Get help to make life better
Write down a list of your goals and dreams, because writing thoughts and ideas down is the first step to making them come to life.
- A list of your short and long-term goals can be a great motivator, as well as a trigger list to help generate new projects.
- I also like to have a list of areas of focus, the different roles that I play, each of which comes with a different set of tasks and goals.
Keep a dated list of tasks and projects you have completed and random things you have done, because looking back on your achievements or even little events from your life may provide a sense of accomplishment and purpose.
- There's something to be said for seeing how much you've gotten done at the end of the day.
- You know how satisfying it is to cross out items on your to do list, and then look back at the list to see everything you completed?
- A "done" list, or "anti-to-do list" as Marc Andreessen calls it, works in a similar fashion: you simply take note of each thing you get done during the day.
- Start out with the date and just list your "done" items underneath.
- Not only will this help you review your productivity at the end of each day and make you feel better about what you got done, but it can be really useful to keep around as a work log.
- You might want to look back in weeks or months to come to see what you were working on or how long a project took to complete.
Clever uses for plain text files that can increase your productivity - Lifehacker
Spend some time in solitude to think about and create ideas, make plans or goals, and come up with solutions to solve your problems.
- Like many inventors and creative types, Nikola Tesla was an advocate for solitude when creating and working.
- Most famously, he's quoted as saying "The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude.
- No big laboratory is needed in which to think.
- Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind.
- Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born."
Give people sincere praise about something they have done well or that you appreciate about them before giving them negative feedback or an idea for something they could change or do differently.
- "Sandwich every bit of criticism between two heavy layers of praise."
- One well known strategy for feedback is the “criticism sandwich,” popularized by the above quote from cosmetics maven Mary Kay Ash.
- In the sandwich, you begin with praise, address the problem, and follow up with more praise.
- In fact, the more of the conversation you can frame positively, the more likely your recipient is to be in the right frame of mind to make the change you’re looking for.
How to Give and Receive Feedback at Work: The Psychology of Criticism - Buffer
Live your life by being true to yourself and following your dreams and passions, in order to make your life and the lives of others better and happier, instead of only doing things that other people want or expect you to do.
- I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me. This was the most common regret of all.
- When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled.
- Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
- It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way.
- From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late.
- Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.
Choose to be happy with your current situation and life, as research has shown happiness may come down to your attitude and perception, not our faulty estimation of what we think we want, even big changes like getting a dream job, goal, partner, or money.
- Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want.
- Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don't go as planned.
Have a growth mindset by believing that you can grow, learn new things, improve your skills and knowledge, and realizing that temporary and recurring failure are a necessary part of learning and growing.
- Dweck, like many adults, had learned to hide her frustration and anger, to politely say "I'm not sure I want to play this anymore" instead of knocking over the board.
- She figured the successful kids would be the same - they’d have tactics for coping with failure instead of getting beaten down by it.
- But what she found was radically different.
- The successful kids didn’t just live with failure, they loved it!
- When the going got tough, they didn’t start blaming themselves; they licked their lips and said "I love a challenge."
- They’d say stuff like "The harder it gets the harder I need to try."
The solution or explanation with the fewest amount of steps or assumptions should often be preferred in order to simplify the solution down to its essential factor or factors.
- In philosophy, Occam's razor (also spelled Ockham's razor or Ocham's razor; Latin: novacula Occami) is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.
- It is also known as the principle of parsimony or the law of parsimony (Latin: lex parsimoniae).
- Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as "Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", which translates as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity", although Occam never used these exact words.
- Popularly, the principle is sometimes inaccurately paraphrased as "The simplest explanation is usually the best one."
- This philosophical razor advocates that when presented with competing hypotheses about the same prediction, one should prefer the one that requires the fewest assumptions and that this is not meant to be a way of choosing between hypotheses that make different predictions.
Consider using simple text files to help you get things done and keep track of your tasks, todo lists, projects, and goals, instead of using a complicated tasks app.
- While I love the apps mentioned above, I personally look for super simple.
- So I’ve settled on a setup taken from Gina and Adam’s articles on Lifehacker (read the tutorials: Geek to Live and Hack Attack).
- Text files: Basically, I organize my tasks in a series of text files.
- That’s because they’re super simple, easy to manipulate, and small.
