<ol><li> The Psychology of Achievement: Skill requires talent and effort, and Achievement requires skill and effort.</li><li>Grit and Goal Structures: Have a top-level goal (or “ultimate concern”).</li><li>The Power of Passion and Practice: Embrace long-term deliberate practice, and Work on weaknesses</li><li>The Guiding Light of Purpose and Hope: Be an optimistic self-improver.</li><li> Creating Grit from the Outside In: Grit can be cultivated in our external environment, via parents and role models, extra-curricular activities, and teams and cultures.</li></ol>

Short Summary:

<ul><li> Grit is the combination of passion (a deep, enduring knowledge of what you want) and perseverance (hard work and resilience).</li><li> It’s about moving in a direction with consistency and endurance, like having a clear inner compass that guides all your decisions and actions.</li><li>Grit = Passion + Perseverance</li></ul>

What Is Grit?

<ul><li>Effort (which is sustained by grit) is doubly important. </li><li> You must put in effort to hone your natural talents into tangible skills through practice and improvement.</li><li> You must also put in effort to apply those skills to solve real-world problems to attain achievement.</li><li>Talent x Effort = Skill</li><li>Skill x Effort = Achievement</li></ul>

Why Grit Is Important?

<ul><li>INTEREST: Loving what you do.</li><li>PRACTICE: Focusing on improvement no matter what.</li><li>PURPOSE: Believing strongly that your work matters to yourself and to others.</li><li>HOPE: Works hand-in-hand with all 3 components above to determine how you respond to failures—if you get up and keep going, or stay down and be defeated.</li></ul>

Developing Grit:

• Our interests, passions and calling are not inborn; they’re cultivated over time.• Grit paragons don’t suddenly discover their passion in a magical, fireworks-filled moment. Instead, they spend years exploring different interests before focusing on one area.• As they practice and hone their skills, they also develop a deeper understanding and appreciation of their craft until it becomes a burning passion.

DEVELOPING GRIT FROM INSIDE-OUT:

• Spend time to explore and discover your interest.• Deep interest emerges with time, and comes from a blend of age, real-life triggers, a period of interest development and support from others.

Discovering your Interests:

<ol><li>Break down the steps/components of deliberate practice.</li><li>Examine the difference/relationship between deliberate practice and flow (a high-performance state coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)</li><li>Explain how you can increase your rate of learning significantly.</li></ol>

Deepening Through Practice:

<ul><li>Purpose is “the intention to contribute to the well-being of others”.</li><li> Both gritty and non-gritty people seek short-term pleasures, but gritty people are drastically more likely to also seek to contribute to others. </li><li>They usually spend years developing their skills and interest, before they discover their purpose later in life. </li></ul>

Developing a Sense of Purpose:

Hope is “the expectation that our own efforts can improve our future”. It helps us to persevere; it gives us the strength to get up each time we fall and to keep going.

Nurturing Hope:

"In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people--both seasoned and new--that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit." Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments. Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not "genius" but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own "character lab" and set out to test her theory. Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers--from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that--not talent or luck--makes all the difference"--

productivity

Productivity

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

mindfulness

Mindfulness

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

books

Books

In this instant New York Times bestseller, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed—be it parents, students, educators, athletes, or business people—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Duckworth, now a celebrated researcher and professor, describes her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not “genius” but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. In Grit, she takes readers into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. Among Grit’s most valuable insights: *Why any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal *How grit can be learned, regardless of I.Q. or circumstances *How lifelong interest is triggered *How much of optimal practice is suffering and how much ecstasy *Which is better for your child—a warm embrace or high standards *The magic of the Hard Thing Rule Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.

Angela Duckworth is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Angela Duckworth 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. Angela Duckworth's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Angela Duckworth

Grit

We all have the same hours in the day, yet how we prioritize our time and energy will dictate our ability to execute tasks efficiently.
Working smarter is the ability to be productive and efficient when working toward your goals, rather than looking and feeling busy and out of time.
Use your headspace to work smarter, and not harder, using the following perspectives:

Prioritize Your Time

The Pareto Principle states that 80% of your results will be generated from 20% of your focused efforts. This was discovered when economist Vilfredo Pareto noticed that 20% of his garden peapods produced 80% of his peas. Translated into your own life, you could benefit from spending more time<a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/5-tactics-to-improve-focus-during-a-long-work-week/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=FastCo"> focusing on tasks that yield greater results </a>, and less time on the things that don’t. Next time you find yourself working late, ask yourself, “<a href="https://thisiscrowd.com/news/pareto-principle-working-smart/">Which 20% of my actions can contribute toward 80% of the end goal? </a>“

