Reading Time: < 1 minGetting into a state of flow can be amazing. It could happen while you’re writing, painting, running, or many other things. Time slows down and things feel effortless. We all know well enough that for things like exercising, the decision to do it is often more work than the actual exercise. Once we get going, […]
Productivity
How big is your unread library?
Reading Time: 2 minI try to set up my life so that the “next steps” are often right in front of me. When I sit down to write a blog post, I usually have 20-25 ideas already sitting there waiting for me, so I can just pick one and get to it. I keep a list of ideas […]
Reliability makes work easier
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve long said that the level of trust that I have in my team helps make my life much easier. Among other things, I know that if I send an email to one of them to get something taken care of, I don’t need to remind myself to follow-up — it gets done. However, a […]
Sometimes I’d rather just read
Reading Time: < 1 minI’ve talked a few times about my big reading shortcut, and how I can spend less than an hour to extract almost all of the best information from almost any book. It works amazingly well, but it’s a very focused hour to get it done (20 minutes reading, 20 minutes pulling more quotes, 20 minutes […]
Should you be scheduling more emails?
Reading Time: 2 minA few years ago, Gmail added a nifty feature tucked into the main “Send” button to “Schedule Send”. Pressing that button will open a prompt for when you want to send it, and then it essentially hides the email and sends it at the appropriate time. I use this feature occasionally, but an article from […]
An overwhelming number of inputs
Reading Time: 2 minWe have a lot of things being thrown our way. In a typical day, most of us will have to deal with requests coming via email, text messages, social media, to-do lists and a variety of other places. It can be a lot! As Khe Hy said in a recent post, many of us often […]
Efficient isn’t the same as effective
Reading Time: < 1 minI strive to be a very efficient person, as evidenced by the well over 100 posts in the “productivity” category of this blog. I try to be careful, though, as efficiency has very little to do with being effective, and the latter is far more important. Kevin Paul Scott laid this out beautifully in a […]
Where did that time come from?
Reading Time: 2 minWhen people say they don’t have time to exercise, visit with friends, or just relax, they’re likely telling the truth. Their calendar is full and things can get tight. A big (somewhat hidden) reason for this is social media, which on average consumes nearly 2-1/2 hours every single day (source). Where did that time come […]
Run more parity checks
Reading Time: 2 minIn computing, a parity check is “the process that ensures accurate data transmission between nodes during communication“. In other words, it’s a simple test that will help make sure that the data being sent is the same as the data being received and that nothing was lost along the way. They’re imperfect checks, but they’ll […]
Mise en place for better writing
Reading Time: < 1 minWhen I cook, which is fairly rarely, I try to follow the French concept of mise en place, where you have everything prepped and ready to go before you actually start. Given my weak cooking skills, it’s very helpful to do that. I’m finding that writing works best for me when I follow the same […]