We miss the point that the ability to develop any skill as swiftly as possible, with the least amount of effort, and even to experience inner peace and joy in the process, is in fact a skill itself, and one that requires constant practice to become an effortless part of who we are.
When we subtly shift toward both focusing on and finding joy in the process of achieving instead of having the goal, we have gained a new skill. And once mastered, it is magical and incredibly empowering.

Effortless Effort

If you are not in control of your thoughts, then you are not in control of yourself. Without self-control, you have no real power, regardless of whatever else you accomplish.
If you are not aware of the thoughts that you think in each moment, then you are the rider with no reins, with no power over where you are going. You cannot control what you are not aware of. Awareness must come first

The Normal, Accidental Mind

The practising mind is quiet. It lives in the present and has laser-like, pinpoint focus and accuracy. It obeys our precise directions, and all our energy moves through it. 
Because of this, we are calm and completely free of anxiety. We are where we should be at that moment, doing what we should be doing and completely aware of what we are experiencing. There is no wasted motion, physically or mentally.

The Practising Mind

We have a very unhealthy habit of making the product — our intended result — the goal, instead of the process of reaching that goal.
When we practice something, we are involved in the deliberate repetition of a process with the intention of reaching a specific goal. The words deliberate and intention are key here because they define the difference between actively practicing something and passively learning it (similar to deliberate practice, see Peak).

The Journey, Not The Destination

<ul>
<li>When you focus on the process, the desired product takes care of itself with fluid ease.</li>
<li>When you focus on the product or goal, you immediately begin to fight yourself and experience boredom, restlessness, frustration, and impatience with the process.</li>
</ul>

The Process Matters, Not The Goal

When you remain aware of your intention to stay focused on the present, it’s easy to notice when you fall out of this perspective. At such times you immediately begin to judge what and how well you are doing, and you experience impatience and boredom. 
When you catch yourself in these moments, just gently remind yourself that you have fallen out of the present, and feel good about the fact that you are now aware enough to recognize it. You have begun to develop the Observer within you, who will prove so important in your self-guidance.

Stay In The Present

We consciously or unconsciously pick a point of reference in whatever we do and decide that nothing will be right until we get to that point. If you step back and observe your internal dialogue from time to time during the day, you will be amazed at how hard you work against yourself with this type of thinking.
In Zen, this state is referred to as “beginner’s mind.” When you are a beginner in any activity, accomplishing it takes all your concentration, and your mind is empty of chatter.

The Beginners Mind

<ul>
<li>If your mind races off, you're like a chariot without the reigns. Take the reigns and be in control of your mind.</li>
<li>Your goals are a compass, not the buried treasure. The goal is not the destination or where you end up, but rather the compass that guides the journey.</li>
<li>The greatest part of entrepreneurship is breaking down your limiting beliefs. It has nothing to do with money.</li>
</ul>

Your Beliefs And Limitations Are Only In The Mind

All of life is practice in one form or another. Actively practising something is very different from passively learning. You will never reach a level of performance that feels complete, so learn to love the art of practicing your skill.

Examines the process of practice as it relates to learning, and shows that it can build discipline and clarity, and be a fulfilling process in and of itself.

productivity

Productivity

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

mindfulness

Mindfulness

books

Books

In those times when we want to acquire a new skill or face a formidable challenge we hope to overcome, what we need most are patience, focus, and discipline, traits that seem elusive or difficult to maintain. In this enticing and practical book, Thomas Sterner demonstrates how to learn skills for any aspect of life, from golfing to business to parenting, by learning to love the process. Early life is all about trial-and-error practice. If we had given up in the face of failure, repetition, and difficulty, we would never have learned to walk or tie our shoes. So why, as adults, do we often give up on a goal when at first we don’t succeed? Modern life’s technological speed, habitual multitasking, and promises of instant gratification don’t help. But in his study of how we learn (prompted by his pursuit of disciplines such as music and golf), Sterner has found that we have also forgotten the principles of practice — the process of picking a goal and applying steady effort to reach it. The methods Sterner teaches show that practice done properly isn’t drudgery on the way to mastery but a fulfilling process in and of itself, one that builds discipline and clarity. By focusing on “process, not product,” you’ll learn to live in each moment, where you’ll find calmness and equanimity. This book will transform a sense of futility around learning something challenging into an attitude of pleasure and willingness.

