5-Bullet Monday #44 (09/11/2020)

Happy Monday!

This week I published 2 new articles:

1. How to Use a Time Log to Conquer Your Day-to-Day (in 3 Easy Steps). The secret weapon you need to manage your time better and increase your productivity.
2. Future Self: How to Think Ahead and Love the Present. Your future self represents the person you’ll eventually become. It helps us understand the decisions we make today and make more progress.

And 2 new book summaries:

• “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
• “The 10X Rule” by Grant Cardone

If you want to follow me on Medium click here

And I also published my first 2 videos on YouTube:

• Deep Work by Cal Newport: Summary and Key Lessons
• How to Make Change Easier and Effective – Switch by Chip and Dan Heath: Summary and Key Lessons

If you like the videos, please consider subscribing to the channel. It would mean the world to me.

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—
Having just started a YouTube channel, the last few weeks have been about learning. And the truth is you can find a video or article on just about anything you want to learn.

• Want to create the perfect thumbnails? Here’s a video.
• Need to be more engaging when talking to the camera? Just read this.
• How to properly set up the light on your videos? Here’s everything you need to know in 5 minutes.

Today, everything you need to learn is available to you online. You just need to have a strategy for acquiring skills and knowledge in a self-directed and intense manner. Know what you want to learn and don’t get lost in rabbit holes. Keep your focus on what you’re trying to learn. A great book on this is “Ultralearning” (summary soon) by Scott H. Young.

So:

What do you want to learn today?

What I’m reading—
I finished “The Willpower Instinct” by Kelly McGonigal Ph.D. Great book on exactly what willpower is, how it works, and why it matters.

I’m now reading “Time Warrior” by Steve Chandler. It’s a great little about how to manage your time, energy, and focus. Each chapter is a small but powerful lesson. Kinda like “The War of Art”.

It feels like one of those books that you read and then re-read when you need it. Something to keep close to you so you can grab it when life gets chaotic. Not all the lessons resonated with me but lots of interesting takes. Recommended ;)

What I’m watching—
The Playbook (on Netflix). It profiles legendary coaches as they share the rules they live by to achieve success in sports and in life.

Lots of great leadership lessons, from bringing teams together to the importance of staying true to your values. Highly recommend it.

I liked Mourinho’s episode (for obvious reasons) but Doc Rivers was my favorite. Thinking of doing a video with a few of the lessons I learned watching this.

What I’m building—
A commonplace book. In short (from Ryan Holiday’s excellent article):

“A commonplace book is a central resource or depository for ideas, quotes, anecdotes, observations and information you come across during your life and didactic pursuits. The purpose of the book is to record and organize these gems for later use in your life, in your business, in your writing, speaking or whatever it is that you do.”

Every time I come across something interesting, I’ll write it down on a flashcard. Inspiration can come from anywhere: something I read/watch/listen to or from conversations with people.

Each note is atomic, standing on its own. They get added to my commonplace book to be used for later (if ever). Right now I’m trying not to use too many categories but just developing the habit of writing ideas down. Once that’s automatic, I’ll start clustering ideas into topics.

This will be great not only for new ideas on its own (articles, videos, etc.) but also for related ideas that I can use to build courses and masterclasses.

For example:

I’ve taken lots of ideas about reading: how to read, reading habits, learning from books. So if one day I would want to build a course on that, I already have a lot of ideas written down. Now it’s a matter of organizing them in a way that makes sense and doing more research to expand on those ideas.

In fact, this is the method I used to build “Zero to Done” ;)

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

P.s. don’t forget to subscribe to the channel ;)