The Pareto Principle

Working when you’re <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/beat-anxiety-and-stress-in-the-workplace/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=FastCo">overly stressed and tired</a> does not make you more productive, nor should it be a badge of honor.
Try and establish a sleep routine by going to bed and waking up every day at the same time. If you can give yourself enough time between working and sleeping, you’ll have an easier time turning your brain off and relaxing without any screens.
Give yourself time to go on a walk, practice some deep breathing, and meditate.

Rest and Recharge

Remember that what might take you five hours could take someone else eight. This does not mean you’re doing anything wrong, working less hard, or being lazy! Working longer hours does not ensure higher productivity.
Give yourself the time you need to set and achieve your own goals.
Have the confidence to know that you’re doing exactly what needs to get done.

Focus On Your Own Journey

Read about the most popular productivity systems and choose the one that fits you best

problemsolving

Problem Solving

communication

Communication

Productivity Systems

Be confident to work at your own pace, and not be fazed by others.

timemanagement

Time Management

How to increase productivity without giving up your free time

Casual observation tells us that most people don’t use math beyond simple arithmetic in everyday life. Few people make use of fractions, trigonometry, or multi-digit division algorithms they use in school. More advanced tools like algebra or calculus are even less likely to be brought out to solve everyday problems.

Failure to Use Math In Everyday Life

<ul>
<li>Below Basic – Add up two numbers to complete an ATM deposit.</li>
<li>Basic – Calculate the cost of a sandwich and salad using prices from a menu.</li>
<li>Intermediate – Calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies using a page from an office supplies catalogue and an order form.</li>
<li>Proficient – Calculate an employee’s share of health insurance costs for a year using a table that shows how the employee’s monthly cost varies with income and family size.</li>
</ul>

The Scale Of Quantitive Abilities

The first argument would allege a failure of education. People don’t use math because they were never taught it thoroughly enough to use it properly.A lack of automaticity may explain the difficulty people had with the quantitative questions in the survey. Their math wasn’t easily accessible, which led them to make mistakes in the reasoning tasks.

Why Do People Fail to Use Math: Most People Don’t Learn Math Well Enough to Use It

The second argument is a little different. It argues that people may develop competence in math classes, but they struggle to translate real-life problems into a format where they can use their mathematics knowledge.What people struggle with is not doing math, but recognizing where and how to apply math to real problems.

Inability to Translate Real-Life Situations into Math Problems

A third explanation is that math is overrated as a solution strategy for problems outside of exacting, quantitative disciplines. The person measuring cottage cheese managed to get the correct answer without multiplying fractions.Everyone values knowledge they have mastered and tends to dismiss knowledge they haven’t as irrelevant. There’s probably bias on both sides.

Math Isn’t That Useful for Everyday Problems

More drill and practice with math. More time spent drilling and practicing math makes it more available for effortless calculations. More practice with interpreting problem situations. Many students are only taught math as symbol manipulation. Less instruction is focused on identifying situations where it might be useful. Give real-life challenges that require math. Ultimately, skills and knowledge are sustained by usage. If you don’t have any genuine problems that require skill, you begin to forget them.

Making Math More Useful

Why do we fail to use so many of the subjects we learn in school? Are they useless, or do we simply fail to learn them well enough?

education

Learning & Education

Why Don't We Use the Math We Learn in School? - Scott H Young

When you spend hours at your desk every day, even the smallest features of your workspace – such as the position of your monitor or the height of your chair– can greatly affect your productivity and even your health.
With a few adjustments you can improve your working environment and keep your desk from killing you.