Thomas M. Sterner is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Thomas M. Sterner has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Thomas M. Sterner's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Thomas M. Sterner

The Practicing Mind

Concentration is the essence of all knowledge; nothing can be done without it. Ninety percent of thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being, and therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind never makes a mistake.

Concentration

How are we to know that the mind has become concentrated? Because the idea of time will vanish. The more time passes unnoticed, the more concentrated we are. In common life, we see that when we are interested in a book we do not note the time at all, and when we leave the book, we are often surprised to find how many hours have passed.

Time 

It is only when the mind is very calm and collected that the whole of its energy is spent in doing good work. And if you read the lives of the great workers which the world has produced, you will find that they were wonderfully calm men.

calmness

Education is not filling the mind with a lot of facts. Perfecting the instrument and getting complete mastery of my own mind[is the ideal of education]. If I want to concentrate my mind upon a point, it goes there, and the moment I call, it is free[again].

mastery

We who cannot for a moment govern our own minds, nay, cannot for a moment govern our own minds on a subject, focus it on a point to the exclusion of everything else for a moment! Yet we call ourselves free. Think of it!

freedom

Raja-Yoga is the science which teaches us how to gain the power of concentration.

In making money, or in worshipping God, or in doing anything, the stronger the power of concentration, the better will that thing be done.

doing

The purer the mind, the easier it is to control. Purity of the mind must be insisted upon if you would control it.

The danger of concentrating the mind upon an object and then being unable to detach at will. This state causes great suffering. Almost all our suffering is caused by our not having the power of detachment.

Side by side, in the child, should be developed the power of concentration and detachment.

Regular breathing puts the body in a harmonious condition; and it is then easier to reach the mind… Simple breathing is all that is necessary in that line… In this way we get control of the body, and then we begin to feel the finer working of the body, the finer and more interior, and so on till we reach the mind… Thus, the mind brought under control.

I see, I think, I do, must be threaded. Brain hand eye coordination is a must.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

education

Learning & Education

The idea of Concentration by Vivekananda

This is a question that many people wonder about. The desire for self-development is already a good thing, but only if the desire does not go away after a day or two. This often happens when one doesn't know where to start. There are 5 Steps to begin self-development- 1. Goal setting2. Self-organisation and a positive attitude3. A proper distribution of energy4. Networking5. Constant learning new things In the following stashes, we will deal with each point separately 🙂

How to start the self-development programme?

If a person is standing in the middle of a forest and doesn't know where to go, the first thing to do is to identify exactly where they are. It is the same here. Once you realise that you need to develop, you need to understand from where this development will start and what specific efforts you need to make to achieve a certain result. A series of questions will do the trick. Ask yourself questions:🔺 What doesn't suit me?🔺 What doesn't suit the people whose opinions are important to me?🔺 What would I like to achieve?🔺 What would make me a better person?

Goal setting 🎯

It should be clear from the outset that self-development is easy enough to begin with. Don't be late, don't be lazy, don't complain, use every minute to your advantage. If you have taken a job or a course that should bring you closer to your goal, do it diligently and qualitatively. If you receive a refusal, a bad evaluation, a negative result, it is not a reason to admit worthlessness and fall into despondency. Learned bad experience will eventually give a positive result. Try again, knock on another door, adopt experiences, observe, learn, seek help. Try to find the positive in everything.

Self-organisation and a positive attitude

You want to know how to start a new life and change yourself, then start storing energy. You will need it for the new challenges in your personal development plan.  Don't waste energy on negative emotions, don't get angry, don't discuss others and don't get jealous. Start the day with the exercise, eat right, do not abuse alcohol and nicotine, give enough time to sleep. A great source of positive energy is exercising, which develops willpower, perseverance and endurance.

Accumulate Energy

To start self-development and self-improvement, you need to be able to adapt in society. After all, it is impossible to develop in a closed space. By communicating we gain knowledge, acquire skills, get emotions and impressions, life experience. Observe different people, listen to how and what they say, how others react to it.  Learn communication skills and behaviours that provoke positive reactions, help to avoid conflict, help to incline the other person to your point of view. Be able to listen to other people's opinions, try to understand what they are saying, put yourself in their shoes.

