Tuesday 31 December 2013
Monday 30 December 2013
Sunday 29 December 2013
Saturday 28 December 2013
Friday 27 December 2013
Thursday 26 December 2013
Wednesday 25 December 2013
Tuesday 24 December 2013
Monday 23 December 2013
Sunday 22 December 2013
Friday 20 December 2013
Thursday 19 December 2013
Wednesday 18 December 2013
Austin Kleon: Keep Your Day Job
Artist and poet Austin Kleon (whose best-selling book Steal Like an Artist continues to inspire) explains why you should keep your less-than creative day job, and how to do it while pursuing your art on the side. Kleon writes:
“You have to pay the bills and feed the mouths, and you do it however you can…And my experience has been that economic security has always helped my art along more than any kind of ‘spiritual’ freedom or whatever…You always have a day job. Just hang in there. This is what I recommend: get up early. Get up early and work for two hours on the thing you really care about. Then, when you’re done, go to your job. When you get there, your boss can’t take the thing you really care about away from you, because you already did it. And you know you’ll get to do it tomorrow morning, as long as you make it through today.”
Read Kleon’s full explanation on how dull day jobs can actually help creativity thrive here.
Relevant: Cal Newport’s chapter in Maximize Your Potential, “Cultivating Your Craft Before Your Passion.”
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/E1YeABScjDM/austin-kleon-keep-your-day-job
Tuesday 17 December 2013
Stop Being Crazy-Busy, You’re Stressing Everyone Out
Every office has a person racing from desk to desk, talking loud and fast, checking and replying on their mobile; always on the go. They look important, they feel important, but actually, they are stressing out of their coworkers. As the Wall Street Journal explains:
Ray Hollinger was known for years among colleagues in a previous job as a sales-training executive as “Mr. Busy,” he says. In his quest to be a top performer, he says, he often thought, “If all this stuff just keeps coming at me, I will take it on. I will take it all on,” says Mr. Hollinger, founder of More Time More Sales, a Phoenixville, Pa., training firm.
He says he wasn’t aware that his constant motion sometimes made others feel uncomfortable—until a co-worker pointed it out. She told him that when she tried to talk with him, ” ‘your volume goes up, your pace of speaking goes up, and you’re not fully in the conversation,’ ” he says.
It’s even worse in open offices.
When the boss has a view of the entire office, “no one wants to be seen as the slowest moving object in the solar system. You have to keep up with the Joneses—literally,” says Ben Jacobson, co-founder of Conifer Research, Chicago, which conducts behavioral and cultural research for companies.
Read the rest, and how to fix it, here.
Related: Tony Schwartz: The Myths of the Creative Overworked
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/FbR_rbGcmig/stop-being-crazy-busy-youre-stressing-everyone-out
Monday 16 December 2013
Sunday 15 December 2013
Saturday 14 December 2013
Friday 13 December 2013
Thursday 12 December 2013
Wednesday 11 December 2013
Tuesday 10 December 2013
Monday 9 December 2013
Sunday 8 December 2013
Saturday 7 December 2013
Friday 6 December 2013
Thursday 5 December 2013
Wednesday 4 December 2013
Tuesday 3 December 2013
How Elon Musk Thinks: The First Principles Method
We normally think by analogy — by comparing experiences and ideas to what we already know— but Musk says there’s a better way to innovate. From an interview with Kevin Rose:
“I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. [With analogy] we are doing this because it’s like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.”
The benefit of “first principles” thinking? It allows you to innovate in clear leaps, rather than building small improvements onto something that already exists. Musk gives an example of the first automobile. While everyone else was trying to improve horse-drawn carriages, someone looked at the fundamentals of transportation and the combustion engine in order to create a car.
