This is a good way to start off thinking about your month ahead.<ul><li>Strengths from the month prior. What went really well professionally?</li><li>Weakness from last month. What failed? </li><li>Opportunities ahead. What are the trends? What are customers/clients thinking about? Given your strengths, what can you capitalize on? </li><li>Threats in the coming month. This requires you to be a pure realist with a dash of cynicism.</li></ul>After you’ve outlined your SWOT and have a clear picture, you can start to think about how you’re going to dodge those threats and lean into your strengths tactically.

Do your own personal monthly SWOT analysis

Moments of self-reflection and time alone are very important. But that doesn’t mean leaning on your independence is the key to peace of mind.Around 64% of freelancers feel lonely with no support. That’s detrimental to success, creativity, and grit.Tell people what you want/need and what’s keeping you from getting there. Often, they’ll share an idea, connection, or resource that will help you overcome your most frustrating obstacles

Don’t isolate

Most worries are pointless —In her TED talk, Isabelle Mercier puts it perfectly. 92% of what most people worry about has already happened or isn’t going to happen.Every time you have a worrying thought, write it down and reframe it as an opportunity — it works 99% of the time. So, for example:Worrying Thought: “I feel like I’m going to lose this client.” Reframed Opportunity: “If I send them some creative ideas for our next project, the client is more likely to work with me again.”

Practice the art of reframing my worries

Between a new product release at my company Coworkly and launching our seed round of fundraising, I’ve been stacked with investor meetings, customer calls, product demos, mocking up new user…

productivity

Productivity

career

Career

problemsolving

Problem Solving

How to Turn Your Work-Life Worries into Opportunities

When good engineers suffer from lousy management, they may do all this exciting stuff that makes sense on a micro level, but on a macro level, they make no sense. As a result, these things often get thrown out. Focusing is not about saying yes to every great idea. Focusing is about saying no. The result of that type of focus is some really great products where the total is greater than the sum of the parts.

Producing better products

<blockquote>
People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things.
</blockquote>

Collection of stellar videos and articles to keep in your back pocket.

product

Product & Design

leadershipandmanagement

Leadership & Management

Product Management Starter Kit

Excellent short answer on the importance of "no" to get focused, and the effect on people. For more readings on leadership: https://intenseminimalism.com/ (Clipped from the mactechlab source video, I wasn't able to find the original source. Please contact me if you know it to give proper credits).

videos

Videos

Excellent short answer on the importance of "no" to get focused, and the effect on people.
For more readings on leadership: https://intenseminimalism.com/

(Clipped from the mactechlab source video, I wasn't able to find the original source. Please contact me if you know it to give proper credits).

VP/Product Exprience Director · Advisor · Coach · Speaker · Baker Framework Founder · Manifesto Ibridi Author.

Erin 'Folletto' Casali

"Focusing is about saying no" - Steve Jobs (WWDC'97)

Research shows that comprehend and connect information best when we read physical pages. There are no distractions in physical pages, which e-reading and audiobooks inherently invite (there is nothing wrong with these modalities, but they are not the same as deep reading). Also, the brain retains information better when it’s associated with the tactile experience.

Use a hardcopy book

Even if the phone is facedown on silent, or laptop is closed and asleep, the mere sight of these devices and everything they represent — not to mention the willpower it takes not to check them — is a huge distraction.

Have no devices in the room

The more you engage with a book, the better. There is a big difference between passive reading (being read to) and active reading (being in conversation with). The latter promotes further absorption in the material and more associative thinking and subsequent creative insight. It's better to highlight the important lines or points while reading any book.

Read with a pen or highlighter

Even if you are fully engaged in what you are reading, random thoughts will pop into your mind: emails to write, groceries to get, conversations to have, ideas for your next big project, etc. Jot these thoughts down so you do not lose them but can offload your brain from trying to hang on to them.

Keep a notebook nearby

It takes time to get into a groove. There is nothing wrong with reading in the nooks and crannies of your day. Try to manage 30 minutes for reading from your schedule.