Social skills development (Networking)

Not sure how to start a new life and change yourself? Do things you haven't done before. Learn to drive, go swimming, learn a new profession, take a foreign language course or go to yoga.  Act differently from what you did before. Socialise with people, attend cultural or educational events, travel in your country or abroad, do volunteer work or social activities. New experiences will help you discover hidden talents, broaden your world view and make you free and liberated.

Learning new things all the time 📖

mentalhealth

Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

meditation

Meditation

Where to start personal development?

If you’re a procrastinator, then you’ve probably asked yourself at some point “why do I procrastinate so much?” or “why do I keep procrastinating even though I know that it’s bad for me?”. These are important questions, since understanding why you procrastinate is crucial if you want to figure out how to stop doing it . The following article will give you the answers to those questions.

Why People Procrastinate: The Psychology and Causes it .

Procrastination is the act of unnecessarily postponing decisions or actions. For example, if you need to write an essay, but end up wasting time on the internet even though you know you should be working, that means that you’re procrastinating. Procrastination is often detrimental to people’s ability to successfully pursue their goals. They will be face problems in every work they do .

What is procrastination

People often assume that procrastination is simply a matter of willpower, but in reality, the situation is far more complex than that. However, there are also various demotivating factors that we can experience , For example, anxiety, fear of failure, and other negative emotions can cause us to delay unnecessarily, as can being given a task that is unpleasant.This causes us to fail to self-regulate our behavior, which means that we postpone things unnecessarily, even when we know we should be doing them, which is why procrastination often leads to a gap between how we intend to act.

Why people procrastinate.

People are more likely to procrastinate when their goals are vague or abstract, compared to when their goals are concrete and clearly defined. For example, goals such as “get fit” or “start exercising” are relatively vague, and are therefore likely to lead to procrastination. Conversely, a goal such as “go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday right after work, and spend at least 30 minutes on the treadmill, running at high speed” is concrete, and is therefore much more likely to lead you to take actions. Lack of clear definition is the problem behind Procrastination.

Must Have Clear Vision  Of Our Goals

People sometimes procrastinate because they view their future self as being disconnected from their present-self we can take example of our deit only if we have proper diet schedule we will be having proper health so there will be no problem in future but we don't do that . And also we don't start the work when it's comes to our mind we postpone it fore future time so this leads to Procrastination . Also when we start any work we just think about the negative aspects of it this demotivates our moral.

Reasons for procrastination

We must not demotivate ourselves everyday every time we need to motivate ourselves .2. We must not delay our works we need to complete them before hand .3. We must have vision for our future plans.4. We must have clear goals.5.In some cases, we might also be driven to procrastination by other factors, such as self-sabotage, sensation-seeking, or rebelliousness. We must overcome this .Understanding why people procrastinate is beneficial, since it can help you figure out why you yourself procrastinate, which in turn can help you figure out how to solve your procrastination problem.

Summary and main takeaways 

Why People Procrastinate: The  Causes of Procrastination. How to overcome these ?

Procrastination can damage your potential, your career, and your mood. Use these strategies to overcome it and take back control of your day!

timemanagement

Time Management

How Can I Stop Procrastinating?: Overcoming the Habit of Delaying Important Tasks

Feeling overwhelmed at work or at any point in your busy life is not something to be ashamed of. Not having enough time to get things done is a common complaint that many people can relate to. In this article, I’ll provide a few coping mechanisms to deal with the stress that lacking time inflicts upon us all.Time traps, time famine, and time confetti are each phenomena that we have to deal with every so often but we hardly have the time to think, let alone give a name to them. Today, society throws at us countless distractions

Time Traps, Time Famine, Time Confetti, and 5 Ways to Cope

As briefly described in the previous paragraph, time traps may be subtle but are dangerous and detrimental to your well-being. While the connotation for the term time trap sounds negative, Persico adds that “many of us like to find some type of activity to spend our time on and for us, it is not a time trap… One person’s trap is another person’s passion.”Some obvious examples of time traps include mindlessly scrolling on social media sites, obsessively checking and refreshing your email inbox, and hopping from one video to another while on YouTube.

What are Time Traps?

