productivity
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Guided by the dream
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1 min read
Try to think without images. You can’t. Pictures make up the mind. Try to make a decision without some sort of confidence. You can’t. Even uncertainty snags onto temporary absolutes. Try to remain calm and dictate your inner talk. You can’t. Be prepared to hear the monkey mind instead. But try to achieve a goal…
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Intensely watched, intensely remembered
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1 min read
Intensely watched, intensely remembered. It’s not the trouble-free we ought to pursue. It’s the challenge of a good idea. Instead of pushing through the messy middle, we dash to the nearest exit: answering another useless email. It’s the distractions that make us dumber. Like a blob of mercury, we are mentally stoned. The immediate response…
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Do you want to drive the car or polish it?
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2 min read
Do you want to drive the car or polish it? That’s the metaphor best-selling author Karl Ove Knausgaard uses to cure writer’s block. Writes Quartzy: “Writer’s block, to the extent it exists, stems from a suspicion that your work may not be great, and a reluctance to face that fact. When you’re always polishing the…
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Live to work and work to live
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1 min read
We love to feel embattled because we like to think we labored for it. If we haven’t struggled, we haven’t yet lived. The urge to grind away at the remarkable supersedes trepidation. So we feel the fear and do it anyway. “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: No fear. I mean, really –…
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When in doubt…
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1 min read
Let your art make the rounds. Don’t hide it. Don’t try to be everywhere. Pick a place and be consistent. Rules are recommendations. Feel free to break them, recast, and remix them. Rest when you’re underperforming. Don’t quit. The muse is nonexistent. Inspiration is bunk. Habit is a bicep curl for the brain. I hope…
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Headphone privacy
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1 min read
“It’s not just that headphones carve privacy out of public spaces. It is also that music causes us to relax and reflect and pause. The outcome of relaxation, reflection, and pausing won’t be captured in minute-to-minute productivity metrics. In moments of extreme focus, our attention beams outward, toward the problem, rather than inward, toward the…
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No one is normal
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2 min read
The environment that we live in intends to become a part of our mind. But there’s always a mismatch between who we know we are and what others expect us to be. Human beings are intricate. No one individual is alike. Mimetic thinking makes us feel worse, not better in the long-run. Conforming is like…
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Watch the trailer for Alex Honnold’s Free Solo
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1 min read
I’ve posted about the remarkable solo climber Alex Honnold before, detailing how he uses visualization techniques to train his mind to become immune to fear. The folks at National Geographic and the producer of the 2015 film Meru (Amazon) Jimmy Chin have teamed up to document Honnold’s climb of El Capitan, the vertical granite rock…
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Do heart-work
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1 min read
“Those who work much do not work hard,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837–1861 (Amazon). Hard work pays off. Much of what we achieve in life is the result of persistence. That’s why everyone encourages each other never to give up. But on the flip side, work can also be…
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Wear Space is a cubicle for your face
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1 min read
Panasonic is developing blinders for your face so you can preserve a “personal psychological space.” The company debuted the item dubbed Wear Space last year at SXSW in Austin. Writes the product website: As open offices and digital nomads are on the rise, workers are finding it ever more important to have personal space where…
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Self-scrutiny is the thief of joy
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1 min read
What do you for a living? It’s either the first or last question you want to answer at a dinner party. Any time you have to open up about a personal topic it burns the lips. Comparisons are natural, contentedness is artificial. Everyone acts happy but they always want what they don’t have. If you…
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The hidden power of focusing on ONE to-do ✔️
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2 min read
The to-do list is a strange paradox. It compels you to get stuff done yet it can also make you feel inadequate for leaving boxes unchecked. “We like lists because we don’t want to die,” said Umberto Eco. Perhaps instead of trying to do everything you pick one thing to execute. Called the Hunter Strategy,…