Read for at least 30 minutes

The ability to pay full attention and get absorbed in a book is built over time. It may be hard at first (especially if you are rusty), but it gets easier. Eventually, it becomes enjoyable. Be patient and stick to it. It’s worth it.

Think of deep reading as a muscle: You’ve got to train it

Books are the best bargain there is. There is no better place to get a rich distillation of insights and wisdom. The individuals whom people tend to deem wise and discerning all read a heck of a lot.

Read as much as you can 

Here are some principles about how to engage in reading. Pay attention to developing the reading habit, understanding the topics, and the enchantment of creative thinking.

Deep reading, or full engagement in a book, is an absolute joy. It is good for mind and spirit, and it is also a competitive advantage in today’s knowledge-based economy. Increasingly, people…

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

habits

Habits

writing

Reading & Writing

A Guide to Developing a Deep Reading Habit

Although it is totally necessary at times to go through prescribed motions or instructions to get results- especially as a beginner- it is all the more satisfying to craft your own unique routine. The key to structuring your own routines is finding an intention- that is, a concrete goal or motivation- which you intend to fulfill. Being intentional helps us structure our actions towards our personal goals and values while helping us to avoid mindlessly sacrificing our time with nothing to show for it.

Intentionality Is King

Before you can set intentions, you must have values. Values tend to be less concrete than intentions, and they represent concepts closer to your core identity. For example, if you choose to value fitness or health, then you will have the drive or motivation to set intentions that provide or fulfill this value. Maybe, when going to work, you will set the intention to only use stairs instead of elevators. Alternatively, if you value learning, you may set an intention to read a book at night or read 3 deepstash articles each morning.

Intentions Begin With Values

Now that you have values, you may create intentions that maximize your ‘value fulfillment’ throughout your daily routines. These intentions always have an element of strategy that contains some sort of recipe towards fulfilling some specific intention.

Intentions Necessitate Strategy

Good strategy requires you to break down a routine into its components and then, using your intention, rearrange, modify, or augment the routine to better your outcome. Often, this takes form in identifying the tools of your craft. This could be breaking down an essay into an outline and asking yourself questions such as ‘what do I want to communicate?’ or ‘who is my target audience?’. The tools here are the questions. Or, it could be planning activities into your day, week, or year that help fulfill your value. The point is, good strategy necessitates planning at different levels of detail.

Good Strategists Work On Various Timescales

To fulfill your intentions and come up with new intentions to fulfill your ever-evolving values, you must exercise your creativity in order to optimize your strategies for success. By trial-and-error and systematic study, you will learn the best methods to plan and accomplish increasingly complex routines. I argue that this element of creativity combined with fulfilling your own original intentions is a recipe for a satisfying daily, weekly, or yearly routine. So long as you identify and focus on the elements that are under your control, you will live in harmony with your surroundings.

Intentionality Is Ultimately A Creative Endeavor

Simply going about ‘choosing values’ is a fool’s errand. Whether you are aware of them or not, you have values, and those values structure your decisions about which actions to take. If you are always eating takeout and watching TikTok, for example, you may overvalue instant gratification. Values are something we learn about ourselves and actively cultivate- they should be based on some a priori experimental data- that is, your direct experiences, emotions, and surest knowledge.Our emotions are flagposts for the quality of our values. What activities do you find intrinsically satisfying?

How Do We Craft Appropriate Values? 

Values are complicated. I will explore some pitfalls and better ways to explore your values as well as different strategy techniques in future posts!

More On Values 

Although these ideas are somewhat rough, I find that these concepts have been extremely useful! 

philosophy

Philosophy

What makes life satisfying? 

Everything you do in life will be a struggle, so need to find the right struggle for you.Identify what you really enjoy doing.

Struggle

Suffering can lead to great things, but if you don't have the right values, you'll never be happy.Values are more important than success when it comes to happiness

Values

Many people tend to focus on shitty values, so it's important to find some good ones to believe in.Comparison of success, seeking pleasure over anything else, measuring life through material success are some shitty values. Instead develop good values like honesty, generosity, creativity and humility.

Belief

Sometimes we feel like victims, but positive change only happens when you take full responsibility for your life.When we stop blaming others, or the situation for the shit we are in, then and only then is positive change attainable.

