Big goals are overwhelming and usually paralyzing that can simply become obstacles rather than compelling destinations that pull one towards them. Habits are a set of behaviors that are triggered, done and followed by a reward that you are usually after. They can be a reasonable means of accomplishing your goals. You do something on a regular basis until that type of behavior gives you the specific reward that represents your goal. Despite sounding so easy, in fact, it is not. Sometimes, we are also procrastinating from starting the habit formation itself. Continue reading
Category: Personal Development (Page 9 of 20)
Do you often find yourself trapped in the mindset that if you fail learning something, you simply have to keep a bit harder, and then a bit harder than that? A lot of self-declared gurus try to motivate people to simply push themselves a little harder to achieve their goals, and that it takes only some efforts to do something amazing. The truth might not be too far from that, although it might take a lot of time. Aiming for the east, but walking towards the west will most likely turn out to be a terrible waste of time, energy and effort. Continue reading
If you have watched any movie in which Bruce Lee starred, you are most probably amazed by his ability to beat a lot of his opponents simultaneously. His triumphs show a vast combination of physical skills built up through countless hours spent while training and also indicate a mental strength. A strength and a skill that you and I can use in different areas of our lives. We can use some of these lessons even in seemingly unrelated areas such as productivity. Continue reading
It is true that these days the majority of the people around the world read a lot of more than they used to in the past, despite that they read mostly social media posts. There are still those people who read books for pleasure and try to fill up their horizons with different experiences, viewpoints and new words to their mental dictionary. Answering the question about the reason that you are reading a book, or an article can instantly improve the chances of benefiting by it. Continue reading
When you start doing something, it is usually easier to continue working on it than abandoning it. We might find it very difficult to start, because the project that we intend to work on is a bit scary, or that we are overwhelmed from the amount of work that we ought to do. A solution to these types of cases can be starting a timer and tricking yourself into thinking that you will work simply for a short amount of time. Continue reading
One of the reasons why we are not aware of our changes and our ways of growth is that we do not review the day, the week or the month that has passed by. We simply try to live and not give a general overview of our past.
There might be some failures, some accomplishments, but we are not aware and we tend to let them go without realizing their importance.
We should learn from our failures and be grateful for our accomplishments. The more we review the past and have an objective approach towards it, the more we can benefit and improve our results. We have to overcome our past selves, and not compete specifically with anybody else.
A lot of trivial reasons are usually the causation of our procrastination. When we later think about them, it is really a regretful feeling, knowing that we should not let that opportunity to pass with seizing it.
An approach that I have read and also experienced myself which can help in this regard is asking yourself: Why are you not acting? Why are you procrastinating?
Try to not let yourself escape answering this Why and after you have answered, think whether that reason is a valid excuse of not acting. Procrastination and excuses are some of the biggest thieves of our accomplishments.
It is not a big secret that we are really dived in such environments that we easily get distracted to things that do not bring any benefit to us. This is true especially for those of us who have their work tied up to a computer. A lot of temptations are stimulating us to satisfy our short term appetites that we have about getting informed the moment the news comes. All these distractions are costing us too much time in our lives and I wanted to share with you an insight that I had about the reason behind our attraction towards them.
The following gif summarizes quite well the evolution of the work desk and how a lot of things that used to be kept placed in a work desk have been now ported to our computer devices. This has been one of the greatest accomplishments that has been done in recent years towards simplifying our day-to-day lives. However, it has also had its down sides like preventing us from focusing properly on work and also wasting too much time in front of a screen.
Having the chance to see a new YouTube video that has been posted recently, or being able to send a message to the friend you have not seen for a long period of time can be compelling, but also distractions that were not present in the past. I am not saying that you should never do these things, but it is important to set at least a schedule when you will do them, and not mix them up when you are supposed to be working.
It is now harder than ever to concentrate and to focus on the things that you are supposed to do. The new IQ is the ability to concentrate on the task at hand. This skill is becoming rare and at the same time very valuable, especially for the knowledge workers.
Bookmarks are some URL shortcuts usually located under the address bar of your browser that are meant to help you visit a certain page easier later on. You might not be able to watch the whole video that a friend has sent to you right now, but you plan to keep it somewhere where it will be easy enough for you to watch it during your work break. You might not be in the right mood to read that five page article about a new technology that has been launched recently, but you intend to read it later on. These are times when bookmarks come in hand.
Whenever you receive an email, it is not meant to immediately reply back to it. Of course, there might be a few exceptions for some professionals, but for the rest of us, we do not have to immediately deal with it. We can focus on working on our tasks, or relaxing and have some scheduled periods when we dedicate a few moments to read and if necessary, reply to emails that we receive. Today I would like to suggest you a few things that you might consider to do each time you open your email.