s Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and—their best-kept secret—how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find happiness in every day?

Hector Garcia was born in Spain in 1981 and has been living in Tokyo since 2004. During his spare time he writes aGeekinJapan.com, one of the most widely-read blogs in the world in Spanish and in English, as well as books about his experiences in Japan. He is the author of the bestsellers: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life and A Geek in Japan. You can find more of Hector's musings at ageekinjapan.com

Héctor García

Francesc Miralles Contijoch is a Catalan writer, essayist, translator, and musician.

Francesc Miralles

Ikigai

<ul>
<li>Velocity measures displacement. Speed is the distance traveled over time.</li>
<li>A lot of people think in terms of one dimension (speed) and are passed by people who think in multiple dimensions (velocity).</li>
<li>You need to distinguish between tasks that offer a lot of speed and those that offer velocity.</li>
</ul>

Speed vs Velocity

<ul>
<li>Saying yes to everything is a quick road to mediocrity.</li>
<li>You need to distinguish between tasks that offer a lot of speed and those that offer velocity.</li>
<li>Busywork is doing work that keeps you occupied but doesn’t get you where you want to go.</li>
<li>Instead of asking how many tasks you can tackle given your working hours. Ask how many you can ditch given what you must do to excel.</li>
<li>Doing more isn’t always moving you ahead.</li>
</ul>

How to use this at work?

<ol><li>To the extent possible, ruthlessly shave away the unnecessary tasks, priorities, meetings, and BS.</li><li>Don’t rely on your willpower to say no; instead, create systems that help you fend off distractions.</li><li>Say “no” to your boss: Explain that saying no means that you’re going to be better at the tasks that are most important to your job, and tie those tasks to your boss’s performance.</li></ol>

Three ways to increase velocity

It’s tempting to think that in order to be a valuable team player, you should say “yes” to every request and task that is asked of you.

People who say yes to everything have a lot of speed. They're always doing stuff but never getting anything done. Why? Because they don't think in terms of velocity. Understanding the difference between speed and velocity will change how you work.

Understanding Speed and Velocity: Saying "NO" to the Non-Essential - Farnam Street

A common goal for many Muslims is to be able to finish reading the entire Qur'an within the month of Ramadan. However, if you're not confident you don't have to start there right away!Take some time after each prayer to read a few ayats of the Qur'an. It can be just 1 ayat, or a whole surah at a time, but as time goes on these small efforts will help build your confidence and comfort.

1. Read the Qur'an after every prayer

If you're starting to practice reciting the Qur'an, it can be daunting to try and recite entire surahs at once. However, Allah sees all, and He sees and recognizes your effort.Start small and strive for precision, taking care to pronounce each letter properly and clearly. Rather than rushing through, understand the meaning of the words and aim to perfect even the smallest of recitations. In this way, you'll build your confidence as well as fall in love with the beauty of the Qur'an.

2. Recite 1 ayah per day

Ramadan is a month for deepening our faith and knowledge of Islam. You can now find dozens of online lessons and podcasts covering everything from fiqh to the tafseer of selected surahs - and most of them are 30 minutes or less! Put one on in the background while you get ready for your day, or when you're winding down just before it's time to break your fast. A little knowledge goes a long way!

3. Tune in to a podcast, or read more Islamic books

Al-Fatihah is the first chapter of the Qur'an and is one of the most important surahs in the book. Muslims around the world say the Al-Fatihah every day when we pray, so Ramadan is the perfect time to dive into its meaning and significance. As we say it multiple times every day, it also makes it so much more important to understand the meaning behind the words and how it reaffirms our worship of and belief in Allah.

4. Study the  tafseer  of Al-Fatihah

There are 5 obligatory daily prayers in Islam, but each of us is in different stages of our journey of prayer. For some who may be starting out, committing to all 5 prayers can  be difficult for a variety of reasons; for others who are already in the habit of praying 5 times a day, the challenge may be in maintaining khushoo  during prayer instead of letting your mind wander. No matter what your relationship to prayer is, this is a good time to relearn the basics.

5. Relearn the basics of prayer

It gives us more flexibility and ease with timing the prayers and recitation, and we get to pray in a comfortable and familiar location. It's also a chance to spend time with our family and loved ones, and get closer through the observance of our faith.

6. Pray Terawih if you can

Some of us may not have the habit of eating sahur, so why not start trying to create this habit this Ramadan! Sahur can be as little as a glass of water, or a handful of dates. As narrated by Ibn Hibbaan and At-Tabaraani in Al-Awsat: "Allah and his angels definitely send salutations on those who eat Suhoor." Having sahur can help set the tone for the rest of your day - and you can pray the Fajr/subuh prayer immediately afterwards too.

