Monthly Archives: March 2020

Seeing Productivity Differently After Reading Smarter Faster Better

Posted on by
Reply

In a follow up to his first book, The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg has released another amazing book about the real secrets to productivity. And no, there isn’t an app you need to download.

After studying some of the top organizations in the world, Charles discovered a few elements to productivity that most people over look. Again, this isn’t about to-do lists or using apps and calendars; all of which are fantastic ways to keep track of what and when to do things. But the purpose of this book was to look deeper, into the mechanisms that lead teams and people to be productive.

And instead of beating you over the head with his book, I thought it would be faster to pull the items straight from my notebook, with added flourish:

  • Ask why to discover the deeper motivation in your self and others, aloud.
  • Create STRETCH Goals that you don’t immediately know how to accomplish, and then make SMART Goals as the baby steps to get there.
    • Specific
    • Measurable
    • Attainable
    • Realistic
    • Time-based
  • Use your imagination to create mental models of the world around you, the easiest way to do this is to tell your self stories of what is going to happen.
    • For instance, if you sit an imagine how your day is going to go in the morning, you will more likely be able to hold true to that kind of day or discover roadblocks before they happen
  • Let each person contribute to the conversation and make sure they are heard without interruption and validated for their input.
    • Try this with you family member, or you loved ones; its like magic.
  • Use probabilities to your advantage. In the same way that we create mental models, examine possible outcomes and act on the ones that are most in line with you goals
  • Slow down the information flow, intentionally. This concept is called Disfluency. What it does is allow for the mind to grip the information and work with it.
    • You may use your computer, or your smart devices, for note taking. Try using pen and paper to get a better grip of the information.
    • There is a tip that both financial and fitness experts agree, if you write down what you do with your money or energy or food, you are more likely to hit your goals
  • Allow for the information that you have, your experience and your past, to become a part of your process. Share this information with others in diverse places, become an information broker.

So there you have my bullet points.

Thank you for reading, please let me know which of these resonates with you; how have you applied them in your own life?

Eye Opening Experience Reading Anti-tech Revolution

Posted on by
1

If you ever felt like you wanted to read something from the Restricted Section of the library, reading revolutionary literature will definitely will turn some heads.

Dr. Theodore J. Kaczynski is most notoriously famed as the UNABOMER. But for many others he has one of the most honest examinations of modern technological society and its profound impacts on ecology.

Written entirely from the SuperMax Prison, “Anti-tech Revolution, Why and How” is a gripping, step by step, (albeit) nearly mathematical, examination of the impetus of power. Specifically the power wrought from self-propagating systems.

This book was exceptionally fascinating, and incredibly lucid. At no point did I feel that I was reading the thoughts of a loon, or a crazed psycho-path. From start to finish I felt as thought I was reading the words of a very concerned and very thoughtful older cousin… maybe a brother… lol… Brother Ted…

Anyway, this book was significant to me because I hadn’t anticipated that what he wrote would play out implicitly in the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the earth. I anticipate that Theodore might have something to say about a self propagating system like a virus infecting the human population and careening the entire human civilization into a tailspin. In fact, he might say that it was due to the advances in human global transportation that spread the virus and it was the near instant communication that spread the fear of it until it cause our entire system to stutter.

After having finished the book the day before the US travel ban, I am left with a question after having learned Kaczynski’s goal… will it be man who satisfies his goal, or will it be a non-human entity like a virus? If you want to know his goal, read his incredible book.

Have you read the book, or any of his other works? What are your thoughts on Theodore Kacynski altogether? Leave your thoughts below!

Feeling Pain Reading Can’t Hurt Me

Posted on by
Reply

From the get go I knew that I didn’t like reading his book. I hated how crass and self-righteous he was, and his tone absolutely drove me bonkers.

David Goggins has written a book, with the help of a guest writer, and it is called Can’t Hurt Me. Truly, this will be a book that will be touted as a must read for years to come. And I knew why as soon as he was done talking about his childhood.

David Goggins lived in abusive family growing up, and then suffered racial prejudice all through college. Hated at home, hated at school. But when David made the conscientious decision to join the military, the book and my interest changed.

Can’t Hurt Me is a fascinating story about a man that simply would not let failure get in the way of what he wanted. And while inflated and flagrant at sometime, the book was immensely powerful in describing the depth of the human spirit as it battles with pain, hardship, and mental callousness.

In many ways, I feel deeply saddened by the life that David decided to live. And I will always see the physical training that I do as inferior to the brutality that he endured, and self inflicted. But what I gleaned from his memoir, for that is what it is, was that we are all more capable than we let on. We simply have to suffer more, deeper, and longer than anyone else – this is what separates the greats from the wannabes.

Highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a first hand account of someone who has gone the distance, as a ultra marathoner nonetheless, and wants to hear what it takes to push past your own physical and mental limitations.