Reading Time: < 1 minWork-life balance is something that many strive for, but it’s often a fool’s errand. Not that work should consume your life, but that trying to balance them neatly may be impossible. In “The 12 Week Year“, author Brian Morgan suggests this instead: Trying to spend equal time in each area is unproductive and often frustrating. […]
Productivity
Does it work on paper?
Reading Time: 2 minAs I’ve shared before, the “weekly preview” that I do each Friday is one of my favorite things. It helps me to make sure the coming week is well-organized, it gives me a chance to tidy up any tight spaces, and leaves me feeling good about the week before the weekend hits. My weekly previews […]
Too much feedback is a problem
Reading Time: 2 minI talk a lot about giving feedback on here, both in terms of how to give good feedback to others, and how to appreciate feedback as a gift when it’s given to you. In both cases, though, too much feedback can be problematic. Too much feedback could mean that your work is simply not good […]
Multitasking makes learning difficult
Reading Time: 2 minI have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the idea of multitasking. I know that it’s mostly a myth (you don’t really “multitask”, you just “switch between different tasks quickly”), but I also have three monitors on my desk. That said, this is a reason why I enjoy devices like the reMarkable tablet and […]
Can you speed it up?
Reading Time: < 1 minMost tasks in this world could be sped up with improved processes, but in many cases that’s not what’s best. I recently wrote about un-automating parts of my note-taking in order to better understand what I have in there, and there are other areas like that to consider. For me, a big one is the […]
Visit your notes more often, not less
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are a lot of tools out there to help automate your note-taking. For example, a recent episode of Tech Talk Y’all shared the Omnivore app, which can automatically move highlights from your Kindle into Obsidian. It’s really slick, but I think it takes things the wrong direction for me. My notes are intended to […]
If you finish your to-do list, that’s problematic
Reading Time: 2 minAs a guy that prides himself on productivity, I’ll admit that the title of this post is really weird. As I dug in, though, the concept has slowly made more sense to me. This comes from a recent episode of the Cortex podcast, where CGP got into this a good bit. It started as a […]
Write notes for future you
Reading Time: < 1 minAs I’ve gotten older, I’ve become quite good about not trusting myself to remember things. In the past I’ve said many times “I’ll remember that”, and then quickly forgot. These days, most of the time, when I want to remember something I make sure to make a note for it (usually in Google Keep, but […]
Don’t just do something, sit there
Reading Time: < 1 minYou’ve heard the phrase “don’t just sit there, do something”, but have you heard the opposite (and the title of this post)? Some attribute the quote to Sylvia Boorstein and her book with the same title, while others say it’s been around longer, but the quote is worth considering either way. This really hits back […]
Responsiveness can be as important as price
Reading Time: 3 minPeople value money but they also value time, and if your service can be faster and/or more responsive customers are willing to pay more. Disney’s “Lightning Lane” (formerly “FastPass”) is proof of this — millions of people pay billions of dollars every year just to get in the park, and a huge percentage of them […]