Responsibility

We often flee when our identity is threatened, but identity is an illusion, a mental construct.Similar to a comfort zone, we form an identity of who we are. And as soon as there is a possibility of change, we avoid it, we choose the "flight" path. Our desperation to protect our identity is often more a hindrance than help. Identity is an illusion, a mental construct which isn't real, and we shouldn't let them dictate our lives. Learn to let go of your identity.

Manson's Law of Avoidance

You need to accept your mistakes and insecurities if you want to see positive change.You need to question yourself every once in a while, to know that you're on the right path, and not feeding your insecurities, or making the same mistakes.

Acceptance

﻿Romantic love can be destructive unless we learn to control it.For example, the greatest love story you know, Romeo and Juliet, is hardly a happy one. It's a rather chaotic story involving murder, blood feuds and ending with suicide. Let your love be healthy, and not destructive or unhealthy.

Love

Humans are terrified of death, and so they try to live on beyond it.Ernest Becker wrote a book called "The Denial of Death", where he writes about two main ideas. Firstly, that humans are terrified of dying, and secondly, humans try to create a conceptual self that will live on after their demise. This has led to war, demise and widespread destruction. The desperate urge to make a mark causes stress and anxiety.So, we need to stop "giving a fuck" about fame and power, and instead focus on the present. Live here and now.

Death

We try to do too much in life and this leads to stress and unhappiness. Each of us needs to learn to stop “giving a fuck” about the things that are causing us pain. Choose what it is you really want to care about, and develop a more constructive approach to work, love and life itself. FORGET FOMO AND LEARN TO SAY NO

Summary

I've been a rebel all my life. And when the book says "counterintuitive approach", that was my cue to pick it up!

#1 New York Times Bestseller Over 1 million copies sold In this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up. Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek. There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

books

Books

#1 New York Times BestsellerOver 10 million copies soldIn this generation-defining self-help guide, a superstar blogger cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people.For decades, we’ve been told that positive thinking is the key to a happy, rich life. "F**k positivity," Mark Manson says. "Let’s be honest, shit is f**ked and we have to live with it." In his wildly popular Internet blog, Manson doesn’t sugarcoat or equivocate. He tells it like it is—a dose of raw, refreshing, honest truth that is sorely lacking today. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is his antidote to the coddling, let’s-all-feel-good mindset that has infected American society and spoiled a generation, rewarding them with gold medals just for showing up.Manson makes the argument, backed both by academic research and well-timed poop jokes, that improving our lives hinges not on our ability to turn lemons into lemonade, but on learning to stomach lemons better. Human beings are flawed and limited—"not everybody can be extraordinary, there are winners and losers in society, and some of it is not fair or your fault." Manson advises us to get to know our limitations and accept them. Once we embrace our fears, faults, and uncertainties, once we stop running and avoiding and start confronting painful truths, we can begin to find the courage, perseverance, honesty, responsibility, curiosity, and forgiveness we seek.There are only so many things we can give a f**k about so we need to figure out which ones really matter, Manson makes clear. While money is nice, caring about what you do with your life is better, because true wealth is about experience. A much-needed grab-you-by-the-shoulders-and-look-you-in-the-eye moment of real-talk, filled with entertaining stories and profane, ruthless humor, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k is a refreshing slap for a generation to help them lead contented, grounded lives.

Mark Manson (born 1984) is a professional blogger, entrepreneur, and former dating coach. Since 2007, he's been helping people with their emotional and relationship problems. He has worked with thousands of people from over 30 different countries. He regularly writes and updates his blog at: www.markmanson.net

Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

.If you apply yourself to something or apply your mind to something, you concentrate hard on doing it or on thinking about it.

Application Of Mind

🌈Be Conscious About What You're Putting in Your Head. ...🌈Work on Desire. ...🌈Have the Right Sources. ...🌈Give Yourself a Drive to Learn. ...🌈Be Open to Change. ...🌈Allow Yourself to Be Creative or Successful. ...🌈Don't Let Others' Thoughts Influence You. ...🌈Be Around Positive People and Things.