Naturally Musk does give one warning about using first principles for innovating however, “it takes a lot more mental energy.” Watch the entire interview below:
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/g8p5hFvazgM/how-elon-musk-thinks-the-first-principles-method
Monday 2 December 2013
Sunday 1 December 2013
Saturday 30 November 2013
Friday 29 November 2013
Thursday 28 November 2013
Wednesday 27 November 2013
Tuesday 26 November 2013
Monday 25 November 2013
Sunday 24 November 2013
Saturday 23 November 2013
Friday 22 November 2013
Thursday 21 November 2013
Wednesday 20 November 2013
Tuesday 19 November 2013
Monday 18 November 2013
Sunday 17 November 2013
Saturday 16 November 2013
Friday 15 November 2013
Thursday 14 November 2013
Wednesday 13 November 2013
Monday 11 November 2013
On Busyness
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/-X6jR418j-s/on-busyness
Sunday 10 November 2013
Saturday 9 November 2013
Friday 8 November 2013
Thursday 7 November 2013
Wednesday 6 November 2013
Tuesday 5 November 2013
Monday 4 November 2013
Sunday 3 November 2013
Saturday 2 November 2013
Friday 1 November 2013
Thursday 31 October 2013
The 20% Rule of Internet Browsing
Willpower consumes energy. Instead of resisting every single impulse, it could be more beneficial in overall output to give in on the occasion and take an unobtrusive break.
Atlantic contributor Rebecca Greenfield writes:
“People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration,” researcher Dr. Brent Coker told Ars Technica’s Jacqui Cheng. “Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a day’s work, and as a result, increased productivity.” The research found that those who spent less than 20 percent of their time perusing the Internet’s silly offerings were 9 percent more productive than those who resist going online.
Not only does a brain reset help you get through the day, but resisting the urge to go online negatively impacts your work, according a Harvard Business School study. The researchers suggested that energy spent resisting the Internet’s allure takes attention away from other tasks.
That’s not to say you should attempt to multi-task or take frequent breaks. As mentioned earlier, the key is to spend less than 20 percent of your time on the internet browsing “silly things.” As the piece goes on to explain what happens if that balance is not kept:
But for all the studies urging you to click over to Facebook, others have found that your leisure time is costing companies. “Internet misuse in the workplace costs American corporations more than $178 billion annually in lost productivity. This translates into a loss of more than $5,000 per employee per year,” reported Reuters in 2007. A 2002 BBC report found similar numbers. “A company that makes £700,000 profit on a turnover of £10-12m could be losing 15 percent of its profits because of abuse of net and e-mail abuse.”
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/4ogneoMSMg4/the-20-rule-of-internet-browsing
Wednesday 30 October 2013
Tuesday 29 October 2013
Monday 28 October 2013
Sunday 27 October 2013
Saturday 26 October 2013
Friday 25 October 2013
Thursday 24 October 2013
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Change 12 Habits One-by-One and Change Your Life
“Take it one step at a time” is good advice for most things in life, but particularly when it comes to habit change. Yet the typical approach is often to try to change all our bad habits at once. For example: We try to quit drinking and go to bed earlier and start exercising regularly. But rather than speeding the change process, this actually sabotages it.
Scott H. Young describes a significantly more effective (but counter-intuitive) approach in our new 99U book. Changing your habits serially, rather than simultaneously:
A smarter strategy is to implement each new habit successively, focusing on just one new habit a month. The first month you focus on waking up earlier. The second month on regular exercise. The third month on a new system for your work. Although thirty days may not be enough time to form a new default habit (one study suggests 66 days as a median time for habituation), it will at least mean the habit requires less effort to pick back up in case of a setback.
Some people might see this approach as being prohibitively slow, but in practice, doing habits one month at a time is fast. In one year you could:
- Wake up earlier
- Exercise regularly
- Eat properly
- Set up a productivity system
- Establish deliberate practice time for your craft
- Become more organized
- Read a book per month
- Cut out wasteful Internet surfing
- Keep your e-mail inbox empty
- Cut down on television
- Learn a new skill
- Maintain a journal or diary
Even if you only accomplished a quarter of this list, my guess is you could make significant gains in your life. The focus principle for habit change isn’t actually slow. In fact, it’s much faster than the alternative.
You can read the full essay from Scott, as well as contributions from Joshua Foer, Teresa Amabile, Scott Belsky, and more, in Maximize Your Potential , the latest addition to our 99U book series.
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/Qj3ViLbx3V4/change-12-habits-one-by-one-and-change-your-life
Tuesday 22 October 2013
Monday 21 October 2013
Sunday 20 October 2013
Saturday 19 October 2013
Friday 18 October 2013
Thursday 17 October 2013
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Monday 14 October 2013
Jack Dorsey and the Themed Day
Jack Dorsey, speaking at the 2010 99U Conference.