Your workspace matters

<ul>
<li>The best kind of light you can have in your office is natural light. It helps our bodies maintain our internal "clocks" or circadian rhythms which affects our sleep and energy. </li>
<li>Poor lighting, whether it's dim lighting or harsh lighting from overhead fluorescent lights, can cause eye strain, stress, and fatigue.</li>
<li>Don't sit with your back to a window unless you can shade it.</li>
<li>Don't sit facing a window because that will make reading a monitor difficult. </li>
<li>If you use a task lamp at your desk, position it so the bottom of the lampshade is at about the height of your chin when it's on.</li>
</ul>

Optimal Workspace Lighting

<ul>
<li>Indoor plants prevent fatigue during attention-demanding work. </li>
<li>Even just having a window view of live greenery can be restorative and keep us focused.</li>
<li>A peace lily plant requires little sunlight to survive and you only have to water it when the soil is dried out and is also great for cleaning the air.</li>
<li>Cacti and aloe plants are other low-maintenance plants to consider.</li>
</ul>

Office Plants

Cornell University researchers found that by increasing office temperature from 68 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (20° to 25° Celsius), workers' typing errors fell by 44 percent, and they were able to type 150 percent more.
If you can't control the temperature in your office, there's always the "wear a sweater" option or getting a small fan if your workspace is too warm.

Workspace Temperature

It's hard to drown all that out when you're trying to work. 
A good pair of noise-canceling headphones could help. Pair it with soothing background music from Jazz and Rain, your favorite video game soundtrack playlist on YouTube, or coffeehouse-like background music. The latter taps into research that suggests ambient noise can increase creativity.

Office Sound

<ul>
<li>Red is energizing and warming, stimulates our pulses, and can be perceived as aggressive</li>
<li>Blue can stimulate thought and aid in concentration and communication, but some might see it as cold and unemotional</li>
<li>Yellow is stimulating and lifts spirits, but the wrong tone of it can make you feel anxious</li>
<li>Green is a reassuring, balancing color, but, depending on how it's used, can be perceived as bland</li>
<li>Violet encourages contemplation, but too much of it could bring about too much introspection</li>
</ul>

Workspace Colors

<ul>
<li>Orange is stimulating and fun, but too much of it can be overwhelming</li>
<li>Pink is soothing but too much can be draining</li>
<li>Gray is neutral, psychologically, and can be depressing unless the right tone is used</li>
<li>Black is serious and sophisticated, but can be heavy</li>
<li>White gives a heightened perception of space but can be a strain to look at</li>
<li>Brown is a serious color, but warmer than black and is solid and supportive</li>
</ul>

Your desk should ideally let you type on a keyboard with your arms and hands roughly parallel to the floor, your feet flat on the floor, and your legs fitting comfortably under the desk when sitting (you should be able to comfortably cross your legs under the surface).

The Ideal Desk Height

Here's what to look for in an ergonomic office chair:<ul><li>Lumbar support: The curve in the back of the chair should support your lower spine, following the natural curve of your lower back.</li><li>Seat depth: Chairs that fit your body will allow you to sit comfortably with your lower back against the lumbar support while also leaving an inch or two between the back of your knees and the seat.</li><li>Chair height: You should be able to adjust the height of the chair so your feet are flat on the floor or on a footrest.</li><li>Armrests: Armrests should be at the proper height so your shoulders aren't hunched and you can keep your arms parallel to the floor.</li><li>Recline-ability: Reclining in your chair, at about 135 degrees, may be better for your spine than sitting straight up at a 90 degree angle.</li></ul>

Ergonomic Chairs

<ul><li>Keep your monitor or laptop screen between 20 and 40 inches in front of you. You do not you want to be forced to lean forward.</li><li>Make sure the top line of the screen is at or below your eye level. </li><li>Don't tilt the monitor more than 10 to 20 degrees. More than that and objects on the screen might be difficult to read.</li><li>Place the monitor perpendicular to windows. This will help avoid eye-straining glare.</li></ul>

Proper Monitor Placement

Remember to take breaks for your eyes.
<ul>
<li>Look at something 20 feet away</li>
<li>for 20 seconds</li>
<li>every 20 minutes to protect your eyes.</li>
</ul>

The 20-20-20 rule

The keyboard should:<ul><li>be close enough to your body so you can hold your elbows comfortably by your sides.</li><li>be low enough that your arms are roughly parallel to the floor and your wrists are flat or angled downwards.</li></ul>Make sure the mouse is a comfortable size for your hands. If it's too big or too small, you might end up bending your wrist in awkward positions.

Keyboard and Mouse

<ul>
<li>Keep only the things you use daily within reach. </li>
<li>Store everything else off of your desk. </li>
<li>Try limiting personal decorations to just 3 items or less.</li>
<li>Hide supplies and tools strategically behind your monitor or under your desk. </li>
<li>Clear cable clutter with ties and other tools.</li>
</ul>

Organize Your Desk

Leave work feeling satisfied with what you’ve accomplished, with help of a few “productivity hacks”.

health

Health

Productivity Hacks

When you spend hours at your desk every day, even the smallest features of your workspace-such as the position of your monitor or the height of your chair-can greatly affect your productivity and even your health. Here's what science says about the best way to set up...

remotework

Remote Work

Productivity and Ergonomics: The Best Way to Organize Your Desk

We all are surrounded by monkeys bossing us around with their monkey chatter, going about their monkey business at the expense of our toils, but there is an age-old trick to master this miserable monkey-human relationship.