Bryan Robinson, Ph.D., seems to be the online expert on the phenomenon of time famine, or what he describes as “starving for more time to do everything we need to do.” I’ve been poring over some online references for time famine, but it didn’t take me too long to come across two distinct, magnificently written articles on the subject by Dr. Robinson.The way he describes time famine is more like describing today’s individual as someone driven to eat time up as if he were in an all-you-can-eat buffet when the option to be a connoisseur has always been available.

What is Time Famine?

The term time confetti was coined by Brigid Schulte, but Ashley Whillans describes it as “little bits of seconds and minutes lost to unproductive multitasking.”Every few seconds or minutes don’t seem too bad, but collectively, that confetti adds up to something more pernicious than you might expect. A straightforward example is the whole duration of a work break, which, these days aren’t very wisely utilized by people. Someone who doesn’t fall into the trap of turning that 1-hour time off into time confetti would wisely remove himself from his workspace and get a breather fresh air.

What is Time Confetti?

Whenever you feel overwhelmed due to lack of time, remember this – each person has 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. Appreciate every second, minute, and hour. Productivity is great, and it might help you advance your career but it can also come at the expense of living a good life or failing to appreciate the mundane things that you pass by along the way.

1. Stop worrying too much about productivity.

Software engineers turn to playing music, mathematicians to stand-up-comedy, doctors to painting. When you remove yourself from what you do for a living (even if you enjoy it a lot, or even if you do it very well), you should do so while turning towards something almost completely unrelated to it. The effect becomes all too refreshing, and at the same time you are also taken from the environment that caused you to overload your schedule.

2. Adopt a hobby that is almost the exact opposite of what you spend the most time on.

Usually, the most difficult things to learn take a lot of patience. Take for example the sport tennis. Learning how to serve, do a forehand stroke, a backhand, footwork, learning how to toss the ball – each of these individual tennis skills takes a lot of practice for you to even be considered a beginner in the sport and start playing with others.The goal is not to become very good at the skill – instead, it is going through the process of learning the skill that’s valuable here. When you learn to be patient about acquiring each of the individual skills that make. up the general skill

3. Try learning a very challenging skill.

When you surround yourself with people who are obsessed about moving up in life or doing so much in their free time that doesn’t constitute leisure, you can’t avoid looking yourself in the mirror and asking, “What should I be doing? Shouldn’t I be doing more with all the free time I have?” This mentality will put you in a cyclic trap, always looking at social media posts to see what your friends have been up to and you either feel anxious or deal with the anxiety by keeping busy.The solution? Simple. Find friends who don’t put that kind of pressure on themselves.

4. Find friends who take it easy and who are not obsessed about ‘making it.’

This is said too much, too often in every time management course, book, article, and whatnot. But as you progress in whatever pursuit, you’ll eventually appreciate the power of ‘saying no’ And it’s just not saying no to others when they coerce or trick you into a commitment – you have to learn to say no to your own wants or wishes that seem too impractical.Learning how to prioritize is the most basic skill when it comes to managing time and overcoming time traps, time famine, and time confetti. Prioritizing includes giving up on things that matter less than the things that are important.

5. Appreciate the power of saying no.

Each of us only has 24 hours in a day. Distractions are here to stay, but these can be managed. Being overly obsessed with productivity will easily lead to anxiety, disappointment, and emptiness. Therefore, if you were to take something out of this article, let it be this – learn how to take care of your mental health.

⌛  each of us only has 24 hours in a day. Distractions are here to stay, but these can be managed. Being overly obsessed about productivity will easily lead to anxiety, disappointment, and emptiness. It's a reality where you control your time, and not letting it control you.

health

Health

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Thinking About Time

Every book should be read no more slowly than it deserves, and no more quickly than you can read it with satisfaction and comprehension.

There are two types of inspectional reading: systematic skimming, also known as pre-reading or intelligent skimming, and superficial reading. 
The first type of inspectional reading is systematic skimming, which you can easily put into practice today.