At one point, entrepreneur Jack Dorsey was the full-time CEO of both Square and Twitter, with two 8-hour “shifts” each day. So how did he do it? He had themed days. From Buffer:
Jack’s trick in staying productive while putting in such long hours is to theme his days. Each weekday is dedicated to a particular area of the business at both companies. Here’s what his themed week looks like:
Monday: Management and running the company
Tuesday: Product
Wednesday: Marketing and communications, growth
Thursday: Developers and partnerships
Friday: Company culture and recruiting
See more routines from entrepreneurs over on Buffer’s blog. While we’re likely not running two fast-growing tech companies, there’s benefits for all of us in focusing on a single task.
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/1b3yzE6He5I/jack-dorsey-and-the-themed-day
Sunday 13 October 2013
Saturday 12 October 2013
Friday 11 October 2013
Thursday 10 October 2013
Wednesday 9 October 2013
Emotionally, We’re a Bunch of Seven-Year-Olds
Zen Pencils has illustrated a rant by comedian Marc Maron about our addiction to our phones and social media and the conclusion hits close to home. In short, we post to these networks because we’d crave acknowledgement by the outside world. As a result, with every like and retweet we feel a ping of happiness that keeps us coming back for more “connections” with the outside world. Next time you mindlessly reach for your phone, ask yourself: are you doing it to accomplish something or are you just seeking acknowledgment?
Read the entire comic here.
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/eW9LJlHr3Uo/emotionally-were-a-bunch-of-seven-year-olds
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Monday 7 October 2013
What’s Your Color Vision Deficiency? Take the Test.
X-Rite and Pantone came together to make The Color Test, a free, online color-perception test. It takes around five minutes and can be challenging, but offers insight well past if you’re simply color blind or not. You’re graded out of 100 and shown where (and to what extent) your color problem areas are.
Fair warning: for those working in, or with, designers, the competition as you pass this around the office can get a little fierce. Let us know your scores!
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/1pgQxVKyu8M/whats-your-color-vision-deficiency-take-the-test
Sunday 6 October 2013
Saturday 5 October 2013
Friday 4 October 2013
Thursday 3 October 2013
Wednesday 2 October 2013
Tuesday 1 October 2013
Monday 30 September 2013
Sunday 29 September 2013
Saturday 28 September 2013
Friday 27 September 2013
Thursday 26 September 2013
If You Don’t Ask, You’ll Never Get
Nobody likes cold calling. But if you want to expand your network, getting acquainted with Art of the Ask is essential. In an interview for our new 99U book, we talked to super-connector Sunny Bates about getting up the guts to reach out:
99U: What do people struggle with the most when it comes to connecting with others and building a network?
SB: Asking. Nobody ever wants to ask—at every level, with every kind of person, from the CEO all the way down. I think people get very narrow-minded, thinking that they can only reach out to people who are already doing a similar type of job. But the underlying network science says that it’s all about weak links. Those people who are the friend of a friend of a friend. That’s a much more likely place for something important to happen to you than your inner circle of close friends and colleagues.
99U: What do you tell people who are afraid to ask?
SB: If you don’t ask, you’ll never get. Sure, you may only get a little bit at a time. But if you don’t ask, 100 percent of the time you won’t get. You’ve just got to get over yourself. We live in a connection economy. If you can’t connect with people for them to understand what you have to offer, you’re working in a vacuum and you’re going to lose out. You end up getting bitter in that situation, because you see your peers are moving up and doing things, and you say, “I could be doing those things. Why not me?”
It’s very easy to think that somebody knows you. And that if they know you, they will think about calling you, or asking you, or wanting you for something. But people forget. I was a headhunter for many years, and I was always amazed because easily 20 percent of the time, the final person who was hired was well-known to the client. (They just hadn’t thought about them.) That means that, for every five people you know, one is likely to have an impact on you or hire you—that should make you want to expand your circle.
Find the full interview with Sunny, as well as contributions from Frans Johansson, Scott Belsky, Ben Casnocha, and more, in Maximize Your Potential , the latest addition to our 99U book series.
via 99U http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/The99Percent/~3/dfHBuhzwZGc/if-you-dont-ask-youll-never-get