7. Try waking up for sahur

This year, try to be more mindful and aware of what you eat. Taking care of your body is also important in Islam, as is the value of moderation. So try cutting down on sugary drinks, and limiting your desserts and snacks. You can also try to substitute healthier ingredients such as wholegrain rice or try meatless meals. And don't forget to practice good eating habits - don't rush through your food no matter how hungry you are!

8. Be mindful of what you eat

As we're fasting for the whole day, it's important to hydrate ourselves when we get the chance! By hydrating yourself, you're not only ensuring you have enough energy for the day but you'll be in a better mood and find it easier to practice values such as kindness and compassion. Keep a water bottle by your side after iftar, and sip water until you go to bed. Make sure to have water or other fluids during sahur too!

9. Hydrate yourself when you can

One of the values of Ramadan is learning how to resist temptation, and for many of us, the biggest temptation around is our phones! While our phones are essential for communication (or just every part of life) these days, this is a good chance for us to take a step  back as well. If we can resist food and water (which are essential to our survival) for over 12 hours, we can surely resist looking at our phone for just a fraction of that time.

10. Go 'phone-less' for half an hour

During Ramadan, many of us do acts of charity to give back to our community as well as show gratefulness for what Allah has given us. But giving sadaqah (voluntary acts of charity) doesn’t just need to be monetary! So while you may be stuck at home, you can still reach out to do good for others. Whether that be sponsoring meals for those who need them, donating to fundraisers for illnesses or other causes, or even just checking in with your older neighbours to see how they're doing.

11. Do small acts of charity

Wishing you good health and a warm spirit this Ramadan!❤️

These 11 simple goals are what you need to start a journey of change this Ramadan!

religionandspirituality

Religion & Spirituality

11 Simple Goals To Achieve This Ramadan

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law#:~:text=Sturgeon's%20law%20(or%20Sturgeon's%20revelation,science%20fiction%20author%20and%20critic.">Sturgeon’s law</a> is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt. “All things — cars, books, cheeses, hairstyles, people and pins are, to the expert and discerning eye, crud, except for the acceptable tithe which we each happen to like.”— From Theodore Sturgeon’s “On Hand: A Book”

Sturgeon’s law 

1. What is the oldest error-free book for X topic?2. What is the newest error-free book for X topic?3. Can I find the book online, for free?

Questions to ask yourself before going out to buy a new book

Assert someone’s credibility & respectability in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academia_(disambiguation)">The Academia</a> is to check their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index#:~:text=among%20different%20fields.-,Calculation,with%203%20or%20more%20citations.">H-index score</a>. This represents how many other scientists are citing their paper. a “successful scientist” will have an h-index of 20 after 20 years; an “outstanding scientist” will have an index of 40 after 20 years; and a “truly unique individual” will have an index of 60 after 20 years or 90 after 30 years.

One should read the full article for a detailed view.

Sturgeon’s law is a philosophical aphorism that states that 90% of everything is crap. And, of course, you should take this with a grain of salt. Sturgeon’s law can still be an interesting framework…

entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship

How to read higher quality books

Content on max-ing motivation and productivity is everywhere. You probably have a mental list of all the platitudes or hacks. Motivational quotes trick us into feeling like we’ve accomplished something.Then why do we have days when we check off items from To-Do's and days when we just can’t get ourselves out of bed on time? And when we do get motivated, why is it so hard to keep it up?

Did you read platitudes today?

Author Robert McKain quoted “Action precedes motivation.”, but we always read that motivation is what makes us act. So what is it? So should I wait for that drive to get stuff done, or not?There exists an elaborate process of brain activity that pushes you to pursue goals YOU REALLY WANT TO ACHIEVE and the performance tasks that are demanded from you irrespective of interest.

Patience or Impulse?

Having resolutions and not following through is not because you didn't have the time. It's the Neurochemistry of your Motivation & Reward Systems.Motivation is <ul><li>A complex process in the brain</li><li>Involves multiple brain regions</li><li>Several Pathways</li><li>Release of Neural Messengers (Neurotransmitters like Dopamine)</li></ul>

80% of NY Resolutions Fail??

Dopamine (DA) is synonymously used with happiness and reward. It helps feel pleasure and relays 'motivational salience'. Motivational Salience means DA<ol><li>Indicates positive rewarding stimuli and </li><li>Responds to negative non-rewarding stimuli like stress</li></ol>This means, that both external environment and mood play a role in your drive to act.