Inspectional Reading

<ul>
<li>Read the cover and preface. </li>
<li>Read the table of contents, which will give you a feel for the map of the book.</li>
<li>Understand the language of the book. This means skimming the index. Not only will this give you an idea of the range of topics covered but it will also tell you the other people the book connects to and the jargon used in the book.</li>
<li>Identify the pivotal points. </li>
<li>Read the end. Authors generally do a good job summarizing their work in the last few pages. This is where they sum up what they think is most important about their work.</li>
<li>Listen to an interview or podcast of the author.</li>
</ul>

How To Systematically Skim A Book

﻿Skimming helps you reach a decision point: Does this book deserve more of my time and attention? Why?Unless you’re reading for entertainment, if you can’t answer that question, you can toss the book.Mastering intelligent skimming will:<ul><li>save you a lot of time because most books are not worth reading</li><li>offer knowledge of the book’s blueprint and contents so you know where to find stuff if you need it in the future</li><li>and improve retention, if you decide to read the book in its entirety because you’ve primed your brain with the contents.</li></ul>

Deciding To Read The Entire Book

This is used when you’re taking a book that’s notably above your level.
A superficial reading means that you quickly read from start to finish without stopping to ponder the things you don’t understand. The reason this works is that by reading the book from start to finish, you’ll have a great overview of what’s going on. You might only understand 25% of what’s going on but that’s better than nothing. Should you decide to go back and re-read the book, a lot of the things that gave you pause the first time would have been resolved.

Superficial Reading

Superficial reading is the first step towards analytical reading – that is, understanding and interpreting a book’s contents. If you stop and go over everything you don’t understand on your first reading, you get lost. Sure you finish the book but you’ve lost sight of where you’ve been and where you’ve come.
Inspectional reading should be able to answer the questions, what kind of book is it? what is it about? and what is the structure, or blueprint, of the book “whereby the author develops his conception or understanding of that general subject matter?”

Just Read It

Goals of reading. Understanding inspectional, analytical and syntopical reading.

communication

Communication

How to properly read a book

There are millions of books out there. Most of them aren't worth your time. This article shows two powerful ways to get the gist of any book in under 60 minutes.

writing

Reading & Writing

Interruptions are a fact of life — but do they have to be unpleasant? A recent study found that 31% of workplace interruptions are actually experienced positively, and offers six strategies to help anyone become a better (that is, less annoying) interrupter: Assess how critical the task is, don’t pile on, identify the best person to interrupt, pay attention to busyness cues, decrease the time burden on the person, and if possible, give advance warning.

Key Takeaways

Especially as many organizations shift to long-term hybrid models, it’s more important than ever to think proactively about how we communicate with one another at work. In this complex new landscape, it’s up to all of us to pay close attention to evolving norms about what it means to be a “good” interrupter.

The Ideal Interrupter

How we experience an interruption can vary substantially depending on how it affects our work. While switching gears and shuffling our schedules around to accommodate an unexpected task can be frustrating, interruptions can feel positive if they seem like a good use of our time. Here are several specific strategies that can help you increase the chances that your interruption will be received positively.

The Science Of Interruptions

People are more likely to see an interruption as worth their time if the task they’re being asked to do seems important — especially if it seems more important than whatever they were working on previously. So, before interrupting someone, consider whether what you want them to do is likely to be a priority for them.

Assess How Critical The Task Is

People tend to react negatively to an interruption if it pops up at a time when they were already feeling overloaded. To avoid piling on, ask yourself what you know about the person’s current workload. If you know they are slammed, consider interrupting someone else instead (if the task is urgent) or waiting until the person has less on their plate (if the task can wait).

 Don’t Pile On

It’s always annoying when you’re interrupted by someone, only to discover that you’re not even the right person for the job. So before you knock on someone’s door, ask yourself: Is this the right person to take on this new task? Whose role makes them the best fit for the task you need help with? Whose responsibilities typically include similar tasks? Your interruption is much more likely to be well-received if you put in the work upfront to determine the best person to ask.

Interrupt The Right Person

Interruptions are experienced more positively if they occur at what feels like the “right” time. That typically means waiting for a moment when the person you want to interrupt isn’t deeply engrossed in another task, or when they need a break from their regular work anyway. To determine whether it’s a good time to interrupt, pay attention to the signals the person is sending: Are they working with their door closed or open? Are they listed as “away” or “available” online?   These cues can clue you into how an interruption is likely to be experienced.

Those DND Indicators

People’s perceptions about how long an interruption seemed to last influenced how they felt about it. When interruptions seemed to drag on or take longer than they “should have,” they were more likely to cause negative feelings. To address this, think creatively about how you can lighten the load and use the person’s time most efficiently.It’s all about how you’re perceived — even if these details don’t feel like a big deal to you, presenting the interruption in a manner that highlights your respect for the other person’s time can have a major impact on how they react.

