• WOWOW: The Observer Edition [Links of the Week]

    by Alexander Becker

    Food or fuel? The universe and your own university, more resolutions and the observer question.

    • Pick up these 20 foods to snack on for enhanced productivity --

      Most people eat to lose weight, get healthy and build muscle. There are some people, however, who snack correctly in order to enhance their productivity.

      ... to the tune of the previous "food is fuel" recommendation --

    • Accurately monitoring the progress of your resolutions helps to keep them and you on track: 5% down, 95% to go --

      Today is January 22nd. That means 21 days (3 weeks) have already passed in 2008. That's a little over 5% of the year gone already. So let's do a quick "goal review" or a resolution recall. Are you 5% towards your goals?

      The point is - you need to constantly assess where you are in relation to your desired outcomes.

      • Are you on track?
      • Are you headed in the right direction?
      • Have you even moved off the starting line?

      There is still time to reload your resolutions and start all over.

    • Knowledge is still king: How to set up your personal university --

      No, you don't need to rent a campus, hire professors and start charging tuition. Setting up a personal university means taking your self-education as seriously as any schooling you manage pay for. While regular university is expensive and stops when you get a degree, your personal university continues indefinitely and can be run for free.

      Please consider the necessity to authenticate the authority of any expert, yourself included.

    • A great way to put things in perspective, especially You, is a look at the universe within 1 billion light years and the neighbouring superclusters --

      Galaxies and clusters of galaxies are not uniformly distributed in the Universe, instead they collect into vast clusters and sheets and walls of galaxies interspersed with large voids in which very few galaxies seem to exist. The map above shows many of these superclusters including the Virgo supercluster -- the fairly minor supercluster of which our galaxy is just a minor member. The entire map is approximately 7 percent of the diameter of the entire visible Universe. Individual galaxies are far too small to appear on this map, each point represents a group of galaxies.

      Make sure to zoom in...

    • Finally, the question of the week: The key to innovation: Becoming an observer --

      We all need to innovate to stand out from the crowd. But what is the key to innovation? The answer, or at least an important answer, is becoming an observer. By observing how we and other people do things, we will spot opportunities for improvements. The more we observe, the more opportunities we will find. We can then work to provide solutions for some of the problems. By becoming a good observer, we will recognize the problems before many people do and have first-mover advantage.

      ... this is, obviously, correct. It is valuable information for anybody at least remotely concerned with observing.

      What people are yet to realize is that most things you cannot learn, either you are an observer or you are not. Yes, you can learn anything and everything, I know, but when it comes to competition day, the born observer, the naturally talented observer will have the divine advantage.

      Build your skills and to get started, study as broad as possible but make sure to not neglect finding out what you are best at.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

  • Reload Your (Abandoned) Resolutions

    by Alexander Becker

    One goal, three to-dos, and a trick, each day.

    Or...

    1000 tasks and a gun to your head.

    This post is not too late. Quite the opposite is true. By now, most resolutions have been abandoned and life goes on. Let's see if we can reanimate one of them. Actually, the calendar year is just another occasion. You can just as well start on any given day and work the plan.

    I read so many make-2008-the-best-year-ever articles (no links here) these days by everyone remotely concerned with hacking life... yet it is so easy.

    One Goal

    Did you achieve your primary 2007 goal?

    Did you set a primary 2007 goal in the first place?

    We all know the distinction between urgent and important -- have-to-do and should-be-doing.

    I want you to pick one goal for this year. One primary goal and only one that has absolute priority in 2008. Choose wisely because you will have to stick to it.

    Obviously, we're looking at the should-be-doing stuff. What is it that you know you should be doing but for whatever reason you never really started. Pick an important goal that will advance you and you life towards the fulfillment of your dreams -- or one of your dreams for now.

    Now, list your potential should-be-working-on goals and sort them and make one a priority. Make one of them your resolution. Everything else is and remains secondary for the current year.

    Three To-Dos

    Alright. So you've set your goal. What now? Of course, you already expect the answer: To-dos. Please note that you will have lots of unrelated to-dos of the have-to-do variety each and every day so we are going to add just three more to-dos -- the voluntary ones, you know, the sexy ones -- and we resolve to set them every night for the following day and we further resolve to execute, to really do them -- whatever it takes.

    Make small, small, small to-dos at first. The smaller the better. Set up three babysteps for each day and do what it takes. The trick is do make the tasks worthy, manageable and doable because we resolve and make a contract with ourselves that we are not going to break. Again, plan small tasks, three of them and do them.

    The Trick

    To make it even easier for you, set your list of three up for the next day and what you don't manage to do; cross it off the list anyway. It's gone. No second chances. No 2 items today and 4 tomorrow. If you don't do it today you're not allowed to try again tomorrow. Realize that you will lose your task when you don't do it today.

    Since all your tasks are important -- otherwise they wouldn't be scheduled for an important goal -- you definitely don't want to miss even one of them. Three tasks a day are hard enough to determine, don't spoil them without a reason -- and there is no reason.

    Imagine today as your last day and it'll become even easier to get up and just do it.

    That's why we start with small tasks. The point is to not break your contract. Don't be afraid to plan ridiculously easy tasks, remember, as long as you move, you will eventually arrive.

    That's it. Choose one priority goal. There can only be one priority. Test it and make sure you have what it takes to stick to it.

    Start and set three to-dos for each day. Start small but steady.

    Remember, it is not important to achieve something big every day. What is important though is persistence, that you do something -- three things -- every day. Think up three pathetically easy to achieve tasks and just do them and see your motivation ask for more...

    1000 Steps are Enough

    Don't overdo it. Sometimes it feels like three is not enough. Don't think about it. It is enough. In fact it is 3 × 365: A good thousand tasks. Instead of asking for more tasks, make them bigger.

    1000 steps should be sufficient. The beauty is that you don't even have to come up with a thousand tasks. Once the goal is clear, improvise and play it where it lies.

    Did I already mention to progress slowly? There is no going back. If you expect the next day to be packed with urgent have-to-dos, schedule three lightweight items that reward your mind instead of stressing you even more.

    A Variant

    Sometimes it is hard to find three tasks for that one goal on a given day. This is where your other, non-priority goals come into play. You still have to do three tasks each day but you advance your secondary goals as well. This requires you to at least determine and tackle one task for your primary goal; allocate the remainder for that day to other should-be doings. This leaves you with still three important steps each day and one excuse less in case you lag behind your scheduling skills.

    Summary

    Commit to your resolution in writing and post it where you can see it.

    1. Determine and remember your one goal. What should you be doing?
    2. Schedule three to-dos every night. Easy or hard but three.
    3. Yesterday's to-dos are not allowed to be finished today. If you didn't do it, it's gone, no matter how precious, important, or beautiful it was supposed to be. If it was that important, you'd better done it.

    Related Items

    Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

    If you liked this post, please take the time to bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. Thank you! You can also get free updates , send feedback, or browse the archives for more.

Subscribe to WOW to have the latest articles conveniently delivered for free. You can also subscribe to WOW by E-mail.

Previous Posts

Free Download

Peer pressure, vanity and behavior, motivation tricks and hacks, success and pain, and how to excel, Celebrate Your Beauty -- whatever it takes. Download your free ebook.