Give the monkey what it wants!

The monkey is anyone who holds authority, power and designation. This monkey is someone you need approval from, someone who is giving you a hard time. It could be your interviewer, asking you questions that pinch (e.g. that time gap on your résumé) or your examiner, who is asking you the questions no one studies, or worse your manager, poised like a snake, waiting for you to commit a mistake so that they get a legit reason to bite.Remember, any monkey that you meet and want to get by, has few attributes. To simplify, these monkeys that we encounter will usually be self-centred beings.

Who is the monkey?

The monkey has a fixed mindset, they like to have things done their way. Monkey See, Monkey Do. They learn to do things by mimicry and often do not know the reason and logic behind the act so, what if you start mimicking the monkey’s style and flair?The monkey may or may not possess any theoretical prowess but being so long out into the field, the monkey does have practical wisdom. This wisdom gained over the years is difficult to beat in a one-on-one confrontation and gives birth to certain biases and stereotypes inside the monkey’s head.

What does the monkey think?

Simple question, even simpler answer, say it with me- the monkey wants the BANANA. So, what is this BANANA?The Banana in this article is not the fruit, although it would be nice if we could get solutions to our life problems at 0.80C$/lb. The Banana is the key to getting past the monkey, you give the monkey what it wants and go on with your life without the monkey bothering you.

What does the monkey want?

In reality, every monkey you encounter is different, hence the same is true for the banana. The banana in every scenario changes according to the needs of the monkey. To identify the perfect banana you need to understand the trifactorial of the monkey i.e. NEEDS, WANTS AND DEMANDS.For example, for the interviewer, a need is a candidate, a want is a candidate with desired credentials and demand is to have all above with 5+ years of experience for an entry-level job. But for the examiner, a need is an answer, a want is a correct answer of desired length and demand is to get all with examples.

What is the BANANA?

Firstly, understand the business at hand. Why do you want to use the banana and what is the outcome you want. Once that is established, make your move. Remember, Agreement yields better results than arguments. Play the monkey by using the monkey’s preset notions, bias, like and dislike to tilt the arguments in your favour. Once the level field is uneven the monkey feels inclined to fall for the banana and leaves you alone, e.g., the banana for the interviewer could be some excellent references on top of the required credentials. The banana for the examiner could be an outstanding answer.

How to give the banana?

Lastly, remember monkeys are monkeys, no matter how evolved they are, they always fall for bananas. The only key is to identify the best banana for the situation at hand and make the most of the moment you overcome a boisterous and raucous monkey. Godspeed!!

Summary:

We all are surrounded by monkeys bossing us around with their monkey chatter, going about their monkey business at the expense of our toils, but there is an age-old trick to master this miserable monkey-human relationship.

We all are surrounded by monkeys bossing us around with their monkey chatter, going about their monkey business at the expense of our toils, but there is an age-old trick to master this miserable…

teamwork

Teamwork

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

First and foremost, kill the biggest culprit. Social Media Apps. Only use social media in the browser or on a computer only.Everybody knows these apps are designed to keep you glued to your screen. On an app, rewards are high and friction is low. However, using a mobile/computer browser offer considerable friction, and thus you can resist temptations more easily.Delete the Instagram app and then use Instagram in a mobile browser. See the difference.Maybe when you are going to be away from your PC for more than a day, it is okay to reinstall them.

1. Delete Social Media Apps

This goes without saying. Phones are not made for video games, at least not for three consecutive hours of PUBG.Not only does it waste your time plus a smaller screen as compared to that of computer, puts extra strain on your eyes.If you really want to get some fun out of your smartphone install games like puzzles, chess, or similar brain games.

Delete Games

Just like a cluttered desk, a cluttered home screen can distract in many ways. You decide a write an email, but instead of clicking on the Gmail icon you see the beautiful icon of Twitter and you click it just to get some highlights. An hour later, your email is still waiting for you while you have posted three tweets and reacted to seven tweets.Delete all icons and shortcuts from your home screen so it goes completely blank. It should only display your beautiful wallpaper. In this way, you are less likely to be tempted to click an app icon.