Decrease The Time Burden

Interruptions, by definition, will always be somewhat unexpected. But they don’t have to come entirely out of the blue — in some cases, you can let someone know that you expect to have to interrupt them in the near future. For instance, if you plan to ask a coworker for feedback on a website design once you finish it, you can let them know that you’ll be in touch within the next week. This helps your colleague mentally plan for the interruption and make time for the task, even if the exact timing is still unknown.

Give Advance Warning

career

Career

teamwork

Teamwork

How to Interrupt Someone’s Workday — Without Annoying Them

The very first email was sent 50 years ago, in the spring of 1971.The incredible spread of email since then unleashed an unimaginable torrent of information into our everyday lives.As knowledge workers, we continue to struggle to process our inboxes, not to mention use that flood of information to move our projects and goals forward.Many have tried to lead us on a path out of information overload, and each “wave” of productivity tactics and apps valiantly attempts to solve the problems the previous one created.

The Humble Email

A simple medium that was originally meant for sending messages – email – has expanded to become a notification system, a to-do list, a notetaking tool, a contact database, and an archival system for our digital lives.All great technologies begin as blessings… but end up expanding so wildly that they become a curse.

Email Is Used For Everything

You’re probably using email for multiple purposes far beyond what it was designed for:<ul><li>You use email to send messages</li><li>You use email as a to-do list</li><li>You use email to keep track of notes and ideas</li><li>You use email to manage complex projects and areas of your life</li></ul>These are extremely different use cases, and using one platform for all of them ensures it fails at all of them. To perform each of them effectively, you have to break apart each of the four essential activities of modern work – Email, Task Management, Notetaking, and Project Management – and use the right tool for each of those jobs.

The Productivity Stack

All the subsequent waves of productivity software that we’re going to look at arose in reaction to the Email Big Bang, like gravitational waves echoing across the universe for eons. Each of them is an attempt to solve the problem of information overload that was unleashed upon humanity half a century ago.Example: Automobiles seemed miraculous until they started crowding the highways and blackening the skies (this is called a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_trap">Progress Trap</a>).

Email as a Task Manager and Everything Inbox: The Progress Trap

Email created thousands of “open loops” – unfinished or incomplete mental tasks – in our lives. And as GTD sought to create a system for taking in, prioritizing, and closing those loops in a systematic way, digital to-do list apps  gained widespread adoption as people realized just how much easier it was to maintain a to-do list using them.

Task Managers: How to Get Your To-Dos Off Your Mind

Task overwhelm occurs when the actionable items in your list are crowded out by the non-urgent ones: when your ideas, list of someday-maybes, inspirations, and random learnings make it difficult to find the singular, next important action.

Task Overwhelm

Coinciding roughly with the rise of the iPhone in the late 2000s, digital notetaking apps like <a href="https://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>, <a href="https://bear.app/">Bear</a>, and <a href="https://simplenote.com/">Simplenote</a> rose to meet the demand for easily capturing notes from anywhere (and having them available everywhere).Each new generation of tools takes over certain jobs but not others, and notetaking apps unlocked a new form of digital creativity well-matched with our fluid, mobile, always-on, everyday lives.

Notetaking Apps: Your Own, Personally Curated Solution to Information Overwhelm

Notetaking overwhelm happens when you’re collecting everything, processing your notes, and growing a knowledge system – but somehow, you never revisit the notes you’ve captured, and don’t seem to be able to achieve the day-to-day usefulness from your notes you’ve already collected.

Notetaking Overwhelm

Personal Dashboards push mere notetaking to the next level: they provide the big picture, using your curated knowledge and data to guide action and help you make better decisions.Your dashboards proactively inform the actions you take every day. To do that, they have to be dynamic and responsive to your changing needs. They have to change in response to how you want information presented at the moment, which facets you want to explore or understand, or based on changes in your digital environment.

Personal Dashboards: a Just-in-Time Springboard to Knowledgeable Action 

The main purpose of a dashboard – think of the dashboard in your car, or the cockpit of an aeroplane – is to facilitate fast, informed decisions. This new kind of document is perfect for modern knowledge workers – more interactive than simply editing text, more intelligent than a static document, more dynamic than a bullet point list, and more collaborative than a Google Doc. And they address notetaking overwhelm by structuring, organizing, and reframing your existing notes on a just-in-time basis.