Amazing Mac apps for getting things done (plus a custom-rigged setup) - Zen Habits
Remember everyone is emotional and people are all going through the ups and downs of life, so try not to take it personally when people get angry, and try to comfort or support others when they are in a bad mood.
- Perhaps this is an exaggeration.
- But the core of the message is that people tend to have stronger feelings about something than they let on.
- People who regularly have outbursts of anger, depression or flamboyant enthusiasm are generally frowned upon in most cultures.
- This especially applies to men (for women trying to figure us out).
- The application of this rule is to not assume everything is fine just because someone isn’t having a nervous breakdown.
- We all have our individual problems, angst and upsets that are normally contained.
Exercise every day because it improves your body, your mind, and makes you happier and more productive on the day in which you exercise.
- A recent study from Penn State university shed some light on the matter and the results are more than surprising.
- They found that to be more productive and happier on a given work day, it doesn’t matter so much, if you work-out regularly, if you haven’t worked out on that particular day.
- Think about starting small and then start even smaller: Here is a little secret.
- When I first started exercising, I did it with 5 minutes per day, 3 times a week.
- Can you imagine that? 5 minutes of timed exercise, 3 times a week?
- That’s nothing you might be thinking.
- And you are right, because the task is so easy and anyone can succeed with it, you can really start to make a habit out of it.
- Try no more than 5 or 10 minutes if you are getting started.
What happens to our brains when we exercise and how it makes us happier - Buffer
Turn your problems into challenges or goals that you can overcome or accomplish in order to be happier and improve your life.
- Happy people will see problems as challenges, as opportunities to explore new ways of doing things, expressing their gratitude for them, understanding that underneath them all lay many opportunities that will allow them to expand and to grow.
15 Powerful things happy people do differently - Purpose Fairy
Influence your mind positively and change your life for the better by using the principle of autosuggestion.
- Through the dominating thoughts which one permits to remain in the conscious mind, whether these thoughts be negative or positive is immaterial, the principle of autosuggestion voluntarily reaches the subconscious mind and influences it with these thoughts.
- Recall what has been said about the subconscious mind resembling a fertile garden spot, in which weeds will grow in abundance, if the seeds of more desirable crops are not sown therein.
- Autosuggestion is the agency of control through which an individual may voluntarily feed his subconscious mind on thoughts of a creative nature, or, by neglect, permit thoughts of a destructive nature to find their way into this rich garden of the mind.
Begin with the end of your task, goal, project, or dream in your mind by mentally envisioning it and creating a written description or picture of exactly what you want the end result to look like when the project or vision is completed.
- To begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination.
- It means to know where you're going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.
- "Begin with the end in mind" is based on the principle that all things are created twice.
- There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things.
- Take the construction of a home, for example.
- You create it in every detail before you ever hammer the first nail into place.
- You try to get a very clear sense of what kind of house you want.
"Don't criticize, condemn, or complain." - Dale Carnegie
- Criticism is futile because it puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself.
- Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person's precious pride, hurts his sense of importance, and arouses resentment.
- Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them.
- Let's try to figure out why they do what they do.
- That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness.
- "To know all is to forgive all."
Are you looking for peace of mind? You won't find it in your status line. - Allen Stone
Are you looking for peace of mind?
You won't find it in your status line
What are you trying to prove?
Whose mountain are you trying to move?Are you looking for security?
Validation or identity?
You won't find it in things
The more you got, oh, the less you seeWhatever keeps you occupied
Whatever gives you contact high
Whatever keeps you busy, baby
Will never make you satisfied
Simplify the amount of folders you use by organizing your documents into folders by type, and only creating albums, groupings, or project folders when necessary.
- There are a million and one ways to arrange files and folders on disk.
- Some might argue that spending a moment even thinking about it in the age of desktop search is unnecessary.
- That may be true, but some semblance of order will clear your desktop and your mind and make you "ready for anything."
- Over the years I've come up with a six folder structure for "My Documents" which I create on every computer I use without fail.
- This scheme accommodates every file I might come across, keeps my desktop clear, smoothly fits in with an automated backup system and also makes command line file wrangling a breeze.
These amazing, honest, things that you wrote, they matter. - The Whale Movie
These assignments don't matter.
This course doesn't matter.
College doesn't matter.
These amazing, honest, things that you wrote, they matter.