Munro Stewart

Get started by doing something for just a couple of minutes, because just getting started can often be the hardest part of many habits, tasks, or things you want to work on or get done.

• If you have to write something, just write a sentence.
• Then get up, get some water, stretch.
• Pat yourself on the back for getting started!
• Now do a little more: write a few more sentences.
• Get up, take a mental break (don’t go to another website), do a few pushups.
• Go back, do a bit more.
• Pretty soon, you’re in the flow of it.

Ways to do what you don’t want to do - Zen Habits

Positively influence other people's lives by telling them you believe in them, you think they are a good person, they possess particular good qualities, and you expect they will perform well because they have the ability to do so.

• The Pygmalion effect is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area and low expectations lead to worse.
• It is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he created that the statue came to life.
• According to the Pygmalion effect, the targets of the expectations internalize their positive labels, and those with positive labels succeed accordingly.
• A similar process works in the opposite direction in the case of low expectations.
• The idea behind the Pygmalion effect is that increasing the leader's expectation of the follower's performance will result in better follower performance.
• Within sociology, the effect is often cited with regard to education and social class.

Pygmalion effect - Wikipedia

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.

12 Lists that help you get things done - Lifehack.org

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."

Nikola Tesla's Best Productivity Tricks - Lifehacker