3. Clean Your Home Screen

This piece of advice is thrown out a lot these days. And I agree with this. Using your smartphone before going to sleep feels really great. However, this 15 minutes of quick check can easily turn into two hours of social media, news, and video games.If you really need to use them at night, keep a chair in your bedroom and use them sitting on the chair rather than in bed.Remove all electronic devices to transform your bedroom into a true sanctuary for sleep. No TVs, no iPads. No Kindles with backlights — Make Time

4. No Screen in Bed

Set computer and mobile time limits. Install apps that track the amount of time you spend on your devices.At the end of the day look at your total time. See where you could cut back and fill in with some non-screen activities.Find alternatives to your mobile. Start taking notes in your notebook instead of a note-taking app. Instead of using a to-do app, make the to-do list on a piece of paper.

5. Set Screentime Limits and Find Alternatives

Smartphone addiction is common. Among young and old alike. Maybe a little more in youngs. But not a thing to be cherished. Smartphones are a necessity in this day and age. However, overuse of these devices could easily turn all the benefits into harm.Follow these five steps to stop becoming a zombie

Smartphone addiction is common. Among young and old alike. Maybe a little more in youngs. But not a thing to be cherished. Smartphones are a necessity in this day and age. However, overuse of these…

Do These Things to Overcome Smartphone Addiction

Meetings are - more often than not - unproductive, owing to poorly organized (or absent) agendas, wayward oversight, and directionless conversation. Even thinking about a meeting sends some into a tailspin.

Meetings Are A Pain And A Drain

First of all, treat your meeting like a presentation. The first part should be the delivery of the message and the second should include a quick, time-limited Q-and-A and the definition of action items.Then, as speaker coach Diane DiResta recommends, you have to follow a handful of simple rules to keep your composure and ensure a powerful, positive effect to every meeting presentation.She calls these rules the “GLAD Rule”.

How To Fix Meetings: The “GLAD” Rule

[G]ive them what they need to know, not everything you know. We’re often tempted to demonstrate our knowledge or expertise by heaping on a wealth of information. But that just dilutes the main argument. Instead, start by asking: What does my audience need/want to know? Stick to that.

The GLAD Rule - G

[L]ead with “you.” Believe it or not, your presentation is not about you - it’s about your captive audience. So give them what they want. Talk about their needs and pain points. Be clear about solutions that affect them. And use “you” language to underscore this effort.

The GLAD Rule - L

[A]ct, and push for [A]ction. Be performative - but only as far as it supports your main point. While numbers vary, experts have noted that 60-80% of communication comes from body language, so leverage that with gestures that emphasize your key point. Don't flail, though - that’s merely distracting. Also, be sure you close your presentation with a call to action. What can your audience do now that they have this new information?

The GLAD Rule - A

[D]eliver details in the middle, the thesis at the beginning and end. If you start with the nitty-gritty, you’ll lose your audience. Grab your audience with a hook (like a story or a compelling statistic), then share your main thesis. What is your point and why does it matter? After this, you can add in supporting details. Then, close with a memorable punch - give your audience the thesis one more time, packaged slightly differently so it doesn't sound like your parroting yourself.

The GLAD Rule - D

This approach can be used in general conversation, too - not just in formal presentations.The crux of it is keeping it simple, compelling, and audience-focused. Why would they want to listen? What will they get out of it? If you make the the case clear and provide an attractive benefit to action, you'll got them hooked.

The GLAD Rule Works For Conversation Too

If you're worried about presenting in front of people, DiResta has a few quick pointers that are easy to remember:<ul><li>Instead of looking at a sweeping sea of people, focus your attention on one person in the audience for 10 seconds, then switch to another person. This makes your presentation feel more like a 1:1 conversation.</li><li>Don't let the “um” derail you. Take pauses between points - even between sentences, if you need them. The silence is far less uncomfortable to the audience than it seems to you and gives you a chance to breathe and collect your thoughts for the rest of your presentation.</li></ul>

A Couple Of Tips On Presenting To An Audience

Meetings are done - or should be done - to discuss the problems and the solutions to those problems; not to create more problems.

Remember What Meetings Are For

“You have a meeting to make a decision, not to decide on the question.”

We (should) have meetings to make a decision, not to decide on the question.