Craving and Prediction of Rewards

DA is released when we work towards something we think is rewarding - a video game or desire for something tasty. DA is released while predicting and craving rewards, not so much while experiencing it. The process : <ol><li>Release in Planning Network in Pre-frontal Cortex (does most of the thinking)</li><li>Release in Motivation Generating Network in Striatum</li></ol>Parts of the striatum read motivational variables & push you to act on them. This can sometimes go awry - depending on the path and timing of this DA release, you may feel motivated to carry on a task like reading a book or you just don’t feel like it.

Quick - Think of cheesecake!

“I only write when inspiration strikes, Fortunately, it strikes at nine every morning.”

Reward/Incentive - achievability of a task and the perceived pleasure/reward from it decides your motivation levels. But the aim is to conquer your goals without waiting for that drive. So what else?<ul><li>Indulge in Challenges/ Competition: Activity of Glutamine and Glutamate determines motivational stamina (our ability to continue a difficult task)</li><li>Unexpected Rewards: Finding money on your walking path one day, will raise your hopes of finding more.</li><li>Habit: Once you start acting on those goals/tasks, a routine will act as a cue for your motivation.</li></ul>

What will boost my motivation?

Ways you can consciously increase and sustain your motivation : <ul><li>Anticipation of Rewards: Visualize a completed task and act towards it, it activates the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)</li><li>Record your Progress: Track your progress and accomplishments while taking small steps</li><li>Health & Intake: Regular exercise can remodel your entire reward system, allowing increased dopamine release and availability. </li></ul>

Purposeful Self-Motivation

Something we need to know the science of before we blame ourselves for unproductivity. 

Neuroscience News research articles cover neurology, psychology, AI, brain science, mental health, robotics and cognitive sciences in a free, open access magazine.

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Finding Motivation the Neuroscience Way

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">People tend to care about something making sense more than they care about something being right.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It’s why we’re bad at forecasting and easily persuaded and why the economy is driven by stories.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It’s not your fault. The world is complicated and everyone’s trying to fit what’s going on into the context of their own life experiences.</li></ul>Two factors cause the gap between perception and reality.

Making Sense Is Better Persuasion Than Being Right

The most important events – things that are counterintuitive, disruptive, and swayed by emotion more than calculation – tend to share a few traits that make gathering a good sample of data hard:<ul><li>They’re rare.  </li><li>The data is hard to collect.</li><li>More data intuitively feels better.</li></ul>This is a big problem and there is no solution to it other than giving <a href="http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/surprise/">yourself room for error</a> in not only in your actions but your beliefs.

Factor 1: The Most Important Events Are the Hardest to Sample

History makes clear that the winner isn’t the person who discovers an idea, but the one who sells it most persuasively.Stories are more powerful than statistics because the most believable thing in the world is whatever takes the least amount of effort to contextualize your own life experiences.People go astray when forgetting that storytelling is like exponential fuel, so a great idea told poorly can be a fraction as powerful as a mediocre idea told persuasively.

