“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
– Lewis B. Smedes
Fifty ways to boost your productivity
Nicholas Bate shares his 50 ways to boost productivity…
- Don’t hold stuff in your head.
- Keep your head clear and use your head for thinking: decisive, critical, imaginative.
- Use paper/screen for ‘holding’ your list of what needs attention.
- Our greatest asset is where we place our attention. Bear in mind we live in an exciting world where our attention is constantly ‘pulled’ to another place.
- To be productive is to maintain attention on what is important in the face of continuous distraction.
- And what needs attention is not just urgent, but what is important and thus often apparently not urgent e.g. health.
- Thus: ask what is important?
- Firstly by referencing the compass points of your life….
- Thus: your business/career
- Thus: your health
- Thus: your relationships
- Thus: your finances
- Capture these on you attention list.
- Secondly by stretching your planning horizon…
- Every day, ask what’s important tomorrow?
- Every week, ask what’s important next week?
- Every month, ask what’s important next month?
- Every quarter, ask what’s important next quarter?
- Every year, ask what’s important next year?
- Capture these to on your attention list.
- And finally anything which is burning and urgent; add these to your list.
- But the more you do 8 and 14 above…
- The fewer will be generated by 21.
- Every end-of-the-working-day review your list and decide what does need attention: create your daily list.
- Don’t try and do everything…
via Fifty Ways To Boost Your Productivity – Nicholas Bate.
Follow the ‘via’ link above if you’d like the remaining 25 ways. Before you go, however, I’d like to call your attention to a post and a couple of screencasts I’ve done on a tool called Evernote that I use in conjunction with a ‘philosophy’ called Getting Things Done [GTD] to help implement Nicholas’ first 6 ways…
Fake it ’til you make it?
Fantasies are more than substitutes for unpleasant reality; they are also dress rehearsals, plans. All acts performed in the world begin in the imagination. — Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
Our minds mold who we become. Our thoughts not only contribute to our achievements, they determine the posture of our lives. How very powerful they are. Fortunately, we have the power to think the thoughts we choose, which means our lives will unfold much as we expect.
The seeds we plant in our minds indicate the directions we’ll explore in our development. And we won’t explore areas we’ve never given attention to in our reflective moments. We must dare to dream extravagant, improbable dreams if we intend to find a new direction, and the steps necessary to it.
We will not achieve, we will not master that which goes unplanned in our dream world. We imagine first, and then we conceive the execution of a plan. Our minds prepare us for success. They can also prepare us for failure if we let our thoughts become negative.
I can succeed with my fondest hopes. But I must believe in my potential for success. I will ponder the positive today.
via March 24, 2012 – Today’s Gift from Hazelden « cmmacneil.
h/t David Kanigan :-D
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The best I read this week…
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The best I read this week…
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Quincy on prioritization…
“When you have a number of disagreeable duties to perform, always do the most disagreeable first.” Josiah Quincy
via Quote Details: Josiah Quincy: When you have a… – The Quotations Page.
I wanna talk about me! :-D
Lately I’ve been on a country music jag on Pandora. This makes me laugh…
Create a Good Day
Instead of “having a good day,”—let’s Create A Good Day instead! Focusing our intention and desires and actively participating in creating our reality.Source: Create a Good Day [VIDEO] « Positively Positive
…as much as I am an internet mechanic who helps thinkers become thought leaders! Here’s what I mean…
Yes, I do WordPress websites buy my emphasis is not on high maintenance sites that look pretty and deliver no traffic. I’d rather you think of me as an internet mechanic that can keep your content marketing engine running smoothly. Comment, call or ‘connect’ so we can talk about how this applies to you and your organization…
It doesn’t matter where…
It doesn’t matter where you are coming from…
“It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.”
– Brian Tracy
via Today’s Quotes: All That Matters Is Where You’re Going!.
“The art of becoming wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” -William James Anderson Layman’s Blog: On overlooking…
Now is the Time to Appreciate the People Who Have Helped You
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” -James Allen
The Art of Being Happily Single
“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” ~John Allen Paulos
via The Art of Being Happily Single | Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In.
Are you feeling it?
Irish “horrified” by Irish Americans on St.Pat’s
Irish leader Enda Kenny has been slammed for giving President Barack Obama a certificate of Irishness at the White House on Tuesday night by Trina Vargo, head of US Ireland Alliance.
The alliance is funded in large part by the Irish taxpayer, which sends 12 students a year to Ireland on Mitchell Scholarship programs.
“The shop in Shannon Airport must have been out of leprechaun dolls and chunks of the auld sod,” Vargo wrote.
Kenny serves on the honorary board of the organization.
She also stated Irish Americans “horrified” Irish people during the St.Patrick’s period and that Irish people were secretly laughing at them.
Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort
The great philosopher Mark Cuban shares this…
I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion.” Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion.”
What a bunch of BS. “Follow your passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.
Why? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than one thing. We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t worth a nickel.
Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around. How many were/are there? Why did you bounce from one to another? Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions? Or if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success? Was it the passion or the effort you put in to your job or company?
If you really want to know where your destiny lies—look at where you apply your time.
Source: Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort [BLOG] « Positively Positive
Me? I think Cuban’s binary perspective that is BS. I am fond of saying it’s not either/or — it’s both/and. In this case, it’s not passion or effort — it is both harnessed and combined effectively. Go to the source if you’d like to read the rest of his perspective, but it seems to me he comes around when he says “When you are good at something, passionate, and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.” imho, passion is the fuel that makes the effort possible; without one you don’t have the other…
Related articles
- Bad advice from Mark Cuban: “Ignore your passion” (positivesharing.com)
- Create The Day – With Passion (createabeautifullife.com)
- Career & Life 2.0: Find Your Purpose and Passion and Experience Peak Performance (timesunion.com)
Bright, shiny objects! 
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