the deeper I went into my own work, the more I realized how my always-on, always-connected state had rendered me largely useless... The medium was no longer the message, it was just an asshole. I want my attention back...I could live on Twitter all day, everyday, convincing myself I was being productive. Or, at least inducing the chemicals in the …

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.

Many of the world's busiest leaders "have set aside at least an hour a day for ... deliberate practice or learning... share my personal deliberate learning practice that I've developed so far... an Evernote doc each month and recording everything I read that I want to ingest. Then at the end of the month, I scan back over what I recorded ... think…

All of our efforts to be more productive backfire – and only make us feel even busier and more stressed ... if the stream of incoming emails is endless, Inbox Zero can never bring liberation: you’re still Sisyphus, rolling his boulder up that hill for all eternity – you’re just rolling it slightly faster... if you are among the growing ranks of t…

a fascinating inquiry into how our subjective experience of time’s passage shapes everything from our emotional memory to our sense of self....the disorienting sense that time isn’t something which happens to us — rather, we are time.... Distracted by the obligations of everyday activities, we are no longer aware of ourselves…... loss of contact …

cognitive psychologist Ronald T. Kellogg explores how work schedules, behavioral rituals, and writing environments affect the amount of time invested in trying to write and the degree to which that time is spent in a state of boredom, anxiety, or creative flow... High-intensity noise that exceeds 95 decibels disrupts performance on complex tasks b…

Today I have just one Topic: Quit Social Media. Your Career May Depend on It. This advice, from Professor Cal Newport in the New York Times, may seem counter-intuitive. Which is exactly the point.

the market rewards things that are rare and valuable. Social media use is decidedly not ... Any 16-year-old with a smartphone can invent a hashtag ... The idea that if you engage in enough of this low-value activity, it will somehow add up to something of high value in your career is dubious ... snake oil and flimflam... why not also expose your…

Let’s take a break from the Donald, Facebook and the end of democracy, and try to focus on what’s important.

We all have the same number of hours in the day.... Some find the time to be strategic, while others spend their whole time fire-fighting... here are 32 small changes you can make which will find you the time you need. 14. Set a time limit for everything Many tasks grow to fill the available time. You can spend weeks agonising over a design if y…

Google Docs now supports Action Items, a specialized sort of comment that is indicated by an @mention and leads to various new use cases.

This updates both my earlier Taming the Firehose and Where is social media taking you in 2016? posts, and better aligns my productivity process with my personal content strategy.

cortisol is released between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m... helps us get up and seize the day but if you add the stimulation of coffee when cortisol is already active the effect is lessened... we build up a tolerance to caffeine and its effects on us diminish over time.

If your meetings are like most, there are two or three people who always speak up and a handful of others who hang on the sidelines. ... a drag on your meetings' productivity... It's not enough just to bring a more diverse workforce in through your doors. You need to get everybody talking—meaningfully, collaboratively, and regularly—in order to m…

In response to The Power of Writing About the Things You Read, by Srinivas Rao: "Fortunately, there are loads of digital equivalents to dog-earing pages and underlining passages for when you’re reading on a PC or phone. My favourite tools and processess: ..."

To feel most joyful and satisfied, you need to not only accomplish certain priority items but also prioritize certain experiences of time... Here’s how to reclaim your desired experiences of time ... make it a rule to have at least 15 minutes between meetings to wrap up your notes, get a drink of water, and have a moment to breathe... you’ll end u…

Over 40 new resources ... some great longreads to enjoy as the nights grow long, the productivity tips you’ll need to find the time to read them, and a free set of steak knives. The Christmas season, after all, is almost upon us.

I am done with attending badly run meetings and if you have any sense so should you be... running a good meeting comes down to the following: - I am done with bad meetings — Medium

Intention is a powerful force. But this force has its own special foes.Distraction. Multitasking. These weaken your ability to execute on your goals. What if you could get the power of setting intention, plus the superpower of beating distractions?... Niklas Goeke is going to show you how. - Destroy Your Inner Multitasker — Productivity Dea…

the key to breaking bad habits is tricking yourself into swapping out the habit you want to pick up for the one you want to drop.

This is how we should be running meetings and you should hold your colleagues accountable to this standard: - Meetings — Medium

There's no one-size-fits-all approach to productivity. Instead, we need to personalize our strategies for making the most out of our workdays so they're aligned with our cognitive styles—and that all starts with choosing tools that play to our strengths and preferences... because we’re inundated with "proven" programs, tips, and tools (backed b…

My future self is awesome. He doesn’t mind taking up any task I save for him... and never complains about any work I decide he will do for me in the future. My past self is a dickhead. He keeps screwing things up and my current self always has to clean up after him... If he had planned ahead a little better I wouldn’t have to manage all this s…

With just a handful of hacks, meetings can be speedier, more productive, and more enjoyable for everyone involved. - 9 Science-Backed Methods for a Happier, More Productive Meeting

"Harness your productivity with these ideas." I took issue with a few of these via sidebar comments, but most are good. - 28 Ideas for Becoming 5 Times More Productive Every Week — Personal Growth — Medium

In our busy modern world, I’ve found one very surprising key to bringing more quiet to the mind and in turn practicing more mindfulness, and that is using a good task management system, such as the productivity methodology GTD... knowing that I have everything captured in a trusted GTD system gives my mind space to rest and focus on whatever is…

A morning routine sets the tone for the whole day, and if you do each day right, you’ll do life right... Habit Stacking is a way to build a new habit into your life by stacking it on top of something you’re currently doing. For example, before I brush my teeth in the morning (current habit) I will meditate (new habit) for 3 minutes... Try to…

Immediately after every lecture, meeting, or any significant experience, take 30 seconds — no more, no less — to write down the most important points. - The 30 second habit with a lifelong impact — STARTUPS + WANDERLUST + LIFE HACKING — Medium

Too many of us are overscheduled, overconnected and overstimulated by all the noise, interruptions and complexity of current society... Epic performers, A-Players and World-Builders ... run their days under completely different mindsets and rituals than those who get trapped in the groove of “being busy being busy.... Here are 4 of the game…

I'm launching a enewsletter to ensure I absorb something from the social media firehose.