We all want to think better. But what does that mean, exactly? We want to have more ideas. We want to have better ideas. We want to make better decisions. We want to make better plans. It’s possible to get better at this. And not just by making a bunch of mistakes and learning from […]
Why does the “don’t break the chain” method work when you’re building habits? There are a few reasons. First, you get attached to your progress, and don’t want to see it reset. Even after just a week, the thought of starting over can be agonizing. After one hundred or three hundred days, you know that […]
Side projects are where the passion is. A few years ago, I learned how to make side projects a reality, by following my passion. It was Minecraft. Up to that point, I would sometimes get excited about building something on the side, but I never had it stick. I set up landing pages, I started […]
Not a goal. A system. Goals are great. In fact, goals often are the impetus for creating systems. I have a goal to put on 10-15 more pounds of muscle. And I have a system for doing that: regular lifting, eating enough protein, and balancing bulking periods with cutting periods. The system is the way […]
Checklists are amazing. They are one of those simple innovations that can make a huge difference in life, like the wheel, or sliced bread. In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande outlines the power of checklists to help us navigate the increasingly complex modern world. Where AI tries to make computers think more like people, so […]
Yep, confession time. I use a tickler, habitually. That’s a good thing. But I have some bad habits. Frequent Forwarding One of my bigger issues is regularly forwarding items from one day to the next, or just to a later day. This usually means I’m avoiding something. Either I’m avoiding the work of scheduling, or […]
Our family is in Utah today and we’re going to Lagoon, a big amusement park that is here. We’ve been debating for three or four days which rides everyone will go on. My second son and I are going to try to hit the most extreme, scary, thrill-seeking rides. My wife and daughter will generally […]
Seconds, minutes, hours. These are the abstraction levels at which you plan your day. Seconds There won’t be many entries in your daily plan that only take a few seconds, but some can be valuable: taking your vitamins comes to mind. Because they take so little time, they’ll be included only if they’re important to […]
Did you plan today? If not, here’s your reminder: plan your day! Your day will go better, whether it goes according to plan or not. You’ll get more done than if you don’t. You’ll feel better at the end of the day. You’ll be able to adapt more easily. You’ll have a better intuition about […]
When I plan my day, I write down my habits as part of my plan. “But they are habits”, you might say, “Why write them down, if you’ll be doing them anyway?” I get the question. It makes some sense. Here’s my answer, in five parts. Writing them down makes them into habits To create […]