Don't shy away from difficult meetings. Earn respect from peers and get the results you want with four simple tips.

How We Can Use the “GLAD” Rule to Overcome the Misery of Meetings

Energy, not time, is the <a href="https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2006/07/14/energy-management/">basis for productivity </a>. Having all the hours in the day won’t help you if you’re exhausted for most of it.Your habits define your energy levels. If you have good habits, you’ll feel energized and be more resilient to burn out, both physically and mentally. If your habits are misaligned, you can get into a cycle where you feel worse and worse, until your it’s a struggle just to keep up.Here are nine habits you can work on this year to increase your energy levels.

Increase Your Energy

Sleep is the foundation of your energy. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll start to underperform.Seven to eight hours are pretty much mandatory if you’re going to stay cognitively sharp in the long-run.An <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVQlcxiQlzI">interesting experiment </a>showed tat sleep deprivation caused continuous declines in mental performance, even though subjects felt like they were holding steady.Try this: Go to bed by 10pm every night, including weekends, for the next thirty days.

Habit #1: Go to Sleep Early

Exercise is a long-term investment in your energy levels. It’s easy to cut in the short-term, but over time you’ll reduce your overall fitness, making it harder to think straight and stay alert throughout the day.Make a habit of doing some pushups or burpees every day throughout the day. These will get your heart pumping and blood moving, and they don’t require setting aside two hours from your already busy schedule.Try this: Do at least 10 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burpee_(exercise)">burpees </a>every day from your home.

Habit #2: Exercise Every Day

Napping may feel lazy, but there’s research showing it has a range of <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/291282.php">cognitive benefits </a>. This is particularly true if you’re doing a lot of learning, since the short burst of sleep can <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_and_memory">help with memory </a>.Even if you work in an office that doesn’t encourage napping, you can use a slice of your lunch break, to quickly rest.The key is to learn how to take short naps. Many people take naps which are too long, pushing them into deeper phases of sleep which cause them to feel even groggier when they wake up.If you start adding more time, a quick nap can become a long sleep.

Habit #3: Twenty-Minute Naps

Aim to get your most important work done in the first four hours of the workday, starting as soon as possible.The benefits to your energy here are mostly psychological. The other reason for this approach is that deep work isn’t always sustainable for the full workday. Better to concentrate it into a specific period than randomly insert it across chunks of time.Try this: Make the first four hours of your morning a quiet, deep work zone.

Habit #4: Do Your Hard Work in the Morning

Energy is often about momentum. Start working hard and you’ll overcome procrastination and keep going throughout the day. Start slow and you may end up struggling against your own impulses, wasting the energy on things that aren’t productive.One way to avoid this is to set a very clear intention of how your day will go, particularly in the beginning, the night before. Visualizing this intention and writing it down into your schedule can make it happen more automatically when you wake up.Try this: Before you go to bed, write down your plan for the next day and visualize it.

Habit #5: Set Your Intention the Day Before

Many people simultaneously hold two contradictory beliefs: that other people (marketers) are really good at persuading them to do all sorts of things they wouldn’t do otherwise, but that they themselves have no ability to change their own motivation to do the things they have to do.The truth is, you need to become the salesperson for your own goals. Not for other people, but for yourself.Try this: Set aside ten minutes every day to think about what today’s actions are helping you build towards.﻿

Habit #6: Sell Yourself on Your Goals

You may not be able to choose your parents, colleagues or your boss. But you do have some control over the friends in your life.You don’t need to exclude friends who are going through temporarily rough times, but you should consider who you spend your time with when there are people who consistently create one-sided emotional exchanges as the basis for your relationships. Try this: Set a time limit on friends who leave you feeling drained.

Habit #7: Get Better Friends

One of the great benefits of reading books isn’t simply to give you ideas and information. Rather it’s to reinforce a mentality that often occurs at a subconcious level. The best books aren’t those that teach you facts, but those that subtly change your entire thinking patterns.Just like a good song can be the background for a particular emotion, a good book can be the background for a particular energy of thinking.Try this: Always have an audio book that motivates you to work on your goals.

Habit #8: Read Better Books

A lot of energy is squandered because the different parts of our lives, both internal and external, are in conflict with each other. Spend some time untangling the different conflicts in your life to see how you could resolve them. Sometimes that can be done in the short-term, by making a change. Sometimes, it requires a long-term plan to escape the toxic environment, social circle or belief system that holds you back.Try this: Sit down for an hour and brainstorm all the things which assist your goals and all the things which hold you back. How could you resolve those tensions?