Dashboards: A Better Solution

The power of dashboards has now trickled down to everyone, as part of the “no-code” movement: apps that allow for extensive customization, without requiring technical coding skills, such as Webflow (for web design), Zapier (for automation), Airtable (for databases), and Notion, Coda, and Microsoft Loop (for dashboards and collaborative pages).

From Email To Notion

It takes far more time and energy to create a Personal Dashboard in Notion, for example, versus a note in Evernote. A personal dashboard has to be architected – designed, built, iterated on, and maintained over time. Start building with the end in mind. Here are some good questions to ask yourself:<ul><li>What problems do I want to solve – the big questions I’m trying to answer?</li><li>What is the ideal future state for a challenge I’m facing?</li><li>What personal dreams or goals do I have that I might not have shared with anyone else?</li></ul>

Build, Don't Migrate

We all have a holistic productivity stack, which changes slowly. We can call it a “Second Brain,” because it allows you to offload and utilize all the complex information swirling through your mind.Each new generation of productivity software adds a new layer on top, instead of completely displacing the ones that came before. Not only is it unnecessary to immediately ascend to the highest layer, but it’s also probably wise to wait until the dust has settled and it’s clear what the new layer is and what it’s for. We need to have patience.

How to Craft Your Personal Productivity Stack

From the dawn of email to the rise of personal dashboards: Introducing the 4 functions of your productivity stack & how you can use each piece of it better.

How to Build Your Personal Productivity Stack

Even the notoriously uninhibited creatives can benefit from time tracking – be it for billing their clients or for improving their time management skills. But they have to be careful not to mix up time and results.You can’t force creativity – and there is nothing worse for the artist than a clock mercilessly ticking away. Chances are you’ve visited these circles of creativity hell. Here’s how to dodge the fall (and how to take it like a champ if you do trip).

The Time Crusade Of Creative Professionals

This phase is characterised by excitement over the perceivably positive activity of time tracking, as well as overenthusiastic appreciation of any aesthetic solutions offered by the application. However, it is critical in this phase not to idolise the ticking timer – no matter how neat it looks. Let it do its job, while you do yours.The lesson: Start the timer, then LOOK AWAY.

Creative Hell: Initial (Over)Excitement About Being Productive

For people with a wandering mind, the ticking timer seems to carry authority disproportional to its role. Getting stuck staring at the timer might force a false perspective that measuring time is more important than measuring results. It is not. Do your work first, check your stats later.The lesson: Track time, but measure work.

Creative Hell: Continued Fixation on Process Over Substance

Nothing brings the hammer down like a ticking timer on top of a blank page. While having sat for ages without doing anything might seem depressing, you can turn this around by acknowledging that sometimes you just need to drop what you’re doing and move on.The lesson: when the timer hits 20 minutes and you’re doing nothing, change tasks.

Creative Hell: Acute Awareness of Time As An Unstoppable And Unforgiving Force

If you fail to heed the warnings and push past the 20-minute mark, you’ll soon enter productivity twilight zone. Also known as the “what am I doing with my life” phase, it acts much like a black hole by crushing everything you enjoy about your work into a very unremarkable-looking speck. This phase can last for hours (and it will feel like days).The lesson: if you’ll be doing nothing, make sure that nothing is something that makes you happy.Just remember that most things in life can ultimately be fixed with Netflix and ice cream.

Creative Hell: The Shutdown

Chances are you’ve visited these circles of creativity hell. Here’s how to dodge the fall (and how to take it like a champ if you do trip).

creativity

Creativity

The Four Circles of Creative Hell

Consuming as many books as possible has become a competitive sport for knowledge workers who want to show off their intellectual curiosity. To do so, they race through books like they’re collecting mushrooms in Super Mario Kart. 
This modern reading habit stems from deep-rooted cultural insecurity.
But consuming more information does not necessarily make you more competent. 
Many of the most successful people have found their edge by putting their faith in one big idea. They’ve committed to it, and studied it so much that its implications have become second nature.

The Age of Performative Reading

Take a simple idea and take it seriously

We should look for a panoramic framework to interpret the world through

David shares why highly successful people put their faith in one big idea. Read here.

One Big Idea

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