Ways To Use Your Mind Power

💢 Try puzzles.💢Play cards.💢Build vocabulary.💢Dance.💢Use your senses.💢Learn a new skill.💢Teach a skill.🌈Listen to music.

Things Help You In Stay Sharp

Natural Ways To Boost Your Brain Power & Sharpen Your Mind🌈Practice meditation to decrease stress. ...🌈Take up cognitive training exercises. ...🌈Exercise your body—for your brain. ...🌈Practice deep listening. ...🌈Ditch the sugar. ...🌈Nourish your brain with antioxidants. ...🌈Sleep on it.

Natural Ways To Boost Your Brain Power & Sharpen Your Mind

Hey beautiful people today we are going to learn how to stay sharp at every situation please follow and support 😁

education

Learning & Education

entertainment

Entertainment

How to looks smarter

<ul><li>Be proactive.</li><li>Start with the end in mind.</li><li>Ensure that you priorities your goals properly.</li><li>Strive to understand the other person before you try to be understood.</li><li>Make agreements where you and the other parties involved all win.</li><li>Practise your skills individually and as a group</li></ul>

Lessons From “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People”!!

Important learnings from the book “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” at a glance.

A leading management consultant outlines seven organizational rules for improving effectiveness and increasing productivity at work and at home.

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

The 7 habits of highly effective people is recognised as one of the most influential books ever written. In this seminal work, Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity -- principles that give us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. The 7 Habits have become so famous because they work. From Habit 1: Be Proactive and Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind, millions of People have worked their way through the 7 and found in them a key to transforming their lives. This book has been the key to the success of legions of business leaders and individuals the world over.

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

Stephen R. Covey

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

When you wake up in the morning, don’t jump out of bed for your workout immediately, or drag yourself to the washroom. Sit up straight, relax, and close your eyes. Say to yourself, “I am grateful for those who support me, believe in me, and are always there for me.” Say this with a deep breath in between each time you say it, for a full five minutes.
When you open your eyes and look at everything around you—keep that moment of gratitude with you, throughout your day, reminding yourself how you can’t wait to get home to your loving family.

Morning Gratitude

Begin your day by stretching with your family and doing some physical activity together. 
All you need is 10 minutes. You’ve accomplished a two-for-one: physical activity and family time!

Workout Partners

On your shared streaming service, make a playlist of your family’s favorite music. When you take a break at work or feel a negative moment getting the best of you, listen to that music, think about your family, and regain your focus. 
Music is a powerful voice and has the ability to affect our mindset. Your family playlist will energize you and improve your mood.

A Family Playlist

At least once a day, call or text your significant other or your kids and repeat Stevie Wonder: “I just called to say I love you, I just called to say how much I care.” 
Let your family know they are always in your thoughts. Even in the face of a big deadline or an important meeting, that moment will relax you and make your family smile!

Daily Phone Call

Discuss with your boss his/her expectations of you in regards to your time and your position to foster a mutual and clear understanding of your role. 
Should your role involve evening/weekend hours, and tasks such as answering emails, working from home, or extra time needed for special projects, establish a strategy and discuss with your boss how to meet these expectations so you don’t feel overwhelmed and pulled between your family and your job.

Clarify Your Work Hours & Expectations

It’s common for colleagues to hang out after work. Say yes when your significant other and/or kids are also busy. This will balance things out more. 
There are times to have beers with colleagues, but there are also times to go home, relax, watch a movie, and simply have fun with your family.

Socializing At Work

We all deal with a lot at work and at times might get irritated or annoyed. Remember you are a human being, not a robot, and thus it’s acceptable to have a buffer moment for these feelings. 
Take a deep breath, zone into your happy place that involves your family, think about how your energy can be used towards something else, and move on.