Habit #9: Align Your Life

Running out of energy too quickly? Try one (or all) of these tricks to boost it back up and get more out of your day.

habits

Habits

The Nine Habits to Increase Your Energy

Everyone writes—in school, at work, or just to jot down good ideas or insights. Yet, we don’t usually stop to think about how we write, express or manage our ideas.
Most books about writing either teach you how to write (e.g. sentence structure, writing style, grammar) or how to overcome psychological barriers to complete your projects on time. In reality, the writing process doesn’t start with a blank document or sheet of paper. It starts from the time you conceive an idea or make notes about it.

How The Writing Process Really Works

A slip-box (or Zettelkasten method) is a technique for thinking, learning and writing. It originated from German sociologist Niklas Luhmann. 
Luhmann was an avid learner and researcher who made notes on small slips of paper, then tagged, organized, and linked them to create his personal knowledge database. Over his lifetime, he accumulated some 90,000 notes, allowing him to publish 70 books and >400 articles.

The Slip-Box Technique

The slip-box can be used to facilitate a writing project, accelerate your learning, and manage/grow your knowledge. Luhmann originally used an analogue pen-and-paper system to make notes and link them (similar to the concept of hyperlinks in the digital world).
Slip-boxes are like a personal web of knowledge or a “second brain” where you can see and sort through existing knowledge, ideas and lines of thought.

Hyperlinked Knowledge

Throughout the day, make fleeting notes as thoughts/ideas pop up. Jot them down on paper, do it digitally, do a voice recording on your phone, etc. 
Review these temporary notes within 1-2 days while the contents are still fresh, then discard them or convert them to permanent notes.

Fleeting Notes

Literature notes are used to help you remember useful content and their bibliographical references. 
Write the ideas succinctly in your own words, and include their source/context. Quotes should be copied selectively, and only after you’ve digested what they mean. Keep these notes along with other permanent notes.

Literature Notes

At the end of each day, process the 2 types of notes (fleeing and literature). Consider how they relate to your work or interests, and how they support/contradict what you already know. Then, create your permanent notes.
These could be a recap of what you’ve learned, questions to be answered, reflections, new ideas or ways to combine existing ideas.

Permanent Notes

Your literature/permanent notes are stored in a specific sequence, with cross-references to other notes. Luhmann used an alphanumeric indexing system.
For example, an existing note may be labelled #10, and a related note will be filed behind it as #10a. The next unrelated idea is labelled #11. By using numbers and alphabets (instead of narrow topics), he could create unlimited branches (e.g. 13/3d8a6 followed by 13/3d8a7), and add the same note to multiple contexts.

Cross-referencing

One key reason for slip-boxes failure is because people try to add slip boxes on top of their existing note-taking processes. 
For this to work, you should start taking notes using the standard formats from the onset.

Why Slip-Box Method Fails

<ul><li>Start by focusing on one task at a time (instead of multitasking).</li><li>Understand and internalize the content you read.</li><li>Take smart notes.</li><li>Develop your ideas.</li><li>Assemble and share your insights.</li><li>Build daily habits.</li></ul>

Writing Successfully with 6 Steps

Handwriting makes pure copying impossible, but instead facilitates the translation of what is said (or written) into one's own words. The students who typed into their laptops were much quicker, which enabled them to copy the lecture more closely but circumvented actual understanding. They focused on completeness. Verbatim notes can be taken with almost no thinking, as if the words are taking a shortcut from the ear to the hand, bypassing the brain.

The Benefit of Writing By Hand

The key to good and efficient writing lies in the intelligent organisation of ideas and notes. This book helps students, academics and nonfiction writers to get more done, write intelligent texts and learn for the long run. It teaches you how to take smart notes and ensure they bring you and your projects forward. The Take Smart Notes principle is based on established psychological insight and draws from a tried and tested note-taking-technique. This is the first comprehensive guide and description of this system in English, and not only does it explain how it works, but also why. It suits students and academics in the social sciences and humanities, nonfiction writers and others who are in the business of reading, thinking and writing. Instead of wasting your time searching for notes, quotes or references, you can focus on what really counts: thinking, understanding and developing new ideas in writing. It does not matter if you prefer taking notes with pen and paper or on a computer, be it Windows, Mac or Linux. And you can start right away.

writing

Reading & Writing

How to Take Smart Notes

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