Factor 2: We Underestimate how Much More Powerful Stories Are than Statistics

People tend to care about something making sense more than they care about something being right. It’s why we’re bad at forecasting and easily persuaded and why the economy is driven by stories. It’s not your fault. The world is complicated and everyone’s trying to fit what’s going on into the context of their own life experiences. Two big things cause the gap between perception and reality. 1. The most important events are the hardest to sample, so extrapolating their lessons can be misleading. There have been two world wars in the last century. But no one would say, “the average world war lasts five years,” or “the average world war kills 60 million people.” No forecaster would say we’re overdue for a world war based on historic trends. A sample size of two can’t tell us what to expect next. The point may be obvious with world wars. But use a slightly more common case and people start drawing all kinds of false conclusions. Studying things with inadequate samples causes more delusion than intentional deceit. That’s because the ease of explaining things based on what’s readily in front of you meets the intellectual cover of using statistics. The most important events – things that are counterintuitive, disruptive, and swayed by emotion more than calculation – tend to share a few traits that make gathering a good sample of data hard: They’re rare. Ask an economist how many recessions they wish they had to study and they’ll say “ten thousand.” But there have only been 11 recessions since we started systematically collecting good data in the 1940s. That is nothing. If we had as much recession data as we wanted we’d likely realize that half of what we think we know about recessions is wrong. The data is hard to collect. Big surveys are expensive to produce. Gathering a classroom of grad students is cheap and easy. So which do you think happens more? And even when you survey people they often either don’t know the answer but give you one anyways (How much red meat did you eat last year?), or they know the answer but won’t tell the truth (Will you vote for this controversial politician?). This is partly why most studies can’t be replicated. More data intuitively feels better but things change over time, so more data can add in past trends that tell you nothing about what to expect in the future. If something is rare, the tendency is to go way back in history to gather as many examples as you can. But the further back you go, the more likely you are to study a world that operated in a different paradigm. We can study the financial crisis of 1873, but the modern banking system lives in a totally different universe than it did then. Daniel Kahneman is one of the best social scientists of our time. Yet he once admitted: Like most research psychologists, I had routinely chosen samples that were too small and had often obtained results that made no sense. I taught statistics and knew how to compute the sample size that would reduce the risk of failure to an acceptable level. But I had never chosen a sample size by computation. Like my colleagues, I had trusted tradition and my intuition in planning my experiments and had never thought seriously about the issue. That is terrifying. Two things happen when we don’t have good samples for important events. One is that we fool ourselves and are surprised when the world works differently than our data suggested it would. The second is that we can easily fool others, because if you look hard enough you can find a flawed set of data that shows whatever you want it to show. This is a big problem and there is no solution to it other than giving yourself room for error in not only in your actions but your beliefs. 2. We underestimate how much more powerful stories are than statistics. A friend once complained that everything Nassim Taleb has written is a rewording of a Philosophy 101. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m not bothered if it is because Taleb has done a better job explaining concepts than any Philosophy 101 author before him. And history makes clear that the winner isn’t the person who discovers an idea, but the one who sells it most persuasively. Stories are more powerful than statistics because the most believable thing in the world is whatever takes the least amount of effort to contextualize your own life experiences. People go astray when forgetting that storytelling is like exponential fuel, so a great idea told poorly can be a fraction as powerful as an OK idea told persuasively. The CEO who understands everything about their field except the most important thing – rallying employees behind a mission and vision. The financial advisor who aced the CFA exam but can’t maintain clients’ faith during a downturn. The doctor who knows the cure but can’t get patients to stick to a plan. Even contrarians eventually need to be persuasive. James Grant said: “Successful investing is about having people agree with you … later.” A flaw that frustrates many people is not realizing that virtually every job is a sales job, especially as you move up the ladder: Most careers turn into sales jobs when you get senior enough.— Sam Altman (@sama) December 20, 2017 More on this topic: The Full Reset The Theory of Maybes It’s Hard to Predict How You’ll Respond to Risk

communication

Communication

computerscience

Computer Science

Making Sense vs. Being Right

The philosopher Carl G. Hempel, in his 1965 essay “Studies in the Logic of Confirmation,” brought to light a central paradox in the scientific method as it is commonly understood. This is called Hempel’s Ravens Paradox, and it deals with inductive reasoning, which is the first step in any scientific method: Observing and forming a hypothesis.

Hempel’s Ravens Paradox

Suppose you see a raven, and you note that it is black. “Hmm,” you say, “that raven was black.” Sometime later you notice a couple more ravens, and they also are black. “What a coincidence,” you remark, “those ravens are black too.” Time goes by and you see many more ravens. And it happens that all the ravens you see are black. “This is beyond coincidence,” you might reasonably think, and with the instincts of a good and observant scientist you form a hypothesis: All ravens are black.

Inductive Reasoning

There are always limits to an experimental apparatus, even if the apparatus is just a matter of observing as many ravens as possible to check their colour. Nonetheless, we feel justified in saying that each new observation of a black raven tends to confirm the hypothesis, and in time, if no green or blue or otherwise non-black ravens are observed, our hypothesis will eventually come to have the status of natural law.

The Limitation

Logically put, our hypothesis “all ravens are black” has the form of a conditional, that is, a statement of the form “if A then B.” In short, we are saying that if a given object is a raven, then that object is black. According to the laws of logic, a conditional is equivalent to its contrapositive. That is, a statement of the form “if A then B” is equivalent to the statement “if not B then not A.” This rule of logic is incontrovertible.

The Flaw In Our Logic

Our hypothesis “all ravens are black” therefore has the equivalent form “all non-black things are non-ravens,” or more precisely, “if an object isn't black then it is not a raven.” Consequently, if every sighting of a black raven confirms our hypothesis, then every sighting of a non-black non-raven equally confirms our hypothesis.

The Illogical Conclusion

Very well, you might say, but maybe every sighting of a non-black non-raven really does confirm, even if only to an infinitesimal degree, the hypothesis that all ravens are black. After all, if we could, somehow, check every non-black object in the universe, and if none of them were ravens, our statement that all ravens are black would be proved.

The Bottom Line

Hempel’s Ravens Paradox | Platonic Realms

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