5-Bullet Monday #43 (02/11/2020)
Happy Monday!
This week I published 3 new articles:
- How to Overcome Procrastination in 5 Easy Steps (You Need These). Some tasks feel easy. Others feel hard. Your impression has nothing to do with effort or the hours worked. And when it comes to perception, the first five minutes are usually the most difficult. But procrastinators believe every minute of work will feel arduous, so they never start. Here’s my 5-step sequence to feel motivated to work more and for longer.
- How to Plan Your Day: Taking Control of Your Time (With Examples). Here’s a skill that nobody taught you in school or work: how to plan your day. In this post, I share a 5-minute productivity practice of time-blocking your days to get things done and complete more high-output work.
- 10 Time Wasters You Need to Avoid for Improved Productivity. Here’s what you need to start cutting out of your day to boost your productivity.
And 3 new book summaries:
- Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
- Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
- Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
If you prefer to read on Medium, you can follow me there.
Right, on to the Medley ;)
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Bullet Monday,” a list of what I’m pondering and exploring.
What I’m pondering—
After a few years of working with just my Macbook, it’s time to improve my desk setup. The goal is not only to make it easier to write/think/work but also kinda have a mini-studio for videos/podcasts. What’s one thing I must absolutely upgrade? Any recommendations? Also, maybe would be cool to record a video of this upgrade?
What I’m reading—
Naval Ravikant’s AMA on Twitter. Short and insightful answers. So many nuggets on so few words.
Here are a few I liked:
- Which academic discipline should everyone learn? NR: Physics. The social sciences are heavily propagandized, non-falsifiable, and don’t replicate.
- What is intelligence? NR: Intelligence is the ability to adapt.
- What are the most common/harmful cognitive traps that people fall prey to? NR: Wanting to be liked.
- Does the goal-post of happiness change once it is achieved? Happiness is not a thing that can be possessed.
- How do I steal your money? NR: Steal my ideas, they’re worth more.
- Is there any formula for retirement? NR: Find work that doesn’t feel like a sacrifice and then you won’t be thinking about retirement.
- How do you know when you’ve found the thing you wanna focus all your life and energy on. Do you wake up some day and realize it or is it a slow process? NR: You’re overthinking it. As Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the dots looking backwards.
- What’s anger? NR: Fear of losing control.
- What’s the biggest collective challenge for people over the next 10 years? NR: Resisting modernity.
- Key to content in life? NR: Awareness.
- Happiest moment? NR: This moment is fine.
Yeah, I know those are not a “few”. But believe me, I could have included 50 more ;)
What I’m watching—
The Queen’s Gambit. Here’s the short synopsis: “Orphaned at 9, prodigious introvert Beth Harmon discovers and masters the game of chess in 1960s USA. But, child stardom comes at a price.”
Whoa, what a show. Brilliant. Fantastic story, character development, arc. You are rooting for the characters. Beautiful cinematography and sound. It’s been a while since a TV show/mini-series has captived me like this.
I reckon this is going to win lots of awards. If you haven’t watched it, go do it now. 11/10 recommend.
What is one show/movie/video/documentary that you watched and felt the same way? Hit reply and let me know ;)
What I’m listening—
Yeat another smasher from Tim Ferriss. His interview with Seth Godin was utterly brilliant.
Here’s a part that really resonated with me. Seth is talking about what projects to pursue):
“What would you do if you knew you would fail? What would be worth doing even though it’s not going to work?
If you’ve got things on that list that you haven’t been doing, ironically those are the things that are most likely to work because other people aren’t doing them either.
This idea of attachment — Chögyam Trungpa said, “The bad news is we are falling, falling, falling. The good news is there’s nothing to hold onto.” As soon as we explore there’s nothing to hold onto, then we can get back to the work, Elizabeth King’s practice that prevents us from wondering about what prize we’re going to get.
This is just the work. Then you can merely do it.”
Be more productive—
In my Productivity Vault, you can find 300+ proven productivity hacks. These are all the productivity hacks I’ve spent years collecting and testing.
Everything that works with simple step-by-step instructions on how to apply to your work and life.
Get immediate access by clicking here.
Please give me feedback on Twitter. Which bullet above is your favorite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know. Just send a tweet to @dansilvestrecom and put #5BulletMonday at the end so I can find it.
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Have a great week ;)
Dan