Buffer Moment

Allocate the last half-hour of your day to do the following and leave the office at 5:30/6:00 p.m.:<ul><li>For two minutes, take deep breaths, in and out, looking away from your desk, feeling the moment of gratitude you felt in the morning. </li><li>Organize your emails based on what is to be reviewed, what requires follow-up, and what needs a response after your breakfast/snack/meal. </li><li>Write out your to-do list, priorities, goals, and key items for the next day.</li><li>Double-check that you have a water bottle and healthy desk snacks.</li></ul>

Winding Up The Day

At the dinner table, leave your phone and turn off the TV. 
Focus on your family, not on work, and use this as a time to bring all your energy, your aura, and your being in the moment with the people who support and believe in what you do, and love you for the ability to do what you do.

Phone And TV-Free Dinner

Keep a two-week work diary: try to track every fifteen minutes of your work time. After that, analyze for, and attack, any inefficiencies! This will import balance in your day and yield a well-deserved coffee break, a breath of fresh air, and time to make your daily family phone call!Does email control you and take you away from your priority list, and thus your work-life balance? Organizational skills are an important factor in how you balance your day, affecting your work-life balance. Get organized and get happy! You'll find that work-life balance sooner than you think.

Your Work Journal

Balancing a career and family is a common concern for most individuals. However, it's important to realize the smallest of changes can produce the strongest of impacts.

timemanagement

Time Management

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

10 Tips For Balancing Career And Family

Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness among people which do increases the standard of living, feeling of belongingness and loving nature towards one another.Many people think that gratitude is just a feeling but I feel very happy to share tha it is not just feeling but has genetic bases behind it.

Genetic Bases Of Gratitude 

CD 38: Cluster of differentiation 38 geneThere are several genes responsible for Gratitude but CD 38 varient has major in expressing gratitude. Couples having a pirticular variant of CD 38 show 70% grattitude during day and other couples show 38% during the day suggesting that genes do have some role in expressing gratitude.

Genetic Bases of Gratitude 

COMT: catechol-O-methyltransferaseThis gene has two version a more greatful version of this gene makes people more greatful about a thing .A less greatfull verson in which person is negative biased and is not so greatful but this doesnot mean that you have to think bad about it. Those people have better memory and attention.

Genetic Bases of gratitude

<ol><li>Person has more grey matter in brain means more intelligent</li><li>Better peronality</li><li>Good and Health relations </li><li>Socialistic</li><li>Positive attitued</li><li>No Over thinking </li><li>Built a respect among peers because you are thankful to them</li><li>And Many more.....</li></ol>

Uses or Advantages of Gratitude

I am wanted to share this because people these days donot show grattitude so I thought to find some scientific reason behind it. I came up with something you love to read.. 🙂

If you have trouble with gratitude, you’re not alone. Luckily, there’s something you can do about it.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

Why Is Gratitude So Hard for Some People?

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">At the beginning of the day:</li></ul> “What am I optimizing for?”<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">During the day:</li></ul> “What's the best small thing I can do right now?”<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">​At the end of the day:</li></ul> “Did I do my best?"

3 simple questions to improve your day.

“The person who gets 1 shot needs everything to go right.The person who gets 1000 shots is going to score at some point.Find a way to play the game that ensures you get a lot of shots.”

“People often think it's weird to get hyped about reading one page or meditating for one minute or making one sales call. But the point is not to do one thing. The point is to master the habit of showing up. The truth is, a habit must be established before it can be improved. If you can't learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details. Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. You have to standardize before you can optimize.”

Excerpt From Atomic Habits

“There is no formula for success—you just begin and then you continue. I’m often asked how to have a career in stand-up and the answer is confoundingly simple: Do the work. Over and over again, just do the work. After you build the courage to get onstage that first time, it’s all about repetition.”

“It is wonderful how much work can be got through in a day, if we go by the rule—map out our time, divide it off, and take up one thing regularly after another. To drift through our work, or to rush through it in a helter-skelter fashion, ends in comparatively little being done. “One thing at a time” will always perform a better day's work than doing two or three things at a time. By following this rule, one person will do more in a day than another does in a week.”

If you know what you want, why are you waiting?

1 Question For You

3-2-1: Productivity, success, and 3 simple questions to improve your day

Find 100+ Facts and Tips on Productivity - Curated from inspiring sources like Books, Podcasts & Articles - Genuine Insights from like-minded Users like You!